THE INDIAN SCENE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21989, 26 June 1933, Page 6

THE INDIAN SCENE

Civil disobedience has been one of the more difficult problems with which the Government in India has had to cope, and to combat it strong measures have been necessary. An inevitable result has been a large accession to the prison population of the country. Particulars now published show, however, that though over 9000 persons were under detention for this offence at the end of last month, this total actually represented a reduction of as much as seventy per cent, when compared with the figures for the corresponding period of last year. The firmness displayed by the Government in handling the situation created by the tactics of Mr Gandhi and the National Congress has been productive of good results. For some months past much less has been heard than formerly of attempts to set authority at defiance in India, and the relative infrequency of reports of the kind has been welcome as affording reasonable, ground for concluding that the unrest in that country has become less acute. It will be recalled that, when he was commencing a fast in the first week in May, Mr Gandhi issued a statement announcing a suspension of the civil disobedience movement, while at the same time he appealed to the Government to release political prisoners and withdraw the ordinances which it had introduced in the interests of law and order. The official reply, which was fully consistent with the attitude previously taken up by the Government, was that a merely temporary suspension of civil disobedience did not fulfil the conditions under which it could consider any action in the way suggested. Some days ago -there was a report from Calcutta to the effect that in the absence of guidance from Mr Gandhi, whose state of health precluded his taking part in political discussions, the acting-president of the Congress would recommend an extension of the period of suspension of civil disobedience. This renewal of the suspension was characterised in a further message as a piece of Congress showmanship, and the suggestion was offered that the civil disobedience movement was dead. Whether that be the case or not the evidence certainly appears to point to the existence of a better tone in India so far as the situation is outwardly reflected in the respect that is being accorded to existing authority. Exactly how much that may be attributable, apart from the effect of the Government’s policy, to Mr Gandhi’s enforced inactivity, or to a waning of his influence, there is no saying. It is not to be supposed, of course, that certain Cohgress leaders who have been serving sentences of imprisonment will emerge cured of all desire to stir up further mischief. Yet the fact remains that the Indian scene was appropriately quiet during the discussions on the new constitution. The opposition to the reforms manifested by Mr Churchill and other so-called “ die-hards ” in the Conservative Party in the British Parliament has probably tended to make Indian opinion place on the concessions that are offered a higher value than v it had previously done.