Back to first principles

Lahore, Friday, October 24, 1924

THE controversy that has recently taken place in the Press and elsewhere over the question whether a settlement of the communal problem must precede a united endeavour on the part of different communities for the attainment of Swaraj, and even more particularly the spirit and temper in which it has been carried on, leaves no room for doubt in one’s mind that in many quarters there is an exceedingly hazy notion as to the first principles of the case. It is evidently not realised that the very aspiration for Swaraj, which by general consent, at least the consent of all politically minded Indians, is today all but universal in this country, presupposes the existence of a sense of nationhood. It is possible for a country without such sense to be self-governing or even independent, if we use those words in a somewhat loose sense, so as to indicate merely that it is not governed by any extraneous power, but by some power in the country itself. The word ‘Swaraj’ never has been and never can be used in that sense. Its only accepted meaning is the government of a people by itself. Such a government clearly can only be possible when there is among the several component parts of the people, whether individuals or communities and classes, a sense of oneness of life and destiny. Have the component parts of the Indian people such sense today or have they not? We maintain that they have it, and our strongest ground for holding this view is the undeniable fact that the aspiration for Swaraj is practically universal.