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Mahatma
Ghandi
This page contains 3 articles about Mahatma Ghandi :-
Known as Father of Nation; played a key role in winning freedom from India;
introduced the concept of Ahimsa and Satyagraha.
Mahatma Gandhi popularly known as Father of Nation played
 a
stellar role in India's freedom struggle. Born in a Bania family in
Kathiawar, Gujarat, his real name was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (M.K.
Gandhi). The title Mahatma came to be associated with his name much later.
Before Gandhiji's arrival on the Indian political scene, freedom struggle
was limited only to the intelligentsia. Mahatma Gandhi's main contribution
lay in the fact that he bridged the gulf between the intelligentsia and the
masses and widened the concept of Swaraj to include almost every aspect of
social and moral regeneration. Paying tribute to Mahatma Gandhi on his
death, famous scientist Albert Einstein said, "Generations to come will
scarce believe that such a man as this walked the earth in flesh and blood".
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869, at Porbandar, a
small town on the western coast of India, which was then one of the many
tiny states in Kathiawar. Gandhiji was born in middle class family of
Vaishya caste. His father, Karamchand Gandhi, was a Dewan or Prime Minister
of Porbandar. His mother, Putlibai, was a very religious lady and left a
deep impression on Gandhiji's mind. Gandhiji was a mediocre student and was
excessively shy and timid.
Gandhiji was truthful in his conduct right from the childhood. There is a
very famous incident in this regard. A British school inspector once came to
Gandhiji's school and set a spelling test. Gandhiji spelled all the words
correctly except kettle. The class teacher noticed the mistake and gestured
Gandhiji to copy the correct spelling from the boy sitting next to him.
Gandhiji refused to take the hint and was later scolded for his "stupidity".
Gandhiji was married at the age of thirteen to Kasturbai. He was in high
school at that time. Later on in his life, Gandhiji denounced the custom of
child marriage and termed it as cruel. After matriculating from the high
school, Gandhiji joined the Samaldas College in Bhavnagar. After the death
of Gandhiji's father in 1885, a family suggested that if Gandhiji hoped to
take his father's place in the state service he had better become a
barrister which he could do in England in three years. Gandhi welcomed the
idea but his mother was objected to the idea of going abroad. To win his
mother's approval Gandhiji took a solemn vow not to touch wine, women and
meat and remained true to it throughout his stay in England.
Gandhiji sailed for England on September 4, 1888. Initially he had
difficulty in adjusting to English customs and weather but soon he overcame
it. Gandhiji completed his Law degree in 1891 and returned to India. He
decided to set up legal practice in Bombay but couldn't establish himself.
Gandhiji returned to Rajkot but here also he could not make much headway. At
this time Gandhiji received an offer from Dada Abdulla & Co. to proceed to
South Africa on their behalf to instruct their counsel in a lawsuit.
Gandhiji jumped at the idea and sailed for South Africa in April 1893.
It was in South Africa that Gandhiji's transformation from Mohandas to
Mahatma took place. Gandhiji landed at Durban and soon he realized the
oppressive atmosphere of racial snobbishness against Indians who were
settled in South Africa in large numbers. After about a week's stay in
Durban Gandhiji left for Pretoria, the capital of the Transvaal, in
connection with a lawsuit. When the train reached Pietermaritzburg, the
capital of Natal, at about 9 p.m. a white passenger who boarded the train
objected to the presence of a "coloured" man in the compartment and Gandhji
was ordered by a railway official to shift to a third class. When he refused
to do so, a constable pushed him out and his luggage was taken away by the
railway authorities. It was winter and bitterly cold. This incident changed
Gandhiji's life forever. He decided to fight for the rights of Indians.
Gandhiji organised the Indian community in South Africa and asked them to
forget all distinctions of religion and caste. He suggested the formation of
an association to look after the Indian settlers and offered his free time
and services.
During his stay in South Africa, Gandhiji's life underwent a change and he
developed most of his political ideas. Gandhiji decided to dedicate himself
completely to the service of humanity. He realized that absolute continence
or brahmacharya was indispensable for the purpose as one could not live both
after the flesh and the spirit. In 1906, Gandhiji took a vow of absolute
continence. In the course of his struggle in South Africa, Gandhiji,
developed the concepts of Ahimsa (non-violence) and Satyagraha (holding fast
to truth or firmness in a righteous cause). Gandhiji's struggle bore fruit
and in 1914 in an agreement between Gandhiji and South African Government,
the main Indian demands were conceded.
Gandhiji returned to India in 1915 and on the advice of his political guru
Gopal Krishna Gokhale, spent the first year touring throughout the country
to know the real India. After an year of wandering, Gandhiji settled down on
the bank of the river Sabarmati, on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, where he
founded an ashram called Satyagraha Ashram. Gandhiji's first satyagraha in
India was in Champaran, in Bihar, where he went in 1917 at the request of a
poor peasants to inquire into the grievances of the much exploited peasants
of that district, who were compelled by British indigo planters to grow
indigo on 15 percent of their land and part with the whole crop for rent.
Gandhiji's Satyagraha forced British government to set up a inquiry into the
condition of tenant farmers. The report of the committee of which Gandhi was
a member went in favour of the tenant farmers. The success of his first
experiment in satyagraha in India greatly enhanced Gandhiji's reputation in
the country.
In 1921, Gandhji gave the call for Non-cooperation movement against the ills
of British rule. Gandhiji's call roused the sleeping nation. Many Indians
renounced their titles and honours, lawyers gave up their practice, and
students left colleges and schools. Non-cooperation movement also brought
women into the domain of freedom struggle for the first time.
Non-cooperation movement severely jolted the British government. But the
movement ended in an anti-climax in February 1922. An outbreak of mob
violence in Chauri Chaura so shocked and pained Gandhi that he refused to
continue the campaign and undertook a fast for five days to atone for a
crime committed by others in a state of mob hysteria.
Gandhiji was sentenced to six years imprisonment but was released in 1924 on
medical grounds. For the next five years Gandhi seemingly retired from
active agitational politics and devoted himself to the propagation of what
he regarded as the basic national needs, namely, Hindu-Muslim unity, removal
of untouchability, equality of women, popularization of hand-spinning and
the reconstruction of village economy.
On March 12, 1930 Gandhiji started the historic Dandi March to break the law
which had deprived the poor man of his right to make his own salt. On April
6, 1930 Gandhiji broke the Salt law at the sea beach at Dandi. This simple
act was immediately followed by a nation-wide defiance of the law. This
movement galvanized the whole nation and came to be known as "Civil
Disobedience Movement". Within a few weeks about a hundred thousand men and
women were in jail, throwing mighty machinery of the British Government out
of gear. This forced the then Viceroy Lord Irwin to call Gandhiji for talks.
On March 5, 1931 Gandhi Irwin Pact was signed. Soon after signing the pact
Gandhiji went to England to attend the First Round Table Conference. Soon
after his return from England Gandhiji was arrested without trial.
After the outbreak of Second World War in 1939, Gandhiji again became active
in the political arena. British Government wanted India's help in the war
and Congress in return wanted a clear-cut promise of independence from
British government. But British government dithered in its response and on
August 8, 1942 Gandhiji gave the call for Quit India Movement. Soon the
British Government arrested Gandhiji and other top leaders of Congress.
Disorders broke out immediately all over India and many violent
demonstrations took place. While Gandhiji was in jail his wife Kasturbai
passed away. Gandhiji too had a severe attack of Malaria. In view of his
deteriorating health he was released from the jail in May 1944.
Second World War ended in 1945 and
 Britain
emerged victorious. In the general elections held in Britain in 1945, Labour
Party came to power, and Atlee became the Prime Minister. He promised an
early realization of self Government in India. A Cabinet Mission arrived
from England to discuss with Indian leaders the future shape of a free and
united India, but failed to bring the Congress and Muslims together. India
attained independence but Jinnah's intransigence resulted in the partition
of the country. Communal riots between Hindus and Muslims broke out in the
country in the aftermath of partition. Tales of atrocities on Hindus in
Pakistan provoked Hindus in India and they targeted Muslims. Gandhiji worked
ceaselessly to promote unity between Hindus and Muslims. This angered some
Hindu fundamentalists and on January 3, 1948 Gandhiji was shot dead by one
such fundamentalist Nathu Ram Godse while he was going for his evening
prayers. The last words on the lips of Gandhiji were Hey Ram.
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Gandhi was born a Hindu and practised Hinduism all his life, deriving
most of his principles from Hinduism. As a common Hindu, he believed all
religions to be equal, and rejected all efforts to convert him to a
different faith. He was an avid theologian and read extensively about all
major religions.
Gandhi believed that at the core of every religion was Truth and Love
(compassion, nonviolence and the Golden Rule). He also questioned hypocrisy,
malpractices and dogma in all religions and was a tireless social reformer.
Some of his comments on various religions are:
"Thus if I could not accept Christianity either as a perfect, or the
greatest religion, neither was I then convinced of Hinduism being such.
Hindu defects were pressingly visible to me. If untouchability could be a
part of Hinduism, it could but be a rotten part or an excrescence. I could
not understand the raison d'etre of a multitude of sects and castes. What
was the meaning of saying that the Vedas were the inspired Word of God? If
they were inspired, why not also the Bible and the Koran? As Christian
friends were endeavouring to convert me, so were Muslim friends. Abdullah
Sheth had kept on inducing me to study Islam, and of course he had always
something to say regarding its beauty." (source: his autobiography)
"The sayings of Muhammad are a
treasure of wisdom, not only for Muslims but for all of mankind."
Later in his life when he was asked whether he was a Hindu, he replied:
"Yes I am. I am also a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist and a Jew."
MAHATMA GANDHI, speaking on the character of Muhammad, (pbuh) says in
(YOUNG
INDIA):
"I wanted to know the best of one who holds today's undisputed sway over the
hearts of millions of mankind....I became more than convinced that it was
not the sword that won a place for Islam in those days in the scheme of
life. It was the rigid simplicity, the utter self-effacement of the Prophet,
the scrupulous regard for his pledges, his intense devotion to this friends
and followers, his intrepidity, his fearlessness, his absolute trust in God
and in his own mission. These and not the sword carried everything before
them and surmounted every obstacle. When I closed the 2nd volume (of the
Prophet's biography), I was sorry there was not more for me to read of the
great life."
"In thematically focussing on his responsiveness to Islam, Dr. Sheila
McDonough addresses a vital question: "Why did Gandhi say the things, he
did, about Islam?" Which leads her to meticulously trace, among other
determinants, the intellectual influences that had helped shape Gandhi’s
vision of Islam—the vision he particularly shared with many of his Indian
contemporaries. The author, a widely known authority on Islamic studies,
puts together many of Gandhi’s observations about Prophet Mohammed, the holy
Quran and the Islamic faith to emphasize that his positive, respectful
response to Islam was not matter of political pragmatism, nor a façade to
unify Indians at a critical period of their history, but it went far
beyond—to a philosophical understanding of the very essence of Islam."
|
by Professor A.K. Ramakrishnan
Gandhi's major statement on the Palestine and the Jewish question came forth
in his widely circulated editorial in the Harijan of 11 November 1938, a
time when intense struggle between the Palestinian Arabs and the immigrant
Jews had been on the anvil in Palestine. His views came in the context of
severe pressure on him, especially from the Zionist quarters, to issue a
statement on the problem. Therefore, he started his piece by saying that his
sympathies are all with the Jews, who as a people were subjected to inhuman
treatment and persecution for a long time.
"But", Gandhi asserted,
"My sympathy does not blind me to the
requirements of justice. The cry for the national home for the Jews does not
make much appeal to me. The sanction for it is sought in the Bible and in
the tenacity with which the Jews have hankered after their return to
Palestine. Why should they not, like other peoples of the earth,
make that country their home where they are born and where they earn their
livelihood?"
He thus questioned the very foundational logic of political Zionism. Gandhi
rejected the idea of a Jewish State in the Promised Land by pointing out
that the "Palestine of the Biblical conception is not a geographical tract."
The Zionists, after embarking upon a policy of colonization of Palestine and
after getting British recognition through the Balfour Declaration of 1917
for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jews," tried
to elicit maximum international support. The
Jewish leaders were keen to get an approval for Zionism from Gandhi as his
international fame as the leader of a non-violent national struggle against
imperialism would provide great impetus for the Jewish cause.
But his position was one of total disapproval
of the Zionist project both for political and religious reasons.
He was against the attempts of the British mandatory Government in Palestine
toeing the Zionist line of imposing itself on the Palestinians in the name
of establishing a Jewish national home. Gandhi's Harijan editorial is an
emphatic assertion of the rights of the Arabs in Palestine. The following
oft-quoted lines exemplify his position:
"Palestine belongs to the
Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the
French. It is wrong and inhuman to impose the Jews on the Arabs...
Surely it would be a crime against humanity to reduce the proud Arabs so
that Palestine can be restored to the Jews partly or wholly as their
national home."
Gandhi's response to Zionism and the Palestine question contains different
layers of meaning, ranging from an ethical position to political realism.
What is interesting is that Gandhi, who firmly believed in the
inseparability of religion and politics, had been consistently and
vehemently rejecting the cultural and religious nationalism of the Zionists.
What follows then is that he was not for religion functioning as a political
ideology; rather, he wanted religion to provide an ethical dimension to
nation-State politics. Such a difference was vital as far as Gandhi was
concerned. A uni-religious justification for claiming a nation-State, as in
the case of Zionism, did not appeal to him in any substantial sense.
The history of Palestine in the first half of this century has been
characterized by the contention between two kinds of nationalism: Zionism
and Palestinian Arab nationalism-the former striving for creating a Jewish
nation in Palestine by colonizing its land through massive Jewish
immigration and the latter struggling for freedom of the inhabitants of the
land of Palestine from colonial and imperialist control.
Gandhi, in his role as leader of the national struggle and the Indian
National Congress (the organization embodying that struggle), had been
actively engaged during the 1930s and 1940s in moulding the perception of
the people of India to the nationalist and anti-imperialist struggles in the
Arab world. The 1937 Calcutta meeting of the All India Congress Committee (AICC)
"emphatically protested against the reign of terror as
well as the partition proposals relating to Palestine" and expressed
the solidarity of the Indian people with the Arab peoples' struggle for
national freedom. The Delhi AICC of September 1938 said in its resolution
that Britain should leave the Jews and the Arabs to amicably settle the
issues between the two parties, and it urged the Jews
"not to take shelter behind British Imperialism." Gandhi wanted the
Jews in Palestine to seek the goodwill of the Arabs by discarding
"the help of the British bayonet."
Gandhi and the Congress thus openly supported
Palestinian Arab nationalism, and Gandhi was more emphatic in the rejection
of Zionist nationalism. The major political driving force in such a position
was the common legacy of anti-imperialist struggle of the Indians and the
Palestinians. Gandhi's views on the Zionist doctrine and his firm commitment
to the Palestinian cause starting from the 1930s obviously influenced the
design of independent India's position on the Palestine issue.
Gandhi's prescription for the Jews in Germany and the Arabs in Palestine was
non-violent resistance. With regard to the Jewish problem in Germany, Gandhi
noted, "I am convinced that if someone with courage
and vision can arise among them to lead them in non-violent action, the
winter of their despair can, in the twinkling of an eye, be turned into the
summer of hope." His views on Zionism
and his prescription of non-violent action and self-sacrifice to the Jews in
Germany generated reactions ranging from anger to despair. Famous
Jewish pacifists, Martin Buber, Judah Magnes and Hayim Greenberg, who
otherwise admired Gandhi, felt "highly offended by
Gandhi's anti-Zionism" and criticized him for his lack of
understanding of the spirit of Zionism. Martin Buber, in a long reply to
Gandhi's Harijan editorial, remarked, "You are only concerned, Mahatma, with
the "right of possession" on the one side; you do not consider the right to
a piece of free land on the other side - for those who are hungering for
it."
As mentioned earlier, Gandhi refused to view the Zionist "hunger" for land
in Palestine as a right. Gandhi wrote on 7 January 1939 the following in
response to an editorial in the Statesman, "I hold
that non-violence is not merely a personal virtue. It is also a social
virtue to be cultivated like the other virtues. Surely society is largely
regulated by the expression of non-violence in its mutual dealing. What I
ask for is an extension of it on a larger, national and international
scale."
Also, it is significant to note that, as far as Gandhi was concerned,
non-violent action was not pacifism or a defensive activity but a way of
waging war. This war without violence also requires discipline, training and
the assessment of the strength and weakness of the enemy.
According to Paul Power, four factors influenced Gandhi's position on Zionism:
-
"First, he was
sensitive about the ideas of Muslim Indians who were anti-Zionists because
of their sympathy for Middle Eastern Arabs opposed to the Jewish National
Home; second, he objected to
any Zionist methods inconsistent with his way of non-violence;
third, he found Zionism contrary to his pluralistic nationalism,
which excludes the establishment of any State based solely or mainly on one
religion; and fourth, he
apparently believed it imprudent to complicate his relations with the
British, who held the mandate in Palestine."
Gandhi withstood almost all Zionist
attempts at extracting a pro-Zionist stance from him.
G.H. Jansen wrote about
the failure of Zionist lobbying with Gandhi:
- "His opposition [to Zionism] remained
consistent over a period of nearly 20 years and remained firm despite
skilful and varied applications to him of that combination of pressure and
persuasion known as lobbying, of which the Zionists are past masters."
Apart from responses to Gandhi's anti-Zionism from Jewish pacifists such as
Buber, Magnes and Greenberg, Jansen points out at least four separate
instances of Zionist attempts to get a favourable statement from Gandhi. At
first, Hermann Kallenbach, Gandhi's Jewish friend in South Africa, came to
India in 1937 and stayed for weeks with Gandhi trying to convince him of the
merits of the Zionist cause. Then, in the 1930s, as requested by Rabbi
Stephen Wise, the American pacifist John Haynes Holmes, tried
"to obtain from Gandhi a declaration favourable to
Zionism". In March 1946, a British MP from the Labour Party,
Sydney Silverman, an advocate of Indian independence in Britain,
attempted to change Gandhi's mind. At
the end of their heated conversation,
Gandhi stated that
"after all our talk, I am unable
to revise the opinion I gave you in the beginning." The fourth
Zionist attempt to change Gandhi's mind was by Louis Fischer, Gandhi's
famous biographer, to whom Gandhi reported to have said that
"the Jews have a good case."
Later, Gandhi clarified in one of his final pieces on Zionism and the
Palestine question on 14 July 1946 that "I did say
some such thing in the course of a conversation with Mr. Louis Fischer on
the subject." He added,
"I do believe that the Jews have been cruelly wronged
by the world."
Gandhi went back to his initial position by
categorically stating that
"But in my opinion, they [the Jews] have erred grievously in
seeking to impose themselves on Palestine with the aid of America and
Britain and now with the aid of naked terrorism... Why should they depend on
American money or British arms for forcing themselves on an unwelcome land?
Why should they resort to terrorism to make good their forcible landing in
Palestine?"
There were an influential number of Jews who thought that force, only force,
could ensure the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine. They
adopted terrorism as the method to achieve their national goal.
This policy of subjugation of the
Palestinians by Zionist terror was totally rejected by Gandhi in no
uncertain terms.
A few months before his assassination, Gandhi answered
the question "What is the solution to
the Palestine problem?" raised by Doon Campbell
of Reuters:
"It has become a problem which seems
almost insoluble. If I were a Jew, I would tell them: 'Do not be so silly
as to resort to terrorism...' The Jews should meet the Arabs, make
friends with them and not depend on British aid or American aid, save what
descends from Jehovah."
---
Dr. Ramakrishnan is a senior lecturer, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam,
Kerala, India. He presented this paper on June 13, 1998 at a seminar
organized by the Institute of Islamic and Arab Studies. The seminar was
inaugurated by the chairman of India's National Minorities Commission, Prof.
Tahir Mahmoud, who highlighted the traditional Indian support for the
Palestinian struggle against Zionist Occupation.
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