Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/867

 The term does not fib the activity of the Indian community during the past eight years. Its equivalent in the vernacular, rendered into English, means truth-foroe. I think Tolstoy called ib also Soul- Force or love-force, and so ifa is. Carried out to its utmost limit, this force is independent of pecuniary or other material assistance ; certainly, even in its elementary form, of physical force or violence, Indeed, violence is the negation of this great spiritual force, which can only he cultivated or wielded by those who will entirely eaohew violence. Ib is a force tha& may be used by individuals as well as by communities. Ib may be used as well in political as in domestic affairs. Its universal applicability is a demons- tration of its permanence and invincibility. It can be used alike by men, woman and children. Ib is totally untrue to say that ifa is a force to be used only by the weak so long as they are nob capable of meeting violence by violence, This superstition arises from the in- completeness of the English expression. Ib is impossible lor those who consider themselves to be weak to apply this force. Only those who realise that there is some- thing in man which is superior to the brute nature in him, and that the latter always yields to it, can effectively be passive resistors. This force is to violence and, therefore, to all tyranny, all injustice, what light is to darkness. In politics, its use is based upon the immu- table maxim that government of the people is njossible only so long as they consent either consciously or unconsciously to be governed, We did not want to be governed by the Asiatic Act of 1907 of the Transvaal and ib had to go before thid mighty force. Two courses were open to us to use violence when we were called upon to. submit to the Aofa, or to suffer the penalties

�� �