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

THE GANDHI-IRWIN PACT AND AFTER 237 (b) Prisoners convicted of revolutionary offences. (c) Prisoners under trial for alleged revolutionary offences. (d) The under-trial prisoners in the Meerut Con- spiracy Case. (e) Prisoners incarcerated in connection with labour strikes and other labour disputes. (f) The Garhwali soldiers who had been court- martialled and given heavy sentences for refusing to fire on unarmed citizens. (g) Prisoners sentenced in connection with the civil- disobedience movement, the charges against whom referred to violence of some sort. 8. The demand originally made by Mahatma Gandhi for an inquiry into police atrocities during the period of the civil-disobedience movement was excluded from the Pact. The above criticism met with general approval at the Youth Congress and a resolution was adopted condemning the Delhi Pact. The Delhi Pact, as we shall see later on, proved to be not a blessing but a curse. The time was not opportune for an understanding of the sort attempted. The struggle should have been continued for some time longer. The Pact, as drafted, contained nothing of value. Ever since the nego- tiations started in 1929, the Congress leaders had always insisted on an assurance from the Government, regarding the grant of Dominion Status. Because that assurance was not forthcoming, the fight had to be launched in 1930. For the same reason, the peace-negotiations prior to the First Round Table Conference in 1930, had proved abortive. How the fight could be suspended without such an assurance, passes one's comprehension. The only reason one can suggest is that there was no one in the Working Committee to point out the correct thing to the Mahatma and with the lamented death of Pandit Motilal Nehru, the last intellectual stalwart of the Congress had disappeared. Though he lacked the emotional appeal necessary in a front-rank leader, the Pandit was never- theless a leader among men. He towered head and shoulders