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In
reply to the Welcome address read by Mr. G. A. Natesan on behalf of the Indian
South African League, at a meeting at the Victoria Public Hall, Madras, on the
21st April 1915, with Dr. Sir Subramania Iyer in the Chair, Mr. Gandhi said -
Mr. Chairman and Friends, - On behalf of my wife and myself I am deeply grateful
for the great honour this you here in Madras, and may I say, this Presidency,
have done to us and the affection that has been lavished upon us in this great
and enlightened - not benighted - Presidency.
If there is anything that we have deserved, as has been stated in this beautiful
address, I can only say I lay it at the feet of my Master under whose
inspiration I have been working all this time under exile in South Africa.
(Hear, hear). In so far as the sentiments expressed in this address are merely
prophetic. Sir, I accept them as a blessing and as a prayer from you and from
this great meeting that both my wife and I myself may possess the power, the
inclination, and the life to dedicate whatever we may develop in this sacred
land of ours to the service of the Motherland. (Cheers). It is no wonder that we
have come to Madras. As my Friend, Mr. Natesan, will perhaps tell you, e have
been overdue and we have neglected Madras. But we have done nothing of the kind.
We know that we had a corner in your hearts and we knew that you will not
misjudge us if we did not hasten to Madras before going to the other
presidencies and to other towns. But, Sir, if one-tenth of the language that has
been used in this address is deserved by us, what language do you propose to use
for those who have lost their lives, and therefore finished their work on behalf
of your suffering countrymen in South Africa? What language do you propose to
use for Magappan and Narayansawmy, lads of seventeen or eighteen years, who
braved in simple faith all the trials, all the sufferings, and all the
indignities for the sake of the honour of the Motherland (Cheers.). What
language do you propose to use with reference to Valliamma, that sweet girl of
seventeen years who was discharged from Maritzburg prison, skin and bone
suffering from fever to which she succumbed after about a month's time (Cries of
shame).
It was the Madrasis who of all the Indians were singled out by the great
Divinity that rules over us for this great work. Do you know that in the great
city of Johannesburg, the Madarasis look on a Madrasis as dishonored if he has
not passed through the jails once or twice during this terrible crisis that your
countrymen in South Africa went through during these eight long years? You have
said that I inspired these great men and women, but I cannot accept that
proposition. It was they, the simple-minded folk, who worked away in faith,
never expecting the slightest reward, who inspired me, who kept me to the proper
level , and who inspired me by their great sacrifice, by their great faith, by
their great trust in the great God, to do the work that I was able to do.
(Cheers). It is my misfortune that my wife and I have been obliged to work in
the lime-light, and you have magnified out of all proportion (crisis of 'No ? No
?') this little work we have been able to do. Believe me, my dear friends, that
if you consider, whether in India or in South Africa, it is possible for us,
poor mortals-the same individuals, the same stuff of which you are made if you
consider that it is possible for us to do anything whatsoever without your
assistance and without your doing the same thing that we would be prepared to
do, you are lost, and we are also lost, and our services will be in vain, I do
not for one moment believe that the inspiration was given by us. The inspiration
was given by them to us, and we were able to be interpreters between the powers
who called themselves the Governors and those men for whom redress was so
necessary. We were simply links between those two parties and nothing more. It
was my duty, having received the education that was given to me by my parents to
interpret what was going on in our midst to those simple folk, and they rose to
the occasion. They realised the might of religious force, and it was they who
inspired us, and let them who have finished their work, and who have died for
you and me, let them inspire you and us. We are still living and who knows
whether the devil will not possess us tomorrow and we shall not forsake the post
of duty before any new danger that may face us, But these three have gone for
ever.
An old man of 75 from the United Provinces, Harbart Singh, has also joined the
majority and died in jail in South Africa; and he deserved the crown that you
would seek to impose upon us. These young men deserve all the adjectives that
you have so affectionately, but blindly lavished upon us. It was not only the
Hindus who struggled, but there were Mohamedans, Parsis and Christians, and
almost every part of India was represented in the struggled. They realised the
common danger, and they realised also what their destiny was an Indians, and it
was they, and they alone, who matched the soul-forces against the physical
forces. (Loud applause.)
Source : Speeches and Writings of Gandhi
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