‘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

After weeks of self-imposed silence, the Viceroy delivered a very friendly and comprehensive message to the people of India, regarding the constitutional impasse. While any direct mention of the Congress was avoided, the message was, throughout, an invitation to that national organisation to study the full implications of the scheme of provincial autonomy envisaged in the new Constitution, and to accept office in a spirit of co-operation. Towards the end, he threw out a hint that failure to work the Constitution might lead to a suspension of it in the recalcitrant ‘Congress’ Provinces.

Lord Linlithgow is wiser than Lord Zetland. He never alluded to the Faizpur resolution on wrecking the Constitution,–a resolution which, in the opinion of the Secretary of State, is a living symbol of Congress intransigeance. But the reference to the work of the interim Ministers was unhappy and not altogether relevant to the issue. Creatures of the Governor, and responsible to no electorate or legislature, it is no wonder that they do get on harmoniously with the Governor; their experience is no criterion for judging the possible effects of a serious disagreement between Governors and Congress Ministers.

In some quarters this reference to the puppet Ministers was looked upon as a cruel joke, albeit an unconscious one.

Despite the courtesy and friendliness that marked the Vice-regal pronouncement, it does not advance the constitutional position so as to meet the Congress demand. It merely sums up and clarifies the issues; it indicates that the Secretary of State, the Viceroy, and the Provincial Governors are all of one mind in regard to the exercise of the special powers vested in the Governors. It must now be easier for the Congress to take a decision without further statements and counter-statements.

That decision will have been taken before these lines reach the readers of Triveni. The balance of opinion seems to be in favour of giving the Constitution a trial. It is being urged that no harm can be done to the national cause by the Congress running the governmental machine for a time; some good might result in the shape of relief to the poor and the downtrodden. But the greatest good that can come of it is the demonstration of the fundamental truth, that this Constitution cannot be worked for long without acute conflicts between the Governors and the Ministries. Congressmen can be but brief sojourners in the seats of the mighty, with little faith in the usefulness or durability of the complicated and ill-balanced machine they are handling, and ready to walk out the moment their plans of reform are thwarted. With the Faizpur resolution in the background, they function as Ministers primarily with a view to facilitate the ending of the present Constitution and its speedy replacement by a genuine scheme of Swaraj.

It is this provisional nature of their tenure of office that needs to be emphasised. Just as the Governors are not bound by any prior agreement restricting the use of their special powers, the Congress Ministers too are not pledged to continue in office under all circumstances. The Working Committee or its Parliamentary Board may issue definite instructions that Congress Ministers should offer to resign whenever it becomes clear that the Governor’s powers are being exercised, in the sphere of his special responsibilities, otherwise than in accordance with the Ministerial advice. It is not enough that the Ministers are free to explain publicly that they are not responsible for a particular decision; it must soon become evident that every exercise of power, on a major issue, contrary to Ministerial advice will lead to resignation and a fresh election to the Legislature. In this way, the Governor’s choice, on every important occasion, will lie between (1) acceptance of Ministerial advice, (2) finding new Ministers who can command a majority in the Legislature, or (3) suspending the Constitution under Sec. 93. Sooner or later the special powers must either be scrapped by Parliament or become atrophied by non-user. The Congress did not frame the Constitution, and it is under no obligation to so work the Constitution as to perpetuate every obnoxious feature of it.

Acceptance of office in the Provinces is neither a momentous nor an irrevocable step. It is just an incident in the long and strenuous fight for winning power for the people of this land to order their own affairs,–one of the many experiments with Truth for which Gandhiji has made himself responsible.

The Government of Madras have published detailed proposals for the re-organisation of education in the Province, which reveal an earnest desire to improve the standards of efficiency right through the school and University courses. This is the biggest scheme of reform put forward within recent years, and it is the duty of the public to offer constructive suggestions with a view to improving the scheme and making it subserve the needs of a progressive people.

It is clear that no scheme can be considered satisfactory which does not provide immediately for universal compulsory education for all children for a period of at least six years, between the ages of seven and twelve. Higher elementary schools providing vocational alongside of literary education must exist in every town and village, with this difference that the vocational training in the rural areas will be allied to agriculture and simple village handicrafts, while in urban areas it will tend to be more industrialised. There need be no rivalry between these remodeled elementary schools and the middle schools. In fact the middle schools may cease to exist altogether, for, students from the elementary schools, rural or urban, can straightaway enter a high school, and continue their studies for four years, between the ages of thirteen and sixteen. For the first and second years, the curriculum of studies will be the same for all, but in the third and fourth years there will be a partial variation with a bias either towards literature and science, or towards commerce and industries. But no student will at this stage be marked out prematurely as unfit for a University career. The courses of study in all high schools must be complete and self-contained, without being dominated by a prospective University standard. At the end of four years, the student gets a certificate from his institution in token of his having successfully completed the course, without the need for a standardised public examination. No high school should be burdened with the task of providing instruction corresponding to the present Junior Intermediate class. The business of the high school must be to give a thorough grounding in two or three languages, and at least two optional subjects, and to enable the student to enter the public service in its lower rungs or apprentice himself to some useful trade.

After completing the four-year high school course, every student with higher ambitions must be free to seek entrance to the University. But he will be admitted on the strength of his school certificate to what may be called a ‘preparatory’ class. At the end of one year, he will sit for the Matriculation examination of the University. If he passes, he enters on a three-year Degree course. The weeding out will come in appropriately at this stage, and not three years earlier as the Government proposes.

The Degree courses will be the usual Pass courses, but with greater variety and range of subjects for choice, and every student with ordinary diligence will get the degree as a matter of course. Only, those who pass out with distinction, and display special aptitude for higher study and research, will take post-graduate courses.

These are my suggestions which may be worked out in greater detail. It is enough to point out here that the Government’s scheme errs in its desire to mark off the intellectuals from the non-intellectuals too prematurely, in its anxiety to shut out large numbers of students from a University course, and its insistence on too many examinations and too much of departmental control. It fails also to tackle the problem of general illiteracy–an evil which ought to be wiped out in less than a decade.

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