Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/688

 598 NON-CO-OPERATION

sake of the Khilafat, for the sake of the Punjab. There is no guilt about your word or work. Yours is the purest sacrifice untainted by anger or hate. Let me confess to you that your spontaneous and loving res- ponse all-over India has convinced me that God is with s. No other?proof of our struggle being one of setf- purification is needed than that lacs of India's women are actively helping it.

Having given much, more is now required of you. Men bore the principal share of the subscriptions to the Tilak Swaraj Fund. But completion of the Swadeshi programme is possible only if you give the largest share. Boycott is impossible, unless you will surrender the whole of yonr foreign clothing. So long as the taste persists, so long is complete renunciation impossible* And boycott means complete renunciation * We must be prepared to be satisfied with such cloth as India can produce, even as we are thankfully content with' such children as God gives us. I have not known a mother throwing away her baby even though it may appear ugly to an outsider. So should it be with the patriotic women of India about Indian manufactures. And for you only handspun and handwoven can be regarded as Indian manufactures. During the transition stage you can only get coarse Khadi in abundance. You may add all the art to it that your taste allows or requires. And if you will be satisfied with coarse Khadi for a few months, India need not despair of seeing a revival of the fine rich and coloured garments of old which were once the envy and the despair of the world. I assure you that a six months' course of self-denial will show you that what we to-day regard as artistic is only falsely so, and that true ait

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