For Global Peace with Social Justice in a Sustainable Environment

Youth and Mahatma Gandhi - XI

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 - XI

I have reserved students to the last. I have always cultivated close contact with them. They know me and I know them. They have given me service. Many ex-collegians are my esteemed co-workers. I know that they are the hope of the future. In the heyday of non-cooperation they were invited to leave their schools and colleges. Some professors and students who responded to the Congress call have remained steadfast and gained much for the country and themselves. The call has not been repeated for there is not the atmosphere for it. But experience has shown that the lure of the current education, though it is false and unnatural, is too much for the youth of the country. 1 Think of the time and energy of our youth expended on learning the English language, as if it was our mother tongue, and calculate by simple multiplication the number of years and the volume of precious energy that are lost to the nation. You know what has happened in Japan a country which I do not regard as essentially great but which is regarded as great in Asia in that it has successfully challenged the supremacy of America and England. The thousands of boys and girls in the Japanese schools and colleges receive their education not through the medium of English but through Japanese.

Their script is difficult, but it is no bar to their learning it and they have not given it up in preference to the Roman. Not that they boycott English and other European language. But they economize their energy. Those who need to learn them do so for enriching the Japanese thought with knowledge which the West alone can give. They take care to turn into Japanese all that is worth taking from the West. That is because the mind of Japan’s youth is fresh and alert. The knowledge gained thus has become national property. There would have been no greater folly if instead of doing so they had thrown their mother tongue to the winds and opened English medium schools and colleges such as we find in other countries. In this way they might well have learnt a new language but the Japanese people could not have gained the new knowledge. Our ambition does not go beyond becoming clerks in Government offices, lawyers, barristers, judges, all helplessly serving the system they would fain destroy. And we have not succeeded in mastering the English language either. After all, is it not an alien language? I get numerous letters from English-educated people—some of them possessing the highest degrees of our universities but they betray a woeful ignorance of the English language. The reason is simple. Malaviyajis and Radhakrishnan are rare, and the thousands cannot achieve what they have done. 2

Gopalan Nambiar is a patriotic youth who in the heat of the moment is said to have instigated a crowd, at a meeting in Malabar, to assault a Sub-Inspector of Police resulting in his unfortunate death. The High Court at Madras has sentenced him to be hanged. I take it that the evidence justified the sentence, but it is a clear case for commutation of the sentence by the Government. This is no case of private murder deliberately committed. We are living in the midst of murders on a wholesale scale which no court of law can ever reach. It is a mockery to send a young man to the gallows for an act, however indefensible otherwise, in which malice is wholly absent. I am glad, therefore, that leaders of public opinion and the Press are moving in order to secure a reprieve. It is hoped that the Government will listen to the public voice. 3 I have no doubt whatsoever that if those who have the education of the youth in their hands will but make up their minds, they will discover that the mother tongue is as natural for the development of the man’s mind as mother’s milk is for the development of the infant’s body. How can it be otherwise? The babe takes its first lessons from its mother. I, therefore, regard it as a sin against the motherland to inflict upon her children a tongue other their mother’s for their mental development. 4

I do not mind telling you that there are differences between me and the Working Committee. The whole nation is not with me on the non-violence question. If the nation as a whole was absolutely peaceful, I am sure we should not be in the war, I am sure we should not have this foreign domination here. The alien rulers should not be dictating to us. We should have people here from foreign lands on terms of friendship, and we should gladly make use of their talents at our will. But I am not worrying over the nation not being with me. When I have failed to convert my nearest associates, the members of the Working Committee, I have no business to be impatient with my people. It must be my fault. It means that there is not sufficient non-violence in me to enable me to carry everyone with me. But my faith in non-violence is undimmed and unshaken. In fact it is growing every day. 5 The output and the income have a secondary place in an education chart. But they are given to demonstrate the high educational value of handicrafts as a means of training the youth. It is clear that without industry, care and attention to detail the work could not have been done. 6

On my return from South Africa to India I had a similar painful experience of the evils of drink. Several Princes have been and are being ruined by liquor. What applies to them applies more or less to many a rich youth. The condition of labour as a result of taking alcohol is also pitiable. That as a result of such bitter experiences, I have become a staunch opponent of alcohol will not surprise the readers. 7 I have known from early youth that non-violence is not a cloistered virtue to be practiced by the individual for his peace and final salvation, but it is a rule of conduct for society if it is to live consistently with human dignity and make progress towards the attainment of peace for which it has been yearning for ages past. It is, therefore, sad to think that a Government, the most powerful in the world, should have belittled the doctrine and put its votaries, however imperfect they may be, out of action. It is my firm opinion that thereby they have injured the cause of universal peace and the Allied nations. Independently of the argument in the indictment, I must now say something about non-violence as I know it. Its spread in all walks of life has been my mission from early youth. This covers a period of very nearly sixty years. It was adopted at my instance as a policy by the Congress in 1920. In its very nature it was not meant to be paraded before the world, but it was accepted as a means indispensable for the attainment of swaraj. Congressmen saw at an early date that its mere adoption on paper had no value. It was of use only in so far as it was put into practice individually and collectively. It was of no more use as a badge than a rifle in the hands of a person who did not know how to use it effectively on due occasion. Therefore if non-violence has raised the Congress prestige and popularity since its adoption, it has done so in exact proportion to its use, even as the power which the rifle gives to its possessor is in exact proportion to its effective use.

The comparison cannot be carried very far. Thus while violence is directed towards the injury, including the destruction of the aggressor and is successful only when it is stronger than that of the opponent, non-violent action can be taken in respect of an opponent, however powerfully organized for violence. Violence per se of the weak has never been known to succeed against the stronger in violence. Success of non-violent action of the very weak is a daily occurrence. I make bold to say that I have applied to the present struggle the principles of non-violence as enunciated here. Nothing could be farther from my thought than injury to the person or property of those who are manning and regulating the machinery of British imperialism as it operates in India. My non-violence draws a fundamental distinction between the man and his machine. I would destroy a harmful machine without compunction, never the man. And this rule I have enforced in my dealings with my nearest relatives as also friends and associates, not without considerable success. 8

No secret organization, however big, could do any good. Secrecy aims at building a wall of protection round you. Ahimsa disdains all such protection. It functions in the open and in the face of odds, the heaviest conceivable. We have to organize for action a vast people that have been crushed under the heel of unspeakable tyranny for centuries. They cannot be organized by any other than open, truthful means. I have grown up from youth to 76 years in abhorrence of secrecy. There must be no watering down of the ideal. Unless we cling to the formula in its fullness, we shall not make any headway. 9

I had to make His acquaintance when I was quite a youth and I learnt to regard Death as a welcome deliverance whether it is a suckling baby or one in prime of life like your brother or an elderly person. I long ago ceased to regard as affliction or punishment the so-called misfortunes. 10

Mahadev, though an idealist and a dreamer, never allowed his feet to be taken off the firm earth. He, therefore, adorned everything that he attempted. To Mahadev’s admirers, I can only offer this consolation that he lost nothing by his association with me. His dreams rose above scholarship or learning. Riches had no attraction for him. God had blessed him with high intellect and versatile tastes but what his soul thirsted for was the devotional spirit. Even before he came to me, he had assiduously sought and cultivated the company of devotees and men of God after his heart. One may say that it was in furtherance of this quest that he came to me and, not obtaining full satisfaction even with me, (shall I say) he turned his back upon me in the fullness of youth, leaving behind him his weeping relations and friends, and set forth to seek realization of his quest in the bosom of his Maker. 11 You must have understood what I said about sadhana. Think deeply over what I said yesterday. This is what I say: unsteadiness of mind implies impurity of thought; it cannot be regarded as brahmacharya. This is quite usual in youth, but he who aspires to be a brahmachari will grow steadier day by day. Discuss this matter with Balkoba or reach a conclusion by looking within yourself. 12

I come to Sir Firoz’s statement about Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and me. He should know that I have called the Pandit my successor. He does not need to come to the front. He is in the front. The Government of India would not let him work as he would. He and I are friends. But we are no rivals. We are both servants of the people and the platform of service is as big as the world. It is never overcrowded. On it, there is always room for more, and as on the point of independence we have no differences, we are always brothers in arms. He has undoubtedly the advantage of youth over me. Let him make no capital out of my supposed bigotry or orthodoxy. He may not know that I have never been a bigot or known as such since my youth. And orthodoxy would not have me for my uncompromising and radical attitude on untouchability and general social reform. Sir Firoz is on safer ground when he accuses me of being out of date. For no one knows what or who is out of date. I confess my ignorance on the point. 13

You have always been, and still are, silly. Remember the verse: “Dwelling in thought on Vaishyas.” Here Vaishya does not mean merely what it does in Gujarati, namely, immoral sex-pleasure. All objects of desire are Vaishyas, as for example, desiring what appeals to the eye, hearing with the ear, smelling with the nose, and other similar objects of sense. Your object of desire is to come to the hills. If it didn’t materialize you should forget about it. But you would not be Lili if you could forget anything. And that is why you suffer. Otherwise there are few other women as fortunate as you. Though married in the prime of your youth, you have remained a virgin all these years so that all the desire in you for that momentary pleasure has been burnt away. You like service and get opportunities for it. The best service you rendered was to Bhansali, then to Ramprasad and then to Krishnachandra. I will not consider your services to Ba, Mahadev and myself as there was attachment in that. You are educating yourself to be a doctor entirely with the aim of dedicating yourself to public service. What purer happiness than this could one have? If you are still discontented, does it not mean that you are silly? 14

I have known this use from my early youth. But no one seems to have thought of conserving this seed for food. The mango season is upon us and, though much time has been lost, it will be a good thing if every mango seed is saved and the kernel baked and eaten in the place of cereals or given to those who need it. Every ounce of food saved is so much gained. 15 I know of English marriages undertaken for the sake of companionship and mutual service. If a reference to my own married life is not considered irrelevant, I may say that my wife and I tasted the real bliss of married life when we renounced sexual contact and that in the heyday of youth. It was then that our companionship blossomed and both of us were enabled to render real service to India and humanity in general. I have written about this in my Experiments with Truth. Indeed this self-denial was born out of our great desire for service. 16

You are more Sudhir’s director than I. He was wanted by the Cabinet Mission and he went at their instance. My part consisted in not dissuading him from going. In any case I have never thought that his youth went against a man. 17 I am afraid I can’t give you anything approaching your minimum. That I have no time for the effort is true enough. But what is truer is that I am a poor reader of literature past or present, much as I should like to read some of its gems. Living a stormy life since my early youth, I had no leisure to do the necessary reading. 18

I was born in India. I left the country at the age of 22. It was like being in exile. After spending twenty years, i. e., the best years of my youth in South Africa I returned home. I did not accumulate any wealth in the intervening period. Right from the beginning I had realized that God had so shaped me that I should not run after money, but serve Him. God made me feel that I would not succeed in doing anything else. I learnt the way of service from the Gita which says that whatever we possess is not ours but belongs to God. Then came the question how God could be realized. I learnt that God resides in every human being in the world and he who serves mankind serves God. 19 We ought to take warning from this. If I could free myself from here, I would like to tour all over the country and launch a new movement among the youth to throw them into constructive work. I can see their enthusiasm to do something for the country. But it is getting no sustenance and there is every danger of its running into a wrong channel. I sensed the malady from which our country is suffering long ago. We, top leaders, are getting old. Before we pass away, we should devote whatever strength God has given us to train younger people to shoulder the responsibility of building up the India of our dreams just as we trained them before as non-violent soldiers for the freedom struggle. People cannot be trained for the serious tasks ahead unless at least a portion of the top-ranking leaders remain outside the Government to work among the people. 20

I can see as through a crystal the sincerity and love in Jawahar. He has always argued with me and made me feel confused over so many issues. But today he hardly ever argues over anything that I say. He would be heart-broken if I hesitated to attend the A. I. C. C. He has made me a captive of his love. That is why I have proclaimed that I am at Jawahar and Sardar’s orders. He has the heart of a child. And yet he has the intellect, learning and power that only the greatest among intellectuals could boast of. He can renounce things as easily as a snake its slough. His tireless energy would put even a youth to shame. 21 I am now 78 but I spent my youth in exile in South Africa and what I have taught for thirty-two years after my return from South Africa has amounted to this: that in imitating Western ways we will destroy whatever we have achieved. Swadeshi is that which appeals to the soul. 22

A Sikh youth asks me what I, claiming to love the Sikhs, am doing to prove it. Hindus and Muslims have both gained something. But what have the Sikhs gained? I can only say that if the Punjab has been divided I can do nothing about it. I have not the power in my hands. To me there is no difference between Sikhism and Hinduism. I have read the Granth Saheb. What it contains is also contained in the Vedic dharma. But today they are treated as a separate community. It is a small community but well known for its valour. I had visits from two friends who have settled in Canada. They say Canada has a large number of Sikhs and they are doing good work there. There are Sikhs also in Africa. One finds Sikhs everywhere one goes. They are farmers, engineers, railway mechanics, and motor-car drivers. Today the Sikhs live in great material comfort. 23

Notwithstanding the army we were able to hold our own against the British. But our ahimsa was not the ahimsa of the strong but of the weak. I showed the way of passive resistance and we did not prepare ourselves for armed resistance. But the army still remains. Why? It is a matter of shame. The way things are today it looks as if both the countries would be increasing their armed forces. If one country increases the army the other will do the same. The Pakistanis will say that they must increase their armed forces to defend themselves against India. India will repeat the argument. The result will be war. The question is, shall we spend our resources on the education of our children or on gunpowder and guns, and give our youth military education? 24

Is this to be called a miracle or an accident? By whatever name it may be described, it is quite clear that all the credit that is being given to me from all sides is not quite undeserved; nor can it be said to be deserved by Shaheed Saheb. This sudden upheaval is not the work of one or two men. We are toys in the hands of God. He makes us dance to His tune. The utmost therefore, that man can do is to refrain from interfering with the dance and that he should render full obedience to his Maker’s will. Thus considered, it can be said that in this miracle He has used us two as His instruments and as for myself I only ask whether the dream of my youth is to be realized in the evening of my life. 25 The foreign rulers had so devised and controlled the education of the country that the youth remained under that control and millions were kept in comparative darkness. This was the way in which foreign control was rendered as permanent as possible. Therefore, apart from the colleges and schools controlled by foreign rulers, patriotic workers were left with no other choice. To what extent this foreign education was misused need not be considered here. 26

We are thus caught in isms and take pride in them and consider it a fashion to belong to this or that ism. People seek knowledge and instruction from Russia. Our communists seem to be in this pitiable state. I call it a pitiable rather than shameful state, for I feel that they are to be pitied, rather than blamed. For, because of our slavery, they have had no opportunity to get full knowledge. And now when we have got our freedom everybody has got an opportunity to thrust himself forward to such an extent that a sixteen-year-old boy or girl can identify himself or herself with some ism and become a leader. These people have now been fanning the fire of disunity bequeathed to us by the British. Soon they will find that they cannot control the flames. What we have to do is to find out what will suit our ignorant masses and act accordingly. For instance we need food grain. If the youth of the country would only learn the techniques of farming and engaged themselves in producing more food they would have no time for quarrelling and the country would become prosperous. 27 In youth, everyone feels like gaining knowledge of such science. That’s justified too. The intention of my criticism was to reduce the intensity of such desire. However, I will not have any objection if you can easily find a person who has a thorough knowledge of geology and from whom you can easily learn. I will not consider such knowledge useless. One who has given his heart to God will use even that knowledge in praise of Him. 28

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