Mahatma Gandhi, his life, writings and speeches/Mr. G. K. Gokhale
By Mr. GOKHALE
………Mr. Gandhi has not entered on the struggle without the fullest realisation of the situation and certainly he has not entered on it in light-hearted spirit. He knows that odds this time are tremendously against Indians. The Government will not yield if it can help it. The Imperial Government will be reluctant to exert any further pressure in favour of passive resistance and among Indians themselves already exhausted by the last struggle weakened persons will be found shrinking from sacrifices involved and advocating submission. But Mr. Gandhi is full of courage and what is more he is full of hope. He has planned his campaign carefully and whether he succeeds or fails he will push on like a hero to the end. The struggle this time, as I have already pointed out, is not confined to one province but extends to the whole of South Africa and not only men but women are taking part in it. From what I have seen of Mr. Gandhi's hold over our countrymen in South Africa, I have no doubt in my mind that thousands will be glad to suffer under his banner and his spirit will inspire them all. The last telegram which I had from him two days ago speaks in enthusiastic terms of bravery and heroism which women who are taking part in the struggle are showing. They are courting arrest. They put up with ill-treatment and even assaults without complaint and they are spreading the movement in all directions with wonderful zeal. The horrors of jail-life in South Africa with Kaffir warders devoid of all notions of humanity for Indian prisoners do not deter them and they are lifting the whole struggle to a plane which the last struggle even at its highest did not reach. Already two thousand families of indentured and exindentured men have joined the struggle. They are suspending work in collieries and on fields and unless Government guarantees repeal of £3 tax next season, industries which depend on Indian labour will soon be paralyzed and Government will have big job on its hands. Mr. Gandhi also went on to say that a growing minority of English is showing itself increasingly favourable to Indian demands and that the leaders of the Unionist party who did so much for us last session will, it is expected press Indian case with vigour when Parliament reassembles. But even if no assistance comes from any quarter, if the bulk of passive resisters retire from the struggle after enduring hardships for some time and if the prospect is altogether dark instead of being hopeful even then one hundred men and forty women are determined to perish in this struggle if need be rather than withdraw from it without achieving their object. They think that if everything else fails this supreme sacrifice on their part is necessary to prevent the Indian community in South Africa from being crushed out of existence altogether. Do not let us be discouraged by a telegram which appeared the other day in papers about some Indians in Durban opposing this passive resistance movement and wanting to submit quietly to the indignities of the new position. When we think of suffering which will have to be endured and ruin that may have to be faced, is it any wonder knowing ourselves as we do that some Indians in South Africa should shrink from the ordeal? Is not the wonder rather this that so many men and women, Hindus, Mahomedans and Parsees, well-to-do and poor, should come forward to undergo sacrifice?