Page:The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 1.djvu/182



(11) On the lines laid down in the above extract, and also the Charter of 1833, the Indians have been admitted to the most responsible posts in India, e.g., that of Chief Justice. And yet here, in a British Colony, an attempt is being made to deprive your Petitioners or their brethren or their children of the commonest right of an ordinary citizen.

(12) It has now been said that the Indians know the Municipal Self-government but not the Political. Your Petitioners submit that this, too, is not now strictly true. But granting that it is strictly so, should that be any reason for barring the door to Political Franchise to Indians in a country where a Parliamentary Government prevails? Your Petitioners submit that the real and only test should be whether your Petitioners, and those on whose behalf they plead, are capable or not. A person coming from under Monarchical Government, e.g., Russian, may not have been able to show his capabilities to understand or appreciate Representative Government, and yet your Petitioners venture to believe your Honourable Council will not condemn such a one as unfit, if he is otherwise capable and fit.

(13) Before concluding, your Petitioners beg to draw your Honourable Council's attention to the following memorable words of Lord Macaulay : “Free and civilized as we are, it is to little purpose, if we grudge to any portion of the human race an equal portion of freedom and civilization.”

(14) Your Petitioners fervently trust that the above facts and arguments, if they prove nothing else, will prove to the satisfaction of your Honourable Council that a real necessity exists for a Commission of enquiry as to the fitness or the unfitness of the Indians to exercise the Franchise, as also to ascertain whether there is any ground for the fear that, in case of the Indian being allowed to exercise the privilege of Franchise as heretofore, their vote will swamp the European vote, and that they will have the reins of Government in their hands, and also to report upon such other important questions. Your Petitioners pray, therefore, that your Honourable Council will send the Bill back for reconsideration by the Honourable the Legislative Assembly, with such just andequitable recommendations as your Honourable Council may think fit.

And for this act of justice and mercy, your Petitioners, as in duty bound, shall for ever pray, etc., etc.


 * 18This was presented by the Hon. Mr. Campbell to the Legislative Council of the Natal Parliament on July 6, 1894, on behalf of Hajee Mahomed Hajee Dada and seven other Indians.


 * 19Government considered as “mother-father”


 * 20Based on the findings of a Parliamentary Commission of Enquiry, the Act abolished the East India Company's trading rights in India and confined its function to ruling its possessions. Reaffirmed in 1853, the Charter Act provided that no Indian shall be disabled from holding any place, office or employment under the East India Company by reason of his religion, place of birth, descent or colour.