FOREWORDRavindra Varma is a learned scholar, who has been running the Institute ofGandhian Studies at Gopuri, Wardha for several years. He has been introducingthe youth, especially the college students and postgraduates to the life andmessage of Gandhiji. I have had the privilege of addressing a number of suchaudiences at his Institute in Gopuri, and I have also heard him there and inother places talking about Gandhiji. His knowledge and study of Gandhianideology is deep, and to the best of my knowledge he has been trying his levelbest to live according to the Gandhian ideology. This gives depth to whateverhe says or writes.He has written three books on Gandhiji or I might say that he has written onebook which is divided into three parts. Part one gives a narrative of Gandhiji'slife story describing a shy mediocre student at Rajkot, who goes to England andcomes back as a Barrister.Circumstances take him to South Africa. He goes as a young man to earnmoney, and to find name and fame, and also to see a new country. This firstbook describes Gandhiji's struggle to establish himself in which he makesoutstanding success as a lawyer. As a seeker of truth, and full of love for theoppressed Indians and black population in the midst of racial prejudice, he hasto fight and overcome many hurdles to preserve the self-respect of Indians andalso to serve the blacks in every way he can. He also serves the whites duringthe Boer War.His fight against colour prejudice starts from the day of his arrival in SouthAfrica and continues throughout his stay in that country. Discovery of themighty weapon of Satyagraha which can enable the downtrodden and the weakalso to stand up for their own rights, is the first great achievement whichmakes the shy young man a great leader. He shows to the Indians the way offighting prejudice by bringing about a change of heart among the oppressorsthrough self-suffering. His experiments and his studies in non-violence lead himto establish his first Ashram at Phoenix.
Gandhi's turn to speak came, the great assemblage got a taste of the revolutionary in Gandhi. He began by regretting that he had to speak in a foreign language to his own people. He went on to talk of the poverty of the starving millions and the glittering jewellery of the princes; how the poor farm labourer toiled and sweated in the sun to produce two blades of paddy, where there was only one, while the British and the princes lived in luxury and www.mkgandhi.org
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Page 62 GANDHI A Biography for children and beginners opulence. "Whenever I hear of a great palace rising in any great city of India, be it in British India or be it in India which is ruled by our great chiefs, I become jealous at once and I say: 'Oh, it is the money that has come from the agriculturists'." He said that tears rose in his eyes when he thought of the starving toilers who produced all wealth, but did not get two square meals a day. India would have no peace or progress till the poor came into their own. The Chair tried to stop Gandhi, but he was undaunted. Finally, bowing to the Chair, he sat down. But he had sounded the bugle of revolt and revolution, and sent a message of hope to the people who were groaning under exploitation. www.mkgandhi.org
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Page 63 GANDHI A Biography for children and beginners 11 The World War-I ended in 1918. It was hoped that when the war ended the British Government would take steps to meet the aspirations of the Indian people for self-government. Gandhi himself had great faith in the intentions and fair play of the British. But he, as well as the country, received a rude shock. It was incredible. Instead of transferring more power and freedom to the people, the Government proposed to make the severe restrictions on freedom imposed during the war a part of the regular laws of the country. The new Bill that was to be introduced would give the Government powers to detain citizens without trial, to search premises, to prevent meetings, to suppress newspapers and publications, and so forth. This was deceit, betrayal, a tightening of chains. The Bill called the Rowlatt Bill could not be allowed to become law. It had to be resisted. But how ? By whom ?
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Upto now, the Congress and the national movement had seen only two alternatives. One was the method of praying and petitioning to the Government. The other was the cult of terrorism, the bomb and assassination. Of these, the first depended on the Government's goodwill. The other was an unequal fight, because an unarmed people could not match the forces of the Government through sporadic acts of indignation or revenge. The masses of the people were not involved in either. Gandhi believed that the Government could be defeated only if the masses entered the battle. They could do so only if the fight was waged with means that they had access to. These were the methods of non-violent Satyagraha. He had seen the masses use this method with courage and success in South Africa. If it could be done by Indians in South Africa, why could it not be done by Indians in their own motherland ? He formed Satyagraha Sabhas in which members took the Satyagraha Pledge.
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