Mahatma Gandhi

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi / Mahatma Gandhi (meaning “Great Soul” in Sanskrit), or Bapu in India (“Father” in Gujarati)  (October 2, 1869-Jan 30, 1948) was a political and spiritual figure who, through satyagraha (civil disobedience through total non-violence), led India to independence, inspiring civil right and freedom movements worldwide. India considers him as the Father of the Nation.

Gandhi’s life

Gandhi was born in a coastal town in Gujarat, Eastern India, on October 2, 1869. His childhood influences, Jainism (which prescribes a path of non-violence for all forms of living beings) and Indian classic epics, shaped his adult vision. In May 1883, when he was 13, Gandhi was married to 14-year old Kasturbai Makhanji, as was the custom in the region with arranged child marriage. Two years later, Gandhi’s father and the couple’s first child died. They had four more children, all sons (Harilal, Manilal, Ramdas, and Deydas). In September 1888, he left for London, England, to study law and train as a barrister. He promised his mother that he would abstain from meat, alcohol, and promiscuity. In London, he tried to adopt English customs and joined the Vegetarian Society. After being called to the bar, Gandhi left England for India in June 1891. Upon arrival, he learned that his mother had died while he was in London. He tried to establish his first practice and work as a high school teacher, but both attempts failed.  So, he went to Rajkot, the fourth biggest city in the state of Gujarat, where he drafted petitions for litigants. He was forced to close his business when he ran afoul of a British officer.

In April 1893, Gandhi accepted a year-long contract from an Indian firm, to a post in the Colony of Natal, in south-eastern Africa, then part of the British Empire. It is in South Africa that he witnessed and experienced the difficult conditions of life endured by Indians. After discovering that the government wanted to pass a bill denying Indians the right to vote, he decided to prolong his stay to assist Indians in opposing this bill. Although he was not able to do so, his campaign drew attention to the grievances of Indians in South Africa. He helped found the Natal Indian Congress in 1894. In January 1897, upon landing in Durban, Gandhi was attacked by a mob of white settlers and escaped only through the efforts of the wife of the police superintendent. But, he refused to press charges against them. In 1906, in the Transvaal (northern South Africa), the government promulgated a new Act compelling registration of the colony’s Indian population. Gandhi spoke on Satyagraha (non-violent protest) for the first time, calling Indians to resist the law non-violently and suffer the punishments for doing so. The plan was adopted, leading to a seven-year struggle. Thousands of Indians were jailed (including Gandhi), flogged, or even shot, for any form of non-violent resistance. The harsh methods employed by the South African government were strongly criticized, leading to a compromise with Gandhi.

In 1906, following the introduction of a new poll-tax by the British, Zulus (largest South African ethnic group) killed two British officers, which led to a war against the ethnic group. The British allowed Gandhi and a detachment of Indians to volunteer as a stretcher bearer corps to treat wounded British soldiers.

Gandhi returned to India in 1915. In April 1918, he was invited by the Viceroy (a royal official who runs a country or province in the name of and as representative of the monarch) to a War Conference in Delhi. His decision of recruiting combatants for the war effort brought into question his consistency on non-violence. However, he stipulated in a letter to the Viceroy’s private secretary that he “personally will not kill or injure anybody, friend or foe.”

Gandhi’s first major achievements came in 1918 with the Champaran agitation and Kheda Satyagraha. Farmers were kept in extreme poverty by landlords (mostly British) who suppressed indigo and other cash crops in exchange for measly compensation. Then, the British levied a tax that they wanted to increase. Gandhi settled in Kheda, Gujarat, organizing a study and survey of the villages. Appalled by the conditions in which villagers lived, he began leading the clean-up of villages, building of schools and hospitals and encouraging the village leadership to undo and condemn many social evils. He was then arrested by police, on the grounds of creating unrest. When he was ordered to leave the province, hundreds of thousands of people protested and rallied outside the jail, police stations and courts demanding his release, which the court reluctantly granted. Gandhi led organized protests and strikes against the landlords, finally leading to an agreement granting the poor farmers of the region more compensation and control over farming, and cancellation of revenue hikes and its collection until the famine ended. During the agitation, Gandhi got his nicknames of Bapu (Father) and Mahatma (Great Soul).

His favourite weapons against the British were non-cooperation, non-violence and peaceful resistance. After the Amritsar Massacre of civilians by British troops and the resulting public anger and acts of violence, he criticized both sides. He focused on obtaining complete self-government and control of all Indian government institutions. In 1921, he expanded his non-violent platform to include the boycott of foreign-made goods, especially British goods, encouraging Indians to weave their own clothes. He also urged to boycott everything related to the British. The “non-cooperation” movement came to a sudden end after a violent clash in the town of Chauri Chaura, in Feb 1922. Gandhi was arrested on March 10, tried for sedition, and sentenced to six years’ imprisonment. He was released two years later for an appendicitis operation. Without Gandhi, the Indian National Congress split into two factions and cooperation among Hindus and Muslims started to crumble. Gandhi attempted to bridge these differences with limited success.

After a few years’ hiatus, Gandhi returned to politics in 1928. In December, he called on the British government to grant India independence or face a new campaign of non-cooperation. When the British did not respond, the flag of India was unfurled in Lahore, and Jan 26, 1930 was declared India’s Independence Day by the Indian National Congress. In March 1930, Gandhi launched a new satyagraha against the tax on salt, highlighted by the 388-kilometre Salt March to Dandi (March 12-April 6), where he was joined by thousands of Indians. This campaign truly upset the British, and despite imprisoning over 60,000 people, they decided to negotiate with Gandhi. The Gandhi-Irwin Pact was signed on March 1931. All political prisoners were freed in return for the suspension of the civil disobedience movement. Gandhi was also invited to attend the Round Table Conference in London as the sole representative of the Indian National Congress, but it was a disappointing meeting. Later on, the British government tried to control and subdue the nationalist movement. Gandhi was again arrested, and the government tried to isolate him from his followers. But this tactic failed.

In 1932, untouchables were granted separate electorates (constituency) under the new constitution. Gandhi, whose wish was to improve the life of the untouchables (members of the class that is excluded from and considered unclean and defiling by the four Hindu castes), embarked on a six-day fast, forcing negotiations. In May 1933, he began a 21-day fast of self-purification to help the movement. Then, in the summer of 1934, three unsuccessful attempts were made on his life. At the beginning of World War II, Gandhi favoured offering “non-violent moral support” to the British effort. But, after meeting with a lot of opposition, he declared that India could not take part in the war fought for freedom, while that freedom was denied to India itself. Afterwards, he intensified his demand for independence, making it clear that India would only support the war if the country was granted immediate independence. He stated that no act of violence would be stopped. He was arrested in Bombay by the British on Aug 9, 1942. While held in the Aga Khan Palace in Pune, his wife Kasturbai died on Feb 22, 1944, after 18 months in prison. Six weeks later, Gandhi suffered a severe malaria attack. He was released due to his failing health.

At the end of the war, the British showed signs of willingness to transfer power into Indian hands. Gandhi called off the struggle, and around 100,000 political prisoners were released. As a rule, Gandhi was opposed to any plan that divided India into two separate countries, as it contradicted his vision of religious unity.  However, an overwhelming majority of Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs favoured partition. Between 1946 and 1948, over 5,000 people were killed in violence. To avoid a Hindu-Muslim civil war, Gandhi reluctantly approved the partition plan.  was devastated but gave his assent. Then, demands resurged for all Muslims to be deported to Pakistan; Muslim and Hindu leaders were unable to come to terms with one another. Due to riots and violence, Gandhi launched his last fast-unto-death on Jan 12, 1948, in Delhi, asking that all violence be ended once and for all, Muslims homes be restored to them, and that the payment of 550 million rupees be made to Pakistan. The Government changed its policy. After Hindu, Muslim and Sikh community leaders assured him that they would renounce violence and call for peace, Gandhi broke his fast.

On Jan 30, 1948, Gandhi was shot in New Delhi. The assassin, Nathuram Godse, considered that Gandhi weakened India by insisting upon a payment to Pakistan. He and his co-conspirator, Narayan Apte, were executed on Nov 15, 1949.

Literary works

Gandhi was a prolific writer. He edited several newspapers in Gujarati, Hindu and English, in South Africa and India. He also wrote letters to individuals and newspapers, and several books: his autobiography; Satyagraha in South Africa about his struggle there; Indian Home Rule, a political pamphlet in Gujarati, and a paraphrase of John Ruskin’s Unto This Last. He also wrote on vegetarianism, diet and health, religion, social reforms, etc.

Followers and influence

Gandhi influenced important individuals, such as Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Albert Einstein, and John Lennon. Barack Obama noted that “Throughout my life, I have always looked to Mahatma Gandhi as an inspiration, because he embodies the kind of transformational change that can be made when ordinary people come together to do extraordinary things. That is why his portrait hangs in my Senate office: to remind me that real results will come not just from Washington – they will come from the people.”

National holidays

Gandhi’s birthday, October 2, is a national holiday in India and the International Day of Non-Violence worldwide. January 30, the day of his assassination, is Martyr’s Day in India, to commemorate those who gave up their lives in service of the Indian nation, and the School Day of Non-Violence and Peace (DENIP) throughout the world.

Awards

Although he never received the Nobel Peace Prize, Time magazine named Gandhi the Man of the Year in 1930. He was also the runner-up to Albert Einstein as “Person of the Century” at the end of 1999. And the Government of India uses his name through the Mahatma Gandhi Peace Prize to reward distinguished social workers, world leaders and citizens.

Gandhi’s principles

Brahmacharya

When Gandhi was 16, his father became very ill and Gandhi took it upon himself to take care of him. One night, his uncle relieved him for a while. He made love to his wife. Shortly afterward a servant came to report his father’s death. Gandhi felt tremendous guilt and never could forgive himself; the incident significantly influenced the celibacy vow that he took at the age of 36, while still married. But this vow was also deeply influenced by the philosophy of Brahmacharya (spiritual and practical purity) that favour celibacy and asceticism. It was a way for him to become close with God and attain self-realization.

Towards the end of his life, it became public knowledge that Gandhi had been sharing his bed with young women. He initially slept with his associates in the same room but at a distance. Later, he laid in the same bed with his women disciples, and then slept naked next to them. According to him, active celibacy meant perfect self control in the presence of the opposite sex. Of course, he was very much criticized for this.

Extracts from Gandhi’s autobiography: The Story of my Experiments with Truth

- “The heart’s earnest and pure desire is always fulfilled” p.153

- “True beauty after all consists in purity of heart” p.309

- “Spiritual relationship is far more precious than physical. Physical relationship divorced from spiritual is body without soul” pp.386-387

Children, Women, and Ills of the world

Despite honestly admitting bickering with his wife about many things, Gandhi held women in great esteem and wanted them to play a more important part in society. He also held a very interesting view about children education. Most importantly, having traveled a lot, he had a keen perception of what was wrong with humanity.

Extracts from Gandhi’s autobiography: The Story of my Experiments with Truth

- “the wife is not the husband’s bondslave, but his companion and his helpmate, and an equal partner in all his joys and sorrows — as free as the husband to choose her own path”, p.25

- “We labour under a sort of superstition that the child has nothing to learn during the first five years of its life. On the contrary the fact is that the child never learns in after life what it does in its first five years. The education of the child begins with conception. The physical and mental states of the parents at the moment of conception are reproduced in the baby. Then during the period of pregnancy it continues to be affected by the mother’s moods, desires and temperament, as also by her ways of life. After birth the child imitates the parents, and for a considerable number of years entirely depends on them for its growth.

The couple who realizes these things will never have sexual union for the fulfilment of their lust, but only when they desire issue. I think it is the height of ignorance to believe that the sexual act is an independent function necessary like sleeping or eating. The world depends for its existence on the act of generation, and as the world is the play-ground of God and a reflection of His glory, the act of generation should be controlled for the ordered growth of the world. He who realizes this will control his lust at any cost, equip himself with the knowledge necessary for the physical, mental and spiritual well-being of his progeny, and give the benefit of that knowledge to posterity.” p.204

- “We are not ashamed to sacrifice a multitude of other lives in decorating the perishable body and trying to prolong its existence for a few fleeting moments, with the result that we kill ourselves, both body and soul.  In trying to cure one old disease, we give rise to a hundred new ones; in trying to enjoy the pleasures of sense, we lose in the end even our capacity for enjoyment. All this is passing before our very eyes, but there are none so blind as those who will not see” p.322

- “The grinding poverty and starvation with which our country is afflicted is such that it drives more and more men every year into the ranks of the beggars, whose desperate struggle for bread renders them insensible to all feelings of decency and self-respect. And our philanthropists, instead of providing work for them and insisting on their working for bread, give them alms” p.434

Faith and Religion

Even though Gandhi preferred Hinduism, he believed that all religions should be equal, because truth and love are at the core of every one of them. But, he also criticized some of their major flaws, including his own: hypocrisy, malpractices, and dogma.

Extracts from Gandhi’s autobiography: The Story of my Expriments with Truth

- “Prayer needs no speech. It is in itself independent of any sensuous effort. I have not the slightest doubt that prayer is an unfailing means of cleansing the heart of passions. But it must be combined with the utmost humility.” p.72

- “I should not think of embracing another religion before I had fully understood my own” p.121

- “In matters of religion beliefs differ, and each one’s is supreme for himself. If all had the same belief about all matters of religion, there would be only one religion in the world” p.442

Food and Health

Gandhi was a vegetarian and never took dairy products obtained from cows for three particular reasons: milk is not the natural diet of man, disgust for cow blowing (forceful blowing of air into a cow’s vagina to induce the animal to produce more milk), and a vow made to his late mother. He wrote the book The Moral Basis of Vegetarianism and several articles on the subject.

Extracts from Gandhi’s autobiography: The Story of my Experiments with Truth

- “Many [...] experiments taught me that the real seat of taste was not the tongue but the mind”, p.56

- “Though I have had two serious illnesses in my life, I believe that man has little need to drug himself. 999 cases out of a thousand can be brought round by means of a well-regulated diet, water and earth treatment and similar household remedies. He who runs to the doctor [...] for every little ailment, and swallows all kinds of vegetable and mineral drugs, not only curtails his life, but, by becoming the slave of his body instead of remaining its master, loses self-control, and ceases to be a man” p.270

- “there is much truth in the Indian proverb that as a man eats, so shall he become” p.272

God and Truth

According to Gandhi, the most important battle to fight is overcoming one’s own demons, fears, and insecurities. He dedicated his life to the purpose of truth. He tried to learn from his own mistakes and conducted experiments on himself.

Extracts from Gandhi’s autobiography: The Story of my Experiments with Truth

- “A clean confession, combined with a promise never to commit the sin again, when offered before one who has the right to receive it, is the purest type of repentance”, p.28

- “Experience has taught me that silence is part of the spiritual discipline of a votary of truth. Proneness to exaggerate, to suppress or modify the truth, wittingly or unwittingly, is a natural weakness of man, and silence is necessary in order to surmount it. A man of few words will rarely be thoughtless in his speech; he will measure every word. We find so many people impatient to talk. There is no chairman of a meeting who is not pestered with notes for permission to speak. And whenever the permission is given the speaker generally exceeds the time-limit, asks for more time, and keeps on talking without permission. All this talking can hardly be said to be of any benefit to the world. It is so much waste of time. My shyness has been in reality my shield and buckler. It has allowed me to grow. It has helped me in any discernment of truth.” p.62

- “Truth is like a vast tree, which yields more and more fruit, the more you nurture it. The deeper the search in the mine of truth the richer the discovery of the gems buried there, in the shape of openings for an ever greater variety of service” p.218

- “A votary of truth is often obliged to grope in the dark” p.349

- “A devotee of Truth may not do anything in deference to convention. He must always hold himself open to correction, and whenever he discovers himself to be wrong he must confess it at all costs and atone for it” p.350

- “The ideal of truth requires that vows taken should be fulfilled in the spirit as well as in the letter” p.455

- FAREWELL: “My uniform experience has convinced me that there is no other God than Truth. And if every page of these chapters does not proclaim to the reader that the only means for the realization of Truth is Ahimsa, I shall deem all my labour in writing these chapters to have been in vain. And, even though my efforts in this behalf may prove fruitless, let the readers know that the vehicle, not the great principle, is at fault. After all, however sincere my strivings after Ahimsa may have been, they have still been imperfect and inadequate. The little fleeting glimpses, therefore, that I have been able to have of Truth can hardly convey an idea of the indescribable lustre of Truth, a million times more intense than that of the sun we daily see with our eyes. In fact what I have caught is only the faintest glimmer of that mighty effulgence. But this much I can say with assurance, as a result of all my experiments, that a perfect vision of Truth can only follow a complete realization of Ahimsa. [avoidance of violence]

To see the universal and all-pervading Spirit of Truth face to face one must be able to love the meanest of creation as oneself. And a man who aspires after that cannot afford to keep out of any field of life. That is why my devotion to Truth has drawn me into the field of politics; and I can say without the slightest hesitation, and yet in all humility, that those who say that religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion means.

Identification with everything that lives is impossible without self-purification; without self-purification the observance of the law of Ahimsa must remain an empty dream; God can never be realized by one who is not pure of heart. Self-purification therefore must mean purification in all the walks of life. And purification being highly infectious, purification of oneself necessarily leads to the purification of one’s surroundings.

But the path of self-purification is hard and steep. To attain to perfect purity one has to become absolutely passion-free of thought, speech and action; to rise above the opposing currents of love and hatred, attachment and repulsion. I know that I have not in me as yet that triple purity, in spite of constant ceaseless striving for it. That is why the world’s praise fails to move me, indeed it very often stings me. To conquer the subtle passions seems to me to be harder far than the physical conquest of the world by the force of arms. Ever since my return to India I have had experiences of the dormant passions lying hidden within me. The knowledge of them has made me feel humiliated though not defeated. The experiences and experiments have sustained me and given me great joy. But I know that I have still before me a difficult path to traverse. I must reduce myself to zero. So long as a man does not of his own free will put himself last among his fellow creatures, there is no salvation for him. Ahimsa is the farthest limit of humility.” pp.503-505

Non-violence

Gandhi did not invent the principle of non-violence but was the first person to apply it in the political field on a huge scale. In 1940, he offered the following advice to the British people: “I would like you to lay down the arms you have as being useless for saving you or humanity. You will invite Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini to take what they want of the countries you call your possessions… If these gentlemen choose to occupy your homes, you will vacate them. If they do not give you free passage out, you will allow yourselves, man, woman, and child to be slaughtered, but you will refuse to owe allegiance to them.” In 1946, he even went to the following extreme: “Hitler killed five million Jews. It is the greatest crime of our time. But the Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher’s knife. They should have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffs… It would have aroused the world and the people of Germany… As it is they succumbed anyway in their millions.”

However, he was aware that not everybody had it in them to reach that level of non-violence. He offered the following piece of advice: “I do believe that where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence.”

Of course, he was strongly criticized for some of his statements. He tried to respond: “There was a time when people listened to me because I showed them how to give fight to the British without arms when they had no arms…but today I am told that my non-violence can be of no avail against the [Hindu–Moslem riots] and, therefore, people should arm themselves for self-defence.”  “Friends have sent me two newspaper cuttings criticizing my appeal to the Jews. The two critics suggest that in presenting non-violence to the Jews as a remedy against the wrong done to them, I have suggested nothing new…what I have pleaded for is renunciation of violence of the heart and consequent active exercise of the force generated by the great renunciation.”

Extracts from Gandhi’s autobiography: The Story of my Experiments with Truth

- “It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow-beings” p.155

- “My experience has shown me that we win justice quickest by rendering justice to the other party” p.182

- “To my mind the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being. I should be unwilling to take the life of a lamb for the sake of the human body. I hold that, the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man” p.235

- “To slight a single human being is to slight those divine powers, and thus to harm not only that being but with him the whole world” p.276

- “Experience has taught me that civility is the most difficult part of Satyagraha. Civility does not here mean the mere outward gentleness of speech cultivated for the occasion, but an inborn gentleness and desire to do the opponent good. These should show themselves in every act of a Satyagrahi” p.437

- “When the fear of jail disappears, repression puts heart into the people” p.438

- “The end of a Satyagraha campaign can be described as worthy, only when, it leaves the Satyagrahis stronger and more spirited than they are in the beginning” p.439

- Satyagraha is essentially a weapon of the truthful. A Satyagrahi is pledged to non-violence, and, unless people observe it in thought, word and deed, I cannot offer mass Satyagraha” p.467

Social Service and Simplicity

Gandhi believed that anyone involved in social service should lead a simple life. Upon returning to India, he renounced the western lifestyle he was leading in South Africa and spent one day of each week in silence. He believed that abstaining from speaking brought him inner peace. After reading John Ruskin’s Unto This Last, an essay on economy that profoundly influenced him, he decided to create a commune called Phoenix Settlement. He dressed to be accepted by the poorest people in India. He and his followers weaved their own clothes and he believed that if Indians did the same, it would deal an economic blow to the British. Consequently, the spinning wheel was later incorporated into the flag of the Indian National Congress.

Extracts from Gandhi’s autobiography: The Story of my Experiments with Truth

- “Such service can have no meaning unless one takes pleasure in it. When it is done for show or for fear of public opinion, it stunts the man and crushes his spirit. Service which is rendered without joy helps neither the servant nor the served. But all other pleasures and possessions pale into nothingness before service which is rendered in a spirit of joy” p.175

- “it is my firm conviction that all good action is bound to bear fruit in the end” p.260

- “Service without humility is selfishness and egotism” p.396

- “disinterested service of the people in any sphere ultimately helps the country politically” p.415

Swaraj/Self-Governance

Gandhi believed that every person should rule themselves without laws being enforced by the state. This could be achieved through non-violent conflict mediation. To him, a free India implied the existence of thousands of self sufficient communities who rule themselves without hindering others.

Extracts from Gandhi’s autobiography: The Story of my Experiments with Truth

- “even differences prove helpful, where there are tolerance, charity and truth” p.159

- “The institution that fails to win public support has no right to exist as such” p.198

- “the salvation of the people depends upon themselves, upon their capacity for suffering and sacrifice” p.440

- “But you can wake a man only if he is really asleep; no effort that you may make will produce any effect upon him if he is merely pretending sleep” p.458

- “To safeguard democracy the people must have a keen sense of independence, self-respect and their oneness, and should insist upon choosing as their representatives only such persons as are good and true” p.501

Official website: http://www.mkgandhi.org/

Other website of interest: http://www.mahatma.com/

Cendrine Marrouat
http://www.soulpoetrysite.com