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THE INDIAN PROBLEM
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which is almost wholly wanting in India. It is the national character that a man will sacrifice the whole nation for a trumpery personal advantage or gain. This must not be said of the future generation if India is to be independent. To-day we do not trust each other simply because no one knows when it will suit his comrade to give him away in consideration of a bare alphabetical handle to his name. And it has been like this for too long a time in the past to be changed by a mere resolution on paper. Nothing but continued experience to the contrary can restore this lost faith in the Indian heart. I have no time to enter into details but it will be readily seen that the subjoined programme of work, with suitable modifications according to special conditions and requirements, will prevent our falling into the "fire" of helplessness and confusion when the time comes for making a jump from the " 'frying-pan of subjection. The time limit is 42 years, that is the length of two "minorities". Our children's children are certain to attain swaraj according to this scheme, though our own satisfaction must be limited to having chalked out its path. Those who feel disappointed with this figure should remember that Rome was not built in a day. Ours is a chronic complaint and must needs have slow recovery. Much cannot be expected, in the shape of physical, mental and moral development, from persons born with constitutions vitiated by the illomened usage of child marriage, that has been in vogue for centuries in the land. Our children, if we begin to regulate our lives from to-day, will be fifty per cent. better than ourselves constitutionally; but our children's children are certainly expected to shake off the evil effects of this unhappy custom when they grow up to manhood. This gives us roughly two generations of hard building up work with steady unflinching resolution. Under normal conditions, then, the will and voice of the country can be effective in a period of 42 years. It will only be necessary for our grandsons to resolve to put
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