‘Western’ dress and an adoption of khadiwas part of a symbolic transition
to the new politics. But Motilal never endorsed the entire range of
Gandhian ideas, certainly not those contained in Gandhi’s manifesto,
Hind Swaraj, which claimed that any form of machine-based civilisation,
or any acceptance of the ‘Western’ professions introduced by the British
to India, would amount to a betrayal of swaraj, for with them all India
could hope to have was ‘English rule without the Englishman’.^12
Chittaranjan (C.R.) Das, who had opposed Non-Cooperation at
Calcutta, eventually moved the central resolution of Non-Cooperation
at the Nagpur session, providing for agitational activities ranging from
renunciation of voluntary association with the government to the refusal
to pay taxes – the Congress leadership would decide when and where these
measures were to be applied. Das’s acceptance of non-violence can only
be seen as strategic; he was known to be sympathetic to the Bengal
terrorist movement, and had been the successful defence lawyer in the
famous Alipore Bomb Case in 1908; among the accused was the terrorist-
turned-mystic Aurobindo Ghosh. The terrorists had pledged their support
for complete independence from British rule – a demand taken up by
the Congress as late as the end of 1929. For now, Gandhi’s deliberately
ill-defined ‘swaraj’ was the goal: to be attained, in the language of the
resolution, ‘by all legitimate and peaceful means’. The ‘Punjab wrongs’,
the ‘Khilafat wrongs’ and ‘Swaraj’ were the three central issues selected.
Gandhi’s programme involved spinning on the charkha, boycott of foreign
cloth, and of course ahimsa(non-violence).
Meanwhile, Gandhi took it upon himself to further young Jawaharlal’s
political education. After the Calcutta session in September 1920,
Gandhi, taking Jawaharlal with him, went to Shantiniketan, where the
poet Rabindranath Tagore had, in 1901, set up his radical experimental
university, Vishwa Bharati. Here, Jawaharlal also met the Reverend
C.F. Andrews, later active in the anti-indentured labour movement, and
an old associate of Gandhi from his South Africa days. Andrews gave him
some books to read on imperialism in Africa, including E.D. Morell’s
Black Man’s Burden. This was the beginning of a long-term and productive
dialogue between Jawaharlal and ‘Charlie’. Jawaharlal regarded Andrews
as one of the few foreigners who had been able to understand the daily
feelings of humiliation suffered by Indians under imperialism.
The November 1920 election boycott, soon after the call for a
movement, was a vital test of popular support. The Congress considered
THE YOUNG GANDHIAN 41