Non-Violent Resistance

by Mahatma K Gandhi

  Let us, however, think of the immediate future. This time on my arrest there is to be no mute, passive non-violence, but non-violence of the activest type should be set in motion, so that not a single believer in non-violence as an article of faith for the purpose of achieving India's goal should find himself free or alive at the end of the effort to submit any longer to the existing slavery. It would be, therefore, the duty of every one to take up such civil disobedience or civil resistance as may be advised and conducted by my successor, or as might be taken up by the Congress. I must confess, that at the present moment, I have no all-India successor in view. But I have sufficient faith in the co-workers and in the mission itself to know that circumstances will give the successor. This peremptory condition must be patent to all that he must be an out-and-out believer in the efficacy of non-violence for the purpose intended. For without that living faith in it he will not be able at the crucial moment to discover a non-violent method.

  It must be parenthetically understood that what is being said here in no way fetters the discretion and full authority of the Congress. The Congress will adopt only such things said here that may commend themselves to Congressmen in general. If the nature of these instructions is to be properly understood, the organic value of the charter of full liberty given to me by the Working Committee should be adequately appreciated. Non-violence, if it does not submit to any restrictions upon its liberty, subjects no one and no institution to any restriction whatsoever, save what may be self-imposed or voluntarily adopted. So long as the vast body of Congressmen continue to believe in non-violence as the only policy in the existing circumstances and have confidence not only in the bona fides of my successor and those who claim to believe in non-violence as an article of faith to the extent indicated but also in the ability of the successor wisely to guide the movement, the Congress will give him and them its blessings and even give effect to these instructions and his.

  So far as I am concerned, my intention is to start the movement only through the inmates of the Ashram and those who have submitted to its discipline and assimilated the spirit of its methods. Those, therefore, who will offer battle at the very commencement will be unknown to fame. Hitherto the Ashram has been deliberately kept in reserve in order that by a fairly long course of discipline it might acquire stability. I feel, that if the Satyagraha Ashram is to deserve the great confidence that has been reposed in it and the affection lavished upon it by friends, the time has arrived for it to demonstrate the qualities implied in the word satyagraha. I feel that our self-imposed restraints have become subtle indulgences, and the prestige acquired has provided us with privileges and conveniences of which we may be utterly unworthy. These have been thankfully accepted in the hope that some day we would be able to give a good account of ourselves in terms of Satyagraha. And if at the end of nearly 15 years of its existence, the Ashram cannot give such a demonstration, it and I should disappear, and it would be well for the nation, the Ashram and me.

  When the beginning is well and truly made I expect the response from all over the country. It will be the duty then of every one who wants to make the movement a success to keep it non-violent and under discipline. Every one will be expected to stand at his post except when called by his chief. If there is a spontaneous mass response, as I hope there will be, and if previous experience is any guide, it will largely be self-regulated. But every one who accepts non-violence whether as an article of faith or policy would assist the mass movement. Mass movements have, all over the world, thrown up unexpected leaders. This should be no exception to the rule. Whilst, therefore, every effort imaginable and possible should be made to restrain the forces of violence, civil disobedience once begun this time cannot be stopped and must not be stopped so long as there is a single civil resister left free or alive. A votary of Satyagraha should find himself in one of the following states:

  1. In prison or in an analogous state; or

  2. Engaged in civil disobedience; or

  3. Under orders at the spinning wheel, or at some constructive work advancing Swaraj.

  Young India, 27-2-'30

  100. LETTER TO THE VICEROY

  [On the eve of launching on Civil Disobedience Gandhiji wrote a letter on 2-3-'30 to the Viceroy stating the evils which required to be removed immediately from the British Government of India. He ended it by pointing out the method of Satyagraha he would adopt in case there was no adequate response. We reproduce below the concluding part of his letter.—Ed.]

  Sinful to Wait Any Longer

  It is common cause that, however disorganized, and, for the time being, insignificant, it may be, the party of violence is gaining ground and making itself felt. Its end is the same as mine. But I am convinced that it cannot bring the desired relief to the dumb millions. And the conviction is growing deeper and deeper in me that nothing but unadulterated non-violence can check the organized violence of the British Government. Many think that non-violence is not an active force. My experience, limited though it undoubtedly is, shows that non-violence can be an intensely active force. It is my purpose to set in motion that force as well against the organized violent force of the British rule as the unorganized violent force of the growing party of violence. To sit still would be to give rein to both the forces above mentioned. Having an unquestioning and immovable faith in the efficacy of non-violence, as I know it, it would be sinful on my part to wait any longer.

  This non-violence will be expressed through civil disobedience, for the moment confined to the inmates of the Satyagraha Ashram, but ultimately designed to cover all those who choose to join the movement with its obvious limitations.

  My Ambition—Conversion of British People

  I know that in embarking on non-violence I shall be running what might fairly be termed a mad risk. But the victories of truth have never been won without risks, often of the gravest character. Conversion of a nation that has consciously or unconsciously preyed upon another, far more numerous, far more ancient and no less cultured than itself, is worth any amount of risk.

  I have deliberately used the word conversion. For my ambition is no less than to convert the British people through non-violence, and thus make them see the wrong they have done to India. I do not seek to harm your people. I want to serve them even as I want to serve my own. I believe that I have always served them. I served them up to 1919 blindly. But when my eyes were opened and I conceived non-co-operation, the object still was to serve them. I employed the same weapon that I have in all humility successfully used against the dearest members of my family. If I have equal love for your people with mine it will not long remain hidden. It will be acknowledged by them even as the members of my family acknowledged it after they had tried me for several years. If the people join me, as I expect they will, the sufferings they will undergo, unless the British nation sooner retraces its steps, will be enough to melt the stoniest hearts.

  If You Cannot See Your Way

  The plan through Civil Disobedience will be to combat such evils as I have sampled out. If we want to sever the British connection it is because of such evils. When they are removed the path becomes easy. Then the way to friendly negotiation will be open. If the British commerce with India is purified of greed, you will have no difficulty in recognizing our independence. I respectfully invite you then to pave the way for immediate removal of those evils, and thus open a way for a real conference between equals, interested only in promoting the common good of mankind through voluntary fellowship and in arranging terms of mutual help and commerce equally suited to both. You have unnecessarily laid stress upon the communal problems that unhappily affect this land. Important though they undoubtedly are for the consideration of any scheme of Government, they have little bearing on the greater problems which are above communities and which affect them all equally. But if you cannot see your way to deal with these evils and my letter makes no appeal to your heart, on the 11th day of this month, I shall proceed with such co-workers of the Ashram as I can tak
e, to disregard the provisions of the Salt laws. I regard this tax to be the most iniquitous of all from the poor man's standpoint. As the Independence movement is essentially for the poorest in the land the beginning will be made with this evil. The wonder is that we have submitted to the cruel monopoly for so long. It is, I know, open to you to frustrate my design by arresting me. I hope that there will be tens of thousands ready, in a disciplined manner, to take up the work after me, and, in the act of disobeying the Salt Act, to lay themselves open to the penalties of a law that should never have disfigured the Statute Book.

  No Threat but a Sacred Duty

  I have no desire to cause you unnecessary embarrassment, or any at all, so far as I can help. If you think that there is any substance in my letter, and if you will care to discuss matters with me, and if to that end you would like me to postpone publication of this letter, I shall gladly refrain on receipt of a telegram to that effect soon after this reaches you. You will, however, do me the favour not to deflect me from my course unless you can see your way to conform to the substance of this letter.

  This letter is not in any way intended as a threat but is a simple and sacred duty peremptory on a civil resister. Therefore, I am having it specially delivered by a young English friend who believes in the Indian cause and is a full believer in non-violence and whom Providence seems to have sent to me, as it were, for the very purpose.

  Young India, 12-3-'30

  101. SOME QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

  The Risk of Violence

  Q. Will not your movement lead to violence?

  A. It may, though I am trying my best to prevent any outbreak of violence. Today there is a greater risk of violence, in the absence of any safety-valve in the shape of a movement of non-violence like the one I am contemplating.

  Q. Yes, I have heard you say that you are launching this campaign for the very purpose of stopping violence.

  A. It is one argument, but that is not the most conclusive argument. The other and most conclusive argument for me is that if non-violence has to prove its worth, it must prove its worth today. It must cease to be the passive or even impotent instrument that it has come to be looked upon in certain quarters. And when it is exercised in the most effective way, it must act in spite of the most fatal outward obstructions. In fact non-violence by its very nature must neutralize all outward obstruction. On the contrary, inward obstacles in the shape of fraud, hatred, and ill-will would be fatal to the movement. Up to now I used to say, 'Let me get control over the forces of violence.' It is growing upon me now that it is only by setting the force of non-violence in motion that I can get those elements under control.

  But I hear people say, 'History will have to repeat itself in India.' Let it repeat itself, if it must. I for one must not postpone the movement unless I am to be guilty of the charge of cowardice. I must fight unto death the system based on violence and thus bring under control the force of political violence. When real organic non-violence is set to work, the masses also will react manfully.

  A Miracle

  Q. But after you are removed the movement will no longer be in your control?

  A. In South Africa the movement was not in my control during the latter part of it, when it gained considerable momentum without any action on my part. Thousands joined the movement instinctively. I had not even seen the faces of them, much less known them. They joined because they felt that they must. They had possibly only heard my name, but they saw in the twinkling of an eye that it was a movement for their liberation; they knew that there was a man prepared to fight the £ 3 tax and they took the plunge. And against what odds? Their mines were converted into jails; the men who oppressed them day and night were appointed warders over them. They knew that there would be hell let loose on them. And yet they did not waver or falter. It was a perfect miracle.

  The Opportunity of a Lifetime

  Q. But would not the movement add to the already numerous divisions existing in the country?

  A. I have no such fear. The forces of disunion can be kept under control, even as the forces of violence. You may say that there is fear elsewhere. The party of violence may not respond to my advances and the masses might behave unthinkingly. I am an optimist and have an abiding faith in human nature. The party of violence will give me fair play and the masses will act rightly by instinct. It is possible that I may be living in a fool's paradise. But no general can possibly provide for all contingencies. For me it is the opportunity of a lifetime. The movement is none of my seeking. Almost in spite of myself I was irresistibly drawn to Calcutta. I entered into a compromise to which I was driven. The period of two years I changed to one, simply because it did not involve any moral principle. In Lahore I had to conceive and frame practically every resolution. There I saw the forces of violence and non-violence in full play, acting side by side; and I found that non-violence ultimately triumphed over violence.

  How is the Time Ripe Now?

  Q. You said some time ago that the time was not ripe for civil disobedience. What has happened between that time and today that has helped you to alter your view?

  A. I am quite positive that it is fully ripe. The reason I will tell you. Nothing has happened externally, but the internal conflict in me, which was the only barrier, has ceased; and I am absolutely certain now that the campaign had been long overdue. I might have started it long before this.

  Q. And what was that internal conflict?

  A. You know I have always been guided solely by my attitude towards non-violence, but I did not know then how to translate that attitude into action in the face of growing violence. But now I see as clearly as daylight that, pursuing the course that I have adopted, I minimize the risk I am taking.

  Q. Are you sure that the salt campaign will lead you to jail?

  A. I have not a shadow of doubt that it will. How long exactly it will take is more than I can say, but I feel that it will be much sooner than most people would be inclined to think. I expect a crisis to be soon reached which would lead to a proper Conference—not a Round Table Conference, but a Square Table one where everybody attending it would know his bearings. The exact lineaments of that Conference I cannot at present depict, but it will be a Conference between equals met to lay their heads together to devise ways and means for the establishment of an Independent Constitution in India.

  About the Interview

  Q. Were you not responsible for allowing the Viceregal negotiations to come to an abrupt end?

  A. I know that is the impression in certain quarters; the public blamed me for a time, but now it has come to understand the true position.

  Q. Are you quite sure that in the position you took, the influence of the younger generation did not weigh with you?

  A. No. Not a bit. I had never been sanguine about the Round Table Conference. I went of course as far as I could. But the central thing I always insisted on was that the Conference should apply itself to a scheme of Dominion Status suited to the needs of India. If the Viceroy had said 'Yes,' I should gladly have asked him to proceed to the other points.

  Q. Then you had no objection to the scheme coming into operation some years hence?

  A. If the scheme was such as to come into operation at a future time, I should rule it out. But I may not talk about our interview with the Viceroy. The public might know more about it some day. I can assure you, however, that there was no question of a real Dominion Status scheme being framed.

  The Eleven Points

  Q. Just a question about your now famous eleven points. If some of them are conceded, would there be room for a compromise?

  A. If they were to concede a few main points and couple the concession with a promise that the rest would be conceded as soon as possible, I would be prepared to consider a proposition for a Conference. But the justice of all those demands must be admitted. You will agree that there is nothing new about them. Most have been handed down to us from Dadabhai Naoroji's time.

  Q. Supposing they conceded your deman
d about the reduction of civil and military expenditure, would you not regard it as a sufficient proof of their bona fides?

  A. I should seriously reconsider my position, but it would all depend on the spirit in which the concession was made.

  Young India, 20-3-'30

  102. ON THE EVE OF THE MARCH

  [Gandhiji addressed these words to the vast audience assembled on the sands of the Sabarmati near the Sabarmati Ashram after prayer on the eve of his Salt Satyagraha March to Dandi:]

  In all probability this will be my last speech to you. Even if the Government allow me to march tomorrow morning, this will be my last speech on the sacred banks of the Sabarmati. Possibly these may be the last words of my life here.