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

THE FIGHT RESUMED 281
untouchability campaign from behind the prison-walls, what
could his followers do? The Mahatma had all along held
that a Satyagraha prisoner should regard himself as 'civilly
dead' and should not bother about the work outside prison.
But on this occasion he did not stick to his usual principle.
To make matters worse, when questions were put to him,
at this time, as to whether political work should be done or
social work, he gave replies that were rather confusing or he
did not reply at all, which led people to think that he preferred
social work to political. This lead of the Mahatma was
naturally followed more by his blind followers and by those
who were tired of repeated suffering and imprisonment and
wanted a convenient excuse for giving up the political fight.
Another theory has been put forward to explain the
Mahatma's conduct. It is advanced that he realised the
ultimate failure of the movement and therefore wanted to
create out of it—another movement which would be of
benefit to his countrymen. This theory cannot be accepted
since in November 1931, in London, the Mahatma had spoken
of his determination to resist with his life, special electorate
for the depressed classes. One feels inclined to think that this
side-tracking of the civil-disobedience movement was the
result of that subjectivism which seizes him at times and
makes him utterly blind to and oblivious of objective realities.
Ever since the Round Table Conference, he had begun to
ponder so deeply over the depressed classes problem that the
other problems receded to the background for the time being.
Whatever the real explanation may be, there is no doubt
that the fast served to side-track the civil-disobedience move-
ment and cause a diversion of men, money and public
enthusiasm to the anti-untouchability (or 'Harijan')¹ campaign
at a time when the position of the Congress, vis-à-vis the
Government, was none too strong. The effect was the same
as it would be if in the middle of a battle, a general gave the
order to his troops to start excavating a canal in order to
supply water to the thirsty people of the countryside.
In response to the appeal made by the Mahatma on
¹ The word 'Harijan' (literally, 'a man of God') was coined by the
Mahatma to denote a member of the depressed classes or untouchables.