COMMUNAL DEADLOCK AND A WAY TO SOLVE IT 375
IX
MATTERS NOT COVERED
(i) Q UESTION OF S PECIAL S AFEGUARDS
There are other demands made on behalf of particular minorities such as :
(1) Provision of a Statutory Officer to report on the condition of minorities.
(2) Statutory provision of State aid for education, and
(3) Statutory provision for land settlement. But they are not of a communal character, I do not therefore wish to enlarge upon them here.
(ii) A BORIGINAL T RIBES
It will be obvious that my proposals do not cover the Aboriginal Tribes although they are larger in number than the Sikhs, Anglo Indians, Indian Christians and Parsees. I may state the reasons why I have omitted them from my scheme. The Aboriginal Tribes have not as yet developed any political sense to make the best use of their political opportunities and they may easily become mere instruments in the hands either of a majority or a minority and thereby disturb the balance without doing any good to themselves. In the present stage of their development it seems to me that the proper thing to do for these backward communities is to establish a Statutory Commission to administer what are now called the ‘excluded areas’ on the same basis as was done in the case of the South African Constitution. Every Province in which these excluded areas are situated should be compelled to make an annual contribution of a prescribed amount for the administration of these areas.
(iii) I NDIAN S TATES
It will also be noticed that my proposals do not include the Indian States. I am not opposed to the inclusion of the Indian States, provided the terms and conditions of inclusion are such—
(1) that the dichotomy of divided sovereignty between British India and Indian States is completely done away with,
(2) that the judicial and political boundaries which separate British India from Indian States will disappear, that there will be no such entities as British India or Indian States and in their place there will be only one entity namely India, and
(3) that the terms and conditions of inclusion do not prevent India from having full and plenary powers of a Dominion. I have worked out a scheme for the fusion of the Indian States and British India, which will permit the realization of these objects. I do not wish to overburden this address with the details of the plan. For the moment, it is better if British India marches to her goal without complicating its progress by an entanglement with the Indian States.