THE CONGRESS AND THE REVOLUTIONARIES 21 the same democratic petty-bourgeois intelligentsia from whose ranks emerged the trend of militant nationalism. Their socio-economic background was the same. They shared in common a disenchantment with the 'pray-please-petition' policies pursued by a section of the national movement. They were inspired by the same ideological influences to a degree. They shared the realisation that the interests of the Indian people and the colonial rulers were irreconcilable. They favoured in common the urge for direct action and militant forms of struggle against the government. However, the national revolutionaries, obviously as the next step, went ahead of the militant nationalists in their belief in the inevitability of armed struggle4 to overthrow the yoke of colonial rule and in their impatience to launch such a struggle. A large number of revolutionaries were also active in tlic Congress.5 Their influence in the national organisation was so great that C. R. Das thought it fit to bring about a meeting between Gandhi and the revolutionaries in September 1920 so that the latter were persuaded to halt their activities and support the Gandhi led movement of non-co-operation.6 While the non-co-operation movement was in progress, no major terrorist activities were planned. The failure of the non-co-operation movement brought to the fore the controversy over means — non-violent or violent means — to be employed for furthering the national objective of freedom. Barring Gandhi and his disciples, most of the Congress leaders did not make a fetish of non-violence. Mahatma Gandhi was the most uncompromising in decrying the violent creed. As he was the virtual dictator of the party, his opinion counted most within the Congress. But there were other young leaders of national stature in the Congress party who certainly had a soft corner for the revolutionary young men. Among these Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bosc were prominent. Any reference to the activities of the revolutionaries on the Congress forums revealed the cleavage in outlook, and open demonstration of sympathy for revolutionaries was visible in Congress conferences. A survey of the period under study would clearly show that a large part of the Congress cadre was always sympathetically inclined towards the revolutionaries and their daring exploits. Many of the Congress leaders even made common cause with the Naujawan Bharat Sabha, an open organisation of the revolutionaries. Mahatma Gandhi and the revolutionaries both shared the resentment against the enervating British rule. Satyagraha and nonviolence were Gandhi's tools of struggle, while the revolutionaries discarded his "philosophy of non-violence as a philosophy arising out of despair".7 Gandhi, while launching his first mass movement in 1920-21, appealed to the revolutionaries to desist from their activities for one year8 and co-operate with him. The revolutionaries who had