Attack upon Non-co-operation

BUT this is not Das’s only or his worst mistake. He has not only blamed Mahatma Gandhi for his part in this affair, but has made a general attack upon the non-co-operation programme itself. With many of us, there is nothing new or wrong in that attack. The line taken by Das is the line they have themselves always taken in regard to the non-co-operation movement. While professing unbounded faith in the principle underlying the movement, they have not been able to accept many of its aggressive items. But Das was not in the same position as any of these critics. He is not only one of the greatest leaders of the movement, who has made almost unparalleled sacrifices to ensure its success, but one who has in the past been closely identified with the very programme on the inadequacy or faultiness of which he now dwells with such energy and vigour. Was it Mahatma’s fault that having stood their ground valiantly at the Special Congress in Calcutta, Das and his friends made a complete surrender to him at Nagpur and for months after Nagpur? And having made that surrender, does it lie in their mouth now to turn round and blame either the Mahatma himself or other advocates and champions of the non-co-operation programme? Das’s present views about charkha and spinning are entirely ours; we have expressed them times out of number in these columns. But are we wrong in saying — at least this is what another great leader of the Congress and the country has told us — that he professed very different views at the meetings of the All-India Congress Committee and the Working Committee when Mahatma himself was in our midst?