True Sphere of Mass Civil Disobedience

MASS Civil Disobedience, just because it is the last and most drastic step in the power of a non-violent people, must be resorted to only after all other remedies have been tried and have failed. In our own case, we have made no secret of our opinion that the time for Mass Civil Disobedience would come only after the powers of the people to bring less drastic forms of pressure to bear upon the Government, including the powers given by the new Constitution, have been exhausted. Let us assume that at the next election the electorate returns none but men pledged to immediate self-government to the Provincial Councils as well as the Legislative Assembly and the Council of State, or at any rate that the majority of the members returned to these bodies belong to this category. Let us assume that these members backed by the electorate and as part of a larger body constituted by the representatives of the Congress, the Hindu Mahasabha, the Khilafat Conference, the Sikh League and all similar bodies, draw up a scheme of self-government for India and call upon the British Government to give effect to it; and that the British Government refuses to take this step, in spite of the clearest evidence that the electorate is educated and the country awakened and that both are in earnest. Let us further assume that the Councils, finding the Government unwilling to give way, resort to immediate obstruction and the Government, considering a fresh appeal to the country fruitless, either chooses to exercise its reserve powers and govern without the Councils, or takes steps to repeal the Government of India Act and revert to pure bureaucratic rule. None of these things is at all an impossible contingency, and yet when they do happen, Civil Disobedience will become the remedy for the country, provided it chooses to remain non-violent.

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