Mess Accompli

The contrast showed which one knew India. Two months ago Mohandas K. Gandhi said: "The world will feel my plans." Last week, with Gandhi and his Indian National Congress party leaders in jail, the India Office in London said: "Reports from authorities in India state that the situation is completely in hand. . . . There is no indication of any widespread mass movements. . . ."

Riots and killings, the whip and executions mean disorder; the spread of boycotts, strikes, sullenness and turmoil mean a mass movement. The India Office, not for the first time, was talking colonial whitewash. Although doubts crept in and a few liberal voices spoke up, the British press, for the most part, obscured the issue. So did the U.S. press, with few exceptions (see cuts). What was happening in India was being felt by the world. A cry for freedom, confused, tragic, but potentially as powerful as any since Voltaire's Ecrasez I'In fame (Crush the Infamous!) could not be put in a bottle and neatly labeled: treachery.

All democrats agree that the concept of the world as the white man's property is hopelessly out of date. But what concept shall take its place?

Asia. In the minds of such men as India's Pandit Nehru and China's Chiang Kaishek, a new vision of world power has taken form. They hope to see a bloc of Asiatic powers, freed, enlightened and working as partners with the Western powers in the suppression of wars and the rooting out of poverty. In the way of that goal is old-style Western imperialism--and Japan. China has felt the hell of Japanese armies; India may feel it at any moment. But the Chinese fight for their own destiny. Millions of Indians, despite promises of future self-rule, do not have the same spirit. To them the emotional appeal of freedom is greater than fear of the Jap. The British view is sound in so far as granting Indian independence is a dangerous bid for anarchy and chaos; but a bid for great popular support of the United Nations' cause in India is also sound.

United Nations. China took no definite stand; but the Chungking press openly regretted the jailing of Congress leaders. Russia was too busy with war and Anglo-Soviet conferences to comment. The U.S., like China and Russia, is a wartime ally of Britain. Thus U.S. hands are tied officially.

But in total war the problem of India becomes as crucial to all United Nations as aid to Russia and China. All would benefit if the millions in India could be turned into active allies instead of potential enemies. If the United Nations expected to act in concert for the building up of a better post-war world, now was a good time to start practicing.

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