An eye-opener

WHILE the country is waiting with bated breath for the detailed impressions of the Mahatma regarding the last meeting of the All India Congress Committee, at which he was himself the central figure, it is only natural that the somewhat laconic statement which a representative of the Associated Press succeeded in eliciting from him at his first interview should form a subject of widespread comment. “Though on all the four resolutions that I had the honour of moving,” said the Mahatma, “I had a majority, I must own that according to my conception I was defeated. The proceedings have been an eye-opener to me, and I am now occupied in a diligent search from within. As yet I am without an answer.” The literal meaning of these words is perfectly clear. The Mahatma had not the sort of majority to which he had been accustomed in the past, while as regards the crucial question of the exclusion of Swarajists and other non-believers in his programme, he had no majority at all. This was not only contrary to his expectation but showed how largely he had overrated the measure of support which his programme and policy had in the country. That to him the meeting of the All India Congress Committee was only a test, we know from his own articles in Young India. He wanted to know, he said again and again, where he stood and where the Congress and the country stood. The meeting of the Committee, the speeches made at it, in some cases by professed No-Changers, and above all the results of the divisions constituted as convincing an answer to this question as he could possibly have expected.