ORGANISED DEMOCRACY IS WHAT INDIA WANTS.

IF the session of the Congress that came to a close on New Year’s Day may be described as the greatest ever held, the message which the President delivered to the assembled delegates in dissolving the gathering was in every way a fitting sequel to the proceedings of the session. It has been the pride and privilege of the President of the Congress, ever since that great institution came into existence, to dream dreams. Many of those dreams have already become realities, while the most important of them, that which transcended all others in its majestic sweep, the dream of Swaraj, associated with the revered memory of the Grand Old Man of India, has been brought within the range of practical politics. The dream of Pandit Moti Lal Nehru represents a further stage in the journey along the same road. What Dadabhai Naoroji and others, both before and immediately after him, were striving for was the recognition by England of India’s nationhood and the right of Indians themselves to direct their own affairs. This was naturally the first task before the Congress. The British Parliament has accepted our goal, and His Majesty the King-Emperor has told his Indian people in the most unequivocal terms that the “fullness of political freedom” is not only a legitimate ideal for them, but the only possible ideal. Now comes the next question, the question of how best, most speedily and most effectively to realise this ideal. The problem would be easy enough if what India wanted was a mere transfer of power from British hands. A part of the higher administration is already in Indian hands, and it would be a task of no insuperable difficulty to find Indians who could take over the controlling part of the administration. But that is not the problem. The Congress has never longed for the substitution for the Anglo-Indian of an Indian bureaucracy or oligarchy. She believes only in democracy.

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