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

MAHATMA - Volume 3 (1930-1934)
On the morning of April 8, Gandhi broke the salt law at Aat. There were
rumours of his impending arrest and in anticipation of that, he gave a message:
"Let not my companions or the people at large be perturbed over my arrest, for
it is not I but God who is guiding this movement. At present India's self-respect,
in fact, her all, is symbolized as it were in a handful of salt in the satyagrahi's
hand. Let the fist holding it, therefore, be broken, but let there be no
voluntary surrender of the salt. Our path has already been chalked out for us.
Let every village manufacture or fetch contraband salt, sisters should picket
liquor shops, opium dens and foreign-cloth-dealers' shops. Young and old in
every home should ply the takli and spin and get woven heaps of yarn every
day. Foreign cloth should be burnt. Hindus should eschew untouchability.
Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Parsis and Christians should all achieve heart unity. Let
the majority rest content with what remains after the minorities have been
satisfied. Let the students leave Government schools, and Government servants
resign their service and devote themselves to service of the people, and we
shall find that Purna Swaraj will come knocking at our doors."
He gave a fighting programme to the women:
"The impatience of some sisters to join the fight is to me a healthy sign.
It has led to the discovery that, however attractive the campaign against salt
tax may be, for them to confine themselves to it would be to change a pound
for a penny. They will be lost in the crowd, there will be in it no suffering for
which they are thirsting.
"In this non-violent warfare, their contribution should be much greater than
men's. To call women the weaker sex is a libel; it is man's injustice to woman.
If by strength is meant brute strength, then indeed is woman less brute than
man. If by strength is meant moral power, then woman is immeasurably man's
superior. Has she not greater intuition, is she not more self-sacrificing, has she
not greater powers of endurance, has she not greater courage Without her
man could not be. If non-violence is the law of our being, the future is with
woman.
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