For Global Peace with Social Justice in a Sustainable Environment

Present Generation and Mahatma Gandhi

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Senior Gandhian Scholar, Professor, Editor and Linguist

Gandhi International Study and Research Institute, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No. – 09404955338, 09415777229

E-mail- dr.yadav.yogendra@gandhifoundation.net;

dr.yogendragandhi@gmail.com

Mailing Address- C- 29, Swaraj Nagar, Panki, Kanpur- 208020, Uttar Pradesh, India

Present Generation and Mahatma Gandhi

If we of the present generation neglect the mother tongue, future generations will have occasion to feel sorry for us. We shall never cease being reproached by them. I hope that all the students present here will take a vow that they will not use English at home unless it is absolutely necessary to do so. 1 Swadeshi in religion teaches one to measure the glorious past and re-enact it in the present generation. The pandemonium that is going on in Europe shows that modern civilization represents forces of evil and darkness, whereas the ancient, i. e., Indian, civilization represents in its essence the divine force. Modern civilization is chiefly materialistic, as ours is chiefly spiritual. Modern civilization occupies self in the investigation of the laws of matter, and employs human ingenuity in inventing of discovering means of production and weapons of destruction; ours is chiefly occupied in exploring spiritual laws. Our shastras lay down unequivocally that a proper observance of truth, chastity, scrupulous regard for all life, abstention from coveting others’ possessions and refusal to hoard anything but what is necessary for our daily wants is indispensable for a right life; that without it a knowledge of the divine element is an impossibility. Our civilization tells us with daring certainty that a proper and perfect cultivation of the quality of ahimsa which, in its active form means purest love and pity brings the whole world to our feet. The author of this discovery gives a wealth of illustration which carries conviction with it. 2

For the present generation, which is growing up in luxuries and building castles in the air and is, in its thoughtlessness, carried away by the flood of all these notions of reform, Mr. Dhruva is like a boat, a leader taking them back to the right place. Old men can value a flower aright. In like fashion, Mr. Dhruva, too, has shown due appreciation [of young people] and, mingling with them, given proof of his skill in bringing them round firmly to his views. 3 The lives of a brahmachari and a sannyasi are regarded as spiritually similar. The brahmachari must needs be a sannyasi if he is to be a brahmachari. For the sannyasi, it is a matter of choice. The four ashramas of Hinduism have nowadays lost their sacred character, and exist, if at all, in name. The life of the student brahmachari is poisoned at the very spring. Though there is nothing left of the ashramas today which we may hold up to the present generation as something to learn from and copy, we may still hark back to the ideals that inspired the original ashramas. 4

As a youth I knew this much that he was one of the greatest journalists of his time, that he was a fearless patriot, but with his fearlessness he combined a polished and cultured courtesy which never left in anything that he wrote a sting behind. We of the present generation, in our attempt to attain our freedom, need to treasure the lesson that we have inherited from the great man; we need also to copy his fearlessness and gentleness, because fearlessness without gentleness is mere brag and bluster. 5 Let us, the present generation, not forget the services of those heroes of the nation services they rendered before many of us were born. It makes not the slightest difference that we may not see eye to eye with such illustrious men. If they had not laid the foundation, we would not have been able to build; if they had not laid the foundation, we would not have been able to do what we are doing today. They set in those days an example when others were not forthcoming an example in courage, an example in sacrifice, an example in diplomacy not the diplomacy of the mean sort which is so much in vogue today. I am talking of that diplomacy which every nation requires, which every individual requires. Let us think of his services of those days, let us treasure the memory of the great deeds wrought by men like Sir Surendranath whom the nation in its admiration called ‘Surrender-not’. And is it not true? Was not the title deserved by him during those dark but brilliant days of Partition? Was he not able, through the assistance of Bengal behind him and the whole of India, to unsettle the ‘settled fact’? Was he not able to do many things of which we, the present generation, have every reason to be proud? Let us not, therefore, in our better wisdom, which we so impute to ourselves, forget the great services of the great heroes. Let us shed, therefore, tears over the ashes of Sir Surendranath. But let us do a little better. Let us follow some of the things which it is given to every one of us today. We may not have his eloquence, probably not one of us has his great memory, but every one of us can imitate his love of the land, every one of us can imitate his unfailing regularity. Until the other day, when I had the honour of waiting upon him at Barrackpore, he told me that the secret of his health and the secret of his vitality was his unfailing regularity. I remember in 1901, when an important meeting was going on, the meeting could not be finished. Sir Surendranath apologized and said, “Gentlemen, I must catch my last train for Barrackpore.” Sir Surendranath could not wait for the meeting. The meeting had to be postponed for Sir Surendranath. What did he do? He kept his time not from selfish motives, but he did so for the sake of the nation he loved so much. Let us, therefore, remember these constructive virtues. What has he not done for the education of Bengal! Was he not at one time the idol of young men of Bengal? Let us imitate him in the love of the motherland; every one of us, man, woman or child, all of us can imitate. 6

You will then earn not only the gratitude of the present generation but of generations to come. It has been my lot to be thrown among drunkards in various places. I have read copious literature relating to the evils of drink. I know of homes rendered desolate. I have known men, respectable men, ruined. And I have seen husbands turn monsters to their wives on account of that drink evil. A captain who was under the influence of liquor was nearly going to imperil the whole crew of a ship where I was on board. You being in a tropical climate, there is no reason to warrant drinks. It is beastly it is a sin against the Lord and humanity! The great labouring classes are becoming more and more useless under its deadly influence. Then there is untouchability, and among Buddhists also, in Ceylon. If the present generation has also its brief less barristers like me in Bombay, I would commend them a little practical precept about living. Although I lived in Girgaum I hardly ever took a carriage or a tramcar. I had made it a rule to walk to the High Court. It took me quite forty-five minutes, and of course I invariably returned home on foot. I had inured myself to the heat of the sun. This walk to and from the Court saved a fair amount of money, and when many of my friends in Bombay used to fall ill, I do not remember having once had an illness. Even when I began to earn money, I kept up the practice of walking to and from the office, and I am still reaping the benefits of that practice. 7

Everyone recognizes that the depressed classes question has to be solved now or never, not at any rate within the present generation or several generations to come. There are thousands of men and women like me who cling to Hinduism; because they believe that there is in it the amplest scope for mental, moral and spiritual expansion. This bar sinister put upon nearly sixty million human beings is a standing demonstration against that claim. Men like me feel that untouchability is no integral part of Hinduism. It is an excrescence, but if it is found to be otherwise, and if the Hindu mass minds really hugs untouchability, reformers like me have no other option but to sacrifice ourselves on the altar of our convictions. 8 I really regard myself as an expert economist and organizer in my own way. We shall deserve the curses of posterity, if not also of the present generation, if we do not show that we have put the bulk of our collections into Harijan pockets. 10% overhead charges, therefore, I regard as a liberal estimate. Propaganda we must have and plenty of it, both among Harijans and caste men. But we have to make the propaganda practically self-supporting, especially amongst caste men. In my opinion, the best propaganda is constructive work amongst Harijans. It will tell not only upon the latter but also upon caste men. For the present you may have two collections, one for constructive work, that is, for putting directly into Harijan pockets, and the other for propaganda. As a matter of fact, propaganda work ought to be paid for out of the sale proceeds of our weeklies and the sale of our other literature; so that the moneys we may actually collect otherwise would all find their way into Harijan pockets. Our caste-Hindu workers should therefore be volunteers or receiving just maintenance money, and we should find out every available Harijan worker whom we would pay fairly well. He may not give just now very efficient work; I would not worry, but would teach him to do the work. All this can be done only if we have workers religiously-minded, treating this movement as an essentially religious one and approaching it in the religious spirit. Then you will find that we shall have the least opposition to encounter, and no matter what opposition we encounter, the movement must flourish. If we cannot get sufficient hands to work the movement and to work it in that fashion, I, for one, will not hesitate to say that we should cease to be an organization. Without that organization you had your own great work cut out for you, and I have mine. The organization was set up in the belief that it was needed by the people, as I still believe it is, but the test that I have laid down would be the proof of that need. 9

I believe in the system of the four varnas. But the aim of the Varna system was to determine and limit the field of occupations. Restrictions about marriage and dining were never regarded as part of the varnadharma. Ordinarily, people will naturally marry within their own Varna but we know from historical evidence that there have always been inter-varna marriages in certain circumstances. I have gradually come to the firm conclusion that as a result of complete confusion in the matter of the choice of occupations there is a total chaos in the functioning of the Varna system as well. Today varnadharma exists only in name; the beautiful Varna system has been abused to spread the degrading notion of high and low. I have no ready solution to the problem how true varnadharma can be established. But I have no doubt at all that its revival will depend on the present generation following the right path. Its outward form will perhaps have changed a little. In religious matters it should be remembered that we have to seek the spirit behind the outward form that mere form without spirit is of no use. 10

The last proposition the crown of all the preceding ones takes one’s breath away. For it makes it clear that the other eight are to be applied in all their fullness to the poor Harijans. And yet the very first proposition has not ceased to puzzle the brains of some of the most intellectual and philosophical persons even in the present generation. Who knows the nature of original sin? What is the meaning of separation from God? What is that of the union with God? What are the signs of him who is united to God? Are all who dare to preach the message of Jesus the Christ sure of their union with God? If they are not, who will test the Harijans’ knowledge of these deep things? 11 If the Mussalmans of old studied and enriched Hindi in the past, why should they of the present generation avoid it? Surely the Hindi of old had greater religious and cultural associations than modern Hindi has today. And should one avoid the use of a language because of its religious and cultural associations? Must I avoid Arabic and Persian for their religious and cultural associations? I may not be affected by the latter, if I do not want to be or if I have antipathy towards them. Surely if we are to live together as blood-brothers that we are, we may not fight shy of each other’s culture. And why quarrel with the use of Sanskrit words, in Hindi to the point of rebelling against the language itself? The unnatural process of using Sanskrit words in the place of simpler current words or giving the derived words their original Sanskrit form is undoubtedly a reprehensible practice and robs a language of its music. But a certain use of Sanskrit words, as the nation expands, is inevitable in the hands of Hindus who know only Sanskrit, as the use of Arabic is inevitable in the hands of Mussalmans who know only Arabic, though both write the same language and have no special likes or dislikes. Educated Hindus and Mussalmans will have to acquaint themselves with both the forms. Is this not true of all growing languages? Educated Englishmen know both ‘sympathy’ and ‘fellow-feeling ‘or ‘fatherly’ and ‘paternal’ or yearly’ and ‘annual’. The difficulty with us is that just now our hearts are not one and the best of us are affected by the virus of mutual suspicion. 12

But whether we reach the ideal state outlined here during the present generation or ever, surely there is nothing to prevent the Hindu princes from following the example set by Travancore, and thus hastening the day of the total removal of untouchability from Hinduism, and helping to save it from certain destruction. I would advise the responsible Hindus in every Hindu State to approach their princes and their advisers to initiate the overdue reform. 13 The movement, for the conduct of which I am responsible, may prove a vain effort, if I represent no one but myself; and if I remain true to my faith, I may be satisfied, but so far as world peace is concerned, the effort will prove inadequate in terms of the present. For producing the desired result during the lifetime of the present generation, it will be necessary to give an unmistakable demonstration that a substantial part of the nation is behind the effort. Much more has to hope before such a demonstration becomes possible. The present movement is a humble attempt in that direction. 14

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