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

DESHBANDHU C. R. DAS IN POWER 131
conscious of his exact rôle, namely that of a practical politician
and he was therefore never afraid of courting unpopularity.
In contrast with the Deshbandhu, the rôle of the Mahatma
has not been a clear one. In many ways he is altogether an
idealist and a visionary. In other respects, he is an astute
politician. At times he is as obstinate as a fanatic; on other
occasions he is liable to surrender like a child. The instinct,
or the judgment, so necessary for political bargaining is
lacking in him. When there is a real opportunity for a
bargain as in 1921, he is liable to stick out for small things
and thereby upset all chances of a settlement. Whenever he
does go in for a bargain, as we shall see in 1931, he gives
more than he takes. On the whole, he is no match in diplo-
macy for an astute British politician.
After the death of Deshbandhu Das the Mahatma spent
several months in Bengal trying to raise a memorial fund in
honour of the departed great and helping to reorganise
the Congress machinery in the absence of the leader. His
public activities, nevertheless, continued on the whole to be
non-political in character and the political mantle of the
Deshbandhu therefore fell on Pandit Motilal Nehru, the
Swarajist leader in the Assembly. While Lord Reading was
still in England and Lord Lytton, the Governor of Bengal,
was acting as the Governor-General of India, the Pandit
attempted to resume the threads of the negotiations which
the Deshbandhu had been carrying on with the Government.
But the Government in London had already decided to drop
the negotiations for the time being and watch developments.
Nothing therefore came out of this attempt of Pandit Motilal
Nehru.
June 1925 proved to be a turning point in the recent history
of India. The disappearance of the towering personality of
the Deshbandhu from the political arena was for India a
colossal misfortune. The Swaraj Party, which owed so much
to him, was paralysed after his death and dissensions gradually
arose within the Party. Nevertheless, the Party at the time
of his death was an institution of which anyone would be
proud. The Capital of Calcutta, the organ of British com-
mercial interests, writing after his death, compared the Swaraj