Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/611

 no one co-operates with a government more than lawyers through its law-coarts. Liwyers interpret laws to the people and thus support authority. It is for that reason that they are styled officers of the court. They may be called honorary office holdhers. It is said that it is the lawyers who have put up the most stubborn fight against the Govern- ment. This is no doubt partly true. But that does not undo the mischief that is inherent in the profession. So when the nation wishes to paralyse the Government, that profes- sion, if it wishes to help the nation to bend the Government to its will, must suspend practice. But say the critics, the Government will be too pleased, if the pleaders and barris- ters fell into the trap laid by me". I do not believe it. What is true in ordinary times is not true in extraordinary times In normal times the Government may resent fierce criticism of their manners and methods by lawyers, but in the face of fierce action they would be loath to part with a single lawyer's support through his practice in the courts.

Moreover, in my scheme, suspension does not mean stagnation. The lawyers are not to suspend practice? and enjoy rest. They will be expected to induce their clients to boycott Courts. They will improvise arbitration-boards in order to settle disputes. A nation, that is bent on forcing justice from an unwilling government, has little time foi eng- aging in mutual quarrels. This truth the lawyers will be ex- pected to bring home to their cilents. The readers may not know that many of the most noted lawyers of England sus- pended their work during the late war. The lawyers, then, upon temporarily leaving their profession, became whole- time workers instead of being workers Only during their recreation hours. Real politics are not a game. The late Mr. Gokhale used to deplore that we had not gone beyond treating politics as a pastime. We have no notion as to

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