Noncooperation with Nonviolence

 

 

Noncooperation with Nonviolence

 

 

By Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is this non-cooperation, about which you have heard much, and why do we want to offer this non-cooperation?

 

 

 

A Prayer meeting at Noakhali, 1947.

 

 

 

 

I have been told that non-cooperation is unconstitutional. I venture to deny that it is unconstitutional. on the contrary, I hold that non-cooperation is a just and religious doctrine; it is the inherent right of every human being and it is perfectly constitutional. A great lover of the British Empire has said that under the British constitution even a successful rebellion is perfectly constitutional and he quotes historical instances, which I cannot deny, in support of his claim. I do not claim any constitutionality for a rebellion successful or otherwise, so long as that rebellion means in the ordinary sense of the term, what it does mean, namely, wresting justice by violent means. on the contrary, I have said it repeatedly to my countrymen that violence, whatever end it may serve in Europe, will never serve us in India.

 

 

 

An ailing Mahatma during one of his many fasts.

 

 

 

 

I tell you that whilst my friend believes also in the doctrine of violence and has adopted the doctrine of non-violence as a weapon on the weak, I believe in the doctrine of non-violence as a weapon of the strongest. I believe that a man is the strongest soldier for daring to die unarmed with his breast bare before the enemy. So much for the non-violent part of non-cooperation. I therefore, venture to suggest to my learned country men that so long as the doctrine of non-cooperation remains non-violent, so long there is nothing unconstitutional in that doctrine.

 

 

 

The Mahatma crosses the swamps of East

Bengal to bring peace to Noakhali, 1947.

 

 

 

 

I ask further, is it unconstitutional for me to say to the British Government ‘I refuse to serve you’? Is it unconstitutional for our worthy Chairman to return with every respect all the titles that he has ever held from the Government? Is it unconstitutional for any parent to withdraw his children from Government or aided school? Is it unconstitutional for a lawyer to say ‘I shall no longer support the arm of the law so long as that arm of law is used not to raise me but to debase me’? Is it unconstitutional for a civil servant or for a judge to say, ‘I refuse to serve a Government which does not wish to respect the wishes of the whole people’?

 

 

 

The Mahatma speaks to farmers of Rajkot during the Rajkot fast.

 

 

 

 

I ask, is it unconstitutional for a policeman or for a soldier to tender his resignation when he knows that he is called to serve a Government, which traduces his own countrymen? Is it unconstitutional for me to go to the agriculturist, and say to him ‘it is not wise for you to pay any taxes, if these taxes are used by the Government not to raise you but to weaken you’? I hold and I venture to submit, that there is nothing unconstitutional in it. What is more, I have done every one of these things in my life and nobody has questioned the constitutional character of it.

 

 

The Mahatma steps on to a boat to cross the waterways

in swampy Noakhali during his peace mission, 1946 - 47.

 

 

 

 

I submit, that in the whole plan of non-cooperation, there is nothing unconstitutional. But I do venture to suggest that it will be highly unconstitutional in the midst of this unconstitutional Government— in the midst of a nation which has built up its magnificent constitution,—for the people of India to become weak and to crawl on their belly—it will be highly unconstitutional for the people of India to pocket every insult that is offered to them; it is highly unconstitutional for the 70 millions of Mohammedans of India to submit to a violent wrong done to their religion; it is highly unconstitutional for the whole of India to sit still and cooperate with an unjust Government which has trodden under its feet the honour of the Punjab.

 

The peace brigade of the Mahatma in Noakhali, the riot ravaged

district of East Bengal (now Bangladesh) in 1947.

 

 

 

 

I say to my countrymen so long as you have a sense of honour and so long as you wish to remain the descendants and defenders of the noble traditions that have been handed to you for generations after generations; it is unconstitutional for you not to non-cooperate and unconstitutional for you to cooperate with a Government which has become so unjust as our Government has become. I am not anti-English; I am not anti-British; I am not anti any Government; but I am anti-untruth—anti-humbug and anti-injustice. So long as the Government spells injustice, it may regard me as its enemy, implacable enemy.

 

 

 

 

Peace Pilgrim, the Mahatma walks through the riot ravaged

Noakhali district of West Bengal. Mountbatten called him

 one man peace keeping force", August 1941.

 

 

 

 

Until we have wrung justice, and until we have wrung our self-respect from unwilling hands and from unwilling pens there can be no cooperation. Our Shastras say and I say so with the greatest deference to all the greatest religious preceptors of India but without fear of contradiction, that our Shastras reach us that there shall be no cooperation between injustice and justice, between an unjust man and a justice-loving man, between truth and untruth. Cooperation is a duty only so long as Government protects your honour, and non-cooperation is an equal duty when the Government instead of protecting robs you of your honour. That is the doctrine of noncooperation.

 

 

 

 

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, The Mahatma walks

out of the Dargah of Khwaja Nizamudin at Mehrauli

- New Delhi after attending the annual hours on 27th

January 1948.

 

 

 

 

 

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