Freedom's Battle eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 277 pages of information about Freedom's Battle.

Freedom's Battle eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 277 pages of information about Freedom's Battle.
feel convinced of the rightness of things, we should make that choice to-night.  So, citizens of Trichinopoly, you may not wait for the whole of India but you can enforce the first step of non-co-operation and begin your operations even from to-morrow, if you have not done so already.  You can surrender all your titles to-morrow all the lawyers may surrender their practice to-morrow; those who cannot sustain body and soul by any other means can be easily supported by the Khilafat Committee, if they will give their whole time and attention to the work of that Committee and if the layers will kindly do that, you will find that there is no difficulty in settling your disputes by private arbitration.  You can nationalise your schools from to-morrow if you have got the will and the determination.  It is difficult, I know, when only a few of you think these things.  It is as easy as we are sitting here when the whole of this vast audience is of one mind and as it was easy for you to carry that chair so is it easy for you to enforce this programme from to-morrow if you have one will, one determination and love for your country, love for the honour of your country and religion. (Loud and prolonged cheers.)

SPEECH AT CALICUT

Mr. Chairman and friends.—­On behalf of my brother Shaukut Ali and myself I wish to thank you most sincerely for the warm welcome you have extended to us.  Before I begin to explain the purpose of our mission I have to give you the information that Pir Mahboob Shah who was being tried in Sindh for sedition has been sentenced to two years’ simple imprisonment.  I do not know exactly what the offence was with which the Pir was charged.  I do not know whether the words attributed to him were ever spoken by him.  But I do know that the Pirsaheb declined to offer any defence and with perfect resignation he has accepted his penalty.  For me it is a matter of sincere pleasure that the Pirsaheb who exercises great influence over his followers has understood the spirit of the struggle upon which we have embarked.  It is not by resisting the authority of Government that we expect to succeed in the great task before us.  But I do expect that we shall succeed if we understand the spirit of non-co-operation.  The Lieutenant-Governor of Burma himself has told us that the British retain their hold on India not by the force of arms but by the force of co-operation of the people.  Thus he has given us the remedy for any wrong that the Government may do to the people, whether knowingly or unknowingly.  And so long as we co-operate with the Government, so long as we support that Government, we become to that extent sharers in the wrong.  I admit that in ordinary circumstances a wise subject will tolerate the wrongs of a Government, but a wise subject never tolerates a wrong that a Government imposes on the declared will of a people.  And I venture to submit to this great meeting that the Government

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Freedom's Battle from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.