Write the explanation of the essay entitled "Reflections on Gandhi".

Write the explanation of the essay entitled “Reflections on Gandhi”.

Ans.

Explanations

(1) To what extent did he compromise his own principles by entering into politics, which of their nature are inseparable from coercion and fraud.

Reference to the Context: These lines are an extract from the essay Reflections on Gandhi‘ written by George Orwell. These lines have been taken from the ‘Autobiography’ of Gandhiji. These lines show how as a great old man had great spiritual power he could compromise with his principles into politics.

Explanation: According to the writer, saints should be judged before declaring them innocent. The writer suggests to test to judge Gandhiji as a saint. The first test is if Gandhiji was moved by vanity. To what extent he was proud of his greatness. He looked humble so he was called a man with spiritual power and the power of his soul. He used to sit on a praying mat but he had great spiritual power to shake powerful empires as he had shaken the British Empire.

The second question was he had ever compromised with his principles. It was the time when he had entered the political field with his firm principles. Many politicians indulge in corrupt means with the purpose of getting their political objectives. Was Gandhiji like them or he was different from them? According to the writer Gandhiji could pass such a test to come out successful as a true saint.

(2) But this partial autobiography, which ends in the nineteen twenties, is strong evidence in his favour, all the more because it covers what he would have called the unregenerate part of his life and reminds one that inside the saint, or near-saint, there was shrewd, able person who could if he had chosen, have been a brilliant success as a lawyer, an administrator or perhaps even a businessman.

Reference to the Context: These lines are an extract from the essay Reflections on Gandhi’ written by George Orwell. Gandhiji was called a saint or a great Mahatma because he had passed his whole life like a holy journey including every important act.

Explanation: According to the writer, we can understand Gandhiji out-and-out by reading his autobiography The Story of My Experiments With Truth’ which had been written honestly by him. It was completed in the nineteen-twenties with the records of the events of his life taking place in that period. The writer further says that his autobiography is an important proof in his favour showing his greatness.

The writer further says that his greatness is clear from the fact that he had never hidden anything. He had honestly written even the unregenerate part of his life showing even those wrongs which he had committed with honesty and courage. It shows that inside the saint Gandhiji was a clever person who could have lived a very successful worldly life. It is true that he had lived a different life. On the other hand if he had chosen the worldly path. He would have become successful lawyer or a successful administrator, or even a successful businessman. Gandhiji was not an ambitious man, so he had chosen a different path by taking an active part in the freedom movement of India along with the common masses of the country.

(3) Although no doubt he was shrewd enough in detecting dishonesty. he seems wherever possible to have believed that other people were acting in good faith and had a better nature through which they could be approached.

Reference to the Context: These lines are an extract from the essay ‘Reflections on Gandhi’ written by George Orwell. Gandhi was gifted with insight, so he could look into the heart and mind of persons, so he could not be deceived by clever persons also.

Explanation: According to the writer Gandhi was clever and intelligent. In that way he could look into the thinking of other persons. Both the Britishers and the millionaires liked Gandhiji to get protection for their rule in India as well as their property. His principle of non-violence movement was a help to them.

Gandhiji was a saint so he believed in the goodness of other persons. They could follow the wrong path to fulfil their desires, so every man could approach him because of his good nature. If anybody seemed to be selfish or corrupt even then he met him with good feelings.

(4) He was not one of those saints who are marked out by phenomenal piety from childhood onwards, nor one of other kind who forsake the world after sensational debaucheries.

Reference to the Context: These lines are an extract from the essay, Reflections on Gandhi’ written by George Orwell. The writer made a serious study of the autobiography of Gandhiji and he found out his unique character as a saint.

Explanation: The writer makes it very clear that Gandhiji was quite different from other saints. He had found it out that usually they shifted between two extremes-one of real purity and the other of extreme evil. Gandhiji was completely an average man and he behaved like many other middle class people. He also had the same ambitions with the same tastes. With this reason Gandhiji did not show any sign of becoming a saint in his young and later life. In this way he was an extraordinary man with his own good feelings and with some other virtues.

(5) But one should, I think, realize that Gandhiji’s teachings cannot be squared with the belief that Man is the measure of all things, and that our job is to make life worth-living on this earth, which is the only earth we have. They make sense only on the assumption that God exists and that the world of solid objects is an illusion to be escaped from.

Reference to the Context: These lines are an extract from the essay. Reflections on Gandhi’ written by George Orwell. Some pacifists claimed that Gandhiji belonged to their class because he was opposite to centralism and related violence without knowing his good feelings.

Explanation: Gandhiji was really a religious man who believed in the existence of the other world, so he did not support the non-religious philosophy of good people who supported liberal human values. Gandhiji was in favour of spiritual discipline related to human life in which meat eating, alcohol or tobacco were not permitted. A person had to take an oath of Brahmacharya (celebacy).

In this way, the principle of Gandhiji could not be squared with the faith of human beings. He added that man is the measure of all things and it is our job to make life worth-living on this earth. Gandhiji believed in God who runs the world, so we should mould our life according to the divine rule by following the spiritual discipline. The world of solid objects is really an illusion with only apparent reality. We should not be misguided by such illusion which we should escape from it.

(6) Close friendships, Gandhi says, are dangerous, because ‘friends react on one another’ and through loyalty to a friend one can be led into wrong-doing. This is unquestionably true. Moreover, if one is to love God, or to love humanity as a whole one cannot give one’s preference to any individual person.

Reference to the Context: These lines are an extract from the essay. Reflections on Gandhi’ written by George Orwell. Gandhiji was a great social thinker as well as he was also a great spiritualist having his own original ideas about friendship.

Explanation: According to the writer friendship is like a shattering tree that gives support and protection to other friends. It is a common practice that we often try to win our friends with the purpose of influencing other people but Gandhiji had regarded such close friendship as a dangerous thing, so we should not have such close friendship with anybody because friends make their reaction to other friends. It also moulds the judgement of other friends.

The writer further says that he does not remain impartial when the testing time comes. Then he shows his favour to his friends demanding favour from his friends for proper judgement. If a person loves God and other persons of humanity, he cannot become partial to his friends. Its reason is that he is the friend of the whole humanity, so he cannot be partial to only one friend because he thinks good of all persons not of only one individual person. The individual friendship is not important in the life of that man who is the lover of the whole mankind.