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From The Militant, Vol. III No. 25, 28 June 1930, p. 2.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.
The second volume of the Simon Report is now available for analysis and it bears out the most cynical expectation of the supporters of the Indian revolution. It is nothing more or less than a direct declaration of war to the bitter end for the throttling of the Indian revolution. It does not even contain the recommendation of “Home Rule”. Divide and Rule! India is to be still further cut up by the separation of Burma so that the British can have a base of operations against the Indian revolutionary movement.
The other eight provinces will have “self-governing” institutions and will “send” representatives to a “Federal Assembly”. Even to the capitalist press (the New York Times, June 24) anxious to sugar coat it the purport of the Report “is to give Britain a stronger hold on India than ever ... The British Governors in the provinces will be virtual autocrats with sweeping powers to override the Indian Ministers ... the governors can call the British troops in any emergency ... and the British army will continue for many years under the control ... of the Imperial Government.”
The Simon Commission is composed of labor, liberal and conservative representatives of the groups in the British House. The Simon Commission functioned under the direct responsibility of Ramsay MacDonald’s Labor Government. Whatever a few more radical rank and filers in the American socialist party may think, the report of the Simon Commission is the type of “self-determination” granted to the oppressed nationalities by the Governments and parties of the Second International.
What will the Simon Commission’s report actually solve? What does it change? The driving forces of the Indian revolution, have not been wiped out by its flood of words. The Commission says “as you were.” British Imperialism and its bayonets, its exploitation of the Indian workers will remain. We will not release India by any constitutional surrender, says the Commission. All your “nationalist movement”, your “civil disobedience”, “your salt tax violations” mean little to us. We understand one language – that is the language of power – the language of war and revolution
The Indian revolution enters on a stage that is clearly defined. The vacillations, the mysticism, the pacifism with which Gandhi has weakened and betrayed the revolutionary ferment in the past can no longer so successfully confuse the issues. The issue is more sharply defined. It is surrender to British Imperialism – which acceptance of the Commission’s report means – or revolutionary mass action of the peasants and the petty bourgeoisie under the leadership of the industrial proletariat.
The opportunities for a Communist Party and a revolutionary policy in India today are inspiring. Will, can the present Comintern regime utilize the situation for the international revolution?
In the next issue of the Militant there will appear a thorough analysis of the whole situation in which the Indian revolution now finds itself.
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