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lege therefore, to be charged under it. I have endeavored to give in their briefest outline the reasons for my disaffection. I have no personal ill-will against any single administrator, much less can I have any disaffection towards the King's person. But I hold it to be a virtue to be disaffected towards a Government which in its totality has done more harm to India than any previous system. India is less manly under the British rule than she ever was before. Holding such a belief, I consider it to be a sin to have affection for the system. And it has been a precious privilege for me to be able to write what I have in the various articles tendered in evidence against me.

"In fact I believe that I have rendered a service to India and England by showing in non-co-operation the way out of the unnatural state in which both are living. In my humble opinion, non-co-operation with evil is as much a duty as is co-operation with good. But in the past, non-co-operation has been deliberately expressed in violence to the evil-doer. I am endeavoring to show to my countrymen that violent non-co-operation only multiplies evil and that as evil can only be sustained by violence, withdrawal of support of evil requires complete abstention from violence. Non-violence implies voluntary submission to the penalty for non-co-operation with evil. I am here, therefore, to invite and submit cheerfully to the highest penalty that can be inflicted upon me for what in law is a deliberate crime and what appears to me to be the highest duty of a citizen. The only course open to you, the Judge and the Assessors, is either to resign your posts and thus dissociate yourselves from evil if you feel that the law you are called upon to administer is an evil and that in reality I am innocent, or to inflict on me the severest penalty if you believe that the system and the law you are assisting to administer are good for the

people of this country and that my activity is therefore injurious to the public weal."

M. K. GANDHI.

The Judgment

The following is the full text of the judgment: "Mr. Gandhi, you have made my task easy in one way by pleading guilty to the charge. Nevertheless, what remains, namely, the determination of a just sentence is perhaps as difficult a proposition as a judge in this country could have to face. The law is no respector of persons. Nevertheless, it will be impossible to ignore the fact that you are in a different category from any person I have ever tried or am likely to have to try. It would be impossible to ignore the fact that in the eyes of millions of your countrymen you are a great patriot and a great leader. Even those who differ from you in politics look upon you as a man of high ideals and of noble and of even saintly life. I have to deal with you in one character only. It is not my duty and I do not presume to judge or criticise you in any other character. It is my duty to judge you as a man subject to the law, who has by his own admission. broken the law and committed, what to an ordinary man must appear to be, grave offenses against the State. I do not forget that you have consistently preached against violence and that you have on many occasions, as I am willing to believe, done much to prevent violence. But having regard to the nature of your political teaching and the nature of many of those to whom it was addressed, how you could have continued to believe that violence would not be the inevitable consequence, it passes my capacity to understand. There are probably few people in India who do not sincerely regret that you should have made it impossible for any Government to leave you at liberty. But it is so. I am trying to balance what is due to you against what appears to me to be

necessary in the interest of the public, and I propose in passing sentence to follow the precedent of a case in many respects similar to this case that was decided some twelve years ago. I mean the case against Mr. Bal Gangadhar Tilak under the same section. The sentence that was passed upon him as it finally stood was a sentence of simple imprisonment for six years. You will not consider it unreasonable, I think, that you should be classed with Mr. Tilak. That is a sentence of two years' simple imprisonment on each count of the charge, six years in all which I feel it my duty to pass upon you; and I should like to say in doing so that if the course of events in India should make it possible for the Government to reduce the period and release you, no one will be better pleased than I."

The Judge, then, addressing Mr. Banker, said: "I assume you have been to a large extent under the influence of your chief. The sentence that I propose to pass upon you is simple imprisonment for six months on each of the first two counts, that is to say, simple imprisonment for one year, and a fine of a thousand rupees on the third count with a six months' simple imprisonment in default."

Mahatma Gandhi's Reply

Mahatma Gandhi said: "I would say one word since you have done me the honour of recalling the trial of the late Lokamanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak. I just want to say that I consider it to be the proudest privilege and honour to be associated with his name. So far as the sentence itself is concerned I certainly consider that it is as light as any judge would inflict on me, and so far as the whole proceedings are concerned I must say that I could not have expected greater courtesy."

Chapter IV

INDIA OF TODAY

There is a tidal wave sweeping over the East. The spirit of Democracy is abroad and the people are wide awake. In the general awakening of the East, India's is the leading part. India is today the center of world attention, and the personality holding humanity spell-bound is Mahatma Gandhi.

Somehow or other, the Indians' claim still remains true: that the Western mind is incapable of understanding the East, particularly the deep spiritual significance of Mahatma Gandhi's movement, which is designed to revolutionize revolution. "It is my modesty," says Gandhi, "that restrains me from preaching the gospel (of this particular method of revolution) to the people of the world. First let it bear fruit in the land of its inception, then shall I proclaim it to the entire world." Of this unprecedented revolution, Non-Cooperation is the framework, and Ahimsa the soul. In its negative aspect, Ahimsa means Non-Violence; in its positive form it means Love. There is room neither for hatred nor animosity in the program; indeed the revolution is raised beyond the pale of hate and transported into the transcendental realm of Love. Such is Gandhi's attitude; to attain that end is the cherished desire of the teeming millions of India, povertystricken and enhungered as they are! The poisonous sting of the Black Cobra Bills no doubt did produce bitter hue and cry in some quarters, but peace-loving Gandhi is the most restraining, pacifying factor in

the life of the Indian nation. Into the domain of politics-where usually diplomacy, duplicity and fraud are rampant-the latent spiritual forces of a nation are brought into play, full and unfettered, for the first time since history began!

On the historic First Day of August, 1920, died the "Uncrowned Prince" of India, Bal Gangadhar Tilak-the beloved of the people was no more! But the people found it hard to believe that he was not in their midst. The spirit of the departed leader has been an inspiration to millions in India. Gandhi whose influence was already recognized all over India now became the undisputed Leader of the Indian Nationalist Party-the best and truest representative of his race. An earnest ambassador of Hindu-Mohammedan Unity, Gandhi cemented the friendly relations between the two communities. This Hindu-Moslem entente became a permanent factor after the blood of both the communities was spilt at Jalliawallah Bagh in April 1919 by General Dyer. The Hindu-Moslem unity, it may be safely asserted, is quite reliable, solid and permanent. The differences between Hindus and Mohammedans are being emphasized-as they have been in the past-only by foreigners, particularly by Westerners and Christians at that! The Mogul Emperor Akber, Mohammedan by faith, is the most beloved by the Hindus as by the Mohammedans: he takes his place in the hearts of the people almost with the Hindu Emperor Asoka. The Mohammedans no doubt are a little too turbulent-and the Hindus are a little too docile. But the two races are assimilating the best of each other. The great point about Hinduism is its capability to absorb the best elements of every religion, culture and civilization; even now there is in India a sublimer Christianity in the making than elsewhere in the world! This then is a solid fact that the Hindus and Mohammedans are one, and

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