VICEROY’S SPEECH AT January 10, 1940

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Gandhian Scholar

Gandhi Research Foundation, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No. – 09415777229, 094055338

E-mail- [e-mail];[e-mail]

 

 

VICEROY’S SPEECH AT January 10, 1940

 

 

 As you know, in response to requests for a clarification of the aims of His  Majesty’s Government and of their intentions towards India, His Majesty’s  Government have made it clear, both through statements issued by myself, and in  Parliament, that their objective for India is full Dominion Status, Dominion Status,  too, of the Statute of Westminster variety; that so far as the intermediate period is  concerned (and it is their desire to make intermediate period the shortest practicable),  they are ready to consider the reopening of the scheme of the Act of 1935, as soon as  practicable, after the war with the aid of Indian opinion; that they are prepared in the  mean time, subject to such local adjustments between the leaders of the great  communities as may be necessary to ensure harmonious working, and as an immediate  earnest of their intention, to expand the Executive Council of the Governor-General  by the inclusion of a small number of political leaders; and that they are ready and  anxious to give all the help they can to overcome the difficulties that confront us and  that confront India today. But those assurances have not, to my profound regret, dissipated the doubts and the uncertainties which have led to the withdrawal from office of the Congress Ministries, and which have made it necessary in seven provinces to make use of the emergency provisions of the Act.  The pronouncements made on behalf of His Majesty’s Government since the beginning of the war make clear, I think, beyond any question whatever, their intentions and their anxiety to help.

The federal scheme of the Act was itself designed as a stage on the road to Dominion Status; and under that scheme, devised, I would remind you, long before there was any question of a war, very wide and extensive powers were to be placed in the hands of a Central Government representing the Indian States as well as British India, and constituted on a very broad basis indeed.  There can be no question of the good faith and the sincerity of His Majesty’s Government in the efforts they have made to deal with the constitutional future of India. I well know that there are many people who press for swifter and more radical solutions of the problems before us. I do not question the sincerity or the good intentions of those who feel that way. But all those of us who have to deal with problems of this magnitude know only too well how often we are attracted by apparently simple solutions; how often those apparently simple solutions, when more closely investigated, reveal unexpected difficulties, and difficulties, too, of unexpected importance, anxious as we may all be to take what seems to be the shortest course.  Short cuts, as many of us know to our cost, are too often prone in experience to lead to a considerable waste of time. Nowhere have I feared is that truer than of the political problems of India, for there are difficulties, of which we are all aware, and which we all regret.

But they will not be avoided or disposed of by ignoring their existence. The wise course is to face those difficulties and to try to find a solution of them that will result in the subsequent co-operation of all the parties and interests concerned. We are, not after all, dealing not with one political party only, but with many, nor must we forget the essential necessity, in the interests of Indian unity, of the inclusion of the Indian States in any constitutional scheme.  There are the insistent claims of the minorities. I need refer only to two of them the great Muslim minority and the Scheduled Castes there are the guarantees that have been given to the minorities in the past; the fact that their position must be safeguarded and that those guarantees must be honoured.  I know, gentlemen, that you appreciate the difficulty of the position of the  Viceroy and the difficulty of the position of His Majesty’s Government, faced as they  are with strong and conflicting claims advanced by bodies and interests to whose  views the utmost attention must be paid, and whose position must receive the fullest  consideration. Justice must be done as between the various parties, and His Majesty’s Government is determined to see justice done.

But I would ask my friends in the various parties to consider whether they cannot get together and reach some agreement between themselves which would facilitate my task, and the task of His Majesty’s Government, in dealing with this vital question of Indian constitutional progress: and I would venture again to emphasize the case for compromise, the case for avoiding too rigid an approach to problems such as those with which we are dealing today.  As to the objective there is no dispute. I am ready to consider any practical suggestion that has general support, and I am ready, when the time comes, to give every help that I personally can. His Majesty’s Government are not blind nor can  we be blind here to the practical difficulties involved in moving at one step from  the existing constitutional position into that constitutional position which is  represented by Dominion Status. But here, again, I can assure you that their concern and mine is to spare no effort to reduce to the minimum the interval between the existing state of things and the achievement of Dominion Status.  The offer is there. The responsibility that falls on the great political parties and their leaders is a heavy one, and one of which they are, I know, fully conscious.  They have helped me in the past. I ask today that they will help me again and help India, and I ask for their co-operation and their assistance in terminating at as early a date as possible a state of things which all who have faith in the virtue of constitutional progress must deplore; a state of things which every lover of India   everyone who is concerned to advance her interests must feel today to be a bitter disappointment.