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

74 THE INDIAN STRUGGLE burden of his address was that though culture had a universal basis, each country had its own specific culture which was the creation of its national genius. India had to preserve and develop her own culture and if in doing so, she had to boycott the educational institutions which were under British influence, there was nothing objectionable in it. An attack from the poet was exceedingly unwelcome to the Mahatma, particularly because they had been great friends ever since the latter's return to India from South Africa. The Mahatma had therefore to pay several visits to the poet in order to pacify him. With the lapse of time the poet's opposi- tion was completely disarmed and he became one of the staunchest supporters of the Mahatma in his subsequent campaigns. While opposition to the Mahatma's policy of non-co- operation came from the intellectuals, opposition to his cult of non-violence came from another quarter—namely, the Revolutionary Party. During the Great War, thousands of revolutionaries had been imprisoned and most of them were subsequently released as a result of the amnesty declared in 1919. Many of them did not approve of the doctrine of non-retaliation which they apprehended would demoralise the people and weaken their power of resistance. There was a possibility that the ex-revolutionaries as a class would go against the Congress owing to ideological differences. As a matter of fact, a section of them had already started propa- ganda in Bengal against the Non-co-operation Movement. Strangely enough, funds had been provided by the British Mercantile Community under the name of the Citizens' Protection League. The money was distributed through the medium of an Indian advocate who did not disclose the source of the funds. Deshbandhu C. R. Das was anxious to disarm the hostility of the ex-revolutionaries and if possible, to win their active support for the Congress Campaign. He therefore arranged a conference in September between them and the Mahatma, at which he also was present. The ex-revolu- tionaries had a heart-to-heart talk with the Mahatma and he and the Deshbandhu tried to convince them that non-violent non-co-operation, instead of weakening or demoralising the