Great Britain and India
The Round Table Conference
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.
TOE two White Papers on East Africa, issued on Friday, June 20th, furnish the evidence which was so much needed in India that the Labour Government is capable of running big risks in order to do justice to oppressed peoples of other races. The wise decisions embodied in these documents give ground for hoping that the Government will show equal courage in dealing with India and will yet find means of bringing into the Round Table Conference leaders of the Congress party, whose abstention would undoubtedly put the success of the Conference in grave peril from the outset. All that is really needed to achieve this end is an official pronouncement to the effect that, so far as concerns its own part in the Conference, the Government does not contemplate just a step in the revision of the constitution, but as great an approximation to full self-government as may be possible in the existing cir- cumstances. That some deductions from Dominion Status will for some time be necessary is admitted by all Indians, not excluding Mr. Gandhi himself. Granted a willingness on the part of the British authorities to take India as far as possible on the road to autonomy, Mr. Gandhi on his part would be found eminently reasonable in devising the necessary safeguards for the transitional period. A constitution so framed by all will obviously produce far more contentment in India, and will for that reason work far better than any, however good in itself, which results from a conference in which the most numerous and influential party in India is unable to participate. If it be true, as I believe it is, that the Labour Government is anxious to do its best for India, it would be a tragedy if it were prevented by reasons of prestige from publicly avowing its intentions in advance.
It would, however, be well to consider and provide for time contingency of such a declaration not being made and the Congress party not taking part in the deliberations of the Round Table Conference. In that event the British Govern- ment would be exposed to the serious danger of finding itself in the position of a consenting party to several provisions inserted into India's constitution against which its conscience would revolt. The opposition of all but communal and sec- tional interests in India to the Simon Commission has already driven the Government largely into the arms of the reactionary elements ; the exigencies of the present situation would drive it still more. At present only a few progressive groups like the Liberals, Nationalists and Independents have kept out of the civil disobedience campaign ; but at the Round Table Con- ference, without the support of the Congress, they would very likely be unable to hold out against the communal groups. In that case the temptation would be strong for the repre- sentatives of the British Government to agree to the proposals of the reactionaries, although on principle they would reject them. I will give here two instances to illustrate the nature of the impending danger. First, communal electorates. The Labour Party's opinion on this subject is common knowledge. It rejects communal and approves of mixed electorates. Will the representatives of the Government voice this view at the Conference ? Hard as it always would be for the Labour Party to ignore its past commitments and vote for communal electorates, it would be peculiarly hard now to do so soon after the Labour Government's decision to replace communal by common electorates in two Colonies immediately under its control—viz., Ceylon and Kenya. In both these Colonies elaborate investigations were made by Commissioners drawn equally from all parties, which ended in a unanimous record of the conclusion that communal electorates arc evil and must be scrapped. Time Simon Commission, it is true, would very probably recommend their retention in India ; but even this Commission has on merits come down emphatically on the side of the common electorates. If its recommendations point in a different direction it is mostly due just to those exigencies of the political situation of which I wish the Labour Party to beware. Anyway, it would be a position-of surpassing embarrassment to the Government to force common electo- rates down the throat of the reactionary elements in Kenya and at the same time to force communal electorates down the throat of the advanced groups in India. It may attempt one of these things ; it cannot attempt both simultaneously. Then why not establish common electorates throughout and put itself right with its conscience ? It has shown great courage in refusing unreasonable demands of the most powerful class in Kenya. It will require nmch less courage to refuse in India similar demands of a class which perhaps will loom large at the Conference, but which does not count fur the country at large. Will it show this courage ?
Take, for instance, the question of the Indian States. Their relations with the British Government arc to form a subject of discussion at the Round Table Conference. This is as it should be ; but the Princes alone are to be consulted on behalf of the States. The omission of the subjects of the States from participation in the Conference is an initial mistake which it would be hard to repair. This is not a mere academic point ; it is fraught with practical conse- quences of serious import. To the extent that Princes are made independent of the control of the suzerain power as a result of the negotiations at the Round Table Conference, they become even more autocratic than now. The general idea in the mind of the average Britisher seems to be that when British Indians arc being given wider power to manage their own affairs, the liberty which the States enjoy to manage theirs ought to be enlarged as well. This is, of course, a generous sentiment to which no exception can be taken. It should, however, be remembered that when the Government parts with power in British India the beneficiaries are the people ; but when it parts with power in Indian States, the beneficiaries are not the people, but the Princes. The political status of the States people, instead of improving, would become still more depressed by reason of accession of power to the Princes. The Labour Party of all parties can have no desire to strengthen the six hundred odd despotisms that exist in India, but it will be the inevitable consequence of any concession it may decide to make to the Princes unless it stipulates that the extended power it gives to them is given by them in their turn to the people over whom they rule. If the Princes object that the British Government can have no concern with their domestic affairs ; that after giving up its own powers it cannot regulate where they shall reside, the British Government's firm answer must be that in that case no new powers shall be given. It is not suggested here that any treaties into which the British Government has entered or any engagements it has made should be abrogated. They ought to be respected in the letterand in the spirit. But where it is a question of the British Government relaxing the control which undoubtedly belongs to it, it ought to do so only on condition that the control passes from its hands into the hands of the States people. This point of view will, it is hoped, find expression in the Conference, though not so strongly and insistently as if the people's representatives were included. It ought to receive support from the repre- sentatives of the British Government, who must make future progress in the relations between itself and the States de- pendent on the growth of popular government in the States.
Next to a declaration of the Government's intention of conferring self-government, nothing will convince Indians, who are now engaged in an agitation against it, of its good will more than the fact of its remaining loyal to its convictions at the Round Table Conference amidst numerous temptations to take a contrary course. Expediency, too, therefore really points in the same direction as principle. Will the Government he guided by this larger expediency at the Round Table
(Editor of Servant of India.)
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