Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/965



Mr. W. W. PEARSON

Whatever may be one’s personal opinion of the Indian leader, M. K. Gandhi, there can be no doubt that he is a remarkable man. Remarkable because has standard of conduct and method of action are so entirely different from those of other Indian leaders. Statesmen and politicians are seldom guided by the motives which compel Gandhi to action, and the very fact that in him we see a man who wields enormous influence over his countrymen by a character—the exact antithesis of the ordinary political leader—gives to his personality a peculiar interest. One Governor of a British Province in the East has described him as "a dangerous and misguided saint." Evervone, whether foe or friend, agrees in regarding him as a saint. And it is because of his evident saintliness of character that he has such an unparalleled influence in India at the present day.

Gandhi has been able to unite people of India as they have never before been united not only because of his unfaltering loyalty to a moral ideal and by his austere and ascetic personal life, but because the British Government has itself fed fuel to the fires of national aspiration. Confronting the most powerful Empire in existence stands one man, Gandhi, who cares nothing for his own personal life, who is uncompromising and fearless in the application of principles which he has once accepted, and who scorns any longer to receive or beg for favours from a Government which he regards as having "forfeited all title to confidence, respect or support." He believes in conquering hate by love, in the triumph of right over might, and all the effort of his public life is directed towards persuading the masses of India of the truth of this ideal (The Asian Review.)

Mr. PERCIVAL LANDON

Seated on the floor in a small, barely furnished room, I found the Mahatma, clad in rough, white home-spun. He turned up to me. with a smile of welcome the typical head of the idealist—the skull well formed and finely modelled; the face narrowing to the pointed chin. His eyes are deep, kindly, and entirely same; his hair is greying a little over the forehead. He speaks gently and well, and in his voice is a note of detachment which lends uncanny force to the strange doctrines that he has given up his life to teach. One could not imagine him ruffled, hasty, or resentful, not the least part of the moral supremacy in his crusade is his universally-known willingness to turn the other cheek to the smiter. From the first it must be realised that consciously his teaching has been influenced by that of Christ, for whom his admiration has long been the almost dominating feature of his spiritual life and probably the external character of his daily activity has been modelled also upon Him. He made a curious observation during our conversation, which throws some light upon his interpretation of the Galilean Teacher In answer to a remark of mine that Christ