Book Review: Commonwealth of Nations: India and the Commonwealth 1885–1929
| Date | 01 June 1967 |
| Author | Jitendra Mohan |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206702200228 |
| Published date | 01 June 1967 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK
REvIEws
333
the
rootedness
of
those
(in
many
cases,
pioneers)
who
face
the very
extinction
of
their
country But
Mr.
Wilson
did,
presumably
come
to
an
understanding
of
all
this
some
time in
1966,
when
he
made
his
offer
of
complete
union
between
Rhodesia
and
Britain-to
last
until
majority
rule
was
achieved.
Whether
or
not
he
expected
this
to
be
a
practicable
alternative-all
kinds
of
difficulties
suggest
themselves-it
will
remain
as an
important
precedent.
For
whether
or
not
it
should
be
possible
to
establish
within
a
future
Zimbabwe
sovereign
Rhodesian
or
British
enclaves
on,
say
the
Cyprus
model-it
is
difficult
at
the
moment
to
envisage
such
a
compromise-the
continuing
authority
and responsibility
for
Rhodesia
of
the Government
of
the
United Kingdom (Mr. Wilson's
words)
must
surely
entail
British
sponsorship
of
some scheme,
prefer
ably
a
Commonwealth
or
perhaps,
even,
a
United
Nations
one,
whereby
people
can
be
compensated
for
loss
of
patrimony-
and
whereby
if
they
so
desire,
they
can
be
resettled,
with
the
minimum
loss
to
themselves,
elsewhere. Canada,
herself
the
product
of a
not
unrelated
process
of
historical
development,
could
play a
pivotal
part
in
facilitating
such
a
scheme.
University
of
Saskatchewan
D.
J.
HEASMAN
INDIA
AND
THE
COMMONwEALTH
1885-1929.
By
S.
R.
Mehrotra.
1965.
(Lon-
don:
Allen
&
Unwin.
Toronto:
Thomas
Nelson.
287pp.
$9.25)
It
is
one of
the
curiosities
of
Commonwealth
historiography
that
as
membership
in
the
Commonwealth diminishes
in
value,
more
and
more
of
its
members
are
claimed
to
have made
a
"special
contribution"
to
its
development.
From
diverse
angles
such
claims
have
been
proposed
on
behalf
of
Canada,
South
Africa
(a member
no
longer),
and
Ireland
(the
first nation
to
reject
domimon
status).
Now
Indian
scholars
are
joining the
ranks,
claiming
India's
special
contribution
in
the
develop-
ment
of
the multiracial
Commonwealth.
In
a
scholarly
meticulous
and
well-written study,
Dr. Mehrotra
traces the
development
of
the
Commonwealth
idea in
India
from
the
inauguration
in
1885
of
the
Indian National
Congress
until the
Congress
declaration
in
1929
of
complete independence
as
the
goal
of
its
en-
deavours. He
links
this
with political
and
constitutional
developments
in
India
and
with
the apparently
haphazard
responses-combining
or
alternating
conciliation
and
repression-of
successive
British
govern-
ments
to
the
ascendant
Indian
nationalism.
He
shows
how
the
British
refusal
to
map
out
a
long-range
Indian
policy
in
effect
ensured
that
British
concessions
increasingly lagged
behind
Indian
expectations.
That
the
British
were
encouraged
in
this refusal
by
the
great
complexity
of
India's
political
scene
is
clearly
brought
out by
his
careful analysis
and
comparison,
in
his
particular
example,
of
the attitudes
towards
the
Empire-Commonwealth
of
the
Congress,
the
National
Liberal
Federa-
tion
of
India,
and
the
All-India Muslim
League. The ambiguity
of
the
concept of
dominion
status,
again,
was
a
complicating
factor.
The
dominion
status
which
Indian nationalists
wanted
for
India
sought
to
make
her
equal
in
status
with
the
self-governm=g
domarnons
and,
indeed,
with
Britain.
In
its earlier
phase this
was
a
demand
for
self-
To continue reading
Request your trial