Plan

For three years India had been in a state of suspended political animation. Some 3,000 nationalists were in jail,* their pleas for Indian independence silenced by the fiat of the British Raj that constitutional reform must wait till the war is won. Three years after Sir Stafford Cripps's mission, Hindus (the Congress party) and Moslems (the Moslem League) were still unable to agree on his plan for postwar Dominion status. They were also unable to agree with one another. But last week India was stirring uneasily.

A blaze of speculation and hope had sprung up around two secondary political figures--the Congress party's Bhulabhai Desai, 67, and the Moslem League's Nawabzada Liaqat Ali Khan, 49, who reportedly had set out to break the interminable deadlock. Both were members of the Central Legislative Assembly in New Delhi, both felt that they could negotiate with the British authorities more freely than their policy-bound leaders, Mohandas Gandhi and Mohamed Ali Jinnah.

First, soft-spoken Lawyer Desai had a talk with the Viceroy, Lord Wavell. Then he consulted Gandhi and his old friend Liaqat Ali Khan. Finally he came back to the Viceroy with a coalition proposal: until the war ends, Congress, the Moslem League and other minority groups should form an all-party interim government without holding elections. In the Central Assembly and the five provinces where elected Indian majorities refuse to share in the government, Hindus and Moslems would each receive 40% representation, minorities the rest. Since this would mean a resumption of Indian political responsibilities without involving wartime constitutional changes, Lord Wavell has sent the scheme on to Whitehall.

In retirement at Wardha, Gandhi said nothing concerning the planmakers. But he wagged an admonitory finger at Britain : "Victory won at the expense of India will mean . . . there will have arisen a new monster that will seek to eat all it sees. ... It has given me no pleasure to make this statement."

* Including Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru; Mohandas K. Gandhi was released ten months ago.

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