Communal Electorates

If it is true, as the authors of the joint report state, that so long as “sectional interests are paramount, any form of self-government to which India can attain must be limited and unreal at best,” surely we have a right to expect that all true sons and daughters of the mother land will realise that the choice we have been asking them to make between general and special electorates is nothing less than a choice between the real and full sell-government to which they aspire and the limitations and exclusiveness of communal life and ideals. So far as the Mahomedan community are concerned, our hands are tied down both by the past action of Government and the Lucknow compact, which must be regarded as binding upon us so long as we cannot get out of it by the mutual consent of both parties.  To the day when this consent shall be obtained we may and do look forward with all the fervour and earnestness of which we are capable.