In the next few days, Zhou Hexuan stayed in Calcutta, discussing literature and national liberation issues with these progressive Indian writers all day long. The reason why he stayed here was not because he wanted to communicate with his Indian colleagues, but to stay here and wait.
Chang Kaishen and Song Meiling.
After inspecting the Khyber Pass Fortress, Chang Kaishen returned to New Delhi with his entourage, where he met with Congress Party leader Jawaharlal Nehru, Chairman of the Indian Green Alliance Jinnah (the father of Pakistan), and leaders of the Indian women's community
Mrs. Naidoo, wait.
The next step was to meet Mahatma Gandhi.
In order to show respect, Chang Kaishen wanted to go to Bombay to visit him in person, as the Chinese understood. Gandhi, on the other hand, wanted to go to New Delhi to meet with Chang Kaishen in person, as the Indians understood.
The British Governor-General in India learned of this situation and immediately wrote to Soong Meiling, saying that if Chiang Kai-shek and his wife went to Bombay, the Governor-General would be in a very embarrassing situation. Churchill then sent a telegram to Chiang Kai-shek, asking him not to go against the Governor-General's wishes, otherwise China would
The situation in which the British Alliance united all India to join the war against Japan would be damaged.
In desperation, the three parties reached a compromise and Chiang Kai-shek chose to meet Gandhi in Calcutta.
Gandhi traveled with great fanfare. Thousands of Indians came to see him off in Mumbai, accompanied by hundreds of low-caste and untouchable supporters. He met hundreds of thousands of escorts along the way. He came in a third-class train, and tens of thousands of Calcutta citizens
Spontaneous organizations greeted them, directly paralyzing the train station.
Chang Kaishen was completely shocked by the crazy scene, and said to Song Meiling and Zhou Hexuan next to him: "He is indeed a saint, and he has won the hearts of the people!"
Hundreds of low-caste and untouchable followers spontaneously opened the way for Gandhi. They were like the fanatics who protected the pope. They were humble, humble and unyielding until death. If anyone wanted to harm Gandhi, they could only step on the corpses of these people.
"Mahatma! Mahatma! Mahatma!"
There were shouts and shouts inside and outside the station. The upper castes stood and waited, the lower castes knelt down and worshiped, and the untouchables lay on the ground from a distance to perform Hajj.
The British and Indian military police faced a formidable enemy, but they did not even dare to raise their guns. In fact, even if there was an accident, they did not dare to fire, otherwise it would inevitably cause even greater trouble.
Seeing this scene, Zhou Hexuan felt responsible and didn't know how to evaluate it at all. He used to look down on Gandhi and thought the man was too cowardly, but now he didn't dare to look down upon him. Non-violence and non-cooperation have been practiced to this extent.
Times are more terrifying than violent resistance, and its organizational power and influence have surpassed most violent revolutions in the world.
Let's put it this way, if the British dare to raise the price and tax of a certain fabric without authorization, then Gandhi will stand up and call for all the people to spin cloth and refuse to buy and use British fabrics. Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions
People, even tens of millions of people, responded. They demonstrated, went on strike, and persisted to the end despite being suppressed by the British. The kind of economic losses and social chaos that the British simply could not face.
You kill yours, I do mine, I stretch my neck for you to kill, but I just won’t cooperate with you.
Let's change the metaphor. It's like a robber occupying a farmer's house and asking the farmer to grow vegetables, cultivate the land, boil water for cooking. Under normal circumstances, the farmer will be patient. If the oppression is too much, he will do nothing and lie on the ground and let the robbers beat and kill him. Unless
The robbers want to completely destroy the family, otherwise they will inevitably choose to compromise. This is really a weird way of resistance.
"Mr. Gandhi!"
"Mr. Jiang!"
The two shook hands warmly outside the station, and both were very moved by each other's actions. Chiang Kai-shek and his wife went to the station to greet him in person, while Gandhi traveled all the way in a third-class carriage. At least they both showed great respect.
"This must be the Nobel laureate Mr. Zhou, right?" Gandhi smiled.
Zhou Hexuan greeted: "Hello, Mr. Gandhi."
After everyone exchanged greetings, they took the car to the best hotel in the city. Gandhi's followers also went together, but they did not stay in the hotel, but sat or lay outside the hotel door. Asceticism was a big problem for them.
It is a kind of cultivation and a stance to express determination.
The exchange process was actually very boring. Each expressed their respect and support for each other's nation and expressed their desire to unite to deal with imperialism.
What Zhou Hexuan was most interested in was Gandhi's views on the caste system. He couldn't help but ask: "Mr. Gandhi, what do you think of the caste system?"
"Ahem!" Chang Kaishen coughed. He felt that this question was too sensitive.
Gandhi smiled and replied: "The caste system has a certain rationality. It is not the caste system that limits India's development, but untouchability. I think untouchability should be abolished. Once the untouchable class is eliminated, the caste system can be purified."
This answer surprised Zhou Hexuan, because in his impression, Gandhi respected the untouchables openly, but secretly looked down on them.
"Do you think the untouchability system can be abolished?" Zhou Hexuan asked again.
Gandhi smiled and said: "I am an untouchable, but I can still get respect."
Of course Gandhi cannot be an untouchable. Many times he is considered a second caste Kshatriya, but judging from his surname, he should be more like a third caste Vaishya. The original meaning of "Gandhi" is "food merchant", and Vaishya is engaged in business.
The trading class, while the Kshatriya class are mostly princes, nobles, warriors and officers.
Of course, it is also possible that Gandhi's family has been upgraded a long time ago. After all, his father served as the prime minister of a certain Indian state, a position that is more consistent with the Kshatriya caste.
The reason why Gandhi said that he was an untouchable was because when he went to London to study, the locals threatened to expel him from his caste and did so. This caused differences. The Gandhi family still regarded Gandhi as a Kshatriya, while his fellow villagers
It is believed that Gandhi has become a pariah.
Gandhi continued: "The non-violent non-resistance movement is external, and the abolition of untouchability is internal. Persistence in resistance externally and self-improvement internally are the only way for the Indian nation to become stronger. We cannot drive away the British colonists.
Although we are oppressing our own people, we are still oppressing our own people. This is wrong and extremely foolish.”
"That's true." Zhou Hexuan agreed.
After being in India for so many days, Gandhi is the most sensible Indian that Zhou Hexuan has come into contact with. At least his idea involves the fundamentals of Indian society, which is to abolish untouchability!
In fact, Gandhi had not thought about abolishing untouchability before 1932, and had a conflict with the future "Father of the Indian Constitution" who was born as an untouchable. Gandhi not only compromised, but was persuaded by the other party, and publicly asked the British colonial government to grant untouchability
From the perspective of conspiracy theory, Gandhi's move may not have been for the benefit of the untouchables, but to divert the colonial government's attention from the non-violent movement by liberating the untouchables, and it was successful to a certain extent.
No matter what, Gandhi did this. He also called the untouchables "sons of God" and characterized their occupation of toilet cleaning as a sacred ritual. After Gandhi's death, toilet cleaning was still "sacred" because it was regarded by Gandhi as a sacred ritual.
Given divine attributes, the untouchables who clean toilets are still discriminated against.
Gandhi also persuaded temples across the country to open to untouchables. The temples agreed, but untouchables still could not enter. Just like Gandhi gave untouchables the right to be civil servants, but untouchables still cannot be civil servants. The strong caste system gradually became an unspoken rule.
The best among the untouchable few can come to the fore.
Just at the end of last year, Gandhi published the "Agenda for the Construction of India," in which he called on Greens and Hindus to unite and cooperate, abolish untouchability, improve the status of women, and gradually solve rural and educational issues.
It can be said that these ideas of Gandhi involve all the fundamental problems of Indian society. If they can be solved, India will inevitably develop into a superpower.
Nehru, the leader of the Congress Party, inherited Gandhi's ideas and put Gandhi's "Construction Program" into practice bit by bit. This process was bound to encounter great resistance, so Nehru chose to expand externally and rely on military strength to improve his own power.
prestige.
These included invading the territory of New China and being hung up and beaten by the founding fathers. Nehru lost his prestige as a result, and India's domestic forces took the opportunity to counterattack. As a result, India's rural reforms came to an end, and other reform achievements were also reversed. His successors
Even less capable.
Therefore, the various problems in Indian society were what they were when the country was founded, and they will still be the same decades later.
After two hours of in-depth exchanges, Zhou Hexuan's impression of Gandhi has been greatly changed. This man is indeed a wise man and a warrior. Nehru, the leader of the Congress Party, is more like Gandhi's fan. Both of them have a profound understanding of Indian society.
I understand, but reality forced Nehru to take wrong measures and actually wanted to consolidate his rule by bullying New China.
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