Gandhi Before Gandhi

Author(s): Bipin Doshi, Priti Shah
Publisher: Jain Academy Educational Research Center Promotion Trust Mumbai

Page 150

A GANDHI BEFORE GANDHI
Christian Scriptures, that "a little leaven, leavened the whole lump. Time must elapse before we shall realize the great consummation, of patience and perseverance, with the encouragement of all enlightened people, and especially of you, the liberal Americans, will eventually triumph. What I have learned of your great system of education of the masses, which I admit cannot be very great or particular for the reason that my observations have been necessarily limited, is to me an encouragement beyond words to express, if my impressions are just and true.
also seem impossible, from the same point of view, to understand how the physical, the moral and the intellectual sides of civilization can keep pace with the activities, the demands and the luxuries of the material. This problem, belongs to you, and, only time can solve it, whether or not the essential equilibrium is now required or may ever be. I have learned also that this question does not alone propose itself to me, who have not had opportunities to study it sufficiently, it is also disturbing the thought of this nation. The unrest, the unequal condition apparent in industrial society, the growth of monopolies, the concentration of wealth and its many encroachments, creating antagonisms where there should be harmony, and prophesying dangers where there should be security, are factors, which if true, threaten that peace and prosperity which is the wish of all right thinking people all over the world.
Vastness of your material resources.
The third impression to which I must refer, concerns the vastness of your material resources and the innumerable institutions of industry, together with the greatness of your home or interstate commerce. From this point of view, the material side of your civilization is almost beyond grasp. The difficulty of appreciating this view, of your great country is not small to one who comes from a country of quieter activities and more contemplative methods. And the first thought is that your civilization's first achievement is the multiplication of wants and necessities, of cravings and luxuries and of material means to questionable ends. This may be a superficial view, to be set aside and substituted by a better upon a better acquaintance. It would
In the name of India and her people, I offer the prayer that the evil which many of your wisest statesmen foresee, and which vast portions of your population seems to fear may never, never, overtake you.
Social state and the family life of the American people.
The next impression that I shall speak of, concerns the social state and the family life of the American people as it has come under my observation In some particulars this impression is unfavorable and in others very favorable. In all thoughts, both in India and in America, as I can conceive it, the establishment of the family is at the base of the whole social structure,
149