THE VICTORY AND AFTER

WITH the great victory which the combined forces of the Swarajists and Independent Nationalists have just won in the Indian Legislative Assembly, the constitutional struggle in India has entered a new and assured career. Hitherto, it has for the most part been carried on in the Press, on the platform and through the medium of public bodies like the Congress and the Muslim League. In the exceptional cases in which the machinery of the Legislature has been sought to be used for the purpose, the action has laboured under the grave drawback of being action by a minority. To quote the famous words of Dr Johnson in another connection, those responsible for the attempt had the melancholy satisfaction of out-arguing their opponents whom they could not outvote. Now, for the first time, the position is changed, and the weight of numbers is added to the weight of argument. This does not settle the matter, of course. As a matter of fact, it is far more the beginning than the end of the real struggle. For the first time, the strength of an irresponsible government is face to face with the will of the people represented by their chosen representatives, not, as of old when each could go its own way without let or hindrance from the other, but in entirely new circumstances when each is bound to take some account of the other. It is no longer a case of one party passing resolutions, whether by way of appeal or of demand, or of threat, and the other either rudely ignoring them or brushing them aside with a polite bow.

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