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 510 NON-CO-OPERATION

English. I am sorry to have to confess that the ordinary Mohamedan entertains to-day no affection for Englishmen* He considers, not without some cause, that they have not played the game. But if I am friendly towards Englishmen, I am no less so towards my country tien, the Mohomedans. And as such they have a greater claim upon my attention than Englishmen. My personal religion however enables me to serve my countrymen without hurting Englishmen or for that matter anybody else. What I am not prepared to do to my blood brother I would not do to an Englishmen. I would not injure him to gain a kingdom. But I would withdraw co-operation from him if it became necessary, as I had withdrawn from my own brother (now deceased) when it became necessary. I serve the Empire by refusing to partake in its wrong. William Stead offered public prayers for British reverses at the time of the Boer war because he considered that the nation to which he belonged was en- gaged in an unrighteours war. The present Prime Minis- ter risked his life in opposing that war and did everything he could to obstruct his own Government in its prosecution. And to-day if I have thrown in my lot with the Mohome- dans a large number of whom bear no friendly feelings to- wards the British, I have done so frankly as a friend of the British and with the object of gaining justice and of thereby showing the capacity of the British constitutio n to respond to every honest determination when it is coupled with suffering. I hope by my 'alliance' with the Mohomedans to achieve a three-fold end to obtain justice in the face of odds with the method of Satyagraha and to show its efficacy over all other methods, to secure Muhomedan friendship for the Hindus and thereby internal peace also, and last bat not least to transform ill-will into affection for the British and their constitution which in spite of its imperfections has

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