India -- Politics and government -- 1919-1947; Nationalism -- India
12. like every other Indian, will know that to blame the English is
useless, that they came because of us, and remain also for the same
reason, and that they will either go or change their nature, only
when we reform ourselves;
13. like others, will understand that, at a time of mourning, there
can be no indulgence, and that, whilst we are in a fallen state, to
be in gaol or in banishment is much the best;
14. like others, will know that it is superstition to imagine it
necessary that we should guard against being imprisoned in order
that we may deal with the people;
15. like others, will know that action is much better than speech;
that it is our duty to say exactly what we think and face the
consequences, and that it will be only then that we shall be able to
impress anybody with our speech;
16. like others, will understand that we will become free only
through suffering;
17. like others, will understand that deportation for life to the
Andamans is not enough expiation for the sin of encouraging European
civilization;
18. like others, will know that no nation has risen without
suffering; that, even in physical warfare, the true test is
suffering and not the killing of others, much more so in the warfare
of passive resistance;
19. like others, will know that it is an idle excuse to say that we
will do a thing when the others also do it; that we should do what
we know to be right, and that others will do it when they see the
way; that when I fancy a particular delicacy, I do not wait till
others taste it; that to make a national effort and to suffer are in
the nature of delicacies; and that to suffer under pressure is no
suffering.
READER: This is a large order. When will all carry it out?
EDITOR: You make a mistake. You and I have nothing to do with the
others. Let each do his duty. If I do my duty, that is, serve myself, I
shall be able to serve others. Before I leave you, I will take the
liberty of repeating.
1. Real home-rule is self-rule or self-control.
2. The way to it is passive resistance: that is soul force or
love-force.
3. In order to exert this force, Swadeshi in every sense is
necessary.
4. What we want to do should be done, not because we object to the
English or that we want to retaliate, but because it is our duty to
do so. Thus, supposing that the English remove the salt-tax, restore
our money, give the highest posts to Indians, withdraw the English
troops, we shall certainly not use their machine-made goods, nor use
the English language, nor many of their industries. It is worth
nothing that these things are, in their nature, harmful; hence, we
do not want them. I bear no enmity towards the English, but I do
towards their civilization.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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