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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/24461-h.zip b/24461-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..08616ba --- /dev/null +++ b/24461-h.zip diff --git a/24461-h/24461-h.htm b/24461-h/24461-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ccbcfa8 --- /dev/null +++ b/24461-h/24461-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1441 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Third Class In Indian Railways, by M. K. Gandhi. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + text-indent: 1em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + text-indent: 0px; + } /* page numbers */ + + .center {text-align: center;} + .tbrk { margin-top: 2.75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em;} + + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + /* index */ + + div.index ul li { padding-top: 1em ;text-align: center; } + + div.index ul ul ul, div.index ul li ul li { padding: 0; text-align: left; } + + div.index ul { list-style: none; margin: 0; } + + div.index ul, div.index ul ul ul li { display: inline; } + + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's Third class in Indian railways, by Mahatma Gandhi + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Third class in Indian railways + +Author: Mahatma Gandhi + +Release Date: January 31, 2008 [EBook #24461] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THIRD CLASS IN INDIAN RAILWAYS *** + + + + +Produced by Bryan Ness, Martin Pettit and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> + +<h1>THIRD CLASS</h1> + +<h2>IN</h2> + +<h1>INDIAN RAILWAYS</h1> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>M. K. GANDHI</h2> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<h3>GANDHI PUBLICATIONS LEAGUE<br />BHADARKALI-LAHORE</h3> + +<hr /> + +<div class="center"><img src="images/gndhi.png" width='437' height='700' alt="M. K. GANDHI" /></div> + +<hr /> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<div class="index"> +<ul> +<li><a href="#THIRD_CLASS_IN_INDIAN_RAILWAYS1">THIRD CLASS IN INDIAN RAILWAYS</a></li> +<li><a href="#VERNACULARS_AS_MEDIA_OF_INSTRUCTION2">VERNACULARS AS MEDIA OF INSTRUCTION</a></li> +<li><a href="#SWADESHI3">SWADESHI</a></li> +<li><a href="#AHIMSA4">AHIMSA</a></li> +<li><a href="#THE_MORAL_BASIS_OF_CO-OPERATION5">THE MORAL BASIS OF CO-OPERATION</a></li> +<li><a href="#NATIONAL_DRESS6">NATIONAL DRESS</a></li> +</ul> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="THIRD_CLASS_IN_INDIAN_RAILWAYS1" id="THIRD_CLASS_IN_INDIAN_RAILWAYS1"></a>THIRD CLASS IN INDIAN RAILWAYS<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></h2> + +<p>I have now been in India for over two years and a half after my return +from South Africa. Over one quarter of that time I have passed on the +Indian trains travelling third class by choice. I have travelled up +north as far as Lahore, down south up to Tranquebar, and from Karachi to +Calcutta. Having resorted to third class travelling, among other +reasons, for the purpose of studying the conditions under which this +class of passengers travel, I have naturally made as critical +observations as I could. I have fairly covered the majority of railway +systems during this period. Now and then I have entered into +correspondence with the management of the different railways about the +defects that have come under my notice. But I think that the time has +come when I should invite the press and the public to join in a crusade +against a grievance which has too long remained unredressed, though much +of it is capable of redress without great difficulty.</p> + +<p>On the 12th instant I booked at Bombay for Madras by the mail train and +paid Rs. 13-9. It was labelled to carry 22 passengers. These could only +have seating accommodation. There were no bunks in this carriage whereon +passengers could lie with any degree of safety or comfort. There were +two nights to be passed in this train before reaching Madras. If not +more than 22 passengers found their way into my carriage before we +reached Poona, it was because the bolder ones kept the others at bay. +With the exception of two or three insistent passengers, all had to find +their sleep being seated all the time. After reaching Raichur the +pressure became <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>unbearable. The rush of passengers could not be stayed. +The fighters among us found the task almost beyond them. The guards or +other railway servants came in only to push in more passengers.</p> + +<p>A defiant Memon merchant protested against this packing of passengers +like sardines. In vain did he say that this was his fifth night on the +train. The guard insulted him and referred him to the management at the +terminus. There were during this night as many as 35 passengers in the +carriage during the greater part of it. Some lay on the floor in the +midst of dirt and some had to keep standing. A free fight was, at one +time, avoided only by the intervention of some of the older passengers +who did not want to add to the discomfort by an exhibition of temper.</p> + +<p>On the way passengers got for tea tannin water with filthy sugar and a +whitish looking liquid mis-called milk which gave this water a muddy +appearance. I can vouch for the appearance, but I cite the testimony of +the passengers as to the taste.</p> + +<p>Not during the whole of the journey was the compartment once swept or +cleaned. The result was that every time you walked on the floor or +rather cut your way through the passengers seated on the floor, you +waded through dirt.</p> + +<p>The closet was also not cleaned during the journey and there was no +water in the water tank.</p> + +<p>Refreshments sold to the passengers were dirty-looking, handed by +dirtier hands, coming out of filthy receptacles and weighed in equally +unattractive scales. These were previously sampled by millions of flies. +I asked some of the passengers who went in for these dainties to give +their opinion. Many of them used choice expressions as to the quality +but were satisfied to state that they were helpless in the matter; they +had to take things as they came.</p> + +<p>On reaching the station I found that the ghari-wala would not take me +unless I paid the fare he wanted. I mildly protested and told him I +would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> pay him the authorised fare. I had to turn passive resister +before I could be taken. I simply told him he would have to pull me out +of the ghari or call the policeman.</p> + +<p>The return journey was performed in no better manner. The carriage was +packed already and but for a friend's intervention I could not have been +able to secure even a seat. My admission was certainly beyond the +authorised number. This compartment was constructed to carry 9 +passengers but it had constantly 12 in it. At one place an important +railway servant swore at a protestant, threatened to strike him and +locked the door over the passengers whom he had with difficulty squeezed +in. To this compartment there was a closet falsely so called. It was +designed as a European closet but could hardly be used as such. There +was a pipe in it but no water, and I say without fear of challenge that +it was pestilentially dirty.</p> + +<p>The compartment itself was evil looking. Dirt was lying thick upon the +wood work and I do not know that it had ever seen soap or water.</p> + +<p>The compartment had an exceptional assortment of passengers. There were +three stalwart Punjabi Mahomedans, two refined Tamilians and two +Mahomedan merchants who joined us later. The merchants related the +bribes they had to give to procure comfort. One of the Punjabis had +already travelled three nights and was weary and fatigued. But he could +not stretch himself. He said he had sat the whole day at the Central +Station watching passengers giving bribe to procure their tickets. +Another said he had himself to pay Rs. 5 before he could get his ticket +and his seat. These three men were bound for Ludhiana and had still more +nights of travel in store for them.</p> + +<p>What I have described is not exceptional but normal. I have got down at +Raichur, Dhond, Sonepur, Chakradharpur, Purulia, Asansol and other +junction stations and been at the 'Mosafirkhanas' attached to these +stations. They are <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>discreditable-looking places where there is no +order, no cleanliness but utter confusion and horrible din and noise. +Passengers have no benches or not enough to sit on. They squat on dirty +floors and eat dirty food. They are permitted to throw the leavings of +their food and spit where they like, sit how they like and smoke +everywhere. The closets attached to these places defy description. I +have not the power adequately to describe them without committing a +breach of the laws of decent speech. Disinfecting powder, ashes, or +disinfecting fluids are unknown. The army of flies buzzing about them +warns you against their use. But a third-class traveller is dumb and +helpless. He does not want to complain even though to go to these places +may be to court death. I know passengers who fast while they are +travelling just in order to lessen the misery of their life in the +trains. At Sonepur flies having failed, wasps have come forth to warn +the public and the authorities, but yet to no purpose. At the Imperial +Capital a certain third class booking-office is a Black-Hole fit only to +be destroyed.</p> + +<p>Is it any wonder that plague has become endemic in India? Any other +result is impossible where passengers always leave some dirt where they +go and take more on leaving.</p> + +<p>On Indian trains alone passengers smoke with impunity in all carriages +irrespective of the presence of the fair sex and irrespective of the +protest of non-smokers. And this, notwithstanding a bye-law which +prevents a passenger from smoking without the permission of his fellows +in the compartment which is not allotted to smokers.</p> + +<p>The existence of the awful war cannot be allowed to stand in the way of +the removal of this gigantic evil. War can be no warrant for tolerating +dirt and overcrowding. One could understand an entire stoppage of +passenger traffic in a crisis like this, but never a continuation or +accentuation of insanitation and conditions that must undermine health +and morality.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p><p>Compare the lot of the first class passengers with that of the third +class. In the Madras case the first class fare is over five times as +much as the third class fare. Does the third class passenger get +one-fifth, even one-tenth, of the comforts of his first class fellow? It +is but simple justice to claim that some relative proportion be observed +between the cost and comfort.</p> + +<p>It is a known fact that the third class traffic pays for the +ever-increasing luxuries of first and second class travelling. Surely a +third class passenger is entitled at least to the bare necessities of +life.</p> + +<p>In neglecting the third class passengers, opportunity of giving a +splendid education to millions in orderliness, sanitation, decent +composite life and cultivation of simple and clean tastes is being lost. +Instead of receiving an object lesson in these matters third class +passengers have their sense of decency and cleanliness blunted during +their travelling experience.</p> + +<p>Among the many suggestions that can be made for dealing with the evil +here described, I would respectfully include this: let the people in +high places, the Viceroy, the Commander-in-Chief, the Rajas, Maharajas, +the Imperial Councillors and others, who generally travel in superior +classes, without previous warning, go through the experiences now and +then of third class travelling. We would then soon see a remarkable +change in the conditions of third class travelling and the uncomplaining +millions will get some return for the fares they pay under the +expectation of being carried from place to place with ordinary creature +comforts.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTE:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Ranchi, September 25, 1917.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="VERNACULARS_AS_MEDIA_OF_INSTRUCTION2" id="VERNACULARS_AS_MEDIA_OF_INSTRUCTION2"></a>VERNACULARS AS MEDIA OF INSTRUCTION<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></h2> + +<p>It is to be hoped that Dr. Mehta's labour of love will receive the +serious attention of English-educated India. The following pages were +written by him for the <i>Vedanta Kesari</i> of Madras and are now printed in +their present form for circulation throughout India. The question of +vernaculars as media of instruction is of national importance; neglect +of the vernaculars means national suicide. One hears many protagonists +of the English language being continued as the medium of instruction +pointing to the fact that English-educated Indians are the sole +custodians of public and patriotic work. It would be monstrous if it +were not so. For the only education given in this country is through the +English language. The fact, however, is that the results are not all +proportionate to the time we give to our education. We have not reacted +on the masses. But I must not anticipate Dr. Mehta. He is in earnest. He +writes feelingly. He has examined the pros and cons and collected a mass +of evidence in support of his arguments. The latest pronouncement on the +subject is that of the Viceroy. Whilst His Excellency is unable to offer +a solution, he is keenly alive to the necessity of imparting instruction +in our schools through the vernaculars. The Jews of Middle and Eastern +Europe, who are scattered in all parts of the world, finding it +necessary to have a common tongue for mutual intercourse, have raised +Yiddish to the status of a language, and have succeeded in translating +into Yiddish the best books to be found in the world's literature. Even +they could not satisfy the soul's yearning through the many foreign +tongues of which they are masters; nor did<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> the learned few among them +wish to tax the masses of the Jewish population with having to learn a +foreign language before they could realise their dignity. So they have +enriched what was at one time looked upon as a mere jargon—but what the +Jewish children learnt from their mothers—by taking special pains to +translate into it the best thought of the world. This is a truly +marvellous work. It has been done during the present generation, and +Webster's Dictionary defines it as a polyglot jargon used for +inter-communication by Jews from different nations.</p> + +<p>But a Jew of Middle and Eastern Europe would feel insulted if his mother +tongue were now so described. If these Jewish scholars have succeeded, +within a generation, in giving their masses a language of which they may +feel proud, surely it should be an easy task for us to supply the needs +of our own vernaculars which are cultured languages. South Africa +teaches us the same lesson. There was a duel there between the Taal, a +corrupt form of Dutch, and English. The Boer mothers and the Boer +fathers were determined that they would not let their children, with +whom they in their infancy talked in the Taal, be weighed down with +having to receive instruction through English. The case for English here +was a strong one. It had able pleaders for it. But English had to yield +before Boer patriotism. It may be observed that they rejected even the +High Dutch. The school masters, therefore, who are accustomed to speak +the published Dutch of Europe, are compelled to teach the easier Taal. +And literature of an excellent character is at the present moment +growing up in South Africa in the Taal, which was only a few years ago, +the common medium of speech between simple but brave rustics. If we have +lost faith in our vernaculars, it is a sign of want of faith in +ourselves; it is the surest sign of decay. And no scheme of +self-government, however benevolently or generously it may be bestowed +upon us, will ever make us a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>self-governing nation, if we have no +respect for the languages our mothers speak.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTE:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Introduction to Dr. Mehta's "Self-Government Series".</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="SWADESHI3" id="SWADESHI3"></a>SWADESHI<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></h2> + +<p>It was not without great diffidence that I undertook to speak to you at +all. And I was hard put to it in the selection of my subject. I have +chosen a very delicate and difficult subject. It is delicate because of +the peculiar views I hold upon Swadeshi, and it is difficult because I +have not that command of language which is necessary for giving adequate +expression to my thoughts. I know that I may rely upon your indulgence +for the many shortcomings you will no doubt find in my address, the more +so when I tell you that there is nothing in what I am about to say that +I am not either already practising or am not preparing to practise to +the best of my ability. It encourages me to observe that last month you +devoted a week to prayer in the place of an address. I have earnestly +prayed that what I am about to say may bear fruit and I know that you +will bless my word with a similar prayer.</p> + +<p>After much thinking I have arrived at a definition of Swadeshi that, +perhaps, best illustrates my meaning. Swadeshi is that spirit in us +which restricts us to the use and service of our immediate surroundings +to the exclusion of the more remote. Thus, as for religion, in order to +satisfy the requirements of the definition, I must restrict myself to my +ancestral religion. That is the use of my immediate religious +surrounding. If I find it defective, I should serve it by purging it of +its defects. In the domain of politics I should make use of the +indigenous institutions and serve them by curing them of their proved +defects. In that of economics I should use only things that are produced +by my immediate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> neighbours and serve those industries by making them +efficient and complete where they might be found wanting. It is +suggested that such Swadeshi, if reduced to practice, will lead to the +millennium. And, as we do not abandon our pursuit after the millennium, +because we do not expect quite to reach it within our times, so may we +not abandon Swadeshi even though it may not be fully attained for +generations to come.</p> + +<p>Let us briefly examine the three branches of Swadeshi as sketched above. +Hinduism has become a conservative religion and, therefore, a mighty +force because of the Swadeshi spirit underlying it. It is the most +tolerant because it is non-proselytising, and it is as capable of +expansion today as it has been found to be in the past. It has succeeded +not in driving out, as I think it has been erroneously held, but in +absorbing Buddhism. By reason of the Swadeshi spirit, a Hindu refuses to +change his religion, not necessarily because he considers it to be the +best, but because he knows that he can complement it by introducing +reforms. And what I have said about Hinduism is, I suppose, true of the +other great faiths of the world, only it is held that it is specially so +in the case of Hinduism. But here comes the point I am labouring to +reach. If there is any substance in what I have said, will not the great +missionary bodies of India, to whom she owes a deep debt of gratitude +for what they have done and are doing, do still better and serve the +spirit of Christianity better by dropping the goal of proselytising +while continuing their philanthropic work? I hope you will not consider +this to be an impertinence on my part. I make the suggestion in all +sincerity and with due humility. Moreover I have some claim upon your +attention. I have endeavoured to study the Bible. I consider it as part +of my scriptures. The spirit of the Sermon on the Mount competes almost +on equal terms with the Bhagavad Gita for the domination of my heart. I +yield to no Christian in the strength of devotion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> with which I sing +"Lead kindly light" and several other inspired hymns of a similar +nature. I have come under the influence of noted Christian missionaries +belonging to different denominations. And enjoy to this day the +privilege of friendship with some of them. You will perhaps, therefore, +allow that I have offered the above suggestion not as a biased Hindu, +but as a humble and impartial student of religion with great leanings +towards Christianity. May it not be that "Go ye unto all the world" +message has been somewhat narrowly interpreted and the spirit of it +missed? It will not be denied, I speak from experience, that many of the +conversions are only so-called. In some cases the appeal has gone not to +the heart but to the stomach. And in every case a conversion leaves a +sore behind it which, I venture to think, is avoidable. Quoting again +from experience, a new birth, a change of heart, is perfectly possible +in every one of the great faiths. I know I am now treading upon thin +ice. But I do not apologise in closing this part of my subject, for +saying that the frightful outrage that is just going on in Europe, +perhaps shows that the message of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Peace, +had been little understood in Europe, and that light upon it may have to +be thrown from the East.</p> + +<p>I have sought your help in religious matters, which it is yours to give +in a special sense. But I make bold to seek it even in political +matters. I do not believe that religion has nothing to do with politics. +The latter divorced from religion is like a corpse only fit to be +buried. As a matter of fact, in your own silent manner, you influence +politics not a little. And I feel that, if the attempt to separate +politics from religion had not been made as it is even now made, they +would not have degenerated as they often appear to have done. No one +considers that the political life of the country is in a happy state. +Following out the Swadeshi spirit, I observe the indigenous institutions +and the village panchayats hold me. India is really<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> a republican +country, and it is because it is that, that it has survived every shock +hitherto delivered. Princes and potentates, whether they were Indian +born or foreigners, have hardly touched the vast masses except for +collecting revenue. The latter in their turn seem to have rendered unto +Caesar what was Caesar's and for the rest have done much as they have +liked. The vast organisation of caste answered not only the religious +wants of the community, but it answered to its political needs. The +villagers managed their internal affairs through the caste system, and +through it they dealt with any oppression from the ruling power or +powers. It is not possible to deny of a nation that was capable of +producing the caste system its wonderful power of organisation. One had +but to attend the great Kumbha Mela at Hardwar last year to know how +skilful that organisation must have been, which without any seeming +effort was able effectively to cater for more than a million pilgrims. +Yet it is the fashion to say that we lack organising ability. This is +true, I fear, to a certain extent, of those who have been nurtured in +the new traditions. We have laboured under a terrible handicap owing to +an almost fatal departure from the Swadeshi spirit. We, the educated +classes, have received our education through a foreign tongue. We have +therefore not reacted upon the masses. We want to represent the masses, +but we fail. They recognise us not much more than they recognise the +English officers. Their hearts are an open book to neither. Their +aspirations are not ours. Hence there is a break. And you witness not in +reality failure to organise but want of correspondence between the +representatives and the represented. If during the last fifty years we +had been educated through the vernaculars, our elders and our servants +and our neighbours would have partaken of our knowledge; the discoveries +of a Bose or a Ray would have been household treasures as are the +Ramayan and the Mahabharat. As it is, so far as the masses are +concerned, those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> great discoveries might as well have been made by +foreigners. Had instruction in all the branches of learning been given +through the vernaculars, I make bold to say that they would have been +enriched wonderfully. The question of village sanitation, etc., would +have been solved long ago. The village panchayats would be now a living +force in a special way, and India would almost be enjoying +self-government suited to its requirements and would have been spared +the humiliating spectacle of organised assassination on its sacred soil. +It is not too late to mend. And you can help if you will, as no other +body or bodies can.</p> + +<p>And now for the last division of Swadeshi, much of the deep poverty of +the masses is due to the ruinous departure from Swadeshi in the economic +and industrial life. If not an article of commerce had been brought from +outside India, she would be today a land flowing with milk and honey. +But that was not to be. We were greedy and so was England. The +connection between England and India was based clearly upon an error. +But she does not remain in India in error. It is her declared policy +that India is to be held in trust for her people. If this be true, +Lancashire must stand aside. And if the Swadeshi doctrine is a sound +doctrine, Lancashire can stand aside without hurt, though it may sustain +a shock for the time being. I think of Swadeshi not as a boycott +movement undertaken by way of revenge. I conceive it as religious +principle to be followed by all. I am no economist, but I have read some +treatises which show that England could easily become a self-sustained +country, growing all the produce she needs. This may be an utterly +ridiculous proposition, and perhaps the best proof that it cannot be +true, is that England is one of the largest importers in the world. But +India cannot live for Lancashire or any other country before she is able +to live for herself. And she can live for herself only if she produces +and is helped to produce everything<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> for her requirements within her own +borders. She need not be, she ought not to be, drawn into the vertex of +mad and ruinous competition which breeds fratricide, jealousy and many +other evils. But who is to stop her great millionaires from entering +into the world competition? Certainly not legislation. Force of public +opinion, proper education, however, can do a great deal in the desired +direction. The hand-loom industry is in a dying condition. I took +special care during my wanderings last year to see as many weavers as +possible, and my heart ached to find how they had lost, how families had +retired from this once flourishing and honourable occupation. If we +follow the Swadeshi doctrine, it would be your duty and mine to find out +neighbours who can supply our wants and to teach them to supply them +where they do not know how to proceed, assuming that there are +neighbours who are in want of healthy occupation. Then every village of +India will almost be a self-supporting and self-contained unit, +exchanging only such necessary commodities with other villages where +they are not locally producible. This may all sound nonsensical. Well, +India is a country of nonsense. It is nonsensical to parch one's throat +with thirst when a kindly Mahomedan is ready to offer pure water to +drink. And yet thousands of Hindus would rather die of thirst than drink +water from a Mahomedan household. These nonsensical men can also, once +they are convinced that their religion demands that they should wear +garments manufactured in India only and eat food only grown in India, +decline to wear any other clothing or eat any other food. Lord Curzon +set the fashion for tea-drinking. And that pernicious drug now bids fair +to overwhelm the nation. It has already undermined the digestive +apparatus of hundreds of thousands of men and women and constitutes an +additional tax upon their slender purses. Lord Hardinge can set the +fashion for Swadeshi, and almost the whole of India forswear foreign +goods. There is a verse<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> in the Bhagavad Gita, which, freely rendered, +means, masses follow the classes. It is easy to undo the evil if the +thinking portion of the community were to take the Swadeshi vow even +though it may, for a time, cause considerable inconvenience. I hate +legislative interference, in any department of life. At best it is the +lesser evil. But I would tolerate, welcome, indeed, plead for a stiff +protective duty upon foreign goods. Natal, a British colony, protected +its sugar by taxing the sugar that came from another British colony, +Mauritius. England has sinned against India by forcing free trade upon +her. It may have been food for her, but it has been poison for this +country.</p> + +<p>It has often been urged that India cannot adopt Swadeshi in the economic +life at any rate. Those who advance this objection do not look upon +Swadeshi as a rule of life. With them it is a mere patriotic effort not +to be made if it involved any self-denial. Swadeshi, as defined here, is +a religious discipline to be undergone in utter disregard of the +physical discomfort it may cause to individuals. Under its spell the +deprivation of a pin or a needle, because these are not manufactured in +India, need cause no terror. A Swadeshist will learn to do without +hundreds of things which today he considers necessary. Moreover, those +who dismiss Swadeshi from their minds by arguing the impossible, forget +that Swadeshi, after all, is a goal to be reached by steady effort. And +we would be making for the goal even if we confined Swadeshi to a given +set of articles allowing ourselves as a temporary measure to use such +things as might not be procurable in the country.</p> + +<p>There now remains for me to consider one more objection that has been +raised against Swadeshi. The objectors consider it to be a most selfish +doctrine without any warrant in the civilised code of morality. With +them to practise Swadeshi is to revert to barbarism. I cannot enter into +a detailed analysis of the position. But I would urge that Swadeshi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> is +the only doctrine consistent with the law of humility and love. It is +arrogance to think of launching out to serve the whole of India when I +am hardly able to serve even my own family. It were better to +concentrate my effort upon the family and consider that through them I +was serving the whole nation and, if you will, the whole of humanity. +This is humility and it is love. The motive will determine the quality +of the act. I may serve my family regardless of the sufferings I may +cause to others. As for instance, I may accept an employment which +enables me to extort money from people, I enrich myself thereby and then +satisfy many unlawful demands of the family. Here I am neither serving +the family nor the State. Or I may recognise that God has given me hands +and feet only to work with for my sustenance and for that of those who +may be dependent upon me. I would then at once simplify my life and that +of those whom I can directly reach. In this instance I would have served +the family without causing injury to anyone else. Supposing that +everyone followed this mode of life, we should have at once an ideal +state. All will not reach that state at the same time. But those of us +who, realising its truth, enforce it in practice will clearly anticipate +and accelerate the coming of that happy day. Under this plan of life, in +seeming to serve India to the exclusion of every other country I do not +harm any other country. My patriotism is both exclusive and inclusive. +It is exclusive in the sense that in all humility I confine my attention +to the land of my birth, but it is inclusive in the sense that my +service is not of a competitive or antagonistic nature. <i>Sic utere tuo +ut alienum non la</i> is not merely a legal maxim, but it is a grand +doctrine of life. It is the key to a proper practice of Ahimsa or love. +It is for you, the custodians of a great faith, to set the fashion and +show, by your preaching, sanctified by practice, that patriotism based +on hatred "killeth" and that patriotism based on love "giveth life."</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTE:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Address delivered before the Missionary Conference on +February 14, 1916.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="AHIMSA4" id="AHIMSA4"></a>AHIMSA<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></h2> + +<p>There seems to be no historical warrant for the belief that an +exaggerated practice of Ahimsa synchronises with our becoming bereft of +manly virtues. During the past 1,500 years we have, as a nation, given +ample proof of physical courage, but we have been torn by internal +dissensions and have been dominated by love of self instead of love of +country. We have, that is to say, been swayed by the spirit of +irreligion rather than of religion.</p> + +<p>I do not know how far the charge of unmanliness can be made good against +the Jains. I hold no brief for them. By birth I am a Vaishnavite, and +was taught Ahimsa in my childhood. I have derived much religious benefit +from Jain religious works as I have from scriptures of the other great +faiths of the world. I owe much to the living company of the deceased +philosopher, Rajachand Kavi, who was a Jain by birth. Thus, though my +views on Ahimsa are a result of my study of most of the faiths of the +world, they are now no longer dependent upon the authority of these +works. They are a part of my life, and, if I suddenly discovered that +the religious books read by me bore a different interpretation from the +one I had learnt to give them, I should still hold to the view of Ahimsa +as I am about to set forth here.</p> + +<p>Our Shastras seem to teach that a man who really practises Ahimsa in its +fulness has the world at his feet; he so affects his surroundings that +even the snakes and other venomous reptiles do him no harm. This is said +to have been the experience of St. Francis of Assisi.</p> + +<p>In its negative form it means not injuring any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> living being whether by +body or mind. It may not, therefore, hurt the person of any wrong-doer, +or bear any ill-will to him and so cause him mental suffering. This +statement does not cover suffering caused to the wrong-doer by natural +acts of mine which do not proceed from ill-will. It, therefore, does not +prevent me from withdrawing from his presence a child whom he, we shall +imagine, is about to strike. Indeed, the proper practice of Ahimsa +<i>requires</i> me to withdraw the intended victim from the wrong-doer, if I +am, in any way whatsoever, the guardian of such a child. It was, +therefore, most proper for the passive resisters of South Africa to have +resisted the evil that the Union Government sought to do to them. They +bore no ill-will to it. They showed this by helping the Government +whenever it needed their help. <i>Their resistance consisted of +disobedience of the orders of the Government, even to the extent of +suffering death at their hands.</i> Ahimsa requires deliberate +self-suffering, not a deliberate injuring of the supposed wrong-doer.</p> + +<p>In its positive form, Ahimsa means the largest love, the greatest +charity. If I am a follower of Ahimsa, I <i>must love</i> my enemy. I must +apply the same rules to the wrong-doer who is my enemy or a stranger to +me, as I would to my wrong-doing father or son. This active Ahimsa +necessarily includes truth and fearlessness. As man cannot deceive the +loved one, he does not fear or frighten him or her. Gift of life is the +greatest of all gifts; a man who gives it in reality, disarms all +hostility. He has paved the way for an honourable understanding. And +none who is himself subject to fear can bestow that gift. He must, +therefore, be himself fearless. A man cannot then practice Ahimsa and be +a coward at the same time. The practice of Ahimsa calls forth the +greatest courage. It is the most soldierly of a soldier's virtues. +General Gordon has been represented in a famous statue as bearing only a +stick. This takes us far on the road to Ahimsa. But a soldier, who needs +the protection of even a stick, is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> to that extent so much the less a +soldier. He is the true soldier who knows how to die and stand his +ground in the midst of a hail of bullets. Such a one was Ambarisha, who +stood his ground without lifting a finger though Duryasa did his worst. +The Moors who were being pounded by the French gunners and who rushed to +the guns' mouths with 'Allah' on their lips, showed much the same type +of courage. Only theirs was the courage of desperation. Ambarisha's was +due to love. Yet the Moorish valour, readiness to die, conquered the +gunners. They frantically waved their hats, ceased firing, and greeted +their erstwhile enemies as comrades. And so the South African passive +resisters in their thousands were ready to die rather than sell their +honour for a little personal ease. This was Ahimsa in its active form. +It <i>never</i> barters away honour. A helpless girl in the hands of a +follower of Ahimsa finds better and surer protection than in the hands +of one who is prepared to defend her only to the point to which his +weapons would carry him. The tyrant, in the first instance, will have to +walk to his victim over the dead body of her defender; in the second, he +has but to overpower the defender; for it is assumed that the cannon of +propriety in the second instance will be satisfied when the defender has +fought to the extent of his physical valour. In the first instance, as +the defender has matched his very soul against the mere body of the +tyrant, the odds are that the soul in the latter will be awakened, and +the girl would stand an infinitely greater chance of her honour being +protected than in any other conceivable circumstance, barring of course, +that of her own personal courage.</p> + +<p>If we are unmanly today, we are so, not because we do not know how to +strike, but because we fear to die. He is no follower of Mahavira, the +apostle of Jainism, or of Buddha or of the Vedas, who being afraid to +die, takes flight before any danger, real or imaginary, all the while +wishing that somebody else would remove the danger by destroying the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> +person causing it. He is no follower of Ahimsa who does not care a straw +if he kills a man by inches by deceiving him in trade, or who would +protect by force of arms a few cows and make away with the butcher or +who, in order to do a supposed good to his country, does not mind +killing off a few officials. All these are actuated by hatred, cowardice +and fear. Here the love of the cow or the country is a vague thing +intended to satisfy one's vanity, or soothe a stinging conscience.</p> + +<p>Ahimsa truly understood is in my humble opinion a panacea for all evils +mundane and extra-mundane. We can never overdo it. Just at present we +are not doing it at all. Ahimsa does not displace the practice of other +virtues, but renders their practice imperatively necessary before it can +be practised even in its rudiments. Mahavira and Buddha were soldiers, +and so was Tolstoy. Only they saw deeper and truer into their +profession, and found the secret of a true, happy, honourable and godly +life. Let us be joint sharers with these teachers, and this land of ours +will once more be the abode of gods.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTE:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> The <i>Modern Review</i>, October, 1916.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="THE_MORAL_BASIS_OF_CO-OPERATION5" id="THE_MORAL_BASIS_OF_CO-OPERATION5"></a>THE MORAL BASIS OF CO-OPERATION<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></h2> + +<p>The only claim I have on your indulgence is that some months ago I +attended with Mr. Ewbank a meeting of mill-hands to whom he wanted to +explain the principles of co-operation. The chawl in which they were +living was as filthy as it well could be. Recent rains had made matters +worse. And I must frankly confess that, had it not been for Mr. Ewbank's +great zeal for the cause he has made his own, I should have shirked the +task. But there we were, seated on a fairly worn-out <i>charpai</i>, +surrounded by men, women and children. Mr. Ewbank opened fire on a man +who had put himself forward and who wore not a particularly innocent +countenance. After he had engaged him and the other people about him in +Gujrati conversation, he wanted me to speak to the people. Owing to the +suspicious looks of the man who was first spoken to, I naturally pressed +home the moralities of co-operation. I fancy that Mr. Ewbank rather +liked the manner in which I handled the subject. Hence, I believe, his +kind invitation to me to tax your patience for a few moments upon a +consideration of co-operation from a moral standpoint.</p> + +<p>My knowledge of the technicality of co-operation is next to nothing. My +brother, Devadhar, has made the subject his own. Whatever he does, +naturally attracts me and predisposes me to think that there must be +something good in it and the handling of it must be fairly difficult. +Mr. Ewbank very kindly placed at my disposal some literature too on the +subject. And I have had a unique opportunity of watching the effect of +some <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>co-operative effort in Champaran. I have gone through Mr. Ewbank's +ten main points which are like the Commandments, and I have gone through +the twelve points of Mr. Collins of Behar, which remind me of the law of +the Twelve Tables. There are so-called agricultural banks in Champaran. +They were to me disappointing efforts, if they were meant to be +demonstrations of the success of co-operation. On the other hand, there +is quiet work in the same direction being done by Mr. Hodge, a +missionary whose efforts are leaving their impress on those who come in +contact with him. Mr. Hodge is a co-operative enthusiast and probably +considers that the result which he sees flowing from his efforts are due +to the working of co-operation. I, who was able to watch the efforts, +had no hesitation in inferring that the personal equation counted for +success in the one and failure in the other instance.</p> + +<p>I am an enthusiast myself, but twenty-five years of experimenting and +experience have made me a cautious and discriminating enthusiast. +Workers in a cause necessarily, though quite unconsciously, exaggerate +its merits and often succeed in turning its very defects into +advantages. In spite of my caution I consider the little institution I +am conducting in Ahmedabad as the finest thing in the world. It alone +gives me sufficient inspiration. Critics tell me that it represents a +soulless soul-force and that its severe discipline has made it merely +mechanical. I suppose both—the critics and I—are wrong. It is, at +best, a humble attempt to place at the disposal of the nation a home +where men and women may have scope for free and unfettered development +of character, in keeping with the national genius, and, if its +controllers do not take care, the discipline that is the foundation of +character may frustrate the very end in view. I would venture, +therefore, to warn enthusiasts in co-operation against entertaining +false hopes.</p> + +<p>With Sir Daniel Hamilton it has become a religion. On the 13th January +last, he addressed the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> students of the Scottish Churches College and, +in order to point a moral, he instanced Scotland's poverty of two +hundred years ago and showed how that great country was raised from a +condition of poverty to plenty. "There were two powers, which raised +her—the Scottish Church and the Scottish banks. The Church manufactured +the men and the banks manufactured the money to give the men a start in +life.... The Church disciplined the nation in the fear of God which is +the beginning of wisdom and in the parish schools of the Church the +children learned that the chief end of man's life was to glorify God and +to enjoy Him for ever. Men were trained to believe in God and in +themselves, and on the trustworthy character so created the Scottish +banking system was built." Sir Daniel then shows that it was possible to +build up the marvellous Scottish banking system only on the character so +built. So far there can only be perfect agreement with Sir Daniel, for +that 'without character there is no co-operation' is a sound maxim. But +he would have us go much further. He thus waxes eloquent on +co-operation: "Whatever may be your daydreams of India's future, never +forget this that it is to weld India into one, and so enable her to take +her rightful place in the world, that the British Government is here; +and the welding hammer in the hand of the Government is the co-operative +movement." In his opinion it is the panacea of all the evils that +afflict India at the present moment. In its extended sense it can +justify the claim on one condition which need not be mentioned here; in +the limited sense in which Sir Daniel has used it, I venture to think, +it is an enthusiast's exaggeration. Mark his peroration: "Credit, which +is only Trust and Faith, is becoming more and more the money power of +the world, and in the parchment bullet into which is impressed the faith +which removes mountains, India will find victory and peace." Here there +is evident confusion of thought. The credit which is becoming the money +power of the world<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> has little moral basis and is not a synonym for +Trust or Faith, which are purely moral qualities. After twenty years' +experience of hundreds of men, who had dealings with banks in South +Africa, the opinion I had so often heard expressed has become firmly +rooted in me, that the greater the rascal the greater the credit he +enjoys with his banks. The banks do not pry into his moral character: +they are satisfied that he meets his overdrafts and promissory notes +punctually. The credit system has encircled this beautiful globe of ours +like a serpent's coil, and if we do not mind, it bids fair to crush us +out of breath. I have witnessed the ruin of many a home through the +system, and it has made no difference whether the credit was labelled +co-operative or otherwise. The deadly coil has made possible the +devastating spectacle in Europe, which we are helplessly looking on. It +was perhaps never so true as it is today that, as in law so in war, the +longest purse finally wins. I have ventured to give prominence to the +current belief about credit system in order to emphasise the point that +the co-operative movement will be a blessing to India only to the extent +that it is a moral movement strictly directed by men fired with +religious fervour. It follows, therefore, that co-operation should be +confined to men wishing to be morally right, but failing to do so, +because of grinding poverty or of the grip of the Mahajan. Facility for +obtaining loans at fair rates will not make immoral men moral. But the +wisdom of the Estate or philanthropists demands that they should help on +the onward path, men struggling to be good.</p> + +<p>Too often do we believe that material prosperity means moral growth. It +is necessary that a movement which is fraught with so much good to India +should not degenerate into one for merely advancing cheap loans. I was +therefore delighted to read the recommendation in the Report of the +Committee on Co-operation in India, that "they wish clearly to express +their opinion that it is to true <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>co-operation alone, that is, to a +co-operation which recognises the moral aspect of the question that +Government must look for the amelioration of the masses and not to a +pseudo-co-operative edifice, however imposing, which is built in +ignorance of co-operative principles." With this standard before us, we +will not measure the success of the movement by the number of +co-operative societies formed, but by the moral condition of the +co-operators. The registrars will, in that event, ensure the moral +growth of existing societies before multiplying them. And the Government +will make their promotion conditional, not upon the number of societies +they have registered, but the moral success of the existing +institutions. This will mean tracing the course of every pie lent to the +members. Those responsible for the proper conduct of co-operative +societies will see to it that the money advanced does not find its way +into the toddy-seller's bill or into the pockets of the keepers of +gambling dens. I would excuse the rapacity of the Mahajan if it has +succeeded in keeping the gambling die or toddy from the ryot's home.</p> + +<p>A word perhaps about the Mahajan will not be out of place. Co-operation +is not a new device. The ryots co-operate to drum out monkeys or birds +that destroy their crops. They co-operate to use a common thrashing +floor. I have found them co-operate to protect their cattle to the +extent of their devoting the best land for the grazing of their cattle. +And they have been found co-operating against a particular rapacious +Mahajan. Doubts have been expressed as to the success of co-operation +because of the tightness of the Mahajan's hold on the ryots. I do not +share the fears. The mightiest Mahajan must, if he represent an evil +force, bend before co-operation, conceived as an essentially moral +movement. But my limited experience of the Mahajan of Champaran has made +me revise the accepted opinion about his 'blighting influence.' I have +found him to be not always<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> relentless, not always exacting of the last +pie. He sometimes serves his clients in many ways and even comes to +their rescue in the hour of their distress. My observation is so limited +that I dare not draw any conclusions from it, but I respectfully enquire +whether it is not possible to make a serious effort to draw out the good +in the Mahajan and help him or induce him to throw out the evil in him. +May he not be induced to join the army of co-operation, or has +experience proved that he is past praying for?</p> + +<p>I note that the movement takes note of all indigenous industries. I beg +publicly to express my gratitude to Government for helping me in my +humble effort to improve the lot of the weaver. The experiment I am +conducting shows that there is a vast field for work in this direction. +No well-wisher of India, no patriot dare look upon the impending +destruction of the hand-loom weaver with equanimity. As Dr. Mann has +stated, this industry used to supply the peasant with an additional +source of livelihood and an insurance against famine. Every registrar +who will nurse back to life this important and graceful industry will +earn the gratitude of India. My humble effort consists firstly in making +researches as to the possibilities of simple reforms in the orthodox +hand-looms, secondly, in weaning the educated youth from the craving for +Government or other services and the feeling that education renders him +unfit for independent occupation and inducing him to take to weaving as +a calling as honourable as that of a barrister or a doctor, and thirdly +by helping those weavers who have abandoned their occupation to revert +to it. I will not weary the audience with any statement on the first two +parts of the experiment. The third may be allowed a few sentences as it +has a direct bearing upon the subject before us. I was able to enter +upon it only six months ago. Five families that had left off the calling +have reverted to it and they are doing a prosperous business. The Ashram +supplies<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> them at their door with the yarn they need; its volunteers +take delivery of the cloth woven, paying them cash at the market rate. +The Ashram merely loses interest on the loan advanced for the yarn. It +has as yet suffered no loss and is able to restrict its loss to a +minimum by limiting the loan to a particular figure. All future +transactions are strictly cash. We are able to command a ready sale for +the cloth received. The loss of interest, therefore, on the transaction +is negligible. I would like the audience to note its purely moral +character from start to finish. The Ashram depends for its existence on +such help as <i>friends</i> render it. We, therefore, can have no warrant for +charging interest. The weavers could not be saddled with it. Whole +families that were breaking to pieces are put together again. The use of +the loan is pre-determined. And we, the middlemen, being volunteers, +obtain the privilege of entering into the lives of these families, I +hope, for their and our betterment. We cannot lift them without being +lifted ourselves. This last relationship has not yet been developed, but +we hope, at an early date, to take in hand the education too of these +families and not rest satisfied till we have touched them at every +point. This is not too ambitious a dream. God willing, it will be a +reality some day. I have ventured to dilate upon the small experiment to +illustrate what I mean by co-operation to present it to others for +imitation. Let us be sure of our ideal. We shall ever fail to realise +it, but we should never cease to strive for it. Then there need be no +fear of "co-operation of scoundrels" that Ruskin so rightly dreaded.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTE</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Paper contributed to the Bombay Provincial Co-operative +Conference, September 17, 1917.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="NATIONAL_DRESS6" id="NATIONAL_DRESS6"></a>NATIONAL DRESS<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></h2> + +<p>I have hitherto successfully resisted to temptation of either answering +your or Mr. Irwin's criticism of the humble work I am doing in +Champaran. Nor am I going to succumb now except with regard to a matter +which Mr. Irwin has thought fit to dwell upon and about which he has not +even taken the trouble of being correctly informed. I refer to his +remarks on my manner of dressing.</p> + +<p>My "familiarity with the minor amenities of Western civilisation" has +taught me to respect my national costume, and it may interest Mr. Irwin +to know that the dress I wear in Champaran is the dress I have always +worn in India except that for a very short period in India I fell an +easy prey in common with the rest of my countrymen to the wearing of +semi-European dress in the courts and elsewhere outside Kathiawar. I +appeared before the Kathiawar courts now 21 years ago in precisely the +dress I wear in Champaran.</p> + +<p>One change I have made and it is that, having taken to the occupation of +weaving and agriculture and having taken the vow of Swadeshi, my +clothing is now entirely hand-woven and hand-sewn and made by me or my +fellow workers. Mr. Irwin's letter suggests that I appear before the +ryots in a dress I have temporarily and specially adopted in Champaran +to produce an effect. The fact is that I wear the national dress because +it is the most natural and the most becoming for an Indian. I believe +that our copying of the European dress is a sign of our degradation, +humiliation and our weakness, and that we are committing a national sin +in discarding a dress which is best suited to the Indian<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> climate and +which, for its simplicity, art and cheapness, is not to be beaten on the +face of the earth and which answers hygienic requirements. Had it not +been for a false pride and equally false notions of prestige, Englishmen +here would long ago have adopted the Indian costume. I may mention +incidentally that I do not go about Champaran bare headed. I do avoid +shoes for sacred reasons. But I find too that it is more natural and +healthier to avoid them whenever possible.</p> + +<p>I am sorry to inform Mr. Irwin and your readers that my esteemed friend +Babu Brijakishore Prasad, the "ex-Hon. Member of Council," still remains +unregenerate and retains the provincial cap and never walks barefoot and +"kicks up" a terrible noise even in the house we are living in by +wearing wooden sandals. He has still not the courage, in spite of most +admirable contact with me, to discard his semi-anglicised dress and +whenever he goes to see officials he puts his legs into the bifurcated +garment and on his own admission tortures himself by cramping his feet +in inelastic shoes. I cannot induce him to believe that his clients +won't desert him and the courts won't punish him if he wore his more +becoming and less expensive dhoti. I invite you and Mr. Irwin not to +believe the "stories" that the latter hears about me and my friends, but +to join me in the crusade against educated Indians abandoning their +manners, habits and customs which are not proved to be bad or harmful. +Finally I venture to warn you and Mr. Irwin that you and he will +ill-serve the cause both of you consider is in danger by reason of my +presence in Champaran if you continue, as you have done, to base your +strictures on unproved facts. I ask you to accept my assurance that I +should deem myself unworthy of the friendship and confidence of hundreds +of my English friends and associates—not all of them fellow cranks—if +in similar circumstances I acted towards them differently from my own +countrymen.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTE:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Reply to Mr. Irwin's criticism of his dress in the +<i>Pioneer</i>.</p></div></div> + +<hr /> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p class="center"><i>Printed by K. R. Sondhi at the Allied Press, Lahore, and published by +R. P. Soni for Gandhi Publications League, Lahore.</i></p> + +<hr /> + +<p><b><i>Gandhi Series</i></b></p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<h2>BEHIND THE BARS</h2> + +<p class="center">*</p> + +<h2>THIRD CLASS IN<br />INDIAN RAILWAYS</h2> + +<p class="center">*</p> + + +<h2>IN ROUND TABLE<br />CONFERENCE<br /></h2> + +<p class="center">*</p> + +<h3>Price Six Annas Each</h3> + +<p><b>AT ALL</b><br /><b>RAILWAY AND OTHER BOOKSTALLS</b></p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Third class in Indian railways, by Mahatma Gandhi + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THIRD CLASS IN INDIAN RAILWAYS *** + +***** This file should be named 24461-h.htm or 24461-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/4/6/24461/ + +Produced by Bryan Ness, Martin Pettit and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Third class in Indian railways + +Author: Mahatma Gandhi + +Release Date: January 31, 2008 [EBook #24461] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THIRD CLASS IN INDIAN RAILWAYS *** + + + + +Produced by Bryan Ness, Martin Pettit and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +THIRD CLASS IN INDIAN RAILWAYS + + +BY +M. K. GANDHI + + +GANDHI PUBLICATIONS LEAGUE +BHADARKALI-LAHORE + + + + +THIRD CLASS IN INDIAN RAILWAYS[1] + + +I have now been in India for over two years and a half after my return +from South Africa. Over one quarter of that time I have passed on the +Indian trains travelling third class by choice. I have travelled up +north as far as Lahore, down south up to Tranquebar, and from Karachi to +Calcutta. Having resorted to third class travelling, among other +reasons, for the purpose of studying the conditions under which this +class of passengers travel, I have naturally made as critical +observations as I could. I have fairly covered the majority of railway +systems during this period. Now and then I have entered into +correspondence with the management of the different railways about the +defects that have come under my notice. But I think that the time has +come when I should invite the press and the public to join in a crusade +against a grievance which has too long remained unredressed, though much +of it is capable of redress without great difficulty. + +On the 12th instant I booked at Bombay for Madras by the mail train and +paid Rs. 13-9. It was labelled to carry 22 passengers. These could only +have seating accommodation. There were no bunks in this carriage whereon +passengers could lie with any degree of safety or comfort. There were +two nights to be passed in this train before reaching Madras. If not +more than 22 passengers found their way into my carriage before we +reached Poona, it was because the bolder ones kept the others at bay. +With the exception of two or three insistent passengers, all had to find +their sleep being seated all the time. After reaching Raichur the +pressure became unbearable. The rush of passengers could not be stayed. +The fighters among us found the task almost beyond them. The guards or +other railway servants came in only to push in more passengers. + +A defiant Memon merchant protested against this packing of passengers +like sardines. In vain did he say that this was his fifth night on the +train. The guard insulted him and referred him to the management at the +terminus. There were during this night as many as 35 passengers in the +carriage during the greater part of it. Some lay on the floor in the +midst of dirt and some had to keep standing. A free fight was, at one +time, avoided only by the intervention of some of the older passengers +who did not want to add to the discomfort by an exhibition of temper. + +On the way passengers got for tea tannin water with filthy sugar and a +whitish looking liquid mis-called milk which gave this water a muddy +appearance. I can vouch for the appearance, but I cite the testimony of +the passengers as to the taste. + +Not during the whole of the journey was the compartment once swept or +cleaned. The result was that every time you walked on the floor or +rather cut your way through the passengers seated on the floor, you +waded through dirt. + +The closet was also not cleaned during the journey and there was no +water in the water tank. + +Refreshments sold to the passengers were dirty-looking, handed by +dirtier hands, coming out of filthy receptacles and weighed in equally +unattractive scales. These were previously sampled by millions of flies. +I asked some of the passengers who went in for these dainties to give +their opinion. Many of them used choice expressions as to the quality +but were satisfied to state that they were helpless in the matter; they +had to take things as they came. + +On reaching the station I found that the ghari-wala would not take me +unless I paid the fare he wanted. I mildly protested and told him I +would pay him the authorised fare. I had to turn passive resister +before I could be taken. I simply told him he would have to pull me out +of the ghari or call the policeman. + +The return journey was performed in no better manner. The carriage was +packed already and but for a friend's intervention I could not have been +able to secure even a seat. My admission was certainly beyond the +authorised number. This compartment was constructed to carry 9 +passengers but it had constantly 12 in it. At one place an important +railway servant swore at a protestant, threatened to strike him and +locked the door over the passengers whom he had with difficulty squeezed +in. To this compartment there was a closet falsely so called. It was +designed as a European closet but could hardly be used as such. There +was a pipe in it but no water, and I say without fear of challenge that +it was pestilentially dirty. + +The compartment itself was evil looking. Dirt was lying thick upon the +wood work and I do not know that it had ever seen soap or water. + +The compartment had an exceptional assortment of passengers. There were +three stalwart Punjabi Mahomedans, two refined Tamilians and two +Mahomedan merchants who joined us later. The merchants related the +bribes they had to give to procure comfort. One of the Punjabis had +already travelled three nights and was weary and fatigued. But he could +not stretch himself. He said he had sat the whole day at the Central +Station watching passengers giving bribe to procure their tickets. +Another said he had himself to pay Rs. 5 before he could get his ticket +and his seat. These three men were bound for Ludhiana and had still more +nights of travel in store for them. + +What I have described is not exceptional but normal. I have got down at +Raichur, Dhond, Sonepur, Chakradharpur, Purulia, Asansol and other +junction stations and been at the 'Mosafirkhanas' attached to these +stations. They are discreditable-looking places where there is no +order, no cleanliness but utter confusion and horrible din and noise. +Passengers have no benches or not enough to sit on. They squat on dirty +floors and eat dirty food. They are permitted to throw the leavings of +their food and spit where they like, sit how they like and smoke +everywhere. The closets attached to these places defy description. I +have not the power adequately to describe them without committing a +breach of the laws of decent speech. Disinfecting powder, ashes, or +disinfecting fluids are unknown. The army of flies buzzing about them +warns you against their use. But a third-class traveller is dumb and +helpless. He does not want to complain even though to go to these places +may be to court death. I know passengers who fast while they are +travelling just in order to lessen the misery of their life in the +trains. At Sonepur flies having failed, wasps have come forth to warn +the public and the authorities, but yet to no purpose. At the Imperial +Capital a certain third class booking-office is a Black-Hole fit only to +be destroyed. + +Is it any wonder that plague has become endemic in India? Any other +result is impossible where passengers always leave some dirt where they +go and take more on leaving. + +On Indian trains alone passengers smoke with impunity in all carriages +irrespective of the presence of the fair sex and irrespective of the +protest of non-smokers. And this, notwithstanding a bye-law which +prevents a passenger from smoking without the permission of his fellows +in the compartment which is not allotted to smokers. + +The existence of the awful war cannot be allowed to stand in the way of +the removal of this gigantic evil. War can be no warrant for tolerating +dirt and overcrowding. One could understand an entire stoppage of +passenger traffic in a crisis like this, but never a continuation or +accentuation of insanitation and conditions that must undermine health +and morality. + +Compare the lot of the first class passengers with that of the third +class. In the Madras case the first class fare is over five times as +much as the third class fare. Does the third class passenger get +one-fifth, even one-tenth, of the comforts of his first class fellow? It +is but simple justice to claim that some relative proportion be observed +between the cost and comfort. + +It is a known fact that the third class traffic pays for the +ever-increasing luxuries of first and second class travelling. Surely a +third class passenger is entitled at least to the bare necessities of +life. + +In neglecting the third class passengers, opportunity of giving a +splendid education to millions in orderliness, sanitation, decent +composite life and cultivation of simple and clean tastes is being lost. +Instead of receiving an object lesson in these matters third class +passengers have their sense of decency and cleanliness blunted during +their travelling experience. + +Among the many suggestions that can be made for dealing with the evil +here described, I would respectfully include this: let the people in +high places, the Viceroy, the Commander-in-Chief, the Rajas, Maharajas, +the Imperial Councillors and others, who generally travel in superior +classes, without previous warning, go through the experiences now and +then of third class travelling. We would then soon see a remarkable +change in the conditions of third class travelling and the uncomplaining +millions will get some return for the fares they pay under the +expectation of being carried from place to place with ordinary creature +comforts. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[1] Ranchi, September 25, 1917. + + + + +VERNACULARS AS MEDIA OF INSTRUCTION[2] + + +It is to be hoped that Dr. Mehta's labour of love will receive the +serious attention of English-educated India. The following pages were +written by him for the _Vedanta Kesari_ of Madras and are now printed in +their present form for circulation throughout India. The question of +vernaculars as media of instruction is of national importance; neglect +of the vernaculars means national suicide. One hears many protagonists +of the English language being continued as the medium of instruction +pointing to the fact that English-educated Indians are the sole +custodians of public and patriotic work. It would be monstrous if it +were not so. For the only education given in this country is through the +English language. The fact, however, is that the results are not all +proportionate to the time we give to our education. We have not reacted +on the masses. But I must not anticipate Dr. Mehta. He is in earnest. He +writes feelingly. He has examined the pros and cons and collected a mass +of evidence in support of his arguments. The latest pronouncement on the +subject is that of the Viceroy. Whilst His Excellency is unable to offer +a solution, he is keenly alive to the necessity of imparting instruction +in our schools through the vernaculars. The Jews of Middle and Eastern +Europe, who are scattered in all parts of the world, finding it +necessary to have a common tongue for mutual intercourse, have raised +Yiddish to the status of a language, and have succeeded in translating +into Yiddish the best books to be found in the world's literature. Even +they could not satisfy the soul's yearning through the many foreign +tongues of which they are masters; nor did the learned few among them +wish to tax the masses of the Jewish population with having to learn a +foreign language before they could realise their dignity. So they have +enriched what was at one time looked upon as a mere jargon--but what the +Jewish children learnt from their mothers--by taking special pains to +translate into it the best thought of the world. This is a truly +marvellous work. It has been done during the present generation, and +Webster's Dictionary defines it as a polyglot jargon used for +inter-communication by Jews from different nations. + +But a Jew of Middle and Eastern Europe would feel insulted if his mother +tongue were now so described. If these Jewish scholars have succeeded, +within a generation, in giving their masses a language of which they may +feel proud, surely it should be an easy task for us to supply the needs +of our own vernaculars which are cultured languages. South Africa +teaches us the same lesson. There was a duel there between the Taal, a +corrupt form of Dutch, and English. The Boer mothers and the Boer +fathers were determined that they would not let their children, with +whom they in their infancy talked in the Taal, be weighed down with +having to receive instruction through English. The case for English here +was a strong one. It had able pleaders for it. But English had to yield +before Boer patriotism. It may be observed that they rejected even the +High Dutch. The school masters, therefore, who are accustomed to speak +the published Dutch of Europe, are compelled to teach the easier Taal. +And literature of an excellent character is at the present moment +growing up in South Africa in the Taal, which was only a few years ago, +the common medium of speech between simple but brave rustics. If we have +lost faith in our vernaculars, it is a sign of want of faith in +ourselves; it is the surest sign of decay. And no scheme of +self-government, however benevolently or generously it may be bestowed +upon us, will ever make us a self-governing nation, if we have no +respect for the languages our mothers speak. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[2] Introduction to Dr. Mehta's "Self-Government Series". + + + + +SWADESHI[3] + + +It was not without great diffidence that I undertook to speak to you at +all. And I was hard put to it in the selection of my subject. I have +chosen a very delicate and difficult subject. It is delicate because of +the peculiar views I hold upon Swadeshi, and it is difficult because I +have not that command of language which is necessary for giving adequate +expression to my thoughts. I know that I may rely upon your indulgence +for the many shortcomings you will no doubt find in my address, the more +so when I tell you that there is nothing in what I am about to say that +I am not either already practising or am not preparing to practise to +the best of my ability. It encourages me to observe that last month you +devoted a week to prayer in the place of an address. I have earnestly +prayed that what I am about to say may bear fruit and I know that you +will bless my word with a similar prayer. + +After much thinking I have arrived at a definition of Swadeshi that, +perhaps, best illustrates my meaning. Swadeshi is that spirit in us +which restricts us to the use and service of our immediate surroundings +to the exclusion of the more remote. Thus, as for religion, in order to +satisfy the requirements of the definition, I must restrict myself to my +ancestral religion. That is the use of my immediate religious +surrounding. If I find it defective, I should serve it by purging it of +its defects. In the domain of politics I should make use of the +indigenous institutions and serve them by curing them of their proved +defects. In that of economics I should use only things that are produced +by my immediate neighbours and serve those industries by making them +efficient and complete where they might be found wanting. It is +suggested that such Swadeshi, if reduced to practice, will lead to the +millennium. And, as we do not abandon our pursuit after the millennium, +because we do not expect quite to reach it within our times, so may we +not abandon Swadeshi even though it may not be fully attained for +generations to come. + +Let us briefly examine the three branches of Swadeshi as sketched above. +Hinduism has become a conservative religion and, therefore, a mighty +force because of the Swadeshi spirit underlying it. It is the most +tolerant because it is non-proselytising, and it is as capable of +expansion today as it has been found to be in the past. It has succeeded +not in driving out, as I think it has been erroneously held, but in +absorbing Buddhism. By reason of the Swadeshi spirit, a Hindu refuses to +change his religion, not necessarily because he considers it to be the +best, but because he knows that he can complement it by introducing +reforms. And what I have said about Hinduism is, I suppose, true of the +other great faiths of the world, only it is held that it is specially so +in the case of Hinduism. But here comes the point I am labouring to +reach. If there is any substance in what I have said, will not the great +missionary bodies of India, to whom she owes a deep debt of gratitude +for what they have done and are doing, do still better and serve the +spirit of Christianity better by dropping the goal of proselytising +while continuing their philanthropic work? I hope you will not consider +this to be an impertinence on my part. I make the suggestion in all +sincerity and with due humility. Moreover I have some claim upon your +attention. I have endeavoured to study the Bible. I consider it as part +of my scriptures. The spirit of the Sermon on the Mount competes almost +on equal terms with the Bhagavad Gita for the domination of my heart. I +yield to no Christian in the strength of devotion with which I sing +"Lead kindly light" and several other inspired hymns of a similar +nature. I have come under the influence of noted Christian missionaries +belonging to different denominations. And enjoy to this day the +privilege of friendship with some of them. You will perhaps, therefore, +allow that I have offered the above suggestion not as a biased Hindu, +but as a humble and impartial student of religion with great leanings +towards Christianity. May it not be that "Go ye unto all the world" +message has been somewhat narrowly interpreted and the spirit of it +missed? It will not be denied, I speak from experience, that many of the +conversions are only so-called. In some cases the appeal has gone not to +the heart but to the stomach. And in every case a conversion leaves a +sore behind it which, I venture to think, is avoidable. Quoting again +from experience, a new birth, a change of heart, is perfectly possible +in every one of the great faiths. I know I am now treading upon thin +ice. But I do not apologise in closing this part of my subject, for +saying that the frightful outrage that is just going on in Europe, +perhaps shows that the message of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Peace, +had been little understood in Europe, and that light upon it may have to +be thrown from the East. + +I have sought your help in religious matters, which it is yours to give +in a special sense. But I make bold to seek it even in political +matters. I do not believe that religion has nothing to do with politics. +The latter divorced from religion is like a corpse only fit to be +buried. As a matter of fact, in your own silent manner, you influence +politics not a little. And I feel that, if the attempt to separate +politics from religion had not been made as it is even now made, they +would not have degenerated as they often appear to have done. No one +considers that the political life of the country is in a happy state. +Following out the Swadeshi spirit, I observe the indigenous institutions +and the village panchayats hold me. India is really a republican +country, and it is because it is that, that it has survived every shock +hitherto delivered. Princes and potentates, whether they were Indian +born or foreigners, have hardly touched the vast masses except for +collecting revenue. The latter in their turn seem to have rendered unto +Caesar what was Caesar's and for the rest have done much as they have +liked. The vast organisation of caste answered not only the religious +wants of the community, but it answered to its political needs. The +villagers managed their internal affairs through the caste system, and +through it they dealt with any oppression from the ruling power or +powers. It is not possible to deny of a nation that was capable of +producing the caste system its wonderful power of organisation. One had +but to attend the great Kumbha Mela at Hardwar last year to know how +skilful that organisation must have been, which without any seeming +effort was able effectively to cater for more than a million pilgrims. +Yet it is the fashion to say that we lack organising ability. This is +true, I fear, to a certain extent, of those who have been nurtured in +the new traditions. We have laboured under a terrible handicap owing to +an almost fatal departure from the Swadeshi spirit. We, the educated +classes, have received our education through a foreign tongue. We have +therefore not reacted upon the masses. We want to represent the masses, +but we fail. They recognise us not much more than they recognise the +English officers. Their hearts are an open book to neither. Their +aspirations are not ours. Hence there is a break. And you witness not in +reality failure to organise but want of correspondence between the +representatives and the represented. If during the last fifty years we +had been educated through the vernaculars, our elders and our servants +and our neighbours would have partaken of our knowledge; the discoveries +of a Bose or a Ray would have been household treasures as are the +Ramayan and the Mahabharat. As it is, so far as the masses are +concerned, those great discoveries might as well have been made by +foreigners. Had instruction in all the branches of learning been given +through the vernaculars, I make bold to say that they would have been +enriched wonderfully. The question of village sanitation, etc., would +have been solved long ago. The village panchayats would be now a living +force in a special way, and India would almost be enjoying +self-government suited to its requirements and would have been spared +the humiliating spectacle of organised assassination on its sacred soil. +It is not too late to mend. And you can help if you will, as no other +body or bodies can. + +And now for the last division of Swadeshi, much of the deep poverty of +the masses is due to the ruinous departure from Swadeshi in the economic +and industrial life. If not an article of commerce had been brought from +outside India, she would be today a land flowing with milk and honey. +But that was not to be. We were greedy and so was England. The +connection between England and India was based clearly upon an error. +But she does not remain in India in error. It is her declared policy +that India is to be held in trust for her people. If this be true, +Lancashire must stand aside. And if the Swadeshi doctrine is a sound +doctrine, Lancashire can stand aside without hurt, though it may sustain +a shock for the time being. I think of Swadeshi not as a boycott +movement undertaken by way of revenge. I conceive it as religious +principle to be followed by all. I am no economist, but I have read some +treatises which show that England could easily become a self-sustained +country, growing all the produce she needs. This may be an utterly +ridiculous proposition, and perhaps the best proof that it cannot be +true, is that England is one of the largest importers in the world. But +India cannot live for Lancashire or any other country before she is able +to live for herself. And she can live for herself only if she produces +and is helped to produce everything for her requirements within her own +borders. She need not be, she ought not to be, drawn into the vertex of +mad and ruinous competition which breeds fratricide, jealousy and many +other evils. But who is to stop her great millionaires from entering +into the world competition? Certainly not legislation. Force of public +opinion, proper education, however, can do a great deal in the desired +direction. The hand-loom industry is in a dying condition. I took +special care during my wanderings last year to see as many weavers as +possible, and my heart ached to find how they had lost, how families had +retired from this once flourishing and honourable occupation. If we +follow the Swadeshi doctrine, it would be your duty and mine to find out +neighbours who can supply our wants and to teach them to supply them +where they do not know how to proceed, assuming that there are +neighbours who are in want of healthy occupation. Then every village of +India will almost be a self-supporting and self-contained unit, +exchanging only such necessary commodities with other villages where +they are not locally producible. This may all sound nonsensical. Well, +India is a country of nonsense. It is nonsensical to parch one's throat +with thirst when a kindly Mahomedan is ready to offer pure water to +drink. And yet thousands of Hindus would rather die of thirst than drink +water from a Mahomedan household. These nonsensical men can also, once +they are convinced that their religion demands that they should wear +garments manufactured in India only and eat food only grown in India, +decline to wear any other clothing or eat any other food. Lord Curzon +set the fashion for tea-drinking. And that pernicious drug now bids fair +to overwhelm the nation. It has already undermined the digestive +apparatus of hundreds of thousands of men and women and constitutes an +additional tax upon their slender purses. Lord Hardinge can set the +fashion for Swadeshi, and almost the whole of India forswear foreign +goods. There is a verse in the Bhagavad Gita, which, freely rendered, +means, masses follow the classes. It is easy to undo the evil if the +thinking portion of the community were to take the Swadeshi vow even +though it may, for a time, cause considerable inconvenience. I hate +legislative interference, in any department of life. At best it is the +lesser evil. But I would tolerate, welcome, indeed, plead for a stiff +protective duty upon foreign goods. Natal, a British colony, protected +its sugar by taxing the sugar that came from another British colony, +Mauritius. England has sinned against India by forcing free trade upon +her. It may have been food for her, but it has been poison for this +country. + +It has often been urged that India cannot adopt Swadeshi in the economic +life at any rate. Those who advance this objection do not look upon +Swadeshi as a rule of life. With them it is a mere patriotic effort not +to be made if it involved any self-denial. Swadeshi, as defined here, is +a religious discipline to be undergone in utter disregard of the +physical discomfort it may cause to individuals. Under its spell the +deprivation of a pin or a needle, because these are not manufactured in +India, need cause no terror. A Swadeshist will learn to do without +hundreds of things which today he considers necessary. Moreover, those +who dismiss Swadeshi from their minds by arguing the impossible, forget +that Swadeshi, after all, is a goal to be reached by steady effort. And +we would be making for the goal even if we confined Swadeshi to a given +set of articles allowing ourselves as a temporary measure to use such +things as might not be procurable in the country. + +There now remains for me to consider one more objection that has been +raised against Swadeshi. The objectors consider it to be a most selfish +doctrine without any warrant in the civilised code of morality. With +them to practise Swadeshi is to revert to barbarism. I cannot enter into +a detailed analysis of the position. But I would urge that Swadeshi is +the only doctrine consistent with the law of humility and love. It is +arrogance to think of launching out to serve the whole of India when I +am hardly able to serve even my own family. It were better to +concentrate my effort upon the family and consider that through them I +was serving the whole nation and, if you will, the whole of humanity. +This is humility and it is love. The motive will determine the quality +of the act. I may serve my family regardless of the sufferings I may +cause to others. As for instance, I may accept an employment which +enables me to extort money from people, I enrich myself thereby and then +satisfy many unlawful demands of the family. Here I am neither serving +the family nor the State. Or I may recognise that God has given me hands +and feet only to work with for my sustenance and for that of those who +may be dependent upon me. I would then at once simplify my life and that +of those whom I can directly reach. In this instance I would have served +the family without causing injury to anyone else. Supposing that +everyone followed this mode of life, we should have at once an ideal +state. All will not reach that state at the same time. But those of us +who, realising its truth, enforce it in practice will clearly anticipate +and accelerate the coming of that happy day. Under this plan of life, in +seeming to serve India to the exclusion of every other country I do not +harm any other country. My patriotism is both exclusive and inclusive. +It is exclusive in the sense that in all humility I confine my attention +to the land of my birth, but it is inclusive in the sense that my +service is not of a competitive or antagonistic nature. _Sic utere tuo +ut alienum non la_ is not merely a legal maxim, but it is a grand +doctrine of life. It is the key to a proper practice of Ahimsa or love. +It is for you, the custodians of a great faith, to set the fashion and +show, by your preaching, sanctified by practice, that patriotism based +on hatred "killeth" and that patriotism based on love "giveth life." + +FOOTNOTE: + +[3] Address delivered before the Missionary Conference on February 14, +1916. + + + + +AHIMSA[4] + + +There seems to be no historical warrant for the belief that an +exaggerated practice of Ahimsa synchronises with our becoming bereft of +manly virtues. During the past 1,500 years we have, as a nation, given +ample proof of physical courage, but we have been torn by internal +dissensions and have been dominated by love of self instead of love of +country. We have, that is to say, been swayed by the spirit of +irreligion rather than of religion. + +I do not know how far the charge of unmanliness can be made good against +the Jains. I hold no brief for them. By birth I am a Vaishnavite, and +was taught Ahimsa in my childhood. I have derived much religious benefit +from Jain religious works as I have from scriptures of the other great +faiths of the world. I owe much to the living company of the deceased +philosopher, Rajachand Kavi, who was a Jain by birth. Thus, though my +views on Ahimsa are a result of my study of most of the faiths of the +world, they are now no longer dependent upon the authority of these +works. They are a part of my life, and, if I suddenly discovered that +the religious books read by me bore a different interpretation from the +one I had learnt to give them, I should still hold to the view of Ahimsa +as I am about to set forth here. + +Our Shastras seem to teach that a man who really practises Ahimsa in its +fulness has the world at his feet; he so affects his surroundings that +even the snakes and other venomous reptiles do him no harm. This is said +to have been the experience of St. Francis of Assisi. + +In its negative form it means not injuring any living being whether by +body or mind. It may not, therefore, hurt the person of any wrong-doer, +or bear any ill-will to him and so cause him mental suffering. This +statement does not cover suffering caused to the wrong-doer by natural +acts of mine which do not proceed from ill-will. It, therefore, does not +prevent me from withdrawing from his presence a child whom he, we shall +imagine, is about to strike. Indeed, the proper practice of Ahimsa +_requires_ me to withdraw the intended victim from the wrong-doer, if I +am, in any way whatsoever, the guardian of such a child. It was, +therefore, most proper for the passive resisters of South Africa to have +resisted the evil that the Union Government sought to do to them. They +bore no ill-will to it. They showed this by helping the Government +whenever it needed their help. _Their resistance consisted of +disobedience of the orders of the Government, even to the extent of +suffering death at their hands._ Ahimsa requires deliberate +self-suffering, not a deliberate injuring of the supposed wrong-doer. + +In its positive form, Ahimsa means the largest love, the greatest +charity. If I am a follower of Ahimsa, I _must love_ my enemy. I must +apply the same rules to the wrong-doer who is my enemy or a stranger to +me, as I would to my wrong-doing father or son. This active Ahimsa +necessarily includes truth and fearlessness. As man cannot deceive the +loved one, he does not fear or frighten him or her. Gift of life is the +greatest of all gifts; a man who gives it in reality, disarms all +hostility. He has paved the way for an honourable understanding. And +none who is himself subject to fear can bestow that gift. He must, +therefore, be himself fearless. A man cannot then practice Ahimsa and be +a coward at the same time. The practice of Ahimsa calls forth the +greatest courage. It is the most soldierly of a soldier's virtues. +General Gordon has been represented in a famous statue as bearing only a +stick. This takes us far on the road to Ahimsa. But a soldier, who needs +the protection of even a stick, is to that extent so much the less a +soldier. He is the true soldier who knows how to die and stand his +ground in the midst of a hail of bullets. Such a one was Ambarisha, who +stood his ground without lifting a finger though Duryasa did his worst. +The Moors who were being pounded by the French gunners and who rushed to +the guns' mouths with 'Allah' on their lips, showed much the same type +of courage. Only theirs was the courage of desperation. Ambarisha's was +due to love. Yet the Moorish valour, readiness to die, conquered the +gunners. They frantically waved their hats, ceased firing, and greeted +their erstwhile enemies as comrades. And so the South African passive +resisters in their thousands were ready to die rather than sell their +honour for a little personal ease. This was Ahimsa in its active form. +It _never_ barters away honour. A helpless girl in the hands of a +follower of Ahimsa finds better and surer protection than in the hands +of one who is prepared to defend her only to the point to which his +weapons would carry him. The tyrant, in the first instance, will have to +walk to his victim over the dead body of her defender; in the second, he +has but to overpower the defender; for it is assumed that the cannon of +propriety in the second instance will be satisfied when the defender has +fought to the extent of his physical valour. In the first instance, as +the defender has matched his very soul against the mere body of the +tyrant, the odds are that the soul in the latter will be awakened, and +the girl would stand an infinitely greater chance of her honour being +protected than in any other conceivable circumstance, barring of course, +that of her own personal courage. + +If we are unmanly today, we are so, not because we do not know how to +strike, but because we fear to die. He is no follower of Mahavira, the +apostle of Jainism, or of Buddha or of the Vedas, who being afraid to +die, takes flight before any danger, real or imaginary, all the while +wishing that somebody else would remove the danger by destroying the +person causing it. He is no follower of Ahimsa who does not care a straw +if he kills a man by inches by deceiving him in trade, or who would +protect by force of arms a few cows and make away with the butcher or +who, in order to do a supposed good to his country, does not mind +killing off a few officials. All these are actuated by hatred, cowardice +and fear. Here the love of the cow or the country is a vague thing +intended to satisfy one's vanity, or soothe a stinging conscience. + +Ahimsa truly understood is in my humble opinion a panacea for all evils +mundane and extra-mundane. We can never overdo it. Just at present we +are not doing it at all. Ahimsa does not displace the practice of other +virtues, but renders their practice imperatively necessary before it can +be practised even in its rudiments. Mahavira and Buddha were soldiers, +and so was Tolstoy. Only they saw deeper and truer into their +profession, and found the secret of a true, happy, honourable and godly +life. Let us be joint sharers with these teachers, and this land of ours +will once more be the abode of gods. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[4] The _Modern Review_, October, 1916. + + + + +THE MORAL BASIS OF CO-OPERATION[5] + + +The only claim I have on your indulgence is that some months ago I +attended with Mr. Ewbank a meeting of mill-hands to whom he wanted to +explain the principles of co-operation. The chawl in which they were +living was as filthy as it well could be. Recent rains had made matters +worse. And I must frankly confess that, had it not been for Mr. Ewbank's +great zeal for the cause he has made his own, I should have shirked the +task. But there we were, seated on a fairly worn-out _charpai_, +surrounded by men, women and children. Mr. Ewbank opened fire on a man +who had put himself forward and who wore not a particularly innocent +countenance. After he had engaged him and the other people about him in +Gujrati conversation, he wanted me to speak to the people. Owing to the +suspicious looks of the man who was first spoken to, I naturally pressed +home the moralities of co-operation. I fancy that Mr. Ewbank rather +liked the manner in which I handled the subject. Hence, I believe, his +kind invitation to me to tax your patience for a few moments upon a +consideration of co-operation from a moral standpoint. + +My knowledge of the technicality of co-operation is next to nothing. My +brother, Devadhar, has made the subject his own. Whatever he does, +naturally attracts me and predisposes me to think that there must be +something good in it and the handling of it must be fairly difficult. +Mr. Ewbank very kindly placed at my disposal some literature too on the +subject. And I have had a unique opportunity of watching the effect of +some co-operative effort in Champaran. I have gone through Mr. Ewbank's +ten main points which are like the Commandments, and I have gone through +the twelve points of Mr. Collins of Behar, which remind me of the law of +the Twelve Tables. There are so-called agricultural banks in Champaran. +They were to me disappointing efforts, if they were meant to be +demonstrations of the success of co-operation. On the other hand, there +is quiet work in the same direction being done by Mr. Hodge, a +missionary whose efforts are leaving their impress on those who come in +contact with him. Mr. Hodge is a co-operative enthusiast and probably +considers that the result which he sees flowing from his efforts are due +to the working of co-operation. I, who was able to watch the efforts, +had no hesitation in inferring that the personal equation counted for +success in the one and failure in the other instance. + +I am an enthusiast myself, but twenty-five years of experimenting and +experience have made me a cautious and discriminating enthusiast. +Workers in a cause necessarily, though quite unconsciously, exaggerate +its merits and often succeed in turning its very defects into +advantages. In spite of my caution I consider the little institution I +am conducting in Ahmedabad as the finest thing in the world. It alone +gives me sufficient inspiration. Critics tell me that it represents a +soulless soul-force and that its severe discipline has made it merely +mechanical. I suppose both--the critics and I--are wrong. It is, at +best, a humble attempt to place at the disposal of the nation a home +where men and women may have scope for free and unfettered development +of character, in keeping with the national genius, and, if its +controllers do not take care, the discipline that is the foundation of +character may frustrate the very end in view. I would venture, +therefore, to warn enthusiasts in co-operation against entertaining +false hopes. + +With Sir Daniel Hamilton it has become a religion. On the 13th January +last, he addressed the students of the Scottish Churches College and, +in order to point a moral, he instanced Scotland's poverty of two +hundred years ago and showed how that great country was raised from a +condition of poverty to plenty. "There were two powers, which raised +her--the Scottish Church and the Scottish banks. The Church manufactured +the men and the banks manufactured the money to give the men a start in +life.... The Church disciplined the nation in the fear of God which is +the beginning of wisdom and in the parish schools of the Church the +children learned that the chief end of man's life was to glorify God and +to enjoy Him for ever. Men were trained to believe in God and in +themselves, and on the trustworthy character so created the Scottish +banking system was built." Sir Daniel then shows that it was possible to +build up the marvellous Scottish banking system only on the character so +built. So far there can only be perfect agreement with Sir Daniel, for +that 'without character there is no co-operation' is a sound maxim. But +he would have us go much further. He thus waxes eloquent on +co-operation: "Whatever may be your daydreams of India's future, never +forget this that it is to weld India into one, and so enable her to take +her rightful place in the world, that the British Government is here; +and the welding hammer in the hand of the Government is the co-operative +movement." In his opinion it is the panacea of all the evils that +afflict India at the present moment. In its extended sense it can +justify the claim on one condition which need not be mentioned here; in +the limited sense in which Sir Daniel has used it, I venture to think, +it is an enthusiast's exaggeration. Mark his peroration: "Credit, which +is only Trust and Faith, is becoming more and more the money power of +the world, and in the parchment bullet into which is impressed the faith +which removes mountains, India will find victory and peace." Here there +is evident confusion of thought. The credit which is becoming the money +power of the world has little moral basis and is not a synonym for +Trust or Faith, which are purely moral qualities. After twenty years' +experience of hundreds of men, who had dealings with banks in South +Africa, the opinion I had so often heard expressed has become firmly +rooted in me, that the greater the rascal the greater the credit he +enjoys with his banks. The banks do not pry into his moral character: +they are satisfied that he meets his overdrafts and promissory notes +punctually. The credit system has encircled this beautiful globe of ours +like a serpent's coil, and if we do not mind, it bids fair to crush us +out of breath. I have witnessed the ruin of many a home through the +system, and it has made no difference whether the credit was labelled +co-operative or otherwise. The deadly coil has made possible the +devastating spectacle in Europe, which we are helplessly looking on. It +was perhaps never so true as it is today that, as in law so in war, the +longest purse finally wins. I have ventured to give prominence to the +current belief about credit system in order to emphasise the point that +the co-operative movement will be a blessing to India only to the extent +that it is a moral movement strictly directed by men fired with +religious fervour. It follows, therefore, that co-operation should be +confined to men wishing to be morally right, but failing to do so, +because of grinding poverty or of the grip of the Mahajan. Facility for +obtaining loans at fair rates will not make immoral men moral. But the +wisdom of the Estate or philanthropists demands that they should help on +the onward path, men struggling to be good. + +Too often do we believe that material prosperity means moral growth. It +is necessary that a movement which is fraught with so much good to India +should not degenerate into one for merely advancing cheap loans. I was +therefore delighted to read the recommendation in the Report of the +Committee on Co-operation in India, that "they wish clearly to express +their opinion that it is to true co-operation alone, that is, to a +co-operation which recognises the moral aspect of the question that +Government must look for the amelioration of the masses and not to a +pseudo-co-operative edifice, however imposing, which is built in +ignorance of co-operative principles." With this standard before us, we +will not measure the success of the movement by the number of +co-operative societies formed, but by the moral condition of the +co-operators. The registrars will, in that event, ensure the moral +growth of existing societies before multiplying them. And the Government +will make their promotion conditional, not upon the number of societies +they have registered, but the moral success of the existing +institutions. This will mean tracing the course of every pie lent to the +members. Those responsible for the proper conduct of co-operative +societies will see to it that the money advanced does not find its way +into the toddy-seller's bill or into the pockets of the keepers of +gambling dens. I would excuse the rapacity of the Mahajan if it has +succeeded in keeping the gambling die or toddy from the ryot's home. + +A word perhaps about the Mahajan will not be out of place. Co-operation +is not a new device. The ryots co-operate to drum out monkeys or birds +that destroy their crops. They co-operate to use a common thrashing +floor. I have found them co-operate to protect their cattle to the +extent of their devoting the best land for the grazing of their cattle. +And they have been found co-operating against a particular rapacious +Mahajan. Doubts have been expressed as to the success of co-operation +because of the tightness of the Mahajan's hold on the ryots. I do not +share the fears. The mightiest Mahajan must, if he represent an evil +force, bend before co-operation, conceived as an essentially moral +movement. But my limited experience of the Mahajan of Champaran has made +me revise the accepted opinion about his 'blighting influence.' I have +found him to be not always relentless, not always exacting of the last +pie. He sometimes serves his clients in many ways and even comes to +their rescue in the hour of their distress. My observation is so limited +that I dare not draw any conclusions from it, but I respectfully enquire +whether it is not possible to make a serious effort to draw out the good +in the Mahajan and help him or induce him to throw out the evil in him. +May he not be induced to join the army of co-operation, or has +experience proved that he is past praying for? + +I note that the movement takes note of all indigenous industries. I beg +publicly to express my gratitude to Government for helping me in my +humble effort to improve the lot of the weaver. The experiment I am +conducting shows that there is a vast field for work in this direction. +No well-wisher of India, no patriot dare look upon the impending +destruction of the hand-loom weaver with equanimity. As Dr. Mann has +stated, this industry used to supply the peasant with an additional +source of livelihood and an insurance against famine. Every registrar +who will nurse back to life this important and graceful industry will +earn the gratitude of India. My humble effort consists firstly in making +researches as to the possibilities of simple reforms in the orthodox +hand-looms, secondly, in weaning the educated youth from the craving for +Government or other services and the feeling that education renders him +unfit for independent occupation and inducing him to take to weaving as +a calling as honourable as that of a barrister or a doctor, and thirdly +by helping those weavers who have abandoned their occupation to revert +to it. I will not weary the audience with any statement on the first two +parts of the experiment. The third may be allowed a few sentences as it +has a direct bearing upon the subject before us. I was able to enter +upon it only six months ago. Five families that had left off the calling +have reverted to it and they are doing a prosperous business. The Ashram +supplies them at their door with the yarn they need; its volunteers +take delivery of the cloth woven, paying them cash at the market rate. +The Ashram merely loses interest on the loan advanced for the yarn. It +has as yet suffered no loss and is able to restrict its loss to a +minimum by limiting the loan to a particular figure. All future +transactions are strictly cash. We are able to command a ready sale for +the cloth received. The loss of interest, therefore, on the transaction +is negligible. I would like the audience to note its purely moral +character from start to finish. The Ashram depends for its existence on +such help as _friends_ render it. We, therefore, can have no warrant for +charging interest. The weavers could not be saddled with it. Whole +families that were breaking to pieces are put together again. The use of +the loan is pre-determined. And we, the middlemen, being volunteers, +obtain the privilege of entering into the lives of these families, I +hope, for their and our betterment. We cannot lift them without being +lifted ourselves. This last relationship has not yet been developed, but +we hope, at an early date, to take in hand the education too of these +families and not rest satisfied till we have touched them at every +point. This is not too ambitious a dream. God willing, it will be a +reality some day. I have ventured to dilate upon the small experiment to +illustrate what I mean by co-operation to present it to others for +imitation. Let us be sure of our ideal. We shall ever fail to realise +it, but we should never cease to strive for it. Then there need be no +fear of "co-operation of scoundrels" that Ruskin so rightly dreaded. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[5] Paper contributed to the Bombay Provincial Co-operative Conference, +September 17, 1917. + + + + +NATIONAL DRESS[6] + + +I have hitherto successfully resisted to temptation of either answering +your or Mr. Irwin's criticism of the humble work I am doing in +Champaran. Nor am I going to succumb now except with regard to a matter +which Mr. Irwin has thought fit to dwell upon and about which he has not +even taken the trouble of being correctly informed. I refer to his +remarks on my manner of dressing. + +My "familiarity with the minor amenities of Western civilisation" has +taught me to respect my national costume, and it may interest Mr. Irwin +to know that the dress I wear in Champaran is the dress I have always +worn in India except that for a very short period in India I fell an +easy prey in common with the rest of my countrymen to the wearing of +semi-European dress in the courts and elsewhere outside Kathiawar. I +appeared before the Kathiawar courts now 21 years ago in precisely the +dress I wear in Champaran. + +One change I have made and it is that, having taken to the occupation of +weaving and agriculture and having taken the vow of Swadeshi, my +clothing is now entirely hand-woven and hand-sewn and made by me or my +fellow workers. Mr. Irwin's letter suggests that I appear before the +ryots in a dress I have temporarily and specially adopted in Champaran +to produce an effect. The fact is that I wear the national dress because +it is the most natural and the most becoming for an Indian. I believe +that our copying of the European dress is a sign of our degradation, +humiliation and our weakness, and that we are committing a national sin +in discarding a dress which is best suited to the Indian climate and +which, for its simplicity, art and cheapness, is not to be beaten on the +face of the earth and which answers hygienic requirements. Had it not +been for a false pride and equally false notions of prestige, Englishmen +here would long ago have adopted the Indian costume. I may mention +incidentally that I do not go about Champaran bare headed. I do avoid +shoes for sacred reasons. But I find too that it is more natural and +healthier to avoid them whenever possible. + +I am sorry to inform Mr. Irwin and your readers that my esteemed friend +Babu Brijakishore Prasad, the "ex-Hon. Member of Council," still remains +unregenerate and retains the provincial cap and never walks barefoot and +"kicks up" a terrible noise even in the house we are living in by +wearing wooden sandals. He has still not the courage, in spite of most +admirable contact with me, to discard his semi-anglicised dress and +whenever he goes to see officials he puts his legs into the bifurcated +garment and on his own admission tortures himself by cramping his feet +in inelastic shoes. I cannot induce him to believe that his clients +won't desert him and the courts won't punish him if he wore his more +becoming and less expensive dhoti. I invite you and Mr. Irwin not to +believe the "stories" that the latter hears about me and my friends, but +to join me in the crusade against educated Indians abandoning their +manners, habits and customs which are not proved to be bad or harmful. +Finally I venture to warn you and Mr. Irwin that you and he will +ill-serve the cause both of you consider is in danger by reason of my +presence in Champaran if you continue, as you have done, to base your +strictures on unproved facts. I ask you to accept my assurance that I +should deem myself unworthy of the friendship and confidence of hundreds +of my English friends and associates--not all of them fellow cranks--if +in similar circumstances I acted towards them differently from my own +countrymen. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[6] Reply to Mr. Irwin's criticism of his dress in the _Pioneer_. + + +_Printed by K. R. Sondhi at the Allied Press, Lahore, and published by +R. P. Soni for Gandhi Publications League, Lahore._ + + * * * * * + +_Gandhi Series_ + + +BEHIND THE BARS + + * + +THIRD CLASS IN +INDIAN RAILWAYS + + * + +IN ROUND TABLE +CONFERENCE + + * + +Price Six Annas Each + +AT ALL +RAILWAY AND OTHER BOOKSTALLS + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Third class in Indian railways, by Mahatma Gandhi + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THIRD CLASS IN INDIAN RAILWAYS *** + +***** This file should be named 24461.txt or 24461.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/4/6/24461/ + +Produced by Bryan Ness, Martin Pettit and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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