{Gandhiji addressed the A.I.C.C. at
Bombay on 8-8-42 outlining his plan of action, in Hindustani, as follows;}
Before you discuss the resolution, let me place before you one or two
things, I want you to understand two things very clearly and to consider them
from the same point of view from which I am placing them before you. I ask you
to consider it from my point of view, because if you approve of it, you will be
enjoined to carry out all I say. It will be a great responsibility. There are
people who ask me whether I am the same man that I was in 1920, or whether
there has been any change in me. You are right in asking that question.
Let me, however, hasten to assure that I am the same Gandhi as I was in
1920. I have not changed in any fundamental respect. I attach the same
importance to non-violence that I did then. If at all, my emphasis on it has
grown stronger. There is no real contradiction between the present resolution
and my previous writings and utterances.
Occasions like the present do not occur in everybody’s and but rarely in
anybody’s life. I want you to know and feel that there is nothing but purest
Ahimsa1 in all that I am saying and doing today. The draft resolution of the
Working Committee is based on Ahimsa, the contemplated struggle similarly has
its roots in Ahimsa. If, therefore, there is any among you who has lost faith
in Ahimsa or is wearied of it, let him not vote for this resolution.
Let me explain my position clearly. God has vouchsafed to me a priceless
gift in the weapon of Ahimsa. I and my Ahimsa are on our trail today. If in the
present crisis, when the earth is being scorched by the flames of Himsa2 and
crying for deliverance, I failed to make use of the God given talent, God will
not forgive me and I shall be judged unwrongly of the great gift. I must act
now. I may not hesitate and merely look on, when Russia and China are
threatened.
Ours is not a drive for power, but purely a non-violent fight for
India’s independence. In a violent struggle, a successful general has been
often known to effect a military coup and to set up a dictatorship. But under
the Congress scheme of things, essentially non-violent as it is, there can be
no room for dictatorship. A non-violent soldier of freedom will covet nothing
for himself, he fights only for the freedom of his country. The Congress is
unconcerned as to who will rule, when freedom is attained. The power, when it
comes, will belong to the people of India, and it will be for them to decide to
whom it placed in the entrusted. May be that the reins will be placed in the
hands of the Parsis, for instance-as I would love to see happen-or they may be
handed to some others whose names are not heard in the Congress today. It will
not be for you then to object saying, “This community is microscopic. That
party did not play its due part in the freedom’s struggle; why should it have
all the power?” Ever since its inception the Congress has kept itself
meticulously free of the communal taint. It has thought always in terms of the
whole nation and has acted accordingly. . .
I know how imperfect our Ahimsa is and how far away we are still from
the ideal, but in Ahimsa there is no final failure or defeat. I have faith,
therefore, that if, in spite of our shortcomings, the big thing does happen, it
will be because God wanted to help us by crowning with success our silent,
unremitting Sadhana1 for the last twenty-two years.
I believe that in the history of the world, there has not been a more
genuinely democratic struggle for freedom than ours. I read Carlyle’s French
Resolution while I was in prison, and Pandit Jawaharlal has told me something
about the Russian revolution. But it is my conviction that inasmuch as these
struggles were fought with the weapon of violence they failed to realize the
democratic ideal. In the democracy which I have envisaged, a democracy
established by non-violence, there will be equal freedom for all. Everybody
will be his own master. It is to join a struggle for such democracy that I
invite you today. Once you realize this you will forget the differences between
the Hindus and Muslims, and think of yourselves as Indians only, engaged in the
common struggle for independence.
Then, there is the question of your attitude towards the British. I have
noticed that there is hatred towards the British among the people. The people
say they are disgusted with their behaviour. The people make no distinction
between British imperialism and the British people. To them, the two are one
This hatred would even make them welcome the Japanese. It is most dangerous. It
means that they will exchange one slavery for another. We must get rid of this
feeling. Our quarrel is not with the British people, we fight their
imperialism. The proposal for the withdrawal of British power did not come out
of anger. It came to enable India to play its due part at the present critical
juncture It is not a happy position for a big country like India to be merely
helping with money and material obtained willy-nilly from her while the United
Nations are conducting the war. We cannot evoke the true spirit of sacrifice
and velour, so long as we are not free. I know the British Government will not
be able to withhold freedom from us, when we have made enough self-sacrifice.
We must, therefore, purge ourselves of hatred. Speaking for myself, I can say
that I have never felt any hatred. As a matter of fact, I feel myself to be a
greater friend of the British now than ever before. One reason is that they are
today in distress. My very friendship, therefore, demands that I should try to
save them from their mistakes. As I view the situation, they are on the brink
of an abyss. It, therefore, becomes my duty to warn them of their danger even
though it may, for the time being, anger them to the point of cutting off the
friendly hand that is stretched out to help them. People may laugh,
nevertheless that is my claim. At a time when I may have to launch the biggest
struggle of my life, I may not harbour hatred against anybody.
II
{Gandhiji’s address before the A.I.C.C.
at Bombay on 8-8-’42 delivered in Hindustani :}
I congratulate you on the resolution that you have just passed. I also
congratulate the three comrades on the courage they have shown in pressing
their amendments to a division, even though they knew that there was an
overwhelming majority in favour of the resolution, and I congratulate the
thirteen friends who voted against the resolution. In doing so, they had
nothing to be ashamed of. For the last twenty years we have tried to learn not
to lose courage even when we are in a hopeless minority and are laughed at. We
have learned to hold on to our beliefs in the confidence that we are in the
right. It behaves us to cultivate this courage of conviction, for it ennobles man
and raises his moral stature. I was, therefore, glad to see that these friends
had imbibed the principle which I have tried to follow for the last fifty years
and more.
Having congratulated them on their courage, let me say that what they
asked this Committee to accept through their amendments was not the correct
representation of the situation. These friends ought to have pondered over the
appeal made to them by the Maulana to withdraw their amendments; they should
have carefully followed the explanations given by Jawaharlal. Had they done so,
it would have been clear to them that the right which they now want the
Congress to concede has already been conceded by the Congress.
Time was when every Mussalman claimed the whole of India as his
motherland. During the years that the Ali brothers were with me, the assumption
underlying all their talks and discussions was that India belonged as much to
the Mussalman as to the Hindus. I can testify to the fact that this was their
innermost conviction and nor a mask; I lived with them for years. I spent days
and nights in their company. And I make bold to say that their utterances were
the honest expression of their beliefs. I know there are some who say that I
take things too readily at their face value, that I am gullible. I do not think
I am such a simpleton, nor am I so gullible as these friends take me to be. But
their criticism does not hurt me. I should prefer to be considered gullible
rather deceitful.
What these Communist friends proposed through their amendments is
nothing new. It has been repeated from thousands of platforms. Thousands of
Mussalman have told me, that if Hindu-Muslim question was to be solved
satisfactorily, it must be done in my lifetime. I should feel flattered at
this; but how can I agree to proposal which does not appeal to my reason?
Hindu-Muslim unity is not a new thing. Millions of Hindus and Mussalman have
sought after it. I consciously strove for its achievement from my boyhood.
While at school, I made it a point to cultivate the friendship of Muslims and
Parsi co-students. I believed even at that tender age that the Hindus in India,
if they wished to live in peace and amity with the other communities, should
assiduously cultivate the virtue of neighbourliness. It did not matter, I felt,
if I made no special effort to cultivate the friendship with Hindus, but I mast
make friends with at least a few Mussalman. It was as counsel for a Mussalman
merchant that I went to South Africa. I made friends with other Mussalman
there, even with the opponents of my client, and gained a reputation for
integrity and good faith. I had among my friends and co-workers Muslims as well
as Parsis. I captured their hearts and when I left finally for India, I left
them sad and shedding tears of grief at the separation.
In India too I continued my efforts and left no stone unturned to
achieve that unity. It was my life-long aspiration for it that made me offer my
fullest co-operation to the Mussalman in the Khilafat movement. Muslims
throughout the country accepted me as their true friend.
How then is it that I have now come to be regarded as so evil and
detestable? Had I any axe to grind in supporting the Khilafat movement? True, I
did in my heart of hearts cherish a hope that it might enable me to save the
cow. I am a worshipper of the cow. I believe the cow and myself to be the
creation of the same God, and I am prepared to sacrifice my life in order to
save the cow. But, whatever my philosophy of life and my ultimate hopes, I
joined the movement in no spirit of bargain. I co-operated in the struggle for
the Khilafat solely on order to discharge my obligation to my neighbour who, I
saw, was in distress. The Ali brothers, had they been alive today, would have
testified to the truth of this assertion. And so would many others bear me out
in that it was not a bargain on my part for saving the cow. The cow like the
Khilafat. Stood on her own merits. As an honest man, a true neighbour and a
faithful friend, it was incumbent on me to stand by the Mussalman in the hour of
their trial.
In those days, I shocked the Hindus by dinning time they have now got
used to it. Mualana Bari told me, however, that through he would not allow me
dine with him, lest some day he should be accused of a sinister motive. And so,
whenever I had occasion to stay with him, he called a Brahmana cook and made
social arrangements for separate cooking. Firangi ,Mahal, his residence, was an
old-styled structure with limited accommodation; yet he cheerfully bore all
hardships and carried out his resolve from which I could not dislodge him. It
was the spirit of courtesy, dignity and nobility that inspired us in those
days. They respected one another’s religious feelings, and considered it a
privilege to do so. Not a trace of suspicion lurked in anybody’s heart. Where
has all that dignity, that nobility of spirit, disappeared now? I should ask
all Mussalman, including Quaid-I-Azam Jinnah, to recall those glorious days and
to find out what has brought us to the present impasse. Quaid-i-Azam Jinnah
himself was at one time a Congressman. If today the Congress has incurred his
wrath, it is because the canker of suspicion has entered his heart. May God
bless him with long life, but when I am gone, he will realize and admit that I
had no designs on Mussalman and that I had never betrayed their interests.
Where is the escape for me, if I injure their cause or betray their interests?
My life is entirely at their disposal. They are free to put an end to it,
whenever they wish to do so. Assaults have been made on my life in the past,
but God has spared me till now, and the assailants have repented for their
action. But if someone were to shoot me in the belief that he was getting rid
of a rascal, he would kill not the real Gandhi, but the one that appeared to
him a rascal.
To those who have been indulging in a campaign of a abuse and
vilification I would say, “Islam enjoins you not to revile even an enemy. The
Prophet treated even enemies with kindness and tried to win them over by his
fairness and generosity. Are you followers of that Islam or of any other? If
you are followers of the true Islam, does it behave you to distrust the words
of one who makes a public declaration of his faith? You may take it from me
that one day you will regret the fact that you distrusted and killed one who
was a true and devoted friend of yours.” It cuts me to the quick to see that
the more I appeal and the more the Maulana importunes, the more intense does
the campaign of vilification grow. To me, these abuses are like bullets. They
can kill me, even as a bullet can put an end to my life. You may kill me. That
will not hurt me. But what of those who indulge in abusing? They bring
discredit to Islam. For the fair name of Islam, I appeal to you to resist this
unceasing campaign of abuse and vilification.
Maulana Saheb is being made a target for the filthiest abuse. Why?
Because he refuses to exert on me the pressure of his friendship. He realizes
that it is a misuse of friendship to seek up to compel a friend to accept as
truth what he knows is an untruth.
To the Quaid-Azam I would say: Whatever is true and valid in the claim
for Pakistan is already in your hands. What is wrong and untenable is in
nobody’s gift, so that it can be made over to you. Even if someone were to
succeed in imposing an untruth on others, he would not be able to enjoy for
long the fruits of such a coercion. God dislikes pride and keeps away from it.
God would not tolerate a forcible imposition of an untruth.
The Quaid-Azam says that he is compelled to say bitter things but that
he cannot help giving expression to his thoughts and his feelings. Similarly I
would say : “I consider myself a friend of Mussalman. Why should I then not
give expression to the things nearest to my heart, even at the cost of
displeasing them? How can I conceal my innermost thoughts from them? I should
congratulate the Quaid-i-Azam on his frankness in giving expression to his
thoughts and feelings, even if they sound bitter to his hearers. But even so
why should the Mussalman sitting here be reviled, if they do not see eye to eye
with him? If millions of Mussalman are with you can you not afford to ignore
the handful of Mussalman who may appear to you to be misguided? Why should one
with the following of several millions be afraid of a majority community, or of
the minority being swamped by the majority? How did the Prophet work among the
Arabs and the Mussalman? Ho0w did he propagate Islam? Did he say he would
propagate Islam only when he commanded a majority? I appeal to you for the sake
of Islam to ponder over what I say. There is neither fair play nor justice in
saying that the Congress must accept a thing, even if it does not believe in it
and even if it goes counter to principles it holds dear.
Rajaji said : “I do not believe in Pakistan. But Mussalman ask for it,
Mr. Jinnah asks for it, and it has become an obsession with them. Why not then
say, “yes” to them just now? The same Mr. Jinnah will later on realize the
disadvantages of Pakistan and will forgo the demand.” I said : “It is not fair
to accept as true a thing which I hold to be untrue, and ask others to do say
in the belief that the demand will not be pressed when the time comes for
settling in finally. If I hold the demand to be just, I should concede it this
very day. I should not agree to it merely in order to placate Jinnah Saheb.
Many friends have come and asked me to agree to it for the time being to
placate Mr. Jinnah, disarm his suspicious and to see how he reacts to it. But I
cannot be party to a course of action with a false promise. At any rate, it is
not my method.”
The Congress as no sanction but the moral one for enforcing its
decisions. It believes that true democracy can only be the outcome of
non-violence. The structure of a world federation can be raised only on a
foundation of non-violence, and violence will have to be totally abjured from
world affairs. If this is true, the solution of Hindu-Muslim question, too,
cannot be achieved by a resort to violence. If the Hindus tyrannize over the
Mussalman, with what face will they talk of a world federation? It is for the
same reason that I do not believe in the possibility of establishing world
peace through violence as the English and American statesmen propose to do. The
Congress has agreed to submitting all the differences to an impartial
international tribunal and to abide by its decisions. If even this fairest of
proposals is unacceptable, the only course that remains open is that of the
sword, of violence. How can I persuade myself to agree to an impossibility? To
demand the vivisection of a living organism is to ask for its very life. It is
a call to war. The Congress cannot be party to such a fratricidal war. Those
Hindus who, like Dr. Moonje and Shri Savarkar, believe in the doctrine of the
sword may seek to keep the Mussalman under Hindus domination. I do not
represent that section. I represent the Congress. You want to kill the Congress
which is the goose that lays golden eggs. If you distrust the Congress, you may
rest assured that there is to be perpetual war between the Hindus and the
Mussalman, and the country will be doomed to continue warfare and bloodshed. If
such warfare is to be our lot, I shall not live to witness it.
It is for that reason that I say to Jinnah Saheb, “You may take it from
me that whatever in your demand for Pakistan accords with considerations of
justice and equity is lying in your pocket; whatever in the demand is contrary
to justice and equity you can take only by the sword and in no other manner.”
There is much in my heart that I would like to pour out before this
assembly. One thing which was uppermost in my heart I have already dealt with.
You may take it from me that it is with me a matter of life and death. If we
Hindus and Mussalman mean to achieve a heart unity, without the slightest
mental reservation on the part of either, we must first unite in the effort to
be free from the shackles of this empire. If Pakistan after all is to be a
portion of India, what objection can there be for Mussalman against joining
this struggle for India’s freedom? The Hindus and Mussalman must, therefore,
unite in the first instance on the issue of fighting for freedom. Jinnah Saheb
thinks the war will last long. I do not agree with him. If the war goes on for
six months more, how shall we able to save China?
I, therefore, want freedom immediately, this very night, before dawn, if
it can be had. Freedom cannot now wait for the realization of communal unity.
If that unity is not achieved, sacrifices necessary for it will have to be much
greater than would have otherwise sufficed. But the Congress must win freedom
or be wiped out in the effort. And forget not that the freedom which the
Congress is struggling to achieve will not be for the Congressmen alone but for
all the forty cores of the Indian people. Congressmen must for ever remain
humble servants of the people.
The Quaid-i-Azam has said that the Muslim League is prepared to take
over the rule from the Britishers if they are prepared to hand it over to the
Muslim League, for the British took over the empire from the hands of the
Muslims. This, however, will be Muslim Raj. The offer made by Maulana Saheb and
by me does not imply establishment of Muslim Raj or Muslim domination. The
Congress does not believe in the domination of any group or any community. It
believes in democracy which includes in its orbit Muslims, Hindus, Christians,
Parsis, Jews-every one of the communities inhabiting this vast country. If
Muslim Raj is inevitable, then let it be; but how can we give it the stamp of
our assent? How can we agree to the domination of one community over the
others?
Millions of Mussalman in this country come from Hindu stock. How can
their homeland be any other than India? My eldest son embraced Islam some years
back. What would his homeland be-Porbandar or the Punjab? I ask the Mussalman:
“If India is not your homeland, what other country do you belong to? In what
separate homeland would you put my son who embraced Islam?” His mother wrote
him a letter after his conversion, asking him if he had on embracing Islam
given up drinking which Islam forbids to its follower. To those who gloated
over the conversion, she wrote to say: “I do not mind his becoming a Mussalman,
so much as his drinking. Will you, as pious Mussalman, tolerate his drinking
even after his conversion? He has reduced himself to the state of a rake by
drinking. If you are going to make a man of him again, his conversion will have
been turned to good account. You will, therefore, please see that he as a
Mussalman abjures wine and woman. If that change does not come about, his
conversion goes in vain and our non-co-operation with him will have to
continue.”
India is without doubt the homeland of all the Mussalman inhabiting this
country. Every Mussalman should therefore co-operate in the fight for India’s
freedom. The Congress does not belong to any one class or community; it belongs
to the whole nation. It is open to Mussalman to take possession of the Congress.
They can, if they like, swamp the Congress by their numbers, and can steer it
along the course which appeals to them. The Congress is fighting not on behalf
of the Hindu but on behalf of the whole nation, including the minorities. It
would hurt me to hear of a single instance of a Mussalman being killed by a
Congressman. In the coming revolution, Congressmen will sacrifice their lives
in order to protect the Mussalman against a Hindu’s attack and vice versa. It
is a part of their creed, and is one of the essentials of non-violence. You
will be excepted on occasions like these not to lose your heads. Every
Congressman, whether a Hindu or a Mussalman, owes this duty to the organization
to which will render a service to Islam. Mutual trust is essential for success
in the final nation-wide struggle that is to come.
I have said that much greater sacrifice will have to be made this time
in the wake of our struggle because of the opposition from the Muslim League
and from Englishmen. You have seen the secret circular issued by Sir Frederick
Puckle. It is a suicidal course that he has taken. It contains an open
incitement to organizations which crop up like mushrooms to combine to fight
the Congress. We have thus to deal with an empire whose ways are crooked. Ours is
a straight path which we can tread even with our eyes closed. That is the
beauty of Satyagraha .
In Satyagraha, there is no place for fraud or falsehood, or any kind of
untruth. Fraud and untruth today are stalking the world. I cannot be a helpless
witness to such a situation. I have traveled all over India as perhaps nobody
in the present age has. The voiceless millions of the land saw in me their
friend and representative, and I identified myself with them to an extent it
was possible for a human being to do. I saw trust in their eyes, which I now
want to turn to good account in fighting this empire upheld on untruth and
violence. However gigantic the preparations that the empire has made, we must
get out of its clutches. How can I remain silent at this supreme hour and hide
my light under the bushel? Shall I ask the Japanese to tarry awhile? If today I
sit quite and inactive, God will take me to task for not using up the treasure
He had given me, in the midst of the conflagration that is enveloping the whole
world. Had the condition been different, I should have asked you to wait yet
awhile. But the situation now has become intolerable, and the Congress has no
other course left for it.
Nevertheless, the actual struggle does not commence this moment. You
have only placed all your powers in my hands. I will now wait upon the Viceroy
and plead with him for the acceptance of the Congress demand. That process is
likely to take two or three weeks. What would you do in the meanwhile? What is
the programme, for the interval, in which all can participate? As you know, the
spinning wheel is the first thing that occurs to me. I made the same answer to
the Maulana. He would have none of it, though he understood its import later.
The fourteen fold constructive programme is, of course, there for you to carry
out. What more should you do? I will tell you. Every one of you should, from
this moment onwards, consider yourself a free man or woman, and acts as if you
are free and are no longer under the heel of this imperialism.
It is not a make-believe that I am suggesting to you. It is the very
essence of freedom. The bond of the slave is snapped the moment he consider
himself to be a free being. He will plainly tell the master: “I was your bond
slave till this moment, but I am a slave no longer. You may kill me if you
like, but if you keep me alive, I wish to tell you that if you release me from
the bondage, of your own accord, I will ask for nothing more from you. You used
to feed and cloth me, though I could have provided food and clothing for myself
by my labour. I hitherto depended on you instead of on God, for food and
raiment. But God has now inspired me with an urge for freedom and I am to day a
free man, and will no longer depend on you.”
You may take it from me that I am not going to strike a bargain with the
Viceroy for ministries and the like. I am not going to be satisfied with
anything short of complete freedom. May be, he will propose the abolition of
salt tax, the drink evil, etc. But I will say, “Nothing less than freedom.”
Here is a mantra,1 a short one, that I give you. You may imprint it on
your hearts and let every breath of yours give expression to it. The mantra is
: ‘Do or Die’. We shall either free India or die in the attempt; we shall not
live to see the perpetuation of our slavery. Every true Congressman or woman
will join the struggle with an inflexible determination not to remain alive to
see the country in bondage and slavery. Let that be your pledge. Keep jails out
of your consideration. If the Government keep me free, I will not put on the
Government the strain of maintaining a large number of prisoners at a time,
when it is in trouble. Let every man and woman live every moment of his or her
life hereafter in the consciousness that he or she eats or lives for achieving
freedom and will die, if need be, to attain that goal. Take a pledge, with God
and your own conscience as witness, that you will no longer rest till freedom
is achieved and will be prepared to lay down your lives in the attempt to
achieve it. He who loses his life will gain it; he who will seek to save it
shall lose it. Freedom is not for the coward or the faint-hearted.
A word to the journalists. I congratulate you on the support you have
hitherto given to the national demand. I know the restrictions and handicaps
under which you have to labour. But I would now ask you to snap the chains that
bind you. It should be the proud privilege of the newspapers to lead and set an
example in laying down one’s life for freedom.
You have the pen which the Government can’t suppress. I know you have
large properties in the form of printing presses, etc., and you would be afraid
lest the Government should attach them. I do not ask you to invite an
attachment of the printing-press voluntarily. For myself, I would not suppress
my pen, even if the press was to be attached. As you know my press was attached
in the past and returned later on. But I do not ask from you that final
sacrifice. I suggest a middle way. You should now wind up your standing
committee, and you may declare that you will give up the pen only when India
has won her freedom. You may tell Sir Frederick Puckle that he can’t except
from you a command performance, that his press notes are full of untruth, and
that you will refuse to publish them. You will openly declare that you are
wholeheartedly with the Congress. If you do this, you will have changed the
atmosphere before the fight actually begins.
From the Princes I ask with all respect due to them a very small thing.
I am a well-wisher of the Princes. I was born in a State. My grandfather
refused to salute with his right hand any Prince other than his own. But he did
not say to the Prince, as I fell he ought to have said, that even his own
master could not compel him, his minister, to act against his conscience. I
have eaten the Prince's salt and I would not be false to it. As a faithful
servant, it is my duty to warn the Princes that if they will act while I am
still alive, the Princes may come to occupy an honourable place in free India.
In Jawaharlal’s scheme of free India, no privileges or the privileged classes
have a place. Jawaharlal considers all property to be State-owned. He wants
planned economy. He wants to reconstruct India according to plan. He likes to
fly; I do not. I have kept a place for the Princes and the Zamindars1 in India
that I envisage. I would ask the Princes in all humility to enjoy through
renunciation. The Princes may renounce ownership over their properties and
become their trustees in the true sense of the term. I visualize God in the
assemblage of people. The Princes may say to their people : “You are the owners
and masters of the State and we are your servants.” I would ask the Princes to
become servants of the people and render to them an account of their own
services. The empire too bestows power on the Princes, but they should prefer
to derive power from their own people; and if they want to indulge in some
innocent pleasures, they may seek to do so as servants of the people. I do not
want the Princes to live as paupers. But I would ask them : “Do you want to
remain slaves for all time? Why should you, instead of paying homage to a
foreign power, not accept the sovereignty of your own people?” You may write to
the Political Department : “The people are now awake. How are we to withstand
an avalanche before which even the Large empire are crumbling? We, therefore,
shall belong to the people from today onwards. We shall sink or swim with
them.” Believe me, there is nothing unconstitutional in the course I am
suggesting. There are, so far as I know, no treaties enabling the empire to
coerce the Princes. The people of the States will also declare that though they
are the Princes’ subjects, they are part of the Indian nation and that they
will accept the leadership of the Princes, if the latter cast their lot with
the people, the latter will meet death bravely and unflinchingly, but will not
go back on their word.
Nothing, however, should be done secretly. This is an open rebellion. In
this struggle secrecy is a sin. A free man would not engage in a secret
movement. It is likely that when you gain freedom you will have a C.I.D. of
your own, in spite of my advice to the contrary. But in the present struggle,
we have to work openly and to receive bullets on our chest, without taking to
heels.
I have a word to say to Government servants also. They may not, if they
like, resign their posts yet. The late Justice Ranade did not resign his post,
but he openly declared that he belonged to the Congress. He said to the
Government that though he was a judge, he was a Congressman and would openly
attend the sessions of the Congress, but that at the same time he would not let
his political views warp his impartiality on the bench. He held Social Reform
Conference in the very Pandal1 of the Congress. I would ask all the Government
servants to follow in the footsteps of Ranade and to declare their allegiance
to the Congress as an answer to the secret circular issued by Sir Frederick
Puckle.
This is all that I ask of you just now. I will now write to the Viceroy.
You will be able to read the correspondence not just now but when I publish it
with the Viceroy’s consent. But you are free to aver that you support the
demand to be put forth in my letter. A judge came to me and said : “We get
secret circulars from high quarters. What are we to do?” I replied, “If I were
in your place, I would ignore the circulars. You may openly say to the
Government : ‘I have received your secret circular. I am, however, with the
Congress. Though I serve the Government for my livelihood, I am not going to
obey these secret circulars or to employ underhand methods,’”
Soldiers too are covered by the present programme. I do not ask them
just now to resign their posts and to leave the army. The soldiers come to me,
Jawaharlal and the Maulana and say : “We are wholly with you. We are tired of
the Governmental tyranny.” To these soldiers I would say : You may say to the
Government, “Our hearts are with the Congress. We are not going to leave our
posts. We will serve you so long as we receive your salaries. We will obey your
just orders, but will refuse to fire on our own people.”
To those who lack the courage to do this much I have nothing to say.
They will go their own way. But if you can do this much, you may take it from
me that the whole atmosphere will be electrified. Let the Government then
shower bombs, if they like. But no power on earth will then be able to keep you
in bondage any longer.
If the students want to join the struggle only to go back to their
studies after a while, I would not invite them to it. For the present, however,
till the time that I frame a programme for the struggle, I would ask the
students to say to their professors : “We belong to the Congress. Do you belong
to the Congress, or to the Government? If you belong to the Congress, you need
not vacate your posts. You will remain at your posts but teach us and lead us
unto freedom.” In all fights for freedom, the world over, the students have
made very large contributions.
If in the interval that is left to us before the actual fight begins,
you do even the little I have suggested to you, you will have changed the
atmosphere and will have prepared the ground for the next step.
There is much I should et like to say. But my heart is heavy. I have
already taken up much of your time. I have yet to say a few words in English
also. I thank you for the patience and attention with which you have listened
to me even at this late hour. It is just what true soldiers would do. For the
last twenty-two years, I have controlled my speech and pen and have stored up
my energy. He is a true Brahmacharri1 who does not fritter away his energy. He
will, therefore, always control his speech. That has been my conscious effort
all these years. But today the occasion has come when I had to unburden my
heart before you. I have done so, even though it meant putting a strain on your
patience; and I do not regret having done it. I have given you my message and
through you I have delivered it to the whole of India.
III
{The following is the
concluding portion of Gandhiji’s speech before the A.I.C.C. at Bombay on
8-8-`42 which was delivered in English :}
I have taken such an inordinately long time over pouring out, what was
agitating my soul, to those whom I had just now the privilege of serving. I
have been called their leader or, in the military language, their commander.
But I do not look at my position in that light. I have no weapon but love to
wield my authority over any one. I do sport a stick which you can break into
bits without the slightest exertion. It is simply my staff with the help of
which I walk. Such a cripple is not elated, when he has been called upon to
bear the greatest burden. You can share that burden only when I appear before
you not as your commander but as a humble servant. And he who serves best is
the chief among equals.
Therefore, I was bound to share with you such thoughts as were welling
up in my breast and tell you, in as summary a manner as I can, what I except
you to do as the first step.
Let me tell you at the outset that the real struggle does not commence
today. I have yet to go through much ceremonial as I always do. The burden, I
confess, would be almost unbearable. I have to continue to reason in those
circles with whom I have lost my credit and who have no trust left in me. I
know that in the course of the last few weeks I have forfeited my credit with a
large number of friends, so much so, that they have begun to doubt not only my
wisdom but even my honesty. Now I hold my wisdom is not such a treasure which I
cannot afford to lose; but my honesty is a precious treasure to me and I can
ill-afford to lose it. I seem however to have lost it for the time being.
Friend of the Empire
Such occasions arise in the life of the man who is a pure seeker after
truth and who would seek to serve the humanity and his country to the best of
his lights without fear or hypocrisy. For the last fifty years I have known no
other way. I have been a humble servant of humanity and have rendered on more
than one occasion such services as I could to the Empire, and here let me say
without fear of challenge that throughout my career never have I asked for any
personal favour. I have enjoyed the privilege of friendship as I enjoy it today
with Lord Linlithgow. It is a friendship which has outgrown official
relationship. Whether Lord Linlithgow will bear me out, I do not know, but
there is a personal bond between him and myself. He once introduced me to his
daughter. His son-in law, the A.D.C. was drawn towards me . he fell in love
with Mahadev more than with me and Lady Anna and he came to me. She is an
obedient and favourite daughter. I take interest in their welfare. I take the
liberty to give out these personal and sacred tit-bits only to give you an
earnest of the personal bond will never interfere with the stubborn struggle on
which, if it falls to my lot, I may have to launch against Lord Linlithgow, as
the representative of the Empire. I will have to resist the might of that
Empire with the might of the dumb millions with no limit but of non-violence as
policy confined to this struggle. It is a terrible job to have to offer
resistance to a Viceroy with whom I enjoy such relations. He has more than once
trusted my word, often about my people. I would love to repeat that experiment,
as it stands to his credit. I mention this with great pride and pleasure. I
mention it as an earnest of my desire to be true to the Empire when that Empire
forfeited my trust and the Englishman who was its Viceroy came to know it.
Charlie Andrews
Then there is the sacred memory of Charlie Andrews which wells up within
me. At this moment the spirit of Andrews hovers about me. For me he sums up the
brightest traditions of English culture. I enjoyed closer relations with him
than with most Indians. I enjoyed his confidence. There were no secrets between
us. We exchanged our hearts every day. Whatever was in his heart, he would
blurt out without the slightest hesitation or reservation. It is true he was a
friend of Gurudev1 but he looked upon Gurudev with awe. He had that peculiar
humility. But with me he became the closest friend. Years ago he came to me
with a note of introduction from Gokhale. Pearson and he were the first-rank
specimens of Englishmen. I know that his spirit is listening to me.
Then I have got a warm letter of congratulations from the Metropolitan
of Calcutta. I hold him to be a man of God. Today he is opposed to me.
Voice of Conscience
With all this background, I want to declare to the world, although I may
have forfeited the regard of many friends in the West and I must bow my head
low; but even for their friendship or love I must not suppress the voice of conscience
– promoting of my inner basic nature today. There is something within me
impelling me to cry out my agony. I have known humanity. I have studied
something of psychology. Such a man knows exactly what it is. I do not mind how
you describe it. That voice within tells me, “You have to stand against the
whole world although you may have to stand alone. You have to stare in the face
the whole world although the world may look at you with bloodshot eyes. Do not
fear. Trust the little voice residing within your heart.” It says : “Forsake
friends, wife and all; but testify to that for which you have lived and for
which you have to die. I want to live my full span of life. And for me I put my
span of life at 120 years. By that time India will be free, the world will be
free.
Real Freedom
Let me tell you that I do not regard England or for that matter America
as free countries. They are free after their own fashion, free to hold in
bondage coloured races of the earth. Are England and America fighting for the liberty
of these races today? If not, do not ask me to wait until after the war. You
shall not limit my concept of freedom. The English and American teachers, their
history, their magnificent poetry have not said that you shall not broaden the
interpretation of freedom. And according to my interpretation of that freedom I
am constrained to say they are strangers to that freedom which their teachers
and poets have described. If they will know the real freedom they should come
to India. They have to come not with pride or arrogances but in the spite of
real earnest seekers of truth. It is a fundamental truth which India has been
experimenting with for 22 years.
Congress and Non-violence
Unconsciously from its very foundations long ago the Congress has been
building on non-violence known as constitutional methods. Dadabhai and
Pherozeshah who had held the Congress India in the palm of their hands became
rebels. They were lovers of the Congress. They were its masters. But above all
they were real servants. They never countenanced murder, secrecy and the like.
I confess there are many black sheep amongst us Congressmen. But I trust the
whole of India today to launch upon a non-violent struggle. I trust because of
my nature to rely upon the innate goodness of human nature which perceives the
truth and prevails during the crisis as if by instinct. But even if I am
deceived in this I shall not swerve. I shall not flinch. From its very
inception the Congress based its policy on peaceful methods, included Swaraj
and the subsequent generations added non-violence. When Dadabhai entered the
British Parliament, Salisbury dubbed him as a black man; but the English people
defeated Salisbury and Dadabhai went to the Parliament by their vote. India was
delirious with joy. These things however India has outgrown.
I will go Ahead
It is, however, with all these things as the background that I want
Englishmen, Europeans and all the United Nations to examine in their hearts
what crime had India committed in demanding Independence. I ask, is it right
for you to distrust such an organization with all its background, tradition and
record of over half a century and misrepresent its endeavors before all the
world by every means at your command? Is it right that by hook or by crook,
aided by the foreign press, aided by the President of the U.S.A., or even by
the Generalissimo of China who has yet to win his laurels, you should present
India’s struggle in shocking caricature? I have met the Generalissimo. I have
known him through Madame Shek who was my interpreter; and though he seemed
inscrutable to me, not so Madame Shek; and he allowed me to read his mind
through her. There is a chorus of disapproval and righteous protest all over
the world against us. They say we are erring, the move is inopportune. I had
great regard for British diplomacy which has enabled them to hold the Empire so
long. Now it stinks in my nostrils, and others have studied that diplomacy and
are putting it into practice. They may succeed in getting, through these
methods, world opinion on their side for a time; but India will speak against
that world opinion. She will raise her voice against all the organized
propaganda. I will speak against it. Even if all the United Nations opposed me,
even if the whole of India forsakes me, I will say, “You are wrong. India will
wrench with non-violence her liberty from unwilling hands.” I will go ahead not
for India’s sake alone, but for the sake of the world. Even if my eyes close
before there is freedom, non-violence will not end. They will be dealing a
mortal blow to China and to Russia if they oppose the freedom of non-violent
India which is pleading with bended knees for the fulfillment of debt along
overdue. Does a creditor ever go to debtor like that? And even when, India is
met with such angry opposition, she says, “We won’t hit below the belt, we have
learnt sufficient gentlemanliness. We are pledged to non-violence.” I have been
the author of non-embarrassment policy of the Congress and yet today you find
me talking this strong language. I say it is consistent with our honour. If a
man holds me by the neck and wants to drawn me, may I not struggle to free
myself directly? There is no inconsistency in our position today.
Appeal to United nations
There are representatives of the foreign press assembled here today.
Through them I wish to say to the world that the United Powers who somehow or
other say that they have need for India, have the opportunity now to declare
India free and prove their bona fides. If they miss it, they will be missing
the opportunity of their lifetime, and history will record that they did not
dis charge their obligations to India in time, and lost the battle. I want the
blessings of the whole world so that I may succeed with them. I do not want the
United Powers to go beyond their obvious limitations. I do not want them to
accept non-violence and disarm today. There is a fundamental difference between
fascism and this imperialism which I am fighting. Do the British get from India
which they hold in bondage. Think what difference it would make if India was to
participate as a free ally. That freedom, if it is to come, must come today. It
will have no taste left in it today you who have the power to help cannot
exercise it. If you can exercise it, under the glow of freedom what seems
impossible, today, will become possible tomorrow. If India feels that freedom,
she will command that freedom for China. The road for running to Russia’s help
will be open. The Englishmen did not die in Malaya or on Burma soil. What shall
enable us to retrieve the situation? Where shall I go, and where shall I take
the forty crores of India? How is this vast mass of humanity to be aglow in the
cause of world deliverance, unless and until it has touched and felt freedom.
Today they have no touch of life left. It has been crushed out of them. It
lustre is to be put into their eyes, freedom has to come not tomorrow, but
today.
Do or Die
I have pledged the Congress and the Congress will do or die.
My Non-violence
(1960), pp. 183-205
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