"HE IS CRAZY"

Stratford Evening Post, Volume II, Issue 240, 11 May 1933, Page 6

"HE IS CRAZY"

OPINION OF GANDHI Press Association.— Copyright Calcutta, May 3. "The old man is crazy" is the irreverent, but almost universal comment on Gandhi's latest fast, the reason for which appears to be as complete a mystery to him as to everybody else. In an interview to-day Gandhi said he went to bed on Saturday night without the slightest desire to take any such step, but an unconscious force worked during the night, and in the morning his mind was made up. Gandhi explained that this fast would be different to his previous ones. They were conditional, but this one would be of the unconditional sort that may be begun at any moment by the leaders of a reformation to ensure purity and the acceleration of its object. Gandhi, presumably, was talking of his campaign in favour of opening the temples and wells to Hindu outcasts, which is meeting with bitter opposition from orthodox Hindus. Comments, even in the Indian press, suggest that Gandhi has "shot his bolt.'' Abject credulity is no longer present among the uninformed masses, whom Gandhi, previously, was able to heat up into a political frenzy.