Sisters and Brothers of the Kaira District,
You have only recently finished a great Satyagraha struggle and come out victorious. You have displayed so much courage, tact and other good qualities in that fight, that I venture to advise you and earnestly press you to engage yourself in an even more important work of service to your Motherland.
You have shown how the people can oppose the Government without giving up courtesy, how they can pay due respect to the officials but still resist their orders and get what they want by peaceful means. And now I give you a chance to show to the world that you bear no hatred towards the Government though you fought a better fight against it only recently.
You are all Swarajists, and some are even members of the Home Rule League. 'Home Rule' itself implies maintenance of connection with the Empire as one of its partners. At present we are subjects of the Empire. We do not enjoy the rights and privileges of the Englishman. Our position is not like that of Canada, South Africa and Australia which are veritable parts of the Empire. India is a 'dependency'. We want the same rights as the Englishman enjoys, the same Colonial Status that S. Africa etc., have, and we want to have an Indian Viceroy at the head of our government. In order to acquire this status we must gain the power to defend ourselves and for that to arm ourselves and fight. We can never be respected as equals of the Englishman, as long as our safety depends upon our protection by British arms and we are afraid of their police force and soldiery. We must, therefore, learn to bear arms and gain the power to protect ourselves from any aggression. It is, therefore, our duty to join the army if we want to learn that art very quickly.
There can never be a friendship between a coward and a brave man. We are stigmatized as cowards. If we want to remove this stain, it is but meet that we show heroism on a battlefield by seizing this chance of recruitment.
It is certain that we want to be a partner in the Empire. Since it is so, we must, at any cost even at that of death, join in the defence of the Empire. If the Empire is destroyed, with it topple down all our hopes of freedom and equal partnership.
The easiest and the straightest way, therefore, of winning Swaraj is to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Britishers in the defence of the Empire. We have not the economic strength to help it by munificent donations. Besides, it is not money alone that wins a war. It is stupendous man-power that turns the scale. And India alone can create an impregnable wall of men against the German onslaught. If the Empire wins principally through the Indian army, it is clear that we can gain whatever rights we demand.
Some may object that the Britishers will play false with us afterwards, if we do not insist on getting our rights just now. Even in that case we can win them with the same power that we shall have acquired through the successful defence of the Empire. You cannot become its partner by harassing it. Harassment of the Empire at this critical hour can never bring for us the rights which its service can. Distrust of the rulers of the Empire is distrust of our own power and is a sign of weakness. Our rights must not depend upon the weakness or generosity of the rulers, but upon our own fitness, our own inherent power.
The Indian States are helping the Empire and they have their reward. And the rich are solidly supporting it and they too get the return they want. Neither of these have made any pre-conditions. Then there are the Indian soldiers who are fighting in order to maintain their families and to prove themselves worth their salt. They are awarded honours and prizes. All these classes belong to India but they cannot be called Swarajists. Swaraj is not their aim in life. It is not patriotism, nor the good of the country that impels them to help the war-effort. It is possible that if we entertain hatred and enmity towards the Empire, the men at its helm may employ all these three classes of Indians to crush us.
If we want Swaraj it is our duty to help the Empire and we too are certain to have our reward. If our intentions are honest, the Government will respond with equal honesty. Supposing for a moment that the intentions of the Government are mala fide, even then we must have faith in the purity of our own motives. There is no heroism in being good to those who are good to us. Heroism lies in returning good for evil.
"The Government does not grant us Commissions in the army, does not repeal the Arms Act, does not even open Military Colleges to train Indians. How then can we help it ?" The objections are valid.
The Government commits a serious blunder in not introducing these reforms. The English people can rightly claim credit for many virtuous deeds. May God reward them fully in return. But the heinous crime, which in the name of the English people the English administrators have perpetrated in disarming India, will wash off all their good deeds unless officialdom wakes up to the crime betimes. God forbid, but if India comes to grief and if she passes under the tutelage of some other Power, her concentrated cry of distress will harm the British nation so seriously that it will be stained with shame and disgrace and the world will spit upon it for emasculating the thirtythree crores of Indians. But I believe that Britain's statesmen have realized this dire possibility and are even quite awake to it. Only that cannot at once transform the situation that they have themselves created. Every Englishman, the moment he sets his foot on the Indian soil, is taught to keep himself proudly aloof from Indians and remain always conscious of his own greatness and superiority. This over-bearing attitude is in their very air. Officials at the top are trying to free themselves and their subordinates from this climate, but they do not succeed in clearing the mists. Were this not a time of crisis, we would have fought with them. But to sit tight and wait for the grant of Commissions at such a time is to cut the nose to spite the face. It may happen that we may go on waiting for the Commission order and let the opportunity to help the Empire slip through our fingers.
Even if the Government's motive in refusing or delaying the grant of Commissions etc. to us is to prevent us from helping the Empire through recruitment and other ways, we must, it is my conviction, make it a point to join the army.
The Government wants five lakhs of men as recruits to meet the challenge of the present times and is going to get them by any means. But if we provide these men ourselves, we would cover ourselves with glory, render valuable service and save our own people from the reportedly harsh and improper ways in which the recruiting campaign is conducted at present. It would be no small power that we would gain, if all recruiting work comes into our hands.
From the above facts and arguments it will be seen that in helping the Empire by joining the army, we gain fitness for Swaraj, learn how to defend our country and recover to some extent our lost manliness.
I have faith in the innate goodness of the English nation. I must admit, it is only on that basis that I give the above advice. I believe that though that nation has done us much harm, it is to our advantage to remain in the Empire. Between the virtues and vices of that nation, to me for one it appears that the balance tilts in favour of its virtues. It is indeed painful to remain as subjects under the British people. The Britishers have the serious vice of making their subject peoples lose their self-respect. But they have also the virtue of treating their equals with great respect and loyalty. We have also seen that nation has often helped some other peoples subjected to foreign rule. If we become partners with them, we can take much and give much and this respectable status is likely to do great good to the world. If I did not possess this faith in the bonafides of the Britisher and if I felt it desirable to be totally independent of him, I would not only advice my countrymen not to help the British but would even instigate them to an open revolt and rouse national consciousness by inviting on myself the suffering and punishment of a rebel. At least at present we are not in a position to stand on our legs, independently of any other nation's help. I believe that our good lies in acquiring the position of partnership within the Empire, and in my tours I have seen that all Home Rulers believe likewise. The hope I entertain from the Kaira District and Gujarat is not for the recruitment of a few hundreds but of thousands. If Gujarat wants to remove the stain of spineless, it must contribute thousands of recruits. In many conception of this would-be army of Gujaratis every class should be included. The educated and advanced classes as well as the illiterate and backward, Patidars, Barias, Vaghris and all others will, I hope, stand shoulder to shoulder in that army. As long as the educated and cultured classes?the elite do not come forward to join the army, it is useless to hope for any response from other classes. I hope all healthy adults among the educated classes will join the army. They will be employed, if not in actual fighting at the Front, in numerous departments of work pertaining to a war. They can, for instance, nurse the wounded soldiers. I hope that those parents who have sons of a mature age will never hesitate to send them as recruits. It should be not at all a matter of grief but one of joy for a brave man to sacrifice his son in a war. The son's sacrifice at this crisis will be regarded as national service for the cause of Swaraj.
It is my appeal to the women not to feel nervous about this appeal for recruitment, but to hail it enthusiastically. Their personal safety and the protection of their honour depend on the response to this appeal.
There are 600 villages in the Kaira District with an average population of more than a thousand. If such village gives at least 20 recruits, the district can contribute an army of 12,000 men. The population of the district is seven hundred thousand and so 12,000 men came to 1.7% of the whole population. Death annually claims a higher toll in percentage than this figure. If we are not prepared to pay even this price for the Empire, and for Swaraj, no wonder we would prove ourselves unfit for freedom. If the recruits die on the battle-field they will make themselves, their village and their country immortal and twenty others will step into the dead men's shoes and defend the country.
If we really want to do this work, we cannot afford to be slow and lethargic. I appeal to the men and women of every village to select the strongest among their men and send their names to the recruiting center. Meetings will be held in important villages to appeal to you for recruitment and to clarify the many points that will arise from the appeal. Volunteers also will move from village to village for the same purpose.
The following gentlemen have joined in this work :
Messrs. Vallabhbhai Jhaverbhai Patel (Bar-at-Law), Krishnalal Narsinghlal Desai (M.A.,LL.B.), Indulal Kanhaiyalal Yagnik (B.A., LL.B.), Hariprasad Pitambardas Mehta (Proprietor, "The Hitechhu" Press), Pragji Khandubhai Desai, Mohanlal Kameshwar Pandya, Ganesh Vasudev Mavlankar (B.A., LL.B.) Kalidas Jashkaran Jhaveri (B.A., LL.B.), Fulchand Bapuji Shah, Gokuldas Dwarkadas Talati (B.A., LL.B.), Shivabhai Bhailalbhai Patel (B.A., LL.B.), Raojibhai Manibhai Patel and several others.
Nadiad, dated 22.6.1918
