Tightrope Diplomacy

"The time is not far away when India . . . will be found in the ranks of our allies," recently boasted Duke Adolf Friedrich of Mecklenburg, head man of the Nazi Colonial League. What the blustering Junker overlooked was the fact that, although Indians have no love for Britain, they universally abhor the Nazi principles of military domination and the German record of ruthless colonial exploitation. For various reasons India wants to keep out of World War II altogether. Mohandas K. Gandhi wants to because the principle of non-violence is dearer to him than freedom itself; the Indian National Congress wants to because it is determined to exploit the plight of Great Britain to secure complete independence.

On the other hand, responsible Indian leaders do not wish to hamper the British war effort because the collapse of Britain would make India--like French Indo-China--the prey of the land-grabbing dictators. Meeting last week at Poona, the Indian National Congress Committee took cognizance of a tight situation when it adopted an anti-war but pro-British policy, elected as its leader by 192 to 7 votes the only man in India sufficiently astute to reconcile these two conflicting views--Mahatma Gandhi.

Sidestepping the issue of passive resistance as skillfully as a temple dancer, Saint Gandhi ordered his followers to obey laws and cooperate with the Government while he visited the British Viceroy to "seek permission to preach nonparticipation in war." Nonparticipation, he warned his followers, was no prelude to mass civil disobedience, but fearing that without some action to push Indian independence the masses would desert him, he compromised: "I don't want to order civil disobedience. I favor individual disobedience." The wily Saint knew that individual disobedience, lacking organization, would amount to nothing. The independence movement, he admitted, could be temporarily delayed.

For Britain the Indian decision was no real solution to the impasse created when London arbitrarily declared India in the war, offering vague promises of post-war adjustments instead of concrete concessions. For the Indian millions who no longer follow the Saint it was no solution either.

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