Quit India Speech by Mahatma Gandhi
Before you discuss the resolution, let me place before you one
or two things, I want you to understand two things very clearly and to consider
them from the same point of view from which I am placing them before you. I ask
you to consider it from my point of view, because if you approve of it, you
will be enjoined to carry out all I say. It will be a great responsibility.
There are people who ask me whether I am the same man that I was in 1920, or
whether there has been any change in me. You are right in asking that question.
Let me, however, hasten to assure that I am the same Gandhi as I
was in 1920. I have not changed in any fundamental respect. I attach the same
importance to non-violence that I did then. If at all, my emphasis on it has
grown stronger. There is no real contradiction between the present resolution
and my previous writings and utterances.
Occasions like the present do not occur in everybody’s and but
rarely in anybody’s life. I want you to know and feel that there is nothing but
purest Ahimsa in all that I am saying and doing today. The draft resolution of
the Working Committee is based on Ahimsa, the contemplated struggle similarly
has its roots in Ahimsa. If, therefore, there is any among you who has lost
faith in Ahimsa or is wearied of it, let him not vote for this resolution. Let
me explain my position clearly. God has vouchsafed to me a priceless gift in
the weapon of Ahimsa. I and my Ahimsa are on our trail today. If in the present
crisis, when the earth is being scorched by the flames of Himsa and crying for
deliverance, I failed to make use of the God given talent, God will not forgive
me and I shall be judged unworthy of the great gift. I must act now. I may not
hesitate and merely look on, when Russia and China are threatened.
Ours is not a drive for power, but purely a non-violent fight
for India’s independence. In a violent struggle, a successful general has been
often known to effect a military coup and to set up a dictatorship. But under
the Congress scheme of things, essentially non-violent as it is, there can be
no room for dictatorship. A non-violent soldier of freedom will covet nothing
for himself, he fights only for the freedom of his country. The Congress is
unconcerned as to who will rule, when freedom is attained. The power, when it
comes, will belong to the people of India, and it will be for them to decide to
whom it placed in the entrusted. May be that the reins will be placed in the
hands of the Parsis, for instance-as I would love to see happen-or they may be
handed to some others whose names are not heard in the Congress today. It will
not be for you then to object saying, “This community is microscopic. That
party did not play its due part in the freedom’s struggle; why should it have
all the power?” Ever since its inception the Congress has kept itself
meticulously free of the communal taint. It has thought always in terms of the
whole nation and has acted accordingly. . . I know how imperfect our Ahimsa is
and how far away we are still from the ideal, but in Ahimsa there is no final
failure or defeat. I have faith, therefore, that if, in spite of our
shortcomings, the big thing does happen, it will be because God wanted to help
us by crowning with success our silent, unremitting Sadhana for the last
twenty-two years.
I believe that in the history of the world, there has not been a
more genuinely democratic struggle for freedom than ours. I read Carlyle’s
French Revolution while I was in prison, and Pandit Jawaharlal has told me
something about the Russian revolution. But it is my conviction that inasmuch
as these struggles were fought with the weapon of violence they failed to
realize the democratic ideal. In the democracy which I have envisaged, a
democracy established by non-violence, there will be equal freedom for all.
Everybody will be his own master. It is to join a struggle for such democracy
that I invite you today. Once you realize this you will forget the differences
between the Hindus and Muslims, and think of yourselves as Indians only,
engaged in the common struggle for independence.
Then, there is the question of your attitude towards the
British. I have noticed that there is hatred towards the British among the
people. The people say they are disgusted with their behaviour. The people make
no distinction between British imperialism and the British people. To them, the
two are one. This hatred would even make them welcome the Japanese. It is most
dangerous. It means that they will exchange one slavery for another. We must
get rid of this feeling. Our quarrel is not with the British people, we fight
their imperialism. The proposal for the withdrawal of British power did not
come out of anger. It came to enable India to play its due part at the present
critical juncture It is not a happy position for a big country like India to be
merely helping with money and material obtained willy-nilly from her while the
United Nations are conducting the war. We cannot evoke the true spirit of
sacrifice and velour, so long as we are not free. I know the British Government
will not be able to withhold freedom from us, when we have made enough
self-sacrifice. We must, therefore, purge ourselves of hatred. Speaking for
myself, I can say that I have never felt any hatred. As a matter of fact, I
feel myself to be a greater friend of the British now than ever before. One
reason is that they are today in distress. My very friendship, therefore,
demands that I should try to save them from their mistakes. As I view the
situation, they are on the brink of an abyss. It, therefore, becomes my duty to
warn them of their danger even though it may, for the time being, anger them to
the point of cutting off the friendly hand that is stretched out to help them.
People may laugh, nevertheless that is my claim. At a time when I may have to
launch the biggest struggle of my life, I may not harbor hatred against
anybody.
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