t temporary disorder and
dislocation of national business, I will favour that disorder and
dislocation than that I should have injustice from the hands of a great
nation such as the British nation. You will find that by the time the
whole chapter is closed that the successors of Mr. Montagu will give me
the credit for having rendered the most distinguished service that I
have yet rendered to the Empire, in having offered this non-co-operation
and in having suggest the boycott, not of His Royal Highness the
principle of Wales, but of boycott of a visit engineered by Government
in order to tighten its hold on the national neck. I will not allow it
even if I stand alone, if I cannot persuade this nation not to welcome
that visit but will boycott that visit with all the power at my command.
It is for that reason I stand before you and implore you to offer this
religious battle, but it is not a battle offered to you by a visionary
or a saint. I deny being a visionary. I do not accept the claim of
saintliness. I am of the earth, earthy, a common gardener man as much as
any one of you, probably much more than you are. I am prone to as many
weaknesses as you are. But I have seen the world. I have lived in the
world with my eyes open. I have gone through the most fiery ordeals that
have fallen to the lot of man. I have gone through this discipline. I
have understood the secret of my own sacred Hinduism. I have learnt the
lesson that non-co-operation is the duty not merely of the saint but it
is the duty of every ordinary citizen, who not know much, not caring to
know much but wants to perform his ordinary household functions. The
people of Europe touch even their masses, the poor people the doctrine
of the sword. But the Rishis of India, those who have held the tradition
of India have preached to the masses of India this doctrine, not of the
sword, not of violence but of suffering, of self-suffering. And unless
you and I am prepared to go through this primary lesson we are not
ready even to offer the sword and that is the lesson my brother Shaukal
Ali has imbibed to teach and that is why he to-day accepts my advice
tendered to him in all prayerfulness and in all humility and says 'long
live non-co-operation.' Please remember that even in England the little
children were withdrawn from the schools; and colleges in Cambridge and
Oxford were closed. Lawyers had left their desks and were fighting in
the trenches. I do not present to y