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

THE STORM BREAKS 75
people, would strengthen their power of effective resistance.
The upshot of the conference was that all those present
promised to give a full chance to the Congress to strive for
Swaraj and promised to do nothing to hamper its work, while
many of them agreed to join the Congress organisation as
loyal and active members.
The conference between the Mahatma and the ex-revolu-
tionaries took place behind closed doors in September 1921,
when he and other members of the Congress Working Com-
mittee were staying as guests of Deshbandhu C. R. Das.
This was the first occasion when I had an opportunity of
coming into personal contact with the prominent leaders
of the Congress. Besides the Deshbandhu, the outstanding
personalities then were Pandit Motilal Nehru, Lala Lajpat
Rai and Moulana Mohammed Ali. It is difficult to say how
far the Mahatma would have succeeded in 1921 without their
active support. To realise the importance of Lalaji and Desh-
bandhu one has only to visualise the political situation in the
Punjab and in Bengal in their absence. And in 1921, Nehru
Junior (Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru) was not so well known or
experienced that he could have replaced his father. Besides
the influence which the first three leaders had in their own
provinces—their importance was also due to the fact that
they were the three outstanding intellectual stalwarts of the
Congress. Many of the blunders committed by the Mahatma
as a political leader could have been avoided if they had been
in a position to advise him. Since the death of these three
giants, the leadership of the Congress has fallen to a low
intellectual level. The Congress Working Committee to-day
is undoubtedly composed of some of the finest men of India
—men who have character and courage, patriotism and
sacrifice. But most of them have been chosen primarily
because of their 'blind' loyalty to the Mahatma—and there
are few among them who have the capacity to think for
themselves or the desire to speak out against the Mahatma
when he is likely to take a wrong step. In the circumstances,
the Congress Cabinet of to-day is a one-man show.
In 1921, besides the above three leaders, the Ali brothers
(Moulana Mohammed and Moulana Shaukat Ali) had a