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Alice Stone Blackwell NEWS LETTER
All India Congress Committee
FOREIGN DEPARTMENT
Swaraj Bhawan
ALLAHABAD - INDIA
NEW SERIES

April 19, 1940

No. 5

Preparation of Satyagraha Committees

Mahatma Gandhi has taken another step forward in preparing
the country for an eventual struggle. In his instructions
to Congress Committees he says:-

"Every Congress Committee should become a Satyagrahi
Committee and register such Congressmen who believe in the
cultivation of the spirit of goodwill towards all, who have no
untouchability in them in any shape or form, who would spin
regularly and who habitually use Khaddar to the exclusion of
all other cloth. I would expect those who thus register their
names with their Committees to devote the whole of their spare
time to the constructive programme. If the response is sincere,
these Satyagraha Committees would become busy spinning depots.
They will work in conjunction with and under the guidance of
A.I.S.A. branches in a business like manner so that there remain
in the jurisdiction of the Committees no Congressmen who
have not adopted Khaddar for exclusive use. I shall expect
businesslike reports to be sent from provincial headquarters to
the A.I.C.C. as to the progress of the work of the Satyagraha
Committees. Seeing that this registration is to be purely
voluntary, the reports would mention the numbers both of those
who gave their names for registration and those who do not.

The registered Satyagrahis will keep a diary of the
work that they do from day to day. Their work, besides their
own spinning, will consist in visiting the primary members and
inducing them to use Khadi, spin and register themselves. Whether
they do so or not, contact should be maintained with them.

There should be visits paid to Harijan homes and their
difficulties removed so far as possible.

Needless to say that names should be registered only of
those who are willing and able to suffer imprisonment.

No financial assistance is to be expected by Satyagrahi
prisoners whether for themselves or their dependents.

So much for active Satyagrahis. But there is a much
larger class of men and women who, though they will not spin
or court or suffer imprisonment, believe in the two cardinal
principles of Satyagraha and welcome and wish well to the struggle.
These I will call passive Satyagraphis. They will help
equally with the active ones, if they will not interfere with
the course of the struggle by themselves courting imprisonment
or aiding or precipitating strikes of labourers or students.
Those who out of overzeal or for any other cause will act contrary 
to these instructions will harm the struggle and may even
compel me to suspend it. When the forces of violence are let
loose all over the world and when nations reputed to be most 
civilized cannot think of any force other than that of arms
for the settlement of their disputes, I hope that it will be
possible to say of India that she fought and won the battle of
freedom by purely peaceful means.

I am quite clear in my mind that, given the cooperation
of politically minded India, the attainment of India's freedom
is perfectly possible through unmixed non-violence. The world
does not believe our pretension of non-violence. Let alone the
world, I the self-styled general have repeatedly admitted that

2.

we have violence in our hearts, that we are often violent to one
another in our mutual dealings. I must confess that I will not 
be able to fight so long as we have violence in our midst. But
I will fight if the proposed register is honest and if those
who courageously keep out will not disturb the even course of
the struggle.

Non-violent action means mobilisation of world opinion
in our favour. I know that a growing number of thinking men
and women of the world are sick of the war spirit; they are
longing for a way of peace and they are looking to India to
point that way. We cannot have that opinion on our side if we
are not honestly non-violent. Let me repeat what I have said
in these columns that I shall be able to fight with a very 
small army of honest Satyagrahis but shall feel powerless and
embarrassed, if I have a huge army in which I can have no trust
or as to whose behaviour I am not always sure."

The General Secretary, All India Congress Committee,
has accordingly issued instructions to the provinces that Congress
Committees all over the country take steps to convert
themselves into active satyagraha committees so that they be organised
and ready for the struggle when it comes.

Repression

Even before the war, arrests of political workers were not
an uncommon feature and the fight for civil and primary liberties
was being carried on all over India. We have referred to it in
these pages before.

The Government has now found a good excuse in the war for
suppressing all liberties. The authorities have been vested 
with extraordinary powers. After the resignation of the Congress
Ministries and with the consequent increase of political
tension, the number of arrests and convictions is assuming such
large proportions that it would be quite correct to say that
repression is already in full swing and the government appears
determined to suppress gradually all opinions that it does not
like.

In reply to a question, the Punjab Government disclosed
in the Legislative Assembly that nearly 300 arrests have taken
place in that province. The Home Member of the Bengal Provincial
Government has laid a statement on the table of the
Assembly which shows that already more than 500 persons have
been arrested, about 600 have been given a warning, about 50
interned or their movements restricted to particular regions
and a little more than 100 sentenced to imprisonment. Though
the other governments have given no figures, arrests are taking
place all over the country everyday in increasing numbers.
Among the persons convicted were Jaiprakasha Narayan, General
Secretary of the Congress Socialist Party who was sentenced
to 9 months' imprisonment at Chaibassa in Behar and N.G. Ranga
Vice-President of the All-India Kisan Sabha sentenced to 1
year's rigorous imprisonment in Madras. The Government have
expressed a clear intention of repressing all communists and
their activities and in this connection they have already arrested
many communists all over India. Lately the Bengal
Government has forbidden the publication in the papers of the
programme announced by the Forward Block during the National
Week, and they have promulgated a comprehensive ordinance with
which we will deal later.

In the States:

Simultaneously, the repression in the Indian States has
also increased. The movement for responsible government is
growing in volume and intensity in the States and the rulers
do not find any other way of replying to the growing popular
demand. Recently the Jodhpur Praja Mandal (Jodhpur Citizens'
League) was declared unlawful and many workers were arrested
including Jai Narayan Vyas, one of the General Secretaries of3.

the All India States' Peoples' Conference. In Ratlam State,
Police charged popular demonstrators and many persons were
injured in the melee. In Mysore State, lawyers taking part
in the Mysore Congress work are being struck off or suspended
from the lawyers' list. We propose to give more complete
account of the repression in the States in the next issue when
more space will be available.

Zetland's Broadcast

In a broadcast on April 3rd, Lord Zetland, Secretary of
State for India, again reiterated the old plea of differences
between the Congress, the Muslim League and the Princes as an
excuse for not settling the Indian question. His speech
creates no new situation, but beneath a multitude of pios
wishes it reveals the determination of the British Government
to continue their old policy of divide and rule, and avoid a
reply to the plain question put to them by the Congress at
Ramgarh.

All-round Condemnation of Muslim League's Partition Scheme

The resolution passed by the Muslim League at Lahore proposing
a partition of the country on religious basis into
Hindu and Muslim India has been unreservedly condemned all over
the country as absurd and as a definite setback for the progress
of the country. The strongest condemnation came from the North
West Frontier Province which has got a 95 per cent muslim
majority. The Frontier Provincial Congress Committee severely
condemned this reactionary proposal and it was publicly condemned
in many crowded, public meetings. Representative Muslim
organisations like the Jamiatul-ulema, the Ahrars, the All-
India Momin Conference and others have energetically criticised 
the proposal and questioned Mr. Jinnah's right to talk on
behalf of the Muslims. Responsible Muslim leaders and members 
of the legislative assemblies have also condemned it and
shown up its unreality and reactionary nature. A representative 
and all parties national Muslim conference will shortly meet
in Delhi to repudiate the League's claim and counteract its
reactionary propaganda.

Princes' Chamber demands preservation of privileges

Not to be backward in lining up with the reactionary forces,
the Princes, in the latest resolution of the Standing Committee
of their Chamber, have again demanded guarantees and assurances
for their privileges and 'autonomy' before joining an Indian
federation. There is no reference in the resolution to the rights
of their subjects, though one of the Maharajas had the temerity
to assert that they have already practically shown their desire
for the progress of their subjects. In the speeches, there
were flings at the Congress stand about the princes' sovereignty
claims and a general cry against 'political agitation', which
was growing in the States and which was naturally imputed to
'outside' influences.

The Textile Strike in Bombay and Nagpur

The strike of the textile mill workers in Bombay for an
increase in wages owing to dearness caused by war, went on for
more than 5 weeks. The workers wanted an increase in wages
to compensate for the increase in the prices. The Mill Owners
finding no other way to break the strike had given a notice to
the workers that those who did not resume work in 15 days
would be permanently dismissed. Many of the prominent workers
of one of the Unions, the Girni Kamgar Union, have been
arrested and large numbers of workers were put in gaol for
picketing before the gates of the Mills. The strike has now
been called off. 

A similar strike is going on in Nagpur and no solution4.

has been reached up to this time. Strikes are also going on
in the Jharia Coalfield and in the factories of the Imperial
Tobacco Co.

Ahmedabad Labour Dispute

A very grave wage dispute is also going on between workers
who demand an increase and the textile factory owners in Ahmadabad
the leading textile centre of India. The dispute has been
referred to an arbitration court, but the chances of a settlement
are not very bright. The workers have already expressed their
resolve to strike if an increase is not granted.

Late C. F. Andrews

Death occurred in Calcutta of C. F. Andrews, one of the most
beloved friends of India. It is needless to detail here the 
priceless services that he rendered to India and specially 
to Indians abroad, as they are too well-known. His death is
universally mourned and fitting tributes were paid by leading
men not only in India but also in foreign countries. The best
tributes naturally came from his two lifelong and most intimate
friends, Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Rabindra Nath Tagore. He was
India's moral ambassador at large. The void created by his
death will not be easy to fill up.

It is interesting to note in passing that Charlie Andrews
was one of the early protagonists of India's complete independence,
long before the Congress adopted the independence creed,
and he wrote a very able and convincing brochure on the subject.
---

Balkrishna Keskar

Secretary
Foreign Department
All India Congress Committee.India Bulletin
Organ of the Friends of India
President: Laurance Housman.
Vol. 5, No. 3. July-August, 1937. One Penny.

The Voice of India
India and Next War.

A press statement of the Congress foreign
Department reads :--
"Twenty-three years ago India helped Britain
keep her Empire and, to-day during the Imperial
Conference in London, Indian spokesmen have 
prophesied that Indian men and money will continue
to defend the British Empire. We have no
grudge against the type of spokesmen who 
represent India in London indulging in convenient
prophecies on the future which no longer belongs
to them. They have also been free to exhibit their
princely jewels or their officers' robes during the
coronation, and the High Commissioner for India
has sought to draw from it the moral of India's
loyalty to the British Crown.
"England is fighting hard to prevent the disintegration
of her Empire. She has decided to carry out a five years' armaments programme
costing over rupees twenty milliards. This may
not yet be enough and other parts of the Empire,
particularly India, may have to bear additional
burdens. In England itself, the difficulties of 
recruitment are immense and, either for lack of 
interest or physical fitness, a sufficient number of 
soldiers is not forthcoming. Here again the contribution 
of India is eagerly sought. If the International 
war in Spain did not extend out of the 
Spanish frontiers, it has at least brought nearer 
the danger of a War in which Britain may be 
directly involved.
"In the Far East, the complications that arise
out of the worsening relations between Russia and 
Japan, and a China that is growing stronger, are
a threat to the security of the British Empire.
"The world total of expenditure on armaments
in 1936 amounted to nearly rupees thirty milliards
which is thrice as much as in the year immediately
preceding the world war. The British Empire is 
frantically fortifying itself against the mighty
whirlpool into which it is to be caught and, that
is why, the Empire Conference of this year is 
concerned almost solely with defence problems.
"The Indian delegates in London are free to lull
the British into pleasant feelings of security. The
Congress position is clear. Nationalist India has 
clearly decided to refuse help to the British in
their wars. And while the actual war may yet be
distant, it is already being rehearsed on our North-
Western Frontier. This has threefold consequences
for us. The frontiers of India are being made
secure for continued British domination even in the
event of an early world war. It points to the
ominous possibility of inflated army budgets in the
coming years. It will bring, as every other war
preparation does, a further curtailment of the 
meagre rights of free speech and organisation that
are still left to us. We refuse to be party to
another imperialist war."

When Japan Invades India.
Some people are beset with anxiety about
what will happen to India when the British evacuate
India or are forced to leave and Japan carries out
an invasion. President Nehru had to answer this
anxiety during his Malaya tour. Here are the 
broad outlines of his reply :--
(1) The evacuation or surrender of the British
in India presupposes an advanced stage of organised
strength of the Indian people. Free India will also
have broad-based its defences on the will of the
entire people. In place of a limited mercenary
army, we will have made beginnings with a people's
army. Japan cannot, therefore, have it her own
way.
(2) The thrust of the Japanese imperialist drive 
has not and cannot surmount Chinese opposition.
No doubt, the Tanaka Memorandum of Japanese
ambitions to overlordship of the East is widely
supposed to govern Japanese military policies.
Japan, however, is too late in subduing China. One
may not expect the Japanese to project their drive
into India with such a vital gap in the continuity
of their communications.
(3) The aggressive policies of a nation are greatly
dependent on the delicate balancing of international
relations. Japan may cast covetous looks on a 
Free India but other Powers may not permit her
to launch on a career of aggression.
There are many independent States like Switzerland
and Holland and their defences may be no
match to the armed might of Germany or Italy
and yet violation of their territories would involve
serious consequences. There are other Far Eastern
interests besides those of Japan and they will2    INDIA BULLETIN.   July-August, 1937.

THE VOICE OF INDIA (continued).

not stand by and permit another Manchukuo in
India.

These arguments must not be taken singly.
Their force consists in that they hang together.

MUSLIMS AND CONGRESS.

The British Press always describes Congress as
a Hindu organisation implying thereby that it does
not represent all sections of the Indian nation. We
give below views of some important and influential
Mohammedan leaders which will completely refute
the mischievously propagated idea that the Muslims
are not with Congress.

From Karachi, Maulyi Mohammed Sidiq, President
of the Sind Muslim Nationalist Party and Mr.
Syed Ghulam Murtuza Shah, Member of the
Legislative Assembly have issued a fervent appeal
to Sind Muslims to join Congress. They affirm
that "The Congress is the one national political
organization owing no allegiance to any community
as such but agitating and striving for the freedom
of the country and the welfare of the people."

Sir Syed Wazir Hasan, ex-Judge of the Allahabad
High Court, has issued an important statement
supporting the efforts of the Congress to establish
contact with Mohammedan masses. He says:-

"Two facts must be accepted: (1) that the Congress
has seriously embarked on that career and
(2) that a few distinguished Mussalmans in India
have also started a campaign of opposition. With
a view to appreciate or condemn either of these
two diametrically opposed conditions it is necessary
to carefully examine the causes and the effects of
each in relation to the broad problem of the
freedom of the country.

'The object of the Indian National Congress is
the attainment of complete independence by all
legitimate and peaceful means.' The movement of
contact with Muslim masses is clearly a step
forward in that direction and nobody can deny that
it is legitimate and peaceful. But clearly this
movement means much more both in its genesis
and in its effect than a mere constitutional advance
towards the ultimate goal of independence. It
derives its origin from the desire to uplift the
masses from the immeasurable depths of poverty
and degradation into which they have been driven
by the seemingly invincible forces of reaction and
imperialism."

Sir Syed continues and says the present conditions
compel Mohammedans to go much deeper into the
problem of the entire social regeneration of
seventy million Muslims, and to study the cause
of the poverty, degradation and backwardness 
into which they have fallen. In his opinion the
existing system on which the government of the
country is carried on is not only insufficient for the
purpose of uplifting the masses but is positively
obstructive. "The desire of the Congress is founded 
on the noblest ideas," says Sir Syed, "one political
and the other social, which have moved nations
into action in the past as they will move them in
future despite opposition and obstruction.

"What I have said above brings forth the question:
why should anybody oppose this movement?
To my mind the answer is obvious. None but those
who do not want India to be a free country or at
any rate wish to delay its emancipation.

"Thus on 'a priori' reasoning and in the light of

the principle involved there is nothing in this
movement which should cause an opposition to it.
Love of freedom is the noblest desire not only of
individuals but also of nations and communities
and its power is greatest. But a human being unfortunately
has evil desires also and amongst them
there is none so great in volume and strength as
the desire to protect one's own interests - individual,
communal or class. It seems to be that the
struggle in which our motherland is engaged at the
present moment is the struggle between these two
antagonistic forces of human nature. He must be
a blind man who cannot see on which side the
victory lies."

JAWAHARLAL NEHRU ON CONGRESS
ASSURANCES.

"The powers conferred under the new Government
of India Act on elected representatives in the
Legislatures are very limited indeed. But still the
Congress is prepared to function in the Provinces,
if the assurances suggested in A.I.C.C.
resolution are given by Government.

"The dismissal of a Ministry elected by a
majority would inevitably create deadlock. But
however that might be, it is open to Government
to face the deadlock by dismissing the Ministry.

"The Congress wanted power with responsibility
and not responsibility without powers," declared
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru:

Concluding, Panditji said: "The constitutional
deadlock existing at present is really a reflex of a
more fundamental deadlock, which exists between
Indian nationalism seeking the complete freedom
of India and British Imperialism trying to prevent
this at all costs."

BAN ON SUMMER SCHOOL.

Summer schools are recognised in all civilised
countries as means of education. Almost every
political party in this country has its own summer
school where lectures on current political problems
are arranged; and to which no one takes any
objection. In India, however, things have a different
value. There a summer school is regarded as
a dangerous institution and the whole might of the
British Empire is brought in operation to suppress it.

We refer to the suppression of the Kottapatan
Summer School in Madras Presidency. The
organizers happen to be socialists who are regarded
in India as enemies of the State, and their activities
howsoever harmless, are regarded as revolutionary.
That being the case the Kottapatan School was
promptly declared illegal, and the students were
ordered to leave it. The students refused, and were
therefore charged with disobeying the order and
were severely, and mercilessly beaten with lathi.
We condemn this illegal and unconstitutional ban
on the school as a violation of the fundamental 
right of free association.

POLICE METHODS.

C.R. Rajagopala Chari, Leader of the Congress
Party in the Madras Legislature, in a press interview
speaks of annoying police surveillance
throughout his journey from Bombay to Madras. A
police Head Constable was discovered, much to the
surprise of the Councillors, at a special meeting of
the Tinnevally Municipal Council on June 4th.

Babu Daulat Singh Bedi who retired two years
ago from active political work on account of ill-
health, complains of being still shadowed by the
police.

July-August, 1937.     INDIA BULLETIN.            3

REPRESSION ALL OVER INDIA.

Khalsa College.

A severe lathi-charge by the police without
warning is reported in connection with the student-
strike in the Khalsa College, Lahore. It resulted
in serious injury to about fifteen persons. The
Principal was very unwise to summon police-aid to
disperse a crowd of College students and then to
have allowed the police a free hand. Two lathi-
charges are reported.

Sedition.

The Government of Bombay have declined to
cancel the Restraint Order served on K.N. Joglekar
interning him in the city of Bombay and requiring
him to give parole at the Bhoiwada Police Station
and prohibiting him from participating in political
or labour meetings.

Bombay Government have also rejected the
application of A. N. Chetty to cancel the externment
order served on him 1934.

An externment order was served on May 13th,
on Moulana Nooruddin Behari, a Congress worker
of Delhi and Assistant Secretary to the Jamiat-
Ulma-i-Hind directing him to quit Delhi within 24
hours and not to return for six months without
obtaining previous permission.

Another notice under the Punjab Criminal Law
Amendment Act has been served on Moulana Abdul
Majid, Vice-President, District Congress Committee,
Delhi, directing him not to take part in any
political meetings or demonstrations.

Barine Ghose, member of Congress Socialist
Party, has been served with an order under Sec. 18
of the Bengal Suppression of Terrorist Outrages
Act prohibiting him from leaving the Municipal
area of Calcutta. Under the same act Manindra
Chakravarti, first year student of the Comilla
Victoria College, has been externed. P.C. Sen-
Gupta is under arrest on a reported charge of
sedition.

District Magistrate, Poona, prohibited processions
throughout the city for two days (12th and
13th May) under Sec. 144 Criminal Procedure Code,
it is reported, to prevent black-flag processions on
the Coronation Day.

The political Agent at Kurram has ordered Malik
Md. Zaman Khan to furnish a secretary of Rs. 3000
for three years under Sec. 40 of the Crimes
Regulation. Malik is reported to have demanded
equal political rights and privileges in the Kurram
Agency with the rest of the Province.

Kamal Sarkar and Nandlal Bose were arrested
under the Press Emergency Powers Act for
possession of alleged objectionable leaflets. A
young resident of Contai Sub-division, Midnapur
District, was also arrested for possession of alleged
seditious and communistic literature. Ajit Das
Gupta is under arrest for publication of an alleged
objectionable poster.

PROSCRIBED LITERATURE

The Central Government have banned the following:
(1) A publication entitled "Communist International";
(2) a paper entitled "International Press
Correspondents"; (3) a book entitled "Labour
Monthly"; (4) any document issued by or emanating
from the General News Service, London; (5)
a book entitled "World Revolution" 1936.

The Government of Bihar have proscribed the
following publications under Sec. 4 of the Press
Act, 1931: (1) To all Anti-Imperialist Fighters
(English); (2) Chandra Shekhar Azad, "Diwas"
(Hindi); (3) Chandra Shekar Azad - ki Yad
(Hindi).

Press.

The District Magistrate, Lahore, has asked for
a security of Rs. 1,000/- from A.C. Sammi who
had applied for permission to bring out a Hindi
Magazine "Kaumudi" under Sec. 3 (1) of the 
Press Act which gives the Magistrate power to
demand security without giving any reason when
an application is made. This means arbitrary
control by executive discretion of all presses, books
and publications.

House-Search.

We have been publishing long lists of house-
searches. Frequent and indiscriminate searches
leave a feeling of insecurity in the public mind. A
resolution passed at the Vikrampur Library Conference
draws the attention of the Government to
the fact that repeated attention of the Government to
the fact that repeated ineffectual police searches
have meant the ruin of many flourishing public
libraries in Vikrampur and have created an idea
in the public mind that the Government do not approve
of anybody's association with these institutions
either as workers or as readers.

Bombay police searched the residence of M.R.
Shetty, Labour leader, on May 13th. New Delhi
police searched a number of houses, it seems, for
posters preaching boycott of the Coronation celebration.
Police raided the office of the "Advance"
a prominent Calcutta English daily and seized
copies of the paper which contained a leading
article entitled "India and Coronation." A printing
press in New Delhi was also searched on May
19th, for posters issued by the Reception Committee
of the Delhi Session of the Trade Union
Congress appealing to the public to become
members.

Detenu.

The Superintendent, Ambala jail, has refused
Satindra Nath Sen, a detenu, interview with his
counsel and legal adviser. It appears that he was
given the option of choosing two counsels who
alone could interview him. The order violates the
rights of the accused under Sec. 24 P.C. as well
as those of the counsel under the laws.

Satindra Sen has been 20 years in jail since the
Partition agitation in Bengal. His latest term of
imprisonment is 6 years, detention without trial,
the last three years of which have been spent in
the Punjab. A fair public trial is one of the rights
of an accused. That is being denied to him. He is
reported to be in a state of physical and mental
prostration. He needs urgent medical aid. Justice
demands his immediate release.

Police.

The Punjab Kisan Committee reports of the
alleged high-handedness of the Lyallpur District
Police officials in Rurka, Chak No. 98, Tehsil
Jaranwala. The report speaks of harsh treatment
and mass beatings of villagers by police officials
accompanied by a large posse of constables.4   INDIA BULLETIN.    July-August, 1937.

INDIA BULLETIN
(Organ of the Friends of India)
47, VICTORIA STREET, S.W.1.
President: LAURENCE HOUSMAN.
Issued Monthly.     Price: 1d.
Yearly Subscription 2/-, Including Postage.
Signed articles do not necessarily represent our views.
Vol. 5. No. 3.    July - Aug., 1937.

A HISTORIC DECISION.

The Indian National Congress made one of the
most fateful decisions in its history when the
Working Committee, which met at Wardha, passed
Resolutions to the effect that the Congress Party
in the six Provinces where it had gained majorities
should take office. This decision was awaited with
tense feeling by millions in India and by the many
sympathisers in this country. The full text of the
Resolutions will be found in another column.

We congratulate Mahatma Gandhi on the wise
and statesmanlike lead he has given to Congress.
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and his socialist followers
are also to be congratulated for their wisdom in
accepting the counsel of Mahatma Gandhi. We
know the feeling of Pandit Nehru on the question
of accepting office and we sympathise with him.

However, this was not the time to allow differences
to develop which might tend to weaken the
forces of those who strive for India's freedom. The
sole concern at the moment is the maintenance of
a united front to British Imperialism, so that the
peaceful war on it may be continued till the final
victory is won.

Last April Congress refused to form ministries
unless assurances were given by the Government
that the Governors would not interfere in the day
to day constitutional activities of the Congress
Ministers.

It was an attempt on the part of Congress to
test the sincerity of the Government's protestations
that a democratic era had dawned with the new
Constitution Act. But the Congress demand for
assurances - a demand which was both legitimate
and straightforward, disturbed the authorities who
apparently never expected that Congress would put
forth such demands. Without any intention of
giving a straightforward reply, the Government
began the familiar subterfuge of first ridiculing
Congress and then, gradually modifying its attitude
by stressing the assertion that the Special Powers
of the Governors were never meant to interfere
lightly and wantonly in the work of the Ministers.
Lord Linlithgow went even to the length of saying
that a Governor would consult his Ministers even 
in matters touching his Special Responsibilities.
The Viceroy's speech clearly indicated his solicitude
and anxiety that Congress should take up office.

Gandhiji, whose whole conception of politics is
fundamentally spiritual and who always takes an 
extremely long view, even of a political situation,
responded, as he always does, to the first indication
of friendliness in his opponent and in advising
Congress to accept office, brought the prolonged
dead-lock to an end. It is his influence, insight and
farsightedness which has turned another dangerous
corner in the history of the two countries.

Congress will soon begin to work on its constructive
programme and the world will be able to
see the stability and firmness of purpose which
consistently underlies its policy.

Let us now, however, forget that inevitably India's
democratic interests will, at some point, begin to
clash with Britain's capitalistic interests. The constructive
programme of the Congress is sure to
prove a stumbling block to Imperial Power, then
there will emerge the next phase in India's struggle
for freedom. We want to make this point clear
in order to remind the English people that the
Indian question is not finally settled because the
Congressmen are accepting office.

Hitherto the battle has been fought only from
outside the Legislatures, henceforth it will be
fought from within as well. The fact of Congress
accepting office puts the sincerity of the Government
on trial. Let us hope the political game will
be honourably played! Time alone will reveal the
true nature of the present situation but even now
there can be no doubt of the final issue!

TEXT OF RESOLUTION.

The following is the full text of the resolution in 
favour of office acceptance passed by the Indian
Congress Working Committee at Wardha:-

The All-India Congress Committee at its meeting
held at Delhi, on March 18th, passed a resolution
affirming the basic Congress policy in regard to the
new Constitution, laying down a programme to be
followed inside and outside the Legislatures by
Congress members in such Legislatures. It further
directed that in pursuance of that policy permission
should be given for Congressmen to accept office
in the provinces where the Congress party was
satisfied and could state publicly that the Governor
would not use his special powers of interference or
set aside the advice of Ministers in regard to their
constitutional activities.

In accordance with these directions the leaders
of the Congress parties who were invited by the
Governors to form Ministries asked for the necessary
assurances. These not having been given, the
leaders expressed their inability to undertake the
formation of Ministries, but since the meeting of
the Working Committee, on April 28th, Lord
Zetland, Secretary of State for India, Lord Stanley,
Under Secretary of State for India, and the
Viceroy, have made declarations on this issue on
behalf of the British Government.

"Exploiter and Exploited."

The Working Committee has carefully considered
these declarations, and expresses the opinion that
though they exhibit a desire to make an approach
to the Congress demand they fall short of the
assurances demanded in the terms of the All-India
Congress Committee resolution as interpreted by
the Working Committee in its resolution of April
28th. Again, the Working Committee is unable to
subscribe to the doctrine of partnership propounded
in some of the aforesaid declarations.

The proper description of the existing relationship
between the British Government and the
people of India is that of exploiter and exploited,
and hence they have a different outlook upon
almost everything of vital importance. The Committee
feels, however, that the situation created as


July-August, 1937.    INDIA BULLETIN.         5

a result of circumstances and events that have since
occurred warrants the belief that it would not be
easy for the Governors to use their special powers.

The Committee has, moreover, considered the
views of Congress members in the Legislatures and
of Congressmen generally.

Condition of Acceptance.

The Committee, therefore, has come to the conclusion,
and is resolved, that Congressmen be permitted
to accept office where they may be invited
thereto, but it desires to make it clear that office
is to be accepted and utilised for the purpose of
working in accordance with the lines laid down in
the Congress election manifesto, and to further in
every possible way the Congress policy of combating
the new Act on the one hand and prosecuting
a constructive programme on the other.

The Working Committee is confident that it has
the support and backing of the All-India Congress
Committee in this decision and that this resolution
is in furtherance of the general policy laid down by
Congress and the All-India Congress Committee.
The Committee would have welcomed an opportunity
for the direction of the All-India Congress
Committee on this matter, but it is of opinion that
delay in taking a decision at this stage would be
injurious to the country's interests and would create
confusion in the public mind at a time when prompt
and decisive action is necessary.

THE CRISIS IN THE CLOVE TRADE.

By T.A. RAMAN.

A piece of Legislation, the like of which has not
been attempted in any civilised country, threatens
the living of 15,000 Indians engaged in the Clove
Trade of Zanzibar.

Zanzibar is a British protectorate and it is within
the power of the Colonial Office to prevent this
latest betrayal of Indian rights in a part of the
British Empire.

In the following article Mr. T. A. Raman points
out how grave will be the consequences to Indians
in Zanzibar, as well as to Indo-British relationship,
should the Clove Bill be passed.

The writer desires to express his gratitude to
Sir Purushotamdas Thakurdas for his guidance in
writing this article.

Fifteen Thousand Indians in the British Protectorate
of Zanzibar stand to lose home and livelihood
if the Clove Bill, now before the Zanzibar
Legislative Council, is allowed to go on the statute
book.

That is grave enough but graver still will be the
reactions in India to so grievous an injustice and
to so flagrant a violation of the rights of Indians
as citizens of the British Empire: indeed, to many
in India this is the test case which will decide the
ultimate utility of the British connection.

Never since the massacre of Jalianwallah Bagh
has Indian protests been so impressively unanimous.
The meekest Moderate is at one with Pandit
Jawaharlal Nehru; not one dissentient voice was
raised when the central legislature debated this

issue; the Emigration Committee of the Assembly
unanimously recommended an embargo on Zanzibar
Cloves should the protectorate pass these
measures; the European group in the Assembly
was at one with the rest of the House and Mr.
James, speaking on behalf of all the European
Members, did not mince words; and both the
nationalist and Anglo-Indian press has spared no
space in drawing public attention to this encroachment
on Indian rights.

The British Press, however, - both the penny
and the two penny variety - has paid little or no
attention, with the result that the best friends of
India in this country have but the haziest notions
on the subject. The facts of the case, however, can
very briefly be stated.

Indian connection with Zanzibar goes right back 
in history, but it is certain that large numbers of
Indians were settled in the island a 150 years ago.
These early settlers found favour with the Sultans
of Zanzibar and they organised the export trade in
cloves - the staple product of the country.
Eloquent proof of how well they built the trade is
the fact that the neighbouring French colony of
Madagascar, which grows cloves, could make no
headway till a few years ago.

The world depression of 1930-31 checked this
flourishing trade. In Zanzibar, as in all other 
countries, cloves like all other raw products could
fetch but a fraction of their previous prices. The
clove grower in Zanzibar, like agriculturists all
over the East, was heavily in debt and the fall in
prices aggravated his troubles. A series of
enquiries was thereupon started and proposals like
the important one that some form of co-operative
credit should be organised were put forward: and,
to such legitimate activities of the Government of
Zanzibar no responsible section of the community,
Indian, Arab or African raised the slightest objection.
But out of these has emerged a sinister
development which has been deliberately misnamed
The Clove Growers' Association.

The Clove Growers' Association is not an organisation
of the growers but a Governmental Committee
of six. Its original and declared object was
to standardise quality for the market and generally
to regulate export: an object to which no one can
take exception even if it should be unnecessary in
a highly developed export trade. BUT, and it is
here that the "association" is unmasked, it is
argued that these objects cannot be carried out
unless the Association could buy and sell exclusively.
In other words, The Clove Growers' Association
financed and functioning at the risk and expense of
the taxpayer will constitute itself as an exclusive
monopolist.

What of the community which built and lived by
this trade and which will now be entirely supplanted?
The original bills in The Zanzibar Council
spared no thought to that but when the storm or
protest reached Whitehall, the Colonial Secretary
made certain explanations in the House of Commons
which, he said, should satisfy Indian opinion.

"Indians," said Mr. Ormsby Gore, "would by
licences be permitted to buy cloves and will get a
commission therefor." Now, this commission, I 
have it on authority of one of the greatest
business men in India - SIR PURUSHOTAMDAS6    INDIA BULLETIN.    July-August, 1937.

THAKURDAS - will very probably be about 2-3%
and out of this a part will go towards interest
charges and another part will be accounted for by
loss in weight after the picking and in working for
this illusory profit - be it remembered that the
Indian middleman will have to buy along with the
Government monopolist - a certain friction between
Arab and Indian may very likely develop. The
Indian middleman can also sell, argued the Colonial
Secretary, but one can perceive how precarious this
selling will be when the Clove Growers Association
will decide who to sell to, when to sell and at what
price to sell.

These "concessions" do not deceive India. They
make a mockery of our distress. That they were
statements in Parliament prove how impudently a
Minister can trade on the ignorance and apathy of
Members in regard to things Indian.

A few other aspects may very briefly be noted.

The decision of the Emigration Committee recommending
to the Government of India an embargo
of Zanzibar cloves was taken not in a moment of
provocation but only after two important officers
of The Indian Civil Service had visited Zanzibar
and reported on the actual conditions. These
reports, it is understood, and independent statistics,
give the lie direct to the allegation against the
Indian exporter that his "speculative tendencies"
caused undue fluctuation in price; the allegation
which is advanced as the main argument for the
present legislation.

The British Resident in Zanzibar himself admitted
in his most recent speech that though the
Bill was certainly not inequitous in the sense of
actuated by improper motives, they were probably
inequitable!

The Arabs form the Sultan downwards have not
themselves enthused over the Bill and it is the
British Resident who is most eloquent in their
advocacy. His motives too are not far to seek:
they have displayed themselves in the way that
the monoply has already begun to function in
certain matters. From January, 1936, the grower
has been obliged to sell clove stems exclusively to
The Association or the Distillery. They have been
bought at prices between Rs. 1 to 1-2-0 while the
market computation is over THREE RUPEES!
Is it surprising that the Arab Grower has no
enthusiasm for the Bill? I may add that the Distillery
is a BRITISH owned Company.

*  *  *  *

By the time this article is published the decision
will have been taken and as I write, all the indications
are that Mr. Ormsby Gore's statements in the
House of Commons represents the maximum concessions
that the Colonial Office will make to Indian
claims. If that is so another nail will have been
driven into the coffin of our faith in the British
Empire. It is believed in India that H. E. Lord
Linlithgow has done his best to save Indian interests
and to convey the strength of public feeling
in the country. If thereafter our claims go unheeded
then India will have a very good idea of
what her opinion will be worth in the counsels of
the Commonwealth even after she attains Dominion
Status.

And, to partnership on such terms no self-
respecting Indian will subscribe.

AN OBJECT-LESSON IN INDIA.

The wide implications of a really deep movement
for peace are gradually being realised by the
members of the various pacifist groups in the West.
It is being more clearly seen than before that true
pacifism involves not merely the adoption of a
certain policy, but the possession of a vital faith;
that it is not a question of acting or refusing to
act so much as a sustained attitude on the part of
the would-be pacifist; that individual responsibility
is incurred in regard to the unseen and even remote
consequences of our conduct and our mode of
living and that individuals are responsible for the
veiled violence of the social and economic system 
within which we all live at the present time.

All these and the many more implications of the
real nature of a non-violent way of life give rise
of necessity to an ever-increasing series of
difficulties both practical and spiritual, and the new
 way appears more and more difficult. It is therefore
essential that we avail ourselves of every
source of enlightenment and of the experience
gained by other people who have already tried out
or are in process of practising this new way. For
this reason we should make a close study of
Gandhi's movements in India, not merely as a
political technique but as a way of life.

Over here we are vaguely aware that Gandhi
and those who work with him are now living as
villagers among other villagers; but we are unaware
that this is no merely temporary change in
the way of living. It is a real levelling down, so
far as material comforts are concerned, for those
who follow this way of life. Personal needs are
reduced to the lowest point and the ordinary
amenities of modern life are relinquished, even in
times of sickness; and this, it is felt, must be the
attitude maintained until such time as the life-level
of the mass of the people can be raised.

Here is a clear recognition of the violent wrong
which is being done all the time by our social and
economic system to the lowest grade of workers.
It is as true in this country as in India. There is
an unseen and remote violence existing in every
social system.

In this village-work there is a complete obliteration
of class distinctions; here can be no patronage
and no suggestion of superiority. These non-
violent workers have completely accepted the
limited social facilities and the restricted diet and
the lack of security which is always the lot of the
very poor.

Moreover, to have induced highly educated and
sensitive people to tackle the dirty work of daily
life is to emphasised the value of necessary
work whatever its nature, and in spite of the fact
that it has always been miserably paid. So that
in this village-work in India, the conception of
voluntary service is being drastically purified, and
necessary work is being given its due dignity.

The realisation of the economic need in the
villages is expressed very clearly in the efforts to
revive hand-spinning and other handicrafts. This
is a direct attempt to repair the violence done by
our economic system which ruthlessly develops
modern methods regardless of workers or the
workless - another unseen violent reaction of
modern civilised methods!

It is not possible to consider here the far-
reaching economic effects of hand-spinning in

July-August, 1937.    INDIA BULLETIN.          7

India, but rather to note its simple and immediate
value, first in giving work to those whom economic
development had rendered idle for months every
year, second in securing for these half-starved 
villagers a little more food - both factors essential
to any kind of development.

In this industrial country the economic problem
may be different, but the inherent evil in the
system is the same. No genuine pacifist can live
contentedly under the hidden but violent regime
of our present economic methods.

In his village-work as in the whole of the non-
violent movement Gandhi has developed extensively
and intensively all his ideas and teaching in regard
to diet. In the villages every effort is being made
to educate and at the same time provide the food
necessary for simple living, rigidly excluding all
animal food. Let no one, who thinks himself a
pacifist, simply exclaim "Faddist." We need to
look carefully into this matter; for if we intend to
live non-violently we must look again into the
unseen and remote violent reactions of our mode
of living. It may be a long walk from the modern
kitchen, with its white-tiled purity, to the slaughterhouse
beyond the butcher's shop and the pig-
sticking factory somewhere in the background, but
these places and all that takes place therein are a
inevitable necessity to those who use a flesh diet.
Whatever be the pros and cons of this question of
diet, there can be no doubt about the violence involved
in killing for food and clothing.

Further than this, there are other implications
which it is necessary for the real ensuer of peace
to consider. Although this question of eating
meat may seem a merely personal concern, when
one studies the psychological effect of meat-eating
on masses of people in relation to the development
of racial grossness, deficient sensitivity, and
strongly developed and largely uncontrolled sex-
instincts, it appears that here may be a large area
of deep-seated causes of violence, for which the
individual must bear his share of responsibility.

Lastly, but most significant of all, Gandhi's
movement is deeply religious. It is based, as he
has said, on "a living faith in a living God" - the
only foundation on which pacifism can live and
really grow. The Indian movement insists on the
spiritual nature of man and on the real nature of
spiritual values. The term "non-violence" used
by Gandhi is better than the word pacifism, and
the phrase "Soul-force" designates the real source
of the strength of the movement.

The reverence for life which permeates the whole
movement is a recognition that life is divine.
There is an underlying belief in a unity which
embraces on the one side our kinship with animal-
life and on the other the reality of the oneness of
the human and the divine nature. From this
spiritual starting point it is possible to believe that
spiritual power is ultimately more vital and potent
than material force, and that it is not beyond the 
reach of man to understand and use it.

The Christian pacifist feels that pacifism is inherent
in the Christian religion. That this is at
present controverted is surely because Christianity
is still viewed from a somewhat narrow outlook.
We forget it is an Eastern religion and should be
viewed with its Eastern background of thought.
We forget still more the deep mystic sense of the

(contd. on page 8).

JOURNEY'S END.

It is with a sense of thankfulness that Humanitarians
all over the world will learn of the decision
of the Indian Government to prohibit the export
of monkeys from India to Europe and other
countries during the hot weather, as stated in the
"Bombay Sentinel" of April 6th, in which Paper
a splendid Leader appears, congratulating the
Government on its decision, but lamenting that for
25 years this awful practice has been going on
unchecked.

"From any point of view" says the "Sentinel"
Editor, "the exploitation of the monkeys of India,
the most highly sensitized creatures in the animal
world for the benefit of humanity has been
tolerated too long.

"The tale of torture begins when these creatures,
mostly in their infancy are trapped in their native
jungles, torn from their mothers' breasts, and
packed into crates for a long journey of suffering,
of which the horror of their initial abduction is
only the beginning, and a worse fate is the end.

"After months of intensive torture engendered
by the awful conditions in which they are transported,
crowded into crates by road, rail and ship,
they are finally, on arrival at their destination,
handed over for the most part to the Vivisectors,
who are greedily waiting to cut open their living
bodies, to impregnate them with loathsome
diseases, or to subject them to cruel feeding
('starving') experiments."

Quoting from a leaflet recently issued by the
British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection we
read that at Trinidad there occurred 17 cases of a
certain disease. This set the Vivisectors at the
Lister Institute, London, on the war-path - not to
enquire into the diet or the sanitary conditions, or
other circumstances of these sufferers, but to inject
into the brains of four, poor helpless little monkeys
the products of the diseased spinal cord of a
Trinidad sufferer. The following is quoted from
the "Lancet" of September 19th, /31 (the two
Vivisectors' own account of the torture inflicted):

"December 10th. Found clinging to the bars of
its cage uttering repeated and peculiarly piercing
shrieks, quite unlike the normal cry of the monkey.
These cries were emitted only during observation
'fears' and, on withdrawal of the observer, ceased.
The animal appeared to be in a state of extreme
terror.

December 13th. The animal now squealed continually
whether observed or not. It appeared to
be generally weak . . The previous day's food
had been left untouched.

December 15th. The monkey had a starting gaze,
and seemed unaware of the presence of food or its
cagemate, or of the Observer. It squealed continually
and the cries were much weaker than
before. On interference it did not attempt to bite.
The chin was abraded from constant picking with
the fingers . . The animal was very emaciated,
with a sub-normal temperature and as it seemed
unlikely to survive until next day, it was etherized."
And this was only "the beginning of a long series of
experiments, as cultures were made from the brains
of these four monkeys and inoculated into others,
until . . the disease has now been transmitted
to five generations of monkeys."

Signs of the suffering - Three animals bit themselves
savagely, two chewing off the end of a
finger and one the whole skin of the forearm, ex-8    INDIA BULLETIN.   July-August, 1937.

posing the muscles from the elbow to the wrist."

"This" says the leaflet from which I quote "is
what is going on in the seclusion of London
Laboratories. Is it not time these Animal Hells
were abolished?"

To return to the Article in the Bombay "Sentinel":
"It is a terrible reproach to the Indian
people and the Government of India that it has
been tolerated so long." . . . But at last the
Government have acted and the long trail of these
suffering creatures and their final consignment to
a living death in the Research Laboratories of
Europe is, we hope, to end.

"The Government cannot limit their concern for
these wretched creatures to the hot months and
what happens to them within the confines of
Indian territory . . The cruelty does not cease
in the cold weather . . the traffic is cruel all the
time. It is conducted by people who only think of
the gain and are absolutely callous to the suffering
of the victims . . The Government of India
have a responsibility for this, as well as what
happens during their transit to the sea in this
country, and, if they have a proper sense of humanitarian
duty, they can only justify their duty by
making an end of this revolting trade once and for
all." May God grant this consummation.
-BLANCHE A. WATSON.

FRIENDS OF INDIA .. LONDON.

In reference to the proposed sale of Khaddar,
announced in our last issue, it is much regretted
that owing to delay in the delivery of the goods
from India, it is not possible to state the date of
the Sale. It may have to be postponed to the
Autumn, but in any case due notice will be given.

Miss Mary Barr, now on furlough from India,
will be in London from July 15th to July 28th. A
list of her meetings will be sent separately.

At a meeting of the "Friends of India," held on
June 11th, Mr. Akhil Chandra Datta, Deputy President
of the Indian Legislative Assembly, spoke on
"The Constitutional Deadlock in India." He said
that the past history of British administration made
it necessary for Congress to ask for specific
assurances from the Governors as regards non-
interference in day to day administration by the
Ministers. He pointed out that failure to give the
necessary assurances on the part of the Government
would drive the country into a bitter struggle, the
consequences of which no one could foresee.

In a reply to a question he said that personally
he was of opinion that the Constitution should be
accepted and worked if the required assurances
were forthcoming.

Mr. Leonard Matters, Ex-M.P., the able correspondent
of the "Hindu" presided on this occasion.

FRIENDS OF INDIA :: DUNDEE BRANCH.

An interesting piece of work has been carried out
by Dr. Saggar, Hon. Sec., which might well be
emulated by workers for India in other parts of
the country. Dr. Saggar has been through a large
number of books on India, available in the Central
Lending Library, and prepared a list suitable for
Study Groups.

On May 5th, 1937, at the Monthly Meeting the
Rev. E. Towell (Chairman of the Peace Pledge
Union, Dundee) spoke on "Christ and Pacifism."

On June 9th Mr. J. M. Scott addressed the
Monthly Meeting on "Determinism and Non-
Violence."

FRIENDS OF INDIA :: LONDON.
Please Note Address of New Office:
47, VICTORIA ST., LONDON, S.W.1.

BOOK REVIEW.
"THE WHITE SAHIBS IN INDIA."
By REGINALD REYNOLDS.
With a Preface by JAWAHARLAL NEHRU.

This attractive volume will prove most valuable
to all who are desirous of knowing the truth concerning
many of the aspects of the problem of
Indian freedom.

In the short preface by the Author, Mr. Reynolds,
says:-


"Those who dislike my conclusions may dispute
them. But whoever would quarrel with my facts
must enter the lists with my authorities." This
entering the lists is inviting because of the
simplicity of the arrangement of "notes" and text.
The ease with which the evidence for each statement
can be verified will make this an invaluable
book for reference.

The early chapters deal with the history of the
British contact with India since about 1600 and are
written in a most attractive style, so that the
subject matter is really made to live and can be
appreciated even by those who do not care for
history.

The later chapters are of vast importance at the
present moment. Let us take but one instance out
of many which could be given. There are many
people who cannot get clear the real nature of 
Hindu-Moslem strife. Here will be found the
essential facts and factors brought together.

Here, too, one will find a clear picture of the
state of the peasantry of India, and will see how
agrarian trouble, poverty and national aims are
intermingling in the present Movement for freedom
and how it stands in relation to Socialism and
Communism in the West.

The whole volume is a terrible commentary on
Imperial development. It is bad enough to read
month by month the tale of military and police
repression, but it is awful to find it all collected
together. It forms a ghastly crop of the aftergrowth
of war and violence; it is the story of how
an Empire grows.

The peace-makers of this country should not
need any further proof that the very fact of the
possession of an Empire has become the acid test.
Price 12/6 net.                            -E. H.

(contd. from page 7).

East, which our materialistic civilisation neglects.
Wherever there is a consciousness of the unity of
all life and of the divine nature of life, and a
convinced belief in the reality of spiritual values;
wherever there is a conviction that mind and spirit
can control the senses, and that spiritual values
are actually the most potent values here and now,
then the futility of violent methods becomes
obvious. Gandhi is leading the world back to an
understanding of the Soul-force which can remove
mountains, and therein lies our hope.

-EDITH HUNTER.

Published by Friends of India, 47, Victoria Street, London, S.W.1., and printed by T.W. Cole & Sons, Ltd., Gloucester.INDIA TO-DAY
Monthly Bulletin of
INDIA LEAGUE OF AMERICA
40 East 49th Street, New York City

$2.00 per year
Tel. PLaza 3-5088
Vol. V. No. 1. 
357
April, 1944.

The League was organized in 1937 to interpret India and America to each other. The bulletin presents a brief synopsis and interpretation of authentic and significant news from India and gives a list of current articles bearing upon India.

Japanese Attack India

Reports of Japanese penetration into India are so conflicting that it is as yet uncertain whether this is a serious threat, or, as the British maintain, merely a skirmish. It would appear, however, that Japanese troops have actually invaded Indian soil, and if there is one thing that is clear to everyone, it is that any military action on Indian soil contains political dynamite.

The political atmosphere in India has become increasingly unhealthy ever since the outbreak of the war. Frustration, dissatisfaction, discontent, distrust have mounted year by year. Perhaps the worst feature of all is the fear that is growing in India that the Allied victory will bring to India no freedom, but only a strengthening of the British rule. In such circumstances, it is utterly unrealistic to close one's eyes to the possibility of very real and serious trouble in India if there is a major invasion.

Black as the outlook is, certain moves can yet be made to lighten it. The first and most obvious is to release all political prisoners immediately and unconditionally. Another would be to announce a definite date for the termination of British rule. A third would be turning the present Government into something more nearly approaching a representative, national government, by holding an election, and having the Viceroy enter into a gentleman's agreement to abrogate his right of absolute veto. This would show confidence in India. And confidence must always be reciprocal.

If anyone things that this last suggestion would mean taking too big a chance, let him consider what a chance must be taken in defending India against invasion, basin an important campaign in India, and simultaneously facing the constant danger of popular uprising on a huge scale, or even the same sort of lack of cooperation which it is common knowledge that the Italian population of Southern Italy is now offering to the Allies. Moreover, in the case of India, there is a little matter of principle involved. The people of India are only asking for what we are all supposed to be fighting for. FREEDOM.

Suspicion of Soldiers
Sir N. N. Sircar in the Hindustan Times

"There is no gainsaying the fact that today the soldier is looked upon not as a friend, but as an object of terror, one to be avoided and not embraced. If a dozen soldiers, be they Pathans, Sikhs, Gurkhas, or British, are quartered in a Bengal village, it may be expected that the first act of the villagers will be to warn their women to keep indoors, while they remain in trepidation over the safety of their shops and orchards. The situation has no analogy to British soldiers entering and staying in a British village."

American Citizenship Issue Raised in Indian Legislature

Already questions about the matter of U. S. citizenship have been asked in the Indian Legislative Assembly in New Delhi. The Foreign Secretary of the Government of India said on February 24th, that "the Government of India is watching with close interest the question of removal of restrictions of entry of Indians into the United States." He continued, "Sir G. S. Bajpai (Agent-General for India in Washington), has been informed by the American State Department that the Government of the United States view his representations with great sympathy and they will examine the possibility of having legislation introduced in the sense desired. The Government of India is greatly interested in the matter and the Agent-General in Washington has been instructed to pursue it further."

The Council of State (upper chamber) of the Government of India recently passed a resolution recommending that early steps be taken to obtain United States citizenship rights for the nationals of India.

J. J. Singh

Citizenship for the Nationals of India

We urge our readers to support the following bills in Congress for the naturalization of the nationals of India and for putting India on a quota basis:

H.R. 4415, introduced by Congressman Emanuel Celler of New York, and H.F. 4479, introduced by Congresswoman Luce of Connecticut, The Langer bill, S. 1585, will shortly be introduced, in its amended form, in the Senate by Senator William Langer of North Dakota.

You can help. Please,

1. Write to any member of the Senate Committee on Immigration: Senators Charles O. Andrews, Joseph H. Ball, C. Douglass Buck, Harold H. Burton, James O. Eastland, Homer Ferguson, Hiram W. Johnson, Francis Maloney, George L. Radcliffe, Richard B. Russell (Chairman), Tom Stewart and Burnet R. Maybank, and to any member of the House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization: Congressmen A. Leonard Allen, John B. Bennett, Samuel Dickstein (Chairman), Hubert S. Ellis, William P. Elmer, Joseph R. Farrington, O. C. Fisher, Ed. Gossett, Lex Green, Bernard W. Kearney, John Lesinski, Edward O. McCowen, Dan R. McGehee, John L. McMillan, Noah M. Mason, Robert Ramspeck, Edward H. Rees, Thomas E. Scanlon, Lowell Stockman, Carl T. Curtis.

2. Write to your own senator and congressman.

3. Write to your local paper, and spread the idea around.M.P. Wants To Know Congress Case

Lord Strabolgi said recently:

"We have special responsibility and must know the Congress
case stated in a free atmosphere and not under duress
so that we can judge for ourselves the real or imaginary
gulf between the demands of the Congress and the stated
war aims of the United Nations. India's problem is not
purely a political problem, but a military problem of the
first magnitude in view of the war against Japanese imperialism
in the Far East. It is, therefore, the joint responsibility
of the United Nations to secure full and voluntary
co-operation of the Indian people and as it is clear even
from Lord Wavell's latest address to the Indian legislature,
that the Congress is the most powerful and popular political
organization, it is vital that the Congress viewpoint
should be stated and examined carefully by public opinion
in the United Nations."

Gandhi Demands His Trial

It is gathered here that the Government of India have
sent a letter to Gandhi communicating to him the charge
for which he is detained.

It is possible that similar communications have been sent
to the members of the Congress Working Committee.

The cases of the leaders are likely to be reviewed shortly
under new rules by the Government of India, which may
give these Leaders a chance to consult their conscience
and withdraw from the August Resolution.

As far as Gandhi is concerned there is no indication that
he is going to admit the charge against him or withdraw
from the August Resolution.

Gandhi Refutes Charges

It is reported that in a long reply, covering several pages,
Gandhi has told the Government of India that the charges
against him are baseless; that he had always desired a
settlement by negotiations as far as possible, that if these
negotiations had taken place they might have been successful.

He emphasized the fact that there was no opportunity
to launch a movement, and refuted the charge that the
Congress was hampering the war effort. In fact, that point
had been made particularly clear in a resolution drawn up
by the All India Congress Committee.

Under these circumstances Gandhi declares the he considers
his detention absolutely unjustified and demands that
he be either released or put on trial.

The Government of India have charged Gandhi with
authorizing the All India Congress Committee to launch
a mass movement directed against the Government's War
Effort, and also with interrupting the power working of
Law and Order in the country. Gandhi has been asked to
send his reply to the Home Secretary, Government of
Bombay.

A Plan for India

A former principal planning engineer of the United
States Board of Economic Warfare, Mr. Razzack, said today
that "While China and other nations march forward
with plans for post-war reconstruction, poor India lags behind
nursing her infirmities. India, too, has shouldered the
burden of this war, yet India alone has no blue-print for
peace."

Mr. Razzack believes that India's future should not be
committed to the hands of political parties whether Indian
or foreign. "What India needs is builders not indoctrinators,"
he said. "India has done enough abstract thinking
to satisfy the demands of decades to come. I think India's
future security can best be settled by an unpolitical non-

profit organization of industrial engineers composed of
both Indians and British."

Mr. Razzack's plan embodies: firstly, development of
agriculture, including the manufacture of agricultural by-
products and secondary occupations; secondly, development
of chemical industries with emphasis on fertilizers; thirdly,
development and distribution of hydro-electric power;
fourthly, encouragement of handicrafts, manufacture of
handtools and farm implements; fifthly, increased production
through expanded heavy industries throughout India;
and sixthly, improved transportation facilities with reduced
freight rates within India, and the creation of a fleet for
coastal shipping.

Indian Chamber of Commerce Holds
Important Meeting
"Sabotage" of Indian Industries

Mr. L. C. Jariwala (Bombay) said that what had been
achieved in the industrial field in the war years was far
short of what she could achieve with her resources in men
and material. There was already in progress what he
termed a "sabotage" of Indian industries; he learned that
a British company for the production of storage batteries
and accumulators had been encouraged to establish itself
in India, while there were already in existence six Indian
companies for the manufacture of these goods and their
full production capacity had not yet been fully utilized.

Indians Overseas

In a future resolution moved from the Chair on Indians
abroad, the Federation demanded that the Government 
of India should secure for the Indians in the United
States rights of citizenship, and negotiate a treaty of commerce
and navigation with the U.S. Government so that
Indian nationals might enjoy a status that would enable
them to carry on trade uninterruptedly in that country.

Value of Britain's Promises

At the Bombay session of the National Liberal Federation,
Sir Chimanlal Sitalvad said:

"To my mind, in the ultimate analysis, it is the British
Government that is responsible for the political deadlock
in this country. Because of the great distrust arising out of
their past actions, promises and performances, and the way
they have treated India in the past, they very nearly
made it impossible for Indians to take them at their face
value." "We cannot forget," Sir Chimanlal continued,
"that for a 100 years the Britishers held the Indian Civil
Service Examination in England. We cannot forget that for
30 years they throttled our infant textile industry with
iniquitous excise duty in order that the Lancashire goods
may sell in this country. When we were at the Round Table
Conference and also when the Government of India
Act 1935 was being framed, they steadily and stoutly refused
to mention even in the preamble that Dominion Status
was the political goal of India. Later, when the Parliamentary
Committee met them and the Indian delegation
under the Aga Khan united in presenting a series of demands,
not one of them was accepted or incorporated in
the Bill. We all know what stringent safeguards for British
interests disfigured the Government of India Act."

On the evening of May 23rd there will be a performance of
THE GATE in the Metropolitan Opera House. This is a musical
drama, the history of the Bahai Movement, given in connection
with the hundredth anniversary of the founding of the society.
It is presented by the New History Society of New York, Mirza
Ahmed Sohrab, leader. Proceeds will be given for India's children
suffering from the effects of the famine.

Tickets can be obtained from the New History Society, 132
East 65th St., N.Y.C.

I.L.O. Conference in Philadelphia

The International Labor Office is holding a conference
in Philadelphia, at which India will be represented, as
usual. India is a member of the League of Nations, and
here delegates sit on League commissions. Perhaps one might
almost say, "sit in" on these commissions, for their position
is extremely anomalous. Delegates from all the other countries
are elected or appointed by governments which actually
represent the people of those countries. In the case of
India, delegates are appointed by a government which is
actually an alien government, and hence they cannot be
considered to speak for the people of India. It was stated
in the House of Commons on July 14, 1924, in reply to a
question regarding the representatives of India to that
year's Assembly of the League of Nations that they were
appointed by and responsible to the Secretary of State for
India acting in consultation with the Government of India.
In their letters of appointment, however, no reference is
made to the appointing authority, but they are simply designated
as representatives of "India." The Government
members of India's delegation to the I.L.O. are chosen in
like manner.

Two of these gentlemen have now arrived in the United
States, and while they are here we would like to call to
their attention that during this session of the I.L.O. the
Government of India has violated the Geneva Labor Convention
with respect to the employment of Women in
Mines.

The question of the employment of women underground
in the coal mines was raised in the House of Commons by
the Labor Member, Mr. Sorensen.

Mr. Sorensen said it had been stated that employment 
of women in mines was necessary for the prosecution of
the war. There would have been an outcry against a similar
suggestion in this country. It would have been regarded
as a great retrogression to which Britain would not return
even under the duress of war. But in India the Geneva
Labor Convention dealing with the employment of women
had been suspended. It has to be proved whether this particular
method of meeting an admitted deficiency in the
supply of coal was the right one to adopt.

Before any women were recruited for mines everything
should have been done to see that men who were working
there were retained by making it worth thir while, and by
tapping the great reservoir of male labor, conditions generally
made more attractive, recruiting of women should
not have been resorted to. This very retrograde step had
been condemned by the Indian Trades Union Congress in
no uncertain terms. He compained that neither the British
nor the Indian TUC had been consulted and he was not
surprised that a lady in the Legislative Assembly had
moved an adjournment of the House as a protest.

We note that while labor conventions are being violated
in India, India's delegates to the I.L.O. are asserting that
India is heart and soul in the war. With all the prominent
leaders in jail, and the people still suffering from famine,
one wonders whether there may not be a little exaggeration
here. Do these gentlemen really speak for their country?

Suggested Readings

ASIA MAGAZINE - April - A Quota for India, Too, by
Anup Singh.
With My Daughter's Indian Family, Part VI, by
Hilda Wernher.

THE PROTESTANT - April - The Indian Food Scandal,
by Taraknath Das.

Book Review

REVOLUTION IN INDIA by Frances Gunther, Island
Press, N.Y. Pp. 120. Price: Paper $1.00 - Cloth $2.00.

Frances Gunther is witty, devastatingly sarcastic in spots,
but also profoundly serious and searching. She has gone
straight to the point: "It is true that all the great English
Liberals favor Indian freedom - as they have done for a
century. Unfortunately, these men do not make English
policy. They merely write fine English prose. There are
two kinds of Englishmen: those that write, and those that
rule. For generations, the English writers have been urging
freedom for India . . . . But the English rulers keep right
on ruling.

"Problem: to translate the prose of the English writers
into the policy of the English rulers."

She points out the absolute sincerity of the Englishman's
belief in his God-given mission to rule other peoples, and
the dangers of such a belief held in all sincerity. She cogently
observes: "according to the English fiction, there is
a double standard of democracy, that which applies in
England and other conveniently located countries, and that
which applies in India. When a Scotch marquis rules India
with power of absolute veto, that's democracy; but should
the major political party of India rule India, that, say the
English, would be dictatorship."

Mrs. Gunther belongs to the school of thought which
is convinced that in all but name the Empire is already
liquidated, and that in essence India's revolution is already
won. This brave optimism which to the present reviewer
seems somewhat inconsistent with the first passage quoted
above.

This book is filled with lines bound to be widely quoted,
as for instance, "All bookkeeping in England leads to India."

Chapters II and VI are particularly important, and the
Apendices contain a wealth of factual material.

Last Moments with Mrs. Gandhi

Devadas Gandhi, says Government never offered to release
Mrs. Gandhi

"Would her release from prison during the last serious
stages of her illness have helped? It would have helped, if
she had been also offered the option of returning to the
detention camp when she desired to do so. That would
have constituted a complete formula of 'kindness.' But
the fact remains that she never had the benefit even of the
psychological aspect of an offer of release, except the last
merciful one from the Maker.

"I was, therefore, shocked and amazed to find that the
Agent of the Government of India in America, Sir Girja
Shankar Bajpai, has made a statement to the effect that
the Government of India had wished on several occasions
to release her, but that she had refused to avail herself of
the offer. This is even contrary to the official announcements
made on the point in India and I have seen no explanation
so far for the different version put out in America."

How Gandhi Took It

"I ought to add a word as to how Gandhi has stood this
ordeal. He was looking obviously fagged. He grieves over
this tragic gap which has come into his life, for she in
large measure is responsible for what he is today. But,
he maintains a philosophic calm and keeps his emotions
under the control expected of him. The atmosphere around
him was one of sadness without gloom. His health, I believe,
is good.""Divide and Stay"

Dr. Latif on Meaning of Mr. Jinnah's Statement

"Will Muslims at least now realize whither the President
of the Muslim League is taking them?" asks Dr. Syed
Abdul Latif, commenting on Mr. Jinnah's interview to the
News Chronicle. "I knew from the beginning," continues
Dr. Latif, "that Mr. Jinnah was never seriously after Pakistan.
He now makes it clear he does not want his Pakistan
looking after its own Defence and Foreign Affairs. He
wants for it no better status than that of a native State
without a Prince, mere Protectorate at best, developing
slowly, through an indefinite period of transition, into an
Egypt, technically independent but dependent for its integrity
on the goodwill of England. It is true, he thundered
from the League's platform at Karachi that the Britisher
must 'divide and quit.' He now explains he really meant
him to 'divide and stay' comfortably, both in Pakistan and
Hindustan with all his armed forces, and look after their
foreign relations as well. For his part, he says he would be
content with 'a degree of autonomy which we do not possess.'
Such is Mr. Jinnah's patriotic vision of India's constitutional
future. Will any Britisher thank him for it?
Even the rankest British reactionary will feel sadly amazed
over such a mentality."

Dr. Lin Yutang Returns from India

Dr. Lin, the honorary President of the India League of
America, has just returned from a visit to China and India.

We learn that everywhere in India he was given a hearty
reception. He spoke to various groups, and met a number
of leading figures.

We are sure he had wanted to meet Gandhi, Nehru
and other national leaders but they are in different jails.

We welcome Dr. Lin back in our midst.

NOTES

Sunday, May 7th, at 7 P.M. Dr. Hossain will speak at
the Community Church on India and America.

On Sunday, April 9th the India Association for American
Citizenship, Inc. held a meeting for Indians only in
Caravan Hall. Mr. N. R. Checker, President of the association
presided. Speakers were Mr. A. Choudry, Secretary
of the association, Mr. Joseph Tenner its legal advisor,
Mr. Mubarak Ali, Mr. Nazir Barles and the principal
speaker was Dr. Syud Hossain, Washington Advisor of the
association. The meeting was well attended.

Washington Meeting

A "Citizenship for Indians" meeting will be held May
4th, 1944, in Washington, D.C. in the National Press Club
Auditorium.

The speakers will be: Senator William Langer (Author
of the Bill in the Senate); Representative Clare Boothe
Luce, Representative Emanuel Celler, (Authors of the Bills
in the House); Mr. Louis Fischer, (Author of "A Week
With Gandhi"); Mr. Edgar Snow, (Author and War Correspondent).

Sirdar J. J. Singh, president of the India League of
American will preside.

On Thursday, April 13th, The India League held a
Citizenship Meeting at Town Hall. Sirdar J. J. Singh presided.
Speakers were: Congressman Celler, Fannie Hurst,
Dr. Frank Kingdon, Roger Baldwin.

A Resolution was passed urging passage of pending Bills.

As We See It

We are gratified to note that Bills have been introduced 
both in the Senate and the House with a view to secure
for the Nationals of India the right to American Citizenship,
and to put India on a minimum annual quota basis.

We hope these bills will meet in the Congress the hearty
support they deserve. The facts of the case are very
simple. There are less than three thousand Nationals of
India now residing in the United States, a microscopic
minority. Over two thousand of these are in California
earning their livlihood as operators of small farms or as
farm hands. Besides these, are a handful of business and
professional men and students scattered all over the country.

The contribution of these few settlers in California has
been far out of proportion to their numbers. The business
men, writers, speakers, and scientists from India have won
for themselves recognition in their respective fields.

'Till 1923, the Nationals of India were eligible to American
Citizenship and many availed themselves of this privilege.
Then, by a decision of the Supreme Court in the
case of Thind, they were deprived of this right. Late
Justice Sutherland based his opinion on the assumption
that these people from India were not "free white persons"
in the eyes of the man in the street, hence unassimilable,
hence uneligible for American citizenship.

Ironically enough, this very man, Thind, now a citizen
on the basis of his service in the U.S. Army during World
War I, has since married an American girl and has a son
by her, yet his case, decided not on any rational or scientific
grounds but on grounds of popular prejudice, deprived
so many of his countrymen of the rights and privileges they
once enjoyed. Many were forced to surrender their naturalization
papers. They became stateless persons without
the protection of any government. Since 1923, the Nationals
of India have suffered untold hardships in California,
because, as aliens, they cannot lease lands in their names,
and professionals have been rejected for many posts as
non-citizens.

In granting these Indians American Citizenship, America
will be merely restoring a right they had once enjoyed.
Now that the Chinese who never had this right have been
made eligible to American Citizenship, there is no valid
reason why Indians should be discriminated against. America,
the land of Freedom and Equality cannot discriminate
against any people for race, creed or color without jeopardizing
her own ideals. As a matter of expediency, the same
arguments that prevailed in the case of China are equally
pertinent in the case of India. India, like China, is America's
ally in this war and her soldiers are fighting and dying
in every theatre of war. As in China, so in India the Japanese
are exploiting for their own purposes discrimination
against the people of India in America.

There have always been some Americans in India, and
they have always enjoyed equal rights and privileges. The
contacts between India and America are growing daily
and are bound to grow much faster after the war. If the
future association between the two peoples is to be healthy,
it must be on a basis of equality, fairplay and mutual respect.

The passage of these Bills pending in Congress will go
a long way in promoting good will in India towards America.
The quota is a matter of gesture, as the one hundred
or so persons who will come annually to these shores is a
number too utterly insignificant to create any problem.

Prepared by Research Bureau, India League, Anup Singh, PH-D, Director & Editor. Advisory Editorial Committee: Mme. H. W. Boulter,
Sydney Hertzberg, H. K. Rakhit.THE METHODIST CHURCH
BOMBAY AREA.

J. Waskom Pickett, Bishop,
Robison Memorial
Byculla, Bombay,
India.

Royal D. Bisbee,
Missionary & Area Sec.
3A, East Street,
Poona, India.

NEWS LETTER
January 1940.

Bishop Pickett opening a New Village Chapel.

This News Letter Contains:—
1. Bishop Pickett's New Year Greetings Page 2
2. The Villages Beyond—Must the Gospel Suffer? Page 5
3. Looking Through Sammy's Telescope Page 11
4. No Home but a Cattle Shed! Page 10
5. Brother, What about a roof? Page 72


THE BOMBAY AREA

New Year Greetings from Bishop Pickett.
1st January, 1940.

DEAR FRIENDS, 
Happy New Year Greetings from India!  
I am writing this letter between sessions of the National 
Christian Council of India, Burma and Ceylon, which has been in 
session since the 28th evening.  We are immensely encouraged by 
reports of Christian advance against opposition in every part of India.  
Three hours ago I preached in our Hindu Church in Nagpur.  The 
congregation filled the building.  It was immediately followed by another
(Continued next page)


3
service in Marathi for another capacity audience.  And last 
evening I preached to 250 people in English. 

With this first copy of the "Bombay Area News" I wish to send 
to all our friends in America my most cordial and loving greetings.

On my return from America, in November, I found many 
strategic situations concerning which I wish to write.  Owing to the 
War, until December 15th printed matter could not be sent out of India 
except by special permit and so our mail has been considerably delayed.  
So I am afraid that you have not heard from us as frequently as 
we would desire.

This illustrates one of the stories found in the Hindu scriptures of god Ravan 
with his ten heads and twenty hands fighting against god Rama and his brother who 
are being assisted by the monkey god Hanuman with his army of monkeys.
"No longer are they satisfied with mythology and the worship of wood and 
stone" BISHOP PICKETT.

This is one of the most fruitful and yet one of the most critical 
periods in the history of Christian Missions in India.  Thousands 
are turning to Christ.  Letters welcoming me back to Bombay from 
(Continued next page)4

America where I went to attend the Uniting Conference, tell of many
hundreds baptized on confession of faith while I was away. One
Indian District Superintendent reports two new Churches ready for
dedication and another nearing completion, two more villages communities
proposing to build, two hundred people received into full
membership, nearly four hundred baptized and over a thousand asking
for instruction preparatory to baptism. Another estimates that five
thousand want to be received into the Church in his District, but for
lack of money he has had to ask two of his small staff of preachers to
seek work elsewhere.

Two of the younger Indian leaders in this Area were delegates
to the World Christian Youth Conference at Amsterdam. One of
these is pastor of a Church of over a thousand members in the phenomenally
growing city of Ahmedabad. This congregation has no place
of worship except a small rented building which will seat at most 100
people at a time. Most of these members are desperately poor, but
they are giving heroically to a fund to build a Church. They support
their pastor loyally and meet all the expenses of the Church. The
other delegate is a layman but has come back to his work eager to
enter the ministry. He is principal of our Co-educational School at
Puntamba and has gone for months at a time without pay because
there was not enough money to feed the children, meet other necessary
expenses and pay his salary. The Government of Bombay Province
has recognized his extraordinary abilities and has asked him to be a
member, without pay, of the Rural Development Board which is trying
to solve many of the problems in rural life in the Province and also to
be Chairman of the Committee that controls all Government day
schools in his district.

With the coming of the Reforms in Government and the taking
over of greater responsibility by the Indian people, a great wave of
nationalistic feeling has swept over India bringing new interest to
educational and political realms, and this interest is extending to the
field of religion. More Hindu students are attending college today
than ever before. No longer are they satisfied with mythology and
the worship of gods and goddesses of wood and stone. They are in
search of religious certainty.

Sir William Barton has recently said "Let us come to the
conclusion of the whole matter. India is at the parting of the ways.
Will she choose the road to an orderly development or chaos?" This
hour in the Christian Church has not come upon us suddenly. Throughout
the years missionaries, backed by their Churches at home with

(Continued Page 8)


5
Dr. Bisbee with some of our Indian leaders.

THE VILLAGES BEYOND.
MUST THE GOSPEL SUFFER?

OUR DEAR FRIENDS,

Happy New Year Greetings from the Bisbees!

We are sending to you this News Letter with our Greetings
and best wishes for the New Year. Because of War conditions, it has
been impossible for us to send our usual Christmas letters. But now
that Government has modified the postal rules, it is possible to send
printed matter to neutral countries. 

As we enter this New Year, it is with renewed determination
to do our best for Christ. The urgency of the situation compels us to
write to our friends not to allow War troubles to curtail their gifts
for Christ and the building of His Kingdom here in India. Your
help is most urgently needed these days for the support of our consecrated
Indian Evangelists who tell the Story to men and women
who are living in the darkness of heathenism. We should not let the
Gospel suffer because of world conditions. Our faithful Evangelists
and preachers are doing their best to build the Kingdom and we all
will wish to stand by them.

The year 1939 has been a year of victory for our work, and we
are very grateful to our Heavenly Father and to our friends who6

have backed us up with their prayers and gifts. Hundreds of villages
have been reached with the Gospel, and there have been many baptisms.
This has all been accomplished in face of great difficulties. There
has been lack of rain, and there are famine conditions in many places,
and the price of food as increased considerably on account of the
War. And then, strange to say, there have been floods in certain
sections destroying the few crops which remained. So our poor
Christians are faced with a very difficult situation. Yet in spite of 
all these things they have given what they could for Christ and the
support of their Bible Teachers and Evangelists. We must stand by
them and our Indian Preachers and Evangelists and make it possible
for them to carry on in the Lord's service. We must go up and possess
the land for Christ and make the year 1940 a decisive year in Kingdom
Building.

We should be sending out more Gospel Teams during these
strategic days to tell the Story of Jesus and His love.

Never before have the doors been so wide open to the Gospel
as they are to-day. With the coming of the Reforms in Government
and with wider opportunities in the educational field for the youth,
the doors have opened wide to the Gospel. No longer do the people
have confidence in gods of wood and stone. They are in search of
religious certainty. We all know that this certainty is only to be
found in the Lord Jesus Christ. "He is the Way, the Truth and the
Life". "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting
life". Praise the Lord! This is the Gospel which we are to bring to
the people of India.

You will be interested to learn that during 1939, eight village
Chapels have been erected. The people themselves have given the
land and built the walls. The roofs have been given by our consecrated
friends. Praise the Lord! There are still eighteen villages
where Chapels and workers' homes are most urgently needed. We
look forward to 1940 with faith and with great anticipation.

Then there are the UN-OCCUPIED VILLAGES to be reached.
The boys and girls who should be lead to Jesus. And there are
the VILLAGES BEYOND! How much longer will they have to
wait for the Good News of great Joy to reach their villages?

Will you not support us in prayer and by your gifts that the
 year 1940 may be a year of real victory for Christ on our Mission
Field here in India? May God bless each one of you and give you a
Happy and Joyful Year in His service. 

Yours in His glad service,

REV. & MRS. R. D. BISBEE.

7

BROTHER, WHAT ABOUT A ROOF?

This is a photograph of one of our village Chapels which has
been made possible by one of our consecrated friends in America. The
village people gave the ground and the labour, and now they have
their "House of God." This is only a simple building and yet it is
the first they have ever had and they love it.

Bishop Pickett while visiting another village near by, was asked
by one of our Christians, "Brother, what about a Roof?" Our new
converts need chapels in which to worship. With the coming of the
rains there is water everywhere and no dry place in which to gather
and worship God. Our people are very poor. In some places iron
roofs are imperative as white ants would soon destroy wooden roofs.
They are so poor, they cannot provide roofs for these Chapels. It
only costs from $100.00 to $150.00 according to the size of the
building, to make a roof possible. $5.00 more would put a memorial
tablet in the wall of the Chapel in memory of some loved one.

These Chapels will not only encourage the new Christians and
give them a place for worship, but will ensure permanency to our
efforts.

There are eighteen villages in which "Houses of God" are
most urgently needed  There is no place for the people to worship
except in the fields or in the narrow dirty lanes of the village.

BROTHER, WHAT ABOUT A ROOF?8

(Continued from page 4)

prayer and money, have been doing their best for Christ in India. It is
no wonder that the hour has come. It would be strange if something
did not happen. Now that we have come to this strategic hour we
need the backing of the Christian Church as we never needed it before.
We certainly need the prayers of all Christian people. And we need

Image Caption: Some of our Indian Evangelists and their wives.

May God richly bless them during 1940 that it may be a year of real VICTORY
for Christ and His Kingdom.

money for the erection of Churches, Preaching Halls and Schools,
so as to assure the permanency of our efforts and make available for
the Converts places in which to worship and be educated. We need
money for the support of preachers and evangelists to help turn the
tide for Christ. The harvest is ripe. Those who share in the bringing
of India to Christ will rejoice throughout all Eternity for this
wonderful opportunity of helping in the building of the Kingdom.

You will want to know how India is responding to the war in
Europe. First, let me say that sympathy with the Allies and disapproval
of the Nazis is felt by all classes and parties. India has become
strongly attached to the ideal of democracy. Certain of the
politicians are trying to seize this opportunity to wrest from the British
Government a declaration to which the minority communities are 

(Continued next page)

9

strongly opposed. Japan's crimes in China have produced a new
appreciation of the value of association with Great Britain.

We greatly appreciate all that you have done to help us in the
spreading of the Gospel here in India. Elsewhere in this letter you
will find exactly what wonderful opportunities there are for stewards
of Christ to invest in Kingdom building in the Bombay Area. Investments
made to-day in India will bring forth a dividend of a hundred
fold for Christ. Invest time in prayer and in informing others of
these great opportunities. Let us work together zealously to establish
Christ's Kingdom in this wonderful land.

May God bless you and give you all a very Happy Year in
His service.

Yours sincerely,

(Signed) J. WASKOM PICKETT.

This is a photograph of one of our Indian Evangelists who is working among
the Bhils, the aborigines of India. The cycle more than doubles his usefulness. This
makes it possible for him to visit distant villages frequently - which were before seldom
if ever reached. A cycle costs about $25.00. A number of our consecrated preachers
and evangelists need cycles for their work and this would be an investment which
would bring forth a large dividend for Christ.10

NO HOME BUT A CATTLE SHED

This is a photograph of Evangelist Edwards, one of our most
faithful Evangelists in the Telegu speaking part of our work, standing
in front of his "home."

Can you imagine what it means to have a little family in a
jungle village filled with wild dogs and animals and no home for them?
Just the corner of a leaking shed with cattle or a building such as is
pictured above with a grass roof which may catch fire at any time. No
windows, no doors.

When I think of these brave uncomplaining men I grieve
especially that half their value is wasted unless they can have a little
house with a good verandah, where their people can gather every night
sit on the floor, and learn "the old, old story of Jesus and His love".

A number of homes for evangelists have been completed, but
we must care for those who are living in these cattle sheds. Every
house more than doubles the value of an Evangelist. $150.00 will
build a model village Christian home.

Every night it will be crowded with men, women and children
learning "the Golden Book." $5.00 will pay for a memorial tablet in
the wall in memory of some loved one. Whatever you can send for
the help of these brave men will bring forth a large dividend for Eternity
and will help to establish Christianity in India.

11 

LOOKING THROUGH SAMMY'S TELESCOPE.

Most arresting was the peculiar story told by Ballie James
Gray, a leader of Methodism in Scotland at a missionary meeting.
Sammy Hicks, one of the quaint characters of early Methodism, was
at a missionary meeting to deliver an address. One of the preceding
speakers failed to see much good in missions, and questioned whether 
the money was well spent.

Sammy, when he arose to speak, took a sheet of paper. The
people wondered what he planned to do. Soon he rolled it up until it
formed a telescope. This he placed to his eye, and then he began to
picture the result of missionary work as it would appear in the last
great day. Said he, in dramatic fashion:

"I see the hosts of Africa led by Livingstone and Moffatt, and
as they come they sing: 'Blessing and honor and glory and power unto
the Lamb.' I see the hosts of India led by William Carey, and they
join in the great song, and crown Christ Lord of all. I see the hosts
of the South Sea Islands led by their martryed John Williams; and
they, savages and cannibals, who had been among the most degraded
and debased sing: 'Unto Him who loved us - us! - and washed us from
our sins in His own blood, and made us to be kings and priests of
our God, unto Him be glory and honor and power and might."

During that time the man who had lacked enthusiasm in
missions, and who questioned the real value of Christian work in
foreign lands, became uncomfortable. Finally, unable to stand it
longer, he jumped to his feet and exclaimed, "I say, Sammy, give me
a look through that telescope of yours!"

When the laughter and applause subsided the good Scot who
related the story said, "Some people today need a look through Sammy's
telescope."12

OPPORTUNITIES FOR CHRISTIAN STEWARDS TO
INVEST IN THE BOMBAY AREA.

I The Area Motor Fund. Three cars are needed now by
missionaries. Customs duty and freight charges make cars
considerably more expensive in India than in America, but
they add so much to the missionary's efficiency that they are
an excellent investment. Amount needed $2,100. Contribution
of any amount toward this total will be welcomed.

II Support for Indian evangelists and primary school teachers
from $75.00 to $200.00 according to circumstances. Thousands
of people are now waiting until we can employ
evangelists and teachers to train them for baptism and help
them out of illiteracy. They contribute from the beginning
and will eventually support their pastors in full.

III Aid for the building of village Churches, from $100.00 to
$200.00 each. It is our policy to help those villages communities
that require help after they have done what they
can. Our help is available for the roof after the walls have
been erected. A tablet in memory of a relative or a loved
one or in commemoration of a Church or class is put into the
building when desired by the donors. At least twenty
villages are now asking for this help.

IV Scholarships of $25.00 each for Christian boys in our Boarding
Schools. Boys from these schools are the hope of the
Church in India. In one Annual Conference of the Area
every Indian minister is a former student in one of our high
schools.

V Gifts for the Ahmedabad Church. Ahmedabad is a city of
more than 600,000 people. We need to erect a Church
worthy of a great city. $10,000.00 from America would
assure a Church that could not be built in America for less
than $50,000.00. Collections in India exceed $1,000.00 and
will eventually reach several times that figure.

VI Gifts for the Area not otherwise designated to be used to
take advantage of special opportunities.

THANK-OFFERING.
"Preaching unto them Jesus."

To
DR. MORRIS W. EHNES, TREASURER,
BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS,
150, FIFTH AVENUE,
NEW YORK CITY.

DEAR DR. EHNES,

I am enclosing herewith check for
Dollars to be used in the work of REV. R. D. BISBEE,
Poona, India.

This is my special Thank-offering in acknowledgement
of my love for Christ and my interest in
the extension of His Kingdom. I shall be glad if
you would have this offering forwarded to Dr. Bisbee
as soon as convenient.

My Pastor's name is
Church
District
Conference
Respectfully yours,

(Address)

Dr. Bisbee will write telling you exactly how you
thank-offering is to be used on its receipt in India.How
Shall they hear
without a Preacher?
Romans, 10th Chapter, 11th Verse.

Commercial Printing Works, East Street, Poona.

ADVENTURES WITH
CHRIST IN INDIA
THE HOLY SPIRITUnity Dec. 10 1934
Statement by Ghandi
The following appeal to the members of the Indian Congress was made by Mr. Ghandi in a speech at the All-Indian Congress Committee meeting on July 18th last. It reveals so clearly his personal position that we print the significant parts. Word has come that Mr. Ghandi has withdrawn from the Congress, apparently in order to retain his own freedom of action and to permit the Congress to follow unhampered a course with which Mr. Ghandi is evidently not in entire agreement- Ed.
"Whilst congratulating the movers of the several amendments I may say that their speeches have only strengthened me in the opinion expressed in my statement." Lharz160    UNITY   Monday, December 10, 1934

found nothing in them to induce me
to alter my decision. Indeed, I have
been surprised to see that none of
the speakers has taken me to task for
advising suspension of civil resistance
for everyone except myself.
On the contrary all the amendments
are unanimous in demanding the
suspension of civil resistance. This
fact surprises me but does not pain
me. It only shows that my decision
has come not a moment too soon.
In asking me, however, to go a step
further and give up the ideal of
offering civil resistance myself, you
want to deprive me of my individual
liberty of action. It is undoubtedly
open to you to repudiate my claim
to represent the Congress in my civil
resistance. I can understand and
even appreciate such a repudiation
on behalf of the Congress. Individual
civil resistance as laid down by 
the Poona Conference was to be
offered in the name of the Congress.
And the proposition before
you is but a modification of the
Poona decision. Civil resistance
was then restricted to an indefinite
number. Now it is restricted to one
single individual.

"The very fact of my approaching
you for approval is evidence of my
desire to act in the name of, and
with authority of, the Congress.
But in case you do not see your way
to give me that authority, you may
still not deprive me of the liberty of
individual action. For, that would 
mean wiping me out of existence itself.
I would not hesitate even to
wipe myself out if I were convinced 
that the stop would lead to an advance 
in the progress of India
toward her goal. My conviction on
the contrary is that India will not
win Swaraj by depriving a single individual
of his freedom of action. A
speaker has said that I claim to bring
Swaraj by my single action. When
he says, 'Swaraj won by one man is
of no good to the nation,' he only
quotes from my own words.

"I have said from a thousand platforms
to the school of violence that
even if they succeeded in achieving
Swaraj by taking the lives of some
English and Indian officials, it would
be Swaraj for themselves but not
for the masses of India. And one
would not know whose lives they
would take next. Civil resistance is
a complete substitute for violence.
Through it every one has to achieve
his own Swaraj. I have never tried
to force my decisions on you. I have
no power but that of gentle persuasion.
I only urge you not to coerce 
me to act against my cherished conviction.

As your representative I
have no desire to go beyond the four
corners of the Congress constitution.
If I have failed to carry conviction
with you, you will refuse to me that
authority. But I only plead for the
liberty of individual action. The decision
is not an outcome of despair. 
I am an optimist and never give way
to despair.

"My decision is born of an unshakable
faith in non-violent resistance.
It is surely for the general to
decide the time for and the manner
of action. The general has to be convinced 
of the soldiers' capacity to
act at a given moment. The conditions
of service are to be laid down
by the general and not by the soldiers.
And here you have a general,
who has no physical force at his
command, he can only appeal to his
soldiers' reason and heart. My sole
civil resistance is no reflection on
any one of you. All those years I
was not unaware of the limitations 
under which I was working. But
the time came when it became necessary
to cry a halt if the weapon was
not to suffer discredit. It is open to
you to accept or reject the advice of
your general. In a non-violent struggle
it is not the general who can dismiss
his soldiers. The latter can dismiss
him if his terms do not appeal
to them.

"This is no threat in my case. I
will continue to be a member of the
Congress, but will not claim to be its
representative. What would be the
matter if a year or two more elapse
before your faith in him will be restored. 
The general in the non-violent
struggle has no powers of punishment . . . .
To ask such a general
to alter his course of action is to
force him to act against his judgment.
You are at perfect liberty to
dismiss the general if his commands
are obnoxious to you. I do not say
it out of anger. If I were to be angry
with you for rejecting my advice
I should be unfit for the offer of
civil disobedience. I claim to be
amenable to reason. Even children
have to shed all fear of me and have
been able to make me bend to their
will . . . . Why should you be afraid
to order such a man to vacate a place
if that is your desire? I tell you, it
will not pain me. On the contrary I
will thank you for your frankness.
But if you decide to retain your general
you should cease to demur and
should follow his discipline. . . .
When I see that our laxity has gone
so far as to injure the cause I shall
be guilty of breach of the trust, if I
did not cry halt, and warn the members

that far severer discipline and
keener appreciation of the necessity
of non-violence in thought, word
and deed had to be expected before
the people could be called upon to
re-engage in the struggle . . . .

" I want you to remain outside jail
not to live a life of comfort and luxury.
I want you to remain outside to
embrace the voluntary poverty in
any future struggle. There is no
want of work outside the prison.
You can offer your lives in the cause
of Hindu-Moslem unity. Will you
neglect khadi and hope to win freedom
for villages when there is untouchability?
For you who will be
outside there will be no peace, no
rest. I have put before you not a
single item that has not been included
in the Congress program
ever since 1920. You may work out
that program to the full and you
will be entitled then and then alone
to ask me to refrain from going to
jail. 

"If you choose to follow my lead,
you have to accept my conditions. If
not, you will leave me free to follow
the course I consider best, no matter
if I am alone. The Bardoli decision
of 1922 which the late Hakim Saheb
and Dr. Ansari could accept with
the utmost difficulty was the step
which saved the country from an ignominous 
defeat and destruction. It
brought sufficiently home to the
masses that there was no room for
violence in a peaceful struggle.
Those who have taken part in the recent
struggle have been free from
violence in deed. God alone knows
how far we were non-violent in
thought.

"If the country learns the art of
going to prison and the art of practicing
non-violence as Pathans have
done, we should be within easy reach
of Swaraj. I am unrepentant about
the Bardoli decision of 1922 and consider
it to be the act of wise statesmanship.
Even so do I consider the
present advice. My heart is supposed
to be extremely soft and I
know that it is as hard as steel."

Bulletin - American League for
India's Freedom, 20 Vesey Street,
New York City.Monday, July 1, 1935     UNITY    177

strength of character than the men, and that they
were "the soul of the revolution." She cites a surprising
number of cases where they actually
fought.) Thrilling accounts are given of the heroism
of many individual women - a few out of thousands.
They make the reader's heart glow within
him.

The international women's day, in February, 
1917, brought in the revolution that swept away
Tsarism. The government of St. Petersburg tried
to prevent the celebration of the festival. An eye
witness writes:

The working women, driving to desperation by starvation
and war, came along like a hurricane that destroys everything
in its path with the violence of an elemental force. This revolutionary
march of working women was the spark that set
light to the great flame of the February revolution, that revolution
which was to shatter Tsarism.

In what followed, the women took a leading
part. Later on, after the civil war, when the Bolsheviki
had come into power, Lenin praised the
courage of those women who had fought on his
side. He added:

And the "Constitutional Democrat" ladies in Petrograd
showed much more bravery in withstanding us than did the
young lords.

Under Tsarism, a wife had been a mere appendage
to her husband. She could not even take 
out a separate passport without his consent. The
Soviet government immediately proclaimed full
equal rights for women. It exerted itself to impress
upon both men and women that women were
to be treated as comrades and equals. Civil marriage
was instituted, though anyone who wished
could have an ecclesiastical ceremony afterwards.
Legitimate and illegitimate children were given the
same rights. Divorce could be had at the will of
either party.

The sex question became the subject of widespread
discussion, and all kinds of wild and queer
ideas were set forth. Many young people held that
there should be merely transient unions, about on
a level with drinking a glass of water. Lenin expressed
himself strongly on the other side. He
said, in part:

Of course, thirst cries out to be quenched. But will a
normal person under normal conditions lie down in the dirt
on the road and drink from a puddle? Or even from a glass
with a rim greasy from many lips? But most important of all
is the social aspect. Drinking water really is an individual
concern. Love involves two, and a third, a new life, may come
into being. That implies an interest on the part of society,
a duty to the community. As a communist, I have not the
slightest sympathy with the glass of water theory, even when
it is beautifully labeled "love made free." I do not meant to
preach asceticism. Communism is not meant to introduce
asceticism, but the joy of life and vital vigor, attained partly
through the fulfillment of love. But the hypertrophy in sexual
matters which we often observe does not produce the joy of
life and vital vigor, it detracts from them. Unbridled sexual
life is bourgeois, a phenomenon of decadence . . . . Healthy
bodies, healthy minds. Neither monks nor Don Juans, nor yet
that half-and-half produce, the German Philistine.

Under the Soviet regime, the use of contraceptives
is encouraged, and abortion is authorized,
though not encouraged. Yet it is claimed that Russia
has fewer abortions in proportion to its population
than any other country, and some comparative
statistics are given. And the population is increasing
faster than in any other country of Europe.

There are innumerable provisions for the benefit
and protection of mothers and children. Lenin
said, "We have the most progressive protective

legislation for working women in the world." A
woman is entitled to eight weeks' vacation, with
pay, before and after her confinement; and there
are countless maternity homes, kindergartens,
schools of child care, creches, etc. Every insured
woman and the wife of every insured workman
receives a baby's outfit from the state, and an allowance
to enable her to suckle her child. Under
Tsarism, there was little care for mother or child.
The infant death rate went up every harvest time,
because mothers left their babies while they worked
in the fields. Now thousands of summer creches
take care of them. The details of the provisions
for the protection of women and children fill many
pages.

Prostitution in Russia has been practically
wiped out; and one of the most amazing chapters
of this remarkable book tells how it has been done.
Under Tsarism, prostitution was a prominent feature;
it was legalized, and regarded as necessary.
No other country has succeeded in getting rid of
it, though efforts have been made in many. Yet,
in reckoning up the good and bad things in the
Soviet Union, this wonderful achievement is seldom
mentioned.

Every effort has been made to set women free
from the drudgery of domestic service - a form of
labor inherently uneconomic - so as to enable them
to engage in productive work. Countless arrangements
have been made for supplying cooked food.
Someone says, "The separation of the kitchen and
marriage is an event of even greater historical importance
than the separation of church and state."
Charlotte Perkins Gilman developed this idea many
years ago in her striking tale, "What Diantha Did,"
now unfortunately out of print.

This book covers a vast field, and is so profusely
documented that sometimes we can hardly 
see the forest for the trees. It is impossible to review
it adequately in a limited space. But everybody
who wishes to understand Russia should own
a copy and study it.

ALICE STONE BLACKWELL.The Study Table

What the Soviets Have Done for Women

Here is a book* that is a real treasury of information.
It might have been called "Woman in
Russia," instead of "Woman in Soviet Russia."
The author goes back to ancient times, and shows
that in pre-Christian Russia women enjoyed great
respect and power. Old ballads describe the warlike
feats of heroines, and in many folk songs and
surviving customs there are traces of the matriarchate,
which lasted longer among the Slavs than
with other European peoples. Women controlled
their own property and chose their own husbands;
and great women rulers, like Princess Olga, are
still held in loving remembrance.

The conversion of Russia's rulers to the Orthodox
Greek Church brought in from Byzantium a
spirit full of oriental prejudice against women, representing
them as utterly inferior, impure, perfidious,
and the source of all evil. Aristocratic Russians
hid their wives and daughters from the world
in the "terem," a sort of zenana, and the nobler the
family, the more severe the seclusion. As a bride, 
a woman received an iron wedding ring, while the
bridegroom's was golden; and the bride's father
presented her husband on the wedding day with a
new whip. It is grievous to think of the subjection,
misery and ignorance to which Russian

*Woman in Soviet Russia, by Fannina W. Halle. The Viking
Press, New York. $.450.

Unity July 1. 1935

women of the higher ranks were relegated for centuries.
The peasant women and girls suffered
ruthless wrongs at the hands of their feudal lords.

Gradually times changed. Russia, which had
long been facing towards the east, began to face
towards the west. Modern ideas crept in. A vast
sectarian movement swept over the country, shaking
Russia to its depths, and enlisting women as
well as men. Catherine II, though her private life
was as scandalous as those of the male monarchs
of her time, founded some schools for girls. A few
factories were built, a labor movement grew, and
women were leaders of strikes, and often struck on
their own account. A feminist movement also
grew, with right and left wings. The French Revolution
did not affect Russia deeply, till it became
widely known there through George Sand's writings.
The struggle against the autocracy was impending.
Thousands of sons and daughters of the
nobility refused to continue as parasites, and went
among the peasants, to live like them and help
them. Their efforts were treated as criminal by
the government, and those who had begun as liberals
became revolutionists, and finally terrorists.
They were imprisoned, exiled to Siberia, subjected
to all sorts of cruelty. A few of the men weakened,
and became informers for the government;
but no woman ever did. (Fannina Halle believes
that the Russian women have more depth andJULY 28, 1937

tion by what we call dying to the
world. And finally, there is salvation,
which the wise old East has long called
enlightenment: ". . . this is life eternal,
that they might know Thee, the
only true God."

What India Can
Teach the World

(Continued from page 941)

need not struggle for his right place
in the world; that is guaranteed him by
the immortal right and dignity of his
own soul. People who believe the
Upanishads really understand the eternally
corrosive nature of sin: that it is
much more fatal than the transgression
of a commandment - it is the
defeat of one's soul by one's self. In
trying to understand the concept of
dharma, I came to see the meaning of
the parable of Jesus about the seed
which must fall into the ground and die
or else abide alone. We commonly
interpret this in terms of self-sacrifice,
but that is not what Jesus meant. His
idea was that it is the seed's dharma
(the fulfilment of its true nature) to
bear its fruit in this way; and that it is
man's dharma to reach spiritual frui-

ZIONS HERALD

JULY 28, 1937                 PAGE 941

What India Can Teach the World

LESSONS FROM THE ANCIENT EAST

ROBERT C. RANKIN

In adopting for a very short paper such a comprehensive
theme as "What India Can Teach the World," the writer
must assume the obligation to make plain the manner
in which he proposes to limit his material; for nobody
will expect him to do more than hold up for admiration
a few jewels from the rich treasure-house of Indian
culture. That is just what I propose to do, in the hope
that I may be excused for making a rather personal selection
of topics, and for trying to give a glimpse of what
India can teach the world by mentioning some of the
things she did teach me in all-too-brief residence of six
years. They are no longer fresh impressions, but impressions
which have lasted for ten years may well be called
permanent.

I do not think that I lived in India with my eyes
closed. I saw much that was culpable, and much more
that was deplorable; but I was happier than some visitors
to India (nameless here) in not having those things
remain with me as my final and total impression. What
did remain was a profound admiration and sincere love
for the people of the country, feelings which took root when
I had been only a few hours on shore and grew deeper
within me as the months passed into years.

I was impressed first by the friendliness of the people,
which shows itself in a shy and winsome smile rather
than with the expansive gesture of the glad hand.
I encountered it that first evening in Poona, when I
halted uncertainly in front of a temple where they were
celebrating the Dasehra festival, and a priest who could
no more speak my language than I his came to the door,
bade me enter, found a seat of honor for me, and then -
stopped the celebration and went back to the beginning
so that I should miss nothing! The same friendliness
showed itself in the honest peasant who rode beside
me in the train from Delhi to Bareilly, and who after
some pleasant talk asked if I would get down from the
carriage at the next station, so that he might bring his
wife (who was riding in the zanana compartment) and
let her have the thrill of being the only woman of their
village who had ever exchanged courtesies with a Westerner.
Friendliness was everywhere; at the College in
Lucknow, in the bazars, among coolies far back in the
mountains, at the homes of learned scholars and courtly
nobles, in the ministrations of a domestic servant, whose
attachment was much more personal than economic in
its motives. I came to feel after a time that "friendliness"
was too small a word for what I was experiencing, and
that it was only a single facet of that fine jewel which is
called love. India helped me to understand the meaning
of that love which is so finely praised by St. Paul, the love
which suffereth long and is kind, which is not vain or
self-seeking, and which has no ulterior motive, but is the
spontaneous overflowing of an inward spiritual grace.
Rabindranath Tagore has also put it very beautifully:
"Love is an end unto itself. Everything else raises the
question, Why? in our mind, and we require a reason for
it. But when we say, I love, then there is no room for
the Why?; it is the final answer in itself."

Mention of another lesson which I learned will be pardoned
in one who is a student and teacher of history - 

not history as an objective and factual subject, but as an
attempt to understand past human experience. India
taught me at least two great things under this head. One
was that most of the experience which we of the West
review in our studies, and which gives us that feeling of
uniqueness about our Western experience, is really the
exploration of too narrow a field and the resultant failure
to see that the East had experienced most of these same
things before us. It gave me the same sort of salutary
shock which comes to the sulky adolescent when he first
realizes that the unsympathetic "older generation" has
been through it all, and has got far enough beyond it
to look back and see it all in due perspective. It has been
said, with a sort of superficial truth, that India knows no
history: but India's fine philosophy was not achieved by
men who had failed to ponder the meaning of their
people's experience in a long past.

My other great lesson in history had to do with the
relations between the East and the West. It is only for
the last two centuries or so that we on this side of the
world have felt any sense of superiority, and have used
such terms as "backward races" and "the effete civilizations
of the ancient East." Life in India made it plain to
me that the only importance difference in our experience is
that we are pretty well along with the great economic
revolution, while India is just beginning to experience it,
and that is the machine and the factory with their products
and by-products (economic, intellectual, social, and
moral) which have set a deep gulf between us and the
rest of the world. Formerly we admired the older peoples 
for achieving what we were attempting; now, too often,
we condemn them for not having been attracted by our
innovations. In this we have done unwisely, as we are
finally beginning to learn.

Lastly, I must give thanks to India for what she taught
me about the inner meaning of my own Christian faith.
To a certain harmful extent the highly developed ecclesiasticism
and institutionalism of the church in the West,
making religion largely a matter of doctrine and discipline,
have overlaid and obscured the oriental and broadly
human teachings of the Lord Jesus. I was already one of
those who were trying to turn the church "back to Jesus,"
as we said; but the great difficulty for me (if not for
others) was to understand what Jesus had really meant.
Getting as close as circumstances permitted to Indian life,
seeing all about me a culture remarkably similar in many
points to that amid which the Master appeared, I found
certain veils drawn aside and saw many obscure passages
suddenly radiant with light. For it was really illuminating
to live among a people who for centuries had genuinely
believed that our soul can realize itself truly only by denying
itself, as the Upanishad says: "Thou shalt gain by giving
away." Here was a race whose ancient wisdom had
taught it that a glorified ego makes everything else seem
unreal, and that the quest for reality must begin by freeing
one's self from the bonds of personal desire - "He that
seeketh his life shall lose it, but he that despiseth it hath
found life eternal." "Blessed are the meek, for they shall
inherit the earth" - he who has purged himself of pride

(Continued on page 952)October 3, 1936    Foreign Comment    THE LITERARY DIGEST 17

to carry out their reforms within the limits
of the capitalist system, which Per Albin
boasts he helped to save. For the placid
Swede, socialism is not a hurdle to be taken
at one jump. "It is a staircase," he says,
"which must be mounted step by step."

In spite of the Socialist victory, Per
Albin will keep Sweden on the Middle
Way.

INDIA'S SAINT: Gandhi Denies
Friction With Nehru, Reasserts
Independence Goal

Still weak and trembling from an early
September attack of malaria, but still stout-
hearted, Mahatma Gandhi, India's saint,
is again squatting by his spinning-wheel.

Physicians warned him of danger of a
relapse; friends urged him to remain in the
Wardha hospital. Clenching his lean and
almost toothless jaws, the sixty-seven-year-
old gnome quavered:

"Take me home!"

"Home" is a mud-walled, tile-roofed,
four-room-and-goat-shed hut among a hundred
like it composing tiny Deogoan,
"God's Own Village." It is five miles across
the marshy fields from Wardha in the Central
Provinces, almost the exact geographical
center of India. Only a small flagpole
distinguishes the Mahatma's abode from 
the others. Tourists never reach him,
newspapers and newspaper men seldom.
All day, he spins and thinks. At dawn and
dusk, he leads the villagers in prayer. Wife
and secretary lodge at Wardha.

Across the fields to his side recently hurried
a friend bringing newspaper clippings
that had made the round of the world, but
that Gandhi had never seen. Resting on
his lean haunches and adjusting his iron-
rimmed spectacles, he read the interview
of May 18 quoting him as declaring:

"My life work is ruined," and naming
Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru, wealthy Socialist
and President of the Indian National
Congress, as his rival.

Denial of Reports - The Mahatma's eyes
blinked. With quick, bird-like movements
of his scrawny neck and head, he dictated
his reply. The spinning-wheel was still;
and only the soft munching of the milk-
goats punctuated the monotone.

"I have never said anything of the kind,
nor uttered one single remark attributed
to me in the articles sent to me," he said,
and paused. Then: "What is more, I have
never entertained the opinion contained
in them."

For a moment he ruminated his gums
against each other, as old men will, smiling
toothlessly:

"No doubt there are differences of
opinion between us . . . . But we remain
the same adherents of the Congress goal"
(complete Indian Independence), "that
we have ever been." And more sternly:
"My life work is not, and can not be ruined
by Pundit Jawaharlala Nehru's program.
One of the articles presents us as rivals.
I can not think of myself as a rival to
Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru, or him to me.
If we are, we are rivals in making love to
one another" (again the toothless smile),
"in the pursuit of the common goal; and
if, in the joint work of reaching the goal,
we at times seem to be taking different
routes, I hope the world will find that we
had lost sight of each other only for the

moment, only to meet again in still greater
attraction and affection."

Gandhi pinched a twist of cotton between
his fingers and turned again to his spinning,
out of politics, he said, for two years
of peace and quiet, after which he promises
to emerge to public life with a program
"more sensational than ever."

Test of New Form - Two years from now,
the new Indian Constitution creating a
federation with near-Dominion status will
have been in effect a year and a half.

Both Gandhi, Nehru and the leaders of
all Indian political parties have pronounced
the coming Federation unworkable. Nehru
denounces it as "a charter of slavery," instructs
his followers to take office only to
practise obstructionism, and adds:

"The only solution of India's problems
lies in socialism involving vast revolutionary

Gandhi is spinning in "God's own village"

revolutionary changes." Violent revolution, however,
he opposes.

Following its present time schedule, the
Federation will come into effect by degrees.
January and February will see elections to
the Provincial Legislatures. By April, the
Constitution will be effective, and later,
perhaps in early 1938, Edward VIII,
crowned at home and appearing at Delhi
as King-Emperor, will, amid the incomparable
pomp and pageantry of the Durbar,
"receive the homage of India's peoples."

By that time, if he still lives, Gandhi will
emerge from retirement with plans which,
"like a good general," he declines to disclose.

Meanwhile, such rulers of the 200 semi-independent
feudal Indian Principalities
as rate a salute of nine or more guns have
been startled by delivery at their doors of
impressive, red-sealed missives from Delhi.

Tall, square-jawed, Scottish gentleman-
farmer, bull-breeder, and corporation director,
Viceroy the Marquess of Linlithgow,
signed the letters. They remind the rulers,
in courteous and formal language, that they
are to cooperate, and with no delay, with
the Central Government. The Viceroy has
no doubts that the Constitution is a practical,
workable document.

By the India Act of August 2, 1935,
which authorizes the Federation, the
Princes were left free, or so they thought,
to make individual treaties of adherence to
the coming State. Chuckling among themselves,
they assumed at the time that the
provision was specially designed to enable
them to stave off the evil day, practically
forever. No such illusion was left to them
after reading Lord Linlithgow's crackling
summons to action.

It notified them that early this month,
an Englishman, a Scot and an Irishman,
armed with full powers from the Viceroy,
will call on them, Gaekwars, Maharajas, or
whatever they may be. "To facilitate the
tastes of the rulers in reaching a decision,"
the document reads. It means: with treaties
to be signed on the dotted line.

Sir Courtney Latimer, Agent General of
the States of Western India, is the Englishman;
Secretary to the Government of India
Arthur Cunningham Lothian the Scot;
Francis Verner Wylie, Resident Agent at
Jaipur, the Irishman.

Differing Terms - "Experienced senior political
officers," they are called by the British
in the Indian Service. Behind their
backs, the native rulers call them and their
aids "spies."

The whip-cracking note from Delhi has
convinced the rulers that the mountain of
legal red tape they had heaped up with the
aid of expensive legal counsel for the purpose
of delaying acceptance of the hated
treaties is useless; that what will really cut
the red tape is an equally high mountain
of evidence in the hands of the Viceroy,
showing official corruption and private debauchery
in the courts of most, if not all,
of the princely rulers.

Powerful Viceroy - Already, Linlithgow has
used this material with shocking bluntness
in bringing them to terms. "Uncooperative" 
rulers, peremptorily summoned to
Delhi after stalling off British officials,
have been confronted with dossiers which,
if known in their respective realms, would
blow them off their thrones. Now, when
the Viceroy whistles, they jump through
the hoop; and nobody doubts that the
treaties will be signed in plenty of time.

All but Defense and Foreign Affairs are
to be handed over to the Government to be
thrown together from the hodgepodge of
religions, races, Oriental monarchies and
self-governed States of the Federation.
Government, after all, comes down to the
disposal of money, and as defense and debt
eat up 80 per cent. of Indian revenue, little
will be left for the Federation to play with.

The parliamentary, the Government will
not be strictly democratic. To the Council
of State, or upper house, 260 members will
be elected for nine years by 100,000 out of
India's 350,000,000 (one-fifth of the
world's population). To the lower house,
375 members will be elected for five years
by men and women, restricted by property
qualification to 14 per cent. of the population.

Eighty-six per cent. will have no voice.
Justification: 92 per cent. are unable to
read any of India's 200 languages.

Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru plans that the
Federation shall fail and be succeeded by
a completely independent, socialist India.

Gandhi, spinning away in his hut, dreams
of an independent India of small villages,
rejuvenated by cottage industries, privately
owned, and with scarcely any government
 at all.WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20, 1934

1,000 ANIMALS SACRIFICED

ELLORE SLAUGHTER

SECOND WITHIN A MONTH

(FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT)
ELLORE, JUNE 18.

One thousand rams and goats and 1,500 fowls were sacrificed in Ellore yesterday to propitiate the small-pox goddess. 

This mass sacrifice - the second within a month - was witnessed by thousands of people, including hundreds from surrounding districts.

The animals were slaughtered by specially-appointed executioners, who worked in succession at four centres in the town. About 700 rams and goats and 1,000 fowls, however, were killed in Eastern Street.

The animals were killed on sand in order to prevent the blood flooding the street.

Their heads, with offerings of boiled rice and puddings, were heaped before the goddess.

BUFFALOES KILLED

At midnight 16 buffaloes were killed and their blood, mixed with boiled rice, strewn all round the town, the belief being that small-pox will not re-enter the circumscribed area.

Special pujas were conducted to-day and a huge procession taken out this evening.

Special police precautions were taken yesterday, to preserve order, the District Superintendent of Police personally supervising the arrangements.

BURRELLE'S PRESS CLIPPING BUREAU
NEW YORK

NEW YORK CITY HERALD-TRI
OCTOBER 22, 1933

Rico under Woodrow Wilson.
San Juan, P. R., Oct. 1, 1933.

How Help the Pariah Caste?

To the New York Herald Tribune:

The recent letter in your columns by Alice Stone Blackwell - bless her great and noble heart! - again brings up the above question. Her sympathy for the "untouchables" of India often has been shown in the past.

She clearly points out that the British India government - which means the English Foreign Office - actively opposes Gandhi's efforts to break down the walls between these classes. What is England's object in this unsocial and un-Christian attitude? The ancient one, "Divide et impera" - divide and conquer. This same cruel and tyrannical attitude was seen again in the division of Ireland along religious lines, with its so-called north Ireland (six counties) and south Ireland (twenty-six counties). 

Gandhi, of course, is of high caste; but, like the hero that he is, he refuses to assert this prerogative or distinction.

The pariah caste can be helped in only two ways: Continuous agitation and demand in India and the pressure of world opinion upon England to abandon her uncivilized attitude for power and gain.

JOHN JEROME ROONEY.
New York, Oct. 17, 1933.
[signature] John Jerome Rooney

MRS. GANDHI CREMATED

Mahatma Moved to Tears at Rites for Wife - Watches Pyre

BOMBAY, Feb. 23 (U.P.) - Mohandas K. Gandhi, aged Indian Nationalist leader, was moved to tears this morning as cremation rites were performed at his wife's funeral and prayers were chanted from Hindu, Moslem, Parsi, and Christian Scriptures. 

Mrs. Gandhi's relatives and many prominent Indians attended the ceremony. Gandhi looked on the funeral pyre while holding an umbrella unsteadily. When the rites were over the Mahatama sat in the shade on a tamarind tree and watched as the flames consumed his wife's body.

NEW DELHI, Feb. 23 (Reuter) - Members of the Nationalist party walked out of the Central Assembly (lower house) today as a protest against the refusal to permit its leader to make a statement on the death of Mrs. Gandhi.

The Council of State (upper house) adjourned for half an hour as a mark of respect, but the proposal of some member that it should adjourn for the day was turned down by the President.


The Society for the Prevention of Animal Sacrifice, which had, unsuccessfully moved the District Magistrate and the High Court to restrain the sacrifices, conducted counter-propaganda throughout the day.REV. R. D. BISBEE. D. D.
3 A. NORTH PETTY STAFF LINES,
POONA, INDIA

28th July, 1939.

Dear Friend,

Greetings from Poona, India!

I am sure that you will be interested in this "paper
god." It represents Hanuman, the Monkey god, in the
Himalayas, taking a mountain on his shoulders, which he
was to carry to Ceylon, where a fierce war was going on
between the god Rama and the god Ravan. Ravan was the god
with many heads, and according to Hindu sacred books,
whenever god Rama succeeded in cutting off a head, ten
more grew in the place of the one cut off! Rama was
getting discouraged and so sent messengers asking for the
assistance of Hanuman, the Monkey god. He came to Ceylon
with a great mountain which he cast upon the monster Ravan
and so destroyed him. We have a Monkey Temple here in
Poona, and there are many devotees. How strange that human
beings, made in the image and likeness of God, should
worship monkeys!

These paper gods are found in all the bazaars, and
village people take them to their homes and putting them
on the wall in a prominent place, worship them.

"Can we to men benighted.
The Lamp of Light deny?"

I am enclosing a booklet "The Holy Spirit" which
tells the story of conversion of a Hindu lad, Govind, and
his baptism with the Holy Spirit.If you have a Sunday School class, or if there is a
young peoples' society in your Church, will you kindly read
it to them? Surely, if there is anything that our young
people need to-day, it is the vision of what they may be
and do for Christ, under the inspiration and power of the
Holy Spirit. In any case, be sure to read it yourself
and pass it on to your friends.

Our Evangelistic Campaign this year has had unusual
blessing. Hundreds of villages have been reached and
there have been more than 500 baptisms. Many more are
under instruction and will be baptised as soon as they are
ready. One of our Evangelists in a meeting recently said:
"I do not want to be like a stagnant pool. I want to be
a living stream for Him, going about the villages and
preaching the Gospel as long as He gives me strength."
Rev. Tulsi Govind, one of our most efficient Evangelists,
died during the campaign of typhoid fever - no doubt
contracted while touring. His wife writing about his
work in the villages, says: "My husband was seldom ever
at home but rejoiced in visiting the villages and telling
the Story of Jesus. On his last visit home, we saw that
he was worn out and tired, but he left with a Gospel team
to tour distant villages." God bless our faithful
Evangelists who endure great hardships and never spare
themselves and may the Lord give us grace to back them up
with our prayers and gifts.

May God bless you.

Yours in His glad service,

R.D. BISBEE

Commercial Printing Works, East Street, Poona.HINDU-MOSLEM UNITY
Published Monthly.
INDIAN BULLETIN
ORGAN OF THE FRIENDS OF INDIA.
President: Laurence Housman.
Vol 1. No. 11. 
DECEMBER, 1932. 
One Penny

INDEX.
                                                                                                                      Page
Tagore on the Indian Situation   ...         ...         ...         ...           ...          1
How the Boycott Works. By Pyarelal      ...         ...         ...           ...          1
Meerut Conspiracy Case Trial. By R. Bridgeman          ...           ...          2
The Third Round-Table Conference. By Atma Kamlani             ...          4
Bulgarian Support           ...         ...         ...         ...           ...            ...         4
The Bookstall       ...         ...         ...         ...          ...           ...            ...         4
Allahabad Unity Conference     ...         ...          ...           ...            ...          5
Letter from Devadas Gandhi     ...         ...          ...           ...            ...         5
United India. By R. A. Reynolds ...         ...          ...           ...            ...         6
Friends of India Notes    ...         ...          ...         ...            ...           ...         6
India's "Balance of Trade" and "National Debt." 
             By R. A. Reynolds            ...          ...         ...            ...           ...         7
Dr. Privat's Speech in Switzerland. By Maria 
             Largiader              ...         ...          ...         ...            ...           ...         8

TAGORE ON THE INDIAN SITUATION.

Poet Rabindranath Tagore has sent the following 
message to Mr. Carl Heath, Chairman of the India 
Conciliation Group, London, in response to the 
latter's request for an analysis of the present Indian 
situation, together with his suggestions for peace and 
conciliation:

"Santiniketan, Oct. 15th.

"Dear Friend,

"It is encouraging to learn from your cable that 
there is a general feeling in England urging for a 
radical change in the relationship between that 
country and ours. To my mind, this is the time 
when a move towards honest co-operation with our 
people should be made by the Indian Government. 
The atmosphere has been purified by Mahatmaji's 
penance, which was undertaken, not merely for the 
sake of any particular group of people, but for the 
sufferings of man. 

"Times without number, in recent years, opportunities 
have offered themselves to the Government 
for responding to the call of humanity in India. One 
such as Mahatmaji's desire when he returned home 
from the Round Table Conference to confer with the 
Viceroy. But Mahatmaji's gesture was ignored; he 
was summarily put into prison. Since then the 
Government has openly entered into a policy of 
repression, blackening its own prestige in the eyes of 
millions by the fury of its own reason.

"From one blunder to another the Government 
has proceeded till it has successfully initiated India 
into a state of imminent warfare.

"Nobody defends acts of terrorism by isolated 
individuals, but yet this must be clearly recognised as 
the result of Governmental action. Now British troops 
are being massed in Bengal villages to stamp out 
anarchists and teach our people, it is said, 'a moral 
lesson.' This new measure will create an atmosphere 
of panic favourable to widespread anarchism.

"Two facts have now to be definitely faced by the 
British Cabinet and by the Indian Government, if 
they desire to change their policy in India before it 
is too late.

"(1) No country can be ruled against its will by 
another. India can no longer be ruled by force, 
however ruthless and scientifically efficient it may be. 
India's relationship with England, economic and cultural, 
must be maintained, but that can only be 
achieved through friendliness and trust. Our 
people are ready for such co-operation, but 
their confidence must be regained by specific acts of 
the Government clearly recognising the right of our 
people to equity and self-determination.

"(2) The only real check to disorder, to distrust 
between our people and the English is the influence 
of the Congress, under Mahatmaji's own leadership. 
Yet thousands of the finest men in the Congress have 
been jailed like criminals, their only crime 
being their loyalty to Mahatmaji, and to the 
masses whose interest they have zealously upheld. 
The Congress as an organisation has been declared 
illegal, its money confiscated, its sympathisers 
relentlessly victimised. Not that the moral hold of 
the Congress on the mind of our people has been in 
the least impaired or its organisation weakened, but 
the Government, by wilfully depriving themselves 
and our own people of the services of this beneficial 
organisation, has chosen to drive the activities of our 
finest men and women underground. The Government 
is thus running serious risks, not only of losing 
any legitimate influence it may still possess on our 
people, but of encouraging explosive activities which 
will be disastrous in its effect on innocent humanity.

"It is too late in the day for the Government to 
throw out mere gesture of good-will, palliative measures 
and tactful promises safeguarded by diplomacy. 
The Government must reverse its weak policy of repression 
and come out with concrete proposals, which 
can immediately be made operative, giving India the 
substance of independence. Honest constitutional 
reforms sweeping aside the heaped-up follies of 
indiscreet Govrnment must be preceded by the release of 
Mahatma Gandhi and members of the Congress, and 
the unconditional repeal of the ordinances, which are 
a frank confession of the Government's failure to rule. 

"I sincerely hope that India Conciliation Group 
will devote its best energies to acquaint the British 
people with facts as they are in India to-day, and 
commit itself to a definite programme and a policy 
which will accept as axiomatic the birthright of our 
people to freedom and to such self-chosen federation 
with other countries and people as they may freely 
decide upon. I know I can count upon such heroism 
of soul from your people.

"Genuine peace in India can only result from fearless
 recognition by the Government of the fundamental 
claims of our humanity. Mahatmaji has proved 
to the world his clear honesty of purpose: will the 
Government respond?"

HOW THE BOYCOTT WORKS.
By PYARELAL.
BOMBAY, 21st October, 1932.

The last week here has been full of surprises and 
intense activities. In spite of our aloofness, in a way, 
from Bombay politics, we were drawn into its vortex 
in connection with the cotton trade deadlock which 
ended only the day before yesterday.

About a month after Bapu's (Gandhiji's) arrest, 
the Cotton Brokers' Association of Bombay passed a 
resolution boycotting all British cotton firms in terms 
of a resolution to that effect of the Working Committee 
Congress Executive. There was, of course, 
the choice before the British firms to declare themselves 
to be against the Government's policy of repression 
and to identify themselves with India's 
national aspirations. But they instead chose to rely 
on the Government's strength.