REFORMS IN INDIA

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 1, 1 July 1935, Page 10

REFORMS IN INDIA

AN AWAKENED SPIRIT

QUESTION OF STATUS

"The reforms which have been before the British Parliament, and which will very likely become operative in India in the near future, are not hasty legislation, but are actually the result of deliberations of seven important bodies which have met from time to time in India and England during the past six years." said the Rev. J. L. Gray today. Mr. Gray is a missionary of the Presbyterian Church in the Punjab, India, and is visiting Wellington. "The New Zealand Presbyterian Church is working in an area of some 3000 square miles, with a population of 700,000 people," he said. "India is claiming a large place in the interest of the British Empire at the present time in view of the impending constitutional changes. In India there is one-sixth of the human race, and three-fourths of the entire British Empire. Consequently, it can be seen that any legislation affecting such a vast number of people must be conducted with the greatest care, wisdom, and foresight. VOICE OF CONGRESS. "Among the enlightened, politicallyminded group of the people there has been a growing desire for a more real part in the conduct of Indian affairs. These Indian politicians resent the fact that, the vital -affairs of their country are controlled by Whitehall, and not by representatives of Indian opinion. The Indian National Congress is the body which represents the opinion of the people of today, and the Congress stands more or less for. the independence of India, although, on the other hand, there is a more moderate group whose aim is Dominion status. This status has been promised to India—first in August, 1917, and from that date up to the present time, by successive Viceroys and Secretaries of State for India, so that Dominion status has come to be the minimum . which India is prepared to accept. "Unfortunately, in the Bill about to become law, there is no actual mention of the term Dominion status, and this has greatly perturbed all ranks of Indian opinion. It is difficult to know why this serious omission has been made, and the belated offer made by Sir Samuel Hoare, late Secretary of State for India, has not in any way improved matters. It remains to, be seen how these reforms will work out in India. The proposals, were, in short, that there shall be provincial autonomy, that the Native States shall enter a federation, and that the Central Gov-~ ernment shall be stabilised under the Viceroy as representing the British Crown. . . THREE MAIN STRATA. "India today is awake," said Mr. Gray. "The arrival of the motor-bus has connected far-distant territory with the railway stations. There are still three main strata in Indian society; there is the educated minority, some of them educated at colleges and universities. There is, beneath them, the great agricultural mass. Then, beneath that strata, you have what are known as the depressed classes, which hold more or less the position of serfs, doing the labour, scavenging, leather work, and various other manual occupations. But what is happening today is that the new spirit of awakening has been felt right through these three main strata." ■ ■ ■