The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4, 1922. THE SITUATION IN INDIA.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 January 1922, Page 4

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4, 1922. THE SITUATION IN INDIA.

When the Ali brothers and Dr. Kitehlaw were sentenced a short time ago, at Karachi, to two years’ imprisonment for sedition, official circles in London were clearly apprehensive as to the possible effect of these sentences on the great mass of public opinion in India. It was, however, fully recognised, at the time, that the incident was likely to bring to a head the whole question of non-eooperation, and this is now proving to be the case. Whatever else is to be said of Gandhi, he is certainly not lacking in resource, even if he does not always display much originality. Thus, when the date which he had set for the achievement of ‘ ‘ swaraj ’ ’ drew near, without any prospect of swaraj being attained, he solved the problem by the simple process of moving the date forward. According to his most recent announcement the end of the present yeai- will now see the achievement of complete self-gov-ernment in India. It is the same when any consideration is had of Gandhi’s methods. No sooner has one scheme failed than another takes its place. A year ago he was urging all Indians to boycott the new Indian councils, to refuse to aid their establishment either by voting or by presenting themselves as candidates. At the same time, he was advocating a widespread system of non-cooperation among the educated Indians. They were to renounce any honors they might have received from the British Government; civil servants were to relinquish their posts; lawyers were to refuse to plead in the established courts, and a general boycott of schools and universities was to be declared. All these projects failed. The elections to the new councils proved an unqualified success, while little or no response was made by the educated classes to Gandhi’s general appeal for non-coopera-tion. Gandhi then turned himself from the educated Indians to the great uneducated mass of the people. Trading upon a growing reputation for sanctity and > for those mysterious powers with which the Indian is all too ieady. to bestow his leaders, Gandhi sought to wrest the Indian masses to his will. He appealed to the 50,000,000 “Untpuch'ables” in the country by urging the abolition of caste, while insisting that the way back to the Golden Age lay in abolishing all the inventions of civilisation. India, he declared in all seriousness, was to achieve Swaraj through a boycott of foreign cloth and the setting up of the spinning wheel in every Indian .home. All these efforts having so far come to nothing, Gandhi has now outlined a new programme, and is proposing to launch a campaign for “civil disobedience, including the non-pay-ment of taxes.” In doing this, Gandhi must, of course, be perfectly aware that he is sailing pretty close to the wind. It is, however, an open question whether the one thing at this moment he most desires is not his own arrest and even condemnation to a term of imprisonment. Official London, however, as has already been indicated, is not too well satisfied as to the wisdom of the sentences imposed upon the Ali brothers and other agitators. And it is practically certain that the authorities will abstain from taking any action against Gandhi as long as it is at all possible to do so. Nevertheless, the policy of the Government of India, as outlined recently by Lord Reading, is to tighten its grip on the whole situation,- and protect the country from the pitiless onslaught of the interested agitator. The situation in the country, generally speaking, although difficult, is not unduly serious. Gandhi has failed, so far, in practically everything he has attempted, and there is no reason to suppose that he will succeed any bet£er, in the future.