Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-11-10
Trouble in India

Trouble in India
The sentence of four years "rigor-
Gus imprisonment" given Pandit
Jawaharlal Nehru, Indian nationalist
leader is another sign of the in
creasingly dangerous situation that
has been developing in India for
months. 1t is certain to evoke stormy
echoes in India, and it has already
provoked protests in the British Par
lament from members of the Labor
Party.
Pandit Nehru was sentenced for
having made several anti-war
speeches in direct disobedience to the
Defense of India Act. These speeches
are described by Mr.. Amery, secre-
tary for India in the British cabinet,
as being calculated to prejudice re-
cruitment, stir up disaffection and
influence the public in a manner
likely to prejudice successful prose-
cution of the war" Nehru was acting
under orders from Mahatma Gandhi,
head of the Indian National Congress
Party, and his deliberate defiance
of British authority was one of the
opening guns in campaign of 'lim-
tied civil diSobedience" decreed by
the party early this autumn when
the British government finally turned
down the Congress demands that
India be given immediate independ-
ence. Nehru emphasized his defiance
by refusing to plead, challenging the
right of the court to try him. 1t is
understood that Gandhi has selected
other prominent Nationalist to vio-
late the Defense of India Act and
thus further emphasize civil disobe-
dience.
Behind this dramatic challenge to
British rule lies a long story of
mounting unrest which can be I'M
derstood only if the basic facts are
appreciated Though India is rough
geographical unity, it is sub-con-
tinent rather than country. This
vast triangular peninsula of Asia,
shut off by the mountain barrier of
the Himalayas from the rest of the
continent, is world in itself, inhab-
tied by various races and divided by
spiritual lines of caste and creed. Of
its $4,000, 600 inhabitants, two-thirds
are Hindus and fully one-fourth are
MohammedanS, the balance being
made up of other religious sects in
Guiding small Christian minority.
Nearly one-third of India consists
of Native States, governed by some
500 princes under treaty rights with
the British government.
Although the Congress Party
claims to speak for all India, it has
only 100000 members, mostly Hin
duS, and represents primarily the
educated classes, though it seemingly
has the moral support of the pow
erty-stricken and illiterate Hindu
masses. The bulk of the 100000
MohammedanS, however, oppose in
dependence dominated by their ira
ditional enemies. the HinduS, and
are organized in the All-India Mos
lem League which seeks a federal
form of Self-government for India
within the British Empire and safe
guards for Moslem rights. So do the
lowest castles of the Hindus, known
as the Depressed Glasses, who fear
the unqualified rule of the Brahmin
oligarchy Much the same is true Of
the smaller minorities-Sikhs, Chris
tians, and others.
The Congress Party is itself d.
vided into several factions. Gandhi is
relatively conservative AS a mystic
pacifist, he deploreS violence, and as
a traditionalist he opposes radical
ideas imported from the west. BY
contrast, the younger leaders are
mostly radicals in the western sense.
Pandit Nehru, though loyal to
Gandhi, is a socialist. The extreme
leftists of the party believe in the
social revolution for India, and some
are avowed Communists.
The British government claims
that independence for India would
not merely be a disaster for the EN-
pire, especially during the present
Iife-and-death struggle, but would
precipitate chaos in India itself. 1t
continues it's policy of gradual con-
cessions with the goal of Dominion
Status within the Empire. This evolu-
tionary policy the Congress Party has
decisively rejected. So the lists seem
to be set for another struggle.
The Peter Thompson Suit" so
popular with the more youthful
members of the fair sex just after