THE INDIAN SCENE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 1, 9 January 1942, Page 6

THE INDIAN SCENE

OMENS ARE FAVOURABLE

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE ENIGMA

Reports received in London of the announcement in the Legislative Assembly in Delhi that the I'ndian Government is giving careful consideration to the question of the rer lease of prisoners detained for acts of civil disobedience has been commented upon in The Times, London.

The newspaper says: "It would be idle to pretend that this single move, however well conceived or well received, will solve the deeprooted and complex problems, or even that the omens of good reception are all favourable.

"Mr Gandhi has not made things easier by stating that the release of the prisoners will make no difference to his jjolicy. However, the pacifist campaign, which lias now been in progress for 13 months, has been made more and more unreal by the growing Indian detestation of the Nazi creed and growing apprehension of the political consequences to India of an Axis victory, and it has not slowed down India's effective contribution, military and industrial, to' the Allied cause.

"Mr Gandhi has declared that lie will do nothing to embarrass the British Government in its conduct of the war and he has refused to countenance the demand of a few hotheads for mass civil disobedience. New constructive efforts on the part of the British Government, of which the release of the prisoners would serve as a token and first instalment, would go far to convince Indian opinion as a whole that a policy of selective civil disobedience is equally incompatible with Mr Gandhi's declared object and with long-term Indian interests."