I commend to the attention of the readers the thoughtful letter received
from Miss Anne Marie Peterson. Miss Peterson is a lady who has been in
India for some years and has closely followed Indian affairs. She is
about the sever her connection with her mission for the purpose of
giving herself to education that is truly national.
I have not given the letter in full. I have omitted all personal
references. But her argument has been left entirely untouched. The
letter was not meant to be printed. It was written just after my Vellore
speech. But it being intrinsically important, I asked the writer for her
permission, which she gladly gave, for printing it.
I publish it all the more gladly in that it enables me to show that the
movement of non-co-operation is neither anti-Christian nor anti-English
nor anti-European. It is a struggle between religion and irreligion,
powers of light and powers of darkness.
It is my firm opinion that Europe to-day represents not the spirit of
God or Christianity but the spirit of Satan. And Satan's successes are
the greatest when he appears with the name of God on his lips. Europe is
to-day only nominally Christian. In reality it is worshipping Mammon.
'It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a
rich man to enter the kingdom.' Thus really spoke Jesus Christ. His
so-called followers measure their moral progress by their material
possessions. The very national anthem of England is anti-Christian.
Jesus who asked his followers to love their enemies even as themselves,
could not have sung of his enemies, 'confound his enemies frustrate
their knavish tricks.' The last book that Dr. Wallace wrote set forth
his deliberate conviction that the much vaunted advance of science had
added not an inch to the moral stature of Europe. The last war however
has shown, as nothing else has, the Satanic nature of the civilization
that dominates Europe to day. Every canon of public morality has been
broken by the victors in the name of virtue. No lie has been considered
too foul to be uttered. The motive behind every crime is not religious
or spiritual but grossly material. But the Mussalmans and the Hindus who
are struggling against the Government have religion and honour as their
motive. Even the cruel assassination which has just shocked the country
is reported to have a religious motive behind it. It is certainly
necessary to purge religion of its excrescences, but it is equally
necessary to expose the hollowness of moral pretensions on the part of
those who prefer material wealth to moral gain. It is easier to wean an
ignorant fanatic from his error than a confirmed scoundrel from his
scoundrelism.
This however is no indictment against individuals or even nations.
Thousands of individual Europeans are rising above their environment. I
write of the tendency in Europe as reflected in her present leaders.
England through her leaders is insolently crushing Indian religious and
national sentiment under her heels. England under the false plea of
self-determination is trying to exploit the oil fields of Mesopotamia
which she is almost to leave because she has probably no choice. France
through her leaders is lending her name to training Cannibals as
soldiers and is shamelessly betraying her trust as a mandatory power by
trying to kill the spirit of the Syrians. President Wilson has thrown on
the scrap heap his precious fourteen points.
It is this combination of evil forces which India is really fighting
through non-violent non-cooperation. And those like Miss Peterson
whether Christian or European, who feel that this error must be
dethroned can exercise the privilege of doing so by joining the
non-co-operation movement. With the honour of Islam is bound up the
safety of religion itself and with the honour of India is bound up the
honour of every nation known to be weak.