Before
you discuss the resolution, let me place before you one or two things. I want
you to understand two things very clearly and to consider them from the same point
of view from which I am placing them before you. I ask you to
consider it from my point of view, because if you approve of it, you will be
obliged to carry out all I say. It will be a great responsibility. There
are people who ask me whether I am the same man that I was in the earlier
years or whether there has been any change in me. You are right in
asking that question. Let me, however, hasten to assure that I am the same120 Gandhi as I was in the earlier years.
I have not changed in any fundamental respect. I attach the same140 importance to non-violence that I did
then. If at all, my emphasis on it has grown stronger. There is no160 real contradiction between the present
resolution and my previous writings and speeches.
Occasions like the present do not
occur in everyday life but rarely in anybody’s life. I want you to know and
feel that there is nothing but purest non-violence in all that I am
saying and doing today. Non-violence is the key. The draft resolution of the
Working Committee is based on non-violence. The contemplated struggle similarly
has its roots in non-violence. If, therefore, there is any among240 you who has lost faith in non-violence or is
tired of it, let him not vote for this resolution. Let me explain my position
clearly. God has granted to me a priceless gift in the weapon of non-violence.
I and280 my non-violence are on our
path today. If in the present crisis, when the earth is being burnt by the
flames of violence and crying for release, I failed to make use of the
God-given talent, God will not forgive320
me and I shall be judged unworthy of the great gift. I must act now. I
may not hesitate and merely look on, when Russia and China are threatened.
Ours is not a drive for power, but
purely a non-violent360 fight for India’s
independence. In a non-violent struggle, a successful General has
been often known to effect a military coup and to set up a dictatorship. But
under the Congress scheme of things, essentially non-violence as it is, there
can be no room for dictatorship. A non-violent soldier of freedom will
desire nothing for himself, he fights only for the420
freedom of his country. The Congress is unconcerned as to who will rule,
when freedom is attained. The power, when it comes, will belong to the people
of India, and it will be for them to decide to whom to place in the seat of
power. May be that the reins will be placed in the hands of the Parsis480 for instance, as I would love to see happen,
or they may be handed to some others whose names are not heard in the Congress
Party. It will not be for you then to object saying that this
community is microscopic, or that party did not play its due part
in the freedom struggle; why should it have all the power?
Ever since its inception, the
Congress has kept itself meticulously free of the communal taint. It has thought
always560 in terms of the whole
nation and has acted accordingly. I know how imperfect our non-violence is and
how far away we are still from the ideal, but in non-violence there is no final
failure or defeat. I have faith, 600
therefore, that if in spite of our shortcomings the big thing does
happen, it will be because God wanted to help us by crowning with success our
silent, unremitting struggle for the last twenty years. I believe that
in the640 history of the world,
there has not been a more genuinely democratic struggle for
freedom than ours. I read about French Revolution while I was in prison and
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru told me something about the Russian Revolution. But it
is my conviction that in as much as these struggles were fought with the
weapon of violence, they failed to700
realize the democratic ideal. In the democracy which I have envisaged, a
democracy established by non-violence, there will be equal720 freedom for all. Everybody will be his own
master. It is to join a struggle for such democracy that I invite you today.
Once you realize this, you will forget the difference between the different
communities and think of yourselves as Indians only, engaged in the common
struggle for independence.
Then, there is the question of your
attitude towards the British. I have noticed that there is hatred
towards the British among the people. The people say they are disgusted800 with their behaviour. The people make no
distinction between British imperialism and the British people. To them, the
two are one. This hatred would even make them welcome the Japanese. It is most
dangerous. It means that they will exchange840
one slavery for another. We must get rid of this feeling. Our quarrel is not
with the British people; we fight their imperialism. The proposal for
the withdrawal of British power did not come out of anger. It came to
enable India to play its due part at the present critical juncture. It is
not a happy position for a big country like India to be merely helping with
money and material obtained willy-nilly from her while the United Nations are
conducting the war. We cannot evoke the true spirit of sacrifice and valour, so
long as we are not free. I know the British Government
will not be able to deny freedom to us when we have made enough960 self-sacrifice. We must, therefore, rise
above hatred.
Speaking for myself, I can say that
I have never felt any hatred.980 As a
matter of fact, I feel myself to be a greater friend of the British now than
ever before. One reason is that they are today in distress. My very friendship,
therefore, demands that I should try to save them from their mistakes. As I
view the situation, they are on the brink of a ditch. It, therefore,
becomes my duty to warn them of their danger even though it may for the time
being anger them to the point of cutting off the friendly hand that is
stretched out to help them. People may laugh nevertheless- that is1080 my claim. At a time when I may have
to launch the biggest struggle of my life, I may not hold hatred against
anybody. Freedom and power bring responsibility. The responsibility rests upon
this Assembly with a sovereign body representing1120
the independent people of India. Before the birth of freedom, we have endured
all the pains of labour and our hearts are heavy with the memory of this
sorrow. Some of those pains continue even now. Nevertheless, the past is over
and it is the future that is before us now. That future is not one of ease or
resting but of continuous striving so that we may fulfil the pledges we have so
often taken and the one we1200
shall take today. The service of India means the service of the millions
who suffer. It means the ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and
inequality of opportunity. The ambition of the greatest man of our generation
has been to wipe every tear from every eye. That may be beyond us, but
so long as there are tears and1260
suffering, so long as our work is not over, we shall continue to tread our
path.
So we have to1280 labour and to work hard to give reality to
our dreams. Those dreams are not only for India, but they are also for
the world because all the nations and people are too closely joined together
today for any one of them to imagine that it can live apart. Peace cannot be
divided. So is freedom, so is prosperity and so also is disaster in this one
world that can no longer be split into isolated fragments. To the people of
India, whose representatives we are, we make an appeal to join us with faith
and confidence in this great adventure. This is no time for petty and
destructive criticism, no time for ill-will or blaming others. We have to1400 build the noble mansion of free India where
all her children may live. The day we have been waiting for has come and
India stands up again after long slumber and struggle. The past follows us for
some time in1440 some measure and
we have to do much before we redeem the pledges we have so often taken. Yet
the turning-point is behind us and history begins afresh for us. That will
be the history which we shall live and act and others will write
about. It is a fateful moment for us in India, for all Asia and for
the world. A new star rises. It is the star of freedom in the East.
A new hope comes; a vision is realized. 1523
