75th anniversary of 1942 Quit India movement; Mahatma Gandhi's speech then; Relative of mine participated in Quit India movement in Bombay and was jailed
8th Aug. 2018 (some say 9th Aug.) was the 75th anniversary of the Quit India movement.
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quit_India_Movement :
The Quit India Movement, or the India August Movement, was a movement launched at the Bombay session of the All-India Congress Committee by Mahatma Gandhi on 8 August 1942, during World War II, demanding an end to British Rule of India.[1]
The Cripps Mission had failed, and on August 8th 1942, Gandhi made a call to Do or Die in his Quit India speech delivered in Bombay at the Gowalia Tank Maidan. The All-India Congress Committee launched a mass protest demanding what Gandhi called "An Orderly British Withdrawal" from India. Even though it was wartime, the British were prepared to act. Almost the entire leadership of the Indian National Congress was imprisoned without trial within hours of Gandhi's speech. Most spent the rest of the war in prison and out of contact with the masses. The British had the support of the Viceroy's Council (which had a majority of Indians), of the All India Muslim League, the princely states, the Indian Imperial Police, the British Indian Army and the Indian Civil Service. Many Indian businessmen profiting from heavy wartime spending did not support the Quit India Movement. Many students paid more attention to Subhas Chandra Bose, who was in exile and supporting the Axis Powers. The only outside support came from the Americans, as President Franklin D. Roosevelt pressured Prime Minister Winston Churchill to give in to some of the Indian demands. The Quit India campaign was effectively crushed.[2] The British refused to grant immediate independence, saying it could happen only after the war had ended.
Sporadic small-scale violence took place around the country and the British arrested tens of thousands of leaders, keeping them imprisoned until 1945. In terms of immediate objectives, Quit India failed because of heavy-handed suppression, weak co-ordination and the lack of a clear-cut programme of action. However, the British government realized that India was ungovernable in the long run due to the cost of World War II, and the question for postwar became how to exit gracefully and peacefully.
...
[References:]
1. "1942 Quit India Movement - Making Britain". www.open.ac.uk. Retrieved 1 May 2018. |archive-url= is malformed: path (help)
2. Arthur Herman (2008). Gandhi & Churchill: The Epic Rivalry That Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age. Random House Digital. pp. 494–99. ISBN 9780553804638.
--- end extracts from wikipedia ---
Video clips capturing the August 1942 Quit India movement are given below:
Footage - Gandhi - 1942 August, #01, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TywYfA5Qwd0, 1 min. 35 secs.
Footage - Gandhi - 1942 August, #02 (shows Gandhi speech), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhTpQCM0c-8, 24 secs
Footage - Gandhi - 1942 August, #03, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Epfl2N_6_M, 20 secs
Footage - Gandhi - 1942 August, #04, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LT2CR85Ce6o, around 2 mins.
Footage - Events - Quit India - 1942 August 9, #01, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0XfueCPLhA, 30 secs.
Footage - Events - Quit India - 1942 August 9, #02, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTNARKHIK8Y, 1 min. 51 secs.
Footage - Events - Quit India - 1942 August 9, #03, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PM6RzrjDQD0, 1 min. 41 secs.
Ravi: The text of Mahatma Gandhi's Quit India speech made on August 8th 1942, is given at the bottom of this post. It is an extraordinary speech when viewed in hindsight 76 years later!! Some of the great points of this speech, with some comments of mine on them, are given below:
* Quarrel is not with British people but with British imperialism. No hatred towards British.
[Ravi comment: I think it is this attitude of Gandhi and leaders of Indian freedom struggle aligned with Gandhi that has allowed India and Britain to continue to have reasonable, sometimes friendly, relations after Indian independence. Note that some Indian freedom struggle leaders like Subash Chandra Bose, and it seems, the Indian Communist party leaders, did not support Gandhi's Ahimsa (non-violent) approach in India's freedom struggle. So instead of a largely peaceful British withdrawal from India at Indian independence time, but for Gandhi and other Congress leaders including Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhai Patel and Maulana Azad pushing for non-violent struggle, Indian independence could have happened in a very violent scenario like what happened in Indonesian struggle for independence around the same time, with tens of thousands of casualties, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesian_National_Revolution. Or it could have gone Mao's peasant communist revolution way with not only a violent war with British forces in India, but following what would have been an inevitable British forces defeat (as they were weak after World War II and USA supported India's freedom from British empire), a civil war to establish Mao style communist rule in India. I think Indian lovers and beneficiaries of democracy like me owe a very big debt of gratitude to Mahatma Gandhi and other leaders who supported Mahatma Gandhi for having won India's independence from the British in a relatively non-violent manner and without whipping up hatred for the British among Indians, and expanding on democratic style of governance introduced by the British in India to sovereign democracy fully managed and ruled by Indians. end-Ravi-comment]
* "God has vouchsafed to me a priceless gift in the weapon of Ahimsa. I and my Ahimsa are on our trail today. If in the present crisis, when the earth is being scorched by the flames of Himsa and crying for deliverance, I failed to make use of the God given talent, God will not forgive me and I shall be judged unworthy of the great gift. I must act now. I may not hesitate and merely look on, when Russia and China are threatened."
[Ravi: Hmm. That's really extraordinary. Powerful countries in the world then were being consumed by the horrendous violence of World War II. Hitler's mad Nazism powered by German aggressive and successful onslaught on many countries in Europe, aided by Japanese imperialism powered by its military aggression having gained many successes in China and other parts of Asia, were on the ascendant and threatened the big countries of Russia and China. In the face of that very powerful and very dangerous level of violence, Gandhi viewed non-violence as a weapon for "deliverance" of the world from violence (Himsa)! And he believed in it as a God given gift! Hmm. I mean, Gandhi saw himself as God's messenger, a prophet, in a way with the message being the "weapon" of non-violence for achieving social justice. That's something! As a devout believer in God today, I can understand how Gandhi would have been deeply inspired and committed to using his non-violent "weapon" to achieve social justice (Indian independence) as he considered it to be God's gift to him.
I have to say that I personally don't hold the view today that non-violence (Ahimsa) will work against very aggressive military dictators and imperialists like today's equivalent of Hitler and Japanese imperialist leaders of World War II time. I support a militarily powerful defensive armed force capable of resisting armed aggression.
But the point is that Gandhi and the leaders that supported him, thought and acted differently. And it worked! Eventually the British caved in to India's demands and peacefully handed over power to Indian leaders. So I have to consider the possibility that God blessed this non-violence approach of an ardent devotee - Mahatma Gandhi - and crowned it with success. end-Ravi-comment]
* "Ours is not a drive for power, but purely a non-violent fight for India’s independence. In a violent struggle, a successful general has been often known to effect a military coup and to set up a dictatorship. But under the Congress scheme of things, essentially non-violent as it is, there can be no room for dictatorship. A non-violent soldier of freedom will covet nothing for himself, he fights only for the freedom of his country."
[Ravi: Very high ideals.]
* "I know how imperfect our Ahimsa is and how far away we are still from the ideal, but in Ahimsa there is no final failure or defeat. I have faith, therefore, that if, in spite of our shortcomings, the big thing does happen, it will be because God wanted to help us by crowning with success our silent, unremitting Sadhana for the last twenty-two years."
[Ravi: For Gandhi, he and his followers in the freedom struggle were doing spiritual austerity (sadhana) when they fighting unjust British imperialist rule using Ahimsa! And doing it for 22 years! In deeply devout India (large majority is theist), engaging in spiritual austerity is considered a noble thing and so enjoys social support.]
* "I believe that in the history of the world, there has not been a more genuinely democratic struggle for freedom than ours. I read Carlyle’s French Revolution while I was in prison, and Pandit Jawaharlal has told me something about the Russian revolution. But it is my conviction that inasmuch as these struggles were fought with the weapon of violence they failed to realize the democratic ideal. In the democracy which I have envisaged, a democracy established by non-violence, there will be equal freedom for all."
[Ravi: Once again, this point shows the really vital role that Gandhi played in ensuring that India's successful freedom struggle against Britain was largely non-violent. Amazing!]
* "Speaking for myself, I can say that I have never felt any hatred. As a matter of fact, I feel myself to be a greater friend of the British now than ever before. One reason is that they are today in distress. My very friendship, therefore, demands that I should try to save them from their mistakes. As I view the situation, they are on the brink of an abyss. It, therefore, becomes my duty to warn them of their danger even though it may, for the time being, anger them to the point of cutting off the friendly hand that is stretched out to help them. People may laugh, nevertheless that is my claim. At a time when I may have to launch the biggest struggle of my life, I may not harbor hatred against anybody."
[Ravi: The mark of the great spiritual man/woman is the absence of hatred even when he/she is persecuted. They may not succeed in the worldly sense. But spiritually they sure triumph. Death does not defeat their faith and their spirit. Gandhi eventually got assassinated as is the unfortunate destiny of many great spiritual men/women. But that did not defeat his faith and his spirit. Instead he became a martyr with his faith and spirit becoming even more admired over time. That the great USA civil rights champion and martyr himself, Dr. Martin Luther King, got inspired by Gandhi's non-violence "weapon" to achieve social justice, is a testament to Gandhi's non-violence faith/creed living on, beyond his death and in spite of him being assassinated.]
--- end great points from Gandhi's speech ---
Ravi: My second cousin's late father (second uncle) who lived in Chembur (one of his sons still lives in the same apartment flat that my second uncle lived in), participated in the Quit India movement in Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1942, and was jailed by the British governed police. He later got recognition as a freedom fighter from the governement of independent India.
The text of the Quit India speech made by Mahatma Gandhi on 8th August 1942 in Bombay (Mumbai) is given below (courtesy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quit_India_speech).
Before you discuss the resolution, let me place before you one or two things, I want you to understand two things very clearly and to consider them from the same point of view from which I am placing them before you. I ask you to consider it from my point of view, because if you approve of it, you will be enjoined to carry out all I say. It will be a great responsibility. There are people who ask me whether I am the same man that I was in 1920, or whether there has been any change in me. You are right in asking that question.
Let me, however, hasten to assure that I am the same Gandhi as I was in 1920. I have not changed in any fundamental respect. I attach the same importance to non-violence that I did then. If at all, my emphasis on it has grown stronger. There is no real contradiction between the present resolution and my previous writings and utterances.
Occasions like the present do not occur in everybody’s and but rarely in anybody’s life. I want you to know and feel that there is nothing but purest Ahimsa in all that I am saying and doing today. The draft resolution of the Working Committee is based on Ahimsa, the contemplated struggle similarly has its roots in Ahimsa. If, therefore, there is any among you who has lost faith in Ahimsa or is wearied of it, let him not vote for this resolution. Let me explain my position clearly. God has vouchsafed to me a priceless gift in the weapon of Ahimsa. I and my Ahimsa are on our trail today. If in the present crisis, when the earth is being scorched by the flames of Himsa and crying for deliverance, I failed to make use of the God given talent, God will not forgive me and I shall be judged unworthy of the great gift. I must act now. I may not hesitate and merely look on, when Russia and China are threatened.
Ours is not a drive for power, but purely a non-violent fight for India’s independence. In a violent struggle, a successful general has been often known to effect a military coup and to set up a dictatorship. But under the Congress scheme of things, essentially non-violent as it is, there can be no room for dictatorship. A non-violent soldier of freedom will covet nothing for himself, he fights only for the freedom of his country. The Congress is unconcerned as to who will rule, when freedom is attained. The power, when it comes, will belong to the people of India, and it will be for them to decide to whom it placed in the entrusted. May be that the reins will be placed in the hands of the Parsis, for instance-as I would love to see happen-or they may be handed to some others whose names are not heard in the Congress today. It will not be for you then to object saying, “This community is microscopic. That party did not play its due part in the freedom’s struggle; why should it have all the power?” Ever since its inception the Congress has kept itself meticulously free of the communal taint. It has thought always in terms of the whole nation and has acted accordingly. . . I know how imperfect our Ahimsa is and how far away we are still from the ideal, but in Ahimsa there is no final failure or defeat. I have faith, therefore, that if, in spite of our shortcomings, the big thing does happen, it will be because God wanted to help us by crowning with success our silent, unremitting Sadhana for the last twenty-two years.
I believe that in the history of the world, there has not been a more genuinely democratic struggle for freedom than ours. I read Carlyle’s French Revolution while I was in prison, and Pandit Jawaharlal has told me something about the Russian revolution. But it is my conviction that inasmuch as these struggles were fought with the weapon of violence they failed to realize the democratic ideal. In the democracy which I have envisaged, a democracy established by non-violence, there will be equal freedom for all. Everybody will be his own master. It is to join a struggle for such democracy that I invite you today. Once you realize this you will forget the differences between the Hindus and Muslims, and think of yourselves as Indians only, engaged in the common struggle for independence.
Then, there is the question of your attitude towards the British. I have noticed that there is hatred towards the British among the people. The people say they are disgusted with their behaviour. The people make no distinction between British imperialism and the British people. To them, the two are one. This hatred would even make them welcome the Japanese. It is most dangerous. It means that they will exchange one slavery for another. We must get rid of this feeling. Our quarrel is not with the British people, we fight their imperialism. The proposal for the withdrawal of British power did not come out of anger. It came to enable India to play its due part at the present critical juncture. It is not a happy position for a big country like India to be merely helping with money and material obtained willy-nilly from her while the United Nations are conducting the war. We cannot evoke the true spirit of sacrifice and valour, so long as we are not free. I know the British Government will not be able to withhold freedom from us, when we have made enough self-sacrifice. We must, therefore, purge ourselves of hatred. Speaking for myself, I can say that I have never felt any hatred. As a matter of fact, I feel myself to be a greater friend of the British now than ever before. One reason is that they are today in distress. My very friendship, therefore, demands that I should try to save them from their mistakes. As I view the situation, they are on the brink of an abyss. It, therefore, becomes my duty to warn them of their danger even though it may, for the time being, anger them to the point of cutting off the friendly hand that is stretched out to help them. People may laugh, nevertheless that is my claim. At a time when I may have to launch the biggest struggle of my life, I may not harbor hatred against anybody.
--- end text of Mahatma Gandhi 8th August 1942 Quit India speech ---
[I thank wikipedia and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above extracts from their website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quit_India_Movement :
The Quit India Movement, or the India August Movement, was a movement launched at the Bombay session of the All-India Congress Committee by Mahatma Gandhi on 8 August 1942, during World War II, demanding an end to British Rule of India.[1]
The Cripps Mission had failed, and on August 8th 1942, Gandhi made a call to Do or Die in his Quit India speech delivered in Bombay at the Gowalia Tank Maidan. The All-India Congress Committee launched a mass protest demanding what Gandhi called "An Orderly British Withdrawal" from India. Even though it was wartime, the British were prepared to act. Almost the entire leadership of the Indian National Congress was imprisoned without trial within hours of Gandhi's speech. Most spent the rest of the war in prison and out of contact with the masses. The British had the support of the Viceroy's Council (which had a majority of Indians), of the All India Muslim League, the princely states, the Indian Imperial Police, the British Indian Army and the Indian Civil Service. Many Indian businessmen profiting from heavy wartime spending did not support the Quit India Movement. Many students paid more attention to Subhas Chandra Bose, who was in exile and supporting the Axis Powers. The only outside support came from the Americans, as President Franklin D. Roosevelt pressured Prime Minister Winston Churchill to give in to some of the Indian demands. The Quit India campaign was effectively crushed.[2] The British refused to grant immediate independence, saying it could happen only after the war had ended.
Sporadic small-scale violence took place around the country and the British arrested tens of thousands of leaders, keeping them imprisoned until 1945. In terms of immediate objectives, Quit India failed because of heavy-handed suppression, weak co-ordination and the lack of a clear-cut programme of action. However, the British government realized that India was ungovernable in the long run due to the cost of World War II, and the question for postwar became how to exit gracefully and peacefully.
...
[References:]
1. "1942 Quit India Movement - Making Britain". www.open.ac.uk. Retrieved 1 May 2018. |archive-url= is malformed: path (help)
2. Arthur Herman (2008). Gandhi & Churchill: The Epic Rivalry That Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age. Random House Digital. pp. 494–99. ISBN 9780553804638.
--- end extracts from wikipedia ---
Video clips capturing the August 1942 Quit India movement are given below:
Footage - Gandhi - 1942 August, #01, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TywYfA5Qwd0, 1 min. 35 secs.
Footage - Gandhi - 1942 August, #02 (shows Gandhi speech), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhTpQCM0c-8, 24 secs
Footage - Gandhi - 1942 August, #03, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Epfl2N_6_M, 20 secs
Footage - Gandhi - 1942 August, #04, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LT2CR85Ce6o, around 2 mins.
Footage - Events - Quit India - 1942 August 9, #01, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0XfueCPLhA, 30 secs.
Footage - Events - Quit India - 1942 August 9, #02, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTNARKHIK8Y, 1 min. 51 secs.
Footage - Events - Quit India - 1942 August 9, #03, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PM6RzrjDQD0, 1 min. 41 secs.
Ravi: The text of Mahatma Gandhi's Quit India speech made on August 8th 1942, is given at the bottom of this post. It is an extraordinary speech when viewed in hindsight 76 years later!! Some of the great points of this speech, with some comments of mine on them, are given below:
* Quarrel is not with British people but with British imperialism. No hatred towards British.
[Ravi comment: I think it is this attitude of Gandhi and leaders of Indian freedom struggle aligned with Gandhi that has allowed India and Britain to continue to have reasonable, sometimes friendly, relations after Indian independence. Note that some Indian freedom struggle leaders like Subash Chandra Bose, and it seems, the Indian Communist party leaders, did not support Gandhi's Ahimsa (non-violent) approach in India's freedom struggle. So instead of a largely peaceful British withdrawal from India at Indian independence time, but for Gandhi and other Congress leaders including Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhai Patel and Maulana Azad pushing for non-violent struggle, Indian independence could have happened in a very violent scenario like what happened in Indonesian struggle for independence around the same time, with tens of thousands of casualties, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesian_National_Revolution. Or it could have gone Mao's peasant communist revolution way with not only a violent war with British forces in India, but following what would have been an inevitable British forces defeat (as they were weak after World War II and USA supported India's freedom from British empire), a civil war to establish Mao style communist rule in India. I think Indian lovers and beneficiaries of democracy like me owe a very big debt of gratitude to Mahatma Gandhi and other leaders who supported Mahatma Gandhi for having won India's independence from the British in a relatively non-violent manner and without whipping up hatred for the British among Indians, and expanding on democratic style of governance introduced by the British in India to sovereign democracy fully managed and ruled by Indians. end-Ravi-comment]
* "God has vouchsafed to me a priceless gift in the weapon of Ahimsa. I and my Ahimsa are on our trail today. If in the present crisis, when the earth is being scorched by the flames of Himsa and crying for deliverance, I failed to make use of the God given talent, God will not forgive me and I shall be judged unworthy of the great gift. I must act now. I may not hesitate and merely look on, when Russia and China are threatened."
[Ravi: Hmm. That's really extraordinary. Powerful countries in the world then were being consumed by the horrendous violence of World War II. Hitler's mad Nazism powered by German aggressive and successful onslaught on many countries in Europe, aided by Japanese imperialism powered by its military aggression having gained many successes in China and other parts of Asia, were on the ascendant and threatened the big countries of Russia and China. In the face of that very powerful and very dangerous level of violence, Gandhi viewed non-violence as a weapon for "deliverance" of the world from violence (Himsa)! And he believed in it as a God given gift! Hmm. I mean, Gandhi saw himself as God's messenger, a prophet, in a way with the message being the "weapon" of non-violence for achieving social justice. That's something! As a devout believer in God today, I can understand how Gandhi would have been deeply inspired and committed to using his non-violent "weapon" to achieve social justice (Indian independence) as he considered it to be God's gift to him.
I have to say that I personally don't hold the view today that non-violence (Ahimsa) will work against very aggressive military dictators and imperialists like today's equivalent of Hitler and Japanese imperialist leaders of World War II time. I support a militarily powerful defensive armed force capable of resisting armed aggression.
But the point is that Gandhi and the leaders that supported him, thought and acted differently. And it worked! Eventually the British caved in to India's demands and peacefully handed over power to Indian leaders. So I have to consider the possibility that God blessed this non-violence approach of an ardent devotee - Mahatma Gandhi - and crowned it with success. end-Ravi-comment]
* "Ours is not a drive for power, but purely a non-violent fight for India’s independence. In a violent struggle, a successful general has been often known to effect a military coup and to set up a dictatorship. But under the Congress scheme of things, essentially non-violent as it is, there can be no room for dictatorship. A non-violent soldier of freedom will covet nothing for himself, he fights only for the freedom of his country."
[Ravi: Very high ideals.]
* "I know how imperfect our Ahimsa is and how far away we are still from the ideal, but in Ahimsa there is no final failure or defeat. I have faith, therefore, that if, in spite of our shortcomings, the big thing does happen, it will be because God wanted to help us by crowning with success our silent, unremitting Sadhana for the last twenty-two years."
[Ravi: For Gandhi, he and his followers in the freedom struggle were doing spiritual austerity (sadhana) when they fighting unjust British imperialist rule using Ahimsa! And doing it for 22 years! In deeply devout India (large majority is theist), engaging in spiritual austerity is considered a noble thing and so enjoys social support.]
* "I believe that in the history of the world, there has not been a more genuinely democratic struggle for freedom than ours. I read Carlyle’s French Revolution while I was in prison, and Pandit Jawaharlal has told me something about the Russian revolution. But it is my conviction that inasmuch as these struggles were fought with the weapon of violence they failed to realize the democratic ideal. In the democracy which I have envisaged, a democracy established by non-violence, there will be equal freedom for all."
[Ravi: Once again, this point shows the really vital role that Gandhi played in ensuring that India's successful freedom struggle against Britain was largely non-violent. Amazing!]
* "Speaking for myself, I can say that I have never felt any hatred. As a matter of fact, I feel myself to be a greater friend of the British now than ever before. One reason is that they are today in distress. My very friendship, therefore, demands that I should try to save them from their mistakes. As I view the situation, they are on the brink of an abyss. It, therefore, becomes my duty to warn them of their danger even though it may, for the time being, anger them to the point of cutting off the friendly hand that is stretched out to help them. People may laugh, nevertheless that is my claim. At a time when I may have to launch the biggest struggle of my life, I may not harbor hatred against anybody."
[Ravi: The mark of the great spiritual man/woman is the absence of hatred even when he/she is persecuted. They may not succeed in the worldly sense. But spiritually they sure triumph. Death does not defeat their faith and their spirit. Gandhi eventually got assassinated as is the unfortunate destiny of many great spiritual men/women. But that did not defeat his faith and his spirit. Instead he became a martyr with his faith and spirit becoming even more admired over time. That the great USA civil rights champion and martyr himself, Dr. Martin Luther King, got inspired by Gandhi's non-violence "weapon" to achieve social justice, is a testament to Gandhi's non-violence faith/creed living on, beyond his death and in spite of him being assassinated.]
--- end great points from Gandhi's speech ---
Ravi: My second cousin's late father (second uncle) who lived in Chembur (one of his sons still lives in the same apartment flat that my second uncle lived in), participated in the Quit India movement in Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1942, and was jailed by the British governed police. He later got recognition as a freedom fighter from the governement of independent India.
The text of the Quit India speech made by Mahatma Gandhi on 8th August 1942 in Bombay (Mumbai) is given below (courtesy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quit_India_speech).
Before you discuss the resolution, let me place before you one or two things, I want you to understand two things very clearly and to consider them from the same point of view from which I am placing them before you. I ask you to consider it from my point of view, because if you approve of it, you will be enjoined to carry out all I say. It will be a great responsibility. There are people who ask me whether I am the same man that I was in 1920, or whether there has been any change in me. You are right in asking that question.
Let me, however, hasten to assure that I am the same Gandhi as I was in 1920. I have not changed in any fundamental respect. I attach the same importance to non-violence that I did then. If at all, my emphasis on it has grown stronger. There is no real contradiction between the present resolution and my previous writings and utterances.
Occasions like the present do not occur in everybody’s and but rarely in anybody’s life. I want you to know and feel that there is nothing but purest Ahimsa in all that I am saying and doing today. The draft resolution of the Working Committee is based on Ahimsa, the contemplated struggle similarly has its roots in Ahimsa. If, therefore, there is any among you who has lost faith in Ahimsa or is wearied of it, let him not vote for this resolution. Let me explain my position clearly. God has vouchsafed to me a priceless gift in the weapon of Ahimsa. I and my Ahimsa are on our trail today. If in the present crisis, when the earth is being scorched by the flames of Himsa and crying for deliverance, I failed to make use of the God given talent, God will not forgive me and I shall be judged unworthy of the great gift. I must act now. I may not hesitate and merely look on, when Russia and China are threatened.
Ours is not a drive for power, but purely a non-violent fight for India’s independence. In a violent struggle, a successful general has been often known to effect a military coup and to set up a dictatorship. But under the Congress scheme of things, essentially non-violent as it is, there can be no room for dictatorship. A non-violent soldier of freedom will covet nothing for himself, he fights only for the freedom of his country. The Congress is unconcerned as to who will rule, when freedom is attained. The power, when it comes, will belong to the people of India, and it will be for them to decide to whom it placed in the entrusted. May be that the reins will be placed in the hands of the Parsis, for instance-as I would love to see happen-or they may be handed to some others whose names are not heard in the Congress today. It will not be for you then to object saying, “This community is microscopic. That party did not play its due part in the freedom’s struggle; why should it have all the power?” Ever since its inception the Congress has kept itself meticulously free of the communal taint. It has thought always in terms of the whole nation and has acted accordingly. . . I know how imperfect our Ahimsa is and how far away we are still from the ideal, but in Ahimsa there is no final failure or defeat. I have faith, therefore, that if, in spite of our shortcomings, the big thing does happen, it will be because God wanted to help us by crowning with success our silent, unremitting Sadhana for the last twenty-two years.
I believe that in the history of the world, there has not been a more genuinely democratic struggle for freedom than ours. I read Carlyle’s French Revolution while I was in prison, and Pandit Jawaharlal has told me something about the Russian revolution. But it is my conviction that inasmuch as these struggles were fought with the weapon of violence they failed to realize the democratic ideal. In the democracy which I have envisaged, a democracy established by non-violence, there will be equal freedom for all. Everybody will be his own master. It is to join a struggle for such democracy that I invite you today. Once you realize this you will forget the differences between the Hindus and Muslims, and think of yourselves as Indians only, engaged in the common struggle for independence.
Then, there is the question of your attitude towards the British. I have noticed that there is hatred towards the British among the people. The people say they are disgusted with their behaviour. The people make no distinction between British imperialism and the British people. To them, the two are one. This hatred would even make them welcome the Japanese. It is most dangerous. It means that they will exchange one slavery for another. We must get rid of this feeling. Our quarrel is not with the British people, we fight their imperialism. The proposal for the withdrawal of British power did not come out of anger. It came to enable India to play its due part at the present critical juncture. It is not a happy position for a big country like India to be merely helping with money and material obtained willy-nilly from her while the United Nations are conducting the war. We cannot evoke the true spirit of sacrifice and valour, so long as we are not free. I know the British Government will not be able to withhold freedom from us, when we have made enough self-sacrifice. We must, therefore, purge ourselves of hatred. Speaking for myself, I can say that I have never felt any hatred. As a matter of fact, I feel myself to be a greater friend of the British now than ever before. One reason is that they are today in distress. My very friendship, therefore, demands that I should try to save them from their mistakes. As I view the situation, they are on the brink of an abyss. It, therefore, becomes my duty to warn them of their danger even though it may, for the time being, anger them to the point of cutting off the friendly hand that is stretched out to help them. People may laugh, nevertheless that is my claim. At a time when I may have to launch the biggest struggle of my life, I may not harbor hatred against anybody.
--- end text of Mahatma Gandhi 8th August 1942 Quit India speech ---
[I thank wikipedia and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above extracts from their website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
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