Show f 1 Elsa Maxwells Maxwell's Pc p a Gandhi has been made use of by a number of people some people some sometimes times his advisers sometimes the native Indian industrialists Still he believes he is s Unfortunately what he often mistakes for the voice of God speaking to him may only be a recollection of a conversation he has just had with one of his advisers This was what grey- grey haired Englishman said to me methe methe methe the other night at a party given by one of our radio The narrator was H. H F. F L L. a lawyer and journalist who for many years worked with Gandhi and was one of bf his closest closest closest clos clos- closI I est associates These were Gandhi's pre-loin- pre cloth days when he was still a ayoung ayoung ayoung young lawyer in South Africa Whatever else you may say about Gandhi said one thing is clear Gandhi is no hypo hypo- crite Of that I am most tain tams Inconsistent yes But he is deeply sincere about his re religion religion religion re- re ligion and about his desire to help his exploited countrymen But he works in such a backhanded backhanded backhanded back back- handed way an army private put in I sometimes wonder if he really wants independence I think he does honestly answered but his ways of fighting for it are devious and typically Indian Look at Gandhi as a symbol of the whole Indian problem and you can can understand understand understand under under- stand him him- Nothing in India isto is isto isto to be solved by simply saying this is black and this white Everything is contradictory confused overgrown with re re- re and historic customs Remember Remember Re- Re Ret Remember member that India contains one- one fifth of the human race from at least five lye racial strains speaking speaking speak speak- ing about 75 languages and dialects dialects dialects dia dia- of conflicting religions creeds within creeds castes and all divided politically into autonomous states ruled by local princes and 11 British provinces So to understand Gandhi even evena a little we have to go back to his beginnings Now when I first knew him in South Africa And we were started on a fascinating inside story of the masochistic Mahatma Mr believes himself somewhat responsible for Gandhi's Gandhi's Gandhi's Gand Gand- his hi's adoption of a life stripped to the bare essentials For sometime sometime sometime some some- time in 1906 putting Gandhi on ona ona ona a train for a short trip Mr Po Po- Po- Po lak gave him a copy of a book he had just enjoyed It was Unto This Last in which John Ruskin advocates the simple life Gandhi read it absorbedly He admitted in his autobiography that it started him thinking about reverting to primitive fundamentals and subsequently changed his whole way of liv liv- ing It is not generally known either that the two other men whose works shaped Gandhi's life philosophy were as far removed removed removed re re- re- re moved from India as Russia and Boston Tolstoi and his farm colony experiments and Thoreau Thoreau Thoreau Thor- Thor eau the American hermit were were these other influences He translated translated translated trans trans- Thoreau's essay on Civil Disobedience into Indian dialects dialects dialects dia dia- dia- dia and doubtless his whole Line Lane lin t p pas passive a s s i v e resistance campaign stems from this After Gandhi returned to India India India In In- dia in 1914 he became more and more drawn into Hindu mysticism mysticism mysticism cism lived ascetically and came to be worshiped by millions of followers It looks as though Gandhi's power is waning Mr went on but dont don't underestimate underestimate underestimate mate his personal appeal to all these men They have all all ex ex except broken broken with him before and come back unable unable unable un un- able to resist his charm it true I asked that the one thing you can say for Gandhi is that he really has united the Untouchables Untouchables given given them the idea of independence 1 How united 1 said Mr Po Po- Po- Po lak He did organize the first mass movement but every time they were about to achieve their aims Gandhi himself called off the demonstration as in 1922 either because his followers threatened to o 0 overstep v e e r s t e p the bounds of nonviolence or because because because be be- cause of more obscure political reasons As a result the Indians today are much farther away from independence than they were just before the last war About the British broke in inthe inthe inthe the soldier why do they refuse dominion status for India what the Cripps proposal proposal pro pro- was The Indians themselves themselves themselves them them- selves rejected it because each group mistrusts the other The Moslems worry about the Hin Hin- dus The different Hindu castes dont don't agree They are afraid to compromise Press Alliance Inc |