Mahatma Gandhi made the following speech at Trichinopoly on the 18th
August 1920:--
I think you on behalf of my brother Shaukat Ali and myself for the
magnificent reception that the citizens of Trichinopoly have given to
us. I thank you also for the many addresses that you have been good
enough to present to us, but I must come to business.
It is a great pleasure to me to renew your acquaintance for reasons that
I need not give you. I expect great things from Trichinopoly, Madura and
a few places I could name. I take it that you have read my address on
the Madras Beach on non-co-operation. Without taking up your time in
this great assembly, I wish to deal with one or two matters that arise
out of Mr. S. Kasturiranga Iyongar's speech. He says in effect that I
should have waited for the Congress mandate on Non-co-operation. That
was impossible, because the Mussulmans had and still have a duty,
irrespective of the Hindus, to perform in reference to their own
religion. It was impossible for them to wait for any mandate save the
mandate of their own religion in a matter that vitally concerned the
honour of Islam. It is therefore possible for them only to go to the
Congress on bended knees with a clear cut programme of their own and ask
the Congress to pronounce its blessings upon that programme and if they
are not so fortunate as to secure the blessings of the National Assembly
without meaning any disrespect to that assembly, it is their bounden
duty to go on with their programme, and so it is the duty of every Hindu
who considers his Mussalman brother as a brother who has a just cause
which he wishes to vindicate, to throw in his lot with his Mussalman
brother. Our leader does not quarrel with the principle of
non-co-operation by itself, but he objects to the three principal
details of non-co-operation.