(From the Archives, April 27) The curse of dualism again

Mr. St. Nihal Singh has pointedly drawn our attention in the columns of the “Hindu” to the anomalous nature of India’s status in the British Empire. What the status of India is and whether it was really enhanced by the Montagu regime is an interesting question to consider. The outstanding fact is that India is not at present a dominion in the accepted sense of that term. Even those who wildly experience all the blessings of freedom in the Montagu reforms have admitted it. The Rt. Hon. Mr. Sastri himself who feels so much for the good name of Britain that is being tarnished by the wickedness of the Hearst Press that he is going to take a voyage to America to heroically combat it, had to admit in the Imperial and International conferences that India was not yet a Dominion though she was on the road to it. India continues to be in theory as well as in fact a Dependency of Great Britain. Two factors made it imperative on Britain not to openly avow this position. In the first place it was shocking to the self-respect of the people of this country in the wake of their intense after-war national consciousness which had to be placated.