Page:Mahatma Gandhi, his life, writings and speeches.djvu/134



SPEECH AT THE JOHANNESBURG BANQUET

[A Banquet was given at Johannesburg to Mr. and Mrs, Gandhi on the eve of their departure for India, by a large number of Europeans and Indians when Mr. Gandhi said]:—

Mr. Gandhi said that they or circumstances had placed him that evening in a most embarrassing position. Hitherto those who had known him in Johannesburg had known him in the capacity of one of many hosts at gatherings of that kind, but that evening they had placed him in the unfortunate position of being a guest, and he did not know how he would be able to discharge that duty. For the other he thought long experience had fitted him, if he might say so with due humility, most admirably; but the present position was entirely new to him and Mrs. Gandhi, and he was exceedingly diffident as to how he was going to discharge the new duty that had been imposed upon him. So much had been said about Mrs. Gandhi and himself, their so-called devotion, their so-called self-sacrifice,and many other things. There was one injunction of his religion, and he thought it was true of all religions, and that was that when one's praises 22