INDIA’S LEAD

Hokitika Guardian, 18 July 1931, Page 2

INDIA’S LEAD

NEW LIGHT ON GANDHI.

RESPECT FOR BRITAIN.

ATTITUDES OF “UNTOUCHABLES”

Lome of the lesser-known facts anu llgUl/ Oil liUrtlttClU' u ‘ Ownum, >•*l'u .,.au mmkmm, were fe.HU m delivered by vlie Rev. ii. 'v. oo.wie me x.ovary Club at Syumugu Oil iueaunv . ; ul - said lie first met Guild.. in India in uevj-yei,. TUiiu, wneii fie was a missionary at lieiiares ,in cliaige a Ingli scliool lor ooys, and living in a liostel along with about sixty Keen, ,eit lads, who were Nationalists to a man. Ganufii at that time was campaigning through India advocating liis tiireelold non-co-operation plan against the ‘British non-co-operation m educaion, in the administration of laws, and' in elections, local, provincial aw perial. As an educationalist, said the speaker lie was of course interested in the education part of the programme. At the hostel the boys made the request to go to Gandhi’s meeting but, as he was spreading propaganda directly opposed to British rule and British ideas it was a problem to know what to do; even if he had refused thoy would hav< gone all the same, so ho compromised by allowing twelve of the eldest boy» to go, nnd he went with them, TEN THOUSAND LISTENERS.

it was a most interesting sight .A large open sace accoiiimo-uaveu son,, ten thousand people. Gandhi, on entering, took his seat on the floor of the platform, not on one of \t.e chairs, and when it was indicated that many could not see him, lie sat liim.-.eif cross-legg-ed on the table. He was a frail Ugure, short of stature, weary-looking, yet with a kindliness in Ins face indicative of deep religious feeling. When the time came for him to speak lie said he was tired, and would, they allow him to sit as be. spoke. He spoke, m Hindu—not very good Hindu, for that was not his native tongue—very briefly and in simple language, of liis aim to free India, not the kind of freeodm that was being offered them, but freedom of the soul and the spirit; the desire to be rid of “government by devils,” as he termed the British Government ; to shake off the crushing weight that was .being placed upon them in many ways, notably by means of Western culture and education, and he urged his hearers to be true to their native culture and industries.

ENGLISH BARRISTER

Mr Newell stated that Gandhi had risen from the educated middle classes in a State ruled over by a native Prince , under the suzerainty of the British Government. With a view to taking up ,a position of importance he was sent to London, and studied there until he qualified as a barrister at the Inqs of Court. On returning, to his native land he had the misfortune to fall out with an official, ■ which wrecked his chances of promotion in that quarter, so he accepted the position as legal adviser to a big firm in Durban, South Africa, Gandhi arrived in Africa at a critical t'me, when the Hindus were being harassed by a poll-tax too heavy to bear. He set to work and organised them, and succeeded in getting the tax reduced. He was there when the Boer war broke out, and showed his love and respect for the British by organising a Hindu stretcher-bearer corps for duty at the fronts and in charge of it he is said to have personally rescued the wounded son of Lord Roberts. It was his oganising ability in South Africa which brought him under the notice of politicians in his own country, and on his return he was admitted to the inner circle of the Nationalists, and soon became an admired leader, growing in strength as the people came to recognise his fervent sincerity, his unselfishness, and broad humanity.

SENT TO PRISON

At one time Gandhi was imprisoned for sedition, but after an illness and an operation for appendicitis he was liberated, and once more resumed his campaign of passive resistance, the only weapon these people have of resisting the existing order of things. One of his planks is to restore native industry, spinning in the home, and each member of his party has to pledge himself to do half an hour's spinning a day, not only as a home industrial gesture, but also as an act of discipline. With all his activities this man was perhaps as near a personification of Christ as possible, said Mr Newell. He based his teachings when at every school very largely on the’ New Testament, and he never travelled without two books, one Ruskin’s “Unto This Last,” and Tolstoy’s “The Kingdom of God is Within You.” books which had largely moulded his out look on life. Finally Mr Newell said that the ouL lok in India at present was most interesting to students. In his opinion Lord Irwin had done the right thing in making an alliance with Gandhi, who was the only leader in India who was positive.