India in 1923-24

FOR a purely official publication, India in 1923-24 by Prof Rushbrook Williams, to whom the task of preparing these annual reports for presentation to Parliament has been entrusted by the Government of India, contains statements remarkable both for their independence and impartiality. It is probably for this reason, as well as because this report is now presented under the authority and with the general approval of the Secretary of State, that the author has seen fit to introduce the volume with the explanatory observation that “it must not be understood that the approval either of the Secretary of State or of the Government of India extends to every particular expression of opinion”. In the very first chapter, we have a lucid statement both of the revolution that has taken place in India’s outlook and aspirations in recent years, and of the problems which this revolution has brought in its train. “These changes,” says the writer, “have but served to point the contrast between the natural aspirations of India and the imperfect measure in which these aspirations are at present satisfied. The impatient indignation, which now characterises the political life of the country, is leading men to ask whether India can ever attain her rightful position within the ringfence of the British Commonwealth; and whether any misfortune that can befall a people may not be ultimately preferable to a position of inferiority at home and of humiliation abroad. It is the task of British statesmanship to convince Indian that whatever the remote future may hold for the Indo-British connection, there is room for her within the Commonwealth to rise to the full height of her national stature.”

Advertisement