‘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

I must apologise to the readers of Triveni for the delay in publishing the July number and the failure to bring out the number for August. Early in July, the Andhra Provincial Committee did me the honour of nominating me as the Congress candidate in a bye-election to the Madras Legislative Assembly. The vacancy was caused in June by the untimely demise of Sri K. Venkata Reddi, a prominent Congressman and a rising lawyer of Guntur, who represented the Narasaraopet General Constituency. Some months earlier, I happened to settle down in my home-town, Narasaraopet, for reasons of health. In obedience to the command of the Congress, I stood for election. The election was fought out with some tenacity, being the first contested bye-election in the Province after the Congress Ministry took office. But I received generous help in the shape of men and money. Leading Congressmen like Desabhakta Konda Venkatappayya, Dr. Pattabhi Sitaramayya, and the Hon. B. Gopala Reddi, Minister for Local Administration, toured the constituency to address meetings on my behalf. In the end, I was declared elected to the Assembly by a good majority, and took my seat at the fag-end of the August session.

For five or six weeks, however, I could think of nothing but voters’ lists, polling stations, and election agents. Almost incessantly, I was knocking about in none-too-comfortable cars on bad roads and worse country-tracks. It became impossible to attend to Triveni. To make up for lost time, this Double Number is being published for August and September. I crave the indulgence of the readers for this irregularity.

I am profoundly grateful for this fresh opportunity of serving the public through the Legislature. It is but rarely that this chance is offered to a journalist in India. I am hoping that I may be able hereafter to import some added zest into my work as Editor, for, after many years of struggle and frustration of hope, I feel that something different has come to me.

Twenty years after the conclusion of the Treaty of Versailles, Britain and France are once again at war with Germany. It was Germany’s determined attempt to upset the Versailles settlement that made war inevitable. In the name of the ‘rectification’ of frontiers, the German Chancellor often pressed his demands at the point of the bayonet. The shadow of war has overhung Europe ever since Hitler came to power. The disinclination of the Western Powers to plunge the world into yet another war made it comparatively easy for Germany and her ‘revisionist’ ally, Italy, to incorporate large tracts of territory and millions of subjects in the Third Reich or the Italian Empire. Abyssinia, Albania, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland–here was a series of easy conquests at the expense of brave and unoffending peoples. But Poland was the last straw, and even an avowed champion of peace like Mr. Chamberlain felt that the time had come to cry halt to what was obviously a ‘rake’s progress.’

At the back of the British Prime Minister’s mind must have lain the thought that, with the completion of Herr Hitler’s designs on Poland, the question of the return of the German colonies would come to the forefront; and when it was a case of preserving the British Empire and upholding Britain’s hegemony over her hard-won colonies, Britain could afford to take no risks. Even if Russia entered into a pact with her erstwhile foe, Britain and France must join issue with Germany on the question of Poland. The independence of Poland, like the neutrality of Belgium in 1914, is but the accident which precipitates a crisis. War might have resulted from any one of the acts of Germany within the last four or five years. That it did result from the German violation of Polish independence is to the advantage of Britain and France. The centuries’ old saga of Poland’s fight for freedom against three Empires is fresh in people’s memory; Poland has been like a beacon to all lovers of liberty–to all nations striving to achieve self-determination. Even severe critics of British Imperialism are obliged to concede that this is no war of conquest on Britain’s part, no attempt to crush people’s liberties. And yet, there is a thought that comes to every Indian. The freedom of India cannot be less dear to us than that of Poland. An Empire that seeks to safeguard the integrity of Poland cannot be blind to the problem facing four hundred millions of Indians–the problem of Swaraj. Sjt. Subhas Bose gave outward expression to this inward thought when he demanded at Madras that India’s claim should be urged at this stage. Without being accused of taking unfair advantage of Britain’s difficulties, the Indian leaders, and in particular the Working Committee of the Congress, are entitled to present this aspect of the problem and bring it prominently to the notice of British and allied statesmen. This is the one weak spot in Britain’s armour. Cannot the united wisdom of Britain and India evolve a method by which this weakness is eliminated, and Indian nationalism is at long last reconciled to a new-born and chastened British Commonwealth?

But, whatever happens to India, the war is bound to run its evil course for at least two or three years. The number of neutral nations at the moment far outweighs that of the actual participants. But, sooner or later, more and more of the bigger nations, East and West, will be drawn into the malestrom, all that mankind holds most precious will be sacrificed at the altar of the monster of war. The arts will languish, culture and civilisation will be at the lowest ebb, and, at the end of it all, a war-weary world will ask, with a grip, "Was all this worth while?" It is poor consolation to remind ourselves that God’s ways are mysterious, or that we must destroy before we can build. These platitudes cannot alter the truth. And the truth is that the world is face to face with the greatest and most destructive conflagration in all history.

With the declaration of war, the problem of an Indian Federation assumes prominence. Responsible Government in the Provinces and irresponsibility at the Centre go ill together. Sweeping amendments to the Government of India Act may be rushed through Parliament in order to invest the Central government with power to control the Provinces in the executive and legislative spheres. But if there is to be any real co-ordination of effort between the Centre and the Provinces, and if, in addition, the Indian States are to be brought within the ambit of an efficient and democratic scheme of Central administration, the only way is to call a conference of Indian leaders and allow them to frame a Federal Constitution which may eventually be submitted to the vote of a Constituent Assembly. The present is hardly the time for summoning a Constituent Assembly, but whatever scheme meets with the approval of the leaders of the nation must be held to be valid till the return to normal peace conditions. Questions like separate electorates, representation in services, weightages and percentages, will now assume far less importance than when people have greater leisure to wrangle over comparative trifles. In the white heat of a grave crisis, all these will be sublimated and fall into their proper places. In such an atmosphere, decisions are reached with startling rapidity. The Congress-League scheme of 1916 was a notable instance of an agreement arrived at with rapidity, wisdom and unselfishness. The present is an even more propitious moment, and men and women ranged round a table can settle age-old differences within a few hours, whereas, normally, years of weary discussion might have led them nowhere. The scheme of a voluntary federation envisaged by Gandhiji may aptly form the basis of discussion. Everything, however, will depend on the decisions of the Working Committee which meets at Wardha on the 8th. The Right and Left wings within the Congress must agree on the fundamentals of a new policy before anything great in the way of national advance can be thought of. The Congress has never betrayed the nation’s trust, and it is not likely to do so now. What the nation wants is not strife with Britain while she is at war, but a war-time settlement which will ultimately lead to a lasting and honourable peace between Britain and India.

When larger questions like war and Federation engross the public attention, the demand for the creation of an Andhra Province is likely to be dismissed as trivial and untimely. But if the inwardness of this nation-building movement is grasped and its history for over a quarter of a century is studied with care, it will become clear that the formation of linguistic Provinces will resolve most of the conflicts that now rage in India besides inaugurating a well-ordered and sensible method of administration, in which true democracy will function by permitting village leadership to come into its own. Legislation, administration, education and the many activities incidental to healthy national life, will acquire a new meaning when the language and culture of the people are enthroned as they ought to be. Fourteen or fifteen well-knit and fairly homogeneous Provinces are the ideal units of any successful federation. The demand may not be as keen in Gujarat or Maharashtra as it is in Andhra or Karnataka; financial considerations may operate to postpone the realisation of the hopes of yet others like Kerala or Mahakoshal. But the claims of Andhra are un-assailable from any point of view. As the Premier of Madras urged, what is immediately feasible need not wait till the demands of those less favourably situated are also met.

One has only to travel in the Andhra districts or read the Telugu Press to realise the overwhelming strength of feeling and the agony of unfulfilled hopes. At the Andhra Mahasabha which met at Guntur during the last week of August, men and women of all shades of political opinion joined in demanding that there shall be no further evasion or postponement. The Working Committee of the Congress was called upon to direct the Congress Ministry of Madras to make this a first-class issue; if the Secretary of State continued to flout the unanimous recommendation of the Legislature and the Ministry, the Ministry and the legislators must be directed to resign.

The war might throw this demand into oblivion, but there is no reason why it should. You cannot lightly dismiss the wishes of twenty millions of people who have always learnt to subordinate their particular claim to the claims of a larger Indian nationalism, but who nevertheless feel that this voluntary subordination has, time and again, prejudiced their just claim. The Working Committee of the Congress must address themselves to this problem without delay.

It is good news that comes from Benares. Sir S. Radhakrishnan has agreed to serve as Vice-Chancellor of the Hindu University in place of the revered Pandit Malaviya, who is retiring in a few days after a meritorious record of service to the cause of Learning. Radhakrishnan’s is a name which inspires men to great thoughts. As an ambassador of culture from the East to the West, as the philosopher-statesman whose speeches and writings represent the peak of achievement in modern times, and as the authentic voice of India in an age when we are alternating between hope and fear, Sir S. Radhakrishnan is admired and respected in many lands. Wherever he has traveled, his presence has been a benediction. In common with Gandhi and Tagore, this great savant has raised the status of India among the nations. In him nationalism and internationalism have attained a rare harmony. So, too, has he attained that balance between reason and emotion which is the mark of highly evolved souls. Under his guidance, the Hindu University will mirror forth the glory that is, and that shall ever remain, Ind.