INDIA’S HOUSE

Hokitika Guardian, 12 July 1930, Page 7

INDIA’S HOUSE

1 r\'l : ‘ v'.v' ‘THE KING’S SPEECH

; (Otago “ Daily Times.”) It was a sound psychology and not mere, opportunism that led the present British Government to ask the services of his Majesty the King at the opening of the new India House and to arjrange for the broadcasting of his address on that occasion. There is stil' something in kingship, and there is still something of a mana in kingship that j has a. peculiar sigr.(ficance in India and as part of a phj’schological make-up, as real as it may be contradictory, in which a reverence for kipgship may be combined with an intense desire for self-government or evbn ’ independence. In the old Hindu view, kings were to; be accepted as holding their office by divine right, and they used to he accorded the honours due to divinity. The idea is by no means dead in India to-day, and it is occasionally reflected iin the ceremonies of certain native States. Recently Lord Irwin, as the King's representative, passed on a tour through one of the oldest and most conservative States in South India, that of Travancore, a little selfcontained ; Hindu State in the extreme south—“little,” that is, in territorial area, but with a population as large as that of New Zealand.

; The welcome he received there, up to the.point of reverence, was embarrassing in its wholeheartedness and unanimity, and this fact may be taken a's a curious commentary on the difference in atmosphere in the Indian States, where a modified autocracy still prevails, as compared with British India. • And, despite the unrest mingled with -.bitterness that prevails over a large section of British India to-day, few things were more striking than the intense concern that prevailed throughout;: the.i.couhtry during the critical phases-of .the King’s recent illness. \ In Jain, Buddist and Parsee temples great stronghold of Hindu conservatism in the south, and in MolianiTppdah mosques, prayers < and sacrifjce of intercession were made repeatedly,'and, at the happy issue, voices of India’s many tongues were raised in. public thanksgiving. -‘ India,” .it was stated' recently, ‘‘ believes •'inland understands kingship, Whereas. she got from us the. alternating currents of the British party systern arid five-year tenure of officialdom.” ’ ■■

The day?.may not, be far removed when A'vA,’ J rrice-plroud, race-conscious India further than she it iat 'present from the; influof ncpidents ;and cross-currents-of changing;.par ties in-England. r Lord Irwin, ’ijfc*a frecent address ,to the L«gisiatiy^Wssemblyrfgaye < ' to the pembersipfethat body,' - .arid through a solemn assurance •that, did he not believe that full and

responsible self-government .was the natural and inevitable development of

the Government of India, he would not be then standing before them as Gov-ernor-General. This assurance he fur* idler underlined in his famous statement of last November declaring dominion status to be the unalterable gaol of British policy.

The present dignified utterance from the mouthpiece of Empire, at a time when there is need of the co-opera-tion of loyal India in the momentous issues to he faced in the coining October conference, is an appeal for the continuation of a hand-clasp between East and West in facing the great administration problems not only of r >itish but of All India. Restoration of, the - ‘“gift of true Understanding ” will continue to he obstructed by that section of India which has already renudiated its own first acceptance of the Viceroy’s offer, and acceptance it hedged round'with impossible “conditions.”

But there is no doubt that the conference will be welcomed by Mohammedan India, that solid block of seventy million people, knit together in a first and primary loyalty to Islam, which is viewing with increasing coldness and alarm the subversive activities ofthat predominatingly Hindu body, the' Congress. Mohammedan opinion; may he guaged by the following striking utterance of Dr Sahrawardy, a member of the Indian Central Committee, which worked parallel with the Simon Commission.

“Withdraw the Conference offer, if the boycotters do not wish to avail themselves of it, and proceed straight to setting up the Joint Parliamentary Committe and save much valuable time.” From the same source there is this further comment: “Those who believe ,in the sincerity of purpose of the Viceroy and the Secretary df State and their earnest desire to accelerate constitutional advancement on the road to the goal of the highest form of dominion status cannot hut view with the profoundest regret the present policy of Mr Ghandi, which is bound to end in disaster.

' It is a pity that the hand of fellowship''extended by.the Government towards Indian Nationalism has been rudely rejected and the perversity of fate arid India’s destiny have turned f he olive branch of peace and goodwill into a sourge of thorns’ and scorpions”’ The King’s speech, too, will be welcomed by the Indian princes who are beginning to realise that the time has passed when they can remain in splendid isolation. The progress and prosperity as well as the peacie of their domains are intimately bound up with that of British India.

Their loyalty to the Crown is undiiriinished. Indeed, the only thing .likely to shake it is fear that the Government of British India will be stampeded: into a too-hasty devolution of power into the hands of Brahmin lawyei’jpoliticians. The attitude of Liberal India, ns voiced usually by Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru, has been uncertain and wavering of late. The influence of Ghandi with the easily swayed masses'is so great that, opposed as they are to the movement of civil disobedience, they will give probably only a

half-hearted support to the conference. The Liberal Party in India is still embarrassed by its boycott of the Simon Commission, a boycott some are now regretting, They may yet come down on the side of the conference.