Mahatmaji’s statement

APART from their wonderful lucidity and force, the great distinction of Mahatma Gandhi’s public utterances have always appeared to us to consist in this, that there is no pose in them, no make-believe, no straining after-effect, that every word he speaks or writes comes direct from the heart. We venture to think that on no previous occasion in his eventful life did the Mahatma exhibit this supreme quality to greater perfection than he does in the two articles he has contributed to his paper. If ever a great man could be said to have poured out his great heart in the form of printed matter for the whole world to witness it in all its strength and grandeur and beauty, the Mahatma has done so in this case. He is himself doubtful he has done justice to his subject. We are absolutely certain that no one among the hundred thousand men who must by this time have read and re-read those masterpieces will share this doubt. We now know that what the Mahatma meant when he said to the Associated Press interviewer that the meeting of the All India Congress Committee had been an eye-opener to him. He was not thinking of the waning of his general hold on the country. He was not even thinking of what he described as his defeat over both the khaddar and the boycott resolutions. Nor was he thinking of his failure to secure the homogeneity of the Congress Executive. These things did matter to him, but for the moment they were all secondary. The most important thing to him was the fact that

Mr CR Das had succeeded in obtaining as many as 70 votes in favour of his amendment to the Gopinath Saha resolution.