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

MAHATMA GANDHI IN EUROPE 249
politicians—hence in order to turn the tables on them he
called upon them to make concrete proposals. (In reply to
that move, the Government sought to turn the tables on him
by summoning the Minorities Committee which would form
the battle-ground for the Indian 'delegates.) In the same
meeting, replying to an attack levelled against the Congress,
the Mahatma said: 'Though the Government of the day has
accused us of insolently setting up a parallel Government, I
would like to subscribe to that charge in my own fashion.
Though we have not set up any parallel Government,¹ we
certainly aspire some day or other to displace the existing
Government and in due course, in the course of evolution,
also to take charge of that Government.'
Mahatma Gandhi's first speech before the Minorities
Committee was delivered on October 8th, 1931. The appre-
hension that he had hinted at on September 17th, had been
realised by then and all attempts to arrive at a settlement of
the communal question had ended in failure. No wonder,
when the members were the chosen ones of Government!
This result had been clearly indicated in the manifesto issued
by the writer and others in opposition to the leaders' Delhi
manifesto in November 1929. On October 8th, 1931, the
Mahatma said: 'It is with deep sorrow and deeper humiliation
that I have to announce utter failure on my part to secure
an agreed solution of the communal question through informal
conversation among and with the representatives of different
groups. . . . But to say that the conversations have to our utter
shame failed is not to say the whole truth. Causes of failure
were inherent in the composition of the Indian delegation.
We are almost all not elected representatives of the parties or
groups we are presumed to represent—we are here by
nomination of the Government. Nor are those whose presence
was absolutely necessary for an agreed solution to be found
here. Further you will allow me to say that this was hardly
the time to summon the Minorities Committee. It lacks the
sense of reality in that we do not know what it is that we
¹ The writer moved a resolution at the Lahore Congress in 1929 to the
effect that the Congress should aim at setting up a parallel Government.
This resolution was defeated, all the followers of the Mahatma voting
against it.