Government of India Act- 1919

If we wish to see how far we have travelled upon the road to self-government for India, we have only to com- 674pare the Declaration made in this House in 1917 by Mr. Montagu, who was then Secretary of State for India, and which was embodied in the Government of India Act, 1919, with the position to-day. The Government of India Act in its preamble spoke of the gradual development of self-governing institutions, with a view to the progressive realisation of responsible government in British India as an integral part of the British Empire. It went on to say this policy can only be achieved by successive stages …. and the time and manner of each advance can be determined only by Parliament, upon whom responsibility lies for the welfare and advancement of the Indian peoples. Compare that with the Prime Minister’s statement in summing up the Round Table Conference. Finally, I hope and I trust and I pray that by our labours together India will possess the only thing which she now lacks to give her the status of a Dominion among the British Commonwealth of Nations—what she now lacks for that—the responsibilities and the cares, the burdens and the difficulties, but the pride and the honour of responsible self-government.

The Prime Minister definitely placed the Indian constitution on a permanent basis. Responsibility in future is to be placed on Indians, both at the Centre and in the Provinces. The safeguards are a matter of common agreement and concern, and their disappearance in time will result as a matter of negotiation amongst equals. Compare that with the Declaration of 1917, in which Parliament was to be the sole judge, and one can see how far we have travelled. The test then was to be India’s fitness. That has entirely gone. In the Prime Minister’s statement there is no question about India’s fitness; we admit that. I should like to quote some words of Immanuel Kant, which, I think, are quite apposite: If we were not designed to exert our powers until we were assured of our ability to attain our object, those powers would remain unused. It is only by trying that we learn what our powers are. Dr. Rabindranath Tagore, who was referred to by the hon. Member for Bodmin (Mr. Foot) wrote a letter in the “New York Times” in which he said: It is the opportunity for self-government itself which gives for self-government, not foreign subjection. 675I should also like to thank the Noble Lord, Lord Lothian, for his excellent statement that The only cure for irresponsibility is responsibility. An India free and friendly will be a great bulwark for Britain. We went to India nearly two centuries ago for trade, and that is what we want badly to-day.

The agreement to-day with India is the best promise for trade and benefit both to India and to Britain. Something has been said about safeguards. These are necessary in the interests of the Indians themselves, and as I said in the House last May, if we brought the Indians here to a Round Table Conference they themselves would insist on safeguards. They are absolutely necessary in the interests of Indians themselves, and Indians alone will be able to say when they will be unnecessary. It is in the interests of a united India for Indians to make them unnecessary as soon as possible. The Prime Minister in referring to safeguards pointed out that it would be the primary concern of His Majesty’s Government to see that the reserved powers are so framed and exercised as not to prejudice the advance of India through the new constitution to full responsibility for her own government. Sir Taj Bahadur Sapru, that far-seeing statesman, said in connection with safeguards: It may be that there are certain safeguards. Frankly, I am not alarmed by those safeguards; and indeed …. those safeguards are really intended in the interests of the responsible government that we are establishing at the centre and not to strengthen the hands of English control over us. India has been a great country, not merely for centuries but for thousands of years. Indian culture has influenced and is influencing the world to-day. India in the past has had great Empires and the names of Asoka and Akbar will be remembered for all times as great emperors. India has survived while other countries and empires which have grown up since have perished. [Ramsay MacDonald’s speech-1931]