Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

“ It is more honourable to live in a real prison than to breathe the polluted air of a slave-land. We appeal to the students of Government institutions to vacate the colleges in a body and take up the struggle for liberty. Now or never is our last word. This noble struggle will lead us either to victory or to death. Both are glorious. It must be life or death, not this slavery any more. We beseech the policemen to resign their posts at once. Let them realize that death by starvation is preferable to doing this dirty work. ”

“ These remarks can very well be applied to Mahatma Gandhi, the greatest living personality in the world to day and certainly one of the most prominent characters in the world’s history. Few persons have been able, as he has been, to cut down their bodily wants to such an amazing extent. None have succeeded, as he has done, in following truth with such absolute devotion. Rarely do we witness, as we do in him, such an embodiment of love and sacrifice. ”

“ Why should it not be enough to distribute raw cotton among those who need clothing? Why this, hypocritical or false alarm about the dearth of cloth, when it is possible in India to manufacture enough for India’s needs in a month even without the aid of the mills? The people have been purposely or ignorantly kept in the dark hitherto. They have been wrongly taught to believe, that all the cloth needed cannot be manufactured in India’s homes as of yore. They have been figuratively amputated and then made to rely upon foreign or mill-made cloth. ”

“ And now that the Government of Bengal have dragged the women into the line of fire, I hope that the women all over India will take up the challenge and organise themselves. In any case they were bound, when a sufficient number of men had been removed, for the honour of their sex to step into their places. But now let it be side by side with men in sharing the hardship of gaol life. God will protect their honour. When as if to mock man, her natural protectors became helpless to prevent Draupadi from being denuded of her last piece of cloth, the power of her own virtue preserved her honour. ”

“ If crores of people will refuse to wear or use foreign cloth and be satisfied with the simple cloth that we can produce in our homes, it will be proof of our organising ability, energy, co-operation and self-sacrifice that will enable us to secure all we need. It will be a striking demonstration of national solidarity.
Such a consummation cannot be achieved for the mere wish. It cannot be achieved by one man, no matter how capable and sincere he may be. It cannot be achieved by dotting India with Swadeshi stores. It can only be achieved by new production. ”

“ I believe in loving my enemies. I believe in non-violence as the only remedy open to the Hindus, Musalmans, Sikhs, Parsis, Christians and Jews of India. I believe in the power of suffering to melt the stoniest heart. The brunt of the battle must fall on the first three. The last named three are afraid of the combination of the first three. We must by our honest conduct demonstrate to them that they are our kinsmen. We must by our conduct demonstrate to every Englishman that he is safe in the remotest corner of India as he professes to feel behind the machine gun. ”

“ If we do not wake up before long, we shall be wiped out of existence. I invite the sceptics to visit Orissa, penetrate its villages, and find out for themselves where India stands. They will then believe with me that to possess or to wear, an ounce of foreign cloth is a crime against India and humanity. I am able to restrain myself from committing suicide by starvation, only because I have faith in India's awakening, and her ability to put herself on the way to freedom from this desolating pauperism. ”

“ Who does not know that if our Moderate friends rise in a body from the Government and the Councils, even now, the bureaucracy would have to yield in no time? Let us only hope that these good friends of ours will belie their past traditions and rise to the occasion at this grave crisis. But what is our duty at this juncture and under these circumstances? Our first and most sacred duty at this vital juncture is that we Congress men should sink all our differences and present an organized and united front. ”

“ I know that you are a lover of India, that you are deeply interested in the economic, and moral up lift of my country. I know too that you have great influence. I would like to enlist it on behalf of the spinning wheel. It is the most effective force for introducing successful Co-Operative Societies. Without honest co-operation of the millions, the enterprise can never be successful, and as it is already proving a means of weaning thousands of women from a life of shame, it is as moral an instrument as it is economic. ”

“ And if there is any authority in this country, that wants to curb the freedom of speech and freedom of association, I want to be able to say, in your name from this platform, that that authority will perish, and that authority will have to repent before an India that is steeled with high courage, noble purpose and determination, till every man and woman who chose to call themselves Indians are blotted out of the earth. ”

“ Let critics of Mahatma Gandhi then look to History before they condemn him for trying to bring this much belauded Modern Civilisation down to the common starting point of all great civilisations. We are at the dawn of a New Era, and Mahatma Gandhi is the one leader who shows to us the right path. He at least is watering the roots, while all others who try to keep alive the Civilisation of the Western nations are like foolish gardeners who lavish water on the withering leaves of a dying tree and never think of watering its roots. ”

“ This is a struggle for existence and let the Mussalmans give proof of their traditional strength, energy and self-sacrifice. Victory is ours only if our people stand firm. The Khilafat cause has awakened united India and let the Mussalmans champion the great cause and take the lead in gaining Swaraj by peacefully following the country's programme even under the gravest provocation, so that when Khilafat wrongs are redressed and Swaraj attained the good name of Mussalmans should ever shine on the horizon of history as saviour of the freedom of their faith and country. ”

“ Apparently agitated at the idea of reviving the home industries, he exclaims, "The real question for consideration with us or with any people to-day is not whether the handloom will or will not be able to hold its own against the power loom, or whether it cannot feed millions of families or clothe millions more in home-made-dress; but which will contribute to the economic and political power of a nation or country, whether it is the handloom or the power-mill? Handicrafts or machine industries—that is the real issue." ”

“ My heart is full of it because love is a trying thing after all. The knowledge that theirs is not a life which can stand the hardships of jail makes my heart weep. And yet my Atma whispers to me that I should rejoice with my husband and my son over their arrest. I will not disgrace them by sorrowing over the very happenings they had set their hearts upon.
I have seen it in my life that those who sleep on feather beds hardly ever know true happiness. Suffering and penance have a joy and happiness all their own. ”

“ We are challenging the might of this Government because we consider its activity to be wholly evil. We want to overthrow the Government. We want to compel its submission to the people's will. We desire to show that the Government exists to serve the people, not the people the Government. Free life under the Government has become intolerable; for, the price exacted for the retention of freedom is unconscionably great. Whether we are one or many, we must refuse to purchase freedom at the cost of our self-respect or our cherished convictions. ”

“ I would dot India with depots for receiving this yarn and distributing it among weavers. Given sufficient steady and trained workers, I would undertake to drive pauperism out of India during this year. This undoubtedly requires a change in the angle of vision and in the national taste. I regard the Reforms and everything else in the nature of opiates to deaden our conscience. We must refuse to wait for generations to furnish us with a patient solution of a problem which is ever-growing in seriousness. Nature knows no mercy in dealing stern justice. ”

“ I have endeavoured to show what home spinning means for our country. In any curriculum of the future, spinning must be a compulsory subject. Just as we cannot live without breathing and without eating, so is it impossible for us to attain economic independence and banish pauperism from this ancient land without reviving home-spinning. I hold the spinning wheel to be as much a necessity in every household as the hearth. No other scheme that can be devised will ever solve the problem of the deepening poverty of the people. ”

“ I see thousands and thousands of youngmen all around me wherever I go, but their faces are old with wordly wisdom and their hearts are cold and dead. I wish God had given me the strength to rekindle the fire of life in their hearts so that the youngmen of Calcutta may be young again. It is the young who fought the battle of freedom in every age and in every clime. It is the young who are purer in spirit and are ever ready for sacrifice. ”

“ Many of you are prepared to go to jail. But the Indian jails are hells upon earth; vice and corruption reigns there supreme. I, therefore, request you to give up the idea of courting imprisonment; and direct your energies towards the preaching of Swadeshi and yourself wearing pure Swadeshi clothes. There is one other thing which you can do. You can take care of the young children who are left behind by those who go to jail in the country's cause.
My countrymen, I now bid you good-bye. I go to jail in the firm belief that the honour of my beloved country and nation is safe in your keeping. ”

“ Non-co-operation is nothing but discipline in self-sacrifice. And I believe that a nation that is capable of limitless sacrifice is capable of rising to limitless heights. The purer the sacrifice the quicker the process. Swadeshi offers every man, woman and child an occasion to make a beginnings in self-sacrifice of a pure type. It therefore presents an opportunity for testing our capacity for Sacrifice. It is the measure for gauging the depth of national feeling on the Khilafat wrong. Does the nation feel sufficiently to move it to go through even the preliminary process of sacrifice? ”

“ Fear of Jail, fear of assaults and fear of being shot down—these are the 3 fears which every worker must conquer before we can get Swaraj. We have conquered the fear of Jail; we are about to conquer the fear of assault. It depends on the Bureaucracy when we shall succeed in conquering the fear of being shot down.
In the meantime, I charge every one to remember that our success can only depend on non-violence so real, so perfect that all Godfearing men and women must come over to our side. ”

“ And if we are withdrawing from evil conscientiously, deliberately, it means that we are walking with our face towards God. That completes or begins the soul training. But seeing that our bodily education has been neglected, and seeing that India has become enslaved because India forgot the spinning wheels and because India sold herself for a mess of pottage, I am not afraid to place before you, the young men of Bengal, the spinning wheel for adoption. ”

“ There should be no violence in the country. The Government officials are provoking the people in many ways. Courage, patriotism and regard for duty all demand that we should remain non-violent even in the face of the gravest provocation. There is every danger that at the present moment violence might lead to internal dissension, which is bound to ruin us. I, therefore, with the utmost respect and sincerity of purpose, urge on my countrymen to restrain their feelings. ”

“ THE POTENCY OF THE SPINNING WHEEL
No amount of human ingenuity can manage to distribute water over the whole land, as a shower of rain can. No irrigation department, no rules of precedence, no inspection and no water-cess. Everything is done with an ease and a gentleness that by their very perfection evade notice. The spinning-wheel, too, has got the same power of distributing work and wealth in millions of houses in the simplest way imaginable. ”

“ I cannot sufficiently praise the courage, both moral and physical, of the volunteers and other workers of Congress and the Khilafat, who were always in the midst of the most turbulent crowds trying to calm and pacify them, meeting seething passion with a smiling face and turning away wrath with a soft word, helping and succouring the weak and the wounded and always ready to lay down their lives in their noble and self-imposed duties. ”

“ But hand-weaving is not a lost art. Several million men know hand-weaving. But very few know hand-spinning in the true sense of the term. Tens of thousands are, it is true, turning the wheel to-day but only a few are spinning yarn. The cry all over is that hand-spun yarn is not good enough for warp. Just as half-baked bread is no bread, even so ill-spun weak thread is no yarn. Thousands of men must know hand-spinning to be able in their respective districts to improve the quality of the yarn that is now being spun in the country. ”

“ It is not that my heart does not bleed for the attainment of Swaraj and the redress of the Khilafat and Punjab wrongs; perhaps it does more than many other's. But I did not join in this great struggle for Swaraj, the Khilafat, and the Punjab only. The path society has trudged on so long everywhere is not the right one. Man himself will have to bring back man from this path full of sorrow and misery. For this has the Man within me aspired to become a real man and for this have I joined the great struggle. ”

“ Instead of recognising the agitation against foreign cloth as desirable and necessary, they regard it as an evil to be put down. And then it is complained, that I call a system which seeks to thwart healthy public agitation, satanic. Why should there be any dearth of indigenous cloth? Is there not enough cotton in India? Are there not enough men and women who can spin and weave? Is it not possible to manufacture all the required number of wheels in a few days? Why should not each home manufacture its own cloth, even as it cooks its own food? ”

“ Has any nation yet won freedom by pursuing the path which you are pursuing? If the appeal should reach any waverer amongst you I ask him to consider whether he will now stand on the side of India in her conflict or with the bureaucracy? There may be compromise in the matter of datails, but there can be no compromise in the essential question that divides us from the bureaucracy and if you do not stand by India, you assuredly stand for the bureaucracy. ”

“ Those of us who do not know what it is to earn a livelihood by the sweat of one's brow; may consider the three annas a day as a pittance beneath the consideration of any man. They do not know that even in these days of high prices, there are districts in India where even three annas a day would be a boon to the poor. But we must not consider the question of the spinning-wheel merely from the point of individual earnings. The spinning-wheel is a force in national regeneration. ”

“ I express my deep gratitude to my brothers the English gentlemen who constitute the Government of India for making themselves the instruments of Providence to test the capacity of the Indian people for self-sacrifice which is the only foundation of true self-Government the self-sacrifice of suffering for truth and right without retaliation which is specially becoming to the soul of India and will help to re-establish the universal religion of peace on earth and good will among men. ”

“ I have nothing to say against the development of any other industry in India by means of machinery but I do say that to supply India with cloth manufactured either outside or inside through gigantic mills is an economic blunder of the first magnitude just as it would be to supply cheap bread through huge bakeries established in the chief centres in India and to destroy the family stove. ”

“ I know the stuff that is in you, I feel the pulse that beats in you, I dream the dream that sustains and inspires you on your dreary march. Will you then fail the country in this supreme crisis when she has just begun to go your way? The stern discipline of suffering, the salutary schooling of experience, the example and precept of the greatest living Indian have at last set you on the right road to salvation. ”

“ I hope, I have demonstrated the necessity of home-spinning as the only means of dealing with India's poverty. I know, however, that innumerable difficulties face a worker in putting the doctrine into execution. The most, difficult perhaps, is that of getting a proper wheel. Save in the Punjab where the art is still alive, the difficulty is very real. The carpenters have forgotten the construction and the innocent workers are at their wit's end. The chief thing undoubtedly, therefore, is for the worker, to make himself acquainted with the art and the handling of spinning wheels. ”

“ Our bones may lie bleaching in obscure dungeons, built of sand and maintained with our nation's money, but over our unknown graves shall rise the noble edifice of our country's Freedom. We can vanquish the sin of selfishness and the crime of violence by selflessness and the negation of violence. Suffering innocence has God's own might on its side. ”

“ My Swadeshi spirit makes me impatient of garments that denude India of her wealth and equally impatient of the Smiths, the O’Briens, the Shri Rams and the Maliks who denude her of her self-respect and insolently touch women’s veils with their sticks, chain innocent men as if they were beasts, or shoot them from armoured cars or otherwise terrorise people into subjection. ”

“ THE BUREAUCRACY
I said the other day that the Congress must be judged by the claim it makes. As we claim to hold the country we must accept responsibility for any violence anywhere in this country. One must in fairness except those places where the message of the Congress has not been allowed to be heard. We accept no responsibility with regard to the Moplah outrage. I firmly believe that that rebellion would have been impossible, had the Congress and the Khilafat workers been permitted to carry the gospel of nonviolent non-co-operation. ”