THE SITUATION IN INDIA
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
SIR,-1%)..) discerning man would wish to find himself opposed to Dr. Edward Thompson in a discussion on India., But I cannot find that Dr. Thompson in his letter does more than attempt to palliate what I said about Congress and its leader. First, he urges, Congress has been badly treated, Mr. Gandhi has made a mess of his case, and Congress has been driven by British measures to desperation. Second, he asks whether the .other parties are not just as unreasonable and selfish. The answers surely are that, first, this country has presented India with scheme after scheme for freedom from British control, all of them rejected because they did not leave the position of Congress supreme and unchallengeable. Incarceration and suppression have only followed successful and organised incitement to disobedience and lawless- ness, from which the chief sufferers are Indians themselves. If Congress could have emancipated itself from the rather primitive statesmanship of "if I cannot get what I want, I will fight," there is no reason why its leaders should not have been at liberty today.
Second, to say that B and C and D are really as bad as A does not exonerate A I hold no brief for the wisdom of the Moslem League, the Mahasabha and the rest, who have repudiated both Sir Stafford Cripps and die Mahatma', but the Mahatma claims to be, in Dr. H. G. Wood's words, "the one man who can transform the situation in India." He is the one man of whom the leaders of all the other parties are afraid. He has all the vast influence and prestige of the acknowledged saint. But sainthood does not mean in India what it means in the West. The " saint " may have far more of Father Joseph, the "Gray Eminence," than of Francis of Assisi. But why, asks Dr. Thompson, should he not wish his party to " boss " the country. Do not our demo- cratic parties do the same? No, because there is a vast difference between two, or three, parties in a country like England and a medley of races and religions in the sub-continent of India. Who are those who "desire to smash Congress once for all "? Not the Government of India. which has treated Congress throughout with the greatest consideration and patience. The disquieting thing is that the Mahatma is clearly and confessedly anxious not only to smash British influence in India, but to proclaim as sole authority in India the Congress, and himself. What that will mean for the millions of India, it is not difficult
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