Report on the Memorial Meeting for Mahatma Gandhi
- INDIA LEAGUE OF AMERICA
- 40 East 49th Street
- New York, N. Y.
A REPORT
ON THE
MEMORIAL MEETING
HELD ON FEBRUARY 7, 1948, AT THE TOWN HALL, NEW YORK, N. Y.
TO PAY TRIBUTE TO THE MEMORY OF
MAHATMA GANDHI
A public Memorial Meeting was held by the India League of America on February 7th, 1948, at the Town Hall, New York, N.Y., to pay tribute to the Saint of India -- Mahatma Gandhi.
More than 1,200 persons of different nationalities, races and creeds were present. Twenty speakers and fifty other distinguished guests sat on the platform. A bronze bust of Mahatma Gandhi, (by Jo Davidson) surrounded by white flowers and three flags — all at half-mast — flooded by a spotlight, was on the right of the stage.
Before the meeting started, Sirdar J. J. Singh, President of the India League of America, who was Chairman of the meeting requested the audience to stand in silent tribute for one minute as a token of homage to Mahatma Gandhi. Mr. Singh also requested the audience not to applaud at any time.
In his opening remarks, Mr. Singh said that besides the flags of India and Pakistan, the old flag of the Indian National Congress was placed in the center of the two, because Mr. Singh explained, “This flag, with the Charkha (spinning wheel) was very near and dear to Mahatma Gandhi. It was under this flag that Mahatma Gandhi waged and won his non-violent battles. So, on this occasion, we consider it most appropriate to place that flag along with those of India and Pakistan.”
SPEAKERS
Thereafter, the chairman called upon the following speakers:
SHEIKE MOHAMMAD ABDULLA, Head of the Emergency Government of the State of Jammu and Kashmir and President of the All-India States’ People’s Conference:
“Mr. Chairman, I have had the honor of spending many hours in the company of this great man whose death we have come here to mourn. One thing I found in him was this: that I was never awed by his august presence. He completely took everybody into his confidence because he had completely identified himself with the masses.
“He lived for truth and non-violence. These principles are not the ones that Mahatma for the first time brought before the world. Lord Jesus, the prophet Mohammed, Buddha, and other great men of the world had honored those principles. Mahatma Gandhi tried to live up to those principles, to live up to those ideals.
“Many tributes have been paid to this great man from eminent and great personalties of various countries. I only wish that the world would live up to his ideals.”
M. ASAP ALI, Ambassador of India to the United States:
“Mr. Chairman and friends: As representative of India, my government, and my people, I consider it my duty and privilege that I should acknowledge a deep debt of gratitude to all who have paid their generous tribute to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi. I feel it is a happy augury that Mahatma Gandhi’s principles have been so spontaneously applauded throughout the world; at least I feel that if Mahatma Gandhi’s soul is watching these proceedings on this planet, he must be enormously happy to find that at least after his death there is not a corner of the world where it is not recognized that the principles by which he lived were really deep in everyone’s heart, and in that really lay a secret. It has been said before today that it was difficult for people to find out the secret of his greatness.
“Believe me, the secret of his greatness was the utmost simplicity of his sincerity. He looked into every heart and he had a most extraordinary sense of discovery, deepmost feelings, deepmost urges, deepmost aspirations, and every time he spoke, he spoke the thoughts of everyone.
“To him, the humblest, the suffering, the sick, were the highest priorities in life, and if I may say so, having had the great privilege of associating with him for more than 30 years, I can assure you that I never found one occasion where he asked of others what he himself was not prepared to do himself.
“My friend, Mr. Ayyangar, has said it before, but I can assure you that every word that fell from his lips was the nectar of his life. He represented, in my humble judgment, the revivified spirit of the East, and as has been correctly said, he was the incarnation of the deepest and noblest urges of mankind. He brought to a world which was full of the pride of material power, the challenge of spiritual humility; and to top a world which was degenerating into cynicism and skepticism, he brought the presence of a living faith,, and to a world which hungered, or seemed to be hungering, after material greatness by any means, he brought the message of renunciation and service to mankind.
“His great magic lay in three words; Truth, Love, and Peace. When he said ‘truth’, he identified it with divinity. He once said, ‘One step, if taken with the strictest observance of truth, will lead you to salvation’, because he believed that no good end could ever be achieved by opposite means.
“For him, purity of means was essential. In a most practical way, he felt that only one step at a time was enough for him, because all other steps would follow exactly in the same direction.
“It was during the first great war that he returned to seek out wrongs against which he might experiment with truth, against which he might use his panacea and his remedy, namely, resistance to wrong, non-violence, peaceful resistance to wrong. And he found such wrongs in India. It was a time when politicians and statesmen did not wish to make certain expressions, but it was he who spoke out friendly and candidly and fearlessly and he taught others who followed him to do the same, and in the face of every conceivable danger, and there it was that the greatest revolutionary struggle for India's freedom was launched, which lasted for very nearly 25 years.
“During these 25 years, time and again, some of us who used to get impatient, used to ask him, ‘How long will you continue to subject us to this?’ His answer was, ‘The weapon of violence has been tried for thousands of years, and has it given the world peace? Try in my way, even if it is for a few years and see whether it will not succeed.’
“Well, Mr. Chairman, I think I can honestly say today we within our own lifetime have seen a success, the like of which can hardly be found in history. 400,000,000 people have achieved their freedom which is the first condition of the kind of freedom which he would have liked to see established in the country.
“His last will and testament are before the world. He did not want merely living freedom, but he wanted the completest religious, individual, social, and economic freedom for all individuals throughout the world; and I can assure you that he never for once allowed it to be said that he was preaching to the whole world. He used to say, ‘How can I face the world when I have not achieved that which I want my own country to achieve?’ Time and again he was invited by other countries and his answer always used to be, ‘How ridiculous that I should leave my country in this state and go to the world and preach to them. Let me achieve Justice here before I go to the world.’
“He has achieved success. He is no more, but he is there in spirit, and I have no doubt that his spirit will grow in ever-widening circles as time passes on, and his voice will be heard among the voices of all the great religious and moral teachers of the past from pulpits of the world.”
WARREN R. AUSTIN, Representative of the United States of America to the Security Council of the United Nations:
“Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, the tragic death of Mahatama Gandhi on January 30th evoked instantaneous expressions of regret and high tribute throughout the world. These expressions confirmed — if indeed confirmation were necessary -- the greatness of his role. Mahatma Gandhi not only was a national leader; he was also a symbol of the aspirations towards which men everywhere strive.
“One of the most solemn of the many tributes paid to Mahatma Gandhi was that which took place in the Security Council of the United Nations immediately after his death. It was appropriate that this Council which has primary responsibility for the maintenance of peace should hold a special meeting to honor the memory of this great apostle of peace.
“Every member of the Council spoke feelingly about the contribution which Mahatma Gandhi had made to the cause of cooperation among peoples and nations, and the members of the Council expressed the hope that his martyrdom would spur, not only his fellow countrymen, but men everywhere, to work even more steadfastly for a better and more peaceful world.
“Although the circumstances prompting this tribute were sad, the universal hope revealed by Mahatma Gandhi's death is a heartening sign. It shows that great men can, through their example, elevate the human spirit for the achievement of ideals that so-called realists may term impossible.
“I never had the privilege of meeting Mr. Gandhi. But I, like millions of others, nevertheless felt the impact of his personality and his philosophy. He stood for principles which have long animated the political consciousness of the American nation. His writings reveal that one of the most notable influences on his thinking was that of Henry Thoreau, the New England non-conformist who emphasized in all his writings the transcendental importance of the dignity and freedom of the individual human being. Thoreau hated political tyranny in any form, and the great Indian leader showed in a lifetime of sacrifices and struggle that he, too, was an enemy of tyrants.
“Mahatma Gandhi’s concern with the individual rather than with the outward forms of a political state was shown time and time again. These convictions he demonstrated not only in his personal way of life, but in his espousal of the moral doctrines of truth and non-violence as the only enduring basis of peace among men.
“There were still other aspects of Mahatma Gandhi’s life that made him a particularly attractive figure in American eyes. One was that he had a sense of humor which enabled him, exalted though his position was morally and politically, to strike the chord of human fellowship with those around him.
“Related to this capacity was his deep understanding of the motivations of the hundreds of millions of persons who inhabited India’s broad lands. He did not seek to impose upon them an alien doctrine. Instead, he sought the simple but enduring truths of Indian life, and used them as a foundation on which to build a freer and more prosperous India. Gandhi realized that the only revolutions which have meaning are those which spring from the human heart and not from the machinations of politics and war.
“When one of the greatest of our American leaders, Abraham Lincoln, died — also by the hand of a mad man — one of his closest associates murmured. ‘He now belongs to the ages.’ We can say the same of the passing of Mahatma Gandhi.”
N. GOPALASWAMI AYYANGAR. Minister Without Portfolio of the Government of India, Head of the Delegation of India to the Security Council:
“Sisters and brothers, I do not want to make any long speech on an occasion of this nature. Both parts of the sub-continent of India are plunged in unspeakable grief. As we who are here on business connected with both parts of that country look back upon the life of the man who is no more, the thought that overwhelms and oppresses us is that we would not be able to look upon his face again in our lives.
“What is it that he stood for in life? He stood for peace, for truth, for non-violence and a life of sacrifice. Many of the speakers who have preceded me have brought attention to some of these aspects, but I desire today, this afternoon, to refer only to one or two of them.
“I would stress particularly the fact that his was a life of sacrifice; in the leveling of human dignity amongst all classes of the human race, the philosophy that finds most favor in the West is the philosophy of what I might call plenty. That is to say that the highest aim of human endeavor should be to lift human beings from material poverty to material plenty. Gandhi stood for a gospel which tried to achieve the same end of leveling human dignity by teaching that if we want to make all human beings feel equal in human dignity, much more has to be done by those who have been born to a life of plenty and riches, much more has to be done by them by way of sacrifice, and try to lead a life which sacrifices all the luxuries and comforts that their riches and plenty give them, and try to live down to the life of the man who has been born to poverty and yet who can rise to the highest human dignity by spiritual evolution. That, I think, was the root doctrine at the base of his life.
“There is another fact of his life to which I would like to call your attention this afternoon, and that is that no man is entitled to go forth and preach to the world if he is not prepared to translate into his own life all that he preaches.
“I remember going to him only two hours before I took off for New York from New Delhi. We had an hour’s conversation and the content of that conversation comes hack to my memory with a regret which I cannot express in words to you today.
“At the end of that conversation, he asked me, ‘What is it that you have in the forefront of what you are going to do on this mission?’ I told him, ‘I shall he willing all the way that I shall succeed in this mission in bringing about an amicable understanding between India and Pakistan over the particular dispute that divides us today,’ and he said, ‘While you are willing it, I shall be praying for it every moment of my life.’
“I have no doubt that he was doing so. One of the most important characteristics of his life was that he never preached what he did not practice, what he did not want each human being to practice.
“More than half a century ago, a young Hindu in orange robes came to your country and took it almost by storm. His was an aggressive but virtuous personality. He tried to make the lion of Vedanta roar in this country, and one of his great sayings in that connection, if the audience will forgive my repeating it in Sanskrit, the ancient language of India, he said (Quotation in Sanskrit).
“That means, ‘Rise, gird up your loins, having found your leaders, go forth and conquer the world.’ That was how he put it. Gandhi in his life translated this great saying with a meaning which perhaps is more poignant to us in these later days than the Swami’s interpretation of the same saying. Gandhi’s interpretation would mean, ‘Maintain high morals. Be always alert against a fall-down from those high standards. Having found your wise men, realize, fulfill yourself.’
“That was the great teaching of his life. I commend that to
you.”
EMANUEL CELIER, Member of the House of Representatives, United States Congress; Member Advisory Board, India League of America:
“The beloved Gandhi belongs to all of us now. True, he is India's son, but the truth and the beauty of his life lifted him out of the limitations of time and place.
“The meaning of Gandhi’s life cannot be weighed and measured like a pound of coffee, but there is not one who will deny, I repeat, not one, that the impact of this frail, slight body upon the course of history has made itself felt universally.
“His grip on the pulse of his country did not require what so-called strong men in other lands demanded - there was no secret police behind him, no controlled army, no spy system. His enemies knew his strength, but they made the same mistake that men of ill-will always make. The body of man is mortal, but not the spirit. A bullet cannot kill a gospel.
“To the United States, the magic name of Gandhi had a very special significance. It has become more than a bit tiresome to hear the word ‘materialist’ thrown at us and the American way of life. We have had a good deal of difficulty in clarifying that concept to many foreign dignitaries. Because democracy is based on the dignity of the individual, the practical application of the democratic form has resulted in the widest distribution of goods and services any country has ever known. Withal, we have been conscious of our defects, knowing our own incompletions, we hold on to the American dream, working toward wider and ever wider application. The Intellectual sneers directed at our stream of automobiles, cars and refrigerators, and so forth, have reduced some of us to apologize for our ‘materialism’. I may be appearing at this moment to be departing from the figure of Gandhi. But I’m not, actually. To the people of the United States, Gandhi was the embodiment, the clarification, the explanation of the stream of cars and refrigerators. Gandhi may have wanted to arrive at the dignity of the individual, freedom, peace, Justice and plenty in another way, by another route. But this quiet man’s strength, his vision, his spiritual wealth, his practised belief in human goodness symbolized and crystalized for the people of the United States the hopes, the never-ending struggle for the betterment of man. When Gandhi spoke, the people of this land listened, and millions said to themselves, ‘Yes, that is right, that is good, that is true’.
“It has been given to few to wield so enormous an influence in the history of our time. He had none of the outward traditional trappings of leadership. He was armed, instead, with the clearest of vision and with tenancious faith.
“Reviewing Gandhi’s role in India’s struggle for independence, I am reminded of a story told of Confucious. Confucious stood watching a woman convulsed with grief at the side of a grave. He sent one of his disciples to talk to the woman and inquire of her the cause of such overwhelming sadness. The woman explained, ‘My father was killed here by a tiger. My husband was killed here by a tiger and now my son has suffered the same fate.’ ‘Why do you not leave this place’, the disciple asked. She replied, ‘Because the government here is not oppressive’. Upon the return of the disciple, Confucious pointed out the moral. ‘My children, oppressive government is fiercer and more feared than a tiger.’
“Yes, Gandhi knew that and with all the strength of his faith sought to efface oppression. Bloodshed and violence were not his answers. A good end could not be reached by evil means, he said. Hatred breeds hatred and blood draws blood.
“To a people demoralized by centuries of British misrule, he
brought the healing graces.
“It has been said that this is the age of violence and that ironic though it was for the man of non-violence to meet his end by the hand of an assassin, it followed the pattern of our day. But that is not so. Every age has been an age of disturbance and destructiveness. But not entirely, no, never entirely, because now and then men, pure of heart, and clean, selfless and endowed with grace, have arisen to take with them on their journey through life followers in the path of peace. These are the men who when they shed their mortal lives leave behind them a world a little bit closer to the good and the true — men like Buddha, Confucious, Moses, St. Brands of Assisi, Lincoln. With this royalty Gandhi is forever joined.”
JEAN-WILLY FOURNIER DE MONTOUSSE. Representative of France to the Security Council of the United Nations:
“Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen: I only wish to associate myself in very few words to everything which has just been said about Mahatma Gandhi, and the grief which spread over all the world at the tragic news of his death. The sacrifice of this great apostle is a cruel loss, not only for India, his own country for which he fought his whole life, but also for the whole of mankind.
“The French Government and the people of France send, through me, their deepest condolence to the government and the people of India for the irreparable loss which it has just had in one of the greatest and noblest figures in the history of mankind.”
FARTS BL-KHOURY. Representative of Syria to the Security Council of the United Nations:
“Ladies and gentlemen, it is superfluous for me or any other speaker to introduce the greatness of Mahatma Gandhi to any audience over the whole world. The 20th century has produced so many big names who have achieved great things in the world — statesmen, invaders, defenders, scientists, discoverers, inventors of all sorts — hut none of them occupies the place which Mahatma Gandhi occupies in the hearts of the world, and none of them got the fame, the undying fame and the noble name which Mahatma Gandhi obtained.
“In my country all of the people since early in this century have been reading the life of Mahatma Gandhi, repeating his statements and the dogmas of his teaching. They are so spread out that when the name of Mahatma Gandhi is mentioned anywhere, they consider it as a sacred name, as a saint, as a prophet, an apostle of peace.
“This leader of the world, Mahatma Gandhi, was eager to die. Facing the event of his death, he never hesitated to die. He tried to die several times in support of his principles, in support of his teachings, convincing the world that his teachings were right. He had no force, no fortune, but his life; he had nothing else. He was ready to offer his life in support of that principle, and he tried it several times by fasting, in order to support his principles which he espoused to the world.
“He was murdered by a mad man who belongs to a clan of men of nature and principles of which happily there are few. The great majority of the land and the continent of India appreciate what Gandhi was and know what his value is to the world.
“The four hundred million people of that subcontinent know that he gave them freedom without drawing a sword or shedding a drop of blood, and by his way of resistance — by his noble way — he let one of the greatest powers of the world relinquish that empire and give it liberty.
“This is one of the humilities of Gandhi which is not less than any other miracle made even by prophets. He was not a prophet. He never came to be a prophet. He never said that he gave divine revelations in any way. He was a lover of truth. He wanted common senBe to he established In the world without attributing it to divine sources.
“He was not a delegate to the United Nations in San Francisco when the charter was established, but his principles were there. The charter of the United Nations, in principle and purpose, was based on the principles and teachings of Gandhi — non violence, peace-loving, never afraid, giving love and peace to the world and never resorting to violence in self defense.
“His principle of non-violence and not returning evil by evil was expressed very clearly at his death when he pardoned his murderer. He said, ‘I forgive him,’ just as Jesus Christ said when he was to be killed, ‘Lord, forgive them for they know not what they do.’
“In both cases the murderers were ignorant of the sort of man they were killing. They never appreciated the value of the man they were put¬ ting to death.
“He resembles Jesus Christ in another thing — when Christ said to his disciples and believers, ‘Love those who curse you,’ both cases which are repeated in history, one after the other with a long space between them, are now clear.
“All reformers of the world do not reap the fruits of their endeavors in their lives; after their deaths, the world appreciates them. But Gandhi in his life saw millions appreciate and know what his value was, and it is widely hoped that the seeds which he has sown will grow to cover all the world and lead humanity to a peaceful settlement and peaceful life as all man¬ kind would aspire to.”
NASROLLAH BBTAZAM. Representative of Iran to the United Nations:
“Ladies and gentlemen: I did not plan to make a speech; first
of all, I can’t speak in English, and secondly, I think that the best tribute
to pay to suoh a great man as Gandhi is not by language but by heart.
“In my country, we feel that we lost one of our own. Personally, for me, when I learned this news, I lost a great hope. All my life, my great hope was that I would meet this man, and at this moment that hope is completely gone.”
JOHN HAYNES HOLMES, Minister, Community Church, New York:
“Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen: The death of Gandhi a week ago yesterday was accompanied in my heart by a two-fold reaction, each side of which was very definite and ran very deep. First of all, there was the sense of shock and grief. I trust that I shall never feel again the depth of emotion and agony that swept over my heart when the news came from New Delhi.
“On the other hand, there was the infinite comfort that seemed to come to me at the outpouring of anguish and of adoration and reverence that flooded not merely India, but all the world. I realized that at last mankind had discovered Gandhi and in his loss, knew how irreparable was that loss to humankind.
“It is this homage of mankind of which I want to speak for a moment this afternoon, for I have only a moment at my disposal. Where did it come from? What did it mean? What did it signify from the standpoint of Gandhi's relation to the great body of humankind upon the earth today?
“Well, first of all, it involved very definitely, it seems to
me, a recognition of Gandhi’s greatness as a man and as a public leader. The
measure of his greatness is to be seen in the fact that now that he is gone,
he is absolutely irreplaceable Not among all of the 400,000,000 of India is
there to be found a single man to take his place. Run around the circle of
the whole world, and where can you find a single personality to match with
his? Course through the ages that have gone by, and where can you find a
parallel to his career?
“He was the greatest Indian since Buddha, the greatest man that the world has seen since Jesus Christ,
“In the second place, this universal homage paid Gandhi on the occasion of his death suddenly reveals the love for him that had found its way into every heart around the world. I can remember when Gandhi was a Joke. He seemed to be so queer, and was doing such queer things with his fellow countrymen.
“Then, little by little, as the years went by, we began to discover that in his purity of heart and singleness of purpose and humility of spirit, here was a saint, and the Jeering and contempt that were present in many hearts found themselves transformed into reverence.
“Then, little by little, as the years went by, the reverence seemed to change itself into a kind of personal affection, so that when this man died it seemed as though to everybody the world around there had been suffered a deep personal loss, and the millions that gathered to say farewell to him on that last day were but a token, so to speak, of the hundreds of millions around the world that were weeping.
“Lastly, it seemed to me this homage is explained from the standpoint of the consciences of men. Our consciences have gotten to work years ago on the problem of Gandhi. We began to suspect year after year, as he won one great victory after another, that this man was not so crazy after all in the principles he was espousing and the things he was doing.
“We began to suspect that possibly he was right, and what was a suspicion was, at the moment of his death, suddenly and transcendently trans¬ formed into a deep conviction. Gandhi was right. Jesus was right. Buddha was right. Gandhi, like the other great souls, had been sitting in Judgment on humankind.
“Yes, my dear friends, there are two ways of life. One is the way that the world has followed through these many centuries, and it has brought us to the atomic bomb. The other is the way marked out by the few great souls of humankind, and it has led us to Mahatma Gandhi.
“It is now for us to choose between the way of death or the way of life, for there is none other.”
M. A. KASSAN ISAPHANI, Ambassador of Pakistan to the United States:
“Mr. Chairman, we have assembled here this afternoon to mourn the death of one of the most outstanding personalities of our age. It is indeed an irony that one who devoted his life to the promotion of peace, and was the apostle of non-violence, should have met his end by violence. His loss is not only a loss to India, but also to Pakistan and to the rest of the world.
“We of Pakistan share our grief with India, and mourn his death.
“Mr. Gandhi devoted almost four decades of his life to the struggle for freedom and to the uplift of the poor. Today, ladies and gentlemen, India stands on the edge of a precipice. One false step by the Hindus or the Moslems will send them crashing headlong to their doom. I hope and pray that such a step will not be taken.
“The best monument that can be erected to the memory of Mr. Gandhi by the people of India will be the re-establishment of communal peace and harmony for which he lived and died. If this is done, Gandhi will not have died in vain.”
SIR MOHAMMED ZAFRULLAH KHAN, Foreign Minister of Pakistan, Head of the Delegation of Pakistan to the Security Council of the United Nations:
“Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen: There is little to be added in formal words to the spontaneous and universal sense of grief and loss to which expression has already been given in all parts of the world to what one feels in the passing of Gandhi. We each appreciated him in our own way. That which appealed to me as his greatest quality was the stand that he took in support of the principle that the spiritual stands higher and is more important than the merely physical.
“The world will remember him most perhaps for the fight that he fought for India’s freedom, hut even there, that which was most to he admired was his principle and his method whereby not only did he make so large and overwhelming a contribution toward the beginning of India’s freedom, but he also won the esteem and the respect and the affection of Great Britain itself, to which attention has been drawn this afternoon by the representative of Great Britain.
“He had latterly devoted himself to securing communal harmony throughout the sub-continent of India. Only a short while before the tragedy that we all mourn this afternoon overtook him, he had given expression to the thought that life was not worth while if oommunal peace and harmony could not be restored throughout India, and there is no doubt that he laid down his life in the pursuit of that ideal. Prom that point of view, his death is an even more poignant tragedy to the Moslem than it is to the non-Moslem, and it is a challenge to India and Indian leadership that we all hope and trust that they will accept and completely vindicate him.”
FRANK KINGDON. Author and Columnist:
“My mind has been running along much the same lines as Dr. Lin Yutang’s. We are celebrating today the fact that the greatest thing in the world is a great man, but what is a great man? I speak for those who are humble, very humble, in the presence of Gandhi. A great man is a man who dares to be himself against the world, one man against the world; and the greatness of many prophets is the fact that eventually the world goes to them and acknowledges them.
“But in what secret, in what mystery, did this greatness of Gandhi lie? Where did it come from? What was the essence of this man who in a sub-continent of 400,000,000 people could rise to such stature that every people in the world listened to what he had to say and were influenced by him.
“Why, out of two billion people in the world, are we met here this afternoon and feel above us the influence, the brooding, of a great spirit? What is the power in this silence?
“Sometimes I think that we get so busy trying to master nature that we don’t take time to listen to nature, to learn the lessons that the universe has to tell us in the innermost places of our spirits. Gandhi took time for that. While the people who were mastering nature were making an atomic bomb, he was discovering something else — that there are forces deep down under the surface that man can tap if he obeys the universe’s laws, that give him a power that even an atomic bomb can’t touch.
“It was that power, expressing itself through it — call it what you will, call it spiritual power, call it obedience to great moral laws, call it what you like — underneath all the seeming tangible material things there is a force, a law, power, that if a man dips deeply enough into himself and into the universe, he can find something that makes him greater than all the weapons that men can learn to employ.
“A fanatic took a weapon and shot him and said, ‘Gandhi is dead,’ but the triumph of the insight that Gandhi had is that Gandhi is not dead, that there is no weapon that can destroy him, that in a real sense he has become a part of us in a new and more vital way.
“All I can say in tribute to him is humbly: I do not understand
the fullness of the insight that he had. I believe that that insight is the
most Important one that any man can possibly have, and because there is no
Gandhi, there is a little more constraint upon me to be a little more like
him. That seems to me to be the only tribute that we can bring to the man who
made a difference in the world.”
CHARLES MALIK, (Lebanon) Chairman of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations:
“Mr. Chairman, the passing of Mahatma Gandhi is a great loss to every man in the world who has a part in the betterment of mankind. Nor it was Gandhi, more than any man of our age, who Intended by his life and doc¬ trines to become a man by whose teachings the world should rise to the highest levels for which it is designed by its creator.
“We in the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, who pursue ideas of cooperation between the nations in respect to the raising of standards of living, and also of cultural attainment among the peoples of the world — we particularly feel very deeply the loss of that great leader.
“If any man would understand what we are trying to do in that council in the economic and social and cultural fields throughout the world, it certainly would be the great soul who has passed from amongst us, and to my mind the deepest thing that I learned from the life of this great man is his stand on truth and spirit; for to Gandhi there was such a thing as truth and there was such a thing as spirit and the two are made for one another.
“This was not an abstract and external truth such as the scientists seek alone.
It is also a living, spiritual, dynamic realization of life
itself at its highest, and this truth which we are seeking is not hidden away
from us, but we can attain it in this life by effort and sincerity and purity
of heart, and I would ask, my friends, that so long as the continent of Asia
produced such seers and sages as Gandhi who can take their stand first and
foremost on the ultimateness of truth and on the possibility of human spirit
— so long as the continent of Asia produced such men, is Asia and is the rest
of the world yet without hope?”
GERERAL A. G. L. McNAUGHTON, Representative of Canada to the Security Council of the United Rations:
“Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, I speak only to add my voice, as the President of the Security Council, and on behalf of the Canadian delegation, in expressing our sincere sympathy to India in the tragedy which has come to their country and indeed to the whole world.
“The death of Mahatma Gandhi is a catastrophe, not only for India, but for people of good will everywhere, and I know that countless numbers are sharing our deep regret at his passing and of the loss of wide influence which he has exercised for good and for peace.
“He has given his life in a great cause, and we who have shared his aspirations can only hope that his death, even more them his life, will cause his ideals to continue to be a powerful influence for peace and for harmony and for freedom.”
PHILIP NOEL-BAKER. Representative of the United Kingdom to the Security Council of the United Rations:
“Mr. Chairman, and friends: I am here to pay tribute of my government and my nation to the lost leader whose life and death we commemorate today. No speaker can do so with deeper feeling or with a greater sense of loss than I do.
“Gandhi struggled for many years for the independence of India from British rule. Gandhi won his struggle. India is free, but no people in the world received the news of his assassination with greater grief and consternation than my own.
“Our nation mourned his death. They venerate his memory, because they knew his greatness — the purity of his inspiration, his abiding universal love for all mankind. The London Times, so often our national mouthpiece, said, in writing of his death: ‘Gandhi will take his place in history as the leader who embodies for the world the ideal of human brotherhood, of respect for individual conscience, of supreme self-sacrifice in support of right.
“Gandhi’s triumph did not end when India was free. On the day of its independence, he won anew perhaps a greater triumph. The first government of free India endorsed his principles and declared that the policy of hundreds of millions of human beings would be based upon his faith.
“They said, on that fateful day, ‘We have proclaimed that we, as a nation and people, stand for world peace and cooperation amongst nations. We stand for democracy. The method of democracy is to find peaceful solutions for all problems.’ That is the way of a free people. By violence and hatred, no problem is solved.
“I like to remember the nobility of that government program — full of meaning, not for India only, but for Asia as well. On that same day, the first Prime Minister of liberated India said that on that historical day, the freedom of India meant much to Indians, but it also meant much to Asia and the world. We can see, as we look around the continent of Asia, how true it is. It stands at the crossroads of history as few continents have ever stood before.
“As we observed a moment of silence at the beginning of this
meeting, I seemed to hear in my imagination the fatal shot that ended the life
of Mahatma Gandhi. I seemed to see his dying agony. I seemed to hear the
broken words of forgiveness to his assassin. I seemed to feel the great enigma
of the years that are to come. Will it take the faith of Gandhi as its guide?
I believe it will, and that on his memory, his deeds, his miracles, his faith,
will be built for centuries to come the fraternity and the happiness of millions of his fellow men.”
ALI SASTROAMIDJOJO, Minister of Education of the Republic of Indonesia and Delegate to the United Nations:
“Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen: Today we of the Republic of Indonesia join the citizens of India and residents of New York in mourning the death of Mahatma Gandhi. The tragedy has cast a shadow over the whole world. Humanity has lost one of its greatest men. Indonesia has lost a guide, a mentor whose courage and example have long been of strength to us. We are proud to know that Gandhi supported our struggle for independence. We are proud to know that he recognized independence as a prerequisite for Justice.
“Gandhi, the teacher of non-violence, lost his life by violence. We pray that the lesson he taught and the example he gave will not be forgotten in a world where strife and misery are common currency.
“He devoted his life to unity. We pray that that unity will be achieved. He devoted his life to alleviating misery and oppression and un¬ happiness. We pray that his death will provide spirit for those people who also battle against evil things.
“We are proud to have known Gandhi, and we are proud that we know our course in the interest of the whole world.”
NORMAN THOMAS, Socialist Leader, President of the Post War World Council:
“We honor Gandhi because he towered in spirit above us, because he was the incarnation of a good which we had not reached, and yet there is a sense in which Gandhi met his death which is once more a sense of history, a kind of incarnation of the struggle that goe3 on within ourselves and in mankind.
“Someone earlier this afternoon spoke of Gandhi’s assassin as a
mad man. I am not so sure that he was mad. If he was mad, most of the world
is mad. The man who assassinated him believed in principles the opposite of
Gandhi’s. The struggle was between hate and love and temporarily hate and
violence won.
“Let us not forgot that Gandhi’s assassin was in a certain sense a religious man and sacrificed his freedom. If it is bravery you admire, he had bravery. If it is devotion, he had that. If it is religion that will save the world, in his way, he had religion.
“The point is: What kind of religion and what kind of loyalty? And the drama is that that struggle goes on and on. It is the drama that brings men and women out of the busy scenes of life, in crowded cities, men and women who have sought the gods of society, men and women of the breed who have produced the atomic bomb.
“We come to honor this figure, this little man, this Gandhi, this poor man, rich in the spirit, and in that honor, we admit the struggle that is unresolved within us. We aren’t following the way of Gandhi.
“We who do not live in India pray whatever gods there are that India will now seek the way of peace, that this Gandhi whose last great act was to fast in order to bring about a cessation of communal strife. He who hated partition, nevertheless hated even more the evil of mass murder.
“We say, ‘Let India now seek the way of peace. Let Gandhi triumph in death in India.’ Yes, but in varying degrees, under different historical circumstances, the struggle goes on everywhere, and neither on this platform nor in this audience are any exempt from it, nor is any nation exempt from it.
“The hope of mankind is bound up in the drama. Who knows the
next act? There is not one of us here so free that we can say no to those
who seek to triumph by the ways of force and hate. It is we who are the
battleground. We are the warriors, and in us the struggle goes on. It is
for us to be profoundly grateful that once in a great while, in many centuries
of history, some Mahatma Gandhi is given to us, and it is for us to be thankful
that in our weakness and in our uncertainty, in the fury of our passion,
it is yet given us to admire goodness and perhaps in admiring it, to learn
more and more to copy it.”
TING-PU TSIANG, Representative of China to the Security Council of the United Nations:
“Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen: In the long history of the cultures of the East, China acknowledges two great debts to India. The first debt is the religion of Buddhism, and the second great debt that China owes to India is the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi.
“We in China today lament the passing of Gandhi as much as the Indian people themselves. As we in China understand the position of Gandhi in the world, it appears to us in recent light, that we have many problems, international problems, racial problems, class problems, social problems.
“One attitude is that these problems, most of them cannot be solved. Let them alone. Let us accept the status quo. That is one attitude.
“There is another attitude: These evils should be removed. Let us take arms. Let us fight. Whatever the cost in blood, we must rid the world of these evils. That is another attitude.
“There is a third attitude. The third approach to our problem is the approach of Gandhi. We should work for the enlargement of human freedom in every sphere, but we must achieve our ends through non-violence.
“Mr. Gandhi has not achieved all the freedoms that he hoped to achieve, but he has achieved a great deal, and he has achieved what he has achieved through the method of non-violence. The methods he used will have to be studied in relation to other countries, in relation to other problems. We in China feel that the central problem of man is how to win these freedoms that we all prize through the Gandhi method of non-violence.”
WALTER WHITE, Executive Secretary, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; Member, Executive Committee, India League of America:
“Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, I have attended many memorial meetings, but never before have I felt so deep a sense of inadequacy in words. You have heard many distinguished speakers here this afternoon. The time is late, so I shall confine myself to one or two very simple observations.
“The first is that I believe that there is a significance for the peoples and the nations of the world who have gone mad during recent generations over theories of racial superiority, that it was a slender brown man in far-off India who has become the greatest moral and spiritual leader of the world since the days of Jesus Christ, and he did not worship force and materialism — not the mass murder of war, but a spirit of love and the gentleness of non-violence and peace.
“It may be that he will become even greater; in fact, I believe he will become even more powerful in death than he was in life, especially in view of the fact that he died from the very violence which he had spent his life in opposing.
“Perhaps Pakistan and India will learn the lesson that in disharmony and violence, there is the way to death; that in peace and non-violence, there is the way to lasting life for all human beings.
“I have listened to these distinguished representatives of the United Nations who struggled in the face of what seemed to be at times almost insuperable odds to find the kind of peace which Gandhi advocated. Perhaps we of the world, white and black, Jew and Gentile, Catholic and Protestant, believer and non-believer, may become as wise as the man who died but a few days ago, and learn that unless we can find that kind of peace that there is going to be only destruction for all of civilization.
“I stand here humbly this afternoon to pay tribute in my most simple fashion to one of the greatest leaders of mankind of all time, and I believe that his spirit would rest even more in peace if, instead of merrily sitting here this afternoon and making and listening to speeches, we went down from this place and tried to spread throughout the world not merely lip service to the ideals for which he lived and died, hut to put them into application to avoid the horrible and devastating war which seems to be so swiftly rushing upon the world.”
LIN YUTANG, Chinese Philosopher and Author; Honorary President, India League of America:
“Since Mahatma Gandhi’s death, I have tried in my mind to place him. In the perspective of modern history, where does he belong? Suppose we take the ten greatest men of modern times—or seven, or five, or three greatest. What would happen?
“Some years ago, there was an American magazine article on the big ten of the world, and Gandhi of course was one of them. I find that Gandhi does not belong to what the world called the big three, and I find myself drifting to the conclusion Inevitably that he is the big one, and I say so without fear of contradiction, because without any doubt, of the great world leaders of the 20th century, living or dead—he was the one who lived closest to God.
“If President Wilson were living today, I would call them the big two, but since President Wilson is dead, there was only one left, and he just died.
“Gandhi belongs to another category, the category of faith, and since the modern world is not in the habit of producing saints, he is the solitary example. I think we must think of Gandhi in a different light. We should rather think of him in connection with mankind, with men like Einstein or women like Madame Curie, and yet he is in a class by himself. He is not like Einstein or Madame Curie. He towers above us, in a class all by himself.
“He was even different from Tolstoy because in him and in him alone the spiritual level and religious level met and merged and became one, and that is nothing short of a miracle. For remember, he was not only a religious leader, but a political leader, hence his religious life took a political course.
“We know how important compromise is in the realm of politics. Don’t forget that Gandhi had espoused a political cause. To achieve that cause, he had definite means that seemed to the outside world like a lunatic’s There were times when he was considered a lunatic as when he appeared at the court of St. James in his loin cloth. People thought it was a publicity stunt.
“Now, the test of understanding Gandhi is the test of our own intellectual and moral comprehension, but he is so great that we cannot possibly understand him.
“He tried to set out to achieve the freedom of India. It would be very natural for any one of us, if we were living in a country, to try and fight for freedom. It would be very natural for us, for it is a logical emotion to put our faith in the unanswerability of bullets, because when a bullet goes into a man he is dead, but Gandhi, in carrying out the political mission of India, expressed and forced upon the people a disbelief in bullets. "We acclaim him because he had achieved the liberation of India, but to my mind, it does not matter whether he had achieved her freedom, or not, when he died — which is purely an incident of British politics. To my mind, he would have been every inch just a? great if India had not yet achieved her freedom when he died.
“I believe there are very few of us who would not take freedom if it were offered to us, but for Gandhi I am quite sure that if he had to achieve India’s freedom by foul or immoral principles, by sacrifice of principles, he would not have had the freedom of India. He would rather India remained a slave nation for a few years, and there he speaks for true greatness, and to a degree it was truly appreciated.
“To an extent, we are able to appreciate the meaning of Gandhi’s life and death. Gandhi has become the life of India, and to the extent that we are able to grasp and appreciate the meaning of Gandhi shall he become also the life of Asia and of the world.”
RESOLUTION
The following resolution was moved by Sirdar J. J. Singh and was unanimously adopted:
“We are met together today to honor one of the greatest men of human history. The world has been aware of Mahatma Gandhi for scores of years. While he was living, people did not always understand him, nor appreciate him, but they always knew that he was a force in our times, indomitable in his high purpose, unshakable in his integrity, persistently undefeated. To some he was a saint, to others a mystery, to his own people he was as familiar and revered a figure as a father. He was many things, to each man something.
“Now Gandhi is dead. We mourn his passing. It strikes us to the heart that this great good man, who, believing in non-violence never did harm to any creature, should yet have died by violence from one of his fellow men. This death, powerful and world-shaking, crystalizes the eternal meaning of Mahatma Gandhi’s life. Now we see plainly the necessity for the fundamental human truth which he spent his life to proclaim. We accept the challenge. We uphold the brotherhood of humanity, as the essence of peace, the affirmation of freedom.
“BE IT RESOLVED, THEREFORE, in honor of Mahatma Gandhi’s immortal memory, that
we gathered together here today, men and women of many races and creeds, do
solemnly declare that we will support by every means we have, by strength of
hand and mind, those forces which today in India work for democracy and a
progressive way of life. We approve of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s leadership.
We put our faith in his integrity. We announce ourselves fellow-workers with
those who work with him, believing that he is one of the outstanding leaders
of India who can so ably fulfill the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi. We do this in
the conviction that these ideals are valuable and essential for all mankind.”
Mr. Singh also suggested that those assembled and their friends should write letters to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India, assuring him that the people of America will stand by him and give him their full moral support in his fight for progressive and democratic ideals.
MESSAGES
JOSE ARCE, Representative of the Republic of Argentine to the Security Council of the United Nations:
“I sincerely regret that a previous unbreakable engagement makes it impossible for me to be with you tomorrow, as I would like, at the Memorial Meeting to pay tribute to Mahatma Gandhi.
“I take this opportunity to express my most profound adherence to the sentiments expressed by that act.”
ROGER N. BALDWIN. Director, American Civil Liberties Union; Treasurer, India League of America:
“Gandhiji belongs to the immortal company of martyrs to the highest principles to which men aspire. The universal recognition of his greatness testifies to the best in us all, and offers hope for its realization.
“My few precious hours with him on the way to the Round Table Conference revealed not only his spiritual force and his political shrewdness — a unique combination — but the rarely-noted gaiety of his heart and the serenity of his mind. Laughter was one of his notable qualities. Gandhi rose far above the cause of India to the universal. Our desperate civilization will move ahead by the example and teaching of one great soul.”
CHESTER BOWLES, Chairman of United Nations Appeal For Children:
“I am sorry I cannot join you physically today in honoring Mahatma Gandhi.
All over the world there is insecurity, fear, hate, violence. To lose the individual who more than any other of our day lived to prove the strength of the union of plain people in faith, and peace, and common purpose is a catastrophe not only for India, hut for the whole tortured world.”
LYMAN BRYSON, Counsellor on Public Affairs, Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc.:
“I regret that it will be impossible for me to attend the memorial service and join in the tribute to Mahatma Gandhi. I hope, however, that you will associate my name with the deep respect that you will pay at that time to your great leader.”
PEARL S. BUCK. Nobel Prize Winner, Author and Honorary President of the India League of America:
“In a strange profound way Gandhi, since his death, has become a test for India. Since his death, dramatic and symbolic of the struggle of his whole life, has lifted him, as upon a cross, far higher than he has ever been before. Those who thought lightly of him because they did not understand his faith and his teachings, are struck silent, for the moment. By his martyrdom he has thrown the final challenge to his people.
“Will India acknowledge the rightness of Gandhi or will she repudiate him? This is the question which the world now waits to see answered. If the people of India repudiate him, then they sink at once to the level of all other quarrelling, unreasoning peoples. But if they uphold non-violence, at all costs, if they demand peace first, in order to settle their differences without bloodshed, India achieves the greatness and the unique spiritual strength necessary today for world leadership.
“Never was such a challenge given in such difficult times. It will take miracles of self-control on the part of leaders and people alike. But let them be strengthened by this one fact: Gandhi was right. Only by determined non-violence can the world be saved today. Reason, arbitration, conferences, nothing is enough. Non-violence must come first. Non-violence which is deep enough and strong enough to become a faith, absolute in its application to every human situation. Gandhi was right. That for which he lived and for which he died stands today more inexorably true than ever. Oh India, dare to follow Gandhi, that there may be left one voice in the world to speak against the violence of foolish men and foolish nations!
ALBERT EINSTEIN:
“Everyone concerned in a better future of mankind must be deeply moved by the tragic death of Gandhi. He died as a victim of his own principle, the principle of non-violence. He died because in a time of disorder and general irritation in his country, he refused armed protection for himself. It was his unshakable belief that the use of force is an evil in itself and that therefore it must be avoided by those who are striving for supreme justice.
“To this belief he had devoted his whole life and with this belief in his heart and mind he had led a great nation on to its liberation. He has demonstrated that a powerful human following can be assembled not only through the cunning game of the usual political manoeuvers and trickeries but through the cogent example of a morally superior conduct of life.
“The admiration for Gandhi in all countries of the world rests on the recognition — mostly a subconscious recognition, of the fact that in our time of utter moral decadence, he was the only statesman to stand for a higher level of human relationship in the political sphere. This level, we must with all our forces attempt to reach. We must learn the difficult lesson that an endurable future of humanity will be possible only if also in international relations, decisions are based on law and justice and not on self-righteous power as they have been up to now.”
LOUIS FISCHER, Author; Lecturer; Vice President, India League of America:
“To many persons in the western world Gandhi was a queer figure in a loin cloth who drank goats’ milk. The West resisted Gandhi; if one suggested him as a creed and a cure, the answer often was, ‘We already have Jesus Christ’. This actually constituted a great tribute to the Mahatma. When he was killed, America and Europe mourned. Truman, Secretary Marshall, Douglas MacArthur, Attlee, Churchill, Leon Blum, the United Nations, and thousands of editors, preachers, and laymen bowed and wept. Apparently the West sensed that Gandhi was not merely the greatest man of the twentieth century; he was the greatest Christian of twenty centuries. A Hindu, nominally not a Christian, behaved more like Christ than any Christian. The West suddenly realized this when Gandhi fell, and realizing, began to look at itself, and saw its spiritual poverty. It looked and wondered how anybody could have been Christian in a non-Christian, in an anti-Christian world. It began to ask questions. From now on, the West will look at Gandhi in order the better to understand its own deficiencies.
“The second world war is ended and there is talk of a third. The aftermath of the second world war is almost as ugly as the years that preceded it. Civil wars, violence, suffering, unsolved problems everywhere. This makes men doubt, search, and open their minds to new ideas.
“The West needs Gandhi and I think it is more receptive to his ideas than ever before.”
JAMES G. FULTON, Member of the House of Representatives of the United States Congress:
“In a note so brief, I can not express too fully my shock to hear of the loss of Gandhi — one of the greatest leaders of our time. For one who devoted his life to the people as he did for peace and betterment, I am truly sorry and realize how deeply his death has been felt.”
COLONEL LOUIS JOHNSON, Former Assistant Secretary of War and Special Representative of President Roosevelt to India:
“I deeply regret that an engagement in California makes my attendance on February seventh impossible.
“Gandhi was truly the great soul. His spirit marches on and with Nehru at the helm, all will be well.”
RUFUS JONES, Honorary Chairman, American Friends Service Committee:
“I am very sorry that my health will not permit me to come to New York on Saturday.
“I loved Mahatma Gandhi and I shall be with you in spirit.”
TRYGVE LIE, Secretary General of the United Nations:
As Mr. Lie was en route from Europe to the United States, he sent instructions to Mr. Jehan de Noue, Chief of Protocol of the United Nations, to represent him.
WILLIAM O’DYWER, Mayor of the City of New York:
“The killing of Mohandas K. Gandhi was a tragedy that can be compared with the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Both men brought the troubles of their people to the mind of the world. "Gandhi brought patriotism to such a point, that it became in fact the highest end. His patriotism became a sacred thing because of the magnificence of his vision, concentration, undying loyalty and dedication."
WILLIAM PHILLIPS, Personal Representative of President Roosevelt to India:
“I deeply regret that my absence in Arizona prevents me from joining you in paying tribute to the memory of the great Indian leader.”
MRS. HELEN ROGERS REID, President, New York Herald Tribune:
“It was a sad disappointment that I could not go to the meeting in tribute to Mahatma Gandhi this afternoon. I want you to know how sorry I was to miss your memorial service.”
MRS. FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT:
“I am sorry I cannot be present at the memorial meeting to pay
tribute to Mahatma Gandhi because of absence from New York City.
“Mr. Gandhi was a force for good in the world and the world is poorer because of his death. It is shocking that a man who spent his life working for peace should die by an act of violence.”
FERNAND VAN LANGENHOVE, Representative of Belgium to the Security Council of the United Nations:
“I deeply regret that an unexpected Impediment prevents me from attending the memorial meeting.
“I wish to pay tribute with you to Mahatma Gandhi whose memory will remain one of the greatest symbols of the fundamental principle which inspires the United Nations.”
HENRY A. WALLACE, Former Vice President of the United States of America:
“I regret I am unable to be with you as you pay tribute to one of the greatest men of the ages.
“Mahatma Gandhi devoted his life to the supreme cause of our times—the uniting of peoples in comradeship and peace. He stood above the leaders of the peoples of the world in his long struggle against the imperialism that crushes the body and the spirit. India’s new born independence is his triumph.
“I share your grief at his death. We who believe in peace, honor his memory and take solace in the proud knowledge that his highest honor is not only that he fought for and won freedom for millions of peoples, but that he has inspired other millions who will now carry on that cause, until its fruits are shared by mankind.”
RICHARD WALSH, President, John Day & Company; Chairman, India League of America:
“Praises of Gandhi have come from many who knew him, had talked with him or seen him. These are best. Yet there is value also in the testimony of those of us who never had any direct touch with him except that of the spirit. When he was dead, many men and women far away were surprised by their own sudden grief, their sense of loss, their instinct that told them that the world without him will not be so good as it was. They had laughed a little at his dress, his diet, his spinning wheel, they could not see why he need reject the modern and fear the machine, and his religion was not theirs. But new they honored him for all he was and did and they knew in their hearts that true religion is a tie that binds fellow men, and that they too, were bound to him. And this discovery, which must have been shared by great numbers of people in all lands, gives hope that his ideals will live and help to bring the world at last to wisdom and gentleness and peace.”
DR. STEPHEN WISE, President, American Jewish Congress:
“When I learned that bullets had overcome the supreme figure of non-violence in our century, I could not help crying, ‘The sun has perished out of the Heavens.’
“What will forever live in remembrance and serve as an example and inspiration through the ages is the life of Gandhi, the man who dared to be himself; a man who, being utterly true to himself, became one of the supreme figures of a millennium.
“The bullet of a mad assassin felled him, and Gandhi’s remembrance is already become a shrine — in truth an altar — before which men of
all faiths and races shall learn the ways of peace. Had Gandhi survived, he
would have forgiven his assailant and sought to win him over to the good and
non-violent life. Let there then be no bitter and widespread reprisals. Let
India thank God that this man has lived, not worshiping an unattainable ideal,
such has been the fate of Jesus, but seeking to live and strive for truth and
justice and peace."
INDIA LEAGUE OF AMERICA
40 Bast 49th Street |
Telephone: |
HONORARY PRESIDENTS
Pearl S. Buck
Dr. Lin Yutang
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Sirdar J. J. Singh, President
Richard J. Walsh, Chairman,
Executive Committee
Louis Pischer, Vice-President
Dr. J. Holmes Smith, Vice-President
Hemendra K. Rakhit, Secretary
Roger N. Baldwin, Treasurer
Herbert J. De Varco, Counselor
Sidney Hertzberg
Dorothy Norman
Josephine Rathbone
Moosa Habib Rawjee
S. S. Sarna
Rustom D. Wadia
Walter White
NATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD
LOUIS ADAMIC |
FRANCES GUNTHER |
PIERRE van PAASSEN |
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