Nehru Pipes Down

Ugly was the situation last spring when followers of St. Gandhi won the elections in six Indian provinces under the new Constitution, then refused to become cabinet ministers in the provinces where they had won (TIME, April 12 et ante). Last week His Majesty's Government were glad they had replied to this political boycott by Gandhi's Indian National Congress by simply sitting tight. It was the original contention of Sir Samuel Hoare, chief maker of India's new Constitution when he was Secretary of State for India (TIME, Aug. 12, 1935 et ante), that no matter how hard Indians at first kicked against its traces they would end by settling down, pulling in harness. Last week the Congress Party executive committee, chairmanned by Party President Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, a rabid firebrand by comparison with mild St. Gandhi, grudgingly voted to end the boycott begun last spring.

"Office is to be accepted," voted the Committee, thus permitting six huge provinces of India to have cabinets representing a majority of their Indian legislators, instead of a minority which has hitherto been the "impossible situation." But fiery Pandit Nehru, while he has piped down so far as acts are concerned, continued to pipe words. According to his Committee, office is to be "utilized for the purpose of working ... to further in every possible way the Congress policy of combatting the new Act" (Constitution).

These words perturbed London not in the least, since three months ago Pandit Nehru was saying just as heatedly that his Congress members would "never" abandon their boycott. In the opinion of His Majesty's Government, once Congress politicians take office they will end by trying to make the Constitution work, rather than by continuing efforts which would wreck the Constitution and cost them their lucrative jobs under it--this bait having thoughtfully been provided by far-seeing Sir Samuel Hoare, today Home Secretary and runner-up for the Prime Ministry.

To assure that last week's decision by the executive committee is upheld by the full Congress Committee (a gathering of more than 200 who almost invariably do as they have been told), St. Gandhi last week left his rustic village retreat, came jolting into Wardha on a bullock cart. Had the Mahatma expected opposition, he would have first half starved himself, then insisted upon walking instead of riding in a bullock cart, would have staggered into the Congress Committee and inspired his disciples with their oft-repeated "pangs of remorse for the suffering we cause the Mahatma by our unworthiness." Smugly the Times of London editorialized its "profound satisfaction," noted that the executive committee described Britain and India as "the exploiter and the exploited." Even this did not lessen Britain's "profound satisfaction," the Times explicitly declared, because it "seems to have been inserted largely to save the faces of Nehru and his immediate followers."

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