CHAPTER 15
The College ground was rapidly filling up with people. Most of these were rural folk, peasants sporting yellow or green turbans, white kurtas with dark homespun singlets worn over them and creaking village-cobbled shoes on their feet. Their wives trailed behind them, many cradling babies on their hips. The atmosphere was that of a rural fairground, not of a political meeting. There were peanut sellers, pheriwallas, a rural version of the big wheel with four wooden gondolas, all doing brisk business, As the ground filled up, all you could see were people. The small stage at the far end of the ground was built on a high platform so as to be visible from every corner of the ground, and everyone was anxiously waiting for the star attraction-Mahatma Gandhi. When he arrived the cry of Mahatma Gandhi Ki Jai! resounded from one end of the great concourse to another. The meeting got underway. The head of the local Congress chapter, Pratap Dubey himself, took the microphone and made a brief speech about the political situation in the country and the great injustice done to India by the British Raj. He was careful to condemn the Amritsar massacre in strong terms. He then requested the Mahatma to address the crowd.
The crowd burst into cheers again as Gandhi took the microphone. The first few words of his address were drowned in the sound of cheering and applause. But here were loudspeakers strung up on poles at regular intervals all over the ground and it was impossible not to listen to the slightly nasal, unemphatic voice that floated out of them. The Mahatma wasted no time in beating about the bush.
“My brothers and sisters,” he was saying. I know you are curious to hear my views about these pamphlets that some people-some cowardly people I call them-have put up in the town. I say they are cowards because they work underground. They do not have the courage to confront me, or the Congress Party openly. But let that pass. I do not want to reproach my enemies for lack of courage. My objection to their methods is more basic. I do not believe that you can end the British Raj by throwing a few bombs or shooting down a few Englishman. But even if I believed otherwise I would not follow those methods. I have no desire to kill anyone, least of all Englishman. I would not do one wrong to undo another.
First let me tell you what I mean by Ahimsa. By Ahimsa I mean reluctance to harm any living creature. For me this is a spiritual principle. And not only for me, for all of us Indians, it is a part of our soul, a part of our heritage. What is India without Ahimsa. Think of Mahavir who said Ahimsa is the greatest religion. Think of the Buddha, the prince of peace, whose teachings spread the message of Ahimsa throughout the world. For me violence to any fellow creature is the greatest sin and Ahimsa is the greatest virtue. It is much bigger than politics and no political goal can justify the use of violence.
These young men who wrote these pamphlets think that politics is bigger than Dharma. I ask you, my brothers, is politics bigger than Dharma? (A big no from the crowd.)Can India exist without Dharma? (A big no again) So I say hate the British Raj, but do not hate the British. My aim is to make them see the error of their ways. I do this by insistence on the truth, by Satyagraha, by stating my views firmly but without hatred. And I assure you my friends, in the end our method shall prove stronger and one day we shall succeed in removing the British Raj, by Ahmisa.
Now I ask you- do you worship the cow? (We do!)
I am a vegetarian I do not eat meat. Do you? (No)
So when you worship the cow and do not believe in killing animals, will you kill your fellow human beings.
Assuredly you will no. But this does not mean I am asking you to surrender to the brutality of our foreign rulers. No, not at all. I am asking you, on the contrary to resist their domination by the power of truth. By showing them that they are wrong and by protesting against it in a peaceful manner. By appealing to their good sense, their reason and their conscience. I believe the same light burns within all human beings, and the British, though they oppose me and send me to prison, and use lathis and their bullets against us-will ultimately see that truth is on our side. And truth shall always prevail-that is fundamental belief of our religion, our culture and our civilization and we shall make whatever sacrifices that our struggle demands from us to see that truth prevails.
Now let me answer that second charge that they make against the Congress Party. They say that the Congress is against the Congress Party. They say that the Congress is against social change. They say that the Congress will not end feudal oppression. They say that the Congress is with the landlords and not with the peasants. Again these misguided young men are wrong. But their minds are still permeated by foreign ides which India will not accept. They believein materialism while India believes in spirituality. They believe that the rich and poor are enemies. I do not think so. I think the rich man has the responsibility to look after the poor when the need arises. We do not envy the rich manfor his wealth and we do not blame the poor man for his poverty. That is the attitude of the materialist.West, but such notions have never been accepted in India. We know that poverty and riches are accidents of fate. There would always be some who are more favoured by fate than others. Some who are more intelligent, some whoare stronger, some who can work harder than others.Why should we envy them or try to bring them down to the level of others. It should be our attempt to raise others to their level rather. We do not believe that riches are the measure of a man. We think that a man is worthy of admiration when he is honest, when the is honest, when he fears God, when he helps his fellow beings, when he is kind and compassionate and these qualities are not the preserve of the rich alone. Remembers, in this country it is the man of God, the sanyasi, the ascetic who gives up everything who is most admired, not the man who is rich and powerful. So we con not give up our won heritage and follow the Communists and the materialists when they say that property and wealth should be confiscated by the state.
But this does not mean that under a Congress government nothing would be done for the poor. No, not at all. We would give a spinning wheel to everyone and see that the cotton yarn that is spun after eight hours of labour is purchased at a proper price. This would give employment to everyone and ensure that everyone has enough to earn an honest living. In fact we would do more. We would ensure that whatever can be produced by manual labour, by the artisans, and craftsmen and weavers and metal-workers and farmers of our country, is made industry is kept out this sector. So this is the policy of the Congress, work to everyone who is willing to work and I think this a more revolutionary policy than any that would do away with capitalists but keep big machinery in place. The Communists and socialists want to make man a slave of the machine, whereas I want to make him a master. Would you rather be slave or master.” (Prolonged cheering)
Gandhi went on in the same vein for a while but this was the burden of his song. The speech had a powerful effect on the crowd. After the meeting some rural folk, peasants to judge by their attire, met in a small dive close to the meeting for a cup of tea.
“So, a convincing performance by Mahatmaji, don’t you think, “said one of the men, his manner of speaking signalled that he was not a rustic, though he was dressed like one.
“You may say so.” Said his companion,” but I would say that his arguments were clever rather than convincing. He appeals to the emotion rather than reason. The crowd might love it, but any rational man would not be so easily persuaded by his arguments. Take his opposition to machinery. Do you think it is possible in this age to scrap machinery, to go back to the pre-machine age. That would be regressive, against the march of history, even if it were possible. The same thing can be said about his non-violence. He can talk about his lofty principles, because the British allow him to do so. They know that his kind of non-violence poses no threat to their empire. The moment they see him as a real threat they would remove him from the scene. They see us as the real threat and all the ruthless justice of the empire is reserved for the likes of us.”
Both the young men sipped their tea in silence for a while. Then the first young man spoke again, “all the same you have to agree that he knows the Indian masses better than anyone else and has a greater hold on them than any other leader.”
“Of course, I agree with you. But the masses, my dear friend, are only canon fodder. Their role is to follow their leaders and to provide the foot soldiers f history. And history is on our side. So they will follow us where we lead them.”
“So you think the masses will desert the Congress and follow us.”
“I do. But not immediately. They will wait until they see the tide turning in our favours.
“In the meantime they will continue to follow Gandhi.”
“Yes, but we don’t have to worry about him. He will call off his movement the minute he realises it is getting too hot to handle. Tell me, have we ever had a non-violent freedom movement in history. Such a thing is an impossibility.”
“So you think Gandhi is not sincere.”
The second young man who had a thick moustache and a rather shifty appearance spoke without vehemence, rather clinically in fact, “oh, he is, that’s the beauty of it all. He really believes in all his high faulting principles. And so do the masses. But he is not above using his sainthood for tactical purposes. He is something and enigma, even to his closest supporters.”
“Well, thank heavens at least we know what we have to do. “They both looked around carefully to see if someone was observing them. Then they clinked their tea-cups. “Well here’s to freedom.”
