Freedom's Battle — Non-Co-Operation, Part 5

FROM RIDICULE, TO--?

It will be admitted that non-co-operation has passed the stage ridicule.

Whether it will now be met by repression or respect remains to be seen.

Opinion has already been expressed in these columns that ridicule is an approved and civilized method of opposition.

The viceregal ridicule though expressed in unnecessarily impolite terms was not open to exception.

But the testing time has now arrived.

In a civilized country when ridicule fails to kill a movement it begins to command respect.

Opponents meet it by respectful and cogent argument and the mutual behaviour of rival parties never becomes violent.

Each party seeks to convert the other or draw the uncertain element towards its side by pure argument and reasoning.

There is little doubt now that the boycott of the councils will be extensive if it is not complete.

The students have become disturbed.

Important institutions may any day become truly national.

Pandit Motilal Nehru's great renunciation of a legal practice which was probably second to nobody's is by itself an event calculated to change ridicule into respect.

It ought to set people thinking seriously about their own attitude.

There must be something very wrong about our Government--to warrant the step Pundit Motilal Nehru has taken.

Post graduate students have given up their fellowships.

Medical students have refused to appear for their final examination.

Non-co-operation in these circumstances cannot be called an inane movement.

Either the Government must bend to the will of the people which is being expressed in no unmistakable terms through non-co-operation, or it must attempt to crush the movement by repression.

Any force used by a government under any circumstance is not repression.

An open trial of a person accused of having advocated methods of violence is not repression.

Every State has the right to put down or prevent violence by force.

But the trial of Mr. Zafar Ali Khan and two Moulvis of Panipat shows that the Government is seeking not to put down or prevent violence but to suppress expression of opinion, to prevent the spread of disaffection.

This is repression.

The trials are the beginning of it.

It has not still assumed a virulent form but if these trials do not result in stilling the propaganda, it is highly likely that severe repression will be resorted to by the Government.

The only other way to prevent the spread of disaffection is to remove the causes thereof.

And that would be to respect the growing response of the country to the programme of non-co-operation.

It is too much to expect repentance and humility from a government intoxicated with success and power.

We must therefore assume that the second stage in the Government programme will be repression growing in violence in the same ratio as the progress of non-co-operation.

And if the movement survives repression, the day of victory of truth is near.

We must then be prepared for prosecutions, punishments even up to deportations.

We must evolve the capacity for going on with our programme without the leaders.

That means capacity for self-government.

And as no government in the world can possibly put a whole nation in prison, it must yield to its demand or abdication in favour of a government suited to that nation.

It is clear that abstention from violence and persistence in the programme are our only and surest chance of attaining our end.

The government has its choice, either to respect the movement or to try to repress it by barbarous methods.

Our choice is either to succumb to repression or to continue in spite of repression.

TO EVERY ENGLISHMAN IN INDIA

Dear Friend, I wish that every Englishman will see this appeal and give thoughtful attention to it.

Let me introduce myself to you.

In my humble opinion no Indian has co-operated with the British Government more than I have for an unbroken period of twenty-nine years of public life in the face of circumstances that might well have turned any other man into a rebel.

I ask you to believe me when I tell you that my co-operation was not based on the fear of the punishments provided by your laws or any other selfish motives.

It was free and voluntary co-operation based on the belief that the sum total of the activity of the British Government was for the benefit of India.

I put my life in peril four times for the sake of the Empire,--at the time of the Boer war when I was in charge of the Ambulance corps whose work was mentioned in General Buller's dispatches, at the time of the Zulu revolt in Natal when I was in charge of a similar corps at the time of the commencement of the late war when I raised an Ambulance corps and as a result of the strenuous training had a severe attack of pleurisy, and lastly, in fulfilment of my promise to Lord Chelmsford at the War Conference in Delhi.

I threw myself in such an active recruiting campaign in Kuira District involving long and trying marches that I had an attack of dysentry which proved almost fatal.

I did all this in the full belief that acts such as mine must gain for my country an equal status in the Empire.

So late as last December I pleaded hard for a trustful co-operation, I fully believed that Mr. Lloyd George would redeem his promise to the Mussalmans and that the revelations of the official atrocities in the Punjab would secure full reparation for the Punjabis.

But the treachery of Mr. Lloyd George and its appreciation by you, and the condonation of the Punjab atrocities have completely shattered my faith in the good intentions of the Government and the nation which is supporting it.

But though, my faith in your good intentions is gone, I recognise your bravery and I know that what you will not yield to justice and reason, you will gladly yield to bravery.

_See what this Empire means to India_ Exploitation of India's resources for the benefit of Great Britain.

An ever-increasing military expenditure, and a civil service the most expensive in the world.

Extravagant working of every department in utter disregard of India's poverty.

Disarmament and consequent emasculation of a whole nation lest an armed nation might imperil the lives of a handful of you in our midst.

Traffic in intoxicating liquors and drugs for the purposes of sustaining a top heavy administration.

Progressively representative legislation in order to suppress an evergrowing agitation seeking to give expression to a nation's agony.

Degrading treatment of Indians residing in your dominions, and You have shown total disregard of our feelings by glorifying the Punjab administration and flouting the Mosulman sentiment.

I know you would not mind if we could fight and wrest the sceptre form your hands.

You know that we are powerless to do that, for you have ensured our incapacity to fight in open and honourable battle.

Bravery on the battlefield is thus impossible for us.

Bravery of the soul still remains open to us.

I know you will respond to that also.

I am engaged in evoking that bravery.

Non-co-operation means nothing less than training in self-sacrifice.

Why should we co-operate with you when we know that by your administration of this great country we are lifting daily enslaved in an increasing degree.

This response of the people to my appeal is not due to my personality.

I would like you to dismiss me, and for that matter the Ali Brothers too, from your consideration.

My personality will fail to evoke any response to anti-Muslim cry if I were foolish enough to rise it, as the magic name of the Ali Brothers would fail to inspire the Mussalmans with enthusiasm if they were madly to raise in anti-Hindu cry.

People flock in their thousands to listen to us because we to-day represent the voice of a nation groaning under iron heels.

The Ali Brothers were your friends as I was, and still am.

My religion forbids me to bear any ill-will towards you.

I would not raise my hand against you even if I had the power.

I expect to conquer you only by my suffering.

The Ali Brothers will certainly draw the sword, if they could, in defence of their religion and their country.

But they and I have made common cause with the people of India in their attempt to voice their feelings and to find a remedy for their distress.

You are in search of a remedy to suppress this rising ebullition of national feeling.

I venture to suggest to you that the only way to suppress it is to remove the causes.

You have yet the power.

You can repent of the wrongs done to Indians.

You can compel Mr. Lloyd George to redeem his promises.

I assure you he has kept many escape doors.

You can compel the Viceroy to retire in favour of a better one, you can revise your ideas about Sir Michael O'Dwyer and General Dyer.

You can compel the Government to summon a conference of the recognised lenders of the people, duly elected by them and representing all shades of opinion so as to devise means for granting _Swaraj_ in accordance with the wishes of the people of India.

But this you cannot do unless you consider every Indian to be in reality your equal and brother.

I ask for no patronage, I merely point out to you, as a friend, as honourable solution of a grave problem.

The other solution, namely repression is open to YOU.

I prophesy that it will fail.

It has begun already.

The Government has already imprisoned two brave men of Panipat for holding and expressing their opinions freely.

Another is on his trial in Lahore for having expressed similar opinion.

One in the Oudh District is already imprisoned.

Another awaits judgment.

You should know what is going on in your midst.

Our propaganda is being carried on in anticipation of repression.

I invite you respectfully to choose the better way and make common cause with the people of India whose salt you are eating.

To seek to thwart their inspirations is disloyalty to the country.

I am, Your faithful friend, M. K.

GANDHI

ONE STEP ENOUGH FOR ME

Mr. Stokes is a Christian, who wants to follow the light that God gives him.

He has adopted India as his home.

He is watching the non-co-operation movement from the Kotgarh hills where he is living in isolation from the India of the plains and serving the hillmen.

He has contributed three articles on non-co-operation to the columns of the Servant of Calcutta and other papers.

I had the pleasure of reading them during my Bengal tour.

Mr. Stokes approves of non-co-operation but dreads the consequences that may follow complete success _i.

e. ,_ evacuation of India by the British.

He conjures up before his mind a picture of India invaded by the Afghans from the North-West, plundered by the Gurkhas from the Hills.

For me I say with Cardinal Newman: 'I do not ask to see the distant scene; one step enough for me.'

The movement is essentially religious.

The business of every god-fearing man is to dissociate himself from evil in total disregard of consequences.

He must have faith in a good deed producing only a good result: that in my opinion is the Gita doctrine of work without attachment.

God does not permit him to peep into the future.

He follows truth although the following of it may endanger his very life.

He knows that it is better to die in the way of God than to live in the way of Satan.

Therefore who ever is satisfied that this Government represents the activity of Satan has no choice left to him but to dissociate himself from it.

However, let us consider the worst that can happen to India on a sudden evacuation of India by the British.

What does it matter that the Gurkhas and the Pathans attack us?

Surely we would be better able to deal with their violence than we are with the continued violence, moral and physical, perpetrated by the present Government.

Mr. Stokes does not seem to eschew the use of physical force.

Surely the combined labour of the Rajput, the Sikh and the Mussalman warriors in a united India may be trusted to deal with plunderers from any or all the sides.

Imagine however the worst: Japan overwhelming us from the Bay of Bengal, the Gurkhas from the Hills, and the Pathans from the North-West.

If we not succeed in driving them out we make terms with them and drive them at the first opportunity.

This will be a more manly course than a hopeless submission to an admittedly wrongful State.

But I refuse to contemplate the dismal out-look.

If the movement succeeds through non-violent non-co-operation, and that is the supposition Mr. Stokes has started with, the English whether they remain or retire, they will do so as friends and under a well-ordered agreement as between partners.

I still believe in the goodness of human nature, whether it is English or any other.

I therefore do not believe that the English will leave in a night.

And do I consider the Gurkha and the Afghan being incorrigible thieves and robbers without ability to respond to purifying influences?

I do not.

If India returns to her spirituality, it will react upon the neighbouring tribes, she will interest herself in the welfare of these hardy but poor people, and even support them if necessary, not out of fear but as a matter of neighbourly duty.

She will have dealt with Japan simultaneously with the British.

Japan will not want to invade India, if India has learnt to consider it a sin to use a single foreign article that she can manufacture within her own borders.

She produces enough to eat and her men and women can without difficulty manufacture enough to clothe to cover their nakedness and protect themselves from heat and cold.

We become prey to invasion if we excite the greed of foreign nation, by dealing with them under a feeling dependence on them.

We must learn to be independent of every one of them.

Whether therefore we finally succeed through violence or non-violence in my opinion, the prospect is by no means so gloomy as Mr. Stokes has imagined.

Any conceivable prospect is, in my opinion, less black than the present unmanly and helpless condition.

And we cannot do better than following out fearlessly and with confidence the open and honourable programme of non-violence and sacrifice that we have mapped for ourselves.

THE NEED FOR HUMILITY

The spirit of non-violence necessarily leads to humility.

Non-violence means reliance on God, the Rocks of ages.

If we would seek His aid, we must approach Him with a humble and a contrite heart.

Non-co-operationists may not trade upon their amazing success at the Congress.

We must act, even as the mango tree which drops as it bears fruit.

Its grandeur lies in its majestic lowliness.

But one hears of non-co-operationists being insolent and intolerant in their behaviour towards those who differ from them.

I know that they will lose all their majesty and glory, if they betray any inflation.

Whilst we may not be dissatisfied with the progress made so far, we have little to our credit to make us feel proud.

We have to sacrifice much more than we have done to justify pride, much less elation.

Thousands, who flocked to the Congress pandal, have undoubtedly given their intellectual assent to the doctrine but few have followed it out in practice.

Leaving aside the pleaders, how many parents have withdrawn their children from schools?

How many of those who registered their vote in favour of non-co-operation have taken to hand-spinning or discarded the use of all foreign cloth?

Non-co-operation is not a movement of brag, bluster, or bluff.

It is a test of our sincerity.

It requires solid and silent self-sacrifice.

It challenges our honesty and our capacity for national work.

It is a movement that aims at translating ideas into action.

And the more we do, the more we find that much more must be done than we have expected.

And this thought of our imperfection must make us humble.

A non-co-operationist strives to compel attention and to set an example not by his violence but by his unobtrusive humility.

He allows his solid action to speak for his creed.

His strength lies in his reliance upon the correctness of his position.

And the conviction of it grows most in his opponent when he least interposes his speech between his action and his opponent.

Speech, especially when it is haughty, betrays want of confidence and it makes one's opponent sceptical about the reality of the act itself.

Humility therefore is the key to quick success.

I hope that every non-co-operationist will recognise the necessity of being humble and self-restrained.

It is because so little is really required to be done because all of that little depends entirely upon ourselves that I have ventured the belief that Swaraj is attainable in less than one year.

SOME QUESTIONS ANSWERED

"I write to thank you for yours of the 7th instant and especially for your request that I should after reading your writings in "Young India" on non-co-operation, give a full and frank criticism of them.

I know that your sole desire is to find out the truth and to act accordingly, and hence I venture to make the following remarks.

In the issue of May 5th you say that non-co-operation is "not even anti-Government."

But surely to refuse to have anything to do with the Government to the extent of not serving it and of not paying its taxes is actually, if not theoretically anti-Government; and such a course must ultimately make all Government impossible.

Again, you say, "It is the inherent right of a subject to refuse to assist a government that will not listen to him."

Leaving aside the question of the ethical soundness of this proposition, may I ask which Government, in the present case?

Has not the Indian Government done all it possibly can in the matter?

Then if its attempts to voice the request of India should fail, would it be fair and just to do anything against it?

Would not the proper course be non-co-operation with the Supreme Council of the Allies, including Great Britain, if it be found that the latter has failed properly to support the demand of the Indian Government and people?

It seems to me that in all your writings and speeches you forget that in the present question both Government and people are as one, and if they fail to get what they justly want, how does the question of non-co-operation arise?

Hindus and Englishmen and the Government are all at present "shouldering in a full-hearted manner the burden that Muhomedans of India are carrying etc. etc." But supposing we fail of our object--what then?

Are we all to refuse to co-operate and with whom?

Might I recommend the consideration of the following course of conduct?

(1) "Wait and see" what the actual terms of the Treaty with Turkey are?

(2) If they are not in accordance with the aspirations and recommendations of the Government and the people of India, the every legitimate effort should be made to have the terms revised.

(3) To the bitter end, co-operate with a Government that co-operates with us, and only when it refuses co-operation, go in for non-co-operation.

So far I personally see no reason whatsoever for non-co-operation with the Indian Government, and till it fails to voice the needs and demands of India as a whole there can be no reason.

The Indian Government does some times make mistakes, but in the Khilafat matter it is sound and therefore deserves or ought to have the sympathetic and whole-hearted co-operation of every one in India.

I hope that you will kindly consider the above and perhaps you will be able to find time for a reply in _Young India_."

I gladly make room for the above letter and respond to the suggestion to give a public reply as no doubt the difficulty experienced by the English friend is experienced by many.

Causes are generally lost, not owing to the determined opposition of men who will not see the truth as they want to perpetuate an injustice but because they are able to enlist in their favour the allegiance of those who are anxious to understand a particular cause and take sides after mature judgment.

It is only by patient argument with such honest men that one is able to check oneself, correct one's own errors of judgment and at times to wean them from their error and bring them over to one's side.

This Khilafat question is specially difficult because there are so many side-issues.

It is therefore no wonder that many have more or less difficulty in making up their minds.

It is further complicated because the painful necessity for some direct action has arisen in connection with it.

But whatever the difficulty, I am convinced that there is no question so important as this one if we want harmony and peace in India.

My friend objects to my statement that non-co-operation is not anti-Government, because he considers that refusal to serve it and pay its taxes is actually anti-Government.

I respectfully dissent from the view.

If a brother has fundamental differences with his brother, and association with the latter involves his partaking of what in his opinion is an injustice.

I hold that it is brotherly duty to refrain from serving his brother and sharing his earnings with him.

This happens in everyday life.

Prahalad did not act against his father, when he declined to associate himself with the latter's blasphemies.

Nor was Jesus anti-Jewish when he declaimed against the Pharisees and the hypocrites, and would have none of them.

In such matters, is it not intention that determines the character of a particular act?

It is hardly correct as the friend suggests that withdrawal of association under general circumstances would make all government impossible.

But it is true that such withdrawal would make all injustice impossible.

My correspondent considers that the Government of India having done all it possibly could, non-co-operation could not be applicable to that Government.

In my opinion, whilst it is true that the Government of India has done a great deal, it has not done half as much as it might have done, and might even now do.

No Government can absolve itself from further action beyond protesting, when it realises that the people whom it represents feel as keenly as do lakhs of Indian Mussalmans in the Khilafat question.

No amount of sympathy with a starving man can possibly avail.

He must have bread or he dies, and what is wanted at that critical moment is some exertion to fetch the wherewithal to feed the dying man.

The Government of India can to-day heed the agitation and ask, to the point of insistence for full vindication of the pledged word of a British Minister.

Has the Government of India resigned by way of protest against the threatened, shameful betrayal of trust on the part of Mr. Lloyd George?

Why does the Government of India hide itself behind secret despatches?

At a less critical moment Lord Hardiage committed a constitutional indiscretion, openly sympathised with South African Passive Resistance movement and stemmed the surging tide of public indignation in India, though at the same time he incurred the wrath of the then South African Cabinet and some public men in Great Britain.

After all, the utmost that the Government of India has done is on its own showing to transmit and press the Mahomedan claim.

Was that not the least it could have done?

Could it have done anything less without covering itself with disgrace?

What Indian Mahomedans and the Indian public expect the Government of India to do at this critical juncture is not the least, but the utmost that it could do.

Viceroys have been known to tender resignations for much smaller causes.

Wounded pride brought forth not very long ago the resignation of a Lieutenant Governor.

On the Khilafat question, a sacred cause dear to the hearts of several million Mahomedans is in danger of being wounded.

I would therefore invite the English friend, and every Englishman in India, and every Hindu, be he moderate or extremist, to make common cause with the Mahomedans and thereby compel the Government of India to do its duty, and thereby compel His Majesty's Ministers to do theirs.

There has been much talk of violence ensuing from active non-co-operation.

I venture to suggest that the Mussalmans of India, if they had nothing in the shape of non-co-operation in view, would have long ago yielded to counsels of despair.

I admit that non-co-operation is not unattended with danger.

But violence is a certainty without, violence is only a possibility with non-co-operation.

And it will he a greater possibility if all the important men, English, Hindu and others of the country discountenance it.

I think, that the recommendation made by the friend is being literally followed by the Mahomedans.

Although they practically know the fate, they are waiting for the actual terms of the treaty with Turkey.

They are certainly going to try every means at their disposal to have the terms revised before beginning non-co-operation.

And there will certainly be no non-co-operation commenced so long as there is even hope of active co-operation on the part of the Government of India with the Mahomedans, that is, co-operation strong enough to secure a revision of the terms should they be found to be in conflict with the pledges of British statesmen.

But if all these things fail, can Mahomedans as men of honour who hold their religion dearer than their lives do anything less than wash their hands clean of the guilt of British Ministers and the Government of India by refusing to co-operate with them?

And can Hindus and Englishmen, if they value Mahomedan friendship, and if they admit then full justice of the Mahomaden friendship and if they admit the full justice of the Mahomedan claim do otherwise than heartily support the Mahomedans by word and deed.

PLEDGES BROKEN

After the forgoing was printed the long-expected peace terms regarding Turkey were received.

In my humble opinion they are humiliating to the Supreme Council, to the British ministers, and if as a Hindu with deep reverence for Christianity I may say so, a denial of Christ's teachings.

Turkey broken down and torn with dissentions within may submit to the arrogant disposal of herself, and Indian Mahomedans may out of fear do likewise.

Hindus out of fear, apathy or want of appreciation of the situation, may refuse to help their Mahomedan brethren in their hour of peril.

The fact remains that a solemn promise of the Prime Minister of England has been wantonly broken.

I will say nothing about President Wilson's fourteen points, for they seem now to be entirely forgotten as a day's wonder.

It is a matter of deep sorrow that the Government of India _communique_ offers a defence of the terms, calls them a fulfilment of Mr. Lloyd George's pledge of 5th January 1918 and yet apologises for their defective nature and appeals to the Mahomedans of India as if to mock them that they would accept the terms with quiet resignation.

The mask that veils the hypocrisy is too thin to deceive anybody.

It would have been dignified if the _communique_ had boldly admitted Mr. Lloyd George's mistake in having made the promise referred to.

As it is, the claim of fulfilment of the promise only adds to the irritation caused by its glaring breach.

What is the use of the Viceroy saying, "The question of the Khilafat is one for the Mahomedans and Mahomedans only and that with their free choice in the matter Government have no desire to interfere," while the Khalif's dominions are ruthlessly dismembered, his control of the Holy places of Islam shamelessly taken away from him and he himself reduced to utter impotence in his own palace which can no longer be called a palace but which can he more fitly described us a prison?

No wonder, His Excellency fears that the peace includes "terms which must be painful to all Moslems."

Why should he insult Muslim intelligence by sending the Mussalmans of India a of encouragement and sympathy?

Are they expected to find encouragement in the cruel recital of the arrogant terms or in a remembrance of 'the splendid response' made by them to the call of the King 'in the day of the Empire's need.'

It ill becomes His Excellency to talk of the triumph of those ideals of justice and humanity for which the Allies fought.

Indeed, the terms of the so called peace with Turkey if they are to last, will be a monument of human arrogance and man-made injustice.

To attempt to crush the spirit of a brave and gallant race, because it has lost in the fortunes of war, is a triumph not of humanity but a demonstration of inhumanity.

And if Turkey enjoyed the closest ties of friendship with Great Britain before the war, Great Britain has certainly made ample reparation for her mistake by having made the largest contribution to the humiliation of Turkey.

It is insufferable therefore when the Viceroy feels confident that with the conclusion of this new treaty that friendship will quickly take life again and a Turkey regenerate full of hope and strength, will stand forth in the future as in the past a pillar of the Islamic faith.

The Viceregal message audaciously concludes, "This thought will I trust strengthen you to accept the peace terms with resignation, courage and fortitude and to keep your loyalty towards the Crown bright and untarnished as it has been for so many generations."

If Muslim loyalty remains untarnished it will certainly not be for want of effort on the part of the Government of India to put the heaviest strain upon it, but it will remain so because the Mahomedans realise their own strength--the strength in the knowledge that their cause is just and that they have got the power to vindicate justice in spite of the aberration suffered by Great Britain under a Prime Minister whom continued power has made as reckless in making promises as in breaking them.

Whilst therefore I admit that there is nothing either in the peace terms or in the Viceregal message covering them to inspire the Mahomedans and Indians in general with confidence or hope, I venture to suggest that there is no cause for despair and anger.

Now is the time for Mahomedans to retain absolute self-control, to unite their forces and, weak though they are, with firm faith in God to carry on the struggle with redoubled vigour till justice is done.

If India--both Hindu and Mahomedan--can act as one man and can withdraw her partnership in this crime against humanity which the peace terms represent, she will soon secure a revision of the treaty and give herself and the Empire at least, if not the world, a lasting peace.

There is no doubt that the struggle would be bitter sharp and possibly prolonged, but it is worth all the sacrifice that it is likely to call forth.

Both the Mussalmans and the Hindus are on their trial.

Is the humiliation of the Khilafat a matter of concern to the former?

And if it is, are they prepared to exercise restraint, religiously refrain from violence and practise non-co-operation without counting the material loss it may entail upon the community?

Do the Hindus honestly feel for their Mahomedan brethren to the extent of sharing their sufferings to the fullest extent?

The answer to these questions and not the peace terms, will finally decide the fate of the Khilafat.

MORE OBJECTIONS ANSWERED

_Swadeshmitran_ is one of the most influential Tamil dailies of Madras.

It is widely read.

Everything appearing in its columns is entitled to respect.

The Editor has suggested some practical difficulty in the way of non-co-operation.

I would therefore like, to the best of my ability, to deal with them.

I do not know where the information has been derived from that I have given up the last two stages of non-co-operation.

What I have said is that they are a distant goal.

I abide by it.

I admit that all the stages are fraught with some danger, but the last two are fraught with the greatest--the last most of all.

The stages have been fixed with a view to running the least possible risk.

The last two stages will not be taken up unless the committee has attained sufficient control over the people to warrant the beliefs that the laying down of arms or suspension of taxes will, humanly speaking, be free from an outbreak of violence on the part of the people.

I do entertain the belief that it is possible for the people to attain the discipline necessary for taking the two steps.

When once they realise that violence is totally unnecessary to bend an unwilling government to their will and that the result can be obtained with certainty by dignified non-co-operation, they will cease to think of violence even by way of retaliation.

The fact is that hitherto we have not attempted to take concerted and disciplined action from the masses.

Some day, if we are to become truly a self-governing nation, that attempt has to be made.

The present, in my opinion, is a propitious movement.

Every Indian feels the insult to the Punjab as a personal wrong, every Mussalman resents the wrong done to the Khilafat.

There is therefore a favourable atmosphere for expecting cohesive and restrained movement on the part of the masses.

So far as response is concerned, I agree with the Editor that the quickest and the largest response is to be expected in the matter of suspension of payment of taxes, but as I have said so long as the masses are not educated to appreciate the value of non-violence even whilst their holding are being sold, so long must it be difficult to take up the last stage into any appreciable extent.

I agree too that a sudden withdrawal of the military and the police will be a disaster if we have not acquired the ability to protect ourselves against robbers and thieves.

But I suggest that when we are ready to call out the military and the police on an extensive scale we would find ourselves in a position to defend ourselves.

If the police and the military resign from patriotic motives, I would certainly expect them to perform the same duty as national volunteers, not has hirelings but as willing protectors of the life and liberty of their countrymen.

The movement of non-co-operation is one of automatic adjustment.

If the Government schools are emptied, I would certainly expect national schools to come into being.

If the lawyers as a whole suspended practice, they would devise arbitration courts and the nation will have expeditions and cheaper method of setting private disputes and awarding punishment to the wrong-doer.

I may add that the Khilafat Committee is fully alive to the difficulty of the task and is taking all the necessary steps to meet the contingencies as they arise.

Regarding the leaving of civil employment, no danger is feared, because no one will leave his employment, unless he is in a position to find support for himself and family either through friends or otherwise.

Disapproval of the proposed withdrawal of students betrays, in my humble opinion, lack of appreciation of the true nature of non-co-operation.

It is true enough that we pay the money wherewith our children are educated.

But, when the agency imparting the education has become corrupt, we may not employ it without partaking of the agents, corruption.

When students leave schools or colleges I hardly imagine that the teachers will fail to perceive the advisability of themselves resigning.

But even if they do not, money can hardly be allowed to count where honour or religion are at the stake.

As to the boycott of the councils, it is not the entry of the Moderates or any other persons that matters so much as the entry of those who believe in non-co-operation.

You may not co-operate at the top and non-co-operate at the bottom.

A councillor cannot remain in the council and ask the _gumasta_ who cleans the council-table to resign.

MR.