INDIA’S CIVIL REVOLUTION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18454, 16 January 1922, Page 9

INDIA’S CIVIL REVOLUTION

NEW CHALLENGE BY GANDHI. AN HISTORICAL SURVEY. * Nothing could mark more strikingly the recent change in the Indian political movement, observes a correspondent of the Manchester Guardian, than the fact that Mr M. K. Gandhi’s absolute defiance of authority is delivered from the committee of the Indian National Congress. For ,30 ■ years, under a succession of British and Indian leaders, tho National Congress was the stronghold of gradual reform and constitutional agitation. Since the war it has been dominated by tho idea of Non-Co-operation, and it has to be said that no leader has wielded a power in any way comparable with that of Mr Gandhi. One important point in Mr Gandhi’s history is not understood in England. His intervention in affairs as the prophet of a new’ extremism is quite recent, and js directly associated with after-war policy in India. At the beginning of the war he returned to his own country from South Africa (where for many, years he bad been the champion of the Indian settlers). Ho was not then hostile to the Imperial Government. On the contrary, despite his Toistoyism, he urged his followers f£> undertake war service, and even encouraged recruiting for tho Indian army. He associated himself with the Home Rule for India agitation, and until three years ago bis definition of “Swaraj” was partnership within tho Empire. His attitude and appeal were transformed when he realised tha* the Chelmsford Government had resolved to carry through tha Rowlait Sedition Act. It was in opposition to that measure that he adopted tho method of “civil disobedience.” The disturbances in the Punjab followed, and Mr Gandhi was so appalled by the emergence of the evil elements that he suspended the vow and called for the restoration of order. But Amritsar and General Dyer led to the renewal of the crusade and the preaching of Non-Co-operation as a sacred duty. Mr Gandhi was unmpved bv the emphatic official condemnation of Dyerism. He arraigned the British Government as a Satanic system, and moved rapidly from negative Non-Co-operation to complete and positive hostility to European civilisation in India. His way of salvation lay through \ the renunciation of all Western ways and influences, and a refusal to recognise the authority of the alien power. Seemingly confident of tho success of his appeal, Mr Gandhi promised the attainment’ of “Swaraj” by the end of last summer, provided the people were united on Non-Co-operation. When the* goal receded he extended the term to the lost day of the year. Up to this point, however, the programme of, Non-Co-operation was qualified. It included the boycotting of the law courts, colleges, and schools, the return of honours, and resignation from all public offices. It was not carried to the length of refusing to pay taxes. That' extreme step haa now been declared in the resolution of the All-India Congress Committee. On November 23 Mr Gandhi’s' formal proclamation is to issue from Gujcrat. "' GANDHI HOPING FOR ARREST? The wording of the Delhi resolution seems to reveal the chief motive of this lull tlofiajice of authority. It starts with the reminder that “ there is not much over one month for tho fulfilment of the national determination to establish ‘ Swaraj ’ before the end of the year,” and it cites the absence of violent demonstrations over the Ali brothers’ imprisonment as proof that the nation has " demonstrated its capacity for exemplary self-restraint.” There is, however, -reason to infer that Mr Gandhi is relying _ upon the Government of India to order his arrest, as the most certain way of ensuring, during the next few weeks, a great fillip for the movement, which haa confessedly been going badly since the spectacular opening, in the summer, of the boycott of foreign cloth. It cannot be said that Mr Gandhi is afraid of dealing frankly with his followers. He upbraids them for their half-heartedness, n,nd is continually telling them that his way is hard and his burden heavy. “ Swaraj,” he insists, can be attained by non-violent Non-Co-Operation; but only if the vow is fulfilled in a spirit of religious renunciation and concentration, and if the multitude act as one man. His latest word, from Delhi, is plain enough. Ho warns against a programme of “trivial disobedience.” He himself would give the Administration and Anglo-India no quarter, and certainly no gentleness can bo expected from the Government. Moreover, the sense of the Congress Committee is_ revealed in the resolution. It is enjoined that those undertaking civil disobedience must have entirely discarded the use of foreign doth and have adopted tho use of hand-spun material—which they must know how to make. To wear a loin cloth which you have woven yourself is the Gandhi road, to regeneration.' Moreover, the principle of civil disobedience involves tho belief in Ilmdu-Moslem unity, and unity between all Indian communities; and every civil register must be capable of supporting himself and his dependants. Who. then, it may be asked, ia sufficient for these things? INDIAN OPPONENTS OF NON-CO-OPERATION. Anglo-India in general, naturally, takes the lino that Non-Co-operation, or civil disobedience, is simply fantastic nonsense. This was tho view stated in London by the exViceroy, Lord Chelmsford, who ’ defended his Government’s policy of restraint as the right and only way of treating a movement that was bound to fail by virtue of its ‘•inherent inanity.” Tho Anglo-Indian press is divided, the Times of India being the principal voice in favour of leaving Mr Gandhi alone to face the collapse of his crusade. On that side the following considerations tell:— 1. The educated classes of India have stood out against Non-Co-operation. They have, of course, an immense vested interest in Westofn civilisation, and especially in English education and law, business and administration. Mr Gandhi is asking them to renounce the gains of a century. 2. The Indian mercantile classes are, of necessity, opposed. To a Bombay Parsee of Calcutta Marwari, involved in the machine of modern trade and finance, Mr Gandhi appears as the inhabitant of an unreal world. i 3. The new Legislative Assemblies, created under tho Act, and fiercely boycotted by Mr Gandhi, are affording a striking object-lesson in 'lie advantages of cooperation with the Government and of tho enlarging chances of public influence for the educated Indian. 4. The “ Hindu-Moslom unity,” which Mr Gandhi sees as an actuality, is a most doubtful quantity. What has lately been happening in Malabar during the Moplah outbreak has been a severe shock to him, and the Karachi trial revealed a deep division of method between tho lenders of Non-Co-operation and those of the Caliphate agitation. It ia true that Mahomed AH, in a speech of defence singularly out of harmony with the Gandhi spirit, affirmed that they had given their word of nonviolence before God and man. But his brother, Shaukat Ali, and his_ colleague, Dr Kitchlaw, _ both in > tho plainest terms reasserted their belief in the power of the sword —a declaration which certainly had the cachet of Moslem orthodoxy. The fact, however, remains, that Mr Gandhi has built up an incalculable influence among the masses—the peasants, the town artisans, and tho factory workers.