Freedom's Battle: Being a Comprehensive Collection of Writings and Speeches on the Present SituationGandhi, Mahatma
Religion
Freedom's Battle: Being a Comprehensive Collection of Writings and Speeches on the Present Situation
Gandhi, Mahatma
British -- India; India -- Politics and government -- 1919-1947; Nonviolence
It is difficult, I know,
when only a few of you think these things. It is as easy as we are
sitting here when the whole of this vast audience is of one mind and as
it was easy for you to carry that chair so is it easy for you to enforce
this programme from to-morrow if you have one will, one determination
and love for your country, love for the honour of your country and
religion. (Loud and prolonged cheers.)
SPEECH AT CALICUT
Mr. Chairman and friends.--On behalf of my brother Shaukut Ali and
myself I wish to thank you most sincerely for the warm welcome you have
extended to us. Before I begin to explain the purpose of our mission I
have to give you the information that Pir Mahboob Shah who was being
tried in Sindh for sedition has been sentenced to two years' simple
imprisonment. I do not know exactly what the offence was with which the
Pir was charged. I do not know whether the words attributed to him were
ever spoken by him. But I do know that the Pirsaheb declined to offer
any defence and with perfect resignation he has accepted his penalty.
For me it is a matter of sincere pleasure that the Pirsaheb who
exercises great influence over his followers has understood the spirit
of the struggle upon which we have embarked. It is not by resisting the
authority of Government that we expect to succeed in the great task
before us. But I do expect that we shall succeed if we understand the
spirit of non-co-operation. The Lieutenant-Governor of Burma himself has
told us that the British retain their hold on India not by the force of
arms but by the force of co-operation of the people. Thus he has given
us the remedy for any wrong that the Government may do to the people,
whether knowingly or unknowingly. And so long as we co-operate with the
Government, so long as we support that Government, we become to that
extent sharers in the wrong. I admit that in ordinary circumstances a
wise subject will tolerate the wrongs of a Government, but a wise
subject never tolerates a wrong that a Government imposes on the
declared will of a people. And I venture to submit to this great meeting
that the Government of India and the Imperial Government have done a
double wrong to India, and if we are a nation of self-respecting people
conscious of its dignity, conscious of its right, it is not just and
proper that we should stand the double humiliation that the Government
has heaped upon us. By shaping and by becoming a predominant partner in
the peace terms imposed on the helpless Sultan of Turkey, the Imperial
Government have intentionally flouted the cherished sentiment of the
Mussalman subjects of the Empire. The present Prime Minister gave a
deliberate pledge after consultation with his colleagues when it was
necessary for him to conciliate the Mussalmans of India. I claim to have
studied this Khilafat question in a special manner. I claim to
understand the Mussalman feeling on the Khilafat question and I am here
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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