Mahatmaji and the Nobel Prize

IT is much to be regretted that a member of the Legislative Assembly has given notice of his intention to move a resolution recommending that the Nobel Peace Prize be given this year to Mahatma Gandhi. We are aware that under the rules, the claims of a candidate for this Prize have to be endorsed by the Parliament of his country, but Mahatma Gandhi is not and never has been a candidate for this or any other honour. He would certainly spurn the very idea of putting himself forward as a rival candidate to anyone else, whether in India or elsewhere. Nor can it be otherwise than supremely distasteful to him as well as to his countrymen, who literally idolise him, that a discussion should take place in the Legislative Assembly or any other similar body over the question of his personal claims. The whole thing is utterly undignified, not according to ordinary standards, but according to the only standard that is appropriate in the case of one on whom his people, and not his people alone, have conferred the honorific title of the Mahatma. In the present case, there is the additional factor to be taken into account that another name, that of the Aga Khan, has been proposed and accepted in the Council of State. That it should have been so proposed and accepted when the name of the Mahatma was on everyone’s lips in the same connection is a striking commentary on the unrepresentative character of that body. But the fact is there, and the question to be considered is what useful purpose will be served if two different persons are recommended by the two halves of the Indian Legislature.