Explain the ideas expressed by Gandhiji in his address at the time of opening of Banaras Hindu University in February 1916. Did he put his precepts into practice ? Give examples.

Ideas expressed by Gandhiji at Banaras Hindu University:

(i) Gandhiji’s first major public appreance in India was at the opening of the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in February 1916. When his turn came to speak (in the function of BHU) Gandhiji charged the Indian elites with a lack of concern for the labouring poor. The opening of the BHU, he said was, “certainly a most gorgeous show”. But he worried about the contrast between the “richly bedecked noblemen” present and “millions of the poor” Indians who were absent.

(ii) Putting of precepts into practice by M. K. Gandhi:

(a) Gandhiji favoured in the opening of the BHU as it was an occasion for celebration, marking as it did the opening of a nationalist university, sustained by Indian money and Indian initiative. But rather than adopt a tone of self-congratulation, Gandhiji chose instead to remind those present of the peasants and workers who constituted a majority of the Indian population.

(b) Gandhiji at Champaran in favour of farmers : In the last month of that year, Gandhiji was presented with an opportunity to put his precepts into practice. At the annual Congress, held in Lucknow in December 1916, he was approached by a peasant from Champaran in Bihar, who told him about the harsh treatment of peasants by British indigo planters.

(iii) Gandhi as a leader of masses or of the people : By 1922, Gandhi had transformed Indian nationalism, thereby deeming the promise he made in his BHU speech of February 1916. It was no longer a movement of professionals and intellectuals, now hundreds of thousands of peasants, workers and artisans also participated in it. Many of them venerated Gandhiji, referring to him as their Mahatma.

The Indians appreciated the fact that he dressed like them, lived like them, and speak their language. Unlike other leaders he did not stand apart from the common folk, but empathised and even identified with them.

(iv) Gandhiji’s constructive work:

(a) Mahatma Gandhi was released from prison in February 1924, and now chose to devote his attention to the promotion of home-spun cloth (khadi) and the abolition of untouchability. For, Gandhiji was as much a social reformer as he was a politician. He believed that in order to be worthy of freedom.

(b) Indians had to get rid of social evils such as child marriage and untouchability. Indians of one faith had also to cultivate a genuine tolerance for Indians of another–hence his emphasis on Hindu-Muslim harmony.

(c) Meanwhile, on the economic front Indians had to learn to become self-reliant hence his stress on the significance of wearing khadi rather than mill-made cloth imported from overseas.