'The Triple Stream'

‘Triveni’ seeks to draw together cultured men and women in all lands and establish a fellowship of the elect. All movements that make for Idealism in India as well as elsewhere, receive particular attention in these columns. We count upon the willing and joyous co-operation of all lovers of the Beautiful and the True.

May this votive offering prove acceptable to Him who is the source of the ‘Triveni’–the Triple Stream of Love, Wisdom and power!

...he that laboureth right for love of Me
Shall finally attain! But, if in this
Thy faint heart fails, bring Me thy failure!

–The Song Celestial

THE JOINT EDITOR

During these many years of strenuous toil, I have always felt the need for someone to share the burden of Triveni. It is difficult to work much longer in the way I have been doing, without imminent risk of a breakdown. For months, possibly years, it is imperative that I should take things a little easy and permit myself a rest cure. Mr. Burra V. Subrahmanyam, a young Advocate who has been helping me for some time on the literary side, has very kindly agreed to come in as Honorary Joint Editor. I am tired beyond words and longing for a little rest, while he is fresh and energetic. Readers of Triveni must have noticed his brilliant contributions to the journal within the last two or three years. Possessing intellectual gifts of a high order, he also displays a precision and a meticulous attention to detail without which no journal can achieve lasting success.

I am happy to have found a colleague. I have no doubt that the readers of Triveni will join with me in welcoming this accession of strength.

SHELVED!

"Inadequate, unsatisfactory, and disappointing"–such were the terms in which the Congress at Amritsar described the Montford Reforms in December 1919. They apply with even greater force to the resolution of the Congress Working Committee at Wardha about linguistic Provinces. Deputations from Andhra, Karnataka, and Kerala waited on the Working Committee and pressed on it, the necessity to constitute the new Provinces without delay. The case was presented by ardent Congressmen who had served the nation truly and well. It would be cruel to bring the charge of parochialism against men who deliberately gave up the opportunity of presenting their demand to the Simon Commission and were thus content to let their case go by default. In the whirlwind campaigns of civil disobedience which followed, these provincial units exhibited a spirit of heroism and sacrifice worthy of the noblest soldiers of freedom. And, all along, they laid themselves open to the charge of having betrayed the cause of linguistic re-distribution in the pursuit of far-off dreams. But they were firm in their adherence to the ideals of a wider nationalism, while hoping that sooner than later the Congress would implement its own policy of the linguistic re-distribution of India.

The Working Committee has let them down badly. Nobody is interested in knowing that the resolutions of the Madras and Bombay legislatures on this question had the previous approval of the Congress Parliamentary Board, nor is it any consolation to be told that in a scheme for the future governance of India, when the Congress has Power, this question will be solved. A Superior body like the All India Congress Committee of which the Working Committee is but the executive, has already approved of the principle and even directed the Cabinets of Madras and Bombay to take steps in furtherance of it. The present resolution does not take us any further: Its promise is as vague and undefined as expressions like "in the fullness of time," and "under God’s providence" so frequently met with in British declarations of policy regarding India. What is worse, the resolution calls upon the people of the areas concerned to desist from all agitation which may tend to divert attention from the main issue which presumably is that of Federation! There can be no greater proof than this that the Working Committee is out of touch with public opinion in these areas–that it has no conception of the thirst for autonomous self-expression. The resolution is in the nature of a slap in the face, and likely to lower the prestige of the Congress and of Congressmen in these Provinces. Even the eloquence of. Dr. Pattabhi Sitaramayya may not avail to stem the tide of discontent against the working Committee.

It is of the utmost importance that the All India Congress Committee, or the Working Committee at its next session, should revise the resolution, and, in doing so, (1) refute the statement of the Secretary of State that the formation of new Provinces is not in the best interests of India, (2) give a mandate to the Premiers of Madras and Bombay to carry on further correspondence with the Secretary of State asking him to consult the Government of India and the Central Legislature, and thereafter to appoint a boundary commission, and (3) authorize the leader of the Congress Party in the Central Assembly to sponsor or support a resolution in favour of linguistic Provinces in general and of Andhra and Karnataka in particular. Only when such a revised resolution has been passed can the Working Committee be absolved from the charge of indifference which undoubtedly attaches to it at present. It must prove that it has the will to carve out new Provinces, for, the advocates of the cause are not so sure that the Congress is unable to bring pressure to bear on the authorities concerned, though, technically, it may not have the ‘power.’

"The Andhras are, as the Madras Prime Minister found by personal experience, determined to have their Province, and will not be happy till they get it. It is strange that the Congress, which is itself responsible for creating the taste for linguistic Provinces, should now sit tight on the Andhra demand. We do not see why Andhra should wait till India gets complete Independence while Sind and Orissa have not had to do so." These are not my words. They are the words of Mr. K. Natarajan, Editor of the Indian Social Reformer.

DISCIPLINE AND DEMOCRACY

The happenings in the Central Provinces have evoked widespread comment. Those who invariably hold that the Working Committee can do no wrong are satisfied that Congress discipline has been maintained and that the Congress party in C. P. has been purged of its undesirable elements. But it is not easy to share the enthusiasm thus manifested. The entire question of the relation of the Working Committee and its Parliamentary Sub-Committee to the Provincial Cabinets and Legislatures needs a thorough examination at the hands of an impartial body. It is becoming increasingly clear that, under the Congress regime, the ministers and the legislators are mere automatons, subject to the continual and irritating control of the Congress gods. Unity of command and uniformity of policy are eminently desirable, but the loss in initiative is too heavy a price to pay.

Dr. Khare was obviously wrong in resigning so precipitately on the eve of the Wardha meeting. He deserved to be censured and deprived of his high office. But the Mahakosal ministers need not have been taken to the bosom of the Working Committee and exalted to positions which they had proved themselves unfit to hold. They plotted incessantly against their immediate Chief, and, when finally he resigned in disgust, they would not resign with him–an event unheard of in the history of parliamentary government. They were rightly dismissed by the Governor. No blame can attach to him for exercising his powers, and the Working Committee was not justified in complaining about his conduct in this affair.

If the Working Committee wished to restore peace in the C. P. they ought to have excluded all previous ministers from office, and advised the Congress Legislature Party to elect someone as leader who had not taken part in the quarrels of the ministers. Also, they ought to have realised that any patched-up peace between Maharashtra and Mahakosal would not be lasting, and that the correct solution was to have recommended the formation of separate Provinces at an early date. But none are so blind as they that will not see.

Formerly in the case of Mr. Nariman, and now in that of Dr. Khare, the Working Committee has shown an unnecessary spirit of vindictiveness. It was not content to punish individuals for disobedience, but went further and sought to annihilate its victims. This may happen again and again, and lead to a reaction against the Parliamentary Sub-Committee and its Chairman, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. The Sardar might have been good enough for leading the peasants of Bardoli; but even he is not great enough nor wise enough to be entrusted with the tremendous, all-embracing power of punishment of recalcitrant Congressmen in many Provinces and under many conditions. While we fight for Swaraj and self-determination, let us not store up trouble for ourselves by installing deputy-Mahatmas.

THE ‘NEW INDIAN ANTIQUARY’

I am not a research scholar in the technical sense, but I am vitally interested in the progress of Indology. I therefore welcome with the utmost pleasure the ‘New Indian Antiquary’ edited by Professors Katre and Gode of Poona and published by the Karnataka Publishing House, Bombay. For accurate and painstaking research work, the men of Maharashtra are unsurpassed in all India. The Bhandarkar Institute is a noble monument of their labours.

When, five years ago, the ‘Indian Antiquary’ had to be stopped after half a century of devoted service to Indology, keen disappointment was felt. The present journal is a Monthly, and in choosing the name the Editors render homage to the great scholars associated with the old ‘Indian Antiquary.’ The Editors are confident that "an enterprise designed to render disinterested service to the devotees of Learning is bound to succeed with the willing and active collaboration of the scholars themselves." And all scholars, irrespective of nationality, are cordially invited to co-operate. The journal is printed and got-up in first-class style and does immense credit to the publishers. The contents are of the highest importance, the first two numbers–for April and May 1938–containing articles from famous writers like Dr. Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, Dr. Schrader, Prof. K. A. Nilakanta Sastri, and Mrs. Rhys Davids.

A full-length review of the earlier numbers of this excellent journal will appear in a subsequent issue of Triveni. Mean-while, I cannot deny myself the privilege of congratulating the Editors and the Publishers.