The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1924 THE INDIAN PROBLEM.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 308, 29 December 1924, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1924 THE INDIAN PROBLEM.

For the cause that lacks assistance. For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can Jo,

A survey of the Empire on the eve of the New Year 6howe that of all its parts (except, perhaps, Ireland), India presents the most difficult and dangerous situation. Egypt has recently had more space in our news than India., but difficult though Britain's position is on the Nile, there are not in Egypt the complications, the enormous issues and unequalled Imperial trust at stake, that confront the Empire further East. We are reminded to-day of that situation by the news that the National Congress has carried a resolution ratifying the pact that Gandhi made recently with the Swarajists. It is difficult to keep track of Gandhi's policy, but the important fact emerges that the long conflict between his Tolstoyan ideals and the political plans of the Home Rule extremists has ended in his surrender. Gandhi has preached non-resistance and non-co-operation, and the return of India to that golden age of primitive virtue which is supposed to have existed long before the English arrived in India. The Swaraj party, led by Mr. Das, wishes to use the political weapon provided by the reforms to wreck the whole system and hasten the day when India will be ruled by a handful of Indians, with, perhaps, Britain providing an army to keep the peace internally and head off the warlike tribes of the north. A section of this party believes in violence, as witness the congratulations offered, with Mr. Das' approval, to the murderer of an English official. The negotiations for a fusion of these two anti-British forces have now ended in what is regarded as a victory for the wreckers by participation.

Gandhi has been bitterly disappointed by the trend of events. His pacifist ideals have been turned to violence by some of his followers. It is important to note that though lie is a Hindu he preaches Hindu-Moslem unity, and the better treatment of the millions of "untouchables," whose very shadow is a pollution to the high-class Brahmin, and whose lot would be infinitely worse if the restraining hand of the British was removed. Despite his appeal for unity there have been in recent months particularly, serious riots between Hindus and Moslems, and it was as a protest against this spirit that he recently underwent a long fast. That he himself has achieved a measure of unity may be judged from the accounts of his fast and its conclusion. For part of the time he stayed with a Moslem. In the assembly that witnessed the end of his fast were political and religious leaders of both Hindus and Moslems and barriers of creed were also broken down by the singing of a wellknown English hymn. Gandhi appealed to Moslems to work for unity and toleration so that the two parties could practise their religions without fear of molestation, and the Moslem leaders present gave such a promise. <The question is how far this promise goes. Can these leaders prevent those interferences, Hindu with Moslem worship, and Moslem with Hindu, which periodically infuriate the populace to madness and call for intervention by the British? Real unity between Moslems and Hindus would change the face of the Indian problem. There is, however a jnoie *______liate question. *__md___j

surrender seems to mean that his followers will be urged to take part in politics, and that they will vote for the party led by that chief wrecker C. R. Das. If this is the result of the new understanding, the task of the Government will be made more difficult. "With an inconsistency from which he has never been free, Gandhi deplores equally the anarchical excesses in Bengal and the Government's answer to them. He does not understand that there must be some reply to the excesses he condemns, otherwise anarchy would become general. The Government cannot surrender to Mr. Das. If the Reforms are unworkable, some other policy must take their place, and if the Swarajists persist in a purely destructive policy there will be nothing for it but to go back to the old system. The new Secretary for India, Lord Birkenhead, does not believe in extreme measures; his tendency in respect to India is liberal. He is not, however, the man to shirk responsibility. His statesmanship may be severely tried before long.