Selected Letters of Gandhi : Part-1

TO ASHRAM SISTERS


Chapter-4: Wearing of Jewellery

[January 1927]

It is in the fitness of things that you have elected Gangaben as your president. But may I suggest that after electing your president you have to help her to fulfill the duties of her office? Gangaben is illiterate; still you have rightly appointed her president out of regard for her character. Rest assured that literary education is no good without character. President means chief servant. A ruler can issue orders only if he has acquired the highest qualification for service. His orders should be intended not to advance his own interest but the welfare of society. Rulers nowadays have lost sight of their duty, so that instead of setting an example of self-less ness and devotion they give themselves up to pleasures and use their powers as an instrument of self-indulgence. But you have therefore resolved that Gangaben should be your leader in your endeavour to qualify as sisters of mercy.