Mahatma Gandhi's autobiography Sathiya Sodhani is one book which guides you as to what is right and wrong. Most importantly, the author should have experienced all these. The original was in Gujarati, and was later translated into English and other Indian languages. The book is in five parts, beginning with his birth, up until the year 1921. In the last chapter he writes, "My life from this point onward has been so public that there is hardly anything about it that people do not know...."
The introduction reads, "What I want to achieve - what I have been striving and pining to achieve these thirty years - is self-realization, to see God face to face, to attain Moksha. I live and move and have my being in pursuit of this goal."
The paper back edition of the book costs Rs. 30 being subsidized by the Navajivan Trust, Ahmedabad.
Whilst I was yet winding up my work on the Committee, I received a letter
from Sjts. Mohanlal Pandya and Shankarlal Parikh telling me of the
failure of crops in the Kheda district, and asking me to guide the
peasants, who were unable to pay the assessment. I had not the
inclination, the ability or the courage to advise without an inquiry
on the spot.
At the same time there came a letter from Shrimati Anasuyabai about
the condition of labour in Ahmedabad. Wages were low, the labourers
had long been agitating for an increment, and I had a desire to
guide them if I could. But I had not the confidence to direct even
this comparatively small affair from that long distance. So I seized
the first opportunity to go to Ahmedabad. I had hoped that I should
be able to finish both these matters quickly and get back to
Champaran to supervise the constructive work that had been
inaugurated there.
But things did not move as swiftly as I had wished, and I was unable
to return to Champaran, with the result that the schools closed down
one by one. My co-workers and I had built many castles in the air,
but they all vanished for the time being.
One of these was cow protection work in Champaran, besides rural
sanitation and education. I had seen, in the course of my travels,
that cow protection and Hindi propaganda had become the exclusive
concern of the Marwadis. A Marwadi friend had sheltered me in his dharmashala
whilst at Bettiah. Other Marwadis of the place had interested me in
their goshala (dairy). My ideas about cow protection had been
definitely formed then, and my conception of the work was the same
as it is today. Cow protection, in my opinion, included
cattle-breeding, improvement of the stock, humane treatment of
bullocks, formation of model dairies, etc. The Marwadi friends had
promised full co-operation in this work, but as I could not fix
myself up in Champaran, the scheme could not be carried out.
The goshala in Bettiah is still there, but it has not become a
model dairy, the Champaran bullock is still made to work beyond his
capacity, and the so-called Hindu still cruelly belabours the poor
animal and disgraces his religion.
That this work should have remained unrealized has been, to me, a
continual regret, and whenever I go to Champaran and hear the gentle
reproaches of the Marwadi and Bihari friends, I recall with a heavy
sigh all those plans which I had to drop so abruptly.
The educational work in one way or another is going on in many
places. But the cow protection work had not taken firm root, and has
not, therefore, progressed in the direction intended.
Whilst the Kheda peasants' question was still being discussed, I had already
taken up the question of the mill-hands in Ahmedabad.
I was in a most delicate situation. The mill-hands' case was strong.
Shrimati Anasuyabai had to battle against her own brother, Sjt.
Ambalal Sarabhai, who led the fray on behalf of the mill-owners. My
relations with them were friendly, and that made fighting with them
the more difficult. I held consultations with them, and requested
them to refer the dispute to arbitration, but they refused to
recognize the principle of arbitration.
I had therefore to advise the labourers to go on strike. Before I
did so, I came in very close contact with them and their leaders,
and explained to them the conditions of a successful strike:
The leaders of the strike understood and accepted the conditions,
and the labourers pledged themselves at a general meeting not to
resume work until either their terms were accepted or the
mill-owners agreed to refer the dispute to arbitration.
It was during this strike that I came to know intimately Sjts.
Vallabhbhai Patel and Shankarlal Banker. Shrimati Anasuyabai I knew
well before this.
We had daily meetings of the strikers under the shade of a tree on
the bank of the Sabarmati. They attended the meeting in their
thousands, and I reminded them in my speeches of their pledge and of
the duty to maintain peace and self-respect. They daily paraded the
streets of the city in peaceful procession, carrying their banner
bearing the inscription 'Ek-Tek' (keep the pledge).
The strike went on for twenty-one days. During the continuance of
the strike I consulted the mill-owners from time to time and
entreated them to do justice to the labourers. 'We have our pledge
too,' they used to say. 'Our relations with the labourers are those
of parents and children....How can we brook the interference of a
third party? Where is the room for arbitration?'.