I have been told that non-co-operation is unconstitutional. I venture to
deny that it is unconstitutional. On the contrary, I hold that
non-co-operation is a just and religious doctrine; it is the inherent
right of every human being and it is perfectly constitutional. A great
lover of the British Empire has said that under the British constitution
even a successful rebellion is perfectly constitutional and he quotes
historical instances, which I cannot deny, in support of his claim. I
do not claim any constitutionality for a rebellion successful or
otherwise, so long as that rebellion means in the ordinary sense of the
term, what it does mean namely wresting justice by violent means. On the
contrary, I have said it repeatedly to my countrymen that violence
whatever end it may serve in Europe, will never serve us in India. My
brother and friend Shaukat Ali believes in methods of violence; and if
it was in his power to draw the sword against the British Empire, I know
that he has got the courage of a man and he has got also the wisdom to
see that he should offer that battle to the British Empire. But because
he recognises as a true soldier that means of violence are not open to
India, he sides with me accepting my humble assistance and pledges his
word that so long as I am with him and so long as he believes in the
doctrine, so long will he not harbour even the idea of violence against
any single Englishman or any single man on earth. I am here to tell you
that he has been as true as his word and has kept it religiously. I am
here to bear witness that he has been following out this plan of
non-violent Non-co-operation to the very letter and I am asking India to
follow this non-violent non-co-operation. I tell you that there is not a
better soldier living in our ranks in British India than Shaukat Ali.
When the time for the drawing of the sword comes, if it ever comes, you
will find him drawing that sword and you will find me retiring to the
jungles of Hindustan. As soon as India accepts the doctrine of the
sword, my life as an Indian is finished. It is because I believe in a
mission special to India and it is because I believe that the ancients
of India after centuries of experience have found out that the true
thing for any human being on earth is not justice based on violence but
justice based on sacrifice of self, justice based on Yagna and
Kurbani,--I cling to that doctrine and I shall cling to it for ever,--it
is for that reason I tell you that whilst my friend believes also in the
doctrine of violence and has adopted the doctrine of non-violence as a
weapon of the weak, I believe in the doctrine of non-violence as a
weapon of the strongest. I believe that a man is the strongest soldier
for daring to die unarmed with his breast bare before the enemy. So much
for the non-violent part of non-co-operation. I therefore, venture to
suggest to my learned countrymen that so long as the doctrine of
non-co-operation remains non-violent, so long there is nothing
unconstitutional in that doctrine.
I ask further, is it unconstitutional for me to say to the British
Government 'I refuse to serve you?' Is it unconstitutional for our
worthy Chairman to return with every respect all the titles that he has
ever held from the Government? Is it unconstitutional for any parent to
withdraw his children from a Government or aided school? Is it
unconstitutional for a lawyer to say 'I shall no longer support the arm
of the law so long as that arm of law is used not to raise me but to
debase me'? Is it unconstitutional for a civil servant or for a judge to
say, 'I refuse to serve a Government which does not wish to respect the
wishes of the whole people?' I ask, is it unconstitutional for a
policeman or for a soldier to tender his resignation when he knows that
he is called to serve a Government which traduces his own countrymen? Is
it unconstitutional for me to go to the 'krishan,' to the agriculturist,
and say to him 'it is not wise for you to pay any taxes if these taxes
are used by the Government not to raise you but to weaken you?' I hold
and I venture to submit, that there is nothing unconstitutional in it.
What is more, I have done every one of these things in my life and
nobody has questioned the constitutional character of it. I was in Kaira
working in the midst of 7 lakhs of agriculturists. They had all
suspended the payment of taxes and the whole of India was at one with
me. Nobody considered that it was unconstitutional. I submit that in the
whole plan of non-co-operation, there is nothing unconstitutional. But
I do venture to suggest that it will be highly unconstitutional in the
midst of this unconstitutional Government,--in the midst of a nation
which has built up its magnificent constitution,--for the people of
India to become weak and to crawl on their belly--it will be highly
unconstitutional for the people of India to pocket every insult that is
offered to them; it is highly unconstitutional for the 70 millions of
Mohamedans of India to submit to a violent wrong done to their religion;
it is highly unconstitutional for the whole of India to sit still and
co-operate with an unjust Government which has trodden under its feet
the honour of the Punjab. I say to my countrymen so long as you have a
sense of honour and so long as you wish to remain the descendants and
defenders of the noble traditions that have been handed to you for
generations after generations, it is unconstitutional for you not to
non-co-operate and unconstitutional for you to co-operate with a
Government which has become so unjust as our Government has become. I am
not anti-English; I am not anti-British; I am not anti any Government;
but I am anti-untruth--anti-humbug and anti-injustice. So long as the
Government spells injustice, it may regard me as its enemy, implacable
enemy. I had hoped at the Congress at Amritsar--I am speaking God's
truth before you--when I pleaded on bended knees before some of you for
co-operation with the Government. I had full hope that the British
ministers who are wise, as a rule, would placate the Mussalman sentiment
that they would do full justice in the matter of the Punjab atrocities;
and therefore, I said:--let us return good-will to the hand of
fellowship that has been extended to us, which I then believed was
extended to us through the Royal Proclamation. It was on that account
that I pleaded for co-operation. But to-day that faith having gone and
obliterated by the acts of the British ministers, I am here to plead not
for futile obstruction in the Legislative council but for real
substantial non-co-operation which would paralyse the mightiest
Government on earth. That is what I stand for to-day. Until we have
wrung justice, and until we have wrung our self-respect from unwilling
hands and from unwilling pens there can be no co-operation. Our Shastras
say and I say so with the greatest deference to all the greatest
religious preceptors of India but without fear of contradiction, that
our Shastras teach us that there shall be no co-operation between
injustice and justice, between an unjust man and a justice-loving man,
between truth and untruth. Co-operation is a duty only so long as
Government protects your honour, and non-co-operation is an equal duty
when the Government instead of protecting robs you of your honour. That
is the doctrine of non-co-operation.