116

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

advice, refused to ask for his prosecution. I had no trace of
ill-will against him in my heart. I would have also liked
to meet him personally and reach his heart, but that was
to remain a mere aspiration/7 And he went on to tell them
how non-violence of a Khudai Khidmatgar should express
itself in acts of service to God's creatures and the training
that was necessary for it.
At the end of his talk he was presented with a poser
by one of the Khudai Khidmatgars who had followed his
address closely : " You expect us to protect the Hindus
against the raiders and yet you tell us that we may not
use our weapons even against thieves and dacoits. How
can the two go together ? " " The contradiction," Gan-
dhi ji replied, " is only apparent. If you have really assi-
milated the non-violent spirit, you won't wait for the
raiders to appear on the scene, but will seek them out
in their own territory and prevent the raids from taking
place. If even then a raid does take place, you will face
the raiders and tell them that they can take away all your
belongings but they shall touch the property of your
Hindu neighbours only over your dead body. And if there
are hundreds of Khudai Khidmatgars ready to protect the
Hindu hamsayas (neighbours) with their lives, the raiders
will certainly think better of butchering in cold blood all
the innocent and inoffensive Khudai Khidmatgars who are
non-violently pitched against them. You know the story
of Abdul Qadir Jilani and his forty gold mohurs with.
which his mother had sent him to Baghdad. On the way
the caravan was waylaid by robbers who proceeded to
strip Abdul Qadir's companions of all their belongings.
Thereupon Abdul Qadir, who so far happened to be un-
touched, shouted out to the raiders and offered them the
forty gold mohurs which his mother had sewn into the
lining of his tunic. The legend goes that the raiders were
so struck by the simple naivete of the boy, that the saint
then was, that they not only let him go untouched but
returned to his companions all their belongings."
At Ahmadi Banda Gandhiji explained to the Khudai
Khidmatgars the place of Civil Disobedience in the