Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Gandhi's Observation on the performance of Satyagraha-1919

Gandhi did not mince matters. He recounted the misdeeds of the people in a speech at Ahmedabad on 14 April 1919, in the following words,
" I have said times without number that Satyagraha admits of no violence, no pillage, no incendiarism , and still in the name of   Satyagraha we burnt down buildings, forcibly captured weapons, extorted money, stopped trains , cut off Telegraph wires, killed innocent people and plundered shops and private houses. If deeds such as these could save me from the prison house or the scaffold, I should not like to be saved."
From Ahmedabad Gandhi proceeded to Nadiabad. As he saw the actual state of things there and received reports, it suddenly dawned upon him that he had committed a grave error in calling upon the people to launch a campaign of Civil Disobedience. He felt that a Satyagrahi must scrupulously obey all all laws ; for only then does the the right accrue to him of the civil disobedience of certain laws in well defined circumstances. . No one had a right to adopt Satyagraha before he had thouroghly qualified himself for it, and Gandhi realized that his error lay in his failure to observe this necessary limitation. It was in this connection that Gandhi said that he was guilty of a " Himalayan miscalculation"
As a result of these reflections, reproduced as far as possible , in his own words , Gandhi suspended the civil disobedience and decided not to restart it on a mass scale without creating a band of well tried, pure hearted  volunteers who thoughroly understood the strict conditions of Satyagraha, could explaon them to the people, and by sleepless vigilancekeep them on the right path,  Accordingly, he went to Bombay  and raised a corps of Satyagrahi volunteers through the  Satyagraha Sabha. But Gandhi found that people took little interest in the peaceful side of Satyagraha . The number volunteers dwindled and eveen those who remained did not take regular training..          

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