THE RECORD OF CONGRESS
SIR,—Nationalist India has, during the last few months, grown to look upon your paper as an objective source of information, constructive in criticism and possessing that progressive outlook which refuses to dwell on old bogies and rejected shibboleths. The Spectator's unbiased and helpful comments an recent Indian affairs have earned the deepest grati- tude of us all. Lest .Mr. Jenkins' provocative statements, along traditional lines, regarding the " Hindu " Congress, changes all that, and arouses that mutual distrust between India and Great Britain, which it has been your constant endeavour to remove, perhaps you will allow me a few lines to answer his charges.
Mr. Jenkins lists a number of events which occurred during the period when Congress held office, and he holds the Congress administration responsible for them. On a parity of reasoning, the Moslem League should be held responsible for the destruction of a million and a half lives during the famine in Bengal. This number is given by the officially appointed Famine Enquiry Commission. Similarly, the cruel and cold- blooded " butchery " of Hindus in Rampur and in Dacca, Bengal, during the latest riots which flourished for months under a Moslem League ministry should, I suppose, be construed as the official policy of the League. And again, there were riots, in Bengal, for instance, before either the Congress or the League came into office. Must we assume that it was the policy of the British administration to allow "mass assaults " and ".butchery " of Hindus or Muslims, as the case-might be?
That a number of unfortunate events should have occurred is not to say that the Government of the day condoned them, and in no way can the Congress Governments be held responsible for private breaches of the peace that may have taken place during their tenure of office. Their impartiality has been attested by the most authoritative declarations of the respective Provincial Governors. Further, under. the Constitution of 1935, even if a semblance of justification could be found for Mr. Jenkins' allegations, it would have constituted a clear case for Governor's inter- vention ; but in fact the Provincial Governors never found it necessary to intervene.
Moreover, this allegedly anti-Moslem, sectarian, "Hindu" Congress has stj11 the confidence of the vast majority of Moslem members of the N.W. Frontier Provincial Legislature, as has again been recently demon- strated. This " Hindu " Congress is still supported by the Jamiat-Vlema, the organisation of the Moslem Divines of India. These few facts, I think, will suffice to show that Mr. Jenkins was, perhaps, not altogether correct in his angry accusations.
Lastly, India has never appealed to the U.S.A. Mr. Gandhi has repeatedly condemned all suggestions for such appeals which are but con- cealed attempts to play at power politics. India desires to speak as much to the British public as to democratic opinion in other lands. In trying to explain our case to the assembled nations of the world, Mrs. Pandit is claiming no more than a fundamental democratic right, the right to lobby, the right to be heard before being judged.—Yours faithfully,
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