QQ A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE
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of non-violence. If you have really understood the meaning
of non-violence, it should be clear to you that non-violence
is not a principle or a virtue to be brought into play on a
particular occasion or to be practised with reference to
a particular party or section. It has to become a part and
parcel of our being. Anger should disappear from our
hearts altogether, otherwise what is the difference be-
tween ourselves and our oppressors ? Anger may lead
one person to issue an order to open fire, another to use
abusive language, a third one to use the lathi. At root
it is all the same. It is only when you have become in-
capable of feeling or harbouring anger in your hearts that
you can claim to have shed violence or can expect to re-
main non-violent to the end."
He then proceeded to explain the difference between
Civil Disobedience and Satyagraha. " Our Civil Disobe-
dience or non-co-operation, by its very nature, was not
meant to be practised for all time. But the fight which
we are today putting up through our constructive non-
violence has a validity for all time; it is the real thing.
Supposing the Government were to cease to arrest civil
resisters, our jail going would then stop but that would
not mean that our fight is over. A civil resister does not
go to jail to embarrass the jail authorities by indulging
in the breach of jail rules. Of course, there can be Civil
Disobedience in jail too. But there are definite rules for it,
The point is that the civil register's fight does not end
with his imprisonment. Once we are inside the prison
we become civilly dead so far as the outside world is con-
cerned. But inside the prison our fight to convert the
hearts of the Government's bond slaves, i.e., the jail offi-
cials, just begins. It gives us a chance of demonstrating
to them that we are not like thieves or dacoits, that we
wish them no ill, nor do we want to destroy the opponent
but want only to make him our friend, not by servilely
obeying all orders, just or unjust — that is not the way
to win true friendship*— but by showing them that there
is no evil in us, that we sincerely wish them well and in
our hearts pray that God's goodness may be upon them.