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

MAHATMA GANDHI IN EUROPE 253
examination.¹ He condemned the fixing of the currency ratio
at 1s. 6d. instead of at 1s. 4d., as the Indian people had
demanded. Continuing, he said: 'I would want complete
control of Indian finance if India was really to have respon-
sibility at the centre. In my opinion, unless we have control
over our own purse, absolutely unrestricted, we shall not be
able to shoulder the responsibility nor will it be a respon-
sibility worth the name.' In another speech the same day,
he maintained that after mature consideration he had come
to the conclusion that provincial autonomy and central
responsibility must go together. 'A strong centre governed
and administered by an alien authority and a strong autonomy
(for the provinces) are a contradiction in terms.' Speaking of
central responsibility, he said: 'I want that responsibility at
the centre that will give me, as you all know, control of the
army and finance. I know that I am not going to get that
here and now and I know there is not a British man ready
for that. Therefore, I know I must go back and yet invite
the nation to a course of suffering.'
Mahatma Gandhi's first speech at the plenary session of
the Round Table Conference on November 30th, is a priceless
document, though it affords painful reading, being a record
of disillusionment complete. He started by saying: 'All the
other parties at this meeting represent sectional interests. The
Congress alone claims to represent the whole of India and all
interests. . . . And yet here I see that the Congress is treated
as one of the parties . . . . I wish I could convince all the
British public men, the British Ministers that the Congress is
capable of delivering the goods. . . . But no, although you
have invited the Congress you distrust the Congress. Although
you have invited the Congress, you reject its claim to represent
the whole of India.' Referring to the communal question, he
told the unpleasant truth 'that so long as the wedge in the
shape of foreign rule divides community from community
and class from class, there will be no real living solution,
there will be no living friendship between these communities.'
On the question of the national demand he said: 'Call it

¹ In this connection he referred to the Report of the Public Debt Enquiry
Committee appointed by the Karachi Congress in 1931.