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January 4 - June 5, 2020
I still feel what a handicap this ignorance of Tamil or Telugu has been. The affection that the Dravidians in South Africa showered on me has remained a cherished memory.
It is only the English-speaking ones who will not learn it, as though a knowledge of English were an obstacle to learning our own languages.
The upper classes raised numerous objections to this last improvement, and in most cases it was not carried out.
The committee had to inspect the untouchables’ quarters also. Only one member of the committee was ready to accompany me there. To the rest it was something preposterous to visit those quarters, still more so to inspect their latrines.
It pained me to see so much uncleanliness about a place of worship. One would expect a careful observance of the rules of sanitation and hygiene in a place which is regarded as holy.
The colour prejudice that I saw in South Africa was, I thought, quite contrary to British traditions, and I believed that it was only temporary and local. I therefore vied with Englishmen in loyalty to the throne.
As my conception of ahimsa went on maturing, I became more vigilant about my thought and speech.
Such service can have no meaning unless one takes pleasure in it. When it is done for show or for fear of public opinion, it stunts the man and crushes his spirit.
Sir Pherozeshah had seemed to me like the Himalaya, the Lokamanya like the ocean. But Gokhale was as the Ganges.
What barrier is there that love cannot break?
A Hindu wife regards implicit obedience to her husband as. the highest religion. A Hindu husband regards himself as lord and master of his wife who must ever dance attendance upon him.
I could not so easily count on the help of the community in getting it to do its own duty, as I could in claiming for its rights.
It is the reformer who is anxious for the reform, and not society, from which he should expect nothing better than opposition, abhorrence and even mortal persecution.
The woes of Mahatmas are known to Mahatmas alone.
‘Hate the sin and not the sinner’ is a precept which, though easy enough to understand, is rarely practised, and that is why the poison of hatred spreads in the world.
A variety of incidents in my life have conspired to bring me in close contact with people of many creeds and many communities, and my experience with all of them warrants the statement that I have known no distinction between relatives and strangers, countrymen and foreigners, white and coloured, Hindus and Indians of other faiths, whether Musalmans, Parsis, Christians or Jews. I may say that my heart has been incapable of making any such distinctions.
It was a time when I thought that the wife was the object of her husband’s lust, born to do her husbands behest, rather than a helpmate, a comrade and a partner in the husband’s joys and sorrows.
I bore no grudge against the Zulus, they had harmed no Indian. I had doubts about the ‘rebellion itself. But I then believed that the British Empire existed for the welfare of the world. A genuine sense of loyalty prevented me from even wishing ill to the Empire.
