University of Virginia Library

TO YOUNG BENGAL

I have just read an account of your
response to the nation's call. It does credit
to you and to Bengal. I had expected no less.
I certainly expect still more. Bengal has
great intelligence. It has a greater heart, it
has more than its share of the spiritual
heritage for which our country is specially
noted. You have more imagination, more
faith and more emotion than the rest of
India. You have falsified the calumny of
cowardice on more occasions than one. There
is, therefore, no reason why Bengal should not
lead now as it has done before now.

You have taken the step you will not
recede. You had ample time to think. You
have paused, you have considered. You held
the Congress that delivered to the nation the
message of Non-co-operation, i.e., of self-purification,
self-sacrifice, courage and hope.
The Nagpur Congress ratified, clarified and
amplified the first declaration. It was delivered
in the midst of strife, doubt and disunion. It

was re-delivered in the midst of joy acclamation,
and practically perfect unanimity. It was
open to you to refuse, or to hesitate to respond.
You have chosen the better, though, from a
wordly wise standpoint, less cautious way.
You dare not go back without hurting
yourselves and the cause.

But for the evil spell that the existing
system of government and, most of all, this
western education has cast upon us, the
question will not be considered as open to
argument. Can the brave Arabs retain their
independence and yet be schooled under the
ægis of those who would hold them under
bondage? They will laugh at a person who
dared to ask them to go to schools that may
be established by their invaders. Is the case
different, or if it is different, is it not stronger
in our case when we are called upon to give
up schools conducted under the ægis of a
government which, rightly or wrongly, we seek
to bend to our will or destroy?

We cannot get Swaraj if not one class in
the country is prepared to work and sacrifice
for it. The Government will yield not to the
logic of words. It knows no logic but that of
brave and true deeds.

Bravery of the sword they know. And
they have made themselves proof against its
use by us. Many of them will welcome
violence on our part. They are unconquerable
in the art of meeting and suppressing violence.
We propose, therefore, to sterilize their power
of inflicting violence by our non-violence.
Violence dies when it ceases to evoke response
from its object. Non-violence is the cornerstone
of the edifice of Non-co-operation. You
will, therefore, not be hasty or overzealous in
your dealings with those who may not see eye
to eye with you. Intolerance is a species of
violence and therefore against our creed. Nonviolent
Non-co-operation is an object lesson in
democracy. The moment we are able to
ensure non-violence, even under circumstances
the most provoking, that moment we have
achieved our end, because that is the moment
when we can offer complete Non-co-operation.

I ask you not to be frightened at the proposition
just stated. People do not move in
arithmetical progression, not even in geometrical
progression. They have been known to
perish in a day: they have been known to
rise in a day. Is it such a difficult thing for
India to realise that thirty crores of human

beings have but to feel their strength and
they can be free without having to use it?
As we had not regained national Consciousness,
the rulers have hitherto played us
against one another. We have to refuse to do
so, and we are masters, not they.

Non-co-operation deals first with those
sensitive classes upon whom the government
has acted so successfully and who have been
lured into the trap consciously or unconsciously
as the school-going youths have been.

When we come to think about it, the
sacrifice required is infinitesimal for individuals,
because the whole is distributed among so
many of us. For what is your sacrifice? To
suspend your literary studies for one year or
till Swaraj is established. If I could `infect'
the whole of the student world with my faith,
I know that suspension of studies need not
extend even to a year.

And in the place of your suspended studies
I would urge you to study the methods of
bringing about Swaraj as quietly as possible
even within the year of grace. I present you
with the SPINNING WHEEL and suggest
to you that on it depends India's economic
salvation.

But you are at liberty to reject it if you
wish and go to the College that has been promised
to you by Mr. Das. Most of your fellow-students
in the National College at Gujarat
have undertaken to give at least four hours to
spinning everyday. It is no sacrifice to learn
a beautiful art and to be able to clothe the
naked at the same time.

You have done your duty by withdrawing
from Government colleges, I have only
showed you the easiest and the most profitable
way of devoting the time at your disposal.

May God give you strength and courage
to sustain you in your determination.