INDIAN CRITICS CHANGE FRONT ON SECESSION ISSUE
New Zealand Press Association—Copyright Rec. 9 p.m. LONDON, Oct. 28. Summing up Indian reactions to the Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ discussions in London, the New Delhi correspondent of The Times says it is apparent that there has been a change of front by Indian critics who, before the London conference opened, were asserting vehemently that India had no alternative consistent with her desire to be a “sovereign independent republic ” but to leave the Commonwealth. These same critics now realise that Britain and the older dominions are ready and willing to make such adjustments as would enable the three Asian countries (India, Pakistan and Ceylon) to reconcile their newly-found nationhood with membership of the Commonwealth.
In India .it is generally felt, The Times correspondent says, that the next move ( is up to the Indian Constituent Assembly which meets again early next month to consider the draft constitution. Several Indian newspapers hint that in the light of the London discussions the Assembly will have to decide whether the goal of a Republic is a genuine demand calling for immediate attainment, or whether it was adopted at a time when feeling against Britain was not sufficiently balanced and can therefore be kept in abeyance. But this is not to say that the prevailing Indian sentiment is any different on the need for India to assert her complete independence if necessary by breaking the link with the British Crown. It merely means, the correspondent adds, that Indian political commentators now appreciate better how irrevocable a step secession from the Commonwealth must necessarily be and are therefore less forthright in demanding it.
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Otago Daily Times, Issue 26915, 29 October 1948, Page 5
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273INDIAN CRITICS CHANGE FRONT ON SECESSION ISSUE Otago Daily Times, Issue 26915, 29 October 1948, Page 5
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