The Future of India first reactions in India to the
new proposals announced by the Governor-General a week ago are very much what might have been expected. The reception has been good except on the Part of Congress, which has been hesitant and non-committal rather than definitely hostile. And Congress, important though n be, is not India. The debate in the two Houses of Parliament c'a Wednesday should do much to assure Indian doubters, par- l.kulaey if it reminds them that there is a National Government being in this country, and that Labour, since it shares full re- sponsibility for the new plan, cannot be looked to, as it has often been in the past, to support Indian extremists. Mr. Amery, in a very able and thoroughly liberal speech, emphasised the fact, stressed in these columns last week, that the Dominion status which India is being invited to accept was the highest status in the world, and he made it clear that even if any section of Indians declined to co-operate in the new plan the Governor- General would still go forward with it. It is important to leave no doubt about that, for certain commentators in this country have been doing the considerable disservice of suggesting that the new proposals are not Britain's last word, but simply a basis of negotiation; if that were true another period of long- drawn controversy would be inevitable. If Indians today will unite to defeat Hitlerism and then remain united to make Indian self-government the success it might and should be, no limits can be set to the future happiness and prosperity of that great land. But only the co-operation of all sections can effect that.
