Page:Heroes of the hour- Mahatma Gandhi, Tilak Maharaj, Sir Subramanya Iyer.djvu/297

 and party-manipulators in the name of the "Nation" may alike knock their heads to move it from its adherence to unblemished political principles, held with an utter disregard of what the manipulators or the executive may say of him. When he spoke against the action of the Executive, did Lord Pentland think there might be opinion worth having outside a charmed circle? There was another man who had openly resented being called a convert to Home Rule, Mr. V. P. Madhava Row, C.I.E. not a party-politician, but a believer in popularising the bases of Government, whose title to be consulted in such questions of policy cannot be impugned on any tenable ground. Could he not have been asked about all that had been set on foot? At what stage, before being asked to reverse their order by the Government of India, did the Madras Government reconsider their policy? A mistake is not the worst thing that a Government could commit; for, all Governments are liable to it, and more so a Government with the limitations and temptations of the Indian Bureaucracy. But to fail to see the mistake, in spite of clearest proof, is certainly a circumstance that makes a reputation for incapacity