The main purpose of the present thesis is to study in detail
M.K.Gandhi’s The Story of My Experiments with Truth, as a literary
work,
and his outstanding contribution to the literary form -
autobiography, which has made rapid strides in the modem period. From
a pedlar to a Prime Minister, everybody in these days wants to record
their past experiences.
The present study also makes an attempt to
determine Gandhiji’s place in the political field, his status as a
philosopher and writer, and the contributions he has made in all these
spheres.
The growth of prose, especially autobiography in the modem period in
India has been immense. For the first time, there has been a realization of
the potentiality of prose and the possibility of its wide application. The
emergence of autobiography as a powerful medium has brought a kind of
change that has coincided with the process of modernization. Sisirkumar
Das observes : “The modernization in Indian literature entails Indian
endeavors towards adjusting itself with foreign civilization.”1 It is not
westernization, as is commonly believed, but a response to the West.
This response is not felt so much in other forms of literature, but prose as
a versatile medium has been the direct outcome.
One difficulty in understanding Gandhiji lies in the abundance of his
available literature. Besides, there are a vast number of books written
about him. In the latter category, we find a great number of books written
by his devotees and admirers (often in superlative terms) in glorification
of Gandhiji’s personality. Gandhiji, as a philosopher, never attempted to
construct a ‘system’ of philosophy, since he was not a professional
philosopher. His main concern was to follow and apply in day-to-day life
2
the ideals and principles that had become a part of his life, and in which
he had an unflinching faith.
The present thesis is a study of Gandhiji’s autobiography with a view
to establishing the fact that it has enriched the literary form,
Autobiography.
This study aims at focusing enough attention on the
various facets of Gandhiji’s personality, besides treating autobiography as
a form of literature.
It is in a sense a critical understanding and
appreciation of Gandhiji’s Experiments with Truth.
“Gandhi Mohandas Karamehand of India” says Arnold Toynbee :
“was without doubt, the greatest man of the 20th century and as an
Englishman, I am grateful to him for having forced us out of India
without bloodshed. Through his policy of non-violence, non-cooperation
he demonstrated that it was possible to make radical political changes
without bloodshed. He was, in fact, the leader of the future, because in
the atomic age while little wars might go on, big war was unthinkable.”2
Toynbee further predicted that Mahatma Gandhi would stand out more
and more as a world figure as days roll by.
From the Autobiography Gandhiji emerges, undoubtedly, as a
remarkable person, who made a tremendous impact on the contemporary
world, as the hero of a literary piece who fights against injustice and
discrimination.
Gandhiji’s autobiography records his fight against
tyranny, injustice and racial discrimination in South Africa. He fought
against untouchability among his own people. All along, he had been a
fierce fighter and an unbending agitator.
}\Jr
What is worth noting is jGandhiji was not considered by many a
fighter at all, because in the annals of the world, the word fighting has
3
always involved physical force and bloodshed. According to Upadhaya
Gandhiji was for a change and he fought for that, he was a great
revolutionary.
His main motive was to get freedom for the freedom -
loving people of the world.
He was all for abolition of untouchability, racial discrimination and
economic exploitation.
He expressed the apprehension that rural and
urban civilizations, mental and manual work would create barriers and
schisms between man and man, and that would result in unbridgeable
gaps both between mental and manual work, and between urban and rural
civilizations. That is the reason why he urged some sort of cultural
revolution in the world.
Gandhiji’s autobiography, which is regarded as a great piece of art and
literature, really speaks to the millions of masses of India. Gandhiji says :
“I want art and literature that can speak to the millions.”3 To give a
definite answer one would have to study Gandhiji’s acts and writings
(autobiography in particular) in great detail. Orwell writes : “ But this
partial autobiography, which ends in the nineteen twenties, is a strong
evidence in his favour, all the more because it covers what he would have
called the unregenerate part of his life and reminds one that inside the
saint, or near saint, there was a very shrewd, able person who could, if he
had chosen, have been a brilliant success as a lawyer, an administrator or
perhaps even a businessman.”4
He had the tricks of a lawyer and
businessman. But, Gandhiji the saint, dedicated his whole life forjhe
cause of his country. The happiness of his people was paramount to him.
Gandhiji had a great courage to withstand his enemies. Orwell,
writing about Gandhiji further observes: “Nobody ever suggested that he
was corrupt, or ambitious in any vulgar way, or that anything he did was
4
actuated by fear or malice........
For instance, it is clear even from the
autobiography that his natural physical courage was quite outstanding.”5
He did not fear anybody, and he was unselfish to the core.
Gandhiji in Young India on 24.09.1931 stated that his autobiography
would tell the readers about his bitterest public and private experiences.
Those experiences threw him into temporary despair, and he was able to
come out of those despairs because of prayer.
By the time Gandhiji had
made this statement, the autobiography "The Story of My Experiments
with Truth’ had been published. ( In two volumes, the first in 1927 and
the second in 1929). The autobiography is a true picture of Gandhiji’s
internal and external experiences. Gandhiji’s autobiography falls within
the domain of literature.
For practical purposes we can classify
autobiographical literature into five groups.
“ 1. The personal experience of an individual as an individual.
2. The common experiences of man as a man, like Life, Death,
Destiny, God.
3. The relations of the individual with his fellows i.e., the social
world.
4. Relations with the external world, nature etc.
5. Man’s efforts to express himself in forms of literature and art.”6
Gandhiji’s autobiography is a model of the literature of self-expression
like a lyric or an elegy. He has written what he has seen, thought, felt and
known for himself. The book lives for us having great authority of his
personality.
The autobiography is an authentic record of his experiments.
the various experiments which
life
About
Gandhiji carried out throughout his
he writes : “ I can rise only by experimenting upon myself and
5
others.”7 He believed in the absolute oneness of God. According to him
life is an endless series of experiments.
Gandhiji’s autobiography occupies an important place in Indo-Anglian
literature and ranks very high with the greatest autobiographies of the
world. Mohinder Singh opines : “It is not an ordinary experiment in self­
portrayal but the product of a life wholly dedicated to truth as understood
in its widest connotation and an outstanding creation standing apart in its
lonely grandeur on the Indian autobiographical scene.”8
Like a scientist, Gandhiji experiments only to get truthful, positive
results. With a hope he starts his experiments and always he got the best
results. Gandhiji has declared the purpose of writing his autobiography
clearly. According to him he did not attempt a real autobiography, he
simply wanted to tell the story of his numerous experiments with truth.
His life consisted of nothing but those experiments, He asserted that the
story would definitely take the shape of an autobiography. And he was
sure that the story of his experiments would definitely benefit the readers.
Gandhiji does not claim any degree of perfection for these experiments.
Self-introspection is the cardinal characteristic of his autobiography. He
says: “ I have gone through deep self-introspection, searched myself
through and through, and examined and analysed every psychological
situation.”9
He has examined his self, in minute detail extenuating
nothing, and the analyses of each and every situation are very gripping.
Gandhiji wrote his autobiography not to silence his critics or please his
admirers. It has an educative and didactic purpose. It was written for the
purpose of education and reform. One of its objectives was certainly to
provide some comfort and food for reflection to his co-workers. As to
how this book may be regarded, he says : “ The experiments narrated
6
should be regarded as illustrations, in the light of which everyone may
carry on his own experiments according to his own inclinations and
capacity.”10
In a way Gandhiji motivates everyone to carry out
experiments according to his own capacity.
Gandhiji wrote his autobiography when he was in his fifties. Gandhiji
did not claim any finality about his opinions and convictions. He simply
wanted to tell the story of his numerous experiments with Truth.
In
writing his autobiography he was not guided by any model.
Gandhiji wrote his autobiography at the instance of his nearest co­
workers.
Jeramdas and Swami Anand persuaded him to write his
autobiography. In the introduction to his autobiography, Gandhiji
says : “Four or five years ago, at the instance of my nearest co-workers, I
agreed to write my autobiography..... The Swami wanted me to write it
separately for publication as a book. But I have no spare time. I could
only write a chapter week by week.
Why should it not be the
autobiography?11
Gandhiji wrote his autobiography in Gujarati for his own paper
Navajivan. This Autobiography was translated into English by Mahadev
Desai and Pyarelal. Translations appeared serially in Young India. It was
written in 169 weekly instalments. When Gandhiji began writing it he
had no definite plan before him, he had no diary or documents on which
to base the story of his experiments with truth. He was a meticulous
editor and regular contributor of material to the paper. It served as his
mouthpiece in print to the masses.
He emerged as a seeker of God, that is Truth.
It was not Gandhiji’s
aim to discuss academic principles of truth. He says : “ If I had only to
7
discuss
academic
autobiography.
principles,
I
should
clearly
not
attempt
an
But my purpose being to give an account of various
practical applications of these principles, I have given the chapters I
propose to write the title of The Story of My Experiments with Truth. ”12
He worshiped God as truth only.
Truth as God
is the principle of
Gandhiji . The experiments which he carried out in each and every field
are described.
For writing his compendious autobiography Gandhiji depended on his
memory and he was endowed with a strong one. The old issues of the
Indian Opinion, a journal which was started by Gandhiji in South Africa
in 1904, were available. It offered a rich treasure of informational
material.
Gandhiji says : “Indian Opinion in those days, like Young
India and Navajivan today, was a mirror of part of my life. Week after
week I poured out my soul in its columns.”'3 He wrote down each and
every detail promptly.
The greatest quality of the book is frankness, intimacy and
truthfulness. Gandhiji conceals nothing, he exaggerates nothing. The
narration of his experiments with Truth, for which he dedicated his whole
life, comes out spontaneously. He has laid bare his inner life and not less
of his outer life to his readers. He has further said that he was not going
either to conceal or understate any ugly things which he wanted to tell.
He hoped to acquaint the reader fully with all his faults and errors. His
purpose was to describe his experiments in the science of Satyagraha, not
to say how good he was. In judging himself he was unsparing, and he
wanted others also to be so. Gandhiji has unspooled his heart in the
autobiography without hiding anything. He was a votary of truth.
8
The Story ofMy Experiments with Truth is divided into five parts. The
first part begins with Gandhiji’s birth and parentage and ends with his
return after studies from England in 1891. Pyarelal calls the Gandhi of
this period “ A shrinking, shy, immature, callow youth, unsure of himself
and baffled by life’s jigsaw puzzle.”'4 Gandhiji, after coming to India,
was not sure as to whether he would continue to follow the profession of
a lawyer.
The second part of Gandhiji’s autobiography relates to a year’s stay in
India, and the first South African phase till 1896.
The third part, also
deals with his stay in Durban and the Bombay interlude till 1902. The
second and third part deal with his experiences in South Africa. As he
entered Natal, he had to encounter apartheid and colonialism. He was
known as a
coolie barrister.
He opposed the iniquitous rule of the
Whites. First of all, Gandhiji opposed the ‘ Indian Franchise’ bill. He
devoted himself heart and soul to public work ; in order to redress the
grievances of the Indian community he formed the Natal Indian
Congress.
Gandhiji says : “(Therefore), with full explanation of my
reasons, I recommended that the organization should be called the Natal
Indian Congress, and on ^ie^22 May 1894 the Natal Indian Congress
came into being.”15 He opposed the system of indentured labour and the
£3 Tax. He was the undisputed leader of the Indian community. Because
of the agitation of the Congress, and Gandhiji’s efforts, the Viceroy, Lord
Elgin reduced the tax from £25 to £3. It was because of Gandhiji’s effort
that Indians remained happy in South Africa.
In these two parts, we find the future Mahatma in the making. About
this phase of his life Gandhiji says : “ Thus God laid the foundations of
my life in South Africa and sowed the seed of the fight for national selfrespect.”16 Summing up this phase of Gandhiji’s life, Pyarelal writes :
9
“Practically single handed, he changes the course of events in Natal,
inspiring many with fear bordering on awe, but not unmixed with
admiration and even affection - this in whites and blacks, friend and foe
alike.”17 Gandhiji did not differentiate between a friend and a foe, and
without fear he took up the challenge that lay before him. His main
weapons were truth and non-violence. He became the champion of the
Indians in Natal.
The fourth part deals with the epoch - making Transvaal period lasting
upto the end of 1914, when he finally returned to India
i. e., on
December 19, 1914. In Transvaal he forged the powerful weapon of
Satyagraha which shook the mightiest and biggest empire which the
world had ever known.
He asked his disciples to offer mass civil
disobedience against the existing unjust laws. It was in Transvaal that
Gandhiji’s major basic ideas and principles were formed which he, at a
later stage, applied with a tenacity of purpose to India’s freedom
struggle.
The fifth part deals with Gandhiji’s emergence on the Indian political
scene. On his return to India from South Africa, Gandhiji declared his
mission as one of liberating India from the yoke of British imperialism.
He successfully used the weapon of Satyagraha in the freedom
movement. He says : “I have no doubt that the British Government is a
powerful Government, but I have no doubt also that Satyagraha is a
sovereign remedy.”18 Within a short span of six years he emerged as
the undisputed leader of India. He fought against the British Government
using the weapon of Satyagraha and liberated India.
Gandhiji stopped writing about his life with the Nagpur session of the
Indian National Congress held in December 1920. He tells in the last
10
chapter of the autobiography entitled ‘ Farewell’ why he decided not to
write about his life ; “ My life from this point onward has been so public
that there is hardly anything about it that people do not know.”19 After
1921, he worked in such close association with the congress leaders that
he could hardly describe any episodes of his life without referring to his
relations with them. He said that his pen instinctively refused to proceed
further.
Had he prolonged his autobiography, it would have deteriorated into a
political memoir submerging the personal story of Mahatma Gandhi.
Gandhiji’s autobiography covers one of the most turbulent epochs of
Indian history. This was a period marked by social evils and disparities,
and political subjection, exploitation and injustice. Although Gandhiji
wrote mainly about his own life, he did not overlook his surroundings,
and hence it contains lucid and concise comments on contemporary social
and political cross-currents.
As the intimate revelation of the mind and the spirit of a great soul,
Gandhiji’s autobiography is marked by simplicity, pointedness, clarity
and effortless ease and these graces of style make it a monumental work
of art. Summing up the outstanding characteristics of the Autobiography
Bhabani Bhattacharya writes : “ The Story of My Experiments with Truth
is, however, very far from what may be called a spiritual treatise. Threefourths of the work records ordinary happenings-historical, political and
social, as also those on the personal plane.”20 The autobiography of
Gandhiji, however, barely helps the reader to make out how the inner
evolution took place in him. It is a difficult process, and the readers
should use their imagination.
As a literary work, it is unique in the
revelation of the writers inner being.
In a sense, every autobiography is
11
unique. Gandhiji’s is unique in the sense that the growth of the self forms
the central point in his autobiography.
Gandhiji attained great spiritual and moral powers which he exercised
on the masses when he was alive, and he is still exercising immense
influence on large section of humanity,
because
there was perfect
concord between his philosophy of life and daily conduct. Commenting
on Gandhiji’s personality, B. Pattabhi Sitaramayya says:
“He is a
cosmopolitan but is primarily a Hindu. He is a social reformer but is
essentially a conservative.”21
Gandhiji was for rural resurrection. He
loved the village but did not hate the town.
To Gandhiji, life was at one and the same time an exciting adventure
full of perils, a relentless battle between good and evil and a continuous
growth in spiritual realization. He was a Karmayogi. He started his daily
routine at about 03.30 a.m. and after prayers and daily ablutions, he was
ready for work which went on till 10.00 p.m., except for the interval for
food and a short rest in the afternoon.
Everyone wondered at his
workaholic nature. He was very disciplined, had great self-control and
concentration. Gandhiji was always active and accurate in keeping time.
Gandhiji did not despise life or dream of the day when it would come
to an end. But he wanted to live for 125 years. He says : “ If India feels
the glow of independence, she probably would enter into such a treaty (of
defensive alliance with Britain) of
her own free will.... To see that
vision realized, I want to live for 125 years.”22 He did not live for 125
years. But his dream of getting freedom was fulfilled.
As Gandhiji was rational and scientific in his outlook, he named his
autobiography
as
The
Story
of My
Experiments
with
Truth.
12
Experimentation was one of the deepest passions of his life. He
experimented with food, health and cure of ailments, with politics and
economics, education and reform. Gandhiji experimented with every
aspect of life and in his experiments he was nearly always successful.
Gandhiji, in the real sense of the term, was an experimenter like a man
of science. He was not a systematic thinker, he acted according to his
intuition. Writing about Gandhiji K.R.Srinivas Iyengar says : “ Mahatma
Gandhi was no systematic thinker or system builder ......... under the
stress of experience or in spurts of intuition certain ideas sprang up, like
sparks from the anvil, to which he gave memorable expression.”23 He did
not believe only in theory, doing everything practically was his aim.
Experience formed the main basis of his practical philosophy. He had
wonderful ideas.
Gandhiji’s call was final to millions of Indians and they followed him
in the struggle for freedom.
Armando Menezes, an Indian poet, has
poetically described the personality of Gandhiji in these words: “ He is
like the pied piper of legend, whom a hundred thousand and million men
and women followed..... He is an experimentalist and his one science is
self-knowledge.”24 Self-knowledge made him courageous.
Whoever
first called Gandhiji ‘Mahatma’ had the true instinct of definition in him.
He was, indeed, the Great Soul; a soul in whom all the virtues and values
of humanism were so perfectly harmonized.
One of the major aims of writing an autobiography is to make a clean
confession of one’s faults. This practice is followed in the West. In the
East, generally, those who have come under the influence of the West
have written autobiographies. One of Gandhiji’s friends had some doubt.
And he put some questions to him. About him, Gandhiji records in the
13
autobiography: “Is it not likely that the men who shape their conduct on
the authority of your word, spoken or written, may be misled? Don’t you
think it would be better not to write anything like an autobiography?”25
Gandhiji practised what he preached. He stuck to his word. He clarified
his friends’ doubts. Many followed him ; he did not mislead anybody.
Gandhiji wrote his autobiography because he simply wanted to tell the
story of his numerous experiments with truth.
He says :
“My life
consists of nothing but those experiments.”26
The experiments are
spiritual or rather moral. And by experimenting ^on himself Gandhiji
became great and all the experiments he carried out in life he has written
about them in his autobiography, unreservedly.
The autobiography
discloses clearly Gandhiji’s mind. He has examined every aspect of his
life and makes a clean breast of his faults.
Regarding the confessions after many years of the publication of his
autobiography Gandhiji in the issues of Harijan a. 18.04.1936, b.
21.04.1946, c. 23.06.1946 and d. 20.10.1946 wrote that he had made the
frankest admission of his many sins, and added that he did not carry their
burden on his shoulders. Fasting and prayer were a part and parcel of
his life. They had an inestimable value for him. He was a soul striving
to lay his weary head in the lap of his Maker,
(b) He was of the
opinion that everyone was bound to make mistakes. He believed that
confession leads to advance. One should not try to hide one’s mistakes.
Man should repent
for it.
for his mistakes, and self-purification is the means
Repentance is the main core of prayer, (c) He further opined that
sin cannot be wiped out by mere condemnation by word of mouth, (d)
One must confess one’s error or sin as soon as it is discovered, since this
leads to self-purification.
14
Gandhiji , it is amply clear, attached great importance to what he
termed the inner being and the outer being. He believed that a man has to
be clean both in his mind and action. But he seemed not to havef worried
about the mistakes that he could fall a prey to.
He gave divine guidance to the masses, he was a rare being, he was
not afraid of anybody. S.Radhakrishnan in his foreword to the book The
Mind of Mahatma Gandhi, says : “ Only now and again does there arise
above the common level some rare spirit, who, having thought about God
more deeply, reflects more clearly the divine purpose and puts into
practice more courageously the divine guidance. The light of such shines
like a strong beacon on a dark and discarded world.”27 Gandhiji was a
universal being. Many critics opine that Gandhiji’s vision outsoars his
perception, which is not correct, because vision and perception go hand in
hand. The criticism is a misrepresentation of Gandihiji.
Gandhiji believed in experimenting with life. He writes : “My
experiments I hold to be infinitely more important than the best equipped
Himalayan expeditions.... Life is but an endless series of experiments.”28
Life in general is a sort of experiment. A majority of the experiments
were successful and beneficial. Gandhiji writes in Harijan: “Life and
its problems have thus become to me so many experiments in the practice
of truth and non-violence.”29 Gandhiji experimented with the problems
and successfully found the solutions also.
But Gandhiji was broad­
minded enough to acknowledge boldly what he had, and what he lacked.
He writes : “I know the success of my experiments, I know also my
failures.
But the successes are enough to fill me with undying
hope.”30 Gandhiji’s experimental successes emboldened him to carry the
action forward.
15
We all know that Gandhiji was full of truth,
he was nothing if
incarnate. Talking about truth he writes : “ All our activities should be
centered in truth.
Truth should be the very breath of our life... But
without truth it is impossible to observe any principles or rules in life.”31
Mere mechanical adherence to truth and ahimsa is likely to break down at
the critical moment. Hence Gandhiji emphasized that truth is God.
Gandhiji was prepared to die for truth like Prahlad in the myth who
also emerged triumphant, “Truth as it is conceived means that we have to
rule our life by this law of Truth at any cost; and in order to satisfy the
definition, I have drawn upon the celebrated illustration of the life of
Prahlad.”32
Truth was Gandhiji’s goal. We can never reject his ethics.
He was convinced that Ahimsa was the only means for
the
realization of Truth. Truth drew him into politics, which is very much
lacking in today’s politics.
Gandhiji was more other - worldly than worldly.
He was more
interested in God than in the people around him. He wanted to have
direct access to God. Talking about God he said that he wanted to see
God face to face, and for him God was truth. He wanted to see God only
by means of non-violence, and love. So far as his worldliness went, he
lived for India’s freedom and dedicated his life to it.
Gandhiji attached equal importance both to Truth and Ahimsa. In his
opinion they were complementary to each other.
Let us see what
Gandhiji says about these things : “ Ahimsa and Truth are as my two
lungs.
I cannot live without them.”33
Ahimsa and Truth were not
separable from Gandhiji’s life. And he lived for them alone. And then he
writes :
“Let us engrave on our hearts the motto of a western
16
philosopher, plain living and high thinking.”34 Plain living and high
thinking was the cardinal principle of Gandhiji’s life, and he lived up to
it.
Today, it is certain that the toiling millions cannot have high living
and the few who think for the masses run the risk, in a vain search after
higher living, of missing high thinking, simplicity being a casualty for
intellectualism.
As the object of autobiography writing is to unreel the heart and make
confessions, Gandhiji’s autobiography is a matchless piece of document
of this category. At the end of the autobiography Gandhiji makes clear
the very object of his writing. He says : “ My object in writing these
chapters is simply to describe how certain things, as it were
spontaneously, presented themselves to me in the course of my
experiments with Truth.”35
The autobiography is the most authentic
document of the experiments that he carried out in his day-to-day life.
In the words of Romain Rolland, Gandhiji's activity can be summed up
in this way ; he writes in the biography, Mahatma Gandhi, the man who
became one with the universal being, “Gandhiji's activity may be divided
into
two periods.
From 1893-1914, its
field was South Africa ;
from 1914-1922, India.”36
Gandhiji emerged as a leader in South Africa, and returning from
South Africa, that is, after 1914, he became the leader of the Indian
masses. Louis Fischer, commenting on Gandhiji’s arrival in India in the
year 1915 writes : “He arrived in Bombay with Kasturbai on January 9th,
1915... He was not well known in India nor did he know India. Professor
Gokhale accordingly commanded Gandhiji to spend the first year in India
17
with his ears open but his mouth shut.”37 Gandhiji was well-known to the
Indian community in South Africa, but this was not the case in India. He
followed Gokhale’s words and travelled widely to gain first hand
knowledge of his own country. From this point onwards he did not look
back ; he understood the problem well and handled the masses carefully
in the freedom struggle.
Gandhiji had learnt in South Africa how to get the grievances of the
people redressed.
countrymen.
In India also he found an opportunity to serve his
He went to Champaran,
helped the peasants of Kaira,
settled the dispute of the mill-owners and workers of Ahmedabad and, by
persuading the mill-owners to yield to the demands of the workers he
settled the issue. Thus, Gandhiji lived to help the poor people of the
country as much as he could. From the autobiography Gandhiji emerges
as a soul ever in search of truth, a speaker, a writer and a soldier
extraordinaire in the fight for India’s freedom from foreign rule. His zest
for life and energy were remarkable for a man of his age, as he followed a
rigorous code of self-discipline. He was completely unconcerned about
his safety. He thought for his people, prayed, wrote, travelled and spoke,
appealing everywhere to the conscience of his fellow-citizens. The story
of his life is marked by a sheer spirit of drama. He is perhaps the greatest
apostle of truth and peace known to our country and the world.
Gandhiji was sensitive enough to perceive the differences between his
thinking and that of the other top leaders. Though Gandhiji was slightly
built, he had a titanic heart; he sent shivers down the spine of one of the
most powerful European Empires.
After returning to India from South
Africa, that is, in the year 1915, Gandhiji made a resounding, and well
deserved, reputation for himself as a staunch and fearless fighter for
18
justice and the right of minorities. He was a tough-minded man of clear eyed realism. He was a beacon light for millions.
Gandhiji had the
careful vision of a watchmaker, or great conductor of musical parties ; he
achieved proper balance and exact co-ordination. The inner voice for
balance was his link to God, the truthful Sri Rama.
In all his work,
Gandhiji was a clear thinker and pragmatist to the core. Truth and nonvoilence were his watchwords.
There is so much misunderstanding today about Gandhiji’s views and
ways of thinking. If contemporary opinion were to be taken into account,
Gandhiji would be placed side by side with the greatest men of human
history.
In the hearts of the people of India he is enshrined as the
‘Mahatma’, ‘Bapu’, the father of the Nation, who led India to freedom
through a bloodless revolution.
Gandhiji exercised an influence beyond calculation both in India and
abroad, because he was a living testimony to the power of the spirit and
sought to inject it into his political activities. But the gospel of Non­
violence and Truth which he had preached and practised was no new
philosophy. He did not want to teach philosophy ; he indeed admitted
that the gospel of Truth and non-violence was very old like the hills.
The world today really stands on the verge of a possible disaster.
There are always unending ideological conflict, communal riots,
terrorism. All these may lead to a war of the kind that never happened
before. The threat in which we are engulfed is unimaginable. Mankind
has to make its choice for its sheer survival between the moral and the
material forces.
While he tried continually to experiment on himself to the limit of
asceticism consistent with good health, Gandhiji did not try to enforce his
19
views on others, except in the case of those who were members of his
ashram that voluntarily agreed to certain vows.
His life was an open book. He had no secrets at all. He spoke with
the same care as he wrote. Yet there was nothing stilted or artificial. He
joked and laughed but was never irrelevant, vague or confused. His will
was inflexible but there was never any sign of anger or mental
disturbance even when he was displeased. He would simply say 'NO' to
proposals and requests, in the same cheerful manner as if he said 'YES'.
On the whole, his way of life, though in some respects unique and
inimitable, was such as to inspire and guide through all ages all men and
women.
For a long time in his development into a mature personality, and into
a saintly figure of world-wide fame on the social and political scene, the
Mahatma was a relentless scrutiniser of his own motives and actions, and
an honest, humble, public confessor of failures in all the spheres of his
being and doing. This was a fundamental feature of his going through
life as an experimenter with truth.
20
REFERENCES
1. Sisirkumar Das. History of Indian Literature. Vol. VIII. (1800-1910).
(Delhi, Sahitya Academy, 1991), P.78.
2. R.B.Upadhyaya. Social Responsibility ofBusiness and Trusteeship
Theory of Mahatma Gandhi. (Delhi, Sterling Publishers, 1976), P.l.
Toynbee said this while appearing in a television programme on
the American Broadcasting Company network. Quoted by
Upadhyaya from T.V. Parasuram of “ Express news service” in the
Indian Express, January 12, 1968.
3. R.K.Prabhu and U.R.Rao. The Mind ofMahatma Gandhi.
(Ahmedabad, Navajivan Publishing house, 1976), P.56 or Harijan
14-11-1936, P.315.
4. George Orwell. Reflections on Gandhi. M.G. Nayar (ed). (Madras,
Macmillan India Limited, 1980), P.l.
5. Ibid. P.2.
6. P.P.Mehta and P.N.Bhat. W.H.Hudson’s An Introduction to the
Study of literature, A critical Study. (Barielly, Prakash Book Depot,
1997), P.2.
7. R.K.Prabhu and U.R.Rao. The Mind ofMahatma Gandhi.
(Ahmedabad, Navajivan Publishing House, 1976), P.473 or
Young India, 25-09-1924, P.313.
8. Mohinder Singh. Truth in Autobiography:Gandhi’s Experiments
with Truth. (Gandhi Marg, New Delhi, Journal of Gandhi peace
foundation. G.Ramachadran (ed.) Vol. 1. March 1980), P.739.
9. M.K.Gandhi. The Story ofMy Experiments with Truth.
Selected Works. Vol.I. (Ahmedabad, Navajivan Publishing House,
1993- 94), P. xx.
21
10. Ibid. P. xxii.
11. Ibid. P. xvii.
12. Ibid. PP xx - xxi.
13. M.K.Gandhi. The Story ofMy Experiments with Truth.
Selected Works. Vol. II. (Ahmedabad, Navajivan publishing House,
1993-94), P.425.
14. Pyarelal. Introduction to Mahatma Gandhi. (Ahmedabad,
Navajivan Publishing House, 1965), P.ii.
15. M.K.Gandhi. The Story ofMy Experiments with Truth.
Selected Works. Vol. I. (Ahmedabad , Navajivan Publishing House,
1993-94), P.220.
16. Ibid. P.208.
17. Prayrelal. Introduction to Mahatma Gandhi. (Ahmedabad,
Navajivan Publishing House, 1965), P.xvi.
18. M.K.Gandhi. The Story of My Experiments with Truth.
Selected Works. Vol.II. (Ahmedabad, Navajivan Publishing House,
1993-94), P.567.
19. Ibid. P.751.
20. Bhabani Bhattacharya. Gandhi The Writer. (New Delhi, National
Book Trust of India, 1969), P. 130.
21. B.P.Sitaramayya. Gandhi and Gandhism. (Ahmedabad,
Kitabistan, 1943), P.29.
22. R.K.Prabhu and U.R.Rao. The Mind of Mahatma Gandhi.
(Ahmedabad, Navajivan Publishing House, 1967), P.325, (Or
Harijan 14.4 1946), P.91.
23. K.R. Srinivas Iyengar. Indian writing in English. (Delhi, Sterling
Publishers Pvt. Ltd, 1985), P.271.
22
24. Armando Menezes. Airy Nothings : Essays in Literary Criticism.
(Dharwad, Prasaranga, Kamatak University, 1977), P.170.
25. M.K. Gandhi. The Story ofMy Experiments with Truth.
Selected Works. Vol. I. (Ahmedabad, Navajivan Publishing House,
1993-94) P.xviii.
26. Ibid. P. xviii.
27. Radhakrishnan. S. Foreword To, The Mind of Mahatma Gandhi, by
R.K.Prabhu and U.R.Rao, (Ahmedabad, Navajivan Publishing
House, 1967), P.X.
28. R.K.Prabhu and U.R.Rao. The Mind ofMahatma Gandhi.
(Ahmedabad, Navajivan Publishing House, 1967), PP. 491-492.
29. Ibid. P.25 or Harijan. 28-3-1936, P.49.
30. Ibid. P.132 or Harijan. 11-2-1939 P.8.
31. M.K.Gandhi. From Yeravda Mandir. (Ahmedabad, Navajivan
Publishing House, 1992), P.3.
32. Speeches and writings of Mahatma Gandhi.
(Madras, Natesan and company, 1933), P. 377.
33. Young India. 08-07-1926, P.244.
34. Young India. 30-04-1931, P.38.
35. M.K.Gandhi. The Story ofMy Experiments with Truth.
Selected Works. Vol.II. (Ahmedabad, Navajivan Publishing House,
1993-94), P.742.
36. Romain Rolland. Mahatma Gandhi, The Man who Became One
with the Universal Being. (Delhi, Sristi Publishers, 2000), P.6.
37. Louis Fischer. The Life of Mahatma Gandhi. (Bombay, Bharatiya
Vidya Bhavan, 1990), P.153.