Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/868

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��prescribed under the Aob, and thus to draw oub and exhibit} the force of the sou! wibhin us for a pariod long enough to appeal to the sympathetic chord in the governors or the law-makers, We have taken long to achieve what! we aeb aboub striving for. That was beoauso our passive resistance was nob of the most complete type, AH passive rosibfera do nob understand the fall value of the force, nor have we men who always from conviction refrain from violence^ The use of this force requires the adoption of poverty, in the sense that we must be indiffeieub whether wo have the wherewithal to feed or olobhe ourselves. Daring the pasb struggle, all Passive Resistors, if any ab all, were nob prepared feo go that length. Some again were only passive resisfcers, so-called, Tbey oatne without) any conviction, often with mixed motives, laas offcea with impure motives. Some even, whilst engaged in the struggle, would gladly have resorted to violence bub for mosb vigilant supervision, Thus id was thab the sbruggle became prolonged ; for the exercise of bha puresb soul-force, in its perfect form* brings aboub instanbaneous relief. For this exercise, prolonged train~ ing of the individual soul is an absolute necessity, so that a parfeob passive reaisber has bo ba almost, if nob entirely, a perfeob man. We oannob all suddenly become such men, bub, if my proposition is oorreob as I know ifc to be correob, the greater bhe spirib of passive resistance in us, fche better men we will become, Jts use, therefore, is, I think, indisputable! and ib is a force which, if it became universal, would revolutionise social ideals and do away with despotisms and the ever-growing militarism under which the nations of the West are groaning aud are being almost crushed to death, that militarism which promiaew bo overwhelm even the nations of the-

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