428 SECTIONAL COMMUNICATION?. 



claim to share in our Imperial obligations and dangers. When this 

 claim was acknowledged, when Indian armies and many millions of 

 Indian gold were thrown into our military resources, the whole question 

 necessarily rose to another level. Indian soldiers were placed on an 

 equality in the field with their British and Dominion comrades. Why, 

 asked Indian thinkers, should not the same principle of equality be 

 extended to the relationships of peace? Why, in particular, should not 

 India participate in the new world of freedom and justice and emancipa- 

 tion for the weaker nations and self-determination, which we were 

 fighting to establish? These questionings survived and grew louder 

 v,'hen war was over. British statesmen answered them by certain 

 formal acts and declarations of recognition of India as a partner in oui' 

 Imperial federation. She was admitted into the League of Nations ; 

 her representatives signed the Treaty of Versailles ; her nominees were 

 included in the Imperial Cabinets and Imperial Conferences which, 

 originating under the stress of war, have been continued as a permanent 

 feature in the unwritten Constitution of our Commonwealth. 



When Indian politicians, however, came to translate those cere- 

 monial courtesies into the terms of practical citizenship, they found 

 themselves face to face with a totally different interpretation of India's 

 status in certain of the Dominions and Colonies. The test case was 

 that of Kenya (British East Africa), where definite disabilities had been 

 imposed on Indiati settlers — segregation in the towns, a refusal of the 

 franchise, and a refusal of proprietary rights in certain areas. This 

 particular case is still, so to speak, sub judice, so that no opinion need 

 be expressed upon its merits. And from the Indian point of view also 

 discussion is in a sense suspended, as the wise com'se has been taken 

 of sending Mr. Sastri, one of the most judicious and brilliant of India's 

 public men, on a mission round the Empire to urge upon the various 

 Dominion Governments the claims of Indians to citizenship. It may be 

 assumed that the whole position will be brought into its proper per- 

 spective when he returns and repoi'ts the results of his negotiations. 



Meanwhile, and without anticipating Mr. Sastri 's conclusions, I 

 think we may usefully reflect on certain considerations — considerations, 

 it may be, of expediency, but none the less cogent — which make for 

 the earliest possible admission, under proper conditions, of India into 

 the charmed circle of Imperial Citizenship. At the moment, unhappily, 

 we must treat her two great communities, the Hindus and the 

 Mahomedans, separately. Think of their respective outlook on the 

 world beyond India, whether within or without the British Empire. 

 The Hindu theory of life in its extreme form, as preached by Mr. 

 Gandhi and cherished by a large section of the orthodox, is rooted in a 

 philosophy which finds all that is necessary for man in an archaic and 

 exclusive social system', and lays a complicated embargo on all social 

 relations with the rest of mankind who are not born into that system. 

 Fortunately, men are generally better than their philosophies, and there 

 is much tolerance and compromise in Hindu practice. But the forces 

 of reaction are never at rest, and there is constant pressure on the Hindu 

 mind to retire within the ancient battlements of Hinduism, and to 

 exclude all traffic with the West or its methods of human organisation. 



