Freedom\'s Battle - Mahatma Gandhi
The first stage in my humble opinion is incredibly easy inasmuch as it
does not involve any very great sacrifice. If your Khan bahadurs and
other title-holders were to renounce their titles I venture to submit
that whilst the renunciation will stand to the credit and honour of the
nation it will involve a little or no sacrifice. On the contrary, they
will not only have surrendered no earthly riches but they will have
gained the applause of the nation. Let us see what it means, this first
step. The able editor of _Hindu_, Mr. Kastariranga Iyengar, and almost
every journalist in the country are agreed that the renunciation of
titles is a necessary and a desirable step. And if these chosen people
of the Government were without exception to surrender their titles to
Government giving notice that the heart of India is doubly wounded in
that the honour of India and of muslim religion is at stake and that
therefore they can no longer retain their titles, I venture to suggest,
that this their step which costs not a single penny either to them or to
the nation will be an effective demonstration of the national will.
Take the second step or the second item of non-co-operation. I know
there is strong opposition to the boycott of councils. The opposition
when you begin to analyse it means not that the step is faulty or that
it is not likely to succeed, but it is due to the belief that the whole
country will not respond to it and that the Moderates will steal into
the councils. I ask the citizens of Mangalore to dispel that fear from
your hearts. United the voters of Mangalore can make it impossible for
either a moderate or an extremist or any other form of leader to enter
the councils as your representative. This step involves no sacrifice of
money, no sacrifice of honour but the gaining of prestige for the whole
nation. And I venture to suggest to you that this one step alone if it
is taken with any degree of unanimity even by the extremists can bring
about the desired relief, but if all do not respond the individual need
not be afraid. He at least will have laid the foundation for true self
progress, let him have the comfort that he at least has washed his hands
clean of the guilt of the Government.
Then I come to the members of the profession which one time I used to
carry on. I have ventured to ask the lawyers of India to suspend their
practice and withdraw their support from a Government which no longer
stands for justice, pure and unadulterated, for the nation. And the step
is good for the individual lawyer who takes it and is good for the
nation if all the lawyers take it.
And so for the Government and the Government aided schools, I must
confess that I cannot reconcile my conscience to my children going to
Government schools and to the programme of non-co-operation is intended
to withdraw all support from Government, and to decline all help
from it.
I will not tax your patience by taking you through the other items of
non-co-operation important as they are. But I have ventured to place
before you four very important and forcible steps any one of which if
fully taken up contains in it possibilities of success. Swadeshi is
preached as an item of non-co-operation, as a demonstration of the
spirit of sacrifice, and it is an item which every man, woman and child
can take up.
_August_ 1920.
SPEECH AT BEZWADA
As I said this morning one essential condition for the progress of India
is Hindu-Muslim Unity. I understand that there was a little bit of
bickering between Hindus and Mussalmans to-day in Bezwada. My brother
Maulana Shaukat Ali adjusted the dispute between the two communities and
he illustrated in his own person the entire efficacy of one item in the
first stage of Non-co-operation. He sat without any vakils appearing
before him for either parties to arbitrate on the dispute between them.
He required no postponement for the consideration of the question from
time to time. His fees consisted in a broken lead pencil. That is what
we should do, if all the lawyers suspended practice and set up
arbitration for the settlement of private disputes. But why was there
any quarrel at all? It is laughable in the extreme when you come to
think of it. Because the Hindus seem to have played music whilst passing
the mosque. I think it was improper for them to do so. Hindu Moslem
Unity does not mean that Hindus should cease to respect the prejudices
and sentiments cherished by Mussalmans. And as this question of music
has given rise to many a quarrel between the two communities it behoves
the Hindus, if they want to cultivate true Hindu-Moslem Unity, to
refrain from acts which they know injure the sentiments of their
Mussalman brethren. We may not take undue advantage of the great spirit
of toleration that is developing in Mussalmans and do things likely to
irritate them. It is never a matter of principle for a Hindu procession
to continue playing music before mosques. And now that we desire
voluntarily to respect Mussalman sentiment, we should be doubly careful
at a time when Hindus are offering assistance to Mussalmans in their
troubles. That assistance should be given in all humility and without
any arrogation of rights. To my Mussalman brethren I would say that it
would become their dignity to restrain themselves and not feel irritated
when any Hindu had done anything to irritate their religious sentiment.
But in any event, you have today presented to you a remedy for the
settlement of any such issue. We must settle our disputes by arbitration
as was done this after-noon. You cannot always get a Moulana Shankat
Ali, exercising unrivalled influence on the community. But we can always
get people enough in our own villages, towns and districts who exercise
influence over such villages and towns and command the confidence of
both the communities. The offended party should consider it its duty to
approach them and not to take the law in its own hands.
It gives me much pleasure to announce to you that, Mr. Kaleswar Rao has
consented to refrain from standing for election to the new Legislative
Councils. You will be also pleased to know that Mr. Gulam Nohiuddin has
resigned his Honorary Magistrateship, I hope that both these patriots
will not consider that they have done their last duty by their acts of
renunciation, but I hope they will regard their acts as a prelude to
acts of greater purpose and greater energy and I hope they will take in
hand the work of educating the electorate in their districts regarding
boycott of councils. I have said elsewhere that never for another
century will India be faced with a conjunction of events that faces it
to-day. The cloud that has descended upon Islam has solidified the
Moslem world as nothing else could have. It has awakened the men and
women of Mussulman India from their deep sleep. Inasmuch as a single
Panjabi was made to crawl on his belly in the famous street of Amitsar,
I hold that the whole of was made to crawl on its belly. And if we want
to straighten up ourselves from that crawling position and stand erect
before the whole world, it requires, a tremendous effort. H.E. the
Viceroy in his Viceregal pronouncement at the opening of the Council was
pleased to say that he did not desire to make any remarks on the Punjab
events. He treated them as a closed chapter and referred us to the
future verdict of history. I venture to tell you the citizens of Bezwada
that India will have deserved to crawl in that lane if she accepts this
pronouncement as the final answer, and if we want to stand erect before
the whole world, it is impossible for a single child, man or woman in
India to rest until fullest reparation has been done for the Punjab
wrong. Similarly with reference to the Khilafat grievance the Mussalmans
of India in my humble opinion will forfeit all title to consider
themselves the followers of the great Prophet in whose name they recite
the Kalama, day in and day out, they will forfeit their title if they do
not put their shoulders to the wheel and lift this cloud that is hanging
on them. But we shall make a serious blunder. India will commit suicide,
if we do not understand and appreciate the forces that are arrayed
against us. We have got to face a mighty Government with all its power
ranged against us. This composed of men who are able, courageous,
capable of making sacrifices. It is a Government which does not scruple
to use means, fair or foul, in order to gain its end. No craft is above
that Government. It resorts to frightfulness, terrorism. It resorts to
bribery, in the shape of titles, honour and high offices. It administers
opiates in the shape of Reforms. In essence then it is an autocracy
double distilled in the guise of democracy. The greatest gift of a
crafty cunning man are worthless so long as cunning resides in his
heart. It is a Government representing a civilisation which is purely
material and godless. I have given to you these qualities of this
government in order not to excite your angry passions, but in order that
you may appreciate the forces that are matched against you. Anger will
serve no purpose. We shall have to meet ungodliness by godliness. We
shall have to meet their untruth by truth; we shall have to meet their
cunning and their craft by openness and simplicity; we shall have to
meet their terrorism and frightfulness by bravery. And it is an
unbending bravery which is demanded of every man, woman and child. We
must meet their organisation by greater organising ability. We must meet
their discipline by grater discipline, and we must meet their sacrifices
by infinitely greater sacrifices, and if we are in a position to show
these qualities in a full measure I have not the slightest doubt that we
shall win this battle. If really we have fear of God in us, our prayers
will give us the strength to secure victory. God has always come to the
help of the helpless and we need not go before any earthly power for
help.
You heard this morning of the bravery of the sword, and the bravery of
suffering. For me personally I have forever rejected the bravery of the
sword. But, to-day it is not my purpose to demonstrate to you the final
ineffectiveness of the sword. But he who runs may see that before India
possesses itself a sword which will be more than a match for the forces
of Europe, it will he generations. India may resort to the destruction
of life and property here and there but such destructive cases serve no
purpose. I have therefore presented to you a weapon called the bravery
of suffering, otherwise called Non-co-operation. It is a bravery which
is open to the weakest among the weak. It is open to women and children.
The power of suffering is the prerogative of nobody, and if only 300
millions of Indians could show the power of suffering in order to
redress a grievous wrong done to the nation or to its religion, I make
bold to say that, India will never require to draw the sword. And unless
we are able to show an adequate measure of sacrifice we shall lose this
battle. No one need tell me that India has not got this power of
suffering. Every father and mother is witness to what I am about to say,
viz., that every father and mother have shown in the domestic affairs
matchless power of suffering. And if we have only developed national
consciousness, if we have developed sufficient regard for our religion,
we shall have developed power of suffering in the national and religious
field. Considered in these terms the first stage in Non-co-operation is
the simplest and the easiest state. If the title-holders of India
consider that India is suffering from a grievous wrong both as regards
the Punjab and the Khilafat is it any suffering on their part to
renounce their titles to-day? What is the measure of the suffering
awaiting the lawyers who are called upon to suspend practice when
compared to the great benefit which is in store for the nation? And if
thy parents of India will summon up courage to sacrifice secular
education, they will have given their children the real education of a
life-time. For they will have learnt the value of religion and national
honour. And I ask you, the citizens of Bezwada, to think well before you
accept the loaves and fishes in the form of Government offices set them
on one side and set national honour on the other and make your service.
What sacrifice is there involved in the individual renouncing his
candidature for legislative councils. The councils are a tempting bait.
All kinds of arguments are being advanced in favour of joining the
councils. India will sacrifice the opportunity of gaining her liberty if
she touches them. It passes comprehension how we, who have known this
Government, who have read the Viceregal pronouncement, how we who have
known their determination not to give justice in the Punjab and the
Khilafat matters, can gain any benefit by co-operation, constructive or
obstructive, with this Government? But the Nationalists, belonging to a
great popular party, tell us that if they do not contest these scats,
the moderates will get in. Surely, it is nothing but an exhibition of
want of courage and faith in our own cause to feel that we must enter
the councils lest moderates should get in. Moderates believe in the
possibility of obtaining justice at the hands of the Government.
Nationalists have on the other hand filled the platforms with
denunciations of the Government and its measures. How can the
Nationalists ever hope to gain anything by entering the councils,
holding the belief that they do? They will better represent the popular
will if they wring justice from the Government by means of
Non-co-operation. A calculating spirit at the present moment in the
history of India will prove its ruin. I, therefore, tender my hearty
congratulation to those who have announced their resignations of
candidature or honorary offices, and I hope that their example will
prove infectious. I have been told, and I believe it myself from what I
have seen, that the Andhrus are a brave, courageous and
spiritually-inclined people. I venture therefore to ask my Andhra
brethren whether they have understood the spirituality of this beautiful
doctrine of Non-co-operation. If they have, I hope they will not wait
for a single moment for a mandate from the Congress or the Moslem
League. They will understand that a spiritual weapon is god whether it
is wielded by one or many. I, therefore, invite you to go to Calcutta
with a united will and a united purpose, sanctified by a spirit of
sacrifice, with a will of your own to convert those who are still
undecided about the spirituality or the practicability of the weapon.
I thank you for the attention and patience with which you have listened
to me. I pray to the Almighty that He may give you wisdom and courage
that are so necessary at the present moment.--
_August 1920_.
THE CONGRESS
The largest and the most important Congress ever held has come and gone,
It was the biggest demonstration ever held against the present system of
Government. The President uttered the whole truth when he said that it
was a Congress in which, instead of the President and the leaders
driving the people, the people drove him and the latter. It was clear to
every one on the platform that the people had taken the reins in their
own hands. The platform would gladly have moved at a slower pace.
The Congress gave one day to a full discussion of the creed and voted
solidly for it with but two dissentients after two nights' sleep over
the discussion. It gave one day to a discussion of non-co-operation
resolution and voted for it with unparalleled enthusiasm. It gave the
last day to listening to the whole of the remaining thirty-two Articles
of the Constitution which were read and translated word for word by
Maulana Mahomed Ali in a loud and clear voice. It showed that it was
intelligently following the reading of it, for there was dissent when
Article Eight was reached. It referred to non-interference by the
Congress in the internal affairs of the Native States. The Congress
would not have passed the proviso if it had meant that it could even
voice the feelings of the people residing in the territories ruled by
the princes. Happily it resolution suggesting the advisability of
establishing Responsible Government in their territories enabled me to
illustrate to the audience that the proviso did not preclude the
Congress from ventilating the grievances and aspirations of the subjects
of these states, whilst it clearly prevented the Congress from taking
any executive action in connection with them; as for instance holding a
hostile demonstration in the Native States against any action of theirs.
The Congress claims to dictate to the Government but it cannot do so by
the very nature of its constitution in respect of the Native States.
Thus the Congress has taken three important steps after the greatest
deliberation. It has expressed its determination in the clearest
possible terms to attain complete null-government, if possible still in
association with the British people, but even without, if necessary. It
proposes to do so only by means that are honourable and non-violent. It
has introduced fundamental changes in the constitution regulating its
activities and has performed an act of self-denial in voluntarily
restricting the number of delegates to one for every fifty thousand of
the population of India and has insisted upon the delegates being the
real representatives of those who want to take any part in the political
life of the country. And with a view to ensuring the representation of
all political parties it has accepted the principle of "single
transferable vote." It has reaffirmed the non-co-operation resolution of
the Special Session and amplified it in every respect. It has emphasised
the necessity of non-violence and laid down that the attainment of
Swaraj is conditional upon the complete harmony between the component
parts of India, and has therefore inculcated Hindu-Muslim unity. The
Hindu delegates have called upon their leaders to settle disputes
between Brahmins and non-Brahmins and have urged upon the religious
heads the necessity of getting rid of the poison of untouchability. The
Congress has told the parents of school-going children, and the lawyers
that they have not responded sufficiently to the call of the nation and
and that they must make greater effort in doing so. It therefore follows
that the lawyers who do not respond quickly to the call for suspension
and the parents who persist in keeping their children in Government and
aided institutions must find themselves dropping out from the public
life of the country. The country calls upon every man and woman in India
to do their full share. But of the details of the non-co-operation
resolution I must write later.
WHO IS DISLOYAL?
Mr. Montagu has discovered a new definition of disloyalty. He considers
my suggestion to boycott the visit of the Prince of Wales to be disloyal
and some newspapers taking the cue from him have called persons who have
made the suggestion 'unmannerly'. They have even attributed to these
'unmannerly' persons the suggestion of boycotting the Prince. I draw a
sharp and fundamental distinction between boycotting the Prince and
boycotting any welcome arranged for him. Personally I would extend the
heartiest welcome to His Royal Highness if he came or could come without
official patronage and the protecting wings of the Government of the
day. Being the heir to a constitutional monarch, the Prince's movements
are regulated and dictated by the ministers, no matter how much the
dictation may be concealed beneath diplomatically polite language. In
suggesting the boycott therefore the promoters have suggested boycott of
an insolent bureaucracy and dishonest ministers of his Majesty.
You cannot have it both ways. It is true that under a constitutional
monarchy, the royalty is above politics. But you cannot send the Prince
on a political visit for the purpose of making political capital out of
him, and then complain that those who will not play your game and in
order to checkmate you, proclaim boycott of the Royal visit do not know
constitutional usage. For the Prince's visit is not for pleasure. His
Royal Highness is to come in Mr. Lloyd George's words, as the
"ambassador of the British nation," in other words, his own ambassador
in order to issue a certificate of merit to him and possibly to give the
ministers a new lease of life. The wish is designed to consolidate and
strengthen a power that spells mischief for India. Even us it is, Mr.
Montagu has foreseen, that the welcome will probably be excelled by any
hitherto extended to Royalty, meaning that the people are not really and
deeply affected and stirred by the official atrocities in the Punjab and
the manifestly dishonest breach of official declarations on the
Khilafat. With the knowledge that India was bleeding at heart, the
Government of India should have told His Majesty's ministers that the
moment was inopportune for sending the Prince. I venture to submit that
it is adding insult to injury to bring the Prince and through his visit
to steal honours and further prestige for a Government that deserves to
be dismissed with disgrace. I claim that I prove my loyalty by saying
that India is in no mood, is too deeply in mourning, to take part in and
to welcome His Royal Highness, and that the ministers and the Indian
Government show their disloyalty by making the Prince a catspaw of their
deep political game. If they persist, it is the clear duty of India to
have nothing to do with the visit.
CRUSADE AGAINST NON-CO-OPERATION
I have most carefully read the manifesto addressed by Sir Narayan
Chandavarkar and others dissuading the people from joining the non
co-operation movement. I had expected to find some solid argument
against non-co-operation, but to my great regret I have found in it
nothing but distortion (no doubt unconscious) of the great religions and
history. The manifesto says that 'non-co-operation is deprecated by the
religious tenets and traditions of our motherland, nay, of all the
religions that have saved and elevated the human race.' I venture to
submit that the Bhagwad Gita is a gospel of non-co-operation between
forces of darkness and those of light. If it is to be literally
interpreted Arjun representing a just cause was enjoined to engage in
bloody warfare with the unjust Kauravas. Tulsidas advises the Sant (the
good) to shun the Asant (the evil-doers). The Zendavesta represents a
perpetual dual between Ormuzd and Ahriman, between whom there is no
compromise. To say of the Bible that it taboos non-co-operation is not
to know Jesus, a Prince among passive resisters, who uncompromisingly
challenged the might of the Sadducees and the Pharisees and for the sake
of truth did not hesitate to divide sons from their parents. And what
did the Prophet of Islam do? He non-co-operated in Mecca in a most
active manner so long as his life was not in danger and wiped the dust
of Mecca off his feet when he found that he and his followers might have
uselessly to perish, and fled to Medina and returned when he was strong
enough to give battle to his opponents. The duty of non-co-operation
with unjust men and kings is as strictly enjoined by all the religions
as is the duty of co-operation with just men and kings. Indeed most of
the scriptures of the world seem even to go beyond non-co-operation and
prefer a violence to effeminate submission to a wrong. The Hindu
religious tradition of which the manifesto speaks, clearly proves the
duty of non-co-operation. Prahlad dissociated himself from his father,
Meerabai from her husband, Bibhishan from his brutal brother.
The manifesto speaking of the secular aspect says, 'The history of
nations affords no instance to show that it (meaning non-co-operation)
has, when employed, succeeded and done good,' One most recent instance
of brilliant success of non-co-operation is that of General Botha who
boycotted Lord Milner's reformed councils and thereby procured a perfect
constitution for his country. The Dukhobours of Russia offered
non-co-operation, and a handful though they were, their grievances so
deeply moved the civilized world that Canada offered them a home where
they form a prosperous community. In India instances can be given by the
dozen, in which in little principalities the raiyats when deeply grieved
by their chiefs have cut off all connection with them and bent them to
their will. I know of no instance in history where well-managed
non-co-operation has failed.
Hitherto I have given historical instances of bloodless
non-co-operation, I will not insult the intelligence of the reader by
citing historical instances of non-co-operation combined with,
violence, but I am free to confess that there are on record as many
successes as failures in violent non-co-operation. And it is because I
know this fact that I have placed before the country a non-violent
scheme in which, if at all worked satisfactorily, success is a certainty
and in which non-response means no harm. For if even one man
non-co-operates, say, by resigning some office, he has gained, not lost.
That is its ethical or religious aspect. For its political result
naturally it requires polymerous support. I fear therefore no disastrous
result from non-co-operation save for an outbreak of violence on the
part of the people whether under provocation or otherwise. I would risk
violence a thousand times than risk the emasculation of a whole race.