STALEMATE IN INDIA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24256, 26 March 1940, Page 8

STALEMATE IN INDIA

The statement of the Indian Moslem leader that the termination of the British regime would result in chaos is an effective reply to the increasingly emphatic claims of the Congress Party. The population of India is vast; but it is never so vast that the desires of ninety million people could be entirely disregarded in any scheme for extending the authority of the Indians to govern their own affairs. It is the view of the Moslems, and one, unfortunately, which Is not without proven justification, that they require better guarantees of the protection of their interests than the Congress elements have ever conceded to them in laying claim to control the destinies of the Indian Empire. Events in Europe have shown how difficult is the position of minorities when they are put under the rule of fiercely nationalistic Governments, and the predominance of the Hindu peoples in India scarcely permits the hope that the Moslem community could have any confidence in an administration controlled by the Congress Party. This, perhaps, is not the main problem in India to-day, but that is because the Congress, itself torn between extremist demands for independence and more attainable schemes for a dominion status, seems to have become a party without an effective head. The concessions which the British Government is prepared to allow the Indian peoples have been clearly stated. Thus all sections of Indian opinion have, a goal for which they might aim. But at the present time the voice of the Congress, the most powerful party in India, is divided, and the smaller parties are nursing antagonisms or, like the Moslems, in fear of the Congress itself. Progress towards a definitely-formulated scheme for according to the Indians a form of government in which all classes would be unified is at an end. It is the common complaint against the British Government that it has proceeded over-cautiously in introducing reforms in the administrative system in India. The present dissensions among the Indian leaders themselves, during which the working of the modified form of control already granted to the Indian peoples is more or less in abeyance, point to another reason for the delays and disappointments of tfie years since the last war. Great Britain could do no service to the Indian peoples in granting them liberties which, on the statement of the leader of the greatest minority, would lead to civil war.