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GANDHI AND NEHRU AT THE A.I.C.C. IN
BOMBAY - 1942
Quit India
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Mahatma Gandhi.
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Gandhi's Quit India Speech.
It follows the full text transcript of
Gandhi's Quit India speech, delivered to the
A.I.C.C. at Bombay, India - August 8, 1942.
Part I and
Part
II are translated from Hindustani.
Part III was delivered in
English.
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PART I
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 nonviolence 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 Ahimsa 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 Hims2 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
nonviolent 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 nonviolent 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 nonviolence, 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
behavior. 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
harbor hatred against anybody.
PART II
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
favor 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 Mussalmans 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 Mussalmans 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 Mussalmans 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
neighborliness. It did not matter, I felt, if I
made no special effort to cultivate the
friendship with Hindus, but I must make friends
with at least a few Mussalmans. It was as
counsel for a Mussalmans merchant that I went to
South Africa. I made friends with other
Mussalmans 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 Mussalmans 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
neighbor 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 neighbor and a faithful
friend, it was incumbent on me to stand by the
Mussalmans in the hour of their trial.
In those days, I shocked the Hindus by dinning
time they have now got used to it. Maulana 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 Mussalmans, 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
Mussalmans 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 Mussalmans. 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 Mussalmans
sitting here be reviled, if they do not see eye
to eye with him? If millions of Mussalmans are
with you can you not afford to ignore the
handful of Mussalmans 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 Mussalmans? How 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
Mussalmans 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 Mussalmans,
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
Mussalmans 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
Mussalmans, 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
Mussalmans 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
Mussalmans against joining this struggle for
India’s freedom? The Hindus and Mussalmans 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
British 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 Mussalmans 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 Mussalmans: “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 Mussalmans,
so much as his drinking. Will you, as pious
Mussalmans, 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
Mussalmans 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 Mussalmans 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 program,
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 program 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 labor. 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, 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 labor. 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 honorable 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
program. 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 program
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.
PART III
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.
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
favor. 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 favorite 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 nonviolence 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.
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.
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.
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 colored 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.
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.
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
honor. 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.
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 discharge 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. If luster is to be put into their eyes,
freedom has to come not tomorrow, but today.
I have, therefore, pledged the Congress and the Congress
has pledged herself that she will do or die.
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