In India Now

New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 137, 6 February 1942, Page 4

In India Now

T is pathetic, but it is also ludicrous, to think how suddenly and helplessly nonresistance has collapsed in India. Even Gandhi, though he still stands firmly by his faith as an individual, has had to confess that the multitude would get out of hand if he remained their leader in such difficult times. They have, in fact, since stoned him, if we may accept second-hand evidence. As for his successor, Nehru, while it is difficult to be sure that he has. been adequately reported, it is clear enough that he has condemned passive resistance and called on Congress to devise means of resisting actively. It is pathetic, and it is ludicrous, but it is precisely what all ordinary people have been expecting. Non-violence has worked against England, because the English are humane. It has embarrassed our soldiers and confused our judges because they have been working for governments with a conscience. It is still a force to be reckoned with in Downing Street, because it has a solid core of fanaticism. But it would have lasted as long against Germany as it takes to bring up the guns. It would have as much success against the Japanese as a sprinkle of rain on a firebomb. The speed with which this has been recognised by Congress is, in fact, the clearest sign we have yet had that the movement is not all fanaticism. It would certainly be wrong to say that it has been a gigantic fraud throughout-political cunning exploiting the conflict between British precept and practice. It has been something far deeper than that, and far higher. But to deny that it has been that to a great extent, that Gandhi has been crafty as well as courageous and Congress always shrewdly aware of its power to confuse the best British minds, is to be simple or deliberately blind. And the trouble now is that the failure of non-violence will encourage the worst British minds-those who still think in terms of master and servant and believe that India must be finally "subdued." India must, of course, be liberated-raised politically and not further depressed. But in the meantime it must be saved, and the only immediate issue between London and Delhi is whether it can be saved most surely as a free Dominion or must remain as it is until Japan is beaten back.