but a sign of weakness on our part. Every movement, and Satyagraha most of all, must depend upon its own inherent strength, but not upon the weakness or silence of its critics.
Let us, therefore, see wherein lies the strength of Satyagraha. As the name implies it is in an insistence on truth which dynamically expressed means love ; and by the law of love we are required not to return hatred for hatred, violence for violence but to return good for evil. As Shrimati Sarojini Devi told you yesterday the strength lies in a definite recognition of the true religi- ous spirit and action corresponding to it, and when once you introduce the religious element in politics, you re- volutionise the whole of your political outlook. You achieve reform then not by imposing suffering on those who resist it, but by taking the suffering upon your- selves and so in this movement we hope by the intensity of our sufferings to affect and alter the Government's resolution not to withdraw these objectionable Bills. It has, however, been suggested that the Government will leave the handful of Satyagrahis severely alone and not make martyrs of them. But there is here, in my hum- ble opinion, bad logic and an unwarranted assumption of fact. If Satyagrahis are left alone, they have won a complete victory, because they will have succeeded in disregarding the Rowlatt Bills and even other laws of the country, and in having thus shown that a civil disobedience of a Government is held per- fectly harmless. I regard the statement as an unwarrant- ed assumption of fact, because it contemplates the restriction of the movement only to a handful of men and women. My experience of Satyagraha leads me to believe that it is such a potent force that, once set in motion, it
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