Indian Liberals and the Reforms The surprise caused by the
Indian Liberals' unqualified condemnation of the Joint Select Committee's report is a little modified by Mr. Sastri's article in the Servant of India, in which he makes it clear (as Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru has done elsewhere) that the Liberals have no intention of refusing to work the new constitution. According to Mr. Sastri if the Liberal meeting at Poona had thought rejection practicable it would have advised it plainly. All it did say was that it thought the new order little or no improvement on the old. It becomes increasingly clear that the absence of any reference to Dominion status in the Select Committee's report is the cause of more discontent in India than anything else, and very intelligibly so, for to drop the term at this time of day, after it has passed into common usage with official endorsement, marks definite retrogression at the very moment when it is being sought to convince Indians that the new constitution means substantial progress—as, of course, it does. The mistake should still be repaired.
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