Is it not compulsion?

Lahore, Wednesday, November 19, 1924

We are constrained to say that the leaderette in the latest issue of Young India, titled “Is it compulsion?”, which we reproduced in these columns yesterday, is not distinguished by that clear thinking which is generally associated with Mahatma Gandhi’s public and private utterances. “It is evident to me,” he says with reference to Satyananda Stokes’ protest against hand-spinning being made compulsory for every member of the Congress, “that his excessive regard for liberty of the individual has disabled Mr Stokes from distinguishing between voluntary acceptance and compulsion. Compulsion means submission of protestants to the thing they oppose under pain of being fined or imprisoned. They cannot escape the obligation or the penalty by remaining outside the corporation of which they find themselves members. But when a man joins a voluntary association such as the Congress, he does so willingly and tacitly or explicitly undertakes to obey its rules. These rules generally include submission of the minority to the wishes of the majority. The voluntary nature of every act of every member is clear from the fact that he can secede whenever the majority passes a rule which is in conflict with his conscience. Mr Stokes’ reasoning is subversive of all corporate self-government.” In our opinion, it is not Stokes’ reasoning but that of the Mahatma himself which is subversive of all corporate self-government. Such self-government undoubtedly implies, in all cases of actual conflict, the submission of the minority to the wishes of the majority, but for this very reason the greatest possible care is taken by every corporate body which knows its business and its true interests to keep conflict within due limits.