Gandhi The Holy Man The people look on Gandhi as a saint; he is venerated in India as no other man has ever been. Although his birth and caste are not such as to seem likely to win prestige, since he is neither Brahman nor a Kshatriya, belongs o the Banya caste, nevertheless, the most high-caste Brahmans bow reverently before him. "The whole nation follows him implicitly," says Rabindranath Tagore, "and for one reason only, that they believe him to be a saint. To see a whole nation of different races, of differing temperaments and ideals, joining and following a saint, is a modern miracle and only possible in India. The worst and most deep-rooted passions re soothed by the words: `Mahatama Gandhi forbids it...' I don't agree with Gandhi in many things but I give him y utmost reverence and admiration. e is not only the greatest man in India; e is the greatest man on earth today. It s not only the masses who feel Gandhi's spell Indian intellectuals also peak of Gandhi as there "Mahatma." hat this word "Mahatma," "great soul," means to the Hindu is also explained to us by Rabindranath Tagore: "The word 'Mahatma' means he liberated ego which rediscovers itself in all other souls that life no longer confined in individual human beings, he comprehensive soul of the Atman, f the spirit. In this way, the soul comes 'Mahatma,' by comprehending all souls, all spirit in itself." Anyone who would understand the greatness of Gandhi's influence must make himself familiar with the peculiar conditions prevailing in India. The population of the country consists of an immense number of stocks, races, and groups, widely separated ethnologically, who speak eleven different languages and belong to the most varied religions and sects. Seventy million are adherents of Islam alone, and have for centuries lived with the Hindus in continual dissension and perpetual hostility. The English Governor, Mr. Lloyd, one of Gandhi's fiercest enemies, declared after his arrest that he must be buried alive in prison and no one allowed access to him, or his cell would soon become a Mecca for the whole world. How well-founded this fear was is clearly shown by the description in an Indian paper: "In the evenings" this journal states, "the public assembled in large numbers at the Sabarmati Prison to do homage to their beloved leader; the masses stood before the prison as before a temple. When the bell rang to announce the hour of admission the sound was received with thrills of joy. Then the crowd of pilgrims 8 Gandhi: The Holy man approached their revered Mahatma; some threw themselves at his feet, others touched him with awe, others again showed their respect only by profound salaams. Mothers laid their infants in his arms and old women touched the ground before him to show their devotion."— from the book