THE INDIAN SCENE
(July
7th to October I4th)
By
Prof. D. GURUMURTI, M.A., Ph.D.
The
quarter under review has witnessed the new legislatures of the country both in
the Centre and the States in vigorous activity. The debates in the House of the
People were noteworthy; the discussion on the Preventive Detention Bill
revealed the extent of dissatisfaction felt by the Left elements over the
provision of Executive control. Vigorously defending it, Prime Minister Nehru
listed four kinds of anti-social forces working in the country and stressed the
need for safeguarding the rights of individuals. The discussion
on linguistic redistribution of States, in the Council of States, drew from the
Prime Minister the declaration that a sense of unity was the overwhelming consideration
opposed to the cutting up of the country. The debate on Kashmir during the Home
Ministry demands saw marshalled against the Government very
strong opposition to the special treatment offered to Kashmir as against other
Part B. States. The Prime Minister had a day allotted for
discussion and made a comprehensive statement on the genesis and course of the
relations with Kashmir and India’s commitments in the matter.
On
the administrative side, the custody of the Executive Government by the veteran
statesman Sri C. Rajagopalachari, the Chief Minister of Madras, has been marked
by a series of measures of fundamental importance. Madras was the first State
to embark boldly on derationing. This has led to several steps by other states:
Rationing was abolished in parts of Hyderabad; wheat derationed in the whole
State; Saurashtra gave up statutory rationing from 1st August; Rajasthan
adopted derationing with caution; Bihar withdrew restrictions on the flow of
wheat and milo, and Mysore City was derationed. The second momentous steps
taken by Rajaji was the Tanjore Cultivators’ Ordinance. In Government’s anxiety
for justice and fair-play between landlord and tenant, certain
safeguards have been enforced to benefit the actual cultivator of the soil.
This example has been followed by Hyderabad in its decision
to forbid the eviction of tenants by landlords. Already there is a demand to
extend the Ordinance to other districts besides Tanjore. The
third measure of far-reaching importance is Rajaji’s proposal to the Central
Government to reserve the manufacture of bordered dhoties and co1oured sarees
to the handloom industry. Fifty lakhs of people are affected by the slump in
the handloom products market. If the Centre agrees to the far-seeing suggestion
of the Madras Government, the handloom weavers and their families will be
afforded a much needed relief. Hyderabad is giving three lakhs in the form of
loans to the handloom industry of that State. The fourth and most important
measure of Rajaji’s Ministry is the effort that it is making to improve the
finances of the States. Facing a big gap in its resources by having to afford
relief to drought-affected districts–having already spent six crores so far and
requiring to spend a further four crores of rupees–many important
nation-building projects are being held up. It is an admitted fact of the
current situation in India, that the Centre holds in its control the most
profitable sources of income, such as Income-tax, Railways, Posts and
Telegraphs, and the major ports. The States are admonished not to lean too much
on the Centre, while they have no elastic resources. At the Finance Ministers’
Conference which is just meeting in New Delhi (October 14th) Rajaji is waging a
gallant fight against the bureaucratic tradition, inherited by the Central
Government, to release the stranglehold and let the States also have a share of
the milch-cow’s yield, instead of having to be content with lean and famished
cattle, using a simile employed by Rajaji himself. If he succeeds in his
efforts, all the States in India will breathe a sigh of relief and proceed with
fresh confidence to fulfil the various pending projects.
Among the Central Ministers prominent in the news by their tours, Mr. Kidwai has extensively acquainted himself with the Food situation over the whole country. He has laid down that the policy will be for decontrol whenever foodgrain stocks are sufficient. His important steps are the relieving by the Central Government of the responsibility for Greater Calcutta, leaving the State Government to discharge their duty to the State of West Bengal; the advice tendered to Travancore-Cochin to save the subsidy for rice and use the crores saved for cottage industries’ development, and switch over to wheat in place of rice; his scheme for Zonal grouping of States for pooling food resources by-contiguous areas. Mr. V. V. Giri, the Central Labour Minister, having the advantage of his life-long experience of labour leadership, has contacted several leading Trade Union organisations and has suggested proper democratic methods, avoidance of outsiders in places of control in the various Unions, merger into more homageneous groups, and avoidance of unnecessary arbitration Courts by evolving a technique of direct negotiations between employers and workers. There has just concluded at Naini Tal a conference of labour representatives, and after a questionaire and a tri-partite discussion between Government, employers and workers, a new Labour Relations Bill is proposed to be brought before the Central Legislature. Mr. T. T. Krishnamachari, the Commerce and Industries Minister, who has astonished Parliament with his rapid mastery of a particularly tricky department whose policies have the record in India for frequent changes, has made breath-taking tours in all industrial areas and studied the relations between Industry and Government. He attended a Cottage Industries’ Conference, all States being asked to draw up programmes while the Centre undertakes to provide technical help. A subsidised Housing scheme is proposed with a capital of nine crores, forty thousand units are in prospect; regional Housing boards will be constituted which will be given fifty per cent grant and fifty per cent loans; slum clearance will have priority. The Commerce Minister has had the satisfaction of seeing the sugar output reaching the 5 years’ target, three-fourths self-sufficiency in cotton production, Indian mills no longer dependent on foreign jute, and yarn production having reached its peak. It is proposed to start new industries for South India which is poorly developed, with Cottage industries as a special wing. A high power handloom board is on the cards. Recently a committee has been constituted to consider State trading schemes, to see what extent of export is advisable and to stabilise quality control. It is also proposed to set up development councils for seven industries, with nominated chairmen in the first instance, to study problems of better production, cheaper, better goods, and rehabilitation and modcrnisation of existing machinery, and also new desirable industries. One of the measures proposed is a cess on mill yarn to give relief to handloom weavers.
After
the adjournment of Parliament Pandit Nehru also undertook tours–the first to
Kashmir, partly to reassure the people there of the sympathy of the country and
partly to recoup his mind and body in one of the rare relaxations of which he
is so fond. Gazing at his beloved vale of Kashmir in sight of the
over-hanging snows, Nehru’s buoyant spirit must have regained elasticity and
new rhythm for his strenuous life of unceasing labour. His second tour was to
Indore in the 2nd week of September. The convention of Congress legislators and
the A.I.C.C. meetings gave an opportunity for bringing together the organisational
and parliamentary Wings of the Congress Party. As President of the
Congress, Pandit Nehru stressed the need for united effort to bring
about economic development. India’s national wealth, he said, was labour and
man-power, not silver or gold. He reiterated the suggestion made three years
ago by Mr. B. G. Kher that all University students must put in social work
before degrees are awarded. The Prime Minister visited Hyderabad State in the
last week of September to see for himself how the first popular Government
installed six months ago was tackling its problems. He took opportunity to
criticise parochialism and stressed the need to think in terms of the nation.
He was against the disintegration of Hyderabad State, as it would retard
economic progress. The highlight of his tours was his visit to Rayalaseema and
adjoining drought affected areas for a first-hand appraisal of the situation
and his three-day halt at Madras. He rose to his greatest stature at the mass
meeting at Madras on 9th October, when, addressing a three-lakh audience for
over two hours, Pandit Nehru opened out his heart to the sympathetic citizens
of, what he termed, the intellectual capital of India. In a speech of deep
penetration, intense sympathy, and calm rational analysis, this great social
thinker, this valiant soldier of emancipation, this radiant spirit with the
fire of patriotism, opened the eyes of Madras to the great call of rebuilding a
New India.
Nation Building
The
most outstanding event of the quarter is the epoch-making inauguration of the
Community Development Projects on 2nd October by President Rajendra Prasad.
This significant scheme, a direct result of the Indo-American Technical
Co-operation Agreements signed earlier in the year, had been prepared for, weeks
before; on 21st July was organised a training camp for 90 project workers
including four women at Nilo-Kheri, the model township near Delhi. Addressing
the camp at its inauguration by a radio broadcast, Pandit Nehru explained the
aims of the Community Projects: Improvement of the human being, technical skill
to be brought into use in every-day life, growth from the bottom upwards,
partnership in a tremendous enterprise,–the officers working in the project
abjuring conceit but making a humble approach. The President in his
Inauguration Speech, also broadcast, explained the nature of this momentous
undertaking which comprises 55 schemes, 18,000 villages, and an area of 27,000
Sq. miles. It involves an expenditure of 38 crores and concerns the welfare of
50 million people. Each project will cover roughly 300 villages, 15,000 acres
of land, and a minimum of two lakhs of population. While each department of
Government approached the Government through its own hierarchy, the project
worker is meant to short-circuit departmental routine. In
the working of the project are included house-building, road-making,
canal-digging, school-houses, medical and health units,
co-operative farming, multi-purpose co-operative societies, cottage industries
and a host of other occupations. Eighty per cent of the cost is labour which
the people will contribute as their share of the enterprise; the other twenty
per cent of the cost, by way of supervision, technical aid and implements, will
be the cost of the scheme to Government. The secret is that the villager has a
lot of idle time on his hands, because the cultivation season is only four or
five months over four-fifths of the country. This time will be utilised by the
scheme for voluntary labour. This is the only effective way of raising the
quality of the common man in India, his standards of life, and his output of
nation-building. It is the hope of Pandit Nehru and the protagonists of the
Project Plan that the number of projects will multiply from year to year, and
before the first five years are completed, at least a lakh and a half of the
villages of India, a fourth of the total, will be benefitted by the scheme. If
the quality of the work is not allowed to deteriorate, the face of the country
will change in 20 years and a New India will have been built.
A
new era of self-help is dawning on the country, as witnessed by the following
happenings: Tribal people in Assam out of voluntary labour made 700 miles of
roads; in Rohta district in the Punjab a canal, three miles long, was dug by
villagers themselves on a co-operative basis; another canal was
dug in Bihar by students as a vacation project; in Meerut district, the
inhabitants of villages built 1200 miles of roads, at the rate of half a mile
per day, each family contributing the labour of one adult for six hours a day;
with teachers’ help 40 tube-wells, 1400 masonry walls and 3000 lamp posts were
also put up; in a village near Bombay, a school-house was built in four days by
voluntary effort.
Expansion
and development are in the air in every department of activity. All India Radio
has planned to install new transmitters in five new stations; more compact and
longer programmes are being thought of, to lay due emphasis on local talent; a
national programme of music every Sunday night is being provided; an 18-man
committee has been formed for screening artists, with a sector for Hindustani
music and another for Carnatic music. The communications department has plans
for expansion, covering 40 crores; telegraph offices will be provided in
villages of 500 inhabitants and more. New railway equipment costing 12 crores
has been ordered; the Perambur Workshops of the Southern Railway is to be
expanded; the President opened the Gandhidam-Deesa Railway line on 2nd October
to serve Kandla port and the hinterland. (This railway was completely built by
Indian engineers). The launching of the Jala-Pushpa on 9th July by the Planning
Minister, marked the tenth ship built at Visakhapatnam shipyard and the first
after the yard became a Government concern; seven Diesel-powered ships are
proposed to be built. A new pig-iron plant is under projection. The Indian
Council of Agricultural Research is planning to experiment with a special,
drought-resisting variety of grass to be imported form South America; the
Annamalai University is having a special training course opened in Agriculture,
with emphasis on field work. Bombay is to have a State Agricultural Station. A
special Forest Training Institute is being sponsored by the F.A.O. and the
Government of India jointly. On July 16th a Road Research Conference was opened
by the Prime Minister; a Mining Research Centre will study coal problems at
Dhanbad; a Salt Research Laboratory will function in Saurashtra. Assam has led
the rest of India in making social service compulsory in secondary education.
The repeal of the Criminal Tribes Act in Madhya Pradesh has freed sixty lakhs
of tribal people; a five year plan for tribal welfare envisages the expenditure
of one crore of rupees. The Punjab has a five year plan; two thousand tube
wells are to be sunk in five years, thirteen lakhs are allotted for takkavi
loans. Schemes for power development are at work in the Punjab, U.P., Bengal
and other States. The whole picture is most heartening.
The
Ford Foundation is to establish a College of Agriculture at Nagpur with
emphasis on practical field work. A joint plan by the Government of India, the
W.H.O. and U.N.I.C.E.F. will establish a factory to manufacture D.D.T. and
sulphuric acid and chlorine. Australia is to help with electrical machinery;
the U.N.I.C.E.F. is to give a grant of 846,000 dollars, mainly for child
welfare and maternity benefit schemes. Trade agreements with Japan, Norway and
West Germany have been concluded. A Japanese Parliamentary delegation visited
the country in the middle of August. India’s move to raise the South African
Passive Resistance question at the U.N.O. has been supported by Indonesia,
Burma, and Afghanisthan. The Empire Parliamentary Conferrnce at Ottawa was attended
by a delegation led by the Speaker of the House of the People. Mr. Hare Krishna
Mehtab is on a six-week lecture tour in America. India’s delegation to the
General Assembly is led by Srimathi Vijayalakshmi. India’s Vice-President has
made a tour of friendly contacts with various countries–Egypt, Italy,
Switzerland, West Germany and England. He will lead the delegation to
U.N.E.S.C.O. meetings at Paris later.
The
merger of the Socialist and K.M.P. parties has been finally accomplished. Sri
Vinoba Bhave’s ‘Bhoodan Yajna’ is gaining pace. Out of a target of 25 lakhs
acres of land already over 4 lakhs have been collected in sixteen months; part
of this has been distributed, 22,000 acres in Hyderabad.
Among
notable utterances, Dr. Radhakrishnan at Bombay gave a warning that Hitlerite
philosophy will triumph if Russia is crushed. He called for understanding. Dr.
Rajendra Prasad addressing the convocation of the Kanya Mahavidyalaya at
Jallundur stressed the need for overhaul of the educational systems and
condemned the practice of higher education, of “breeding dandies in swamps.” On
16th September speaking to the Mysore Branch of the All-India Manufacturers’
Association, that great son of India, Sir M. Visyesvaraya,
sounded the following note of warning:
“The country abounds in people who treat with indulgence
minor deviations from rectitude of conduct on the part of managements or agents.
Though, to all appearances, the deviation may seem small and unimportant, the
violation of the principle Keeps up the venom which goes to the very root of
the problem.”
The
passing of Sri K. G. Mashruwalla removes one of the band of trained followers
of Mahatma Gandhi, of whom we have very few left. His staunch and loyal service
to the cause of Sarvodaya and his able editorship of the Harijan leave a
void difficult to fill.
The
reorganisation of Secondary Education has begun in right earnest, with the
appointment and inauguration of the Secondary Education
Commission which is under the able chairmanship of Dr. A. Lakshmanaswami
Mudaliar. Hopes are centred in this work, and one prays that its labours will
have better fruition than the Radhakrishnan Commission’s
recommendations on University Education.