Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/620

 530 NON-CO-OPERATION

you that there is not a better soldier living in our ranks ii* British India than Shaukat All. When the time for the drawing of the sword comes, if it ever comes, you will find him drawing that sword and you will find me retiring to the jungles of Hindustan. As soon as India accepts the doctrine of the sword, my life as an Indian is finished. It is because I believe in a mission special to India and it is because I believe that the ancients of India, after centuries of experience hive found out that the true thing for any human being on eirth is not justice bised on violence but justice bassd ou sacrifice of self, justice. based on Ya^na and Kurbini, I cling to thit doctrine and I shall cling to it for ever, -it is for that reason I tell 'you that whilst my friend believes also in the doctrine of violence and has adopted the doctrine of non-violence as a weapon of the weak, I believe in the doctrine of non-vio- lence as a weapon of the strongest. I believe that a man is the strongest soldier for daring to die unarmed with his breast bare before the ene.ny. S3 much for the non- violent part of non-co-operation. I therefore, venture to suggest to my learned countrymen that, so long as the doctrine of non-co-operation remains non-violent, so long there is nothing un-constitutional in the doctrine.

I ask further, is it unconstitutijml for me to say to the British Government ' I refuse to serve you f ' Is it unconstitutional for our worthy chairman to return with every respect all the titles that he his ever hell frooa the Government ? Is it unconstitutional for aay parent to withdraw his children from aGDvernment or aided sch oal t Is it unconstitutional for a Uwyer to say ' I sh all no longer support the arm of the law so long as that arm of law is used not to raise me but to debase me f Is it unconstitu- tional for a civil servant or for a judge to say, ' I refuse to

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