The Mahatma and Vykom Satyagraha

AS was perhaps only to be expected, Mahatma Gandhi has had to take upon himself the intellectual leadership of the Satyagraha in Vykom. The movement was not started at his instance or under instructions from him, but only with his blessing. But it had not gone beyond rudimentary limits when its de facto leader wired to him, not only for instructions as to how he should proceed, but also asking him, in the event of his being arrested, to send his (Mahatma’s) son or some other leader to take charge of the operations. So far as the first of the two requests was concerned, there was no difficulty. The Mahatma was ready as ever to give his expert opinion and his intellectual guidance to all those who were striving to follow in his footsteps and to carry out one of his most cherished ideas. On the second point, however, the Mahatma had his own views; views which he had repeatedly expressed in the past and which did not wholly coincide with those of some, at any rate, of his followers. In the course of an interview, he thus expressed himself: “An appeal has been made to all Indian leaders to lead the movement. It is a question how a local movement, on reaching a critical stage, can be turned into an all-India movement. All-India sympathy I can understand, and that the Vykom Satyagrahis are having in abundance, but to concentrate the active energies of the leaders from the different provinces on a single local movement seems to be a difficult, if not an impossible, task.” 

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