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Hokitika Guardian, 16 October 1931, Page 4

Tub failure of the different groups at the India Round Table Conference to reach a solution of the communal problem is undoubtedly due to the agelong medley of antagonisms that has divided the people of India into hostile communities. India does not consist of. a compact nationality occupying a manageable territory and speaking a single language, for of its 3tio,000,000 people, 68 per cent, are Hindus, 21 per cent. Mohammedans, and the remainder a number of small minorities, For centuries the two main communities have lived side by side, though in the most essential things of life they have always kept aloof, and there is not now, and never has been, any prospect of ultimate fusion into one common race. The many serious clashes between Hindu and Mohammedan which have happened in recent years, while they may have had a religious influences, a new element that is an incidental effect of the political reforms of 1919. For, by forcing the two groat communities in India to take thought of their respective positions under a fully responsible government of a democratic type, with, its tremendously far-reaching central doctrine of government by majority, it can hardly he denied that the reforms have reinforced traditional enmities. Fp to tlm present, comments the Christchurch Times. British rule, characterised by religious toleration and equal rights for all, has prevented the oppression of any one community by any other, hut indications are not wanting that the danger from the old intolerance is still existent. It is ; that ever-present fear which prevents racial minorities in India from accepting all the imnlieations of government, by parliamentary majority. The British Gov. eminent., 'committed to introduce selfgovernment as rapidly as is practically possible, relied on the meeting of the forces of,order represented by the Government ami the princes, with the forces of hope and aspiration to reach a formula, which would unit the interests of the two mujor communities U,jjd strengthen their sense of common nationality. Failure has brought disappointment and Mr Ramsay MacDonald's statement that Britain would now he comoelled to take action is a decision of the greatest gravity.