This page has been validated.

Indian Independence

our Empire. For we are not really conquerors of India, and we cannot rule her as conquerors; if we undertake to do so, it is not necessary to inquire whether we could succeed, for we should assuredly be ruined financially by the mere attempt.”

I leave these two remarkable passages to be carefully thought over by every student. One thing, I believe, will come out, namely, that the attainment of Indian independence must essentially be based, not on any appeal to arms, nor on any violence, but on a complete realisation by the people as a whole of Indian nationality.

In the light of this fact, cannot we understand what a God-given blessing it has been to India, at such a time as the present, to have Mahatma Gandhi in our midst? In the next chapter I shall try to show still further from Sir John Seeley's

book “the immediate need for independence.”

8