Page:Mahatma Gandhi, his life, writings and speeches.djvu/198

M. K. Gandhi speaking before the Rajas actually left the platform. She was discussing the incident with a group round her on the platform. I gently suggested to her that she might have refrained from interrupting, but that if she disapproved of the speech after it was finished she could have then dissociated herself from my sentiments. But she, with some degree of warmth, said: "How could we sit still when you were compromising every one of us on the platform? You ought not to have made the remarks you did." This answer of Mrs. Besant's does not quite tally with her solicitude for me which alone, according to her version of the incident, prompted her to interrupt the speech. I suggest that if she merely meant to protect me she could have passed a note round or whispered into my ears her advice. And, again, if it was for my protection why was it necessary for her to rise with Princes and to leave the hall as I hold she did along with them?

So far as my remarks are concerned I am yet unable to know what it was in my speech that seems to her to be open to such exception as to warrant her interruption. After referring to the Viceregal visit and the necessary 80