Page:A Nation in Making.djvu/292

applicability to Indian conditions. I was convinced of the desirability of establishing in each province a Local Government Board, so far as practicable on the English model, for the co-ordination and fur- ther development of the activities of our local bodies; and I urged this view in my Report. I understand that in the main it has been accepted by the Governments of Assam and the Central Provinces, but has been objected to by the Bengal and other Governments.

In the reformed Bengal Council the question was raised by Mr. D. C. Ghose. My sympathies as Minister of Local Self-govern- ment were all with him; but financial difficulties blocked the way. Perhaps in happier times and under the pressure of a steadily progressive public opinion, we may have in Bengal a Government Board, more or less modelled upon the parent local institution in England, ensuring to our system of Local Self-government the stimulus, the concentration of effort and the co-ordination of methods, so essential to success.

Popular assemblies in all countries, subject of course to varying conditions and ever-changing limitations, have been the bulwark of popular rights. They are sometimes apt to go to extremes, and, overlooking the difficulties of Government, to ignore responsibili- ties of which no Government can divest itself. Nevertheless their guidance is valuable. It is through popular assemblies that popular opinion even in its extreme forms reaches the ears of Government, whose mission is that of the peacemaker, dispensing justice to all interests, making the welfare and the safety of the State its supreme concern. In Bengal in 1918 many persons were interned under an Act similar to that in operation in England at that time. Great as was the excitement, it was aggravated by mistakes inseparable from a procedure that encouraged secrecy and eschewed publicity, the strongest safeguard for the righteous dispensation of justice. An extraordinary mistake—and it was not the only one—was com- mitted in what is known as the Sindhubala case. There were two sindhubalas in the Bankura District. Only one of them was wanted. The police authorities cut the Gordian knot by arresting both and marching them to prison through the public streets, although they were purdanashin ladies, who by the custom of the country were not to appear in public. But the climax was reached when, after twelve or thirteen days' detention in jail, they were both released; because forsooth there was not a scrap of evidence against them: It was a real tragedy in public affairs. There could hardly be a more grievous blunder. The policemen concerned were neither