Communal representation

THE latest issue of the Comrade has a long article on the subject of communal representation, extending over no less than 10 columns and a half of that journal. We have gone through the article with more than ordinary interest, not only because anything coming from Mahomed Ali on such a subject is deserving of careful consideration, but because in this matter of communal representation, the views of Ali, who had no small share in making the Mahomedans of India communally self-conscious, are entitled to particular weight. The conclusion to which we have come is that the article is written by three Mahomed Alis and not one, that is to say, it is made up of three more or less distinct parts, each representing one of the three contending phases of his mind, none of which seems so far to be sufficiently strong or sufficiently deep to keep the other two in a state of subjection. In the first, which may be called the abstract or academic part, we hear the voice of a true nationalist, impatient of his country’s continued subjection and anxious to do everything in his power to put an end to it without a moment’s avoidable delay. Two representative extracts, one taken from the earlier part of the article and the other from the concluding part, will fully illustrate our meaning. Here is the first: “To us, every day that passes without the attainment of Swaraj is a source of additional torture, and we confess we find it hard to be patient with those whose interminable arguments on one side or the other lead us nowhere. Our own view is that nothing could be worse than the existing servitude of the nation.”