" THE WILD VALLEY " OF BANNU 99
" Just as there are laws of armed warfare/' he nex
told them, " there are laws of non-violent warfare too
They have not been fully discovered. Under violence yoi
punish the evil-doer, in non-violence you pity him, anc
regard him as a patient to be cured by your love.
" What must you do then to drive out the British bj
the non-violent method ? If you want to adopt the method
of violence, you have to learn to drill and to become adepl
in the use of arms. In Europe and America even women
and children are given that training. Similarly those who
have adopted the weapon of non-violence have to put
themselves through a vigorous discipline in non-violence."
And with that he came to the constructive programme
and its place in the scheme of non-violence as a dynamic
force. He had placed the programme of non-violence
* before the country in 1920, he explained. It was divided
into two parts, non-co-operation and constructive pro-
gramme. The latter included establishment of communal
unity, abolition of untouchability, prohibition, complete
eradication of the drink and drug evil and propagation of
khadi, hand-spinning, hand-weaving and other cottage
industries. But all these things had to be taken up not
as a political expediency but as an integral part of the
programme of non-violence. This last made all the dif-
ference. For instance, Hindu-Muslim unity, regarded
as an expedient, was one thing and quite another,
when adopted as an integral part of non-violence.
" The former, by its very nature, cannot be lasting. It
will be" discarded as soon as the political exigency that
suggested it is over. It may even be a stratagem or a ruse.
When it is taken up as a part of the programme of non-
violence it will have nothing but love at its root and will
be sealed with one's heart's blood."
In the same way the charkha or the spinning wheel
had to be linked to non-violence. " Today there are mil-
lions of unemployed destitute in India. One way to deal
with them is to allow them to die off so that, as in South
Africa, there might be more per capita land for the sur-
vivors. That would be the way of violence. The other