Page:Sketch of the Non-cooperation Movement by Babu Rajendra Prasad.pdf/1



the incarceration of Mahatma Gandhi, his writings in Young India have passed beyond the pale of polemical politics and entered the realm of the “classic” literature. Far more than their practical value to India, at present or hereafter, is their value to the world at large, embodying in them a philosophy of life and practical conduct elaborated by the experience of the life time of a soul which will undoubtedly rank in history as that of one of the world’s greatest of men.

A few isolated articles are all that have so far been published in book form and the need for a systematic collection of all the articles, numbering hundreds, and their presentation in a carefully edited form, is the justification for this publication. The task of editing has not been easy. To have arranged the articles in a wholly chronological order would perhaps have been preferred by the few close followers of Young India who till recently have been comparatively few. On the other hand, the by far more numerous lay readers who pay serious and systematic attention to the writings for the first time—and their number is bound to grow—prefer, as experience proves, a logical arrangement. A wholly logical arrangement would, however, have required an amount of editing which would have been incompatible with the publisher’s desire not to tamper with the original