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

MAHATMA GANDHI IN EUROPE 253 examination.¹ He condemned the fixing of the currency ratio at 1s. 6d. instead of at 1s. 4d., as the Indian people had demanded. Continuing, he said: 'I would want complete control of Indian finance if India was really to have respon- sibility at the centre. In my opinion, unless we have control over our own purse, absolutely unrestricted, we shall not be able to shoulder the responsibility nor will it be a respon- sibility worth the name.' In another speech the same day, he maintained that after mature consideration he had come to the conclusion that provincial autonomy and central responsibility must go together. 'A strong centre governed and administered by an alien authority and a strong autonomy (for the provinces) are a contradiction in terms.' Speaking of central responsibility, he said: 'I want that responsibility at the centre that will give me, as you all know, control of the army and finance. I know that I am not going to get that here and now and I know there is not a British man ready for that. Therefore, I know I must go back and yet invite the nation to a course of suffering.' Mahatma Gandhi's first speech at the plenary session of the Round Table Conference on November 30th, is a priceless document, though it affords painful reading, being a record of disillusionment complete. He started by saying: 'All the other parties at this meeting represent sectional interests. The Congress alone claims to represent the whole of India and all interests. . . . And yet here I see that the Congress is treated as one of the parties . . . . I wish I could convince all the British public men, the British Ministers that the Congress is capable of delivering the goods. . . . But no, although you have invited the Congress you distrust the Congress. Although you have invited the Congress, you reject its claim to represent the whole of India.' Referring to the communal question, he told the unpleasant truth 'that so long as the wedge in the shape of foreign rule divides community from community and class from class, there will be no real living solution, there will be no living friendship between these communities.' On the question of the national demand he said: 'Call it

¹ In this connection he referred to the Report of the Public Debt Enquiry Committee appointed by the Karachi Congress in 1931.