THOSE WHO SPEAK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20988, 26 September 1931, Page 1 (Supplement)

THOSE WHO SPEAK.

BY L. J. MORRIS.

{ OTHERS IN INDIA. I

Indians," said Colonel Nawab Sir Urmar Hayat when speaking at, the annual dinner of the Mesopotamia and Persia forces, " could be divided into two classes, the fighting men—and those w-ho speak." A sweeping staement which, coming from such a redoubtable warrior and leader, should claim attention not so much as a truism as an indication that Gandhi and the Congress members are not so representative ot Indian aspirations and thought as we have been led to suppose.

There are in India, several strong parties who do not view with equanimity the prospect of being ruled by leaders of Congress who have little else to their credit save their ability to command a numerically superior vote. And not only among the Mohammedans is there a dissentient note. For the Sikhs (an offshoot from Hinduism who have endeavoured to establish a purer creed), growing more and more uneasy at the attempts being made by Congress to run the country, and feeling that sufficient attention has not been paid to their demands for communal representation, have recently sent a deputation to the Com-mander-in-Chief. As a fighting race they plai'e their faith in the soldier rather than in the politician, and they spared no pains to make clear " their determination to remain the sword arm of India."

Nor are the fighting races the only ones to disapprove the turn of events. The non-official European community in India, moved at last from its lethargy, is beginning to express its dissatisfaction with a system of government, which, instead of dealing firmly with the situation and calling the offenders to book, continually attempts to placate the agitators, and is for ever turning the other cheek. In fact, a recent meeting of the L'nited E'rovinces Branch of the European Association expressed the opinion that, " it would be impossible for the European community to accord any further support to the Government unless more effective measures were adopted to meet the growing forces of disorder."

After all, it is the non-official European in India who i 3 best able to judge the situation. He belongs to no particular political party and has no axe to grind. Naturally, he views with distrust and alarm both the continued acts of violence and the policy of non-co-opera-tion as tending to belittle respect for the European and to destroy external trade. He is pledged to a life in India and is naturally dismayed at the efforts of a group of agitators to expel him from the country. Insidious Propaganda. Certain it is that the vacillating and conciliatory policy adopted by the Government in recent years has entirety failed to assuage the persistent agitation for anti-European legislation in commerce and industrv. And the continued increase in acts of violence and flagrant flouting of authority show, quite clearly, that not onlv is tolerance regarded as a sign of weakness, but that a vicious and unruly element, masquerading under the cloak of patriotism, ii doing its utmost openly to show its contempt of law and order as represented by the British Raj. The situation is undoubtedly fraught with immense difficulties and one is almost inclined to agree with Lord Inchcape. who stated that " some two or three years ago the Government to a great extent ceased to function and pandered to a wretched, seditious fanatic . . . Perhaps few of us thoroughly comprehend the subtlety with which insidious propaganda has brought about a boycott of all things British—and, in particular, of British cloth, —a propaganda which not onlv seeks to undermine our prestige in the East, hut., by striking at the very heart of our industry, causes unemployment in the manufacturing districts at Home.

Curiously enough the cotton goods trade of India has hitherto been entirely in the I hands of Hindus. A move has. however, j been made to interest Muslim cloth tner- | chants in the trade, and if successful the | connection will be of immense value toj ward reviving the cotton piece-goods in--1 dustry. A Home Truth. i There is every indication that the pubj lie at Home is growing a little tired of | the continued effort of politicians to bol- | ster up the Gandhi element at the exj pense of our own workers, and it is to | be hoped that the recent political changes j at Home, while not necessarily fore--1 shadowing a change in the governmental policy toward India, will at least strengj rhen the hands of the officials responsible for th>> maintenance of law and order. We have for so long been led to believe | that Gandhi and his followers represent I the sum total of Indian thought that, it | is with a sense of bewilderment, we read Dr. Shafaat Ahmed Khan's speech before the All-Muslim Conference at Dacca. ! '• There is.'' he says, " no more nationalI ism in India at the present day than there is democracy in the councils of the Concress." And again. ** those who do not belong to the Congress, constitute, I would like to remind you, nine-tenths of the population of this vast and extensive land." Coming from such an eminent delegate to the Round Table Conference, this home truth sets us wondering whether, in our excessive real for democratic principles, we have not attributed greater patriotic motives to the Congress members than they actually deserve. We have alreadv seen t.o what extremes of violence the Indian agitator will go ' in order to protest against the present regime—principally, of course, because it is not of his choosing. But these outrages are negligible compared with what might occur it some of the more warlike sects imagined they were not sufficientlywell represented in any new chamber of representatives, or if the high-caste Hindu element, backed by an overwhelming preponderance of voters, secured such undue I powers as to excite jealousy and suspicion in ihe minds of the non-Hindus. Saving India from Herself. Whatever else it. may have done, the British administration has ensured equal rights and impartial justice for all. It Ims been responsible for the vast irrigation schemes which have literally made the desert blo.'som as the rose, and for the system of famine relief which now brines succour where formerly hundreds "of thousands died of starvation. It has ever been active in combating disease and has introduced (not without opposition! a system of sanitation which has done much to prevent the spread of epidemics. As a result, the population of India has doubled within the last century. Small wonder then that every rightthinking person who has the welfare of India at heart is emphatic in urging caution in the granting of self-governing status, in giving up the substance for the possible shadow. Unfortunately, howevei*. the doctrines of Communism are being openly preached to the ignorant and "illiterate peasantry, who are only too pleased to find some excuse for refusing to pay rent and taxes, and to vent their spite upon the landowners. ' Undoubtedly, firmness is required in dealing with the malefactors. But, on the other hand, to exert force at this stage upon such a people would mean the shedding of much innocent blood and the creation of a state of anarchy which it must be our endeavour at all costs to avoid.