10
PARTISAN REVIEW
I
life, to intensify the struggle. Some believed that he had died a dis-
appointed, an outraged man. But, apparently, he had not expected
to attain
his
goal. He knew he would die in the desert, a Moses;
during the last period he had taken to calling Satya "Aaron."
But if the country was not ready for freedom now, it never would
be. It is possible, thought Satya, that a nation's deepest need cannot
be considered a responsibility. We are not yet ready to live as human
beings, and yet we must live so. Freedom is more than a responsibility
to men; it is a higher obligation, and while they may not be prepared
to receive it, and to use it, they must, they absolutely must, live only
to obtain it. The old man's teachings had therefore been wrong in
assuming that there was ever a moment when men's readiness for
freedom could be determined. But he had at least recognized that the
need was always present; if he had preferred to wait, out of
prudence, or out of a desire for moral perfection, he had nevertheless
been wise enough to impose his restrictions at a time when prudence
and perfection were still practical. But virtue had never been so im–
practical as it was now.
The new government-or the new administration-for the coun–
try had always been administered rather than governed-which took
office during the crisis brought on by Bapu's death, soon proved itself
to be no mere colonial bureaucracy. Where previous regimes had
been cruel and corrupt, the present administration was only cruel.
And if bureaucracies by nature are corrupt, they are known to be so
only when approached with bribes. The bureaucracy that now held
office made itself unapproachable, and therefore outwardly honest.
But it was skilled in arithmetic, even if it refused to employ its talents
in counting out bribes, and it followed the same thumb-to-tongue rule
of carefully fingering the issues of state that its predecessors had ob–
served in the traffic of banknotes.
Against the present, as against previous regimes, the party was
carrying forth the non-violent struggle in which Bapu had instructed it.
Essentially religious, an elaboration of the ancient faith, non-violence
had, under the- old man's guidance, made its way into politics. It was
the only means, so the party intellectuals had reasoned, whereby,
after the failures of
all
the violent struggles that had ·arisen in Europe
and in parts of the East after the war, men might still attempt to
attain a measure of decency, that is, moral success, as well as political
success in the effort to free themselves.
Perhaps one needed religious capacity really to take non-violence
to heart. But Satya was not a religious man. He had once in his youth
