Page:Holmes - World Significance of Mahatma Gandhi.djvu/3

 persons who wanted Swaraj, or independence, were a few extremists and fanatics. The great majority of the intellectual leaders cherished no desire or expectation other than that of home rule, or dominion status within the Empire. As for the masses of the common people, they were either ignorant or totally indifferent to the issues involved. Today however, the movement for emancipation from British rule has swept like a prairie fire from one end of India to the other. It is true that the native princes and their retainers, many thousands of civic officials and their servants, and certain well-educated and prosperous groups in the community who naturally oppose any change in the status quo, are hearty supporters of the English government in India; but these people, taken all together, would not number more than a million individuals. All the rest, from the highest to the lowest, from Rabindranath Tagore on the one side to the meanest of the “untouchables” on the other, are all aflame with the desire for independence from the British yoke. Remember now, if you will, that the population of India is well over 300,000,000, one-fifth of the population of the entire globe, and it is not difficult to understand why this nationalist movement is suddenly attracting so much attention. What is going on in India today, if only because of the stupendous numbers involved, is the central phenomenon in the world’s life.

In the second place, as another reason for Gandhi’s rapid rise to fame, there is the fact that he is today definitely recognized as the leader of his people in their revolt against the English crown. A few years ago Gandhi was a friend of England and her rule in India. More than once he had received favors and rewards at the hands of the imperial government. During the Great War he supported the Allied cause, and, in so far as it was possible for a non-resistant so to do, upheld the power and authority of English arms. After the War he advocated no reform more drastic than a reasonable measure of home rule. It was the massacre of Amritsar, when General Dyer turned his machine guns on an innocent crowd of Indians, killed between three and four hundred men, women and children, and wounded I know not how many more, that changed the soul of Gandhi. From that time on he became an open enemy of England, and an ardent champion of freedom. One year ago last December the All-India Congress formally endorsed his program of non-violence and non-cooperation. This last December, less than three months ago, the congress reaffirmed the program by an overwhelming majority, and named Gandhi as the leader of