_Swadeshmitran_ is one of the most influential Tamil dailies of Madras.
It is widely read. Everything appearing in its columns is entitled to
respect. The Editor has suggested some practical difficulty in the way
of non-co-operation. I would therefore like, to the best of my ability,
to deal with them.
I do not know where the information has been derived from that I have
given up the last two stages of non-co-operation. What I have said is
that they are a distant goal. I abide by it. I admit that all the stages
are fraught with some danger, but the last two are fraught with the
greatest--the last most of all. The stages have been fixed with a view
to running the least possible risk. The last two stages will not be
taken up unless the committee has attained sufficient control over the
people to warrant the beliefs that the laying down of arms or suspension
of taxes will, humanly speaking, be free from an outbreak of violence on
the part of the people. I do entertain the belief that it is possible
for the people to attain the discipline necessary for taking the two
steps. When once they realise that violence is totally unnecessary to
bend an unwilling government to their will and that the result can be
obtained with certainty by dignified non-co-operation, they will cease
to think of violence even by way of retaliation. The fact is that
hitherto we have not attempted to take concerted and disciplined action
from the masses. Some day, if we are to become truly a self-governing
nation, that attempt has to be made. The present, in my opinion, is a
propitious movement. Every Indian feels the insult to the Punjab as a
personal wrong, every Mussalman resents the wrong done to the Khilafat.
There is therefore a favourable atmosphere for expecting cohesive and
restrained movement on the part of the masses.
So far as response is concerned, I agree with the Editor that the
quickest and the largest response is to be expected in the matter of
suspension of payment of taxes, but as I have said so long as the masses
are not educated to appreciate the value of non-violence even whilst
their holding are being sold, so long must it be difficult to take up
the last stage into any appreciable extent.
I agree too that a sudden withdrawal of the military and the police will
be a disaster if we have not acquired the ability to protect ourselves
against robbers and thieves. But I suggest that when we are ready to
call out the military and the police on an extensive scale we would find
ourselves in a position to defend ourselves. If the police and the
military resign from patriotic motives, I would certainly expect them to
perform the same duty as national volunteers, not has hirelings but as
willing protectors of the life and liberty of their countrymen. The
movement of non-co-operation is one of automatic adjustment. If the
Government schools are emptied, I would certainly expect national
schools to come into being. If the lawyers as a whole suspended
practice, they would devise arbitration courts and the nation will have
expeditions and cheaper method of setting private disputes and awarding
punishment to the wrong-doer. I may add that the Khilafat Committee is
fully alive to the difficulty of the task and is taking all the
necessary steps to meet the contingencies as they arise.
Regarding the leaving of civil employment, no danger is feared, because
no one will leave his employment, unless he is in a position to find
support for himself and family either through friends or otherwise.
Disapproval of the proposed withdrawal of students betrays, in my
humble opinion, lack of appreciation of the true nature of
non-co-operation. It is true enough that we pay the money wherewith our
children are educated. But, when the agency imparting the education has
become corrupt, we may not employ it without partaking of the agents,
corruption. When students leave schools or colleges I hardly imagine
that the teachers will fail to perceive the advisability of themselves
resigning. But even if they do not, money can hardly be allowed to count
where honour or religion are at the stake.
As to the boycott of the councils, it is not the entry of the Moderates
or any other persons that matters so much as the entry of those who
believe in non-co-operation. You may not co-operate at the top and
non-co-operate at the bottom. A councillor cannot remain in the council
and ask the _gumasta_ who cleans the council-table to resign.