DOMINION    STATUS	225
of India from that of a dependency to a free member of
the British Commonwealth ? The British Commonwealth
numbers some 450 million inhabitants, but 353 millions of
these belong to India. Can one envisage the development
of this concept of the British Commonwealth of Nations
without associating India as an integral part of that system ?
11 What does membership of the British Commonwealth
mean to India, to the Commonwealth as a whole, and to
the world ? " asks Professor Alfred Zimmern.1 I would
ask the reader to ponder over the following reply Professor
Zimmern gives to his question. He says :
" India is the pivot of world politics in the coming
generations. To put it more specifically, if India preserves
her association with the British Commonwealth, and the
Commonwealth, on its side, gives India the place in its
system and in its counsels which is due to her, the prospects
for world peace and general human progress will be im-
measurably increased. If, on the other hand, the effort to
establish an equal partnership between India and the other
British Dominions should break down, the consequences
would recoil, not simply on the parties immediately con-
cerned, but on the whole human family. The stage would
be set for an inter-racial conflict of incalculable dimensions." 2
The controversy over the phrase " Dominion Status "
has widened the chasm between India and Great Britain.
It may conjure up incidents leading to mutual recrimination
and may deepen India's suspicion in regard to the intention
of the Imperial Government to fulfil the promise of granting
Dominion Status to India. The declaration in definite
terms in a Preamble to the Act that the objective aimed at
by the new Constitution is to grant Dominion Status to India
would have certainly produced a congenial atmosphere for
establishing trust and goodwill in the relations between
India and Great Britain. It is difficult to persuade Indians
that Dominion Status is not susceptible of definition in a
1	Burton Professor of International Relations, Oxford.
2	See " India Analysed," Vol. I.    Gollancz ; 1933.
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