The Essential Gandhi (30 page)

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Mutual love enables Nature to persist. Man does not live by destruction. Self-love compels regard for others. Nations cohere because there is mutual regard among individuals composing them. Some day we must extend the national law to the universe, even as we have extended the family law to form nations—a larger family.
²⁰

 … Isolated independence is not the goal of the world-states. It is voluntary interdependence.…
²¹

Interdependence is and ought to be as much the ideal of man as self-sufficiency. Man is a social being. Without inter-relation with society he cannot realize his oneness with the universe or suppress
his egotism. His social interdependence enables him to test his faith and to prove himself on the touchstone of reality. If man were so placed or could so place himself as to be absolutely above all dependence on his fellow-beings he would become so proud and arrogant as to be a veritable burden and nuisance to the world. Dependence on society teaches him the lesson of humanity.… A man cannot become self-sufficient even in respect of all the various operations from the growing of cotton to the spinning of the yarn. He has at some stage or other to take the aid of the members of his family. And if one may take help from one’s own family, why not from one’s neighbors? Or otherwise what is the significance of the great saying “The world is my family”?
²²

There is no limit to extending our service to our neighbors across state-made frontiers. God never made those frontiers.
²³

The world is weary of hate, we see the fatigue overcoming the Western nations. We see that the song of hate has not benefited humanity. Let it be the privilege of India to turn a new leaf and set a lesson to the world.
²⁴

[At] the present moment India can teach the world little.… [If] India succeeds in regaining her liberty through non-violent means, she would have delivered her message to the others who are fighting for it, and what is perhaps more, she would have made the largest contribution yet known to world peace.
²⁵

We want freedom for our country but not at the expense or exploitation of others, not so as to degrade other countries. I do not want the freedom of India if it means the extinction of England or the disappearance of Englishmen. I want the freedom of my country so other countries may learn something from my free country, so the resources of my country might be utilized for the benefit of mankind. Just as the cult of patriotism teaches us today that the individual has to die for the family, the family has to die for the village, the village for the district, the district for the province and the province for the country, even so a country has to be free in order
that it may die if necessary for the benefit of the world. My love, therefore, of nationalism or my idea of nationalism is that my country may become free, that if need be the whole country may die so the human race may live. There is no room for race-hatred there. Let that be our nationalism.
²⁶

It is impossible for one to be an internationalist without being a nationalist. Internationalism is possible only when nationalism becomes a fact, i.e., when peoples belonging to different countries have organized themselves and are able to act as one man. It is not nationalism that is evil, it is the narrowness, selfishness, exclusiveness which is the bane of modern nations which is evil. Each wants to profit at the expense of and rise on the ruin of the other.

 … Indian nationalism has, I hope, struck a different path. It wants to organize itself or to find full self-expression for the benefit and service of humanity at large.… I cannot possibly go wrong so long as I do not harm other nations in the act of serving my country.
²⁷

 … Whilst Asiatic races are held under subjection and are indifferent to their own welfare, it is easy enough to treat them as they are being treated, whether in England or America or in Africa, for that matter, in their own homes, as in China and in India. But they will not long remain asleep. One can but hope, therefore, that their awakening may not lead to making confusion worse confounded and adding to the racial bitterness already existing. There is, however, no hope of avoiding the catastrophe unless the spirit of exploitation that at present dominates the nations of the West is transmuted into … real, helpful service, or unless the Asiatic and the African races understand that they cannot be exploited without their coöperation, to a large extent voluntary, and thus understanding, withdraw such coöperation.… If man, no matter what pigment he wears, will realize his status, he will discover that it is possible for him to stand erect even before a whole world in opposition.
²⁸

 … Repression, if it does not cow us down, can but hasten Swaraj [Independence] for it puts us on our mettle and evokes the
spirit of self-sacrifice and courage in the face of danger. Repression does for a true man or a nation what fire does for gold.…
²⁹

[A] Government that is ideal governs the least. It is no self-government that leaves nothing for the people to do.… The triple program [hand-spinning, Hindu-Moslem unity and removal of untouchability] is the test of our capacity for self-government. If we impute all our weaknesses to the present Government we shall never shed them.

 … My Swaraj will be, therefore, not a result of the murder of others but a voluntary act of continuous self-sacrifice. My Swaraj will not be a bloody usurpation of rights, but the acquisition of power will be a beautiful and natural fruit of duty well and truly performed.… I know it will be preceded by the rise of a class of young men and women who will find full excitement in work, work and nothing but work for the nation.
³⁰

I shall strive for a constitution which will release India from all thralldom and patronage and give her, if need be, the right to sin.

I shall work for an India … in which there shall be no high class and low class of people, an India in which all communities shall live in perfect harmony. There can be no room in such an India for the curse of untouchability or the curse of intoxicating drinks and drugs. Women shall enjoy the same rights as men. Since we shall be at peace with all the rest of the world neither exploiting nor being exploited, we should have the smallest army imaginable. All interests not in conflict with the interests of the dumb millions will be scrupulously respected, whether foreign or indigenous. Personally, I hate distinction between foreign and indigenous. This is the India of my dreams.… I shall be satisfied with nothing else.
³¹

As every country is fit to eat, to drink and to breathe, even so is every nation fit to manage its own affairs, no matter how badly.
³²

You want coöperation between nations for the salvaging of civilization. I want it too, but coöperation presupposes free nations worthy of coöperation. If I am to help in creating or restoring … 
good will and resist disturbances … I must have the ability to do so, and I cannot … unless my country has come into its own.… For so long as India is a subject nation, not only is she a danger to peace but also England, which exploits India. Other nations may tolerate today England’s imperialist policy and her exploitation of other nations, but they certainly do not appreciate it, and they would gladly help in the prevention of England’s becoming a greater and greater menace.… Of course, you will say that India free can become a menace herself. But let us assume she will behave herself with her doctrines of non-violence if she achieves her freedom through it, and for all her bitter experiences of being a victim of exploitation.
³³

Man does not live by bread alone. Many prefer self-respect to food.
³⁴

 … The more efficient a force is, the more silent and the more subtle it is. Love is the subtlest force in the world.…
¹

[The] force of love … truly comes into play only when it meets with causes of hatred. True Non-violence does not ignore or blind itself to causes of hatred, but in spite of the knowledge of their existence, operates upon the person setting those causes in motion.… The law of Non-violence—returning good for evil, loving one’s enemy—involves a knowledge of the blemishes of the “enemy.” Hence do the Scriptures say … “Forgiveness is an attribute of the brave.”
²

 … I can no more preach Non-violence to a coward than I can tempt a blind man to enjoy healthy scenes. Non-violence is the summit of bravery.…
³

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Suffering in one’s own person is … the essence of non-violence and is the chosen substitute for violence to others. It is not because I value life low that I can countenance with joy thousands voluntarily losing their lives for Satyagraha, but because I know that it results in the long run in the least loss of life, and what is more, it ennobles those who lose their lives.… [Unless] Europe is to commit suicide, some nation will have to dare to disarm herself and take large risks. The level of non-violence in that nation … will naturally have risen so high as to command universal respect. Her judgments will be unerring, her decisions will be firm, her capacity for heroic self-sacrifice will be great, and she will want to live as much for other nations as for herself.…
⁴

 … They say “means are after all [just] means.” I would say “means are after all everything.” As the means, so the end. Violent
means will give violent Swaraj.… There is no wall of separation between means and end.… I have been endeavoring to keep the country to means that are purely peaceful and legitimate.
⁵

 … If we take care of the means we are bound to reach the end sooner or later.…
⁶

 … Truth is my God. Non-violence is the means of realizing Him.…
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I am not a “statesman in the garb of a saint.” But since Truth is the highest wisdom, sometimes my acts appear to be consistent with the highest statesmanship. But I hope I have no policy in me save the policy of Truth and Non-violence.…
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[To] me … there is no way to find Truth except the way of Nonviolence.… For I know that a man who forsakes Truth can forsake his country and his nearest and dearest ones.…
⁹

 … I will not sacrifice Truth and Non-violence even for the deliverance of my country or religion.…
¹⁰

 … The movement of non-violent non-coöperation has nothing in common with the historical struggles for freedom in the West. It is not based on brute force or hatred. It does not aim at destroying the tyrant. It is a movement of self-purification. It therefore seeks to convert the tyrant.…
¹¹

 … A revolutionary murders or robs not for the good of his victims, whom he often considers to be fit only to be injured, but for the supposed good of society.
¹²

 … Conscience is the ripe fruit of strictest discipline.… There is no such thing, therefore, as mass conscience.…

 … The introduction of conscience into our public life is welcome … if it has taught a few of us to stand up for human dignity and rights in the face of the heaviest odds.…
¹³

 … I have no secret methods. I know no diplomacy save that of truth. I have no weapon but non-violence. I may be unconsciously led astray for a while but not for all time. I have therefore well-defined limitations.…