BY K. RAMAKOTISWARA RAO ¹

Judging from the manner in which the Viceregal announcement has been welcomed by certain sections of Indian public opinion, it looks as if our countrymen have a pathetic faith in the primrose path of negotiation as the way to Swaraj. Even before the first blow has been struck, we are settling down to a comfortable talk of peace. The statement that the attainment of Dominion Status is the ultimate goal of British policy in India–a goal to be attained in the fullness of time’–is received as a welcome repudiation of the Haileyan interpretation of the Declaration of August 1917. Obviously, a subject nation has to be grateful even for small mercies!

We shall not seek to belittle the efforts of Lord Irwin to bring about a better understanding between Britain and India. Blessed are the peace-makers; and Lord Irwin is assuredly one of them. It was no small achievement to have persuaded the Imperial Government to treat with the Indian leaders at a Round Table Conference. But in a case like the present, the conditions which hedge the Conference round are such as to rob it of all value as a measure of peace and goodwill. The farce of the Simon Enquiry and Report is to continue and, ludicrous as it might appear, the proposal for the Conference is deemed to have

emanated from Sir John himself. The Conference can meet only after the Simon Report and the Nair Report have been considered by the Government of India. Obviously, these documents which ought to be treated as no better than mere scraps of paper, are to form the basis of discussion. The Conference is to be between His Majesty's Government and such Indian leaders as are invited by the Premier. It is not an attempt to thresh out the details of a scheme of Dominion Status, the broad principles of which Britain accepts in advance, but only an effort to arrive at the greatest common measure of agreement between the Indians who, like Oliver Twist, are always asking for more, and the Britishers anxious to concede as little as may be consistent with their professed desire to set India on her feet, in pursuit of the distant goal of Dominion Status. Even when an agreement is reached after prolonged negotiations, every political party in England is free to pursue its own course. The decisions of the Conference apparently bind no one, not even the party in power which, through the Premier, invites the Indian leaders. It is not a peace-pact between equals that is in prospect–not an agreed constitution which needs but the formal ratification of Parliament. Is this, after all, another attempt to rally the Moderates who were driven into opposition by the all-white complexion of the Statutory Commission? There is bound to be a cleavage in our ranks, the ‘more reasonable’ Congressmen throwing in their lot with those that have pinned their faith to Swaraj by negotiation, and the younger Congressmen and advocates of Independence refusing to touch the Round Table Conference with the longest stick. 

Possibly, we shall be told that it is unfair to doubt the bona fides of the Labour Party, or to set little store by the Viceroy's patent anxiety to ease the tension and prepare the way for a lasting peace. But what are we to think of an announcement which makes no mention of the hundreds of patriots wearing out their lives in prison-cells, or the vexatious prosecutions launched against men of undoubted probity? The release of all political prisoners and the withdrawal of all political prosecutions is the acid test of the Government's bona fides. We trust that the leaders who are running post-haste to Delhi will examine the situation in all its bearings and set forth the National Demand in an unfaltering voice. Peace with honour is always welcome, but we are not disposed to attach any value to the opinion of men like Mr. C. S. Ranga Iyer who advise Indians not to look at the Viceregal gift-horse in the mouth. Swaraj can never be a gift from one nation to another. As between Britain and India, it must be won by the pressure that we can bring to bear by insistent and united action. Even the present gesture is the result of the successful boycott of the Simon Commission by all political parties that really count. If, in the end, Swaraj is to be established by negotiation, let us remember that the party that negotiates without the power to enforce its view-point is always at a disadvantage. So, while we prepare for peace, let us continue to develop the strength that will not only win Swaraj for us but enable us to retain it when won.