CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

Northern Advocate, 20 July 1933, Page 5

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

LEFT TO THE INDIVIDUAL * GANDHI’S PRESUMPTION. VICEROY CRITICISED. DICTATORSHIP SERIES. (British Official Wireless.) (Received 9 a.in.) RUGBY, July IS. The Indian Nationalist leader, Gandhi, in an interview published in Bombay, criticised the Viceroy, the Earl of Willingdon, for his refusal to meet him. Questioned as to the attitude of the Indian National Congress, he said he would assume that its acting-president, Aney, would issue a statement advising, for the time being, a suspension of massed civil disobedience and of the organisation of the Congress and the secret methods by which they functioned, thus permitting individual disobedience from August I. Gandhi added that it was proposed to appoint an all-India dictator, with dictators in each province. He woilll not himself assume the role of the alltndia dictator. He would not commit any act of civil disobedience without previously warning the Government, and certainly not before July 31.

A message from Calcutta says that Gandhi and his wife left Poona yesterday for Ahmedabad. Their dhly luggage was a jar of honey and a spinning whedl. The future movements of Gandhi are’ uncertain, but his friends declare he -will be back again shortly. STRATEGIC RETREAT. POPULARITY CRUMBLING. LEADER FORSAKES POLITICS. (Received 11 a.m.) , CALCUTTA, July UJ. Gandhi may soon be lost to Indian politics. Today he astonished India by suddenly going into his ashram, “Haven of Refuge,” in Ahmedabad. thus breaking his vow made two years ago that he would not return to his ashram until “India had gained her freedom. ’ ’ His action is taken to mean that he has decided to give up politics and devote the rest of his life to meditation and prayer. There is no doubt that Gandhi realises that the bulk of the country is against him in his decision that civil disobedience should continue. Indian leaders and newspapers throughout the country declare that there is no excuse for civil disobedience, and Gandhi, seeing his influence waning, probably decided to make a strategic retreat before the whole edifice of his popularity crumbled.