71. INDIA’S MISSION

Resort to Soul Force

I feel that India’s mission is different from that of the others. India if fitted of the religious supremacy of the world. There is no parallel in the world for the process of purification that this country has voluntarily undergone. India is less in need of steel weapons, it has fought with divine weapons; it can still do so. Other nations have been votaries of brute force. The terrible war going on in Europe furnishes a forcible illustration of the truth. India can win all by soul force.

History supplies numerous instances to prove that brute force is as nothing before soul force. Poets have sung about it and seers have described their experiences. (SW, p. 405)

That Indians are not a nation of cowards is proved by the personal bravery and daring of her martial races, whether Hindus, Mussalman, Sikh or Gurkha. My point is that the spirit of fighting is foreign to India’s soil and that probably she has a higher part to play in the evolution of the world. Time alone can show what is to be her destiny. (YI, 22-6-1921, p. 199)

I want to see God face to face. God, I know, is Truth. For me the only certain means of knowing God is nonviolence—AHIMSA-love. I live for India’s freedom and would die for it, because it is part of Truth. Only a free India can worship the true God.

I work for India’s freedom because my SWADESHI teaches me that, being in it and having inherited her culture, I am fittest to serve her and she has a prior claim to my service. But my patriotism is not exclusive, it is calculated not only not to hurt any other nation, but to benefit all in the true sense of the word. India’s freedom as conceived by me can never be menace to the world. (YI, 3-4-1924, p. 109)

India’s destiny lies not along the bloody way of the West, of which she shows signs of tiredness, but along the bloodless way of peace that comes from a simple and godly life. India is in danger of losing her soul. She cannot lose it and live. She must not therefore lazily and helplessly say, ‘I cannot escape the onrush from the West’. She must be strong enough to resist it for her own sake and that of the world. (YI, 7-10-1926, p. 348)

India has an unbroken tradition of nonviolence from times immemorial. But at no time in her ancient history, as far as I know, has it had complete nonviolence in action pervading the whole land. Nevertheless, it is my unshakable belief that her destiny is to deliver the message of nonviolence to mankind. It may take ages to come to fruition. But so far as I judge, no other country will precede her in the fulfillment of that mission. (H, 12-10-1935, p. 276)

On India rests the burden of pointing the way to all the exploited races of the earth. She won’t be able to bear that burden today if nonviolence does not permeate her more than [it does] today. I have been trying to fit ourselves for that mission by giving a wider bend to our struggle. India will become a torch-bearer to the oppressed and exploited races only if she can vindicate the principle of nonviolence in her own case, not jettison it as soon as independence of foreign control is achieved. (H, 19-5-1946, p. 134)

Land Of Duty

...India is essentially KARMBHUMI (land of duty) in contradiction to BHOGABHUMI (land of enjoyment). (YI, 5-2-1925, p. 45)

…. Everything in India attracts me. It has everything that a human being with the highest possible aspirations can want. (YI, 21-2-1929, p. 60)

India and The World

An India prostrate at the feel of Europe can give no hope to humanity. An India awakened and free has a message of peace and goodwill to groaning world. (YI, 1-6-1921, p. 173)

India must learn to live before she can aspire to die for humanity. (YI, 13-10-1921, p. 326)

...My ambition is nothing less than to see international affairs placed on a moral basis through India’s efforts. (YI, 26-12-1924, p. 421)

I want India’s rise so that the whole world may benefit, I do not want India to rise on the ruin of other nations. If, therefore, India was strong and able, India would send out to the world her treasures of art and health-giving spices, but will refuse to send out opium or intoxicating liquors although the traffic may bring much material benefit to India. (YI, 12-3-1925, p. 88)

I would like to see India free and strong so that she may offer herself as a willing and pure sacrifice for the betterment of the world. The individual, being pure, sacrifices himself for the family, the latter for the village, the village for the district, the district for the province, the province for the nation, the nation for all. (YI, 17-9-1925, p. 321)

I am humble enough to admit that there is much that we can profitably assimilate from the West. Wisdom is no monopoly of one race. My resistance to Western civilization is really a resistance to its indiscriminate and thoughtless imitation based on the assumption that Asiatics are fit only to copy everything that comes from the West.

I do believe that, if India has patience enough to go through the fire of suffering and to resist any unlawful encroachment upon her own civilization which, imperfect though it undoubtedly is, has hitherto stood the ravages of time, she can make lasting contribution to the peace and solid progress of the world. (YI, 11-8-1927, p. 253)

India has a far nobler mission viz., to establish friendship and peace in the world. Peace cannot be established and peace in the world. Peace is being broken, as we all see, even while conferences are being held. (H, 17-11-1946, p. 404)

Lesson of Tolerance

Decency and toleration to be of value must be capable of standing the severest strain. If they cannot, it will be a sad day for India ….. (H, 5-10-1947, p. 354)

Is the [Indian] Union to be a theocratic State and are the tenets of Hinduism to be imposed on non-Hindus? I hope and promise, a land to which all Asiatic and African races look, indeed, the whole world.

The world expects not littleness and fanaticism from India… It expects greatness and goodness from which the whole world can derive a lesson and light in its prevailing darkness. (H, 16-11-1947, p. 411)

A truly independent Free India is bound to run to the help of its neighbors in distress, for instance, Afghanistan, Ceylon and Burma. The rule also applies to the neighbors of these three and thus by implication they become India’s neighbors too. And thus, if individual sacrifice is a living sacrifice, it embraces the whole of humanity. (H, 23-3-1947, p. 78)

India and Asia

If India fails, Asia dies. It has been aptly called the nursery of many blended cultures and civilizations. Let India be and remain the hope of all the exploited race of the world. (H, 5-10-1947, p. 354)

All eyes rest on India, which has become the hope of Asia and Africa, nay, of the whole world. If India is to realize the hope, it has to stop the fratricide and all Indians have to live like friend and brothers. Clean hearts are the first condition to that happy state. (H, 26-10-1947, p. 388)