WHAT CONGRESS AND GANDHI HAVE DONE TO THE UNTOUCHABLES : A PLEA TO THE FOREIGNER
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representative body and the Congress may be the body which is engaged in what is called the Fight for Freedom ; but these things have nothing to do with the decision of the issue. A true lover of democracy before he befriends the Congress will demand that it should produce its blue print of the constitution and be satisfied that its constitution does contain unequivocal and positive provisions for the safety, security for the life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for the servile classes.
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The foreigners who take interest in Indian politics fall into two classes. The first class includes those who are travellers and tourists who come ‘to do’ India for a short while and who are not equipped with a knowledge of the intricacies of the Indian Political problems, the theoretical apparatus to pronounce a correct opinion on the attitude of the different parties to these problems. Those who fall into the second class are the leaders of democratic public opinion such as Louis Fischer in America, Kingsley Martin, Brailsford and Laski whose knowledge and equipment none can question. I would have had no regrets if the foregoing discussion had been called for by the needs of correcting the unthinking bias of the tourists and traveller class of foreigners in favour of the Congress. But unfortunately the same sort of bias is also to be found in those foreigners who fall into the second class.
That there should be foreigners of the tourist sort who cannot understand the intricacies of Indian politics and who therefore support the Congress on no other ground except that which Mr. Pickwick gave to Sam Weller—to shout with the biggest crowd—is quite understandable. But what annoys most is the attitude of the leaders of the British Labour Party, heads of radical and leftist groups in Europe and America, represented by men like Laski, Kingsley Martin, Brailsford and editors of journals like the Nation in America, and the New Statesman in England championing the cause of the oppressed and the suppressed people in other parts of the world. How can these men support the Congress it is difficult to understand. Do they not know that the Congress means the governing class and that the governing class in India is a Brahmin-Bania combine ? That masses are drawn in the Congress only to be camp followers with no say in the making of Congress policy ?