INDIAN TANGLE

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 175, 21 April 1942, Page 5

INDIAN TANGLE

Comment By Gandhi BOMBAY, April 19. Mahatma Gandhi, iu an article in the “Harijan,” gives the first public expression of views on Sir Stafford Cripps's mission. "It is a thousand pities,” he says, “that Britain sent proposals for dissolving tlie political deadlock which, on the face of them, were too ridiculous to find acceptance anywhere. It is a misfortune that tlie bearer should have been Sir (Stafford Cripps, who is acclaimed 1 as a radical among radicals and a friend of India. “He should at least have known that Congress would not look at Dominion status even though it carried the right of secession. Sir Stafford Cripps knew, too, 'that tlie proposal contemplated splitting India into three parts, each having different ideas of governance. J t contemplated Pakistan (iudependanco of tlie Moslem States), and yet not the Pakistan of the Moslem League’s conception. aiid it gave no real control over defence to a responsible Minister. "But it is no use brooding over the past or over British mistakes. Why blame tlie British for our own limitations? Tiie attainment of independence is an impossibility until we have solved our communal tangle.”