The Commonwealth of India Bill

THE framing of the Commonwealth of India Bill has now reached the stage of completion — so far as its authors are concerned. The labours that have gone into the preparation of the Bill, the various stages through which it has passed, and the amendments it has undergone were stated with characteristic clearness by Annie Besant in a press note issued by her last week. The present position was summed up in the expressive words: “The era of construction is finished; the era of agitation begins.” This is a somewhat bold statement to make, because on the face of it, the Bill has not yet behind it the imprimatur of the country’s principal political organisation and the most important and influential of her political parties. But in fairness to the author of the statement, it must be frankly admitted that the only alternative to giving a provisionally final shape to the Bill was to wait indefinitely for the Congress generally and the Swarajists in particular to express their views in regard to it. It cannot be denied that Besant tried her level best to have their support and cooperation in the only way in which it was open to her to have it. It was principally at her instance that the Committee of the All-Parties Conference appointed a sub-committee, with herself as the chairman, to prepare a scheme of Swaraj. That sub-committee took the Bill, which had been drawn up by the Convention some months before, as the basis of its discussion and issued a report, in which the main provisions of the Bills were warmly supported. It was not Besant’s fault that the committee itself never met for reasons which are now public property.