NO RULE V. MISRULE

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Gandhian Scholar

Gandhi Research Foundation, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No. – 09415777229, 094055338

E-mail- [e-mail];[e-mail]

 

 

NO RULE V. MISRULE

 

 

Mr. Pennington must always command respect for his great industry at his age and for his sincere advocacy of a cause he believes in. Professor Kumarappa is well able to take care of himself. He, being in village, is not easily accessible. But whether he has any answer or not to Mr. Pennington’s facts, I can say this from my own experience. Most of the “facts” such friends as Mr. Pennington can produce may be true, and yet do not affect the conclusion arrived at by nationalists, nor do those facts warrant the deductions their authors base upon them. “One swallow does not make a summer.” Nor can high prices paid for a few acres in a rich tract prove the general prosperity of a continent. As against isolated facts of isolated prosperity stands the grim fact of the general pauperism of India as a whole. This pauperism can be seen with physical eyes by anyone who would care to wander through India’s villages. Pax Britannica is not a beneficial operation. It has as much value to India as the slave dwellers have in an estate whose owner keeps the slaves from fighting with one another, protects the estate from foreign inroads and makes the slaves work with a regularity that is just enough to keep the estate going in his, the owner’s, interest. The slaves of this imaginary estate will, when they grow to consciousness of their position, prefer anarchy to slavery if there is no other choice. Even so should I prefer anarchy to the existing rule and its much-vaunted peace if I can have no other choice? Surely no-rule is better than bad rule. As for the friends who “are most anxious to hold me in respect”, I can only say that while I would always esteem their affection, I must be content to go without it if I cannot retain it consistently with obedience to the Inner Voice. What shall it profit me even though I may win the esteem of a whole world, if I have to lose my soul?