ROLE OF ......................... INDIAN DEMOCRACY 109
Hindus had appealed to the District Court at Thana, and the judgment of the District Judge at Thana was due. He asked Shivtarkar to inform him about it as soon as it was delivered.
In the meanwhile, Gandhi, Vallabhbhai Patel, Jawaharlal Nehru and Sir Prabhashankar Pattani met the Viceroy at Simla where the differences were patched up, and Gandhi left for Bombay to catch the earliest steamer to go to London. Gandhi, alongwith Sarojini Naidu, Pandit Mataviya, and his party, sailed for England on August 29, and reached London on September 12, 1931,
The second session of the Round Table Conference commenced on September 7,1931. This time the personnel of the Conference was enlarged by including a few more delegates such as Sir Muhamed Iqbal, the Muslim League President : Dr. S. K. Dutta. the Christian representative ; G. D. Birla, the great financier ; Pandit Malaviya, a Sanatani reformer ; Sarojini Naidu, the Nightingale of India ; and Sir Ali Imam. The outstanding feature of this session was the presence of Gandhi’s enigmatic personality. The first session of the R. T. C. was ‘Hamlet’ without the Prince of Denmark !
Shortly before the Conference met, a change had come overBritain. The Labour Government was replaced by a National Government, the Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald, remaining in the saddle as before. The Secretary of State for India, Wedgwood Benn, was replaced by Sir Samuel Hoare. Conservative leaders like Churchill vehemently opposed the proposed transfer of power to India.
The main work of the Round Table Conference was to be done in the Federal Structure Committee and the Minorities Committee. The Conference was to re-examine and amplify the reports prepared by the corresponding Committees of the first session of the Round Table Conference. Mahatma Gandhi made his first speech in the Conference on September 15, 1931, in the Federal Structure Committee. He claimed that the Congress represented all Indian interests and classes. He told the Conference that the Congress represented the Muslims because it had Muslims as Presidents and Muslims as members of its