DO NOT............SUPERMAN 89
crisis people take united action against the national calamity, ward off the danger, and attain peace and prosperity. But our religion has drummed into our ears that a man does nothing. He is a helpless log. At the appearance of a national calamity God is supposed to descend down and save us from danger! The result is that instead of taking a united action against their enemies they await the arrival of an incarnation to do this job for them.”*
“You must abolish your slavery yourselves. Do not depend for its abolition upon God or Superman. Your salvation lies in political powers and not in making pilgrimages and observance of fasts. Devotion to scriptures would not free you from your bondage, want and poverty. Your forefathers have been doing it for generations, but there has been no respite nor even a slight difference in your miserable life in any way. Like your forefathers, you wear rags. Like them, you subsist on thrown out crumbs ; like them, you perish in utter slums and hovels ; and like them, you fall easy victims to diseases with a death rate that rages among poultry. Your religious fasts, austerities and penances have not saved you from starvation.”
“It is the duty of the Legislature,” he concluded, “to provide for your food, clothes, shelter, education, medicine and all the means of earning a livelihood. The work of law-making and of its execution is to be performed with your consent, help and will. In short, law is the abode of all worldly happiness. You capture the power of law-making. It is, therefore, your duty to divert your attention from fast, worship and penance and apply it to capturing law-making power. That way lies your salvation. That way will end your starvation. Remember that it is not enough that a people are numerically in majority. They must be always watchful, strong, well-educated and self-respecting to attain and maintain success.” [1]
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- Janata, dated 11th March 1933.
1 : Keer, Pp. 234-35.