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

. THE STORM BREAKS 63
portion of Madras Presidency came Mr. Rajagopalachari, Mr.
A. Rangaswami Iyengar and Mr. Satyamurti, and from the
Telegu-speaking portion Mr. Prakasam, all lawyers by pro-
fession. On the supreme executive of the Congress there also
sat the Ali brothers—Moulana Mohammed and Moulana
Shaukat Ali—Moulana Abul Kalam Azad, one of the most
learned of the Moslem divines and Dr. Ansari of Delhi—all of
whom represented the new awakening among the Indian
Moslems. Thus it will be seen that it was a very good team
that Mahatma Gandhi was able to collect at the outset of his
campaign.
Among those who gave up their professional work in
response to the appeal of the Congress, the lawyers played a
most important part. The example of lawyer-princes like
Deshbandhu Das and Pandit Motilal Nehru was followed by
lesser lights among the lawyer-fraternity throughout India
and as a result, the Congress ranks were replenished by a
large number of whole-time workers of standing and influence.
The appeal of the Congress for boycott of law-courts met with
a fair measure of success. While a large number of lawyers
gave up their practice for good, there was, on the other
hand, an intensive campaign to dissuade litigants from
approaching British law-courts and persuade them to settle
their disputes by arbitration. As a matter of fact, arbitration-
boards under the control of the Congress, came into
existence all over the country and owing to their efforts the
Government revenue from litigation was considerably reduced.
Along with the boycott of law-courts, a campaign was started
for promoting temperance and stopping the use of intoxicants
of all kinds: The success of this campaign was remarkable
throughout India and in many provinces the excise revenue
(that is, the revenue from the trade in liquor and other
intoxicants) was reduced to one-third of what it formerly
was. In some provinces, as in Bihar, the Government felt
obliged to conduct a campaign for popularising the use of
liquor and other intoxicants in order to increase their revenue.
The temperance movement was exceedingly popular among
the masses and it fulfilled a moral as well as an economic
purpose, while it caused considerable embarrassment to the