E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi – His Life & Timesand bloodshed. In case of an outbreak of war it would be the common effort ofIndia and Great Britain to prevent war, not indeed by force of arms, but by theirresistible force of example'.In these statements, Gandhi described precisely, and with remarkableprevision, the status which independent India voluntarily assumed in theCommonwealth in 1948. More, the protagonists of that move used the veryargument —and almost the exact words—which Gandhi had used in Londonseventeen years earlier. Gandhi saw that the only beneficent independence wasthe kind that led to interdependence. 'Isolated independence is not the goal',he said. 'It is voluntary interdependence'. He arrived at this conclusion throughno abstruse theorizing about internationalism or world government. Gandhi wasaddicted to love; it was the basis of his relations with people. Love is creativeinterdependence. And since Gandhi regarded nations not as abstract legalentities but as agglomerations of human beings with names, noses, aches andsmiles, he believed that international relationships should be founded oninterdependence and love.Gandhi had been criticized for acquiescing in Article Two of the Irwin-DelhiPact of March 5, 1931, which stated that in the contemplated constitution ofIndia, England would retain control over defence, foreign affairs, minorityproblems and financial obligations to foreign creditors. It was a severelimitation on freedom. Gandhi took the criticism to heart. Indeed, the Congressconvention in Karachi at the end of March 1931, instructed Gandhi to changehis position on this key question. Gandhi, accordingly, told British audiencesthat 'it is part of the mandate given to me by Congress that completeindependence would be meaningless unless it was accompanied by completecontrol over finance, defence and external affairs'. This reversal in Gandhi'sattitude exasperated the British; he had gone back on his signature. Gandhi hada technical justification in the mandate of Congress, his master. Actually, heattached no political importance to the stipulation in the Delhi Pact and onlypropaganda importance to his advocacy of the opposite in London. England waswww.mkgandhi.org Page 323