For Global Peace with Social Justice in a Sustainable Environment

Youth and Mahatma Gandhi – X

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 – X

I ought not to have been asked to speak on this occasion, inasmuch as my presence is enough to show that the institution has my blessings. Besides, I already blessed the institution when I came here last year to lay the foundation stone. But now that I have been asked to speak, let me say that my blessings are conditional. I should like to impress on those in charge of this institution, the teachers and the girls that the institution will not last without a moral foundation. The workers should all be selfless workers and the education imparted here should be true education, that is to say, which draws out the best in the character of the taught. Every one of us has good inherent in the soul, it needs to be drawn out by the teachers, and only those teachers can perform this sacred function whose own character is unsullied, who are always ready to learn and to grow from perfection to perfection. The girls also will have to be receptive, they will not think of showing themselves off but of enabling their teachers to draw out the best in themselves. I have had bitter experience of institutions of this character and therefore hesitate to bless newly opened institutions. I am even doubtful about the teachers needing my blessings. Some of them, I dare say, think of me a back number, not in touch with the spirit of the age and modern tendencies and not at all competent to speak to the modern youth. Well, let those who think like that reject what I have said. 1 The yardstick of success is not resolutions however grand but firm follow-up action on the part of the youth. They should not pass any resolution which they are not prepared to implement. 2

They are not, and I am thankful that they are not, because it is natural with them. They are not conscious that they are breathing or using their eyesight and yet they are doing it every moment. A healthy man will not be thinking or talking of his health. In the same way the spirituality here is unconscious of itself. It is an inherited culture. Thus in a good home they do not know what spirituous liquor is. They do not know what it is to be a teetotaler, for they have been that all their lives. The words do not occur in their dictionary. 3 I must mention what I saw at the great Padmanabha Temple. It will perhaps best illustrate what I am saying about the pure and spiritual revival. In the days of my youth I went to so many temples with the faith and devotion with which my parents had fired me. But of late years I have not been visiting temples, and ever since I have been engaged in anti-untouchability work I have refrained from going to temples unless they were open to everyone called untouchable. So what I saw this morning at the temple dawned upon me with the same newness with which it must have dawned upon so many avarna Hindus who must have gone to the temple after the Proclamation. In imagination my mind travelled back to the prehistoric centuries when they began to convey the message of God in stone and metal. I saw quite clearly that the priest who was interpreting each figure in his own choice Hindi did not want to tell me that each of those figures was God. But without giving me that particular interpretation he made me realize that these temples were so many bridges between the Unseen, Invisible and Indefinable God and ourselves who infinitesimal drops in the Infinite Ocean are. 4

They should not contain fulsome praise of those to whom you present the address, but what you have done or are about to do should be stated therein for the information of the person to whom you present the address. And today, as the central theme of our rejoicing is the graceful Proclamation issued by the Maharaja, naturally you will express your aspirations and actions in terms of this Proclamation. And it does not matter in the least whether it is from the little children or from the Hindu public or the Youth League. You have not really drafted your address in that way but that does not matter. I am here to remind you of things that are expected of you not only by the Maharaja and the Maharani, but of the things that the whole of India expects you to do. At the present moment the whole of India is really dumbfounded. It does not know whether such a thing could happen in this age. 5 Remember that I really came to enjoy my married life after I ceased to look at Ba sexually. I took the vow of abstinence when I was in the prime of youth and health, when I was young enough to enjoy married life in the accepted sense of the term. I saw in a flash that I was born, as we all are, for a sacred mission. I did not know this when I was married. But on coming to my senses I felt that I must see that the marriage sub served the mission for which I was born. Then indeed did I realize true dharma. True happiness came into our lives only after the vow was taken. 6

The usage varies from Province to Province and as between different divisions. This does not mean that the youth may ride roughshod over all established social customs and inhibitions. Before they decide to do so, they must convert public opinion to their side. In the meantime, the individuals concerned ought patiently to bide their time, or, if they cannot do that calmly and quietly, to face the consequences of social ostracism. At the same time it is equally the duty of society not to take up a heartless, step-motherly attitude towards those who might disregard or break the established conventions. In the instance described by my correspondent the guilt of driving the young couple to suicide certainly rests on the shoulders of society if the version that is before me in correct. 7 Such death would bring glory to any youth, for those who enter the jaws of death at such a tender age after having made holy resolutions are bound to attain bliss. And even though dead, he lives through his example. Read this to his father when you offer my condolences to him, and also congratulate him on having had such a son. 8

The fear is wholly needless. The Working Committee has laid down no general policy. The Congress, except for being responsible for the existence of many national educational institutions, e.g., the Kashi Vidyapith, Jamia Millia, Tilak Vidyapith, Bihar Vidyapith, Gujarat Vidyapith and the like, has made no general announcement. What I have written is my personal contribution to the discussion. Indeed I feel most strongly about the vast injury that the existing system of education has done to the youth of the country and to the languages and general culture of India. I hold my views strongly. But I do not claim to have converted Congressmen in general. What then can be said of those educationists who are outside even the Congress atmosphere and who dominate the Universities of India? It is no easy task to convert them. My friend and those who share his fear may rest assured that the advice given by Shri Shastriar will be taken to heart by those concerned and no serious step will be taken without due consideration and consultation with the persons whose advice is of value in matters educational. 9 What I have been saying as a layman, for the lay reader, Dr. Arundale has said as an educationist, for the educationist, and those who have in their charge the moulding of the youth of the country. I am not surprised at the caution with which he approaches the idea of self-supporting education. For me it is the crux. My one regret is that what I have seen through the glass darkly for the past 40 years I have begun to see no quite clearly under the stress of circumstances. 10

It is claimed that if the whole scheme is accepted, it will solve the question of the greatest concern to the State—training of its youth, its future makers. 11 For twenty years I have preached the cult of khadi to my countrymen. And this is the only message I have been carrying to one and all, all these twenty years. I want to preach the same cult today when I am at death’s door. Khadi is no longer the old rag it looked like when it was born. It has all the health and beauty and vigour of youth, and I can therefore preach the cult of khadi with redoubled faith and vigour. Something within me tells me that in this I am not wrong in khadi lies swaraj—Independence. 12 Again, I am not approaching the forthcoming interview in any representative capacity. I have purposely divested myself of any such. It there are to be any formal negotiations, they will be between the President of the Congress and the President of the Muslim League. I go as a lifelong worker in the cause of Hindu-Muslim unity. It has been my passion from early youth. 13

May you always remain a youth of eighteen or twenty-two. How could that be my condition? You don’t know passion, but I was a slave of passion for thirty years and tried to satisfy it. Moreover, I recently discovered that I have not been able to subdue it at all. I don’t remember having had an emission while awake at any time during the last fifty years. I am not referring here to the emission in dreams or those brought on by desire. But I was in such a wretched and pitiable condition that in spite of my utmost efforts I could not stop the discharge though I was fully awake. I feel now that the despondency that I had been feeling deep down in me only foresh adowed this occurrence. After the event, restlessness has become acute beyond words. Where are I, where is my place, and how can a person subject to passion representing non-violence and truth? This turmoil goes on in my heart. I keep asking myself: am I worthy of you all who follow me, am I fit to lead you all? God will answer the question when He pleases. Is it not said that Rama is the strength of the weak? 14

He developed revolutionary ideas in Canada where he had migrated in his youth. He was witness to the illegal and shameful turning away of the Coma Gata Maru from the Canadian shore, and he and a band of Indian settlers in Canada decided to return to India and lead a revolution. After absconding he has evidently made himself useful to the nation in various ways. He is very powerfully built Rajputs. Five months of hunger-strike in the Andamans and injuries received, whether in scuffles with the police or in escaping from custody, have left no visible trace of weakness on his body. He became a first-class gymnastics teacher and studied the science of physical culture and the art of massage, and gave training in physical culture in many schools. 15 If the scheme is sound and appeals to the educated mind, it must prove attractive in itself and thus wean the educated youth from the lure of gold. It must fail, if it does not evoke sufficient patriotism from the educated youth. There is one advantage with us. Those who have received instruction through the Indian languages cannot enter colleges. It is just possible that they will find the scheme attractive. 16 When you pass away, you will pass away in full youth. He is old whose mind is old. Ramdas, for instance, has become an old man in the prime of youth. He has no zest for anything at all. 17

But the German persecution of the Jews seems to have no parallel in history. The tyrants of old never went as mad as Hitler seems to have gone. And he is doing it with religious zeal. For he is propounding a new religion of exclusive and militant nationalism in the name of which any inhumanity becomes an act of humanity to be rewarded here and hereafter. The crime of an obviously mad but intrepid youth is being visited upon his whole race with unbelievable ferocity. If there ever could be a justifiable war in the name of and for humanity, a war against Germany, to prevent the wanton persecution of a whole race, would be completely justified. But I do not believe in any war. A discussion of the pros and cons of such a war is therefore outside my horizon or province. 18 Secondly, what is the remedy for curing youth of the abominable habit of insulting womenfolk? You would not suggest that we should wait and suffer till a new generation, taught from childhood to be polite to their womenfolk, comes into being. The Government is either unwilling or unable to deal with this social evil. The big leaders have no time for such questions. Some, when they hear of a girl bravely castigating ill-behaved youth, say, ‘Well done. That is the way all girls should behave.’ Sometimes a leader is found eloquently lecturing against such misbehavior of students. But no one applies himself continuously to the solution of this serious problem. You will be painfully surprised to know that during Diwali and such other holidays newspapers come out with notices warning women from venturing outdoors even to see the illuminations. This one fact should enable you to know to what straits we are reduced in this part of the world! Neither the writers nor the readers of such warnings have any sense of shame that they should have to be issued. But this heroism is possible only for those who have trained themselves for it. Those who have not a living faith in non-violence will learn the art of ordinary self-defence and protect themselves from indecent behaviour of unchivalrous youth. 19

But, as I have told you, I am an old man, perhaps growing timid and over-cautious, and you have youth before you and reckless optimism born of youth. I hope you are right and I am wrong. I have the firm belief that the Congress, as it is today, cannot deliver the goods, cannot offer civil disobedience worth the name. Therefore, if your prognosis is right, I am a back number and played out as the generalissimo of Satyagraha. 20

Rajkot seems to have robbed me of my youth. I never knew that I was old. Now I am weighed down by the knowledge of decrepitude. I never knew what it was to lose hope. But it seems to have been cremated in Rajkot. My ahimsa has been put to a test such as it has never been subjected to before. 21 I don’t mind it, but the ultimate benefit accruing will be great. There should be no wastage in training. We may forget uniforms, etc., which go to waste, but the body of youth for our service is for all time an asset of no mean value. Therefore don’t stint in water and volunteers. 22 I was then in possession of youth and health. Age has now overtaken me, and health requires a watchful care. Yet both the correspondence and the problems have increased. I would request correspondents to write only when there is something which, in their opinion, I alone can attend to. But what is more needed is forbearance on their part. If they do not receive answers or acknowledgements, they should not take it amiss. I have an angry letter in my possession which has prompted this note. 23

Of course he is right. Dadabhai was a great reformist. Gokhale was a great liberal; and so was Pherozeshah Mehta, the uncrowned king of the Bombay Presidency. So too was Surendranath Banerjee. They were in their days the nation’s tribunes. We are their heirs. We would not have been if they had not been. What Subhas Babu in his impatience to go forward forgets is that it is possible for men like me to compete with him in the love of the land in spite of our having reformist and liberal tendencies. But I have told him he has youth before him and he must have the dash of youth. He is not held down by me or anybody else. He is not the man to be so held. It is his own prudence that holds him and in that way he is as much reformist and liberal as I am. Only I with my age know it, and he in his youth is blind to the good that is in him. Let my correspondents rest assured that, in spite of our different outlooks and in spite of the Congress ban on him, when he leads in non-violent battle they will find me following him, as I shall find him following me, if I overtake him. But I must live in the hope that we shall gain our common end without another fight. 24

Before I proceed to state my views, it is necessary to mention an important fact, viz., that physical fitness is the only thing examined in case of candidates intending to be recruited for a violent army. Old men, women, and raw youth are not regarded as eligible. Nor are those suffering from disease fit to be chosen. And it is necessary to insist on this rule in selecting these recruits. But the standard is quite the contrary for selecting recruits for a non-violent body. The chief thing to test is the candidate’s mental fitness. And so such a body may have old men, women, raw youth, the blind and the lame and even lepers, and it would bid fare to win. The ability to kill requires training. The ability to die is there in him who has the will for it. One can conceive of a child of ten or twelve being a perfect satyagrahi; indeed we come across such in daily life. But for such a child to be recruited for a violent army is out of the question. In spite of the best will in the world he cannot have the physical fitness. 25 There is to be no stage after that. It will continue indefinitely and I will send in as many as I can. Sometimes I get a little worried about the mentality of our young men. I know they are impatient. They might do something stupid. Communism appeals to youth, unfortunately. 26

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