INDIA TODAY : I. CONGRESS IN OFFICE
By VISCOUNT SAMUEL
[This is the first of three articles in which Lord Samuel records some of the impressions gained during his recent visit to India] I HAVE in my memory a composite picture of the new provincial Parliaments whose meetings I attended during my recent visit to India. The benches are filled ; a few women members are to be seen here and there, and a little group of Europeans sit together. Dress is varied, but the white homespun cotton clothes and white caps of the Congress members predominate. The proceedings are in English, fluently spoken ; occasionally a member will exercise his right to speak in his mother tongue. The procedure follows closely that of Westminster. An old member of the House of Commons feels somewhat moved to hear, so many thousands of miles away, in halls shaded and cooled from the tropical heat, on the lips of parliamen- tarians of so different a race, the phrases and formulas that are very familiar : " The answer to the' first part of the question is in the negative ; the second part therefore does not arise " ; " Order, Order ! The matter raised by the Honourable Member is not proper for a Motion for Adjourn- ment " ; and so forth. The proceedings in these Parlia- ments are very orderly. The public and the Press galleries are crowded. The newspapers give full accounts of the debates.
When the elections were held last year, the whole country was deeply stirred. So keen were the candidates to secure their return that many of them spent money lavishly—there being no law to the contrary—for propaganda and for vehicles to bring the voters to the poll. The people flocked to vote ; the women, in most places, as eagerly as the men ; the percentage `tif electors voting was as high as at a British election ; and the largest expenditure seldom brought the most successful results. The political interest is still fully maintained.
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