Page:Heroes of the hour- Mahatma Gandhi, Tilak Maharaj, Sir Subramanya Iyer.djvu/271

 Congress. It was there when he decreed the occupancy right of the Zemindari tenant irrespective of the period of holding so long as the agreed rent was paid. It has been there in the statements he has made time after time that the ryot under the Government was worse off than the Zemindari tenant since no law could touch the Government's claim to enhance the assessment. It was there recently in a most striking and conspicuous manner when he replied in the press to the speech of Lord Pentland, throwing off all reserve, facing the Goverment as though he spurned to regard himself as a culprit hiding his most earnest convictions in secret.

In taking the risk of popular displeasure, he has been no less courageous. In the evidence that he volunteered to give in the case brought against Mrs. Besant in 1912 he did not mind the popular verdict so long as his own opinion ran counter to the popular view. But it is not in these matters alone which are so well known to the public that Sir Subramanya Aiyar has followed the bent of his mind, leaving it to the public and the Government to judge of him as they pleased. In one instance when personal feelings ran high, accentuated to some extent