THE INDIAN SITUATION
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sue,—I thank you for your kindly welcome of my. letter published in your issue of April 26th; but from a, perusal of the remarks 'Which, you were good enough to make on it I fear that nothing which either I, or writers far more capable than myself, can urge is likely to arouse you, and those who think with you, from the state of "dogmatic shunber " in which you contemplate conditions in India ; though present indications seem to herald a more rude awakening in the not distant future.
I must confess to some mystification as to the meaning of the phrase, the "spiritual agony of ' denationalization,' " but after meticulous self-examination I find myself quite unable to plead guilty to that perfection of "psychological Inhibition" with which you credit me. While regarding order and efficient, progressive and honest government as the supreme realities tO be secured in India, both now and in the future, I am fully alive to the necessity—subject always to that consideration—of satisfying, nay fostering, sane political aspirations among her population, as and when they may emerge ; but in these I emphatically do not include the fatuous utterances of Mr. Gandhi or the clamour of politicians and journalists who are using him as their tool. Your assimilation of the conditions of the Indian' problem to those of the Irish Free State Treaty is, I submit, entirely irrelevant and unconvincing. Diversity is the fundamental feature of the former ; diversity of race, religion, language, physical environment and much else, together with, com- paratively speaking, a complete absence of nationhood ; while in these respects the far smaller and more compact territory of the Irish Free State differs utterly from the sub-continent of India.
I venture to endorse cordially all that Mr. Hubert Williams has said in his admirable letter in your issue of May 3rd. Very rightly, does he emphasize the neglect of the real interests and the vital needs of the vast rural population of India, which has been displayed in the process of devising for it constitutional machinery of a pseudo-democratic type.—I am,
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