Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/297

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pension is final. They may and do reoaive and hear com- plaints from the ryots bat) the finality of their decision cannot be questioned, This is bhe orux of struggle, It is contended on behalf of the ryots that where there are, in matters of administrative orders, sharp differences of opinion between local officials and them the points of differences are and ought to be referred too an impartial committee of inquiry. This, it is held, constitutes the strength of the British constitution. Toe Commissioner has OD principle rejected this posiDion and invited a crisis. And he has made such a fetish of it) that he armed him- self beforehand with a letter from Lord Willingdon to the effect that even he should not interfere with the Oomtnis- sioner'a decision. He brings io the war to defend his position and abjures the ryobs and me to desist from our cause at this time of peril to dha Empire, But I venture to suggest that the Commissioner's aotitude constitutes a peril far graver than the German peril, and I am serving the Empire in trying to deliver h from this peril from within. There is no mistaking the fact that India is waking up from its long sleep. The Ryots do not need to ba literate to appreciate their rights and their duties. They have bub to realise their invulnerable power and no Government, however strong, can stand against their will. The Kaira ryots are solving an imperial problem of the first) magnitude in India. They will show that it is im- possible to govern men without their consent. Once the Civil Service realises this position, ib will supply to India truly civil servants who will be the bulwark of the people's rights, To-day she Civil Service rule is a rule of fear, The Kaira Ryot is fighting for the rule of love. It id the Commissioner who has produced the crisis. I(j was, as it is now, his duty "to placate the people when

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