Page:Mahatma Gandhi, his life, writings and speeches.djvu/164

 Motherland? (Applause) What language do you propose to use with reference to ValliammaValiamma [sic], that sweet girl of seventeen years, who was discharged from Maritzburg prison, skin and bone, suffering from fever to which she succumbed after about a month's time? (Cries of Shame) It was the Madrasis, who, of all Indians, were singled out by the great Divinity that rules over us for this great work. Do you know that in the great city of Johannesburg, the Madrasis look on a Madrasi dishonoured if he has not passed through the gaols once or twice during this terrible crisis that your countrymen in South Africa went through during these eight long years? You have said that I inspired those great men and women, but I cannot accept that proposition. It was they, the simple-minded folk, who worked away in faith, never expecting slightest reward, who inspired me, who kept me on the proper level, and who combined me by their great sacrifice by their great faith, by their great trust in the great God to do the work that I was able to do. It is my misfortune that I and my wife have been obliged to work in the lime light and you have magnified out of proportion this little