Correspondence
A Letter from Bombay
(To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sta, We left London at the close of the Round Table Conference full Of hope. The Conference had laid the broad foundations of the future Indian Commonwealth, united in a single Federation. The Prime Minister, speaking with full authority, 'demonstrated that the formation of the National Government had not weakened by one iota the guarantees on which the Conference had worked. Later we learnt that Parliament, despite the appeal of the demagogue to passion and .prejudice, had approved this policy. All that was left was to go full steam ahead and implement this work through the committees to which the filling in of the picture was entrusted.
And now ? The whole country is under the rule of Ordinances which deluge the ordinary law and arm the executive with what is virtually illimitable power. The Government is at grips with the Indian National Congress, and is using these exceptional means to break up its organi- zation, root and branch. Mr. Gandhi is in custody under the regulation which enables the authorities to hold anyone in indefinite restraint without reason assigned and without trial. Most of his lieutenants are in gaol, and many of the smaller fry are being hustled to prison. IVO' may we, contrasting the scene as we left it in London with the scene as we find it in India, ask, Where go we and whither ?
• Could the situation have been saved ? I have met no responsible person, British or Indian. who doubts that the Ordinances were necessary in Bengal. The Murder Gang had gained such a hold on the province that, if the Government had not protected the British community, they would have taken the law into their own hands. Calcutta and some of the ntofussil centres were armed camps, and, if the Congress disapproved of assassination, it did nothing to control it. No responsible person doubts that the Ordinances were necessary in the .Frontier Province ; for various causes, into some of which it is kinder to the administration not to enter, either the Red Shirts had to be crushed or the Govermnent to abdicate. In the United Provinces the difficult agrarian situation was being nakedly exploited by the Congress for political gain, and, having acted generously to the tenants both in land revenue and rent, the Government dealt firmly with the no-rent campaign, backed by the whole force of Liberal opinion. In Bombay the Congress organs were shrieking of the dishonesty of the Imperial Government and the failure of the Conference, and exhorting the people to prepare for a conflict in Gujerat and every other part of the province. The inevitable clash with the forces of disorder represented by the Congress had come.; everyone knew that it could not have been avoided and the only question was one of time.
Could it have been postponed, and could Mr. Gandhi's great personal influence have been separated from the Congress revolution ? Nine out of ten Indians you meet here will say Yes : that Mr. Gandhi returned with the sincere desire to co-operate, and was barred by the refusal of Lord Willingdon to discuss the situation with him, when he would have thrown in his lot with those working to complete the work of the Conference. There is another side to the medal.
When Mr. Gandhi landed he declared to me and others that be would strain every nerve to maintain the attitude of .co-operation. There is, however, that sinister interview with an Italian 'journalist breathing of hot civil Arm which was never satisfactorily explained. Them is the tmanswerable fact that he was surrounded by influences determined that he should not co-operate. Mr. Bose, to whom Mr. Gandhi used strong language anent the murder campaign in Bengal, said that if Mr. Gandhi did not come in with them they would launch civil disobedience alone. Mr. Jarwal Nehru delibe- rately 'precipitated arrest so that his nominal leader should find his 'hands forced. Others worked on a mind obsessed by the Ordinances to drive him into political outlawry. Mr. Gandhi could co-operate in the work- of reform only by breaking with the Congress. He has made such a fetish of that organization that .few agree that he would have had the courage to do so. He placed, the interests of Congress before
those of the country ; he precipitated a conflict inevitable in any circumstances ; many feel that, as it had to come, the sooner it came the better.
The issue being joined, it must be seen through. Hard and bitter as the doctrine may seem, half-measures will prolong the agony. So far the effects have been less disturbing than anticipated. Here in the hot-bed of the civil disobedience movement we pursue the even tenor of our ways. Some of time markets are closed, but business is done sub rosa ; a few shops are picketed ; occasionally a few score folk, largely boys, gather for a protest meeting. The numfassii is amazingly quiet. The Congress organization is paralysed, at any rate for the time, and the people are sick to death of civil dis- obedience. 'What the future holds we know not, but the immediate situation is one of comparative calm, and in other provinces it is improving.
The danger is less from Congress than from the Ordinances. They arm the Executive with tremendous power ; too much power is bad for any man, particularly in an Eastern country. The Indian people are emotional and sensitive ; if the administration of the Ordinances leaves bitterness behind, the ill effects will linger for a generation. The great task is to see that, whilst directed with prompt effectiveness against lawbreakers, the Ordinances shall not humiliate anybody, nor breed fear in the Is of honest citizens.
If one looks at the situation without prejudice, this conflict with the revolutionary aims of Congrzsms was clearly forced on the Government. Mr. Gandhi might have weakened it by throwing his influence on the side of co-operation, but his colleagues were resolute that he should not, and he had not the courage to break with them. It is a bad atmosphere in which to pursue the task of building up the responsible federal Goventnwnt for India, but that must be done. At the moment—it is well to be cautious—the prospects are undoubtedly better than we dared anticipate.—I am, Sir, &v.,
Bombay. YOt-a 130m HAY CORREspONDEIST.
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