Mohandas K. Gandhi

“ To Gokhale, Gandhi was the very embodiment of saintly self-abnegation, a man whose personal sufferings, splendid and chivalrous leadership and moral fervour, marked him out as one of the most outstanding figures of the day, the coming leader of his people, who had made the name of his adored Motherland, revered and honoured throughout the Empire and beyond, and who had proved beyond dispute the capacity of even his most insignificant countrymen to live and die for her. ”

“ I know that there are many in India who consider no sacrifice is too great in order to achieve the end, and they are wakeful enough to realise that they must be equally prepared to sacrifice themselves for the Empire in which they hope and desire to reach their final status. It follows then that we can but accelerate our journey to the goal by silently and simply devoting ourselves heart and soul to the work of delivering the Empire from the threatening danger. ”

“ Never could an indentured Indian rise to a higher post than that of labourer. And what did the labourer bring when he returned to India? He returned a broken vessel, with some of the artificial and superficial signs of civilisation, but he left more valuable things behind him. He may bring some sovereigns also with him. They should decline to perpetuate this hateful system of indenture because it robbed them of their national self-respect. ”

“ It is like a giant telling a dwarf that the latter is free to give blow for blow. Who is to refuse permission and passports to the colonials desiring to enter India? But Indians, no matter what their attainments are, are constantly being refused permission to enter the colonies even for temporary periods. South African legislation of emigration was purged of the racial taint, by the passive resistance movement. But the administrative principles still continue and will do so, so long as India remains both in name and substance a dependency. ”

“ Gandhi, as he had so constantly been warned by many of his friends and admirers who could not however subscribe to his faith in civil disobedience. The story of the tragedy needs no repeating. It is written on the tablet of time with bitter memories, and the embers of that controversy have not yet subsided. But Mr. Gandhi, with a delicacy of conscience and a fine appreciation of truth, which we have learnt to associate with his name as with that of Newman, felt for the wrongs done to Englishmen with the same passionate intensity with which he felt for those indicted on his own countrymen. ”

“ Gandhi in the proscribed pamphlet, Hind Swaraj, whose pages, we now know, were written to show the basic similarity of civilisation the world over, the superiority of India for the particular Indian phase of that civilisation, and the stupidity of the barriers of luxury erected by the modern industrial civilisation of the West, that constantly separate man from man and make him a senseless machine drudge, and that threaten to invade that holy Motherland that stands in his eyes for the victory of spirit over matter. ”

“ If, therefore, India does not assist the Colonies, it is not because of want of will but it is due to want of ability. An additional reason a politician would be justified in using is that, so long as India does not in reality occupy the position of an equal partner with the Colonies, and so long as her sons continue to be regarded by Englishmen in the Colonies and English employers even nearer home to be fit only as hewers of wood and drawers of water, no scheme of emigration to the Colonies can be morally advantageous to Indian emigrants. ”

“ I came across Gandhi in the early morning sitting by the roadside—eating a regulation Army biscuit. Every man in Buller’s force was dull and depressed, and damnation was heartly invoked on everything. But Gandhi was stoical in his bearing, cheerful, and confident in his conversation, and had a kindly eye. He did one good. It was an informal introduction, and it led to a friendship. I saw the man and his small undisciplined corps on many a field of battle during the Natal campaign. ”

“ Are Her Majesty's Indian subjects to be treated as a degraded and an out-caste race by a friendly government or are they to have the same rights and status as other British subjects enjoy ? Are leading Muhammadan merchants who might sit in the Legislative Council at Bombay, to be liable to indignities and outrage in the South African Republic ? We are continually telling our Indian subjects that the economic future of their country depends on their ability to spread themselves out and to develop their foreign trade. ”

“ Gandhi condemned the "protector" of emigrants. They were men belonging to that very class to which employers belonged; they moved among them and was it not only natural that they should have their sympathies on the side of the employer? How was it then possible that they could do justice to the labourer against the employer? He knew many instances when magistrates had meted out justice to the indentured labourer, but it was impossible to expect such a thing from the Protectors of emigrants. The labourer was bound hand and foot to the employer. ”

“ Neither the Government nor any voluntary agency has been found capable of protecting from ill-usage the Indian who emigrates either to Burma or Ceylon, much less can any such protection avail in far-off Fiji or the three other Colonies, I hope that leaders of public opinion in India will, therefore, take their stand on the one impregnable rock of not wanting any emigration whatsoever to the Colonies. ”

“ He will drift like an anchorless ship if he has not the inner voice to hold him firm and guide him. Above all, I can easily put up with the denial of the world, but any denial by me of my God is unthinkable, and if I did not give at this critical period of the struggle the advice that I have, I would be denying both God and Truth. ”

“ If we are not prepared to make even this sacrifice for the Empire and Swarajya, it is no wonder if we are regarded as unworthy of it. If every village gives at least twenty men they will return from the war and be the living bulwarks of their village. If they fall on the battle-field, they will immortalise themselves, their villages and their country and twenty fresh men will follow suit and offer themselves for national defence. ”

“ India needs no outlet, at any rate for the present moment, for emigration outside the country. It is debateable whether, in any event, the four Colonies will be the most suitable for Indian colonisation. The best thing, therefore, that can happen from an Indian standpoint is that there should be no assisted emigration from India of any type whatsoever. In the absence of any such assistance, emigration will have to be entirely free and at the risk and expense of the emigrant himself. Past experience shows that, in that event, there will be very little voluntary emigration to distant Colonies. ”

“ In my humble opinion the ordinary method of agitating by way of petitions, deputations, and the like is no remedy for moving to repentance a Government so hopelessly indifferent to the welfare of its charge as the Government of India has proved to be. ”

“ Gandhi wrote:-- Our non-participation in a hearty welcome to Your Royal Highness is thus in no sense a demonstration against your high personage, but it is against the system you come to uphold. I know individual Englishmen cannot even if they will, alter the English nature all of a sudden. If we would be the equals of Englishmen we must east off fear. We must learn to be self- reliant and independent of schools, courts, protection and patronage of a Government we seek to end if it will not mend. ”

“ The new Indian Immigration Law Amendment Bill, which virtu- ally proposes to reduce Indians to a state of slavery, is another example, The thing is a monstrous wrong, an mault to British subjects, a disgrace to its authors, and a slight upon ourselves. Every Englishman is concerned to see that the commercial greed of the South African trader is not permitted to wreak such bitter injustice upon men who alike by proclamation and by statute are placed upon an equality with ourselves before the Law. ”

“ Gandhi at once realised what was afoot, and understood, immediately that, unless the Indian community adopted a decided attitude of protest, which would be backed up, if necessary, by resolute action, the whole Indian population of South Africa was doomed, and he accordingly took counsel with the leading members of the community, who agreed that the measure must be fought to the bitter end. Mr. Gandhi is chiefly responsible for the initiation of the policy of passive resistance that was so successfully carried out by the Indians of South Africa during the next eight years. ”

“ Gandhi wrote these words in a letter to the Viceroy:—
Lastly, I would like you to ask His Majesty’s Ministers to give definite assurance about the Muhammadan States. I am sure you know that every Muhammadan is deeply interested in them. As a Hindu I cannot be indifferent to their cause. Their sorrows must be our sorrows. In the most scrupulous regard for the rights of these States and for the Muslim sentiment as to the places of worship and in your just and timely treatment of the Indian claim to Home Rule lie the safety of the Empire. ”

“ Gandhi, any swerving from the truth, even in casual utterance, is intolerable; his speeches must be read as stating uncompromisingly what he feels to be true. They are in no sense diplomatic, or opportunist, or merely "political" using the word in its narrower sense. He never pays empty compliments : he never hesitates to say, for the truth's sake, what may be unpalatable to his audience. ”

“ Gandhi in his speech at Ahmedabad on the 14th April 1919, They are in the supreme manner of Cardinal Newman’s Apologia:
Brothers, the events that have happened in the course of the last few days have been most disgraceful to Ahmedabad, and as all these things have happened in my name, I am ashamed of them, and those who have been responsible for them have thereby not honoured me but disgraced me. A rapier run through my body could hardly have pained me more. I have said times without number that Satyagraha admits of no violence, no pillage, no incendiarism ”

“ Gandhi’s loyalty to his colleagues and particularly his affectionate and fraternal regard for the brothers is beautiful and touching to a degree. And when in September 1921 the Brothers were prosecuted by the Bombay Government, Mr. Gandhi with fifty others issued a public manifesto that " it is the inherent right of every one to express his opinion without restraint about the propriety of citizens offering their services to, or remaining in the employ of the Government whether in the civil or the military department." ”

“ Gandhi, mercilessly logical as ever, would heed no such counsel but continued literally to feed the flames, With that cultivated sense of distinction between the doer and the thing done, which is ever present in men such as he, there might be some efficacy in this form of purification and selfdenial, But many weie the critics who held that his bon/ire mania was the surest way to rouse all the evil passions of the multitude and as surely lead to hatred and civil strife. ”

“ If the convictions are good, if men convicted have been guilty of murders or incitements to murder, why should they escape punishment? If they have not committed these crimes as we believe most at least have not, why should we escape the usual fate of all who are trying to rise a step hgher? Why should we fear the sacrifice if we would rise? No nations have ever risen without sacrifice and sacrifice can only be spoken of in connection with innocence and not with crime. ”

“ Our Indian subjects have been fighting the battles of Great Britain over half the old world with the loyalty and courage which have won the admiration of all British men. The fighting reserve which Great Britain has in the Indian races adds greatly to her political influence and prestige and it would be violation of the British sense of justice to use the blood and the valour of these races m war and yet to deny them the protection of the British name in the enterprise of peace. ”

“ As long as we have to look to Englishmen for our defence, as long as we are not free from the fear of the military, so long we cannot be regarded as equal partners with Englishmen. It, therefore, behoves us to learn the use of arms and to acquire the ability to defend ourselves. If we want to learn the use of arms With the greatest possible despatch, it is our duty to enlist ourselves in the Army.
The easiest and the straightest way to win Swarajya, said Mr. Gandhi, is to participate in the defence of the Empire. ”

“ It is a mockery to urge our Indian fellow-subjects to embark on external commerce if the moment they leave India they lose their rights as British subjects, and can be treated by foreign governments as a degraded and an out-caste race. ”

“ You are all Home Rulers, some of you are members of Home Rule Leagues. One meaning of Home rule is that we should become partners of the Empire. To-day we are a subject people. We do not enjoy all the rights of Englishmen. We are not to-day partners of the Empire as are Canada, South Africa and Australia. We are a Dependency. We want the rights of Englishmen, and we aspire to be as much partners of the Empire as the Dominions Overseas. ”

“ The Peace Preservation Ordinance, as its name implies although framed to keep out of the Colony dangerous character, is being used mainly to prevent British Indians from entering the Transvaal. The working of the law has always been harsh and oppressive—and this in spite of the desire of the Chief Secretary for Permits that it should not be so. He has to receive instructions from the Colonial Office, so that the harsh working is due, not to the chief officer in charge of the Department, but to the system under which it is being worked. (a) There are still hundreds of refugees waiting to come. ”

“ It appears to me unnecessary for any prefatory note to be written to the Life and Speeches of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi; they live and speak for themselves. Personally, I have had such a great shrinking from writing anything, during his life-time, about one whom I reverence so deeply, that I have many times refused to do so. ”

“ The injustice to the Indians is so glaring that one is almost ashamed of one's countrymen in wishing to have these men treated as native (i.e., of South Africa,) simply because of their success in trade. The very reason that they have been so successful against the dominant race is sufficient to raise them above that degrading level. ”