India’s Great Problem

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 994, 10 June 1930, Page 9

India’s Great Problem

CONFLICT OF RACIAL CREED Simon Commission’s Report SELF-GOVERNMENT ULTIMATE GOAL Official Wireless Received Noon. RUGBY, Monday. AFTER an inquiry lasting two and a-half years, the Indian Statutory Commission, on which all three political parties are represented and over which Sir John Simon ju-e----sided, has submitted a unanimous report. It was appointed to inquire into and report upon the working of the system of government, the growth of education and the development of representative institutions in British India.

Two visits were paid to India. The Commissioners travelled about 7,000 miles on the preliminary visits and about 14,000 miles on the second visit. They received numerous deputations and collected from the provincial Governments and other sources a vast amount of memoranda and material, which are being published in supplementary volumes. Eight out of the nine Provincial Legislatures appointed committees to collaborate with the Commission and the Viceroy appointed the Indian Central Committee, composed of members of the Council of State and the Legislative Assembly for the same purpose in the Governor’s provinces. All evidence was taken by the joint conference of the Statutory Commission, the Indian Central Committee and the Provincial Committee sitting together. The report is in two volumes. Volume I. now issued, occupies over 400 pages and discusses the conditions of the problem, the existing constitutional structure, the working of the reformed constitution, the administrative and judicial system of public finance, and the growth of education in British India. The second volume, dealing with future developments, will present the Commission’s conclusions and recommendations, it will be published on June 24. This method of issuing the report was chosen by the Commissioners to permit a survey of the problems to be digested before their recommendations were judged. BRITAIN'S OBJECT A conference or representatives of the British India and the Indian States which was called on Sir John Simon’s suggestion arter the publication of the report, will take place in London on October 20. Discussing the prescribed goal of British Indian policy, the Commissioners stated: “On the one hand the progressive realisation of responsible Government in British India as an integral part of the British Empire is a fixed object, to the attainment of which, in co-operation with the Indian peoples themselves, British Policy stands pledged, and the obstacles in the way cannot be treated as defeating that object or as affording any discharge from its pursuit. “They are of so formidable a character that no opinion as to what should now be done is worth anything at all until they are duly appreciated: but whatever the obstacles the object stands as the declared goal of British Indian policy. "On the other hand it is equaaly part and parcel of the pronouncements of 1917 and 1919 that progress in the attainment of this avowed object can only be achieved by successive stages, that the time and manner of each advance can be determined only by Parliament, upon whom the responsibity lies for the welfare and advancement of the Indian Peoples, and that in the development of the purpose, the decision as to the immediate future must largely depend upon a just estimate of the results and consequences of the steps already taken. OBSCURE FACTORS “Our own task is not to decide, but to report, to the King-Emperor and to Parliament. “In the steps that will follow before a decision is reached, there will be full opportunity for a contribution of views of every section of responsible and representative opinion in India.” Dealing with the conditions of the problem, the Commissioners survey India’s vast size and varied populations, its conglomeration of races and religions, its social divisions, its economic circumstances and its growing political consciousness, and the position of the army of India. “In spite of the eagerness with which political India is embracing modern ideas of government,” the report says, “the ancient social system of Hinduism, which has evolved rigid complications of innumerable classes from Brahmin at the top to the parish at the bottom, continues to control the lives and thoughts of more than 200,000.000 of 320,000,000 of the population with persistence and authority undreamed of in the western world. INDIA AS A UNIT “The sense of unity is growing, but it is largely the outcome of a most recent stage of India’s history, during which the influence and authority of British rule over the whole area made it possible to speak of India as a single entity. "This tends to obscure to the casual observer the variegated assemblage of races and creeds which make up the whole. “Two other influences making for unification are the prevalence of the English language as a general means cf communication among educated men in India and the growth of a passionate determination among the politically-minded classes of all the Indian races and religions to assert and uphold the claim of India as a whole to its due place in the world. “It would be a profound error to allow geographical dimensions or statistics of population or complexities of religion and caste and language to belittle the significance of what is called the Indian Nationalist Movement. TEEMING MILLIONS “True it is that it directly affects the hopes of a very small fraction of the teeming peoples of India. True it may be that its leaders do not reflect the active sentiments of the masses of men and women in India who know next to nothing of politic'ans and are absorbed in pursuing the traditional course of their daily lives. “But none the less, however limited in numbers as compared with the

whole public, the men of India claim to be the spokesmen for the whole, and in India the Nationalist movement has the essential characteristic of all such manifestations in concentrating all the forces roused by the appeal to national dignity and national self-conscionsness. “In 1921 British India had a population of 247,000,000, and the Indian States 72.000,000. “As to the complication of language, no single vernacular tongue has so wide a range as English, but only 2,500.000 persons are literate in the English. “The language with the widest currency among the general population is Hindustani, but it is far from being generally understood all over India, in which there are altogether 222 vernaculars.” FEW IN POLITICS The commissioners emphasise the predominately rural character of the population and say: “Any quickening of general political judgment, any widening of the rural horizons beyond the traditional and engrossing interest of weather, water, crops and cattle, with a round of festivals, fairs and family ceremonies and the dread of famine and food, is bound to come very slowly indeed. "Only 10.2 per cent, of the population as compared with 79 per cent, in England live in urban areas, and here those who give their attention to politics are mainly found in towns. Barristers and journalists predominate among the leaders of Indian political opinion and from their ranks are drawn the propogandists, candidates and public representatives of all political parties and communities. RELIGIOUS QUESTIONS “India is described as a land of almost infinite diversity. In its religious aspect, Hinduism is the religion which touches the ordinary acts of daily life at nearly every point, and the philosophy of existence which provided an outlook fundamentally different from that of the creeds of the west, is dispersed among 216,000,000 Hindus. “There are nearly 70,000,000 Mohammedans representative of a widely-different type of culture. “The differences of race, the different system of law and the absence of inter-marriage constitute an effective barrier. It is the basic opposi-

tion that is manifesting itself at every turn in social custom and economic competition, as well as in mutual religious antipathy today, in spite of much neighbourly kindness in ordinary affairs. "Notwithstanding all the efforts made by men of goodwill in both communities to promote concord, the rivalry and dissension between these two forces are one of the chief stumbling blocks in the way of smoother and more rapod progress. “The distribution of the population as between the Hindus and Mohammedans provides one of the most serious complications for Indian statesmanship and recurs in different forms and degrees in almost every part of Indian. "On Indian soil the opposition of these two faiths is sharply intensified by religious practices which are only too likely to provoke mutual ill feeling. The devout Hindu regards a cow as an object of great veneration, while the ceremonial sacrifice of cows or other animals is a feature of the annual Mohammedan festival, “Hindu music played through the streets in the procession of an idol or in connection with a marriage celebration may take place at a time when the Mohammedans are at worship in an adjoining mosque, and hence arises an outbreak of resentment. “The immediate occasion of communal disorder is nearly always a religious issue*” PROBLEM OF CASTE In a chapter on caste and depressed classes, the report points out that every -Hindu necessarily belongs to the caste of his parents, which nothing can alter. Systematic classification had revealed 2,300 castes. Subdivision persists in the lowest stratum and there are gradations of castes even among outcasts. Some 30 per cent, of the Hindu population are untouchables and for all other Hindus cause pollution by their touch, and they defile food and water. “Considerable effort has been made in recent years by social reformers and the Government to ameliorate the state of the depressed classes,” the report continues, “but progress has beeu, and is likely to remain, slow, although a real improvement is beginning in some areas. “In the whole civil administration of British India, the European element is about 12.000 out of a total approaching 1.500,000. The total British element in superior grades of the

Civil Services is about 8.500. The services recruited by the Provincial Government are almost entirely manned by Indians. According to the 1921 census the European population in British India numbered 156.000, of whom 45,000 were women. BRITISH INFLUENCE "Small as these numbers are. the part played by British enterprise in commercial life and organisation of India is incalculably great. It is British organisation and leadership which have promoted modern industrial development of India, just as it has been the adoption of political conceptions derived from Britain which has chiefly affected the recent course of Indian politics.” The report refers to the growth of the women’s movement in India during recent years and the gathering force of the movement against child marriages, and expresses the view that India cannot reach the position in the world to which it aspires until its women play their due part as educated citizens. The Commission has apparently been strongly impressed by the arguments for the separation of Burma from India, and much space is devoted to the important question of the army of 60,000 British troops and 150.000 Indians, and its duties of internal defence and internal security. • The Commissioners will return to this subject in the second volume, but they say that Britain cannot treat the present military organisation of India as sacrosanct, but must actively search for an adjustment. ‘"lndian statesmen can help io modify the existing arrangement in the direction of self-government only if they too, will co-operate by facing bard facts and remembering that those who set them for further consideration are not gloating over the obstacles, but are offering the help of friends to India’s aspirations.” CIVIL SERVICE POSITION There is a detailed examination by the Commissioners of the existing constitutional structure and the practical working of the reformed Constitution, together with a survey of the course of Indian politics during the last ten years. In the light of reforms regarding the administrative system, the report refers to the extent to which “indianisation” of the civil service Is proceeding. The report brings out the very small proportion of British officials to the total civil service of India. Eor example, in the police services as a whole there are 600 European officers and nearly 800 European police sergeants out of a total of approximateyl 187.000. In the Civil Medical Departments there are 200 Europeans in a total of nearly 6.000 fully or partly qualified medical men. anl in the education services there are 200 Europeans out of a total of 1,500 officers in higher grades. Special reference is made to the influence in their areas of district officers, the embodiments of effective authority to whom the countryside turns in time of difficulty or crisis. VICIOUS TRIBESMEN A chapter on the North-west Frontier Province emphasises that this frontier ha slong presented both international and local problems or enormous complexity, for here in tortuous valleys are bodies of fanatical tribesmen, well armed and fearless and unable to extract more than the barest pittance from the stony ground where they live and quarrel, but having before their eyes the tempting prospect of booty from passing caravans or from raids into settle districts. While the re3t of India has advanced toward self-government, in this province there has been no change. The Commissioners say they will in the second volume proposed a mode of treatment which, while recognising the special position of the area and its vital connection with the defence of India, will make such provision as is possible for the inhabitants to have a voice in framing the laws under which they live. Regarding education, the commissioners consider the supply of teachers and the organisation need a great improvement, while the reform of education finance and the better concentration of educational effort are required to prevent the expansion being unfruitful. Dealing with Indian public opinion, the Commissioners say it is in large towns that active political forces may be looked for. The political sentiment most widespread among educated Indians is a demand for equality with Europeans. and resentment against any suspicion of differential treatment. “While an experienced Indian member of the services will admit the benefits of the British Raj and realise the difficulties in the way of complete selfgovernment, while the members of a minority community, putting the safety of the community first, will stipulate for safeguards, and while the moderate may look askance at the extremist methods which he will not openly denounce, all alike are in sympathy with the demand for equal status with the European,” the report goes on, “and all proclaim their belief in self-determination for India.” ROOT CAUSES OF TROUBLE The volume concludes with the following paragraph: “The British people. so long accustomed to self-govern-ment, are boun dto sympathise with htis movement, even though they may deplore some of its manifestations. We are pledged to help India along hey way and constructive effort is needed. “In our view the most formidable of the evils from which India is suffering have their roots in the social and economic customs of long-stand-ing. which can only be remedied by the action of the Indian people themselves. “They are much less likely to he remedied if the blame for their continuance can be put, however unreasonably. on others. We desire to see the forces of public opinion which exist in India concentrated and strengthened for the practical work of reform —it is only when the difficulties of constructive policy are ; really faced that the inadequacy of general phrases begins to be realised. '