GANDHI'S SPEECH AT CALCUT,1920

He Was Accompanied by Shaukat Ali

Gandhi and Shaukat Ali arrived at Calicut from Trichy on 18th August 1920 and at 6-30 pm; addressed a gathering of about 20,000 people on the Vellayil beach, Calicut.They were garlanded by Khan Bahadur Muthukoya Thangal,and their host was the Gujarati wholesale dealer of Crocin,Shyamji Sundardas ( Kallaji Baju).V R Krishna Iyer's father,V V Rama Iyer presided over the public meeting.High Court advocate K P raman Menon welcomed the gathering and handed over a purse of Rs 2500 to Shukat Ali for the Khilafat fund.Shaukat Ali was disppointed,since he expected more,says The Source Material for a History of the Indian Freedom Movement in India,Vol 3,Part I,pages 318-19.Ali was also not satisfied with Rs 500 he got at Kannur railway station on the return journey from Mangalore on the 20th.K Madhavan Nair translated Gandhi's speech at Calicut.

Mahatma Gandhi's Speech:

The Spirit of Non Co-Operation

I do expect that we shall succeed if we understand the spirit of non-co-operation. The Lieutenant Governor of Burma himself has told us that Britain retains the hold on India not by force of arms but by the co-operation of the people of India. He has given us the remedy for any wrong Government may do to the people, knowingly or unknowingly, and so long as we co-operate with that Government we become the sharers of the wrong. But a wise subject never· tolerates the hardship that a Government impose against their declared will. I venture to submit to this great meeting that the Government of India and the Imperial Government have done a double wrong to India and if we are a self respecting nation conscious of its rights, conscious of its responsibilities and conscious of its duties, it is not proper that we should stand the humiliations that both these Governments have imposed upon us. The Imperial Government have knowingly flouted religious !oentiments dearly cherished by the 70 millions of Mussalmans.

The Khilafat Question

I claim to have studied the Khilafat question in a special manner. I claim to have understood the Musalman feelings and I am here to declare that in the Khilafat question,the British Government have wounded the sentiments of Mussalmans,as they have not done before. The Gospel of non co-operation is preached to them and if they had not accepted it, there would have been bloodshed in India by this time. I am free to confess the spilling of blood would not help their cause. But a man, who is in a state of rage, whose heart is lacerated does not count on the results of his actions. So much for Khilafat wrong. 

I propose to take you for a moment to the Punjab, the northern end of India and what have both Governments done for the Punjab? I am free to confess again that the crowds in Amristar went mad for a time. They were goaded to madness by a wicked administration but no madness on the part of the people can justify the spilling of innocent blood and what have they paid for it? I venture to submit that no civilised Government l would have made the people to pay the penalty that had been inflicted on the Punjab. Innocent men were passed through mock trials and imprisoned for life. Amnesty granted to them was of no consequence. Innocent and unarmed men who knew nothing of what was to happen were butchered in cold blood without the slightest notice. The modesty of women in Jallian Wala who had not done the slightest wrong to any man was seriously outraged. I want you to understand what I mean by outrage. Their veils were insolently removed by an officer with his stick. Men who had not done any wrong were made to crawl on the ground with their bellies and all these wrongs remain unavenged up to this time. If it was the duty of the Government of India to punish men for incendiarism and murder of innocent persons it was doubly their duty to punish their officers who were guilty of serious wrong. But in the face of these official wrongs committed with the greatest deliberation,we have the humiliating spectacle of the House of Lords supporting these wrongs. It is this double wrong, done to India, that we want to get redressed and it is our bounden duty to get it redressed. We have prayed, we have petitioned and we have passed resolutions. 

Mr. Mohammed Ali, supported by his friends, is now waiting for justice in Europe. He has pleaded the cause of Islam, the cause of the Mussalmans of India, in a most manful manner. But his pleadings have fallen upon deaf ears. We have his word for it that whilst France and Italy have shown great sympathy for the cause of Islam it is the British Ministers who have not shown sympathy. It shows which way the British Ministers and present holders of Office in India wished to deal with the people. There is no good will, there is no desire to placate public opinion. The people of India must have a remedy for redressing this double wrong.

The method of the West is violence. Whenever people of the West have felt wrong justly or unjustly, they rebel and spill blood. As I have said in my letter to the Viceroy, half of India does not believe in the remedy of violence. The other half is too weak to offer it. But the whole of India is deeply grieved and it is for that reason that I venture to suggest to the people the remedy of non co-operation. I consider it to be perfectly harmless, absolutely constitutional and yet perfectly efficacious. It is a remedy, if properly adopted will end in victory. Victory is a certainty in it. And it is the age-old remedy of self-sacrifice. Are the Mussalmans of India who feel the great wrong done to them prepared for self-sacrifice? If we desire to compel the Government to the will of the people, as we must, the only remedy open to us is non-co-operation. If the Mussalmans of India offer non-co operation to Government in order to secure justice on the Khilafat, it is the duty of every Hindu to co-operate with their Mos!em brethren. I consider the eternal friendship between Hindus and Mussalmans as infinitely more important than the British connection. I therefore venture to suggest that if they like to live with unity with Mussalmans, it is now that they have got the best opportunity and that such an opportunity would not come for a century. I venture to suggest that if the Government of India and the Imperial Government come to know that there is a great determination behind this great nation in order to secure redress for the Khilafat and Punjab wrongs, the Government would then do justice to us.

The Mussalmans of India will have to commence the first stage of non-co-operation in real earnest.If you may not help Government, you may not receive favours from the Government. I consider that the titles of Honour are titles of disgrace. We must therefore surrender all titles and resign all honorary offices. It will constitute an emphatic disapproval of the leaders of the people against the actions of the Government. Lawyers must suspend practice, boys should not receive instructions from schools aided by Government or controlled by Government. The emptying of schools would constitute the disapproval of the middle classes of the people of India. 

Similarly have I ventured to suggest a complete boycott of the Reformed Councils. That will be an emphatic declaration on the part of the representatives of people and the electorate that they do not like to elect their representatives.We must equally decline to offer ourselves as recruits for the Police and the Military. It is impossible for us to go to Mesopotamia and offer Police or Military assistance. The last item in the first stage of non-cooperation is Swadeshism. Swadeshi is intended, not so much as to bring pressure on Government but to show the extent of self-sacrifice on the part of every man, woman and child. When one fourth of India has its self respect at stake, when the whole of India has its justice at stake, we must forego silk from Japan, Calico from Manchester and French lace from France. We must resolve to be satisfied with cloth woven by the humble weavers of India in their cottage homes. A hundred years ago when our tastes were not in foreign products we were satisfied with cloth produced by men and women of India. If I could revolutionise the taste of India and make it return to its ancient state, the whole world would reeognise the cult of renunciation: that is the first stage in non-co·operation. I hope it is as easy for you as it is easy for me to see that India is capable of undertaking the first stage of non·co-operation.

I therefore do not intend to take you through the other three stages of non-eo-operation. I would like you to rivet your attention properly into the first stage. You will have noticed that two things are nececssary in order to go to the first stage-an absolutely perfect spirit of non-violence is indispensable for successes and only a little measure of self-sacrifice. I pray to God that He will give the people of India sufficient courage and wisdom to recognise the virtue of non-co-operation. And I hope that in a few days we shall see some result from your activities in Calicut in connection with non-co-operation.

Mr. Shaukat Ali's address was confined to a special appeal to the Mussalmans with regard to the Khilafat question.

Mr. K. P. Raman Menon on behalf of the people of Calicut presented a purse of Rs. 2,500 to Mahatma Gandhi towards the Khilafat funds which gift was accepted with thanks.

(West Coast Reformer/ 20 August 1920).

Gandhi addressed a public meeting on 15 September 1921 evening on the Triplicane Beach, Madras. The Triplicane Speech:

The Moplah Rebellion

It was open to the Government. as powerful as they were, to invite the Ali Brothers and the speaker to enter the disturbed area in Malabar and to bring about calm and peace there. Mr. Gandhi was sure that if this had been done much of the innocent blood would have been spared and also the desolation of many a Hindu household. But he must be forgiven if he again charged the Government with a desire to incite the population to violence. There was no room in this system of Government for brave and strong men, and the only place the Government had for them was the prisons. He regretted the happenings in Malabar. The Moplahs who were undisciplined had gone mad. They had thus committed a sin against the Khilafat and their own eountry.

 The whole of India today was under an obligation to remain non-violent even under the gravest provocation. There was no reaso to doubt that these Moplahs were not touched by the spirit of Non-co-operation. Non-co-operators were deliberately prevented from going to the affected parts. Assuming that all the strain came through Government Circles and that forced conversions were true,the Hindus should not put a strain on the Hindu-Moslem Unity and break it. The speaker was however not prepared to make such an assumption. He was convinced that a man who was forcibly converted needed no "Prayaschitham." Mr. Yakub Hassan had already told them that those who were converted were inadmissible into the fold of Islam and had not forfeited their rights to remain in the Hindu fold. The Government were placing every obstacle in the way of the Congress and Khilafat workers to bring relief to desolate homes and were taking no pains to carry relief themselves. Whether the Government gave them permission or not it was their clear duty to collect funds for the relief of sufferers and see that these got what they required.

They did not yet know fully what measures the Government were going to take to repress the strength and rising of the people in this land. He had nb reasons to disbelieve the testimony given to him yesterday that many young men were insulted because they wore Khaddar caps and dress. The keepers of the peace in India had torn Khaddar vests from young men and burned them. The authorities in Malabar had invented new measures of humiliation if they had not gone one better than those in the Punjab.

(Madras Mail, 16 September,1921.)

Gandhi made five trips to Kerala – in 1920 to garner support for the Khilafat movement, in 1925 March 9-19 for the Vaikom Satyagraha, in 1927 October 9-15,25 for protesting against untouchability, then in 1934 January 10-22 for raising funds for the downtrodden when a little girl Kaumudi donated all her ornaments to him and in 1937 january 12-21 for celebrating the temple entry proclamation.

Gandhi found Kerala’s intellectuals and ordinary folk receptive and yearning for a free and fair society. A large number of people in the state were greatly influenced by his political and moral philosophy. A Christian youth named Titus Thevarthundiyil accompanied Gandhi during the historic Dandi March in 1930. It is a cinematic coincidence that when Titus followed the footsteps of Gandhi in Dandi, another freedom fighter from Kerala, K Kelappan Nair, popularly called Kelappan, led the Kerala Dandi march from Calicut to Payyannur in Malabar following the decision of KPCC to break the salt laws.





Gandhi made five trips to Kerala – in 1920 to garner support for the Khilafat movement, in 1925 for the Vaikom Satyagraha, in 1927 for protesting against untouchability, then in 1934 for raising funds for the downtrodden when a little girl Kaumudi donated all her ornaments to him and in 1937 for celebrating the temple entry proclamation.


Gandhi found Kerala’s intellectuals and ordinary folk receptive and yearning for a free and fair society. A large number of people in the state were greatly influenced by his political and moral philosophy. A Christian youth named Titus Thevarthundiyil accompanied Gandhi during the historic Dandi March in 1930. It is a cinematic coincidence that when Titus followed the footsteps of Gandhi in Dandi, another freedom fighter from Kerala, K Kelappanled the Kerala Dandi march from Calicut to Payyannur in Malabar following the decision of KPCC to break the salt laws.






People decorated the roads with Tricolour flags and festoons and offered food and refreshment to the satyagrahis. Caparisoned elephants greeted them as a mark of respect.

On the day of its arrival in Payyannur on April 21, ladies led by Gracy Aaron showered the satyagrahis with flowers and rice. Kelappan, in a two-hour speech, enthused the people with the ideals of non-violence and Satyagraha. After his address, there was burning of foreign clothes at the place. Kelappan, in all solemnity, scraped out some salt and thereby became the first salt satyagrahi in Kerala.

The Badagara session of KPCC in May 1931 resolved to launch anti- untouchability campaign as one of the programmes of the Congress. They chose Guruvayoor as the centre of the agitation and demanded the temple therein be opened for all castes. In this case too, the Satyagraha was started under the leadership of Kelappan.
On the day of its arrival in Payyannur on April 21, ladies led by Gracy Aaron showered the satyagrahis with flowers and rice. Kelappan, in a two-hour speech, enthused the people with the ideals of non-violence and Satyagraha. After his address, there was burning of foreign clothes at the place. Kelappan, in all solemnity, scraped out some salt and thereby became the first salt satyagrahi in Kerala.TheBadagara session of KPCC in May 1931 resolved to launch anti- untouchability campaign as one of the programmes of the Congress. They chose Guruvayoor as the centre of the agitation and demanded the temple therein be opened for all castes. In this case too, the Satyagraha was started under the leadership of Kelappan.