Page:Fischer - A Week with Gandhi.pdf/91

 I am sure we will escape that anarchy here. I admit that the future society of India is largely beyond my grasp. But a system like the one I have outlined to you did exist though it undoubtedly had its weakness, else it would not have succumbed before the Moghuls and the British. I would like to think that parts of it have survived, and that the roots have survived despite the ravages of British rule. Those roots and the stock are waiting to sprout if a few drops of rain fall in the form of a transfer of British power to Indians. What the plant will be like I do not know. But it will be infinitely superior to anything we have now. Unfortunately, the requisite mood of non-violence does not now exist here, but I refuse to believe that all the strenuous work of the last twenty-five years to evolve a new order has been in vain. The Congress Party will have an effective influence in shaping the new order, and the Moslem League will also have an effective influence.”

“I would like you to pursue this idea of the symbolic seven hundred thousand dollars,” I suggested. “What will the villages do with the dollar that has come back to them from the imperial bank of England?” I asked.

“One thing will happen,” Gandhi asserted. “To-day the shareholders get no return. Intermediaries take it away. If the peasants are masters of their dollars they will use them as they think best.”