There is another matter in this connection to which perhaps, I may refer. One of the headaches of the Indian Independence Act, I mean the headaches caused in this country by the Indian Independence Act, was the manner in which practically it encouraged the cutting of the political connection between the Government of India and the Governments of the Indian States. If that Act, or rather if that Bill had become law in the form in which it was originally framed, perhaps the disconnection would “have been complete, but certain steps were taken in order to introduce into that Bill provisions which were intended to avert that calamity. But even so what was put into the Act as enacted by Parliament, was not half of what was demanded from here with the full support of the statesman who is now tile Governor-General of the Dominion. What we got was only a partial recognition of the point of view that was urged from here, and that only tried to maintain certain economic connections that exist between the Centre and the Indian States. It left the continuance of the political connection very much in the air. In fact, legally speaking it cut off that connection, unless some steps were taken to revise that connection by some means or other, and I may here say that happily for this country, this revival of the connection has been brought about, and the result is that today we are in the Dominion of India under the Indian Independence Act in a much better position as regards this political connection than we were under the Act of 1935.
