Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/363

 SWADESHI

��The following is an address delivered before the Missionary Conference, Madras, on the \4th February, 1916.

It was not without great diffidence that I under- took to speak to you at all. And I was hard put to it in the selection of my subject. I have chosen a very delicate and difficult subject. It is delicate because of the peculiar views I hold upon Swadeshi, and it is difficult because I have not that command of language which is necessary for giving adequate expression to my thoughts. I know that I may rely upon your in- dulgence for the many shortcomings you will no doubt find in my address, the more so when I tell you that there is nothing in what I am about to say that I am not either already practising or am not pre paring to practise to the best of my ability. It encourages me to observe that last month you devoted a week to prayer in the place of an address. I have earnest- ly prayed that what I am about to say may bear fruit and I know that you will bless my word with a similar prayer.

After much thinking I have arrived at a definition of Swadeshi that, perhaps, best illustrates my meaning. Swadeshi is that sprit in us which restricts us to the use and service of our immediate surroundings to the exclusion of the more remote. Thus, as for religion, in order to satisfy the requirements of the definition, I must restrict myself to my ancesiral religion. That is the use of my immediate religious surrounding. If I find it

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