INDIAN COMMUNITIES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21263, 17 August 1932, Page 8

INDIAN COMMUNITIES

The British Government's plan to overcome the difficulties of communal representation under the Indian constitution is about to be announced. As a London message says, the Government undertook to provide a settlement in the face of failure by the groups affected, at both the Round Table Conference in London and in India, to reach agreement. Separate representation for different communities was embodied- in the reforms instituted by the Government of India Act, 1919. The Montagu-Chelmsford report, on which the constitution was based, declared the system a barrier to true constitutional progress. So did the Simon Commission, but was unable to suggest any alternative in the absence of agreement between the parties, which extensive negotiation has failed to produce. At the core of the difficulty is the antagonism between Hindu and Moslem. Because of it, special Moslem representation in the various legislative bodies was provided by the 1919 reforms. The principle having entered, the Sikhs had to be given a similar concession and the system had to extend until there was a multitude of special representatives, including those for the depressed classes, for native Christians, Anglo-Indians and resident Europeans. There had been a suggestion that proportional representation might dispose of all the difficulties, but the Simon Commission, after giving the device full consideration, dismissed it as impracticable for India. In the end the commission virtually said that unless the parties—which really means the Hindu and Moslem communities—could solve the problem, there was nothing to be done but continue the admittedly unsatisfactory system of special representation. The solution by agreement proved impossible and therefore the British Government has shouldered the difficult and probably thankless task of providing a settlement.