Book Title: Gandhi Before Gandhi
Author(s): Bipin Doshi, Priti Shah
Publisher: Jain Academy Educational Research Center Promotion Trust Mumbai
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A GANDHI BEFORE GANDHI
gods. The very names of these divinities are unknown in any Other country - Shida, Vishnu and the rest of the Hindu divinities are worshiped as gods by the people of India alone. If they were really gods, they would certainly be gracious to the people of India. They would certainly give proof of it by abasing
the white men, who do not worship them, and by exalting their worshipers; they would bestow on the Hindu unbounded wisdom, power and prosperity, and would probably give to them the government of the rest of mankind. How widely different is the condition of the Hindus, the supreme government of every part of India is in the hands of Christians." This is the sheet anchor of the argument of Christian superiority in India. But that is an old argument and has no value in true Indian thought.
highest power in the world and not oppression. The Mohammedans for 800 years have presented the same argument with the sword in one hand and the Koran in the other. Where are the answers? Every person has his time. This is the Christian's day, and he is producing the same argument at the point of the bayonet. The so-called disciples of the Bible believe in "power" as the supreme manifestation and demonstration of the truth. So do we, but we go one step further and are declaring and have decided for thousands of years, and have declared to the world that power indeed, is the test of truth, but goodness is the highest power in the world. If it is powerful to rule but it is a hundred times more powerful to suffer. Outpourings of cruel savages over the land of Bharata, and "civilized" scourges of the human race have been let loose upon the plains of beautiful India over and over again, but, like meteors coming out of eternal darkness, flashing for a moment across her horizon of view and plunging back into darkness, all these oppressors and tyrants, with all their claims of truth and power to subdue, civilize and Christianize, must in the long run, melt like morning mist of the river and the Hindu will live on firm, in his faith that goodness is the highest power in the world and not oppression.
