"Writing in the latest issue of Navajivan, his Gujarati newspaper, Mr.
Gandhi makes the interesting announcement that if Swaraj is not
obtained by December, he will either die of a broken heart or retire
from public life, leaving the heedless people of India to their
resources. Were so clear a pronouncement by any other politician, we
could say definitely that when the new year dawns Mr. Gandhi will no
longer be actively engaged in politics!"
Can there be any possible doubt that all these statements were made by
him in order to impress upon his dupes the fact that they were going to
get Swaraj within a year and to deceive his followers to follow him and
finance him. Yet what was the situation! Almost every item in his
programme has been tried and found useless to attain Home Rule. I would
again draw attention to the speech of the President of the Thana
District conference for a review of the situation as it then stood in
the opinion of one of his prominent followers, (App. VI). This is the
opinion of most of his prominent supporters who have been opposing Mr.
Gandhi's programme from the very beginning and accordingly the programme
was practically shelved and at the Congress held at the end of the year
it was resolved to suspend all the activities of the Congress on which
stress was much laid. The programme of the volunteer organisation
throughout the country was to be carried out on a more extensive scale
and the laws of the country were to be defied by disobeying the
notifications issued by Government. The Congress also recommended civil
disobedience as the only civilised and effective substitute for an armed
rebellion and recommended individual disobedience as well as mass civil
disobedience when the mass of the people have been sufficiently trained
in the practice of non-violence. And the activities of the Congress were
to be suspended for that purpose (App. XX). "Offensive civil
disobedience herein recommended is thus defined. _Offensive civil
disobedience means deliberate and wilful breach of State made non-moral
laws--that is, laws the breach of which does not involve moral
turpitude--not for the purpose of securing the repeal of, or relief from
hardships arising from obedience to such laws, but for the purpose of
diminishing the authority of, or overthrowing, the State."_
What took place at the Congress itself was remarkable. The President of
the Moslem League, Moulana Hajrat Mohini, who was also a member of the
National Congress, proposed his resolution for complete independence. He
is reported to have said that although last year they have been promised
Swaraj, the redress of the Khilafat and the Punjab wrongs within a year,
they had so far achieved nothing (App. XVIII for his view). Mr. Gandhi
denied that there was any limitation of one year when the creed was
accepted in Nagpur and Calcutta. The special representative of the
Congress organ, the _Bombay Chronicle_ says: "The feeling in general
appear to be in favour of Moulana Hajrat Mohini's resolution" though it
was not carried on account of the passionate appeal of Mahatma Gandhi
against it. It is instructive to read the resolutions (Appendix XX) that
were then passed. Thus Swaraj was to come on September 1-1921, October
31-1921, December 13-1921. At the Congress in December, 1921, Mr. Gandhi
gave up fixing any date for the attainment of Swaraj.
The resolution passed in September, 1920, was seditious. The resolution
passed in December, 1921, is openly revolutionary, and in fact Gandhi
made no secret of it. He says: "Lord Reading must clearly understand
that the non-co-operators are at war with the Government. They have
declared rebellion against it in as much as it has committed a breach of
faith with the Mussalmans. It has humiliated the Punjab and insists upon
imposing its will upon the people and refuses to repair the breach and
repent for the wrong done in the Punjab" (_Young India_). Mr. Gandhi
also said: "The Government want to goad us into violence or abject
surrender. We must do neither. We must retort by such civil disobedience
as would compel shooting." The volunteer organizations were pledged to
act accordingly. Yet when the Government notified those illegal
associations and punished those who defied them, the rebels indignantly
remonstrate against what they call coercion and interference with the
liberty of person and security of property. They want to be in the
limelight to evoke the admiration of America and Europe for their
patriotism in rebelling against a Satanic Government. But they are
wanting in the redeeming features of these rebels elsewhere--their
contempt of danger and death. That is left here to the ignorant
masses--the dupes of these men who seek to protect themselves from
danger by their doctrine of non-violence.