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  Please remember that even in England the little children were withdrawn from the schools; and colleges in Cambridge and Oxford were closed.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  Their mothers had withdrawn their children from the schools and colleges and the children had become the volunteers of the nation, I have seen them with these naked eyes of mine.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.