1940: India

India Demands Complete Independence.

The strained relations which had developed in India in the last months of 1939 over the demand for complete independence grew steadily worse during 1940 and threatened, toward the end of the year, to bring the country to the point of outright revolution.

Early in the year the Viceroy, Lord Linlithgow, had conferences with Mohandas K. Gandhi, acknowledged leader of the All-Indian Congress Party, which is demanding complete independence, or a promise of it, and also with Mohamed Ali Jinnah, President of the All-India Moslem League, in an effort to reach a settlement. These conferences proved fruitless. The Viceroy pointed out that the real obstacle to a settlement of the question was the serious disagreement among the various factions in India itself. The Native Princes, who govern one-fifth of India's 350,000,000 people, are content with the status quo, and have opposed both the Federal Plan embodied in the Government of India Act, and the plan of the Congress Party. The Moslem League, which claims to represent India's 80,000,000 Moslems, also finds the Congress Party plan unacceptable on the ground that it is completely dominated by the Hindus, and that since the latter outnumber the Moslems three to one, the latter could not be assured of justice if the plan were adopted. The Viceroy, therefore, reiterated his previous statement that Indian freedom would be possible only when internal differences among the people of India were settled.

Discouraged by the failure of Mr. Gandhi's talks with the Viceroy, the President of the Congress Party warned the British late in February, that 'unless some definite understanding is reached in the near future, the launching of a civil disobedience movement cannot be postponed beyond the plenary session of the Congress Party.' He added, however, that up to the very last, Mr. Gandhi would be prepared to use every possible means to effect a peaceful settlement with the Viceroy.

Attitude of the Congress Party.

In preparing for the plenary session later in the month, the working committee of the Congress Party, on March 1, adopted a resolution to be presented for consideration by the party as a whole. In the preamble it was stated that because Great Britain was carrying on an imperialist war, the Congress Party could not be a party to it and, therefore, 'it disapproves of Indian troops being made to fight for Great Britain and the draining from India of men and material for purposes of war.' The main body of the resolution contained the statement that: 'Indian freedom cannot exist within the orbit of British imperialism, and dominion status, or any other status, within the imperial structure is wholly inapplicable to India and not in keeping with the dignity of a great nation. . . The Indian people alone can properly shape their constitution and determine their relations with other countries of the world through a Constituent Assembly elected on the basis of adult suffrage.' The British, undisturbed by the threat of civil disobedience foreshadowed in the resolution and in statements of other Congress Party leaders, issued a pronouncement the following day that the Government would not yield to demands for immediate political independence. 'If there is to be self-government in India,' it was stated, 'it must be on terms at least having the consent of the major communities in India.'

As the Congress Party members, 200,000 strong, gathered at Ramgarh on March 13, to prepare for the plenary session, the bitter struggle between the extreme left-wing, anti-compromise bloc, led by Subhas Chandra Bose, a former president of the party, and the more moderate elements following Mr. Gandhi, threatened a serious split in the ranks of the party. Mr. Gandhi had said: 'I am always ready for compromise. I shall go before the Viceroy fifty times if necessary.' Mr. Bose, unalterably opposed to compromise, insisted that there were three main points of difference between the two groups. Said he: 'We want complete independence, while Gandhi is willing to compromise; Gandhi is willing to postpone the campaign for independence, while we want to continue the campaign despite the international situation; and we want progressive industrialization, while Gandhi insists on his pet hobbies, like prohibition and handicrafts.' When asked what kind of independence he had in mind, Mr. Bose replied, 'Like the United States has. Gandhi would be satisfied with dominion status, like Canada.'

Immediately before the opening of the plenary session on March 16, Gandhi issued a statement that the formalities of Indian independence must await the outcome of the European war, but that meanwhile. 'We must be treated as a free nation . . . I cannot, however,' he said, 'ask for statutory independence today when Great Britain's own fate hangs in the balance.' He added, 'What I do want is an unequivocal statement of policy and immediate action so far as is practicable.'

The 53rd Congress elected as its president a well known scholar and prominent Moslem of Calcutta, Mr. Moulana Abul Kama Azad. His election was a rebuke to the Moslem League members who claim that the Moslems are not properly represented in the Congress Party and that, therefore, that party cannot speak for them.

As it became clear, toward the end of the meetings, that the more moderate policies of Mr. Gandhi would prevail, Mr. Bose denounced the Mahatma in the most acrimonious terms and his followers, forming anti-Gandhi processions, marched through the crowds shouting 'down with compromise.' Many of the banners carried in the procession were embroidered with the Communist Hammer and Sickle and bore the slogan: 'We are ready to fight for independence.' In the end, Gandhi was given a vote of complete confidence, by the party, with power to call a civil disobedience campaign at his discretion. He thereupon called for a registration of all party members who were willing to suffer imprisonment. In a farewell address to the delegates on March 20, he said: 'We must break the bonds of slavery; but if I am your general you must accept my conditions. I have never led the army to defeat; I have never had a defeat; I know no defeat; and I don't want you to know defeat; my defeat is your defeat and India's defeat. We must fight to win.'

Following the disbanding of the delegates, there were violent clashes between the Gandhi and Bose factions and a number of arrests were made.

Moslem League Convention.

On March 22 the Moslem League held a convention at Lahore. Mr. Jinnah stated, at the opening meeting, that any constitution thrust on the Moslems without their approval and consent would be resisted. 'Democracy of the kind favored by the All-India Congress Party,' he claimed, 'means the complete destruction of all that is precious in Islam.' He therefore advocated the partition of India into Moslem and Hindu States and a resolution embodying this suggestion was adopted at the first meeting.

Civil Disobedience Campaign.

On April 18, the Congress Party issued a call to its members throughout India 'to prepare for' a declaration of Satyagraha, or civil disobedience. On the same day the British Government, while recognizing that the situation was full of dangerous potentialities, announced that it could not grant India full independence, and that if the Congress Party carried out its threat of civil disobedience, Britain would resist with 'full measures.' Both Houses of Parliament, on the same day, agreed to resolutions legalizing administration by decree in seven provinces where the All-India Ministries had resigned. Whereupon the Congress Party called upon its members to 'Put your affairs in order for such action as may be required of you.'

In May, following the invasion of Norway, Gandhi, reluctant to embarrass the British by using his full powers, said: 'I must think a thousand times before ordering a disobedience campaign.' Shortly afterward, when the Low Countries were invaded, the Congress Party papers throughout India wholeheartedly condemned Germany's action, and even the fiery Jawaharlal Nehru, Gandhi's second in command, publicly stated that 'the launching of a civil disobedience campaign when Britain is in the midst of a life-and-death struggle would be an act derogatory to India's honor.' These sentiments were shared by Mr. Gandhi. A few days later the latter announced that he believed the civil disobedience campaign should be deferred until the end of the war.

In June, Parliament gave the Viceroy full powers to act on his own responsibility in India. Soon afterwards he had another conference with Gandhi and offered India dominion status at the end of the war. This offer was rejected. The working committee of the Congress Party, by a vote of 95 to 46, then adopted a resolution demanding an unequivocal declaration by Britain of complete independence. It was also voted, however, to abandon Gandhi's creed of non-violence in so far as it concerned external aggression and internal disorder. This in reality meant that the Congress would not oppose an increase in India's armed forces and indicated support of England in the war if some agreement could be reached regarding the future status of self-government.

On Aug. 8, the Viceroy made another plea for support in the war. The official statement said: 'His Majesty's Government authorize me to declare that they will most readily assent to the setting up after the conclusion of the war . . . of a body representative of the principal elements of Indian national life in order to devise the framework of the new Constitution. . . . They trust, however, that for the period of the war . . . all parties, communities and interests will combine and cooperate in making a notable Indian contribution to the victory of the world cause which is at stake. . . They hope that in this process bonds of union and understanding will emerge and thus pave the way for the attainment by India of that free and equal partnership in the British Commonwealth which remains the proclaimed and accepted goal of the Imperial Crown and of the British Parliament.'

Several prominent Indian leaders, notably the head of the Independent Labor Party, and the leader of the Liberal Party, felt that the terms should be accepted. The head of the latter party, Sir Chimanlal Setalvad, stated in one of India's leading newspapers, that the Viceroy's offer constituted a genuine advance over past offers and added that the Congress Party 'should accept the interim arrangement without prejudice to their program. It must be accepted now that the principle of self-government has been acknowledged.' While the Moslem League adopted a resolution accepting the offer of dominion status after the war, the Congress Party, in a formal statement issued on Aug. 20, rejected the partnership status and said that it would not accept the proposals or advise the country to accept them. Gandhi, however, said that while he would not order mass civil disobedience, he would ask for individual disobedience. While he did not object to a delay of independence, he warned that he would not tolerate restriction of tongue or pen or the stifling of opinion. The Party, on Sept. 16, pledged itself not to embarrass Britain in the struggle with Germany, but announced that at the same time it would preach against the war. It withdrew its conditional offer of war cooperation, and invited Gandhi, who had disagreed with the offer in the first place, to resume leadership 'in any action that should be taken.' Mr. Gandhi celebrated his seventy-first birthday on Oct. 2 by reaffirming his previous stand. Further conferences with the Viceroy failed to lift the restrictions which had been placed on freedom of speech.

In October, in a test of the non-violence program, Nehru, and a servant in Gandhi's household, began openly to preach non-cooperation in the war, and were arrested under the Defense of India Law. Nehru was sentenced to four years imprisonment. Numerous others were also arrested, including the famous woman leader, Mrs. Sarojini Naidu, who was later released owing to ill health.

Defending the arrests before Parliament, the Secretary of State for India, Mr. L. S. Amery, stated the Government's policy admitted Mr. Gandhi's right to state conscientious objections, but that it could not allow his followers to urge the Indian people not to enlist, not to cooperate in the manufacture of munitions, and not to contribute to war funds. The speeches made, he claimed, were violent and provocative and could not go unpunished, especially in the case of so prominent a man as Mr. Nehru.

Late in the year, Britain withdrew its offer of 'free and equal partnership' in the British Commonwealth, because it had failed to win 'sufficient representative support' among India's leaders. The Viceroy said, however, that Britain was still prepared to give effect to proposals looking to eventual dominion status as soon as the necessary support was forthcoming.

Up to the end of the year, Mr. Gandhi had not ordered civil disobedience. Individual disobedience occurred, however, and arrests continued.

War Statistics.

Despite the controversy over whether or not the Congress Party would formally approve Indian participation in the war, the fact is that in the early months of the year there were 60,000 native Indian troops fighting in Europe on Britain's side. This number has since been increased. On Feb. 29, in the House of Commons, it was announced that the Indian Government budget for 1940 provided for an additional £7,000,000 due to the war, of which £750,000 was earmarked for the extra cost of the maintenance of Indian troops overseas.

The regular Indian army, in the early part of the year, included 220,000 native troops, including reserves, and about 57,000 British troops. Late in May, Sir Robert Cassels, Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in India, announced that an additional 100,000 men were being enrolled in the Indian army. The Secretary of State for India, Mr. Amery, told Parliament on Nov. 20, that the peacetime forces in India had been almost doubled, and that the new army units included mechanized and motorized divisions. The air force, he said, was also being expanded, and new pilots were constantly being trained. Mr. Amery pointed out that more and more India's responsible leaders were coming to realize the necessity of developing and increasing the home forces in India, since they well know that 'the defeat of the British Empire and a victory for the dictatorships would leave British India defenseless against inevitable aggression from every quarter, by land, sea and air.' He had words of warmest praise for the part being played by India in the war and thanked the 'willing recruits' who were coming forward to help.

Espionage Activities.

Simultaneously with the arrest of several Italians and Germans in Bombay on Feb. 21, on charges of espionage, serious trouble broke out on India's stormy Northwest Frontier. Raids, kidnapping, and interference with communications became so serious that a large contingent of native and British troops were sent to put down the disorders. These disturbances were thought by the British to be connected with the activities of those arrested in Bombay. The Northwest Frontier continued throughout the year to be the scene of skirmishes between regular Indian troops and the border tribesmen, resulting in considerable loss of life.

Internal Dissension.

In India proper there were violent labor strikes in the textile industries at Bombay and Ahmadabad, involving 150,000 workers in the former city and 70,000 in the latter. In both cases the strikers demanded higher wages, and settlement was made by arbitration.

While there were numerous clashes between Hindus and Moslems during the year, they were fewer in number than in 1939, and in most cases, less violent.

Prohibition Abandoned.

After a trial of seven months, India abandoned prohibition on July 7, the High Court of Bombay ruling that 'laws prohibiting the purchase or possession of liquors are beyond the powers of the Provincial Legislatures to pass.'