Gandhi at Large

Reluctantly in Yerovda jail, Poona, last fortnight, emaciated St. Gandhi packed up his books, his boxes of letters, his spinning wheel that has busied him for the past eight months. Anxious jailers urged him to hurry lest he miss his train. Said the Mahatma:

"I expect to be back here within two months. I am not at all happy at the thought of entering again the whirlpool of life in the outside world. ... I cannot bear the thought of enjoying my individual liberty while tens of thousands of my brothers and sisters remain in jail."

Reporters anxiously followed St. Gandhi in his first days of freedom last week to see what steps he was taking to insure his rearrest. The delicate progress of British-Nationalist relations struck an immediate snag when the Nationalist leaders, apparently directly inspired by the Mahatma, announced that civil disobedience would not be called off until all political prisoners were released. British authorities insisted that there would be no general release of political prisoners until civil disobedience was ended.

In Bombay so excited grew the crowd assembled to see St. Gandhi that it crushed one woman to death, sent 31 people to the hospital. Resolutely twirling his little spinning wheel, the Mahatma moved on to Allahabad where he was scheduled to visit the bedside of venerable Pandit Motilal Nehru, father of the present president of the Nationalist Congress, to discuss Prime Minister MacDonald's offer of Limited Dominion Status, later to make an important speech.

There were sundry interruptions. Thousands of pilgrims jammed railways to Allahabad to hear St. Gandhi speak. At the mass meeting the electric loudspeakers, installed for the first time in Allahabad, broke down. Whatever of importance the Mahatma had intended to say he kept to himself. Those in the front rows relayed the word that St. Gandhi was merely thanking the men and women present for their sacrifices for Indian independence.

Next day the Gandhi-inspired Working Committee of the Nationalist Congress laid down four terms as conditions for beginning peace negotiations:

1) Amnesty to all political prisoners.

2) Withdrawal of all "repressive measures."

3) Permission to continue "peaceful picketing" of foreign cloth, drink and drug shops.

4) Permission to make salt during the period of negotiations.

From one important direction came pressure to make St. Gandhi call a halt in civil disobedience. Wealthy merchants who have patriotically financed the campaign have not only spent all their money but almost ruined their businesses. Speaking not as men but as "angels" they suggested that the time had come to accept Britain's first liberal offer, leave India's further demands for further negotiation.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.