दलित वर्ग लीग. परिशिष्ट—IX : संस्थानांचे काय?

APPENDIX—IX WHAT ABOUT THE STATES ?

“Dr. B. R. Ambedkar has given a timely warning to both the Indian States and the Interim Government. The States cannot have an existence apart from the Indian Union.

As a Constitutionalist, Dr. Ambedkar speaks with authority, when he asks the Interim Government to notify the British Government that the people of India will never recognise any Indian State as a Sovereign Independent State.

But something more than the letter of the law is necessary to restrain the States rulers from their folly and their peoples from its consequences. What are the sanctions of the Interim Government in regard to a definite States policy ? The sanctions are fourfold : The will of the Indian people, the will of the States people, the prevailing influence of Democracy and the blind autocracy of the rulers.

It is a fact that not all rulers are against Democracy but then these rulers are for the Union. Sir C. P. Ramaswami Aiyer grandiloquently said, “They that are not with us, are against us.”

This should be the guiding rule of the Indian Union. Sir C. P. Ramaswami’s attitude, however, is transitory. He is himself a traveller through Travancore. He may stay a year, two years or five. But he must go. His claim to speak on behalf of Travancore is very slender. The matured wisdom of the Maharaja of Cochin is bound to carry weight with the sister State of Travancore, sooner rather than later.

More serious is the menace of Hyderabad, sprawling in the very centre of India, where no passing Premier but the ruling Prince himself bars the entrance into the Union.

The Nizam, let it not be forgotten, repudiates all the claims of Democracy. Even the representative institutions he has set up in his Dominions are a negation of Democracy. The legislature is vitiated by functional representation tainted with rank communalism. The Chief Minister is appointed and removed by the authority and at the whim of His Exalted Highness.

These things have been slurred over in the past. In the immediate future, there are so many obstacles in the path of the people of Hyderabad to the Indian Union. The Congress leaders have expressed themselves adequately and more than adequately on the States position. There is no purpose served by banding words with this or that dewan. They must address themselves to the task of implementing their words with strong, resolute action. The Indian States are part and parcel of India. The Union cannot permit them to exist within it as islands of isolation.

The people of the Indian States have declared themselves for the union. That decision must be given effect to immediately. There is no need to rely on either the British Viceroy or on the Princes for bringing about the re-union. In fact, it would be confusion of weakness if, in the face of so strong a case, the Congress leaders, felt that they needed to be helped to estabish their authority.

When the Consituent Assembly meets, it will have the bulk of the Indian States in it. This is an outstanding feature since the Chamber of Princes came into being, as it divides for the first time the Indian States, often miscalled the Princely Order, into those who are with the Indian Union and those who are against.

The Congress leaders and other nationalists must build upon that gain and develop enough strength to deal with recalcitrant Princes.

The need for swift action is there now that the Pakistan State is looming large on the horizon. Mr. Jinnah certainly does not let the grass grow under his feet nor does he allow it under the feet of others.

Mr. Jinnah’s statement on the Sovereignty of the Indian States is a piece of gratuitous meddling.

Mr. Jinnah asked for his Pakistan State and he has got it. After that he has no more right to speak on the affairs of the Indian Union than has any other foreign ruler. His attempt to stir up trouble in the Indian States is not an isolated instance of the Quaid-e-Azam’s hankering after the status of an all India leader. He has according to one of his followers supported the cause of Moplastan on what grounds he only knows.

Mr. Jinnah speaks as an expert on Constitutional affairs. He would be well advised if he kept his special knowledge for the many Constitutional knots which need unravelling in the Pakistan Constituent Assembly.

Mr. Jinnah has to make up his mind. Either he functions as the prospective head of the Pakistan State or he assumes responsibility for working in the Union.

It is not as though Mr. Jinnah was given a charter to meddle in things that did not concern him. His party’s unwillingness to stay in the Union has won it separation. It cannot now start sowing seeds of trouble in the rest of India. The Congress must act betimes. The time for speeches will come later. The present position is bad enough in all conscience. It would be tragic if the Congress wakes up to discover that its over-optimism has added to its worries.” 1 zz

1. : The Free Press Journal, dated 5th June 1947.