MR GANDHI’S "SHAME AND SORROW"

Evening Star, Issue 20193, 5 June 1929, Page 1

MR GANDHI’S "SHAME AND SORROW"

MORAL LAPSES IN HIS 11 ASHRAM "

BOMBAY, May 21. ‘Sly Shame ami Sorrow’ is the titl® of a signed article in Sir Gandhi's vernacular weekly newspaper ‘'Niivau Jivan,’ in which the Indian Horne Bnle leader tells the world oi' “moral lapses” on the part of some of the inmates of his Satyagraha, Ashram (institution) at Ahmcdabad. Air Gandhi, who has himself translated the article into English, in quaint language, takes blame to himself for the occurrences. He quotes three cases, the first being that of a cousin who bad been an inmate for a long period. This cousin, Hr Gandhi says, committed petty larcenies from time to time, until he was discovered by accident. He has now left the Ashram. The second case Air Gandhi quotes concerns his own wife, who, he declares, despite her vow of renunciation of private property, lias twice been discovered in possession of small private funds amounting respectively to It s. 200 and 1t5.400. The third, case mentioned is that of a .single young man who, despite a vow of celibacy, seduced a widow. “ I hold these manifestations of corruption in the Ashram to be merely a -reflection of something wrong in myself,” Air Gandhi continues. “1 have never claimed perfection for myself. Who knows how my aberrations in the realm of thought have reacted on the environment round me? The epithet Mahatma (Great Soul) has always galled me, and now it almost sounds to me like a term of abuse. “ This institution is my best creation,” Air Gandhi concludes. “ I hope to see God through its aid. Such revelations as these put me on my guard. They make me search within. They humble mo. but they do not shako my faith in it.”