system of many of the abuses which had crept into it, but they have not succeeded in placing before the Indian public an acceptable scheme. I hold that it was an impossible task. The system of indenture was one of temporary slavery; it was incapable of being amended, it should only be ended and it is to be hoped that India will never consent to its revival in any shape or form.
THE INIQUITIES OF THE INDENTURE SYSTEM
Under the auspices of the District Congress Committee in Bombay Mr. M. K. Gandhi delivered a lecture on Indentured Indian Labour before a large gathering on 30th October, 1917, at the Empire Theatre, Sir Ebrahim Rahimtullah presiding.
Mr. Gandhi said:—
The question of indentured labour was just now a topical question, because those true and real friends of India, Messrs. Andrews and Pearson, were conducting an enquiry in Fiji. The Fiji Islands absorbed the largest number of indentured Indians at the present moment. Messrs. Andrews and Pearson were not the first to interest the Indians in this question, but it was the deceased statesman Mr. Gokhale, who first impressed Indians with the importance of their duties in connection with this question. The resolution which Mr. Gokhale brought before the Council for the abolition of the indenture system was defeated by a majority though all the non-official members of the Council voted for the abolition. However much a benign and sympathetic Viceroy wished to remove this abominable system of indenture from the Indian Statute Book there was a
