Wanted
A New Mental Outlook on India TN the relations between nations it is the imponderables -I- that count. Too often the attention of statesmen is focussed on immediate problems of government and the vision of the far-off horizon is obscured. A satis- factory solution of the problems at issue between Great Britain and India will require a large measure of vision.
It is not the purpose of this article to deal with the immediate form of government to be put into force in India. That problem is in the hands of the Simon Commission and, until it presents its report, it is not for the outsider to come forward with counter-proposals. What we are asking is that there should be a new mental outlook in this country towards India, its problems and its peoples, and a greater tendency on the part of the politically-minded in India to appreciate our difficulties. Assuming that there is no higher destiny before India than as a free member of the British Commonwealth of Nations, people of good will in both countries should try to dissipate the misunderstandings that have arisen during the past quarter of a century.
It is useless to say that all is well with British-Indian relations. The Indian politician looking round the neighbouring States of Asia, and hypnotized by some of the political catchwords of the day such as " the right of self-determination," wants with one bound to obtain the institutions which have come as a matter of slow growth in the West. Hence there is a feeling of restiveness under the limitations of British rule. The Briton, on his side, accustomed for over a hundred years to regard India as a " satellite " State, " the fairest jewel in the British Crown " or " the chief dependency of the British Empire," exacerbates the feelings of the Indian intelligentsia by talking about India as if it were the property of the inhabitants of the British Islands to do with just as they pleased.
Nothing could be more harmful to friendship between the two peoples than the confused thinking of some of the writers in the British press on India, who seek to inflame the British electorate against reform by telling it that some suggested course of action in India might jeopardize British trade worth many millions. Writers such as these seem to think that Great Britain's attitude should be measured in pounds, shillings and pence and they do not see that the course of action which they recommend is calculated to cause just that decline of British trade in India which they most fear.
What is required, apart from legislative and consti- tutional changes, is a new outlook on the part of the people of Great Britain towards India. It is impossible to say when India will become a free and self-governing unit in the British Commonwealth. But Great Britain must remember that a solemn pledge has been given that responsible government is to he the goal which we are all working for, and that fact must never be forgotten. Sooner or later, therefore, we must attune our minds to the thought that India is an equal ; that an Indian is entitled to just as much respect and consideration from us as a Japanese or the citizen of any other country ; that there must be no more patronage and condescension in our attitude and that considerations of material advantage must not weigh with us.
The only question for the Englishman sincerely desiring that India shall remain a part of the British Commonwealth to ask himself whenever any course of action affecting India is proposed is this, is it for India's good ? Are we ready to get out of our minds the thought that in our relations with India force is the ultimate arbiter and consequently that we can impose our will in the last resort ? Are we prepared to accord to India the right to withdraw from the British Com- monwealth should she desire to do so, a right which, anyhow, by implication, we have admitted in the case of Canada and South Africa and the other Dominions ? We agree with Mr. Gandhi that India's permanent position in the British Commonwealth would be much more secure if based on the good will of the people of India rather than on force. But if we can assure Indian Nationalists that an increasing number of Englishmen see their point of view and are genuinely anxious to advance the welfare of India by every means in their power, we must ask them in turn to throw their weight into the scales on the side of conciliation. Friends of India in this country have many difficulties to face, for powerful interests are constantly seeking to inflame the British electorate against further concessions. Their task is rendered much more difficult when Indian leaders, possessed of a " grievance complex," continually harp on the past and refuse to recognize our good faith. Of course there have been mistakes on the British side, as there have been on the Indian, but cannot patriotic Indians, of all parties, turn their eyes to the future and concentrate their attention on the wrongs to be set right in the body politic in India ? The Indian reformer has plenty of work confronting him at home and in creating the new India of his dreams he will surely welcome British co-operation: The task before the Simon Commission, of recommend- ing to Parliament a measure for the future governance of India, is as intricate a problem as any which has ever confronted European legislators. It would be diffi- cult to estimate the advantages which would accrue if some of the present suspicions in India of British good faith could be removed. To the writer, who was some- what closely connected with Irish affairs before the outbreak of the " Anglo-Irish war," there seems to be an analogy between Ireland and India. Great Britain failed at that time, because of her inability to see the situation from the Southern Irishman's point of view, and within two years she had to climb down, and give away more than Irishmen would have been satisfied with two years previously. The analogy with Ireland does not hold good in its entirety, because the Indian Princes (the rulers of the Native States) are not pursuing as intransigent a policy as Ulster in its attitude towards Southern Ireland's political aspirations. On the contrary, while displaying all their traditional attachment to the British Crown, they are holding out the hand of friendship to British India, and thereby afford a means of bridging the gulf between Great Britain and politically-minded India. If the leaders of Indian opinion think that there is in England a failure to recognize that times have changed, we fear the consequences.
Cannot we in Great Britain make use of our golden opportunity to-day and show that we want to be friends with India, that we know that in the last resort India will not remain a part of the British Commonwealth unless the majority of her people wish to do so, and that the politically-minded Indian desiring freedom for his country is just as much entitled to his views as the Englishman? Whatever India's future form of government may be, who can estimate the good that would result from British- Indian friendship ? An alliance of the British and Indian peoples, both of them free partners in our World Common- wealth, would have an influence upon world peace impos- sible to over-estimate.. The British people have a great opportunity at the present time of winning Indian friend. ship. Will they rise to the occasion ?
Previous page
