The Indian Scene

THE INDIAN SCENE
(July-September 1951)

By Prof. D. GURUMURTI, M.A., Ph.D.

The third quarter of the year 1951 has been in many respects a momentous period for the country. The two major events have been a higher tempo in the strained relations with Pakistan and the turmoil in the Congress organisation.

In the month of July, Pakistan leaders unleashed a tearing propaganda of hate and worked up their people to a white heat of mass hysteria. The clenched fist was adopted as the symbol; black-outs, drills of home-guards, defence measures on a war footing, mass gatherings for preaching hate of the enemy, became the order of the day in Pakistan. All the bigger towns and cities witnessed a series of excited assemblies for the Jehad that they were proposing to embark upon. Side by side the Prime Minister of Pakistan, with an eye to international news-market, indulged in a series of letters exchanged with the Indian Prime Minister, purporting to prove to the world the peace-loving intentions of Pakistan and the unreasonable attitude of India according to the Pakistan point of view. The letters make an interesting study and reveal the psychology of Pakistan leadership. The main effort is to malign India and the Indian Government before the eye of international opinion.

The immediate cause of the fresh spate of hostile propaganda is given out to be the massing of India’s military forces near the borders of Pakistan. But the occasion for this step was similar prior action on part of Pakistan. This fact is conveniently obscured. When Pandit Nehru asks for an unequivocal and unconditional mutual declaration that in no circumstances would war be resorted to, Mr. Liaqat ali Khan wants all his objectives to be gained as the prior condition of a no war declaration. And the correspondence had to end inconclusively. The only purpose gained by Pakistan was one more occasion to create prejudice against India. International opinion on the Indo-Pakistan differences has unfortunately shown itself inept, and the patent fact of Pakistan’s aggression and unlawful occupation of a good part of Kashmir territory, though judicially investigated and recorded by the U. N. Representative, Sir Owen Dixon, is deliberately left out of account in assessing the situation.

The real reason for the intensified hostile preparations and threats of Pakistan in July last would appear to be connected with the preparations for elections to the Constituent Assembly of Kashmir and Dr. Frank Graham’s visit. Pakistan has very strong objection to the crystallising of opinion in Kashmir and has made screaming appeals to the Security Council of the U.N.O. to intervene. Dr. Frank Graham, busy with a first-hand appraisal of the whole situation, obviously declined to be deviated from his task. So by creating the excitement of the whole populace of Pakistan against India, the leadership wanted to create in the mind of the observer a strong impression of the need of Kashmir for Pakistan’s prosperity.

The manner in which India’s leadership tackled this explosive situation ought to evoke the admiration of impartial observers, if there are any such available in the modern world, where interested motives are allowed to dominate the outlook to the detriment of calm judgment. The psychosis of fear and hatred, suspicion and deliberate dishonesty, has polluted international morality to its very bases. The Indian Prime Minister, in his masterly handling of the crisis, made it clear to Pakiatan and to the world that his country would in no case indulge in war, but firmly made it clear that if Indian territory, including Kashmir, were attacked, it would be defended with all available strength. At the same time the Prime Minister kept a cool control over the temper of the whole country. The ardent communalists and rabid extremists were told off and normal life went on uninterrupted in India. The Muslim community of India, who represent a very considerable minority in the State, responded admirably and have firmly stood by the Government, refusing to be made pawns in the Pakistan game.

Pakistan leadership has sought further to reinforce their claim to Kashmir by making it appear to international opinion that the river system of Pakistan is in danger of being depleted of its waters by hostile action, if an unfriendly power were to be in control of Kashmir, because the main rivers flow from there into Pakistan. This has been definitely shown to be a geographical impossibility. Further, Mr. David Lilienthal, the ex-chairman of the Tennesse Valley Authority, the biggest river project of the world, has, after a recent visit of inspection, pointed out that over eighty per cent of the waters of the Indus System are going to waste into the sea, and that by constituting an international authority to organise joint control and utilization of the waters, both the countries of Pakistan and India could meet their maximum needs, without the prosperity of one country involving the sacrifice of the prosperity of the other. The truth of the matter is not heeded by Pakistan. What they want is one more argument, plausible to uninformed opinion, to claim Kashmir as integral to its prosperity.

The reaction of Pakistan opinion to the successful progress of the elections to the Kashmir Constituent Assembly has shown a new turn. Now they propose to ignore it, having already exhausted themselves in excitement and futile condemnation. The latest phase of the anti-Indian propaganda has turned on an imaginary oppression of Muslims in India. The Pakistan Press recently has flooded their country with stories of mass conversion and oppression; some newspapers indulged in red banner headlines of their latest mare’s nest of a monster or master plan for the conquest of Pakistan. “Blind mouths, the eager sheep look on and are not fed.”

It makes one feel sad for the future of humanity when a whole nation can descend to the levels of feeding upon falsehoods and distortion of facts to gain self-interest. The pathetic faith that what has paid profits in the past will continue to be profitable in future is tobe deplored; for one day the world will wake up to the truth.

The second major event of this quarter has been the churning up of the Congress organisation. The secession of prominent old-timers like Acharya Kripalani, P. C. Ghosh and T. Prakasam, set Pandit Nehru thinking seriously of the rot that had overtaken the Congress organization. In the middle of July a session of the A.I.C.C. was held at Bangalore with the avowed object of forging unity and achieving unity in the Congress ranks. The facile readiness with which Pandit Nehru’s Unity Resolution was passed and his report of four years of Cogress rule was accepted, and the outlines of the programme for the future was adopted, gave a false sense of security and solidarity. Soon after, Pandit Nehru, with his well-known power of introspection and objective analysis, discovered that the rank and file of Congressmen so readily accorded support to his moves with mental reservations of their own. He had been feeling restless and dissatisfied with the state of affairs in the Congress ever since the Nasik Congress. His analysis showed that a shaking up was necessary. After demanding an overhaul of the Congress Working Committee as a token of an inner shaking, and after the obstinate refusal by the Congress President to yield to the demand, Pandit Nehru administered a deliberate and well-timed shock to the Congress organisation by resigning from the Working Committee. This had the desired effect. The Congress Executive en bloc resigned, and the President, stickler for principles that he was, found himself obliged to resign. Pandit Nehru now found that the only logical course for him was to assume formal leadership in addition to the actual leadership that he has been exercising for some years. Ever since the memorable meeting of the A.I.C.C. in August which conferred the Congress Presidentship on him, Pandit Nehru has been bravely going about his task of cleaning up the Augean stables and improving the moral tone and idealism of purpose of the Congress. His constitution of the Congress Executive, the election board, the advisory committee, has all been in the right direction. He has issued certain directives to the Pradesh Committees with regard to welcoming the recent dissidents and with regard to selection of candidates for the forthcoming elections. Four years of Congress rule in the Centre and the States has shown that, while the top rank of leaders have been absolutely devoted servants of the people with undoubted ability of a high calibre, there has been no evidence of any superfluity of men of ability and integrity among the various Pradesh leaders. It is in this context that the directive of the President, that men of ability should be invited to stand on the Congress ticket, gains significance. There is not the least doubt that this is going to prove to be the acid test of the success of Pandit Nehru’s endeavours.

In many States the Pradesh Committees are already busy with selection of candidates for the new elections. It is possible to glean how far the directives of the idealist President are being implemented. In the South one leading Pradesh Executive has already declared that among the applicants for the Congress ticket there are more than sufficient men of integrity and ability to fill every seat. The Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee has already prepared its list of candidates. It will be clear from a perusal of these lists that the directive of the President is more honoured in the breach than in the observance. All the previous group of worthy Congressmen who have been entrenched in seats of power and influence with their loyal band of followers, have again found themselves safely allotted to seats for the forthcoming elections. Communalists and selfseekers who had gained central positions in the election committees and executive of the Pradesh Congress have planned out everything to suit their purposes. If Pandit Nehru is to achieve his objective of putting fresh blood into the ranks of Congressmen that will enter the legislatures, he must take courage in both hands, call for the various lists of selected candidates and mercilessly prune them, deleting all elements who do not fulfill standards and replacing them with the required number of eligible public men with a record of service and unselfish pursuit of the common good. Otherwise the worthy executive heads of Pradesh Committees will neutralize effectively all efforts at purification of the rank and file by the great leader of the nation.

The recent decision of Mr. Rafi Ahmed Kidwai to rejoin the Congress is a welcome sign of the appreciation of Pandit Nehru’s efforts. This is expected to lead to several other returns to the Congress fold in the near future. The session of the Congress being held at Delhi will doubtless provide the right opportunity to the President to drive home his point of view and convert many Congressmen to the need for placing the country before self. The transition from being in the Opposition to the custody of power found most Congressmen not ready for the positive tasks of nation-building. While during the struggle for freedom the cause was greater than the individual, the accession power made the individual more important than the cause, with disastrous consequences. The whole nation will stand by Pandit Nehru in his efforts to recapture the soul of the great national organisation.

Bangalore
October 10, 1951.