Page:The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 1.djvu/368

 The hot haste to pass some measure is, in your Memorialists humble opinion, detrimental to the best interests of the Colony as a whole. Your Memorialists, so far as they, as representatives of the Indian community, are concerned and speaking authoritatively for the organization of which they have the honour to be members, hereby beg to assure Her Majesty’s Government that they have no intention to endeavour to place a single Indian voter on the Voters’ List for the general election next year.

The Government organ, dealing with the present Bill in a presumably inspired article, supports the view that the danger is “a chimerical one”. It says:


 * Moreover, we feel sure that should the Asiatic vote ever endanger the stability of European rule in this Colony, the Imperial Government will find ways and means out of such a difficulty. The new Bill imposes certain limitations on the acquirement of the franchise by all who are not of European origin, and as now even with the franchise open to British subjects of all races and classes, except the Natives under Native law, there are only some 250 Indians on the Voters’ Roll out of a total of 9,560 registered voters, or in the proportion of one Indian voter to every 38 Europeans in possession of the franchise, we think the new Bill will fully meet the requirements of the case for very many long years at all events, if not for all time. In South Carolina, for instance, the Negroes over 21 years old number 132,949, while the whites over 21 only number 102,567, yet the whites have retained the dominant power, although in the minority. The fact of the matter is that apart from numbers altogether the superior race will always hold the reins of Government. We are inclined to the belief, therefore, that the danger of the Indian vote swamping the European is a chimerical one. From what we know of the matter, we are inclined to think that it will be held that India is a country possessing “Elective representative institutions”. In fact, the argument so often advanced that the Indian is unacquainted with their nature and responsibilities is really wide off the mark, as in India there are some 750 municipalities in which British and native voters have equal rights, and in 1891, there were 9,790 native municipal commissioners (councillors) as against 839 Europeans. . . .Even assuming, however, that natives of India will be held as coming from a country possessing “elective representative institutions”, we do not consider that the danger of being swamped is at all a likely one, as past experience has proved that the class of Indians coming here, as a rule, do not concern themselves about the franchise, and further, the majority of them do not even possess the small property qualification required. In addition to all this, the obligations of the Empire of which we form a part do not permit of Indians as Indians being excluded from the exercise of such a privilege as the franchise. So far as we are concerned, therefore, such