|
THE
PHILOSOPHY
OF
THE
BOMB*
[In
December
1929,
a
bomb
exploded
under
the
Viceroy
Irwin’s
special
train,
from
which
he,
however,
escaped.
Gandhiji
thanked
God
for
the
Viceroy’s
narrow
escape
and
condemned
in
his
article
“The
Cult
of
the
Bomb”
the
revolutionaries
for
the
act.
It
was
in
reply
to
Gandhiji’s
article
that
this
outstanding
document
was
written
by
Bhagawati
Charan
in
consultation
with
Chandra
Shekhar
Azad.
It
was
drafted
in
the
room
located
above
the
Soloman
Company,
Aminabad,
Lucknow,
which
was
used
as a
den
exclusively
by
Azad,
Bhagawati
Charan
and
Yashpal.]
INTRODUCTORY
Recent
events,
particularly
the
Congress
resolution
on
the
attempt
to
blow
up
the
Viceregal
Special
on
the
23
December,
1929,
and
Gandhi’s
subsequent
writings
in
Young
India,
clearly
show
that
the
Indian
National
Congress,
in
conjunction
with
Gandhi,
has
launched
a
crusade
against
the
revolutionaries.
A
great
amount
of
public
criticism,
both
from
the
press
and
the
platform,
has
been
maid
against
them.
It is
a
pity
that
they
have
all
along
been,
either
deliberately
or
due
to
sheer
ignorance,
misrepresented
and
misunderstood.
The
revolutionaries
do
not
shun
criticism
and
public
scrutiny
of
their
ideals
or
actions.
They
rather
welcome
these
as
chances
of
making
those
understand,
who
have
a
genuine
desire
to do
so,
the
basic
principles
of
the
revolutionary
movement
and
the
high
and
noble
ideals
that
are a
perennial
source
of
inspiration
and
strength
to
it.
It is
hoped
that
this
article
will
help
the
general
public
to
know
the
revolutionaries
as
they
are
and
will
prevent
if
from
taking
them
for
what
interested
and
ignorant
persons
would
have
it
believe
them
to
be.
VIOLENCE
OR
NON-VIOLENCE
Let
us,
first
of
all,
take
up
the
question
of
violence
and
non-violence.
We
think
that
the
use
of
these
terms
in
itself,
is a
grave
injustice
to
either
party,
for
they
express
the
ideals
of
neither
of
them
correctly.
Violence
is
physical
force
applied
for
committing
injustice,
and
that
is
certainly
not
what
the
revolutionaries
stand
for.
On
the
other
hand,
what
generally
goes
by
the
name
of
non-violence
is in
reality
the
theory
of
soul-force,
as
applied
to
the
attainment
of
personal
and
national
rights
through
courting
suffering
and
hoping
thus
to
finally
convert
your
opponent
to
your
point
of
view.
When
a
revolutionary
believes
certain
things
to be
his
right
he
asks
for
them,
pleads
for
them,
argues
for
them,
wills
to
attain
them
with
all
the
soul-force
at
his
command,
stands
the
greatest
amount
of
suffering
for
them,
is
always
prepared
to
make
the
highest
sacrifice
for
their
attainment,
and
also
backs
his
efforts
with
all
the
physical
force
he is
capable
of.
You
may
coin
what
other
word
you
like
to
describe
his
methods
but
you
cannot
call
it
violence,
because
that
would
constitute
an
outrage
on
the
dictionary
meaning
of
that
word. Satyagraha
is
insistance
upon
truth.
Why
press,
for
the
acceptance
of
truth,
by
soul-force
alone?
Why
not
add
physical
force
also
to
it?
While
the
revolutionaries
stand
for
winning
independence
by
all
forces,
physical
as
well
as
moral,
at
their
command,
the
advocates
of
soul-force
would
like
to
ban
the
use
of
physical
force.
The
question
really,
therefore,
is
not
whether
you
will
have
violence,
but
whether
you
will
have
soul-force
plus
physical
force
or
soul-force
alone.
OUR
IDEAL
The
Revolutionaries
believe
that
the
deliverance
of
their
country
will
come
through
revolution.
The
revolution,
they
are
constantly
working
and
hoping
for,
will
not
only
express
itself
in
the
form
of an
armed
conflict
between
the
foreign
government
and
its
supporters
and
the
people,
it
will
also
usher
in a
new
social
order.
The
revolution
will
ring
the
death
knell
of
capitalism
and
class
distinctions
and
privileges.
It
will
bring
joy
and
prosperity
to
the
starving
millions
who
are
seathing
today
under
the
terrible
yoke
of
both
foreign
and
Indian
exploitation.
It
will
bring
the
nation
into
its
own.
It
will
give
birth
to a
new
state
a new
social
order.
Above
all,
it
will
establish
the
dictatorship
of
the
proletariat
and
will
for
ever
banish
social
parasites
from
the
seat
of
political
power.
TERRORISM
The
Revolutionaries
already
see
the
advent
of
the
revolution
in
the
restlessness
of
the
revolution
in
the
restlessness
of
youth,
in
its
desire
to
break
free
from
the
mental
bondage
and
religious
superstition
that
hold
them.
As
the
youth
will
get
more
and
more
saturated
with
the
psychology
of
revolution,
it
will
come
to
have
a
clearer
realistion
of
national
bondage
and a
growing,
intense,
unquenchable
thirst
for
freedom.
It
will
grow,
this
feeling
of
bondage,
this
infuriated
youth
will
begin
to
kill
the
oppressors.
Thus
has
terrorism
been
born
in
the
country.
It is
a
phase,
a
necessary,
an
inevita-able
phase
of
the
revolution.
Terrorism
is
not
the
complete
revolution
and
the
revolution
is
not
complete
without
terrorism.
This
thesis
can
be
supported
by an
analysis
of
any
and
every
revolution
in
history.
Terrorism
instills
fear
in
the
hearts
of
the
oppressors,
it
brings
hopes
of
revenge
and
redemption
to
the
oppressed
masses,
it
gives
courage
and
self-confidence
to
the
wavering,
it
shatters
the
spell
of
the
superiority
of
the
ruling
class
and
raises
the
status
of
the
subject
race
in
the
eyes
of
the
world,
because
it is
the
most
convincing
proof
of a
nation’s
hunger
for
freedom.
Here
in
India,
as in
other
countries
in
the
past,
terrorism
will
develop
into
the
revolution
and
the
revolution
into
independence,
social
political
and
economic.
REVOLUTIONARY
METHODS
This
then
is
what
the
revolutionaries
believe
in,
that
is
what
they
hope
to
accomplish
for
their
country.
They
are
doing
it
both
openly
and
secretly,
and
in
their
own
way.
The
experience
of a
century
long
and
world-wide
struggle,
between
the
masses
and
the
governing
class,
is
their
guide
to
their
goal,
and
the
methods
they
are
following
have
never
been
known
to
have
failed.
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