Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/976



MR. H. S. L. POLAK

LOVE OF TRUTH

If there is one characteristic more than another that stamps Mr. Gandhi as a man amongst men, it is his extraordinary love of truth. His search for it is the one passion of his life, and every action of his indicates the devotee of this usually distant shrine. Whatever he says, even those most hostile to him unhesitatingly believe, as being the truth so far as he is aware of it, and he will not hesitate to retract, publicly and immediately, anything that he may have unwittingly declared to be a fact, but which he afterwards finds to be unwarranted. His political opponents admit unquestioningly that every action of his is prompted only by the most conscientious and impersonal motives. In his legal practice, which he long ago definitely abjured as an "unclean thing," he was highly regarded by his fellow-practiticners as an able lawyer and an honourable colleague or opponent, and Magistrates and Judge alike paid careful attention to any case that Mr. Gandhi advocated, realising that it had intrinsic merits or that he sincerely believed that it had. He has been known to retire from a case in open Court, and in the middle of the hearing, having realised that his client had deceived him, and he never accepted a case except on the express understanding that he reserved to himself the right to withdraw at any stage if he felt that his client had not dealt honestly with him.

SELF-SUPPRESSION

His self-suppression and courtesy are universally recognised and appreciated. He has scarcely ever been known to give angry expression to his feelings. and then only when moved by a sense of righteous indignation. He has never, during the whole course of his public career, condescended to the use of the average politician’s dictionary of invectives, and his courtesy and urbanity towards opponents arises from his desire and ability to place himself in their position before attacking it.

GENEROSITY

His generosity is proverbial. He never issued a formal demand for payment of a debt due to him, conceiving that his debtor, if an honest man, would pay when he could, and if a dishonest man, would not be made the more honest by the use of legal compulsion. Indeed, in his every action, he vindicates his hostility to the doctrine of force and his abiding affection for that of love as a rule of life. When he was nearly done to death by a fanatical Pathan, in 1908, he absolutely refused to charge his assailant or to give evidence against him. He preferred to conquer him by love, and succeeded; for early the following year the Pathan, who had been deported to India because he sturdily refused to comply with the Transvaal Law, addressed a letter to