Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/829

 Neither the classes nor the masses feel instinctively that our union is as necessary as the breath of our nostrils.

For this consummation we must, it seems to me, rely more upon quality than quantity. Given a suffi- cient number of Hindus and Mussulmans with almost a fanatical faith in everlasting friendship between the Hindu and the Mussulmans of India, we shall not be lon^ before the unity permeates the masses. A few of us must first clearly understand that we can make no headway without accepting non-violence in thought, word and deed for the full realisation of our political ambi- tion. I would, therefore, beseech you and the members of the Working Committee and the All-India Congress Committee to see that our ranks contain no workers who do not fully realise the essential truth I have en- deavoured to place before you. A living faith cannot be manufactured by the rule of majority.

To me the visible symbol of All-India unity and, therefore, of the acceptance of non-violence as an in- dispensable means for the realisation of our political ambition is undoubtedly the Charka, i.e., khaddar. Only those who believe in cultivating a non-violent spirit and eternal friendship between Hindus and Mussulmans will daily and religiously spin. Universal hand-spinning and the universal manufacture and use of hand-spun and hand-woven khaddar will be a substan- tial, if not absolute, proof of the real unity and non- violence. And it will be a recognition of a living kinship with the dumb masses. Nothing can possibly unify and revivify India as the acceptance by All-India of the spinning wheel as a daily sacrament and the khaddar wear as a privilege and a duty.

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