IN THE MONTH OF RAMZAN 83
said, " I have given more than an hour today to acquaint
myself with your difficulties and woes. But I confess to
you that I am no longer fit to tackle such matters. While
on the one hand, old age is slowly creeping upon me, on
the other my responsibilities are becoming more and more
multifarious and there is the danger that if I have too
Histtiy irons in the fire, I may not be able to do justice to
the more important of my responsibilities. Among these,
the responsibility that I have undertaken in respect of
the Khudai Khidmatgars is the most important. If I can
discharge it to my satisfaction, in collaboration with Bad-
shah Khan, I shall feel that my closing years have not
been wasted.
" People laugh at me and at the idea of Khudai Khid-
matgars' becoming full-fledged non-violent soldiers of
Swaraj. But their mockery does not affect me. Non-vio-
lence is a quality not of the body but of the soul. Once
its central meaning sinks into your being, all the rest fol-
lows by itself. Human nature in the Khudai Khidmatgars
is not different from mine. And I am sure that if I can
practise non-violence to some extent, they and for that
matter any one can. I therefore invite you to pray with
me to the Almighty that He may make real my dream
about the Kudhai Khidmatgars/'
One of the most difficult problems of Gandhiji was
to bring home to the warlike Pathans the significance of
constructive work in terms of non-violence and how it
could be made dynamic. In Civil Disobedience there was
at least the element of defiance to provide kudos. But
constructive work was to them like green meat to a pan-
ther. Gandhiji, therefore, gave a series of addresses to
elucidate the relation between constructive work and the
power of non-violence.
In the course of his talk before the Khudai Khidmat-
gar officers at Kohat, he impressed upon them the tremen-
dous nature of the step which they had taken. He had
often said before that if the Pathan, famed in the world
for the prowess of his arms, really took to non-violence,