THE NELSON EVENING MAIL FRIDAY, JANUARY 16, 1931 THE AGA KHAN’S ULTIMATUM

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 16 January 1931, Page 4

THE NELSON EVENING MAIL FRIDAY, JANUARY 16, 1931 THE AGA KHAN’S ULTIMATUM

THE fact that the Aga Khan, the spiritual head of the Indian Moslems, has declared that unless the British Premier’s forthcoming statement of policy “includes satisfactory safeguards of the Moslem community, the Moslems will dissociate themselves from the findings of the Conference,” is the most dramatic incident of the Round-Table Conference. Touching the important matter of the protection of minorities, the Report of the Simon Commission said: On the one hand, communal representation is an undoubted obstacle in the way of the growth of a sense of common citizenship. On the other hand, we are now faced, as the authors of the Montagu-Chelmsford Report were faced, by the indisputable fact that the Mohammedan community as a whole is not prepared to give up communal representation, and would regard its abolition, without the assent of that community, not only as the withdrawal of a security which it prizes, but as a cancelling of assurances UDon which it has relied. Whatever view may be taken of the Mohammedan objection, the fact itself cannot be disputed, and it is one of the greatest possible gravity for all who are engaged in considering the constitutional future of British India. . . . In British India, the Hindus outnumber tlie Moslems probably by two to one, and on a simple electoral basis would be able to out-vote them every time and, as tlie voting would certainly be on religious lines, the Moslems would become subordinate to the Hindus. Therefore the Moslems demand satisfactory safeguards which shall allow them a representation in the Federal and Pi'ovincial Parliaments which shall be commensurate with their numbers. This they would get with the communal system of representation, and that is the system which the Simon Report would appear to wish to have retained. As is known, Mr MacDonald scrapped the Simon Report, and has eliminated it as the fundamental guide of the Conference, and so apparently the Hindu delegates have been able to proceed as though communal representation were to be abolished. But the Simon Report dealt with the rights of other minorities. It proposed to preserve tlie separate electorates for the Sikhs, and those too seem to be abolished by tlie Conference. It also made recommendations for tlie representation of tlie depressed classes (the “Untouchables”), and put forward suggestions for the representations of other special classes and interests, such as Europeans, AngloIndians —by which is probably meant Eurasians—lndian Christians, universities, commerce, labour, etc. The valuable work of the Statutory Commission, presided over by Sir John Simon, counted for little with Mr MacDonald, who at the opening of the Round-Table Conference, gave the delegates their head, with the result, it would seem, that the Hindus have dominated the proceedings, greatly to the detriment of minorities.

It is a foregone conclusion that the Moslems will never consent to be placed under the heels of the Hindus, and that unless the question, raised by the Aga Khan, is settled satisfactorily, the proposed constitutional changes in India will prove to he an absolute and disastrous failure. Indeed, unless those changes provide for the healing of the immemorial antagonism of the Hindus and Moslems, the new Constitution is likely to plunge British India into strife and bloodshed on a scale unprecedented under British rule. It remains to be seen what steps Mr MacDonald will take to avert the impasse which seems to have been created by his ignoring the recommendations of the Simon Report. It would be a fatal step to allow the Moslem delegates to go away in umbrage, since no Constitution can function in India if the seventy million Moslems there do not subscribe to it. If the British Premier cannot handle the situation for which he is largely responsible, perhaps the British Parliament will be able to do so. That body will certainly desire to see that the Moslems and other minorities, some of whom we have mentioned, are safeguarded satisfactorily under the new Constitution which shall be extended to British India. If the Moslems dissociate themselves from the findings of the Conference, the Conference fails. In which case, it would be difficult for the British Government to meet Parliament with any degree of equanimity.