Page:Heroes of the hour- Mahatma Gandhi, Tilak Maharaj, Sir Subramanya Iyer.djvu/259



Soon after his experience in the Council Sir Subramanya Aiyar was one of those who assisted at the birth of the Indian National Congress at Bombay in the Christmas week of 1885 under the presidency of W. C. Bannerjee supported by Dadabhai Naoroji and Hume. He related his experience of the Council in the following part of the speech which shews how the President of the Home Rule League of to-day viewed thirty-two years ago as an accepted popular representative of the people by the Government an arrangement in which the Executive was everything and the popular element nothing when it differed from the Executive. If Sir Subramanya Aiyar writes and speaks to-day so strongly as to be mistaken for a vehement critic of the Government, it is because for decades he has seen the inutility of expecting the Buraaucracy to divest itself of its irresponsible power. Then, he thought the position had only to be stated in all bonafides and that the statement would evoke a cordial response and co-operation from the custodians of power here, and that an era of successive progressive accomplishments ensuing from mutual respect and trust will dawn to the benefit of India as a trust of