…………..he that laboureth right for love of Me
Shall finally attain! But, if in this
Thy faint heart fails, bring Me thy failure!
THE SONG CELESTIAL
THE new year begins well for India and Pakistan.
Fighting has stopped in Jammu and Kashmir, and the resolutions of the Security
Council will be implemented and the way prepared for a plebiscite on the
question of accession. This is a personal triumph for Sheikh Abdullah who has
always held that the people of the State must be utterly free to decide their
future. What Pakistan wished to achieve was a forcible annexation of Kashmir
through bands of freebooters and a faked-up ‘Azad Kashmir’ Government. The
theory was that as the majority of the people of the valley are Muslims, they
ought to become subjects of Pakistan, irrespective of the wishes of the
National Conference. In a time of crisis, the National Conference took charge
of the administration and, with the help of India, kept the invaders at bay.
After prolonged fighting for over fourteen months, and interminable discussions
at Lake Success and Paris, the Government of Pakistan saw the wisdom of
accepting the proposals of the Kashmir Commission of the U.N.O. Starting with a
flat denial of all complicity in the invasion of Kashmir, Pakistan gradually
worked its way, through tortuous diplomacy, to a realisation of its folly. The
Government of India accepted the accession of the State, subject to the result
of an eventual plebiscite, and they have never resiled from this position. But
no plebiscite, according to them, could be held so long as peaceful conditions
were not restored and the last of the ‘raiders’ from Pakistan and Pathanistan
were withdrawn.
Heroic Kashmir has set a splendid example of
non-communalism in politics. Through the long months of travail and the
uprooting of normal life, the leaders of Kashmir forged a new nation. The
valley where Pakistan and India came into armed conflict may yet be the scene
of friendly relations between the two Dominions. Understanding on the Kashmir
issue must lead to similar understanding on other issues. It is too early to
strike a note of optimism, but the hope is being expressed everywhere that the
cessation of fighting in Kashmir may mark the beginning of a new phase in
Indo-Pakistan relations.
The first session of the Indian National Congress
in free India was appropriately held in the Indian State of Jaipur, to mark the
reintegration of ‘Indian India’ and ‘British India.’ The President of the
session was himself a champion of the rights of the States’ people as against
the autocracy of the Rulers, and the supervisory control of the Crown
Representative. Amidst scenes of unmatched splendour, the citizens of free
India held high festival. But the pomp was allied to a commendable sanity of
outlook and a wise resolve to set about the task of national reconstruction in
an atmosphere of goodwill between community and community, capital and labour,
Provinces and States.
From now on, the Congress must function as a party
organisation. The annual session must be a business-like gathering, laying down
the policies and programmes for the guidance of the party chiefs whether in
power or in opposition. The Congress will thus be a body like the Liberal or
Labour Party of England. The Constitution that is now being framed at New Delhi
is predominantly of the parliamentary type, and every general election will
witness a contest between parties based on political and economic programmes.
And since we have eschewed the dictatorship of a single party, all parties who
accept the basic principles of Indian democracy will be free to educate the
electorate, win seats in Parliament, and function as an Opposition which may,
at any time, step into office as Government. While the Congress is the leading
political organisation of India, it is also, at the moment. The party in power
at the Centre and in the Provinces, It is in a position to determine the new
Constitution, for Congressmen are in an overwhelming majority in the
Constituent Assembly. During its tenure of power, it has acted with the
foresight befitting our first National Government. It fulfilled great tasks,
planned great schemes, and generally looked after the interests of all sections
of the nation. But even the Congress in power will profit by the emergence of a
well-informed and healthy opposition. The Socialists seem to be preparing for
this role. Even the Communists are welcome to contest the next elections and
function as an Opposition group, provided they eschew violent methods and
accept the position of a parliamentary party in a free democracy.
With the growth of parties based on definite
programmes, and the willingness of all of them to build up a strong and
progressive State, India will take her place with the great democratic
republics of the world. Jaipur marks the first stage on this path.
In his first visit, as Prime Minister of India, to
the States of Hyderabad and Mysore, Pandit Nehru was welcomed as a nation’s
hero, as the man of destiny who will raise India to lofty heights of
achievement. He brought the message of unceasing work in the interest of
national well-being, for India cannot afford to sit idle and let the fruits of
freedom slip through her hands. Between the meeting of Nehru and the present
Nizam, and the meeting of British Viceroys with the same Prince or his
predecessors, there is all the difference between the glow of freedom and the
twilight of subjection. The Prime Minister discussed the future political
set-up of Hyderabad with the Ruler, the Military Governor, and the leaders of
political parties. A civil administration is likely to function even before the
holding of elections to the Constituent Assembly. But the differences between
rival Congress groups, and the propaganda carried on by one group against
another, have caused embarrassment in the highest circles in Delhi. All efforts
to bridge the gulf have so far proved ineffectual. But the leaders of both
sections have agreed to abide by the decision of an arbitrator like Sardar
Patel. Either the Sardar or the President of the Congress must intervene in
time to prevent further deterioration in Congress affairs in Hyderabad.
In Mysore, there are no complications of this
nature. A popular Government is already in existence, and the Constituent
Assembly will soon conclude its labours. The formation of a United Karnataka,
comprising Mysore and the Kannada-speaking areas of Madras and Bombay, is the
dream of all Kannada patriots. As Sri Diwakar stated during his recent visit to
his home-province, if only the two parts could coalesce, the Government of
India cannot object to the formation of an integrated Karnataka. United Kerala
can also take shape when the States of Travancore and Cochin agree to form
parts of AikyaKerala. It is the intense desire of the peoples of Southern and
Western India to form themselves into homogeneous cultural and linguistic
groups. Despite the hostile attitude of the Dhar Commission which went beyond
its terms of reference in condemning linguistic division, the Big Three of the
Congress–the Rashtrapati, the Pandit, and the Sardar–have undertaken to review
the entire position.
Pandit Nehru need not, however, persist in his view
that the formation of linguistic Provinces should be postponed indefinitely.
Congress leaders from the North, and particularly from the Hindi-speaking
Provinces, have shown themselves incapable of assessing the strength of the
feeling in favour of linguistic re-distribution. It is not independent sovereign
States that are contemplated, but administrative units of the Indian Union. In
condemning narrow provincialism, Pandit Nehru and others almost invariably
assume that the advocates of linguistic Provinces are narrow-minded and
parochial in their outlook, and that they do not care enough for the ideal of a
United India. This assumption is hardly fair. Congressmen of these areas played
a leading role in the fight for freedom, and they were content to wait for
their homogeneous Provinces till the attainment of Swaraj. Their vision of
India is that of a federal republic, wherein the component parts are well-knit
homogeneous units, striving to share the common life of India and to contribute
their own share to the enrichment of that life. To plead perpetually for the
postponement of a major issue of this nature, is to invite the criticism that
the men at the top are either unimaginative or unsympathetic. Having agreed to
serve on the sub-committee appointed by the Congress at Jaipur, Pandit Nehru
was bound to maintain an attitude of neutrality till that Committee had made
its recommendations. If the mischief done by the Dhar Committee is to be
rectified, the Congress chiefs should re-iterate the Congress resolutions of
the past two decades, and implement them by mentioning the new Provinces in the
schedule of the new Constitution. That way lies wisdom, and peace between
linguistic groups in the present multi-lingual Provinces of Madras and Bombay.
In the discussion between the Indian Universities
Commission and the scholars and publicists who tender evidence before it, one
of the outstanding questions is that of the medium of instruction at the
University level. There is general agreement that for some years English should
continue to be the medium. How soon it should be replaced, and by what
language, is the problem engaging attention. Opinion is divided as between the
provincial languages and the future federal language. The recent
recommendations of the conference of vice-chancellors appear to be sound. They
were in favour of developing the provincial languages as the vehicles of modern
knowledge, and allowing the respective literatures to grow to their full
stature in a free India. Uniformity may be secured by the employment of the
federal language, but that would result in a set-back to the provincial
languages, which will sink to the position of inferiority held by them when
English was the dominant tongue. A language test in the federal language may be
made compulsory for all University students as well as for all entrants into
the Federal services. When the federal language is taught compulsorily in all
secondary schools, the knowledge of that language will be widespread, and every
educated person will have learnt the provincial and the federal languages.
Those who go to the Universities will learn a third language like English, and
become equipped for wider cultural contacts. Two languages for the general mass
of students and a third for University men is a convenient formula. In such a
scheme, the provincial languages will occupy their rightful place as the media
of instruction from the lowest to the highest stage.
MADRAS, January 3.