India’s duty

IF there is patriotism and love of freedom in India, now is the time for it to assert itself. Lord Birkenhead’s latest speech is so clear and so decisive a challenge to the people of this country, of all classes, creeds and communities, that the position may be aptly described in the expressive, if somewhat hackneyed, words of the poet, “Awake, arise or be fallen”, not, indeed, forever but for a good many years to come. How long the present Conservative reaction in England will last, no one can say, but even if it proves comparatively shortlived, the position will not be substantially altered: in the first place because it is among the obsessions of political parties in England that India must be kept outside the pale of party politics, which means in plain English that the policy of the party which happens for the time being to be the most illiberal in its attitude towards India shall be the policy of all parties; and secondly because it is clear that in this matter, leading members of the Conservative, the Liberal and even the official Labour Party are more or less of one mind. As we have pointed out already, Lord Birkenhead has only said in his speech at the Central India Society dinner what eth shining light of the Liberal Party, Lloyd George, who for some time was its most conspicuous leader and who is even now its second greatest leader, said in his famous “steel frame” speech. And can it be denied that in spite of all anticipations to the contrary, Ramsay MacDonald has not uttered a single word since his party became the things of power they are today, which shows that he is fundamentally or even substantially opposed to the view expressed by these great Conservative and Liberal leaders?