The Pilgrims' March/Mahatma Gandhi 4
MAHATMA GANDHI.
A PUZZLE AND ITS SOLUTION.
Lord Reading is puzzled and perplexed. Speaking in reply to the addresses from the British Indian Association and the Bengal National Chamber of Commerce at Calcutta, His Excellency said, “I confess that when I contemplate the activities of a section of the community, I find myself still, not withstanding persistent study ever since I have been in India, puzzled and perplexed. I ask myself what purpose is served by flagrant breaches of the law for the purpose of challenging the Government and in order to compel arrest?” The answer was partly given by Pandit Motilal Nehru when he said on being arrested that he was being taken to the house of freedom. We seek arrest because the so called Freedom is slavery. We are challenging the might of this Government because we consider its activity to be wholly evil. We want to overthrow the Government. We want to compel its submission to the people's will. We desire to show that the Government exists to serve the people, not the people the Government. Free life under the Government has become intolerable; for, the price exacted for the retention of freedom is unconscionably great. Whether we are one or many, we must refuse to purchase freedom at the cost of our self-respect or our cherished convictions. I have known even little children become unbending when an attempt has been made to cross their declared purpose, be it ever so flimsy in the estimation of their parents.
Lord Reading must clearly understand that the non-co-operators are at war with the Government. They have declared rebellion against it in as much as it has committed a breach of faith with the Musalmans, it has humiliated the Punjab and it insists upon imposing its will upon the people and refuses to repair the breach and repent for the wrong done in the Punjab.
There were two ways open to the people the way of armed rebellion and the way of peaceful revolt. Non-co-operators have chosen some out of weakness, some out of strength, the way of peace, i. e., voluntary suffering.
If the people are behind the sufferers, the Government must yield or be overthrown. If the people are not with them they have at least the satisfaction of not having sold their freedom. In an armed conflict the more violent is generally the victor. The way of peace and suffering is the quickest method of cultivating public opinion, and therefore when victory is attained it is for what the world regards as Truth. Bred in the atmosphere of law courts, Lord Reading finds it difficult to appreciate the peaceful resistance to authority. His Excellency will learn by the time the conflict is over that there is a higher court, than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supersedes all other courts.
Lord Reading is welcome to treat all the sufferers as lunatics, who do not know their own interest. He is entitled therefore to put them out of harm’s way. It is an arrangement that entirely suits the lunatics and it is an ideal situation if it also suits the Government. He will have cause to complain if having courted imprisonment, non-co-operators fret and fume or ‘whine for favours’ as Lalaji puts it. The strength of a non-co-operator lies in his going to goal uncomplainingly. He looses his case if having courted imprisonment he begins to grumble immediately his courtship is rewarded.
The threats used by His Excellency are unbecoming. This is a fight to the finish. It is conflict between the reign of violence and of public opinion. Those who are fighting for the later are determined to submit to any violence rather than surrender their opinion.
THE WORKING COMMITTEE.
This outgoing Committee will meet for the last time under most trying circumstances. Of the fifteen members Deshabandu Das, Lala Lajpatrai, Pandit Motilal Nehru and Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad who was just appointed at Delhi in the place of Maulana Mahomed Ali will be absent being his Majesty’s guests in some of those hotels called prisons. I therefore suggest that the provinces from which these patriots come should send one representative each a day earlier so that they may at least give the benefit of their advice to the Committee although they may not vote thereat. I would suggest to the other provinces also which are not directly represented on the Committee to send one representative each to guide the deliberation of the Committee.
ALL-INDIA CONGRESS COMMITTEE.
The eventful meeting of this Committee takes place on the 24th instant. On its decision will rest the future programme. Every member who can will, I hope, attend the meeting. Every member will be expected to give his own independent opinion. To give one’s opinion is to act according to it. No mechanical majority is of value at this moment of national history. If we vote for a particular programme we must have faith in it and we must be prepared to enforce it at the risk of our lives. We must widen the gates of prisons and we must enter them as a bridegroom enters the bride’s chamber. Freedom is to be wooed only inside prison walls and sometimes on the gallows, never in the council chambers, courts or the schoolroom. Freedom is the most capricious jilt ever known to the world. She is the greatest temptress most difficult to please. No wonder she builds her temples in goals or on inaccessible heights and laughs at us as we attempt to scale the prison wall or (in the hope of reaching her temple on some Himalayan height) wade through hills and dales strewn with thorns. The members of the Committee must therefore come with a fixed purpose whatever it may be. It is well with us if not believing in courting imprisonment we own the fact and suggest other remedies. I would decline, if I was the only one, to give my vote for prisons, if I did not believe in them at this stage or any other. And I would vote without faltering, for them if I believed in them and even though I had no supporter. No leisurely programme can meet the situation. We who are outside the prison walls have constituted ourselves trustees for those who are inside those life-giving walls and we best discharge our trust by imitating our principles and getting inside those walls throwing the burden of the trust on our successors.
GOVERNMENT NON-CO-OPERATION.
Therefore if we believe in our programme, we must not mind if the Government non-co-operate with us in every particular. I hear from Mr. Rajagopalachari and Agha Safdar that they are not permitted to send full telegrams, It is a surprise to me that they permit the transmission of any telegrams at all or let us travel or meet each other. Having made up my mind to expect the worst, nothing that the Government does in the shape of curbing our activity surprises or irritates me. It is struggling for its very existence and I feel that I would have done much the same that this government is doing if I was in its place. Probably I should do much worse. Why should we expect it to refrain from using the powers it has? Only we must find the means of living and carrying, on our non-co-operation without its aid. We must keep our heads even if inter-provincial communication is denied to us. Having got our programme each province must be able to carry on its own activity. Indeed it may even be an advantage, for in the event of communication being cut off, we should be unaffected by reverses in other provinces. Thus for instance the Punjab need not be affected by Gujarat weakening and surrendering body and soul to the Government or say Assam going stark mad or becoming unexpectedly violent. Let not the reader fear any such possibility, for Assam is keeping exceptionally sane in spite of grave provocation and Gujarat will give, I hope a good account of itself in the near future. The Government of Bombay probably knows its business better than others. It has certainly greater forbearance and tact. It is giving the non-co-operators as long a rope as they want. And as the latter do want to be hanged if they do not get what they want, they are taking the longest rope. But that is by the way. Clouds no bigger than a man’s hand have a knack of appearing in the Indian horizon and all of a sudden assuming dangerous dimensions. The point I wish to drive home is, that we must prepare ourselves against and for all complications and never be baffled by them, certainly never be taken aback when the expected happens.