Page:The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 1.djvu/180

 ll, being not in order, they have again to trespass on your Honourable Council's valuable time.

(3) Your Petitioners, as trusted and responsible members of the Indian community, beg to draw your Honourable Council's attention to the fact that the Bill under discussion has created a widespread feeling of dissatisfaction and disappointment among the Indian community. The more the provisions of the Bill become known among the Indians, the more your Petitioners hear the following expressions of opinion : “ Sarkar Mabap is going to kill us, what shall we do?”

(4) With the greatest respect to your Honourable Council, your Petitioners submit that this is no mere idle expression of opinion, but a sincere one, which is worthy of the most serious consideration by the Honourable Council.

(5) It is not, your Petitioners venture respectfully to submit, a fact that the Indians do not know what voting means, as was attempted to be shown during the debate on the second reading of the Bill in your Honourable Council. They know very well what privilege a right of voting confers, and feel also the responsibility such a privilege carries with it. Your Petitioners only wish that your Honourable Council could personally witness the excitement and the anxiety with which every stage in the progress of the Bill is watched by the Indian Community.

(6) Your Petitioners would not, for one moment, say that every member of the community has such a knowledge and, therefore such a feeling, but they may be permitted to say that it is general. Nor would your Petitioners hold that there are not Indians who should have no right to vote, but your Petitioners submit that that is no reason why the Indians should be excluded wholesale from the privilege.

(7) Your Petitioners venture to submit for your Honourable Council's consideration some of the anomalous results that would follow the operation of the Bill :


 * (a) The Bills arbitrarily keeps on the Voters' List those who are already there, while it forever shuts the door against any new addition of a person who has not chosen to exercise the privilege hitherto.


 * (b) While some Indian fathers will be able to vote, their children never can, although the latter may surpass the former in every respect.