‘Triveni’ is devoted to Art, Literature and History. Its main function is to interpret the Indian Renaissance in its manifold aspects.

‘Triveni’ seeks to draw together cultured men and women in all lands and establish a fellowship of the elect. All movements that make for Idealism in India as well as elsewhere, receive particular attention in these columns. We count upon the willing and joyous co-operation of all lovers of the Beautiful and the True.

May this votive offering prove acceptable to Him who is the source of the ‘Triveni’–the Triple Stream of Love, Wisdom and power!

BY K. RAMAKOTISWARA RAU ¹

Half-way through their term of office, while important schemes of public beneficence were yet being planned in every Province, the Congress Ministries have retired into the wilderness. In the full enjoyment of the confidence of the respective legislatures and of an overwhelming majority of the electors, these Ministries went out of office, in a blaze of glory. If they had clung to their positions, it could only have been with loss of self-respect and in direct opposition to the best interests of the nation they had vowed to serve. To become responsible for policies and programmes with which they were in entire disagreement, and to continue to hold office shorn of real power would be unworthy of the servants of the nation. For, once the Defence of India Ordinances started working, the Ministers became, in vital matters, mere agents of the Central Executive at Delhi.

The immediate issue on which they resigned was the unsatisfactory nature of the Viceregal response to the demand of the Congress. What was demanded was not the establishment of Dominion Status straightway, but a clear declaration by Britain that Dominion Status for India, with the right to secede at will, would be an accomplished fact at the end of the War. Immediate steps were to be taken to democratise the Central Government, as a provisional measure.

Even as one Ministry after another was resigning, the Congress and League leaders were summoned once again to Delhi, and, for two or three days, it looked as if, after all, the Congress Ministries would function under happier auspices, and with a definite promise of freedom for India. But what the Viceroy and the Secretary of State offered was a temporary arrangement by which the Congress was to accept office at the Centre, and not a clear undertaking about the future constitutional status of India. At the crucial moment, the Congress leaders sized up the situation and declined to enter into a discussion on the Minorities and the methods of recruitment to the Central Executive Council, without a previous solution of the vastly more important problem of Swaraj.

During every crisis in the relations between India and England, someone in authority at Whitehall earns the reputation of a bungler. Once it was Birkenhead; another time it was Hoare; and now it is Zetland. And the pity of it is that Zetland is a student of Indian culture who claims to interpret ‘the heart of Aryavarta.’ The ignorance of scholars can sometimes be very profound indeed.

Between the positions taken up by Gandhiji and by Zetland, with regard to the present impasse, the gulf is a wide one; but it is by no means unbridgeable. The latest negotiations at Delhi broke on the rock of the Constituent Assembly. The Congress was required to come to an understanding with Mr. Jinnah in respect of the ‘Provincial field’ with a view to making provision for more Executive Councillorships at the Centre. Quite logically, the Congress spokesmen insisted that this was a minor issue which could become relevant only when the fundamental question of Britain’s war aims, in relation to India, was settled. "Suppose the Congress and the Muslim League agree. What follows? Will you allow a Constituent Assembly of Indians to frame a Constitution with the approval of all the Minorities?" Lord Zetland goes to the root of the matter when he denies the right of Indians to be the sole judges of their future. Britain must have a finger in the pie; Britain cannot betray her trust; India’s right to self-determination must always be overridden by the superior right of Britain to dictate what is best for India! The issue was never more clearly defined by India, nor was the claim to be arbiter more vehemently asserted by Britain.

With mutual good-will, however, even this conflict may be resolved. When Indian leaders speak of a Constituent Assembly, they are aware that any constitution framed by themselves will eventually have to be ratified by the British Parliament. So long as India remains part of the Commonwealth, this procedure has to be followed. If Britain is keen on certain safeguards, and if India is convinced that such safeguards are also in her own interest, there is nothing to prevent these matters being mentioned in the terms of reference to a Constituent Assembly. Questions like Defence, Foreign Relations, the Indian States, and Minorities are not less important from the Indian standpoint than that of Britain, and Indian statesmen charged with the task of framing a constitution must take note of these factors and strive for perfect agreement on every one of them. But such agreement will become impossible, so long as Britain claims the final voice. Indians must decide for themselves, and the part of British statesmen is to ratify the decision arrived at by Indians. This is of the essence of self-determination. The presence of an outsider is always a disturbing element, and any attempt to impose a decision will reduce the Constituent Assembly to a futility like the ill-fated Round Table Conferences.

Whether a settlement on the above basis will be achieved within the next few months, so as to end the present impasse is more than anyone can foretell. But judging from the pronouncements of British Parliamentarians belonging to the Opposition, and from the views of Liberal and Labour journals, Lord Zetland’s statement seems to have met with grave dsapproval. It is being viewed as a disaster. The breakdown of the Constitution in several Indian Provinces, leading to primitive expedients like one-man rule, has placed the British Government in an awkward position. The Congress has successfully put them in the wrong, and robbed British declarations championing democracy and freedom of all sense of reality. And Gandhiji’s repeated statements that he is not contemplating a campaign of civil disobedience just at present, can have only one result,–that of throwing on the Government the burden of taking the offensive. If the Congress had followed up the withdrawal of the Ministries with some form of civil resistance, the Government would have found a ready justification for the programme of repression envisaged by Sir Samuel Hoare. But how will they deal with an organisation like the Congress which not merely refuses to co-operate, but also refuses, to be drawn into a fight? Such a condition of stalemate is infinitely more exasperating to the Britisher than one of active opposition which can be met by energetic repression. The inference from all this is that even Lord Zetland must soon realise that wisdom lies in conceding the Congress demand.

A great deal depends on the attitude of Mr. Jinnah, and on the final outcome of the Jinnah-Nehru talks which will shortly be resumed. Public opinion among nationalist Muslims is gathering strength, and Mr. Jinnah’s right to block all constitutional progress is being questioned. The Congress is in a mood to conciliate the Muslim League, provided the latter is prepared to support the national demand. The Hindu-Muslim question is a purely domestic one; and once agreement is reached between the leaders of the Congress and the Muslim League, it is not open to the Government to plead the problem of the Minorities as an obstacle to the settlement of the larger issue of Indian freedom.

Meanwhile, whether in or out of office, the Congress continues to be the one organisation which can claim to speak for the entire nation, and not merely on behalf of sectional or communal interests. To the outside world, the Congress is the symbol of a resurgent India seeking her freedom by means which are strictly in consonance with Truth, and under the leadership of one who sums up in himself all that is loftiest in human nature. All eyes are now turned to him, and what-ever plan of action is recommended at Allahabad next week, by the Congress Cabinet under Gandhiji’s guidance, will be carried out in letter and in spirit.