Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/714

 624 NON-CO-OPERATION

continue to do so if I live; but we must not mistake my~ condemnation of the system for the man. My religions required me to love him as I love myself. I would: deny God if I did not attempt to prove it at this critical moment. And the Parsis I have meant every word I have said about them. Hindus and Mussalmans would be unworthy of freedom if they do not defend them and their honour with their lives. They have only recently proved their liberality and friendship. Mussalmans- are specially beholden to them, for Parsis have, compared to their numbers, given more than they themselves to the Khilafat funds. I cannot face again the appealing eyes of Parsi men and women that I saw on the 17th inst, as I passed through them, unless Hindus and Mussalmans have expressed full and free repentance, nor can I face Mr. Andrews when he returns from East Africa, if we have done no reparation to Indian-born Christians whom we are bound to protect as our own brothers and sisters. We may not think of what they in self-defence or by way of reprisals have done to some of us. You can see quite clearly that I must do the utmost reparation to this handful of men and women, who have been the victims of forces that have come into being largely through my instrumentality. I invite every Hindu and Mussalman to do likewise, but I do not want anyone to fast, which is only good when it comes in answer to prayer and as a felt yearning of the soul. I invite every Hindu and Mussalman to retire to his home and ask God for forgiveness and to befriend the injured communities- from the bottom of their hearts. I invite my fellow workers not to waste a word of sympathy on me. I need or deserve none. But I invite them to make*

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