HOME RULE IN INDIA.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 February 1930, Page 8

HOME RULE IN INDIA.

In all effort© to bring about a change in the government of India the attitude of the reigning native rulers of principalities within that huge country has been recognised as a most important factor. Though the native princes owe allegiance to the British Crown and their authority is in many instances severely limited by the Imperial authorities, there is still sufficient mana surrounding their courts to keep alive a national spirit in the people they govern. Whether that influence is to be used for or against British methods of development has been an open question, but one that has always been recognised as of some importance. Recently there has been an outburst of fanaticism among a group of prominent Indian politicians. They will have •Dominion status for India forthwith or will refuse to take any share in its local or general government. The reply of one native prince to this should hearten those who are seeking’to lead the Indian peoples on the road to self-government. The Maharajah of Patiala, the ruler of a population greater than that of New Zealand, addressing his people in assembly, said quite frankly that the socalled leaders of public opinion who were demanding immediate Dominion status for India were pursuing a will o’ the wisp, and that if complete local autonomy were granted forthwith it would, be inimical to the interests of India as a whole. He went on to promise the Crown all the assistance in his power to prevent the growth of the revolutionary spirit which is apparent in certain portions of the Indian Empire, a duty which was, he said, cast upon all the native rulers who owe their prosperity and peace to the British rule. If his utterance may be accepted as an indication of the policy that will be adopted by the majority of the ruling princes it seems as though one of the problems surrounding the thorny question of Indian government is on its way to solution.