After the War in India

Abstract

J4 NDIA IS QUIET much too said a reporter to me in Washington, discussing the attitude almost complete silence the press towards India. How has this quiet been maintained during the war; how long will it last; and how is it likely to be broken? These questions are vital interest to those who are concerned with postwar peace in India and throughout Asia. The quiet in India today is artificial, brought about by a number factors which will not survive for long after the war. Thousands the most activeand influential workers are in prison or have disappeared underground. The Defense India rules are effective in preventing demonstrations and meetings. Impeding the effective prosecution the is a convenient phrase under cover which the executive authorities can arrest, detain or imprison anyone whose activities do not meet with their approval. Censorship, the rigors which vary in accordance with the needs the Indian situation, can always be relied upon to suppress news and dispatches likely to be of value to the enemy, a phrase considerable elasticity. Provincial legislative assemblies have not functioned at all in five major provinces in India for more than five years and there has been no popular government in these provinces (where the Congress Ministries held office) since November 1939. More than half British India, in terms population, is administered by Governors with the assistance senior civilian advisers, most them British. By the end 1944, there were on the statute-book over 300 ordinances promulgated by the Viceroy, on his sole authority, without any reference to the Central legislature possibly without even the consent the Executive Council. Before the war such Ordinances, designed to meet emergencies, could not have legal validity beyond a period six months. Mr. Amery's first act, on assuming charge the India Office in the summer 1940, was to amend the provision so as to confer on them the permanent sanction ordinary legislation. But his assurance to Parliament, in seeking its consent to the change, that only one class Ordinances would be