There is no half-way house between active loyalty and active disloyalty . There is much truth in the late Justice Stephen's remark that a man to prove himself not guilty of disaffection must prove himself to be actively affectionate . In these days of democracy there is no such thing as active loyalty to a person . You are therefore loyal or disloyal to institutions . When therefore you are disloyal you seek not to destroy persons but institutions . The present State is an institution which , if one knows it , can never evoke loyalty . It is corrupt . Many of its laws governing the conduct of persons are positively inhuman . Their administration is worse . Often the will of one person is the law . It may safely be said that there are as many rulers as as there are districts in this country . These , called Collectors, combine in their own persons the executive as well the judicial functions . Though their acts are supposed to be governed by laws in themselves highly defective , these rulers are often capricious and regulated by nothing but their own whims and fancies . They represent not the interests of the people but those of their foreign masters or principals . These ( nearly three hundred ) men form an almost secret corporation , the most powerful in the world . They are required to find a fixed minimum of revenue , they have therefore often been found to be most unscruplous in their dealings with the people . This system of Government is confessedly based upon a merciless exploitation of unnumbered millions of the inhabitants of India . From the village headmen to their personal assistants these satraps have created a class of subordinates who , whilst they cringe before their foreign masters , in their constant dealings with the people act so irresponsibly and so harshly as to demoralize them and by a system of terrorism render them incapable of resisting corruption . It is then the duty of those who have realized the awful evil of the system of Indian Government to be diloyal to it and actively and openly to preach disloyalty . Indeed , loyalty to a State so corrupt is a sin , disloyalty a virtue .
The spectacle of three hundred million people being cowed down by living in the dread of three hundred men is demoralizing alike for the despots as for the victims . It is the duty of those who have realized the evil nature of the system however attractive some of its fetures may , torn from their context , appear to be , to destroy it without delay . It is their clear duty to run any risk to achieve the end .
But it must be equally clear that it would be cowardly for three hundred million people to seek to destroy the three hundred authors or administrators of the system . It is sign of gross ignorance to devise means of destroying these administrators or their hirelings . Moreover they are but creatures of circumstances . The purest man entering the system will be affected by it and will be instrumental in propagating the evil . The remedy therefore naturally is not being enraged against the administrators and therefore hurting them but to non-cooperate with the system by withdrawing all the voluntary assistance possible and refusing all its so -called benefits . A little reflection will show that civil disobedience is a necessary part of non-cooperation. You assist an administration most effectively by obeying its orders and decrees . An evil administration never deserves such allegiance . Allegiance to it means partaking of the evil . A good man will therefore resist an evil system or administration with his whole soul . Disobedience of the laws of an evil State is therefore a duty . Violent disobedience deals with men who can be replaced . It leaves the evil itself untouched and often accentuates it . Non-violent , i.e. civil disobedience is the only and the most successful remedy and is obligatory upon him would dissociate himself from evil .
There is danger in civil disobedience only because it is still only a partially tried remedy and has always to be tried in an atmosphere surcharged with violence . For when tyranny is rampant much rage is generated among the victims.It remains latent because of their weakness and bursts in all its fury on the sightest pretext. Civil disobedience is a sovereign method of transmuting this undisciplined life-destroying latent energy into disciplined life-saving energy whose use ensures absolute success . The attendant risk is nothing compared to the result promised . When the world has become familiar with its use and when it has had a series of demonstrations of its successful working , there will be less risk in civil disobedience than there is in aviation , in spite of that science having reached a high stage of development .
Young India , 27 - 3 - 1930,p.108 [ Quoted in Political and National Life and Affairs , Volume III ,By M.K.Gandhi , Compiled and Edited by V.B. Kher ,Navajivan Publishing House ,Ahmedabad-14,First Edition,August 1968 ]
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