for both races, Asiatic and European? It is only
in that sense that racial equality, like the equality
already recognised of all men born to our common British
nationhood, can have any meaning. For in the
strict sense of the word no two men are born equal,
either physically or intellectually, any more than
there is complete equality in the family and social
surroundings in which they are brought up. All
that the citizens of the freest countries are entitled
to claim is that there shall be no denial of right
to them on the score of birth to equal opportunities
for bringing their own individual qualities by their
own effort to the largest possible fruition within
the lawful limits prescribed to prevent injury being
done to others or to the community at large. Does
not the same hold good for nations and for races?
The principle of equality thus understood must clearly
prevail between Asiatics and Europeans in India, for
all racial discrimination between them has long been
ruled out by our own statutes, and now more than ever
by a Constitution which calls India to partnership
in the British Empire. It is, however, one thing
to lay down a principle, and another to put it consistently
into practice. There are questions in front of
us in India which it will be difficult to solve if
Indians and Englishmen approach them in a spirit of
racial antagonism. They should not be insoluble
if approached on the lines of equal opportunity for
both races. Other and still more difficult questions
are likely to produce divergencies of views and interests
between India and other parts of the Empire, including
the United Kingdom itself. The questions that
affect the status and rights of Indians in the Dominions
and Colonies go to the root of racial discrimination.
When such questions arise their solution, in a sense
that will give even the barest and most undeniably
legitimate satisfaction to Indian views and Indian
interests, will not be achieved merely through the
co-operation of the Government of India, or of every
Englishman, official or non-official, in India, however
heartily these may identify themselves with Indian
views and Indian interest. Their solution will
rest with the British people all over the Empire.
Will the British Government and the Dominion Governments
and the free peoples behind them approach all questions
in which India is concerned in the same spirit which
they have already learnt to bring to bear upon questions
in which not India but other partners of the Empire
are concerned? Will they be prepared to approach
them in the same spirit in which India was welcomed
in times of stress and storm to the War Councils and
Peace Councils of the Empire? That spirit was
the spirit of equal partnership in a common danger,
of co-operation on equal terms in a common struggle,
of equal opportunities of sacrifice in common.
It was nobly conceived in the womb of war. Will
it have died with the war? Or will it survive
and be extended to the discussion of Imperial questions