Evening star., 1942-09-02
Monsoon Season Past
Battle for India
May Be Nearing
Question Soon Will Be
Which Side Will Drive
Home First Blow
BY PRESTON GROVER.
Wide World.

BOMBAY, Sept. 2-The monsoon
has passed-so the Hindus have sig
nailed with their traditional cere-
mony of casting coconuts on the
ocean-and that means that the
long-awaited battle for India may
be close at hand.
Actually. the Hindu. offering to
Varuna, god of the waves in prayer
that he quiet the seas SO Indian
coastal craft again may ply the
waters, means only the calendar
end of the storms which have kept
the japanese invaders idle since
they swept through Burma.
Along the border, the heavy rains
continue, but they are abating in
flerceness and soon the only ques-
ton will be whether the japanese
or the Anglo-British forces drive
home the first blow.
The combination of this passing
of the monsoon and the growing
impact of Mohandas Gandhi's cam
paign OF passive resistance proves
a strange pincer movement that
cannot be ignored. Unless Gandhi
and the All-India Congress are per
suaded to call off their bid for out
right independence. the British and
Americans are confronted with the
Job Of campaigning against the Jap
anese in Burma with part of the
population at their backs non-co-
operative, If not definitely un-
friendly.
Concede Element of Truth
Gandhi asserted before his arrest
that unless the British gained In
dian confidence by an immediate
grant of independence, large part
OF India would be passive, if not ac-
tually hostile to the defending
forces.
A substantial number of British
and American observers concede an
element of truth in Gandhis claim,
and that is especially true in the
light OF the rioting, sabotage and
work stoppages which have spread
into many villages, although police
and soldiers have managed to sub
due 1t somewhat in the cities.
Bombay, quiet for a week, had a
recurrence of trouble when police
were compelled to use Lathis to dis
pei a mob, mostly university stu
dents, who were picketing a high
court in protest to the arrests of
Congress leaders.
Arrests Continue
Regardless of restrictions on pub
fishing certain types of news, the
papers still are chockablock with
indications that the campaign has
subdued only in its more violent
aspects and that the real tools of
non-violence are just starting to
work.
Arrests are continuing by the doz-
en-, scores of newspapers have closed
either voluntarily or otherwise. In
Nagpur, SO were convicted of partici-
patton In a disturbance and SEN
fenced to whipping, a sentence which.
police here say, was carried out with
a strip of rhinoceros hide, hard, flex-
ible and tough.
Despite necessary strengthening of
British forces in Egypt, supplies con-
tinue to roll into India from Amer
lea and from England, including
tanks and planes. The numerical
strength of Indias defenses cannot
be disclosed, but one thing is Ger
tain:
While the reorganization of Brit
ish commands in Egypt and the
Near East left Gen. Sir Archibald
Wavel the sole job of conducting
the Burma frontier operations, these
steps did not abate his problem of
dealing with local popula ton
which is keeping a considerable
number of his soldiers busy.
More Flaws in Position.
The whole story cannot now be
told, but India's position has more
flaws than 1t had year ago. Never
theless, the police are taking COM
fort from the quieter conditions in
the cities. Bombay has lifted its
all-night curfew. From villages not
connected with the outside world
there still come reports, however, of
riotings and demonstrations such as
disappeared from the cities when
the government drove the Congress
campaign underground"
Gandhi and other imprisoned Con-
Eress leaders still are denied contact
with their organization, although
they are permitted to read news
papers and write letters to their
families on personal matters. The
government yielded to demands for
a public report on Gandhi to the
extent of an announcement that he
Is receiving "the kind of food he