their manhood. Incidentally, the Hindu-Mahomedan problem has been solved in South Africa. We realise there that the one cannot do without the other. Mahotne- dane, Parsees and Hindus, or taking them provinoiaMy, Bengalees, Madrasees, jPuujahis, Afghanistanees, and Bombayites, have fought shoulder feo shoulder.
I venture to suggest that a struggle suoh as fchis is worthy of occupying the besb, if nob, indeed, the exclu- sive attention of the Congress. If U be not impertinent I would like to distinguish between this and the other items on the programme of the Congress. The opposition to the laws or bhe policy with which the other items deal doea not involve any material suffering : the Congress activity consists in a mental attitude without corresponding ac- tion. In the Transvaal case the law and the polioy ifa enunciated being wrong, we disregard ib, and therefore consciously and deliberately suffer material and ph\sioal injury ; action follows, and corresponds to, our mental attitude. If the view here submitted be correct, ibwill be allowed that in asking for the best place in the Congress programme for the Transvaal question, I have nob been unreasonable. May I also suggest that in pondering over and concentrating our attention upon passive resistance such as has been described above, we would perchance find out that, for the many ills wa suffer from India, passive resistance is an infatliable panacea. It, is worthy of oareful study, and I am sura ib will be found ihabib ia the only weapon tost is suited to the genius of our people and our land, whioh is the nursery of bhe most ancient religions and has very little bo learn from modern civili- zation a civilization based on violence of the blackest
- H e i largely a negation of the Divine in man, and which
ie rushing headlong to its own ruin.
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