Page 42 - GANDHI A Biography for Children and Beginners

GANDHI – A Biography for children and beginners

For this, two things were necessary. The Indian community should be united.

Their organization should be strengthened. They should be willing to back their

petitions with action, if that became necessary. Action was not possible
without readiness to suffer its consequences, without sacrificing narrow self-

interest, without readiness to pay the price of freedom and equality. The

Indian community had to shed its fear; know its goals; understand the means

that they were to employ, cooperate in the strategy of action. All this meant
constant communication between him and all sections of the Indian community

living in all the states of South Africa. Gandhi decided to start a journal for this

purpose. The journal was published in English, Hindi, Gujarati and Tamil. Week
after week he wrote on all issues, all aspects of the ideology behind the

struggle, all problems before the community. It was the life line of his

communication with the people, and with all sympathisers and adversaries. He

continued to edit it till he returned to India in 1914.

The second need related to himself. He should become a fit instrument to lead

his people in such a struggle, — the struggle in which the weak who were in the

right were pitted against the mighty who were defending injustice. Gandhi had
already shed his shyness. His diffidence had melted in the fire of his

commitment to the cause. The cause was not self- glorification but the

vindication of the dignity and equality of the human being. He had discovered
the power of the spirit, of the will. This is present in all. But everyone has to

be helped to discover it and to use it against evil. Gandhi had to help them to

discover this treasure house of power that they held within themselves. But he

could do so only if he became the selfless transparent manifestation of this
power within. He could do so only if he purified himself, overcame, and

became immune to, all temptations. In his own words, a leader had to be

immune to all temptation, and be in command of his desires.

In the midst of all his public activity, he therefore embarked on a ruthless and

relentless exercise of introspection and self-purification. He delved deep into

the life and message of every great human being who had set out to discover
the power and ways of the spirit. He embarked on a respectful study of all the

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