Politics in Punjab

WE have said that the first chapter of the Punjab Administration Report for 1923-24 is dominated by what for want of a better name may be described as the Fazl-i-Hussain point of view. Everyone in this province knows what that mentality and that point of view are. All that we need do, therefore, to illustrate our meaning is to give a few representative extracts from the chapter. Referring to the composition of the first reformed Council, the report says: “The Mahomedans in the Council were organised into a practically solid party of 35. As the Mahomedans mainly represented rural constituencies, they formed also the bulk of the rural party, which allied itself with rural Hindus and Sikhs when questions arose which affected rural, as opposed to urban, interests. Apart from the Mahomedan minister, there was no prominent party leader.” Except for the last statement, which is obviously untrue, because in the first Council, Raja Narendranath was undoubtedly a prominent party leader, there is nothing in the passage that needs to be seriously objected to. But the manner in which the facts are presented is peculiarly characteristic. The whole object of the writer is to show that the division of the Council into Mahomedan and non-Mahomedan members on the one hand and into urban and rural members on the other was the only natural line of cleavage. That this and nothing else is what he means is conclusively shown by other passages. Here is one: “The sentiment of distrust entertained by agriculturists generally against the moneyed and urban interests, long inchoate and lacking in organised expression, had gained direction by the passing of the Land Alienation Act.”

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