In fact I believe that I have rendered a service to India and England by showing in non-co-operation the way out of the unnatural state in which both are living. In my humble opinion, non-co-operation with evil is as much a duty as is co-operation with good. But in the past, non-co-operation has been deliberately expressed in violence to the evildoer. I am endeavouring to show to my countrymen that violent non-co-operation only multiplies evil and that as evil can only be sustained by violence, withdrawal of support of evil requires complete abstention from violence. Non-violence implies voluntary submission to the penalty for non-co-operation with evil. I am here, therefore, to invite and submit cheerfully to the highest penalty that can be inflicted upon me for what in law is a deliberate crime and what appears to me to be the highest duty of a citizen. The only course open to you, the Judge and the Assessors, is either to resign your posts and thus dissociate yourselves from evil if you feel that the law you are called upon to administer is an evil and that in reality I am innocent, or to inflict on me the severest penalty if you believe that the system and the law you are assisting to administer are good for the people of this country and that my activity is therefore injurious to the public weal. M. K. GANDHI. APPENDIX XXII _List of Riots or Disturbances since the year 1919._ -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Province | Brief description. Date | Place of Disturbance. | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bombay | A leading wealthy member of the Gandhi 26th May 1919 | community was celebrating the marriages of some Godhra, Panch Mahals. | of his sons and nephews. It appears that | feeling was running high between the two | sections of the community as some of the brides | had previously been betrothed or promised to | persons of the other party. The trouble began | when one of the party let off potash bombs. The | Gandhis then began to assemble and an | altercation ensued which ended in a fight in | which broken bricks and pieces of wood were | freely used. The police on the spot finding | that the fracas became serious, had to resort | to firing. On arrival of more police, the crowd | dispersed. The District Magistrate succeeded in | getting both the parties reconciled to each | other. | | Two rioters were injured; six policemen