Ghandi´s first interview

Uno de los acontecimientos más importantes de todos los tiempos fue el de la lucha de Mahatma Gandhi por la independencia de India del Imperio Británico. Gandhi mostró al mundo que la palabra puede ser tan fuerte como la bayoneta.

En esta entrevista, de 1931, Gandhi acababa de salir de prisión, por oponerse al impuesto a la sal, y charlaba con el periodista de Movietone. En vocabulario: carved out. Para saber: political ethicist

… civil disobedience and all other phases of Satyagraha are always at our disposal but whether we shall resort to these weapons immediately or what other steps we shall take I cannot tell at present…

… I should very much like to abolish child marriages…

… I shall certainly not be found in European dress…

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869 –1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist and political ethicist, who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British Rule, and in turn inspire movements for civil rights and freedom across the world.

He lived modestly in a self-sufficient residential community, ate simple vegetarian food, and undertook long fasts as a means of self-purification and political protest.

Gandhi's vision of an independent India based on religious pluralism was challenged in the early 1940s by a new Muslim nationalism which was demanding a separate Muslim homeland carved out of India. In August 1947, Britain granted independence, but the British Indian Empire was partitioned into two dominions, a Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan.

Gandhi, Indian Ambulance Corps, Boer War

Gandhi First Interview, 30 April 1931

At the beginning the reporter greets a man, apparently some sort of secretary to Ghandi, who tells that Mohandas is prepared for an interview, although he is feeble and does not like pictures.

Almost a year before this interview, Gandhi was arrested at Karadi near Dandi for breaking the Salt Law, without trail he was imprisoned and released on 26 January, 1931. This interview took place three months after his release.

—If England does not grant your demands what course of action will you follow then?

—Of course, civil disobedience and all other phases of Satyagraha are always at our disposal but whether we shall resort to these weapons immediately or what other steps we shall take I cannot tell at present.

—If England grants your demands, Mr. Gandhi, will you have complete prohibition in the New Indian State?

 —Oh, yes!

—Absolute prohibition?

—Absolute

—And do you intend also, if India wins its Independence, to abolish child marriages?

—I should very much like to, even before.

—Do you expect England this time will give India full self-governance?

—That also is more than I can say.

—But you are hopeful?

—I'm an optimist.

—You are an optimist.

—If you go to the second round table conference will you go attired in native Indian dress or will you prefer European dress?

—I shall certainly not be found in European dress, and if the weather permitted, I shall be exactly as I am today.

—And if the King of England invited you to dinner at the Buckingham Palace would you go in your customary Indian dress?

—In any other dress I should be more discourteous to him because I should be artificial.

— If England does not grant your demands are you prepared to return to jail again?

— I am always prepared to return to jail.

—Would you be prepared to die in the cause of India's Independence?

— [smiling and laughing] this is a bad question.

Para saber

Political ethics is the practice of making moral judgements about political action and political agents. It covers two areas. The first is the ethics of process (or the ethics of office), which deals with public officials and the methods they use. The second area, the ethics of policy (or ethics and public policy) concerns judgments about policies and laws.

Vocabulario

… a separate Muslim homeland carved out of India…

Carve out: establish or create through painstaking effort, remove from a larger whole.

"She carved out a reputation among her male colleagues"

"The new start-up company carved out a large chunk of the market within a year"

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