THE PROBLEMS OF INDIA

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 218, 11 June 1930, Page 11

THE PROBLEMS OF INDIA

PRESCRIBED GOAL OF BRITISH POLICY FORMIDABLE OBSTACLES REPORT OF STATUTORY COMMISSION British Wireless. Rugby, June 9. After an inquiry lasting two years and a half the Indian Statutory Commission, on which all three political parties are represented, and over which Sir John Simon presided, has submitted a unanimous report. The Commission was appointed to inquire into and report upon the working of the system of government, the growth. of education, and the. development of representative institutions in British India. ,

Two visits were paid to India. The commissioners travelled about 7000 miles on the preliminary visit and about 14,000 miles on the second visit. They received numerous deputations and collected from provincial governments and other sources a vast amount of memoranda and material, which are being published in supplementary volumes. Eight out of nine of the provincial legislatures appointed committees to collaborate with the commission and the Viceroy appointed an Indian Central Committee, composed of members of the Council of State and Legislative Assembly, for the same purpose. In the Governor's provinces all the evidence was taken by a joint conference of the Statutory Commission, the Indian Central Committee and the Provincial Committee, sitting together. Report in Two Volumes. The report 1 is in two volumes. Volume one, now issued, occupies over 400 pages, and discusses conditions of the problem existing, the constitutional structure, the working of the reformed constitution, the administrative and judicial system of public finance, and the growth of education in British India. '

The second volume, dealing with future developments, will present the commission’s conclusions and recommendations. It will be published on June 24.

This method of issuing the report was chosen by the commissioners to permit the survey of the problems to be digested before their recommendaions were judged. A conference of represenatives of British' India and the Indian States, called on Sir John Simon’s suggestion after the publication of the report, will take place in London on October 20. Goal of British Indian Policy. Discussing the prescribed goal of British Indian policy, the commissioners stated: “On the one hand a progressive realisation of responsible government in British India as an integral part of the British Empire is the fixed object to'the attainment of which, in co-operation with the Indian peoples themselves, British policy stands pledged, and obstacles in the way cannot be treated as defeating that object, or as affording a discharge from its pursuit The obstacles are of so formidable a character that no opinion as to what should now be done is worth anything at all until they are duly appreciated. But, whatever the obstacles, the object stands as the declared goal of British Indian policy. On the other hand it is equally part and parcel of the pronouncements of 1917 and 1919 that progress in the attainment of this avowed object can only be achieved by successive stages that the time and manner of each advance can be determined only by Parliament, upon whom the responsibility lies for the welfare and advancement of the Indian peoples, and that in the development of the purpose that decision as to the immediate future must largely depend upon a just estimate of the results and consequences of the steps already taken. Our own task is not to decide, but to report to the King Emperor and to Parliament. In the steps that will follow before a decision is reached there will be full opportunity for the contribution of the views of every section of responsible and representative opinion in India.” India’s Varied Populations. Dealing with the conditions of the problem, the Commissioners survey India’s vast size and varied populations, its conglomeration of races and religions, its social divisions, its economic circumstances, and its growing political consciousness, and the position of Army India. “In spite of the eargerness with which political India is embracing modern ideas of government, the ancient social system of Hinduism, which has evolved rigid complications of innumerable classes from Brahmin at the top to Pariah at the bottom, continues to control the lives and thoughts of more than 200 of the 320,000,000 of population with a persistence and authority undreamed of in the Westerh world.” A sense of unity is growing, but it is largely the outcome of the most recent stage of India’s history, during which the influence and authority of British rule over the whole area have made it possible to speak of India as a single entity. This tends to obscure to the casual observer the variegated assemblage of races and creeds which make up 1 the whole. Two other influences making for unification are the prevalence of English as a general means of communication among the educated men in India and the growth of a passionate determination among the politically-minded classes of all the Indian races and religions to assert and uphold the claim of India as a whole to its duo place in the world. The Nationalist Movement. “It would be a profound error to allow geographical dimensions or statistics of the population or complexities of, religion and caste and language to belittle the significance of what is called the Indian Nationalist movement. True it is that it directly affects the hopes of a very small fraction of the teeming peoples of India. True it may be that its leaders i do not reflect the active sentiments of the masses of men and women in India, who know next to nothing of politicians and are absorbed in pursuing the traditional course of their daily lives. But none the less, however limited in numbers as compared with the whole, the public men of India claim to be spokesmen for the whole and in India the Nationalist movement has the essential characteristic of all such manifestations in concentrating all the forces which are roused, by appeal to national dignity and national selfconsciousness.” Complication of Language. In 1921 British India had a population of 247,000,000 and the Indian States 72,000,000. As to the complication of language, no single vernacular tongue has so wide a range as English, but only 2,500,000 are literate in English. The language with the widest currency among the general population is Hindustani, but it is far from being generally understood all over India, in which there are altogether 222 vernaculars. , The Commissioners emphasise the predominantly rural character of the population, and say: “Any quickening of a general political judgment; any widening

; of rural horizons beyond the traditional and engrossing interest of weather and : water and crops and cattle, with the i round of festivals and fairs and family I ceremonies and dread of famine and food, . is bound to come very slowly indeed.” | Only 10.2 per cent, of the population, as compared with 79 per cent, in Eng- ■ land, live in urban areas, and here those who give their attention to politics are I mainly found. In the towns are barris- ’ ters and journalists, who predominate among the leaders of Indian political opinion, and from whose ranks are drawn propagandists, candidates, and public representatives of all political parties and communities. Diversity of Religions. India is described as a land of almost infinite diversity in its religious aspect. Hinduism is a religion which touches the ordinary acts of daily life at nearly every point, and a philosophy of existence which provides an outlook fundamentally different from that of the creeds of the West. Dispersed among the 216,- • 000,000 Hindus are nearly 70,000,000 Mohammedans, representative of a widely different type of culture. The differences of race, the different system of law, and the absence of intermarriage constitute an effective barrier. To-day, in spite of much neighbourly kindness in ordinary affairs, and notwithstanding all efforts made by men of good-will in both communities to promote a Hindu-Moslem . concord, the rivalry and the dissension between these two forces are one of the chief stumbling-blocks in the way of smoother and more rapid progress. In a chapter on caste and the depressed classes, the report points out that every Hindu necessarily belongs to the caste of his parents, which nothing can alter. ’ A systematic classification had revealed ■ 2300 castes. Subdivision persists in the , lowest stratum, and there are gradations ■ of castes even among outcasts. Some , 30 per cent, of Hindu population are untouchables. A considerable effort has 1 , been made in recent years by social rei formers and Government to ameliorate the state of the depressed classes, but progress has been and is likely to remain slow, although real improvement is beginning in some areas.

British Enterprise. In the whole cfvil administration of : British India the European element is ' about 12,000 out of a total approaching 1,500,000. The total British element in ' the superior grades of the civil services ‘ is about 3500. Services recruited by pro--1 vincial Government are almost entirely i manned by Indians. According to the 1921 census European population in i British India numbered 156,000, of : whom 45,000 were women. “Small as 1 these numbers are, the part played by British enterprise in the commercial life and organisation of India is incalculably great. It is British organisation and leadership which have promoted the modern industrial development of India, just as it has been the adoption of political conceptions derived from Britain which has chiefly affected the recent course of Indian politics.. The report refers to the growth of the women’s movement in India during recent years and the gathering force of the movement against child marriages, and expresses the view that India cannot reach the position in the world to which it aspires until its women play their due part as educated citizens. The Commission has apparently been strongly impressed by the arguments for separation of Burma from India.* Much space is devoted to the important ■ question of the army of 60,000 British troops and 150,000 Indians, its duties of internal defence and internal security. The Commissioners will return to this subject in the second volume. But they say that Britain cannot treat the present military organisation of India as sacrosanct, but .must actively search for an adjustment. Regarding the administrative system the report refers to the extent to which Indianisation of the Civil Service is proceeding. Tn the Police Services as a whole ’there are 600 European officers and nearly 800 European police-sergeants out of n total of approximately 187.000. In the Civil Medical Department there are 200 Europeans in a total of nearly 6000 fully or partly qualified medical men. In the Education Services there are 200 Europeans out of a total of 1500 officers in higher grades. North-West Frontier Province. A chapter on the .North-W4st Frontier Province emphasises that this frontier has long presented both an international and a local problem of enormous complexity. Here in the tortuous valleys are bodies of fanatical tribesmen’, well armed and fearless,. unable to extract more than barest pittance from the stony ground where they live and quarrel, but having before their eyes th£ tempting prospect of booty from passing caravans or from raids into settled districts. While the rest of India has advanced toward self-government, in this Province there has been no change. Regarding education the Commissioners consider the supply of teachers and organisation need great improvement, while the reform of educational finance and the' better concentration of educational effort nre required to prevent expansion being unfruitful. \ Indian Public Opinion. Dealing with Indian public opinion the Commissioners say it is in large towns that active political forces may be looked for. The political sentiment most widespread among educated Indians ,is the demand for equality with Europeans and resentment against any suspicion of differential treatment. “While an experienced Indian member of the services will admit the benefits of the British Raj and realise the difficulties in the way of complete self-government, while members of the minority common ity, putting the safety of his community first, will stipulate for safeguards, and while the moderate may look askance nt the extremist methods which he will not openly denounce, all alike are in sympathy with the demand for equal status wffji the European and proclaim , their belief in self-determination for India.” The volume concludes with the following paragraph: “British people, so long accustomed to self-government, nre bound to sympathise with this movement, even though they may deplore some of its manifestations We are pledged to help India along her way and n, constructive effort is needed. Tn our view the most formidable of the evils from which India is suffering have their roots in social and economic customs of long standing, which can only be remedied by action of the Indian people themselves. Thby are much less likely to be remedied if blame for their continuance can be put. however unreasonably, on others. We desire io see the forces of public opinion which exist in India concentrated and strengthened for the practical work of reform. It is only when the difficulties of constructive policy are really faced

that the inadequacy of general phrases begins to be realised.” ENGLISH PRESS OPINIONS A MASTERLY SURVEY By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Rec. June 10, 7.5 p.m.) London, June 10. The “Daily Telegraph” editorially describes the Indian Commission’s report as a masterly survey, impressive in the perfect sincerity of its appeal to reasonableness and friendliness- , It is sufficient to demonstrate a dozen times the totally impracticable character of all the demands for a solution of the constitutional problem on lines of complete self-govern-ment at short notice. The “Morning Post” says: “If premature conclusions can be drawn it will probably be a futile exercise. The survey is so carefully balanced and so judiciously vague that it is difficult to see where it leads, but if any conclusion sticks out from the pages it is that Mr. Montagu Chelmsford’s experiment has failed. India is found to be so different from Great Britain and from the self-govern-ing Dominions, so diverse in herself, that the authors evidently shrink from the application of similar forms of government.” . . ... The “Tinies” says: “It is impossible to exaggerate the importance, of maintaining the morale of the public services and the personal touch with traditional India between rulers and ruled; in other words, the circumstances of the case rule out a direct election to a national Parliament, and the great Indian provinces require more, not less, responsibility, for their own affairs if the idea of a selfgoverning India is to be translated into realitv ** The “Daily Herald” declares: “The transition to responsible government must be carried out as quickly as may be, or the very system of government will break down or be destroyed by its own contradictions.” MURDER OF POLICE OFFICER AGITATORS’ FALSEHOODS (Rec. June 10. 7 p.m.) Delhi, June 10. The revolutionary activities of Congress workers among the simple villagers of Western Bengal were responsible for the agitation leading to the murder of a police officer near Daspur. Agitators who were imported from Calcutta spread atrocious falsehoods among the peasants, asserting that the Government had been overthrown by Congress, and the payment of taxes had been abolished. They were excellently organised,, having a secret postal service, and couriers travelling between villages and big centres of population in Bengal. The agitators instigated the. villagers to kill the police inspector, while other missing officers are believed to be captives in the jungle. Their fate is uneertH Armed police from Calcutta raided the agitators' camp at Bandar, near Midna■>ore and arrested thirty. A detachment of Eastern Frontier Rifles is patrolling the area. As a result of police firing to disperse crowds at Thottopalayam. near Vellore, Madras, when Hindus and Moslems clashed during the Moslem festival of. Muharram, two were killed and six injured.