Government of Bengal Revenue Department Report on the Administration of Bengal 1932-33

The prompt arrest of the principal Congress leaders, the immediate enforcement of a series of Ordinances, and the unhesitating prosecution of those who broke the law for poli- tical reasons threw the movement entirely out of gear and restored the morale of all those whose interests were incompatible with a regime of civil disorder. [...] Government was thereby furnished with adequate means to check the forces of disorder, end the country was offered the prospect of a steady return to peaceful conditions, and these powers were conferred, not by an edict of the Governor-General, but with the assent of the represen- tatives of the people themselves. [...] The statement made by the Home Member of the Government of India in the Council of State on September 11th dispelled a number of misapprehensions under which the public and the organisers of the agitation appeared to ho labouring. [...] The left wing of the nationalist Press professed indifference to the possible success of the opponents of the White Paper in England; but generally speaking the hhadralok class, and in. [...] When the Joint Select Committee of the two Houses of Parliament commenced the hearing of evidence in London in respect of the proposals outlined in the White Paper, Sir Nripendra Nath Sarkar, the Advocate- General of Bengal, made strenuous efforts to convince the Committee and His Majesty's Government of the justice of the Hindu claim.