Read this excerpt from mohandas gandhi’s “banaras hindu university speech.” what is the speaker's purpose? i have turned the searchlight all over, and as you have given me the privilege of speaking to you, i am laying my heart bare. surely we must set these things right in our progress towards self-government. i now introduce you to another scene. his highness the maharaja who presided yesterday over our deliberations spoke about the poverty of india. other speakers laid great stress upon it. but what did we witness in the great pandal in which the foundation ceremony was performed by the viceroy? certain it a most gorgeous show, an exhibition of jewelry, which made a splendid feast for the eyes of the greatest jeweler who chose to come from paris. i compare with the richly bedecked noble men the millions of the poor. and i feel like saying to these noble men, “there is no salvation for india unless you strip yourselves of this jewelry and hold it in trust for your countrymen in india.” i am sure it is not the desire of the king-emperor or lord hardinge that in order to show the truest loyalty to our king-emperor, it is necessary for us to ransack our jewelry boxes and to appear bedecked from top to toe. i would undertake, at the peril of my life, to bring to you a message from king george himself that he accepts nothing of the kind. to persuade his audience to struggle for self-governance through peaceful means to urge wealthy indians to act instead of merely talk about poverty to inform the audience that the british colonial power is stealing indian resources to persuade his audience to renounce materialistic wealth and pursue spiritual wealth