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My Return to India and Ministerial Appointment
Return to India, September, 1919—Non-Co-operation—the Rotary Club—appointed Minister of Local Self-government—my colleagues relations with Lord Ronaldshay.
I returned to India in September, 1919, after an absence of over four months, during which time I claim to have spared no effort to serve the interests with which I was entrusted. It was a crowded season of strenuous work, in which all of us did our best. Now and then we had to face disappointments, the most notable of which was when one of our members went out of his way to plead for a second chamber in the new constitution, without the authority of the party. It was a surprise, and there was a feeling that there should be a public disavowal of this view from our party. This idea, however, was subsequently dropped, and no harm was done by our inaction. We have a second chamber in the Council of State, in connexion with the Central Government; and, in view of developments that are taking place, it may perhaps be worth while considering the question as to whether the restraining, and sometimes perhaps the compelling, influence of an upper House may not be needed in the machinery of the Provincial Governments. The question may have to be considered by the Parliamentary Committee which will be sent out to report upon the Government of India Act.
The welcome that I received on my return home in 1919 was sensibly less in warmth than those which had greeted me on former occasions of a similar nature. The work was perhaps more important than any I had done before in England. It was in one sense a partial consummation of our previous efforts; and yet it did not produce anything like the impression of old. The reason was not far to seek. Non-Co-operation had done its work by creating a profound sense of mistrust in British promises and pledges among a certain section of our people, despite evidence of earnest effort to redeem them. It was in such an atmosphere that the Reform Scheme had to be launched into operation. It was in such an atmosphere and amid surroundings so unpropitious that the first General Elections under the new Act were held. There were the