India’s historic protest

THE demonstration that took place in the Indian Legislative Assembly and some of the Provincial Councils on Monday will go down in history as the strongest and most authoritative protest made by India so far within the limits of, and with the resources supplied by, her new Constitution against the refusal of the British Government to pay heed to her wishes in the matter of a responsible government. Isolated action on the part of a large group of members of one or the other of the legislative bodies with a view to recording the nation’s protests against the withholding of its birthright there has been before now, such as the throwing out of the Finance Bill or of some important budget grants in the Legislative Assembly, or the voting down of the salaries of ministers and similar other proposals of the Bengal Government. This is the first time that the protest has been on an all-India scale, and made on a basis and in a form which cannot but attract widespread attention, not only in both India and England, but all over the English-speaking world and a considerable part of the rest of the civilised world. That an attempt will be made to minimise the importance of this historic demonstration goes without saying. It will be said — in fact, it has been said already — that the action of the Swarajists amounts in effect and in substance to nothing else than fleeing from defeat and is only the outcome of a consciousness of weakness. But the world is not easily deceived in a matter of this kind. Everybody knows that there was no occasion whatever for the Swarajists to shrink from any prospective fight.