670 NON-CO-OPERATION
days of the date of publication of this manifesto, I shall be prepared to advise postponement of Civil Dis- obedience of an aggressive character till the imprisoned workers, have after their discharge reviewed the whole situation and considered the position de novo* If the Government make the requested declaration, I shall regard it as an honest desire on its part to give effect to public opinion and shall, therefore, have no hesitation in advising the country to bs engaged in further moulding the public opinion without violent retraint from either side and trust to its working to secure the fulfilment of its unalterable demands, Aggressive Civil Disobe- dience in that case will be taken up only when the Government departs from its policy of strictest neutral- ity or refuses to yield to the clearly expressed opinion of the vast majority of the people of India.
��REPLY TO THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA.
��[The Government of India in a Communique published on the 6th February in reply to Mr. Gandhi's letter, repudiated his assertions and urged that the issue before the country was no longer between this or that programme of political advance, but between lawlessness with all its consequences on the one hand and the maintenance of those principles which lie at the root of all civilised Governments. Mr. Gandhi in a further rejoinder issued on the very next day pointed out that the choice before the people was mass civil disobedience with all its undoubted dangers and lawless repression of the lawful activities of the people. The following is the full text of Mr. Gandhi's rejoinder.]
I have very carefully read the Government's reply to my letter. I confess that I was totally unprepared reply betrays.
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