Although Only a Part of the Temporary Erections in the Co

1925] CONGRESS PANDAL INSURED FOR 2 LACS 343 1925 Page 17, para. 42 (a)— S. B., Bombay Presidency, Poona, January 8.—Although only a part of the temporary erections in the Congress camp were ready, delegates, visitors and volunteers began to arrive several days before the Congress was due to commence. The site of the camp was at Thalakwadi, about half a mile from the Belgaum Railway Station. The whole camp was enclosed within a fencing and the huts and other erections within the enclosure were made of bamboo and khaddar. The large Congress Pandal and the whole of the temporary buildings put up were insured for two lacs of rupees. As the actual value was only about one lac, it was locally rumoured that the organisers might set-fire to the booths towards the end of the session and thereby get a net profit of one lac. However, in spite of several small fires, this desirable consummation never took place. A temporary railway station was opened in the camp, and while the Congress was at its height several special trains were run both from the North and South which stopped there. All other passenger trains, except the Mails, also stopped there. A newspaper entitled the Navashakti was published every day in the camp. It was edited by R. S. Hukkerikar and copies were sold at one anna each. In it appeared the news of the camp, notices regarding meetings, leaders on topical subjects and advertisements. The Congress volunteers were much in evidence, about 1,000 being present, male and female. They were all under the command of Dr. N. S. Hardikar. According to local information, most of the male volunteers were either immature males or adults of bad character, while the moral of the lady volunteers, it is said, left much to be desired. Gandhi arrived on December 21 and received a hearty welcome. Addresses were presented to him the same evening by the District Local Boards and the City Municipality, Belgaum. In his speech of thanks he advised these bodies to devote their first attention to the work of sanitation and Local Self-Government. Politics, he said, should only be taken up as luxury after these duties had been fulfilled. The All-India Congress Committee met on December 23 with Mahomed Ali in the chair. The annual report for the year 1924, was then submitted to the Committee. It was couched in somewhat gloomy language. Communal friction and a feeling of uncertainty as the future programme of the Congress had interfered very much with the Congress work. The programme chalked out at Coconada 344 SUB-COMMITTEE APPOINTED [1925 had not been successfully followed. Many of the Provincial Congress Committee, said the report, had not been working properly. Some had not sent reports, and such reports as had been received had been usually meagre and unsatisfactory. Congress membership was low and collection for the Tilak Swaraj Fund poor. The organisation of volunteers, which had been largely left to the Hindustani Sewa Dal, had not made very much progress. After a formal vote of thanks Mahomed Ali vacated the chair in favour of Gandhi. After ascertaining the composition of the house it was found that there were 65 No-changers and 58 Swarajists present. Gandhi then addressed the meeting on the subject of the Gandhi-Das Pact. He urged the Committee to give this Pact their fullest consideration. C. R. Das then spoke on the same subject. He said that many Swarajists did not agree with the pact, but as the representatives of the Party had accepted it, so the rank and file must follow their example. Further discussion was not allowed by Gandhi, and a small Sub-Committee of 15 members was then appointed to prepare and draft resolutions on the subject on the Pact and the Spinning Franchise. The names of the 15 members of the Sub-Committee are as follows:—M. K. Gandhi, Abul Kalam Azad, B. Ramdas, C. R. Das, C. Rajagopalachari, Dr. N. S. Paranjpe, Hasrat Mohani, Konda Venkatappaya, Lala Lajpatrai, Madan Mohan Malaviya, Motilal Nehru, N. C. Kelkar, Pattabhi Sitaramaya, Rajendra Babu and Shrinivas Iyengar. It will be noticed that out of these fifteen, nine are Swarajists. The: Sub-Committee was not elected but was appointed as it were by acclamation, Gandhi being guided very largely by N. C. Kelkar in his selections. The Sub-Committee then met and submitted the following resolutions:— (1) Endorsing the Gandhi-Das Pact and (2) Urging the use of Khaddar and the acceptance of the spinning franchise. The remaining resolutions were all on the subject of the khaddar propaganda. The following resolutions were decided upon by the Subcommittee at various meetings held on December 24 and 25:— (1) Expressing dissatisfaction with the position of Indians overseas in South Africa and Kenya. 1925] PAID NATIONAL SERVICE 345 (2) Expressing sorrow at the deaths of various leaders. (3) Deploring the assassination of the late Sir Lee Stack, but condemning the action taken by the British Government in Egypt. (4) Expressing sympathy with the Burmans. (5) Congratulating the Akalis upon their great and silent suffering in the cause of Gurdwara reform. (6) Deploring the tension between Hindus and Mahommedans which exists in many parts of India and particularly referring to the recent Kohat riots. The resolutions also stated that the local authorities had failed to perform their primary duties of protection to life and property, and advised the public not to accept the finding of the Government of India on this question. (7) On the subject of national education, it made compulsory hand-spinning, weaving and physical training by all teachers and students of national institutions. Urging the formation of a Paid National Service, in order to enable young men and women who desire to serve their country, but who are deterred from doing so by poverty, to accept remuneration for national work. There was considerable argument with regard to the resolution on the subject of recent events in Egypt because, while condemning the policy of reprisals, it also condemned the murder of the late Sardar. The objection of this was that the people of Egypt had not taken the vow of non-violence and that the people of India were not competent to judge between the British Government and the Egyptian people in the matter. There was certain amount of Hindu-Muslim tension over the resolution deploring the recent events in Kohat but it was eventually carried with an amendment also deploring the Gulbarga riots. (8) Reducing the delegate's fee from Rs. 10 to Re. 1 as it was reported that the expense of attending the Congress was too heavy for the pockets of many of the delegates. Hasrat Mohani put his resolution to the effect that the attainment of complete Swaraj for India should be the aim of the Congress. He failed to obtain any support to this. He then produced a resolution to the effect that the object of the Congress is the attainment of Swaraj within the Empire by all constitutional means. No decision was arrived at on this point. A notable fact about this year's Congress has been the usurpation of the privileges and duties of the Subjects Committee (numbering about 130) by the Sub-Committee (numbering about 15). All the 346 SUB-COMMITTEE DOMINATES [1925 resolutions that have been placed by the Subjects Committee before the Congress are the work of this Sub-Committee. On several occasions when meetings of the Subjects Committee were due to take place the Sub-Committee met in its stead and conducted its deliberations. There is no doubt that the establishment of this Sub-Committee is a distinct move towards efficiency on the part of the Congress organisation. It is believed to be the work of Gandhi. He was of opinion that the Subjects Committee was too unwieldy for business-like discussion: not only that but secrecy was very difficult to ensure when the membership of this Committee was so large. The Sub-Committee used to meet in Gandhi's quarters. Although only 15 members were appointed to it, yet any leader who turned up at the quarters appeared to be entitled to take part in the discussions. In this way Vithalbhai J. Patel, who had declined a seat upon the Sub-Committee, has yet been taking part in the deliberations. It may be said with truth that not only has the Sub-Committee overshadowed the Subject Committee but it has also completely dominated the Congress. An instance of the autocratic conduct of the Sub-Committee is the following: — The Sub-Committee had originally suggested to the Subjects Committee, a resolution on the subject of the Kohat disturbances. The latter committee turned it down. Nevertheless the Sub- Committee met again, made alterations in the resolution, inserted a clause regarding the Gulbarga disturbances, adopted other resolutions regarding national education, untouchability, etc., and had them all printed and circulated on the morning of December 26 as the work of the Subjects Committee. The general belief, shared apparently by the Press, is that the Sub-Committee was only appointed to consider the Pact and the Franchise resolution and then ceased to exist. As a matter of fact it continued to function throughout. The proceedings of the 29th Indian National Congress commenced on the afternoon of December 26. Long before that time the main entrance was blocked with thousands of delegates and visitors. The control by the volunteers over the crowd completely disappeared. Although the crowd was on the whole orderly and good humoured, there was no doubt that the failure of the volunteers to make efficient arrangements caused a great deal of dissatisfaction.

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