For Global Peace with Social Justice in a Sustainable Environment

Youth and Mahatma Gandhi - IV

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

Youth and Mahatma Gandhi - IV

The students should lay greater stress upon this aspect of life than on any other. I have been urging the students all through India that whatever they may do in the colleges and schools, let them not forget that they are the chosen representative of the nation, that our schools and colleges represent an infinitesimal portion of the youth of the country and that our villagers do not come in contact with the student world at all as education is at present arranged. So long as education remains in that condition, it is, I believe, the duty of the students to understand the mass mind and to serve the masses. In order to serve the masses and to prepare themselves for it let me recall the beautiful story that Mr. C. F. Andrews wrote for Young India about the students of Santiniketan. 1 The restraining force is the certain knowledge that the devitalized and enervated youth of the country fall an easy prey to the specious arguments advanced in favour of indulgence. 2

The Bengali youth are keen witted. They are self-sacrificing. Letters received from all over Bengal are most enticing. I wish I had the health to stand the strain that the tour should involve. My Kathiawar tour has given me malarial fever which though brought under subjection has left me very weak. I hope to pick up strength during the nine days that still remain at my disposal. But I ask the organizers to make my daily labour as light as possible. I repeat once more that I would like the whole tour to be thoroughly business-like. Bengal is said to lack business capacity. Let the charge be falsified. When business-like habits are added to a keen and imaginative intellect the combination carries everything before it. May Bengal show the combination? I expect, in every place, full statistical information. 3 I know many a Bengali youth. I know that he has got courage which is matchless; I know he is eager to die for the freedom of his country as he is today living for the country. I claim, if it is not impertinence on my part, that I have also the ability to die for the country as I am today living for the country. But, as I have said, it is for me a living death. 4

I expected to see him lying in bed weak and careworn. Instead, I found myself in the presence of a man standing erect from his seat to greet me affectionately and talking to me with the buoyancy of youth. He told me in the course of our conversation that his memory was still as green as ever. He could paint, he told me, the scenes of his childhood. The reminiscences that have just been published he wrote during the past nine years. He showed me with justifiable pride the whole of his beautiful manuscript. 5 Regard myself as a man who has been something of the world. I am born a fighter from the earliest days of my youth. I am fighting even though it may be with my brothers, friends, wife, children, and my co-religionists and, if it is Mussalman, with Mussalmans. But throughout my fight I have understood that one weapon is common to all these fights and that is the weapon of non-violence. 6

I was in the very flush of youth. Two of us friends were lodged in one house. We had gone there only for a few days. The land-lady was as good as a prostitute. Two or three of us sat down to play cards with her. In those days I used to play cards on occasion. In England, a mother and a son can, and do, play cards for innocent amusement. On this occasion too, we sat down to play, following the usual custom. The beginning was completely innocent. I, of course, did not know that the landlady lived on her body. 7 I thought I would see him lying in bed, but he was sitting in his writing chair in front of his table laden with books. On seeing me, he rose from his seat and embraced me very lovingly. His body had certainly become emaciated but he stood erect. There was no weakness in his voice. He is 77 years of age and yet he discussed every matter with lively interest like a 17-year-old youth. When I praised his power of memory, he said: “Even today my memory is as good as it was. So well do I remember things of the days when I was just a child five years old that I can describe those events just as they happened?” Only recently he has published his reminiscences. It took him nine years to write them; he showed me the exercise books in which he had recorded the incidents. The matter covers five or six books of foolscap size. His handwriting is so clear and uniform that I was moved to admiration. Nowhere did I notice evidence of the hand shaking. 8

We should give what help we can from here.” In this way, these youths sell khadi worth Rs. 2,500 annually to the poor labourers. Who can say how many such poor, selfless youths there are who silently help in spreading the use of khadi without expecting or desiring publicity? Sir Surendranath could not help expressing approval of the khadi and spinning movement. Before we left the hut of this poor youth, he showed us the book in which in very clear hand, he had written the accounts relating to his khadi work. 9 It was confined to the few upper ten. Now it is fast undoing the youth of the middle classes. My hope lies in the youth of the country. Such of them as are prey to the vice are not vicious by nature. They are helplessly and thoughtlessly drawn to it. They must realize the harm that it has done them and society. They must understand, too, that nothing but a rigorously disciplined life will save them and the country from utter ruin. Above all, unless they visualize God and seek His aid in keeping them from temptation, no amount of dry discipline will do them much good. 10

There are stations every ten minutes. Villagers have attended the stations in their hundreds and, at several places, in their thousands and have paid their pice. The whole of this great demonstration has been arranged by the silent, selfless youth of Bengal. Their names will never be noted in the newspapers. They probably do not even want themselves to be advertised. Their sterling work is their advertisement. Without them the villagers would have known nothing. 11 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. Krishnath College Centenary Commemoration Volume, pp. 91 I want to talk to you of things that are much more permanent for students and, therefore, of much greater importance than even the important questions that you have put to me. Throughout my travels in the world and my association with students and my experience as an amateur teacher of youth and of girls, I have come to the conclusion that the literary knowledge that a schoolmaster or a professor gives is by no means composed of what he has to give. 12

When I was a youth, I remember a Hindu having become a convert to Christianity. The whole town understood that the initiation took the shape of this well-bred Hindu partaking of beef and brandy in the name of Jesus Christ and discarding his national costume. I learnt in later years, that such a convert, as so many of my missionary friends put it, came to a life of freedom out of a life of bondage, to a life of plenty out of one of penury. As I wander about throughout the length and breadth of India I see many Christian Indians almost ashamed of their birth, certainly of their ancestral religion, and of their ancestral dress. The aping of Europeans on the part of Anglo- Indians is bad enough, but the aping of them by Indian converts is a violence done to their country and, shall I say, even to their new religion. There is a verse in the New Testament to bid Christians avoid meat if it would offend their neighbours. 13

The result is that they have not yet got rid of the whole of abuses, but I have not a shadow of doubt in my mind that in Travancore today untouchability has lost its foothold, it is fast dying simply because of the determination of a handful of youth who plunged themselves down into the midst of Vaikom and invited suffering on their own shoulders. That is really the secret. In my humble opinion hatred is not essential for nationalism. Race hatred will kill the real national spirit. Let us understand what nationalism is. We want freedom for our country. We do not want sufferings for other countries: we do not want the exploitation of other countries; we do not want the degradation of other countries. For my part I don’t want the freedom of India if it means the disappearance of Englishmen, if it means the extinction of Englishmen. I want the freedom of my country so that other countries may learn something from this free country of mine. 14

I am unable to advocate the military training under the Government of the youth of the country so long as it remains utterly irresponsive to the needs of the people, and I should be against compulsory military training in every case and even under a national government. Those who do not wish to take military training should not be debarred from joining public universities. Physical culture stands on a different basis altogether. It can be and should be part of any sound educational scheme even as many other subjects are. 15

Whilst I have dealt with the Gurus as historical personages about whose existence we have trustworthy records, I have no knowledge that the Krishna of the Mahabharata ever lived. My Krishna has nothing to do with any historical person. I would refuse to bow my head to the Krishna who would kill because his pride is hurt, or the Krishna whom non-Hindus portray as a dissolute youth. I believe in Krishna of my imagination as a perfect incarnation, spotless in every sense of the word, the inspirer of the Gita and the inspirer of the lives of millions of human beings. But if it was proved to me that the Mahabharata is history in the same sense that modern historical books are, that every word of the Mahabharata is authentic and that the Krishna of the Mahabharata actually did some of the acts attributed to him, even at the risk of being banished from the Hindu fold, I should not hesitate to reject that Krishna as God incarnate. But to me the Mahabharata is a profoundly religious book, largely allegorical, in no way meant to be a historical record. It is the description of the eternal duel going on within ourselves, given so vividly as to make us think, for the time being that the deeds described therein were actually done by the human beings. 16

I do not like this mania for examinations. It has undermined the mental and physical health of our youth. For this reason alone, if for no other, I would like national institutions to remain unbending and depend for their progress upon their own inherent merit. I would like a proper revolt against the soul-destroying examinations. But you know best what you should do in the circumstances that face you and if you have not the same repugnance that I have for the mania for university certificates, you would unhesitatingly secure the restricted recognition you mention. What with my temperament would be bad for me need not be necessarily bad for you or anyone else with a different temperament. I would therefore like you not to follow my opinion unless it appeals to you so forcibly as to give you satisfaction, even though without recognition your school may contain only twenty boys or even less. I would love to train even one boy with robust independence. I thoroughly understand and appreciate all that you say in favour of securing ‘recognition’ of the limited type referred to by you and it is a view that deserves respectful consideration. 17

We cannot, we must not, any longer appeal to the youth of the country who are now receiving education in the Government institutions to leave them for they now know the pros and cons of the subject. They are in Government institutions either out of weakness or out of their fondness for them or for their want of faith in national institutions. Whatever the reason, the only way to deal with their weakness, fondness for want of faith is to make the national institutions strong and popular by sheer force of the character and ability of the teachers. 18 The world will judge me by its results. No man or woman, no boy or girl can live there, if I do not want them. I believe that it contains some of the purest characters we have in India. If I am to deserve the implicit trust of friends who support it, I must be doubly vigilant, since they will neither examine the accounts, nor the activity of the Ashram. I discovered errors among the boys and somewhat among the girls. I know that hardly a school or any other institution is free from the errors I am referring to. I am anxious to see the Ashram free from errors which are sapping the manhood of the nation and undermining the character of the youth. 19

They claim many selfless, patriotic teachers who are living in penury and want, so that the youth of the country may benefit by their tuition. These institutions teach hand-spinning and all it means. They teach the art of service. They try to impart instruction through the medium of the vernaculars. They endeavour to revive national games and teach national music. They strive to prepare the boys for service in the villages and to that end cultivate in them fellow-feeling with the poor of India. But this is not sufficiently attractive Hence the falling off in numbers. The so-called unattractiveness is, however, not the sole reason for the unpopularity of these institutions. Many things were done in 1921 that year of excitement, intoxication and hope. 20

He understood the spiritual beauty of non-violent non-co-operation, though he never failed to appreciate its political significance. He believed in the spinning-wheel with a full heart and had adopted khaddar even at his ripe age. He kept himself in closest touch with the current events with the ardour of a youth. Borodada’s death means the withdrawal of a great sage, philosopher and patriot from our midst. I tender my condolences to the Poet and the members of the Ashram at Shantiniketan. Such devotion, dignity and resignation are worthy of imitation. In Hindu households there is too much unseemly weeping and gnashing of teeth though our religious literature strictly forbids weeping over death. In many places weeping over the dead has become the fashion and it is simulated where it is not spontaneous. It is a barbarous Godless custom and should be prohibited. Those who have faith in God should welcome death as deliverance. It is a change as certain as youth and old age and no more to be deplored than the latter. Many an Indian youth who was in England for study surrounded us and some of them helped us day and night without any hope of reward or fame. I do not remember that any of them ever refused to do anything as being beneath his dignity, be it the writing of addresses or the fixing of stamps or the posting of letters. But there was an English friend named Simmonds who cast all these into the shade. Whom the gods love dies young and so did this benevolent Englishman. I first met him in South Africa. He had been in India. When he was in Bombay in 1897, he moved fearlessly among the Indians affected by the plague and nursed them. It had become second nature with him not to be daunted by death when ministering to sufferers from infectious diseases. He was perfectly free from any race or colour prejudice. He was independent in temperament. He believed that truth is always with the minority. It was this belief of his which first drew him to me in Johannesburg, and he often humorously assured me that he would withdraw his support of me if he ever found me in a majority, as he was of opinion that truth itself is corrupted in the hands of a majority. He had read very widely. He was private secretary to Sir George Farrar, one of the millionaires of Johannesburg. 21

I know that it is a matter of shame for me to have become ill. I am taking now double precautions. I shall leave no stone unturned to present myself in a fit condition at the end of the year. And, if you have any homoeopathic pills that will guarantee an absolute cure and turn me into a youth of 26 instead of an old man of 56, pass those pills on to me and I shall take as many as you want me to every day! 22 The suggestion that the youth of the country should pass sometime in the jails before embarking upon life and after finishing their scholastic career is certainly attractive, but how is it to be carried out? Unless a revival of civil disobedience gives the students a chance of seeking imprisonment, the only way for them to reproduce prison discipline is to bury themselves for a season at least in villages and there live the simple life of the villages minus their insanitation. They can become their own scavengers, as to an extent every prisoner must be. 23

Those who pass away in the full bloom of their youth or even at a tender age also obey Nature’s law. We are frightened because we do not know all her laws. But why not look at it this way. Dahyabhai’s soul had no more use for that body and so this fell off. It is only proper to discard useless matter. This thought should help us overcome our grief. Our grief is reasonable only so far as the body had any use for us. But such grief is selfish. What selfish interest could a worker have? I want you all to know this truth, shed all your grief and resume your normal duties. If, even then you cannot overcome your grief, remember I share it with others. Let everyone share your grief. Ramanama will give you real peace. 24

Bihar is a poor country but that does not mean that it has not its rich zamindars or its quota of rich enterprising men from other provinces who are adding to their riches by their operations in Bihar. Let all these examine the claim of the Vidyapith as stated in the annual report read before the Convocation and help if they find the claim to be established and if they are of opinion that the ideal I have just named is an ideal worth living for and dying for, an ideal which it would be well for the youth of the country to have instilled into their hearts. 25 In this society the course of every piece can be traced almost with certainty as it floats to and fro. And as these centres grow and draw the youth of the country who have the fire of patriotism burning brightly in their hearts and whose purity will stand the strain of all temptation, they will, they must, become centres for radiating elementary knowledge in hygiene, sanitation, domestic treatment of simple diseases among the villagers and education among their children suited to their needs. That time is not yet. The beginning indeed has been made. But the movement can grow only slowly. 26

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