§ Colonel DAYasked the Under-Secretary of State for India what action has been taken with a view to dealing with the growing tension with regard to Hindu-Moslem hostility throughout India?
§ Earl WINTERTONThe action which Government has taken and can take may be divided into moral action, on the one hand, and, on the other, legal or executive action. On the moral side, 1283W which is by no means the least important, I would refer, in the first place, to the earnest appeal which was made by the Viceroy to the two communities to put away these feelings of hatred and intolerance. I am glad to think that this appeal had considerable effect. In the second place, the local officers of Government have been using all their influence to effect agreement between the different parties and to promote a conciliatory spirit. On two occasions recently, the first in October, 1924, the second in June, 1926, the Government of India have addressed all local Governments with a view to emphasising the importance of these methods.
The legal and executive action takes two main forms. In the first place there are the preventive and regulating orders issued by local officers with a view to preserving the peace and the material precautions which they take by the disposition of police forces and the assistance of the military to ensure that order is maintained, or if a riot breaks out, it is suppressed with the utmost promptitude. In very numerous cases these precautions, which entail a great strain on the local officers, have been completely successful in preventing disorder or quelling it promptly. In the second place, whenever it has seemed desirable, the local Governments have instituted prosecutions against individuals or newspapers stirring up communal feeling, and the law has recently been strengthened so as to facilitate legal action against the distribution of pamphlets of an objectionable character, which do great harm in exciting feelings of hatred between the communities. The executive in Calcutta have been armed with special powers by means of an emergency law, to remove dangerous characters from the city. The Government of India, in fact, have made and will continue to make full use of all their powers, whether of influence or law, to check these manifestations of hostility and to preserve order, and, in spite of the tense state of public feeling, and the outbreaks which it is inevitably liable to produce, they can claim confidently that the general situation is well in hand.
An important debate took place in the Legislative Assembly in September last on the police and action of Government in 1284W regard to these communal troubles. The Resolution recommending Government to take certain further action was eventually withdrawn after an interesting and frank discussion of the problem, the Assembly in effect realising that there was no specific action they could recommend the Government to take in addition to what it was already doing. The Government, however, made it plain that they would in no way relax their present efforts, and the Viceroy has already stated that he will be at any time prepared to consider the desirability of convening a conference of the leaders on both sides, if he is satisfied that there is some reasonable probability of benefit resulting from it. It was pointed out in the Assembly debates that a conference held at an inopportune moment might do more harm than good, and there was no pressure for immediate action on these lines. I can assure the hon. Member that both the Government of India and the local Governments continue to watch the situation with the utmost care, and will be ready at any time to take such further action as the circumstances may seem to require.