The Andhra Demand

BY SIR S. RADHAKRISHNAN ^l

History reveals that periodic sanguinary upheavals have been a constant feature of our social order. For civilisation to be betrayed again and again, there must be something coarse at the very centre of it, and that is its slave basis and tribal patriotism. So long as the social order tolerates privileged classes and subject nations, wars are inevitable. We have to pay the price for world peace by setting up social democracies, by surrendering control over subject nations and by submitting national sovereignties to international control. Nations; like individuals, are made not only by what they acquire but by what they resign. We cannot sit on a powder magazine and smoke a pipe of peace. If we wish to make it impossible for any nation to grab what it wants by force, we must make it possible for every nation to achieve what is just without force.

A strong self-governing India will be of the greatest advantage to the peace of the world. If the sensitive opinion of this country is to be drawn into a firm allegiance to the ideals of the British Commonwealth, they must become flesh. When India asks for self-government which is her natural right, she is demanding that Britain should give a most practical and concrete expression to those ideals. If excuses are invented for postponing the just solution or the Indian problem, critics will not be wanting who will declare that the British Commonwealth is still aggressively imperialist in character, and its desire for peace is not due to the growth of moral sense or love of democracy but to the development of military aviation and the disappearance of its long treasured insularity. In the interests of India, Britain and the world, it is necessary to end the tangle and set up a free India.

If the Indian National Congress protests against the present form of federal constitution, it is not protesting against the idea of federation. The problems of India, military, economic and financial, relate to the whole country, and in regard to them no distinction can be made between States and Provinces. A federal constitution is inevitable. But the proposed federation is unacceptable to advanced political opinion on account of its obvious defects, viz., that it brings together autocratic and democratic elements into an incongruous framework, that it does not give any responsibility at the Centre, that the safeguards take away the substance of freedom. I hope most sincerely that the British statesmen are aware that these misgivings are legitimate and that it is essential to establish full Responsible Government in the country at the earliest opportunity. To be wise in time is the highest wisdom.

Democracy is not a mere political arrangement but a habit of mind. It is easy to acquire the forms of democracy but not so easy to get its spirit, that sensitive adjustment of the self to the infinitely varied demands of other persons. Essentially, a democrat is one who has that trait of humility, the power to put himself in the second place, to believe that he may possibly be mistaken and his opponent probably right. But events that are happening in organisations, small and great, make one suspect whether we have developed the democratic frame of mind which expresses itself in what we may call political good manners.

I am aware of the qualities of mind and spirit that are characteristic of the Andhra people. Relatively speaking, their freedom from prejudice, their spirit of sacrifice, their enthusiasm for social service and their intense patriotism are remarkable. During the days of the Non-cooperation movement, these qualities found a concentrated expression, and there is hardly a village in the Andhra country which has not contributed in men and money to the national struggle. I have always felt that the differences between Brahmin and non-Brahmin, the Hindu and the Moslem, are much less acute in the Andhra country, and I believe that it will be possible to weld the people of the Andhra area into a corporate manhood for political purposes. It is not for me to speak about the intellectual and artistic life of the Andhras. If there is an agitation today for the formation of a separate Andhra Province, it is due largely to the intense desire to develop the cultural and artistic distinctiveness of the Andhra people.

The movement is not to be regarded as inconsistent with Indian Nationalism, any more than the freedom of India movement is to be regarded as inconsistent with the interests of humanity. It is not motivated by any antipathy or ill-will to our Tamil neighbours. For centuries past, Andhras have lived in the Tamil land, and Dravids have settled in the Telugu country, and perfect understanding and fellowship have governed their mutual relations. Any sense of irritation which may now and then be discerned is due to the unfortunate scramble for posts, and I am persuaded that, with the formation of a separate Province, it will disappear altogether and the two communities will live in fraternity and friendship.

The agitation for the Andhra Province is not to be regarded as the burst of a sudden caprice. It has had a long history. The first Andhra Conference met in the year 1913, and in 1914 at Bezwada a resolution was passed asking for the formation of a separate Province for the Telugu districts. And this resolution was repeated every year after that. In 1917 the Congress constituted the Andhra districts into a separate unit for its purposes. The Andhra representatives waited in deputation on the late Mr. Montagu and Lord Chelmsford and pressed the claims for a Province. Enthusiasm for the Andhra Province abated a little when the energies of the Andhra leaders were engaged by the Non-cooperation movement of 1920 and onwards. But the demand for a separate Province was never abandoned. On 16-2-1927 a resolution was moved in the Council of State for the formation of the Telugu districts into a separate Province, though it was thrown out on the ground that the motion should have been moved in the Provincial Council. On 14-3-1927 the Madras Legislative Council passed a resolution in favour of the formation of Provinces on linguistic lines. This principle was reaffirmed by the Madras Legislative Council in 1928 on a cut motion. Again in 1933 the Madras Council passed a resolution that steps be taken for creating the Andhra and Karnataka areas as separate administrative units. Representations were also made at the Round Table Conference and some leading Andhras waited in deputation on Lord Lothian. But nothing came out of these endeavours.

Having regard to the tendency towards decentralisati6n on territorial as well as administrative lines, which is so marked in all progressive democracies, it is desirable to split up a large area like the Madras Presidency into two compact and strong units. A large homogeneous population inhabiting a contiguous country of vast dimensions, knit together by close affinities of race, language and tradition, with hopeful chances of industrial and economic development constitute, in my opinion, a most formidable justification for the creation of a separate Province. With the development of democratic institutions and the increasing participation of the people in public affairs, it will be more useful to conduct the business of the Government in the language of the area. It is an area covering over 75,000 sq. miles. Its population is nearly 17 millions. It will be much larger than Assam and Baluchistan and almost equal to Bengal in size. With such subsidy as we should get from the Central Government and our share of provincial revenues, I hope I will not be charged with rashness, if I say that the future Andhra Province will be self-supporting, though to my mind the problem is not one of finance or administrative management but of psychology and sentiment.

Madras occupies a fairly central position and serves as a link between the Ceded districts and the coastal districts. It has had for a long time important Andhras affiliations. In its origin and development, the Andhras have played a great part. In the City itself we have a lakh and a half of Telugus. It seems to be the most natural centre for the Andhra Province. If, however, for any reason this idea does not commend itself to the Government, the City can be divided into two parts and two capitals can be set up. Such a demarcation of the City will have to be done by a commission charged with the fixing up of boundaries. I do not think that there are any constitutional or practical difficulties in the matter of the location of the Andhra capital in Madras. There are several instances where cities that are almost one have two different jurisdictions and work under two administrative units. The instances of Hyderabad and Secunderabad, of Bangalore City and Bangalore Cantonment, of British and Native Cochin are well known. Business and commercial interests will welcome the proposal of the Andhra capital in Madras and the interests of economy in expenditure will justify it.

There are those who believe that the Congress Working Committee’s resolution of 28-7-1938 is not quite fair to the Andhras. It does not show an adequate appreciation of the intensity and urgency of the Andhra problem. The Working Committee is naturally anxious that the demand for separate Provinces should not engage the energies of the Congress workers to an, extent that will take away from concentration on the general Indian question. The way in which the Andhra leaders have all these years subordinated their local interests to those of the nation is a proof, if proof were needed, that the Andhras at any rate are not likely to relax their efforts on the national issue. I am convinced that the agitation for a separate Province is not likely to prejudice in any manner the work for Indian freedom. I hope I will be pardoned if I say that I do not see any justification for postponing action on the Andhra question till after the settlement of the Indian problem. Besides the creation of Provinces is a matter relating to the Provinces, and so belongs to that part of the Constitution in respect of which the Congress is already in power in our Province. And I am not exaggerating when I say that even in the Imperial Assembly the Congress has considerable power and can, if it is so advised, take steps to push through the ideas of the Madras Government in this matter.

With a Premier who has openly expressed his sympathy with our cause, a Governor who, I am sure, is very friendly to our aspirations, and a Secretary of State who, I know, will view our appeal with the utmost sympathy, our cause is bound to succeed. Let us press for it with all the energy and enthusiasm we can mobilise.

l Extracts from his Presidential Address at the Andhra Maha Sabha, 20th Session, (Madras, 8th October.)