"MAHATMA" GANDHI.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17112, 6 April 1921, Page 11

"MAHATMA" GANDHI.

THB NEW FOBCE IN INDIA. Indian news is peppered with a name —Gandhi. What kiud of- man,is this (asks the London. Mail") who excites equal extremes of affection and obliquy; who rejects Western civilisation and denounces our modem improvements —factories;, railways, telephones, Hospitals —as either futile or .Satanic? Afohandas Karamchand Gandhi is .51, with greying hair, unflinchingly truthful- eyes,, and stun, eloquent hands. His voice is- low-pitched and nionotonojs, yet pleasing, whether in Gujcrati.or English. Ho is married, and-has lour sons. Harilal, tha eldest, is in commerce jn- Calcutta. The youngest, Devadas, a boy of. eighteen or so, is his father's right hand. Tho two in between have-returned to South Africa. Gandhi lives in Ahmedabad, the big mill centre, where he- has< founded a, satyagrahashram, settlement for the culture of .truth, in poverty, hand weaving and primitive agriculture. Hero is the working model of Gandhi's dreams. Gandhi is notj as is commonly supposed, a* Brahmin- of tho priestly caste. He belongs to a Baniayor trading caste, family resident in Eathiawar. Ho descends from politicians. His political mind' comes-"from his father, who was-■ Dewatt, or Chief Minister, of the State of Porbandar for 25. years. But his character was formed by the devout example and teaching of his mother. "G'.'s'V genius lies in making lost causes lire. To hr* disarming sweetness of a saint ho adds all the arts of the advocate. In South Africa.ho matched eveffi General Smuts-. The,? sparred for years over Indian claims without quarrelling. H Gandhi has a hobby, it is experimenting in diet. With him asceticism is not a pose, but a conscious approach to- the Divine; Eighteen months- ago he had reduced; his daily food, to four ingredients—wheat* vegetables, a little oilTand fruit—and ho became very ill. IHo now takes goat's milk and salt, but not cow's milk or nutter. . Ho- never 'sue* » debtor, never gives oyidenee against an enemy, always travels thirdVclnns—the acme of discomfort •in- India—antl always goes barefoot. He can sleep when he likes, and he dispenses with sleep: for long periods at But whv "Mahatma"—one -whb possesses highly spiritual, but not necessartto-. supernatural, attributes?. India's'--'-huinWe: masses, saturated with ancient Hindu philosophy baye long imagined a Saviour who should 'unite earthly practice to- Divine precept. The key to Gandhi and GandhiiVnf is in.his scJjF-revealuig. sen-, "tence: l? 3lbst. tehgions men I have met are politicians -in disjpiise V I, however, who- weaf', the- 'guise of a .politician, am at Heart '"«*'' rehgious- man:"