Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/169

 SHOULD INDIANS HAVE FULL CITIZEN RIGHTS Y 79 declared——and I venture to rs-declare through your columns-——that my co-workers and I shall not be a party to any agitation which has for its object the free and , unrestricted immigration of British Indians into the Union or the attainment of the political franchise in the near future. That these rights must come in time will, I suppose, be admitted by all, but when they do come they will not be obtained by forcing the pace, as passive resistance is undoubtedly calculated tc do, but by otherwise educating public opinion, and by the Indian community so acquitting itself in the discharge of all the obligations that How from citizenship of the British Empire as to have these rights given to them as a mat- ter of course. Meanwhile, so far as my advice counts for anything, I can only suggest that the efforts of the Indian community should be concentrated upon gaining or regaining every lost civil right or every such right at present withheld from the community ; and I hold that even this will not happen unless we are ready to make an effective protest against our civil destruction by means of passive resistance, and unless through our self-suffering we have demonstrated to the European public that we are a people that cherishes its honour and selbrespect as dearly as any people on earth.