2.15.09 MAY YOU LIVE FOREVER!

the last two days i have almost completed reading a biography of gandhi. i'm reading slowly and thinking alot. he appears in this book very different than he appeared through his own writing. here one sees him waiting. his goal of bringing independence to the people of india had several major roadblocks in his mind, the least of which was the english presence. far more thorny were the problems of different people groups and the universal acceptance of caste. he worked tirelessly to befriend the muslims who were as oil to the water of hinduism. he had untouchable people live in his ashram and at times lived among them when he was traveling. i saw him as much more intense before. he was fighting for people who were already alive to be able to have more freedom, to live a better life...on the bottom end of indian society this meant to not starve to death, suffer the miseries of poverty, suffer oppression or rejection at the hands of others. to attempt to achieve these goals he practiced and promoted various types of non-violent non-cooperation. sometimes he alone did this, sometimes those specifically chosen by him, sometimes, particularly right before indian independence, the whole indian people (those who were of a mind to). he was pursuing a goal which was basically agreed with by 320 million people as against how many english? i don't know but the former had a preponderance. it was a stupendous experiment never before in history atempted, a notable achievement. it brought a new way of relating to government that now can be copied by those who come after.



but when one thinks about it, it occurs that the civil rights movement, though having a degree of white support, might have been a greater achievement. i don't know...there is the unseen factor that someone had done it before, which gandhi did not have. but maybe it was harder. then you think about the 15 people who are in prison for forceful prolife action, the 0 in prison for non-violent, non-cooperation with abortion...where does that come on the scale. gandhi had many who