Hindu-Muslim tension

THE current issue of Young India has a remarkable article from the pen of Mahatma Gandhi. It is a fairly long article, but by no means too long, considering the nature of the subject (Hindu-Muslim tension) and the variety of its aspects. With his great mastery of the art of condensation, it would, indeed, have been strange it the Mahatma had made the article longer than it was necessary to make it. As it is, the prevailing feeling in the mind of the reader when he has gone through the 10 pages of Young India is not that the Mahatma has said too much, but that on certain aspects of the problem, which he justly describes as the question of questions, he has said too little. This is particularly so as regards the solution of the problem which the Mahatma offers after discussing it in all or most of its bearings. The impression left on the mind of a careful and unbiased reader of this part of the article is that the advice which the Mahatma gives to the parties concerned is too general and also too meagre, and that on the whole, with all the pains he has taken to lift the problem to a higher plane, he has not been able to bring its solution perceptibly nearer. It is not always, it must be said, that the Mahatma’s writings or speeches are open to this precise charge. What, then, is it that makes the article so notable a contribution to our current political literature? The answer, in our opinion, is that it is a patient, highly comprehensive and dispassionate analysis of a very difficult, very complex and very delicate subject.