Gandhiji had no doubt that non-violence was as effective a weapon
against communal strife as it had proved in their struggle against
the British. The people had followed him then, because they knew
they could not face the might of British arms in any other way. It
was the non-violence of the weak. That won't serve the purpose in
communal strife. For that was required pure nonviolence of the
brave.
Speaking in the prayer meeting Gandhiji said that while he admitted
his impotency regarding the spread of the Ahimsa of the brave and
the strong as distinguished from that of the weak, the admission was
not meant to imply that he did not know how that inestimable virtue
was to be cultivated. Consciousness of the living presence of God
within one was undoubtedly the first requisite. Acquisition of this
consciousness did not require or mean temple-going. The daily
recitation, however, carried with it certain well-defined
implications. Assuming that the millions of India daily recited at a
given time the name of God as Rama, Allah, Khuda, Ahura Mazda and
Jehovah but the recitation was not free from drunkenness,
debauchery, gambling on the market or in gambling dens,
black-marketing etc., the Ramadhun was a vain and inglorious effort.
One with a wicked heart could never be conscious of the
all-purifying presence of God. Therefore it was truer (if it was a
fact) to say that India was not ready for the lesson of Ahimsa of
the strong than that no programme had been devised for the teaching.
It would be perfectly just 10 say that the programme just mentioned
for the Ahimsa of the strong was not as attractive as that devised
for the non-violence of the weak had proved to be. He hoped that at
least his hearers who daily attended the prayer meetings would lead
the way in expressing in their lives the Ahimsa of the strong.
New Delhi,
22-6-'47
Harijan,
29-6-1947