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Chapter 03

IN DEFENCE OF NATIONALISM

For me patriotism is the same as humanity. I am patriotic because I am human and

humane. It is not exclusive. I will not hurt England or Germany to serve India.

Imperialism has no place in my scheme of life. The law of a patriot is not different

from that of the patriarch. And a patriot is so much the less a patriot if he is a

lukewarm humanitarian. There is no conflict between private and political law.

Young India, 16-3-21

Just as the cult of patriotism teaches us today that the individual has to die for thefamily, the family has to die for the village, the village for the district, the district for

the province, and the province for the country, even so a country has to be free in

order that it may die, if necessary, for the benefit of the world. My love, therefore, of

nationalism or my idea of nationalism is that my country may become free, that if

need be the whole of the country may die, so that the human race may live. There is

no room for race hatred there. Let that be our nationalism.

Gandhiji in Indian Villages, p. 170

I want Indias rise so that the whole world may benefit. I do not want India to rise on

the ruin of other nations.

Young India, 12-3-25

An India prostrate at the feet of Europe can give no hope for humanity. An India

awakened and free has a message of peace and goodwill to a groaning world.

Young India, 1-6-21

It is impossible for one to be inter-nationalist without being a nationalist.

Internationalism is possible only when nationalism becomes a fact, i.e. when peoples

belonging to different countries have organized themselves and are able to act as one

man. It is not nationalism that is evil, it is the narrowness, selfishness, exclusiveness

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which is the bane of modern nations which is evil. Each wants to profit at the expense

of, and rise on the ruin of, the other. Indian nationalism has struck a different path. It

wants to organize itself or to find full self-expression for the benefit and service of

humanity at large. Young India, 18-6-25

God having cast my lot in the midst of the people of India, I should be untrue to my

Maker if I failed to serve them. If I do not know how to serve them I shall never know

how to serve humanity. And I cannot possibly go wrong so long as I do not harm other

nations in the act of serving my country.

Young India, 18-6-25

My patriotism is not an exclusive thing. It is all-embracing and I should reject that

patriotism which sought to mount upon the distress or exploitation of other

nationalities. The conception of my patriotism is nothing if it is not always, in every

case without exception, consistent with the broadest good of humanity at large. Not

only that, but my religion and my patriotism derived from my religion embrace all life.

I want to realize brotherhood or identity not merely with the beings called human, but

I want to realize identity with all life, even with such things as crawl upon

earthbecause we claim descent from the same God, and that being so, all life in

whatever from it appears must be essentially one.

Young India, 4-4-29

Our nationalism can be no peril to other nations inasmuch as we will exploit none, just

as we will allow none to exploit us. Though Swaraj we will serve the whole world.

Young India, 16-4-31

After nearly 50 years of public life, I am able to say today that my faith in the doctrine

that the service of ones nation is not inconsistent with the service of the world has

grown. It is a good doctrine. Its acceptance alone will ease the situation in the world

and stop the mutual jealousies between nations inhabiting this glob of ours.

Harijan, 17-11-33

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Chapter 04

DEMOCRACY IN INDIA

The highest from of freedom carries with it the greatest measure of discipline and

humility. Freedom that comes from discipline and humility cannot be denied,

unbridled license is a sign of vulgarity injurious alike to self and ones neighbours.

Young India, 3-6-26

There is no human institution but has its dangers. The greater the institution the

greater the chances of abuse. Democracy is a great institution and therefore it is liable

to be greatly abused. The remedy, therefore, is not avoidance of democracy butreduction of possibility of abuse to a minimum.

Young India, 7-5-31

A popular State can never act in advance of public opinion. If it goes against it, it will

be destroyed. Democracy disciplined and enlightened is the finest thing in the world. A

democracy prejudiced, ignorant, superstitious, will land itself in chaos and may be

self-destroyed.

Young India, 30-7-31

I have repeatedly observed that no school of thought can claim a monopoly of right

judgements. We are all liable to err and are often obliged to revise our judgements. In

a vast country like this, there must be room for all schools of honest thought. And the

least, therefore, that we owe to ourselves as to others is to try to understand the

opponents view-point and, if we cannot accept it, respect it as fully as we expect him

to respect ours. It is one of the indispensable tests of a healthy public life and

therefore fitness for Swaraj. If we have no charity, and no tolerance, we shall never

settle our differences amicably and must, therefore, always submit to the arbitration

of a third party, i.e. to foreign domination.

Young India, 17-4-24

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When people come into possession of political power, the interference with the

freedom of the people is reduced to a minimum. In other words a nation that runs its

affairs smoothly and effectively without much State interference is truly democratic.

Where such a condition is absent, the form of Government is democratic in name.

Harijan, 11-1-36

Democracy and violence can ill go together. The State that are today nominally

democratic have either to become frankly totalitarian or, if they are to become truly

democratic, they must become courageously non-violent. It is a blasphemy to say that

non-violence can only be practiced by individuals and never by nations which are

composed of individuals.

Harijan, 12-11-38

The very essence of democracy is that every person represents all the varied interests

which compose the nation. It is true that it does not exclude and should not exclude

special representation of special interests, but such representation is not its test. It is

a sign of its imperfection.

Harijan, 22-4-39

The democracy or the Swaraj of the masses can never come through untruthful and

violent means, for the simple reason that the natural corollary to their use would be to

remove all opposition through the suppression or extermination of the antagonists.

That does not make for individual freedom can have the fullest play only under a

regime of unadulterated Ahimsa.Harijan, 27-5-39

A free democratic India will gladly associate herself with other free nations for mutual

defence against aggression and for economic co-operation. She will work for the

establishment of a real world order based on freedom and democracy, utilizing the

worlds knowledge and resources for the progress and advancement of humanity.

Harijan, 23-9-39

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My notion of democracy is that under it the weakest should have the same opportunity

as the strongest. That can never happen except through non-violence. No country in

the world today shows any but patronizing regard for the weak.Western democracy,as it functions today, is diluted Nazism or Fascism. At best it is merely a cloak to hide

the Nazi and the Fascism tendencies of imperialism.India are trying to evolve true

democracy, i.e. without violence. Our weapons are those of Satyagraha expressed

through the charkha, the village industries, removal of untouchability, communal

harmony, prohibition, and non-violent organization of labour as in Ahmedabad. These

mean mass effort and mass education. We have big agencies for conducting these

activities. They are purely voluntary, and their only sanction is service of the lowliest.Harijan, 18-5-40

A born democrat is a born disciplinarian. Democracy comes naturally to him who is

habituated normally to yield willing obedience to all laws, human or divine.Let those

who are ambitious to serve democracy qualify themselves by satisfying first this acid

test of democracy. Moreover, a democrat must be utterly selfless. He must think and

dream not in terms of self or party but only of democracy. Only then does he acquirethe right of civil disobedience. I value individual freedom but you must not forget

that man is essentially a social being. He has risen to his present status by learning to

adjust his individualism to the requirements of social progress. Unrestricted

individualism is the law of the beast of the jungle. We have to learn to strike the mean

between individual freedom and social restraint. Willing submission to social restraint

for the sake of the wellbeing of the whole society, enriches both the individual and the

society of which one is a member.

Harijan, 27-5-39

Rights accrue automatically to him who duly performs his duties. In fact the right to

perform ones duties is the only right that is worth living for and dying for. It covers all

legitimate and contains in it seeds of Himsa.

Harijan, 27-5-39