PROBLEMS OF INDIA

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 81, 2 October 1924, Page 3

PROBLEMS OF INDIA

THE SIKHS' GRIEVANCES

EFFECT OF A JUDICIAL

JUDGMENT

NEED FOR STRENGTH AND

PATIENCE,

Before making any attempt to estimate the general internal situation in India it may be of interest to refer to two topical disputes which involves issues of cardinal importance, . writes Perceval London in a dispatch from Simla to the "Daily Telegraph." The first is the legal dilemma raised by the judgment delivered by Mr. Justice Ghose, of the Calcutta Bench, as to the right of the Bengal Legislative Council to order its own affairs free from all interference by the Judiciary. This right is vested in the President of the Council, and stripped of the legal verbiage and complications caused by subsidiary questions, the actual issue was whether the President had the right-to restore to the agenda of the Council a' mption for the payment of the salaries'of Ministers which had been once rejected by the Council.-' Mr. Ghbs'e decided that his Court had such a right of interference, and thereupon granted an injunction restraining the freedom, of the President in ordering the procedure of the Council.

The gist of the judgment-is summed up in Mr. Ghose's contention that the privileges of the Legislative Councils established- under-the-Government of India Act are no greater than'those of any municipal corporation. From this it follows that at any moment the work of legislation may be suspended or nullified by an appeal on the part of any interested party to the Provincial Judiciary; and the position has not been rendered less serious by Mr. Ghose's wide acceptance of the meaning of the phrase "interested party."- In-the eyes of any Englishman this intervention hy the Judiciary in the sphere of legislation will seem at first sight to be scarcely less than the reversal of an elementary principle of the constitution which is enjoyed by Britain, and which we have been endeavouring in an increasing measure to establish in India. But more careful study of the situation tends to justify the action of the Judge and to transfer responsibility to the Home Parliament, which passed without due consideration this ill-drafted and creaking piece of legislation. The Judge himself seemed to recognise the danger of the course which he believed himself compelled to adopt, and strongly urged a revision of the rules and Standing Orders of the Council. The same difficulty will not arise in the Punjab, where the, right to introduce a measure for the second time after its first rejection has been specially recognised.

SWARAJISTS TRIUMPHANT.

The real difficulty of the present position lies in the fact that the' Bengal Legislative Council as at present composed falls so far short of the standards prevailing in the Home Parliament that, if consulted, it would certainly endorse this claim of the Judiciary to regard it as being merely on the level of a municipal corporation. It is true that some papers, like the "Tribune,'- -seem to be aware of the danger of thus subordinating the Council's powers of legislation to the opinion of a bench over the composition of which it has hot and can never have any control. But so strong is Swarajist feeling in the Bengal electorate that any slight to the existing regime is welcomed as a triumph for their cause. An appeal has. of course, been lodged, but it is felt that direct legislation in London is the only possible mains of securing that freedom from Judicial intervention which it was certainly in the mind bf Parliament to create when it established these Indian Provincial Councils and laid down the method of their procedure. It may be admitted that, by. foregoing. Ins official right to sanction' necessary expenditure, whether -voted or rejected by the Council, and by reintroducing the question of Ministers' salaries before the Council, the Governor of Bengal was illadvised ; but the error was" prompted by a genuine wish to preserve the constitutional character of proceedings in Bengal and to give the Council the opportumtv of reversing an action, which, upon cooler reflection, has apparently . been condemned by a considerable section of Bengali Nationalists.- - ■ Whether this hobe would have been realised or not, this constitutional question . has nowpassed out of their hands and out of tho hands of the Governor.

PUNJAB UNREST.

The other matter to which reference must be made is the pertinacious manner m which Sikh, unrest is disturbing the Punjab. It tho public at Home is inclined to give up the Sikh problem as unintelligible, it has nt least the satisfaction of feeling that Indian experts aTe as unable to.solve it as the Englishman _at Home. Half a dozen different solutions have been put forward to account for tho present stubborn refusal of certain sections of the Sikhs to live in peace with their neighbours; but though the truth may lie in a confused sense of injustice created by all the reasons thus advanced, it. certainly does not he wholly in any one of them. Perhaps the most important thing to remember is that this ungracious attitude of the Sikhs is not directed primarily or oven chiefly against the British Raj. As the appointed custodians of law and order, it is, of course, by the Indian Government and its representatives that Sikh irritability finds itself chiefly restrained, but the real discontent—which has of late been assuming a more and more distinctly religious colour—is directed against the Sikhs' own fellowcountrymen. ,

It is not necessary to refer here to the traditional and embittered hatred of Mohammedans, which was the original raison d'etre of Sikhism, and which, though never forgotten, has recently flamed up again as ardently as ever. But it is, perhaps, useful to record that the recent religious revival that has its centre in Amritsar has put an abrupt end to the gradual rapprochement. between the Sikhs and Hindus—one of the most remarkable doctrinal concessions made by any Indian sect in recent history. For a long time there was a distinct tendency on the part even of the hierarchy of the Golden Temple, to accept ;, movement towards. Vaishnaivism and caste distinctions had in some degree been tacitly restored among the Sikhs in defiance of one of their fundamental principles. But this is at an end now Never since the days of Nanak has there been greater pride of isolation anionhikhs than there is to-day. And this, combined with the military organisation which also is almost an article of their faith, has given definite shape to what

at times has nearly assumed the character of a revolt.

THE IDEAL POLICESIAN,

_ But against what is the Sikh revolEmS? J 1? has been and still is a loyal and efficient soldier, and far beyond the limits of India he has no rival as a,policeman. The qualities needed for these professions are shown by him as fully and as steadily as ever, inconsistent as that may seem with any tendency to sedition. It is absurd to pretend tha* tho very slight vmder-representation in £?f Punjab Council from which tho Sikhs_ suffer, or certain inevitable delays in the apportionment of land aa rewards after the war, are in themselves sufficient reasons for the widespread dissatisfaction that has been the chief feature of the Punjab atmosphera for the past four years. No doubt tha unusual prosperity of the community encouraged a general rise in the standard of living which it was difficult for them/ to forego in leaner days, but this has been the common experience in India, and elsewhere it has not provoked active discontent. Yet all these minor -disappointments have been exploited to add strength to a "discontent'" of" which "the source may be traced in a, less.tangible" •rE ijlT.more. serious, cause of anxiety. -the.Sikhs,.taken as a whole, are-brave, sturdy, tenacious, and, unfortunately, ill-educated. They are at the opposite end of the human scale from the rdib irresponsible,, unwarlike Babu, and they have been watching - -with - amazement! what they regard as a continual surrender of the British Government to a raca upon which they look with mistrust and contempt. . , ... Until the recent reforms .were actually launched and the counting of noses had been formally made the deciding factor of Indian political life, Sikhs were inclined to remember the qualities of the ordinary Englishman, and disbelieved that Great Britain—which they thought to be peopled by men of .tha' same firmness as that of the Sahibs they knew m their regiments and council chambers—could ever place them lit subjection either.to the fluency of. Hindu tongues or the ; armed hostility ot their old Mohammedan enemies. But since the new Councils were' inauTirated in 1921 India has been doinj.a deal of thinking. Nothing . could have 'so. effectively revived old and sometimes dying antagonisms than, the subjection, oi the rights of all Indians'to the-views and prejudices of. a local majority. It is a matter to which we shall have t» return, but it must be mentioned here as the underlying cause of the discontent and anxiety among Sikhs to-day. They have never _ ceased _to regard the Viwjab_ as 'their province, ' and every experience of the new regime there makes them more and more'convinced that-it they are not to be submerged'they must' in future look to their own right* arms; Englishmen, they believe, have begun a. policy, which can only lend in handing* them over to their enemies. The sullen' seclusive action of the Akalis and the Parbandhak Committee to-day is a modern equivalent of the ancient cry "To your tents,-0 Israel." '

BETTER OUTLOOK!

To this unconciliatory spirit are "op^posed two forces. One is the quiet refusal of Sir Malcolm. Hailey,:.the hew Governor of the Punjab;; to" fee. throwrf out of his stride or to-institute-any special policy of repression. " He is held up" to execration by_ the Extremists aiid every form of' impending tyranny is, attributed to him. But he has accepted the duty of maintaining order in his province by ordinary means, and does not propose to ask for any further powers. Already he seems to be justified, as his restraint has, within tha last few days, encouraged concerted action on the part of Sikh moderates. The Shromani Sikh Sudhar Committee is now in the field against the Extremist party, and the falsehoods which tha latter aro spreading; and the eventual return to the old friendly relations between the Sikhs and ourselves is perhaps in sight. But, as I have' hinted, "tha' Sikh is, above all other races in India, tenacious of his opinions, and movements which gain strength slowly with, him die out equally slowly. The unfortunate letter of Lord Olivier regretting the protection of communal lights will have to be forgotten befora the not unnatural suspicions of the Sikh.3 can be lulled, ;and there' must be no further recognition ot the .Parbandhak Committee as -representative of tha Sikh raco. There must be no weakness in dealing, with their, demands,- andy above all, there must be patience, for the Sikh is only too apt to continue from stubborness a contest into whichhe entered from conviction. But no stone should be left unturned'to convince him that whatever political experiments we may try in India, the interests of such an old colleague in. arms as -ha will be fully and finally protected. '