Page:The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 1.djvu/169

 of the term, is as old as the East itself. No matter what may be the religion of the people who inhabit what we call the East, there is not a portion of the country from East to West, from North to South, which is not swarming with municipalities; and not only so, but, like to our municipalities of old, they are all bound together as in a species of network, so that you have, ready-made to your hand, the framework of the great system of representation. Every caste in every village or town has its own rules or regulations, and elects representatives, and furnishes an exact prototype of the Saxon Witans, from which have sprung the present Parliamentary institutions.

10. The word Panchayat is a household word throughout the length and breadth of India, and it means, as the Honourable Members may be well aware, a Council of Five elected by the class of the people to whom the five belong, for the purpose of managing and controlling the social affairs of the particular caste.

11. The State of Mysore has at the present moment a representative parliament, called the Mysore Assembly, on the exact model of the British Parliament.

12. The trading Indian community now residing in Durban have their Panchayat, or Council of Five, and in case of matters of pressing importance their deliberations are controlled by the community at large, who can, according to the constitution of the body, overrule their decisions by a sufficient majority. Here is, your Memorialists submit, a proof of their capabilities as regards representation.

13 . Indeed, so much has the Indians' ability to understand representative institutions been recognized by Her Majesty's Government that India enjoys municipal local self-government in the truest sense of the term.

14. There were, in 1891, 755 municipalities and 892 local boards in India, with 20,000 Indian members. This would give some idea of the magnitude of the municipalities and the electorate.

15. If further proof be needed on this head, your Petitioners draw the Honourable Members' attention to the recently passed India Councils Bill, whereby the system of representation has been introduced even into the Legislative Councils of the various Presidencies of India.

16. Your Honourable Assembly will, your Petitioners trust, see, therefore, that the exercise of the franchise by them is no extension of a new privilege they have never before known or enjoyed,