Indian Administration and Mahatma Gandhi

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Senior Gandhian Scholar, Professor, Editor and Linguist

Gandhi International Study and Research Institute, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

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Indian Administration and Mahatma Gandhi 

 

 

The career of Lord Curzon makes it very risky to base any expectations upon the new Viceroy; and it would be perhaps far safer to expect nothing if we would be blessed; but in Lord Minto, the Viceroy-designate, India will have a nobleman not unknown to it, as he belongs to an illustrious family which has already given a Viceroy to India. His Colonial experience may be of inestimable advantage in Indian administration; and, if the traditions of Colonial Governorship, which are always strictly constitutional, are kept up in India, that portion of King Edward’s Empire may look forward to a peaceful and sympathetic rule for the next five years. Heaven grant that it may be so. Famine once again threatens to overtake the land; plague still continues to exact its toll; poverty daily undermines millions of families: only broadest sympathy and kindliness to the governed can help them in this dreadful trinity of evils. 1

This is like sending a reprieve after hanging. The right of voting at the present moment may not be of much consequence. But when people become alive to their rights, one vote is enough to turn the scales on momentous occasions. Mr. Jamaluddin is entitled to an explanation of the extraordinary delay in a matter that required no prolonged investigation and when the Commissioner must have known that the elections were pending. For me the incident furnishes an additional cause for non-co-operation. I look upon all such official acts with considerable suspicion. They betray contempt of popular opinion and rights. That people may not have an immediate remedy against the abuse is to me no reason for associating directly or indirectly with the authorities in conducting Indian administration in utter defiance of public opinion. 2 

The Irish parallel does not answer. There were negotiations during which there was no repression; here repression is going on whilst there have been negotiations going on. Sir Samuel Hoare frankly said, I have no confidence in your ability or competence.” If you say, don’t judge us by what Churchill says, I agree. But if you say, don’t judge us by what MacDonald says or Lothian says, then I should despair. Hoare is a straight man, a man of his word, honest; but he is rigid, hard, impossible to dislodge, and shows an amazing ignorance of Indian history. He feels that Indian administration has been a positive blessing. He feels that he can’t conduct this Government without this thing. 3

 

References:

 

1. 1.      Indian Opinion, 26-8-1905
2. 2.      Young India, 17-7-1924 
3. 3.      Discussion with J. F. Horrabin and others, December 3, 1931