MAHATMA GANDHI

Evening Star, Issue 22413, 10 August 1936, Page 12

MAHATMA GANDHI

RAILWAY W.E.A. CLASS On Sunday afternoon the Railway W.E.A. class listened to an interesting address by the tutor on the life of Gandhi and his influence in India., Gandhi’s influence, said the tutor, was to-day regarded by some people as a spent force, owing to the fact that he had sacrificed popularity through taking up a campaign on behalf of the Untouchables. However, to the thinking man he was now greater than ever before, for it seemed that the backbone of Untouchability had been broken by Gandhi’s efforts. Some time might elapse yet before the complete collapse of old traditions, but Gandhi’s movement was receiving more and more support. It was interesting to note that his campaigns were conducted _ by purely pacifist means, on the principles of non-violence and self-sacrifice. Perhaps this was why they had met with such a large measure of success. Another point of interest to people in New Zealand was that Gandhi claimed complete racial equality for all persons, whatever their colour. Gandhi was born in 1869 near Bombay, and was reared among ascetic Jains, early acquiring their principles of abstinence and truth. He had been married at the age of 13, and to this fact could probably be traced his bitter campaign in after life against child marriage and girl widowhood. He had always been a strict vegetarian, and undertook other ascetic practices which, although not understood in the West, appealed to the Indians. At the age of 18 he had gone to England, where he qualified as a barrister, and then returned to India. However, at the age of 24 he went to South Africa to defend a big lawsuit. He settled there and built up a highly successful practice, and was soon getting £3,000 per year. Eventually he gave up his practice to fight for an improvement in the conditions of Indains in South Africa. His work was influenced by his study of Christianity, Ruskin, and Tolstoy, and he established several communal farms for the benefit of his countrymen. Fasting and passive resistance continued to be his weapons, and so successful were they that he won a long campaign against the South African Government, through which the conditions of his fellows were vastly improved. He returned to India in 1914 after spending 20 years in Africa. During the Great War Gandhi had worked for Great Britain, as he expected India to get home rule as a reward for loyal assistance. The repressive Rowlatt laws after the war therefore aroused his keen disappointment, and he declared for non-co-opera-tion with Britain. Although he pleaded with his followers to abstain from violence, there were murders by Indians in the Punjab, and British troops fired on a mob at Amritsar, killing 400. Gandhi had intensified his anti-British campaign as a result of this, and in 1922 iic was sentenced to six years' imprisonment for sedition, being released after two years, however, through illness. Ho continued to demand complete froadom from British rule, and after a “ retirement ” from politics in 1925 returned to the fray again with greater power. He attended the Round Table Conference in London, and was not satisfied with the new proposed constitution. Shortly after he retired from political leadership once more, and has since devoted all his energies to the cause of the Untouchables. In conclusion, said the tutor, it would be difficult to over-estimate the importance of Gandhi’s influence on modern India, and it was well to remember that, he still continued to exert a great and lasting control over thought in modern li*dia.

Two papers by students were then read, and the remaining hour was spent in profitable discussion.