88 "Presenting" the Past
unarmed people and slaughtering them along with their wives and chil-
dren is the "violence of cowards." Gandhi wanted to see the nonviolence
of the brave before he died. It was a "unique weapon" that required "inner
strength."^65 He felt that his work went on well while the people were in
bondage, but he could not do anything when they were independent. He
pleaded, "I could teach the same lesson to our people today which I did
then. If you can heed that advice today, we can go very far."^66
Being a perennial optimist and persistent trier, Gandhi would not give
up. He utilized simple used blankets to take the people to Ramarajya. In
his prayer meeting at New Delhi in October 1947, he talked about the
plight of refugees in the camps. He pointed out further that the govern-
ment could not provide them all with blankets, and even other countries
could not send enough of them, as the demand was much greater. He
told the crowd, "But I know there are a number of people among us who
have many more blankets than they need. There are a large number of
poor people in Delhi who can hardly afford to have blankets. Give as
many blankets as you can spare. You can start giving things like this from
today." Exhorting the crowd that they should save as many people as they
could, he asked them to send him woolen blankets, cotton sheets, or quilts
they could easily spare. However, he put forward a condition: "I do hope
you will not tell me that you are giving these things for the Hindus or the
Sikhs. Human beings are all one— Let them rather tell me that they have
dedicated those things to God. In that case, they will go to the deserving
people."^67
Even after all the madness and bloodshed, Gandhi was still hopeful
that Indians could build Ramarajya and welcomed even the smallest
signs toward that direction. He was very pleased with the comment of
Jawaharlal Nehru that he did not like being called prime minister. Gandhi
thought that it would be more appropriate to call him "the first servant
of the nation." He felt that "if the officers under Jawaharlal were to think
so, our country would become a land of gold. We would have Ramarajya,
the kingdom of God upon earth. Then our freedom would be complete.
If after attaining freedom we continue to conduct ourselves in the man-
ner we are doing now then that freedom will irk me. Is this the kind of
freedom we are going to have? No, it cannot be."^68 The above examples
confirm Johan Galtung's contention that the ideal society of Gandhi, "his
Rama Raj (Kingdom of God) was to be approximated more than realized,
to be a guiding star, an image on one's mind more than a blueprint to be
implemented in all its details."^69
Borrowing Kant's words, B.N. Ganguli points out that Gandhi was try-
ing to apply the "perfect law in the imperfect state" and "to apply the eter-
nal truths to our daily life and problems." Gandhi's vision of the future
was "not a forecast based on scientifically plausible hypothesis," but
"an inspiring picture" of what the world would be like if his ethics were