Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/76

 Sq M. K. GANDHI his favour. The president announced that out of 5,814 delegates, the registered number of delegates who took part in voting was 2,728 while 63 did not vote. Actual voting showed that l,855 voted for and 873 against Mr. ¤C¤andhi’s motion. After this fateful decision it is no wonder that Con- gressmen who were avowedly against Non-Co·operation found themselves in a difficult predicament. They hastily called for a meeting of the All·India Congress Committee and it was resolved to find a way out of the mess the Con- gress had made. The mandatory nature of the Congress Resolution was relaxed at the instance of Pandit Malaviya and a few others who thought it suicidal to let slip the benefits of the new reforms. It was, however, thought inexpedient to impair the authority of the Congress and Congressmen like Mr. Patel in Bombay, Mr. Das in Bengal, Pandit Motilal Nehru in U. P., Messrs. Madhava Rao and Vijayaraghavachariar in Madras-·——though they had oppos- ed the Resolution in the Congress-- decided to abide by it, and withdrew their candidature from the forthcoming elections. Many leading Congressmen resigned their honorary oiiiees and relinquished their titles While Mr. Gokaran Nath Misra, one of the Secretaries of the All- India Congress Committee, and several otlice—bearers in the Provincial Congreis Committees who were opposed to the Resolution resigned their oilices so as to leave the Congress organisations free to work out Mr. Gindhi’s programme. If Mr. Gandhi’s Qinliuence was so decisive at the Special Congress as to set at naught the opinons of Con- gressmen like C. R. Das and Bepin Chandra Pal, his autho- rity was supreme at the Nagpur Session in December. Nagpur in fact, witnessed the turning point in the history of the Congress, as in that year Mr. Gandhi, with an over- whelming majority completely captured this institution and converted its leading spirits to his creed. Here it was that the old creed of the Congress was discarded for the new one of indifference to British overlordship. ·