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

74 THE INDIAN STRUGGLE
burden of his address was that though culture had a universal
basis, each country had its own specific culture which was
the creation of its national genius. India had to preserve
and develop her own culture and if in doing so, she had to
boycott the educational institutions which were under
British influence, there was nothing objectionable in it. An
attack from the poet was exceedingly unwelcome to the
Mahatma, particularly because they had been great friends ever
since the latter's return to India from South Africa. The
Mahatma had therefore to pay several visits to the poet in
order to pacify him. With the lapse of time the poet's opposi-
tion was completely disarmed and he became one of the
staunchest supporters of the Mahatma in his subsequent
campaigns.
While opposition to the Mahatma's policy of non-co-
operation came from the intellectuals, opposition to his cult
of non-violence came from another quarter—namely, the
Revolutionary Party. During the Great War, thousands of
revolutionaries had been imprisoned and most of them were
subsequently released as a result of the amnesty declared in
1919. Many of them did not approve of the doctrine of
non-retaliation which they apprehended would demoralise
the people and weaken their power of resistance. There was
a possibility that the ex-revolutionaries as a class would go
against the Congress owing to ideological differences. As a
matter of fact, a section of them had already started propa-
ganda in Bengal against the Non-co-operation Movement.
Strangely enough, funds had been provided by the British
Mercantile Community under the name of the Citizens'
Protection League. The money was distributed through the
medium of an Indian advocate who did not disclose the source
of the funds. Deshbandhu C. R. Das was anxious to disarm
the hostility of the ex-revolutionaries and if possible, to win
their active support for the Congress Campaign. He therefore
arranged a conference in September between them and the
Mahatma, at which he also was present. The ex-revolu-
tionaries had a heart-to-heart talk with the Mahatma and he
and the Deshbandhu tried to convince them that non-violent
non-co-operation, instead of weakening or demoralising the