Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/971

 pure personal influence, he has caused a greater diminution of the use of intoxicating liquors than has been accomplished by any other man in the history of the world during his life time. — Christian Herald.

THE RT. HON. V. S. SRINIVASA SASTRI

Politics is not separable from life. Mr. Gandhi would not countenance the separation, for has great aim is to strip life of its sophistication and reduce it to its own nature—simple, rounded, pure. It merely happens that for the moment his activity is in the field of politics. It merely happens that for the moment he is confronting Government and daring its wrath. It merely happens that for the moment his cry of Swaraj for India has caugnt the ear of the world and the world is anxious to know what his Swaraj is. His real and final objective is a radical reform of human kind. His Gospel is "Back to Nature." He avows himself an implacable enemy ot Western Civilisation. In his mighty war against Western civilization Swaraj for India is but a campaign. The rules of the campaign are the rules of the mighty war; the weapons to be used in the campaign are the weapons to be used in the campaign of the mighty war; the virtues to be evoked by the campaign are the virtues which will win the mighty war in the end. The cardinal rule of both, the war and the campaign, is non-violence. Non-violence is of the heart as well as of the body. By thought, word and act you may not injure your adversary. Enemy in a personal sense is too strong a word for my dictionary. But as the adversary does not follow the rule you will be subjected to great suffering and loss. Rejoice in the suffering and loss and court them. If you cannot rejoice in them, do not avoid or complain against them. Love your enemies; if you love them, pardon them and never retaliate against them. Force is wrong and must go under. The soul is invincible; learn to exercise its full power. Hold to the truth at all costs; Satya triumphs in the end. Out of this cardinal rule, almost logically, proceed a number of principles which will keep us straight in the war and this campaign for Swaraj. Since Western civilization and the existing system of British Government have to be got rid of, we must have nothing to do with either offspring of Satan; we must cut on our connection with those large and powerful institutions by which they enslave us. These are schools, courts, legislatures. Withdraw children from schools, sue not for justice in courts, and avoid the polling-booth. Machinery being another invention of Satan and mills being the mainstay of British domination in India, boycott both, cease to import foreign cloth, and erect a spindle in each home. The motion of the Charka has mystic properties, its music chastens the soul, and its products most adorn the human form, especially the female form. These principles and courses of action have more or less permanent validity because the war against modern civilization must be expeeted to be of indefinite duration. It is a picked body, however,