The problem of India has been for the last five or six years second only in importance to that of Ireland in the eyes of British statesmen. It was believed that, as Mr. Montagu was regarded as a Zionist of liberal political tendencies, he would favourably impress the Indians, and would be able to withdraw them from the path of non-co-operation by reconciling their aspirations with the amount of freedom England would be prepared to grant. The appointment of such a man ten years or fifteen years ago might have worked wonderfully towards the continuance of British rule in India ; as it was, Mr. Montagu took office too late, and had a heartbreaking task in view of the extension of the non-co-operative movement led and directed by Ghandi. He was instructed, or rather permitted, to introduce reforms along certain lines at a time when the Indians had decided that they wanted change along a totally different line. It is somewhat similar to the position in Ireland in 1919, when the British Government (after fighting and suppressing Home Rule since O'Connell's days) tried to thrust it on the Irish when they themselves had conceived a different and a nobler ideal, and were bent on its attainment. The fatal words, "Too late," to quote Lloyd George, seem to sum up the external politics of England under all administrations since Gladstone's time.
Montagu, the Jew, was dismissed on some pretext, so slight and so palpably "framed up" as to be quite frivolous. His forced resignation took effect just as the Prince left India, and there followed closely the sentencing of India's national hero and leader. The cumulation of so many mistakes in tactics suggests a complete reversal of policy at Downing street, and a return to the old plan of ignoring the inhabitants, or, at the best, hectoring them. '"There is nothing," says Belloc, "so unfortunate as to be born a native;" and this has always been the superior and not even kindly attitude of the India office. Our interpretation of Mr. Montagu's retirement is that he refused to agree to the prosecution of Ghandi, and expressed himself as opposed to the infliction of any penalty on the Nationalist leader. What happened in the Cabinet was either that the conservative method of treating India triumphed, or that some past administrator, such as Lord Curzon, accomplished the fall of Montagu out of personal jealousy and pique. The usual long story about the publication of a dispatch has been given to the public; the real story is well beyond our reach. One of the most annoying features of the Indian question is the manifest censorship which is being exercised over the news sent to the outside world from Delhi. If we are returning to the compulsory silences and suppressions of the ghastly lustrum, 1914 to 1918, it is clear that war, openly or tacitly, is being declared on the mass of Indians who have accepted the propaganda of non-co-operation and the lead of Ghandi. . . . Mr. Montagu's vision may have been, from the point of view of the Indians, somewhat limited, but, at any rate, he had progressive ideas as regards self-government for India, and he was not hampered by the ordinary English prejudices against the East. British rule will not prosper by his fall.
Freedom depends not so much on the material possessions or economic potentialities of a people, as on their mental state. Keep the mind free and independent, self-reliant, and even defiant, and you are not far from the achievement of liberty. Once let the mind accept bondage and remain compliant under it, there are no depths to which a people may not sink; and any return to a state of freedom becomes infinitely difficult and painful. There is no doubt that for a long time Indian inferiority was accepted by the natives. The "slave mind," to use a phrase of Arthur Griffith, became a commonplace, and on it was built the theory of the ability of far-off England to govern those countless millions. The caste system keeps great sections of the people from having any dealings with one another, and that; naturally, was used to their disadvantage.
For a long time no word of revolt was heard from India. But it could clearly be seen by men of historical knowledge that the Indians, with their immemorial culture and their scholarship of at least two thousand years, would never definitely accept the sway of a power that had no new thing to teach in literature, or philosophy, or, art. . . . . The old centres of learning, twice as old as Oxford and Cambridge, would never accept any theory of the intellectual inferiority of India. Then came the troops of Indian students to the Universities of England and to her Inns of Court: they not only competed with the English students, but easily vanquished them at their studies. It would be impossible for these men to go back to their people and peacefully accept the domination of the men with whom they had successfully crossed swords in the examination halls. We must observe, moreover, that there was no inducement for them to stop in England or any of her oversea possessions, since in those places they were looked on as social inferiors on account of their colour. The intellectuals are the élite of the army of peaceful revolutionaries, who aim at securing control of their country by their campaign of non-co-operation.
We have remarked in these columns before that the only chance which the British Empire has of lasting for a further span of time is to grant to all its component parts the measure of freedom which they desire, or at least a great part of that measure. Any measure short of independence would thus be granted to a country in rebellion or agitation. These tactics have been followed in Ireland and in Egypt. We foretold that they would be seen in England's dealings with India, and then suddenly comes the news of Mr. Montagu's dismissal, and, much more unfortunate, the tidings of Ghandi's imprisonment. The patriot's work and life will doubtless continue as a source of example and inspiration to millions of his countrymen, who will cherish and safeguard the ideals for which he is suffering.
Advocate (Melbourne, Vic.), 23 March 1922 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article171062768
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