"MAHATMA" GANDHI

Hokitika Guardian, 7 April 1921, Page 3

"MAHATMA" GANDHI

i THE NEW FORCE IN INDIA. Incliii 11 news is peppered with •' notin' Gandhi. Wlmt kind of man s tliis who excites equal extremes of affection and obloquy; who rojoc-ts Western civilisaLion and denounces our model n improve memts —factoriejs, railways, telephones, hospitals— as either futile m .Satanic ? Mohandas Karam'hand (»•• mill i is 01. with grey i lift hair, null inching. , |y truthful eyes, and slim eloquent hands. His voice is low pitched and \ monotonous, yet pleasing whether i.i j Gnjerati or English. He is married ;nd has four sons. Harilal, the e dost, is 'in commerce in Calcutta. The oung- ! cst, Devadas, a hoy of 18 or so, is his. father’s right hand. The two in between have returned to South Africa. Gandhi lives in Ahmedabad. the nig mill centre, where he has lon tided a satyagrahashram. settlement for the culture of truth in poverty, hand weaving. and primitive agriculture. Here is the working model of Gandhi's dreams, Gandhi is not, as is commonly si pposed, a Brahmin of the priestly "asle. He belongs to a Banin, or trading caste, family resident in JKathinwnr. He descends from politicians. His politi ail mind comes from his lather who was Dewan. or Chief Minister, of the State of I’orhandJar for 2-i years. But his character was formed hv the devout example and teaching of his mother. *‘G’s” genius lies in' making lost causes live. To his disarming sweetness of a saint he adds all the arts of advocate. In South Africa he mate tied even General Smuts. They sparred for years over Indian claims without quarrelling. If Gandhi has a liobhy, it is experimenting in diet. With him asceticism is not a pose but a conscious approach to the Divine. 'Eighteen months ago fie had reduced his daily food to ‘mir ingredients wheat, vegetables, a little oil, and fruit—-and he became very ill. He now takes goat’s milk and salt, but not cow’s milk or butter. fie never sues a debtor, never gives evidence against an enemy, always travels third class—the acme of discomfort in India.—and always goes barefoot. He can sleep when he likes and he dispenses with sleep for long periods at will. i But why “Mahatma” —one who possesses highly spiritual but not necessarily super-natural attributes? India's humble masses, saturated with ancient Hindu philosophy, have long i imagined a Saviour who should mnt** , early practice to Divine precept. ! li<* , key to Gandhi and Gandhi-ism is wrapped in his self-revealing sentence; •‘Most religious men 1 have met are politicians in disguise; T, however, who , wear the guise of a politician, am at heart a religious man.”