To me, Mahatmaji is the contemporary political prophet. What he spoke during his time remains profoundly relevant today—perhaps even more so, as we repeatedly fail to learn from such a Great Soul.
In particular, political parties in India, controlled by corporations and individual families, risk becoming irrelevant if they neglect their duty to serve the people honestly. This issue is not confined to India. Even in America, where democracy is often celebrated, individuals like Elon Musk wield more influence than the President, who must align with such corporate magnates to maintain relevance in both politics and governance.
As history has shown, prophets are rarely accepted or respected within their own families, communities, societies, or nations. Yet their messages endure, resonating with those seeking guidance while engaging meaningfully in public service—whether through politics, NGOs, or even small social media groups.
In an age where attention spans are limited to reading two-line messages, who will take the time to listen to the profound and timeless words of such a Great Soul?
316. A HEART SEARCHER
It is with pleasure mingled with pain that I give the following letter from an esteemed correspondent:
…People have lost all faith in our Congress organizations and are quite unwilling to give us anything or to support us. It is quite true that we have not acted up to the high ideal of non-violence in thought, word and deed. We have practically non-co-operated amongst ourselves and one N.C.O. feels or takes another N.C.O. to be his antagonist. Mutual jealousies, rivalries, want of brotherliness and truthfulness have brought discredit to the whole Congress organization; so we get no response. It is water is a few truthful, honest and non-violent workers rather than a large army of workers fighting amongst themselves. A thorough cleansing of hearts and a complete overhauling of the entire Congress organization is necessary before we can achieve anything substantial. We have been caught up with a vain desire for name fame and leadership. This has given rise to want of discipline in our ranks and stirred up feelings of jealousy and rivalries.
We must purify ourselves— this is the first requisite. The second requisite is that our workers should be free from the mental worry of earning (p. 365)something for themselves and their families. Well-to-do men neither give us financial support nor do they themselves take to national service. Therefore, the entire burden fans on the poorer classes.
PS.
- Arrangement of financial support to our workers should be done at once, otherwise even the few who are with us will leave the work that they are doing.
- Should you decide that we should stick to the District Board sad Municipalities, you should give us a clear-cut programme for our work in these bodies. Should you decide otherwise, we should vacate all the seats in a body. It appears that the people are not ready for non-payment of cess or rents should that eventually arise. There is great confusion as to our ideals in these bodies. Some say that we should make the e bodies as battle-grounds for our fight with the Government, others urge obstruction and yet others advise us to work out these bodies and use them for public good. Capturing of these bodies has a weakening effect on our Congress organizations.
The writer has wide experience of public life and is a staunch worker. His letter, therefore, deserves careful perusal. For me it is a heart searcher.
I do not like, have never liked, this reliance on me for every thing. It is the very worst way of managing national affairs. The Congress must not become, as it has threatened to become, one man’s show, no matter how good or great that one man be. I often think that it would have been better for the country and for me if I had served the full term of my imprisonment. The country would by that time have settled down to a programme which could be called its own. Today it is difficult to say whose the Congress programme is. It cannot be the country’s if workers have every time to refer to me for guidance. It cannot be mine, for alone I can work no programme. The writer’s reliance is not peculiar but typical. Another friend, after objecting to almost everything in the programme, says: “But in spite of all this, my reverence and affection for you are sufficiently deep to make me do anything you may want me to do. whether I agree with you or not.” This friend goes further than the first. The latter at least agrees with the programme and wants advice. The former opposes and still wants to submit. All such devotion may flatter my vanity, but most (p. 366) certainly retards our progress towards our goal. We must dare to act according to our honest conviction even though there may be danger of our making terrible mistakes. Swaraj is a way of government by tests, trials and mistakes. It is a thousand times better that we are undone through our mistakes than that we avoid them through the perpetual guidance of a man be he ever so wise. It has become a serious question with me whether it would not be in the best interests of the country for me to retire altogether from all public activity and simply devote myself to my own chosen profession of spinning and weaving and playing with the children at the Satyagraha Ashram so long as personal friends care to support the Ashram. Anyway, my strong advice to friends and fellow-workers is never to accept my word as law. My advice is always at their disposal. But even that should be most sparingly sought.
A careful perusal of the foregoing letter shows that the writer has himself suggested the best remedy for the ills he so graphically describes. If insincerity, hypocrisy and jealousy have crept into. our ranks, one must weed the vices out and we can do so only by withdrawing within ourselves. Five good, honest, self-sacrificing workers with faith are any day better than fifty thousand insincere, indolent workers without faith. They but hinder work even of the five.
Now for the concrete cases.
As to workers’ maintenance, I have no doubt that it must come from provincial organizations. The central organizations will never be able to control, regulate and pay provincial services. When a provincial organization fails to find local support, it deserves to die; for want of support shows that it never was popular in the province in question. And what is a local Congress organization if it is not popular?… (p. 367)
…What is meant by ‘all other activity’, I do not know. If it means all other public activity, I wish it could be eliminated for the time being. It is just the thing wanted to bring into being an organization that would be irresistible in its demand for swaraj. It will not then be ‘putting racehorses to the plough’ but it will be bringing up the other horses to the level of the race-horses. When a ship is on fire, the captain is the first one to stand at the pump and he brings up the rest to the same life-saving apparatus. Imagine the fate of a ship in which, when it is burning, the captain is playing fiddle and expects the sailors and the rest to take up buckets and put out the fire in the best way they can.—Young India, 8-5-1924, CWMG, Vol. 27, pp. 365-68
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