Evening star., 1942-09-13
Gandhi's Idea of Non-Violence
Stems From Thoreau Treatise
Indias Enigmatic Leader Made American Authors
Article on Civil Disobedience' the Basis
of His Powerful Doctrine i
RyC CIorkeH okomf.
Bv Clarke II. Kateakamf.

violent non-co operation against British
rule. and this was soon followed by the
Armitsar massacre, in which BRUSH
troops killed 400 and wounded LOO
Indian nationalists. Gandhi promptly
returned to the Viceroy all the BRUSH
decorations he had received. His con-
version was now complete.
Gandhi proclaimed the first full civil
disobedience campaign in 1921. He
urged his countrynen not to hold any
public Offices or resort to the British
courts to withdraw their children from
public schools, to boycott British goods,
particularly cotton goods. and to re-
store the old-fashioned spinning wheel
and loom in every home to make cloth
for domestic use The movement imme-
diately caught the popular imagination.
Gandhi was acclaimed "Mahatma" or
Great Soul" Then, in March. 1922, he
was arrested and sentenced to six years
in prison.
Since then, Gandhi has proclaimed
civil disobedience four times, the last Of
which was coincident with his recent
arrest. He has served four terms in
prison, though all were brief, and he has
subjected himself to six fasts the longest
lasting 81 days. At first he tasted only
to punish" his followers when they re-
sorted to violence in contrayention of his
teachings peculiar Gandhi method of
discipline. Later however, he used it as
political weapon and has, indeed, tasted
himself out of jail on more than one oc-
caslon because the authorities were
fearful of what might happen should he
die in prison.
His LoincIoth Symbol
| Gandhts fasts are also an evidence Of
his keen sense of showmanship. When
| he tasted he was world news. and no one
knew better than Gandhi the value Of
headlines In attracting world attention
| 10 the Indian problem. Another evidence
Is his clever Use of symbols. The SPIN
ming wheel and the inevitable loincloth
which he wears are excellent examples.
| The spinning wheel Gandhi meant to
symbolic India's protest against British
economic exploitation. Without cot
on-manufacturing industry of their
own, the poverty ty-stricken Indian masses
had long been forced to buy the high
| priced goods of Lancashire and Man
chester, which waxed rich on the Indian
trade. Few Indians would have under
stood arguments about empire preference
and high cost Of production, but they
understood when Gandhi told them that
the spinning wheel was their salvation.
1t brought home the point to the world
| as well.
tA%t Il e. lz.l-
Ing. He himself has explained its mean
ing in these words:
Millions OF Indians own nothing in
the world but that little strip OF cloth
which preserves them from disgrace. I
am not leading q back-to- the -loincloth
movement. We have been in these
straits ever since the British ruled India.
In London, If I am invited to visit His
Majesty the King Emperor, I will wear
nothing more than that which is the
| symbol of India's distress-the loincloth."
| Stole Spotlight in London.
Gandhi did call at Buckingham Palace
when he visited London in 1881 to attend
the round-table4 conference on India,
but he compromised to the extent of
a
specially made for him by Mrs Sarojini
Naldu, the Indian poetess. Even then he
created sensation not only in London
but all along the route of his travels. In
the British capital he stole the spotlight
from Charlie Chaplin, another visiting
fireman, and was honized by Lady Astor.
Gandhi was careful to bring his SYM
bols along with him on that journey.
His lolncloth he wore as usual, though
ne covered it with his shawl when pro-
priety demanded. He also brought thres
spinning wheels and three looms in ad-
dltion to well-thumbed volume of his
favorite author, Thoreau, and an ampls
supply of canned goats milk, dried
ralsins and nuts, which form his Gus
tomary diet.
With all this, Gandhi gave London,
hitherto accustomed only to blazer
wearing Hindu students and bejeweled
maharaJahs, its first glimpse of the real
lndla-the India of poverty stricken mil
lions. His eccentricities were doubtless
shocking to most British aristocrats, but
they won him the sympathy and friend
ship OF Londons common people. He put
on good show, and it went over.
Leads SANITY Life.
This is not to say that Gandhi Is not
genuine. He leads sanity life. He de-
vised his simple, one-meal-a-dav diet of
nuts, dates, raisins and goats milk
largely to overcome the lusts of the flesh
which beset him in his youth. His soli-
tary meal is always taken at sundown in
the interval before nightfau. If dark
ness falls before he has eaten, he goes
without food for another "a hours.
Though tremendously busy with public
affairs, he devotes "a hours each week to
silent meditation, listening to the inner
voice" from which he claims to receive
guidance even in political matters and
holding communion with "the Absolute
and Ultimate" He starts meditating at
o'clock Sunday afternoon and con-
tinues until in the afternoon of Mon
day. II any one has urgent business with
him during this day of silence he re-
ceives the caller and listens to him but
himself does not speak, writing brief
answers on slips of paper Many of his
momentous decisions were taken during
these periods of meditation.
Reading few books and newspapers
and stunning the radio, Gandhi is woe
| fully il-informed on world affairs.
Such Is the personal background of