Page 83 - GANDHI A Biography for Children and Beginners

GANDHI – A Biography for children and beginners

his lodge in East London. He stuck an instant rapport with the workers and their

families. They looked upon him as one of them. Ethnic differences and

differences in nationality and political views never stood between Gandhi and
the common people. He wanted to go to Lancashire where textile workers had

been hit by unemployment as a result of his movement for the boycott of

foreign goods and the adoption of Swadeshi. He answered their questions with

calm and understanding. He told them they had three million people who were
unemployed. He had in his country three hundred million people who were

unemployed, whose average daily income was not even one-tenth of their dole.

Should he not ask that they should get employment and incomes? Even God
dare not appear before them except in the form of bread. Those who had

questioned Gandhi agreed with him, and said that in his place they would do

what he was doing. He had conquered their hearts.

At the Conference itself, Gandhi saw through the plan of the British. They

wanted to create the impression that the Indians were quarrelling among

themselves; they had conflicting interests which they pursued with mutual

hostility; they would be at each other's throat if Britain was not there to hold
them together and protect every one's interest. Transfer of power, therefore,

was unthinkable. Some made no secret of their belief that Indians were unfit

for self- government. And the Government had selected participants to ensure
a deadlock.

Gandhi, therefore, was forthright. He spelt out the objectives of the Indian

nation, said that the British Government had created an unreal situation. It was
they who were creating and promoting differences to use them as an excuse to

deny freedom. It is this attitude that should change. There were no conflicts of

interests in India. All artificial interests that went against the interests of the

common man should go. Every legitimate interest whether British or Indian that
would not be in conflict with the interests of the masses could remain.

Independent India would scrutinize all such claims and annul whatever was

against the interests of the poor.

www.mkgandhi.org Page 82