Message To American Businessmen, April 5, 1924

[This message was sent to Mr. Walter Heegstra, an American businessman who visited Gandhiji in India, and requested a message. See letter to Mr. Heegstra in Section IV.]

My platform is India. My goal is to attain self-government for India. The means adopted to attain the end are Nonviolence and Truth. Therefore, Indian self-government not only means no menace to the world, but will be of the greatest benefit to humanity if she attains her end through those means and those means alone. The spinning-wheel is the external symbol of internal reform, and its universal re-adoption in India ensures her economic salvation and frees millions of Indian peasants from growing pauperism.

My message to the businessmen of America is: Understand the inner meaning of the message of the spinning-wheel and you will probably find the solution for the World Peace which I know so many Americans sincerely desire.