The Evening Star TUESDAY, JUNE 3, 1947. Two Indias.

Evening Star, Issue 26117, 3 June 1947, Page 4

The Evening Star TUESDAY, JUNE 3, 1947. Two Indias.

Matters arc coming rapidly to a head in India. It now looks as if the days of the -British raj will end even more speedily than was indicated when it was announced that June, 1948, would be the deadline for the withdrawal of British control “ in favour of that freedom which Indians of all communities had persistently demanded." As a result of his many discussions with the Indian leaders since he succeeded Lord Wavell as Viceroy, Lord Mountbatten has apparently seen no alternative to a 'divided India. There will be two governments under the new proposals he is reported to be about to offer tho Indian leaders, one for Pakistan and one for Hindustan. Tho Governments, it would seem, arc to be free of interference from the British Government, but they are expected to remain loyal to the Crown, and to be covered by the Statute of Westminster.

To the Moslems the gaining.of the Pakistan issue will probably bring satisfaction. Until recently Mr Jinnali, counsellor to 94,000,000 Moslems, has demanded complete independence, without any semblance of Britisji authority in the backgrqund, but latterly he has inclined toward favouring dominion status. On the surface, then, Moslem acceptance of the decision appears likbly. To the 225,000,000 Hindus, whose leaders have advocated a I united India, the proposal will be much less welcome, and may well be the signal for trouble on a major scale. Again, the establishment of Pakistan will not be smooth, for up to ndw the Pakistan plan has ■included the Punjab—and it probably still does. But the 5,500,000 Punjab Sikhs are rigidly opposed to anv proposal to make the Punjab a Moslem State, and have declared their readiness to fight the issue. Another complication is the warning that, if Pakistan becomes fact, the North-west Frontier Province would proclaim itself a separate State, with “ most friendly relations with Russia.” Other States, notably Bengal, have also threatened independent action. Throughout all the bewildering developments in India the figure of Mr Gandhi has moved, more turbulently than he has intended. He has tried to bring the opposing Moslems and Hindus together, and he lias tHed t-o unify the generally disinterested depressed classes in a campaign for a unified India, but, .Gandhi’s mana- has waned.

A united. India has been, ruled out. Whether Lord Mountbatten’s offer will bring peace. remains to be seen, but,‘in the words of the Earl of Halifax, a former Viceroy, when, speaking >in the debate on India in the House of Lords in March: “ For India to-day there is no solution that is not fraught with the gravest objection, with the gravest danger.”