The daily worker., 1924-08-09
BY A HINDU.

HDel case WHICH SHOWS d uSHulLe
Americanization of British legal pro-
cedure, or should one say Mussoliniza-
tion?-has merely aggravated what is
already a ticklish situation in that
great portion of the British Empire,
India. The chief of the Amritsar mas
sacre, who was suing, has gained
little by his victory
It has refreshed the memory of Am
ritsar in the minds of Indians-if, in
deed, the memory of that wanton mas
sacre had at all faded. 1t has helped
to shatter what remains of their be-
lief in British justice, not because of
the technical verdict in the case, but
because of the exoneration, gratuiti-
ously pronounced by Mr.. Justice Nc
Cardie, of General Dwyer, who was
really responsible for the horrible
deed
1t has always been fair illusion,
hugged fondly to the bosoms of the
British liberals, that there is some
peculiarly unique quality of impartial
ity about the British bench. 1t has
been an attitude Of self-righteousness
we are not as others are, they said,
in warm self-congratulation, compar-
ing the icy aloofness of British judges
to the furious class partiality of Amer
lea, and other jurists.
Impartial" Judges-BunkI
And this conception has been, in
some measure, accepted by our colon
ial people. 1t was, perhaps, their last
scrap of confidence in British institu-
tions. Now, after the harangue of Mr..
Justice McCardie in which he
showed an admirable and honest, even
if somewhat iIl-advised, class loyalty
even this last shred of confidence is
gone. Well, let it be so; it is to be
welcomed, as precipitating the realiza-
ton, by Indians, that only their own
efforts can save them.
In India, at present, the nationalist
movement is in the throes of change
and disagreement. OF one thing,
think we can be certain: the star of
Gandhi is at last on the wane. This
leader has shown all the indecision,
the fIuctuation and vacillation, typi-
cal of the idealistic pacifist. He has
been desirous of freeing India by
barking back to period forever dead
Ghandi Failed.
He gave the Indians an idylic pic
ture of India as it once was, in the
days of the village craftsman, before
the introduction Of large-scale indus
try. He preached the way of free
dom by reversion to homespun
cloth, and by the use of spirit force"
And, like most such intransigeant
dreamers, when the moment for deci-
sion came, he faltered and was lost.
After preaching civil disobedience, he
feared, when the moment came, to or
der it. He missed his opportunity;
and he is finished as the supreme
leader of Indian nationalism. This is
not to say that he is utterly discred-
tied; he still has considerable fol-
lowing. But other leaders, and other
methods, have sprung up.
Whereas Ghandi opposed all partici-
patton in India parliamentary process
es, the present majority leaders of
the Nationalist Congress, c. r. Das,
Molital Nehru and others, advocated
that Nationalists should stand for
election to the Provincial and Nation
al Councils, but that, once elected,
they should pursue policy OF OBJ
struction.
They recognized the futility Of at
tempting to use the existing political
apparatus of India, for the securing
of national emancipation, but they did
not ignore the opportunities afforded
by elections and membership of elect
ed bodies for propaganda. and for
showing that these bodies could not
secure the ends desired. Whether they
will stay by this policy, is another
question. They may succumb to the
temptations that beset elected per
sons who are not controlled by the
strict discipline of highly conscious
Il orfu