晨读英语美文100篇 Passage 93. Nonviolent and Noncooperation Movements

[00:00.32]Passage 93. Nonviolent and Noncooperation Movements

[00:07.65]In my opinion, the Indian struggle for freedom bears in its consequences

[00:13.45]not only upon India and England but upon the whole world.

[00:18.82]It contains one-fifth of the human race.

[00:22.20]It represents one of the most ancient civilizations.

[00:26.36]It has traditions handed down from tens of thousands of years,

[00:31.72]some of which, to the astonishment of the world, remain intact.

[00:37.19]No doubt the damages of time have affected the purity of that civilization

[00:43.43]as they have that of many other cultures and many institutions.

[00:49.00]If India is to revive the glory of her ancient past,

[00:53.82]she can only do so when she attains her freedom.

[00:57.98]The reason for the struggle having drawn the attention of the world I know

[01:03.77]does not lie in the fact that we Indians are fighting for our liberty,

[01:09.69]but in the fact the means adopted by us for attaining that liberty are unique and,

[01:16.69]as far as history shows us, have not been adopted by any other people of whom we have any record.

[01:25.12]The means adopted are not violence,not bloodshed,

[01:30.58]not diplomacy as one understands it nowadays,

[01:34.74]but they are purely and simply truth and nonviolence.

[01:39.55]No wonder that the attention of the world is directed toward this attempt

[01:45.26]to lead a successful bloodless revolution.

[01:48.85]Hitherto,nations have fought in the manner of the brute.

[01:53.45]They have wreaked vengeance upon those whom they have considered to be their enemies.

[01:59.03]We find in searching national anthems adopted by great nations

[02:04.18]that they contain curse upon the so-called enemy.

[02:08.33]They have vowed destruction and have not hesitated to take the name of God

[02:14.46]and seek divine assistance for the destruction of the enemy.

[02:19.05]We in India have endeavored to reverse the process.

[02:23.97]We feel that the law that governs brute creation is not the law that should guide the human race.

[02:31.53]That law is inconsistent with human dignity.

[02:35.79]I, personally,would wait, if need be,

[02:39.95]for ages rather than seek to attain the freedom of my country through bloody means.

[02:46.51]I feel in the innermost of my heart,

[02:50.02]after a political career extending over an unbroken period of close upon thirty-five years,

[02:58.22]that the world is sick unto death of blood spilling.

[03:02.70]The world is seeking a way out, and I flatter myself with the belief that

[03:08.94]perhaps it will be the privilege of ancient land of India

[03:13.10]to show the way out to the hungering world.