India -- Economic conditions -- 1918-1947; India -- Politics and government -- 1919-1947; India -- Social conditions
“One must love one’s enemies while hating their deeds; hate Satanism
while loving Satan” is the principal article of Gandhi’s faith, and
he has proved himself worthy of this lofty profession by his own
personal conduct. Through all the stormy years of his life he has stood
firm in his noble convictions, with his love untainted, his faith
unchallenged, his veracity unquestioned, and his courage undaunted. “No
criticism however sharp, no abuse however bitter, ever affected the
loving heart of Gandhi.” In the knowledge of his life-long political
associates (members of the Indian National Congress and of other such
organizations), Gandhi has never, even in moments of the most violent
excitement, lost control of himself. When light-hearted criticisms
have been showered on his program by younger and more inexperienced
colleagues, when the bitterest sarcasms have been aimed at him by older
associates, he has never revealed by so much as a tone of his voice the
slightest touch of anger or the slightest show of contempt. _His limit
of tolerance has not yet been reached._
During the last ten years of his political life in India when he guided
the destines of his countrymen as leader of a great movement, Gandhi
again gave unmistakable proofs of the vastness of his love for mankind.
That his love is not reserved for his compatriots alone, but extends
even to his bitterest enemies, he revealed clearly throughout the most
critical period of his life. His enemies, the British bureaucrats,
tried to nip his movement in the very bud by using all the power
at their command to discredit him in the eyes of his countrymen
and of the world outside. Calumnies were heaped upon him from all
sides. He was called a “hypocrite,” an “unscrupulous agitator,” a
“disguised autocrat.” The vast number of his followers were branded
as “dumb-cattle,” and hundreds of thousands of them were flogged,
imprisoned, and in some cases even shot for no other offense than that
of wearing the coarse hand-spun “Gandhi cap” and singing the Indian
national hymn. Even in such trying moments he remained firm in his
faith, and loyal to his professions. Evidence as to the undisturbed,
peaceful condition of his mind and spirit is amply furnished by the
following statements which he gave to the Indian press in those
turbulent days:
“Our non-violence teaches us to love our enemies. By non-violent
non-coöperation we seek to conquer the wrath of English
administrators and their supporters. We must love them and pray to
God that they might have wisdom to see what appears to us to be
their error. It must be the prayer of the strong and not of the
weak. In our strength must we humble ourselves before our maker.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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