The Bay of Plenty Times SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1947. NEW VICEROY'S THORNY PATH

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXV, Issue 14298, 22 February 1947, Page 2

The Bay of Plenty Times SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1947. NEW VICEROY'S THORNY PATH

' What is probably the most far-readimg whole complicated history of. Britain's three and a h#g?° |E "* association with India was made by the «*t||> in London two days ago. By the end of June next y eg, e possibility for the government of more than three hundred people of many different religions, ofvwidely views, and comprising three-fifths of the population of th whole British Empire, is to be placed irrevocably in the hands of the Indians themselves. . •. ... , o ., ir Mr Attlee's most pressing problem, m which he will be ably assisted by the new Viceroy, Lord Loins Mountbatten is to find ont just who are the Indian people to whom this tremendous responsibility is to be entrusted. To begin with, British India is divided for purposes of administration into eleven provinces, each with ts own government, and comparable to the states comprising the United States of America. Among the inhabitants of these provinces one would seek in vain, however, for a national unity ol outlook such as might reasonably be expected m a. country like America. ..,.' •■ i , l .••;;,. In British India there were in 1941. when the last census was taken, 254,930,506 Hindus divided into innumerable castes, including out-casts. Then there were ninety-two million Moslems who, so far as religion and political outlook are concerned have more in common with their co-religionists in Arabia. Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan, or in North Africa, than with the other peoples ol their own country. While these two divisions form the vast majority of India's population, they are by no means all. There are still twenty-five million people known as "The Tribes," six million Christians, nearly seven million Sikhs, as well as Jains, Parsees.ahd Jews. It has long been evident that India will never administer itself as a self-governing Dominion unless there is a real conciliation between the two main bodies Moslems and Hindus. There are still three main political forces whose co-operation is also essential. First there is the India National Congress, founded as long ago as 1885, which is to-day the best organised and most powerful political party in India. Formerly under Mahatma C4andhi, who retired in 1934, it is now led by Pandit Nehru. Then, there are the Princes, who rule ninety-three million people, in addition to those already mentioned; and lastly, the All-India Moslem League under M. A. Jinnah, who have hitherto striven for nothing less than a separate Moslem state. Truly the new Viceroy, whose unenviable task it will be to pave the way for Indian self-govern-ment, has a thorny path to tread.