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

296 THE INDIAN STRUGGLE the mess into which it had fallen. Pandit Nehru had long talks with the Mahatma and following that, an interchange of letters. The correspondence was duly published, but on perusal it was found to be more doctrinaire than practical. What the public wanted to know urgently was not whether and wherein Pandit J. L. Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi agreed or disagreed fundamentally—but how the Congress could be restored to life and vigour. During his four months of comparative freedom, Pandit Nehru wrote and spoke freely and gave expression to his socialistic—or communistic —ideas, but the Congress did not show any signs of resus- citation. In an exceedingly interesting and able article under the caption 'Whither India?'—he pleaded for social and economic equality—for the ending of all special class-privi- leges and vested interests—but that did not help the Congress one jot or tittle. With a popularity only second to that of the Mahatma, with unbounded prestige among his countrymen, with a clear brain possessing the finest ideas, with an up-to- date knowledge of modern world movements—that he should be found wanting in the essential quality of leadership, namely the capacity to make decisions and face unpopularity if need be,¹ was a great disappointment. But there was no help for it. What had been expected of him had to be accom- plished by lesser men. After Pandit Nehru, Mr. K. F. Nariman the Bombay leader, was released and without delay he began to give public expression to his views² on the decisions of the Poona Conference in July 1933. Referring to the Mahatma's decision to start civil disobedience in August 1933, because the Viceroy did not grant him an unconditional interview, he said, ' "Inter- view or Death" is the national slogan for the present. : . . The renewed fight in August last is not for Swaraj, nor even for political constitutional advance, but for the assertion of a supposed "national right" of an unconditional interview. If ¹ This defect in Pandit J. L. Nehru was manifest on other occasions as well, when the Congress was passing through a crisis—e.g., in the crisis of 1923-24 and subsequently in the crisis of 1928-29. ² For a full statement of his views one should refer to his book, Whither Congress? Bombay Book Depot, Girgaon, Bombay, November 1933. Mr. Nariman has been a member of the Congress Working Committee since January 1930.