SUCH A MAN WAS WANTED and SUCH A MAN WAS FOUND

Gandhiji had had no political past in India. He had made himself and earned his reputation in a foreign land. He belonged to no particular group or faction in Indian politics. He was neither a Moderate nor an Extremist. Of all Indian politicians of the time, he had the best claim to be regarded as a national, all India leader.
Gandhiji returned to India with an unsullied and unsurpassed reputation, and despite his strange manners and peculiar views (or was it because of them?), he managed not only to preserve that reputation, but also to enhance it by taking up popular causes, such as those concerning the peasants and workers, the third class railway passengers and untouchables, swadeshi and the vernaculars. Unlike most Indian political leaders of his day, Gandhiji had the experience of having worked - while in South Africa - with all the sections of the Indian community. Gandhiji was a strange mixture of the VICTORIAN LIBERAL, INDIAN PATRIOT, PHILOSOPHICAL ANARCHIST and SIMPLE LIFER. He was a curious combination of the saint and the statesman, of the traditional and the modern, of the conservative and the radical, of the nationalist and the universalist, of the realist and the visionary. He was all things to all men. His many faceted programme appealed to almost every section of the Indian people. Gandhiji was a great organiser. He was a judge and leader of men. His simplicity, earnestness and directness made a ready appeal to the masses. While others merely talked, Gandhiji acted. Unlike many other contemporary Indian leaders, he had the courage of his convictions. Moreover, he had succeeded where others failed. To a disillusioned and despairing generation in India which had lost faith both in the old Moderation and n the old Extremism, Gandhiji brought a new message of faith and hope by offering them a new programme of action which was revolutionary without ceasing to be constitutional. Gandhiji's rise to power in the Indian politics was also aided by the accidents of time and circumstances, such as the death of old, established leaders like Gokhale, Mehta and Tilak, the First World War and its aftermath, and the British bungling and the Rowlatt, the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, the question of Khilafat, and the reforms of 1919. But, with the advantage of hindsight, we are almost inclined to say " such a man was wanted, and such a man was found"