Mahatma Gandhi, his life, writings and speeches/Civic Freedom
CIVIC FREEDOM
This is an incident that happened when he went to England:—
A gentleman on board said, "I see you are going to London in order to get rid of the day's collar!" Precisely; it was because they did not want to wear a dog's collar that they had put up that fight. They were willing to sacrifice everything for sentiment, but it was a noble sentiment. It was a sentiment that had to be cherished as a religious sentiment. It was a sentiment that bound people together; it was a sentiment that bound creatures to the Creator. That was the sentiment for which he asked them, advised them, if necessary, to die. Their action would be reflected throughout the British Dominions, through the length and breadth of India, and they were now upon their trial. There was no better and no fear for a man who believed in God. No matter what might be said, he would always repeat that it was a struggle for religious liberty. By religion they did not mean formal religion, or customary religion, but that religion which underlay all religions, which brought them face to face with their Maker. If they ceased to be men; if, on taking a deliberate vow, they broke that vow in order that they might remain in the Transvaal without physical inconvenience, they undoubtedly forsook their God. To repeat again the words of the Jew of Nazareth, those who would follow God had to leave the world, and he had called upon his countrymen, in that particular instance, to leave the world and cling to God, as a child would cling to the mother's breast.
Their natural deaths they could die far outside the Transvaal, wherever there was a piece of earth given them, but if they would die a noble death, a man's death, there was only one course open to them. The handful of Indians who had a right to remain in the Transvaal should be allowed to remain as worthy citizens of a mighty Empire, but should not remain as beasts so long as he could help it.