SEETHING INDIA.

Gisborne Times, Volume LIX, Issue 9574, 27 July 1923, Page 5

SEETHING INDIA.

VIEWS STILL UNCHANGED. TREATMENT BY OFFICIALS. In the course of a lengthy statement m April to the Indian press, Shankarlal Banker, who was a prisoner with Gandhi in Yerovada Gaol," states that they were kindly and courteously treated by the prison authorities, and given the food they.-asked for. Ihe doors o! their cells were left open, and they wore allowed an unlimited supply of books from outside. Later they wore both allowed lights and bedsteads, and recently Gandhi had been allowed a mosquito curtain. They had all the clothes and bedding they needed, and were allowed to do hand-spinning on their wheels as a voluntary occupation. Gandhi was keeping m good health, and had been hurt at hearing tho rumor that he was suffering from melancholia.

Banker refers, with regret, to tho dark side ol prison life, and says that, while animal comforts are looked after, Gandhi is mentally starved. Tlie unnecessary isolation imposed upon him is severely felt by him, and ho regards it as an additional punishment. Banker complains that political prisoners are now allowed the use of newspapers or magazines giving political news or opinions. Gandhi does not want any agitation for any special concessions. He is fighting for what he considers to he the rights of prisoners. He holds that civil resistors, when they go to prison, are like prisoners of war, and they may and should fight for their rights in a becoming manner. Whatever way tho Government treats them makes no difference to the attitude of civil registers, who had to bear their lot cheerfully in prison. Banker refers to the alleged flogging of Mul;slii Beta prisoners in gaol, and says that Gandhi feels that no man should be armed with such wide powers as arc vested in the superintendent of the gaol. He says he understands that some Mulshi Beta prisoners, gave unnecessarv- trouble.

Concluding', Banker observes: " I have r.o message, from Gandhi either private or public, but I can say that his views have undergone no change. Ho. swears by non-violence, the eharka Hiudu-Moslem unity, and the removal of untouchability. He spins regularly every day for lour hours. He roads largely religious books. He has read the Koran and is reading the Bible. Ho devotes one hour every day to the study of Urdu. He rises early in the morning and begins the day with Ashram prayer, and ends it similarly. He is firmly convinced that the salvation of India is impossible unless handspinning becomes universal, for without that industry it is impossible to get rid of the growingpauperism of the millions of this land, and without getting rid of that, India cannot regain or discover her soul.”