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

APPENDIX 351 reduce the stand not only of the Congress delegates, but also of the All-India and Provincial Congress Committees. Verily, the Mahatma has ceased to be a dynamic force. May be, it is the effect of age. But why did the Congress swallow the constitutional amendment? The reason is not far to seek. In May 1933, the Mahatma was able to suspend the civil-disobedience move- ment under cover of his three weeks' fast. In November 1934, he was able to alter the constitution under cover of his retirement from the Congress. On both occasions, so great was the sympathy roused for the Mahatma that emotional and unthinking people accepted everything that the Mahatma proposed, if only that would please him. The question here arises—'has the Mahatma retired? If so, why?' He has retired in the sense that his name does not appear in the list of members of the Supreme Executive of the Congress. But the executive—the Working Committee— has been backed by his blind supporters. The present Work- ing Committee is more submissive to the Mahatma than even the Working Committee of last year, of which the Mahatma was himself a member. Among the personnel of the present Working Committee, the Swarajists or Parliamentarians are conspicuous by their absence. Even, Mr. M. S. Anay who dared to differ from the Mahatma on the question of the Communal Award, is not there, despite his loyalty and sub- missiveness in the past. And poor Mr. Nariman who ventured to think independently, has been virtually kicked out of the Committee. In 1924, the Mahatma had really retired from Congress Politics together with his Party, as the Congress machinery had been seized by his opponents, the Swarajists. To-day, the person of the Mahatma may not be in the Com- mittee—but his Party is there, stronger than ever. Moreover, he has a direct control over the most important department of future Congress activity—the Village Industries Association. The so-called retirement of the Mahatma will not, accordingly, diminish his hold over the Congress machinery in anyway— but will enable him to disown all responsibility for the failures of the official Congress Party during the next few years. His retirement, therefore, is only one of his strategic retreats to