Page:Gandhi The Man and His Message.djvu/9

 librators, the chief difference between him and other leaders was that he wanted his countrymen to love their country, and yet not to hate their enemies. He further enjoined them to love their oppressors, and through love and suffering to bring them to light, so that their own eyes could see what in his was their mistake. “Hatred ceaseth not by hatred; hatred ceaseth by love,” was his sole plea.

Mr. Gandhi’s whole political career is inspired by a deep love for his suffering countrymen. His heart burns with the desire to free his country from its present state of thralldom and helpless servitude. India, the cradle of civilization and culture, for ages the solitary source of light and of wisdom, whence issued the undying message of Buddhist missionaries, where empires flourished under the careful guidance of distinguished statesmen, the land of Asoka and Akbar, lies to-day at the tender mercy of a haughty conqueror, intoxicated and maddened by the conquest of a helpless people. “Her arts degenerated, her literatures dead, her beautiful industries perished, her valor done,” she presents but a pitiful outlook to the onlooking world. Gandhi, the heroicly determined son of the “Bharat,” calmly reviewing the situation, feels the impulse to save his motherland from the present state of “slow torture, emasculation and degradation,” and suggests to his countrymen the use of the unique yet powerful weapon of non-violent non-cooperation. Through this slow process of “self-denial” and “self-purification” he proposes to carry his country forward till the goal of its political emancipation and its spiritual freedom is fully realized. Political freedom might be secured by force, but that is not what Gandhi wants. Unsatisfied with mere freedom of the body he soars higher and strives for a more sublimer form of liberty, the freedom of the soul. To the question, “Shall India follow the stern example of Europe, and fight out its political and economic independence?” Gandhi replies with an emphatic and an unqualified “No.” What has Europe’s powerful military and material organisation done to