द इण्डियन स्ट्रगल / भारतीय स्वाधीनता संग्राम (नेताजी सुभाष चन्द्र बोस - ऐतिहासिक विश्लेषण)

108 THE INDIAN STRUGGLE
against the Maharaja as a justification for their action—the
popular feeling in the country was that the Maharaja was
neither better nor worse than the general run of Maharajas
in India and that he was deposed solely because of his avowedly
nationalistic views. Since the Maharaja was a Sikh and he
was reported to have cherished sympathy for the Akali
movement, his deposition roused a great deal of indignation
among the Sikh community.
While the forces of reaction were gaining in strength
in official circles and the Swarajists were preparing their great
onslaught on the bureaucratic citadel, the Indian Legislative
Assembly, even without the nationalists, was neither tame nor
inactive. During the year, resolutions demanding a speedy
constitutional advance were passed twice. Moreover, towards
the end of its term, the Assembly passed a Reciprocity Bill
which was introduced by Dr. (now Sir) H. S. Gour. This
Bill was aimed at the Dominions and Colonies of the British
Empire where Indians were not given equal rights and it
provided for retaliation against all those countries, which
placed disabilities on Indians, inflicting on their nationals in
India the same disabilities which Indians had to suffer there.
This Bill was the result of the injustice meted out to Indians
in the Crown Colony of Kenya in Africa. In Kenya where
the Indian settlers outnumbered the white settlers by three
to one, the latter wanted to usurp all political power and
exclude the former altogether. In the Kenya legislature they
had a law passed giving the vote to all white settlers above
twenty-one. They refused at first to extend the vote to
Indian settlers, but ultimately offered them a separate
electorate with a more limited franchise. This offer was
declined by the Indians because it would put the stamp of
second-class citizenship on them. The Kenya Indians appealed
to India for help and in April 1923 the Rt. Hon. V. S. Sastri¹
led a deputation to England to plead their cause before the
authorities at Whitehall. A fairly satisfactory agreement was
drawn up between the India Office and the Colonial Office
. ¹ Mr. V. S. Sastri who became the head of the Servants of India Society
after Mr. Gokhale's death had been made a Privy Councillor, while Mr.
Montagu was Secretary of State for India.