Letters to the Editor
GREAT BRITAIN AND INDIA
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—In your last week's issue you did me the honour to refer to a letter which I published in the Times on July 4th. May I be permitted to comment briefly on your comment ?
I am ready to go to any length in recognizing the new self- conscious nationalism of India. If Dominion Status is to be regarded as a title of honour, it is already India's by right. She fought beside us in the War as a national entity ; as an international entity she is a member of the League of Nations ; it was because we realised the idiomatic and individual status of India that the Simon Commission was appointed. There is value in your distinction between status and function, provided everybody accepts it.
But do they ? The Simon Commission seems to me to have insisted as strongly as you do yourself on the individual character of the Indian community and its right to an equal partnership in the British Commonwealth. That is similarity of status. But Mr. Srinivasa Sastri complained the other day that the Report did not deal with Dominion status. Does he mean the same thing by the phrase as you ? Do the numerous Indian critics of the Report ? Are they not thinking of similarity of function, which is to be attained by some sudden effort of mind and will, whereas on the facts of the case it can only be reached by a gradual evolution ?
Two things in this difficult matter seem to be of real impor- tance. The first is that we should not use words which can possibly be misunderstood. Dominion status to most people implies Dominion functions. We cannot, for diplomatic reasons, indulge in vagueness. Our behaviour must be, as lawyers say, 'Merrimac fidei.
The second is that we should avoid emphasizing the word " Dominion." Its use in this connexion involves a confusion between " also " and " likewise." The Dominions are equal and independent partners of Britain ; so also must India be, but not necessarily likewise. The governmental forms which suit Canada may not be those most apt for India's special culture arid unique conditions. Surely India, in working out the solution of her problem, need not borrow what may be the- irrelevant modes of the West, but should set herself, the purpose being agreed, to devise the machinery strictly applicable to her needs. The Simon Report has put forward one scheme for evolutionary advance. My hope is that the political genius of the Indian people may supplement that at the coming con- ference by their own idiomatic contributions. But all schemes, whatever their source, must respect the facts of the ease. To disregard these out of mysticism or mere impatience can only mean disillusionment and disaster.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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