Victory and defeat-II

AS there is a tendency in some quarters to do exactly that with regard to the result of the last meeting of the All-India Congress Committee against which we have considered it our duty to sound a note of warning — interpret that result in terms of the victory of one party and the defeat of another — it is worth while examining the several resolutions passed by the Committee to show how misleading such interpretation is apt to be. Let us begin with the first and most important of the four resolutions — that relating to khaddar. The resolution, as it originally stood, not only called upon all members of the various Congress organisations, except when disabled by sickness or prevented by continuous travelling, regularly to spin for at least half an hour every day and to send to the Secretary of the All-India Khadi Board two thousand yards of even and well-twisted yarn every month by a particular date, but laid down that any member failing to send yarn by the prescribed date shall be deemed to have vacated his office. Now the last part of the resolution, which was undoubtedly its most objectionable part and against which the Swarajists had chiefly directed their attack, was eventually deleted, though not until the resolution with this clause had already been formally carried; and so far the Swarajists must be said to have gained their point. But although its most offensive part is gone, the resolution itself remains, and its form shows that it is more in the nature of a command than anything else. What it says in so many words is that every member of a Congress organisation shall regularly spin for at least half an hour every day and shall send the prescribed quantity of yarn to the Secretary, All-India Khadi Board, by the prescribed date.