Mahatma Gandhi

Owing to the distracted condition of the world – a war in the East and a nearwar in Europe – and my absence from India since the end of last year, it has not
been possible to get together all the persons who would have been glad to join
in this world tribute to Mahatma Gandhi on his seventieth birthday.
The different essays and reflections, each with its individual character, might
be expected to make the book uneven and disconnected, but I hope that it has
not done so. Almost every page is knit together by a central and never
forgotten theme, the challenge and message of Gandhi to the contemporary
world. By general admission something is wrong with it. We are living in a
singular moment of history, a moment of crisis, in the literal sense of the word.
In every branch of our activity, material and spiritual, we seem to have arrived
at a critical turning-point. Those who have surveyed the scene have given us
different answers about the cause and cure of our ailing civilization. Gandhi
tells us that we, who constitute the social order, are the disease and we must
change, if civilization is to improve.
Those who read these pages will be impressed by the fundamental unity
between Gandhi’s theory and practice, the exquisite harmony of his life and
work, which is the very essence of sincerity. It marks him our as one of the
outstanding personalities, not only of our time but all the time.
The contributions are arranged in alphabetical order. A few of Gandhi’s most
distinctive utterances which are more than local and temporary importance are
brought together in an Appendix.
The Editor thanks Mr. Stephen Hobhouse for his kindness in reading the proofs
and for seeing the work through the press.