Ted Walther's Private Diary

Mohandas Gandhi gives advice on political struggle against strong forces

My copy of Gandhi's writings surfaced today. As I flipped through it, the following words caught my eye. They apply to everyone in the Torah keeping movement. If we are to be in the Kingdom of Heaven, we must focus on the fundamentals, on the daily practice of the Law of Moses as interpreted by Jesus the Anointed Savior.

I want to tell you as briefly as I can what I expect of you. I would ask you to forget the political aspect of the programme. Political consequences of this struggle there are, but you are not to concern yourself with them. If you do, you will miss the true result and also miss the political consequences, and when the real heat of the struggle is touched you will be found wanting. I am therefore anxious, even if it frightens you, to explain to you the true nature of the struggle. It is a struggle deeply religious for the Hindus. We are endeavouring to rid Hinduism of its greatest blot. The prejudice we have to fight against is an age-long prejudice. The struggle for the opening of the roads round the temple which we hold to be public to the unapproachables is but a small skirmish in the big battle. If our struggle was to end with the opening of the roads in Vykom you may be sure I would not have bothered my head about it. If, therefore you think that the struggle is to end with opening of the roads in Vykom to the unapproachables you are mistaken. The road must be opened. It has got to be opened. But that will be the beginning of the end. The end is to get all such roads throughout Travancore to be opened to the unapproachables; and not only that, but we expect that our efforts may result in amelioration of the general condition of the untouchables and unapproachables. That will require tremendous sacrifice. For our aim is not to do things by violence to oppenents. That will be conversion by violence or compulsion; and if we import compulsion in matters of religion, there is no doubt that we shall be committing suicide. We should carry on this struggle on the lines of strict non-violence, i.e. by suffering in our own persons. That is the meaning of Satyagraha. The question is whether you are capable of every suffering that may be imposed upon you or may be your lot in the journey towards the goal. Even whilst you are suffering you may have no bitterness — no trace of it — against your opponents. And I tell you it is not a mechanical act at all. On the contrary I want you to feel like loving your opponents, and the way to do it is to give them the same credit for honesty of purpose which you would claim for yourself. I know that it is a difficult task. I confess that it was a difficult task for me yesterday whilst I was talking to those friends who insisted on their right to exclude the unapproachables from the temple roads. I confess there was selfishness behind their talk. How then was I to credit them with honesty of purpose? I was thinking of this thing yesterday and also this morning, and this is what I did. I asked myself: Wherein was their selfishness or self-interest? It is true that they have their ends to serve. But so have we our ends to serve. Only we consider our ends to be pure and, therefore, selfless. But who is to determine where selflessness ends and selfishness begins? Selflessness may be the purest form of selfishness. I do not say this for the sake of argument. But that is what I really feel. I am considering their condition of mind from their point of view and not my own. Had they not been Hindu they would not have talked as they did yesterday. And immediately we begin to think of things as our opponents think of them, we shall be able to do them full justice. I know that this requires a detached state of mind, and it is a state very difficult to reach. Nevertheless for a Satyagrahi it is absolutely essential. Three-fourths of the miseries and misunderstandings in the world will disappear, if we step into the shoes of our adversaries and understand their standpoint. We will then agree with our adversaries quickly or think of them charitably. In our case there is no question of our agreeing with them quickly as our ideals are radically different. But we may be charitable to them and believe that they actually mean what they say. They do not want to open the roads to the unapproachables. Now whether it is their self-interest or ignorance that tells them to say so, we really believe that it is wrong of them to say so. Our business, therefore, is to show them that they are in the wrong and we should do so by our suffering. I have found that mere appeal to reason does not answer where prejudices are age-long and based on supposed religious authority. Reason has to be strengthened by suffering and suffering opens the eyes of understanding. Therefore, there must be no trace of compulsion in our acts. We must not be impatient, and we must have an undying faith in the means we are adopting. The means we are adopting just now are that we approach the four barricades, and as we are stopped, there we sit down and spin away from day to day, and we must believe that through it the roads must be opened. I know that it is a difficult and slow process. But if you believe in the efficacy of Satyagraha, you will rejoice in this slow torture and suffering, and you will not feel the discomfort of your position as you go and sit in the boiling sun from day to day. If you have faith in the cause and the means and in God the hot sun will be cool for you. You must not be tired and say, how long, and never get irritated. That is only a small portion of your penance for the sin for which Hinduism is responsible.

— M. K. Gandhi. pp 192-194 Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), published by Schocken Books, New York, 1961.

This is a far cry from those people who are quick to label their near-of-kin as Amalekites, the one race that was to be exterminated whereever they be found.

Gandhi tried hard to reform Hinduism into a more righteous faith. The means he used were called Satyagraha, meaning, holding on to the truth.. That is the essence of the struggle of Torah keepers. We too are Satyagrahi. Because we have a foundation of truth in the Torah delivered by Moses, the lowliest of our number will achieve much more than Mohandas Gandhi.

One final thing to remember about Satyagraha, is that it works best within kinship groups. When faced with an external, alien group that is trying to exterminate your group, non-violent resistance does not work. It is anti-Torah. The concept of clinging to the truth (Satyagraha) has nothing to do with laying down your life before an alien, trying to change his mind. Rachel Corrie, a 23 year old German girl, tried to stop Israeli soldiers from evicting Palestinian Muslims from their homes. She used non-violent resistence by lying down in front of the bulldozers that were to demolish the homes. Israeli soldiers shot and killed her when she refused to get out of the way. The Palestinians were still evicted. In the first place, it was wrong for an alien (Rachel) to interfere in the politics of another group. In the second place, if it had been right of her, she could only have succeeded by the use of overwhelming physical force, including troops, tanks, cannons, and so on.

I hope this New Moon (rosh chodesh) finds you well.