Among other things non-co-operation is to achieve is swaraj in one year.
Mr. Gandhi has said so himself. The question is--do the people of Bengal
want this particular form of swaraj? Being a shrewd and intelligent
people they will doubtless wish to satisfy themselves first of all as to
what precisely this swaraj is. Fortunately we are able to answer that
question with authority, because Mr. Gandhi had issued a very clear
explanation of what he means by swaraj in a small manual entitled
'Indian Home Rule', a new edition of which was published by Messrs.
Ganesh & Co., of Madras, last year. I earnestly commend a perusal of it
to all who are interested in the future of the land we live in....
Very well, if this is the sort of thing that people want by all means
let them adopt non-co-operation. But I do not believe for a moment that
this is what people want. And that, no doubt, is why we find so many
other reasons advanced for adopting non-co-operation. It is claimed for
it for example, that it is a saintly weapon in the hands of an oppressed
people engaged in a righteous struggle against a tyrannous and
unrighteous Government. Let us examine its credentials so that we may
see to what extent the claim to righteousness can be sustained. In its
earliest phase, when it was known as _Satyagraha_, its result were
admittedly evil. The Hunter Committee was unanimous in its opinion that
its effect was to engender "a familiarity and sympathy with disobedience
to laws" and "to undermine the law abiding instincts which stand between
society and outbreaks of violence at a time when their full strength was
required." And, indeed, Mr. Gandhi himself confessed himself sorry that
when he embarked upon a mass movement "he under-rated the forces of
evil, and that he was obliged to pause and consider how best to meet the
situation." Then again another object of the non-co-operators is to
re-impose Turkish Administration upon the non-Turkish peoples who have
so long suffered under it. The fact that under Turkish administration
calculated attempts have been made to exterminate the Armenian
people--one of the most horrible chapters in the whole history of
crime--is ignored, a matter for surprise, surely, in view of the innate
abhorrence of violence professed by the originator of the movement.
Indeed, any one making a comprehensive survey of the non-co-operation
movement could scarcely be blamed if he came to the conclusion that the
only password required to give admission to the non-co-operation camp
was "race-hatred." And is Bengal going to tolerate a movement based upon
hatred, and, therefore, rooted in evil? Surely the world has had its
fill of hatred. Cast your eyes over the past six years, and what do you
see? A world in agony. The peoples of this earth trailing their spectral
way across a blood-soaked scene of destruction and desolation--a ghastly
phantasmagoria of human suffering; a hideous calvary. Humanity in
torment, scourged with sorrow, losing its hold upon hope, drifting
derelict in a terrifying ocean of despair. That is what hatred has done
for mankind. And is mankind going to tolerate those who would
deliberately and of malice aforethought perpetuate this grisly tradition
of hatred among men? Let us have the answer of the people of this
country to that question. For myself I have faith in the better mind of
the people of Bengal. Not for nothing did Job Charnock lay the
foundations of this great city. The finger of destiny was even then
tracing the future of Great Britain and India upon the rock of doom. For
better or for worse our paths lie side by side. The policy of Great
Britain has been fairly and frankly stated. We are inviting the people
of India to co-operate with us in making and travelling over that road
which will lead to an India fashioned in so far as its internal affairs
are concerned in ever-increasing accordance with the genius of its
peoples, and filling a position of ever increasing pride and honour in
the great confederation of the British Empire. Can any one who has faith
in the existence of an eternal and immutable principle of justice and
right doubt what the final choice of the people of India will be? Surely
not. And it is with an unshakeable faith in its future that I give you
the toast of "The Land We Live in."