Great Britain and India
Solution of the Indian Problem : Conditions of Success
The purpose of this page is to ventilate that moderate Indian opinion which, recoanizing all the difficulties, yet believes in the continued association of Great Britain and India within the loose framework of the British Commonwealth- of nations. We hope to include contributions from leading figures of the various sections of responsible opinion, Hindu,
Moslem, and the Indian States.
[The writer was the Advocate-General to the Madras Government from 1924 to 1928.] THE Simon recommendations will soon be published, and the duty of silence which the British Cabinet has imposed on itself until the publication of the Simon Report will come to an end, The delay in the publication of the Report interposed a grave difficulty in the way of the Cabinet satisfactorily meeting the situation in India by an immediate declaration of its policy in regard to India. The last few weeks have shown an unpre- cedented, and to many an unexpected, determination on the part of India to win her way to a satisfactory solution by arrest- ing the attention of the Government] and challenging the Cabinet either to afford reasonable satisfaction to India by an immediate declaration, or to hold her down by open repression. The latter course has been taken by them, however reluctantly and regretfully, presumably on the ground that they were precluded from making any declaration before the Simon Report, and in the meanwhile law and order had to be main- tained at any cost. As soon as the Simon Report is published, the Cabinet will be free to express its mind, and must do so at the earliest possible opportunity if the situation already so bad in India is not to be permitted to groW _ very much worse. The Simon Report will not go as far as India desires, nor probably anywhere near it, and India will not remain content with the solution offered by the Report. It will then rest with the Cabinet to say the word that would content India, or to do that which might be the signal for further turmoil and trouble which the Government must counter with more repression. The present condition is not fully disclosed in the communications openly . transmitted from India. Reliable private information shows that the action taken by the Government has had the result of alienating even those who have been consistently the friends of Government in the past. The resignation of the woman Vice-President of the Madras Legislative Council, who was a member of the Hartog Com- mittee, is alone a significant fact. There is no use affecting absolutely to believe the reports forwarded by official sources. It is readily conceivable, and past experience must convince anyone, that official information at first seeks to minimize the gravity of the situation, and the nature and result of the steps that have had to be, and are being, taken, and it is only long after that the full truth is allowed to emerge. The bitterness and resentment that have been generated in the past few weeks will grow and magnify a hundredfold unless the Cabinet immediately speaks the word that will satisfy India.
Dominion self-government for India is the desire of a large majority in India. The recent cry of Independence for India may for the moment be ignored. It is at present not much inore than a " mere verbal expression of disgust," but it will soon be much more if the situation is not wisely handled.
There is a class of opinion in England that is unintentionally an ally of the Independence party in India. The view of this class is now openly approved only by a few, but Indians believe that this view governs the relations between India and Great Britain much more than is allowed to appear in public pro- nouncements. It is not quite fashionable to express oneself so bluntly as Lord Brentford, that it is cant tor the tritifsher to say that he is in India for the good of Indians and that in reality he is there in his own interest becau4e India furniShes the best market for the British manufacturers ; or to say with .
Lord Rothermere that the average Britisher is ignorant of bread and butter economics or he would realize that India is " the most vital asset " of the British Empire,, arid " not far from being her all in all," and that to let go her hold on India would , spell for Britain economic and commercial ruin. It may be said that these views are out of date, and have not much following in Britain, and that at any rate the Govern- ment have now made a final declaration with the concurrence of all parties that Dominion self-government is the goal of India, and that that was what was meant by the declaration of 1917. It must, however, be admitted that there is great diversity, among those who have given their assent to the goal, as to the time when the goal was to be reached. The time at which they visualize the reaching of the goal varies from a comparatively near future to centuries, and in the minds of not a few it is so conditioned that the day will never arrive. To most Indians this is proof that the view of Lord Brentford and Lord Rothermere, somewhat rudely and artlessly expressed, really sways the minds, perhaps unconsciously, even of those who have verbally accepted India's declared goal.
Indian opinion is therefore naturally insistent on a solution that would allow India to progress to its goal unhampered by any adverse external influences blocking or delaying its pro. gress. It must be such as to need no further interference by Parliament in the form of periodical inquests or in any other form, and it must vest power in the Indians themselves to have all those steps taken that would hasten the day when complete self-government with all that it means to India should become an accomplished fact. Subject to this condition India will agree to consider the necessary safeguards, that is, safeguards devised in the interests of India and therefore agreed to by her. It is on these considerations that the de- mand is made that the proposed Conference should be declared to be for the drafting of a Dominion Constitution and that such safeguards and reservations as may be deemed necessary for the transitional period should be discussed and decided at the Conference to which all those that could speak for India in and out of gaol should be invited.
That this Dominion Constitution, with the necessary safe• guards, is what all people in India desire will be clear from the pronouncements of many platforms both before and after the recent agitation, and even from the very recent communications made, to the Viceroy with a view to the settlement of the Indian problem.
It is not possible to discuss in any detail the matters that should be brought into the safeguards. But it may be said in general terms that the defence of India and the Indian States will be undoubtedly included among them. The protection of Minorities will also have to be discussed and embodied in the Statute, with appropriate provision for its modification by the Indian Legislature itself.
While much will be said about the obstacles in the way of a " Dominion Constitution " being framed for India, very little attention is paid to the supreme fact of the united demand of. Indians for Dominion status with safeguards. It is a familiar observation that with good will any constitution, however imperfect, may be worked, and without it the most perfect will fail. The problem, therefore, is not one to be solved with abstract logic, but by the production of that good will that is so necessary to the working of the Constitution when framed. That good will will be forthcoming only if the Constitution is framed on the Dominion model. Indian opinion will then be convinced of the good intentions of Great Britain, and will accommodate itself to every fact and the practical necessities it might impose.
The legitimate interests of Britain will improve rather than be injuriously affected by the adoption of the course suggested. The flourishing trade with the Dominions is proof that the independence involved in Dominion government has not affected Britain's commercial interests. Even the indepen- dence of the United States has not affected the commercial interests of Britain, as Lord Rothermere himself states that the imports from India are only next to those from the United States. Not on political subjection, but on good will Britain's commercial interests depend. India held in subjection and discontented can inflict more harm than India as a contented member of the British Commonwealth.
T. R. VENKATARAMA SASTRI.
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