GANDHI’S ARREST

Grey River Argus, 9 May 1930, Page 6

GANDHI’S ARREST

THE HARTAL J Official Report (Ans. and N.Z. Cable Assn.) j DELHI,, May 7. Six w<.r c killed in a clash between! rioters anti police in Delhi,, when the( latter opened fir c following attacxs, on the police lorries | RUGBY, May 7. j I Qi. -st inned in the House of Com-| I Tn,ojn;( regarding the sdituatlijon id India, Mr Weigewrod Benn read a| | ii'ge number c,fi telegrams received! j from India. I I The latest news from the Vunjaub Jivlated on Sunday and Monday, when | (1 was quiet, except for a partiaj J H.-< tn ! 'i! con sequel cle of* Gandh-i’s ’ arrest. i A telegi’am from Bengal this morn- 1 I ihg reported ail quiet on the Hoogli ' and Howrah. . ' The latest report fr. m Bombay.i ! dated yesterday, Mated that generally] I speaking, th? situation was still quiet; I following the aip'«*st of Gandhi. A 1.n.-ge meeting held in Bombay wasj con doe ted ]iyae>eifu'iJl'yfi ’ The Hartal] started On Monday and continued on Tuesday in the mill area. Forty-four] | nulls, or more than fifty per cent, of] . the whole;, w* re. in work. Troop:j continued to be held in readiness. 1 ; Surat, the situation was quie f | and some shops were- open. | A message this morning from. • Burn a stated that acco-ding to r-i !> ;r s received no disturbances ha '' nccurred ; u Burma on Monday or' TuesdayLAHORE SHOOTINGS. At L;h >rt- an European Sergeant 1 .and pi.-ket >ent tn pre ,a"lit interior-I < no, • with th- light railway wete snrionn led by a larg v crowd hut fought their v« ay out. Au Inspector and Sergeant had to lire fifteen .rounds • null The casualties wire not Deported. The situation is now in han !. Another tciegrum reported the jne-cessit-y for a police Superintendent? firing seven rounds at the crowd,, ami! it was believed that the ringleader ' was hit. The railway police station* ! was reported to have been entered by| five hundred volunteers. ’ ' ’ DELHI DEMONSTRATION. j Messages from the Chief Comm, is | doner dealt with yesterday’s dis- j orders at DolhL in one of which the | demonstrators wrecked. a cart in which lh t . Deputy Commissioner aid' the Senior Superintendent of Police f were sitting. The casualties are no* ! . y I known, although it was reported j | ! h:il some thirty or forty had reaelu'dl i the police station o: hospital. 1 CHITTAGONG RAIDERS. | At Chittagong four jpiders weie- j sated to liavel been killed. It is ’ thought that this refers to a raid a] ’ few days ago. j l-'ou" members < f the gang of rebels which attacked Chittagong recently, were killed and two captured in an | affray with a troop of armed police near Chittagong in the morning. Ona < v-llagoii was also killed.

MAHATMA GANDHI

(l.’y Charles F. Andrews, M.A. in “ Melbourne Times”.) The writer of the following article, | was formerly vice-president of St. Stephen’s College (Cambridge MisIsion), Delhi, India. In more recent I years he has worked on independent lines and in association with Dr. Rabindranath Tagore at Santiniiketan. Mr Andrews is also a close personal friend of Air Ghandi. During Mr Ghandi’s illness he edited “Young India’’ for Ihe Mahatma. in his activities, Mahatma- Ghandi’s life has been wonderful indeed. “Mahatma ’’ is a title moaning “Great Soul’’; it has no occult meaning when applied by universal consent to Mr Ghandi. His life has been full of romance au adventure from beginning to end; and during its course he has ' taken up so many different heroic struggle's that it is necessary to confine this article to otic single aspect of his greatness in order to bring it within duo limits. I shall deal with him. a r. moral genius, with regard to„the corporate moral resistance of evil in the world of practical affairs. Probably it is this side of his character that will make him historically famous. It all came out of a discovery of Tolstoy’s writings, and of Tolstoy’s own interpretation of the Sermon on trie Mount, which Ghandi read when he was a young lad in London. He has told about this in his serial story, called “My Experiments With Truth.’’ While hi* was staying in London, away from his home surroundings, and had i onie very near to the brink of athei-m during his lonely life abroad, the teaching of Tolstoy concerning the Sermon on the Mount ranie to him like a flash of revelation. Tie took Tolstoy’s interpretation of Christ’s words quite literally; and as he studied them more and more ‘perfectly, he felt that here was.the Supreme Truth, which underlay much of his own earlier instruction in India, as a Hindu. He felt that al) that the Buddha, in ancient India had intended to set forth by hi; d etrine of compa sion had been taken up into a new and living form by Christ in the Gospels. It must always be remembered that. Tolstoy’s interpretation and Tolstoy’s own life made the central teaching of Christ vivid to this young Hindu in London.

For a time he remained pondering over this doctrine, seeking some means of putting it into practice; for with Ghandi from the very first, action is everything—mere theory means nothing to him. At last, with that amazing power which he possesses of translating into direct action anything which appeals to his soul, he went straight forward in the ordering of his life. He did not flinch from trying, with extraordinarj r literalness, to carry out the Sermon on the Mount in his daily conduct. He gave up all his possessions. Since then, this teaching embodied in the Sermon

I on the Mount has been his daily model, and his own life has been built up upon every part of it. It would be easy to take up different aspects of his own personal history and show how this teaching of Christ has been moulded j into his own Hindu traditions til! it j has become one with them, but in this • article it will only be possible to take lone single part, which is, perhaps, the I most - difficult of Christ’s precepts, I namely, His attitude towards evil and His receipt of universal forgiveness. .Christ has said in the Sermon on the (Mount, “Love your enemies, do good 'to them that hate you. pray for them ] that despitefully u e you. ” j It was this central teaching of Christ j that attracted Ghandi most of all. He (studied every act in Christ’s life that I is related t° this love of one’ enemies. I The story of the Passion, for instance, with Christ’s words. “Father, forgive ’ them, for they know not what they do,” made a very deep impressitm on him. The silence in which Christ stood before* His prosecutors wh-en He was { about to be crucified also very deeply j impresed him in his own life and conduct. Indeed, it may truly be said that . Ghandi studied this supreme teaching ; about loving one’s -enemies in a way j that puts even Christians themselves to shame. He has not only studied it, but 1 he has also lived it and acted it out. ‘ in his own experience. I APPLYING CHRIST \S TEACHING TO THE “UNTOUCHABLES.” It is my wi h. having made this one ] point clear, to go straight from the | fad of the inspiration of the Sermon •on the Mount in Ghandi’s individual I life to application of it both by Ghandi and his followers in corporate moral resistance with regard tn one of Ihe ' greatest eviis of Indian society. We j have in India, to our shame, fifty mil- ’ lion poor people, who are called “uni tou. hablesAnother title for them is .“pariah”. These, who repre ent the | earlier "omjuered races of India, are | slil. unable to walk along certain roads i in the country, which are called “ P.rah--1 mm (Quarters,’’ or io drink from the ; same wells with high-caste people. The negro problem in America has exactly the same origin as this untouchable problem in India, though there are many aspects in which these two racial evils diiler from each other in modern j 1 ime ■. Because these lowest ranks of “ nnpoueliahles” have been treated in this inferior manner for many centuries, ; they have sunk jowti Io a terribly low | level. They' httve often become outj casts in the most literal manner. They i have lived On carrio?i and <-ontraded j many other unclean habits. All this is really due to the treatment meted out 110 them by the higher castes. It is. as Ghnnd: call it, “tin- central sin of ! 11 ind iiism. ’ ’ Mor. 1 than :inv living sou! i'.’ India, Ghandi has stood out against- ‘ these injustices. irst of all, he has | boldly taken info the bosom of hi - own ! family a lit 110 girl who wall an “tin- | touchable or “pariah”. He felt that phis was, in every sense, the best way i whereby he could show his own determination to break down this evil custom. lie said openly, again and again. “If Hinduism implies ‘untouchability/ the n I am not a Hindu. If I cannot take this little girl into my home and remain in caste, then let meal o he an outcast.'' In accomplishing this, he had great difliciiltios to fare. His first difficulty was with his o w H wife, for Mrs Ghandi was m>t at first prepared to receive this “untouchable” daughter; because she knew that if this little girl remained in her hou e her friends and relatives would not come to visit her. There fore she implored her husband not tc do what he intended. Then there came one of the most tragic scenes in recent Indian history. Mr Ghandi said to his wife, “So strongly I feel this to be the right thing to do, that either you must accept this little girl into my house or j else I must leave you in .possession of i the house and go outside myself.’’ Then an agonising scene followed, ! and at last, after many tears, Mi’s I Ghandi gave way and said, “flow can I 1 resist you?” and took the little girl into her own house. J This daring deed of Mr Ghandi .-it I first affected only his private life, but it also made an immense impression .on ! India and everybody heard of it and I marked it. Let inc give one scene | about which I have been told by one who was present. Mr Ghandi went I down to Madras at the invitation of : high-cast Brahmin who was anxious to keep his own caste. He was invited to ‘ tay with this Brahmin ; and when he reached his door he said, “If I come in.o your house, my daughter must

come in, too. “ At first his Brahmin friend was very troubled, fearing that this would make him an out caste; but in the end he nobly gave way and allowed her to come in. In this manner, Mr Ghandi has been winning victories on aven- side. He never flinches from carrying into action that which he pro fe ses. His profession is always the ’same-ns his practice. The next story which I have to tell shows how Ghandi brought not only his own individual resistance against this evil of untouchability, but also inaugurated a corporate moral resistance a which end-ed in a mighty triumph for ] the truth. The story is a very noble | one, and it should be known in the |We- ; t. It is called “The Vykom l Struggle.” Vykom is .a village with a temple in its centre and a highway running past the temple, which is called “A Brahmin Quarter.’’ There is a law in the Travancore State, of which Vykom is I a part, that certain roads shall be pro f‘ hibited to the pariahs or outcastes. For many centuries this law has been observed by the pariahs themselves, j They have never thought of breaking I the law before. Yet the fact that they ] were unable to go along this highway D had put them to very great inconvoni--1 once, for in this part of Southern India | the land is very low and intersected | with canals and backwards; therefore | the pariahs had to go a long way round | if they were to pass from one side of j Vykom to another. Mr Ghandi himself was very ill after a serious operation. He was hardly able to see visitors on account of his illness, but it was at this very time that he directed the whole Vykom struggle against untouchability. The first leader in the struggle was an Indian Christian belonging to the ancient Syrian Church, which numbers

i 25 per cent of the population of the Travancore State. Georgy Joseph was la young -barrister, who followed Mr I Ghamli in his programme of removing I untouchability. Unfortunately, the ‘ Christians themselves in that part of .Southern India have often refused to [give these pariahs proper human treanient. George Joseph was therefore I performing an act of penance for the I Christian community, who were almost I equally guilty in this respect along with the Hindus. ■ After consulting Mahatma Ghandi. George Joseph went down the road with a pariah, hand in hand, and w bs beaten severely by the Brahmins. Then the police of the. State intervened and arrested George Joseph for encouraging trespass and causing a riot. Immediately after his arrest and imprisonment a very large number of Ghandi’s followers flocked to Vykom in ofder to be arrested and share the same fate as George Joseph. Soon after this the prisons were unable to receive all those who were arrested, and the State authorities decided not to arrest any more, hut to place a police cordon across the road and prevent the road being entered upon by Gandhi’s followers. Then Ghandi told his young followers to stand in an attitude of prayer before

the police cordon and remain j atiently waiting, without offering any physical resistance, until the road was opened At This time, I was. staying with Mr Ghandi, helping him during his illness. He sent me down to watch the struggle, and I saw what happened with my own eyes. Ghandi *s followers formed themselves into a company of \t»lunteors, who were Regularly organised and disciplined and under strict orders from their leader. They did everything in a religious manner. At four o'clock in the morning they arose and said their prayers to God. At five they took their meal of rice and then went to the police barrier, singing hymns on the way. They took their stand there for six hours, and were relieved by another company of volunteers at midday. The second company returned after six o’clock in the evening, and the day again closed in prayer. Some of the Brahmins at first began to beat the volunteers on their way to the police barrier; but in a very short time the conduct of the volunteers was so noble and peaceful that they won the sympathy of the villagers, and even of some of the Brahmins. This went on for several months. Al last the heavy rains of the monsoon came down, and the whole country was

floo.lM. The pcliee were allowed by the state authorities to stand in i>atbottom boats, which were tied to posts across the road: but the volunteers re mained standing; up to their waists in water, and sonr.-limes the water nearli reached their shoulders. The strain was so great that the volunteers wer< divided into .four companies in-tead ot two: these each stood at the barrier for three hours nt a time instead el six. The heroism of the conduct of these young followers id Ghandi von the svmpathy of all India, and more and more the State authorities tried to' persuade the Brahmins voluntarily t give way. At. last, after a period of one you: and four months, during which the struggle had gone on every day without ceasing, the Brahmins at Vykom themselves surrendered, and agreed with the State authorities to throw open the road and allow the pariahs to wa Ik along it unhindered. Out of this Vykom struggle a signal victorv was won on behalf of the outcastes, not merely for this one single road in southern India, but everywhere the Brahmin quarters were thrown open, and the outeaste-. received better treatment. Therefore, through this one act of corporate moral resistance to evil, a very great victory for humanity

has been gained. The final victory accomplished, not by any use of vio-Y. lence. but by winning the hearts of those who were persisting in the evil.