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DO OR DIE
Congress committee meeting, Mumbai August 8, 1942
Nevertheless, the actual struggle does not commence this moment. You
have only placed all your powers in my hands. I will now wait upon
the Viceroy and plead with him for the acceptance of the Congress
demand. That process is likely to take two or three weeks. What
would you do in the mean while? What is the program, for the
interval, in which all can participate? As you know, the spinning
wheel is the first thing that occurs to me. I made the same answer
to the Maulana. He would have none of it, though he understood its
import later. The fourteen fold constructive Program is, of Course,
there for you to carry out. What more should you do? I will tell
you. Every one of you should, from this moment onwards, consider
yourself a free man or woman, and act as if you are free and are no
longer under the heel of this imperialism.
It
is not a make-believe that I am suggesting to you. It is the very
essence of freedom. The bond of the slave is snapped the moment he
considers himself to be a free being. He will plainly tell the
master: 'I was your bond slave till this moment, but I am a slave no
longer. You may kill me if you like, but if you keep me alive, I
wish to tell you that if you release me from the bondage of your own
accord, I will ask for nothing more from you. You used to feed and
clothe me, though I could have provided food and clothing for myself
by my labour. I hitherto depended on you instead of on God, for food
and raiment. God has now inspired me with an urge for freedom and I
am today a free man and will no longer depend on you.'
You
may take it from me that I am not going to strike a bargain with the
Viceroy for ministries and the like. I am not going to be satisfied
with anything short of complete freedom. Maybe, he will propose
the abolition of salt tax, the drink evil, etc. But I will say
'Nothing less than freedom.'
Here is a mantra, a short one that I give you. You may imprint it on
your hearts and let every breath of yours give expression to it. The
mantra is: 'Do or Die.' We shall either free India or die in the
attempt; we shall not live to see the perpetuation of our slavery.
Every true Congressman or [Congress] woman will join the struggle
with an inflexible determination not to remain alive to see the
country in bondage and slavery. Let that be your pledge.
Keep
jails out of your consideration. If the Government keeps me free, I
will spare you the trouble of filling the jails. I will not put on
the Government the strain of maintaining a large number of prisoners
at a time when it is in trouble. Let every man and woman live every
moment of his or her life hereafter in the consciousness that he or
she eats or lives for achieving freedom and will die, if need be, to
attain that goal.
Take
a pledge with God and your own conscience as witness, that you will
no longer rest till freedom is achieved and will be prepared to lay
down your lives in the attempt to achieve it. He who loses his life
will gain it; he who will seek to save it shall lose it. Freedom is
not for the coward or the faint hearted.
A
word to the journalists. I congratulate you on the support you have
hitherto given to the national demand. I know the restrictions and
handicaps under which you have to labour. But I would not ask you to
snap the chains that bind you. It should be the proud privilege of
the newspapers to lead and set an example in laying down one's life
for freedom.
It is
my duty to warn the Princes that if they will act while I am still
alive, the Princes may come to occupy an honorable place in free
India. In Jawaharlal's scheme of free India, no privileges or the
privileged classes have a place. Jawaharlal considers all property
to be State-owned. He wants planned economy. He wants to reconstruct
India according to plan. He likes to fly; I do not. I have kept a
place for the Princes and the zamindars in India that I envisage. I
would ask the Princes in all humility to enjoy through renunciation.
The Princes may renounce ownership over their properties and become
their trustees in the true sense of the term. I visualize God in
the assemblage of people. The Princes may say to their people: 'You
are the owners and masters of the State and we are your servants.'
Nothing, however, should be done secretly. This is an open
rebellion. In this struggle secrecy is a sin. A free man would not
engage in a secret movement. It is likely that when you gain freedom
you will have a C.I.D. of your own, in spite of my advice to the
contrary. But in the present struggle, we have to work openly and
to receive the bullets on our chest, without taking to heels.
I
have a word to say to the Government servants also. They may not, if
they like, resign their posts yet. The late Justice Ranade did not
resign his post, but he openly declared that he belonged to the
Congress. I would ask all the Government servants to follow in the
footsteps of Ranade and to declare their allegiance to the Congress
as an answer to the secret circular issued by Sir Frederick Puckle.
Soldiers too are covered by the present program. I do not ask them
just now to resign their posts and leave the army. Soldiers come to
me, Jawaharlal and to the Maulana and say: "We are wholly with you.
We are tired of the governmental tyranny." To these soldiers I
would say: "You may say to the government, 'our hearts are with the
Congress. We are not going to leave our posts. We will serve you so
long as we receive your salaries. We will obey your just orders, but
will refuse to fire on our own people.' "
If
the students want to join the struggle only to go back to their
studies after a while, I would not invite them to it. For the
present, however, till the time that I frame a program for the
struggle, I would ask the students to say to their professors: 'we
belong to the Congress. Do you belong to the Congress or to the
Government? If you belong to the Congress, you need not vacate your
posts. You will remain at your posts but teach us and lead us unto
freedom.' In all fights for freedom, the world over, the students
have made very large contributions.
For
the last twenty-two years, I have controlled my speech and pen and
have stored up my energy. He is a true brahmachari who does not
fritter away his energy. He will, therefore, always control his
speech. That has been my conscious effort all these years. But today
the occasion has come when I had to unburden my heart before you. I
have done so, even though it meant putting a strain on your
patience; and I do not regret having done it. I have given you my
message and through you I have delivered it to the whole of India. |
