The jail delivery that is going on apace of satyagrahis must be taken as a challenge to convene a meeting of the A. I. C. C. which, the Government of India have been evidently induced to expect, will reverse the Bombay decision, whose working is reflected in my conduct of the satyagraha campaign. I have, therefore, advised the Maulana Saheb to convene a meeting of the Working Committee and the A.I.C.C. at an early date, but until that decision is reversed civil disobedience has to go on.
I must admit, however, that the conduct of the campaign has been rendered difficult by the Government action in discharging civil disobedience prisoners, but if we are to reach our goal, we have to cut our way through every difficulty. This one is nothing compared to what we are likely to have to face before we come into our own.
If the A. I. C. C. meeting is to come, as it must, pending the meeting members of the Working Committee and the A. I. C. C. must not offer civil disobedience, nor should those who are interested in reversing the Bombay decision.
Apart from these, civil disobedience should continue without interruption. Of course it will stand suspended on Xmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day.
The question naturally arises whether civil disobedience is to be offered in the usual manner by reciting the prescribed formula or in some other manner.
I like the formula method. It gives directness and symmetry to the movement. There is great power in the reciting of the same formula in the same manner. It rivets the attention of the masses and men on identical theme. The formula is not a mean thing. It is a protest of the nation against war as an arbitrator. It is a message of peace on earth and goodwill towards mankind. What is individual formula today will become, in due time, that of the masses, but the authorities having discharged symbolical satyagrahis may refuse to rearrest them for reciting slogans.
There are then two ways open to us : If they do not rearrest, there need be no dismay and demoralization, the jail is not our objective. Freedom of speech is the immediate objective. If recitation is not objected to, we have advanced somewhat towards our objective and it will be foolish to court imprisonment for the sake of it.
Dismay and demoralization arise because Congressmen in general have not realized the inevitable connection between constructive programme and civil disobedience. Civil disobedience without the backing of constructive programme can never lead us to independence. Shorn of it, civil disobedience becomes method of violence bound to prove ineffective in the end.
Moreover, civil disobedience, even when it is mass, will only be offered by those who are bodily fit, whereas constructive programme is for all and will never be suspended. If the whole nation took it up in earnest it is enough to give us complete independence. The prosecution of the constructive programme means constructing the structure of swaraj.
The whole theme of corporate non-violence, as I have conceived it, falls to pieces if there is no living faith in the constructive programme.
To my mind, swaraj based on non-violence is a fulfilment of the constructive programme; hence, whether the authorities jail us or not, we must pursue the constructive programme.
I have been asked whether discharged satyagrahis should hold or attend meetings and deliver speeches. They should do so. I do not want or expect them to re-offer civil disobedience immediately. That would be indecent haste, but ordinary civil disobedience may go on. For the discharged ones let there be breathing time. Let them address meetings in their constituencies and study things. At the meetings they will expound their views on the general situation and not hesitate to interpret anti-war Congress policy.
Symbolic satyagraha has a definite meaning but it is open to the authorities to arrest Congressmen for their speeches even if they do not intend thereby to offer C. D. That was how they had arrested the Maulana Sahib and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, not to mention lesser lights.
Let it be known that I have no authority to suspend C. D. on extraneous grounds. That is for the Congress to do. For me personally there is no choice.
As a man sworn to peace, at this critical moment to suspend my anti-war activity would be to deny myself.
Therefore, for those who think like me, whether we are misunderstood or worse befalls, we must express our faith through our action hoping thereby that ultimately our way will be accepted by all warring powers as the only escape from a blood-bath which is reducing man to his lowest depth.
