Page:Fischer - A Week with Gandhi.pdf/79

 said it was like the men in Vienna who say, “I kiss your hand,” but don’t do it. Gandhi laughed. Two young boys appeared as he stood up, and they wriggled into position so that he would lean on them during his walk. There is always quite a competition for this honor. One evening a girl came out from the village to meet our group as we returned from the walk, and she skillfully maneuvered herself to Gandhi’s side so that the girl who had been there was forced to surrender her place.

I returned to the subject of untouchability as soon as we had started on the morning promenade. I said, “Very thoughtful and otherwise progressive people, for instance Varadachariar [a member of the Supreme Court of India who is a high-caste Brahmin] have tried to justify it in conversation with me; it seems to arise from the belief in the transmigration of the soul which apparently is part of the Hindu religion.”

“Do you believe in the transmigration of the soul?” I asked.

“Of course,” he answered quickly. “I cannot admit that the soul dies with the body. When a man’s house is blown away, he builds himself another. When his body is taken away, his soul finds an other. Nor do I accept the view that when the body is laid in the ground the soul remains suspended somewhere waiting for judgment day when it will be brought to the bar and confronted with its