Page:Masani - Gandhi's story.pdf/61

Rh religions led to God, and he wanted to make the people of India see this. Hindu-Mohammedan unity now became Gandhi's life mission. He implored the Hindus to show more tolerance and friendliness to the Mohammedans, for they could afford to since there were almost four times more Hindus in India than Mohammedans. He went from village to village wherever there was trouble between the Hindus and Mohammedans, and he asked them to unite and be one. Once some Hindus accused him of being too much for the Mohammedans and he said to them, “It should be a matter of pride to you Hindus to think that there was amongst you at least one mad Gandhi who was not only just to the Mohammedans but even went out of his way in giving them more than their due."

He tried to point out to the Hindus the true spirit of their religion which taught forgiveness, sacrifice and tolerance. He asked them to follow their religion more closely and to show the same tolerance to other classes of society such as the untouchables or scavengers. He said that no true Hindu should treat the scavenger class as untouchables, and that doing a particular kind of work did not make a man different or inferior. He thought the others should be grateful to these people for keeping their homes, towns and villages clean. He called the scavengers, Harijans, which means the