[Speaking at a monster meeting of students held in Mirzapur Park,
Calcutta, Mahatma Gandhi appealed to them to withdraw from educational
institutions. In the course of that speech he spoke on the duty of
spinning, which portion is printed here.]
Our education has been the most deficient in two things. Those who
framed our education code neglected the training of the body and the
soul. You are receiving the education of the soul but the very fact of
non-co-operation for non-co-operation is nothing less and nothing more
than withdrawing from participation in the evil that this Government is
doing and continuing to do. 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 wheel, 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. And let a training in spinning and production of as much yarn
as you can ever do constitute your main purpose and your main training
during this year of probation. Let your ordinary education commence
after Swaraj is established, but let every young man, and every girl, of
Bengal consider it to be their sacred duty to devote all their time and
energy to spinning. I have drawn attention to the parallel, that
presents itself before us, from the war.
_Y. I.--2nd Feb. 1921._