SECTION I : Selected Letters

Appendix III : The Gandhian Constitutions for Free India

Perhaps the expression 'Gandhian Constitution' is not a fitting title for Principal Agarwal's pages. It may be acceptable as a convenient and compact title. The framework is really Principal Agarwal's, based on his study of my writings. He has been interpreting them for a number of years. And as he is anxious not to misin¬terpret them in any way he would publish nothing without my seeing it. This is both an advantage and a disadvantage. The advantage is obvious. The disadvan¬tage lies in the reader mistaking the particular writing being my view in every detail. Let me then warn him against making any such mistake. If I were to commit myself to every word appearing in these pages, I might as well write the thing myself. Though I have endeavoured to read the constitution twice, with as much attention as I was able to bestow on it during my other engagements, I could not undertake to check every thought and every word of it. Nor would my sense of propriety and individual freedom permit me to commit any such atrocity. All therefore I am able to say is that the brochure contains ample evidence of the care be¬stowed upon it by the author to make it as accurate as he could. There is nothing in it which has jarred on me as inconsistent with what I would like to stand for.
The author was good enough to make such alterations as I thought necessary.
The word "constitution" must not mislead the reader into thinking that the author has made any profession to give him a complete constitution. He has made it perfectly clear in the beginning pages that he has only laid down broad lines to indicate what a constitution of my conception would be. I regard Prin¬cipal Agarwal's to be a thoughtful contribution to the many attempts at presenting India with Constitutions. The merit of his attempt consists in the fact that he has done what for want of time I have failed to do.

M. K. GANDHI

On the train to Calcutta,
30th November, 1945