INDIA: Water and the Spirit

Inside the palace of the Aga Khan at Poona, wizened, rebellious, mystical Mohandas K. Gandhi last week began his tenth hunger strike since 1918. At the age of 74, Gandhi said that he planned to live on a diet of fruit juice and water for 21 days.* He embarrassed the British, who have branded Gandhi as a traitor at worst, a troublesome mystic at best. For his own Congress party followers (including at least 60,000 who have been arrested since last August) the fast was an effort to bolster sagging morale and stiffen the fraying fibers of resistance to...

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