Famous Speeches: Mahatma Gandhi's "Quit India" PDF

Famous Speeches: Mahatma Gandhi\'s \"Quit India\" By Adapted by Newsela staff on 03.29.16 Word Count **1,205**  Mahatma Gandhi (right) with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru during a meeting of the All-India Congress in Bombay, now Mumbai, India. Dave Davis, Acme Newspictures...

Famous Speeches: Mahatma Gandhi\'s \"Quit India\" By Adapted by Newsela staff on 03.29.16 Word Count **1,205**  Mahatma Gandhi (right) with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru during a meeting of the All-India Congress in Bombay, now Mumbai, India. Dave Davis, Acme Newspictures Inc./Wikimedia Commons Editor\'s Note: Mahatma Gandhi delivered this speech in August 1942 to the All-India Congress session in Bombay, now Mumbai, on the eve of the Quit India movement and was arrested with his fellow leaders the next day. The controversial movement, which Gandhi started, took place during World War II and encouraged the people of India to passively resist the British colonial government. Five years after the speech, India won its independence. Before you discuss the resolution, let me place before you one or two things. I want you to understand two things very clearly. I want you to consider them from the same point of view from which I am placing them before you. I ask you to consider it from my point of view, because if you approve of it, you will be obliged to carry out all I say. It will be a great responsibility. There are people who ask me whether I am the same man that I was in 1920, or whether there has been any change in me. You are right in asking that question. This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. 1 Let me, however, hasten to assure you that I am the same Gandhi as I was in 1920. I have not changed in any fundamental respect. I attach the same importance to nonviolence that I did then. If anything, my commitment to it has grown stronger. There is no real contradiction between the present resolution and my previous writings and utterances. Occasions like the present do not happen in everybody's life. They rarely happen in anybody's life. I want you to know and feel that there is nothing but the purest Ahimsa in all that I am saying and doing today. That belief in not harming any living being is extremely important to me. The draft resolution of the Working Committee is based on Ahimsa, the contemplated struggle similarly has its roots in Ahimsa. If, therefore, any of you have lost faith in Ahimsa or is wearied of it, you should not vote for this resolution. Let me explain my position clearly. God has graciously granted to me a priceless gift in the weapon of Ahimsa. I and my Ahimsa are on trail today. If in the present crisis, when the earth is being scorched by the violent flames of Himsa and crying for deliverance, I failed to make use of the God-given talent, God will not forgive me. I shall be judged unworthy of the great gift. I must act now. I must not hesitate and merely look on, when Russia and China are threatened. Ours is not a drive for power, but purely a nonviolent fight for India's independence. In a violent struggle, a successful general has been often known to bring about a military takeover and to set up a dictatorship. But under the Congress\'s plan, essentially nonviolent as it is, there can be no room for dictatorship. A nonviolent soldier of freedom will want nothing for himself. He fights only for the freedom of his country. The Congress is unconcerned as to who will rule, when freedom is achieved. The power, when it comes, will belong to the people of India, and it will be for them to decide to whom they will entrust that power. Maybe the reins will be placed in the hands of the Parsis, for instance, as I would love to see happen, or they may be handed to some others whose names are not heard in the Congress today. It will not be for you then to object saying, "This community is microscopic. That party did not play its due part in freedom's struggle; why should it have all the power?" Ever since its beginning the Congress has kept itself perfectly clean and not contaminated by the dirt of unfairness. It has thought always in terms of the whole nation and has acted accordingly. I know how imperfect our Ahimsa is and how far away we are still from the ideal, but in Ahimsa there is no final failure or defeat. I have faith, therefore, that if, in spite of our shortcomings, the big thing does happen, it will be because God wanted to help us. It will be because He wanted to crown our silent, committed worship, our Sadhana, for the last 22 years with success. We would be rewarded for working long to conquer our sense of pride. I believe that in the history of the world, there has not been a purer democratic struggle for freedom than ours. I read Carlyle's French Revolution while I was in prison, and Pandit Jawaharlal has told me something about the Russian Revolution. But it is my firm belief that since these struggles were fought with the weapon of violence they failed to live up to the democratic ideal. In the democracy which I have envisioned, a democracy established by nonviolence, there will be equal freedom for all. Everybody will be his own master. It is to This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. 2  join a struggle for such democracy that I invite you today. Once you realize this you will forget the differences between Hindus and Muslims, and think of yourselves as Indians only, engaged in the common struggle for independence. Then, there is the question of your attitude toward the British. I have noticed that there is hatred toward the British among the people. The people say they are disgusted with the behavior of the British. The people make no distinction between British imperialism and the British people. To them, the two are one. This hatred would even make them welcome the Japanese. It is most dangerous. It means that they will exchange one slavery for another. We must get rid of this feeling. Our quarrel is not with the British people, we fight their imperialism. The proposal for the withdrawal of British power did not come out of anger. It came to enable India to play its due part during the present critical point in time. It is not a happy position for a big country like India to be merely helping with money and material obtained willy-nilly from her while the United Nations are conducting the war. We cannot call forth the true spirit of sacrifice and valor, so long as we are not free. I know the British Government will not be able to withhold freedom from us, when we have made enough self-sacrifice. We must, therefore, clean ourselves of hatred. Speaking for myself, I can say that I have never felt any hatred. As a matter of fact, I feel myself to be a greater friend of the British now than ever before. One reason is that they are today in distress. My very friendship, therefore, demands that I should try to save them from their mistakes. As I view the situation, they are on the brink of a bottomless pit. It, therefore, becomes my duty to warn them of their danger even though it may, for the time being, anger them to the point of cutting off the friendly hand that is stretched out to help them. People may laugh, nevertheless that is my claim. At a time when I may have to launch the biggest struggle of my life, I may not harbor hatred against anybody. This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. 3 **Quiz** 1 What is Gandhi\'s attitude toward the British in the last paragraph of the speech? \(A) He shares the disgust and hatred of the British that others feel, but he also sees these negative feelings as dangerous. \(B) He does not hate British imperialism (being ruled by the British), because he thinks that hatred itself is dangerous. \(C) He is a friend to the British people and their government, and he supports all of their actions because of his nonviolence. \(D) He does not like British imperialism, which is being ruled by the British, but he does not hate the British people themselves. 2 Read the second-to-last paragraph of the speech. How does Gandhi describe the relationship between other revolutions and India\'s fight for independence? \(A) He looks to other revolutions to provide guidance and inspiration for India\'s fight because their democracies turned out so well. \(B) He explains that while other fights were about power and won by violence, India\'s fight is about nonviolence and democracy. \(C) He credits other revolutions for giving him the ideas about nonviolence, even though they were not as pure in their commitment to nonviolence as he would like to be. \(D) He is concerned that India\'s fight for independence is looking more and more like the violent revolutions in other countries and he is concerned about the possibility of a dictator emerging. 3 Read the excerpt from the speech. In the democracy which I have envisioned, a democracy established by nonviolence, there will be equal freedom for all. Everybody will be his own master. It is to join a struggle for such democracy that I invite you today. What does Gandhi mean when he said he \"envisioned\" a democracy? \(A) He saw it. \(B) He heard of it. \(C) He imagined it. \(D) He guaranteed it. This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. 4  4 Read the excerpt from the speech. I believe that in the history of the world, there has not been a purer democratic struggle for freedom than ours. I read Carlyle's French Revolution while I was in prison, and Pandit Jawaharlal has told me something about the Russian Revolution. But it is my firm belief that since these struggles were fought with the weapon of violence they failed to live up to the democratic ideal. Which of the following is MOST likely what Gandhi meant by \"democratic ideal\"? \(A) the best version of democracy possible \(B) a form of government similar to democracy \(C) a fantasy-version of democracy that could never exist \(D) a version of democratic government that is likely to fail This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. 5 **Answer Key** 1 What is Gandhi\'s attitude toward the British in the last paragraph of the speech? \(A) He shares the disgust and hatred of the British that others feel, but he also sees these negative feelings as dangerous. \(B) He does not hate British imperialism (being ruled by the British), because he thinks that hatred itself is dangerous. \(C) He is a friend to the British people and their government, and he supports all of their actions because of his nonviolence. **(D) He does not like British imperialism, which is being ruled by the British, but he does not hate the British people themselves.** 2 Read the second-to-last paragraph of the speech. How does Gandhi describe the relationship between other revolutions and India\'s fight for independence? \(A) He looks to other revolutions to provide guidance and inspiration for India\'s fight because their democracies turned out so well. **(B) He explains that while other fights were about power and won by** **violence, India\'s fight is about nonviolence and democracy.** \(C) He credits other revolutions for giving him the ideas about nonviolence, even though they were not as pure in their commitment to nonviolence as he would like to be. \(D) He is concerned that India\'s fight for independence is looking more and more like the violent revolutions in other countries and he is concerned about the possibility of a dictator emerging. 3 Read the excerpt from the speech. In the democracy which I have envisioned, a democracy established by nonviolence, there will be equal freedom for all. Everybody will be his own master. It is to join a struggle for such democracy that I invite you today. What does Gandhi mean when he said he \"envisioned\" a democracy? \(A) He saw it. \(B) He heard of it. **(C) He imagined it.** \(D) He guaranteed it. This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. 6  4 Read the excerpt from the speech. I believe that in the history of the world, there has not been a purer democratic struggle for freedom than ours. I read Carlyle's French Revolution while I was in prison, and Pandit Jawaharlal has told me something about the Russian Revolution. But it is my firm belief that since these struggles were fought with the weapon of violence they failed to live up to the democratic ideal. Which of the following is MOST likely what Gandhi meant by \"democratic ideal\"? **(A) the best version of democracy possible** \(B) a form of government similar to democracy \(C) a fantasy-version of democracy that could never exist \(D) a version of democratic government that is likely to fail This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. 7