The President, Mahatma Gandhi, walked down from the dais to the rostrum in loin-cloth and with khaddar in his hand amidst enthusiastic cheers. He hung up his bag on the rostrum, sat on a sufficiently high stool and kept his watch open in front of him. He was then presented a Handbook enclosed in a sandal-wood box. He then proceeded to address in Hindi. which is as follows:

Extracts of the Opening Presidential speech of Mahatma Gandhi on December 26, 1924.

We are today faced with a situation where what we had set out to accomplish in 1920-21 we were not able to accomplish, while among us disunity and ill feeling have raised their head. Hindus and Muslims consider each other enemies and indulge in physical violence. It is hardly necessary to say that this is not the way to secure swaraj. We, Hindus, look down on the untouchables and consider it sinful to touch them. We thus think that they are impure. But in this we commit a sin before God, a sin of the greatest magnitude. It is true that for three or four years now we have accepted it that everyone, big and small, should ply the charkha; and we have been saying in the Congress, in the All-India Congress Committee, that it is our intention to secure swaraj through the charkha. When I went to Poona in the course of the present campaign I said at a meeting that the Lokamanya had given us the first line of a sloka, “Swaraj is our birthright”, and that it is my mission in life to complete the sloka. This is my belief. I repeat the statement here. If we desire swaraj, then the way to it is through the charkha, yarn, and khaddar. I regret to say that while you know it you do not act on it. I neither know nor can think of anything else. I therefore tell you, brothers and sisters, that it is futile for me to appear before you and make speeches, it does not lead anywhere, it is wasting your time and my own time which I consider valuable for I deem myself a servant of God. I know that we cannot get swaraj in this way. Begum Mahomed Ali said to me once that whenever she goes to attend a Congress session, for about a week she has the feeling that we have already got swaraj. It means that we put on an act of swaraj. It is like seeing someone play the part of Harishchandra who is of course not Harishchandra. We do not know whether the player who acts Harishchandra is truthful or not. This celebration of swaraj has similarly become a play-acting. That is why I say to you, brothers, Deshbandhu Das is moving a resolution; accept the resolution only if you agree with it. If you do not agree with it you should reject it. There is no reference in it to Hindu-Muslim unity, nor is it concerned with untouchability. All that it says is that we wish to ply the charkha. I ask you all who have come here as delegates-untouchables, Christians or others-if you really represent those that you claim to represent and if you uphold the pledge of Mahomed Ali and Das, to do whatever you want to do with God in your sight. If you feel that it is not right, that Gandhi is deceiving you, then by all means reject it, have nothing to do with it. But if you take a pledge, if you accept this resolution-for I consider accepting is taking a pledge-and then do not keep to it, I leave you to yourselves. If the country thinks Gandhi is mad, discard him. Think again. Do you feel India is fit for swaraj? What does the world have to say about one who violates a pledge? Well, he may read the Bible, or the Granth Saheb, or the Koran, in your eyes he will be a leper, a good-for-nothing, a false coin, a counterfeit rupee. If you take a false coin to a shop the Government will haul you up for it. This is what I wish to tell you. I do not mean to mislead you, I do not mean to play a game with you. I tell you what I think and feel. I am convinced that swaraj cannot come so long as the tens of millions of our brothers and sisters do not take to the charkha, do not spin, do not make khadi and wear it. So long as this does not come about, the utter poverty of India cannot be eradicated. There will be no swaraj so long as the tens of millions of the country’s destitutes have not got their bread.

You can have swaraj only on this condition. I have made a compact with Deshbandhu Das and Pandit Motilal Nehru, and I have placed it before the whole country. I believe there is nothing wrong in what I want; I accept their right to what they want. I hold that we can gain nothing through the Councils; but there are big leaders who believe that something or other can be gained through the Councils and that if we do nothing else we can at least go into the Councils. It is true enough. I must say that if they see some advantage in going into the Councils they should do so. They too are leaders of the country. Who am I to say no to them? It is in the compact that those who so wish may go into the Councils. It does not mean that non-co-operators should also follow them. The Congress belongs equally to Pro-changers and No-changers. It is a false notion that it belongs exclusively to either. Therefore they will go into the Councils on behalf of the Congress.

Brothers, I have addressed to you these few words in my lame and broken Hindi. I am sorry to see that a number of our brethren from Karnatak and the South come and say: “Speak in English.” It is a matter of pain. Ever since I came to India I have been saying that at least in the Congress, when we speak about swaraj, we should do so in Hindi. But to our misfortune our education has become so faulty and so much lethargy has crept in that we do not make as much effort towards this as is demanded. If even now I could be convinced that those of our brethren who have come from Tamilnad or Karnatak can understand my broken Hindi, I would go from here satisfied. But I know that is not the case. Yes, I am forgetting something. I am forgetting Deshbandhu Das. Bengal is also contributing towards this sin. I wish God had given me the power to learn the language in which Rabindranath Tagore has created such fine literature and I could address my Bengali brethren in that language. But that was not to be.

A revolutionary change is being proposed before the nation, a change, I think, as Lalaji has said, as revolutionary as the change embarked upon by the nation under his Presidency in 1920 at the Special Session at Calcutta. I even admit with him that the change that I have proposed and placed before the nation is possibly more revolutionary still. And, therefore, I make bold to say that it is calculated to bring you within measurable distance of swaraj if you will whole-heartedly accept that resolution and give effect to it; for the days when we could be satisfied with merely passing resolutions and then forgetting all about them are gone. This resolution is not addressed to the nation in a vague manner but to everybody who has a will to work. This resolution is specifically addressed to every man and every woman of understanding who graces this audience by his or her presence this afternoon. And, though Deshbandhu Das and Maulana Mahomed Ali will not ask you to pass this resolution, keeping God as witness, I ask you to do that. And when you begin to vote upon that resolution, please remember and understand, you will be passing that resolution with God as witness. It would mean that you are undertaking to do something for the nation, for the poorest of the country, for the attainment of swaraj; and if you have no conviction about it in you, then I would urge you to reject that resolution.

It should not matter to you that my personality is behind that resolution. I have said repeatedly that I am not an infallible being. I have admitted repeatedly that I am a fallible being. I have repeatedly admitted that I have sometimes in my life committed Himalayan blunders. I have made penance for them. An infallible being is a perfect person. He does not need to perform penance. He does not need to repent, because he is incapable of folly. He need not argue. I am just as good or as bad a mortal as anyone of you. And therefore, I want you to dismiss my personality from the equation and find the true answer to the equation.

There are many things that I have said in my address. Srimati Sarojini Devi has asked me to touch upon one thing; and out of regard for her who has rendered such splendid service in South Africa I do so now. That is Hindu-Muslim unity. Maulana Shaukat Ali says, “I am tired of the whole business. Let us simply leave alone Hindu-Muslim riots wherever they happen.” There is a good deal of wisdom in that big head; it is not all fat, I tell you (Laughter.). Repeatedly he has said, “These Mussalmans of mine have become idiots. They have become demented. Similarly your Hindus also have become idiotic. We are trying to decide their disputes and in trying to do so we are allowing swaraj to slip through our hands. So let us leave them alone.” But how can I do so? Hindu-Muslim unity, like the charkha, is a madness with me; it is a passion with me. I cannot possibly leave it and forget all about it. So also, you see, I dote on that little girl, Gulnar. “Why does this man dote upon her?” you may ask. “With a reason,” say I. This girl when she grows will think of one Gandhi who though a sanatani Hindu that would not share meat with her, would not touch beef himself, used to let others eat it if they liked, although he himself worshipped the cow. I might die by the time that girl reaches the year of maturity. When she grows up she will transmit my message. She is today pure and innocent. She thinks everything is right. She knows nothing of hatred. She is all love. I find in her love personified. Therefore, I have been treating her as my very flesh and blood in spite of the sea that divides her from me. I am trying to unite myself with the Mussalmans by this means. She thinks that her Koran makes it lawful for her to kill the cow, while my religion enjoins upon me not to kill the cow. Who am I under the circumstances to prevent her from killing the cow? I would be denying my religion if I did so. But I wish to conquer her by preaching love. I will tell her, “The Koran does not pledge you to kill the cow or eat beef; my religion not only does not permit it, my Koran compels me to worship the cow. You may eliminate the worship of the cow but you may tolerate my abstention from beef, you may tolerate my worship of the cow. Out of friendly regard for me you can abstain from killing the cow.” That is the secret of my love for the little girl, Gulnar. That is why I allow myself to be carried in the pocket of Maulana Shaukat Ali. Why do I not think of Malaviyaji? Simply because my worship of Malaviyaji is spontaneous. But I am partial to Mussalmans. How can I do otherwise? When you are partial to the Mussalmans you will reach the proper conclusion, proper answer to this equation. If anybody were to say, “Solve this equation, what the Hindus and the Mussalmans should do?” I would say, it is the duty of every Hindu to be partial to the Mussalmans and of every Mussalman to be partial to the Hindus. I find that there is a seer who wants to see God or to meet God in one way and I in another way and, therefore, everything that he does I look askance. Then I say to myself, I must be partial and when I have done that I shall be just. I like to ask the Mussalmans to do that-to be partial to the Hindus.

I have finished. With God as witness I want you to say that whatever you decide to do you will fulfil it even though you may have to die. (Applause.)