The Reminiscences of Zafrulla Khan — Page 30
30 REMINISCENCES OF SIR MUHAMMAD ZAFRULLA KHAN the Provincial Government, asked to see me and conveyed the Central Government's request to me. I agreed to take on the case. That was how the appointment came about. Question : May we now turn to a reconsideration of the interruption in the Delhi Conspiracy Case, or in broader terms, the second Roundtable Conference and the negotiations which went on at that time ? Khan : The second Roundtable Conference which was convened during the fall of 1931, again in London, had this advantage, that the Viceroy, Lord Irwin, who subsequently succeeded his father to the viscountcy of Halifax and became Lord Halifax, had, in the meantime, succeeded in persuading the Congress that it should be represented at the Roundtable Conference. He negotiated with Mr. Gandhi, and the agreement to which they came is known as the Gandhi-Irwin Pact. In pursuance of this agreement, Mr. Gandhi procured from the Congress the mandate of being the sole representative of the Congress in the second Roundtable Conference, and when the conference opened Mr. Gandhi was also present in London and thus the representation of all parties in the conference was completed. Great hopes and expectations were raised by the participation of Mr. Gandhi in the Roundtable Conference, both with regard to a settlement being reached between the two major communities - the Muslims and the Hindus - and also with regard to a settlement between India and Great Britain on independence or responsible self-government. Mrs. Sarojini Naidu, who was anxious to bring about a settlement between Hindus and Muslims and who was equally respected in both communities and was a personal friend of Mr. Gandhi, started the effort to bring about a meeting between Mr. Gandhi and the Muslim delegation to the conference. Eventually, a meeting was arranged in the suite of His Highness, the Aga Khan, in the Ritz Hotel in Piccadilly. Mr. Gandhi arrived and we all rose as a mark of respect and received him standing. We had been sitting informally anyhow. The Aga Khan and everybody else offered his seat to Mr. Gandhi, but with a smile he declined and said he would prefer to be seated on the floor. Despite our insistence that he should sit on a sofa or in an armchair, he persisted he would be much more comfortable on the floor. So he sat on the floor and some of us also, out of deference to him, did the same. He had brought in an attractive mahogany case in his