Mahatma Gandhi Speech at Patna

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Senior Gandhian Scholar

Gandhi Research Foundation, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

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Mahatma Gandhi Speech at Patna

 

Mahatma Gandhi addressed the audience sitting on a chair. He said that he wanted to save Islam, to secure justice for the Punjab, and a guarantee against the repetition of future wrongs in the shape of slavery. They could achieve it only by means of non-co-operation. But this made it necessary that they should co-operate among themselves. He regretted that they did not do so, and, whenever they were engaged in any work of organization, he found that they showed temper and could not brook differences. But he wanted them to remember that if they were to save Islam and win swaraj they must co-operate among themselves. From Bettiah he had heard the sad story that their own brethren (though they were in the police) had applied a kind of martial law. When martial law was applied in the Punjab the Viceroy had framed some rules for its regulation but no such thing was done in Bettiah. He would admit that the application was not so severe in Bettiah as in the Punjabi but martial law was introduced in miniature in the villages affected. The police had done, without the orders of the Government, severe injustice and were reported to have committed outrages on their mothers and sisters. He did not know whether what was published in the papers was true but, assuming that to be correct and the witnesses who had given the information as reliable, he found that properties had been looted and women insulted and maltreated and all this against the orders of the Government. So long as they acted in that manner, they would be slaves and could neither win swaraj nor save Khilafat. Of course they would not go to the courts for that was a profanation, and even if they did so that would not get them a bit of freedom except sending the policemen to jails. Their aim was to end the present system of administration, but so long as that was not done what was he to say to those who had learnt tyranny from a tyrannous Government. Their principal duty was achievement of complete unity. If they could do that today they should get swaraj in a day. Proceeding, Mahatma Gandhi said Bihar was to be congratulated on the fact that few people had voted in the elections. People who cared even slightly for liberty had given up the idea of going to the Councils. Some went to the Councils but without the authority of the bulk of the voters and yet persisted in calling themselves representatives. The speaker referred to a letter that had been handed over to him by the Hindus at Phulwari Sharif where he had gone to meet the revered Maulana Badruddin Saheb. The letter said that their relations with their Mussulman brethren of the place were not quite cordial and that their Durga Puja had been interfered with. Though Bihar was noted for Hindu-Muslim unity he could not help feeling, when such complaints reached his notice that trouble was lurking. He had not forgotten the Shahabad riots or the fact that the aggressors on that occasion were Hindus. He would tell them that they should settle such differences among themselves and that, if they aimed at reforming and purifying the administration, they must in first place purify themselves. The second thing that he wanted to emphasize before them was the essentially non-violent character of non-co-operation. They would have to keep their swords in their sheaths and learn the completest self-control. They did not want to hurt the policemen who had committed outrages even on women in Champaran. In fact, if he met them he would intercede with them and tell them that it was not their work to do as they had done. He wanted to conquer by means of truth. It was always wrong to abuse or hurt an Indian; and it was impudent as well. He did not want to give anyone an occasion to raise his hand against him, for he hated violence. He then appealed for funds. For a month he had been begging for money. He wanted them to pay what they could. He did not want millions from the millionaires but a rupee or pice each from the 30 crores of our people. On Mussulmans the obligation was double, for they had to pay to that fund and also for the sufferings of the sufferers in Smyrna and for the Aligarh National Muslim University. He assured them that the money would be spent neither on Congress work nor on anything else but purely in connection with non-co-operation, for opening of schools, and, in short, for the attainment of swaraj. He would form a committee to administer the funds and accounts would be published regularly in the papers. Also, the money raised in Bihar would be spent wholly in Bihar. He was sorry that he had to beg for money for he realized that many of them who had done that before were not true and had at times cheated them of their money in the name of the Congress. He appealed to them to realize the conditions precedent to their success. Unless the Hindus and the Mussulmans lived like brothers, unless they acted in co-operation, unless they controlled their temper and were prepared to make sacrifices and unless they acted up to the direction of the Congress and the League, which was merely a preparation for freedom, they could not free themselves from the domination of the Satanic Government. Boycott of Councils did not involve sacrifice but was a means of purification and he prayed that their souls be purified.

 

Reference:

 

The Searchlight, 5-12-1920