BEFORE we make our next appearance the Indian National Congress will be in full swing. The All-Indian Congress will have met and converted itself into the Subjects Committee, and the President will have been formally installed in the chair and delivered her address. In once respect the present session will be absolutely unique. It will be the first session of the Congress to be presided over by an Indian lady. The Presidentship of the Congress is the highest honour which Indian can in the present conditions do to any of her sons or daughters, and in conferring this signal honour on Mrs. Sarojini Naidu those with whom the choice rested have not only expressed their high appreciation of her splendid gifts and her great services to the country, especially those recently rendered by her in Africa, but have declared in the most tangible and effective form in their power that henceforth both in the struggle for liberty and in the civic and political affairs of the country generally Indian women shall stand shoulder to shoulder with Indian men.
But while this the only feature that will definitely mark off the present session from all its predecessors, it will be a remarkable session in more respects than one. As already pointed out, it will be the first session since 1921 which will be an essentially political gathering. The spinning in there, but it has been relegated to the second instead of being made to occupy the first place in men’s hearts. What is even more important, it has been taken charge of by a distinct body associated with and affiliated to the Congress, but by no means an integral or inoperable.
