Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/670

 580 NON-CO-OPERATION

Many arc asking why I wailed upon His Excellency ths Viceroy. Some inquire why the author of Non-Co- operation should seek to see the Viceroy. All want to know the result of the interview. I like the rigorous scrutiny of the Non-Co-operators, who more than Caesar's wife inu^t b< 4 above suspicion. Non-Co-operation is self-reliance. We want to establish Swaraj, not obtain it from others. Then why approach a Viceroy ? This is all good, so far as it goes. And I should be a bad representative of our cause, if I went to anybody to ask for Swaraj, I have had the hardihood to say that Swaraj could not be granted even by God. We would have to earn it ourselves. Swaraj from its very nature is not in the giving of anybody.

But we want the world with us in our battle for freedom, we want the good-will of every body. Our cause, we claim, is based upon pure justice. There are certain things we want Englishmen to surrender. All these things need mutual discussion and mutual under- standing. Non-Co-operation is the most potent instru- ment for creating world opinion in our favour. So long as we protested and co-operated, the world did not understand us. The erst while lion of Bengal in his early days used to relate the ^toiy of Englishmen, who asked him how many broken heads there were in India, if things were really so bad, as now represented them to be. That wa^ the way John Bull understood best. The other question the world has undoubtedly been asking is : If things are really so bad, why do we co- operate with the Government in so pauperising and humiliating us? Now the world understands our atti- tude, no, matter how weakly we may enforce it ifl practice. The world is now curious to know what ails

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