Freedom's Battle eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 277 pages of information about Freedom's Battle.

Freedom's Battle eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 277 pages of information about Freedom's Battle.
it religiously.  I am here to bear witness that he has been following out this plan of non-violent Non-co-operation to the very letter and I am asking India to follow this non-violent non-co-operation.  I tell you that there is not a better soldier living in our ranks in British India than Shaukat Ali.  When the time for the drawing of the sword comes, if it ever comes, you will find him drawing that sword and you will find me retiring to the jungles of Hindustan.  As soon as India accepts the doctrine of the sword, my life as an Indian is finished.  It is because I believe in a mission special to India and it is because I believe that the ancients of India after centuries of experience have found out that the true thing for any human being on earth is not justice based on violence but justice based on sacrifice of self, justice based on Yagna and Kurbani,—­I cling to that doctrine and I shall cling to it for ever,—­it is for that reason I tell you that whilst my friend believes also in the doctrine of violence and has adopted the doctrine of non-violence as a weapon of the weak, I believe in the doctrine of non-violence as a weapon of the strongest.  I believe that a man is the strongest soldier for daring to die unarmed with his breast bare before the enemy.  So much for the non-violent part of non-co-operation.  I therefore, venture to suggest to my learned countrymen that so long as the doctrine of non-co-operation remains non-violent, so long there is nothing unconstitutional in that doctrine.

I ask further, is it unconstitutional for me to say to the British Government ‘I refuse to serve you?’ Is it unconstitutional for our worthy Chairman to return with every respect all the titles that he has ever held from the Government?  Is it unconstitutional for any parent to withdraw his children from a Government or aided school?  Is it unconstitutional for a lawyer to say ’I shall no longer support the arm of the law so long as that arm of law is used not to raise me but to debase me’?  Is it unconstitutional for a civil servant or for a judge to say, ’I refuse to serve a Government which does not wish to respect the wishes of the whole people?’ I ask, is it unconstitutional for a policeman or for a soldier to tender his resignation when he knows that he is called to serve a Government which traduces his own countrymen?  Is it unconstitutional for me to go to the ‘krishan,’ to the agriculturist, and say to him ’it is not wise for you to pay any taxes if these taxes are used by the Government not to raise you but to weaken you?’ I hold and I venture to submit, that there is nothing unconstitutional in it.  What is more, I have done every one of these things in my life and nobody has questioned the constitutional character of it.  I was in Kaira working in the midst of 7 lakhs of agriculturists.  They had all suspended the payment of taxes and the whole of India was at one with me.  Nobody considered that it was unconstitutional.  I submit that in

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Freedom's Battle from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.