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1. Telegram to Mirabehn 2. Letter to Narandas Gandhi

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1. Telegram to Mirabehn 2. Letter to Narandas Gandhi 1. TELEGRAM TO MIRABEHN January 16, 1929 MIRABEHN CARE KHADI BHANDAR MUZAFFARPUR WROTE FULLY YESTERDAY1. NOT LEAVING TILL THIRTYFIRST. LOVE. BAPU From the original: C.W. 5331. Courtesy: Mirabehn; also G.N. 9386 2. LETTER TO NARANDAS GANDHI SATYAGRAHA ASHRAM, SABARMATI, Wednesday [On or before January 16, 1929]2 CHI. NARANDAS, You seem to have been hurt. I would have been happy to respect your wishes in regard to Chi. Santok3, but I did not approve of your plan. For the manner of living of the mother and the daughters is so expensive that they would always have been a cause of discontent in the Ashram. Santok never liked the common kitchen, nor the inmates of the Ashram. About the khadi training section, I have already stated my view that neither suggestions can be supported. I see nothing wrong in the view that the Ashram and not an individual should have the agency. I shall decide finally on the 18th at the latest. I want you to take interest in all activities and participate in them. Trust Chhaganlal. He is a sincere and hard-working man. Do not mind his errors, but consider his motive. About Sannabhai, I have simply said that Chhaganlal Joshi’s decision should be final. For no one of whom the secretary does not approve should remain. 1 Presumably a slip for “day before yesterday”; vide “Letter to Mirabehn”, January 14, 1929. 2 Year inferred from the allusion to the problem of Santok; vide “Letter to Narandas Gandhi”, December 19, 1928. As Gandhiji asked Narandas to see him on the 18th, the date of this letter could be fixed on the preceding Wednesday which was 16th January. 3 Widow of Maganlal Gandhi. VOL.44 :16 JANUARY, 1929 -3 FEBRUARY, 1929 1 You may write to me anything you wish to. If you can come over for the 18th, do so. If you think that both of you should come, do that. If you do not, I shall reach the decision which seems best to me. Blessings from BAPU [From Gujarati] Bapuna Patro–9: Shri Narandas Gandhine—Part I, p. 47 3. AMERICAN PATRIOTISM Sjt. C. V. Rangam Chetty writes: Rev. is the head of the American Mission Schools at . He deputed Mr. , who was an Indian teacher in the Mission School at . and who knows mechanism, to go to . and bring materials for his motor-car. Mr. purchased German material which is cheaper and better than the American. Rev. refused to touch it and said that he would not like to pay his money so far as possible to any nation except America. Mr. then sold the material to a Brahmin gentleman at . and purchased American material. Mr. who was indifferent to my repeated requests to wear khaddar has now come forward to confess his folly and has resolved to wear khaddar in future after this incident. I hope our educated and rich countrymen will take a lesson from the American and set an example to others. I have purposely omitted names and places as they are not germane to my theme. The point is quite clear. Whether the Reverend gentleman referred to did not overstep the limit of patriotism is not the point to be examined. The lesson Sjt. Rangam Chetty wishes to draw from the incident is quite legitimate. We, in our country, are in honour bound to prefer handspun khaddar to foreign cloth, no matter how inconvenient it may be to us. It is flimsy philosophy that teaches us to go to the cheapest market irrespective of what happens therethrough to our next-door neighbours. Free donations of fine wheat from Australia or America will be poison to us, if that meant a workless India with her soil growing weeds instead of golden grain. Similarly a free gift of cloth from Manchester would be too costly a bargain for India to accept. I repeat, therefore, that khaddar is cheap at any price so long as it serves to utilize the idle hours of the nation and there is nothing else immediately in view to occupy them as usefully. Young India, 17-1-1929 2 THE COLLECTED WORKS OF MAHATMA GANDHI 4. THEN AND NOW Some critics of the constructive resolution1 passed by the Congress think that it is something new sprung by me upon a Cong- ress that was eager for a vigorous, forward policy. In the first place I claim no originality for my resolution, for, it closely follows the pres- idential address. In the second, it is identical with the now much lauded programme of 1920-21,2 with certain desirable addi-tions. In 1921, as now, we had prohibition with picketing, we had kha-ddar and boycott of foreign cloth with the burning demonstrati-ons and we had untouchability campaign and Hindu-Muslim unity. The present pro- gramme adds the amelioration of the status ofwomen and removal of kindred social abuses. It also adds village reconstru-ction and organization of city labour—surely, items that must find place in any constructive programme for the attainment of swaraj. Is there not excitement enough in the programme, if Congres- smen are serious about it? Picketing of liquor shops, foreign cloth shops and collection and burning of foreign cloth are exciting enough for any worker and are enough to evoke all the resource fuln- ess that the best workers may be capable of. What, indeed, we have not in my resolution of the programme of 1920-21 is the boycott of legislatures, law-courts and educational institutions and titles. Nothing would please me better than to find these institutions that sustain the Government abandoned by the nation or at least Congressmen. I know that then we should have swaraj and, what is perhaps more, we should have less corruption in the Congress than we now have. But that time is not yet. Congressmen assist legislatures, law-courts and schools as much as any other, and perhaps during this year when the Congress works for the attainment of a constitution in accordance with the Nehru Report it must function through the legislatures. In any event one year is not too much even for the most impatient independencewallah to organize for the quadruple boycott assuming, of course, that the Nehru Report status is not attained during the twelve months. And if we are serious about 1 Vide ”Speech on Constructive Programme, Calcutta Congress”, January 1, 1929. 2 Vide Appendix “Congress Resolution on Non-Cooperation”, December 30, 1920. VOL.44 :16 JANUARY, 1929 -3 FEBRUARY, 1929 3 complete severance of British connection, we shall, when the year is over, certainly cease to patronize the very institutions that are the emblems of British power and instruments for holding us under sub- jection. And is the present programme quite so tame as it is made to appear? Was the picketing of liquor traps a tame affair? Let Dr. Kanuga and his band of volunteers who were assaulted by angry liquor dealers and their myrmidons answer. Let the hundreds of the prisoners in Assam answer who were mercilessly clapped into the Assam jails because they had the audacity to picket opium dens. Was the burning of foreign cloth a tame affair? Let Sarojini Devi who gave her very beautiful costly foreign scarf and many girls who gave up their rich foreign silks and other fineries they had learnt to treasure answer. There is nothing to prevent Congressmen now from picketing liquor traps or opium dens or from collecting and burning foreign cloth. Apart from the great social and economic value of these two very powerful items they have a political value of the very first order. If we achieve boycott of foreign cloth we remove from Britain’s path the greatest incentive to greed, and if we stop the liquor and drug revenue, we force the rulers to reduce the ever-growing military exp- enditure. These two things so easy to accomp-lish, so well suited to employ the energy of a vast mass of people, I hold, will go a long way towards the fulfilment of the national purpose, if we can but accomplish them. I claim that the programme is so catholic as to satisfy all tastes and to occupy the whole nation. If we are many workers, we can take up all the items at once, if we are few, we may take up one item at a time. There is, I admit, one important condition necessary to make the programme palatable, and that is, a living belief in non-violence for the establishment of swaraj or Dominion Status or Independence, whichever the name we may give to our object. It is not difficult to think out a programme that would immediately precipitate violence. That however is beyond my ken or capacity. Young India, 17-1-1929 4 THE COLLECTED WORKS OF MAHATMA GANDHI 5. NOTES REPORTED THREAT It is reported that the Government propose to take legal pro- ceedings against those who strive for complete independence carrying severance of British connection with it. It has further been suggested that organizations working for complete independence should be suppressed. I am not aware of any law enabling the Government to punish the active advocacy of independence. I wish the Gov-ernment would take steps against the promoters of independence. It will clear the political atmosphere and show what the Government mean by Dominion Status. If it does not carry with it the power to sever con- nection with the British, it is a form of bondage be it so mild. An India, impatient of servitude and waiting to come to her own, will never be content with any form of bondage.
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