E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

1. Harijan, December 16,1939.10112. Bertrand Russell, Power (London:George Allen and Unwin, 1960), p.9.3. Harijan, October10, 1948.4. M.K. Gandhi, My Dear Child (Ahmedabad : Navajivan, 1959 ) p. 17. Also see chapters V and VI, FromYeravda Mandir by M. K. Gandhi (Ahmedabad:Navajivan, 1932) and Address at Guild House, London, 23September 1931 for an elaborate exposition of Gandhi’s thoughts on voluntary poverty and Aparigraha.5. Harijan, March 8, 1942, Young India, October 17, 1929.6. Ibid., June 29,1935, M. K. Gandhi From Yeravda Mandir, op.cit." p. 50.7. Harijan, June 3 1939.8. Ibid., August 25,1940.9. Ibid., March 23, 1947;, ibid., March 16 , 1947; ibid., July 6,1935.. Young India, March 17, 1922.. Harijan, January 27, 1940.12. Young India, April 15, 1926; ibid., 13 November 1925.13. Ibid., November 13,1924; ibid., November 5,1925; ibid., April 15,1926.14. Ibid., November13, 1924.15. Ibid.16. M. K. Gandhi,From Yeravda Mandir, op.cit. p. 50.17. Young India, August 4, 1927; Harijan, February13, 1937.18. The Modern Review, October 1935.19. Ibid.20. “The Maharaja who presided yesterday over our deliberations spoke about the poverty of India. Otherspeakers laid great stress upon it. But what did we witness in the great pandal in which the Foundation Ceremonywas performed by the Viceroy. Certainly a most gorgeous show, an exhibition of jewellery . . . I compare with therichly bedecked noble men the millions of the poor. And I feel like saying to those noblemen: There is no salvationfor India unless you strip yourselves of this jewellery and hold it in trust for your countrymen in India … whenever Ihear of a great palace rising in any great city of India, be it in British India, or be it in the India ruled by our greatChiefs, I become jealous at once and say, ‘Oh it is the money that has come from agriculturists’ …There cannot bemuch spirit of self-government about us if we take away or allow others to take away from the peasants almost thewhole of the results of their labour …” Speech delivered by M. K. Gandhi at Banaras Hindu University, February4,1916,21. See M. K. Gandhi’s letter to the Viceroy, March 2, 1930. “It (British rule) has impoverished the dumbmillions by a system of progressive exploitation and by a ruinously expensive military and civil administration whichthe country cannot afford… there is every danger of independence coming to us so changed as to be of the value tothose toiling voiceless millions for whom it is sought and for whom it is worth taking, .. Take your own salary. It isover Rs. 21,000 per month, besides many other indirect additions. You are getting over Rs. 700 per day as againstIndia’s average income of less than annas 2 per day. Thus you are getting much over five thousand times India’saverage income. On bended knees, I ask you to ponder over this phenomenon. I have taken a personal illustration todrive home a painful truth. I have too great a regard for you as a man to wish to hurt your feelings. I know that youdo not need the salary you get. Probably the whole of your salary goes for charity. But a system that provides forsuch an arrangement deserves to be summarily scrapped.” Young India, March 12,1930.22. “Little do the town dwellers know how the semi-starved masses of India are slowly striking to lifelessness.Little do they know that their miserable comfort represents the brokerage they get for their work they do for theforeign exploiter, that the profits and the brokerage are sucked from the masses No sophistry, no juggling in figures,can explain away the evidence that the skeletons in many villagers present to the naked eye. I have no doubt