NATIONAL UNITY

IT was only to be expected that the first public pronouncement of Mahatma Gandhi after his release would contain a characteristically lucid and powerful reference to the question of national unity. In spite of all the stupid things that have from time to time been said, there is not in the whole country a greater or more consistent apostle of unity than the Mahatma, two of whose main planks have always been the promotion of inter-sectional unity among the Hindus by the elevation of the depressed classes and the amelioration of their condition, and the promotion of national unity by the removal of existing differences and the prevention of possible ones in future among the different component parts of the people and especially between Hindus and Mussalmans. In his letter to the president of the Congress, which we published in our last issue, he put the whole thing in a nutshell in the following touching terms: “It is clear that without unity between Hindus, Muhammadans, Sikhs, Parsis, Christians and other Indians, all talk of Swaraj is idle. This unity, which I fondly believed in 1922 had been nearly achieved, has, so far as Hindus and Mussalmans are concerned, suffered a severe check. Mutual trust has given place to distrust. An indissoluble bond between various communities must be established if we are to win freedom. Will the thanksgiving of the nation over my release be turned into a solid unity between the communities? That will restore me to health far quicker than any medical treatment or rest cure. The rest I am advised to have will be no rest with the burden of disunion preying upon me.”