adminThe Rhodesia Herald,
11 February 1943
IT is announced that Mahatma Gandhi has begun a 21-day fast. Gandhi is at the Aga Khan’s palace, Poona under detention.
Seventy-three-years-old today, Gandhi first refused a meal this morning, and announced that he would continue fasting for three weeks on a diet of fruit juice and water.
Gandhi’s fast is the sequel to long correspondence with the Viceroy, in which he repudiates the suggestion that the Indian National Congress is responsible for the murders, train-wrecking and the damage to property which has taken place and blames them on the government.
The Viceroy, in one of his letters, urges Gandhi to abandon the idea of the fast, “not only because of my only reluctance to see you risk your life, but because I regard the use of the fast for political purposes as a form of blackmail. For us, there can be no moral justification.”
The correspondence was published by the government of India today with an accompanying statement, which said they were ready to set Gandhi at liberty for the purpose and duration of his fast, but if Gandhi was not prepared to take advantage of that fact and if he fasted while in detention, he does so solely on his own responsibility and at his own risk.
The government of India, it declared, had no intention of allowing the fast to reflect on their policy. In his letter to the Viceroy, Gandhi says: “My wish is not to fast unto death, but to survive the ordeal. If God so wills, this fast can be ended sooner by the Government granting needed relief.”
The news of the fast has generally been received calmly throughout the country. The only reaction at present is the closure of the markets for the day. This is Gandhi’s sixth fast.
LESSONS FOR TODAY
Three continents and three famous personalities of the 21st Century. Mahatma Gandhi (India), Nelson Mandela (South Africa), and Martin Luther King, Jnr (United States of America) are some of the most well-known politicians who effectively used non-violent forms of protest against injustices by the settler colonialists and former slave masters. They all scored major success, after years of struggle.
Below are some quotable quotes from all three of them on non-violence:
“Non-violence is not a garment to be put on and off at will. Its seat is in the heart, and it must be an inseparable part of our being.” (Mahatma Gandhi)
“But the hard facts were that fifty years of non-violence had brought the African people nothing but more repressive legislation, and fewer and fewer rights”. (Mandela)
“We adopt the means of non-violence because our end is a community at peace with itself. We will try to persuade with our words, but if our words fail, we will try to persuade with our acts”. (King, Jnr)
Their approach to conflict resolution continues to appeal to groups and individuals fighting for civil liberties. Farmers in India who have been protesting, adopted Gandhi’s non-violent approach.
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