Page:Labour in Madras.djvu/45

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LABOUR IN MADRAS
19


19 from two new comers at this our Saturday meeting. I do not think therefore it is necessary for me to speak to you at any great length. But during the week there have occurred cases connected with the people who were undergoing great suffering at Kaira and it is necessary for me to draw your attention to that fact. I have told you before how in company of our great leader Mahatma Gandhi the poor raiyat people of Kaira have been suffering, facing the hardhships which the officials of the Government have put on them A very pathetic and at the same time a very glorious sight is to be seen by all those who are reading the newspapers day after day in respect of the news that comes to us from Kaira. You will find a list given of the names of the people who have been deprived of their cattle, of their vessels, of their clothes ; and all these people stand patiently in a spirit of self-sacrific putting up with all these sufferings. They have learnt that through suffering, by sticking to what they seem to think and understand to be right and correct they will presently get happiness, contentment of mind and peace of heart. That lesson ought to be taken to heart by all of us who are beset with our own difficulties and individual hardships. The example given by those working under Mahatma Gandhi is one that we all have to copy in time of trial, distress and necessity-an example not of retaliation of evil with evil but of retaliation of every thing that is evil with good, of repression, and tyranny with self-sacrifice and suffering, of hatred with love. That is the great lesson that the poor people of Kaira are giving to all in India, to the rich and the poor, to the educated and the illiterate. What has never happened before in this country is happening now. Some few years ago