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

98 THE INDIAN STRUGGLE
Nehru (Allahabad) and Mr. Vithalbhai J. Patel (Bombay)
were in favour of adopting the Deshbandhu's plan of entering
the legislatures and Dr. M. A. Ansari¹ (Delhi), Mr. K. R.
Iyengar (Madras) and Mr. C. Rajagopalachari (Madras) were
against it. As the report was published shortly before the Gaya
session of the Congress to be presided over by Deshbandhu
Das, his hands were strengthened by the report.
Towards the end of September 1922, there were unexpected
floods in the northern districts of Bengal. Though floods and
famines are of frequent occurrence in the India of to-day, the
floods of 1922 were of an unprecedented magnitude. Four
large districts of Bengal were affected, crops were destroyed,
houses washed away and cattle killed. As a result of the floods,
there were several cases of death also. The whole countryside
was one vast expanse of water. The Congress organisations
throughout the province promptly responded to the appeal
for relief and I was among the first batch to arrive at the flooded
area for the purpose of organising relief. Thanks to the efforts
of Sir P. C. Roy, the famous chemist and the President of
the Relief Committee and to the generosity of the public, a
fund of more than 400,000 rupees was raised, besides large
contributions in cloth, foodstuffs and fodder (for the cattle).
On this occasion the Government of Bengal contributed a
sum of 20,000 rupees and in justifying the niggardliness of
the Government, the Maharaja of Burdwan, a member of the
Governor's Executive Council, stated that the Government
was not a charitable institution. The relief operations con-
ducted by the public, without any aid from the Government
were so successful that they added greatly to the prestige of
the Congress, whose members were largely responsible for
them. In fact we had the good fortune to be complimented on
our work by the Governor of Bengal, Lord Lytton, personally
when he inspected the flooded areas. Since then, the Congress
has always taken a leading part in organising relief operations
on the occasion of floods and famines.
Between August and December two other noteworthy events
took place. The first was the meeting of the All-India Trade)
¹ In the light of this fact it is surprising that Dr. Ansari should be one
of the sponsors of the Council-entry proposal in 1934.