of their advisors on themAfter all what will they get by defeating the workers? The reply is that they will get nothing but the workers discontent. The employers will always look with suspicion on the suppressed workers. In order for the satyagraha to remain non-violent, it was important to keep the ten thousand millworkers busy. If they remained idle, they might have got into mischief. The workers were not allowed to gamble, sleep during the day, talk about the employers and the lockout, frequent teashops, or go to the mills during the lockout. They could not go to teashops because it was feared that they would spend their time gossiping and eating unnecessarily. This was not the image that the workers needed to portray to the millowners. Arbitrators for the workers, Mahatma Gandhi, Shri Shankerlal Banker and Shri Vallabhbhai Patel stated to the workers what they must do during satyagraha. If work needed to be done on their dwellings, they must do it. Those who are literate should spend their time reading books and expanding their knowledge. Those who have a different skill should find work, and those who do not have another skill should learn one. These recommendations were made to the workers for the sake of keeping the movement non-violent.The workers also had to agree to the satyagraha voluntarily. No workers must be coerced into the movement.Rumours are afloat that many workers are willing to resume work, but that others prevent them by coercion and by threats of physical assault In this struggle he alone will succeed who [sic] keeps to his pledge voluntarily. No one can be forced to keep his honour inviolate. It is essentially a voluntary matter. Tapasya was demonstrated through the workers self-sacrifice and suffering during the satyagraha. The workers knew that they could starve to death or lose their homes or other belongings during the satyagraha.It is hardly a fortnight since the lockout commenced, and yet s...
