INDIA AWAKENING,

Waikato Times, Volume 108, Issue 18167, 4 November 1930, Page 8

INDIA AWAKENING,

DESIRE FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT. LAW-ABIDING PEOPLE. The conviction that unless India was granted homo rule the disaster of the eighteenth century, when America was lost to the British Empire, would be repeated, was expressed by Dr. G. SArundale, M.A., LL.B. (Cantab.),in a public address in Wellington. Dr. Arundale, who lived in India for 25 years, and was Minister of Education in one of the native principalities, said India had a background of culture when the West was savage, she had a wealth which became the envy and admiration of the outside world, she had faiths no less splendid than Christianity, and she had every political form known in the West today. She had been an example to the world in industry, and had possessed the fundamental principles of education for which the West was now groping. Once possessed of a splendour even greater than that of Egypt, Greece or Rome, India had become forgetful of the past, hardly realising the part she had still to play in the world. But to-day she was awakening. She wanted self-government. There were no more law-abiding people "than the Indians, none easier to govern. One Of The Weaknesses.

One of the weaknesses of the average Indian was that he would not go against the customs of the West, and that was one of the things that stood between India and her freedom. Now, however, she was awakening from her lethargy, and stirring to a realisation that she could become as great as she was centuries ago. Gandhi was now their leader. He was not a statesman or politician as much as he was a saint, a martyr, and a wonderful enthusiast. lie was giving to ■ India a purpose she did not have before. He was perhaps not properly understood by the West. He was not, from some standpoint, a practical idealist, but he was the voice of India —a voice which did not yet know how to utter “ home rule.”

India remembered the promise that had been made to her of Dominion status, and she wanted its performance. Britain said she must wait until she had grown up, but India was ready for self-government,. Freedom was the right of every individual, and India wanted her freedom. She was tired of tutelage- “We may not govern ourselves better, but we will not govern ourselves worse,” was her cry. She could take her stand side by side equally with the other Dominions of the Empire. India free would be an India well governed. Need to Seize Opportunity.

If Britain allowed the present opportunity to pass there would be a repetition of the disaster with regard to America in the eighteenth century, the Indian people would become increasinglv restive and dissatisfied, and any hesftant policy would result in India being plunged into revolution. If Britain did not heed her lesson the Empire would crumble into dust as all other empires had crumbled. But if Britain endeavoured to understand India and realised she was fit for self-government, the Empire, because it was founded on justice and rectitude, and was composed of both East and West, would endure to its own great happiness and the service of the world.