Self-Governing India
The New India. By Sir Atul Chatterjee. (Allen and Unwin. 8s. 6d.)
IN 1911 the late Sir Thomas Holderness, Permanent Under-Secre- tary of State for India, contributed to the Home University Library an objective study of The Peoples and Problems of India. Pub- lished on the morrow of the coming of the Morley-Minto reforms, this little book, for which there was a good demand, pictured India at the time of the first breach in the long record of unqualified Whitehall control, one so small that its chief author could disavow the slightest intention of preparing the way for Home Rule on the Parliamentary model. Under the stimulus of two world wars in which British authority was shaken to the foundations, and the urge of the nationalist spirit pulsing through Asia, those faint begin- nings of popular government have grown to complete Home Rule, not indeed for a united India, as was so long envisaged, but for two Dominions with their respective capitals at Delhi and Karachi.
The time was ripe, therefore, to present for the general reader, and also for schools and colleges, a new picture of the sub-continent at the stage of the complete withdrawal of external authority. For this work the publishers could not have made a better choice than that of Sir Atul Chatterjee. His long administrative experience in the I.C.S., culminating in membership of the Viceroy's Executive Council, his seven years as High Commissioner for India in London, his leadership of Indian delegations to various international con- ferences—these experiences are linked with close study of the history and literature of his native land. His researches came to fruition in his collaboration a dozen years ago with the late W. H. Moreland in A Short History of India which, in the close attention paid to the condition of the people, marked something of a new departure in this field. Sir Atul wrote a full supplementary chapter for a second revised edition in 1944.
The high expectations to be drawn from this equipment are not disappointed in the analysis now presented of conditions at the time of transfer of power. Sir Atul has to explain at the outset that the word "India " as used throughout the book comprises the entire subcontinent, and that the term " Indian " means a resident in any part thereof. The leaders of Pakistan are sensitive to any dis- regard of the correct nomenclature for the two distinct Dominions ; but writers on the history of the vast contiguous lands south of the Himalayas must perforce follow the example of Sir Atul Chatterjee, and some confusion of terminology is inevitable. In a more important respect, that of calm, dispassionate judgement, Sir Atul provides a model for the new conditions. The controversies which marked the last thirty years of the British connection no longer obtain. The day of partisan polemics has passed. A comparison between the picture presented by Sir Thomas Holderness in 1911 and that now drawn shows how great and beneficial have been the advances in the closing years of British authority in spite of the handicaps arising from two world wars.
Sir Atul's survey is marked by the tempered optimism of one who has always been a strong believer in Indian self-government. On some issues, such as that of the fundamental change in the problem of defence of the peninsula by land and sea, he is content to state the issues without pronouncing judgement upon them ; on others he holds decided opinions. For instance, there is his belief in the continued use of English as a kind of lingua franca now that the air is cleared of political reasons for agitation on the subject: " In view of the position of English as a business language in the world, and of the part which the study of English literature has played in shaping the culture of present-day India, it seems very doubtful whether English will ever lose its vogue in India."
To that influence can be attributed in no small measure the "new forces and a new spirit " on which Sir Atul dwells in a concluding chapter on education. He notes, for instance, the remarkable development among young people of all classes of a taste and aptitude for outdoor games and sports. He also writes of a welcome revival of artistic and cultural interests. Music, drama and dancing s"are now regaining their rightful position, and are helping to raise the general cultural level." The day of British rule has gone, but it has left an indelible mark on the thought and life of India and Pakistan.
FRANK BROWN.
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