The Evening Star TUESDAY, MARCH 21, 1922. Mr Gandhi's Sentence.

Evening Star, Issue 17924, 21 March 1922, Page 4

The Evening Star TUESDAY, MARCH 21, 1922.

Mr Gandhi's Sentence.

Mb Gandhi hag had first place aa ft saint in India. No inducement has been given to his countrymen for according him first place as a martyr. Tho sentence of six years' (simple imprisonment which lias been passed upon him for incitements to (sedition which deluded followers have interpreted, and could only interpret, as incitements to murder, arson, and every kind of atrocity, deals mildly with the "holy man." Other agitators have been moro severely punished f;>r crimes from which far less bloodshed resulted. Tho Mahntma. admitted-that the preaching or disaffection had become a passion with him. Pleading Ruilty to the charts preferred against him, ho took nil the blamo for disorders which have_turned native quarters into shambles and mild, listless Hindus into fiends. Tho sentence, ho has said, is as light as any judge could pass, and no doubt his actual imprisonment will bo mado as comfortable for him as it is in tho power of the authorities to make it. Their kindness to this arch-agitator has always been something wonderful. Imprisonment, probably would not bo needed if Gandhi would only take a vow of political silence for six years. Complete silence for that period would bo a small penance for many Indian holy men, less reverenced by their countrymen, to impose on themselves. 15u|, the self-afflictions of this Mahatma do not take that form. Forced confinement is the only way to keep him quiet. His sentenco- will be capabki of being commuted in the event of new sanity being shown by him before its expiry. At present he admits its justice, but is unrepentant. If preaching passive resistance lias tho effect of turning Hindu followers, with tho minds of children, into thugs and murderers, this hater of violence will still preach it when he has opportunity. There is no reasoning with the perversity of fanaticism. Fanaticism apart, Gandhi has accepted his mild punishment philosophically. It remains to bo seen whether his countrymen will accept it in the same way. They wero singularly unmoved by his arrest, an event which might have been expected to stir them to tho wildest outbreaks in view of all tho adoration shown towards him. Since his apprehension many meetings of Indians have found their minds sufficiently detached to allow them to pass resolutions of sympathy, not with Gandhi, but with Sir Montagu, who probably, after longsuffering at tho Mahatma's hands, was a consenting party to his arrest. But possibly all tho odium for that sacrilege will be laid at Lord Beading's door. It will bo interesting to see whether riots are provoked all over India now that the apprehension of tho Mahatma, which may have been a portent too strange for imaginations to grasp immediately, ha 3 been followed by his more irreverent punishment. Will "non-co-operation" take a new lease of life, will it develop at last into "mass civil disobedience," with all the possibilities of that prescription for anarchy and confusion, or will this be the last of tho crazy movement? With the exception of the military races, who are a minority, and havo not shown most signs of disaffection, tho Hindu is a spineless person for the most part. It is not much that ho does for himself. Under tho influence of a fanatical holy man races that natural!'.* fear and distrust each other might sink their differences and the timid bo made firm in rebellion; but there ai'o good judges who believe that when this influence of leadership has been removed the Indians will not havo sufficient spirit to keep up the fight with authority. There is. another factor, possibly reassuring to tho country's rulers, on which Sir Valentine Gliirol recently laid stress in contrasting it with the different position in Egypt, where, until*the actual granting of independence, fewer concessions had been made to native sentiment, with the result that when tho crisis came all parties were alike hestilo to British rule. "In India," it was pointed out, " tho Viceroy is ablo to state that, in dealing firmly with the extremist campaign of intimidation and violence, ho has the unanimous support of his Executive Council—i.e., of the Government of India, on which three out of seven members are Indians. He has also behind him a large body of educated Indian opinion represented in the All-India Legislative Assembly and the various Provincial Legislative Councils elected a year ago under tho great Act of 1919." The value of tho support of that "largo body of educated Indian opinion" is likely to bo tested now.