Page:Gandhi The Man and His Message.djvu/8

 the Great European War (1914). On the two former occasions, in recognition of these services he was awarded gold medals, and his name was each time mentioned in the dispatches. Later, on his return to India, he was awarded the Kaiser-i-Hind Gold Medal by Lord Hardinge in recognition of his humanitarian services in South Africa. These medals he determinedly, though remorsefully, returned to the Viceroy of India on August 1, 1920. The letter that accompanied them besides other things contained this:

“Your Excellency’s light-hearted treatment of the official crime, your exoneration of Sir Michael O’Dwyer, Mr. Montague’s dispatch and above all the shameful ignorance of the Punjab events and callous disregard of the feelings of Indians betrayed by the House of Lords, have filled me with the gravest misgivings regarding the future of the Empire, have estranged me completely from the present Government and have disabled me from tendering, as I have hitherto wholeheartedly tendered, my loyal cooperation.”

His statement before the court at the time of his conviction in March, 1922, in which he pleaded himself guilty, reads thus:

“From a staunch loyalist and cooperator, I have become an uncompromising disaffectionist and non-cooperator.... To preach disaffection towards the existing system of government has become almost a passion with me .... If I were set free, I would still do the same. I would be failing in my duty if I did not do so I had either to submit to a system which has done irreparable harm to my country, or to incur the mad fury of my people, bursting forth when they heard the truth from my lips .... I do not ask for mercy. I am here to invite and to submit to the highest penalty that can be inflicted upon me for what in law is a crime, but which is thefirst duty of every citizent. ....Affection cannot be manufactured or regulated by law. 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 systemt..... It is the physical and brutal ill-treatment of humanity which has made many of my coworkers and myself impatient of life itself.”

Following his public announcement of the non-cooperation policy he embarked upon an extensive tour of the country. Wherever he went he preached he preached disaffection towards the existing government. The chief distinction between Gandhi and other