PROBLEMS IN INDIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20556, 6 May 1930, Page 5

PROBLEMS IN INDIA.

GANDHI'S ULTERIOR AIM<

WEAKENING OF THE LAW.

PRESSURE ON VILLAGE POLICE, Mr. Gandhi's expeditionary force lias started with tho advantage of a great advertisement, and tho imprisonment of Mr. Vallabhai Patel, his "chief-of-staff," just before the zero hour of this campaign, helped to concentrato public interest upon it. I3ut Mr. Gandhi is fading from the news, said the Bombay correspondent of the Observer, London, in a message on March 15. Ilis " stunt " no longer amuses, and the record of his march of 30 miles in three days through the Gujarat countryside, is uninspiring. Tho strain „is reported to have affected Mr. Gandhi, who is suffering from rheumatism, but continues his march on foot, having sent back the horse which was presented to him.

It is gradually being observed that, while tho declared objective is tho violating of the Salt Laws, there may bo tho far more insidious campaigning beforo that climax is reached. A number of Congress Volunteers working in the Ivaira district, preaching the gospel of civil disobedience, are concentrating particular attention on officials, such as police "patels," who have charge of village watchmen or police, and who gener* ally but not always conduct revenue > duties also. Village Policemen's Lot, The importance of these village police cannot be overlooked, becauso without them it is impossible to trace any offenco. They know all that is going 011 and everybody in the villages, tt is easily imaginable that a village patel's ■ lot is particularly unhappy if he refuses to comply with this organised demand that he should resign. Ho can bo subjected to a social boycott and pressure of the most exacting kind. . Thus within a few weeks the intensive

propaganda of these non-co-operators might largely succeed in paralysing government in a certain limited area, as it did a few years ago in Bardcli. But the correspondent says that ho does not for a moment believe that the present Bombay Government will tolerate that development. It is 100 soon to say how far the resignation of village officers will continue

The present tendency shows that exaggerated deductions aro being made from the very few resignations already reported, although experience proves that the village officers concerned may be anxious to withdraw their resignations as soon as the urgent social pressure disappears. That and other considerations encourage the belief that Mr. Gandhi "has bitten off more than he can chew," and reports from other parts of the country about the enrolment of volunteers to fight under his banner show that great efforts aro needed to procure insignificant support. Increase io. Illicit Stills. It must be remembered, however, that this attempt is being mado among people needing little fresh encouragement to defy the Government a.nd break the laws. For this state of affairs the Government themselves are partly to blame, for example, the Bombay Government's excise policy, which aims at the eventual attainment of prohibition, has resulted in a great increase of illicit distillation. A Government report published acknowledges that this flouting of the law is dangerous to the body politic," and states that the time has come to review the position as it stands, after -an eight years' experiment' designed to pavo the way for prohibition.

Yet, this inquiry is not necessary to demonstrate how contempt for the law has been fostered. That was already well known. An official in charge of the excise administration confesses that so long as the high price of country liquor makes it impossible for a man to get drink at a reasonable cost, so long will illicit distillation gather force, inflicting entirely unjustifiable loss on the Government revenue, without in the least helping the cause of temperance-

The Salt Monopoly. When people thus see wholesale infractions of the liquor laws, they are all the more ready to agreo to break any other laws which they consider worth while. But tlie salt monopoly, on which Mr.. Gandhi is ostensibly concentrating, is essentially not worth while breaking. There has long boon agitation against the salt tax, but its incidenco is so trivial that the agitation has little real popular support, though mob orators find it aj useful plank in their platform. Air. Gandhi's method of agitation is described as peculiarly foolish, because oven if his band of pilgrims is permitted to make salt, it will probably, through lack of expert knowledge, gain nothing but stomach-ache from eating it.. That is a dubious satisfaction not point-* ing the way to independence. The making of salt by evaporation is ono of tho most primitive prooessos, but requires a certain specialist knowledge, particularly on the soil selected for this law-breaking experiment. Even if Mr. Gandhi and his followers were permitted to violate the salt law, their output would minutely affect the revenue, and their open contempt for. the law is less serious, because of its narrow limitations, than that of the thousands who are illicitly distilling liquor. That may appear a cynical view, but the Government might conceivably think it a tactful advantage to connive at Mr. Gandhi's violation of the law rather than give him the crown of martyrdom by imprisoning him.