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The Congress Deputation to England

Each member pays his own expenses—first meeting at Clerkenwell—interview with Gladstone; the elective principle—members of the Deputation—the debate at the Oxford Union—return to India; the Ripon College controversy.

By one of the resolutions adopted at the Bombay Congress a deputation to England was appointed 'to represent the views of the Congress and to press upon the attention of the British public the political reforms which the Congress advocates'. The 'political reforms' here referred to meant the beginnings of representative government by the expansion and reconstitution of the Councils. That, indeed, had always been in the forefront of the Congress programme, and at the Bombay Session, a skeleton scheme was drawn up and accepted, suggesting the broad outlines upon which the Councils should be reconstituted. Mr. Bradlaugh was requested to introduce a Bill in Parliament upon those lines. The members of the Deputation were appointed by name, and among them were Mr. Hume, Sir Pherozshah Mehta, Mr. Monomohan Ghose, Mr. W. C. Bonnerjea, Mr. Sharifuddin, Mr. Eardley Norton, Mr. R. N. Mudholkar, and myself.

Each member of the Deputation was to pay his own expenses. We learnt that even in England this would be considered an unusual proceeding, but we did not demur. Of the financial position of the other members of the Deputation I knew nothing. Mine was far from being satisfactory. The sum total of my worldly wealth consisted of Rs. 13,000 of Government securities, which were invested in the name of my wife. It was estimated that the cost would be Rs. 4,000 for each member. In other words, I was required to spend nearly one-third of what little reserve fund I had been able to lay by. I did not grudge the sacrifice, and I owe it to the adored memory of my wife to say that she willingly joined me and made over the securities for the purpose for which they were wanted. Not a farthing of the expense did we derive from any source except our own. We paid all travelling and hotel charges from the moment of our starting till we returned to our homes. This was true of every member of the Deputation. This was the first Congress Deputation to England, and its mission was to press for the inauguration of a

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