Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/636

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

546 NON-CO-OPERATION

repentance, before receiving a single gift, however rich, from those blood-stained hands.

I have therefore placed before you my scheme of non- co-operation to achieve this end and want you to reject any other scheme, unless you have deliberately come to the conclusion that it is a better scheme than mine. If there is a sufficient response to my scheme, I make bold to reiterate my statement that you can gain Swarajya in the course of a year. Not the passing of the resolution will bring Swarajya but the enforcement of the resolution from day to-day in a progressive manner, due regard being had to the conditions in the country. There is another remedy before the country and that is drawing of the sword. If that was possible India would not have listened to the gospel of non-co-opera- tion. 1 want to suggest to }0u that, even if you want to ar- rest injustice by methods of violence, discipline and self- sacrifice are necessary. I have not known of a war gained by a rabble, but I have known of wars gained by disciplined armies and if you want to give battle to the British Government and to the combined power of Europe, we must train oursel- ves in discipline and self-sacrifice. I confess I have become inpatient. I have seen that we deserve Swarajya to-day, but we have not got the spirit of national sacrifice. AVe have evolved this spirit in domestic affairs, and I have come to ask >ou to extend it to other affairs. I have been travelling from one end to the other of the country to see whether the country has evolved the national spirit, whether at the altar of the nation it is leady to dedicate its riches, children, its all, if it is ready to make the initiatory sacri- fice. Is the country read) ? Are the title holders ready to sui render their titles ? Are parents ready to sacrifice the literary education of their children for the sake of the country f The schools and colleges are reallv a factory fof

�� �