POSITION OF INDIAN NATIVES

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 13, 7 September 1931, Page 6

POSITION OF INDIAN NATIVES

SHOULD MANAGE OWN AFFAIRS ANNIE BESANT GIVES HER VIEWS ON ; « INDIAN PROBLEM GROWING POVERTY The practical, political and economlc reasons why India desires to manage her own affairs have never been met konestly, The extreme Impatience in India at the moment is caused hy the growing poverty and actual hunger of th£ raasses; ^seventy millions were 'said, by an English offlcial, never to know what it was not to be hungry. Indians are starving slowly, a*nd hungry people do not argue — they rise. Make no mistake, this race between patience and- poverty must end soon, or revolution will be the inevitahle outcome. Indians hy nature and character are averse to taking violent action, and it is for this reason that they have adopted the'method of the boycott, a peaceful method of protest and one which appeals at least to the economic sense of those wb,o are responsible. Of course the brealting of the Salt Law' might be termed violence by some wishing to make any exouse to put Indians in the wrong, but the Salt Law brings oppressi'on' home to every, cottage, and thus falls he.avily on' huge numbers of already impoverished people. It should immediately be abolished. Army of Occupatlon. Then again, continual resentment is caused by the presence of the Army in India. It is an Army of Occupation, nothing less. Indians are not allowed'to offxcer the Air Force, or even to receive- training in the Air Force or in the Artillery — the two arms of chief use in modern warfare. It is significant, and Indians are not slow to realise the situation. The army is in- occupation to protect the vested interests of forelgners, not for the protection of the' rights, economic or political, of Indians. The Great War saw British and Indians ' flghting side by side, hrothers in battle, against a foe of Brltain, and the promise which induced this close comradeship was Self-Government. India lost a million men for the promised liberty. Millions of relatives of fallen Indian heroes are to-day asking how long they still have to wait for England to make good her promise I Why does India wish to manage her own affairs ? It is not unnatural surely that a nation should wish to manage its own business, and be mistress of its own household. There are very great reasons for the proposed change. There is the intolerable condition to which the Indian is reduced when he flnds himself.ln an atmosphere of inferiority in hls own country. An Absupd Aliegation. It is urged that the Indians have no genius for self-government. That is absurd. Indians were trying experiments in different forms of government as far back as the time of Alexander of Greece, when Britons roamed their forests dressed in woad. It is particularly in graded government from the village upwards that the Indians showed their capacity for self-government. Since the dawn of history until A.D. 1816 the village' system of government lasted, and was unrivalled in its permanence in any part of the world. This system of village government disappeared owing to British rule, but the essential spirit remains, and re-asserts itself anew in the present demand for dominion status.

Rallways and Education. • Few people in England have any idea of the extreme poverty in India at the present time. It began in the ea.rly days, hefore 1858, in the days of the East India Gompany, when their agents like Clive and Warren Hastings plundered unchecked. Since then, un-*' der an autocratic Gentral Government, the land revenue has increased so much that the agricultural workers of India are in hopeless debt, increasing year by year, as they earn less than they spend, and money for food and clothes is largely got by borrowing. The land revenue not only takes away all the proflts the labourer can make, but trenches on his very suhsistence. The Indian railways is another example of vested interest at the expense of the Indian taxpayer. The railways have mostly been built from British capital. In the early days the interest on the capital was guaranteed • by the Government, and paid out Of taxes. Not only that; if the shares went down the Government hought these up at par, so that the British capitalist might not lose. On the other hand, irrigation, which is a matter of life and death to the Indian agriculturist, has often been starved of money for proper and practical development. Take the matter. of education for Indians. The Indian Army on. a peace footing costs about 22 million pounds a year. Education does not rost one-twentieth of that sum. Yet we in England speak of the Indians as being under-educated. They never get a decient chance; too much of the money goes to keeping up an army of occnunt.inn.

The -question of catton is another case of flagrant injustice done to the Indians. Protection to Lancashire "by the cotton excise destroyed India's cotton trade. At one time India was a country with an enormous foreign trade in calicoes, muslins, silks and woven fabrics. The English market was supplied with Indian cotton goods. The Lancashire mill indus.try wanted to grow, and Parliament passed laws putting a heavy duty on Indian cotton goods, and made it penal to import cotton goods from India, punishing those who brought them to England and those who purchased Them. Lancashire's trade was protected; it grew to great wealth, then the policy was changed to freetrade when England wanted a world market, and India's trade was ruined. Further, the Indian cotton cultivators were pressed to grow long-staple cotton, which suits the manufacturers to use in machines in the mills of India, and the cultivators have now to grow the long instead of the shortsiaple cotton which"1 suited their own handloom workers. Injustice and exploitation could go no farther. Complete Jndependenc© Undesirable. Yet I sincerely believe that the union between Britain and India is vital for he welfare of both. Together they can do far more than the total product of both of them working apart. I know that Tndia.'if she insisted upon oomplete independence, would be at the mercy of some other invading nation. She would have Japari, China, Russia, nr the trihes of Gentral Asia overrunning her. But what would Britain do,- without India? What would Australia or New Zealand do without India-? India is the vital link in the British Empire. Is it wise statesmanship to drive In-

dia to desperation, as we are doing at present? Is it wise to vacillate and lov with her future in economics or politics? Is it wise to tell her by our conduct that we help.all peoples except Indians who wish for self-de-termination? These questions demand an immediate answer; they are a challenge to Ihe goodwill and the good name of !he. British people. England and India are better together than separate. Make freedom possible for India, the only country in the world where freedom can be won hy reform and not hy revolution. India and England can lceep the world at peace; they can make a growing friendship between Europe and Asia, with its constant promise of trade expansion ixnd economic prosperity. Patience Running Out. With the experience of many years spent working in India I know that at the moment the sands of patience are running low; her patience is almost exhausted, arid poverty is breeding extremism and distrust of British inlentions. When India's patience is exhausted, then nothing that rnan can devise will keep her within the Empire, which must become a Gommonwe'alth. But I still believe that the vast majority of the British people who know so little of the truth about India wish to "play the game," to give her tjie same opportunity of dominion se II- government as has been granted to the British Dominions. This aocumulated public opinion and goodwill is bound to make itself felt against the hard crust of government, offioialdom, and vested'interests, and the time will soon come, I hope, when, India shall have the same equal opportunity of becoming a nation.