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Selected Letters Of Gandhiji
To C. F. Andrews
July 29, 1918
[Nadiad],
July 29, 1918
MY DEAR CHARLIE,
I must indulge myself again. I begin to perceive a deep meaning behind the
Japanese reluctance to listen to the message of a Prophet from a defeated
nation.1 War will be always with us. There seems to be no possibility of the
whole human nature becoming transformed. Moksha and Ahimsa [are] for individuals
to attain. Full practice of Ahimsa is inconsistent with possession of wealth,
land or rearing of children. There is a real Ahimsa in defending my wife and
children even at the risk of striking down the wrongdoer. It is perfect Ahimsa
not to strike him but intervene to receive his blows. India did neither on the
field on Plassey. We were a cowardly mob warring against one another, hungering
for the Company's2 silver and selling our souls for a mess of
pottage. And so have we remained more or less-more rather than less-up to today.
There was no Ahimsa in their miserable performance, notwithstanding examples of
personal bravery and later corrections of the exaggerated accounts of those
days. Yes, the Japanese reluctance was right. I do not know sufficiently what
the fathers of old did. They suffered, I expect, not out of their weakness, but
out of their strength. The rishis of old stipulated that their Kshatriyas. Rama
protected Vishwamitra from the rakshasas distributing his meditations. He could
later on dispense with this protection. I find great difficulties in recruiting
but do you know that not one man has yet objected because he would not kill.
They object because they fear to die. This unnatural fear of death is ruining
the nation. For the moment, I am simply thinking of the Hindus. Total disregard
of death in a Mahomedan lad is a wonderful possession.
I have not written a coherent letter
today but I have given you indications of my mental struggle.
Do you know that Sorabji is dead. He
died in Johannesburg. A life full of promise has come to an abrupt end. The ways
of God are inscrutable.
With deep love,
Yours,
MOHAN
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The reference is to Rabindranath
Tagore whose speech in Tokyo against Japan's imitating the West was greeted
with unbecoming derision.
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East India Company
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Ascetics
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Demons
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