The Congress’ path
THE Congress is about to meet at Belgaum for its 39th session. From more than one point of view, the occasion is bound to be unique. For the first time, it meets under the actual presidency of a man who for the last four years has been its uncrowned king. It is a matter of common knowledge that at any time since the agitation against the Rowlatt Bill, which first revealed the power of the Mahatma as a political leader in India, it would have been the easiest thing for him to have got himself elected to the presidential chair of the Congress. That he was not elected wasn’t merely because he never thought of the thing himself, but because the country considered him too high even for this supreme office. His proper function, it was felt, was not that of king, but of maker of kings. It was felt, moreover, that the responsibility of office, so far from exalting a man of his potent stamp, was likely to have a cramping effect, in as much as it would limit and circumscribe the atmosphere of freedom in which alone a man like him best lives, moves and has his being. Whether one likes it or not, the fact has to be recognised that the position is so changed today that the incongruity of the Mahatma’s election to the office of President has almost escaped notice and is by no means self-evident as it would have been in 1920 or 1921. Another circumstance that lends peculiar importance to this year’s session is closely connected with this one. Having for four years travelled along a particular path antithetical to that which it had trodden all through the past, the Congress bids fair at the ensuing session to chalk out a different path for itself.
