As you know for the last fifteen days I have striven hard to find a solution to the Rajkot tangle. But I am sorry to have to confess to you that in this I have failed. I am most grieved over our failure to arrive at a settlement with the Bhayats and the Mussalmans. But I have the conviction, and I want you to share that conviction with me, that our labour has not been wasted. Providence has its appointed hour for everything. We cannot command results ; we can only strive. And so far as I am concerned it is enough satisfaction for me to know that I have striven my utmost to dicharge the duty that rested on me.
In making my 'sporting offer' to Mr. Gibson yesterday, I know I was making a big surrender ; I could have demanded that the Thakore Saheb be made to implement his promise in full, and if I had insisted on it, the Paramount Power would have probably been forced to intervene. But I felt that such a course, though legitimate, would under the circumstances not be the best course for any of the parties concerned. And so I chose instead the alternative of putting your head into the lap of the 'enemy'.
Let me explain to you the working of my mind in making that offer. I hold it to be an axiomatic truth that true ahimsa never fails to impress itself on the opponent. If it does, to that extent it is imperfect. All the time that I have been engaged in the Rajkot question, this question has been forcing itself upon me : 'Why has our ahimsa failed to gain recognition from the State authorities ?' In South Africa whatever the Indians had won as a result of satyagraha did not leave any ill-feeling behind it. For eight long years General Smuts fought uncompromisingly against the claims of the Indian community. But in the end he recognized the justice of the claims and became my lifelong friend. He helped me a great deal even in London during the Round Table conference and had he his way he would have helped me to get everything. When the final settlement was arrived at in South Africa he had said ; "I on my part had inflicted severe hardships on Gandhi's men but they had borne them silently. How long could I inflict severities on such people ?"
Do not believe that it is more difficult to win over Virawala than it was to win over General Smuts. Time and again the question arises in my mind : 'Why should what was possible in South Africa be not possible here ? Why can't Virawala say the same thing which General Smuts had said ?' What was possible in South Africa should be possible in Rajkot too. There we were a handful of Indians pitted against the entire Boer population. Here numbers are on your side . There our fight was against a Government and the governments are always fettered by rigidity. But here you have only to gain entrance into the heart of one man. Surely there must be something seriously wrong about us and our ahimsa if we cannot do even that . I want you to put your supreme effort into this. To say that there can be no peace in Rajkot so long as Durbar Virawala is there, is to speak not the language of ahimsa but of himsa. The attribute of ahimsa is to run straight into the mouth himsa. If the cows had wisdom they would in full understanding run straight into the mouth of a lion and if they did so it is possible that the lion would lose the taste for cow's flesh.
I have been holding a silent court of enquiry within myself. How is it that I came to Rajkot on a mission of peace but have ended by antagonizing Durbar Virawala and the State authorities ? I had banked upon the ancestral family relationship existing between me and the Thakore Saheb, but instead I had to seek the intervention of the Paramount Power. 'What a lapse from grace is this ?' I said to myself. I feel crestfallen and humbled . Should I absolve the Paramount Power altogether from its promise ? Or should I confess my folly from the house-tops ? I have been thinking furiously on these lines. But my self-confidence seems to have deserted me for the moment. However, I leave the thoughts with you for what they are worth to ponder and think over. Capacity to convert the heart of Durbar Virawala is the acid test of your ahimsa as it is of mine.
The discovery I have made after introspection is this.No matter what concessions you succeed in getting from the State authorities, it is only to the extent they are the result of a true heart-conversion on their part that you will be able to enjoy or digest them. But if you wish to launch a successful satyagraha to win your rights, your speech must improve. If you do so, your actions and general behaviour will take a different form. Ahimsa is not the weapon of the coward. It is the highest manly effort. It is the dharma of the brave. If you wish to be a satyagrahi you should get rid of ignorance, indolence and the like. You must cultivate constant vigilance. There should not be any trace of inertia in you. Only then can ahimsa function. When you have imbibed true ahimsa, your speech. action and general behaviour will reflect love and willy-nilly your enemies will have to recognize it.
Let me explain my meaning further by an illustration. Yesterday I was engaged for five hours in a talk with Durbar Virawala. He was the same as before. But I had gone there with the dawn of a fresh spirit, as a result of my heart-searching, upon me. My reaction to him this time was different. 'We are after all what nature has made us, and it is no use quarrelling with nature', I said to myself, and I tried to get as much as I could to get under his skin, to view questions from his own angle. I did not mince matters and even told him some home truths. Gently, in my own language, I gave him a glimpse of his crookedness. But there was no irritation on my part or resentment on his. It was a different atmosphere. He said : " It is my bad luck that I cannot convince you of my inability to give you more than this". I replied ; " I agree that I am prejudiced against you . I am afraid of you. But I am prepared to be locked up with you in a room till we arrive at unanimity Please remove my fears." Khan Saheb Fateh Mohammad Khan was also present on the occasion. He also joined the discussion and pressed Durbar Virawala somehow or other " to find a solution for the agitation. People are tired of it."
I have not the time to share with you all the pleasant recollections of this interview. But there was one thing in this interview that galled me and to which I draw your attention. He had an unmixed contempt for the Parishad people. I had noticed that before too but I had laughed it away. But now it hurt me. Why should your satyagraha excite his contempt of all things ? I can understand ahimsa inspiring a kind of fear,the sort of fear that a mother feels when her child gets offended and goes to sleep hungry. But genuine satyagraha should never excite contempt in the opponent even when it fails to command regard or respect. This is not super-refinement on my part. Satyagraha is nothing if not a ceaseless quest after perfection. A satyagrahi therefore turns the searchlight inward relentlessly to weed-out the defects that may be lying hidden there still. Thereby he increases his capacity to serve the cause he has espoused a thousand fold.
Tell me if this definition of ahimsa is beyond you and you are free to choose your own path. I will render all possible help from outside.
I have asked you always to rely upon your own inner strength instead of banking upon outside help . But I now want you to go a step further and wish to see a different kind of strength in you. you must now cease to look for guidance from without. Satyagraha should become to you an independent inspiration. It should be intolerable for you and me both that you should depend in every little thing on my advice. I am therefore going away, throwing the whole burden on you. You must make a firm resolve that you will now arrive at a settlement according to your inner light and conviction and that, too, with Durbar Virawala, not without him. Now you will have to make your choice between ahimsa and himsa. You may drop ahimsa if you find that it does not suit you or is likely to make cowards of you. I only wish that you should never become cowards. It is possible that some day you will come to learn pure ahimsa from disciplined himsa. But it is a dangerous condition if you, like Trishanku, keep on hanging in mid air between himsa and ahimsa. The country is also faced with this same problem as you are. You should solve it for yourself immediately. If you cling to ahimsa, that ahimsa should not be the one bequeathed by me but should orginate from independent inspiration. But if you decide to follow the path of ahimsa, then you should know that it will be an empty name unless it aims at the conversion of the heart of the opponent.
Let me offer you a few concrete suggestion sin this connection. If you accept the approach that I have indicated, I would like all the seven of you, whom the Sardar has nominated, to go to Durbar Virawala and tell him that you have decided to relieve me of all responsibility in connection with Rajkot, that you would also like to relieve the Paramount Power too of its responsibility in this behalf and rely instead entirely on your capacity to induce him to implement the Notification of December 26. Ask him to tell you as to what you should do to win his heart. Hold yourself in readiness to drain to the last the bitter cup of personal indignities and humiliations. It was only when I had learnt to reduce myself to a zero that I was able to evolve the power of satyagraha in south Africa.
Ahimsa must express itself through acts of selfless service of the masses. I cannot think of a better symbol of it or medium for its expression than the spinning-wheel.
Ahimsa is a science. The word 'failure' has no place in the vocabulary of science. Failure to obtain the expected result is often the precursor to further discoveries. It is in that spirit that you should approach and pursue your present mission.
