MAHATMA - Volume 3 (1930-1934) - Mahatma Gandhi

MAHATMA - Volume 3 (1930-1934)
civil resistance. But suddenly, as in a flash, I saw the light. Self-confidence
returned. The voice within is clear. I must put forth all my effort or retire
altogether and for all time from public life. I feel now is the time or it will be
never. And so I am out for battle."
In his speeches Gandhi spared neither the Government nor the people. On
March 29, at Bhatgam, he made an introspective speech:
"I am plain-spoken. I have not hesitated to describe all the mountain- high
faults of the Government in appropriate language. And I have not hesitated
often to picture as mountain-high our own faults appearing to us as trifling. You
know, the common rule is to see our big lapses as tiny nothings. And when we
do realize our blemishes somewhat, we at once pass them on to the broad
shoulders of God and say He will take care of them; and then with safety thus
assured we proceed from lapse to lapse.
"Only this morning at the prayer time I told my companions that as we had
entered the district in which we were to offer civil disobedience, we should
insist on greater purification and intenser dedication. I warned them against
succumbing to their pampering. We are not angels. We are very weak, easily
tempted. There are many lapses to our debit. Even today some were
discovered. One defaulter confessed his lapse himself whilst I was brooding
over the lapses of the pilgrims. I discovered that my warning was given none
too soon. The local workers had ordered milk from Surat to be brought in a
motor lorry and they had incurred other expenses which I could not justify. I,
therefore, spoke strongly about them. But that did not allay my grief. On the
contrary, it increased with the contemplation of the wrong done.
"In the light of these discoveries, what right had I to write to H.E. the Viceroy
the letter in which I have severely criticized his salary which is more than five
thousand times our average income I could not vote Rs. 21,000 per month, not
perhaps even Rs. 2,100 per month. But when could I offer such resistance
Certainly not if I was myself taking from the people an unconscionable toll. I
could resist it only if my living bore some correspondence with the average
income of the people. We are marching in the name of God. We profess to act
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