IN FRONTIER GANDHI'S VILLAGE HOME gl
•violence. Still you have been able to achieve so much.
How much greater your achievement will be when you
have fully entered its holy edifice ! But as I have said
before, all that requires previous preparation and training.
At present you lack both/'
A dialogue between Badshah Khan and Gandhiji
next followed:
Badshah Khan : There are some Pathans in the
villages here who persecute Khudai Khidmatgars
beyond endurance. They beat them, seize their lands
and so on. What are we to do against them ?
Gandhiji: We have to meet their high-handedness
with patience and forbearance. We have to meet their
atrocities in the same way as we used to meet the
Britishers', not answer violence by violence, nor abuse
by abuse, nor harbour anger in our hearts. If we do
that it is sure to melt their hearts. If it fails, we shall
non-co-operate. If they seize our lands, we shall refuse
to provide them the labour even though we may have
to starve. We shall brave their wrath but refuse to
submit or go against our conscience.
Badshah Khan : Would it be permissible for us to
lodge a complaint against them before the police and
get them punished ?
Gandhiji : A true Khudai Khidmatgar won't go
to' a law court. Fighting in a law court is just like
physical fighting. Only, you use force by proxy. To
get the police to punish the aggressor is only a form of
revenge which a Khudai *Khidmatgar must abjure. Let
me illustrate my meaning by a personal instance. At
Sevagram some Harijans came to me and told me that
unless I could get a Harijan included in the C. P. Con-
gress Ministry, they would offer ' Satyagraha ' by stag-
ing a hunger strike. I knew it was all the doing of a
mischief-maker. The Police Superintendent wanted to
post some police force as he was afraid that the hooli-
gans might do some mischief. But I said * no *" to him
and told the Harijans that they need not sit outside in
the sun ,; they could occupy any room they liked in the