The fast undertaken in the name of the God was broken in the presence of Gurudev,and Parachure Shastri,the leper prisoner and a learned pandit, seated opposite each other, and in the company of loving and loved ones who had gathered round me. The breaking was preceded by the Poet singing one of his Bengali hymns, then mantras from the Upanishads by Parachure Shastri, and then my favourite hymn "Vaishnava Jana".
The hand of God has been visible in the glorious manifestation throughout the length and breadth of India during the past seven days. The cables received from many parts of the world blessing the fast have sustained me through the agony of body and soul that I passed through during the seven days, but the cause was worth going through that agony.
The sacrificial fire, once lit, shall not be put out as long as there is the slightest trace of untouchability still left in Hinduism. If it is God's will that it does not end with my life, I have the confidence that there are several thousands of earnest reformers who will lay down their lives in order to purify Hinduism of this awful curse.
The settlement arrived at is, so far as I can see, a generous gesture on all sides. It is a meeting of hearts, and my Hindu gratitude is due to Dr. Ambedkar, Rao Bahadur Srinivasan and their party on the one hand and Rao Bahadur M.C. Raja on the other. They could have taken up an uncompromising and defiant attitude by way of punishment to the so-called caste Hindus for the sins of generations. If they had done so, I at least could not have resented their attitude and my death would have but a triffling price exacted for the tortures that the outcastes of Hinduism have been going through for unknown generations. But they chose a nobler path and have thus shown that they have followed the precept of forgiveness enjoined by all religions. Let me hope that the caste Hindus will prove themselves worthy of this forgiveness and carry out to the letter and spirit every clause of the settlement with all its implications.
The settlement is but the beginning of the end.The political part of it, very important though it no doubt is, occupies but a small space in the vast field of reform that has to be tackled by caste Hindus during the coming days, namely, the complete removal of social and religious disabilities under which a large part of the Hindu population has been groaning. I should be guilty of a breach of trust if I did not warn fellow reformers and caste Hindus in general that the breaking of the fast carried with it a sure promise of a resuption of it if this reform is not relentlessly pursued and achieved within a measurable period. I had thought of laying down a period, but I feel that I may not do so without a definite call from within.
The message of freedom shall penetrate every untouchable home and that can only happen if reformers will cover every village. Yet, in the wave of enthusiasm and in an inordinate desire to spare me a repetition of the agony, there should be no coercion. We must, by patient toil and self-suffering, convert the ignorant and the superstitious but never seek to compel them by force.
I wish, too, that the almost ideal solution that has been arrived at may be followed by the other communities, and that we might see the dawn of a new era of mutual trust, mutual give and take, and a recognition of the fundamental unity of all communities. I would here single out the Hindu-Muslim-Sikh question. I am the same to the Mussalman today that I was in 1920-22. I should be just as prepared to lay down my life as I was in Delhi to achieve organic unity and permanent peace between them. I hope and pray that there will be, as a result of this upheaval, a spontaneous move in this direction and then, surely, the other communities can no longer stand out. In conclusion, I would like to thank the Government and the Jail staff and the medical men appointed by the Government to look after me. Extreme care and attention was bestowed upon me. Nothing was left undone. The jail staff worked under terrible pressures, and I observed that they did not grudge this labour. I thank them all from high to low.
I thank the British Cabinet for hastening the decision on settlement. The terms of the decision sent to me I have not approached without misgivings. It accepts, I suppose very naturally, only that part of the Agreement that refers to the British Cabinet's communal decision. I expect that they had a constitutional difficulty in now announcing their acceptance of the whole Agreement. But I would like to assure my Harijan friends, as I would like hencefoth to name them, that so far as I am concerned, I am wedded to the whole of that Agreement, and that they may hold my life as hostage for its due fulfilment, unless we ourselves arrive at any other and better settlement of our own free will.
