You may consider that I have spoken these words in anger because I have
considered the ways of this Government immoral, unjust, debasing and
untruthful. I use these adjectives with the greatest deliberation. I
have used them for my own true brother with whom I was engaged in battle
of non-co-operation for full 13 years and although the ashes cover the
remains of my brother I tell you that I used to tell him that he was
unjust when his plans were based upon immoral foundation. I used to tell
him that he did not stand for truth. There was no anger in me, I told
him this home truth because I loved him. In the same manner, I tell the
British people that I love them, and that I want their association but I
want that association on conditions well defined. I want my self-respect
and I want my absolute equality with them. If I cannot gain that
equality from the British people, I do not want that British connection.
If I have to let the British people go and import temporary disorder and
dislocation of national business, I will favour that disorder and
dislocation than that I should have injustice from the hands of a great
nation such as the British nation. You will find that by the time the
whole chapter is closed that the successors of Mr. Montagu will give me
the credit for having rendered the most distinguished service that I
have yet rendered to the Empire, in having offered this non-co-operation
and in having suggest the boycott, not of His Royal Highness the
principle of Wales, but of boycott of a visit engineered by Government
in order to tighten its hold on the national neck. I will not allow it
even if I stand alone, if I cannot persuade this nation not to welcome
that visit but will boycott that visit with all the power at my command.
It is for that reason I stand before you and implore you to offer this
religious battle, but it is not a battle offered to you by a visionary
or a saint. I deny being a visionary. I do not accept the claim of
saintliness. I am of the earth, earthy, a common gardener man as much as
any one of you, probably much more than you are. I am prone to as many
weaknesses as you are. But I have seen the world. I have lived in the
world with my eyes open. I have gone through the most fiery ordeals that
have fallen to the lot of man. I have gone through this discipline. I
have understood the secret of my own sacred Hinduism. I have learnt the
lesson that non-co-operation is the duty not merely of the saint but it
is the duty of every ordinary citizen, who not know much, not caring to
know much but wants to perform his ordinary household functions. The
people of Europe touch even their masses, the poor people the doctrine
of the sword. But the Rishis of India, those who have held the tradition
of India have preached to the masses of India this doctrine, not of the
sword, not of violence but of suffering, of self-suffering. And unless
you and I am prepared to go through this primary lesson we are not
ready even to offer the sword and that is the lesson my brother Shaukal
Ali has imbibed to teach and that is why he to-day accepts my advice
tendered to him in all prayerfulness and in all humility and says 'long
live non-co-operation.' Please remember that even in England the little
children were withdrawn from the schools; and colleges in Cambridge and
Oxford were closed. Lawyers had left their desks and were fighting in
the trenches. I do not present to you the trenches but I do ask you to
go through the sacrifice that the men, women and the brave lads of
England went through. Remember that you are offering battle to a nation
which is saturated with their spirit of sacrifice whenever the occasion
arises. Remember that the little band of Boers offered stubborn
resistance to a mighty nation. But their lawyers had left their desks.
Their mothers had withdrawn their children from the schools and colleges
and the children had become the volunteers of the nation, I have seen
them with these naked eyes of mine. I am asking my countrymen in India
to follow no other gospel than the gospel of self-sacrifice which
precedes every battle. Whether you belong to the school of violence or
non-violence you will still have to go through the fire of sacrifice,
and of discipline. May God grant you, may God grant our leaders the
wisdom, the courage and the true knowledge to lead the nation to its
cherished goal. May God grant the people of India the right path, the
true vision and the ability and the courage to follow this path,
difficult and yet easy, of sacrifice.