The Daily News THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 1930. THE INDIAN SITUATION.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 June 1930, Page 10

The Daily News THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 1930. THE INDIAN SITUATION.

To those who have followed the course of events in India for some time past the first volume of the Simon Commission’s report will be of much interest, though its conclusions will not cause any surprise. The lengthy inquiry into the various subjects upon which the commission was engaged was a task demanding just those exceptional qualifications that the chairman, Sir John Simon, possesses, hence it is only fitting that the report which has just been published should be unanimous—a fact that in itself is an eloquent tribute to his already high reputation. The more carefully this report is studied . the stronger is the feeling that it is a “masterly survey, impressive in the perfect sincerity of its appeal to reasonableness and friendliness,” which, as the Daily Telegraph aptly remarks, “is sufficient to demonstrate a dozen times the totally impracticable character of all demands for a solution of the constitutional problem on the lines of self-government at short notice.’-’ Whatever the concluding volume of the report may disclose relative to the views of the commissioners, the first volume will certainly stand as a monument to the painstaking efforts, impartiality and acumen of its compilers. . It has to be borne in mind that they met with some determined opposition as well as many difficulties, that should not have been placed in their way, but with true British doggedness they adhered to their task, and have now presented a mass of information, the importance of which is beyond exaggeration. It would be impossible in the limited space available to touch upon more than a mere outline of the report, nor would any practical purpose be served by endeavouring to discover the trend of the commission’s proposals, which will be embodied in the second volume. All that is important at this juncture is that the contents of the first volume shall be carefully studied in order to follow the views set forth in the concluding portion of the report that will shortly be available. It was certainly appropriate that in the forefront of the report should be recapitulated the pledged policy of Britain in the matter of conferring upon the people of India a progressive measure of responsible government, but it is rightly emphasised that the time and manner of such advance can be determined only by the Imperial Parliament, so that the decision as to the immediate future • must largely depend upon a just estimate of the results and consequences of the steps already taken. That view should commend itself to all impartial sections of the British and Indian Empires. The vastness of India and its mixed population, castes, religions, speech, and races, place it in a category by itself and increase the difficulties of self-gov-ernment immeasurably. It is I important to note that although a sense of unity is growing to a limited extent, “it is largely the outcome of the most recent stage of India’s history, during which the influence and the authority of British rule over the whole area have made it possible to speak of India as a single entity.” While the significance of what is called the Indian Nationalist movement cannot be ignored or even belittled, it only directly affects the hopes of a very small fraction of the teeming peoples of the country, the great majority of whom only concern themselves with the pursuit of the traditional course of their daily lives. It is the few who have constituted themselves the spokesmen for the whole, and have concentrated their forces upon arousing the people “to national dignity and national selfconsciousness”—a somewhat difficult task in view of the fact that British India has a population of 247 millions, and the Indian States 72 millions, while only 10.2 per cent, of the population, as compared with 79 per cent, in England, live in the urban areas. It is well known also that the opposition between the 216 million Hindus and the 70 million Mohammedans is sharply intensified by religious practices which are only too likely to provoke mutual illfeeling, the immediate cause of communal disorders being nearly always the religious issue. While it is true that British and European residents form only a very small portion of the population of the country, the commissioners rightly emphasise “the part played by British enterprise in the commercial life, organisation, and leadership which have promoted the modern industrial development of India, just as it has been the adoption of political conceptions derived from Britain which have chiefly affected the recent course of Indian politics.”; Reference is made -to .the military

bearing on the problem of selfgovernment, and the view is expressed that Indian statesmen can help to modify the existing arrangement as to self-government only if they too will co-operate by facing hard facts, I’emembering that Britain is actuated entirely by a desire to help forward Indian aspirations. Those who are striving for all round equality with Europeans in India must adopt more than general phrases to attain their desire. They must exhibit the qualifications essential to that equality and prove that they are animated by that sense of freedom and justice characteristic of the British.