will—­is curbing the forces of disorder and violence.  But I must not detain the reader on a defence of Satyagrah against unjust attacks.  If it has gained a foothold in India, it will survive much fiercer attacks than the one made by the majority of the Hunter Committee and somewhat supported by the minority.  Had the majority report been defective only in this direction and correct in every other there would have been nothing but praise for it.  After all Satyagrah is a new experiment in political field.  And a hasty attributing to it of any popular disorder would have been pardonable.

The universally pronounced adverse judgment upon the report and the despatches rests upon far more painful revelations.  Look at the manifestly laboured defence of every official act of inhumanity except where condemnation could not be avoided through the impudent admissions made by the actors themselves; look at the special pleading introduced to defend General Dyer even against himself; look at the vain glorification of Sir Michael O’Dwyer although it was his spirit that actuated every act of criminality on the part of the subordinates; look at the deliberate refusal to examine his wild career before the events of April.  His acts were an open book of which the committee ought to have taken judicial notices.  Instead of accepting everything that the officials had to say, the Committee’s obvious duty was to tax itself to find out the real cause of the disorders.  It ought to have gone out of its way to search out the inwardness of the events.  Instead of patiently going behind the hard crust of official documents, the Committee allowed itself to be guided with criminal laziness by mere official evidence.  The report and the despatches, in my humble opinion, constitute an attempt to condone official lawlessness.  The cautious and half-hearted condemnation pronounced upon General Dyer’s massacre and the notorious crawling order only deepens the disappointment of the reader as he goes through page after page of thinly disguised official whitewash.  I need, however, scarcely attempt any elaborate examination of the report or the despatches which have been so justly censured by the whole national press whether of the moderate or the extremist hue.  The point to consider is how to break down this secret—­be the secrecy over so unconscious—­conspiracy to uphold official iniquity.  A scandal of this magnitude cannot be tolerated by the nation, if it is to preserve its self-respect and become a free partner in the Empire.  The All-India Congress Committee has resolved upon convening a special session of the Congress for the purpose of considering, among other things, the situation arising from the report.  In my opinion the time has arrived when we must cease to rely upon mere petition to Parliament for effective action.  Petitions will have value, when the nation has behind it the power to enforce its will.  What power then have we?  When we are firmly of opinion that grave wrong has been done us and when