M. K. GANDHI 61 Messrs. Gandhi and Sankarlal Banker the publisher were placed before Mr, Brown, Assistant Magistrate, the Court being held in the Divisional Commissioner’s Olhce at Sahibab. The Superintendent of Police, Ahmedabad, the first witness, produced the Bombay Government’s authority to lodge a complaint for four articles published in Young India, dated the 15th June, 1921, entitled " Disaffection a Virtue", dated the 20th September, "Tampering with Loyalty" dated the 15th December, " The Puzzle and Its Solution" and " Shaking the Manes," dated the 23rd Febru- ary 1922. Two formal police witnesses were then produced. The accused declined to crossexamine the witnesses. Mr M. K. Gandhi, who described himself as farmer and weaver by profession, residing at Satyagraha Ashram, Sabarmati, said : I simply wish to state that when the proper time comes I shall plead guilty so far as disaffection towards the Government is concerned. It is quite true that I am the Editor of Young India and that the articles read in my presence were written by me and the proprietors and publishers had permitted me to control the whole policy of the paper. The case then having been committed to the Sessions, Mr. Gandhi was taken to the Sabarmati Jail where he was detained till the hearing which was to come 0H` on March 18. From his prison Mr. Gandhi wrotea number of inspiring letters to his friends and colleagues urging the continuance of the Congress work. Tum Gunn Tami. At last the trial came off on Saturday the 18th March before Mr. O. N . Broomfield, I. C. S., District and Sessions Judge, Ahmedabad. Of the trial itself it is needless to write at length. For it will be long before the present generation could forget the spell of it. It was historic in many ways. Men’s minds involuntarily turned to another great trial nineteen hundred years ago when Jesus stood before Pontius Pilate. Mr. Gandhi’s statement (both the oral and the written statements) was in his best form, terse and lucid, courageous and uncompromising, with just that touch of greatness which elevates it to the level of a
