NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20627, 28 July 1930, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

POLITICS IN RURAL INDIA. "Interest in politics in India is slill necessarily confined to a small minority, chiefly found in the urban and educated population," says the report of the Simon Commission. "The small extent to which

political consciousness has developed among the inhabitants of the 500.000 villages of British India is not caused solely by conditions which exist in rural communities all over the world. It is very largely due to special circumstances. The idea that, the course of government should be effected or controlled by the opinion on political matters of himself and his fellows is wholly foreign to the traditions of the Indian ryot. The fatalism which accepts things as they come, and the habit of regarding (lovernment as a power outside himself which moves in a mysterious way and issues decrees for which he is not responsible, are not easily transformed into a state of mind which takes an interest in political problems because it means to have a hand in their solution. This was the 'pathetic contentment' from which Mr. Montagu wished to rouse the masses of India. . . . When the last census of India was taken, 90 per cent, of the 320 millions who were then counted were found to be living in the same district in which they had been born, and of the balance, two out of three were found in a contiguous district. How can men with this limited range of experience appreciate the implications of overseas trade, the arguments for or against tariff policy, (he importance of frontier questions, or indeed the fact, which lies at the root of all Indian questions—the variety of India itself'' The growth of political consciousness is, therefore, hindered not only by the tradition which so widely prevails that policy is a matter for Government, and not. for citizens, to decide, but bv the practical obstacles of distance and ignorance to be overcome, even after that tradition has been broken down."

THE IMPATIENT MINORITY. The commission remarks that while abstract political ideas may leave the Indian peasant unaffected, he may be stirred to vehement action bv religious or communal emotions or when his immediate economic interests are at stake. The politicallyminded in India are only a tiny minority, but they may be able to sway niasess of men in the countryside. "Political thought in British India to day is derived from Europe," the report continues. "Tlnj keen intelligence of the educated Indian has been stimulated by study ot Western institutions. It is remarkable how the theories and phrases of political science as expounded in England and America have been adopted and absorbed. Hut, tlio sudden impact of ideas drawn from Iho experience and conditions of other peoples in other climates is bound to have a disturbing effect. Down to 30 or 40 years ago India stood entirely outside the influence of the course of political ideas which at length produced democratic self-government in some other parts of the world. Tho struggle for power between rival religions communities, the rise of an intense national spirit, the spread of toleration, the growth of democracy, and the controversies of socialism, mark fairly .veil defined epochs in European history. But, in India, these various influences are contending side by side for the allegiance of the politlcallyminded. Ultra-democratic constitutions are propounded, although tho long process which was a necessary antecedent to democracy in Europe, viz., the breakingdown of class *md communal and occupational barriers, has only just begun. Indian political thought finds it tempting lo foreshorten history, and is unwilling to wait for the final stage of a prolonged evolution. It is impatient of the doctrine of gradualncss."