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What was contemplated by Saint Gandhi was that the Congress should exhort 250 million Indians to stop paying taxes, stop buying British goods, indulge in a passive orgy of "nonviolent non-cooperation."
If Indians stopped buying, Great Britain would lose more than one-eighth of her export sales, and if Indians stopped paying taxes, the people of Great Britain could not make up the deficiency necessary to maintain themselves as a great power. Because previous Indian boycotts have always broken down, British statesmen calmly faced the probability that before "nonviolent noncooperation" has gotten very far there will be enough casual rioting and bloodshed to justify the reimprisonment of Mr. Gandhi (let out of jail in 1924), and the mowing down of a goodly number of gentlemen in white, ladies in pink.
Peace Terms
The "peace terms" offered by Mahatma Gandhi to the British Government were duly forwarded by Viceroy Lord Irwin to London last week. Nationalist demands were reported to be simply: "Give us Dominion status and we will abandon the civil disobedience campaign."
To foreign observers this demand seemed modest enough. The British Government has continually implied that it was maintaining India in tutelage only until she could be educated to Dominionhood. But the British lion last week roared his amazement at St. Gandhi's "diabolically clever" plan.
Winston Churchill, who has aspirations of leading the Conservatives again, spoke with the oldtime voice of Kipling:
"The Government of India has arrested and imprisoned Gandhi for criminal breaches of law. They now permit him to hold cabinet councils with his fellow conspirators in jail, while the great governing organism wait cap in hand outside the cell door. It would be wrong to lure and coax Indian representatives to the round table conference over here with vague phrases about Dominion status when it is quite certain that these politicians will not obtain Dominion status in their lifetimes."