THE SELECTED WORKS OF MAHATMA GANDHI
Vol-5 : Voice of Truth

SECTION X : SOCIAL IDEAS

Chapter- 70. The Social Ideal

Human society is a ceaseless growth, an unfoldment in terms of spirituality.

Mahatma, Vol. II, (1951), p. 296

All society is held together by non-violence, even as the earth is held in her position by gravitation. But when the law of gravitation was discovered, the discovery yielded results of which our ancestors had no knowledge. Even so when society is deliberately constructed in accordance with the law of non-violence; its structure will be different in material particulars from what it is today.

Harijan, 11-2-39, p. 8

I remember to have read, I forget whether in the Delhi Fort or in the Agra Fort, when I visited them in 1896, a verse on one of the gates, which when translated reads thus: “If there is a paradise on earth, it is here, it is here, it is here.” That fort with will all its magnificence at its best, was no paradise in my estimation. But I should love to see that verse with justice inscribed on the gates of Pakistan, at all the entrance. In such paradise, whether it is in the Union or in Pakistan, there will be neither paupers, nor beggars, nor high, nor low, neither millionaire employers, nor half-starve employees, nor intoxicating drinks or drugs. There will be the same respect for women, as vouchsafed to men, and the chastity and the purity of men and women will be jealously guarded. Where every woman, expect one’s wife will be treated by men of all religions, as mother or sister or daughter, according to her age. Where there will be no untouchability, and where there will be equal respect for all faiths. They will be all proudly, joyously and voluntarily bread labourers. I hope that everyone who listens to me or reads these lines, will forgive me, if stretched on my bed and basking in the sun, inhaling the life-giving sunshine, I allow myself to indulge in this ecstasy.

Harijan, 18-1-48, p. 526