E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi – His Life & Timesdoes not consider India to be a sickly child requiring nursing, outside help andother props.'One has a feeling, in reviewing Gandhi's 1930 negotiations, that he viewedthem at the time in the perspective of several decades later. What does thephraseology or even content of Article 2 matter now? Seventeen years after theDelh1 Pact, India was an independent nation. What are seventeen years in thelife of an old nation like India?Subhas Chandra Bose, critic of the Mahatma, watching the public reactionduring a tour with Gandhi after the Pact was signed, wrote, 'I wonder if such aspontaneous ovation was ever given to a leader anywhere else.' And Boseadmitted that Irwin, 'though a prominent member of the Conservative party ....had proved himself to be a well-wisher of India'. To Gandhi, who was oftenguided in politics by his responses to persons, this warranted the signing of thePact.The moment the Pact was signed, complaints of non- fulfilment were levelledagainst the Government, and soon Gandhi was again negotiating, this time withthe new Viceroy, Lord Willingdon. Adjustments made, the Congress conventionat Karachi which, according to Bose, was 'the pinnacle of the Mahatma'spopularity and prestige', elected Gandhi its sole delegate to the second RoundTable Conference.At noon on August 29, Gandhi sailed from Bombay aboard the S. S. Rajputana.Accompanying him in various capacities were Pandit Malaviya, Mrs. Naidu, hisson Devadas, Mahadev Desai who, Gandhi said, 'out-Boswelled Boswell', PyarelalNayyar, a secretary and disciple, Miss Slade, who had made India herpermanent home and Gandhi her spiritual father, and G. D. Birla, the big Indianindustrialist. 'There is every chance of my returning empty-handed,' he said onembarking.Gandhi had given orders that he and his party should travel by the lowest class.When he discovered how much luggage they had brought he saw to it thatseven suitcases and trunks were sent back from Aden. He himself spent most ofthe day and all night on deck, spinning, writing, sleeping, eating, praying,www.mkgandhi.org Page 316