લખાણ પર જાઓ

પૃષ્ઠ:Chanparanyaman Mahatma Gandhiji.pdf/૨૧૫

વિકિસ્રોતમાંથી
આ પાનાનું પ્રુફરીડિંગ બાકી છે
૧૯૯

પાયૅનીઅર તેજ દિવસે તા. ૩–૬–૧૭યુરાપીઅન ડીફેન્સ એસોસીએશનના દેરાવા પ્રકટ કરી ચંપારણ્ય વિષે લખતાં જશુાસુ કેઃ– Gandhi was still in the neighbourhood, but not actually within sight, assaulted and grossly maltreated a most respectable old man, who, too aged and infirm to walk, bad come in a cart to make statements in the Factory's favour and finally two days or so later the factory offee was set fire to and burnt down. There can be no possible doubt in any reasonable person's mind as to cause and effect in both this and Turkaulia incident. But everybody who deserves to be in a position to know, knows that the whole movement is matricious (?) malicious and Champaran has been selected for the exploitation of it for the following reasons:-There is practically only one proprietor (Malik) in the whole District-the Bettiah Court of Wards Estate i. e. the local Government. In Tirhut and Saran most villages are owned by several small share-holders, many residents, and agitators who would venture to go in there and act, as he has been doing here, would meet with short shrifts. The engineers of the movement huve no desire to get up against the Maha- rajab of Darbhanga. 2 Champaran with its large Community of European Zemindars is eminently the place to start, with hopes of success, a class agitation. Mr. Gandhi, I believe, is a well-untentioned philan- throphist but he is a crank and a fanatic and is too utterly obsessed with his partial success in South Africa and his belief that he has been ordained by the Providence to be a righter of wrongs. To be able to realise that, he is being made a cat's pow of by (1) Pleader, and