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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 6, Issue 4 (September 1, 1931.)

Western Materialism

Western Materialism.

Nothing could indeed be stranger—nothing, perhaps, more symbolic—than this impact of the apostle of simplicity upon the elaborate materialism of the West. Gandhi's asceticism implies at once an Oriental rebuke to Occidental pride in tawdry wealth and temporal power. “What are all your costly trappings really worth?” asks, in effect, the Indian in the loin cloth. It thus happens that, while he will be negotiating in terms of temporal politics, the wise man from India will do so as a superior spirit challenging the altruism of the Western World to live up to its cultural aims, and to admit the higher life of the unhurrying East. Gandhi need not say these things specifically. His loin cloth, and the atmosphere he carries with him, will say them. There is an implied moral detachment that makes him a difficult person for ordinary political negotiators to tackle. And the implication, whether valid or not, will be noted by millions of people, watching for signs and portents.