Gandhi's Ideas - 2

Gandhiji did not hold women as man’s superior in respect of physical power.

The journal that Gandhiji started to promote the upliftment of Harijans is Harijan.

Gandhi founded All India Anti-Untouchability League to remove untouchability in the society, which was later renamed as Harijan Sevak Sangh.

Men go on saving labour, till thousands are without work and thrown on the open streets to die on starvation. Gandhiji was completely against the craze for machinery and its indiscriminate multiplication. To Gandhiji, the supreme consideration was man.

Gandhi saw women not as objects of reforms, but as self-conscious subjects who could become arbiters of their own destiny.

Gandhiji was not of the view that the medium of instruction should be English only.

Voluntary widowhood consciously adopted by a woman who has felt the affection of a partner adds grace and dignity to life, sanctifies the home and uplifts religious itself. Widowhood imposed by religion or custom is an unbearable yoke and defiles the home by secret vice and degrades religion.

Gandhiji said women must cease to consider them the objects of man’s lust. The remedy is more in her hands than man’s. She must refuse to adorn herself for men, including her husband, if she will be an equal partner with man. I cannot imagine Sita even wasting a single moment on pleasing Rama by physical charms.

"Untouchability, as it is practiced in Hinduism today, in my opinion, is a sin against God and man and is therefore, like a poison slowly eating into the very vitals of Hinduism".

Gandhiji maintained that all property is a trust. He was of the opinion that all forms of property and human accomplishments are either gift of nature or the product of social living.

According to Gandhiji, an employer should be the trustee of the interest of his employees.

Groups in the society mean feeling of unity.

According to Gandhiji, to call women the weaker sex is a libel. It is man’s injustice to woman.

Gandhiji tried to reconcile individual freedom with social obligation. According to Gandhi, society is like a family and the relation between the individual and society is interdependent.