India made to crawl on its belly. Insofar as a single Indian woman was forced to unveil herself, insofar was the entire womanhood of India outraged. Insofar as isolated instances occurred of people having been fired upon without provocation, insofar was the whole of India fired upon without provocation." So intense was the feeling in India. But however indignant righteous people might have felt, that shock, like the shock of 1857, would have passed away, had it not been for the delicate nature of the Khilafat claim, which now began to make headway.

The Khalifa or the Caliph is the spiritual head and the central authority that is entrusted with the duty of defending Islam or Mohammedanism. He is the successor of the Prophet Mohammed and the agent of Allah (God) on earth. According to Islamic tradition he must possess sufficient temporal power to defend Islam against non-Islamic powers and he should be one elected or accepted by the Mohammedan world.

The Jazirat-ul-Arab is the area bounded by the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, the Persian Gulf and the waters of the Tigris and the Euphrates. It is the sacred home of Islam, containing the Holy places and the center toward which the Islamic world turns in prayer. According to the injunctions of their Faith, this entire area should always be under Muslim control, i. e., under the suzerainty of the Khalifa. If the Khilafat is jeopardized, if the Khalifa is denuded of his temporal powers, the "believer" is enjoined to redeem the wrong at the cost of everything, even life itself!

According to the Treaty of Sevres imposed upon the nominal government at Constantinople, the Khalifa is a prisoner in his own city. The Jaziratul-Arab has been torn away from the head of the Muslim world. Rather lose life than be faithless to religion-such is the attitude of the Mohammedan.

Gandhi, a devout orthorox Hindu, was willing to godfather the cause of his Mohammedan brethren in their hour of peril. Wherever religious issues are at stake, Gandhi is sure to be. The Khilafat

a religious question with the Mohammedans, so he needs must help them. Indeed as early as 1918, during the progress of the war, he intimated to Lord Chelmsford, the then Governor-General of India, that scrupulous regard be had to the sentiments of the Indian Mohammedans in regard to the Holy places and that Khilafat be kept intact as promised by His Excellency, by Asquith and by Lloyd George. For his championing the cause of the Mohammedans, Gandhi soon began to be looked upon as the "Wali" or Guardian of Islam, and under his direction was duly launched the now famous Non-Cooperation Program on the historic First of August, 1920. The Mohammedans having decided to boycott the Reformed Councils, the remaining two-thirds of the nation had to decide what it was to do. Hence in September was called in extraordinary session the Indian National Congress, the unofficial Parliament of India, with Lajpat Rai as its President. In the heat of the discussion, amidst cheers and jeers, Gandhi's Resolution of Non-Violent Non-Cooperation was carried. The creed of NonViolence and Non-Cooperation was enthusiastically affirmed at Nagpur by the Congress in December, 1920, and it was reaffirmed in December, 1921, at the Ahmedabad Session, when Gandhi was made sole Dictator

To conclude: Efforts are being made to purge society of its many ills. Primarily a movement of purification and constructive good-will, the national struggle is destructive of the rotten elements of present day society. The curse of untouchability, a black stigma on Hinduism, is being got rid of; that means that one-fifth of Indian humanity, who were formerly treated as a distinct species apart,

not fit to be touched, will be brought to the fold of decent, respectable humanity. The government monopoly of opium and liquor traffic is being combatted. Women are no more to be the toys of man, but will be allowed full opportunities for self-development and self-expression. Non-Cooperation is the soul of India in transition. It is not perfunctory as some Western journalists think. It is an intensely active program in spite of its negative terminology. NonCooperation embraces both the rejection of evil and the acceptance of good. Rejection of evil is in fact a necessary prelude to acceptance of good. People are rejecting, boycotting government institutions and they are accepting, constructing national institutions. Parents withdraw their children from government schools and colleges; popular organizations are setting up national schools and colleges. Lawyers, suitors and defenders, all boycott government law courts; people's arbitration courts are springing up everywhere. Surrender of titles, honors, etc., and boycott of British goods, coupled with the manufacture of home-spun clothes, make up the first stage of the program. It is significant of the success of the movement that the national flag of India bears the emblem of the Spinning-Wheel. Resignation from government service, either civil or military, is another stage. Individual and mass civil disobedience of government laws, refusal to pay taxes on the principle of no taxation without representation, complete the program. The ancient Republican institution of Panchayet (Council of Five) destroyed by the British, is being revived in every village. The work is just begun. But the moment an All-India Panchayet Congress joins hands with the All-India Trades Unions Congress, that very moment may we expect the fall of the colossus of British Empire. "All Power to the Panchayets" is the new formulalike "All Power to the Soviets" in Russia. The powers of the executive, the legislature, the judiciary and the police are all vested in the Panchayet; hence

its birth spells not merely the paralysis of British power in India, but the very destruction of British Raj.

This Program, I repeat, is constructive of good will and based on cooperation. Its shortcomings, if any, are due to the fact that it is a program of transition. Its superb virtue is that it does not fan racial hatred or nationalistic antagonism. To quote Gandhi: "This is a terribly true struggle. It is a struggle which is based on love, pure and undefiled. If I felt any hate toward Englishmen, or those who in their blindness are associated with the blind administrators, I would have the courage to retire from the struggle. This struggle therefore is intended to make friends with Englishmen and the whole world."

Chapter V

GAINS OF PASSIVE RESISTANCE

"I do not like the term 'Passive Resistance'; it fails to convey all I mean. It describes a method, but gives no hint of the system of which it is only a part. Real beauty, and that is my aim, is in doing good against evil. Still, I adopt the phrase because it is well-known, and easily understood, and because, at present, the great majority of my people can only grasp that idea. To me, the ideas which underlie the Gujrati hymn and the Sermon on the Mount, should revolutionize the whole of life."-Gandhi.

Now that Mahatma Gandhi has been arrested, and no "revolution" has taken place people are becoming skeptical of India's achieving freedom in the near future. Those that expected an outbreak of violence after Gandhi's arrest, have been disillusioned. And this is as it ought to be. To assure the world of the gains of the Struggle, I shall summarize them so far as possible, following Gandhi's method of analysis of the South African struggle:

That thereby the Indian community could preserve its national self-respect; according to our proverb, one who can preserve one's self-respect, can preserve everything else.

That thereby the whole of India, particularly the politically indifferent and inert peasantry, became acquainted with the deep-seated disease of alien domination and Imperialism; it is as amazing as it