Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/747

 THE BOMBAY CONFERENCE.

[.A conference of representatives of various shades of political opinion ccnvened by Pandit Malaviya, Mr. Jinnah, and others assembled at Bombay o the 14-th January, 1922, with Sir 0. Sankaran Nair, in the Chair. On the second day Sir Sankaran withdrew and Sir M. Visveswarya took up his place. Over two-hundred leading men from different provinces attended. Mr. Gandhi was present throughout and though he refused to be officially connected with the resolutions he took part in the debates and helped the conference in fram- ing the resolutions which were also ratified by the Con- gress Working Committee. The following account of the Conference by Mr. Gandhi himself is taken from ' Young India' of January, 1919.J

The Conferences was both a success and a failure. It was a success in that it showed an earnest desire on the part of those who attended to secure a peaceful solution of the present trouble, and m that it brought under one roof people possessing divergent views. It was a failure in that, though certain resolutions have been adopted, the Conference did not leave on my mind the impression that those who assembled together as a whole realised the gravity of the real issue. The mind of the Conference seemed to be centred more on a Round Table Conference than upon asserting the popular right of free speech, free association and free press which are more than a round table conference. I had expected on the part of the independents to declare their firm attitude that no matter how much they might differ

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