them after; I count of no
consequence. Innocent, unarmed men, who knew nothing of what was to
happen, were butchered in cold blood without the slightest notice.
Modesty of women in Manianwalla, women who had done no wrong to any
individual, was outraged by insolent officers. I want you to understand
what I mean by outrage of their modesty. Their veils were opened with
his stick by an officer. Men who were declared to be utterly innocent by
the Hunter Committee were made to crawl on their bellies. And all these
wrongs totally undeserved remain unavenged. If it was the duty of the
Government of India to punish those who were guilty of incendiarism and
murder, as I hold it was their duty, it was doubly their duty to punish
officers who insulted and oppressed innocent people. But in the face of
these official wrongs we have the debate in the house of lords
supporting official terrorism, it is this double wrong, the affront to
Islam and the injury to the manhood of the Punjab, that we feel bound to
wipe out by non-co-operation. We have prayed, petitioned, agitated, we
have passed resolutions. Mr. Mahomed Ali supported by his friends is now
waiting on the British public. He has pleaded the cause of Islam in a
most manful manner, but his pleading has fallen on deaf ears and we have
his word for it that whilst France and Italy have shown great sympathy
for the cause of Islam, it is the British Ministers who have shown no
sympathy. This shows which way the British Ministers and the present
holders of office in India mean to deal by the people. There is no
goodwill, there is no desire to placate the people of India. The people
of India must therefore have a remedy to redress the double wrong. The
method of the west is violence. Wherever the people of the west have
felt a wrong either justly or unjustly, they have rebelled and shed
blood. As I have said in my letter to the Viceroy of India, half of
India does not believe in the remedy of violence. The other half is too
weak to offer it. But the whole of India is deeply hurt and stirred by
this wrong, and it is for that reason that I have suggested to the
people of India the remedy of non-co-operation. I consider it perfectly
harmless, absolutely constitutional and yet perfectly efficacious. It is
a remedy in which, if it is properly adopted, victory is certain, and it
is the age-old remedy of self-sacrifice. Are the Mussalmans of India who
feel the great wrong done to Islam ready t