The charm of Gandhiji

Gandhi was in constant evolution, but one of the things that never wavered was his belief in the power of love. It’s why he is adored. We love him because he first loved us, says Arthur Moore

- Arthur Moore

Before I ever met Gandhiji, Mrs Annie Besant, who was then staying at The Yarrows in Simla with the Law Member of the Viceroy's Executive Council, Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru, described him to me as a philosophical anarchist. She did not approve of him at that period because of his non-co-operation campaign, although he himself had called it off after the terrible happenings at Chauri Chaura.

These words, coming from one who had known him from his early years in London, may have influenced me at the time, but later on I was, like most people, greatly impressed by his statement at the trial and the account of the proceedings, which did honour both to Gandhiji and to the Judge who tried him, Mr Justice Broomfield. But I did not have the good fortune to meet Gandhiji till after his release from Yervada prison; and on that first occasion in his Sabarmati Ashram admiring followers, who surrounded him and kept coming in and out, rather prevented me from realizing the charm of the man himself.

That came later, and when it did it was irresistible. The secret of it was, of course, his genuine love for everybody. We love him because he first loved us.

Defending others Gandhiji was in constant evolution and, no doubt, his opinions on subjects changed.

The very title of his autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, shows in itself that he was always experimenting; and naturally he profited by his experience.

But he thought nothing of confessing a mistake or pleading guilty, and sometimes would laughingly call himself a crank.

Yet there was a subject on which, I think, he never changed, though it is one on which there has been most misunderstanding.