While Gandhi's enthusiasm grew as his

new Satyagraha campaign

gathered in popularity and momentum,
most other leaders of the Congress
watched cautiously and did not join him.
Home rule leader Annie Besant
and moderates like Wacha and Srinivasa
Sastri feared further violence. Jinnah
also remained unconvinced by Gandhi's
rhetoric, though he felt just as
negative about the Rowlatt Acts and had
been the first member of the viceroy's
legislative council to resign his seat in
principled protest against them.
Gandhi's revolutionary mystic methods,
however, were so foreign to his
temperament and approach to political
problems that he could only view
them with growing alienation and
trepidation. So when Gandhi invited him
to join his Satyagraha Sabha, Jinnah
refused. Gandhi's "extreme program"
attracted the inexperienced and the
illiterate, and caused further division
everywhere in the country. "What the
consequence of this may be, I shudder

1
to contemplate. ... I do not wish my
countrymen to be dragged to the
brink of a precipice in order to be
shattered."6
Gandhi's faith in his method, however,
only increased as protest after
protest was mounted in defiance of British
laws. On April 7, 1919, he published
an unregistered newspaper, Satyagrahi, in
which he issued instructions
on how best to court arrest. He urged his
followers never to object to
punishment, nor "resort to surreptitious
practices."7 Defiance must always
be nonviolent and open. It was in the
Satyagrahi that Gandhi called upon
all Indians "to destroy all foreign clothing
in our possession."8 He called
swadeshi "a religious conception" and a
"natural duty" for all Indians, and
the boycott of British goods was its
counterpart, to remain in full effect until
the Rowlatt Acts were withdrawn. Here,
too, he published his "vow of
Hindu-Muslim unity," which called upon
members of both great communities

2
to unite in "one bond of mutual friendship."
The vow reflected
Gandhi's philosophy and read in part:
"With God as witness we Hindus
[ 100 ]
Postwar Carnage and Nationwide
Satyagraha
and Mahomedans declare that we shall
behave towards one another as
children of the same parents. . . . We shall
always refrain from violence
to each other in the name of religion."9 A
noble dream. Unfortunately, a futile
vow.