The Immediate Need
ary movement in Bengal which followed the Swadeshi movement; although the courage of those who threw away their lives so fearlessly for the sake of their country won my unstinted admiration. It must be obvious from what I have said that I could not personally countenance any violent revolution, even though it led directly to Indian independence. I have never swerved for one moment from this principle of non-violence in later years. I have made it as clear as possible to Maulana Shaukat Ali to-day, and he fully understands my position.
But the more deeply I studied the history of India, and went to impartial historians, like Seeley, for my information, the more I found out that a violent revolution was not needed. India had not been conquered by British arms, but by the employment of Indian mercenary troops under British direction. Therefore, the complete reversal of this process of conquest did not need an appeal to military violence. It demanded simply a psycholo-
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