THE INDIAN SITUATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20563, 14 May 1930, Page 10

THE INDIAN SITUATION.

A comprehensive and detailed review of the'situation in India consequent on Gandhi's campaign for civil disobedience lias been issued. Specific incidents described throw a melancholy light on the non-violent character which was supposed to attend I his blow for the objective of immediate Dominion status. It has developed, as it developed before, into a scries of violent outbursts, (hough none, fortunately, so terrible or so revolting as that at Chauri Cliaura in 1022. Certain sidelights on present, happenings arc significant. The Moslem community is not participating in Gandhi's movement. Its chief organisation has passed a resolution disapproving of it and advising Moslems not to associate themselves with it. The temporary and almost accidental alliance between Hindu and Moslem, inspired by discontents of a different character, which added to the peril of the 1021-22 disturbances, is not to bo repeated this time. Though not mentioned in the review, the Sikhs, too, are known to be out of sympathy with the present campaign. For the most part it must therefore be confined to the Hindu section, which, though the strongest numerically in India, is not India. A further point in the official report deserves notice. The frontier tribesmen are stated to be watching the course of events keenly, and signs of unrest among them have been detected. So long as the authorities aro ablo to display power to handle the situation, the tribesmen will probably do no more than watch. If there were a manifest breakdown of control, then there would doubtless be immediate action. How the frontier would be guarded if the strong hand of Britain were withdrawn is a question enthusiasts of the Gandhi type have never found it convenient to answer. Apart from details the position as a whole, shown in the report, does not demonstrate much fitness for selfgovernment, though designed to be a campaign for self-government by those who expect to play the chief part in ruling the country if their efforts to sabotage law and order should bring them what they demand, immediate autonomy on the Dominion model.