Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/903

 HINDU-MOSLEM UNITY 81,;

W0 are therefore apt to Irjee our heads over H, aud thus be unconsciously instrumental ID doing an injury fee the very cause we seek to espouse. Let us recognise bhab our Mussulman brethren have ma^e great efforts to gave the oow for the sake of their Hindu brethren. Jb would be a grave mistake to underrate them, But* immediately we become assertive, we make all effort on their parb nugatory. We have throughout all these many years put up with cow-slaughter either without a mur- mur or under ineffective and violent protest. We have never bried to deserve self-imposed restraint on the parb of our Mussulman countrymen by going oub of our way to cultivate friendly relations with them. We have more or less gratuitously assumed the impossibility of fche fca&k

But we are now making a deliberate) and conscious attempt in standing by their side in the hour of their need. Let U8 nob spoil the good effect by making our free offering a matter of bargain. Friendship can never be a contract, It is a status carrying no consideration with it. Service is a duty, and duty is a debt which it is a sin nob bo discharge^ If we would prove our friendship, we must help our brethren whether they save the cow or nob. We throw the responsibility for their conduct) to. wards us on their own shoulders* We dare nob dictate id to them as consideration for our help. Such help will be hired service, which the Mussulmans oannob be blamed if they summarily reject, I hope, therefore, that the Hindus of Bibar and indeed all tone parts of India will realise th importance of observing the strictest forbearance no matter what the Mussulmans do on Bakr-Id, We musb leave them to take what course they choose, What Hakim Ajmal Khanji did in one hour at Amritsar, Hindus could nob have done by years of effort. The cows

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