Letters to the Editor
GREAT BRITAIN AND INDIA
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sm,—Izzat is what India really wants. She wants prestige, position in the world, status. That is why she seized so quickly on the term " Dominion status." She wants the position in the world—the izzat—that Canada and Australia are accorded.
Now, her i--"at she must in the main win for herself. And she has indeed been greatly enhancing it during the last twenty or thirty years. She is making a big position for herself. Iler sons are making it fur her. Poets like Tagore, saints like Gandhi, statesmen like5rinivasa Sastri, philosophers like Radhakrishnan, scientists like Sir JagadisBose, cricketers like Dhuleep, are all of them making a name for India in the great world. They are bringing her izzat.
But if India must do most for herself, and must refrain (now that she is so prominently in the world's eye) from inepti- tudes, like burning the Simon Report, which lower her in world esteem, we also can help her. And we should be wise to raise India's prestige, for the greater hers the greater ours. And we have in actual fact done some big things for India. We have not only definitely announced that the ultimate aim of our policy is the grant of responsible self-government, but we have also taken long steps in that direction.
Can we do anything more for the izzat of India—anything more apart from the Reforms themselves ? I think that we can. We have already said that the goal is responsible govern- ment. But we have always added : within the Empire. I would leave it to India to say that—if she wishes. It is scarcely courteous to say it ourselves. After what India did for the Empire in the Great War our sense of what is fit and gracious should surely make us leave the word with her. When she is able to govern herself and has responsible government we would hardly force her against her own wilt to remain within the Empire. Then why not recognize that fact ? Why not give up talking of " within the Empire " ? Surely the fitting thing to do is to leave her to say for herself whether or no she will remain within the Empire ?
Certainly she should be made aware that so long as she remains within the Empire the defence of her frontier by land and her coasts by sea is regarded by us as a matter of Imperial concern, and that if she wishes to make it her own and sole concern she would have to provide herself with naval, military, and air forces adequate to the purpose and with the High Command to direct them. But if she is to have responsible government surely she should also have the responsibility of deciding whether she would accept or reject the advantages of being included within the Empire ?
So what I would suggest is that in the Preamble of the new Government of India Act the words " as an integral part of Our Empire," which occur in the Preamble of the present Act, should not be repeated. Instead, words might be inserted declaring that when India has achieved responsible self- government the Princes and people of India shall be left to decide for themselves whether India should remain an integral part of the Empire or commence a completely independent life.
Critics will say that great risk will be involved in such an announcement. Doubtless it will. We can do nothing in India that will not involve risk. And to do nothing would involve us in the greatest risk of all. What then shall we do ? That thing which is the least risky ? Certainly not. Safety first is good enough for London streets, but not for Imperial affairs. What we have to do is the right thing. And the right thing is that which conduces to the highest good ; that which brings both India and Great Britain honour among the nations. And what brings India and Great Britain honour among the nations is the knowledge and feeling that England has no desire or intention merely to dominate India, and that India, if she remains an integral part of the British Empire, remains there of her own free will and accord.
This much we can do to aid India in raising her izzat in the world. And we should not do less. Again I say, India's izzat is our izzat. We rise and fall together.—I am, Sir, &c., FRANCIS YOLTNGIIVSBAND.
Travellers' Club, Pall Mall.
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