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
And do I consider the Gurkha and the Afghan being incorrigible thieves
and robbers without ability to respond to purifying influences? I do
not. If India returns to her spirituality, it will react upon the
neighbouring tribes, she will interest herself in the welfare of these
hardy but poor people, and even support them if necessary, not out of
fear but as a matter of neighbourly duty. She will have dealt with Japan
simultaneously with the British. Japan will not want to invade India, if
India has learnt to consider it a sin to use a single foreign article
that she can manufacture within her own borders. She produces enough to
eat and her men and women can without difficulty manufacture enough to
clothe to cover their nakedness and protect themselves from heat and
cold. We become prey to invasion if we excite the greed of foreign
nation, by dealing with them under a feeling dependence on them. We must
learn to be independent of every one of them.
Whether therefore we finally succeed through violence or non-violence in
my opinion, the prospect is by no means so gloomy as Mr. Stokes has
imagined. Any conceivable prospect is, in my opinion, less black than
the present unmanly and helpless condition. And we cannot do better than
following out fearlessly and with confidence the open and honourable
programme of non-violence and sacrifice that we have mapped for
ourselves.
THE NEED FOR HUMILITY
The spirit of non-violence necessarily leads to humility. Non-violence
means reliance on God, the Rocks of ages. If we would seek His aid, we
must approach Him with a humble and a contrite heart.
Non-co-operationists may not trade upon their amazing success at the
Congress. We must act, even as the mango tree which drops as it bears
fruit. Its grandeur lies in its majestic lowliness. But one hears of
non-co-operationists being insolent and intolerant in their behaviour
towards those who differ from them. I know that they will lose all their
majesty and glory, if they betray any inflation. Whilst we may not be
dissatisfied with the progress made so far, we have little to our
credit to make us feel proud. We have to sacrifice much more than we
have done to justify pride, much less elation. Thousands, who flocked to
the Congress pandal, have undoubtedly given their intellectual assent to
the doctrine but few have followed it out in practice. Leaving aside the
pleaders, how many parents have withdrawn their children from schools?
How many of those who registered their vote in favour of
non-co-operation have taken to hand-spinning or discarded the use of all
foreign cloth?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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