Provincial autonomy
Lahore, Tuesday, August 26, 1924
MADRAS has in one respect set an excellent example for the rest of India. The Legislative Council of the Province all but unanimously adopted a resolution at a recent meeting requesting the Local Government to forward to the Government of India the opinion of the Council urging the grant of provincial autonomy to the Presidency. The motion was supported by the representatives of practically all sections of the House. The only exceptions were the members of the Government who remained neutral on the ground that they had been called upon by the Central Government to forward their views on the matter in a confidential communication, and the member for the depressed classes who opposed the motion on the ground that their interests would suffer if his proposal were accepted. The utter indefensibleness of the last-mentioned plea was pointed out by another member who had no difficulty in showing that the depressed classes stood to gain by provincial autonomy being granted. The non-Brahmins, the Swaraj party, the Mahomedans, all lent their unqualified support to the motion. Sir KV Reddi, ex-Minister, who represented the first, condemned dyarchy as being a failure and dilated on the practical difficulties in the administration entailed by it. The Legislative Council, he said, must have complete control over the purse, and if finance was made a transferred subject, it followed automatically that all other subjects must be transferred also. The same view was expressed by the spokesman for the Mussalman community.
