Gujarat has immortalized its name and at the same time added to India's glory. The whole world has come to know Bardoli and Borsad. Europe celebrated one Thermopylae, but Tod has recorded that a Thermopylae was staged in every street in Rajputana. Those Thermopylaes were sanguinary. It is no exaggeration to say that in Gujarat, nay in India, non-violent Thermopylaes have been enacted almost everywhere. Only men took part in those other Thermopylaes. In these non-violent Thermopylaes women have played an important role.
But that is not enough.
We have to do more yet and what is more difficult. What is required for this is quiet strength, not fiery force. What a man can do when excited, he cannot do when he quietens down. We like excitement, not industry and constructive work.Now industry and constructive work are implicit in action. However, if we wish to develop our capacity for swaraj, we must build up both our desructive and constructive capacities. We must clear our field of weeds; but he who lets his field lie fallow after weeding it wastes his effort and unwanted grass grows in it again. However, he who sows his field after weeding it is a wise farmer and becomes prosperous. In exactly the same way, if we do not sow seeds in the form of constructive activity, the weeding in the form of the past twelve months' non-violent movement will go waste.
Some people hold that this settlement is no settlement but that we have committed a serious mistake and have lost everythings. I hope that no Gujarati will entertain such a doubt. But I do know that just as there are doubting Thomases elsewhere, Gujarat too has its share of them. It is Navajivan's duty to allay their fears.
Here is a doubt :
Has any great change occurred in the circumstances to warrant my attending the Round Table Conference without those guarantees which we had demanded in December 1929 and again from Yeravda Jail?
Let us consider this question. We did not know in 1929 or while I was in Yeravda what stand the British parties and our people would take at the Round Table Conference. Today we have to decide the matter after knowing that the Conference has made some headway. That makes a lot of difference. On those two occasions, we knew nothing of the set-up of the Round Table Conference. Today we know it somewhat. Today we know that the leaders of India have asked for a fully responsible government. The British parties have accepted the demand. It is true that all those who attended the Round Table Conference have agreed to retain the Empire link. We of course are asking for the right to snap that link at our discretion. We have complete freedom to demand this right at the Round Table Conference. We shall be guilty if we do not attend the Conference, despite getting the right to demand complete independence.
Moreover, on those two occasions, we did not have a complete measure of our strength. Today we have some idea of it. If a weak person undertakes negotiations, he is a beggar. A strong man is always ready for parleys. If a strong party declines to negotiate, it is regarded as arrogant and blameworthy.
Therefore, by effecting a settlement, the Congress has shown its wisdom and has enhanced its prestige.
There are other criticisms too.The answers to them are covered by my statement after the settlement and by my interview to Press reporters thereafter. And since they will certainly appear in Navajivan, I do not refer to them here.
Readers whose doubts have been laid at rest can easily understand that if we observe in full the conditions of the settlement which we have to honour, the prestige of the Congress will rise high. And if we do not observe them or observe them half-heartedly, we shall forfeit the prestige already gained.
In addition to observing these conditions,we must do three things : boycott of foreign cloth, prohibition of intoxicants and khadi production and propaganda. I have already explained these matters thoroughly. Hence I content myself only with mentioning them here. These topics will be discussed occasionally in Navajivan. At the present moment through its first issue to be legally published again, I should like merely to request Gujaratis to make their full contribution to this programme.
