Swaraj or Death and Mahatma Gandhi

[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]

 

 

Swaraj or Death and Mahatma Gandhi

 

 

 In your Young India of the 25th June, I find things which I utterly fail to understand. On page 219 under the heading “On the Verge of It” you have, I think, asked your correspondent to explain, “Why do you think that we cannot spin and wear khaddar or remove untouchability or be friends with the Mussalmans till we get swaraj? How will the withdrawal of Englishmen help Hindus to trust the Mussalmans or vice versa, or open the eyes of blind orthodoxy and better the lot of the oppressed people or induce the idle to work the spinning-wheel and those whose tastes are degraded to revise them and revert to khaddar? Surely, if we cannot do these things now under the pressure of adversity, we are not likely to do them when we are lulled into a sense of false security by nominal swaraj. What is there to prevent us now from attempting or accomplishing all or any of these three things if it is not our own unwillingness, lethargy or worse?” I cannot say what the correspondent will answer to these your queries but I respectfully like to point out to you that your assertion that without khaddar, Hindu-Muslim unity and the removal of untouchability there can be no swaraj— also appears to be based on wrong premises. There appears to be some truth also in the alternative assertion of your correspondent, and in his support I say this: The spinning and use of khaddar will be wholly popularized only after the establishment of swaraj and not before. The reasons are as follows:

The Government is a part and parcel of every society. Everybody seeks its help every moment. For the time being life, honour and property of all individuals under the Government are entrusted to it. Some have to win cases, some to get titles and honours; some are to be provided with appointments and so on. Everybody can do without the Government help only for a fixed period of time and that only a small one, but nobody can do without it (the Government) for a longer period. Everywhere in the country, especially in my district, the use of khaddar is a symbol of anti-Government sentiment. It is regarded as the dress of the rebel. It may not have been enacted in any code of law, but in practice it is so. You must know that, in this country, law is one thing and its administration is another. Everybody is afraid of incurring the displeasure of the Government side. How can it, viz, the use of khaddar with its antecedents be popular? The heroes and the soldiers alone will take it up, but not the masses. Thus the use of khaddar will not be popular before swaraj. In fact, the use of khaddar is a crime now. You may ask: How will the people fight and overthrow this Government when they are so cowardly as not to use even khaddar?

Mahatmaji, any great event takes place in the world only through divine agencies and the reasons are inexplicable to men. Overthrow of such a mighty Government will be affected really through divine agencies and outwardly through a great national excitement amounting to a temporary madness on the part of all or at least the majority of the Indian people. And everybody will afford during the great national excitement to be so mad, fearless and brave for some time for this purpose. After swaraj it will be popular, for there will be no necessity of fear from the use of khaddar. Besides, the people will be encouraged to use it and they will also try to seek the favour of the nationalists forming the Government as we find in District Boards and Municipalities these days under nationalists. Above all, there will be a legislation declaring the use of foreign cloth as a crime, as every nation has done and is doing to encourage home industries.

There can be no permanent Hindu-Muslim unity before swaraj. The reasons are as follows: During my boyhood one of my paternal uncles told me a story which runs thus “Once there were two young men who were fast friends. They appeared to have had two bodies but one soul. Their parents did not like it and were on the look-out to affect enmity between these friends. They proclaimed probably by a beat of drum a handsome reward to anyone successfully affecting a breach between the friends. One old woman popularly known as ‘Kutni’ undertook the task. She went to the friends and called only one of them apart from the other but within his (other friend’s) sight. She took her mouth to the ears of the friend whom she had called apart, pretended to say something to him, said nothing and went away. The man returned to his friend who was left behind and was asked to state what the woman had told him. The poor man stated that she had said nothing. Suspicion naturally arose in the mind of the other man who saw so many performances with his own eyes and was in the dark as to their purposes and result, and it developed. In course of time their friendship came to an end and the woman got the reward.” Exactly in the same way, Mahatmaji, please do not expect perfect unity between the Hindus and Mussalmans so long as the third party, with not only all the available resources of the country but also with those of the whole British Empire and with a clear knowledge that its very existence depends only on the disunion and quarrel among the several races inhabiting this country, is always persistently trying every moment to keep the people fighting among themselves. You are too anxious for Hindu-Muslim unity as a road to swaraj but if you please think of it over and over again, I am sure you will arrive at a conclusion that the overthrow of this Government and establishment of swaraj in this country are the road to peace and unity among the several communities of the country and not the vice versa. Permanent unity is impossible before swaraj.

Untouchability even cannot be removed before swaraj is established in this country. The reasons are as follows: Anything and everything done for the good of the country is opposed by the present Government and at its insinuation by its native allies. The removal of untouchability is for the good of the country and hence it has been and will be thwarted by the Government. You are a reformer. Your followers in Travancore were so much harassed by the Government there at Viacom. If you want that the untouchables be given certain rights and privileges in a certain Hindu temple, there will be a protest from the orthodox section of the Hindu community but is it not a fact that this Government comes and will come to help them against the untouchables? How can you succeed in this matter unless and until you remove this Government? At present, Mahatmaji, for anything evil in this country this Government is alone responsible. You are supported in this your programme by the majority of the Indian people but it is not fulfilled only owing to the existence of this Government. There is much truth in what you say in regard to your triple programme but I most respectfully suggest that the practical side of the human affair is certainly overlooked by you in a certain degree. The country and we, your soldiers, are faithfully carrying out your orders to the extent we can. But it is my prayer that you kindly think of swaraj first and of any other thing afterwards. Swaraj alone will solve all national troubles. You have already declared that if the people fail to complete the khaddar programme by the end of this year, you will give the country a programme by following which there will be either swaraj or death to all patriots. I think you remember it. Please make haste or everything will get dull. The time has almost arrived when you should publish your programme and call upon the nation either to win swaraj or to die.