Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. TUESDAY, AUGUST 26, 1930. POSITION IN INDIA.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 50, Issue 268, 26 August 1930, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. TUESDAY, AUGUST 26, 1930. POSITION IN INDIA.

The prolongation of picketing and boycott activities in India has, it is reported, caused growing uneasiness in commercial circles in • India, apprehension being felt regarding the condition of trade a few months lienee. It is also reported that a meeting of European residents of Calcutta, while supporting the Simon Commission’s proposals regarding the future government of India, “subject to modifications,” called upon the Government to deal firmly with the situation arising out of the agitation by the All-India Congress. This organisation is not nearly so re presen tative of educated Indian opinion as it claims to be, but the trouble is that while the intellectual sections are content, with constitutional means of pressing for the objective of a measure of self-government, the illiterate classes are ledi into acts that menace peace and the maintenance of order. Though strong emphasis is laid on abstention from violence in the methods advised to render the Government helpless, it is .not unreasonable to trace a distinct connection ot the tactics of the Congress and the evidence that a more dangerous leaven is working m at least some sections of the community. Gandhi, who sat at hm spinning-wheel aloof from the active organisation of the new movement, though he inspired it, lias twice launched campaigns foi civil disobedience. In neither instance did the movement remain passive, as he intended. JNonviolent defiance of the law speedily bred violence, and the disturbances were not always of the same political colour as the campaign from which they sprang. Communal riots and looting soon crept in, as they always have done when the bonds of authority have been burst. The duty ot the Government is to uphold peace and the law, and though the irresponsibility of those who demand the right to rule then fellow countrymen may cause infinite trouble, the situation is still capable of control. Meantime, possible developments may make the conditions for considering the Simon report and holding the round table conference as unfortunate as they could be. lhe Commission wasi set up to do as had been promised in 1919, endeavour to determine what further instalment of self-govern-ment could be granted after the reforms then instituted had been tried for ten years. The round table conference was offered *in the endeavour to bridge the gulf created by Indian resentment at finding no direct Indian representatives on the Simon Commission. Yet it is difficult to see how anything can be done if the most aggressive and vocal section of politically-minded India is engaged in overt, if passive, defiance of the law, if as an auxiliary to that campaign active unrest is prevalent and attacks are being made on lawful authority. It would be particularly unfortunate if, at a-time when Britain is seeking to devise a new policy aimed at increasing the ability and widening the opportunity or India to govern herself, those who claim to be the leaders of a united India, ripe for self-govern-ment, should commit or countenance any action that would cast doubt on her capacity for controlling her own affairs.