plead not
for futile obstruction in the Legislative council but for real
substantial non-co-operation which would paralyse the mightiest
Government on earth. That is what I stand for to-day. Until we have
wrung justice, and until we have wrung our self-respect from unwilling
hands and from unwilling pens there can be no co-operation. Our Shastras
say and I say so with the greatest deference to all the greatest
religious preceptors of India but without fear of contradiction, that
our Shastras teach us that there shall be no co-operation between
injustice and justice, between an unjust man and a justice-loving man,
between truth and untruth. Co-operation is a duty only so long as
Government protects your honour, and non-co-operation is an equal duty
when the Government instead of protecting robs you of your honour. That
is the doctrine of non-co-operation.

NON-CO-OPERATION AND THE SPECIAL CONGRESS

I have been told that I should have waited for the declaration of the
special Congress which is the mouth piece of the whole nation. I know
that it is the mouthpiece of the whole nation. If it was for me,
individual Gandhi, to wait, I would have waited for eternity. But I had
in my hands a sacred trust. I was advising my Mussalman countrymen and
for the time being I hold their honour in my hands. I dare not ask them
to wait for any verdict but the verdict of their own Conscience. Do you
suppose that Mussalmans can eat their own words, can withdraw from the
honourable position they have taken up? If perchance--and God forbid
that it should happen--the Special Congress decides against them, I
would still advise my countrymen the Mussalmans to stand single handed
and fight rather than yield to the attempted dishonour to their
religion. It is therefore given to the Mussalmans to go to the Congress
on bended knees and plead for support. But support or no support, it was
not possible for them to wait for the Congress to give them the lead.
They had to choose between futile violence, drawing of the naked sword
and peaceful non-violent but effective non-co-operation, and they have
made their choice. I venture further to say to you that if there is any
body of men who feel as I do, the sacred character of non-co-operation,
it is for you and me not to wait for the Congress but to act and to make
it impossible for the Congress to give any other verdict. After all what
is the Congress? The Congress is the collected voice of individuals