Confession
Confession has been declared many things by way of metaphor. For instance, we know from a popular adage that confession is supposedly a salve for the soul. Gandhi takes things just a small step forward by positing the idea that the soul does not merely benefit, but is cleansed and made stronger:
“confession of error is like a broom that sweeps away dirt and leaves the surface cleaner than before.”
Darkness Ages
The defining metaphor of the modern age is put to use to described the intellectual vacuum of the Middle Age for western civilization in juxtaposition to the opposite taking place to the East. What many people do not realize is that the period of time commonly referred to as the Dark Ages was entirely a Christian European phenomenon. Islamic society, in particular, flourished in the brightness:
“When the West was sunk in darkness, a bright star rose in the Eastern firmament and gave light and comfort to a groaning world.”
The British
The greatest opposition to Gandhi’s expressions of civil disobedience came from, naturally enough, the British who were oppressing the Indians. The full intellectual dearth of understanding just what the heck was going on it emphasized through one of the most unbelievably inappropriate metaphors ever given from a member of the oppressing class to a member of the oppressed:
“An unknown English friend has thought it worth while cabling to me that in launching upon civil disobedience I am going against the teaching of Jesus: `Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s.’”
India
Gandhi’s homeland, India, is declared to be many things over the course of these writings. It is one particular metaphor in particular that resonates with great meaning which transcends political matters at hand.
“India…is the nursery of the great faiths of the world.”
The Foundation
The foundation of everything which Gandhi writes about in his political works regarding the necessity of non-violence resistance as a key to political revolution stems from two metaphors which he himself did most assuredly did not invent, but which nevertheless formed and shaped his character. The entire history of the warfare between British oppressors and the oppressed Indians originates from these two metaphors forever connected together as a single image:
The sun never sets on the British Empire and India is the jewel in the crown.
