FREEDOM'S BATTLE
BEING A
COMPREHENSIVE COLLECTION OF WRITINGS AND SPEECHES ON THE PRESENT SITUATION
BY MAHATMA
GANDHI
Second
Edition
1922
The
Publishers express their indebtedness to the Editor and Publisher of the
"Young India" for allowing the free use of the articles appeared in
that journal under the name of Mahatma Gandhi, and also to Mr. C.
Rajagopalachar for the valuable introduction and help rendered in bringing out
the book.
CONTENTS:
I.
INTRODUCTION.. 3
THE
MUSSALMAN AGONY.. 4
THE
HINDU DHARMA.. 5
AN
ENDURING TREATY.. 6
THE
BRITISH CONNECTION.. 7
THE
ALTERNATIVE. 7
THE
FIFTH UPAYA.. 7
SOME
OBJECTIONS. 8
EMANCIPATION.. 10
II.
THE KHILAFAT. 11
WHY
I HAVE JOINED THE KHILAFAT MOVEMENT. 11
THE
TURKISH TREATY.. 12
TURKISH
PEACE TERMS. 14
THE
SUZERAINTY OVER ARABIA.. 15
FURTHER
QUESTIONS ANSWERED.. 17
MR.
CANDLER'S OPEN LETTER.. 21
IN
PROCESS OF KEEPING.. 23
APPEAL
TO THE VICEROY.. 24
THE
PREMIER'S REPLY.. 26
THE
MUSSULMAN REPRESENTATION.. 27
CRITICISM
OF THE MUSLIM MANIFESTO.. 29
THE
MAHOMEDAN DECISION.. 30
MR.
ANDREWS' DIFFICULTY.. 31
THE
KHILAFAT AGITATION.. 33
HIJARAT
AND ITS MEANING.. 34
III.
THE PUNJAB WRONGS. 35
POLITICAL
FREEMASONRY.. 35
THE
DUTY OF THE PUNJABEE. 37
GENERAL
DYER.. 39
THE
PUNJAB SENTENCES. 40
IV.
SWARAJ. 40
SWARAJ
IN ONE YEAR.. 41
BRITISH
RULE--AN EVIL. 43
A
MOVEMENT OF PURIFICATION.. 43
WHY
WAS INDIA LOST?. 44
SWARAJ
MY IDEAL. 45
ON
THE WRONG TRACK.. 49
THE
CONGRESS CONSTITUTION.. 50
SWARAJ
IN NINE MONTHS. 52
THE
ATTAINMENT OF SWARAJ. 54
V.
HINDU MOSLEM UNITY.. 56
THE
HINDUS AND THE MAHOMEDANS. 56
HINDU-MAHOMEDAN
UNITY.. 60
HINDU-MUSLIM
UNITY.. 61
VI.
TREATMENT OF THE DEPRESSED CLASSES. 63
DEPRESSED
CLASSES. 63
AMELIORATION
OF THE DEPRESSED CLASSES. 65
THE
SIN OF UNTOUCHABILITY.. 66
VII.
TREATMENT OF INDIANS ABROAD.. 67
INDIANS
ABROAD.. 67
INDIANS
OVERSEAS. 68
PARIAHS
OF THE EMPIRE. 69
VIII.
NON-CO-OPERATION.. 70
MR.
MONTAGU ON THE KHILAFAT AGITATION.. 71
AT
THE CALL OF THE COUNTRY.. 73
NON-CO-OPERATION
EXPLAINED.. 75
RELIGIOUS
AUTHORITY FOR NON-CO-OPERATION.. 78
THE
INWARDNESS OF NON-CO-OPERATION.. 79
A
MISSIONARY ON NON-CO-OPERATION.. 81
HOW
TO WORK NON-CO-OPERATION.. 82
SPEECH
AT MADRAS. 84
SPEECH
AT TRICHINOPOLY.. 92
SPEECH
AT CALICUT. 95
SPEECH
AT MANGALORE. 98
SPEECH
AT BEZWADA.. 101
THE
CONGRESS. 104
WHO
IS DISLOYAL?. 105
CRUSADE
AGAINST NON-CO-OPERATION.. 106
SPEECH
AT MUZAFFARABAD.. 107
TO
EVERY ENGLISHMAN IN INDIA.. 112
ONE
STEP ENOUGH FOR ME. 114
THE
NEED FOR HUMILITY.. 115
SOME
QUESTIONS ANSWERED.. 116
PLEDGES
BROKEN.. 118
MORE
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.. 120
MR.
PENNINGTON'S OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.. 121
MR.
PENNINGTON'S LETTER TO MR. GANDHI 123
SOME
DOUBTS. 125
REJOINDER.. 126
TWO
ENGLISHMEN REPLY.. 127
RENUNCIATION
OF MEDALS. 129
MAHATMA
GANDHI'S LETTER TO H.R.H. THE DUKE OF CONNAUGHT. 130
THE
GREATEST THING.. 132
IX.
MAHATMA GANDHI'S STATEMENT. 133
After
the great war it is difficult, to point out a single nation that is happy; but
this has come out of the war, that there is not a single nation outside India,
that is not either free or striving to be free.
It
is said that we, too, are on the road to freedom, that it is better to be on
the certain though slow course of gradual unfoldment of freedom than to take
the troubled and dangerous path of revolution whether peaceful or violent, and
that the new Reforms are a half-way house to freedom.
The
new constitution granted to India
keeps all the military forces, both in the direction and in the financial
control, entirely outside the scope of responsibility to the people of India.
What does this mean? It means that the revenues of India are spent away on what the
nation does not want. But after the mid-Eastern complications and the fresh
Asiatic additions to British Imperial spheres of action. This Indian military
servitude is a clear danger to national interests.
The
new constitution gives no scope for retrenchment and therefore no scope for
measures of social reform except by fresh taxation, the heavy burden of which
on the poor will outweigh all the advantages of any reforms. It maintains all
the existing foreign services, and the cost of the administrative machinery
high as it already is, is further increased.
The
reformed constitution keeps all the fundamental liberties of person, property,
press, and association completely under bureaucratic control. All those laws
which give to the irresponsible officers of the Executive Government of India
absolute powers to override the popular will, are still unrepealed. In spite of
the tragic price paid in the Punjab for
demonstrating the danger of unrestrained power in the hands of a foreign
bureaucracy and the inhumanity of spirit by which tyranny in a panic will seek
to save itself, we stand just where we were before, at the mercy of the
Executive in respect of all our fundamental liberties.
Not
only is Despotism intact in the Law, but unparalleled crimes and cruelties
against the people have been encouraged and even after boastful admissions and
clearest proofs, left unpunished. The spirit of unrepentant cruelty has thus
been allowed to permeate the whole administration.
To
understand our present condition it in not enough to realise the general
political servitude. We should add to it the reality and the extent of the
injury inflicted by Britain
on Islam, and thereby on the Mussalmans of India. The articles of Islamic faith
which it is necessary to understand in order to realise why Mussalman India,
which was once so loyal is now so strongly moved to the contrary are easily set
out and understood. Every religion should be interpreted by the professors of
that religion. The sentiments and religious ideas of Muslims founded on the
traditions of long generations cannot be altered now by logic or
cosmopolitanism, as others understand it. Such an attempt is the more
unreasonable when it is made not even as a bonafide and independent effort of
proselytising logic or reason, but only to justify a treaty entered into for
political and worldly purposes.
The
Khalifa is the authority that is entrusted with the duty of defending Islam. He
is the successor to Muhammad and the agent of God on earth. According to
Islamic tradition he must possess sufficient temporal power effectively to
protect Islam against non-Islamic powers and he should be one elected or
accepted by the Mussalman world.
The
Jazirat-ul-Arab is the area bounded by the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, the
Persian Gulf, and the waters of the Tigris and the Euphrates.
It is the sacred Home of Islam and the centre towards which Islam throughout
the world turns in prayer. According to the religious injunctions of the
Mussalmans, this entire area should always be under Muslim control, its
scientific border being believed to be a protection for the integrity of
Islamic life and faith. Every Mussalman throughout the world is enjoined to
sacrifice his all, if necessary, for preserving the Jazirat-ul-Arab under
complete Muslim control.
The
sacred places of Islam should be in the possession of the Khalifa. They should
not merely be free for the entry of the Mussalmans of the world by the grace or
the license of non-Muslim powers, but should be the possession and property of
Islam in the fullest degree.
It
is a religions obligation, on every Mussalman to go forth and help the Khalifa
in every possible way where his unaided efforts in the defence of the Khilifat
have failed.
The
grievance of the Indian Mussalmans is that a government that pretends to
protect and spread peace and happiness among them has no right to ignore or set
aside these articles of their cherished faith.
According
to the Peace Treaty imposed on the nominal Government at Constantinople,
the Khalifa far from having the temporal authority or power needed to protect
Islam, is a prisoner in his own city. He is to have no real fighting force,
army or navy, and the financial control over his own territories is vested in
other Governments. His capital is cut off from the rest of his possessions by
an intervening permanent military occupation. It is needless to say that under
these conditions he is absolutely incapable of protecting Islam as the Mussulmans
of the world understand it.
The
Jazirat-ul-Arab is split up; a great part of it given to powerful non-Muslim
Powers, the remnant left with petty chiefs dominated all round by non-Muslim
Governments.
The
Holy places of Islam are all taken out of the Khalifa's kingdom, some left in
the possession of minor Muslim chiefs of Arabia
entirely dependent on European control, and some relegated to newly-formed
non-Muslim states.
In
a word, the Mussalman's free choice of a Khalifa such as Islamic tradition
defines is made an unreality.
The
age of misunderstanding and mutual warfare among religions is gone. If India
has a mission of its own to the world, it is to establish the unity and the
truth of all religions. This unity is established by mutual help and
understanding between the various religions. It has come as a rare privilege to
the Hindus in the fulfilment of this mission of India to stand up in defence of
Islam against the onslaught of the earth-greed of the military powers of the
west.