Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/322

 LOYALTY TO THE BRITISH EMPIRE.

��At the annual gathering of the Madras Luw Dinner in April 1915, Mr. M. K. Gandhi was specially invited to propose the toast of the British Empire. The Hon'ble Mr. Corbet, the Advocate-General, in doing so referred to Mr. Gandhi as a very distinguished stranger, a stranger in the sense that they had not known him long t but one whose name they were all familiar with. Mr. Gandhi was a member of the profession, though he had not lately practised. Mr. Gandhi, he continued^ was about to pro- pose the toast of the British Wmpire, for the consolida- tion of which he had laboured strenuously, with absolute self-devotion for many years. Mr. Gandhi said :

During my three months 1 tour in India, as also in South Africa, I have been so often questioned how I, a determined opponent of modern civilization and an avowed patriot, could reconcile myself to loyalty of the British Empire of which India was such a large part ; how it was possible for me to rind it consistent that India and England could work together for mutual benefit. It gives me the greatest pleasure this evening at this great and important gathering, to re-declare my loyalty to this British Empire, and my loyalty is based upon very selfish grounds. As a passive resister I dis- covered that a passive resister has to make good his claim to passive resistance, no matter under what cir- cumstances he finds himself, and I discovered that the British Empire had certain ideals with which I have fallen in love, and one of those ideals is that every sub- ject of the British Empire has the freest scope possible

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