unless they were fully granted, they would walk out of every Council Chamber in India and bring down the whole edifice of reforms, which would then indeed have been hopelessly shattered.  Things, on the contrary, went quite differently.  In defiance of Mr. Gandhi, candidates came forward in almost every constituency, elections were held everywhere, and except for a few insignificant disturbances created by his followers they were held in peaceful and orderly fashion.  There were indeed numerous and in some places very large abstentions.  That many of those who kept away from the polls were convinced “Non-co-operationists” cannot be denied, but no more can it be denied that many kept away from fear, not altogether unjustified by the event, of actual violence or of the more insidious forms of intimidation which social and religious pressure assumes with particularly deadly effect in India.  Reputable members, including a large proportion of the leaders who had fought for years past the battle of India’s political advancement, took their seats in the Provincial Councils and in the All-India Legislature at Delhi.  They represented, not unfairly on the whole, all classes and creeds and communities, and even all schools of political thought, except, of course, the Extremists, who by their own default remained unrepresented.  That the Extremists, whose influence cannot be ignored, should have remained unrepresented is not a matter entirely for congratulation, for the complete exclusion, even when self-inflicted, of any important political party must tend to weaken the authority of a popular Assembly.  At the same time, it may be doubted whether the abstention of “Non-co-operationists” has deprived the Indian Councils of more than a very few individuals whose ability and character, apart from their political opinions, would have given them any great weight.  The splendid demonstration which Mr. Gandhi had contemplated fell completely flat because an overwhelming proportion of those to whom he directed his appeal refused to endorse his view that the great constitutional changes of which the creation of popular Assemblies was the corner-stone were merely a snare and a delusion, and to his cry of “Non-co-operation” they opposed an emphatic affirmation of their belief that the salvation of India lay in co-operation.

CHAPTER XII

THE BIRTH OF AN INDIAN PARLIAMENT

Only twelve years ago Lord Morley, with all his advanced liberalism and his broad sympathy for Indian aspirations, could not conceive the possibility of introducing Parliamentary institutions into India in his time or for generations to come.  He would assuredly have had to revise his opinion could he have attended the first session of the Indian Legislative Assembly.  In form its proceedings were not unworthy of a great Parliamentary Assembly.  The speeches sometimes rose to a high level of eloquence all the more noteworthy