STILL A POLITICIAN

Taranaki Daily News, 13 October 1934, Page 9

STILL A POLITICIAN

GANDHI “A HINDU OF HINDUS.” OPINION OF MAJOR MASLIN. “‘Have I met. Mahatma . Gandhi?’ people ask me,” said Major Maslin when addressing members of the Hawera Rotary Club yesterday. “Yes, I have. The last time I saw him was at Poona, where he was fasting to bring about some new change. “Because Gandhi believes the Sermon on the Mount and in the New Testament,” said the speaker, “he is considered remarkable. In America he has been ‘boosted’ as a wonderful man—as a second Christ. But, despite all, Gandhi remains a Hindu of the Hindus. He is a good man.

“Gandhi is trying to revive Hinduism. He is trying for social reforms. But Gandhi is a politician, and in India at any rate, you never quite know , where politicians are. Just at present he is moving for low-class people to have rights. Why? In a nutshell, it is because representation in the Legislative Assemblies and Councils is on the communal basis and the low classes, hitherto outside the pale, number 70,000,000, or more, people, giving the Hindus a big increase in their representations in the assemblies. Newspapers have devoted space to the fact that low-class people are being admitted to temples. What they are not mentioning is that in cases of that kind the high-caste - people immediately vacate the temples and build others as exclusive as ever; No. ,Mr.‘ Gandhi’s criticisms are destructive, and I think he was firmly sat upon.at the last Round Table Conference, where he had no constructive scheme to bring forward.”