or the goal even if we confined Swadeshi to a given
set of articles allowing ourselves as a temporary measure to use such
things as might not be procurable in the country.

There now remains for me to consider one more objection that has been
raised against Swadeshi. The objectors consider it to be a most selfish
doctrine without any warrant in the civilised code of morality. With
them to practise Swadeshi is to revert to barbarism. I cannot enter into
a detailed analysis of the position. But I would urge that Swadeshi is
the only doctrine consistent with the law of humility and love. It is
arrogance to think of launching out to serve the whole of India when I
am hardly able to serve even my own family. It were better to
concentrate my effort upon the family and consider that through them I
was serving the whole nation and, if you will, the whole of humanity.
This is humility and it is love. The motive will determine the quality
of the act. I may serve my family regardless of the sufferings I may
cause to others. As for instance, I may accept an employment which
enables me to extort money from people, I enrich myself thereby and then
satisfy many unlawful demands of the family. Here I am neither serving
the family nor the State. Or I may recognise that God has given me hands
and feet only to work with for my sustenance and for that of those who
may be dependent upon me. I would then at once simplify my life and that
of those whom I can directly reach. In this instance I would have served
the family without causing injury to anyone else. Supposing that
everyone followed this mode of life, we should have at once an ideal
state. All will not reach that state at the same time. But those of us
who, realising its truth, enforce it in practice will clearly anticipate
and accelerate the coming of that happy day. Under this plan of life, in
seeming to serve India to the exclusion of every other country I do not
harm any other country. My patriotism is both exclusive and inclusive.
It is exclusive in the sense that in all humility I confine my attention
to the land of my birth, but it is inclusive in the sense that my
service is not of a competitive or antagonistic nature. _Sic utere tuo
ut alienum non la_ is not merely a legal maxim, but it is a grand
doctrine of life. It is the key to a proper practice of Ahimsa or love.
It is for you, the custodians of a great faith, to set the fashion and
show, by your preaching, sanctified by