#India Quotes

“Power will go to the hands of rascals, rogues, freebooters; all Indian leaders will be of low calibre & men of straw. They will have sweet tongues & silly hearts. They will fight amongst themselves for power & India will be lost in political squabbles. A day would come when even air & water would be taxed in India.”

“Men may have given millions of dollars and fed rats and cats, as some do in India. They say that men can take care of themselves, but the poor animals cannot. . .”

“The ideal of womanhood in India is motherhood - that marvellous, unselfish, all - suffering, ever - forgiving mother.”

“Love makes no distinction between man and man, between an Aryan and a Mlechchha, between a Brâhmana and a Pariah, nor even between a man and a woman. Love makes the whole universe as one's own home. True progress is slow but sure. Work among those young men who can devote heart and soul to this one duty - the duty of raising the masses of India. Awake them, unite them, and inspire them with this spirit of renunciation; it depends wholly on the young people of India.”

“Even the lowest of the Hindus, the Pariah, has less of the brute in him than a Briton in a similar social status.”

“To make a great future India, the whole secret lies in organization, accumulation of power, co-ordination of wills.”

“In everything, there are two kinds of development-analytical and synthetical. In the former the Hindus excel other nations. In the latter they are nil.”

“Paris is the fountain-head of European civilisation, as Gomukhi is of the Ganga.”

“Let new India arise out of peasants' cottage, grasping the plough, out of huts, cobbler and sweeper.”

“Crossing over mountains, rivers, arid oceans, setting at naught, as it were, the obstacles of the distance of space and time, the blood of Indian thought has flowed, and is still flowing into the veins of other nations of the globe, whether in a distinct or in some subtle unknown way. Perhaps to us belongs the major portion of the universal ancient inheritance.”

“Be proud that thou art an Indian, and proudly proclaim, "I am an Indian, every Indian is my brother." Say, "The ignorant Indian, the poor and destitute Indian, the Brahmin Indian, the Pariah Indian, is my brother."”

“It is the duty of every person to contribute in the development and progress of India.”

“The Land where humanity has attained its highest towards gentleness, towards generosity, towards purity, towards calmness - it is India.”

“This is the ancient land, where wisdom made its home before it went into any other country... Here is the same India whose soil has been trodden by the feet of the greatest sages that ever lived... Look back, therefore, as far as you can, drink deep of the eternal fountains that are behind, and after that look forward, march forward, and make India brighter, greater, much higher, than she ever was.”

“In India, 'cold weather' is merely a conventional phrase and has come into use through the necessity of having some way to distinguish between weather which will melt a brass door-knob and weather which will only make it mushy.”

“My interest in India's freedom will cease if she adopts violent means, for their fruit will not be freedom but slavery in disguise.”

“So far as I am able to judge, nothing has been left undone, either by man or nature, to make India the most extraordinary country that the sun visits on his rounds. Nothing seems to have been forgotten, nothing overlooked.”

“Freedom of India will demonstrate to all the exploited races of the earth that their freedom is very near.”

“A free India will throw all her weight in favour of world disarmament and should herself be prepared to give a lead in this.”

“Violent means will give violent freedom. That would be a menace to the world and to India herself.”

“Disorder and violence are, in fact, things that might check the pace of India's progress.”

“I claim that in losing the spinning wheel we lost our left lung. We are, therefore, suffering from galloping consumption. The restoration of the wheel arrests the progress of the fell disease.”

“To ignore the Mussalman grievance as if it was not felt is to postpone Swaraj.”

“India's freedom must revolutionize the world's outlook upon Peace and War.”

“Drink is not a fashion in India, as it is in the West.”

“The British are weak in numbers, we are weak in spite of our numbers.”

“If the Commander-in-Chief will look beyond the defence forces, he will discover that the real India is not military but peace-loving.”

“Unity among the different races and the different religions of India is indispensable to the birth of national life.”

“Our non-co-operation is with the system the English have established in India, with the material civilization and its attendant greed and exploitation of the weak.”

“Before we can aspire to guide the destinies of India, we shall have to adopt the habit of fearlessness.”

“I have even seen the writings suggesting that I am playing a deep game, that I am using the present turmoil to foist my fads on India, and am making religious experiments at India's expense. I can only answer that Satyagraha is made of sterner stuff. There is nothing reserved and nothing secret in it.”

“The cottage industry of India had to perish in order that Lancashire might flourish.”

“It only confirms me in my belief that there is no Swaraj without a settlement with the Mussalmans.”

“The message of khaddar can penetrate to the remotest villages if we only will that it shall be so.”

“If God had so wished, he would have made all Indians speak with one language ... the unity of India has been and shall always be a unity in diversity.”

“Jail-going is only the beginning, not the end of satyagraha. The acme of satyagraha for us would be to lay down our lives for the defence of India's just cause.”

“I must fight unto the death the unholy attempt to impose British methods and British institutions on India.”

“If you want to know India, study Vivekananda. In him everything is positive and nothing negative.”

“To gain India's freedom, the capacity for suffering must go hand in hand with the capacity for ceaseless labour.”

“An India free from exploitation from within and without must prosper with astonishing rapidity.”

“Celebration of Independence Day with great pomp and show was quite appropriate when we were fighting for independence which we had neither seen nor handled. Now we have handled it and we seem to be disillusioned. At least - I am, even if you are not. What are we celebrating today? Surely, not our disillusionment.”

“A Swaraj government means a government established by the free joint will of Hindus, Mussalmans and others.”

“If any Englishman dedicated his life to securing the freedom of India, resisting tyranny and serving the land, I should welcome that Englishman as an Indian.”

“A general belief seems to prevail in the colony that the Indians are little better, if at all, than the savages or natives of Africa. Even the children are taught to believe in that manner, with the result that the Indian is being dragged down to the position of a raw Kaffir.”

“Perhaps it will be simplest to throw away the tags and generalize India with one all-comprehensive name, as the Land of Wonders.”

“When real independence comes to India, the Congress and the League will be nowhere unless they represent the real opinion of the country.”

“No matter what the cause was and wherever it was, Indian governments must never requisition the services of British soldiers to deal with civil disturbances.”

“If the English educated neglect, as they have done and even now continue, as some do, to be ignorant of their mother tongue, linguistic starvation will abide.”

“It was not through democratic methods that Britain bagged India.”

“India will not be a helpless partner in her own exploitation and foreign domination.”