THE NORTHERN ADVOCATE Registered for transmission through the Post as a Newspaper. SATURDAY MARCH 29, 1947. Mr Jinnah : Prophet Or Pessimist?

Northern Advocate, 29 March 1947, Page 6

THE NORTHERN ADVOCATE Registered for transmission through the Post as a Newspaper. SATURDAY MARCH 29, 1947. Mr Jinnah : Prophet Or Pessimist?

In the opinion of the president of the Moslem League. Mr Jinnah, the only hope for a peaceful India lies in the declaration of a truce between Hindus and Moslems, and agreement on a basis for Pakistan, which would constitute a large section of Ind/a a Moslem Slate and allow Hindus to occupy and administer the greater part of the remaining portion of the country.

Mr Jinnah sees no alternative to this, and declares that it is better that Moslems and Hindus should divide and flourish than be united and slaves, as he is convinced would bo the outcome of any attempt to live together in unity. Evidently Britain’s bona tides in insisting upon unity are suspected by Mr Jinnah, who declares that the British policy is based on knowledge that so long as they insist upon it there will be nothing but bloodshed and destruction; indeed, Mr Jinnah declares that the British are inspiring the formation of an armed camp, for a united India is impossible with Hindus outnumbering the Moslems by three to one, and India consisting of a score of nations.

While it may be true, as Mr Jinnah says, that Moslems and Hindus are entirely different peoples, making peaceful cooperation impossible, it should be remembered that the Hindus themselves are divided by barriers which have so far proved unscalable.

This is stressed in an article which Sir William .P. Barton has contributed to the current “Fortnightly.”

The writer points out that the driving power behind the political movement in India proceeds from the higher grades of Hindu society, the Brahmin lawyer, the big business man and the Hindu professional classes generally; in other words, the Hindu politician owes the ascendancy he has achieved in the government of the country mainly to the vote of the illiterate peasantry, influenced by the Gandhian mysticism, rather than by ideals of political liberty which convey nothing to them.

“A strange anomaly in present conditions is the readiness of the British Socialist Government to hand over India to this high-caste group, dominated by the capitalists, provided only that the Moslems can be persuaded to accept such a regime. “It will, of course, be argued that the movement, though middle class, is inspired with the spirit of democracy and that ultimately the masses may assert themselves.”

But, it is pertinently asked, does such a theory take sufficient account of the insidious influence of the caste system in the social, economic and religious spheres? Tn Hindu society today, it is recalled, one out of four or five of the

population is outcast, shunned by the caste Hindu and economically helpless.

Both in the case of the outcast and of the Suda peasantry, who form the majority of the Hindu community, religious superstition offers an opportunity to dominate, of which the Brahmin can hardly be expected not to avail himself. Then, asks Sir William Barton, how does caste affect the question of defence? “Will the peasant and outcast soldiers, deprived of their heritage, accept the leadership of the Brahmin and professional classes?" It is interesting, in this connection, to note that a well-known Indian politician, Sir Sankaran Nair, in his book “Gandhi and Anarchy," expresses the view that the military weakness of India, arising from the caste system, was responsible for the Moslem conquest and for eight centuries of Moslem domination. He thinks that it was because of the hated inhibitions of caste that the forbears of the 100.000,000 Moslems today embrace Islam.

Caste, in the Moslem view, is the antithesis of democracy; it is the Hindu caste system that keeps Hindus and Moslems apart. Intermarriage is prohibited, social intercourse restricted. To the strict Hindu the Moslem is impure; as Mr Gandhi says, the Hindu would rather die of thirst than take water from a Moslem.

There is no doubt that a final solution of the Indian problem must take account of the social background, and the impottance of surveying the background through the proper spectacles is set out in an authoritative work on caste in India by Dr J. H. Hutton. He says there is no parallel in the world today, nor ever has been, to the Hindu caste system, of the origin of which no satisfactory theory has ever been developed.

Despite its oppression of millions of people who have been treated as though they were sub-humans, it admitted that the caste system has served to integrate the many con-' flirting elements in Indian life, as, but for it. Hinduism might have been submerged in the tide of Moslem invasions.

In view of the traditional incompatibility of Moslems and Hindus and the fact that caste is ar. explosive ingredient in the make-up of the Hindus, it would be interesting to know whether Mr Jinnah believes Moslems would be permanently satislied with Pakistan or whether he regards Pakistan as merely a Moslem halting-place until Hindu divisions would open the door to Moslem rule in India.

Or, it may be wondered, does Mr Jinnah really believe that Britain’s insistence upon a unity which is impossible indicates realisation that she should remain in India for the sake of India and the world at large?