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Diarchy

I have referred perhaps at some length to my work as a Minister, not so much for personal reasons as for the vindication of the Reforms. The cry has been raised, and this time within the precincts of the Council Chambers, that the Reforms are moonshine and that diarchy has been a dead failure. It is in one sense the renewal of an old attack. When the Reform Scheme was first published, and indeed on the eve of its publication, it was fiercely assailed by Extremist politicians. It was in an atmosphere critical and even hostile that the Reforms were launched into operation. The Meston award seriously handicapped their working; and financial stringency stood in the way of the inauguration and expansion of beneficent schemes of education, sanitation and industrial development. The attack has been renewed after the first term of the Legislative Councils with the added cry that diarchy has failed. Diarchy is the essence of the new system, and, if it is once conceded that it has not been successful, the Reforms must go, at least in their present form; and one of two things must happen, either the concession of complete autonomous government or a reversal to the old bureaucratic system. Whether it should be the one or the other must depend upon the judgment of Parliament.

What the final decision of Parliament is to be, we cannot anticipate. But Parliament and the British democracy have clearly indicated their views upon the grave issue of responsible government for India. Of course, they may change. I hope they will, in favour of a fresh advance. But, from all that we know of the English people, it may be safely assumed that they will not change in a hurry. And, when they do change, they stick to the old traditions and put on the old garb, as in the great Revolution of 1688. The preamble to the Government of India Act of 1919 (which is a parliamentary statute) provides that responsible government is the end and aim of British rule and that it is to be attained by progressive stages. The Act also provides that after 1929 a Parliamentary Commission is to make an enquiry and report upon what