Page:Fischer - A Week with Gandhi.pdf/102

 said aloud, “that you have in the past had a large following among the peasants, but your city working-class support is not so big.”

“No,” Gandhi acquiesced, “not so big. But this time the workingmen will act too, because, as I sense the mood of the country, everybody wants freedom, Hindus, Moslems, Untouchables, Sikhs, workers, peasants, industrialists, Indian civil servants, and even the Princes. The Princes know that a new wind is blowing. Things cannot go on as they have been. We cannot support a war which may perpetuate British domination. How can we fight for democracy in Japan, Germany, and Italy when India is not democratic? I want to save China. I want no harm to come to China. But to collaborate we must be free. Slaves do not fight for freedom.”

“Do you think,” I asked, “that the Moslems will follow you in your civil disobedience movement?”

“Not perhaps in the beginning,” Gandhi said. “But they will come in when they see that the movement is succeeding.”

“Might not the Moslems be used to interfere with or stop the movement?”

“Undoubtedly,” Gandhi agreed, “their leaders might try or the government might try, but the Moslem millions do not oppose independence and they could not, therefore, oppose our measures to