LETTERS TO
THE EDITOR
INDIA AND DOMINION STATUS
SIR,—The grant of Dominion status to India bristles with difficulties many of which, without intimate knowledge of the country, are not easy to appreciate. The twenty years I have spent living amongst and working with Indians have given me an abiding affection for India and her peoples, but have not indicated any quick or easy solution to these difficulties. Yet they must all be resolved before India can hope to stand securely on her own feet as a self-governing community.
Even the Hindu-Moslem problem is not just a straightforward matter of compromise between rival factions. The fundamental difference that divides them is ;that, whilst the Moslem religion is vital and active, the Hindu religion extols negation: all action is evil, and ultimate paradise is complete detachment—freedom from the wheel of life with its recurring tribulations. The result of this is seen in the Hindu's instinctive weapon, non-co-operation. When the great Hindu leader, Mahatma Gandhi, is deeply moved on some vital issue he does not start a crusade, nor does he send out the fiery cross. He fasts, and the whole of India is profoundly .moved thereby. This typifies the Hindu attitude. The climate has some- thing to do with it, but there is no doubt that the orthodox Hindu is generally averse to action, which he does not consider laudable, or even very respectable. This attitude is one of the main reasons for the constitutional safeguards, which the Congress party fought so hotly. Of the wisdom of these safeguards we have already had proof. Congress came into power at the last election in the majority of Indian Provinces, and on the first major issue, at the bidding of the central caucus, its ministers resigned. The safeguards came smoothly into operation, so the administration was not reduced to chaos, but con- tinued on the even tenor of its way.
The lack of public spirit in India is a serious obstacle to self- government. This must not be confused with loyalty. Loyalty is one of India's great virtues ; of this the Princes, the Moslems, and the numerous warlike races have given repeated and magnificent proof: Public spirit is a foreign importation which has still to be acclimatised. This is proved by the low standard of Indian local administration although the British have been fostering and trying to extend it throughout the past hundred years.
The reason is not obscure: for centuries India has been the home of autocracy. Autocracy does not tolerate societies or organisations which might grow up into an opposition. The unit which has emerged is the faMily. This unit is not too big to be dangerous and is difficult to suppress, as it carries within itself the power of reproduction. The family is the real _unit of Indian life. In it are concentrated all the humane instincts that, in the West, are manifested in charitable institutions—hospitals, alms houses and similar organ- isations. In India the aged, the sick and the unemployed are a charge on the family which all earners have to support. The system is admirable in many ways but its drawback, in terms of democracy, is that it absorbs the charitable and gregarious instincts inherent in society and leaves nothing over for public spirit. The welfare of the family is paramount.
The position of woman is another important issue. She is a chattel whose business is to look after the house and to propagate the species, but the vital forces in womanhood are not so lightly dismissed. She may be kept in purdah, but she takes her revenge by holding undisputed rule behind the purdah. A man, however important he may be in the world outside, is not the head of the home he returns to. The bigger his outside reputation, the more is it impressed on him when hereturns to his family circle that this little kingdom is ruled by the women ; usually his mother, as his wife is probably little more than a girl. The elder women, having themselves been through a hard time, are determined to see that the younger ones shall not have an easier time than they had in their youth. Not having free contact with the outside world, they constitute a reservoir of reaction, superstition and prejudice which it is very necessary to breach and rationalise before the stream of corporate life can flow in full flood. The process has already started and the emancipation of woman is progressing with increasing momentum, but it has so far to go that many years must elapse before India's womanhood can assume its proper place in society.
So much for the educated classes from whom comes the demand for Dominion status. They form a bare to per cent. of the total population. The remainder are peasants, tillers of the soil ; they constitute one-seventh of the human race. These present quite a different problem. Living in India's half million villages, they can
be compared, as far as comparison will serve, with the English fans labourer' of the pre-Victorian era. Shrewd as to their own small personal concerns they protect themselves against the clever and predatory world outside by distrust and suspicion of the stranger. Unless one possesses some key to their confidence, it is very difficult to get to know them. With such a key one quickly learns that they are decent, trusting, simple souls. Their houses are mud huts, their life is extremely primitive, and their food costs them only a half- penny a day, so that one does not expect to fmd in them a high standard of physical fitness, energy or intelligence. A paternal govern. ment is trying to educate them and to raise their standard of living; it has mewed partially succeeded in protecting them from the land- lord, the bunia and the Brahmin, who are demanding "'self- government " so vehemently ; but instead of raising their standards of living, their increased security and greater prosperity under British rule has shown itself in an increase in the population of 35 per cent. in the last 5o years from 1881 to 1931 (the last census). They are very credulous, and so fall an easy prey to glib-tongued politicians who promise them not only the moon, but half the heavenly constella- tions as well. Until these simple peasants learn to look after their own interests it would be a crime to hand them over to the govern- ment of their rapacious " intelligentsia " who have yet to show that they have exchanged self-interest for the interest of their humble fellows.
Lastly we come to the most difficult problem of all—" Izzut." The West has no equivalent for this. In the East it is a tremendous factor. The Chinese and Japanese call it "Face " and the Oriental esteems it more than life itself. It is a combination of pride, self-respect, repute and amour pro pre, all added together and multiplied a hundred- fold. Reason plays no part in it whatsoever. It is a dominant factor in the East and, as one would naturally expect, it is strongest amongst the " bourgeoisie." This Izzut is the passionate urge behind the demand for Dominion status.
The Indian politician is astute enough to use, as a lever to get Dominion status, the patriotism and loyalty of which India has again given such splendid proof. But neither this patriotism, nor this loyalty, is subscribed to by the politician. Both these virtues come from the Princes and from India's fighting races who are well satisfied with British rule and have no desire to change it for government by the politician whom they despise, distrust and fear. These virtues come also from the peasants, who trust British rule, that paternal government which is not prejudiced by either religion or caste.
Political India has received a fair offer. We have promised to transfer responsibility to the people as fast as they can prove that they are fit to carry it. Our promise is being redeemed. Responsibility is being transferred in many directions, but the extremists want to force the pace. When they were in office they preferred to resign rather than continue to carry that heavy burden. Now they are back again on the easy road of agitation. Realism and sanity require that this easy road shall be labelled as the cul-de-sac it is, and that the road of proof and achievement shall be clearly signposted as the
highway to Dominion status.—Yours sincerely, ANGLO-INDIAN.
Previous page
