“How do you think,” queried the representative, “in practice this will work out?”

“What I have sketched before you,” said Mr. Gandhi, “is the final possibility.  What I expect is that nothing of that kind will happen.  In so far as I understand the British people I will recognise the force of public opinion when it has become real and patent.  Then, and only then, will they realise the hideous injustice which in their name the Imperial ministers and their representatives in India have perpetrated.  They will therefore remedy the two wrongs in accordance with the wishes of the people, and they will also offer a constitution exactly in accordance with the wishes of the people of India, as represented by their chosen leaders.

“Supposing that the British Government wish to retire because India is not a paying concern, what do you think will then be the position of India?”

Mr. Gandhi answered:  “At that stage surely it is easy to understand that India will then have evolved either outstanding spiritual height or the ability to offer violence, against violence.  She will have evolved an organising ability of a high order, and will therefore be in every way able to cope with any emergency that might arise.”  “In other words,” observed the Times representative, “you expect the moment of the British evacuation, if such a contingency arises, will coincide with the moment of India’s preparedness and ability and conditions favourable for India to take over the Indian administration as a going concern and work it for the benefit and advancement of the Nation?”

Mr. Gandhi answered the question with an emphatic affirmative.  “My experience during the last months fills me with the hope,” continued Mr. Gandhi, “that within the nine months that remain of the year in which I have expected Swaraj for India we shall redress the two wrongs and we shall see Swaraj established in accordance with the wishes of the people of India.”

“Where will the present Government be at the end of the nine months?” Asked the Times representative.

Mr. Gandhi, with a significant smile, said:  “The lion will then lie with the lamb.”

Young India, December, 1920.

THE ATTAINMENT OF SWARAJ

Mr. Gandhi in moving his resolution on the creed before the Congress, said, “The resolution which I have the honour to move is as follows:  The object of the Indian National Congress is the attainment of Swarajya by the people of India by all legitimate and peaceful means.”