Page:Fischer - A Week with Gandhi.pdf/34

 ute until Gandhi came out. He carried a long stick of bamboo. Dr. Das, Gandhi’s physician who lives in the ashram, accompanied us and so did several young men and women. Gandhi leaned his hands on the shoulders of two of the women. A group of young men visitors from outside the village had posted themselves not far from Gandhi’s house to catch a glimpse of him as he passed. Their faces pictured awe and devotion. They touched palms in front of their lips and bent forward low from the waist. Gandhi made a remark to them which made him and them laugh. A second group of older men, one with a big paunch, looked eagerly as though in the hope of getting a greeting, but failed. We took the dusty road that wound around ploughed fields. Gandhi invited questions from me with a “Now?”

“You helped recruit soldiers for the British Army in the first World War,” I began. “When this war started, you said you wished to do nothing to embarrass the British government. Now, obviously, your attitude has changed. What has happened?”

“In the first World War I had just returned from South Africa,” he explained. “I hadn't yet found my feet. I wasn’t sure of my ground. This did not imply any lack of faith in non-violence. But it had to develop according to circumstances, and I was not sufficiently sure of my ground.