Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/730

 640 NON-CO-OPERATION

urge patience and determined concentration on Swadeshi disobedience.

THE MOPLAH OUTBREAK.

[Mr, Gandhi addressed the following appeal to the Liberals on Nov. 27 : ]

Friends, We are so preoccupied with our affairs that the events in Malabar hardly attract the attention they deserve. The ending of the trouble has become a matter of great urgency. It is one of simple humanity, Be the Moplahs ever so bad, they deserve to be treated our sympathy. Nor are they all bad and yet there can be no doubt that many innocent men must have been adjudged guilty. Forcible conversions are terrible but Moplah bravery must command admiration. These Malabaris are not fighting for the love of it. They are fighting for what they consider as religion and in a manner they consider themselves religious. A vast majo- rity of them have nothing personal to gain by continu- ing their defiance. Their sin is not of deliberation but of ignorance. If we permit the extermination of such brave people, it will be remembered against us and will be accounted as Indian cowardice.

I make bold to say that, had Mr. Yakub Hassan been allowed to go to Malabar, had I not been warned- against entering Malabar, had Mussamans of real in- terest been invited to go, the long-drawn-out-agony could have been obviated, but it is not yet too late. The sword has been tried for three months and it has failed to answer its purpose. It has not bent the proud!

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