Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/86

 60 M. K. oaum-11 spondents who attacked him, he wrote as follows in Young India of February, 23 : I feel still more confident of the correctness of the decision of the Working Committee, but if it is found that the country repudiates my action I shall not mind it. I can but do my duty. A leader is useless when he acts against the promptings of his own conscience, surrounded as he must be by people holding all kinds of views. He will drift like an anchorless ship if he has not the inner voice to hold him firm and guide him. Above all, I can easily put up with the denial of the world, but any denial by me of my God is unthinkable, and if I did not give at this critical period of the struggle the advice that I have, I would be denying both God and Truth. The All-India Congress Committee met on the 25th at Delhi to consider the Bardoli decisions and though the latter were endorsed it was not done without some impor- tant modifications, to feed the growing demand for aggressive action on the part of the extreme N on·Co-opera- tors. From subsequent events it is fairly certain that the Delhi resolutions conhrmed the G0vernment’s resolve to prosecute Mr. Gandhi, a resolve which was held in abeyance after the Bardoli programme was made known. MR. GANDHFS ARREST For months past the 1·umour of Mr, Gandhi’s impend- ing arrest was in the air. Expecting the inevitable Mr. ·Gandbi had more than once written his iinal message. But in the first week of March the rumour became more wide- spread and intense. The stiffening of public opinion in England and Mr. Montagu’s threatening speech in defence of his Indian policy in the Commons, revealed the fact that the Secretary of State had already sanctioned Mr. Gandhi's prosecution. Chauri Chaura and the Delhi decisions were presumably the immediate cause of Government/s action on Mr. Gandhi. Bealising that his arrest would not long be deferred, Mr. Gandhi wrote a farewell message in Young India calling on his countrymen to continue the work of the Congress undeterred by fear, to prosecute the Khadder programme, to promote Hindu-Muslim Unity and to desist from violence at any cost. - Meanwhile he was arrested at the Satyagraha Ashram, Ahmedabad, on Friday the 10th March. On the 11th noon