POSTSCRIPT TO THE	^^e ^w^^c^^e^ ^^ave drawn out the
-	sword and have bent their bow, to
2nd EDITION I.	_cast ^_own   the poor   and   the
needy, and to slay such as be
of upright conversation. Their
sword shall enter into their own
heart, and their bows shall be
broken,
the
DAEKNESS AND DAWN
|N July 18, 1946, the Right Honourable A. V, Alexander, British
Istaiwart met already as a member of the Cabinet Mission to
I India, made a speech in the House of Commons. In the course
of it, he unburdened himself of observations which are very re-
vealing. "We have to deal with a situation^1', he said, "when there 5s
a political awakening throughout the world and specially in the East,
and if some attempt had not been made to get the agreement we have
so far secured in India, I am certain we should have faced a position
of uprising and of bloodshed and disturbances in India already, and
with a future military commitment that no one could at the present
moment, forecast."^1
Imperialism in India, was, therefore, according to this authorita-
tive spokesman, in a very real quandary and was making an "attempt"
to get out of it. He had been worried over "future military commit-
ment ", for discontent in India was, in his own reckoning, so deep and
so widespread that it could not be tackled otherwise. But he was
worried no longer, it seemed, not at any rate overmuch; his policy
had " secured" important success in India already, for Congress and
the Muslim League had accepted the British Plan, though with men-
tal reservations aimed mutually against one another rather than
against the British.
What this precious Plan was like, has been noted in a summary
in the preceding section. It is difficult to see what lured the leading
Indian parties, for the Plan is in very truth, what R, Palme Dutt des-
cribed as "a new chapter in divide and rule/*^2 With the unabashed
assurance characteristic of Social-Democratic parties when they seek
vainly to justify the blatantest deviations, Professor Harold Laski.thea
i Amnta Bazar Patrika (Calcutta), July 19, 1946.
* See R, P. Dutt's pamphlet with the saine title (Bombay, 1946)<