He writes, "Indian Opinion ... was a mirror of part of my life. Week after week I poured out my soul in its columns .... I cannot recall a word in those articles set down without thought or deliberation, or a word of conscious exaggeration, or anything merely to please. Indeed the journal became for me a training in self-restraint, and for friends a medium through which to keep in touch with my thoughts. .... For me it became a means for the study of human nature in all its casts and shades, as I always aimed at establishing an intimate and clean bond between the editor and the readers. I was inundated with letters containing the outpouring of my correspondents' hearts. They were friendly, critical or bitter, according to the temper of the writer. It was a fine education for me to study, digest and answer all this correspondence."
Later, he says, "In the very first month of Indian Opinion, I realized that the sole aim of journalism should be service. The newspaper press is a great power, but just as an unchained torrent of water submerges whole countrysides and devastates crops, even so an uncontrolled pen serves but to destroy. If the control is from without, it proves more poisonous than want of control. It can be profitable only when exercised from within. If this line of reasoning is correct, how many of the journals in the world would stand the test? But who would stop those that are useless? And who should be the judge? The useful and the useless must, like good and evil generally, go on together, and man must make his choice."
Once again, the emphasis is mine. I can't claim to have the wisdom of a Gandhi, but I hope that my attempt to publish my thoughts will be found useful and good. And although popular opinion is almost never a just judge, I hope that you, dear reader, will make a positive judgment of my work by your choice to continue to read my thoughts ... and to share yours with me.
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