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

THE GANDHI-IRWIN PACT AND AFTER 243
changed that mood and made them feel that they held the
key position, since if they refused to come to an understanding
with him, they could prevent his attending the Round Table
Conference. The second statement of the Mahatma made the
reactionary Moslems feel that if only they would remain firm
and secure the support of the Nationalist Moslems, the
Mahatma could be forced to accept all their extreme demands.
After the above statements had been made, the Mahatma had
a conference with some reactionary Moslem leaders in Delhi
in April. I was in Delhi at the time and I went to see him
the same evening, after the conference. He seemed to be in a
depressed mood, because they had presented him with the
fourteen demands made by Mr. Jinnah (known in India as
Jinnah's fourteen points) and he felt that an agreement would
not be possible on that basis. Thereupon I remarked that the
Congress should only care for an agreement between
Nationalist Hindus and Nationalist Moslems and that the
agreed solution should be placed before the Round Table
Conference as the Nationalist demand and that the Congress
need not bother what other anti-Nationalist elements thought
or said. The Mahatma then asked me if I had any objection
to separate electorates since it could be argued that in the
absence of the third party the different communities would
live and work in concord. To this I replied that separate
electorates were against the fundamental principle of
Nationalism and that I felt so strongly on the subject that even
'Swaraj on the basis of separate electorates was, in my opinion,
not worth having. While we were engaged in this discussion,
Dr. Ansari and some of the Nationalist Moslem leaders
including Mr. Sherwani, arrived on the scene and joined in
the discussion. They said that if for any reason the Mahatma
gave up the demand for a common electorate for both Hindus
and Moslems and accepted the demand of the reactionaries for
a separate electorate for each community, they would oppose
the reactionary Moslems and also the Mahatma, because they
were convinced that separate electorates were bad not only
for the country as a whole, but also for the different com-
munities. The strong attitude of the Nationalist Moslems on
this occasion was largely responsible for preventing the