Page:Report on the Memorial Meeting for Mahatma Gandhi.djvu/27

 leader, but a political leader, hence his religious life took a political course.

“We know how important compromise is in the realm of politics. Don’t forget that Gandhi had espoused a political cause. To achieve that cause, he had definite means that seemed to the outside world like a lunatic’s There were times when he was considered a lunatic as when he appeared at the court of St. James in his loin cloth. People thought it was a publicity stunt.

“Now, the test of understanding Gandhi is the test of our own intellectual and moral comprehension, but he is so great that we cannot possibly understand him.

“He tried to set out to achieve the freedom of India. It would be very natural for any one of us, if we were living in a country, to try and fight for freedom. It would be very natural for us, for it is a logical emotion to put our faith in the unanswerability of bullets, because when a bullet goes into a man he is dead, but Gandhi, in carrying out the political mission of India, expressed and forced upon the people a disbelief in bullets. "We acclaim him because he had achieved the liberation of India, but to my mind, it does not matter whether he had achieved her freedom, or not, when he died — which is purely an incident of British politics. To my mind, he would have been every inch just a? great if India had not yet achieved her freedom when he died.

“I believe there are very few of us who would not take freedom if it were offered to us, but for Gandhi I am quite sure that if he had to achieve India’s freedom by foul or immoral principles, by sacrifice of principles, he would not have had the freedom of India. He would rather India remained a slave nation for a few years, and there he speaks for true greatness, and to a degree it was truly appreciated.

“To an extent, we are able to appreciate the meaning of Gandhi’s life and death. Gandhi has become the life of India, and to the extent that