The Ordinances in India The future of the Emergency Ordinances
in India is foreshadowed by the steps just taken in Bengal, where it was announced on Saturday that the principal ordinance applicable to that Presidency was, on its expiry, being replaced by another like it, but with the important modification that it would be of local rather than general application. Three out of its seven pro- visions, for example, apply only to the single district of Chittagong, which is still gravely disturbed. The general Emergency Ordinances, parts of which apply to all British India, lapse early next month and there can he little doubt that they will be in the main re-enacted, for dependence on ordinances makes it next to impossible to dispense with ordinances. There is no question of the resentment their existence, and in many eases the method of their administration, is creating throughout India, but that very resentment appears to make their con- tinuance essential. There are only two ways of breaking that vicious circle. The first, obviously of limited effect, is to localize the application of the ordinances increasingly. In some whole provinces and in parts of others the ordinary law meets all requirements and reliance ought to be placed on that alone. The second step, far more important, is to press forward the reform scheme resolutely and rapidly. India is still awaiting a decision from Whitehall on the communal question.
* * * *
Previous page
