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as a member of a Government Committee, charged with an impor- tant public duty, was an education, giving me an insight into the relations between governments and the people they controlled, which hours of newspaper reading could not have afforded. Living contact with men opens one's eyes to visions that are but dimly seen among the dusty records of the Secretariat, or even in the more animated effusions of the daily press. The man is before you. He is a ruler of men. You see him; you hear him; you look at his gestures—the whole man is there. The impression that he leaves on the mind of the beholder has the indelible mark of truth, un- obscured by those artificial and adventitious darkenings which a transmitted message, whether through the pen or the voice, cannot fail to engender.

The Montagu-Chelmsford Report laid down certain definite principles, the details of which our Committee had to work out. The most important of these was undoubtedly the question of representation in the Legislative Councils. The Report condemn- ed the communal principle as interfering with the civic spirit and the development of nationhood; but unfortunately that principle was recognized in the Morley-Minto Scheme and there was no going back upon it without the concurrence of the Mohamedan community; and, while conferring a boon, to withdraw one prized by the Mohamedan community would have been inconsistent and illogical. Communal representation being accepted, what we had to decide was the percentage of Hindu and Mohamedan members in the Legislative Councils; and here we had the Lucknow Conven- tion of 1916 to guide us. Whether we should accept it as it was or modify it in any way, was the subject of anxious consideration by the Committee. We finally decided to proceed substantially upon the lines of the Lucknow Convention. The evidence that we re- ceived varied, as may well be imagined, in a most remarkable manner. There were Extremists on both sides—Hindus who would make little or no concession, Mohamedans who would go much further than the pact. We thought that the golden mean accepted at Lucknow was a fair solution, and consistent with the legitimate claims of both the communities. The question has been re-opened in Bengal by the Swarajists for party purposes. The proposals of the Swarajists, which will be discussed later on, have roused the indignation of the Hindu community, while they have been acclaimed with enthusiasm by the Mohamedan leaders. They constitute a veritable apple of discord.