The Gisborne Herald. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED “THE TIMES" GISBORNE, THURSDAY, JULY 16, 1942. INDIAN IRRITATION

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20837, 16 July 1942, Page 2

The Gisborne Herald. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED “THE TIMES" GISBORNE, THURSDAY, JULY 16, 1942. INDIAN IRRITATION

Seldom has anything more fatuous and inconsistent been published than the resolution of the Indian Congress committee demanding the withdrawal of British rule from India. There is, of course, nothing really new in thi Congress attitude but there has been a dramatic change in the conditions under which it has been expressed. With the Empire at peace, the campaign for Indian independence was perfectly legitimate and, to a very large extent, justified; certainly it met with a sympathetic response throughout an Empire whose peoples have consistently advocated and fought for the freedom and independence of all nations. The present campaign, however, is neither legitimate nor justified. It is nothing more or less than an attempt to coerce Britain in the moment of her greatest danger; an attempt to blackmail her by people who profess, above all things, to be idealists. It is, not that Britain is using the war as a pretext for shelving the Indian problem. Far from it. She has taken every practical step to meet reasonable demands, but her conciliatory attitude has been interpreted, not as a gesture of goodwill or a token of her sincerity, but as a sign of weakness. The generous concessions offered appear only to have further inflamed the extremists and made them more recalcitrant.

Having demanded the withdrawal of British rule, the Congress resolution proceeds to explain that the committee has no desire to embarrass Britain or her Allies in the prosecution of the war or to encourage aggression against India or pressure on China by Japan or any other Axis Power. It is obvious, however, that the Congress attitude, were it generally supported, or even if it were not, would do every one of the things which the committee insists that it does not desire to do. To-day, Mr. Gandhi explains the resolution. “There is no room left for negotiation . . he says. “After all, this is open, rebellion.’’ He conceives a mass non-violent movement on the widest possible scale. But there is no desire to embarrass Britain or her Allies in the prosecution of the war! How in the name of all that is wonderful can there be open rebellion and a movement, non-violent or otherwise, on the widest possible scale, without embarrassing the Empire’s war effort? How can there be open rebellion without encouraging aggression against India or pressure on China? And the august body which solemnly passes a resolution of this stupidly contradietory character would claim to comprise the cream of Indian intelligence and to be competent to take full and complete charge of the destinies of India!

Were the situation not so tragically serious it would be laughable. As it is, India is almost the centre, and may be the objective, of a great part of the present military operations. Burma, to the east, is already in the hands of the Japanese, who have also displayed considerable activity in the Indian Ocean to the. south. To the west, the Axis forces under General Rommel have pushed some hundreds of miles nearer to India, and in the north the Germans are relentlessly pushing the

Russians back nearer to the Caucasus and Asia Minor. Assembling in the centre of this gathering storm, the Congress committee talks about open rebellion and a mass non-violent movement on the widest possible scale. It claims sympathy with the Chinese in their desperate plight, but it adopts a policy which will make that plight even more desperate, because, in effect, it assures Japan that India will not go to China’s aid. This is the sort of muddled thinking which is begotten of rule by extremists and impracticable idealists. It is, more perhaps than anything else, the sort of thing that damns the most active of the Indian politicians as being hopelessly incompetent to carry out the ideals for which they profess to strive. If they cannot display a realistic outlook in the present crisis, what can be expected of them in more favourable circumstances? Fortunately, there is good reason to. doubt whether Congress is truly expressive of any great body of Indian, opinion. For India’s sake it is to be hoped that it is not. In India itself there are large sections which arc far more strongly opposed to Congress rule than is Britain and which have much more reason to fear it. Within the Congress itself, as has been manifesttd recently, there is a solid body that is antagonistic to the extremism of Mr. Gandhi and Dr. Azad, and even these two leaders do not agree, since the former insists on non-violence while Dr. Azad avers that his policy would make India more violent in her opposition to the aggressors and her support of the Allies. More important and impressive, however, than all the blathering burblings of these opportunist politicians is the fact that,' in spite of them, India is making a wonderful contribution to the Empire’s war effort —and will doubtless continue to do so. Recruits haVe been offering for the Indian Army more rapidly than they can be. absorbed — and the army has already covered itself with glory in the Middle East and the Far East—and Indian industry, despite its handicaps, have played an equally conspicuous part. In the circumstances, it would seem that the Congress party has been taken too seriously and the only possible, policy left is to treat it With the contempt it deserves.