India -- Politics and government -- 1919-1947; Nationalism -- India
EDITOR: To these I would say: It is only those Indians who are imbued
with real love who will be able to speak to the English in the above
strain without being frightened, and those only can be said to be so
imbued who conscientiously believe that Indian civilization is the best,
and that European is a nine days' wonder. Such ephemeral civilizations
have often come and gone, and will continue to do so. Those only can be
considered to be so imbued, who, having experienced the force of the
soul within themselves, will not cower before brute-force, and will not,
on any account, desire to use brute-force. Those only can be considered
to have been so imbued who are intensely dissatisfied with the present
pitiable condition having already drunk the cup of poison.
If there be only one such Indian, he will speak as above to the English,
and the English will have to listen to him.
These demands are not demands, but they show our mental state. We will
get nothing by asking; we shall have to take what we want, and we need
the requisite strength for the effort and that strength will be
available to him only who
1. will, only on rare occasions, make use of the English language;
2. if a lawyer, will give up his profession and take up a hand-loom;
3. if a lawyer, will devote his knowledge to enlightening both his
people and the English;
4. if a lawyer, will not meddle with the quarrels between parties,
but will give up the courts and from his experience induce the
people to do likewise;
5. if a lawyer, will refuse to be a judge, as the will give up his
profession;
6. if a doctor, will give up medicine, and understand that rather
than mending bodies, he should mend souls;
7. if a doctor, will understand, that no matter to what religion he
belongs, it is better that bodies remain diseased rather than that
they are cured through the instrumentality of the diabolical
vivisection that is practised in European schools of medicine;
8. although a doctor, will take up a hand-loom and, if any patients
come to him, will tell them the cause of their diseases, and will
advise them to remove the cause, rather than pamper them by giving
useless drugs; he will understand that, if by not taking drugs,
perchance the patient dies, the world will not come to grief, and
that he will have been really merciful to him;
9. although a wealthy man, regardless of his wealth, will speak out
his mind and fear no one;
10. if a wealthy man, will devote his money to establishing
hand-looms, and encourage others to use hand-made goods by wearing
them himself;
11. like every other Indian, will know that this is a time for
repentance, expiation and mourning;
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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