AN EYE FOR AN EYE

MAKES THE WHOLE WORLD BLIND

The renunciation of selfish works is called renunciation; but the surrender of the reward of all work is called surrender.

Some say that there should be renunciation of action − since action disturbs contemplation; but others say that works of sacrifice, gift and self-harmony should not be renounced.

Works of sacrifice, gift and self-harmony should not be abandoned, but should indeed be performed; for these are works of purification

But even these works should be done in the freedom of a pure offering, and without expectation of a reward. This is my final world.

Between 1924 and 1940 Gandhi devoted himself to the social economic and spiritual regeneration of India. This he believed would be achieved by the people themselves and not by political debates and reforms.

He called this ‘spiritual socialism’ and it included non-violence and practical action

− living close to nature by growing crops and nurturing cattle

− forestry and bee-keeping

− pottery and papermaking

− sanitation and hygiene

− learning to read and write

and− spinning your own cotton rather than using the coarse factory fabrics

Despite many centuries of conflict and violence, Gandhi believed that, without the British, Hindus and Muslims could live together in harmony.

When Gandhi came out of jail in 1924, he discovered that non-cooperation was being directed not against the government but against other Indians and, what was worse, that it had unleashed unusually violent and widespread Hindu-Muslim riots. Extremists in the two communities were gaining the upper hand everywhere. Gandhi blamed himself for he felt he had helped to awaken the masses politically by his campaigns for the non-cooperation movement. ‘Have I not been instrumental in bringing into being the vast energy of the people?’ he wrote after one such riot. ‘I must find the remedy, if the energy proved self-destructive. … Have I erred, have I been impatient, have I compromised with evil? … If real non-violence and truth had been practiced by the people, the gory duelling that is now going on would have been impossible.’

In order to stem the influence of Hindu and Muslim extremists and regain his power over the people, he undertook a twenty-one-day fast at the home of a Muslim friend in Delhi, entrusting himself to the care of Muslim doctors. He understood that his fasts had a great emotional effect, because the news of his suffering and possible death quickly travelled far and wide, and people who were unable to read or to understand complex issues readily grasped the symbolic importance of his fasting. By now, Gandhi had worked out a regimen for surviving a long fast − drinking a lot

of water, sometimes with salt in it, having enemas twice a day to remove toxins from his body, and remaining in bed.

Impelled to action by the possibility of Gandhi’s death, Hindu and Muslim leaders met in Delhi, papered over their differences, and affirmed the right to freedom of conscience and religion. Gandhi broke his fast to this followers’ singing of ‘Lead Kindly Light’ and to their reading from Hindu and Muslim scriptures.

In 1925 once again he took up the cause of self-help and spent that entire year touring the country and preaching the virtues of the spinning wheel. He now travelled in second-class compartments so that his entourage could accompany him and he could have peace and quiet to read and write. But he also walked long distances through thorn and thicket, mud and water, to penetrate the deepest interior of India. Everywhere he was greeted by crowds. He urged them to ply the spinning wheel and talked at length about ‘the khadi franchise’, ‘yarn currency’ and ‘the thread of destiny’. He told them that their enslavement was the result of their weakness, not of British might. He told them that they could become strong by taking pride in a simple, frugal chaste life, by praying, by eating unspiced food, by wearing simple clothes, and by treating Muslims, untouchables, women and other oppressed minorities as equals. He succeeded in making ‘spinning wheel’ a byword for economic independence and non-violent revolution, and ‘Lancashire mills’ a byword for economic imperialism and oppression.

In 1932 again in prison, Gandhi began a fast ‘unto death’. This was his protest against a decision − supported by all the factions − to allow the untouchables to elect their own representatives to provincial parliaments. Gandhi saw this as a further attempt to divide and rule, when India could be united only by ending the taboo altogether. He felt that religious and social disabilities could not be legislated out of existence but could only be set aside by a change of heart. ‘I believe that, if untouchability is really rooted out, it will not only purge Hinduism of a terrible blot but its repercussions will be worldwide,’ he said in a press interview a few hours after beginning his fast. ‘My fight against untouchability is a fight against the impure in humanity … The very best in the human family will come to my assistance if I have embarked on this thing with a heart … free of impurity, free of all malice, and all anger … You will therefore see that my fast is based first of all in the cause of faith even in the official world … My cry will rise to the throne of the Almighty God’.

News of Gandhi’s fast spread quickly and everywhere people prayed for his life and observed a day’s fast in sympathy. The fast so dramatised the plight of the untouchables that, all across the country, Hindus opened temple doors to them and allowed them to walk on public roads reserved for caste Hindus and, in some cases, even touched them and broke bread with them. The government opened the gates of the jail so that Gandhi and his followers, the untouchables’ leaders, and orthodox Hindus could settle the issue among themselves. Several days of intense negotiation followed, with Gandhi lying on an iron cot under a mango tree in the jail yard, his health failing rapidly. The negotiators reached the so-called Poona Agreement, or Yeravda Pact, which gave untouchables the right to elect more representatives to the provincial legislatures than were allowed for in the British proposal but also gave caste Hindus a role in selecting the representatives. The British government agreed to the change and, on the seventh day of the fast, Gandhi broke it by drinking a glass of orange juice.

Once again Gandhi had lived with death to affirm his principles of life. In the end he was to die, not by an act of will, but by an assassin’s bullet, proving even in death his own teaching “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind”.