Mr. Chairman and friends.--On behalf of my brother Shaukut Ali and
myself I wish to thank you most sincerely for the warm welcome you have
extended to us. Before I begin to explain the purpose of our mission I
have to give you the information that Pir Mahboob Shah who was being
tried in Sindh for sedition has been sentenced to two years' simple
imprisonment. I do not know exactly what the offence was with which the
Pir was charged. I do not know whether the words attributed to him were
ever spoken by him. But I do know that the Pirsaheb declined to offer
any defence and with perfect resignation he has accepted his penalty.
For me it is a matter of sincere pleasure that the Pirsaheb who
exercises great influence over his followers has understood the spirit
of the struggle upon which we have embarked. It is not by resisting the
authority of Government that we expect to succeed in the great task
before us. But I do expect that we shall succeed if we understand the
spirit of non-co-operation. The Lieutenant-Governor of Burma himself has
told us that the British retain their hold on India not by the force of
arms but by the force of co-operation of the people. Thus he has given
us the remedy for any wrong that the Government may do to the people,
whether knowingly or unknowingly. And so long as we co-operate with the
Government, so long as we support that Government, we become to that
extent sharers in the wrong. I admit that in ordinary circumstances a
wise subject will tolerate the wrongs of a Government, but a wise
subject never tolerates a wrong that a Government imposes on the
declared will of a people. And I venture to submit to this great meeting
that the Government of India and the Imperial Government have done a
double wrong to India, and if we are a nation of self-respecting people
conscious of its dignity, conscious of its right, it is not just and
proper that we should stand the double humiliation that the Government
has heaped upon us. By shaping and by becoming a predominant partner in
the peace terms imposed on the helpless Sultan of Turkey, the Imperial
Government have intentionally flouted the cherished sentiment of the
Mussalman subjects of the Empire. The present Prime Minister gave a
deliberate pledge after consultation with his colleagues when it was
necessary for him to conciliate the Mussalmans of India. I claim to have
studied this Khilafat question in a special manner. I claim to
understand the Mussalman feeling on the Khilafat question and I am here
to declare for the tenth time that on the Khilafat matter the Government
has wounded the Mussalman sentiment as they had never done before. And I
say without fear of contradiction that if the Mussalmans of India had
not exercised great self-restraint and if there was not the gospel of
non-co-operation preached to them and if they had not accepted it, there
would have been bloodshed in India by this time. I am free to confess
that spilling of blood would not have availed their cause. But a man
who is in a state of rage whose heart has become lacerated does not
count the cost of his action. So much for the Khilafat wrong.
I propose to take you for a minute to the Punjab, the northern end of
India. And what have both Governments done for the Punjab? I am free to
confess again that the crowds in Amritsar went mad for a moment. They
were goaded to madness by a wicked administration. But no madness on the
part of a people can justify the shedding of innocent blood, and what
have they paid for it? I venture to submit that no civilised Government
could ever have made the people pay the penalty and retribution that
they have paid. Innocent men were tried through mock-tribunals and
imprisoned for life. Amnesty granted to them after; I count of no
consequence. Innocent, unarmed men, who knew nothing of what was to
happen, were butchered in cold blood without the slightest notice.
Modesty of women in Manianwalla, women who had done no wrong to any
individual, was outraged by insolent officers. I want you to understand
what I mean by outrage of their modesty. Their veils were opened with
his stick by an officer. Men who were declared to be utterly innocent by
the Hunter Committee were made to crawl on their bellies. And all these
wrongs totally undeserved remain unavenged. If it was the duty of the
Government of India to punish those who were guilty of incendiarism and
murder, as I hold it was their duty, it was doubly their duty to punish
officers who insulted and oppressed innocent people. But in the face of
these official wrongs we have the debate in the house of lords
supporting official terrorism, it is this double wrong, the affront to
Islam and the injury to the manhood of the Punjab, that we feel bound to
wipe out by non-co-operation. We have prayed, petitioned, agitated, we
have passed resolutions. Mr. Mahomed Ali supported by his friends is now
waiting on the British public. He has pleaded the cause of Islam in a
most manful manner, but his pleading has fallen on deaf ears and we have
his word for it that whilst France and Italy have shown great sympathy
for the cause of Islam, it is the British Ministers who have shown no
sympathy. This shows which way the British Ministers and the present
holders of office in India mean to deal by the people. There is no
goodwill, there is no desire to placate the people of India. The people
of India must therefore have a remedy to redress the double wrong. The
method of the west is violence. Wherever the people of the west have
felt a wrong either justly or unjustly, they have rebelled and shed
blood. As I have said in my letter to the Viceroy of India, half of
India does not believe in the remedy of violence. The other half is too
weak to offer it. But the whole of India is deeply hurt and stirred by
this wrong, and it is for that reason that I have suggested to the
people of India the remedy of non-co-operation. I consider it perfectly
harmless, absolutely constitutional and yet perfectly efficacious. It is
a remedy in which, if it is properly adopted, victory is certain, and it
is the age-old remedy of self-sacrifice. Are the Mussalmans of India who
feel the great wrong done to Islam ready to make an adequate
self-sacrifice? All the scriptures of the world teach us that there can
be no compromise between justice and injustice. Co-operation on the part
of a justice-loving man with an unjust man is a crime. And if we desire
to compel this great Government to the will of the people, as we must,
we must adopt this great remedy of non-co-operation. And if the
Mussalmans of India offer non-co-operation to Government in order to
secure justice in the Khilafat matter, I believe it is duty of the
Hindus to help them so long as their moans are just. I consider the
eternal friendship between the Hindus and Mussalmans is more important
than the British connection. I would prefer any day anarchy and chaos in
India to an armed peace brought about by the bayonet between the Hindus
and Mussalmans. I have therefore ventured to suggest to my Hindu
brethren that if they wanted to live at peace with Mussalmans, there is
an opportunity which is not going to recur for the next hundred years.
And I venture to assure you that if the Government of India and the
Imperial Government come to know that there is a determination on the
part of the people to redress this double wrong they would not hesitate
to do what is needed. But in the Mussalmans of India will have to take
the lead in the matter. You will have to commence the first stage of
non-co-operation in right earnest. And if you may not help this
Government, you may not receive help from it. Titles which were the
other day titles of honour are to-day in my opinion badges of our
disgrace. We must therefore surrender all titles of honour, all honorary
offices. It will constitute an emphatic demonstration of the disapproval
by the leaders of the people of the acts of the Government. Lawyers must
suspend their practice and must resist the power of the Government which
has chosen to flout public opinion. Nor may we receive instruction from
schools controlled by Government and aided by it. Emptying of the
schools will constitute a demonstration of the will of the middle class
of India. It is far better for the nation even to neglect the literary
instruction of the children than to co-operate with a Government that
has striven to maintain an injustice and untruth on the Khilafat and
Punjab matters. Similarly have I ventured to suggest a complete boycott
of reformed councils. That will be an emphatic declaration of the part
of the representatives of the people that they do not desire to
associate with the Government so long as the two wrongs continue. We
must equally decline to offer ourselves as recruits for the police or
the military. It is impossible for us to go to Mesopotamia or to offer
to police that country or to offer military assistance and to help the
Government in that blood guiltiness. The last plank in the first stage is
Swadeshi. Swadeshi is intended not so much to bring pressure upon the
Government as to demonstrate the capacity for sacrifice on the part of
the men and women of India. When one-fourth of India has its religion at
stake and when the whole of India has its honour at stake, we can be in
no mood to bedeck ourselves with French calico or silks from Japan. We
must resolve to be satisfied with cloth woven by the humble weavers of
India in their own cottages out of yarn spun by their sisters in their
own homes. When a hundred years ago our tastes were not debased and we
were not lured by all the fineries from the foreign countries, we were
satisfied with the cloth produced by the men and women in India, and if
I could but in a moment revolutionize the tastes of India and make it
return to its original simplicity, I assure you that the Gods would
descent to rejoice at the great act of renunciation. That is the first
stage in non-co-operation. I hope it is as easy for you as it is easy
for me to see that if India is capable of taking the first step in
anything like a full measure that step will bring the redress we want. I
therefore do not intend to take you to the other stages of
non-co-operation. I would like you to rivet your attention upon the
plans in the first stage. You will have noticed that but two things are
necessary in going through the first stage: (1) Prefect spirit of
non-violence is indispensable for non-co-operation, (2) only a little
self-sacrifice, I pray to God that He will give the people of India
sufficient courage and wisdom and patience to go through this experiment
of non-co-operation. I think you for the great reception that you have
given us. And I also thank you for the great patience and exemplary
silence with which you have listened to my remarks.
_August_ 1920.