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neither party would abandon its religion by force of arms. Both parties, therefore, decided to live in peace.
Wrong
Gandhi vigorously advocated the use, within India, of languages other than English. All Indians should know their mother-tongue. Hindi could be promoted as a link language, to be read in either the Devanagari or Persian script, thus forging closer relations between Hindus and Muslims.
His manual consist of some eccentric, impractical ideas 💡. However some are really good. Some very misleading like Hindu -Muslim unity before British
Tilak had also started an annual festival in honour of Ganapati, the god whose invocation at the start of any task (or battle) was believed to aid in its success (or victory).
That is a beautiful way of organizing for a cause
This invocation of Hindu gods and warriors inevitably disenchanted Muslims, who had recourse to their own holy texts, from which vantage point Hindus were seen as infidels and idolaters.
But it also was repulsive for bringing Muslims under the roof
He was opposed to both petitioning and to bomb-throwing. He saw the former as ineffective and the latter as immoral.
This sums up Gandhi 's position.
Hence, perhaps, the romantic (and to a modern eye hopelessly unreal) representation of indigenous Indian culture in the book.
lol Nothing good should be said about India for this type of authors
‘We have not seized the land from them by force; we live here with their goodwill. The whites, on the other hand, have occupied the country forcibly and appropriated it to themselves’.
This is exactly what Muslims did in India that Gandhi didn't acknowledge
‘Himself of a persecuted race, whose blood has been shed in every country in Europe,’ Polak had not ‘allowed himself to be soured and embittered by the suffering of his kinsfolk.
This exactly 💯 is the reason why Hindus sympathize with Jews in the war on terror. Both have been in the receiving end
‘You did not allow me to measure my capabilities; you measured them for me.’
It is wrong both at social and personal level
Gandhi had a real gift for friendship – for making connections and conveying affection across racial, linguistic, religious and gender boundaries.
True
I do not look upon Ritch, Polak or anyone else as my disciples. They will all work with us as long as they think fit.
very pragmatic here
The letter concisely captures Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violent resistance to unjust laws. He was a strategist of slow reform, of protesting by stages, of systematically preparing himself and his colleagues rather than spontaneously (or, as he would have it, haphazardly) rushing into confrontation.
True and pragmatic
April 1912, Gandhi wrote to Ratan Tata, giving an account of the struggle he had so generously supported. He described the teaching methods, the regime of labour and the student profile at Tolstoy Farm. There were currently eighteen Gujaratis, six Tamils and one North Indian in the school. These students were taught that ‘they are first Indians and everything else after that, and that, while they must remain absolutely true to their own faiths, they should regard with equal respect those of their fellow-pupils.’
letter to Tata
Seme published an article advocating the formation of a South African native congress. ‘The demons of racialism,’ he wrote, ‘the aberrations of the Xhosa–Fingo feud, the animosity that exists between the Zulus and the Tongas, between the Basutos and every other Native must be buried and forgotten … We are one people. These divisions, these jealousies, are the cause of all our woes and of all our backwardness and ignorance today.’42 On his visit to Tolstoy Farm, Pixley Seme may have noticed that its residents included, by ethnicity, Gujaratis, Tamils, North Indians and Europeans – and, by
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Native African Congress inspiration
Seme sought to do with the Africans and what Gandhi had already done with the Indians – that is to help them overcome distinctions of sect and tribe, and present a united front to the rulers.
Dr Pixley Seme
principled incrementalism.
To meet political gains
He has in him the marvellous spiritual power to turn ordinary men around him into heroes and martyrs.’ He told the assembled Indians of Gandhi’s sacrifices, of how he built up the movement in South Africa, and how he inspired others to follow him. Some among the several thousand satyagrahis who went to jail at his behest were established traders and professionals, but the bulk, observed Gokhale,
Platform and endorsement preceding Gandhi 's entry to India
deplorable, was a purely carnivorous diet. ‘Those who … subsist exclusively on flesh’, remarked Gandhi, ‘need not detain us here. Their state is so vile that the very thought of them should be enough to put us off meat-eating. They are not healthy in any sense of the term.’3
Gandhi on Meat Eaters
Despite their very different temperaments, Gandhi and Kasturba had, over thirty years of marriage, developed a relationship of understanding and companionship, to which the word ‘love’ may also be applied. Back in 1901, Kasturba had resisted Gandhi giving back jewels presented to him for his work. Now, twelve years later, she was herself volunteering to go to jail.
Gandhi and Kasturba
Gandhi remembered Doke’s efforts to convert him to his faith. The Indian had answered that the ‘fullness of Christianity could only be found in its interpretation of the light and by the aid of Hinduism.
On attempts to convert
a rising lawyer in Salem, C. Rajagopalachari, reprinted Gandhi’s account of his jail experiences for the same purpose. Rajagopalachari said Gandhi ‘must be ranked with the Avatars’, while his followers, ‘even in these degenerate days, act[ed] like real heroes in the cause of the Nation’. The booklet sold rapidly, so quickly in fact that the lawyer was able to send a cheque for Rs 1,500 to aid the struggle in South Africa.80
Rajaji
Three weeks later he sent another cheque, apologizing for its niggardly contents. ‘I am ashamed to own that the response has been feeble in Bengal to the call of our countrymen in trouble in South Africa’, wrote the poet.
Tagore after sending Gandhi Rs 100
‘Much of my spare time is being devoted to Tamil study’, added Gandhi. In this latest satyagraha the Tamils had shone more brightly still, and their leader was, it seems, suitably grateful.
How far did his Tamil study go? Not sure
The Indians knew perfectly well which was the dominant and governing race. They aspired to no social equality with Europeans. They felt that the path of their development was separate.
Compromise acknowledging the superiority. Is it Incremental progression or a detrimental compromise?
Now, Indians and Europeans gathered in friendship, to hear Gandhi say that ‘he did not deserve all the praise bestowed on him. Nor did his wife claim to deserve all that had been said of her. Many an Indian woman had done greater service during the struggle than Mrs. Gandhi.’ He thanked all the Europeans who had helped him and the struggle, from the lawyer F. A. Laughton, who ‘stood by him against the mob’ in 1897, to Mrs Alexander, the policeman’s wife who ‘protected him with her umbrella from the missiles thrown by the excited crowd’, to his long-time comrades Kallenbach and Polak. He would
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Farewell speech in South Africa
influence of these European women was consolidated by the Tamil women of Johannesburg, who were absolutely selfless in their support of the first satyagrahas and absolutely fearless in joining the final struggle of 1913–14. Henry Polak, husband of the feminist Millie, wrote of these Tamil ladies that ‘when the women could show such courage … the men dared not prove themselves weaker than the women.’ Their example animated and challenged their Tamil husbands and sons, but it inspired and moved the Gujarati lawyer Gandhi too.10
Tamil Women in South Africa
Indian men, in India, did not at this time cultivate friendships with women. They knew women as wives, sisters, daughters; but as friends, no. Once more, it was context as much as character that explains Gandhi’s departure from the norm.
Gandhi and Women
At a time when Indian women of all castes and creeds were confined to the home, or in purdah, that Kasturba and her colleagues went to jail in protest against discriminatory laws was a fact – or achievement – noted with not a little admiration.
Not really. Jhansi Rani Lakshmi Bhai, Kuyili, Various women mentioned in RC Mazumdar's "Eminent Indian Women" all made their mark.
Over time, Gandhi emerged as the main leader of the Asians in the Transvaal. But the support of the Tamils, and the Chinese, remained crucial to him, and his movement.
But Tamils were Indians. This author consistently uses this mischief mongering sentences from the beginning
mass famines induced by Communist regimes,
Not just communist regimes here. Remember Ethiopia, Bengal - India, and Ireland famines?
all-or-nothing policy would be fatal to any reform whatsoever.
Good point. All or nothing can be practiced at individual level. But at social level it will be detrimental
