Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/962



MRS. ANNIE BESANT

Among us, as I write, is dwelling for brief space one whose presence is a benediction. and whose feet sanctify every house into which he enters—Gandhi, our Martyr and Saint. He too by strange ways was led into circumstances in which alone could flower all that he brought with him of patient, unwearying courage that naught might daunt, unselfishness that found its joy in sacrifice, endurance so sweetly gentle that its power was not readily understood. As I stood for a moment facing him, hand clasped in hand, I saw in him that deathless Spirit which redeems by suffering, and in death wins life for others, one of those marked out for the high service of becoming Saviours and Helpers of humanity, I who tread the path of the warrior, not that of the Saint, who battle against Enthroned Injustice by assault, not by meakness, I recognise in this man, so frail and yet so mighty, one of those whose names live in history among those of whom it is said: "He saved others; himself he could not save". (New India).

SIR P. M. MEHTA

"The whole country has resounded with the tale of Mr. Gandhi’s great deeds, his courage, his great moral qualities, his labours and his sufferings in the cause of Indians in South Africa. So long as we have Indians like Mr. Gandhi and Indian women like Mrs. Gandhi we need not despair of our country. They show that at the proper time and as occasion may arise they are possessed of the highest qualities of courage, heroism and capacity of endurance and suffering." (At the Bombay Town Hall Meeting in December, 1912)

I tell you what I feel sincerely that there has been no more touching episode in the whole history of the campaign than the conversation which Mrs. Gandhi had with her husband before she cast in her lot with him in the Passive Resistance Movement. After the decision of the Supreme Court there denying the legitimacy of Hindu and Mahomedan marriages, she asked him: "Am I your wife or not? I am not your wife if this decision stands, and if I am not your wife, I am not a woman of any true womanhood in the estimation of my own sex, and my children are illegitimate." Mr. Gandhi must have known what it was to expose tender women to the hardships of the campaign, but in spite of his pleading, that brave lady decided to cast in her lot with those men who were fighting for the cause. History records the deeds of many heroines, and I feel that Mrs. Gandhi will stand as one of the foremost heroines in the whole world. (Speech at the Bombay Town Hall Meeting. Dec., 1918).

MRS. SAROJINI NAIDU

She (Mrs. Gandhi) sat by her husband’s side simple and serene and dignified in the hour of triumph as she had proved herself simple and serene and dauntless in the hour of trial and tragedy.