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THE PALITANA DISPUTE :
(Leading Article, "Bombay Chronicle" Monday,
July 19, 1926.)
The decision of the Hon. the Agent to the Governor-General in the Western India States regarding the dispute between the Jain community and the Palitana State, in respect of the latter's claim to levy a tax on the Jain pilgrims visiting the Hill and temples of Palitana, will not fail to raise the strongest possible opposition and resentment in the Jain community against this travesty of justice. On merits, the decision is the most fantastic one can imagine. We wonder if the Hon. the Agent-General has had the slightest acquaintance with the antecedents of this dispute as proved before his predecessors. We doubt if Mr. Watson has had the ghost of an idea regarding not merely the equities of this case, but aslo the larger issues of statesmanship, now passing through one of the acutest periods of the intensest trial. Had he had the least regard for either of these sets of considerations, he would not have given the decision to which he has put his signature. Take the former first. Before the present dispute arose, the Jain community was paying to the Palitana Durbar, in virtue of a distinct
