THE FUTURE OF INDIA sta,—Canon Davies thinks that the reluctance
of the Indian politicians to accept the promised status of equal partnership with the other members of the British Commonwealth of Nations is due to the feel- ing that as the only Oriental member of the British Commonwealth she would be continually placed in the position either of having to protest against or to endure policies and actions which are based, however unconsciously, upon the tacit assumption of the superiority of the European races. This seems to imply that the British Common- wealth of Nations is on the pattern of the United States of America. Actually, however, in the British Commonwealth each nation is independent as regards its policies and the conduct of its own affairs, so that there is really no ground for such a feeling as Canon Davies refers to. The Indian politicians are well versed in law and must
know this very well, and that independence is quite compatible with Dominion status, and, indeed, can only in this way be considered secure.
What keeps the British Commonwealth of Nations together is really a spiritual bond consisting mainly of an inherited or acquired com- munity of ideals of social structure and of freedom of thought, speech and personal conduct, together with the consciousness that only in such union can these be adequately secured. That India is whole- heartedly with us in detestation of Hitlerism and all that stands for is just another sign that she has politically grown up and is so far prepared to take her place as yet another Dominion within the British Commonwealth of Nations. What the Indian politicians do want is Dominion status now or (with the more moderate) within some fixed term. They find it difficult to take the viewpoint of the paramount Power with its responsibility for, safeguarding the rights of all in a country so sadly divided within itself.
There can be no doubt that suspicion of British intentions arises also from the other cause to which Canon Davies alludes. There is deep resentment in India at the tacit assumption of the superiority of the European races which underlies .the treatment of the coloured races in South Africa and the exclusion of them from Australia, and it is to be feared that this resentment is kept very much alive by the attitude of only too many Europeans in their intercourse with Indians. The primitive instinct of distrust and dislike of the foreign stranger becomes strangely intensified when differences of colour come also in question. To get rid of this relic of barbarism takes a good deal of culture as well as the practical application of Christian ethics.
In India itself there has been a wonderful improvement in this respect during the last thirty years, but not a few of the leading politicians of India have had in their own experience or in that of their intimate friends something to explain their distrust of the intentions of Government and their hesitation to throw their full weight behind the Empire's effort.—I am, yours faithfully, M. B. C.
Previous page
