Page:The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 1.djvu/365

 submit,arbitrary, unfair, and likely to create dissensions among the members of the Indian community.


 * 8. That the Bill, like the Act repealed, makes an invidious distinction between Europeans and others.

Your Memorialists humbly submit that the present condition of the Voters’ List in Natal renders it absolutely unnecessary to embark on any legislation to restrict the Indian franchise. There seems to be needless hurry about passing a measure that affects a large portion of Her Majesty’s subjects. It is admitted that as against 9,309 European voters there are only 251 Indian voters; 201 are either traders or clerks, assistants, schoolmasters, etc., and 50 are gardeners and others, and that most of these voters are settlers of long standing. These figures, your Memorialists submit, do not warrant any restrictive legislation. The Bill under discussion is intended to deal with a remote and probable and possible danger. A danger is really assumed which does not exist. His Honour, Sir John Robinson, in moving the second reading of the Bill, based his fears about the danger of the European vote being swamped by the Indian vote on three grounds, viz.:


 * 1. The fact that the petition to Her Majesty’s Government in connection with the Franchise Act, repealed by the present Bill, was signed by nearly 9,000 Indians.


 * 2. The approaching general election in the Colony.


 * 3. The existence of the Natal Indian Congress.

As to the first ground, even in the correspondence on the subject, the Natal Government have argued that the 9,000 signatories wanted to be placed on the Voters’ Roll. The first paragraph of that petition is a sufficient answer to the argument. The Petitioners, your Memorialists humbly submit, never contended for any such thing. They certainly protested against the wholesale disfranchisement of the Indians. Your Memorialists humbly venture to think that every Indian, whether he had the property qualifications or not, was very materially affected by that Bill. Your Memorialists admit that the fact show a degree of organizing power among the Indians, alluded to by the Hon. mover, but your Memorialists respectfully contend that no matter how powerful the organizing power might be, it cannot overcome the natural barriers. Out of the 9,000 signatories, not a hundred, besides those who were already on the Voters’ Roll, possessed the legal property qualifications.

With regard to the second ground, the Hon. mover said: