AGITATION IN INDIA

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 57, 1 December 1920, Page 7

AGITATION IN INDIA

MR. GHANDI'S SCHEMES THE CALIPHATE QUESTION Mr. N. M. Sainarth, a .distinguished lawyer and publicist, of Bombay, 'and a prominent member of the Moderate Eeiorm Party in India—ho loundcd the Indian Eelorms Committee—who is now in England, contributes to the October issue of the "Asiatic Preview" an interesting articlo on the non-co-operation agitation in India, and Mr. Ghandi's connection therewith. Mr. Ghandi, he declares, is not an Extremist in tho seuse in -which that term is generally applied and understood in Indian politics. "He is an idealist, pure and simple—an idealist with an unshakable faith in adamantine 'soul-force';lis the only force opposed to physical force which can make the most powerful Government, however stern and unbending, to yield to the dictates of justice, as he conceives it. His strength lies in his transparent sincerity and honesty of purpose, and his unflinching determination to practise what he preaches at all risks and at all hazards. His weakness lies in the fallacy of his supposition that the vast mass of tho peoplo can be trusted to imbibe his doctrines of peaceful aloofness from Government without transgressing the limits of law nnd order. Further, it lies in the inherent impracticablenegs of his concrete proposals, notably the boycotting of the Courts by lawyers and of foreign goods by tho public generally, and the withdrawing of boys and girls from schools nnd colleges. His proposal, which he puts in the forefront of his programme, that tho reformed Legislative Councils should be boycottod, may succeed for a- while, and to some extent in certain quarters. But the vast bulk of the thinking public in India is not going to be guided in this matter by Mr. Ghandi's suicidal policy of not availing themselves of tho opportunities which the Reform Act 1 throws open to Indian talent and Indian capacity to further the growth of Parliamentary institutions' in India; to have control of the adminstrative machine from within and to utilise it to the best advantage for the welfare and uplift of their own countrymen, so as to justify and securo complete, responsible government as rapidly as possible. Mr. Ghandi's programme and- activity, therefore, need not cause undue' anxiety and apprehension on the part of the authorities in India, and betray .them into any indiscreet action, of n repressive character. The fact that his programme has been ■endorsed by a majority vote of those who were present at the time .of voting at the special congress—for more than half of the registered delegates absented themselves ■ when the vote was taken— does not necessarily mean that the people at large or even the bulk of those who voted in his favour are going to carry out hia programme." After pointing out the factors which militate* against the acceptance in practice of Mr. Gandhi's programme by the people at large, Mr. Samarvh dec-lares with reforence to tho Caliphate question, that Mr. Gandhi found in this an excellent opportunity to enlist Moslem opinion in favour of his favourite panacea. "It is idle to deny that.Moslem feeling in ludia has 'been embittered by the way in which Turkey has been dealt witli by the Allied Powers in the Pence Treaty. . .

If this wero tho only handle available to those who are creating discontent in India, the agitation would hnvo soon subsided. But, unfortunately, there are other circumstances which have given rise to a general feeling of indignation against_ the Government of India nnd the British Government. Tho foremost among them is tho Punjab affair. The attacks made on Mr. Montagu in'the House of. Commons nnd in a certain soction of 'the British Press in connection with the Dyer debate; the voto of the House of Lords in favour of General Dyer: the funds raised in England and by certain European ladies and gentlemen in India to present a purse to General Dyer, and the considerable amount thus collected, the lavish praise bestowed by the British Cabinet on Sir Michael O'Dwypr, whose iron rule in the Punjab made the iron enter the soul of the peoplo in that province: and the failure of the Government of India to mete out adequate punishment to those Punjab otiiciajs who were guilty of excesses, and whose punishment was promised in the Cabinet's dispatch on (he Hunter Committee's report—all these have produced a general* feeling of resentment among nil sections of the Indian public. Add to these the grievances of Indians in South Africa and East Africa, and the perpetuation of their unfair treatment based on racial grounds, and the tendency of the Government of Indin to provoke even moderate public opinion against it by its arbitrary and despotic action now and again—and these, iipart from the events in Egypt' and in Ireland, will explain the unfortunate, but bv no means unjustifiable, tension of feeling which has been gradually brought about among generally all classes of the people in India, and it is this state of things upon which Gandhism as well ns extremism work and thrive. And they will continue to thrive so long as this state of things is not radically remedied. No radical remedy is possible unless n broad-minded statesman of tho Cannine-Ripon-Hardinge tyne is sent out to India to succeed Lord Chelmsford; and. further, unless the present Secretary of State Tor Indin, whose splendid work, iin-niiist heavy odds and amidst tremendous difficulties, on behalf of India lias won for him the esteem, regard, and admir.i(ion of all those who are not blinded by prejudice, is given nn absolutely free hand bv the British Cabinet to improve Iho situation bv pursuing a wise, courageoun, and sympathetic policy, -and. in regard to the status and trelrSnont of Indians in the Dominions and colonies, proposing a solution compatible with the rights of Indian« as King's equal subjects which the British Cabinet should not hes-taty. In enforce in any part of the BrTfish Commonwealth in fawn* of India wh nl, is now n member In Ker own right of I he Ton»np "f Nations. Until an ntmosphoro of genuine good-will, lelow-foding, symjinMiy .--nil confidence in Bntlsil sense oi fairness and justice In regard to Indian i.spiratio'is and demands is created, there is HtUo hope, I fear, of a substantial improvement in tho tone and mood of u largo section of too Indian public.