Joseph J. Doke

“ Just prior to this, he had addressed these words to the hundreds of Asiatics who had gathered at the Mosque:—"No matter what may be said, I will always repeat that it is a struggle for religious liberty. By religion, I do not mean formal religion, or customary religion, but that religion which underlies all religions, which brings us face to face with our Maker. If you cease to be men, if, on taking a deliberate vow, you break that vow, in order that you may remain in the Transvaal without physical inconvenience, you undoubtedly forsake God. ”

“ Self-mastery, self-denial, self-surrender, under the guidance af the Spirit of God, are, in his conception of life, stepping-stones to the ultimate goal of all—the goal of Buddha, the goal, as he interprets it, of John the Evangelist—absolute absorption of redeemed Man in God.
I question whether any religious creed would be large enough to express his view, or any Church system ample enough to shut him in. Jew and Christian, Hindu, Mohammedan, Farsi, Buddhist, and Confucian, all have their places in his heart, as children of the same Father. ”

“ During the few years that succeeded, Mohandas, his youngest son, was his constant companion and nurse, and I gather that the utmost confidence must have existed between the two. But above all, it was the mother who won the boy's unreserved devotion. His voice softens when he speaks of her, and the light of love is in his eyes. She must have been a beautiful character.
Poligamy, although not prohibited, is not common, except among the Mohammedans, in Porbandar. There was no poligamy and no purdah seclusion, in the Gandhi's home. The mother was a second wife. ”

“ A resident of Rajkot had just returned from London, after having been called to the Bar. The clear-sighted Brahmin pointed to him, saying, "If you wish to make headway in your country, and become, like your father, a man of importance, you had better relinquish the idea of graduating here. You must go to London and become a barrister."
Naturally, this idea, involving as it did, the necessity of travel, coincided entirely with the young student's desires. Adventure, sight-seeing, new circumstances, together with ambition for advancement, mingled with his dreams. ”

“ The opposition is not all injustice, nor is it due, with many, to race-prejudice or greed. There is a profound conviction, with great numbers of thoughtful Colonists, that South Africa should be a "white man's country," and that the free admission of Asiatics would mean a large influx of Easterns who would frustrate that desire. The bugbear of the Colonists is that vast, waiting multitude in India, ever supposed to be pressing against their gate, and ready to flood the country, should resistance cease for a moment.
This fear has been created chiefly by the conditions of Indian trade. ”

“ Undoubtedly this disfranchisement, under a Liberal administration, of men on account of their colour, this deprivation of an elementary right of British citizenship on racial grounds, constitutes a reactionary step in Imperial government almost without parallel, and perhaps there never has been so great or momentous a departure from the principles on which the Empire has been built up and by which we have been wont to justify its existence, the principles of that true Liberalism which has hitherto belonged to Englishmen of all parties. ”

“ You yourself are the chief asset of the Indian cause. It is a great thing to know and trust the leader of such a movement." He was about to speak, but I stopped him. "Let me continue," I said. "Your position as leader makes your personality of great importance to the cause. It has occurred to me that if I could write a short book—bright, graphic, and reliable—making your personality real to the people of England, it might do something to help the cause in the great struggle that is to come." ”

“ If we are treated as, or assert our right to be treated as, free men, whether in India or elsewhere, the connection between the British people and the people of India can not only be mutually beneficial, but is calculated to be of enormous advantage to the world religiously, and, therefore, socially and politically. In my opinion, each Nation is the complement of the other. Passive Resistance in connection with the Transvaal struggle I should hold justifiable on the strength of any of these propositions. ”

“ The work of British Indians on the battle-fields of South Africa, has received some recognition. Their dead have been honoured. A massive monument crowns an eminence overlooking Johannesburg, raised partly by public subscription, to the memory of those Indians who died in connection with the great war. It was the issue of a burst of enthusiasm for the faithful services done by those Eastern "Sons of the Empire," with whom Mr. Gandhi and his stretcher-bearers worked, when our people were in desperate straits. ”

“ Yet the municipal officers work with us and insist on proper sanitation, on better houses, on a process of dwelling up, so that Indian and European may not compete on such unequal terms. Do not encourage the idea that your Indian fellow-citizens are dogs. Yet the Indian have some incentive to rise, by allowing him to acquire a piece of ground on which to build a decent house; stimulate him to think of the interests of the country, by giving him some voice in the settlement of those great concerns which affect the welfare of all; treat him as a man and a citizen, and he will become one. ”

“ Here and there individual efforts have been made, and some few Indians attend Christian places of worship, but for the most part, they have been left severely alone, while the few men, who have tried to show that there is still a heart of love in the Church of Christ, and have dared to speak a word on behalf of a suffering people, have been subjected to all manner of abuse, and have been made to suffer with them. It is this discrepancy between a beautiful creed and our treatment of the Indian at the door, which repels the man who thinks. ”

“ He therefore mourned for a true friend and a wise counsellor. Mr. Gandhi added that he was certainly proud to have such a friend. The binding between them was the belief they shared in the doctrine preached by Jesus of non-resistance to evil. With Mr. Doke hatred was to be conquered by love, vice by the fullest exercise of virtue.
Mr. Gandhi wished that Mr. Doke's mantle would descend to his children and that he thought that Mrs. Doke had such a noble husband, whose memory was revered by so many men and so many races would sustain and comfort her. ”

“ Those who know about India will have no doubt as to the consequences. And what if India—irritated, mortified and humiliated—should become an unwilling and refractory partner in the great Imperial concern? Surely it would be the beginning of the end of the Empire.
These, briefly, are the reasons why this question of "the British indians in the Transvaal" is a great Imperial question and not one of mere internal administration of a self-governing Colony in which the Mother Country has neither right nor reason to interfere. ”

“ Gandhi has devoted his life.
The sudden awakening of the Indians was so novel, that it aroused keen interest in Natal. The petition which was largely signed, the telegrams to Government requesting a delay of proceedings, the deputation to Members of Parliament in Pietermaritzburg, all marked a new self-consciousness in the hitherto apathetic Indian community, which even the Government could not note without concern. It failed to defeat the Bill, but taught the Indians that they were not ciphers, and it taught the Europeans that a new force had been born into Colonial life. ”

“ The impression that he leaves with all who debate with him is one of invariable and beautiful courtesy. They recognise that they have met a gentleman.
These qualities must have told greatly in India, and the reports of his meetings indicate that all classes of people were deeply moved. The sense of the wrongs under which British Indians were suffering in South Africa stirred them with intense feeling, as it does yet more to-day. Unfortunately, while the interest was at its height, Reuter cabled to England a highly-coloured summary of Mr. Gandhi's address. ”

“ Doke's great work on behalf of the Indian Community.
Mr. Gandhi said that the Indian Community revered Mr. Doke's memory for the great work done by him for them. He was one of its truest friends. It could not be said of every man that death had no sting. But it could undoubtedly be said of Mr. Doke. A death like Mr. Doke's really called for no mourning. Mr. Doke's was a life of perfect self-surrender. He had dedicated his all to his Maker. He would now rise with a glorified and better body for service of his Maker. But it required men like Mr. Doke not to mourn. ”

“ The vegetable and fruit-sellers, the "hawkers," have entered into the spirit of the campaign with as great self-sacrifice and devotion as the wealthy men have shown. They have cheerfully gone in droves to prison. Some have suffered again and again. The justice of their cause has thrown a glamour even over the gloom of the cell and the degradation of their work. ”

“ I asked him. "Not at all in Porbandar," he said, "there were no Christians there, in my time. But in Rajkot rumours of Christianity found their way into the school, and so into the home. But they were vague, and by no means attractive. The Presbyterians had a Mission in Rajkot, and at one time our school was deeply stirred by the authentic report that a well-known Hindu had become a Christian. The idea among us of what becoming a Christian meant, was not complimentary to Christianity. The school boys held the firm conviction that conversion meant eating meat and drinking wine." ”

“ True Passive Resistance never tends to become active resistance. It recoils, of necessity, from the methods of violence or those advocated by anarchists. It is at the opposite pole from the spirit of war. If, then, the natives accept the doctrines which are now so prevalent amongst the Indian community, South Africa need not fear the horrors of a racial uprising. It need not look forward to the necessity of maintaining an army to keep the natives in awe. ”

“ If the action of the Government ruined the Empire in one hundred years or so, it would be extremely regrettable. When a people tried to crash others weaker than themselves, it was a sure indication that they would fall. It was so with the Roman Empire, but they in this country had something more to think of to-day. ”

“ Gandhi held that it needed but an awakening of such a nature to uplift his people from the servile condition to which they appeared to have sunk. The system of indentured labour, which imported Indians to work in the sugar fields, meant a system of servitude little better than slavery. Even the free Indians felt its degrading effects. Save in some outstanding cases, there were no high principles, no great ambitions. no consciousness of manhood, among them with which to oppose the ever-encroaching oppression of Colonial laws. They were content to live, and to live as slaves. ”

“ Gandhi is not a Christian in any orthodox sense. Perhaps orthodox Christianity has itself to blame for this. There is little inducement in these Colonies for an Indian to recognise the loveliness of Christ under the disguise in which Christianity clothes her Lord. What interest has the Christian Church in Johannesburg shown in these thousands from India and China, who for years have been resident in our midst? ”

“ Many changes have come since then; even in slow-changing India. Porbandar has changed. The city of yesterday has gone. Its primitive customs, its haughty isolation, its serene atmosphere, have almost vanished. The city of to-day is not Porbandar. It occupies, of course, the old spot close to the sea. It still claims a proud position as "Capital of the Principality of Porbandar, in the sub-province of Kathiawar, in the Province of Gujarat." It still holds fifty villages in vassalage. And still its Rana Sahib is regarded as "a first-class Power." But old Hindu Porbandar has gone forever. ”

“ Under the witchery of a false ideal, the young student wasted a lot of time, and spent a great deal of money needlessly during the first three months.
"I thought it was necessary for me to take dancing lessons," said Mr. Gandhi, "and lessons in elocution, and lessons in French, and even violin-lessons. You know I have no ear for Western music, and the result was a ludicrous failure. The violin was to cultivate the ear, it only cultivated disappointment. Still, as I thought the only way to become an English gentleman was to learn such accomplishments, persevered even with the violin." ”

“ I began, "I want to ask you a strange question—how far are you prepared to make a martyr of yourself for the good of the cause?" He looked a little surprised, but said quietly, "I think you should know that by this time". "No." I said, "candidly I do not." "Well," said he, his face kindling, "it is a matter with me of complete surrender. I am nothing, I am willing to die at any time, or to do anything for the cause". ”

“ The Indian community in the Transvaal are struggling for the maintenance of a right and the removal of a degradation. Can we as Englishmen find fault with them for that? The only method of protest, except that of violence and disorder, which is open to them, who have neither votes nor representation, is that of passive resistance. ”

“ They are not selfishly resisting a tax or insidiously striving for new political privileges; they are merely trying to regain that which has been taken from them—the honour of their community. Let him who blames them say what he would do in similar circumstances. Is there one of us who, out of respect for the law, would submit meekly and without protest to deprivation of rights and social degradation? ”

“ In Court he has been their advocate, in the office their adviser, always their friend, at the same time he has devoted himself to the general interests of the British Indians, throughout South Africa, by pen and speech, with wonderful persistence. Like all great leaders of men, Mr. Gandhi has the magic power of attracting to himself the passionate devotion of such characters.
But the strain of this long resistance has told severely on the Indian community. Many of them have been practically ruined. ”

“ That roar never ceases. On calm, hot, sunny days it almost dies; it sinks away into a lazy hum like the drone of bees in the clover. But it is always there. The Batteries of the Reef are never still. Night and day, and every night and every clay, without rest, the crushing of the great machinery goes on, and the rocks and stones and sand yield their golden treasure in response. ”

“ Passive Resistance can only be carried to a successful conclusion if the cause be just. The acceptance of suffering, instead of the infliction of it, requires such moral power in those who adopt this policy, that no community could successfully use it in an unjust cause. Injustice and Passive Resistance have no affinity. ”

“ Frequently, in India, the bride and bridegroom are strangers to each other until the wedding-day, and sometimes it happens, when the veil is lifted for the first time, life together begins with a shock of revulsion. In this case, however, custom was ignored. One imagines that the parents involved must have been more liberal in their views than their strict observance of Hindu Ritual would suggest. At any rate, the little bride-elect was brought to Rajkot some time before the marriage, and the two children became playmates in the Gandhi's home. ”

“ The handful of men already employed in the issue of "Indian Opinion" should form the nucleus of a colony of workers. They should take land in the country, transfer the printing press to new buildings to be erected there, vow themselves to poverty, work for "Indian Opinion" and Indian education, cu!tivate the ground themselves, and draw only a small salary from the press. They would, in this way, be able, Mr. Gandhi thought, to free themselves from the temptations of city life, and develop such a settlement as might prove an object lesson in simplicity, and an incentive to others. ”