Our duty to the nation

THERE are some among us, as probably there are in every country, who cannot think politically except in terms of the party. If ever there was a matter in which a thoughtful and patriotic Indian might have been expected to definitely subordinate the party to national interests, that matter is the Muddiman Committee’s report. Never during the last five eventful years had the political condition of India been more depressing than now. At home, we are in the grip of a terrible reaction, due partly to the feverish activity of the three years during which the non-cooperation movement was at the height of its influence and authority, and partly to Hindu-Muslim differences. Abroad, there is a Conservative Government in England with an assured majority in both Houses of Parliament and with no immediate or even early prospect of being turned out of office or of power. Nor can the combatant army of Swaraj itself be said to be as strong in the consciousness of its unity as it used to be. Thanks to the Calcutta Conference and the genius for compromise displayed by Mahatma Gandhi on the one hand and CR Das and Motilal Nehru on the other, a split in the Congress has been averted. But no discerning man can fail to see that the yarn franchise, while on the one hand it has made the return of the Liberals and some among the Independents to the Congress a virtual impossibility, has, on the other, not failed to weaken the forces of cohesion even among those who are actually within the Congress.