THE PROBLEM OF INDIA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21544, 16 January 1932, Page 4

THE PROBLEM OF INDIA

"India In Revolt." By Major-general J. P. Fuller, C. 8., C.8.E.; D.S.O. London: Eyre and Spottlswoode (7s 6d net). " Gandhi and the Indian Problem.” By Lieutenant-colonel E. G. Hart, D. 5.0., M.A. With Frontispiece. London: Hutchinson (2s net). “ The Moral Issue In India. By Robert Stokes. Introduction by Lord Meston, K.C.5.1., LI.D. London: John Murray (Is net). A Warning Some 30 years ago Meredith Townsend stated that the Indian Empire was a corporation of less than 1500 men “ who are set to govern, and who protect themselves in governing by finding pay for a minute white garrison. . . . Banish those 1500 men in black, defeat that slender garrison in red. and the Empire has ended, the structure disappears, the brown India emerges unchanged and unchangeable.” Major-general Fuller regards the position as similar to-day. It is an amazing and terrifying picture, he says, this stupendous land of 300.000,000 souls perched Atlas-like upon the shoulders of a few Englishmen, and he believes that, as it is a picture never before seen in history, so it will possibly never be seen again. He knows India well, and hie examination into the psychology of its peoples is illuminating. For the most part he presents us with aspects and ideas, not opnions, but hi s view is that ultimately India will throw off her Western trappings. British rule ip the best India has known, and its continuance alone will prevent chaos, but Major-general Fuller has other notions as to the ultimate destiny of the land. Russia is an Oriental nation, and he foresees that when Russia and India are free from their present political and economic diseases a spiritual coalescence may be possible: “Then the much-talked of United States of Europe will have to be constituted to meet the conglobing forces of Asia, a federation begotten by the pressure of fear.” This is a well-informed and thoughtful as well as a disturbing book.

The National Kink Gandhi (to pronounce with “barn”) is. Colonel Hart says, a very great man. If one measures greatness by unselfishness and selflessness he is. Colonel Hart thinks, “easily the greatest man alive to-day or who has lived since Christ.” The assertion raises many rejoinders and questionings in the mind of the reader who is aware, from the cablegrams, of the bloody turmoil that threatens India to-day, and we seek for an Gandhi, this author says, has the national kink of Indians, which “ seems to be a _ lack of power to co-ordinate facts which in themselves are quite correctly observed.” This might lead us to ask whether Gandhi’s kink prevents him from realising that if revolt is fomented in India by the Congress the British will take measures to stamp it out. Possibly Gandhi cannot coordinate cause and effect! In “Gandhi and the Indian Problem,” Colonel Hart (who is professor of Arabic, Persian, and Hindustani at Dublin University) gives us perhaps the best biographical sketch of the Mahatma which has yet appeared. Recent events have possibly encouraged us to harden our hearts against Gandhi, but we must admit the fairness and pertinence of Colonel Hart’s final assessment: “He is a great saint and a very great man, but a poor politician and a worse statesman.” Christianity or Hinduism

In “ The Moral Issue in India ” Mr Robert Stokes administers a corrective to any igood-hearted persons who may think that perhaps, after all, the British rule is oppressive and the Indians should be left free to be happy and govern themselves. The issue with which he deals is whether India is to be governed upon ethical Christian principles or left to be ruled by the Hindu element. Great Britain’s promises, he urges, are “to the peoples of India,” not to the microscopic educated minority, and until that minority purges itself of the degrading practices, the corruption and cruelties of Hinduism, or the illiterate, helpless defenders obtain educated defenders from their own ranks, we have no moral right to hand over the masses in their millions to their old oppressors, the Brahmin and the moneylender. M‘G.

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