The Round Table Conference
Problems and Prophecies
HOW WILL THE PRINCES DECIDE?
Subjects in which the Crown is involved, which include, besides foreign relations, questions touching the Princes' sovereignty—rights of succession, the procedure to be adopted towards a misgoverned or defaulting or recalcitrant State— the Conference has left on one side. They will be vested in the Viceroy during a time of transition ; ultimately, those that concern the Princes will pass to a specially constituted judicial body. Questions of "residuary powers "—the Crown's right of interference in extreme cases—and the structure of the Federal Government come next in order, to be considered after the severance of subjects into Federal and Provincial. This week the reader must forgive a page of prophecy. I believe the Princes will decide that they cannot afford to enter only an Upper House (the Federal Council). If there is one House made up by nomination and indirect election, and one directly elected, the latter will hold itself justified, from Western precedent and the whole modern trend, in claiming to override the former. The decision to be represented in both Federal Houses will be more far-reaching than the earlier de- cision to federate. It will give India a stronger Central Govern- ment—and how greatly is she going to need a strong Central Government ! It solves several minor but obstinate questions ; it makes it certain that others will in a few years compel their own solution, without any outside pressure. We shall see the Princes keeping their own civil and criminal administration ; but a Federal Parliament, with two Chambers operating on an equality with each other, will legislate for all-India in such questions as taxation and tariffs and communications and defence.
TILE SUBJECTS OF INDIAN STATES We shall see Federal Customs officers in charge not only at Calcutta and Karachi, but in the comparatively obscure but growing ports of Native India. The last local currencies and postal systems will disappear. There will be no jealousy of the revenue from any of these sources, since it will go into a Federal purse, in whose disbursement the Princes will have a voice. Further, in time the representation of the Princes in the popular Chamber will bring about the democratization of their States. I pointed out last week that the people of the States are unrepresented in the Conference, and that no settle- ment which left them unconsidered would prove a settlement. But neither the British nor the British-Indian Delegates have the legal right to raise the problem of the Princes' people. Several States, however—among them such important States as Mysore, Travancore, and Cochin—already have legislative councils and a franchise. It is likely (unless the Princes without representative institutions strongly and successfully oppose this) that these States will elect at least some uf their representation in the Central Legislatures. In that case there will be a powerful reaction from the Centre, and in a few years we shall see legislative bodies and machinery in nearly all- the States, introduced by the Princes them- ittves. HINDU-MOSLEM DIFFICULTIES
The obstinate communal question cannot be profitably discussed on the basis of what is said about it openly. The most statesmanlike of the Hindu Delegates realize that the only wise and safe action is the generous action, recognizing the fear and distrust abroad in India and conceding special representation in the hope that in time they can persuade the minorities to trust an India no longer Sikh or Muslim or Hindu or Christian, Brahmin or Depressed, but Indian, But from India come the mandates of the great sectional organizations or sectional leaders. The Muslims distrust the ability of the more generous Hindu Moderates "to deliver the goods." They rather watch those Delegates who are supposed to represent the Malta Sabha, the Hindu organization, MUSLIMS AND SIKHS The Hindus, on the other hand, believe that the Muslim; are dreaming of a block of four Muslim States, Sind, the Punjab, the North-West Frontier Province, and Baluchistan, with a Muslim hinterland in Afghanistan and beyond-- a Mahommedan Corridor from Constantinople to Saharunpur." This might secede at will, or hang over India like an avalanche about to fall. The Muslim refusal to accept the Hindu concession of separate and reserved representation, so long as there are joint electorates (which would enable Hindu votes to keep out of power the Muslim diehard or bigot), strengthens the Ilindu fear. The Sikhs, a smaller community, one per cent. of India's population, in the Punjab (where they lane an eighteen per cent, representation, for eleven per cent. of the population) are insistent on a thirty per cent. repre- sentation, which if granted will destroy the keystone of the Muslim four-State block. For justification, they can point to the Muslim over-representation in the United Provinces and elsewhere. The justification in their own minds, however, is that it was from a Sikh power that the British conquered the Punjab, and that they are the sword-hand of India, providing a third (till recently, more) of the Indian Army. They dread being submerged. On the other hand, it is argued that their separate entity is political rather than religious, and is far from being a constant factor. The Sikhs tend to sink into the more orthodox Hindu community, with which they freely intermarry.
TIIE NATIONAL CONGRESS
The National Congress is the only strong political organization in India to-day, and the only one that maintains a stiff discipline (amounting, indeed, to a tyranny tolerated only as an emergency or war measure against the Government). Its members conduct ceaseless propaganda in the villages, at wayside stations, in the third-class railway compartments. They have succeeded in bringing India near to what she has hitherto always escaped, despite her economic misery, a Peasants' Revolt. Three years ago there was little Communism in India ; there is now a great and growing amount. India can escape revolution only by vigorous and courageous reconstruction, put through by a strong Central Government. A Central Government that uses Indian Ministers who are not responsible to their own people will he a weak one, possessing only scapegoats, in place otstatesmen. The best thing the Congress has done is to make the young people, whether Hindu - or Muslim no longer .comnitinal. The Delegates in London will be wise to ignore the voice.; insistent on a ruthless and unmitigated communalism, and to choose a course which will rally non-communal Young India to the side of order. Also, as soon as possible, there should be an explicit acknowledgment of India's tariff autonomy, which will remove the motive which has put her business community behind the wrecking campaign. For the rest, there is cause for hopefulness in two facts, which every day has made clearer. The Delegates are aware that they cannot remain in London for ever and that they dare not return without a settlement ; and in Lord Sankey the ideal Chairman has been found, well-informed as to all the endless intricacies of his task and as aware of the future's menace as any Delegate is.
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