GANDHI ON HIMSELF

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 21 July 1928, Page 11

GANDHI ON HIMSELF

Tl HE forthcoming visit to Europe of Mr M. K. Gandhi will quicken interest in the enigmatic personality of the most influential Indian of our day (says a writer in the “Observer”). He was last in England when the Great War broke out, being on his way back to India from South Africa. Though a prominent figure on account of the selfless determination with which he had led the Indians of the Union in passive resistance lo the disabilities they suffered, he was not widely known outside circles interested in Indian affairs. The influence he then exercised on his own countrymen was in no way comparable with that of the great political reformer, G. IC. Gokhale, of whom he writes in his autobiography with reverent appreciation. But in the dissatisfaction which, from causes both economic and political, overspread India, soon aftei the end of the war he became the outstanding figure in his native land. . ‘ Mr Holland minimises the Reformation and much else when he ivrites that Gandhi “has introduced into human politics the strongest religious impetus of the last 2000 years. Numerically considered, however, his influence on the minds of men was for a. time greatei than that of any contemporary figure. Not only the intelligentsia, but the masses of India, were profoundly moved by the man and Ins teaching. He was and is reverenced deeply and truly for his religious personality. But after his' imprisonment (1922-24) his political power suffered eclipse, and while many of his worshippers apparently accepted his proposals, they do not act upon them. The autobiography makes clear the dominance of religious thought in Gandhi’s mind, and the quite secondary place of politics. He writes that his experiments in the political field have not much value for him; his purpose is to narrate liis experiments in the spiritual field from which, as he acutely observes, he has derived his power in the political sphere. There is the authentic tone of the mystic of every age and clime in his remark that if the experiments are really spiritual there can be no room for self-praise; they can .only add to his humilty. Like Paul in his maturity, Gandhi is deeply conscious at sixty that he has not already attained. He writes that he lives and moves and has his being in pursuit of the goal for which he has been striving and pining for thirty years • “of self-realisation, to see God face to face, to attain moksak” (salvation.) Though the Mahatma tells us that there is a range for his experiments clearly incommunic-

LIFE OF A MAHATMA

A REMARKABLE AUTOBIOGRAPHY

able, known only to himself and his. Maker, there seems to the ordinary man a strong lack of reticence in these confessions. In making bare his moral and spiritual failures and departures from the standards which he set himself, Gandhi writes without reserve of the most intimate things in his domestic life, Mrs Gandhi, to whom he was wedded when they were only sixteen, lias been a worthy helpmeet, though at t imes, as his record shows, she has taken strong exception* to proceedings on his part affecting her property and rights. It would be interesting to know whether she was consulted regard- . ing, and gave her approval to, the many pages of this autobiography which reveals to the world the secrets of their connubial relations. Broadly speaking, the experiments Gandhi describes are those of subduing the flesh to the spirit. But he is not content to fallow St. Paul in the tolerance of recognising, that many things may be lawful though not expedient. He shows a marked tendency despite his sincere expressions of humanity, to raise his own individual prejudices—some would saj r his fads —to the dignity of a universal law, and to regard acceptance of his dietetic and other theories as essential not only to the success of his own quest for salvation, but as the only wav for all those who would attain. Repeatedly he has undertaken prolonged fasts by way of penance for the excesses and follies which has resulted (against his will) from his condemnation of a “Satanic” Government. Again and again he has come near to wrecking his health by parseness of diet. Some nine years ago, when a valued European friend warned him that he looked as if he were starving himself again, the Mahatma told him in tones of strong-conviction that he was quite mistaken, for lie was living bountifully on two bananas and half a pint of goat’s milk daily! As with most visionaries, it is difficult to reconcile many of the opinions Gandhi expresses with the known facts of his life. Despite his denunciation of Western medicine and of doctors in general repeated in this volume, he cheerfully submitted himself to the knife of the skilled British surgeon who saved his life when it was threatened by appendicitis. The autobiography makes more, rather, than less, perplexing to enigma of the author’s personality. Perhaps the chief conclusion to be drawn is that, in the East the ascetic idea exercises a sway over the minds of millions, which has little or no counterpart in the modern standards of the West.