582 NON-CO-OPERATION
indefensible acts. For me there are few truer men than V. S, Snnivas Shastriar, but his actions confound me- I do not think he loves me less because he believes that I am leading India down to the abyss.
And so I hope, this great movement of Non-Co- operation has made it clear to thousands, as it has to me, that whilst we may attack measures and systems* we may not, must not, attack men. Imperfect ourselves, we must be tender towards others and be slow to impute motives.
I therefore gladly seized the opportunity of waiting upon His Excellency and of assuring him that ours was a religious movement designed to purge Indian political life of corruption, deceit, terrorism and the incubus of white superiority.
The reader must not be too curious. He must not believe the so-called 'reports' m the press. The veU must rpman drawn over the details of the conversation between the Viceroy and myself. But I may assure him that I explained, as fully as I knew how the three claims- the Khilafat, the Punjab, and Swaraj, and gave him the genesis of Non-Co-operation His Excellency heard me patiently, courteously nnd attentive- ly. He appeared to me be anxious to do only the right thing. We had a full discussion of the burning topics ad between man and man. We discussed the question of non- violence, and it appeared to me to be common cause between us. Of that I may have to write more fully later.
But beyond saying that we were able to understand each other; I am unable to say that there was more in the interwiew. Some may think with me that a mutual understanding is in itself no small gain. Then, in that sense, the interview was a distinct success.
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