PEOPLE CEMENTED............INDEPENDENT 51
large extent the prosperity of the people of this country will depend upon how well and how easily the Central mill will grind. How well it will grind will depend upon to what extent it will move in sympathy with the Legislature. From this point of view we cannot be indifferent to the question of responsibility in the Central Government if you are anxious to see a rapid advance in the moral and material condition of the people. But there is another consideration which points in the same direction. The Provincial Executive will always remain an important agent of the Central Government in the maintenance of law and order. The two must have their mandates from the same source if they are to work in harmony. Otherwise there will be serious conflict between the two. A Provincial Executive responsible to the Provincial Legislature cannot possibly take its orders from a Central Government which is subject not to the Central Legislature but to the Secretary of State. And in this conflict the administration of the country may be completely paralysed in times of emergency. You cannot therfore introduce responsibility in the Provincial Executive without at the same time introducing some degree of responsibility in the Central Executive whether you like it or not.
VI. Depressed Classes And Civil Disobedience.
- Gentlemen, even if we support the ideal of Dominion Status with safeguards does it necessarily follow that we must join the Civil Disobedience Movement started in this country by Mahatma Gandhi in March last ? This is a question about which you shall have to make your position plain. The movement is condemned as you are aware by all moderate opinion as being unconstitutional. That argument I must confess does not appeal to me. What would you say if the orthodox classes were to tell you that your temple entry movement is an unconstitutional movement? That instead of direct action your proper method is by petitions to the orthodox classes, suits in Court of Law and attempts to alter the Law ? Would you be satisfied with such limitations upon your resources in your battle for freedom against the orthodoxy ? It seeems to me that you can insist upon the use of constitutional means only if there