Albert Einstein remarked about the greatness of
Mahatma Gandhi that generations hence will wonder such a man as Mahatma Gandhi walked this earth.
What happens normally when a man is accused of a crime and dragged to a court of law? He appoints a lawyer who uses all his reasoning power to establish that his client is not guilty. The accused himself pleads innocence. In spite of all this, if he is proved guilty, he files a mercy petition and uses all the channels available to him to escape or at least minimize the punishment. Do you know of any instance in which the accused pleaded guilty and literally cornered the judge into awarding him the maximum possible punishment? Who can the charged one be other than Mahatma Gandhi?
In his journals Young India and Navjivan Gandhiji wrote highly inflammatoryarticlesagainsttheBritishGovernment.Thegovernment took the matter seriously and Gandhiji was dragged to court on charges of sedition. Being a lawyer himself, Gandhi argued the case on his own behalf. He squarely and plainly pleaded ‘guilty’. He told the judge, “I admit I am guilty. In case, for any reason, you acquit me and set me free, I am going to indulge in the ‘crime’ again, again and again”. He further said, “Honourable Judge, there are only two options before you : if you think that the administrative system on behalf of which you are dispensing with justice is fair, you have to award me the maximum possible punishment; otherwise, you have to quit your position and go home”.
The English judge was full of admiration for Gandhiji’s moral stance. While awarding him six years in prison, he said that he deemed it his duty to pronounce, the sentence but appealed to Gandhiji to remember that eventually if the sentence is withdrawn or the term of imprisonment was reduced none would be happier than he!
That was Gandhiji and those were his times!