The disagreement in the United Provinces and in Behar last
February, over the procedure for dealing with the cases of political prisoners, and the consequent resignation of the two Ministries, came as a complete surprise to the whole country. Happily the crisis was quietly solved, and it is unnecessary to discuss the issue that caused it. Seen in retrospect, the point of chief importance is the calmness and good sense with which the situation was met.
At the moment when the Ministries handed in their resignations, the Indian National Congress was holding its Annual Meetings. They took place this year at an isolated spot, about iso miles north of Bombay. The delegates to the Conference numbered about 4,000, but the people who came from the neighbouring districts and from further afield to see the political leaders and to hear the speeches numbered at least zoo,000, and probably many more. To accommodate these multitudes, a town of bamboo huts and halls, three miles long and more than half a mile wide, had been built on open land on the bank of a great river ; equipped with roads, electricity, water-supply, hospitals, a motor-road on a bridge of boats across the river, huts to house thousands of people, kitchens capable of providing meals for to,000 at a time, and too,000 in a day. I had been invited to be a guest at the meetings, and the three days that I was there left me with a deep impression of the boldness of the plan of the great Camp and the efficiency of its execution. There was not a policeman to be seen ; the vast crowds that came in and out controlled themselves, helped only by a corps, in distinctive dresses, of more than two thousand men and women volunteers.
Here came Mahatma Gandhi, now old and frail, but still alert and indomitable ; commanding the devotion and obedience of all sections of the great movement of which he remains the unquestioned leader. Here came the Prime Ministers of several of the Provinces where the con- gress was in a majority, and all the members of the Executive, the " Working Committee." I had expected to find . the whole scene at that moment one of intense excitement. A political crisis of the first magnitude had arisen ; the resignation of all the seven Congress Ministries might be at stake. The Press was full of indignant articles, vehement and resentful. But at the Congress everything was tranquil. The vast meetings were perfectly quiet. The leaders met in frequent session for long hours ; sensible, moderately-worded communications were sent to the news- papers. Mr. Gandhi, in the quietude of the middle of the night, drafted a declaration of policy, pointing the way to a settlement ; this was at once accepted by the Congress Committee and by the Delegates, and published. The Viceroy, and the Provincial Governors concerned, responded in the same spirit. In a few days the point at issue was settled, the resignations withdrawn and the crisis over.
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