INDIA’S PART IN THE WAR

Waikato Times, Volume 126, Issue 21042, 19 February 1940, Page 6

INDIA’S PART IN THE WAR

Victory for the more moderate candidate for the presidency of the All-India Congress gives cause for gratitude in the rest of the Empire. The other contender for the honour was a Communist who advocated gaining independence for India by any means, including violence. The new president, Maulana Azad, has Gandhi’s support. He is pledged to participation in the war on the side of Britain providing a satisfactory arrangement can be made between the British Government and the Congress.

India in its attitude to the British Empire cannot be regarded as one entity. The country is divided into many factions, some of which have already made magnificent contributions in men and money to Britain’s cause in the war. That part of India represented by the Congress is apparently willing to bargain a greater measure of independence for wholehearted effort in the war. It should not be impossible to reach an amicable settlement, for the principle of the British policy is to give India an increasing measure of self-govern-ment just as quickly as India as a whole demonstrates that it would be safe and humanitarian to do so. Congress can scarcely fail to recognise that Britain owes an inescapable duty to millions of people in India who might suffer very grave injustices if complete independence were granted at once

Congress opinion is, of course, that it is purely a matter for the Indians and not for Britain to say whether India is capable of governing herself successfully. But there is more in it than that. Britain, whether rightly or wrongly, has for many years been responsible for the government of the country, and she cannot drop that responsibility immediately and at the same time fulfil her sense of duty to all the people. There are millions in India who have no part in the Congress and who would be left completely in the hands of that body if Britain were to stand aside suddenly. In justice to all classes of the people the transition to self-government must be gradual; otherwise there is almost the certainty of a renewal of violence and bloodshed. Mischief makers are active in India, and it is to them more than to the Indian people themselves that much of the present agitation is due.