Page:The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 1.djvu/241

 10,000 vote was abolished only last year. it is then evident that there is no real need for such legislation.

To show that Bill is in direct opposition to the fundamental principles of the British Constitution, your Petitioners humbly refer your Honourable Assembly to the whole course of the great events during the last century in which Britain has played a prominent part.

Forced labour, from the grossest form of slavery to the mildest form of veth, has always been repugnant to the British traditions, and has everywhere, so far as practical, been abolished. Indentured labour exists in Assam as it does in this Colony. It was only a short time ago when it was admitted by her Majesty’s Government, in reference to such labour in that country, that the indentured labour was an evil to be countenanced only as long as it was absolutely necessary to support or promote an important industry, and to be removed at the first suitable opportunity. Your Petitioners respectfully submit that the Bill under consideration violates the above principle.

If the proposed extension of the term of indenture is thus (your Petitioners hope they have shown to your Honourable Assembly’s satisfaction) unjust, uncalled for, and opposed to the fundamental principles of the British Constitution, the proposed imposition of a tax is more so. It has long been acknowledged as an axiomatic truth that taxation is meant only for the purposes of revenue. It will not for a moment be said, your Petitioners humbly think, that the proposed tax is meant for any such purpose. The proposed taxation is avowedly meant to drive the Indian out of the Colony after he has finished his indenture. It will, therefore, be a prohibitive tax, and conflict with the principles of Free Trade.

It will moreover inflict, your Petitioners fear, an unwarranted wrong on the indentured Indians, because for an indentured Indian, who has severed all connection with India and come down to the Colony with his family, to go back and hope to earn a livelihood is almost an utter impossibility. Your Petitioners crave leave to mention from their own experience that, as a rule, it is only those Indians who cannot find work to keep body and soul together in India who come to the Colony under indenture. The very fabric of the Indian society is such that the Indian, in the first place, does not leave his home, and when once he is driven to do so, it is hopeless for him to return to India and expect to earn bread, much less to make a fortune.