WHAT CONGRESS AND GANDHI HAVE DONE TO THE UNTOUCHABLES : APPENDIX IX 341
coerce the Indian National Government to abide by the terms of the treaty ? With regard to the first question, it is obvious that the means for enforcing the treaty are twofold—use of force and trade war. As to the military force, the Indian army will not be available. It will be entirely transferred to the control of the new Indian National Government. His Majesty’s Government will have therefore lost this means of enforcing the treaty. It is impossible to believe that His Majesty’s Government will send its own army to compel the National Government to obey the treaty. A trade war is not possible. It is a suicidal policy and the experience of the Irish war with the Irish Free State for the recovery of land annuities shows that a nation of shopkeepers will not sanction it even though it may be for their interest and honour. The treaty therefore is going to be an empty formula, if not a cruel joke, upon the Depressed Classes. His Majesty’s Government has sent out these proposals to be welcomed by Indians. But neither His Majesty’s Government nor Sir Stafford Cripps have offered any explanation as to why they are offering to Indians the very proposals which His Majesty’s Government had been condemning in scathing terms only a few months ago. A year ago, His Majesty’s Government said that they would not grant Constituent Assembly because that would be a coercion of the minorities. His Majesty’s Government is now prepared to grant Constituent Assembly and to coerce the minorities. A year ago, His Majesty’s Government said that they will not allow Pakistan because that is Balkanization of India. To-day, they are prepared to allow the partition of India. How can the Government of a Great Empire lose all sense of principle ? The only explanation is that His Majesty’s Government has, as a result of the course of the war, become panic-stricken. The proposals are the result of loss of nerve. How great is the panic that has overtaken His Majesty’s Government can be easily seen if one compared the demands made by the Congress and the Muslim League and the concessions made to them by these proposals. The Congress demanded that the Constitution should be framed by a Constituent Assembly by a mere majority vote. On the other hand, when the Viceroy announced that the British Government will not be a party to the coercion of the minorities involved in the demand by the Congress, the Working Committee of the Congress at its meeting at Wardha held on August 22, 1940, passed the following resolution :—
“The Committee regrets that although the Congress has never thought in terms of coercing any minority, much less of asking the British Government to do so, the demand for a settlement of a Constitution though through a Constituent Assembly of duly elected representatives has been misrepresented as coercion and the issue of minorities has been made into an insuperable barrier to Indians progress.”