In considering the matter in the meanwhile, I would point out to the
public at large something which, judging by the criticism to which we
are subjected, had been overlooked, namely, that from the very beginning
of the Non-co-operation movement right up to the present time, the
Government have been on the defensive. It is the Non-co-operators who
have always attacked and by so doing have compelled the Government to
take up weapons for its defence.
For example I have heard it suggested that the Government have goaded
the Non-co-operators into Civil Disobedience by the measures which they
have recently taken. Nothing could be further from the truth. The policy
of civil disobedience was accepted by the All-India Congress Committee
at the beginning of November and it was not until towards the end of
that month that action against the volunteers was taken. Mr. Gandhi
himself, in moving the civil disobedience resolution on November 4th
defined civil disobedience as a civil revolution, which, wherever
practised would mean the end of the Government's authority and open
defiance of the Government and its laws.
Well, that seems to be explicit enough and it seems a little
unreasonable, surely, that those who profess to be opposed to such a
revolution, should seriously urge the Government to lay aside the
weapons, which it has only taken up to protect itself against, to use
Mr. Gandhi's words once more "the destruction of its authority and the
open defiance of its laws". Do those who object to these
volunteer-corps being declared to be unlawful associations realise what
these corps have been brought into existence for? They have no excuse
for not knowing, because Mr. Gandhi has himself explained quite frankly
the object, for which they are being recruited. He declared at the
conference held in Bombay on January 14th that, even if a round table
conference was to be held he would not stop the enlistment of volunteers
for a single moment. Why, because the enlistment was a preparation for
civil disobedience.