HOPES FOR INDIA

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1080, 18 September 1930, Page 9

HOPES FOR INDIA

PEOPLE NOT SO KEEN ON RIOT LEADERS GOVERNMENT’S REYIEW RUGBY, Tuesday. The Government, of India in its usual weekly review of the situation in that country, says the general trend of public opinion, outside the Indian National Congress, in regard to the breakdown of the recent peace conversations is to lay the responsibility on the Congress leaders. The absence of anything in the nature of a practical constructive programme in their demands show how far they are from the everyday affairs of administration, especially in the provinces. The acceptance of the proposals of the Congress leaders would have condemned the reformed provincial Governments, at the beginning of the new constitution, to financial stagnation and would have deprived them indefinitely of the means of carrying out a progressive policy in the fields of education, medical relief, scientific agriculture and other beneficent activities. TRADE RESTRAINT The proposal that picketing should continue even after the civil disobedience movement was abandoned also was unpopular, as it represented action in restraint of trade, which would prejudicially have affected the interests of thousands of Indian traders without any limit of time. The members of the trading community realise more than ever the significance of the tyranny of the congress, and this particular threat is likely to hasten the revolt against its methods. Moderate opinion is rallying in support of the Indian round-table conference as the agency through which practical issues can bo examined and discussed in an atmosphere of reason and goodwill. There is a progressive decline in the enthusiasm of the people in places where the activities of the congress were prominent early in the civil disobedience campaign. In the places to which the movement recently has been extended, vigorous action has had more rapid and more effective results than similar measures had a few months ago. NEED FOR ACTION Nevertheless, the need for action of the kind has been increased by the growing tendency toward violence shown by the rank and file. The profession of a policy of non-violence has been frequently ignored, and force has been required to restore authority. The success achieved by the congress in the boycott of the election of members to legislative bodies has varied in different places. Broadly speaking, the Mahommedans will not tolerate interference in elections to seats reserved for the community, and the congress left them alone. In regard to the non-Mahommedan seats the success of the Congress was most marked in some of the Gujerat districts where comparatively few Hindus voted. BOYCOTT DECLINING The educational boycott, is definitely on the decline and likely to fail within a few weeks. The main activities of the Congress then in-obably will be the boycott of foreign goods and the “no tax” campaign, which is aimed at enlisting the sympathies of the rural classes. Attempts, also, may be made to revive breaches of the salt laws. As regards the North-West frontier, except at the head of the Kurram Valley, where a fair amount of sporadic fighting occurred, the tribal areas of the province remained quiet. Last week it was reported that an emissary from Kabul had reached the hostile tribesmen in the Peiwar area, with orders from King Nadir Khan and his Prime Minister to cease their activities.