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The
outstanding event of the forty-ninth session of the Congress
held under the president-ship of Rajendra Prasad at Abdul Gaffar
Nagar, Bombay, was Gandhi’s retirement from the Congress for
having failed to persuade it to change its creed from “peaceful
and legitimate” to “truthful and non-violent” methods. |
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On October
28, 1934, the congress reiterated its confidence in Gandhi’s
leadership, while reluctantly accepting his decision… |
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Gandhi
justified his physical severance from the Congress. “For me to
dominate the Congress in spite of fundamental differences is
almost a species of violence which I must refrain from…
“No leader
can give a good account of him if his lead is not faithfully,
ungrudgingly and intelligently followed…
Henceforward, my interest in the Congress will be confined to
watching from a distance, enforcement of principles for which it
stands…
“ I would
love to serve the Congress in my own humble manner whether I am
in or outside it.” |
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Realizing
that revivification of the villages, which were perpetually
exploited, was a necessity if India was to exist and a remedy
for its progressive poverty, Gandhi took his abode in the Ashram
at Wardha. |
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For him,”
khadi was the sun of the village solar system and the various
village-industries it planets…”
“We
should.” He argued, “Identify ourselves with the poor villagers,
live as they live, help them to produce what we need and make
full use of the local raw material, local talent and local
tools…” |
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Distressed
at the penetration of the machines in the villages, Gandhi
observed, “From time immemorial, the villages of India have been
pounding their own paddy… |
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“Unpolished rice and hand-ground whole wheat-flour apart from
being nutritious also provide employment in the rural areas…
“We have
suffered the village oilman to be driven to extinction and we
eat adulterated oils… Gandhi persuaded the villagers to take to
more rational ways of diet…
“ in all
our dietetics”, he argues, “we mistake the shadow for the
substance preferring bone-white sugar to rich, brown jiggery…” |
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His plea
was that mechanization is good where hands are too few… but an
evil where there are more hands that are required for the work
as is the case in India… |
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The remedy
suggested by him was the -protection of the village-industries,
the village-crafts and the workers behind them from the crushing
competition of power-driven machinery…
Gandhi
believed that “ If the village perishes, India will perish…” |
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Persuading
the villagers not to turn open healthy spaces into breeding
grounds for disease, Gandhi suggested burying of the night soil
as the most economic method of tits disposal; when mixed with
refuse, it can be turned into golden manure…
“So long
as you do not take the broom and the bucket in your hands, you
cannot make your towns and cities clean…and cleanliness is not
only next to godliness, it promotes health.” |
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Gandhi
believed in the infinite capacity of the soul for self-control
by artificial means will lead to moral bankruptcy…
He
regarded woman not as an instrument of animal pleasure, but as
the mother of man and a trustee of the virtue of her progeny… |
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Non-violence which was at the root of all his activities was not
confined only to India… Mussolini’s attack on Abyssinia
disturbed Gandhi… |
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He
appealed against the wave of darkness that was about to sweep
the whole world.” If the recognized leaders of mankind, who have
control over the energies of destruction, ere wholly to renounce
their use with full knowledge of the implications, permanent
peace can be obtained… |
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“Non-violence to be a creed has to be all-pervasive… it is my
unshakable belief that India’s destiny is to deliver the message
of non-violence to mankind…” |
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Being
convinced that the real India dwelt in her villages, Gandhi
tramped to Segaon-later called Sevagram- a decadent village five
miles from Wardha on June 16, 1936 to attain self-realisation
through the service of the village-folk in steadfast faith…He
reached his destination, lived in a one-room mud hut…and was
soon at work…
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Visitors
from far and near began to gravitate here…
Drawing
inspiration from his new abode, he associated the villagers with
the community life of the Ashram… |
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Sevagram
Ashram was but an experiment in truth and non-violence. Gandhi
lived here with Kasturbai as a villager of his dream. The simple
life was his chosen way… |
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Here,
Gandhi lived and worked beginning his day before dawn, never
missing his prayers…The little hut remained the scene of his
many activities from morning till night…
He spun
for hours and carded his cotton…”The greatest of my activity is
charkha. I hold it to be the best part of my service-social,
political and spiritual”. |
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Sometimes
he was engrossed in examining the details of the flattest model
of the spinning wheel and making suggestions to the designer… |
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People,
high and low, sought refuge in the little mud hut where he
dwelt…It also became the venue of the meetings of the Congress
Working Committee.
He did
justice to all item, grave or gay, important or unimportant,
for nothing was too trivial for him… |
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He looked
into every detail himself, … visited the ailing inmates who were
treated according to his method of nature-cure… among the
patients…. Was a leper- a profound Sanskrit scholar. “Who will
look after him if I don’t?” thought Gandhi and gave daily
massage to him. |
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He
determined the patient’s diet and made a scientific study of the
leprosy germs to evaluate his progress…
He never
failed to greet the new-born calves in the Ashram… |
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Lying with
a mud-poultice on his abdomen was part of his permanent
treatment for blood pressure prescribed by himself…
He knew
the wonderful properties of mother earth. “That is why, instead
of treading upon it, I have it on my head and on my abdomen,” he
said. |
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It was his
infinite faith in God that gave him the patience of a job and
his unfailing good humour…
The
morning and the evening constitutionals were as much part of
Gandhi’s regular routine as the prayers… |
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Details
about the kitchen or the crops were discussed with those in
charge to them…
Often,
interviews of a serious nature were given and press statements
dictated during the walks…
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In
accordance with his desire to be in tune with the infinite, he
slept under the open sky…
To promote
contact with the villagers, the first village session of the
Congress, according to Gandhi’s conception, was held at Faizpur
under the President-ship of Jawaharlal Nehru in December, 1936…
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Vast unsophisticated crowds thronged Tilaknagar- the bamboo
village…
All arrangements were befitting the village life…
President
Nehru dwelt upon the growing menace of Fascism in Europe … He
hoped the logic of events would lead to socialism for India’s
economic ills… |
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Though
Gandhi took no part in the Congress debates, opening the Khadi
and Village Industries Exhibition, he said, it is not enough
that one wears khadi if he surrounds himself with videshi-things
foreign in everything else…Khadi means the truest Swadeshi
spirit.
“Indian
economic independence is not a product of industrialization but
economic uplift of every individual by his or her conscious
effort…
“Real
socialism has been handed down to us by our ancestors who
taught, “ All land belongs to God”. |
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Like the
earth, we of it also belong to God and hence we must feel like
one and not create boundary walls…
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Gandhi
realized that in the long run the future depended on the village
school.
He
expounded the theory of education through vocation which would
promote the real, disciplined development of the mind by drawing
out the best in the child and yet keeping him rooted in the soil
with a glorious vision of the future…
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He wanted
education to be based on village occupations and easily
accessible to all…
Though
education was to be based on a craft, Gandhi insisted that the
child’s intellect and heart were to be trained as much as his
hands… |
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Gandhi in
his retirement from the Congress was no less a force than when
active. His advice on political affairs was constantly sought… |
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In
February, 1937, on the Congress securing signal success at the
polls, Gandhi advised the Congress majorities in seven provinces
to form cabinets to hasten the march towards independence…
Office
acceptance created a new ferment that began to leaven the dough
of national life… |
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Gandhi
wrote, “The offices have to be held lightly, not tightly.”
He
insisted that “the ministers dare not live in a style and in a
manner out of all correspondence with their electors” and
exhorted them to eradicate red-tape and to conduct themselves
with ability, integrity and impartiality… |
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For
Gandhi, office acceptance had a special meaning for progressive
amelioration of the toiling millions…
He
stressed the need of immediate enforcement of prohibition,
removal of untouchability, free and compulsory primary
education, conversion of jails into reformatories and tax-free
salt for the poor… |
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The
fifty-first session of the Congress met on the bank of the river
Tapti at Haripura in rural surroundings under the stewardship of
Subhash chandra Bose, the youngest President in February, 1938. |
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At the
Khadi and Village Industries Exhibition, Gandhi observed, “Khadi
has been conceived as the foundation and the image of ahimsa… a
real Khadi0wearer will not utter untruth, will harbour no
violence, no deceit, no impurity… |
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“Do what
you do for the sake of India. If you wear khadi for my sake, you
will burn khadi on the day you burn my dead body. But if you
have fully under stood the message of Khadi, it will long
outlive me…” |
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After
hoisting the National flag President Bose said, (His /Voice)…
Our struggle is no doubt a non-violent struggle…But even a
non-violent struggle demands an army, an organisation and a
machinery…
“India is
going to be free and that we who live to-day are going to play a
part in making India free…
“There is
no power on earth that can keep India in slavery any more…
“Let us
strive for India’s freedom…
Vande
Mataram…” |
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President
Subhash Chandra Bose and the members of the Working Committee
arrived at the open session of the Haripura Congress…
President
Bose put forward a case for national reconstruction: “Our chief
national problems relating to the eradication of poverty,
illiteracy an diseases can be effectively tackled only along
socialistic lines… |
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“The
state, on the advice of a Planning Commission, will have to
adopt a comprehensive scheme for gradually socializing our
entire agricultural and industrial system in the spheres of both
production and distribution…” |
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Voicing
the feeling of the nation, he concluded, All India prays that
Mahatma Gandhi may be spared to our nation for many years to
come to keep our struggle free from bitterness and hatred… We
need him for the cause of humanity… |
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The
haripura session condemned the federal scheme for India on the
ground that a constitution for India must be framed by the
people themselves… |
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In
September 1938 came the moral catastrophe of Munich…Compelled to
heed the rumbling of the coming storm, Gandhi observed, “The
peace Europe gained at Munich is a triumph of violence; it is
also its defeat… The science of non-violence can alone lead to
pure democracy…” |
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The plight
of the Czechs moved Gandhi. Advising the small nationalities to
refuse to obey Hitler’s will and perish unarmed to save their
honour, he maintained that if it was brave to fight, it was
braver still to refuse to fight and yet refuse to yield to the
usurper. |
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Soon after
the Munich crisis, Gandhi traversed the whole of the North-West
Frontier Province with Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan.
The
Pathans, old and young, received Gandhi with joy…
Badshah
Khan was convinced that non-violence could elevate his people
and raise them to their full moral stature… |
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Guiding
the non-violent organization of Khudai Khidmatgars, Gandhi said,
“The very name suggests that they are to serve and not to injure
humanity…Non-violence is not a mere passive quality. It is the
mightiest force God has endowed man with… |
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“As a
person who relied upon the use of force would have to undergo
military training, so will a soldier of peace have to go through
a definite training…” |
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Gandhi
rounded off his tour by a visit to the remains of the Buddhist
monastery at Takshshila, which reverberated with the ancient
maxim, “Let man conquer anger with non-anger…” |
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Gandhi
took leave of the pageant of India’s glorious past that lay
spread out before him… |
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