Biographies of famous men have been good companions of great men. The life of Abraham Lincoln is an instance in point. Volumes have been written about his boyhood and manhood – how he spent his leisure hours, how he was educated and how he lived his domestic life. What Abraham Lincoln is to America, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, known as the Mahatma, is to India. Mahatma Gandhi was an institution in himself. He lived an ascetic life with his fellow workers and he had no private life as an individual.
He was one of the World's greatest men. To him many great writers and famous statesmen have paid the highest tributes.
Einstein said that Gandhi "confronted the brutality of Europe with the dignity of a single human being and has thus at all times risen superior. The generations to come, it may well be, will scarcely believe that such a one as this ever walked upon the earth."
Jawaharlal Nehru spoke about him thus: "The dominant impulse in India under British rule was that of the enemy, the police, the widespread secret service, fear of the official class, fear of laws meant to suppress, a fear of prison, fear of the landlord agent, fear of the money lender, fear of unemployment and starvation which were always on the threshold. It was against this all – pervading fear that Gandhi's quiet and determined voice was raised – 'Be not afraid'."
Gopal Krishna Gokhale, the political guru of Gandhi has also spoken of him in similar terms. He said: "He is a man who may well be described as a man among men, a hero among heroes, a patriot among patriots. Time may well say that in him Indian humanity at the present time has reached a high water mark."
As a man he came very close to our hearts. He had a lean figure, protruding ears, a long nose and gentle eyes. These eyes were the windows of his soul. He had a magnetic personality. Those who came to abuse him remained to admire. He was a man of profound humility. His firm belief in the existence of God gave him an intense love for prayer. He always prayed before he began the day.
His name was a household word in the Country. Even a child knew Gandhi's name. The aboriginals, the workers, the illiterates, even thieves knew about his labors for the people.
He lived simply and believed that luxury was wrong. He curbed the palate and disciplined the soul with a strong hand, like Thoreau and Tolstoy.
He never imposed himself on anyone as great men often do. He was merely honest and truthful.
To him, God is Truth and Truth, God.
His tenacity of purpose, his utter humility, his love of the lowly and the sick in addition to his life of Truth made him unique and the idol of the masses. Dr. Montessori said "his presence had mysterious power over all present."
Gandhi now belongs to the Ages. What he did in the political or social field is history but everyone is still eager to know more about his childhood, boyhood and youth, what books influenced his thoughts, how he worked like a cooly in the Phoenix and Tolstoy Farms in South Africa and how he showed his intense love for the lowly, the downtrodden and the sick. On these topics, many articles have been written.
In this small book an endeavor has been made to reveal some facets of the man's ever active life in a tabloid form.
The words recorded here may not be exactly the same as those spoken by Gandhi, as they were reported by various writers from memory after the lapse of many years. The core of the incidents as narrated by his co-workers is, however, based on their personal knowledge.
Gandhi was born of a cultured and well-to-do family, his father being the Dewan of one of the princely states of Kathiawar. He was a Vaishya by caste and had his education in Rajkot up to the Matriculation class. While yet a school boy in his teens, he married Kasturba, aged thirteen, almost the same age as himself. After he had passed the Matriculation, he went to England to study law. Before he left, his mother, who adored him, extracted from him an oath that he would keep off wine, women, and meat while in England. After a strenuous life in England for two years, he passed the Barrister's examination and returned to India.
He practiced at the bar both at Rajkot and at Bombay, but he was not successful as he was shy, truthful, and hated law touts. The turning point came when he was briefed by a Muslim from Kathiawar doing business in South Africa to take up his case on a contract for a year. With his income guaranteed, he left for South Africa, but little did he imagine the woeful conditions in which the Indians lived there. Within a few days of his arrival, he was subjected to indignities and treated like a cooly. He felt the racial hatred that existed against the Indians intensively and in fact he thought of returning to India. But an innate desire for justice took possession of him and he decided to stay in South Africa and fight. He studied Tolstoy and trained the people for civil disobedience against unjust laws. It was here that he started the passive Resistance movement, and prepared his followers to shed the fear of jails and to resist discriminatory laws.
He had gone to South Africa to live there for one year and stayed for 20 years to fight for his countrymen. He returned to India in 1915 to work for the betterment of the masses suffering under British rule.
For three years he studied the affairs of India and its laws. He met patriots like Dadabhoy Naoroji, Lala Lajpat Rai, B.C. Pal, B.G. Tilak, Hiroz Shah Mehta, Motilal Nehru, C.R. Das Pandit Malaviya and a number of others. These were the days of the Howlatt Bill and the Jallianwalla Bagh Tragedy; and he could not sit idle. He organised the people to offer Satyagraha and started the non-violent, non-co-operation movement. Eminent men joined him in this patriotic venture. He taught the people to be fearless and to keep the ideal of Swaraj before them. He became a regular pilgrim to the jails. He started the Harijan movement for the uplift of the depressed classes of the Hindus called the untouchables. He soon became the people's idol. They obeyed him implicitly and followed him wherever he led. His work bore enduring fruit. During the Second World War, the international situation changed. Each country was concerned with its own problems. The Swaraj movement became very powerful in India. The British Government wisely decided to leave India, giving the people full independence and thereby avoided possible bloodshed. India became independent on August 16, 1947 but was partitioned into Pakistan and India.
Gandhi refused to be the head of Free India. The mantle, therefore, fell on Jawaharlal Nehru, the son of Motilal Nehru, whom years before Gandhi had selected to be his political heir.
In the evening of 30th January, 1948, when he stood with folded hands before the crowd waiting to join him in his evening prayers, Nathuram Godse, a Hindu, approached the Mahatma and, pretending to touch his feet, shot him thrice at point blank range with a revolver. At the second shot, Gandhi muttered the words "Hai Ram", "Hai Ram", (Oh Rama. Oh Rama). At the third shot he fell dead. Immense crowds gathered around Birla House at Delhi to have darshan of Gandhi's body and followed it to the burning ghat.
He lived and died for the masses.