HOME RULE FOR INDIA.

Western Star, 21 March 1922, Page 3

HOME RULE FOR INDIA.

fßy Thomas Ryan'.] Home rule agitation in India dates buck.' to 1885, but in those days it was a feeble, hunted thing. It advanced when Mrs Annie Besant founded the National Home Rule League in 1916, but even- Mrs. Besant and the Indian patriot Tillak served terms in jail.' The war, however, wag awakening liberal yearnings all over the world! The merchant class, the women, all Asia were growing selfconscious. In 1916 the plea' was made to London to grant a dominion status. These hdme rulers' wej-e liberals

like the Kerenski party in Russia. I For the moment they seomedi the extremists and they' passed through the usual stages of ridicule and le* pression before they enlisted many liberals of the ruling race. Only when they'had crossedythe wilderness of official disfavour did they come to , their particular Moab—rejection jj>y those who listened to fairer- prophecies. , Moslems and Hindus had been al--1 lied in a formal way undter Mrs Beeant but after the treaty of Sevres, two Mohammedan brothers began to denounce the British for near eastern policies. They were Mohammed! and Shaukat Ali, recently sentenced to two .years' imprisonment .for inciting jroops to disloyalty.

■Mahatmi Gandhi, their opposite in temperament, was attracted to this reckless pair and began, to work with .'them, although his cr<ied'of non-vio- ; lence loomed . strangely beside ' the threats of Shaukat Ali. Mrs Besant was ■■dissatisfied'' with the reforms at first presented. On a mission to England- she gained further concessions and upon her return to Bombay in 1918 she,- was received with royal honours by the. -people. She threw her influence toward the reforms, which she thought a substantial advance. ! ,- ' She is old and/ founder of the Adyar/Theosophical Society, a rival! of Mtsj Tingiey'u institution at Point Loma, Cal. The. latter years of her life have been given to Indian

home- rule. She admits ■ herself more 1 Indian than English. In fact, she 'turned to native so"ioty when >she 'came out in 1893, and she soon found , Herself ostracised by the British, who, untiltrie reforms, drew a clear colour line. She is an active, keen-witted, woman, with close cropped hair, bare feet, and .a white robe, caught up with, jewelled brooches. She received me one afternoon on the porch of her instrbute, overlooking the Adyar river and a sweep of tidewater. She is still in politics, publisher of. the New India, and a staunch advocate of home rule within the empire. During, our two hours' talk on the balcony she reviewed her life as an Indian home ruler, pausing at times in an, effort to be fair, speaking almost in a whisper .when Bhecame to > the massacre of the Indians at Amritsar/ She could look back on internment, money lost when her security was confiscated Yet her bitterness, if she expressd any, was mostlfcr for Gandhi, the Ali brothers, and non-co-operation. She is now rated a'conservative. In 1919 Gandhi stepped to the fore. He had gained prominence, by espousing the cause of the Hindus l in South Africa. At first hn ; was satisfied with

a moderate programme, defending the British connection and'.even deploring the Punjab riots, whidh led to Araritsar. But he soon struck off to the left. He inducedl ,the All-India congress.—an unrecognised body—to accept con-co-operation and to applaud his scathing denunciation of the Montagu-bhelmsford reforms. As Mrs Besant raised ,her voice for the last time in the congress) she was hooted by those who had. once knelt to her. Glandhi possessed the congress. However, worsting the home rulers was not ousting the British. He had had still the officials to deal with, and he still had the people—Bo per cent, 'peasants —to win over to his | colossal programme of passive resistance. He propoundiedi Satyagraha, the "soul force," that was to drive ; the British peacefully from India. It broke down in a riot at Delhi. But from that time on he continued developing non-co-operation until he has reached at last' civil disobedience, which the congress has accepted!.