Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/538

 448 EARLIER INDIAN SPEECHES

Sastriar is a politician who has dedicated his all to the country's cause His sincerity, his probity are all his own. He will yield to no one in the love of the country. There is a sacred and indissoluble tie binding me to him. My upbringing draws me to the signatiories of the two Manifestoes. It is not, therefore, without the greatest grief and much searching of heart that I have to place myself in opposition to their wishes. But there are times when you have to obey a call which is the highest of all, i.e., the voice of conscience even though such obedience may cost many a bitter tear, nay even more, separation from friends, from family, from the state to which you may belong, from all that you have held as dear as life itself. For this obedience is the Jaw ot our being. I have no further and other defence to offer for my conduct. My regard for the signatories to the Manifesto remains undiminished, and my faith in the efficiency of Satyagraha is so great that I feel that if those who have taken the Pledge will be true to it, we shall be able to show to them that they will find when we have come to the end of this struggle that there was no cause for alarm or misgivings. There is, I know, resentment felt even by some Satyagrahis over the Manifestoes. I would warn Satyagrahis that such resentment is against the spirit of Satyagraha. I would personally welcome an honest expression of difference of opinion from any quarter and more so from friends because it puts us on our guard. There is too much recrimination, innuendo and insinuation in our pub- lic life, and if the Satyagraha movement purges it of this grave defect, as it ought to, it will be a very desirable by product. I wish further to suggest to Satyagrahis that anv resentment of the two Manifestoes would be

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