Indian Independence
it was shameful to assist the foreigner in maintaining his domination”?—These were the questions that haunted me for years, after I had once for all realised how deep the iron of subjection had entered into the soul of India. I hoped against hope, year after year, that the mentality of India would change, but until a short time ago I confess that there was little to give me confidence. I disliked from the very first the pretentious and bombastic pronouncement of August, 1917, which arrogated to the British Parliament the right to judge the time and manner of each advance towards full responsible government. This pronouncement was vitiated again by the fact that India was permanently to remain an integral part of the British Empire. As the president of the Nagpur Congress rightly observed, “this kind of thing is nothing short of a pretension to a divine right to absolute rule over India”. So then, I felt that there was but little hope of India’s independence of soul being built up on this governmental basis.
