A Great State Paper

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 92, 12 January 1935, Page 20

A Great State Paper

THE reports of the British Joint Committee on the government of India proposals has been described as “a great State paper.” Here is the opening statement : “British rule has given to India that which throughout the centuries she has never possessed, a Government whose authority is unquestioned in any part of the sub-Continent; it has barred the way against the foreign invader and has maintained tranquillity at home; it has established the rule of law, and by the creation of a just administration and an upright judiciary, it has secured to every subject of His Majesty in British India the right to go in peace about his daily work and to retain for his own use the fruit of his labours. “It is this very achievement in India that has created the problem which the Committee were commissioned by Parliament to consider. By transforming British India into a single unitary State, it has engendered among Indians a sense of political unity. “By giving that State a Government disinterested enough to play the part of an impartial arbiter, and powerful enough to control the disruptive forces generated by religious, racial and linguistic divisions, it has fostered the first beginnings, at least, of a sense of nationally, transcending those divisions. By establishing conditions in which the performance of the funda-

mental functions of government, the enforcement of law and order and the maintenance of an upright administration, has come to be too easily accepted as a matter of course, it has set Indians free to turn their mind to other things, and in particular to the broader economic interests of their country.

“Finally, by directing their attention towards the object lessons of British constitutional history and by accustoming the Indian student of government to express his political ideas in the English language, it has favoured the growth of a body of opinion inspired by two familiar British conceptions; that good government is not an acceptable substitute for self-government, and that the only form of self-government worthy of the name is government through Ministers responsible to an elected Legislature.

“The Indian problem cannot be understood unless the reality of these political aspirations is frankkly recognised at the outset. There is ample evidence that enlightened Indian opinion has a very just appreciation of the benefits derived from the British connection, but the attachment of a people to its government is not always determined by a dispassionate calculation of material interests, still less by sentiments of mere gratitude. “The subtle ferments of education, the impact of the War, and the beginnings of a sense of nationality, have combined to create a public opinion in India which it would be a profound error for Parliament to ignore.”