UNREST IN INDIA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18509, 21 March 1922, Page 5

UNREST IN INDIA

MR GANDHI SENTENCED. SIX YEARS' IMPRISONMENT PRISONER THANKS THE JUDGE. Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright DELHI, March 18. Mr Gandhi has been sentenced to six years’ simple imprisonment.—A. and N.Z. Cable. DELHI, March 19. In pleading guilty, Mr Gandhi made both oral and written statements, admitting that the preaching of disaffection had become a passion with The trial hinged on four seditious articles which were published in Young India, of which Mr Gandhi is the editor. —A. and N.Z., Cable. Mr Gandhi, in a lengthy statement before he was sentenced, said that he took all blame for the disorders at Madras, Bombay, and Chanraypatna. He said that, if set free, he would still play with fire, though non-violence was the first and last article of his faith. He had m\ illwill against any particular administrator, nor disaffection towards the King’s person. He was prepared cheerfully to submit to the highest penalty which could he inflicted. The judge' said it was impossible to ignore the fact that Mr Gandhi was regarded by millions of his countrymen as a great patriotic leader, and he was a man with high ideals and even saintly life. 1 He could not understand how Mr Gandhi continued to believe that violence would not be the inevitable conseguence of his teachings. When he was sentenced, Mr Gandhi thanked the fudge, stating that the sentence was as light as any judge could pass.—Reuter.