(When the Non-co-operation Movement of the years 1920, 1921 was in full swing, India needed the services of her youngmen more than ever before. Congress leaders and Ali Brothers made a joint appeal to the students to leave their studies and to join the volunteer corps in their thousands. The response from the Bengal youth was profoundly heartening. In other parts of India too students joined the Non-co-operation Movement in large numbers. The following appeal was addressed by Mahatma Gandhi to the youngmen of Bengal in January 1921.)
THE MESSAGE OF SELF-SACRIFICE, COURAGE AND HOPE.
Dear Young Friends,
I have just read an account of your response to the Nation’s call. It does credit to you and to Bengal. I had expected no less. I certainly expect still more. Bengal has great intelligence. It has a greater heart, it has more than its share of the spiritual heritage for which our country is specially noted. You have more imagination, more faith and more emotion than the rest of India. You have falsified the calumny of cowardice on more occasions than one. There is, therefore, no reason why Bengal should not lead now as it had done before now.
You have taken the step, you will not recede. You had ample time to think. You have paused, you have considered. You held the Congress that delivered to the Nation the message of Non-Co-operation, i.e., of self-purification, self-sacrifice, courage and hope. The Nagpur Congress ratified, clarified and amplified the first declaration. It was re-delivered in the midst of strife, doubt, and disunion. It was redelivered in the midst of joy, acclamation, and practically perfect unanimity. It was open to you to refuse, or to hesitate, or to respond. You have chosen the better, though from a wordly wise standpoint less cautious way. You dare not go back without hurting yourselves and the cause.
But for the evil spell that the existing system of Government and, most of all, this Western education has cast upon us, the question will not be considered as open to argument. Can the brave Arabs retain their independence and yet be schooled under the aegis of those who would hold them under bondage? They will laugh at a person who dared to ask them to go to schools that may be established by their invaders. Is the case different, or if it is different, is it not stronger in our case when we are called upon to give up schools conducted under the aegis of a Government, which, rightly or wrongly, we ween to bend to our will or destroy?
We can not get Swaraj if not one class in the country is prepared to work and sacrifice for it. The Government will yield not to the logic of words. It knows no logic but that of brave and true deeds. Bravery of the sword they know. And they have made themselves proof against its use by us. Many of them will welcome violence on our part. They are unconquerable in the art of meeting and suppressing violence. We propose, therefore, to sterilize their power of inflicting violence by our non-violence. Violence dies when it ceases to evoke response from its object. Non-violence is the corner stone of the edifice of Non-co-operation. You will, therefore, not be hasty or over-zealous in your dealings with those who may not see eye to eye with you. Intolerance is a species of violence and therefore against our creed. Non-violent Non-co-operation is an object lesson in democracy. The moment we are able to ensure non-violence, even under circumstances the most provoking that moment we have achieved our end, because that is the moment when we can offer complete Non-co-operation.
Non-co-operation deals first with those sensitive classes upon whom the Government has acted so successfully and who have been lured into the trap consciously or unconsciously as the school going youths have been.
When we come to think about it, the sacrifice required is infinitesimal for individuals because the whole is distributed among so many of us. For what is your sacrifice. To suspend your library studies for one year or till Swaraj is established. If I could infect the whole of the student world with my faith, I know that suspension of studies need not extend even to a year.
And in the place of your suspended studies, I would urge you to study the methods of bringing about Swaraj as quietly as possible even within the year of grace. I present you with the SPINNING WHEEL and suggest to you that on it depends India’s economic salvation. But you are at liberty to reject it if you wish and go to the college that has been promised to you by Mr. Das. Most of your fellow students in the National College at Gujrat have undertaken to give at least four hours to spinning every day. It is no sacrifice to learn a beautiful art and to be able to clothe the naked at the same time. You have done your duty by withdrawing from Government Colleges. I have only showed you the easiest and the most profitable way of devoting the time at your disposal.
May God give you strength and courage to sustain you in your determination.
Your well wisher, M. K. GANDHI