Great Britain and India

The Perils of Isolation

The purpose of this page is to ventilate that moderate Indian- opinion which, recognizing 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.

[There can be no one more qualified to voice Indian aspirations than the writer of this article, the Rev. C. F. Andrews. We welcome him, therefore, to this page—reserved though it is, strictly speaking, for Indians. Mr. Andrews is a personal friend of Mahatma Gandhi and also of Rabindranath Tagore.—En. Spectator.]

THE difficulties inherent in the rule of one race over another, which have made foreign domination in every age the symbol of something that is to be resisted, have recently become

accentuated in India. In spite of undoubted benefits which have accrued both to India and Great Britain in the past, owing to their close interrelation, it has become evident to-day that Indian national life is now seeking with almost feverish haste, its own undivided expression. It resents with an entirely new vehemence any further interference from the British element within its own borders. It has left alto- gether behind the region of gifts and boons offered by a patronizing superior : it demands equality of status as its own inherent right.

This intense resentment would hardly have arisen with such ardour of non-co-operation if the British rulers in their daily social practice had assimilated their own ways of living in the East more closely to those of the Indian people. The Moghul Emperors were themselves foreigners from Central Asia, and their religion was alien from Hinduism ; but from the first they kept up a fine tradition of racial assimilation. As a reward, they received a loyalty from the Hindus which stood them in good stead in times of adversity.

This friendly Indian relation to those who come from without reveals the fact that ancient India had its own distinct religious attitude of hospitality towards other races. The old Hindu saying, that "God comes to man in human form through the advent of a guest," had shaped social practice and left its deep impression on Hindu civilization. Amid many strange aberrations caused by caste restrictions, some of which have led to very great evils, a tolerance had grown up between man and man, which could at the same time acknow- ledge differences of status. The One Supreme had to be sought in and through the Many. The devotee, who could realize all men in himself and himself in all creation, had already attained salvation. This was the old Hindu doctrine. Since rebirth was postulated, wherein things that were unequal in the present incarnation might be made good in the next, there was no immediate haste to change from one rank to another. Such a theory of human society was obviously in- complete, but it made for stability and peace.

The British traders, who first settled in' India under the Company, had attempted some forms of assimilation. The voyage back to England was difficult. The cold hill climate of India in the North was as yet hardly explored. There were grave evils connected with this earlier settlement ; for English women were few and concubinage was common. But there was a human side to it, which made it draw near to the Indian people. Nevertheless, by slow degrees, the two races decided more and more to live apart. So obstructive became this barrier at last, and so pronounced was the colour bar created, that to-day any fraternization is almost the exception. If

this judgment is regarded as too harsh, I can only answer that it is based on nearly thirty years' disheartening experience. The majority of those who go. out from England to India come

sooner or later to take pride in their splendid isOlation.

Thus the British, speaking in general terms, have now settled down in India to- live apart ; - they keep up a kind of garrison or club life of their own, very nearly as exclusively

as they do in East Africa. In spite of admirable efforts to break down the middle wall of partition, it remains still impregnable. In consequence, a bitterness has sprung up which is increasing rather than diminishing. Mutual recrimin- ation has beeome endemic. When trouble arises, the fear

complex is all too prevalent among those who thus jive in their own isolated circles.

Herein lies one of the very greatest and gravest evils in the present Indian situation. Therefore it was with the utmost anxiety that I turned to the two volumes of the Simon Report. That they would ignore it, seemed to me quite impossible ; for they themselves, by the very fact of their appointment as a purely British Commission, had in- curred the odium of this racial discrimination. It is now common property that they were generally boycotted, and the boycott never broke down. With very great regret, therefore, I have noticed, that there is hardly even an allusion to this exceptionally grave state of affairs.

Nearly two years ago, the poet Rabindranath Tagore, whose mind is essentially international, urged me to return to my own people in order to make known the disaster that was impending owing to this breach of human intercourse. "When I was a boy," he said to me, "the respect for the Englishman in India was marked. There was a moral prestige which we all acknowledged. Now, however, this has vanished and a positive dislike is taking its place."

To me, personally, the most disappointing sentence in the whole Simon Report was that at the top of page 68, Part II :— " As to European representation, this must continue to be secured by means of separate electorates." This appears to imply that the Europeans still desire in India a privileged and

exclusive position. C. F. ANDREWS.

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The article to appear on this page next week will be written by Mr. S. G. Vase, Editor of the "Servant of India." We append an interesting record by a missionary of the majority opinion of a gathering of some twenty-five Indian members of the Student Christian Movement Committee

"There are times when shock tactics are necessary. Great Britain has never taken the trouble to understand us, notoriously an Indian night has been an off-night in the House of Commons. Apparently it is only by the creation, for a time, of disordi3r, that we can make the people of Britain realize that certain changes are necessary and right in India as in other parts of the world. We are no longer satisfied with the arrangements under which we are governed-:--the machinery heeds to be brought' up to date to meet the needs of the present day, of a people who are growing and developing. It is true that only a very small minority of our people are intelligently interested in politics, but can that not also be said of every other country ? What proportion of ifie people of England have any adequate understanding of the questions on which they are asked to vote ? Has not such measure of capacity for intelligent voting. as English people now possess been attained very gradually since the Reform Act 1—People are gradually learning to use their political power by posseasyng it. No one can learn to be a carpenter unleis the tools are put in his hands. . . Increasing political interest shows itself sometimes in strange, uncouth, unhappy ways—let us be thankful anyway that interest exists and increases. . Greater responsibility would induce more poise and stability. India isn't the only country ivhere-riOts have been used to express a desire for political change— the Reform Bill was passed amid rioting. And Women's Suffrage ! How can anyone seriously suppose that we can remain content to have a foreign army of occupation, misting a quarter of our revenue, permanently among .us ? It Is kept here not only for frontier defence and police purposes, but for the convenience of other parts of the Empire, which we are not permitted to enter !

When one expresses regret that after Lord Irwin's state- ment last autumn, Gandhi- and the Congress people didn't come in and meet the Government and welcome its change of tone, this is the sort of answer that comes :— We thought for a moment that we could. Then camo. the storm of protest in England—the opposition of Lord Reading and Lloyd George and Lord .Birkenhead, and of the most widely read newspapers ; it • became evident that public opinion in Britain was not behind the Viceroy-at any moment some domestic crisis in British politics might arise and bring about a change in Govern- ment. At the moment we .have a aple,ndid :Viceroy and apparently

▪ sympathetic Secretary of State and Government, but we kinitv

that there is It great mass of opinion in *England again tit their .policy and at any moment that opinion may prevail. We should .• co-operating new if we had believed the. :Viceroy's ..statement to represent, the deliberat4.3, informed decision of, the peoplo.Of Britain as a whole,"

C. G. E. '