THE DUTY OF INDIAN LIBERALS

IN view of the extremely provoking and unacceptable pronouncement made by Mr. Lloyd George on the subject of the Reforms, the question which everybody has been asking during the last two or three days is, what are the Indian Liberals, and especially the Liberal ministers, going to do? These men or at any rate many of them are not only patriots but Nationalists to the core of their being. Several of them have rendered services of value to the cause of Indian self-government. At least one had been, as he himself reminded the public recently, among the first to dream of Indian self-government, and had made a contribution to the maturing of the national demand second to that of no other leader of the older school. It is inconceivable that any of them would have accepted service under the Crown in India if it had not been for the advent of the Reforms, with their promise of self-government for their country. Nor is this a matter only of inference. Several of them, when publicly taken to task for their acceptance of office, have given this very explanation of their conduct. Sir Surendranath Banerjea, for instance, not only told us in the clearest terms at the time, but has again told us that it is not he who has changed in accepting office, but it is the Government which has changed in making it possible for him to accept office. What the people are asking is, what do these veteran warriors in the national struggle for constitutional independence propose to do, now that Mr. Lloyd George has told them that he can see no period when India will be self-governing in the sense in which, as we all know, Canada and Australia and South Africa are self-governing, that the Reforms mean and will continue to mean nothing else than the increasing association of Indians with Englishmen in the management of India’s own household.