Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/204

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

THE SOUTH AFRICAN INDIAN QUESTION

anything whatsoever without your assistance and with* out) your doing fcbe a a ma thing that) we would be prepared to do, you are lost, and we are also lost, and our services will be in vain, I do not for one moment believe that the inspiration was given by us. The inspiration was given by them to us and we were able to be interpreters between the powers who called themselves the Governors and those men for whom redress was so necessary, We were simply links between those two parties and nothing more. lo was my duty, having received the education that was given to mo by my parents to interpret what was going on in our midao to those simple folk, and they rose co the occasion. Tbey realised tine might of religious force, and it was they who inspired us, and let them who have finished their work, and who have died for you and me, let them inspire you aod us. We are stili living ani who knows whether Caa ddvil will noa possess us to-morrow and we shall not forsake one post of duty before any new danger chat may face us. But these three have gone for ever,

An old man of 75 from the United Provinces, Harbart Singh, has also joiued the majority and died in jail in South Africa ; and he deserved the crown that you would seek DO impose upon us. These young men deserve all the adjectives that you have so affectionately, but blindly lavished upon us. It was not only the Hindus who struggled, bufi there were Mahomedans, Parsis and Christians, and almost every part of India was represented in the struggle. They realised the common danger, and they realised also what their destiny was as Indians, and v it was they, and they alone, who matched the soul-forces against the physical forces, (Loud applause.)

�� �