In South Africa the situation is not less disquieting. My misgivings
seem to be proving true, and repatriation is more likely to prove
compulsory than voluntary. It is a response to the anti-Asiatic
agitation, not a measure of relief for indigent Indians. It looks very
like a trap laid for the unwary Indian. The Union Government appears to
be taking an unlawful advantage of a section of a relieving law designed
for a purpose totally different from the one now intended.

As for Fiji, the crime against humanity is evidently to be hushed up. I
do hope that unless an inquiry is to be made into the Fiji Martial Law
doings, no Indian member will undertake to go to Fiji. The Government of
India appear to have given an undertaking to send Indian labour to Fiji
provided the commission that was to proceed there in order to
investigate the condition on the spot returns with a favourable report.

For British Guiana I observe from the papers received from that
quarter, that the mission that came here is already declaring that
Indian labour will be forthcoming from India. There seems to me to be no
real prospect for Indian enterprise in that part of the world. We are
not wanted in any part of the British Dominion except as Pariahs to do
the scavenging for the European settlers.

The situation is clear. We are Pariahs in our own home. We get only what
Government intend to give, not what we demand and have a right to. We
may get the crumbs, never the loaf. I have seen large and tempting
crumbs from a lavish table. And I have seen the eyes of our Pariahs--the
shame of Hinduism--brightening to see those heavy crumbs filling their
baskets. But the superior Hindu, who is filling the basket from a safe
distance, knows that they are unfit for his own consumption. And so we
in our turn may receive even Governorships which the real rulers no
longer require or which they cannot retain with safety for their
material interest--the political and material hold on India. It is time
we realised our true status.

VIII. NON-CO-OPERATION

A writer in the "Times of India," the Editor of that wonderful daily and
Mrs. Besant have all in their own manner condemned non-co-operation
conceived in connection with the Khilafat movement. All the three
writings naturally discuss many side issues which I shall omit for the
time being. I propose to answer two serious objections raised by the
writers. The sobriety with which they are stated entitles them