The President has put me in a quandary by raising me skyhigh, as if, one may think, I were a dweller in the clouds. That is not at all true. I have not yet used an aeroplaneΓÇöof course, I have seen them flying in the skies, like birds but I have not touched one. So the question of flying does not arise. It is misuse of language to call such a man a dweller in the skies. I am of the earth, earthy. I am an ordinary mortal composed of common clay.
The question of ahimsa would not have come up before you, had it not come up before the Working Committee at Bardoli. We discussed it for seven days. And it was well that it came up. The result has been good, not bad. But before I say anything on this question, let me make one or two things clear.
Please note that I am, as I have said, an ordinary mortal like you. Had this not been the case, we should not have been able to work together these twenty years. Ahimsa with me is a creed, the breath of life. But it is never as a creed that I placed it before India or, for that matter, before anyone except in casual or informal talks. I placed it before the Congress as a political weapon, to be employed for the solution of political problems. It is a new experiment in ahimsa which I have undertaken. As far as I am aware, no one has hitherto employed ahimsa in the political arena in this manner. If someone has, at least I am not aware of it. Maybe it is a novel method, but it does not on that account lose its political character. I tried this for the first time in South Africa, with good results. I have brought it from there. The question there was exclusively of the political existence of Indians who had no political consciousness but had settled in South Africa as merchants, petty hawkers, etc. And there I used ahimsa as a political weapon. It was for them a question of life and death. The whites wanted them to quit. They had only two alternatives. They could either quit or stay there with the status of animals. We tried everything that was humanly possible. We found that all the so-called constitutional remedies, with which the Congress work in India had made me familiar, had failed. I was an expert in petition-writing which had yielded me lots of money. I have been for long a draftsman for the Congress here, which work I used to do there also. They submitted many petitions, but when all other methods failed they resorted to satyagraha. The various measures that I adopted there were not the work of a visionary or a dreamer. They were the work of an essentially practical man dealing with practical political questions. As a political method, it can always be changed, modified, altered, even given up in preference to another. If, therefore, I say to you that our policy should not be given up today, I am talking political wisdom. It is political insight. It has served us in the past, it has enabled us to traverse many stages towards independence, and it is a politician that I tell you that it would be a grave mistake to think of giving it up. If I have carried the Congress with me all these years, it is in my capacity as a politician. It is hardly fair to describe my method as religious because it is new.
Maulana Saheb has affectionately used high words of praise for me, but I cannot accept them. A thing can yet be discarded after showering all praise on it. A person can be raised skyhigh and then cast down to the dust. I have been taunted as a Bania. It is all right. How can I help it ? I was born a Bania. I shall stay a Bania and shall die as a Bania. Trade is my profession. I am trading with you and with the world. The article in my possession is an invaluable pearl. It has to be weighed in the proper scalesΓÇöas Maulana Saheb rightly said, pearls, grass and men need different scales. I am a trader in ahimsa. Those who can pay the price for it may have it. In my view, it cannot be bartered away even for independence. But you do not value this thing as I do; because you do not have the scales with which to weigh it.
Please do not think that I am speaking to you from a high pedestal. The simple question is why are we prepared today to discard a thing which we have cherished for so many years. No doubt, you have not discarded it yet, but you will if your terms are accepted. This much I am able to see. I do not raise the question of what we shall do after swaraj. I am myself not aware what I will do after swaraj. But today you are eager to barter away ahimsa for swaraj. You had taken a pledge that you would win swaraj only through ahimsa, and through no other means. Today you are ready to depart from it. I want to tell you that this bargain will not bring you complete independence. Independence for me means the independence of the humblest and poorest among us. Today we are at the threshold of independence on the strength of ahimsa. For the Congress to abandon ahimsa and to join war is to undo the work of the past twenty years. It is my discomfiture that I could not make you see this.
This is not the time for counting votes.
In spite of holding this view, I stand before you today to plead with you to accept this resolution, and not even to divide the house. If I can convince you of this, you should accept my advice, otherwise leave it. This is not the time when we may canvass support for our groups and seek a vote. If we merely talk tall about independence but do nothing to attain it, how can we aspire for it? I had once said that everyone would become his own leader after my arrest. Today also you can become your own leaders and think for yourselves. But I want you to remember one thing. I am a man who won't exchange ahimsa even for independence; and yet I am giving you this advice as an exponent of ahimsa.
Along with this, I wish to reiterate that I do not wish to withdraw a single word from what I had written about the Poona Resolution and I have no regrets for what I said. However, the Bardoli Resolution, though it looks like the Poona Resolution, is a different thing. The Poona Resolution attempted to interpret ahimsa. The Bardoli Resolution does not do so. The Poona Resolution was the outcome of my mistake for which I have already atoned. But the Bardoli Resolution is the outcome of deliberations over many days. At one time after the Bardoli Resolution, I had thought of dividing the A. I. C. C. and testing how many members supported my view. But as the situation developed stage by stage, as I saw the climate in the country and the criticism of our Congress in the world, I came to the conclusion on the basis of my ahimsa that if I could persuade the A. I. C. C. I should advise them to accept this resolution deliberately and wholeheartedly. My advice to those who agree with me, that is, to those who have faith in total ahimsa, is to remain neutral and not vote for or against the resolution. But if their abstention helps the opponents of this resolution to defeat it, they should vote in support of this resolution and not allow it to be defeated.
I have no doubt that the Working Committee has taken a retrograde step in passing this resolution. Rajaji may not agree, because he thinks I am in the wrong. Jawaharlal also may say that there is no retrograde step in this resolution. But in my opinion this stepback is a prelude to a step forward. A withdrawal sometimes becomes necessary. We have a right to take a step back for jumping forward. Therefore a man who has parted company with you, who claims to be a satyagrahi and in whose life there is no room for tactical manipulations comes to you and advises you to accept this resolution, however imperfect, because it correctly reflects the Congress mind. Even if the protagonists of ahimsa have a majority in this house, they should help the adoption of this resolution. The Congress does not know its own mind but I know that the attitude of the Congress is reflected in this resolution.
The Congress has a great reputation. This resolution has enhanced it. The whole world is watching us, the eyes of our countrymen are fixed on us. Several people contemplated the prospect with trepidation, lest the Congress should flounder in response to Gandhi's formula and become a religious organization instead of a political one. Let me dispel their fear, and say that the Congress which accepted ahimsa as a creed can do no such thing, that we have not wasted the past twenty years. Whatever a doubting Thomas may think, when the moment of settlement arrives in Delhi, everyone will realize that the Congress remains the same with or without Gandhi. The language may differ, but the demand will remain the same. No one can cheat it. It will go on repeating 'Neti, neti'until it wins the real substance it wants. If you can get what you want and you strike the bargain, you may be sure that I will not shed a single tear. If I am allowed to vent my views through my three weeklies, you will find me saying that I did become a trader but I could not sell my ahimsa.
Whatever, therefore, our opponents inside and outside India may think and feel happy about, I won't let them say that Gandhi was after all a crazy person. I do not want the Congress to look ridiculous in the eyes of the world. I do not want it to be said that in order to retain my leadership you bade goodbye to your senses because you had no courage to give give me up. I do not covet leadership by undermining anyone's manhood. If the Congress alters its resolution for fear of losing my leadership and if I allow this transaction, this will result in the degradation of the Congress as well as my own. This is not the way I work. It is a fraudulent way. Am I going to cheat the Congress after fifty years of national service?
I have removed the very roots of this risk. I have told Maulana Saheb that you have not lost me by relieving me. You would lose me only if I cease to be loyal to the Congress, only if I become a visionary, only if I cease to be a practical man. It is not at Bardoli that I left the Congress; I did so seven years ago in Bombay, and I did so in order to be able to render greater service to the country and the Congress. If I am relinquishing the Congress now, I do so only to serve it better. Colleagues like the Sardar and Rajendra Babu are not happy over the resolution but I am asking them not to leave the Congress. If the real hour for leaving the Congress arrives, and if they continue to cling to their present convictions, then they may say goodbye to the Congress. But even if they leave the Congress, the Congress is not going to cease to function. Its work will go on whether they are there or not. No man, however great, is indispensable to the Congress. Those who built up the Congress like Dadabhai, Pherozeshah and Lokamanya are no more, but the Congress still functions. For they have left for us an edifice to work upon and expand. Why should then my withdrawal or that of other leaders make any difference? The Congress will survive and will strike the bargain it is striving for.
I wish to stop you from dividing the house by seeking a vote on this resolution. I do not want the Congress to look ridiculous in the eyes of the world. We have not a clean slate to write on. Our leaders have taken a step which has produced worldwide reactions. To alter the resolution out of shape is to ignore these. It would be unwise to change the policy adopted by the Working Committee. It will make the Congress appear ridiculous before the world. The world has a right to expect that the Working Committee's policy will be endorsed by the A. I. C. C. We have no valid grounds to alter it. To those who want to catch up with me and introduce a new resolution for preserving ahimsa, I would say: 'Yes, it does bring you credit. If you have chewed and digested ahimsa, I shall follow in your footsteps and so will Maulana Saheb. But I see no such evidence in you. If you bring another resolution merely to retain my leadership, it will be a foolish step. In fact, it will amount to violence. Therefore you should accept this resolution, however imperfect it may be.'
Do not please go away with the idea that there is a rift in the Congress lute. As Maulana Saheb has said, the Working Committee has functioned like members of a happy family. Somebody suggested that Pandit Jawaharlal and I were estranged. This is baseless. Jawaharlal has been resisting me ever since he fell into my net. You cannot divide water by repeatedly striking it with a stick. It is just as difficult to divide us. I have always said that not Rajaji, nor Sardar Vallabhbhai, but Jawaharlal will be my successor. He says whatever is uppermost in his mind, but he always does what I want. When I am gone he will do what I am doing now. Then he will speak my language too. After all he was born in this land. Every day he learns some new thing. He fights with me because I am there. Whom will he fight when I am gone? And who will suffer his fighting? Ultimately, he will have to speak my language. Even if this does not happen, I would at least die with this faith.
There is another reason why this resolution should be supported. (By chance this resolution has) become a mirror of the Congress in which all groups can see themselves. I can see my own reflection, and so can Rajendra Babu, Badshah Khan, Sardar and the rest. Those who have spent a lifetime in cursing the Government as also those who wish to compromise with the Government can see their own reflections in this mirror.
Maulana Saheb has not properly described how this resolution was framed. This is not the resolution as drafted by Jawaharlal. His draft has been materially amended. Rajaji also had a hand in revising it. People have an erroneous impression about Jawaharlal that he never budges from his views. Today at least he cannot get that certificate. He argues vehemently, but when the time for action arrives, he can make considerable compromises. This resolution is a product of a general consensus. The views of all the members of the Working Committee are reflected in this resolution. Like khichri it contains pulses, rice, salt, chilli and spices. Maulana Saheb has already explained the different points of view within the Working Committee. We have many groups amongst us. One is represented by Jawaharlal. His opposition to participation in the war effort is almost as strong as mine, though his reasons are different. He will not concede that he has retraced his steps in consenting to this resolution. But he himself will agree that the Rajaji group can take a different view of this resolution. The original draft had left no room for Rajaji and his followers to function. Rajaji would like to participate in the war effort if the Government accepted the conditions laid down by the Congress. So he has opened a tiny window for himself. Through this window Rajaji will try to pull Jawahar towards him and Jawahar will pull in the opposite direction. It is no longer open to the Government and the Congress critics to say that the Congress has banged the door against negotiation on the doctrinaire ground of non-violence. The resolution throws on the Government the entire burden of wooing the Congress by meeting its legitimate demands and securing its participation in the war effort. That nothing much is to be expected from the Government is probably too true. Only the resolution puts the Congress right with the expectant world by debunking the criticism that the Congress is an organization of doctrinaires. And since there is a party in the Congress ready to welcome an honourable offer that will satisfy the rigidest test, it is as well that the resolution has accommodated this party. It has to be seen which group ultimately pulls the others. Whichever group wins, how can it harm us? We need have no objection.
Although different points of view have thus been accommodated in this resolution, it is not open to the charge of duplicity. It seeks to give an opportunity to different points of view to influence one another. This is how I understand it. Jawahar, Rajaji, Rajendra Babu as well as a man like me have each some elbow room in this resolution.
How does this resolution leave scope for Rajendra Babu? We have contemplated some step for the future, which upsets him. But we are not here to decide what we shall do in the future. When India becomes free, the resolution says, we can defend ourselves with arms. If we wish to help China and Russia, the resolution leaves us free to do so. We have no ill will against the Britishers, and for that matter against Germans, Italians or Japanese. How then can we have an ill will against China and Russia? The Russians have created a brave new thing. But I have my doubts as to how long they can defend their freedom in this manner. Experience tells us that any great work founded on force does not last. The Chinese sail in the same boat with us. It is a vast country and I am proud of it. I would like all these nations to be at peace with one another. If China seeks to defend herself with arms, she will have to become like Japan. She will have to do everything that Hitler and Mussolini are doing. I would like to think that when the occasion arises India would defend herself through non-violence and thus be a messenger of peace to the whole world. Jawahar will also then work for itΓÇönot for war. Rajendra Babu can therefore support this resolution. As a political [weapon] non-violence is no small thing; it can bring about all these results.
You should all remember that non-violence is the common factor among Jawaharlal, Rajaji, Rajendra Babu and Maulana Saheb. We are all agreed that today we have to work only through non-violence. We will think of other things at the appropriate time. That is why I find myself supporting this resolution. Rajendra Babu can today propagate to his heart's content the message of ahimsa from the Congress platform. This resolution leaves him free to do so. Besides this, the instructions about the constructive programme for Congressmen will promote ahimsa. It includes almost all the items of the thirteen-point constructive programme put forward by me. The U. P. Congress Committee has recently passed a resolution which is praiseworthy. It refers to ahimsa too. It covers everything that I should like it to.
We have made a clean breast of everything in this resolution. When all of us are sailing in the same boat, why do you want to introduce a new resolution? Ahimsa is not a thing which can be established through mechanical means. Did I serve the Congress for the last twenty years on the strength of a 'vote'? On the contrary, when matters reached the stage demanding a 'vote' I voluntarily retired from the Congress. Voting is all right in small matters, but our work will be hampered if we decide larger issues by 'vote'. The Congress is like a non-violent army. Our effort will be to keep it non-violent to the end. I am not going to restrain it if on the basis of experience we realize that we were on the wrong path.
The real strength of the Congress lies in those people who are outside the Congress but rally to its support when the call goes out. They do not care for name or fame, nor have they any personal axe to grind. We have to become their true representatives. You have to forge the Congress into a strong, solid and disciplined organization.
In the past 15 months Congressmen have evinced some sense of discipline. Occasionally there were lapses but I tolerated them because I had to steer the Congress ship. But now we shall have to observe stricter discipline. The time has now arrived when the Congress should act with one mind. The ultimate weapon of the Congress today is ahimsa. Until this creed is altered, no Congressman can preach violence openly or secretly. If he does so, he will be disloyal. No one can however judge what lies inside a man's heart. But we will have to enlist all those who promise to march in step with us. This resolution keeps the door open for every honest Congressman.
Finally, some friends ask, 'What has the Congress done, after all?' They complain that the resolution has no operative clause. The complaint is true so far as the resolution is concerned. The Congress will issue separate instructions for this purpose. The resolution had to be merely explanatory. It is addressed less to Congressmen than to the world. It is not even addressed to the Government.
Let there be no misunderstanding nor lack of zeal among Congressmen because the resolution has postponed satyagraha. Neither Jawaharlal nor Rajaji will let you remain idle. I certainly will not. Let those who think the constructive programme is insipid know that there is nothing in the Working Committee's resolution to prevent a Congressman at his own risk from leading civil disobedienceΓÇöindividual or mass. If he succeeds, he will win nothing but praise from all and I myself will kiss his feet. The more a person advances in ahimsa, the more proud will the Congress feel of him. But such advance should not need any imprimatur from the Congress. But let me warn the enthusiasts that they will not handle the weapon with any success. They will only damage themselves and the cause by any hasty or ignorant action. And let me say as an expert in the art of satyagraha that those who regard the constructive programme as insipid do not know what non-violence is and how it works. So much for civil disobedience.
Let us now turn to the parliamentary mentality. Though it has come to stay in spite of my efforts to eradicate it, the parliamentary programme can, I hold, have no place in Congress work so long as the war lasts. The Congress cannot handle it without identifying itself with the war effort. I have always held that at all times it is the least important part of a nation's activity. Legislators are not the masters but servants of their electorsΓÇöthe nation. The less, therefore, we look at and depend upon parliaments the better. Power resides in the people either through their arms or through their civil disobedience, more comprehensively described as non-violent non-co-operation. But the power of non-co-operation comes only through solid, incessant constructive work. Non-violent strength comes from the constructive programme only and not through destructive activities. Hence the constructive programme is the only thing before the Congress today. And in this all parties are at one.
There are instructions about the constructive programme for Congressmen. They form the operative part. If properly implemented, this would be a complete substitute for civil disobedience and the parliamentary programme. Civil disobedience has been wisely reserved for me as an expert in satyagraha. It is good, so long as I am alive and well in mind, that it is so reserved. I have almost put a stop to it today. But the suspension of satyagraha is not linked with the resolution. So far as I am concerned, there will be no need for satyagraha, if the Government do not interfere with Harijan. For these three weeklies will constitute enough propaganda against all war. Harijan will try to carry the message of peace to all corners of the country. But if this is not permitted, then will be the time for civil disobedience as a gesture. I want every worker to be out for constructive activity.
Today we have to serve the millions and that work does not allow us to get shut up in prisons. We do not wish that thieves and robbers may ransack the country. Even if we want to unleash a revolution, we shall have to provide for the prevention of pillage. The Congress will disappear if it fails to do this. The work of providing adequate food and clothing to the famished devolves on our shoulders. But if even the pen is snatched away from my hands, I may be compelled to become the sole resister. But I have no fixed plans. Events will point the way.
The suspension of satyagraha has connection only with the present condition of the country, and I want every single man who thinks with me to remain outside and do work rather than go to jail and read the Koran and the Gita and lead an easy life there. I won't let them lead an easy life. Jawaharlal will ask for diaries from thousands of men. He is not going to sleep. Therefore, if you will go away with the real message to the country, do not criticize this resolution. Nobody is rendered incapable of giving the fullest possible service, in fact he is made capable of the fullest growth, by reason of this resolution. Civil disobedience remains under my control, and the reason for its suspension is wholly extraneous to my retirement from office. Every one of you has to give a good account of yourself. If all will pull your full weight in the fulfilment of the constructive programme, you will find a different India in six months' time.
