Path much trodden

S. JAGADISAN

During an examination at High School, the Inspector of schools, Mr. Giles set five words for spelling - one of them was "kettle". Gandhiji spelt it wrong. Noticing it, his teacher signalled to him to copy the right spelling from his neighbour's slate. Gandhiji thought that what the teacher did was not proper. The teacher's responsibility was to check copying. All the students except Gandhiji spelt the words right. His teacher told him that he had been stupid. Gandhiji did not regret losing marks. To him being true to his conscience was more important than scoring full marks by adopting wrong means.

When Gandhiji was 15, he clipped a bit of gold out of his brother's armlet. This act of guilt troubled his conscience. The burden of guilt was too much for him to bear and he decided to confess his act of transgression to his father. But he did not have the courage to face his father. He wrote out his confession and gave it to him. He was prepared to accept any punishment his father thought fit. He sat by his father's side and saw tears flowing down his cheeks. The sight of his father's mental agony was more unbearable than any physical punishment. The tears he shed were enough to cleanse Gandhiji's heart and wash away his guilt. One may be driven to commit an offence under the stress of circumstances but to confess it calls for moral courage. Forgiving an offence however serious is an act of grace and magnanimity. Punishment leaves a scare. But forgiveness, a divine attribute, corrects and purifies. The inner transformation wrought by it is more efficacious and lasting, than any punishment.

As a barrister in South Africa, Gandhiji found that the charges to get his clothes washed in a laundry were prohibitive. He, therefore, started washing and pressing his clothes himself at home. To start with, his work was clumsy. Though the collar was stiff, starch was sticking to it and this invited the ridicule of his fellow-barristers. But Gandhiji was indifferent to it, as he preferred to adhere to his principle of self-help. When Gokhale visited South Africa, he took a scarf with him. It had to be pressed and there was no time to send it to the laundry. Gandhiji offered to press the scarf. Gokhale said, "I can trust your capacity as a barrister, but not as a washerman. What if you should soil it? Do you know what it means to me?" The scarf was a precious gift to him from Ranade. Gandhiji did a good job and won Gokhale's appreciation. He maintained this practice of self- reliance and self-help for the rest of his life.

In 1901, Gandhiji attended the meeting of the Congress at Calcutta. He was shocked at the disgusting and woefully inadequate sanitary conditions. The volunteers refused to undertake the scavenging work. Unmindful of criticism and ridicule, Gandhiji cleaned the toilet himself and there was no one to share the "honour" of doing an apparently undignified work with him. Gandhiji laid stress on the dignity of physical work. Menial work does not lower one's dignity. During his visit to Shantiniketan, he suggested that the teachers and the students could undertake activities like helping in the kitchen and sanitary cleaning.

Rabindranath Tagore remarked "This experiment contains the key to Swaraj".

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