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
There remains another argument to be examined. It applies to both the
judges and the members of the executive. It will be urged that my appeal
could only be meant for the Indians and what good can it do by Indians
renouncing offices which have been won for the nation by hard struggle.
I wish that I could make an effective appeal to the English as well as
the Indians. But I confess that I have written with the mental
reservation that the appeal is addressed only to the Indians. I must
therefore examine the argument just stated. Whilst it is true that these
offices have been secured after a prolonged struggle, they are of use
not because of the struggle, but because they are intended to serve the
nation. The moment they cease to possess that quality, they become
useless and as in the present case harmful, no matter how hard-earned
and therefore valuable they may have been at the outset.
I would submit too to our distinguished countrymen who occupy high
offices that their giving up will bring the struggle to a speedy end and
would probably obviate the danger attendant upon the masses being called
upon to signify their disapproval by withdrawing co-operation. If the
titleholders gave up their titles, if the holders of honorary offices
gave up their appointment and if the high officials gave up their posts,
and the would-be councillors boycotted the councils, the Government
would quickly come to its senses and give effect to the people's will.
For the alternative before the Government then would be nothing but
despotic rule pure and simple. That would probably mean military
dictatorship. The world's opinion has advanced so far that Britain dare
not contemplate such dictatorship with equanimity. The taking of the
steps suggested by me will constitute the peacefullest revolution the
world has ever seen. Once the infallibility of non-co-operation is
realised, there is an end to all bloodshed and violence in any shape
or form.
Undoubtedly a cause must be grave to warrant the drastic method of
national non-co-operation. I do say that the affront such as has been
put upon Islam cannot be repeated for a century. Islam must rise now or
'be fallen' if not for ever, certainly for a century. And I cannot
imagine a graver wrong than the massacre of Jallianwalla and the
barbarity that followed it, the whitewash by the Hunter Committee, the
dispatch of the Government of India, Mr. Montagu's letter upholding the
Viceroy and the then Lieutenant Governor of the Punjab, the refusal to
remove officials who made of the lives of the Punjabis 'a hell' during
the Martial Law period. These act constitute a complete series of
continuing wrongs against India which if India has any sense of honour,
she must right at the sacrifice of all the material wealth she
possesses. If she does not, she will have bartered her soul for a 'mess
of pottage.'
NON-CO-OPERATION EXPLAINED
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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