Mahatma Gandhi's Example

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30366, 15 February 1964, Page 3

Mahatma Gandhi's Example

[Revieuieti by R.H.T.] The Essential Gandhi. By Louis Fischer. Allen and Unwin. 369 pp. Ideally every child of secondary school age, not to mention his parents, should be thoroughly familiar with Gandhi’s life and what he called his experiments with truth. We lament what we call the decline of moral standards. We talk of building character in youth, by cadets, by organised sport, by almost anything except confrontation with the great moral issues and heroes of our time. How many of those who passed school certificate this year have heard of Grenfell of Labrador, or Kagawa of Japan or know anything of the ideas of Albert Schweitzer? Our apparent perversity in trying to develop moral character in any way but the most direct and relevant is not entirely baffling. Thor-ough-going obedience to the principles of truth of God and love of fellow-men is prone to be scandalously unpredictable. Saint though Gandhi was. we felt compelled to imprison him and an orthodox Hindu felt compelled to shoot him. Thorough-going devotion to truth and love is disruptive of convention as well as being socially creative. We distrust the wind of the spirit. We want our children devoted to truth and love, but not too devoted. We want our children to be good conventional citizens, not saints and a source of scandal to both church and state. Sport is physically healthy and probably does help people to become good citizens, but encounter with moral issues and with those who have grappled with them—this is a risky business. For those parents and communities willing to take a small calculated risk, the available literature on Gandhi I is already substantial. In 1 “The Essential Gandhi,”

Louis Fischer has skilfully woven together excerpts from Gandhi’s writings and spoken statements. It describes Gandhi’s development from early boyhood, his encounters with the practical problems of national and international affairs until his assassination. It has all the inevitable disadvantages of a scissors and paste production, but does to a large extent manage to justify its title. As in any account of Gandhi’s life, what impresses at once is his integrity. Whether he was speaking of his own life and character, of religion, of sanitation, of spinning, of untouchability, of the need for taking pains with handwriting, of the need for Indian independence or of the ways of coping with dictators,' his views were all of a piece. In the same way he consistently tested his beliefs in action. Such integration of personality is rare at any time. That it should have been maintained in the midst of such a complex and active public life is almost unbelievable. The context of Gandhi’s life and some of the practical ’issues which confronted him are not ours. However, thanks to his willingness to reveal even his innermost personal thoughts, his attempts to express love and truth in action, his search for truth and the ■ fruits of that search remain relevant and timeless.

The Whitaker’s Almanack for 1964 (the 96th annual volume) contains more than 1200 pages, each with a full quota of information. Among the items of special interest in this volume are descriptions of the forthcoming reorganisation of the local government of greater London, the development of the European community, the latest news about science, discovery and invention, and the customary wealth of information and records that make Whitaker’s so valuable and reliable a reference book.