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diff --git a/15586.txt b/15586.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..98b2b73 --- /dev/null +++ b/15586.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11385 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of India, Old and New, by Sir Valentine Chirol + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: India, Old and New + +Author: Sir Valentine Chirol + +Release Date: April 8, 2005 [EBook #15586] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INDIA, OLD AND NEW *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Jennifer Zickerman and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + +(Transcriber's Note: [=x] notation indicates a character with a macron.) + + + INDIA + OLD AND NEW + + + BY + SIR VALENTINE CHIROL + + AUTHOR OF "INDIAN UNREST," "THE EGYPTIAN PROBLEM," ETC. + + + "We shall in time so far improve the character of our + Indian subjects as to enable them to govern and protect + themselves."--Minute by Sir Thomas Munro, Governor + of Madras, Dec. 31, 1824. + + + MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED + ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON + 1921 + + + + +FOREWORD + + +It is little more than ten years since I wrote my _Indian Unrest_. But +they have been years that may well count for decades in the history of +the world, and not least in the history of India. Much has happened in +India to confirm many of the views which I then expressed. Much has +happened also to lead me to modify others, and to recognise more clearly +to-day the shortcomings of a system of government, in many ways +unrivalled, but subject to the inevitable limitations of alien rule. + +At a very early stage of the Great War the Prime Minister warned the +British people that, after the splendid demonstration India was already +giving of her loyalty to the cause for which the whole Empire was then +in arms, our relations with her would have henceforth to be approached +from "a new angle of vision." The phrase he used acquired a deeper +meaning still as the war developed from year to year into a +life-and-death struggle not merely between nations but between ideals, +and India claimed for herself the benefit of the ideals for which she +too fought and helped the British Commonwealth to victory. When victory +was assured, could India's claim be denied after she had been called in, +with all the members of the British Commonwealth, to the War Councils of +the Empire in the hour of need, and again been associated with them in +the making of peace? The British people have answered that question as +all the best traditions of British governance in India, and all the +principles for which they had fought and endured through four and a half +years of frightful war, bade them answer it. + +The answer finally took shape in the great constitutional experiment of +which I witnessed the inauguration during my visit to India this winter. +It promises to rally as seldom before in active support of the British +connection those classes that British rule brought within the orbit of +Western civilisation by the introduction of English education, just +about a century ago. It has not disarmed all the reactionary elements +which, even when disguised in a modern garb, draw their inspiration from +an ancient civilisation, remote indeed from, though not in its better +aspects irreconcilable with, our own. A century is but a short moment of +time in the long span of Indian history, and the antagonism between two +different types of civilisation cannot be easily or swiftly lived down. +It would be folly to underrate forces of resistance which are by no +means altogether ignoble, and in this volume I have studied their origin +and their vitality because they underlie the strange "Non-co-operation" +movement which has consciously or unconsciously arrayed every form of +racial and religious and economic and political discontent, not merely +against British rule, but against the progressive forces which contact +with Western civilisation has slowly brought into existence under +British rule in India itself. These forces have been stirred to new +endeavour by the goal now definitely placed within their reach. That we +were bound to set that goal and no other before them I have tried to +show by reviewing the consistent evolution of British policy in India +for the last 150 years, keeping, imperfectly sometimes, but in the main +surely, abreast of our own national and political evolution at home and +throughout the Empire. Once placed in its proper perspective, this great +experiment, though fraught with many dangers and difficulties, is one of +which the ultimate issue can be looked forward to hopefully as the not +unworthy sequel to the long series of bold and on the whole wonderfully +successful experiments that make up the unique story of British rule in +India. + +I have to express my thanks to the proprietors of _The Times_ for +allowing me to use some of the letters which I wrote for that paper +whilst I was in India last winter, and also to the Royal Society of Arts +for permission to reproduce the main portions of a lecture delivered by +me last year on Hinduism as the first of the Memorial Lectures +instituted in honour of the late Sir George Birdwood, to whom I owe as +much for the deeper understanding which he gave me of old India as I do +to the late Mr. G.K. Gokhale for the clearer insight I gained from him +into the spirit of new India whilst we were colleagues from 1912 to 1915 +on the Royal Commission on Indian Public Services. + + VALENTINE CHIROL. + +34 CARLYLE SQUARE, CHELSEA, +_August 24, 1921._ + + + + +CONTENTS + + PAGE + CHAPTER I + THE CLASH OF TWO CIVILISATIONS 1 + + + CHAPTER II + THE ENDURING POWER OF HINDUISM 15 + + + + CHAPTER III + MAHOMEDAN DOMINATION 46 + + + CHAPTER IV + BRITISH RULE UNDER THE EAST INDIA COMPANY 66 + + + CHAPTER V + THE MUTINY AND FIFTY YEARS AFTER 84 + + + CHAPTER VI + THE FIRST GREAT WAVE OF UNREST 111 + + + CHAPTER VII + THE MORLEY-MINTO REFORMS 125 + + + CHAPTER VIII + THROUGH THE GREAT WAR TO THE GREAT INDIAN REFORM BILL 139 + + + CHAPTER IX + THE EMERGENCE OF MR. GANDHI 165 + + + CHAPTER X + SIDE-LIGHTS ON THE ELECTIONS 193 + + + CHAPTER XI + CROSS CURRENTS IN SOUTHERN INDIA 214 + + + CHAPTER XII + THE BIRTH OF AN INDIAN PARLIAMENT 227 + + + CHAPTER XIII + ECONOMIC FACTORS 246 + + + CHAPTER XIV + SHOALS AND ROCKS AHEAD 268 + + + CHAPTER XV + THE INCLINED PLANE OF GANDHIISM 286 + + + CHAPTER XVI + THE INDIAN PROBLEM A WORLD PROBLEM 299 + + + INDEX 311 + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE CLASH OF TWO CIVILISATIONS + + +On February 9, 1921, three hundred and twenty-one years after Queen +Elizabeth granted to her trusty "Merchant-venturers" of London the +charter out of which the East India Company and the British Empire of +India were to grow up, His Royal Highness the Duke of Connaught +inaugurated at Delhi, in the King-Emperor's name, the new representative +institutions that are to lead India onward towards complete +self-government as an equal partner in the British Commonwealth of +Nations. To bring home to every Indian the full significance of the +occasion, the King-Emperor did not shrink from using in his Royal +Message an Indian word which not long ago was held to bear no other than +a seditious construction. His Majesty gave it a new and finer meaning. +"For years--it may be for generations--patriotic and loyal Indians have +dreamed of _Swaraj_ for their motherland. To-day you have the beginnings +of _Swaraj_ within my Empire, and the widest scope and ample opportunity +for progress to the liberty which my other Dominions enjoy." + +It was a bold pronouncement inaugurating another, some say the boldest, +of all the many bold adventures which make up the marvellous history of +British rule in India. The simplicity, rare in the East, of the ceremony +itself enhanced its significance. It was not held, like the opening of +the Chamber of Princes, in the splendid Hall of Public Audience in the +old Fort where the Moghul Emperors once sat on the Peacock Throne, nor +were there the flash of jewels and blaze of colour that faced the Duke +when he addressed the feudatory chiefs who still rule their states on +ancient lines beyond the limits of direct British administration. The +members of the new Indian Legislatures, most of them in sober European +attire, though many of them retained their own distinctive head-dress, +were assembled within the white and unadorned walls of the temporary +building in which they will continue to sit until the statelier home to +be built for them in new Delhi is ready to receive them. But Delhi +itself with all its age-long memories was around one to provide the +historic setting for an historic scene, and Delhi still stands under the +sign of the Kutub Minar, the splendid minaret--a landmark for miles and +miles around--which dominates the vast graveyard of fallen dynasties at +its feet and the whole of the great plain beyond where the fate of +India, and not of India alone, has so often been decided. + +On that plain were fought out, in prehistoric times, the fierce +conflicts of ancient Aryan races, Pandavas and Kauravas, around which +the poetic genius of India has woven the wonderful epos of the +Mahabharata. Only a couple of miles south of the modern city, the walls +of the Purana Kilat, the fortress built by Humayun, cover the site but +have not obliterated the ancient name of Indraprasthra, or Indrapat, the +city founded by the Pandavas themselves, when Yudhisthira celebrated +their final victory by performing on the banks of the Jumna, in token of +the Pandava claim to Empire, the _Asvamedha_, or great Horse Sacrifice, +originated by Brahma himself. There too, on a mound beyond Indrapat, +stands the granite shaft of one of Asoka's pillars, on which, with a +fine faith that the world has never yet justified, the great Buddhist +Apostle-Emperor of India inscribed over 2000 years ago his edicts +prohibiting the taking of life. At the very foot of the Kutub Minar the +famous Iron Pillar commemorates the victories of the "Sun of Power," the +Hindu Emperor of the Gupta dynasty with whose name, under the more +popular form of Raja Bikram, Indian legend associates the vague memories +of a golden age of Hindu civilisation in the fifth and sixth centuries. +The Pillar was brought there by one of the Rajput princes who founded in +the middle of the eleventh century the first city really known to +history as Delhi. There Prithvi Raja reigned, who still lives in Indian +minstrelsy as the embodiment of Hindu chivalry, equally gallant and +daring in love and in war--the last to make a stand in northern India +against the successive waves of Mahomedan conquest which Central Asia +had begun to pour in upon India in 1001, with the first of Mahmud +Ghazni's seventeen raids. In the next century an Afghan wave swept down +on the top of the original Turki wave, and Kutub-ed-Din, having +proclaimed himself Emperor of Delhi in 1206, built the great Mosque of +_Kuwwet-el-Islam_, "The Power of Islam," and the lofty minaret, still +known by his name, from which for six centuries the Moslem call to +prayer went forth to proclaim Mahomedan domination over India. + +With the monumental wreckage of those early Mahomedan dynasties, steeped +in treachery and bloodshed, the plain of Delhi is still strewn. The +annals of Indian history testify more scantily but not less eloquently +to their infamy until the supremacy of Delhi, but not of Islam, was +shaken for two centuries by Timur, who appeared out of the wild spaces +of Tartary and within a year disappeared into them again like a +devastating meteor. From his stock, nevertheless, was to proceed the +long line of Moghul Emperors who first under Baber and then under Akbar +won the Empire of Hindustan at the gates of Delhi, and for a time +succeeded in bringing almost the whole of India under their sway. But +their splendid marble halls in the great Fort of Delhi recall not only +the magnificence of the Moghul Empire, but its slow and sure decay, +until it became a suitor for the protection of the British power, which, +at first a mere trading power that had once sued humbly enough for its +protection, had risen to be the greatest military and political power +in India. It was at Delhi at the beginning of the nineteenth century +that Lord Lake rescued a Moghul Emperor from the hands of Mahratta +jailers, and it was at Delhi again that in 1857 the last semblance of +Moghul rulership disappeared out of history in the tempest of the +Mutiny. It was on the plain of Delhi that the assumption by Queen +Victoria of the imperial title was solemnly proclaimed in 1878, and, +with still greater pomp, King Edward's accession in 1903. There again in +1911 King George, the first of his line to visit his Indian Empire as +King-Emperor, received in person the fealty of princes and peoples and +restored Delhi to her former pride of place as its imperial capital. + +Where else in the world can such a procession of the ages pass before +one's eyes, from the great "Horse Sacrifice" of the Pandavas at the dawn +of history to the inauguration by a British prince in the King-Emperor's +name of modern political institutions conceived in the democratic spirit +of British freedom? + +Yet at the very time when an Indian-elected assembly, representing as +far as possible all creeds and classes and communities, and above all +the Western-educated classes who are the intellectual offspring of +British rule, were gathered together to hear delivered to them in +English--the one language in which, as a result of British rule, and by +no means the least valuable, Indians from all parts of a vast polyglot +country are able to hold converse--the Royal message throwing open to +the people of India the road to _Swaraj_ within the British Empire, the +imperial city of Delhi went into mourning as a sign of angry protest, +and the vast majority of its citizens, mostly, it must be remembered, +Mahomedans, very strictly observed a complete boycott of the Royal visit +in accordance with Mr. Gandhi's "Non-co-operation" campaign, and went +out in immense crowds to greet the strange Hindu saint and leader who +had come to preach to them his own very different message--a message of +revolt, not indeed by violence but by "soul force," against the +soulless civilisation of the West. + +In no other city in India would such an alliance between Hindus and +Mahomedans have seemed only a few years ago more unthinkable. For +nowhere else have we such a vision as in Delhi of the ruthlessness as +well as of the splendour of Mahomedan domination in India. Nowhere can +one measure as in Delhi the greatness of its fall, and its fall had +begun before it ever came into conflict with the rising British power. +It had been shaken to its foundations by the far more ancient power of +Hinduism, which Islam had subdued but never destroyed. In the +seventeenth century Shivaji, the hero still to-day of the Hindu revival +of which Mr. Gandhi is the latest apostle, led out for the first time +his Mahrattas in open rebellion against Delhi and started the continuous +process of disintegration from which the Moghul Emperors were driven to +purchase their only possible respite under British protection. Since +India finally passed not under Mahratta, but under British rule, +Hinduism has never again been subjected to the oppression which the +fierce monotheism of Islam itself taught all her Mahomedan rulers, with +the one noble exception of Akbar, to inflict upon an "idolatrous" race. +British rule introduced into India not only a new reign of law and order +but the principles of equal tolerance and justice for all which had +struck root in our own civilisation. Nevertheless, at the very moment at +which we were attempting to extend a wide and generous application of +those principles to the domain of political rights and liberties, we +were being confronted with unexpected forces of resistance which, even +in Mahomedan Delhi, drew their chief inspiration from Hinduism. + +But, it might be argued, Delhi, though restored to the primacy it had +lost under British rule as the capital city of India, has continued to +live on the memories of the past and has been scarcely touched by the +breath of modern civilisation. For the full effect of close contact +with the West, ought one not to look to the great cities that have +grown up under British rule--to Calcutta, for instance, the seat until a +few years ago of British Government in India, itself a creation of the +British, and if not to-day a more prosperous centre of European +enterprise than Bombay, a larger and more populous city, in which the +Hindus are in an overwhelming majority? But in the life even of Calcutta +features are not lacking to remind one how persistent are the forces of +resistance to the whole spirit of the West which Mr. Gandhi mustered in +Delhi to protest against the purpose of the Duke of Connaught's mission. +Had not a great part of Calcutta itself also observed the _Hartal_ +proclaimed by Mr. Gandhi during the Prince's visit? + +On the surface it seems difficult in Calcutta to get even an occasional +glimpse of the old India upon which we have superimposed a new India +with results that are still in the making. In Bombay, though it proudly +calls itself "the Western Gate of India" the glow of Hindu funeral +pyres, divided only by a long wall from the fashionable drive which +sweeps along Back Bay from the city, still called the Fort, to Malabar +Hill, serves to remind one any evening that he is in an oriental world +still largely governed as ever by the doctrine of successive rebirths, +the dead being merely reborn to fresh life, in some new form according +to each one's merits or demerits, out of the flames that consume the +body. On Malabar Hill itself, in the very heart of the favourite +residential quarter whence the Europeans are being rapidly elbowed out +by Indian merchant princes, the finest site of all still encloses the +Towers of Silence on which, contrary to the Hindu usage of cremation, +the Parsees, holding fire too sacred to be subjected to contact with +mortal corruption, expose their dead to be devoured by vultures. +Calcutta has no such conspicuous landmarks of the East to disturb the +illusion produced by most of one's surroundings that this is a city +which, if not actually European, differs only from the European type in +the complexion and dress of its oriental population and the +architectural compromises imposed on European buildings by a tropical +climate. The Marquess of Wellesley built Government House over a hundred +years ago on the model of Kedleston, and it is still the stateliest +official residence in British India. Fort William with Olive's ramparts +and fosses is still almost untouched, and with an ever-expanding +Walhalla of bronze or marble Governors and Viceroys and +Commanders-in-Chief, and at the farther end the white marble walls and +domes of the Queen Victoria Memorial Hall--the one noble monument we +have built in India--at last nearing completion, the broad expanse of +Calcutta's incomparable Maidan is, even more than our London parks, the +green playfield and the vital lung of the whole city. Along and behind +Chowringhee there are still a few of the old-time mansions of +Thackeray's "nabobs," with their deep, pillared verandahs standing well +off from the road, each within its discreet "compound," but they are all +rapidly making room for "eligible residences," more opulent perhaps but +more closely packed, or for huge blocks of residential flats, even less +adapted to the climate. The great business quarter round Dalhousie +Square has been steadily rebuilt on a scale of massive magnificence +scarcely surpassed in the city of London, and many of the shops compare +with those of our West End. The river, too, all along the Garden Reach +and far below is often almost as crowded as the Pool of London, with +ocean-going steamers waiting to load or unload their cargoes as well as +with lumbering native sailing ships and the ferries that ply ceaselessly +between the different quarters of the city on both banks of the Hugli. +The continuous roar of traffic in the busy streets, the crowded +tram-cars, the motors and taxis jostling the ancient bullock-carts, the +surging crowds in the semi-Europeanised native quarters, even the pall +of smoke that tells of many modern industrial activities are not quite +so characteristic of new India as, when I was last there, the +sandwich-men with boards inviting a vote for this or that candidate in +the elections to the new Indian Councils. + +In all the strenuous life and immense wealth of this great city, to +which European enterprise first gave and still gives the chief impulse, +Indians are taking an increasing share. The Bengalees themselves still +hold very much aloof from modern developments of trade and industry, but +they were the first to appreciate the value of Western education, and +the Calcutta University with all its shortcomings has maintained the +high position which Lord Dalhousie foreshadowed for it nearly seventy +years ago. In art and literature the modern Bengalee has often known how +to borrow from the West without sacrificing either his own originality +or the traditions of his race or the spirit of his creed. Some of the +finest Bengalee brains have taken for choice to the legal profession and +have abundantly justified themselves both as judges in the highest court +of the province and as barristers and pleaders. In every branch of the +public services open to Indians and in all the liberal professions, as +well as in the civic and political life of their country, the Bengalees +have played a leading part, not restricted even to their own province, +and in the very distinguished person of Lord Sinha, Bengal has just +provided for the first time an Indian to represent the King-Emperor as +governor of a province--the neighbouring province of Behar and Orissa. +Nor have the women of Bengal been left behind as in so many other parts +of India. In Calcutta many highly educated ladies have won such complete +release from the ancient restraints imposed upon their sex that they +preside to-day over refined and cultured homes from which the subtle +atmosphere of the East does not exclude the ease and freedom of Western +habits of mind and body. + +Yet these are still exceptions, and even in such a progressive city as +Calcutta and even amongst the highest classes the social and domestic +life of the majority of Hindus is still largely governed by the laws of +Hinduism, and not least with regard to marriage and the seclusion of +women. I was once allowed to attend a sort of "scripture lesson" for +little high-caste Hindu girls, organised by a benevolent old Brahman +lady, who has devoted herself to the cause of infant education on +orthodox lines. None of these 40 or 50 little girls had of course +reached the age, usually ten, at which they would be cut off from all +contact with the other sex except in marriage. They had bright and happy +faces, and as it was a Hindu festival most of them were decked out in +all their finery with gold and silver bangles on their dainty arms and +ankles, sometimes with jewelled nose-rings as well as ear-rings. They +went through an elaborate and picturesque ritual with great earnestness +and reverence and carefully followed the injunctions of the Brahman, a +cultured and Western-educated gentleman who presided over the ceremony. +It was an attractive scene, and would have been entirely pleasant but +for the painful contrast afforded by some eight or ten poor little mites +with shaven heads and drab-coloured dresses, almost ragged and quite +unadorned. They were infant widows, condemned according to the laws of +Hinduism by the premature death of their husbands to whom they had been +wedded, but whom they had never known, to lifelong widowhood, and +therefore in most cases to lifelong contempt and drudgery. For they were +debarred henceforth from fulfilling the supreme function of Hindu +womanhood, _i.e._ securing the continuity of family rites from father to +son by bearing children in legitimate wedlock, itself terribly +circumscribed by the narrow limits within which inter-marriage is +permissible even between different septs of the same caste. Happily +those I saw were probably still too young to realise the full +significance of the unkind fate that already differentiated them so +markedly from their more fortunate caste-sisters. + +Nor has one to go so very far from the heart of Calcutta to be reminded +that the "premier city" of modern India derives its name from Kali, the +most sinister of Indian goddesses. She was the tutelary deity of +Kali-Kata, one of the three villages to which Job Charnock removed the +first British settlement in Bengal when he abandoned Hugli in 1690, and +her shrine has grown in wealth and fame with the growth of Calcutta. +Kali-Kata is to-day only a suburb of the modern city, but in entering it +one passes into another world--the world of popular Hinduism. In its +narrow streets every shop is stocked with the paraphernalia that Hindus +require for their devotions, for everything centres in Kali-Kata round +the popular shrine sacred to Kali, the black goddess of destruction, +with a protruding blood-red tongue, who wears a necklace of human skulls +and a belt of human hands and tongues, and, holding in one of her many +hands a severed human head, tramples under foot the dead bodies of her +victims. From the _ghats_, or long flights of steps, that descend to the +muddy waters of a narrow creek which claims a more or less remote +connection with the sacred Ganges, crowds of pious Hindus go through +their ablutions in accordance with a long and complicated ritual, whilst +high-caste ladies perform them in mid-stream out of covered boats and +behind curtains deftly drawn to protect their _purdah_. Past an ancient +banyan tree, from whose branches streamers of coloured stuffs depend +with other votive offerings from grateful mothers who have not prayed +for male offspring in vain, past the minor shrines of many favourite +deities, a road lined with closely packed beggars and ascetics, +thrusting forth their sores and their shrivelled limbs in the hope of a +few coppers, leads up to the place of sacrifice in front of the temple. +The pavement is still red with the blood of goats immolated to the Great +Goddess, and her devotees who may have just missed the spectacle can at +least embrace the posts to which the victims were tied. On an open +pillared platform facing the holy of holies some of the high-caste +worshippers await in prayer and meditation the moment when its ponderous +bronze doors are from time to time thrown open. One old Brahman lady of +singularly refined appearance presses her fingers alternately on her +right and her left nostril, whilst she expels through the other, keeping +her lips all the time tightly closed, the unhallowed air which may have +contaminated her lungs on her way to the temple. Another worshipper lies +full length with his face pressed to the ground in motionless adoration. +Between them flit about laughing, bright-eyed little girls, the +"daughters" of the temple, still unconscious of the life of temple +prostitution to which they have been dedicated from their birth. The +court-yard all around is packed with a surging, howling mob of pilgrims, +many of them from a great distance, fighting for a vantage point from +which they may get a glimpse of the Great Goddess in her inner +sanctuary, even if they cannot hope to penetrate into it. + +At last, after much clanging of bells and fierce altercations between +the Brahman priests and the faithful as to payment of necessary fees, +the bronze doors roll back, and in the dim religious twilight one +catches a glint of gold and precious stones, the head-dress of Kali, +whose terrific image barely emerges from the depth of the inner +sanctuary in which it stands, accessible only to its serving Brahmans. +They alone, though strangely enough temple Brahmans as a class enjoy +little credit with their fellow-castemen, can approach the idol and wash +and dress and feed it with offerings. Whilst the doors are open the +frenzy and the noise increases, as the mob of worshippers struggle for a +front place and bawl out their special supplications at the top of their +voices. Then when they are closed again there is a general unravelling +of the tangled knots of perspiring humanity, and those who have achieved +the supreme purpose of their pilgrimage gradually disperse to make room +for another crowd, one stream succeeding another the whole day long on +special festivals, but on ordinary days mostly between sunrise and noon. +At the back of the shrine, as I came away, some privileged worshippers +were waiting to drink a few drops of the foul water which trickles out +of a small conduit through the wall from the holy of holies. It is the +water in which the feet of the idol--and those of the serving +Brahmans--have been washed! + +It was in this same temple of Kali that only some fifteen years ago, +during the violent agitation provoked by the Partition of Bengal, vast +crowds used to assemble and take by the name of the Great Goddess the +vow of _Swadeshi_ as the first step to _Swaraj_, and Bengalee youths, +maddened by an inflammatory propaganda, learned to graft on to ancient +forms of worship the very modern cult of the bomb. To this same temple +resorted only the other day Mr. Gandhi's followers to seek the blessing +of the Great Goddess for the more harmless forms of protest by which he +exhorted the inhabitants of Calcutta to bring home to the Duke of +Connaught during his stay in Calcutta their indignant rejection of the +boon which he had been sent out by the King-Emperor to confer on the +people of India. + +Must we then be driven to the conclusion that there is a gulf never to +be bridged between India's ancient civilisation and the modern +civilisation which we have brought to her out of the West? In that case +the great constitutional adventure on which we have just embarked would +be, unlike all our other great adventures in India, foredoomed to +failure, and those Englishmen would be right who shudder at its rashness +and reiterate with added conviction, since the school of Indian thought +for which Mr. Gandhi stands seems to bear them out, that "East is East +and West is West, and never the twain shall meet." The whole history of +the British connection with India surely excludes such a conclusion of +failure and despair. It teaches us, not, as such Englishmen contend, +that India was won and has been held and must be retained by the sword +alone, but that British rule was established and has been maintained +with and by the co-operation of Indians and British, and that in seeking +to-day to associate Indians more closely than ever before with the +government and administration of the country, we are merely persevering +in the same path which, though at times hesitatingly and reluctantly, +the British rulers of India have trodden for generations past, always +keeping step with the successive stages of our own national and +political evolution. The Indian extremists misread equally the whole +history of British rule who see in it nothing but a long nightmare of +hateful oppression to be finally overcome, according to Mr. Gandhi's +preaching, by "Non-co-operation" and the immortal "soul force" of India, +rescued at last from the paralysing snares of an alien civilisation. Not +for the first time has the cry of "Back to the Vedas" been raised by +Indians who, standing in the old ways, watch with hostility and alarm +the impact on their ancient but static civilisation of the more dynamic +civilisation of the West with which we for the first time brought India +into contact. It would be folly to underrate the resistance which the +reactionary elements in Hinduism are still capable of putting forth. I +have shown how it can still be seen operating in extreme forms, and not +upon Hindus alone, in the two pictures which I have drawn from Delhi and +Calcutta. It meets one in a lesser degree at almost every turn all over +India. But it would be just as foolish to underrate the progressive +forces which show now as ever in the history of Hinduism, that it is +also capable of combining with a singular rigidity of structure and with +many forms repugnant to all our own beliefs a breadth and elasticity of +thought by no means inferior to that of the West. + +To those who hoped for a more rapid and widespread fusion of Indian and +Western ideals, some of the phenomena which have marked the latter-day +revival of Hinduism and the shape it has recently assumed in Mr. +Gandhi's "Non-co-operation" campaign, may have brought grave +disappointment. But the inrush of Western influences was assuredly bound +to provoke a strong reaction. For let us not forget that to the abiding +power of Hinduism India owes the one great element of stability that +enabled her, long before we appeared in India, to weather so many +tremendous storms without altogether losing the sense of a great +underlying unity stronger and more enduring than all the manifold lines +of cleavage which have tended from times immemorial to divide her. +Hinduism has not only responded for some forty centuries to the social +and religious aspirations of a large and highly endowed portion of the +human race, almost wholly shut off until modern times from any intimate +contact with our own Western world, but it has been the one great force +that has preserved the continuity of Indian life. It withstood six +centuries of Mahomedan domination. Could it be expected to yield without +a struggle to the new forces, however superior we may consider them and +however overwhelming they may ultimately prove, which British rule has +imported into India during a period of transition more momentous than +any other through which she has ever passed, but still very brief when +compared with all those other periods of Indian history which modern +research has only recently rescued from the legendary obscurity of still +earlier ages? + +We are witnessing to-day a new phase of this great struggle, the clash +of conflicting elements in two great civilisations. A constitution has +been inaugurated at Delhi to bring India into permanent and equal +partnership with a commonwealth of free nations which is the greatest +political achievement of Western civilisation, and the latest prophet of +Hinduism, applying to it the language of the West, has banned it +forthwith as a thing of Satan, the offspring of a Satanic government and +of a Satanic civilisation. His appeal to India is intended to strike +many and various chords, but it is essentially an appeal to the ancient +forces of Hinduism which gave India a great civilisation long before +Europe, and least of all Britain, had emerged from the savagery of +primitive man. Englishmen find it difficult to understand the strength +of that appeal, perhaps because they do not realise how deep and vital +are the roots of the civilisation to which it appeals. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE ENDURING POWER OF HINDUISM + + +India's civilisation, intimately bound up from its birth with the great +social and religious system which we call Hinduism, is as unique as it +is ancient. Its growth and its tenacity are largely due to the +geographical position of a great and populous sub-continent, on its land +side exposed only to incursions from the north through mountainous and +desolate regions, everywhere difficult of access and in some parts +impenetrable, and shut in on the other two sides of a roughly isosceles +triangle by broad expanses of sea which cut it off from all direct +intercourse with the West until, towards the close of the Middle Ages, +European navigators opened up new ocean highways to the East. India owes +her own peculiar civilisation to the gradual fusion of Aryan races of a +higher type that began to flow down from Central Asia before the dawn of +history upon the more primitive indigenous populations already in +possession. Its early history has only now begun to emerge from the +twilight of myths and legends, and cannot even now be traced with any +assurance of accuracy nearly as far back as that of other parts of the +world which preceded or gave birth to our own much more recent +civilisation. The pyramids of Ghizeh and Sakkara and the monumental +temples of Thebes bore ample witness to the greatness of Egyptian +civilisation long before the interpretation of her hieroglyphics enabled +us to determine its antiquity, and the discovery of its abundant art +treasures revealed the high degree of culture to which it reached. +Excavations in the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates have yielded an +almost equally valuable harvest in regard to Babylonian and Assyrian +civilisation, and Cnossus has told us its scarcely less wonderful story. +Yet the long line of Pharaohs was coming to an end and Egypt was losing +the national independence which she has never once recovered; Nineveh +had fallen and Jerusalem was destroyed; Greece and even Rome had already +started on their great creative careers before any approximately correct +date can be assigned to the stages through which Indian civilisation had +passed. India only becomes historical with the establishment of the +Sasunaga dynasty in the Gangetic kingdom of Magadha, which centred in +what is now Behar, about the year 600 B.C. + +As to the state of India before that date, no sort of material evidence +has survived, or at any rate has yet been brought to light--no +monuments, no inscriptions, very little pottery even, in fact very few +traces of the handicraft of man; nor any contemporary records of +undoubted authenticity. Fortunately the darkness which would have been +otherwise Cimmerian is illuminated, though with a partial and often +uncertain light, by the wonderful body of sacred literature which has +been handed down to our own times in the Vedas and Brahmanas and +Upanishads. To none of these books, which have, for the most part, +reached us in various recensions often showing considerable +discrepancies and obviously later interpolations, is it possible to +ascribe any definite date. But in them we undoubtedly possess a genuine +key to the religious thought and social conceptions, and even +inferentially to the political institutions of the Aryan Hindus through +the many centuries that rolled by between their first southward +migrations into the Indian peninsula and their actual emergence into +history. The Vedic writings constitute the most ancient documents +available to illustrate the growth of religious beliefs founded on pure +Nature-worship, which translated themselves into a polytheistic and +pantheistic idea of the universe and, in spite of many subsequent +transformations, are found to contain all the germs of modern Hinduism +as we know it to-day--and, indeed, of all the religious thought of +India. In the Vedic hymns Nature itself is divine, and their pantheon +consists of the deified forces of Nature, worshipped now as Agni, the +god of Fire; Soma, the god and the elixir of life; Indra, the god of +heaven and the national god of the Aryans; and again, under more +abstract forms, such as Prajapati, the lord of creation, Asura, the +great spirit, Brahmanaspati, the lord of prayer; and sometimes, again, +gathered together into the transcendent majesty of one all-absorbing +divinity, such as Varuna, whose pre-eminence almost verges on +monotheism. But the general impression left on the Western mind is of a +fantastic kaleidoscope, in which hundreds and even thousands of deities, +male and female, are constantly waxing and waning and changing places, +and proceeding from, and merging their identity in, others through an +infinite series of processes, partly material and partly metaphysical, +but ever more and more subject to the inspiration and the purpose of the +Brahman, alone versed in the knowledge of the gods, and alone competent +to propitiate them by sacrificial rites of increasing intricacy, and by +prayers of a rigid formalism that gradually assume the shape of mere +incantations. + +This is the great change to which the Brahmanas bear witness. They show +no marked departure from the theology of the Vedas, though many of the +old gods continue to be dethroned either to disappear altogether, or to +reappear in new shapes, like Varuna, who turns into a god of night to be +worshipped no longer for his beneficence, but to be placated for his +cruelty; whilst, on the other hand, Prajapati is raised to the highest +throne, with Sun, Air, and Fire in close attendance. What the Brahmanas +do show is that the Brahman has acquired the overwhelming authority of a +sacerdotal status, not vested merely in the learning of a theologian, +but in some special attribute of his blood, and therefore transmissible +only from father to son. The Brahman was doubtless helped to this +fateful pre-eminence by the modifications which the popular tongue had +undergone in the course of time, and as the result more especially of +migration from the Punjab to the Gangetic plains. The language of the +Vedic hymns had ceased to be understood by the masses, and its +interpretation became the monopoly of learned families; and this +monopoly, like all others, was used by those who enjoyed it for their +own aggrandisement. The language that had passed out of common usage +acquired an added sanctity. It became a sacred language, and sacred +became the Brahman, who alone possessed the key to it, who alone could +recite its sacred texts and perform the rites which they prescribed, and +select the prayers which could best meet every distinct and separate +emergency in the life of man. + +In the Brahmanas we can follow the growth of a luxuriant theology for +the use of the masses which, in so far as it was polytheistic, tended to +the infinite multiplication of gods and goddesses and godlings of all +types, and in so far as it was pantheistic invested not only men, but +beasts and insects and rivers and fountains and trees and stones with +some living particle of the divine essence pervading all things; and we +can follow there also the erection on the basis of that theology, of a +formidable ritual of which the exclusive exercise and the material +benefits were the appanage of the Brahman. But we have to turn to a +later collection of writings known as the Upanishads for our knowledge +of the more abstract speculations out of which Hindu thinkers, not +always of the Brahmanical caste, were concurrently evolving the esoteric +systems of philosophy that have exercised an immense and abiding +influence on the spiritual life of India. There is the same difficulty +in assigning definite dates to the Upanishads, though many of the later +ones bear the post-mark of the various periods of theological evolution +with which they coincided. Only some of the earliest ones are held by +many competent authorities to be, in the shape in which they have +reached us, anterior to the time when India first becomes, in any real +sense, historical; but there is no reason to doubt that they represent +the progressive evolution into different forms of very ancient germs +already present in the Vedas themselves. They abound in the same +extravagant eclecticism, leading often to the same confusions and +contradictions that Hindu theology presents. The Sankhya Darshana, or +system, recognising only a primary material cause from which none but +finite beings can proceed, regards the universe and all that exists in +it and life itself as a finite illusion of which the end is +non-existence, and its philosophic conceptions are atheistic rather than +pantheistic. In opposition to it the Vedantic system of mystic +pantheism, whilst also seeing in this finite world a mere world of +illusion, holds that rescue from it will come to each individual soul +after a more or less prolonged series of rebirths, determined for better +or for worse by its own spirituality according to the law of Karma, not +in non-existence, but in its fusion with God, whose identity with the +soul of man is merely temporarily obscured by the world illusion of +Maya. Only the inconceivable is real, for it is God, but God dwells in +the heart of every man, who, if and when he can realise it and has +detached himself from his unworthy because unreal surroundings, is +himself God. Akin to Vedantic mysticism is the Yoga system, which +teaches extreme asceticism, retirement into solitude, fastings, nudity, +mortification of the flesh, profound meditation on unfathomable +mysteries, and the endless reiteration of magic words and phrases as the +means of accelerating that ineffable fusion of God and man. The +materialism of the Sankhya and the idealism of the Vedanta combine to +provoke the reaction of yet another system, the Mimansa, which stands +for the eternal and divine revelation of the Vedas, codifies, so to say, +their theology into liturgical laws, admits of no speculation or +esoteric interpretation, and seems to subordinate the gods themselves +to the forms of worship that consecrate their existence. + +Of all the doctrines that these early speculations evolved, none has had +a more enduring influence on Hinduism than that of the long and indeed +infinite succession of rebirths through which man is doomed to pass +before he reaches the ultimate goal either of non-existence or of +absorption into the divine essence. For none has done more to fortify +the patriarchal principle which from the earliest times governed the +tribal family, and to establish the Hindu conception of the family as it +prevails to the present day. With that curious inconsequence which +frequently characterises Hindu thought, even when it professes to be +ruled by the sternest logic, the belief that every rebirth is +irrevocably determined by the law of Karma, _i.e._ in accordance with +the sum total of man's deeds, good and bad, in earlier existences, is +held to be compatible with the belief that the felicity of the dead can +only be assured by elaborate rites of worship and sacrifice, which a son +alone, or a son's son, can take over from his father and properly +perform. The ancient _patria potestas_ of tribal institutions has been +thus prolonged beyond the funeral pyre, and the ancient reverence for +the dead which originally found expression in an instinctive worship of +the ancestors has been translated into a ceremonial cult of the +ancestral manes, which constitutes the primary duty and function of +every new head of the family. Hence the Hindu joint family system which +keeps the whole property of the family as well as the governance of all +its members under the sole control of the head of the family. Hence also +the necessity of early marriage, lest death should overtake the Hindu +before he has begotten the son upon whose survival the performance of +the rites essential, not only to his own future felicity, but to that of +all his ancestors depends, and, as an alternative, to mitigate the awful +consequences of the default of heirs male of his own body, the +introduction of adoption under conditions that secure to the adopted +son precisely the same position as a real son would have enjoyed. Hence +again the inferiority of woman, whom early marriage tended to place in +complete subjection to man. Her chief value was that of a potential +breeder of sons. In any case, moreover, she passed on her marriage +entirely out of her own family into that of her husband, and terribly +hard was her lot if she were left a widow before having presented her +husband with a son. Even if she were left an infant widow of an infant +husband and their marriage could not possibly have been consummated, she +was doomed to an austere and humiliating life of perpetual widowhood, +whilst, on the other hand, if she died, her widowed husband was enjoined +to marry again at once unless she had left him a son. To explain away +this cruel injustice, her fate was supposed to be due to her own Karma, +and to be merely the retribution that had overtaken her for sins +committed in a former existence, which condemned her to be born a woman +and to die a childless wife, or worse still, to survive as a childless +widow. The misfortune of the widowed husband who was left without a son +should logically have been imputed in the same way to his own Karma, but +it was not. All through life, and in death itself, man was exalted and +woman occupied a much lower plane, though in practice this hardship was +mitigated for the women who bore sons by the reverence paid to them in +their homes, where their force of character and their virtues often gave +them a great and recognised ascendancy. However hard the laws that +governed the Hindu family might press on individual members, the family +itself remained a living organism, united by sacred ties--indeed more +than a mere living organism, for the actually living organism was one +with that part of it which had already passed away and that which was +still awaiting rebirth. It is undoubtedly in the often dignified and +beautiful relations which bind the Hindu family together that Hinduism +is seen at its best, and Hindu literature delights in describing and +exalting them. + +Traditional usages, or Smriti, were ultimately embodied in codes of law, +of which the most famous is that of Manu; and though disfigured by many +social servitudes repugnant to the Western mind, they represent a lofty +standard of morality based upon a conception of duty, or Dharma, +narrowly circumscribed, but solid and practical. Though these codes of +law, and notably that of Manu in the form in which we possess them, are +of uncertain but probably much later date, they afford us, in +conjunction with the vast body of earlier religious and philosophic +literature, and with a certain amount of scientific literature dealing +with astronomy and astrology, with mathematics and specially with +geometry, and with grammar and prosody, sufficient materials for +appraising, with a fair measure of accuracy, the stage of progress which +the Aryan Hindus had reached in the sixth century B.C. When the world +was young, and they revelled in their recent conquest of a fair portion +in it, they delighted to worship the bright gods who had helped them to +possess it, and worship and war were the ties that kept their loose +tribal organisation together. Out of the primitive conditions of nomadic +and pastoral life, under the leadership of tribal elders who were both +priests and warriors, they gradually passed, after many vicissitudes of +peace and war, into more settled forms of agricultural life and +developed into distinct and separate polities of varying vitality, but +still united by the bond of common religious and social institutions in +the face of the indigenous populations whom they drove before them, or +reduced into subjection and slowly assimilated as they moved down +towards and into the Gangetic plain. As the conditions of life grew more +complex, with increasing prosperity and probably longer intervals of +peace, differentiation between classes and professions grew more marked. +There was time and leisure for thinking as well as for fighting, for +contemplation as well as for action. The "bright" gods that Nature had +conceived for the early Aryans were fashioned and refashioned by +speculations already laden with the gloom of melancholy and awesomeness +that pervades India. Caste, it may be inferred from the Sanskrit word +_Varna_, which means colour, originally discriminated only between the +Aryan conquerors of relatively fair complexion and the darker aborigines +they had subdued. It was extended to connote the various stratifications +into which Hindu society was settling, and in the stringent rules which +governed the constitution of each caste, and the relations between the +different castes, the old exclusiveness of tribal customs was +perpetuated and intensified. + +To the supremacy which the Brahman, as the expounder of the scriptures +and of the laws deduced from them, and the ordained dispenser of divine +favour, through prayer and sacrifice, was able to arrogate to his own +caste, the code of Manu, above all others, bears emphatic witness: + + The very birth of Brahmans is a constant incarnation of Dharma.... + When a Brahman springs to light he is born above the world, the + chief of all creatures, assigned to guard the treasury of duties, + religious and civil. Whatever exists in the world is all in effect, + though not in form, the wealth of the Brahman, since the Brahman is + entitled to it all by his primogeniture and eminence of birth. + +Every offence committed by a Brahman involves a relatively slight +penalty; every offence committed against him the direst punishment. Next +to the Brahman, but far beneath him, is the Kshatrya and beneath him +again the Vaishya. The Shudras are the fourth caste that exists chiefly +to serve the three twice-born castes, and above all the Brahman. As Sir +William Jones observes in the preface to the translation which he was +the first to make a little more than a century ago of these +extraordinarily full and detailed ordinances, they represent a system of +combined despotism and priestcraft, both indeed limited by law, but +artfully conspiring to give mutual support with mutual checks. But +though they abound with minute and childish formalities, though they +prescribe ceremonies often ridiculous, though the punishments they +enact are partial and fanciful, for some crimes dreadfully cruel, for +others reprehensibly slight, though the very morals they lay down, rigid +enough on the whole, are in one or two instances, as in the case of +light oaths and of pious perjury, dangerously relaxed, one must, +nevertheless, admit that, subject to those grave limitations, a spirit +of sublime devotion, of benevolence to mankind, and of amiable +tenderness to all sentient creatures pervades the whole work, and the +style of it has a certain austere majesty that sounds like the language +of legislation and extorts a respectful awe. Above all it is well to +remember that the ordinances of Manu still constitute to-day the +framework of Hindu society, and Brahman judges of the Indian High +Courts, who administer our own very different codes, still cling to them +in private life and quote them in political controversies as the +repositories of inspired wisdom. + +It is on this background of tangled religious beliefs and abstruse +philosophic speculations and very precise and elaborate laws framed to +safeguard the twofold authority of priests and kings, but of the latter +always in subordination to the former, that we see men and cities and +organised states assume for the first time historic substance towards +the sixth century B.C. From that date onwards we are on firmer ground. +For though even in much later times the Hindus never produced historians +in the strict sense of the term, we are able to call in aid the valuable +testimony not only of a few indigenous chroniclers but also of Greek and +Chinese and Arab writers and travellers, as well as the authoritative +evidence supplied by epigraphy and numismatics; and though for many +centuries still very infrequently, the precious remains of ancient +monuments. But the original background is never effaced, for the whole +religious and social system, the whole philosophic outlook upon the +world of which I have sought to outline the long and laborious evolution +through prehistoric ages, remained fundamentally immune against change +until the advent of the British to India subjected them to the solvent +of Western civilisation. + +One of the most striking peculiarities of Hinduism is that its origin +cannot be associated with any single great teacher or prophet, however +legendary. Still less can it be identified with the personal inspiration +of a Moses or a Christ, of a Confucius or a Mahomed. Only when we reach +the firmer ground of historic times does any commanding personality +emerge to leave a definite and abiding impress upon successive ages. The +first and the greatest is Buddha, and we can still trace to-day his +footsteps in the places where he actually stood and delivered his +message to the world. It was at Buddh Gaya that, after fleeing from the +pomp and luxury of his father's royal palace, he sat and meditated under +the Bo-tree on the vanity and misery of human life, but it was at +Rajagriha, "the King's House," that he first began to preach. Rajagriha, +about 40 miles S.S.E. of the modern Patna, was then the capital of one +of the many small kingdoms that had grown up in the broad valley of the +Ganges. It was already an ancient city of some fame, for the Mahabharata +mentions all the five hills which, as the first Chinese pilgrim, +Fa-Hien, puts it, "encompass it with a girdle like the walls of a town." +It was itself a walled city, and some of the walls, as we can still see +them to-day, represent most probably the earliest structure raised in +India by human hands that has survived down to our own times. They were +no jerry-builders then. Strengthened at sundry points by great square +bastions, the walls of Rajagriha measure in places over seventeen feet +in width and eleven or twelve feet in height, and they are faced with +undressed stones three to five feet in length, without mortar or cement, +but carefully fitted and banded together with a core of smaller blocks +not less carefully laid and packed. They merely supplemented and +completed the natural line of defences provided by the outer girdle of +hills, rising to 1200 feet, which shut off Rajagriha from the plain of +Bihar. On one of those peerless days of the cold season in Upper India +when there is not a cloud to break the serenity of the deep blue sky, I +looked up to the mountain Ghridrakuta, on whose slopes Buddha dwelt for +some time after he had found enlightenment at Buddh Gaya, and saw it +just as the second Chinese pilgrim to whom we owe most of our knowledge +of Rajagriha described it--"a solitary peak rising to a great height on +which vultures make their abode." Many had been the revolutions of the +wheel of time since Hiuen-Tsang had watched the circling of the vultures +round the sacred peak some twelve and a half centuries before me, and as +Buddha himself, another twelve and a half centuries earlier, must have +watched them when he miraculously stretched forth his hand through a +great rock to rescue his beloved disciple Ananda from the clutch of the +demon Mara, who had taken on the shape of a vulture. The swoop of those +great birds seemed to invest the whole scene with a new and living +reality. Across the intervening centuries I could follow King Bimbisara, +who reigned in those days at Rajagriha, proceeding along the causeway of +rough, undressed stones, which can be traced to-day to the foot of the +mountain and up its rocky flanks, after his men had "levelled the valley +and spanned the precipices, and with the stones had made a staircase +about ten paces wide," so that he should himself be carried up to wait +in his own royal person on the Lord Buddha. There, marked to the present +day by the remains of two large _stupas_, was the place where the king +alighted from his litter to go forward on foot, and farther up again the +spot where he dismissed his followers and went on alone to invite the +Buddha to come down and dwell in his capital. + +That must have been about 500 B.C., and Buddha spent thereafter a +considerable portion of his time in the bamboo garden which King +Bimbisara presented to him on the outskirts of Rajagriha. There, and in +his annual wanderings through the country, he delivered to the poor and +to the rich, to the Brahman and to the sinner, to princes and peasants, +to women as well as to men, his message of spiritual and social +deliverance from the thraldom of the flesh and from the tyranny of +caste. + +With the actual doctrines of Buddhism I do not propose to deal. There is +nothing in them that could not be reconciled with those of the Vedanta, +and they are especially closely akin to the Sankhya system. But the +driving force of Buddhism, as also of Jainism, which grew up at the same +time as Buddhism under the inspiration of another great reformer, +Mahavira, who is said to have been a cousin of King Bimbisara, was a +spirit of revolt against Brahmanical Hinduism, and a new sense of social +solidarity which appealed to all classes and castes, and to women as +well as to men. The Vedanta reserved the study of the scriptures to men +of the three "twice-born" castes, and placed it under the supreme +authority of the Brahmans. Both Buddha and Mahavira recognised no such +restrictions, though they did not refuse reverence to the Brahman as a +man of special learning. The religious orders which they founded were +open to all, and these orders included nuns as well as monks. This was +the rock on which they split with Hinduism. This was the social +revolution that, in spite of the religious and philosophical elasticity +of Hinduism, made Buddhists and Jains unpardonable heretics in the eyes +of the Brahmans, and produced a conflict which was to last for +centuries. + +Though King Bimbisara welcomed the Buddha to his capital, and Buddhism +made rapid headway amongst the masses, he does not appear to have +himself embraced the new religion, and it is not till after Alexander +the Great's expedition had for the first time brought an European +conqueror on to Indian soil, and a new dynasty had transferred the seat +of government to Pataliputra, the modern Patna, on the Ganges, that +perhaps the greatest of Indian rulers, the Emperor Asoka, who reigned +from 272 to _circa_ 232 B.C., made Buddhism the state religion of his +Empire. Tradition has it, that when Buddha on his last wanderings +passed by the fort which King Ajatasatni was building at Pataliputra, he +prophesied for it a great and glorious future. It had already fulfilled +that prophecy when the Greek Ambassador, Megasthenes, visited it in 303 +B.C. A few remains only are being laboriously rescued from the waters of +the Ganges, under which Pataliputra is for the most part buried. But at +that time it spread for ten miles along the river front; five hundred +and seventy towers crowned its walls, which were pierced by sixty-four +gates, and the total circumference of the city was twenty-four miles. +The palace rivalled those of the Kings of Persia, and a striking +topographical similarity has been lately traced between the artificial +features of the lay-out of Pataliputra and the natural features of +Persepolis, King Darius's capital in Southern Persia. + +Pataliputra became the capital of India under Chandragupta Maurya, who, +soldier of fortune and usurper that he was, transformed the small +kingdom of Magadha into a mighty empire. Known to Greek historians as +Sandrokottos, young Chandragupta had been in Alexander's camp on the +Indus, and had even, it is said, offered his services to the Macedonian +king. In the confusion which followed Alexander's death, he had raised +an army with which he fell on the Macedonian frontier garrisons, and +then, flushed with victory, turned upon the King of Magadha, whom he +dethroned. After eighteen years of constant fighting he had extended his +frontiers to the Hindu Kush in the north, and nearly down to the +latitude of Madras in the south. He had, at the same time, established a +remarkable system of both civil and military administration by which he +was able to consolidate his vast conquests. His war office was +scientifically divided into six boards for maintaining and supplying his +huge fighting force of 600,000 infantry, 30,000 cavalry, 9000 elephants, +and 8000 war chariots, besides fully equipped transport and commissariat +services. No less scientific was the system of civil government as +illustrated by the municipal institutions of Pataliputra. There, again, +there were six boards dealing respectively with trade, industries, +wages, local taxation, the control of foreign residents and visitors, +and, perhaps most extraordinary of all, with vital statistics. Equally +admirable was the solicitude displayed for agriculture, then, as now, +the greatest of Indian industries, and for its handmaid, irrigation. The +people themselves, if we may believe Megasthenes, were a model people +well worthy of a model government, though if he does not exaggerate, one +is driven to wonder at the necessity for such fearful penalties as were +inflicted for the most trivial breaches of the law. But behind +Chandragupta the power of the Brahman was still clearly entrenched, for +his chief minister was a Brahman, Chanakya, who had followed his +fortunes from their first adventurous beginnings. + +The stately fabric which Chandragupta built up during his own +twenty-five years' reign, _circa_ 322-297 B.C., endured during the reign +of his son Bendusara, of whom scarcely anything is known, and at the end +of another twenty-five years passed on, undiminished, to his great +successor, Asoka, whose unique experiment would have been scarcely +possible had he not succeeded to an empire already firmly consolidated +at home and abroad. When he came to the throne, about 272 B.C., Asoka +had served his apprenticeship in the art of government as viceroy, first +in the north at Taxila, and then in the west at Ujjain. He had been +brought up by Brahmans in the manner befitting his rank. Buddhist +tradition would have us believe that until his conversion he was a +monster of cruelty; but there is scarcely enough to warrant that +indictment in the fact that he began his reign with a war of aggression, +for which he afterwards expressed the deepest remorse. It was, indeed, +from that moment that he determined to be henceforth a prince of peace; +but it is quite as probable that his determination inclined him more and +more to turn his ear to Buddhist teaching as that Buddhist teaching +prompted his determination. + +No monarch has ever recorded the laws which he gave to his people in +such imperishable shape. They are to be seen to the present day cut into +granite pillars or chiselled into the face of the living rock in almost +every part of what was then the Empire of the Mauryas, from the Peshawar +district in the north to Mysore and the Madras Presidency in the south, +from the Kathiawar Peninsula in the west to the Bay of Bengal in the +east. The pillars are often at the same time monuments of artistic +design and workmanship, as, above all, the Garnath pillar near Benares +with its magnificent capital of the well-known Persepolitan type and its +four lions supporting the stone Wheel of the Law, first promulgated on +that spot. Many more of Asoka's monuments may yet be discovered, but the +eleven pillar edicts and the fourteen rock edicts, not to speak of minor +inscriptions already brought to light and deciphered, constitute a body +of laws which well deserve to have been made thus imperishable. For no +temporal sovereign has ever legislated so fully and exclusively and with +such evident conviction for the spiritual advancement and moral +elevation of his people. Scarcely less important is the autobiographical +value of these inscriptions, which enable one to follow stage by stage +the evolution of the Apostle-Emperor's soul. Within a year of the +conquest of the Kalinjas, for which he afterwards publicly recorded his +remorse, Asoka became a lay disciple of the Buddhist law, and two and a +half years later studied as a Buddhist monk. In 257 B.C., the thirteenth +year of his reign, he began to preach his series of sermons in +stone--sermons that were at the same time laws given to his Empire. His +profession of faith was as lofty as it was simple: + + The gods who were regarded as true all over India have been shown + to be untrue. For the fruit of exertion is not to be attained by a + great man only, because even by the small man who chooses to exert + himself immense heavenly bliss may be won.... Father and mother + must be hearkened to. Similarly, respect for living creatures must + be firmly established. Truth must be spoken. These are the virtues + of the law of piety which must be practised.... In it are included + proper treatment of slaves and servants, honour to teachers, + gentleness towards living creatures, and liberality towards + ascetics and Brahmans.... All men are my children, and just as I + desire for my children that they may enjoy every kind of prosperity + and happiness in both this world and the next, so I desire the same + for all men. + +These principles are applied in all the instructions to his officials. +He commends to their special care the primitive jungle folk and the +untamed people of the borderlands. He bestows much thought on the +alleviation of human suffering, and his injunctions in restriction of +the slaughter and maiming of animals and the preservation of life are +minute and precise. It is in this connection that the influence of +Buddhism on Hinduism has been most permanent, for whilst the primitive +Aryan Hindus were beef-eaters, their descendants carried the vegetarian +doctrines of Buddhism to the extreme length of condemning cow-killing as +the most awful of crimes, next to the killing of a Brahman. + +Determined to preserve the unity and discipline of his own church, +Asoka's large tolerance sees some good in all creeds. He wishes every +man to have the reading of his own scriptures, and whilst reserving his +most lavish gifts for Buddhist shrines and monasteries, he does not deny +his benefactions to Brahmans and ascetics of other sects. Nor is he +content merely to preach and issue orders. His monastic vows, though +they lead him to forswear the amusements and even the field sports which +had been his youthful pastimes, do not involve the severance of all +worldly ties. He is the indefatigable and supreme head of the Church; he +visits in solemn pilgrimage all the holy places hallowed by the memory +of Buddha, and endows shrines and monasteries and convents with princely +munificence; he convenes at Pataliputra a great Buddhist council for +combating heresy. But he remains the indefatigable and supreme head of +the State. "I am never fully satisfied with my efforts and my despatch +of business. Work I must for the welfare of all, and the root of the +matter is in effort." He controls a highly trained bureaucracy not +unlike that of British India to-day, and his system of government is +wonderfully effective so long as it is informed by his untiring energy +and singular loftiness of purpose. + +With Asoka Buddhism attained to a supremacy in India which may well be +compared with that of Christianity in Europe under Constantine; and it +is only by measuring the height to which Buddhism had then risen that we +can realise the enduring power of Hinduism, as we see it through +successive centuries slowly but irresistibly recovering all the ground +it had lost until Buddhism at last disappears almost entirely off the +face of India, whereas it continued to spread, though often in very +debased forms, over the greater part of Eastern Asia, and still +maintains its hold there over more than a third of the total population +of the globe. + +As with most of the great rulers and conquerors that India has from time +to time thrown up, Asoka's life-work fell to pieces almost as soon as he +had passed away. Not only did the temporal empire which he built up +disintegrate rapidly in the hands of his feeble successors, but Buddhism +itself was dethroned within fifty years with the last of his dynasty, +slain by the usurper Pushyamitra Sunga, who, after consecrating himself +to the Hindu gods with the rites of _Rajasuya_, celebrated his advent to +Paramount Power by reviving the ancient ceremony of _Asvamedha_, the +Sacrifice of the Horse--one of the most characteristic of Brahmanical +rites. + +It was not till after another great conquering inflow from Central Asia +in the first century of our era that Kanishka, the greatest of a new +dynasty which had set itself up at Purushpura, situated close to the +modern Peshawar, shed a transient gleam of glory over the decline of +Buddhism and even restored it to the position of a state religion. But +it was a Buddhism already far removed from the purity of Asoka's reign. +The most striking feature of this short-lived revival is the artistic +inspiration which it derived from Hellenistic sources, of which the +museums of Peshawar and Lahore contain so many remarkable illustrations. +The theory, at one time very widely entertained, that Alexander's brief +incursion into India left any permanent mark on Indian civilisation is +now entirely discarded by the best authorities. No Indian author makes +even the faintest allusion to him, nor is there any trace of Hellenic +influence in the evolution of Indian society, or in the elaborate +institutions with which India was endowed by the Mauryan dynasty that +followed immediately on the disruption of Alexander's empire. But the +Kushans, or Yueh Chis, during the various stages of their slow migration +down into Northern India, came into long and close contact with the +Indo-Bactrian and Indo-Parthian kingdoms that sprang up after Alexander. +The populations were never Hellenised, but their rulers were to some +extent the heirs, albeit hybrid heirs, to Greek civilisation. They spoke +Greek and worshipped at Greek shrines, and as they were in turn +subjugated by the forebears of the Kushan Empire, they imparted to the +conquerors something of their own Greek veneer. In the second century of +our era Kanishka carried his victorious arms down to the Gangetic plain, +where Buddhism still held its own in the region which had been its +cradle; and, according to one tradition, he carried off from Pataliputra +a famous Buddhist saint, who converted him to Buddhism. But as these +Indo-Scythian kings had not been long enough in India to secure +admission to the social aristocracy of Hinduism by that slow process of +naturalisation to which so many ruling families have owed their Kshatrya +pedigrees, Kanishka, having himself no claim to caste, may well have +preferred for reasons of state to favour Buddhism as a creed +fundamentally opposed to caste distinctions. Whatever the motives of his +conversion, we have it on the authority of Hiuen-Tsang that he +ultimately did great things for Buddhism, and the magnificent _stupa_, +which he erected outside his capital, five-and-twenty stories high and +crowned with a cupola of diamonds, was still 150 feet high and measured +a quarter of a mile in circumference when the Chinese pilgrim visited +Purushpura five centuries later. To the present day there are traces +outside the northern gate of Peshawar of a great Buddhist monastery, +also built by Kanishka, which remained a seat of Buddhist learning until +it was destroyed by Mahomedan invaders; and it was only a mile from +Peshawar that the American Sanskritist, Dr. Spooner, discovered ten +years ago the casket containing some of Buddha's bones, which is one of +the most perfect specimens of Graeco-Buddhist art. The Buddhist statues +and bas-reliefs of that period are Greek rather than Indian in their +treatment of sacred history, and even the head of Gautama himself might +sometimes be taken for that of a young Greek god. + +These exotic influences may indeed have acted as a further solvent upon +Buddhism. But in any case, its local and temporary revival as a dominant +state religion under Kanishka, whose empire did not long outlive him, +failed to arrest its steady resorption into Hinduism. On the one hand, +Buddhism itself was losing much of its original purity. The miraculous +legends with which the life of Buddha was gradually invested, the almost +idolatrous worship paid to him, the belief that he himself was but the +last of many incarnations in which the Buddha had already revealed +himself from the very beginning of creation--all these later accretions +represent, no doubt, the reaction upon Buddhism of its Hinduistic +surroundings. But they doubtless helped also to stimulate the growth of +the more definite forms of anthropomorphism which characterised the +development of Hinduism when the ancient ritual and the more impersonal +gods of the Vedas and of the Brahmanas gave way to the cult of such very +personal gods as Shiva and Vishnu, with their feminine counterparts, +Kali and Lakshmi, and ultimately to the evolution of still more popular +deities, some, like Skanda and the elephant-headed Ganesh, closely +connected with Shiva; others like Krishna and Rama, _av[=a]taras_ or +incarnations--and in many ways extremely human incarnations--of Vishnu. +At the same time, the Aryan Hindus, as they went on subduing the +numerous aboriginal races of India, constantly facilitated their +assimilation by the more or less direct adoption of their primitive +deities and religious customs. The two great epics, the Mahabharata, +with its wonderful episode, the Baghavat-Ghita, which is the apotheosis +of Krishna, and the Ramayana, which tells the story of Rama, show the +infusion into Hinduism of a distinctly national spirit in direct +opposition to the almost cosmopolitan catholicity of Buddhism, +sufficiently elastic to adapt itself even to the political aspirations +of non-Hindu conquerors as well as of non-Hindu races beyond the borders +of Hindustan, in Nepal and in Ceylon, in Burma and in Tibet, in China +and in Japan. The conflict between Buddhist and Hindu theology might not +have been irreconcilable, for Hinduism, as we know, was quite ready to +admit Buddha himself into the privileged circle of its own gods as one +of the incarnations of Vishnu. What was irreconcilable was the conflict +between a social system based on Brahmanical supremacy and one that +denied it--especially after Hinduism had acquired a new sense of Indian +patriotism which only reached fuller development in our own times when +it was quickened by contact with European nationalism. + +Hindus themselves prefer, however, to-day to identify Indian nationalism +with the period when from another long interval of darkness, which +followed the downfall of the Kushan kingdom, Indian history emerges into +the splendour of what has been called "the golden age of Hinduism" in +the fourth and fifth centuries of our era under the great Gupta dynasty, +who ruled at Ujjain. Few Indian cities are reputed to be more ancient or +more sacred than the little town of Ujjain on the Sipra river, known as +Ozen[=i] to the Greeks, and where Asoka had ruled in his youth as +Viceroy of Western India. It owes its birth to the gods themselves. +When Uma wedded Shiva her father slighted him, not knowing who he was, +for the mighty god had wooed and won her under the disguise of a mere +ascetic mendicant, and she made atonement by casting herself into the +sacrificial fire, which consumed her--the prototype of all pious Hindu +widows who perform _Sati_--in the presence of gods and Brahmans. Shiva, +maddened with grief, gathered up the bones of his unfortunate consort +and danced about with them in a world-shaking frenzy. Her scattered +bones fell to earth, and wherever they fell the spot became sacred and a +temple sprang up in her honour. One of her elbows fell on the banks of +the Sipra at Ujjain, and few shrines enjoy greater or more widespread +fame than the great temple of Maha-Kal, consecrated to her worship and +that of Shiva. Its wealth was fabulous when it was looted and destroyed +by Altamsh and his Pathan Mahomedans in 1235. The present buildings are +for the most part barely 200 years old, and remarkable chiefly for the +insistency with which the _lingam_ and the bull, the favourite symbols +of Shiva, repeat themselves in shrine after shrine. But it attracts +immense numbers of pilgrims, especially in every twelfth year, when they +flock in hundreds of thousands to Ujjain and camp as near as possible to +the river. The peculiarity of the Ujjain festival is that, in memory of +the form which Shiva took on when he wooed Uma, it attracts a veritable +army of Sanyasis, or mendicants, sometimes as many as fifty thousand, +from all parts of India. Seldom, except at the great Jaganath festivals +at Puri, is a larger congregation seen of weird and almost inhuman +figures; some clothed solely with their long unkempt hair, some with +their bodies smeared all over with white ashes, and the symbol of their +favourite deity painted conspicuously on their foreheads; some +displaying ugly sores or withered limbs as evidence of lifelong +mortification of the flesh; some moving as if in a dream and entirely +lost to the world's realities; some with frenzied eyes shouting and +brandishing their instruments of self-torture; some with a repulsive +leer and heavy sensuous jowls affecting a certain coquetry in the +ritualistic adornment of their well-fed bodies. + +Chandragupta I., the founder of the great dynasty which Hindus extol +above all others, was only a petty chieftain by birth, but he was +fortunate enough to wed a lady of high lineage, who could trace a +connection with the ancient Maurya house of Magadha, and, thanks to this +alliance and to his own prowess, he was able at his death to bequeath +real kingship to his son, Samadragupta, who, during a fifty years' +reign, A.D. 326-375, again welded almost the whole of India north of the +Nerbudda river into one empire, and once even spoiled Southern India +right down to Cape Comorin. His victories are recorded--with an irony +perhaps not wholly accidental--beneath the Asokan inscription on the +Allahabad pillar. Of his zeal for Hinduism we have a convincing proof in +gold coins of his reign that preserve on the obverse in the figure of +the sacrificial horse a record of the _Asvamedha_, which he again +revived. Strange to say, however, his fame has never been so popular as +that of his son, Chandragupta II., Vikramadytia, the Sun of Power, who +reigned in turn for nearly forty years, and has lived in Hindu legend as +the Raja Bikram, to whom India owes her golden age. It was his court at +Ujjain which is believed to have been adorned by the "Nine Gems" of +Sanskrit literature, amongst whom the favourite is Kalidasa, the poet +and dramatist. Amidst much that is speculative, one thing is certain. +The age of Vikramadytia was an age of Brahmanical ascendancy. As has so +often happened, and is still happening in India to-day in the struggle +between Urdu and Hindi, the battle of religious and political supremacy +was largely one of languages. During the centuries of Brahmanical +depression that preceded the Gupta dynasty, the more vulgar tongue +spoken of the people prevailed. Under the Guptas, Sanskrit, which was +the language of the Brahmans, resumed its pre-eminence and took +possession of the whole field of literature and art and science as well +as of theology. Oral traditions were reduced to writing and poetry was +adapted to both sacred and profane uses in the Puranas, in the metrical +code of Manu, in treatises on sacrificial ritual, in Kalidasa's plays, +and in many other works of which only fragments have survived. +Astronomy, logic, philosophy were all cultivated with equal fervour and +to the greater glory of Brahmanism. Local tradition is doubtless quite +wrong in assigning to Raja Bikram the noble gateway which is the only +monument of Hindu architecture at its best that Ujjain has to show +to-day. But to that period may, perhaps, be traced the graceful, if +highly ornate, style of architecture, of which the Bhuvaneshwar temples, +several centuries more recent, are the earliest examples that can be at +all accurately dated. To the credit of Brahmanism be it said that in its +hour of triumph it remained at least negatively tolerant, as all purely +Indian creeds generally have been. Fa-Hien, who visited India during the +reign of Vikramadytia, though dismayed at the desolation which had +already overtaken many of the sacred places of Buddhism, pays a generous +tribute to the tolerance and statesmanship of that great sovereign. The +country seems, indeed, to have enjoyed real prosperity under a paternal +and almost model administration. + +Yet the Gupta dynasty endured only a little longer than had that of the +Mauryas. Its downfall was hastened by the long reign of terror which +India went through during the invasion of the White Huns. Europe had +undergone a like ordeal nearly a century earlier, for when the Huns +began to move out of the steppes of Eastern Asia they poured forth in +two separate streams, one of which swept into Eastern Europe, whilst the +other flowed more slowly towards Persia and India. What Attila had been +to Europe, Mihiragula was to India, and though the domination of the +Huns did not long outlive him, the anarchy they left behind them +continued for another century, until "the land of Kuru," the cradle and +battle-field of so many legendary heroes, produced another heroic +figure, who, as King Harsha, filled for more than forty years (606-648) +the stage of Indian history with his exploits. He had inherited the +blood of the Gupta emperors from his mother, though his father was only +a small Raja of Thanesvar, to the north of Delhi. The tragic +circumstances in which he succeeded him made a man of him at the early +age of fourteen. By the time he was twenty he was "master of the five +Indias"--_i.e._ of nearly the whole of Northern India from Kathiawar to +the delta of the Ganges, and henceforth he proved himself as great in +peace as in war. In his case the knowledge we owe to Chinese sources is +supplemented by the valuable record left by the Brahman Bana, who lived +at his court and wrote the Harsha-Charita. Taxation, we are told, was +lightened, and the assessment of land revenue was equitable and +moderate. Security for life and property was enforced under severe but +effective penalties. Education received impartial encouragement whether +conducted by Brahmans or by Buddhist monks, and both as a patron of +literature, which he himself cultivated by composing dramas, and as a +philanthropic ruler King Harsha bestowed his favours with a fairly equal +hand on Hinduism and on Buddhism alike. For Buddhism still lingered in +the land, and Harsha, who was a mystic and a dreamer as well as a man of +action, certainly inclined during his later years towards Buddhism, or, +at least, included it in his own eclectic creed. + +Hiuen-Tsang, who spent fifteen years in India during Harsha's reign, +searching for the relics of early Buddhism in a land from which it was +steadily disappearing, has given us a wonderful picture of a religious +state-pageant which makes Prayaga, at the triple confluence of the +Ganges and the Jumna with the sacred but invisible river, Saraswati, +near to the modern city of Allahabad, stand out as another striking +landmark in Indian history. Hindus attach great holiness to rivers and +their confluence, and this Triveni, or triple confluence, had been +specially consecrated by Brahma, who chose that spot for the first +_Asvamedha_. "From ancient times," says the Chinese chronicler, "the +kings used to go there to distribute alms, and hence it was known as the +Place of Almsgiving. According to tradition more merit is gained by +giving one piece of money there than one hundred thousand elsewhere." So +King Harsha having invited all alike, whether "followers of the law or +heretics, the ascetics and the poor, the orphans and the helpless," the +kings of eighteen subordinate kingdoms assembled there with their people +to the number of 500,000, and found immense refectories laid out for +their refreshment, and long rows of warehouses to receive silk and +cotton garments and gold and silver coins for distribution to them. "The +first day a statue of Buddha was placed in the shrine erected on the +Place of Almsgiving, and there was a distribution of the most precious +things and of the garments of greatest value, whilst exquisite viands +were served and flowers scattered to the sound of harmonious music. Then +all retired to their resting-places. On the second day a statue of the +Sun-god was placed in the shrine, and on the third day the statue of +Shiva," and the distribution of gifts continued on those days and day +after day for a period of over two months, ten thousand Brahmans +receiving the lion's share, until, having exhausted all his wealth, even +to the jewels and garments he was wearing, King Harsha borrowed a coarse +and much-worn garment, and having "adored the Buddhas of the ten +countries," he gave vent to his pious delight, exclaiming: "Whilst I was +amassing all this wealth I was always afraid lest I should find no safe +and secret place to stow it away. Now that I have deposited it by +alms-giving in the Field of Happiness I know that it is for ever in +safety. I pray that in my future lives I may amass in like manner great +treasures and give them away in alms so as to obtain the ten divine +faculties in all their plenitude." + +Here one sees India as it was before the Mahomedan invasions, in the +days of the last of the great Indian rulers who succeeded for a time in +bending the whole of Northern India to his will. As always in India, +behind whatever form of temporal power might for the moment appear to be +paramount, religion and the social order which it consecrates +represented the real paramount power that alone endures. In this +extraordinary festival which marked the close of Harsha's reign the +picture left to us is singularly complete. The first day is a sort of +farewell tribute to the waning glory of Buddha, and the second to the +ancient majesty of the Vedic gods; but they only prepare the way for the +culminating worship, on the third day, of the terrific figure of Shiva, +who had already been raised to one of the highest, if not the highest, +throne in the Hindu pantheon, which he still retains--Shiva, the master +of life and death, whose favourite emblem is the phallus, and from whose +third eye bursts forth the flame which is one day to consume the world. +Around Harsha, and devouring his gifts until, at the end of two months, +they are wholly exhausted, are the Brahmans, "born above the world, +assigned to guard the treasury of duties, civil and religious," through +whom alone the wrath of angry gods can be appeased and present and +future life be made safe in the descending hierarchy of caste. + +Shortly after Harsha's death in A.D. 648, India, as is her wont as soon +as the strong man's arm is paralysed, relapses once more into political +chaos. Her history does not indeed ever again recede into the complete +obscurity of earlier ages. We get glimpses of successive kingdoms and +dynasties rising and again falling in Southern India, as the Hindu +Aryans gradually permeate and subdue the older Dravidian races and +absorb the greater part of them, not without being in turn influenced by +them, into their own religious and social system. The most notable +feature of the post-Harsha period of Hindu history is the emergence of +the Rajput states, whose rulers, though probably descendants of +relatively recent invaders, not only became rapidly Hinduised, but +secured relatively prompt admission to the rank of Kshatryas in the +Hindu caste system, with pedigrees dated back to the Sun and Moon, which +to the popular mind were well justified by their warlike prowess and +splendid chivalry. I need only recall the name of Prithvi-Raja, the lord +of Sambhar, Delhi, and Ajmer, whose epic fame rests not less on his +abduction of the Kanauj princess who loved him than on his gallant +losing fight against the Mahomedan invaders of India. But fierce clan +jealousies and intense dynastic pride made the Rajputs incapable of +uniting into a single paramount state, or even into an enduring +confederacy fit to withstand the storm of which Harsha himself might +have heard the distant rumblings. For it was during his reign that +militant Islam first set foot in India, in a remote part of the +peninsula. Just at the same time as the Arabs, in the first flush of +victory, poured into Egypt, a small force crossed the Arabian Sea and +entered Baluchistan, and a century later the whole of Sind passed into +Arab hands. Another two centuries and the Mahomedan flood was pouring +irresistibly into India, no longer across the Arabian Sea, but from +Central Asia through the great northern passes, until in successive +waves it submerged for a time almost the whole of India. + +Now if we look back upon the fifteen centuries of Indian history, of +which I have sought to reconstitute the chief landmarks before the +Mahomedan invasions, the two salient features that emerge from the +twilight are the failure of the Aryan Hindus to achieve any permanent +form of political unity or stability, and their success, on the other +hand, in building up on adamantine foundations a complex but vital +social system. The supple and subtle forces of Hinduism had already in +prehistoric times welded together the discordant beliefs and customs of +a vast variety of races into a comprehensive fabric sufficiently elastic +to shelter most of the indigenous populations of India, and sufficiently +rigid to secure the Aryan Hindu ascendancy. Of its marvellous tenacity +and powers of resorption there can be no greater proof than the +elimination of Buddhism from India, where, in spite of its tremendous +uplift in the days of Asoka and the intermittent favours it enjoyed +under later and lesser monarchs, it was already moribund before the +Mahomedans gave it its final deathblow. Jainism, contemporary and +closely akin to Buddhism, never rose to the same pre-eminence, and +perhaps for that very reason secured a longer though more obscure lease +of life, and still survives as a respectable but numerically quite +unimportant sect. But indomitably powerful as a social amalgam, Hinduism +failed to generate any politically constructive force that could endure +much beyond the lifetime of some exceptionally gifted conqueror. The +Mauryan and the Gupta dynasties succumbed as irretrievably to the +centrifugal forces of petty states and clans perpetually striving for +mastery as the more ephemeral kingdoms of Kanishka and Harsha. They all +in turn crumbled away, and, in a land of many races and languages and +climates, split up into many states and groups of states constantly at +strife and constantly changing masters and frontiers. Hinduism alone +always survived with its crowded and ever-expanding pantheon of gods and +goddesses for the multitude, with its subtle and elastic philosophies +for the elect, with the doctrine of infinite reincarnations for all, +and, bound up with it, the iron law of caste. + +The caste system, though it may be slowly yielding in non-essentials to +the exigencies of modern life, is still vigorous to-day in all its +essential features, and cannot easily be extruded from their family life +even by the Western-educated classes. It divides up Indian society into +thousands of water-tight compartments within which the Hindu is born and +lives and dies without any possibility of emerging from the one to which +he has been predestined by his own deeds in his former lives. Each caste +forms a group, of which the relations within its own circle, as well as +with other groups, are governed by the most rigid laws--in no +connection more rigid than in regard to marriage. These groups are of +many different types; some are of the tribal type, some national, some +sectarian, some have been formed by migration, some are based upon a +common social function or occupation past or present, some on +peculiarities of religious beliefs and superstitions. A distinguished +French writer, M. Senart, has described a caste as a close corporation, +in theory at any rate rigorously hereditary, equipped with a certain +traditional and independent organisation, observing certain common +usages, more particularly as to marriage, food, and questions of +ceremonial pollution, and ruling its members by the sanction of certain +penalties of which the most signal is the sentence of irrevocable +exclusion or out-casting. The Census of 1901 was the first to attempt a +thorough classification of Indian castes, and the number of the main +castes enumerated in it is well over two thousand, each one divided up +again into almost endless sub-castes. The keystone of the whole caste +system is the supremacy of the _quasi_-sacerdotal caste of Brahmans--a +caste which constitutes in some respects the proudest and closest +aristocracy that the world has ever seen, since it is not merely an +aristocracy of birth in the strictest sense of the term, but one of +divine origin. An Indian is either born a Brahman or he is not. No power +on earth can make him a Brahman. Not all Brahmans were learned even in +the old days of Hinduism, though it was to their monopoly of such +learning as there then was that they owed their ascendancy over the +warrior kings. Nor do all Brahmans minister in the temples. Strangely +enough the minority who do are looked down upon by their own castemen. +The majority pursue such worldly avocations, often quite humble, as are +permissible for them under their caste laws. The Brahmans were wise +enough, too, to temper the fundamental rigidity of the system with +sufficient elasticity to absorb the new elements with which it came into +contact, and in most cases gradually to reabsorb such elements as from +time to time rebelled against it. The process by which new castes may be +admitted into the pale of Hinduism, or the status of existing castes be +from time to time readjusted to new conditions, has been admirably +explained by Sir Alfred Lyall. But the process can be worked only under +Brahmanical authority, and the supreme sanction for all caste laws rests +solely with the Brahmans, whilst of all caste laws the most inexorable +is the supremacy of the Brahman. Therein lies the secret of the great +influence which, for good as well as for evil, he has always wielded +over the masses. For though in theory there could be no escape from the +bondage of caste, individuals, and even a whole group, would sometimes +find ways and means of propitiating the Brahmans who ministered to their +spiritual needs, and the miraculous intervention of a favouring god or +the discovery of a long-lost but entirely mythical ancestor would secure +their social uplift on to a higher rung of the caste-ladder. + +Such a system, by creating and perpetuating arbitrary and yet almost +impassable lines of social cleavage, must be fatal to the development of +a robust body politic which can only be produced by the reasonable +intermingling and healthy fusion of the different classes of the +community. It was perhaps chief among the causes that left Hinduism with +so little force of organised political cohesion that the Hindu states of +ancient India, with their superior culture and civilisation, were sooner +or later swept away by the devastating flood of Mahomedan conquest, +whilst the social structure of Hinduism, just because it consisted of +such an infinity of water-tight compartments each vital and +self-sufficing, could be buffeted again and again and even almost +submerged by the waves without ever breaking up. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +MAHOMEDAN DOMINATION + + +Of all the great religions that have shaped and are still shaping the +destinies of the human race, Islam alone was borne forth into the world +on a great wave of forceful conquest. Out of the sun-scorched deserts of +Arabia, with the Koran in the one hand and the sword in the other, the +followers of Mahomed swept eastward to the confines of China, northward +through Asia Minor into Eastern Europe, and westward through Africa into +Spain, and even into the heart of medieval France. But it was not till +the beginning of the eleventh century that the Mahomedan flood began to +roll down into India from the north with the overwhelming momentum of +fierce fanaticism and primitive cupidity behind it--at first mere short +but furious irruptions, like the seventeen raids of Mahmud of Ghazni +between 1001 and 1026, then a more settled tide of conquest, now and +again checked for a time by dissensions amongst the conquerors quite as +much as by some brilliant rally of Hindu religious and patriotic +fervour, but sweeping on again with a fresh impetus until the flood had +spread itself over the whole of the vast peninsula, except the extreme +south. For three centuries one wave of invasion followed another, one +dynasty of conquerors displaced another, but whether under Turki or +Afghan rulers, under Slave kings or under the house of Tughluk, there +was seldom a pause in the consolidation of Mahomedan power, seldom a +break in the long-drawn tale of plunder and carnage, cruelty and lust, +unfolded in the annals of the earlier Mahomedan dynasties that ruled at +Delhi. One notable victory Prithvi Raja, the forlorn hope of Hindu +chivalry, won at Thanesvar in 1192 over the Afghan hordes that had +already driven the last of the Ghaznis from Lahore and were sweeping +down upon Delhi, but in the following year the gallant young Rajput was +crushingly defeated, captured, and done to death by a ruthless foe. Then +Delhi fell, and Kutub-ed-Din, in turn the favourite slave, the trusted +lieutenant and the deputed viceroy of the Afghan conqueror, growing +tired of serving an absent master, within a few years threw off his +allegiance. In 1206 he proclaimed himself Emperor of Delhi. That the +Slave Dynasty which he founded was in one respect at least not unworthy +of empire, in spite of the stigma attaching to its worse than servile +origin, the Kutub Minar and the splendid mosque of which it forms part +are there to show. The great minaret, which was begun by Kutub-ed-Din +himself, upon whose name it has conferred an enduring lustre not +otherwise deserved, is beyond comparison the loftiest and the noblest +from which the Musulman call to prayer has ever gone forth, nor +is the mosque which it overlooks unworthy to have been called +_Kuwwet-el-Islam_, the Might of Islam. To make room for it the Hindu +temples, erected by the Rajput builders of the Red Fort, were torn down, +and the half-effaced figures on the columns of the mosque, and many +other conventional designs peculiar to Hindu architecture, betray +clearly the origin of the materials used in its construction. But the +general conception, and especially the grand lines of the screen of +arches on the western side, are essentially and admirably Mahomedan. On +a slighter scale, but profusely decorated and of exquisite workmanship, +is the tomb of Altamsh, Kutub-ed-Din's successor, and like him +originally a mere favourite slave. + +It had been well for these Slave kings had no other record survived of +them than those which they have left in stone and marble. Great +builders and mighty warriors they were in the cause of Allah and his +Prophet, but their depravity was only exceeded by their cruelty. The +story of the whole dynasty is a long-drawn tale of horrors until the +wretched Kaikobad, having turned Delhi for a short three years into a +house of ill-fame, was dragged out of his bed and flung into the Jumna, +his infant child murdered, and the house of Khilji set up where the +Slave kings had reigned. It was the second of these Khilji princes, +Ala-ud-Din, who built, alongside of Kutub-ed-Din's mosque, the Alai +Darwazah, the monumental gateway which is not only an exceptionally +beautiful specimen of external polychromatic decoration, but, to quote +Fergusson, "displays the Pathan style at its period of greatest +perfection, when the Hindu masons had learned to fit their exquisite +style of ornamentation to the forms of their foreign masters." Yet the +atrocities of his twenty years' reign, which was one of almost unbroken +conquest and plunder, wellnigh surpass those of the Slave kings. He had +seized the throne by murdering his old uncle in the act of clasping his +hand, and his own death was, it is said, hastened by poison administered +to him by his favourite eunuch and trusted lieutenant, K[=a]fur, who had +ministered to his most ignoble passions. To the Khiljis succeeded the +Tughluks, and the white marble dome of Tughluk Shah's tomb still stands +out conspicuous beyond the broken line of grim grey walls which were +once Tughlukabad. The Khiljis had been overthrown, but the curse of a +Mahomedan saint, Sidi Dervish, whose fame has endured to the present +day, still rested upon the Delhi in which they had dwelt. So Mahomed +Tughluk built unto himself a new and stronger city, but he did nothing +else to avert the curse. Indeed, he invented a form of man-hunt which +for sheer devilish cruelty has been only once matched in the West by the +_cani del duca_ when the crazy Gian Maria ruled in Milan. Well may his +milder successor, Firuz Shah, have removed to yet another new capital. +Well may he have sought to disarm the wrath to come by pious deeds and +lavish charities. The record he kept of them is not without a certain +naive pathos: + + Under the guidance of the Almighty, I arranged that the heirs of + those persons who had been slain in the reign of my late Lord and + Patron, Sultan Mahomed Shah, and those who had been deprived of a + limb, nose, eye, hand, or foot, should be reconciled to the late + Sultan and appeased by gifts, so that they executed deeds declaring + their satisfaction, duly attested by witnesses. These deeds were + put into a chest, which was placed at the head of the late Sultan's + grave in the hope that God in his great mercy would show his + clemency to my late friend and patron and make those persons feel + reconciled to him. + +The curse fell upon Delhi in the reign of the next Tughluk, Sultan +Mahmud. Timur, with his Mongolian horsemen, swooped down through the +northern passes upon Delhi, slaying Mahomedans and Hindus alike and +plundering and burning on all sides as he came. Opposite to the famous +ridge, where four and a half centuries later England was to nail her +flag to the mast, he forded the Jumna, having previously slain all +captives with his army to the number of 100,000. Mahmud's army, with its +125 elephants, could not withstand the shock. Timur entered Delhi, which +for five whole days was given over to slaughter and pillage. Then, +having celebrated his victory by a great carouse, he proceeded to the +marble mosque which Firuz Tughluk's piety had erected in atonement of +his grim predecessor's sins, and solemnly offered up a "sincere and +humble tribute of praise" to God. Within a year he disappeared in the +same whirl-wind of destruction through the northern passes into his +native wilds of Central Asia, leaving desolation and chaos behind him. + +From so terrific a blow Delhi was slow to recover. A group of +picturesque domes marks the resting-place of some of the Seyyid and Lodi +kings who in turn ruled or misruled the shrunken dominions which still +owned allegiance to Delhi. The achievement of a centralised Mahomedan +empire was delayed for nearly two centuries. But the aggressive vitality +of Islam had not been arrested, and out of the anarchy which followed +Timur's meteoric raid Mahomedan soldiers of fortune built up for +themselves independent kingdoms and principalities and founded dynasties +which each had their own brief moment of power and magnificence. In all +these states, which spread right across Middle India from the Arabian +Sea to the Gulf of Bengal, Islam remained the dominant power; but, even +whilst trampling upon Hinduism, it did not escape altogether the +inevitable results of increasing contact with an older and more refined +civilisation. Amidst rapine and bloodshed and the constant clash of +arms, it was a period of intense artistic activity which, as usual in +the countries conquered by Islam, expressed itself chiefly in terms of +stone and marble, and though Hinduism never triumphed as classical +paganism, for instance, triumphed for a time in Papal Rome, the steady +and all-pervading revival of its influence can be traced from capital to +capital, wherever these Mahomedan _podestas_ established their seat of +government during that Indian _Cinque Cento_, which corresponds in time +with, and recalls in many ways, though at best distantly, the Italian +_Cinque Cento_, with its strange blend of refined luxury and cruelty, of +high artistic achievement and moral depravity. + +To the present day almost all those cities--some of them now mere cities +of the dead, such as Golconda and Gaur and Mandu, some, such as Bijapur +and Bidar and Ahmednagar and Ahmedabad, still living and even +flourishing--bear witness to the genius of their makers. From motives of +political expediency, the Mahomedan rulers of those days, whether +Bahmanis or Ahmed Shahis or Adil Shahis or whatever else they were +called, were fain to reckon with their Hindu subjects. Wholesale +conversions to the creed of the conquerors, whether spontaneous or +compulsory, introduced new elements into the ruling race itself; for +converted Hindus, even when they rose to high positions of trust, +retained many of their own customs and traditions. Differences of +religion ceased to be a complete bar to matrimonial and other alliances +between Mahomedans and Hindus. Even in war Mahomedan mercenaries took +service with Hindu chiefs, and Hindus under Mahomedan captains. There +was thus, if not a fusion, a gradual mingling of the Mahomedan and Hindu +populations which, in spite of many fierce conflicts, tended to promote +a new _modus vivendi_ between them. It was a period of transition from +the era of mere ruthless conquest, which Timur's tempestuous irruption +brought practically to a close, to the era of constructive +statesmanship, which it was reserved to Akbar, the greatest of the +Moghul Emperors, to inaugurate. + +Each of these early Mahomedan states has a story and a character of its +own, and each goes to illustrate the subtle ascendancy which the Hindu +mind achieved over the conquering Mahomedan. I can only select a few +typical examples. None is in its way more striking than Mandu, over +whose desolation the jungle now spreads its kindly mantle. Within two +years of Timur's raid into India the Afghan governors of Malwa +proclaimed themselves independent, and Hushang Ghuri, from whom the new +dynasty took its name, proceeded to build himself a new capital. The +grey grim walls of Mandu still crown a lofty outpost of the Vindhya +hills, some seventy miles south-east of Indore, the natural scarp +falling away as steeply on the one side to the fertile plateau of Malwa +as on the other to the broad valley of the sacred Nerbudda. The place +had no Hindu associations, and in the stately palaces and mosques +erected by Hushang and his immediate successors early in the fifteenth +century scarcely a trace of Hindu influence can be detected, though some +of them still stand almost intact amidst the luxuriant vegetation which +has now swallowed up the less substantial remains of what was once a +populous and wealthy city. The Ghuris came from Afghanistan, and the +great mosque of Hushang Ghuri--in spite of inscriptions which say in +one place that it has been modelled on the mosque of the Kaaba at Mecca, +and in another place on the great mosque at Damascus--is perhaps the +finest example of pure Pathan architecture in India, and one of the +half-dozen noblest shrines devoted to Mahomedan worship in the whole +world; a mighty structure of red sandstone and white marble, stern and +simple, and as perfect in the proportions of its long avenues of pointed +arches as in the breadth of its spacious design. Behind it, under a +great dome of white marble, Hushang himself sleeps. Unique in its way, +too, is the lofty hall of the Hindola Mahal, with its steeply sloping +buttresses--a hall which has not been inaptly compared to the great +dining-hall of some Oxford or Cambridge College--and alongside of it, +the more delicate beauty, perhaps already suggestive of Hindu +collaboration, of the Jahaz Mahal, another palace with hanging balconies +and latticed windows of carved stone overlooking on either side an +artificial lake covered with pink lotus blossoms. Mandu was at first an +essentially Mahomedan city, and under Mahmud Khilji, who wrested the +throne from Hushang's effete successor, its fame as a centre of Islamic +learning attracted embassies even from Egypt and Bokhara. But its +greatness was short-lived. Mahmud's son, Ghijas-ud-Din, had been for +many years his father's right hand, both in council and in the field. +But no sooner did he come to the throne in 1469 than he discharged all +the affairs of the state on to his own son and retired into the +seraglio, where 15,000 women formed his court and provided him even with +a bodyguard. Five hundred beautiful young Turki women, armed with bows +and arrows, stood, we are told, on his right hand, and, on his left, +five hundred Abyssinian girls. Profligate succeeded profligate, and the +degeneracy of his Mahomedan rulers was the Hindu's opportunity. The +power passed into the hands of Hindu officers, who were even suffered to +take unto themselves mistresses from among the Mahomedan women of the +court. The end came, after many vicissitudes, with Baz Bahadur, chiefly +known for his passionate devotion to the fair Hindu, Rup Mati, for whom +he built on the very crest of the hill, so that from her windows she +might worship the waters of the sacred Nerbudda, the only palace now +surviving in Mandu which bears a definite impress of Hinduism. Baz +Bahadur surrendered to the Emperor Akbar in 1562. + +At Ahmedabad, on the other hand, the Ahmed Shahi Sultans of Gujerat +found themselves in presence of an advanced form of Hindu civilisation +as soon as they entered into possession of the kingdom which they +snatched from the general conflagration. Whether Ahmedabad, which is +still the modern capital of Gujerat and ranks only second to its +neighbour, Bombay, as a centre of the Indian cotton industry, occupies +or not the exact site of the ancient Karn[=a]vati, Gujerat was a +stronghold of Indian culture long before the Mahomedan invasions. +Architecture especially had reached a very high standard of development +in the hands of what is usually known as the Jaina school. This is a +misnomer, for the school was in reality the product of a period rather +than a sect, though Jainism probably never enjoyed anywhere, or at any +time, such political ascendancy as in Gujerat under its Rashtrakuta and +Solanki rulers from the ninth to the thirteenth century, and seldom has +there been such an outburst of architectural activity as amongst the +Jains of that period. To the present day the _salats_ or builders, +mostly Jains, have in their keeping, jealously locked away in iron-bound +chests in their temples, many ancient treatises on civil and religious +architecture, of which only a few abstracts have hitherto been published +in Gujerati, but, as may be seen at Ahmedabad, in the great Jaina temple +of Hathi Singh, built in the middle of the last century at a cost of one +million sterling, they have preserved something of the ancient +traditions of their craft. + +Firishta described Ahmedabad as, in his day, "the handsomest city in +Hindustan and perhaps in the world," and very few Indian cities contain +so many beautiful buildings as those with which Ahmedabad was endowed in +the course of a few decades by its Ahmed Shahi rulers. No one can fail +to admire the wealth of ornamentation and the exquisite workmanship +lavished upon them, though they are not by any means the noblest +monuments of Mahomedan architecture in India. In fact--and herein lies +their peculiar interest--they are Hindu rather than Mahomedan in spirit. +For they were built by architects of the Jaina school, who were just as +ready to work for their Moslem rulers as they had been to work in +earlier times for their Hindu rajas. By the mere force of a civilisation +in many ways superior to that of their conquerors, these builders +imposed upon them, even in the very mosques which they built for them, +many of the most characteristic features of Hindu architecture. To +obtain, for instance, in a mosque the greater elevation required by the +Mahomedans, to whom the dim twilight of a Hindu shrine is repugnant, +they began by merely superimposing the shafts of two pillars, joining +them together with blocks to connect the base of the upper with the +capital of the lower shaft; and this feature in a less crude shape was +permanently retained in the Indo-Mahomedan architecture of Gujerat. +Nowhere better than at Ahmedabad can the various stages be followed +through which this adaptation of a purely Hindu style to Mahomedan +purposes has passed. It was at first somewhat violent and clumsy. The +earliest mosque in Ahmedabad, that of Ahmed Shah, is practically a Hindu +temple with a Mahomedan facade, and the figures of animals and of idols +can still be traced on the interior pillars. The octagonal tomb of Ganj +Bakhsh, the spiritual guide of Ahmed Shah, just outside the city at +Sarkhij, marks an immense stride, and the adjoining mosque, of which all +the pillars have the Hindu bracket capitals and all the domes are built +on traditional Hindu lines, retains nevertheless its Mahomedan +character. Still more wonderful is the blend achieved in the mosque and +tomb of Ranee Sepree, the consort of Mahmud Bigarah, who was perhaps the +most magnificent of the Mahomedan kings of Gujerat. It was completed in +1514, just a hundred years after the foundation of the Ahmed Shahi +dynasty, and it shows the distance travelled in the course of one +century towards something like a fusion of Hindu and Mahomedan ideals in +the domain at least of architecture. + +In Bijapur alone, of all the great Mahomedan cities of that period which +I have seen, did the proud austerity of Mahomedan architecture shake +itself free from the complex and flamboyant suggestions of Hindu +art--perhaps because the great days of Bijapur came after it had taken +its full share of the spoils of Vijianagar, the last kingdom in Southern +India to perish by the sword of Islam. Having laid low the Hindu "City +of Victory," the conquerors determined to make the Mahomedan "City of +Victory" eclipse the magnificence of all that they had destroyed. The +Gol Kumbaz, the great round dome over the lofty quadrangular hall in +which Sultan Mahomed Adil Shah lies under a plain slab of marble, is an +almost perfect hemisphere, which encloses the largest domed space in the +world, and it dominates the Deccan tableland just as the dome of St. +Peter's dominates the Roman Campagna. To such heights Hindu architecture +can never soar, for it eschews the arched dome; and beautiful as the +Hindu cupola may be with its concentric mouldings and the superimposed +circular courses horizontally raised on an octagonal architrave which +rests on symmetrical groups of pillars, it cannot attain anything like +the same bold span or the same lofty elevation. Have we not there a +symbol of the fundamental antagonism between Hindu and Mahomedan +conceptions in many other domains than that of architecture? Even if the +Arabs did not originate the pointed arch, it has always been one of the +most beautiful and characteristic features of Mahomedan architecture. +The Hindu, on the other hand, has never built any such arch except +under compulsion. + +To unite India under Mahomedan rule and attempt to bridge the gulf that +divided the alien race of Mahomedan conquerors from the conquered Hindus +required more stedfast hands and a loftier genius than those Mahomedan +_condottieri_ possessed. A new power more equal to the task was already +storming at the northern gates of India. On a mound thirty-five miles +north of Delhi, near the old bed of the Jumna, there still stands a +small town which has thrice given its name to one of those momentous +battles that decide the fate of nations. It is Panipat. There, on April +21, 1526, Baber the Lion, fourth in descent from Timur, overthrew the +last of the Lodis. Like his terrible ancestor, he had fought his way +down from Central Asia at the head of a great army of Tartar horsemen; +but, unlike Timur, he fought not for mere plunder and slaughter, but for +empire. He has left us in his own memoirs an incomparable picture of his +remarkable and essentially human personality, and it was his +statesmanship as much as his prowess that laid the rough foundations +upon which the genius of his grandson Akbar was to rear the great fabric +of the Moghul Empire as it was to stand for two centuries. Though it was +at Delhi that, three days after the battle of Panipat, Baber proclaimed +himself Emperor, no visible monument of his reign is to be seen there +to-day. But the white marble dome and lofty walls and terraces of his +son Humayun's mausoleum, raised on a lofty platform out of a sea of dark +green foliage, are, next to the Kutub Minar, the most conspicuous +feature in the plain of Delhi. Endowed with many brilliant and amiable +qualities, Humayun was not made of the same stuff as either his father +or his son. Driven out of India by the Afghans, whom Baber had defeated +but not subdued, he had, it is true, in a great measure reconquered it, +when a fall from the top of the terraced roof of his palace at Delhi +caused his death at the early age of forty-eight. But would he have +been able to retain it? He had by no means crushed the forces of +rebellion which the usurper Sher Shah had united against Moghul rule, +and which were still holding the field under the leadership of the +brilliant Hindu adventurer Hemu. Delhi itself was lost within a few +months of Humayun's death, and it was again at Panipat, just thirty +years after his grandfather's brilliant victory, that the boy Akbar had +in his turn to fight for the empire of Hindustan. He too fought and won, +and when he entered Delhi on the very next day, the empire was his to +mould and to fashion at the promptings of his genius. + +Akbar was not yet fourteen, but, precocious even for the East, he was +already a student and a thinker as well as an intrepid fighter. He +showed whither his meditations were leading him as soon as he took the +reins of government into his own hands. There had been great conquerors +before him in India, men of his own race and creed--the blood of Timur +flowed in his veins--and men of other races and of other creeds. They +too had founded dynasties and built up empires, but their dynasties had +passed away, their empires had crumbled to pieces. What was the reason? +Was it not that they had established their dominion on force alone, and +that when force ceased to be vitalised by their own great personalities +their dominion, having struck no root in the soil, withered away and +perished? Akbar, far ahead of his times, determined to try another and a +better way by seeking the welfare of the populations he subdued, by +dispensing equal justice to all races and creeds, by courting loyal +service from Hindus as well as Mahomedans, by giving them a share on +terms of complete equality in the administration of the country, by +breaking down the social barriers between them, even those which hedge +in the family. He was a soldier, and he knew when and how to use force, +but he never used force alone. He subdued the Rajput states, but he won +the allegiance of their princes and himself took a consort from among +their daughters. With their help he reduced the independent Mahomedan +kings of Middle India, from Gujerat in the West to Bengal in the East. +He created a homogeneous system of civil administration which our own +still in many respects resembles, the revenue system especially, which +was based on ancient Hindu custom, having survived with relatively +slight modifications to the present day. + +Political uniformity had been achieved, at least over a very large area +of India. A great stride had been made towards real unity and social +fusion. Nevertheless Akbar felt that, so long as the fierce religious +exclusivism of Islam on the one hand, and the rigidity of the Hindu +caste system on the other, were not fundamentally modified there could +be no security for the future against the revival of the old and +deep-seated antagonism between the two races and creeds. He was himself +learned in Islamic doctrine; he caused some of the Brahmanical sacred +books to be translated into Persian--the cultured language of his +court--so that he could study them for himself; and he invited +Christians and Zoroastrians, as well as Hindus and Mahomedans of +different schools of thought, to confer with him and discuss in his +presence the relative merits of their religious systems. The deserted +palaces of Fatehpur Sikri, which he planned out and built with all his +characteristic energy as a royal residence, only about twenty-two miles +distant from the imperial city of Agra, still stand in a singularly +perfect state of preservation that enables one to reconstruct with +exceptional vividness the life of the splendid court over which the +greatest of the Moghul Emperors--the contemporary of our own great Queen +Elizabeth--presided during perhaps the most characteristic years of his +long reign. Within the enceinte of his palace were grouped the chief +offices of the State, the Treasury, the Record Office, the Council +Chamber, the Audience Hall, some of them monuments of architectural +skill and of decorative taste, more often bearing the impress of Hindu +than of Mahomedan inspiration. For his first wife, Sultana Rakhina, who +was also his first cousin, Akbar built the Jodh Bai palace, whilst over +against it, in the beautiful "Golden House," dwelt his Rajput consort, +Miriam-uz-Zemani, who bore him the future Emperor Jehanghir. Nor did he +forget his favourite friends and counsellors. Upon no building in +Fatehpur has such a wealth of exquisite ornamentation been lavished as +upon the dainty palace of Raja Birbal, the most learned and illustrious +Hindu, who gave his spiritual as well as his political allegiance to +Akbar. The Mahomedan brothers Abul Fazl and Faizi, whose conversation, +untrammelled by orthodoxy, so largely influenced his religious +evolution, had their house close to the great mosque, sacred to the +memory of a Mahomedan saint who, according to popular legend, sacrificed +the life of his own infant son in order that Akbar's should live. In the +great hall of the Ibadat Khaneh, built by him for the purpose, Akbar +himself took part in the disputations of learned men of all +denominations in search of religious truth. The spirit which inspired +Akbar during that period of his life breathes nowhere more deeply than +in one of the inscriptions which he chose for the "Gate of Victory," the +lofty portal, perhaps the most splendid in India, leading up to the +spacious mosque quadrangle: "Jesus, on whom be peace, said: 'The world +is a bridge. Pass over it, but build not upon it. The world endures but +an hour; spend that hour in devotion.'" + +It was at Fatehpur that Akbar sought to set the seal upon his conquests +in peace and in war by evolving from a comparative study of all the +religions of his empire some permanent remedy for the profound +denominational and racial discords by which, unless he could heal them, +he foresaw that his life's work would assuredly some day be wrecked. Did +he despair of any remedy unless he took the spiritual law, as he had +already taken the civil law, into his own hands? Or was even as noble a +mind as his not proof against the overweening _hubris_ to which a +despotic genius has so often succumbed? One momentous evening, in the +Hall of Disputations, he caused, or allowed, his devoted friend and +confidant, Abul Fazl, to proclaim the Emperor's infallibility in the +domain of faith. From claiming the right to explain away the Koran, +which is the corner-stone of Islam, its alpha and omega, to repudiating +it altogether, there was but a short step. Akbar very soon took it. He +promulgated a new religion, which he called the Din-i-Ilahi, and a new +profession of faith, which, instead of the old Islamic formula, "There +is no God but God, and Mahomed is his prophet," proclaimed indeed in the +same words the unity of God, but declared Akbar to be the one Viceregent +of God. The new religion, theistic in doctrine, not only borrowed its +prayers chiefly from the Parsees and its ritual from the Hindus, but +practically abolished all Mahomedan observances. The orthodox Mahomedans +naturally held up their hands in horror, and many preferred honourable +exile to conformity. But the awe which Akbar inspired, and perhaps the +acknowledged elevation of his motives, generally compelled at least +outward acceptance during his lifetime. His Mahomedan subjects had, +moreover, to admit that his desire to conciliate Hinduism did not blind +him to its most perverse features. Whilst he abolished the capitation +tax on Hindus and the tax upon Hindu pilgrims, he forbade infant +marriages and, short of absolute prohibition, did all he could to +discountenance the self-immolation of Hindu widows. To the Brahmans +especially his condemnation, both implied and explicit, of the caste +system was a constant stone of offence. + +Great as was his genius and admirable as were many of his institutions, +Akbar, to use a homely phrase, fell between two stools to the ground. He +himself ceased to be a Mahomedan without becoming a Hindu, whilst the +great bulk at least of his subjects still remained at bottom Mahomedans +and Hindus as before. Neither community was ripe for an eclectic creed +based only upon sweet reasonableness and lofty ethical conceptions. His +son and successor, Jehanghir, at once reverted to Mahomedan orthodoxy, +but the reaction only became militant when Aurungzeb succeeded Shah +Jehan. The profound incompatibility between Islam and Hinduism +reasserted itself in him with a bitterness which the growing menace of +the rising power of the Hindu Mahrattas probably helped to intensify. +The reimposition of the poll-tax on the Hindus destroyed the last +vestige of the great work of conciliation to which Akbar had vainly +applied all his brilliant energies. Like Fatehpur Sikri itself, which +for lack of water he had been compelled to abandon within fifteen years +of its construction, it was a magnificent failure, and it was perhaps +bound in his time to be a failure. + +Aurungzeb was the first of the Moghuls to reside in the Mahomedan +atmosphere of Delhi throughout his long reign. But, begun in usurpation +at the cost of his own father, it ended in misery and gloom. His sons +had revolted against him, his sombre fanaticism had estranged from him +the Rajput princes of whom Akbar had made the pillars of the Moghul +throne, and though he had reduced to subjection the last of the +independent Mahomedan kingdoms of India, he had exhausted his vast +military resources in long and fruitless endeavours to arrest the growth +of the new Mahratta power, to which Shivaji had not unsuccessfully +attempted to rally the spiritual forces of disaffected Hinduism. In the +incapable hands of Aurungzeb's successors, whilst the Delhi palace +became a hotbed of squalid and often sanguinary intrigue, disintegration +proceeded with startling rapidity. Revolt followed revolt within, and +the era of external invasions was reopened. Nadir Shah swept down from +Persia and, after two months' carnage and plunder, carried off from +Delhi booty to the value of thirty-two millions, including the famous +Peacock Throne. Then the Afghans again broke through the northern +passes. Six times in the course of fourteen years did Ahmed Shah Durani +carry fire and sword through Northern India. One service, however, the +Afghan rendered. From the Deccan, where a great Mahratta confederacy +had grown up under the Poona Peishwa, the Mahrattas slowly but surely +closed in upon Delhi. Another great battle was fought at Panipat between +the Afghan invaders from the North and the flower of the Mahratta army. +The Mahrattas endured a crushing defeat, which, together with treachery +within their own ranks, broke up the confederacy and prepared the +downfall of their military power, which British arms were to complete. + +For whilst the Moghul Empire was rapidly breaking up, the oversea +penetration of India by the ocean route, which the Portuguese had been +the first to open up at the beginning of the sixteenth century, was +progressing apace. Of all those who had followed in the wake of the +Portuguese--Dutch and Danes and Spaniards and French and British--the +British alone had come to stay. After Panipat the wretched emperor, Shah +Alam II., actually took refuge at Allahabad under British protection, +and stayed there for some years as a pensioner of the East India +Company, already a power in the land. Well for him had he remained +there, for he returned to Delhi only to be buffeted, first by one +faction and then by another. Ghulam Kadir, the Rohilla, blinded him in +the very Hall of Audience which bears the famous inscription, "If a +paradise there be on earth, it is here, it is here, it is here"; and +when the Mahrattas rescued him he merely exchanged jailers. He was +already an old man, decrepit and sightless, when in 1803, in the same +Hall of Audience, he welcomed his deliverer in Lord Lake, who had routed +the Mahratta forces, almost within sight of his palace, between +Humayun's tomb and the river Jumna. Then, perhaps for the first time in +her history, India knew peace; for though two more descendants of the +Moghul Emperors were still suffered to retain at Delhi the insignia of +royalty, Mahomedan domination was over and her destinies had passed into +the strong keeping of the British, who have sought to fulfil, on +different and sounder lines, the purpose which had inspired the noblest +of Akbar's dreams. + +But throughout all those centuries of Mahomedan domination the enduring +power of Hinduism had bent without ever breaking to the storm, even in +Northern India, where it was exposed to the full blast of successive +tempests. Many of its branches withered or were ruthlessly lopped off, +but its roots were too firmly and too deeply embedded in the soil to be +fatally injured. It continued indeed to throw off fresh shoots. The same +process of adaptation, assimilation, and absorption, which had been +going on for centuries before the Mahomedan conquest, without ever being +permanently or even very deeply affected by the vicissitudes of Indian +political history, went on throughout all the centuries of Mahomedan +domination. Whilst millions of Hindus were, it is true, being forcibly +converted to Islam, Hinduism, making good its losses to a great extent +by the complete elimination of Buddhism, and by permeating the Dravidian +races of Southern India, continued its own social and religious +evolution. It was, in fact, after the tide of Mahomedan conquest had set +in that Hindu theology put on fresh forms of interpretation. The rivalry +between the cults of Shiva and of Vishnu became more acute, and many of +the Dharmashastras and Puranas were recast and elaborated by Shivaite +and Vishnuite writers respectively in the form in which we now know +them, thus affording contemporary and graphic pictures of the +persistency of Hindu life and manners after India had lost all political +independence. It was then, too, that Krishna rose to be perhaps the most +popular of Hindu gods, and the divine love, of which he was at first the +personification, was to a great extent lost sight of in favour of his +human amours, whilst the works known as the Tantras, deriving in their +origin from the ancient ideas of sexual dualism immanent in some of the +Vedic deities, developed the customary homage paid to the consorts of +the great gods into the Sakti worship of the female principle, often +with ritual observances either obscene or sanguinary or both. Possibly +as a result of closer contact with primitive Dravidian religions, or of +such wild lawlessness as followed the barbarous devastation wrought by +Timur, the blood even of human victims flowed more freely before the +altars of the Mahamatri, the great goddesses personified in Kali and +Durga. The worship of the gods assumed a more terrific and orgiastic +character. _Sati_ was more frequently practised. Many of the most +splendid and, at the present day, most famous temples--amongst others +that of Jaganath at Puri--were founded during that period. The custom, +in itself very ancient, of religious pilgrimages to celebrated shrines +and to the banks and sources of specially sacred rivers, was consecrated +in elaborate manuals which became text-books of ritual as well as of +religious geography. Much of what might be regarded as the degeneration +of Hinduism from its earlier and more spiritual forms into gross +idolatry and licentiousness, may well have been in itself a reaction +against the iconoclastic monotheism of the politically triumphant +Mahomedans. Caste, which was as foreign to Islam as to Christianity, but +nevertheless retained its hold upon Indian converts to Islam as it has +also in later times upon Indian converts to the Christian creeds, tended +to harden still further; for caste has ever been the keystone of +Hinduism, and, as Mahomedan power gradually waned, Hinduism reasserted +itself in a spirit of both religious and national rebellion against +Mahomedan domination. + +The most permanent, or at least the most signal, mark which Mahomedan +ascendancy has left upon Hinduism has been to accentuate the inferiority +of woman by her close confinement--of which there are few traces in +earlier times--within the zenana, possibly in the first instance a +precautionary measure for her protection against the lust of the +Mahomedan conquerors. Her seclusion still constitutes one of the +greatest obstacles to Indian social and religious reform. For, as custom +requires an Indian girl to be shut up in the zenana at the very age when +her education, except in quite elementary schools, should commence, the +women of India, even in the classes in which the men of India have been +drawn into the orbit by Western education, have until recently remained +and still for the most part remain untouched by it, and their innate +conservatism clings to social traditions and religious superstitions of +which their male belongings have already been taught to recognise the +evils. In this respect Mahomedan domination has helped to strengthen the +forces of resistance inherent to Hinduism. + +On the other hand, Mahomedan domination has left behind it a deep line +of religious cleavage, deepest in the north, which was the seat of +Mahomedan power, but extending to almost every part of India. Sixty-six +millions of Indians out of three hundred millions are still Mahomedans, +and though time has in a large measure effaced the racial differences +between the original Mahomedan conquerors and the indigenous populations +converted to their creed, the religious antagonism between Islam and +Hinduism, though occasionally and temporarily sunk in a sense of common +hostility to alien rulers who are neither Mahomedans nor Hindus, is +still one of the most potent factors not only in the social but in the +political life of India, both indelibly moulded from times immemorial by +the supreme force of religion. We have a pale reflection of that sort of +antagonism at our own doors in the bitterness between Protestants and +Roman Catholics in Ulster. All over India, Mahomedans and Hindus alike +remember the centuries of Mahomedan domination, the latter with the +bitterness bred of the long oppression that struck down their gods and +mutilated their shrines, the former with the unquenched pride and +unquenchable hope of a fierce faith which will yet, they believe, make +the whole world subject to Allah, the one God, and Mahomed, his one +Prophet. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +BRITISH RULE UNDER THE EAST INDIA COMPANY + + +The basic fact which has governed the whole evolution of British rule in +India is that we went there in the first instance as traders, and not as +conquerors. For trade meant co-operation. There could be no successful +trading for British traders unless they found Indian traders ready to +co-operate with them in trade. That we ever went to India at all was due +to the national instincts of an insular people accustomed to go down to +the sea in ships and to trade with distant lands. When the rise of great +Mahomedan states on the southern and eastern shores of the +Mediterranean, and finally the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks, +blocked the overland trade routes from Christendom into the Orient, our +forefathers determined to emulate the example of the Spaniards and +Portuguese and open up new ocean highways to the remote markets credited +with fabulous wealth which would have been otherwise lost to them +indefinitely. The handful of English merchant-venturers who under Queen +Elizabeth's charter first established three hundred years ago a few +precarious settlements on the far-flung shores of a then almost unknown +continent no more dreamt of ruling India than did the great East India +Company of which they had laid the foundations when it first sought to +extend its trading operations into the interior and sent an embassy to +court the goodwill of the mighty Moghul emperors then at the height of +their power. Throughout those early days co-operation between Indians +and Englishmen, though then for the sole purpose of trade, was the +principle that guided British enterprise in India, and the venturers +would never have grown and thriven as they did had they not laid +themselves out to secure the confidence and co-operation of the Indians +who flocked to their "factories." At home too it was not dominion, but +the profits derived from the Indian trade that occupied the mind of the +nation. Not till the disintegration of the Moghul Empire in the +eighteenth century plunged India into a welter of anarchy which +endangered not only our trade but the safety of our settlements, which, +like the foreign settlements in the Chinese Treaty Ports to-day, +attracted in increasing numbers an indigenous population in search of +security for life and property, did the Directors of the East India +Company consent to depart from their policy of absolute non-intervention +in the internal affairs of India. Nor was it till, in the course of the +great duel between England and France for the mastery of the seas which +only ended at Trafalgar, the genius of Dupleix threatened the very +existence of the East India Company that the British nation began to +face the responsibilities of British dominion in India as the only +alternative to the greater danger of French dominion. It was the French +challenge to Britain's position all over the world far more than any +deliberate policy of conquest in India that drove successive agents of +the East India Company to enlarge the area of British authority, and +successive Governments at home to acquiesce and aid in its enlargement, +until ultimately the whole peninsula was made subject to the paramount +British power from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin. + +But even that long period of irresistible expansion was a period of +almost constant co-operation between British and Indians. The East India +Company extended its authority quite as much by a system of alliances +with indigenous rulers, who turned to our growing power to save them +from destruction at the hands of Haidar Ali or of the Mahratta +confederacy, as by mere force of arms, and, when it had to use force, +its most decisive victories in the field were won by armies in which +Indian troops fought shoulder to shoulder with British troops. At +Plassey in 1757 and at Buxar in 1764, when the destinies of India were +still in the balance, the British, though the backbone of the Company's +forces, formed only a tithe numerically of the victorious armies that +fought under Clive and Munro. The traditions of loyal comradeship +between the Indian and the British army, only once and for a short time +seriously broken during the Mutiny of 1857, can be traced back to the +earliest days of British ascendancy, just as the map of India to-day, +with hundreds of native States, covering one-third of the total area and +nearly one-fourth of the total population under the autonomous rulership +of their own ancient dynasties, testifies to the wisdom and moderation +which inspired the policy of the East India Company in preferring, +wherever circumstances made co-operation possible, co-operation based +upon alliances to submission enforced by the sword. + +In the same spirit there grew up at home with the extension of British +dominion in India a definite determination on the part of the British +Government and the British people to control the methods by which +British dominion was to be exercised and maintained. So when the British +in India ceased to be mere traders and became administrators and rulers, +they had behind them not only the driving power, but the restraining +force also, of a civilisation which was producing in England new +conceptions of personal rights destined profoundly to affect the +relations between those who govern and those who are governed. Those +conceptions which underlay both the great Cromwellian upheaval and the +more peaceful revolution of 1688 were at first limited in their +application to the free people of Britain, but they began before long to +influence also the attitude of the British people towards the alien +races brought under their sway. The motives which prompted English +colonial enterprise in its earliest stages did not differ materially +from those which prompted the Spanish and the Portuguese, the Dutch and +the French. All were impelled primarily by the desire to attain wealth. +But whilst our competitors never got much beyond that stage, and for the +most part imagined that the only way to attain wealth was by a crude +exploitation of subject countries and peoples, the British were saved +from similar short-sightedness by the very different spirit with which +the development of their own national institutions had imbued their +rulers at home. By the middle of the eighteenth century a British +Government had a very different sense of its responsibilities to the +British people for the welfare of the nation as a whole from that which +any continental ruler had been taught to entertain in regard to his own +people. That sense of responsibility the British Government and the +British people applied in a modified form to the administration of their +Indian possessions. + +So long as British settlements were confined to trading factories on the +shores of the Indian Ocean, the problems of administration were simple. +The three "Presidents" who with their large and rather unwieldy Councils +carried on at the beginning of the eighteenth century the affairs of the +East India Company on the west coast, at Madras and in Bengal were +chiefly concerned with commercial operations, and they provided in their +own way and out of their own resources for the maintenance of the public +peace within the narrow areas subject to their jurisdiction. But matters +assumed a very different complexion when instead of merely taking +abundant tithe of the wealth acquired by the enterprise and ability of +British traders in a far-away land, the British people had to lend +financial and military assistance in order to rescue the East India +Company from destruction at the hands of their French rivals as well as +from the overwhelming ruin of internecine strife all over India. The +grant of the _Diwani_ to the Company by the titular Emperor of Delhi +gave the Company not only the wealth of Bengal, the richest province in +India, but full rights of government and administration, which were at +first ruthlessly exercised with little or no regard for the interests of +the unfortunate population, who alone gained nothing by the change. The +magnitude of the financial transactions between the Company and the +British Government, which was sometimes heavily subsidised by the +Company's coffers and then in turn compelled to make considerable +advances in order to replenish them, and the splendour of the fortunes +amassed by many of the Company's servants who returned from India to +spend them in ostentatious luxury and in political intrigue at home, +combined with the brilliant achievements of British arms on Indian soil +to focus public attention on Indian affairs. They became one of the live +issues of British party politics. + +There was much that was squalid and grossly unjust in the rancorous +campaigns conducted first against Clive and then against Warren +Hastings. But behind all the personal jealousies and the greed of +factions there was a strong and healthy public instinct that the +responsibilities assumed by the East India Company were greater than a +trading association could safely be left to discharge uncontrolled, and +that the State could not divest itself of the duties imposed upon it by +the acquisition of vast and populous possessions. It would be idle to +pretend that the British people already entertained any definite +conception of a tutelary relationship towards the peoples of India, or +were animated by purely philanthropic solicitude for the moral welfare +of India. But the passionate oratory of Fox and Burke and their fervid +denunciation of oppression and wrongdoing in India awoke responsive +echoes far beyond the walls of Westminster. In 1762, when France had +claimed, in the course of the peace negotiations which led to the Treaty +of Paris, the restitution of the possessions she had lost to the East +India Company, the British Government pleaded the absence of "any right +of the Crown of England to interfere in the legal and exclusive property +of a body corporate." Only eleven years later, the House of Commons +passed resolutions to the effect that "all acquisitions made under the +influence of military force or by treaty with foreign princes do of +right belong to the State," and the Commons had the country behind them. +From 1773 onward British public opinion never hesitated to support +Parliament in claiming and exercising supreme control over Indian +affairs. + +A very brief survey of the long series of enactments in which +Parliament, asserting the right of "eminent dominion over every British +subject in every country," gradually established its authority over +Indian administration and moulded it to the shape which it virtually +preserved until the Crown assumed direct sovereignty in 1858, shows how +steadily the strengthening of Parliamentary control kept pace with the +extension of British dominion in India. The first of these legislative +measures was Lord North's Regulating Act, which was passed in 1773, just +eight years after the East India Company had acquired for the first time +the right of revenue and civil administration over vast territories in +Bengal and in the Madras "Northern Circars," and thereby taken over the +duties of government in respect of a great native population, absolutely +alien in race, in religion, and in customs. Lord North's Act did not +attack directly the problem of Indian government, but it sought to +facilitate its solution by the East India Company itself by reforming +its constitution at home, where the jealousies and intrigues of rival +factions in the Board of Directors had often reached the dimensions of a +public scandal, and by centralising the Company's authority in India, +where, as the result of recent developments which had now established +the centre of British gravity in Bengal, the post of Governor-General +was created for the Bengal Presidency and invested with powers of +control over the other Presidencies, Madras and Bombay, which had +hitherto enjoyed a status of practical equality. At the same time an +attempt was made to strengthen control from home by enjoining upon the +Governor-General to keep the Board of Directors in London fully informed +and to abide by its instructions, whilst a check was placed upon the +executive authority in Bengal by the creation of a Supreme Court in +Calcutta from which the present High Court is descended. + +The defect of this legislation--a defect inherent to the situation in +India itself--was the dualism it created by endeavouring to enforce +Parliamentary restraints upon a Company which derived its title to +government over the greater part of its possessions from the +irresponsible despotism of the Moghul emperors. The Company was thus +made to serve two masters, and at the same time it remained essentially +a great trading corporation whose commercial and fiscal interests were +always liable to conflict, and sometimes did conflict, with its duties +towards both masters. The total collapse of the Moghul Empire removed +before long one of the ambiguities of this situation, but the other +endured in a greater or less degree until the East India Company itself +disappeared, though every subsequent measure of Indian legislation at +home tended to bring the Indian executive more and more fully under the +control of the home Government. + +Eleven years later Pitt's famous Government of India Act of 1784 marked +a very important step forward. Another great war had been brought to an +end by the Peace of Versailles in 1783, and whilst at its close we had +lost the greater part of our North American Colonies, the genius of +Warren Hastings had saved and consolidated British power in India. It +was easy to criticise, and if we are to judge in accordance with modern +standards, it is doubtless right to condemn some of the devices to which +he resorted in the course of the long struggle he was often left to wage +with little or no help, and sometimes in the face of active obstruction +from those who, at home and in India, should have been the first to +support him. Whatever his errors may have been, they were more than +atoned for by the cruel persecution to which he was subjected whilst +England was harvesting the fruits of his energy and courage. Pitt's Act +was in fact the solemn consecration of all his greatest achievements, +whilst it brought India into closer and more direct relationship with +the Crown. Not the least of the difficulties with which Hastings, the +only Governor-General appointed by the East India Company, was +confronted arose from frequent opposition in his own Council, where he +was merely _primus inter pares_. Pitt took care to provide against the +recurrence of similar trouble in the future. But having strengthened the +Governor-General's position, he took away the right of appointing him +from the Company and transferred it to the Crown. Nor was that all. The +Company itself was placed under the effective control of the Crown by +the establishment in London of a Board of Control, of which the +President was ultimately to develop into the Secretary of State for +India, over the Courts of Directors and Proprietors. In substance, if +not in form, India was already becoming a Dependency of the British +Crown. + +Nor was Pitt's Act concerned only with the relations of the Company to +the Crown. Its numerous and very drastic provisions for the prevention +and punishment of the corruption and oppression which had become rampant +amongst the Company's servants after the grant of the _Diwani_ testified +to the determination of Parliament, whilst acquiescing in the extension +of the British dominion, to uphold and enforce at the same time in the +governance of Indian peoples the principle of justice for all to which +the British people had gradually fought their way. A strong impetus was +thus given to the great reforms already initiated by Clive himself, and +still more drastically by Warren Hastings, which, within the framework +as far as possible of the old indigenous system of judicial and civil +administration, built up on solid foundations of integrity and +efficiency a capacious and elastic structure easily extended to the vast +territories that were still to pass under British rule. But then no +more than at any later period could the machinery of government have +worked smoothly, or even at all, without the co-operation of the Indians +themselves, who were recruited in large numbers into the Company's +service. Respect for their traditional customs and beliefs, and +encouragement, of which Warren Hastings was the first to recognise the +importance, to Indian education, though still only on the old lines with +which Indians were already familiar, secured the growing loyalty of +their co-operation. Then, as now, it was nowhere more effective than in +the judicial administration, and side by side with new tribunals, which +conformed with Western jurisprudence, the old ones, purified and +reorganised, continued to dispense justice in accordance mainly with +Hindu and Mahomedan and Indian customary law. With the consolidation of +the British Paramount Power Indians learnt to identify it with their +ancient conception of the State, and the Company's service came to enjoy +the popularity and prestige which had always attached to the service of +the State under their indigenous rulers and even under Mahomedan +domination. + +The renewal of the Company's Charter, which took place at intervals of +twenty years, dating from Lord North's Act of 1773, afforded a +convenient opportunity for the revision, when required, both of its +relations to the Crown and of its methods of government in India. The +abrogation of its trading monopoly in 1813 was mainly a concession to +opposition at home, quickened by the loss of the European markets which +had been closed against Great Britain by Napoleon's continental system, +and for the renewal of its Charter the Company had to surrender its +trading monopoly. It was the first step towards the abrogation of all +its trading privileges twenty years later, when the Company, finally +delivered from the temptations which beset a commercial corporation, +became for the first time a purely governing body, free to devote its +entire energies to the discharge of the immense responsibilities that +had devolved upon it. This was, however, only one, though not the least +significant of the momentous changes that accompanied the renewal of the +Charter in 1833. + +The trend of events in Europe after the peace in 1815 had tended to +accentuate the profound divergency of views between Great Britain and +the leading continental Powers in regard to fundamental principles of +government, which, dating back to the seventeenth century, had been +arrested at the close of the eighteenth by the exigencies of common +action against the excesses of the French Revolution and the inordinate +ambition of Napoleon. Under the auspices of the Holy Alliance, the +continent of Europe was drifting into blind reaction. The British +people, on the contrary, were entering upon a further stage of +democratic evolution at home, and, under the influence of new liberal +and humanitarian doctrines, their sympathies were going out abroad to +every down-trodden nationality that was struggling, whether in Greece or +in South America, to throw off the yoke of oppressive despotisms. Their +growing sense of responsibility towards alien races which they +themselves held in subjection was manifested most conspicuously in the +generous movement which resulted in the abolition of slavery in our West +Indian Colonies. It could not fail to be extended also to India. Under +Lord Hastings British dominion had again rapidly expanded between 1813 +and 1823, when he left it firmly established from the extreme south to +the Sutlej in the north. Then ten years of internal and external peace +had followed in which the educational labours, chiefly in Bengal, of a +generation of great missionaries began not only to meet with unexpected +reward in India itself, but also to stir the public mind at home to new +aspects of a mission which came to be regarded as providential, and to +the moral duties which it imposed upon us in return for the material +advantages to be derived from political dominion. Some of our great +administrators in India were themselves beginning to look forward to a +time, however far distant, when we should have made the people of India +capable of self-government--not yet, of course, on the lines now +contemplated, since even in Great Britain self-government was not +established then on a broad popular basis. As early as 1824 Sir Thomas +Munro, then Governor of Madras, raised in an official minute the "one +great question to which we should look in all our arrangements: What is +to be their final result on the character of the people?" The following +passage in that remarkable document may be commended to our +faint-hearted doubters of to-day: + + Liberal treatment has always been found the most effectual way of + elevating the character of any people, and we may be sure that it + will produce a similar effect on that of the people of India. The + change will no doubt be slow, but that is the very reason why no + time should be lost in commencing the work. We should not be + discouraged by difficulties, nor, because little progress may be + made in our own time, abandon the enterprise as hopeless, and + charge upon the obstinacy and bigotry of the nations the failure + occasioned by our own fickleness in not pursuing steadily the only + line of conduct on which any hope of success can be reasonably + founded. We should make the same allowances for the Hindus as for + other nations and consider how slow the progress of improvement has + been among the nations of Europe and through what a long course of + barbarous ages they had to pass before they attained their present + state. When we compare other countries with England, we usually + speak of England as she now is. We scarcely ever think of going + back beyond the Reformation, and we are apt to regard every foreign + nation as ignorant and uncivilised, whose state of government does + not in some degree approximate to our own, even should it be higher + than our own was at no distant date. + + We should look upon India not as a temporary possession but as one + to be maintained permanently until the natives shall in some future + age have abandoned most of their superstitions and prejudices and + become sufficiently enlightened to frame a regular government for + themselves and to conduct and preserve it. Whenever such a time + shall arrive it will probably be best for both countries that the + British control over India should be gradually withdrawn. That the + desirable change contemplated may in some after age be effected in + India there is no cause to despair. Such a change was at one time + in Britain itself at least as hopeless as it is here. When we + reflect how much the character of nations has always been + influenced by that of governments, and that some, once the most + cultivated, have sunk into barbarism, while others, formerly the + rudest, have attained the highest point of civilisation, we shall + see no reason to doubt that if we pursue steadily the proper + measures, we shall in time so far improve the character of our + Indian subjects as to enable them to govern and protect themselves. + +It was a splendid vision for a great British administrator to have +entertained nearly one hundred years ago, though, with no self-governing +Dominions in those days to point a better way, the only possibility that +could occur to Munro's mind in the event of its fulfilment was an +amicable but complete severance of our connection with India; and it is +well to be reminded of the faith that was already in him and not a few +other experienced and broad-minded Englishmen in India as well as at +home, now that many of us are inclined to contemplate only with +scepticism and apprehension an approach to its fulfilment on the new +lines which the evolution of the British Empire and of democratic +government throughout all its component parts, neither of which could +then be foreseen, have in the meantime suggested. + +Indians were at that time already employed in large numbers in the +Company's services, but only in subordinate posts, for which in most +cases their educational backwardness alone fitted them, and only as an +act of grace on the part of their British rulers. Parliament had +recognised the right of the Indian people to expect from us the benefits +of good and honest government--perhaps as a duty which we owed to +ourselves as much as to them--but it had not yet risen to a recognition +of their right to any active share in the government of their country. + +One of the first questions to come before the new Parliament elected +after the great Reform Bill was that of the renewal of the Company's +charter in 1833. The Parliamentary Committee appointed to inquire and +report on the subject struck a new note when it laid distinct stress on +the Indian point of view. It admitted frankly that "Indians were alive +to the grievance of being excluded from a larger share in the executive +government," and proceeded to state that in its opinion ample evidence +had been given to show "that such exclusion is not warranted on the +score of their own incapacity for business or the want of application or +trustworthiness." Accordingly, when the Charter was renewed, Parliament +laid it down that "no native of the said Indian territories, nor any +natural British-born subject of His Majesty resident therein, shall by +reason only of his religion, place of birth, descent, colour, or any of +them be disabled from holding any place, office, or employment under the +Company." This was the first substantial promise given to India that +British rule was not to spell merely the unqualified dominion, however +beneficent, of alien rulers. It invited the co-operation of the subject +race, instead of merely postulating unconditional submission. It +heralded at the same time the introduction of Western education, without +which the promise would have been empty. + +The problem of Indian education had occupied the minds of far-sighted +Englishmen from the days of Warren Hastings, who had been the first to +provide out of the Company's funds for the maintenance of indigenous +educational institutions, and it had been definitely provided in the +renewal of the Charter in 1813 that the Company should set aside a +certain portion of its revenues to be spent annually upon education. But +long delays had been caused by an interminable and fierce controversy +over the rival merits of the vernaculars and of English as the more +suitable vehicle for the diffusion of education. The champions of +English were much encouraged by the immediate success which attended the +opening of an English school in Calcutta in 1830 by Dr. Alexander Duff, +a great missionary who was convinced that English education could alone +win over India to Christianity, and Macaulay's famous Minute of March 7, +1835, disfigured as it is by the quite unmerited and ignorant scorn +which he poured out on Oriental learning with his customary +self-confidence, finally turned the scales in favour of the adoption of +English as essential to the spread of Western education. One of the +immediate objects in view--and incidentally as a measure of economy--was +undoubtedly the training of Indians, and in much larger numbers, for the +more efficient performance of the work allotted to them in the +administrative and judicial services of the Company. But if Macaulay was +quite wrong in imagining that Western education would assimilate Indians +to Englishmen in everything but their complexions, he was by no means +blind to the larger implications of the new departure he was advocating. +Like other great Englishmen of his day, he believed that good government +and, still less, mere dominion were not the only ends to which our +efforts should be directed. "It may be," he declared, "that the public +mind of India may expand under our system until it has outgrown that +system; that by good government we may educate our subjects into a +capacity for better government; that having become instructed in +European knowledge they may, in some future age, demand European +institutions. Whether such a day will ever come, I know not. But never +will I attempt to avert or retard it. Whenever it comes, it will be the +proudest day in English history." + +Peace and law and order British rule had restored to India, and its +foremost purpose henceforth, as set forth by Lord William Bentinck, a +great Governor-General, imbued with the progressive spirit of the best +Englishmen in India, to which Parliament had given a fresh impetus, was +to be the diffusion of Western education. "The great object of the +British Government," he declared, "ought to be the promotion of English +literature and science, and all the funds appropriated for the purpose +of education would be best employed in English education alone." + +India seemed for the next twenty years to respond enthusiastically to +the new call. Not only were the new Government schools as well as the +older missionary schools thronged with Indian students who displayed no +less intelligence than industry in the acquisition of Western learning, +but the rapid assimilation of Western ideas amongst the upper classes, +especially in Bengal, was reflected in the social and religious reform +movements initiated by Western-educated Indians touched with the spirit +of the West. Already in 1829 Lord William Bentinck had been supported by +a considerable body of Indian public opinion in prohibiting the +barbarous custom of _Sati_, _i.e._ the self-immolation of Hindu widows +on the funeral pyre of their husbands. Government, however, rightly felt +that, except in regard to practices of which it could not tolerate the +continuance without surrendering the principles of humanity for which it +stood, it was for the Indians themselves and not for their alien rulers +to take the lead in bringing their religious and social customs and +beliefs into harmony with Western standards. Nor was there any lack of +Indians to give their countrymen that lead--amongst them several +high-caste Brahmans, Ram Mohun Roy first and foremost. They were +resolved to cleanse Hinduism of the superstitious and idolatrous +impurities which, as they believed, were only morbid growths on the pure +kernel of Hindu philosophy. The Brahmo Somaj, the most vital of all +these reform movements, professed even to reconcile Hinduism with +theism, though without importing into the new creed the belief in any +personal God. British administrators watched and fostered the moral and +intellectual progress of India with increasing confidence in the results +of Western education, and none with more conviction than Lord Dalhousie, +a high-minded and dour Scotsman, who was the last Governor-General to +serve out his time under the East India Company. Other aspects of his +policy may have been less wise. The extension of British rule to the +Punjab became inevitable after a Sikh rising compelled him to complete +what his predecessor, Lord Hardinge, had begun, and break once and for +all the aggressive power of the Sikh Confederacy; but the rigorous +application to the native States of the doctrine of lapse or escheat +whenever the ruler died without a recognised heir, and the forcible +annexation of the kingdom of Oudh as a penalty incurred by the sins, +however gross, of the reigning dynasty have been often condemned as +grave errors of judgment. They were not, in any case, errors that can be +ascribed to the lust of mere dominion. Dalhousie was convinced that +Indian progress would always be hampered by the continuance of native +administration under such rulers as the kings of Oudh. If he was bent on +extending the area of British dominion, it was in order to extend the +area within which Britain was to be free to discharge her civilising +mission without let or hindrance, and not least by the furtherance of +education. If he took a legitimate pride in the introduction into India +under his auspices of the two great discoveries of applied science which +were just beginning to revolutionise the Western world, viz. railways +and telegraphs, together with unified postage, it was because he +regarded them as powerful instruments of education. The impulse given by +him to public instruction even in the new provinces recently brought +under British control prepared the way for the great educational +measures of 1854 which marked a tremendous stride forward on the road +upon which Macaulay's Minute had started India just two decades before. +It was to Dalhousie that Sir Charles Wood addressed his memorable +despatch which contained, as the Governor-General frankly acknowledged, +"a scheme of education for all India far wider and more comprehensive +than the local or Supreme Governments could have ventured to suggest." +Its main features were the establishment of a department of Public +Instruction in every province to emphasise the importance attached by +Government to the educational purpose of British rule; the creation of +Universities in each of the three Presidency cities, and of Government +colleges of a higher grade, and training colleges for teachers, and the +bestowal of grants-in-aid on private educational institutions. The +claims of vernacular education were not forgotten, nor the vital +importance of promoting female education, by which "a far greater +proportional impulse is imported to the educational and moral tone of +the people than by the education of men." The despatch mapped out a +really national system of education worthy of the faith which the +British generation of that day had in the establishment of an +intellectual and spiritual communion between India and the West. The +initial steps immediately taken by Dalhousie to carry the provisions of +that despatch into execution are enumerated in the masterly Report drawn +up by him on his way home in 1856, reviewing every aspect of his +administration during his eight years' tenure of office--an +administration which virtually closed, and not unworthily, perhaps the +noblest period of British rule in India, when men of the intellectual +and moral elevation of Bentinck and Munro and Metcalfe and Elphinstone +and Thomason, and Dalhousie himself, humbly but firmly believed that in +trying to found "British greatness on Indian happiness" they were +carrying out the mission which it had pleased Providence to entrust to +the British people. Dalhousie's parting hope and prayer, when he left +India, broken in health but not in spirit, after eight years of +intensely strenuous service, was that "in all time to come these reports +from the Presidencies and provinces under our rule may form in each +successive year a happy record of peace, prosperity, and progress." His +immediate successor, Lord Canning, was moved to utter some strangely +prophetic words before he left England: "I wish for a peaceful term of +office. But I cannot forget that in the sky of India, serene as it is, a +small cloud may arise, no larger than a man's hand, but which, growing +larger and larger, may at last threaten to burst and overwhelm us with +ruin." Within less than a year the cloud arose and burst, and he had to +face the outbreak of the Mutiny and see all the foundations of +co-operation between Indians and British rudely shaken, which a broad +and liberal policy of "peace, prosperity, and progress" seemed to have +so well and truly laid. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE MUTINY AND FIFTY YEARS AFTER + + +Many different causes, much more clearly apprehended to-day than at the +time, contributed to provoke the great storm which burst over India in +1857. On the surface it was a military and mainly Mahomedan +insurrection, but it was far more than that. It was a violent upheaval +not so much against the political supremacy of Britain as against the +whole new order of things which she was importing into India. The +greased cartridges would not have sufficed to provoke such an explosion, +nor would even Mahomedans, let alone Hindus, have rallied round a +phantom King of Delhi in mere revenge for the annexation of Oudh or the +enforcement of the doctrine of lapse. The cry of "Islam in danger" was +quick to stir the Mahomedans, but the brains that engineered and +directed the Mutiny were Hindu, and the Mutiny itself was the +counter-revolution arraying in battle against the intellectual and moral +as well as against the material and military forces of Western +civilisation that was slowly but steadily revolutionising India, all the +grievances and all the fears, all the racial and religious antagonism +and bitterness aroused by the disintegration under its impact of ancient +social and religious systems. Western education was to yield other +fruits later on, but before the Mutiny it was rapidly familiarising the +mind of India with Western ideals which imperilled not only the worship +of the old gods but also the worship of the Brahman as their mouthpiece +and "the guardian of the treasury of civil and religious duties." +Modern schools and colleges threatened to undermine his ascendancy just +as Western competition had by more dubious methods undermined Indian +domestic industries. No man's caste was said to be safe against the +hidden defilement of all the strange inventions imported from beyond the +seas. Prophecy, vague but persuasive, hinted that British rule, which +dated in the Indian mind from the battle of Plassey in 1757, was doomed +not to outlive its centenary. All the vested interests connected with +the old order of things in the religious as well as in the political +domain felt the ground swaying under their feet, and the peril with +which they were confronted came not only from their alien rulers but +from their own countrymen, often of their own caste and race, who had +fallen into the snares and pitfalls of an alien civilisation. The spirit +of fierce reaction that lay behind the Mutiny stands nowhere more +frankly revealed than in the _History of the War of Independence of +1857_, written by Vinayak Savarkar, one of the most brilliant apostles +of a later school of revolt, who, as a pious Hindu, concludes his +version of the Cawnpore massacre with the prayer that "Mother Ganges, +who drank that day of the blood of Europeans, may drink her fill of it +again." + +The revolt failed except in one respect. It failed as a military +movement. It had appealed to the sword and it perished by the sword. But +it is well to remember that the struggle, which was severe, would have +been, to say the least, far more severe and protracted had not a large +part of the Indian army remained staunch to the _Raj_, and had not +Indian troops stood, as they had stood throughout all our previous +fighting in India, shoulder to shoulder with British troops on the ridge +at Delhi and in the relief of Lucknow. It failed equally as a political +movement, for it never spread beyond a relatively narrow area in Upper +and Central India. The vast majority of the Indian people and princes +never even wavered. British rule passed through a trial by fire and it +emerged from the ordeal unscathed and fortified. For it was purged of +all the ambiguities of a dual position and of divided responsibilities. +The last of the Moghuls forfeited the shadowy remnants of an obsolete +sovereignty. Just a hundred years earlier Clive had advised after +Plassey that the Crown should assume direct sovereignty over the whole +of the British possessions in India, as the responsibility was growing +too heavy for the mere trading corporation that the East India Company +then still was. The Company had long ceased to be a mere trading +corporation. Transformed into a great agency of government and +administration, it had risen not unworthily to its immense +responsibilities. But the time had come for the final step. The Company +disappeared and the Crown assumed full and sole responsibility for the +government and administration of India. The change was in effect more +formal than real. The Governor-General came to be known as the Viceroy, +and the Secretary of State in Council took the place of the old +President of the Board of Control. But the system remained as before one +of paternal despotism in India, to be tempered still by the control of +Parliament at home. + +Only in one respect had the reactionary forces at the back of the Mutiny +scored some success. The Proclamation issued by Queen Victoria on her +assumption of "the government of the territories in India heretofore +administered in trust for us by the Honourable East India Company," was +a solemn and earnest renewal of all the pledges already given to the +princes and people of India. It emphasised the determination of the +Crown to abstain from all interference with their religious belief or +worship. It reiterated the assurance that "as far as may be," her +subjects "of whatever race or creed" would be freely and impartially +admitted to offices in the service of the Crown, "the duties of which +they may be qualified by their education, ability, and integrity duly to +discharge," and that, "generally in framing and administering the law, +due regard be paid to the ancient rights, usages, and customs of India." +It promised the wide exercise of her royal clemency to all offenders +save those actually guilty of murder during the recent outbreak. It +closed with a fine expression of her confidence and affection towards +her Indian subjects. "In their prosperity will be our strength, in their +contentment our security, and in their gratitude our best reward." But +no Proclamation, however generous and sincere, could undo the moral harm +done by the Mutiny. The horrors which accompanied the rising and the +sternness of the repression left terrible memories behind them on both +sides, and this legacy of racial hatred acted as a blight on the growth +of the spirit of mutual understanding and co-operation between Indians +and Englishmen in India which two generations of broad-minded Englishmen +and progressive Indians had sedulously and successfully cultivated. + +If we look back upon the half-century after the Mutiny and before the +Partition of Bengal, which may be regarded as closing that long period +of paternal but autocratic government, it was one of internal peace and +of material progress which the large annual output of eloquent +statistics may be left to demonstrate. In 1857 there were not 200 miles +of railways in India, in 1905 there was a network of railways amounting +to over 28,000 miles, and the telegraph system expanded during the same +period from 4500 to 60,000 miles. The development of a great system of +irrigation canals added large new tracts of hitherto barren wastes to +the cultivable area of the country, and an elaborate machinery of +precautionary measures and relief works was created to mitigate the +hardships of periodical famines unavoidable in regions where a +predominantly agricultural population is largely dependent for existence +on the varying abundance or shortage of the seasonal rainfalls. The +incidence and methods of collection of the land-tax, the backbone of +Indian revenue, were carefully corrected and perfected, and the burden +of taxation readjusted and on the whole lightened. Those were the days +of _laisser-faire_, _laisser-aller_ at home, and it was not deemed to +be part of the duties of government to give any special protection to +Indian commerce, whilst the operation of free trade principles in India +checked the industrial development of the country. Nevertheless the +internal and external trade of India expanded continually, and the +cotton mills in Western India, and the jute mills in Calcutta, as well +as the opening up of coal mines in Bengal and of gold mines in Southern +India showed how great were the natural resources of the peninsula still +awaiting development; and under Lord Curzon's administration, which +reached during the first years of the present century the high-water +mark of efficiency, a department was created to deal specially with +commerce and industry. In spite of several famines of unusual intensity +and of the appearance in India in 1896 of a new scourge in the shape of +the bubonic plague, which has carried off since then over eight million +people, the population increased by leaps and bounds, and the census of +1901 showed it to have reached in our Indian Empire the huge figure of +nearly 300,000,000--which it has since then exceeded by another +20,000,000--or about a fifth of the estimated population of the whole +globe. It had risen since the first census officially recorded in 1871 +by nearly 30 per cent--no mean evidence that fifty years of peaceful and +efficient administration had produced an increased sense of welfare and +confidence. + +The great bulk of the population, mostly a simple and ignorant peasantry +whose horizon does not extend beyond their own village and the fields +that surround it, accepted with more or less conscious gratitude the +material benefits conferred upon them by alien rulers with whom they +were seldom brought into actual contact save through the occasional +presence of a District officer on tour, almost invariably humane and +kindly and anxious to do even-handed justice to all. Another class of +Indians, chiefly dwellers in large cities, infinitesimally small +numerically but constantly increasing in numbers and still more rapidly +in activity and influence, saw, however, in an autocratic form of +government, of which it even questioned the efficiency, an +insurmountable barrier to the aspirations which Western education had +taught it to entertain. The list of graduates from Indian Universities +lengthened every year, the number of schools and colleges in which young +Indians acquired at least the rudiments of Western knowledge grew and +multiplied in every province. Western-educated Indians flocked to the +bar; they showed themselves qualified for most of the liberal +professions; they filled every post that was open to them in the public +services. But where, they asked with growing impatience, was the +fulfilment of the hopes which they had founded on the Queen's +Proclamation of 1858? There had been perhaps no departure from the +letter of the Proclamation, but had its spirit been translated into +effective practice? Was it never to be interpreted in the same generous +sense in which a still earlier generation of British administrators had +interpreted their mission as a means to train the Indians to protect and +govern themselves? + +The Indian army, reorganised after the Mutiny, displayed all its old +qualities of loyalty and gallantry in the course of the numerous foreign +expeditions in which it was employed in co-operation with the British +army, in Egypt and the Sudan, in Afghanistan, China, and Tibet, in +addition to the chronic frontier fighting on the turbulent North-West +border. The menace of Russia's persistent expansion towards India +through Central Asia and the ascendancy for which she was at the same +time striving in the Near East and the Far East, and later on the far +more real menace of German aspirations to world-dominion, lent added +importance to the maintenance of an efficient Indian army as an +essential factor in the defensive forces of the Empire. But there was no +departure from the old system under which not only were army +administration and all the higher commands reserved for British +officers, but the whole army was kept as a fighting machine entirely +dependent upon British leadership. The native officers of an Indian +regiment, mostly promoted from the ranks, could in no circumstances rise +to a position in which they might give orders to a British officer, +whilst, however senior in years and service, they were under the orders +of the youngest British subaltern gazetted to the regiment. No other +system was indeed possible so long as no attempt was made to give to +Indians any higher military training, or to hold out to them any +prospects of promotion beyond those within their reach by enlistment in +the ranks. These Indian officers, drawn from races that had acquired a +martial reputation and often from families with whom military service +was an hereditary tradition, were as a rule not only very fine fighters +but gallant native gentlemen, between whom and their British officers +there existed very cordial relations, human and professional, based upon +an instinctive recognition of differences of education and similarities +of tastes on both sides. But such a system, however well it worked in +practice for the production of a reliable fighting machine, was not +calculated to train the Indians to protect themselves. + +That nothing was done to open up a military career to the +Western-educated classes was not at first more than a sentimental +grievance. But when the years passed and they still waited for that +larger share in the government and even in the administration of their +country to which the British Parliament had recognised their claim as +far back as the Act of 1833, their faith even in the professed purpose +of British rule began to waver. At first the leaders of the Indian +_intelligentsia_, some of whom had learned the value of British +institutions and of the freedom of British public life, not merely +through English literature but through years of actual residence in +England, preferred to hold the Anglo-Indian bureaucracy alone or chiefly +responsible for the long delay in the fulfilment of hopes which they in +fact regarded as rights. Their confidence in British statesmanship and +in the British Parliament remained unshaken for nearly thirty years +after the Mutiny, though they were perhaps not unnaturally inclined to +put their trust chiefly in the Liberal party which had been most closely +associated with the promotion of a progressive policy towards India in +the past. Lord Lytton's Viceroyalty confirmed them in the belief that +from the Conservative party they had little to hope for, and his drastic +Press Act of 1879, though not unprovoked by the virulent abuse of +Government in some of the vernacular papers and the reckless +dissemination of alarmist rumours during the worst period of the Afghan +troubles, was held to foreshadow a return all along the line to purely +despotic methods of government. But his departure from India after Lord +Beaconsfield's defeat at the general election of 1880 and the return of +the Liberal party to power quickened new hopes which Lord Ripon, when he +became Viceroy in succession to Lord Lytton, showed every disposition to +justify. + +All the greater was the disillusionment when a measure, introduced for +the purpose of abolishing "judicial disqualifications based on race +distinctions," not only provoked fierce opposition amongst the whole +European community and even amongst the rank and file of the civil +service, but was ultimately whittled down in deference to that +opposition until the very principle at issue was virtually surrendered. +Indians resented this fresh assertion of racial superiority, and saw in +the violence of the agitation, sometimes not far removed from threats of +actual lawlessness, and in the personal abuse poured out by his own +countrymen on the Queen's representative, the survival amongst a large +section of Europeans of the same hatred that had invented for a Viceroy +who was determined to temper justice with mercy after the Mutiny the +scornful nickname of "Clemency Canning." + +The fate of the Ilbert Bill taught the Indians above all one practical +lesson--the potency of agitation. If by agitation a Viceroy enjoying the +full confidence of the British Government, with a powerful +Parliamentary majority behind it, could be compelled by the British +community in India, largely consisting of public servants, to surrender +a great principle of policy, then the only hope for Indians was to learn +to agitate in their own interests, and to create a political +organisation of their own in order both to educate public opinion in +India and influence public opinion in England. The men who started the +Indian National Congress were inspired by no revolutionary ambitions. +Though they did not talk, as Mr. Gandhi does to-day, about producing a +"change of hearts" in their British rulers, that was their purpose and +unlike Mr. Gandhi, they were firm believers not in any racial +superiority, but in the superiority of Western civilisation and of +British political institutions which they deemed not incapable of +transplantation on to Indian soil. So on December 28, 1885, a small band +of Indian gentlemen, who represented the _elite_ of the Western-educated +classes, met in Bombay to hold the first session of the Indian National +Congress which, with all its many shortcomings, even in its earlier and +better days, was destined to play a far more important part than was for +a long time realised by Englishmen in India or at home. Many of +them--such as Mr. Bonnerji, a distinguished Bengalee, Pherozeshah Mehta, +a rising member of the great Parsee community in Bombay, Dadabhai +Naoroji, who was later on to be the first Indian to put forward plainly +India's claim to self-government within the British Empire--had spent +several years in England. Others, like Ranade and Telang, had been for a +long time past vigorous advocates of Indian social reforms. With them +were a few Englishmen--chief among them a retired civilian Mr. Hume--who +were in complete sympathy with their aspirations. Only the Mahomedans +were unrepresented, though not uninvited, partly because few of them had +been caught up in the current of Western thought and education, and +partly because the community as a whole, reflecting the ancient and +deep-seated antagonism between Islam and Hinduism, distrusted +profoundly every movement in which Hindus were the leading spirits. Lord +Reay, who was then Governor of Bombay, was invited to preside and +declined only after asking for instructions from the Viceroy, Lord +Dufferin, who, though not unfriendly, held that it was undesirable for +the head of a Provincial Government to associate himself with what +should essentially be a popular movement. Mr. Bonnerji, who was selected +to take the chair, emphatically proclaimed the loyalty of the Congress +to the British Crown. Amongst the most characteristic resolutions moved +and carried was one demanding the appointment of a Royal Commission, on +which the people of India should be represented, to inquire into the +working of the Indian administration, and another pleading for a large +expansion of the Indian Legislative Councils and the creation of a +Standing Committee of the House of Commons to which the majority in +those Councils should have the right to appeal if overruled by the +Executive. + +The Congress claimed to represent the educated opinion of India, and, +though Government withheld from it all official recognition, it +flattered itself not without reason that its preaching had not fallen on +to altogether barren soil when, still under Lord Dufferin's Viceroyalty, +the Indian Local Government Act of 1888 marked a large advance upon the +reforms in local and municipal institutions which, with the repeal of +the Lytton Press Act, had been amongst the few tangible results of Lord +Ripon's "Pro-Indian" Viceroyalty; for it fulfilled many of the demands +which Indian Liberals, and notably Pherozeshah Mehta, had urged for +years past for a more effective share in municipal administration. Still +greater was the satisfaction when, under Lord Lansdowne's Viceroyalty, +the British Parliament passed in 1892 an Indian Councils Act, for which +Lord Dufferin himself had paved the way by admitting that Government +could and should rely more largely upon the experience and advice of +responsible Indians. The functions and the constitution of both the +Viceroy's and the Provincial Legislative Councils, though their powers +remained purely consultative, were substantially enlarged by the +addition of a considerable number of unofficial members representing, at +least in theory, all classes and interests, who were given the right to +put questions to the Executive on matters of administration and, in the +case of the Viceroy's Council, to discuss the financial policy of +Government if and when the budget to be laid before it involved fresh +taxation. The Act of 1892 did not, however, admit "the living forces of +the elective principle" on which the Congress leaders had laid their +chief stress, and they went on pressing "not for Consultative Councils, +but for representative institutions." Their hopes never perhaps rose so +high as when one of their own veterans, Dadabhai Naoroji--though Lord +Salisbury could not resist a jibe at the expense of the "black +man"--entered the House of Commons as Liberal member for Central +Finsbury. It must be conceded that, had Government at that time taken +the Congress by the hand instead of treating it with disdain and +suspicion, it might have played loyally and usefully a part analogous to +that of "Her Majesty's Opposition" at home--a part which Lord Dufferin +had been shrewd enough in the beginning not to dismiss as altogether +impossible or undesirable. Its claim to represent Indian opinion, as, +within certain limits, it unquestionably did, was ignored, and it was +left to drift without any attempt at official guidance into waters none +the less dangerous because they seemed shallow. It quickly attracted a +large following among the urban middle classes all over India. But as +the number of those who attended its annual sessions, held in turn in +every province, grew larger, it became less amenable to the guiding and +restraining influence of those who had created it, and especially of +those who had hoped to lead it in the path of social and religious +reform as well as of political advancement. + +The social and religious reform movement which had been of great promise +before the Mutiny and for some years afterwards, when Keshab Chundra Sen +gave the Brahmo Somaj a fine uplift, slackened. Like the Brahmo Somaj in +Bengal, the Prirthana Somaj in Bombay no longer made so many or such +fervent recruits. New societies sprang up in defence of the old faiths, +some even glorifying all their primitive customs and superstitions, and +most of them, whilst professing to recognise the need for cleansing them +of their grosser accretions, displaying a marked reaction against the +West in their avowed determination to seek reform only in a return to +the purer doctrines of early Hinduism. The most important of all these +movements was the Arya Somaj in the Punjab, whose watchwords were "Back +to the Vedas" and "Arya for the Aryans." The latter has sometimes barely +disguised a more than merely platonic desire to see the British +disappear out of the Aryan land of India. But the Vedas at any rate +yielded to the searchers sufficient fruitful authority for promoting +female education on sound moral lines and for discouraging idolatry and +relaxing the cruel bondage of caste. That it has been and still is in +many respects a powerful influence for good is now generally admitted by +those even whom its political tendencies have alarmed. New sects arose +within Hinduism.[1] An ardent apostle of the Hindu revival in Bengal, +Swami Vivekananda, was the most impressive and picturesque figure at the +Chicago Parliament of Religions in 1893 and made converts in America and +in Europe, amongst them in England the gifted poetess best known under +her Hindu name as Sister Nivedita. How strong was the hold regained by +the purely reactionary forces in Hinduism was suddenly shown in the +furious campaign against Lord Lansdowne's Age of Consent Bill in 1891 +which brought Bal Gangadhar Tilak, a Chitawan Brahman of Poona, for +the first time into public life as the champion of extreme Hindu +orthodoxy. That measure was intended to mitigate the evils of infant +marriage by raising the age for the woman's consent to its consummation +from ten to twelve, and the death quite recently of a young Hindu girl +of eleven in Calcutta due to the violence inflicted upon her by a +husband nearly twenty years older than she was, had enlisted very +widespread support for Government amongst enlightened Hindus and +especially amongst the Western-educated. Tilak did not defeat the Bill, +but his unscrupulous attacks, not only upon the British rulers of India +but upon his own more liberal co-religionists, including men of such +ability and character as Telang and Ranade, dealt a sinister blow at the +social reform movement, which practically died out of the Congress when +he and his friends began to establish their ascendancy over it. + +It was so much easier for Indians to unite on a common political +platform against British methods of government than on a platform of +social and religious reforms which offended many different prejudices +and threatened many vested interests. The Congress developed into a +purely political body, and like all self-constituted bodies with no +definite responsibilities it showed greater capacity for acrid +criticism, often quite uninformed, than for any constructive policy. As +the years passed on without any tangible results from its expanding flow +of oratory and long "omnibus" resolutions, proposed and carried more or +less automatically at every annual session, it turned away from the old +exponents of constitutional agitation to the fiery champions of very +different methods, and almost insensibly favoured the dangerous growth +both inside it and outside it of the new forces, and of the old forces +in new shapes, which were to explode into the open with such unforeseen +violence after the Partition of Bengal in 1905. + +If, however, when that explosion came the Western-educated classes were +against us rather than with us, the explanation cannot be sought only in +their continued exclusion from all real participation in the counsels +of Government, or in the refusal of the political rights for which they +had vainly agitated, or even in a general reaction against the earlier +acceptance of the essential superiority of the West. A much more acute +and substantial grievance, which affected also their material interests, +was the badge of inferiority imposed upon them in the public services. +Not till 1886 had Government appointed a Commission to report upon a +reorganisation of the public services, and its recommendations +profoundly disappointed Indian expectations. For only a narrow door was +opened for the admission of Indians into the higher Civil Service, and +all public services were divided into two nearly water-tight +compartments, the one labelled Imperial, recruited in England and +reserved in practice, as to most of the superior posts, for Englishmen, +and the other recruited in India mainly from Indians, but labelled +Provincial and clearly intended to be inferior. Such a system bore the +stamp, barely disguised, of racial discrimination, at variance with the +spirit, if not the letter, of the Queen's Proclamation--and this at a +time when Indian universities and colleges were bearing abundant fruit, +and some of it at least of a good quality. + +The diffusion of Western education had, it is true, produced other and +less healthy results, but the inquiry into Indian education instituted +by Government in 1882 had been unfortunately blind to them. Diffusion +had been attained largely by a dangerous process of dilution, as side by +side with the European schools and colleges, either under Government +control or State-aided, which had grown and multiplied, many had been +also started and supported by Indian private enterprise, often +ill-equipped for their task. The training of Indian teachers could +hardly keep pace with the demand, either as to quantity or quality, and +with overcrowded classes even the best institutions suffered from the +loss of individual contact between the European teacher and the Indian +scholar. Western education had been started in India at the top, whence +it was expected to filter down by some strange and unexplained process +of gravitation. Attention was concentrated on higher and secondary +education, to which primary education was at first entirely sacrificed. +Whereas Lord William Bentinck had declared the great object of +Government to be the promotion of both Western science and literature, +scarcely any effort was made--perhaps because most Anglo-Indians had a +leaning towards the humanities--to correct by the encouragement of +scientific studies the natural bent of the Indian mind towards a purely +literary education. Yet the Indian mind being specially endowed with the +gift of imagination and prone to speculative thought stands in +particular need of the corrective discipline afforded by the study of +exact science. Again, the reluctance of Government to appear even to +interfere with Indian moral and religious conceptions, towards which it +was pledged to observe absolute neutrality, tended to restrict the +domain of education to the purely intellectual side. Yet, religion +having always been in India the basic element of life, and morality +apart from religion an almost impossible conception, that very aspect of +education to which Englishmen profess to attach the highest value, and +of which Mr. Gokhale in a memorable speech admitted Indians to stand in +special need, viz. the training of character, was gravely neglected. + +Whilst from lack of any settled policy Indian education was drifting on +to rocks and quicksands, and the personal influence of Englishmen on the +younger generation diminished in an officialised educational service, +gradual changes in the material conditions of European life in India +tended to keep British and Indians more rather than less apart. Greater +facilities of travel between England and India, and the growth of "hill +stations" in which Europeans congregated during the hot season, made it +easier for Englishwomen to live in India, though, when the time came for +children to be sent home for their education, the choice continued to +lie between separation of husband and wife, or of mother and children. +But if the presence of a larger feminine element was calculated to +exercise a refining and restraining influence on Anglo-Indian society, +it did not promote the growth of intimate social relations between +Europeans and Indians, as Indian habits and domestic institutions, and +especially the seclusion of women, created an even greater barrier, +which only slowly and rarely yielded to the influences of Western +education, between European and Indian ladies than between the men of +the two races. Englishwomen even more than Englishmen continued to be +haunted by the memories of the Mutiny, which remained painfully present +to a generation who, whether Indians or British, had lived through that +tempest, and if to Indians the Mutiny recalled such scenes as "The +Blowing of Indians from British Guns" which the great Russian painter +Verestchagin depicted with the same realism as the splendid pageant of +the entry of the Prince of Wales into Delhi in 1876, it was the horrors +of Cawnpore that chiefly dwelt in the minds of Europeans. Many +Englishmen and Englishwomen owed their lives during the Mutiny to the +devotion and courage of Indians who helped them to escape, and sheltered +them sometimes for months at no slight risk to themselves. But the +spirit of treachery and cruelty revealed in the Mutiny and personified +in a Nana Sahib, who had disappeared into space but, according to +frequently recurrent rumour, was still alive somewhere, chilled the +feelings of trustfulness and goodwill of an earlier generation. Again, +whilst there was a large increase in the number of young Indians who +went to England to complete their studies--especially technical studies +for which only tardy and inadequate facilities were provided in their +own country--and many of them, left to their own devices in our large +cities, brought back to India a closer familiarity with the unedifying +rather than the edifying aspects of Western civilisation, the +development of European industries and the railway and telegraph +services, which at first at least required the employment of Europeans +in subordinate capacities, imported into India a new type of European, +with many good qualities, but rather more prone than those of better +breeding and education to glory in his racial superiority and to bring +it home somewhat roughly to the Indians with whom he associated. The +ignorance of European and American globe-trotters who were finding their +way to India also often offended Indian susceptibilities. Add to many +causes of friction, almost inevitable sometimes between people whose +habits and ideas are widely different, the effect of a trying climate +upon the European temper--never, for instance, even at home at its best +when travelling--and one need hardly be surprised that unpleasant +incidents occurred in which, sometimes under provocation and sometimes +under none, Englishmen who ought to have known better were guilty of +gross affronts upon Indians. Such incidents were never frequent, but, +even if there had been no tendency on the part of Indians to magnify and +on the part of Englishmen to minimise their gravity, they were frequent +enough to cause widespread heartburning, and in not a few cases +political hatred has had its origin in the rancour created by personal +insults to which even educated Indians of good position have +occasionally been subjected by Englishmen who fancied themselves, but +were not, their betters. That Indians also could be, and were sometimes, +offensive they were generally apt to forget, as they forgot in their +denunciations of Lord Curzon at the time of the Partition of Bengal that +he had not shrunk from incurring great unpopularity in some Anglo-Indian +circles by insisting upon adequate punishment of all Europeans guilty of +violence towards Indians. Apart from such collisions nothing rankled +more with Indians of the better classes than their rigid exclusion from +the European clubs in India. Even the few who were members of, or had +been admitted at home as visitors to, the best London clubs were +debarred, when they landed in Bombay, even from calling on their English +friends at the Yacht Club. Europeans could see nothing in this but the +right of every club to restrict its membership and frame its regulations +as it chooses. Indians could see nothing in it but humiliating racial +discrimination. The question has now been more or less solved by the +creation in most of the large cities in India of new clubs to which +Indians and Europeans are equally eligible, and in which those who +choose can meet on terms of complete equality and good fellowship. But +it constituted one of the grievances which contributed to the +estrangement of the Western educated classes during the latter part of +the last century. + +Though social friction assisted that estrangement its chief cause lay +much deeper. After the Mutiny government under the direct authority of +the Crown lost the flexibility which the vigilant control of the British +Parliament had imparted to the old system of government under the East +India Company with every periodical renewal of its charter. The system +remained what it had inevitably been from the beginning of British rule, +a system devised by foreigners and worked by foreigners--at its best a +trusteeship committed to them for the benefit of the people of India, +but to be discharged on the sole judgment and discretion of the British +trustees. The Mutiny shook the finer faith which had contemplated the +finality some day or other of the trusteeship and introduced Western +education into India as the agency by which Indians were to be prepared +to resume when that day came the task of governing and protecting +themselves. There was a tacit assumption now, if never officially +formulated, that the trusteeship was to last for ever, and with that +assumption grew the belief that those who were actually employed in +discharging it were alone competent to judge the methods by which it was +discharged, whilst the increasing complexity of their task made it more +and more difficult for them to form a right judgment on the larger +issues, or to watch or appraise the results of the great educational +experiment which was raising up a steadily increasing proportion of +Indians who claimed both a share in the administration and a voice in +the framing of policy. Executive and administrative functions were +vested practically in the same hands, _i.e._ in the hands of a great and +ubiquitous bureaucracy more and more jealous of its power and of its +infallibility in proportion as the latter began to be questioned and the +former to be attacked by the class of Indians who had learned to speak +the same language and to profess the same ideals. + +The constant additions made to the huge machinery of administration in +order to meet the growing needs of the country on the approved lines of +a modern state resulted in increased centralisation. New departments +were created and old ones expanded, but even when the highest posts in +them were not specifically or in practice reserved for the Indian Civil +Service, it retained the supreme control over them as the _corps +d'elite_ from which most of the members of the Viceroy's Executive +Council, _i.e._ the Government of India, were recruited. The District +Officer remained the pivot and pillar of British administration +throughout rural India, and he kept as closely as he could in touch with +the millions of humble folk committed to his care, though the +multiplication of codes and regulations and official reports and +statistics involving heavy desk work kept him increasingly tied to his +office. But the secretariats, which from the headquarters of provincial +governments as well as from the seat of supreme government directed and +controlled the whole machine, became more and more self-centred, more +and more imbued with a sense of their own omniscience. Even the men with +district experience, and those who had groaned in provincial +secretariats under the heavy hand of the Government of India, were quick +to adopt more orthodox views as soon as they were privileged to breathe +the more rarefied atmosphere of the Olympian secretariats, that prided +themselves on being the repositories of all the _arcana_ of "good +government." Of what constituted good government efficiency came to be +regarded as the one test that mattered, and it was a test which only +Englishmen were competent to apply and which Indians were required to +accept as final whatever their wishes or their experience might be. + +Herein perhaps more than anywhere else lay the secret of the antagonism +between the British bureaucracy and the Western-educated Indians which +gradually grew up between the repression of the Mutiny and the Partition +of Bengal, a measure enforced on the sole plea of greater administrative +efficiency by a Viceroy under whom a system of government by efficiency +reached its apogee--himself the incarnation of efficiency and +unquestionably the greatest and most indefatigable administrator that +Britain sent out to India during that period. It would be unfair to +suppose that that antagonism was due on either side to mere narrow +prejudice or sordid jealousy. Indians who resented their exclusion from +the share in the administration of their country for which they believed +their education to have qualified them, and which they claimed as the +fulfilment of repeated promises and of the declared purpose of British +rule, may not have been free from a human appetite for loaves and +fishes. British officials who were loath to recognise those claims, or +to concede to Indians any substantial proportion of their privileged +posts and emoluments, may have been not always unselfishly indifferent +to the material interests and prospects of the services to which they +belonged, if not to their own personal interests and prospects. But +apart from any such considerations, the attitude of both parties was +governed by the firm belief, not in itself discreditable to either, that +it possessed the better knowledge of the needs and interests and wishes +of the vast populations of India, still too ignorant and inarticulate to +give expression of their own to them. The lamentable effects of the +estrangement between British administrators and the very class of +Indians whose co-operation it had been one of the main objects of +British policy ever since the Act of 1833 to promote, never stood +clearly revealed till the sudden wave of unrest that followed the +Partition of Bengal, and it is upon future co-operation between them +that the success of the great constitutional experiment now being made +must ultimately depend. It is therefore well to try to understand the +conflicting sentiments and opinions which drove asunder the moderate but +progressive Western-educated Indian and the earnest but conservative +British administrator, and ended by bringing them almost into open +conflict. The Western-educated Indian claimed recognition at our hands +first and foremost because he was the product of the educational system +we ourselves imposed upon India. His limitations, intellectual and +moral, were largely due to the defects of that system, just as his +political immaturity was largely due to our failure to provide him with +opportunities of acquiring experience in administrative work and public +life. Where careers had been opened up to him in the liberal professions +he had often achieved great distinction--at the Bar, on the Bench, in +literature--and he had proved himself quite competent to fill all the +posts accessible to him in the public services. Without his assistance +in the many subordinate branches the everyday work of administration +could not have been carried on for a day. He contended that he must +intuitively be a better judge than aliens, who were, after all, birds of +passage, of the needs and interests and wishes of his own +fellow-countrymen, and a better interpreter to them of so much of +Western thought and Western civilisation as they could safely absorb +without becoming denationalised. His complaint was that his own best +efforts and best intentions were constantly thwarted by the rigid +conservatism and aloofness of the European, official and unofficial, +wrapped up in his racial and bureaucratic superiority. He admitted that +he might not yet be able to discharge with the European's efficiency the +legislative or administrative responsibilities for which he had hitherto +been denied the necessary training, but he protested against being kept +altogether out of the water until he had learnt to swim, especially +when there was so little disposition ever to teach him to swim. What he +lacked in the way of efficiency he alone, he argued, could supply in the +way of sympathy with and understanding of his own people. When it was +objected that he represented only a very small minority of Indians, and +formed, indeed, a class widely divided from the vast majority of his +fellow-countrymen, and that the democratic institutions for which he +clamoured were unsuited to the traditions and customs of his country, he +replied that in every country the impulse towards democratic +institutions had come in the first instance from small minorities and +had always been regarded at first as subversive and revolutionary. If, +again, it was objected that the moderate and reasonable views he +expressed were not the views of the more ambitious politicians who +professed to be the accredited interpreters of Western-educated India, +that there were many amongst them whose aims were more or less openly +antagonistic to all the ideals for which British rule stands, and were +directed in reality not to the establishment of democratic institutions +but to the maintenance of caste monopoly and other evils inherent to the +Hindu social system, and that in the political arena he seemed incapable +of asserting himself against these dangerous and reactionary elements, +his reply was once more that he had never received the support and +encouragement which he had a right to expect from his European mentors, +and that it was often their indifference or worse that had chiefly +helped to raise a spirit of revolt against every form of Western +influence. + +The case for the British administrator can be still more easily stated. +Britain has never sent out a finer body of public servants, take them +all in all, than those who have in the course of a few generations +rescued India from anarchy, secured peace for her at home and abroad, +maintained equal justice amidst jealous and often warring communities +and creeds, established new standards of tolerance and integrity, and +raised the whole of India to a higher plane of material prosperity and +of moral and intellectual development. They spend the best part of their +lives in an exile which cuts them off from most of the amenities of +social existence at home, and often involves the more or less prolonged +sacrifice of the happiest family ties. Those especially whose work lies +chiefly in the remote rural districts, far away from the few cities in +which European conditions of life to some extent prevail, are brought +daily into the very closest contact with the people, and because of +their absolute detachment from the prejudices and passions and material +interests by which Indian society, like all other societies, is largely +swayed, they enjoy the confidence of the people often in a higher degree +than Indian officials whose detachment can never be so complete. Their +task has been to administer well and to do the best in their power for +the welfare of the population committed to their charge. The Englishman, +as a rule, sticks to his own job. The British administrator's job had +been to administer, and he had not yet been told that it was also his +job to train up a nation on democratic lines and to instil into them the +principles of civic duty as such duty is understood in Western +countries. No doubt there were British administrators in India whose +innate conservatism, coupled with the narrowness which years of routine +work and official self-confidence are apt to breed, revolted against any +transfer of power to, or any recognition of equality with, the people of +the country they had spent their lives in ruling with unquestioned but, +as they at least conceived it, paternal authority. The conditions of +bureaucratic rule inevitably tended to produce an autocratic temper. But +it was not merely in obedience to that temper that they shrank from any +changes that would weaken the administration; the best of them at least +had a strong sense of their responsibilities as guardians and protectors +of the simple and ignorant masses committed to their care. They might be +inclined to judge the Western-educated class of Indians too harshly, and +to identify them too closely with the type that was beginning to +dominate the Indian National Congress, but the form in which the +question of yielding to Indians any substantial part of their authority +presented itself to their minds was by no means an entirely selfish one. +"Are we justified," they asked, "in transferring our responsibilities +for the welfare and good government of such a large section of the human +race to a small minority which has hitherto shown so little disposition +to approach any of the difficult problems with the solution of which the +happiness and progress of the overwhelming majority of their own race +are bound up, though, because themselves belonging to the same stock and +the same social system, it would have been much easier for them to deal +with those problems than it is for alien rulers like ourselves? Those +problems arise out of the social system which is known as Hinduism--for +Hinduism is much more a social than a religious system. Western-educated +Indians will not openly deny its evils--the iron-bound principle of +caste, which, in spite of many concessions in non-essentials to modern +exigencies of convenience, remains almost untouched in all essentials +and, above all, in the fundamental laws of inter-marriage, the social +outlawry of scores of millions of the lower castes, labelled and treated +as 'untouchable,' infant-marriage, the prohibition of the re-marriage of +widows, which, especially in the case of child-widows, condemns them to +a lifetime of misery and semi-servitude, the appalling infantile +mortality, largely due to the prevalence of barbarous superstitions, the +economic waste resulting from lavish expenditure, often at the cost of +lifelong indebtedness, upon marriages and funerals, and so forth and so +forth. How many of the Western-educated Indians who have thrown +themselves into political agitation against the tyranny of the British +bureaucracy have ever raised a finger to free their own +fellow-countrymen from the tyranny of those social evils? How many of +them are entirely free from it themselves, or, if free, have the courage +to act up to their opinions? At one time--before the Congress gave +precedence to political reforms--social reform did find many +enthusiastic supporters amongst the best class of Western-educated +Indians, but the gradual disappearance of men of that type may be said +almost to coincide with the growth of political agitation. There have +been, and there still are, some notable and admirable exceptions, but +they are seldom to be found amongst the men who claim to be the tribunes +of the Indian people. It is on these grounds--moral rather than +political--that we claim to be still the best judges of our duties as +trustees for the people of India." + +This was perhaps the most forcible of the British administrator's +arguments, and it was an honest one. Another was that the +Western-educated Indians were mainly drawn from the towns and from a +narrow circle of professional classes in the towns, who could not +therefore speak on behalf of and still less control the destinies of a +vast population, overwhelmingly agricultural, regarding whose interests +they had hitherto shown themselves both ignorant and indifferent, and +from whom the very education which constituted their main title to +consideration had tended to separate and estrange them. The land-owning +gentry and the peasantry had so far scarcely been touched by this +political agitation. The peasantry knew little or nothing of its +existence. The land-owners feared it, for, having themselves for the +most part kept aloof from modern education, and shrinking instinctively +from the limelight of political controversies and such electioneering +competitions as they had already been drawn into for municipal and local +government purposes, they felt themselves hopelessly handicapped in a +struggle that threatened their traditional prestige and authority as +well as their material interests. What they dreaded most of all was the +ascendancy of the lawyer class in this new political movement--the +_Vakil-Raj_, as they called it--for they had in many instances already +been made to feel how heavy the hand of the lawyer could be upon them +in a country so prone to litigation as India, and endowed with so costly +and complicated a system of jurisprudence and procedure, if they +ventured to place themselves in opposition to the political aspirations +of ambitious lawyers. Above all, the British administrator, who rightly +held the maintenance of a strict balance between the different creeds +and communities of India to be an essential part of his mission, felt +strong in the undivided support which his conception of his +responsibilities and duties received from the Mahomedans of India. Then, +and almost into the second decade of this century, a community forming a +fifth of the whole population professed itself absolutely opposed to any +surrender of British authority which, it was convinced, would enure +solely to the benefit of its hated Hindu rivals, far more supple and far +more advanced in all knowledge of the West, including political +agitation. The Mahomedans had held aloof from the Congress. They still +had no definite political organisation of their own; they were content +with the British _raj_ and wanted nothing else. + +The British administrator was therefore not altogether unwarranted in +his conviction that in standing in the ancient ways he had behind him +not only the tacit assent of the inarticulate masses but the positive +support of very important classes and communities. He knew also that he +had with him, besides unofficial European opinion in India, almost solid +on his side, the sympathy, however vague and uninformed, of the bulk of +his own countrymen at home, represented for a great part of the fifty +years now under review by a succession of conservative parliaments and +governments. There were no longer, as in the East India Company days, +periodical inquests into the state of India to wind up Parliament to a +concert pitch of sustained and vigilant interest in Indian affairs. The +very few legislators who exhibited any persistent curiosity about Indian +administration were regarded for the most part as cranks or bores, and +the annual statement on the Indian budget was usually made before +almost empty benches. Only questions that raised large issues of foreign +policy, such as Afghan expeditions and the Russian menace in Asia Minor, +or that affected the considerable commercial interests at home, like the +Indian cotton duties or currency and exchange, would intermittently stir +British public opinion inside and outside Parliament, and these often +chiefly as occasions for party warfare. Ministers themselves appeared to +be mainly concerned with the part which India had to play in their +general scheme of Imperial and Asiatic policy rather than with the +methods by which India was governed. These could be safely left to "the +man on the spot." + +Very different had been the spirit in which British parliaments and +governments had discharged their responsibilities before the transfer of +India to the Crown, and rude was the awakening for the British +administrator in India and for British ministers at home when the +explosion that followed the Partition of Bengal revealed a very +different India that was in process of evolution with much and dangerous +travail out of the reaction of new forces, hitherto almost unobserved, +upon old forces so long quiescent that they had come to be regarded as +negligible quantities. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] A detailed and learned study of these movements is found in Dr. +J.N. Farquhar's _Modern Religious Movements in India_, published by +the Macmillan Company, New York, in 1915. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE FIRST GREAT WAVE OF UNREST + + +Amongst the Western-educated classes the new forces which had been +turning the minds of young India towards _Swaraj_ as the watchword of +national unity and independence had drawn much of their inspiration from +text-books which taught them how large a share Nationalism had played in +redeeming modern nations from alien oppression and in shaping the whole +political evolution of Europe. It had emancipated the Balkan States from +the alien thraldom of the Ottoman Sultans; it had helped to unify Italy +and Germany; it had been a potent if less apparent factor in welding +Great Britain and the distant colonies peopled by the British race into +a great British Empire. Had not Indians also a common nationhood which, +despite all racial and religious differences, could be traced back +across centuries of internal strife and foreign domination to a period, +remote indeed but none the less enviable, when they had been their own +masters? Had not the British themselves removed one of the greatest +barriers to India's national unity--the multiplicity of her +vernaculars--by giving English to the Western-educated classes as a +common language, without which, indeed, Indian Nationalism could never +have found expression, and such an assembly of Indians from all parts of +India to discuss their common aspirations as the Indian National +Congress itself would have been an impossibility? Great events, +moreover, had been happening quite recently which tended to shake the +Indians' belief in the irresistible superiority of Western civilisation +even in its material aspects. The disaster inflicted upon an Italian +army at Adowa in 1894 by the Abyssinians--a backward African people +scarcely known except for the ease with which a British expedition had +chastised them not thirty years before--was perhaps the first of these +events to awaken observant Indians to the fact that European arms were +not necessarily invincible. The resistance put up for nearly three years +by two small South African Republics, strong chiefly in their +indomitable pride of nationhood, seemed to have strained the resources +even of the British Empire, and Japan, an Asiatic power only recently +emerged from obscurity, had just proved on land and sea that an Asiatic +nation in possession of her national independence could equip herself to +meet and overcome one of the greatest of European powers--one whose vast +ambitions constituted in the eyes of generations of British statesmen a +grave menace to the safety of India itself. Was England really mightier +than Russia? Had she not also perhaps feet of clay? Was British rule to +endure for ever? Was it not a weak point in England's armour that she +had to rely not a little on Indian troops, whom she still treated as +mercenaries, to fight her battles even in such distant countries as +China and the Sudan, and upon still more numerous legions of Indians in +every branch of the civil administration to carry out all the menial +work of government? If the Indians, untrained, and indeed forbidden, to +bear arms, were unable at once to overthrow British rule, could they not +at least paralyse its machinery, as Bepin Chandra Pal was preaching, by +refusing to take any kind of service under it? + +To such interpretations of contemporary events young Indians, who at +school read Burke and Byron and Mill "On Liberty," and in secret the +lives of Garibaldi and Mazzini, were bound to be receptive, and they +soon reached from a different base along different lines the same ground +on which the old orthodox foes not only of British rule but of Western +civilisation stood who appealed to the Baghavat-Ghita and exhorted +India to seek escape from the foreign domination that had enslaved her, +body and soul, by clinging to the social and religious ark of Hinduism +which in her golden age had made her wise and wealthy and free beyond +all the nations of the earth. + +The stronghold of orthodox reaction was in the Mahratta Deccan, and its +stoutest fighters were drawn from the Chitawan Brahmans, who had never +forgiven us for snatching the cup of power from their lips just when +they saw the inheritance of the Moghul Empire within their grasp. First +and foremost of them all was the late Mr. Tilak, a pillar of Hindu +orthodoxy, who knew both in his speeches and in his Mahratta organ, the +_Kesari_, _i.e._ "The Lion," how to play on religious as well as on +racial sentiment. He first took the field against the Hindu Social +Reformers who dared to support Lord Lansdowne's Age of Consent Bill, and +his rabid campaign against them developed quickly into an equally rabid +campaign against British rule. He appealed to the pride of his Mahratta +people by reviving the cult of Shivaji, the great Mahratta chieftain who +first raised the standard of Hindu revolt against Mahomedan domination, +and he appealed to their religious passions by placing under the +patronage of their favourite deities a national movement for boycotting +British-imported goods and manufactures which, under the name of +_Swadeshi_, was to be the first step towards _Swaraj_. He it was too who +for the first time imported into schools and colleges the ferment of +political agitation, and presided at bonfires which schoolboys and +students fed with their European text-books and European clothes. The +movement died down for a time after the murder of two British officials +in Poona on the night of Queen Victoria's second jubilee in 1897 and the +sentencing of Tilak himself shortly afterwards to a term of imprisonment +on a charge of seditious and inflammatory writing. But the Partition of +Bengal was to give him the opportunity of transplanting his doctrines +and his methods from the Deccan to the most prosperous province in +India. + +The Partition of Bengal was a measure harmless enough on the face of it +for splitting up into two administrative units a huge province with some +70 million inhabitants which had outgrown the capacities of a single +provincial government. But the Bengalees are a singularly sensitive +race. They were intensely proud of their province as the senior of the +three great "Presidencies" of India, of their capital as the capital +city of India and the seat of Viceregal Government, and of their +Calcutta University as the first and greatest of Indian Universities, +though already menaced, they declared, by Lord Curzon's Universities +Act. They resented the Partition, against which they had no remedy, as a +wanton _diminutio capitis_ inflicted upon them by a despotic Viceroy +bent on chastising them for the prominent part played by their leaders +in pressing the claims of India to political emancipation from +bureaucratic leading-strings. That in the new province of Eastern +Bengal, which was to be created by the Partition, the Mahomedans would +constitute a large majority and enjoy advantages hitherto denied to them +as a minority in the undivided province was an added grievance for the +Hindus. Lord Curzon had not at first been unpopular with the +Western-educated classes. They recognised his great intellectual gifts +and admired his majestic eloquence. But continuing to fasten their hopes +on the Liberal party in England, they had quickly followed its lead in +attacking him as a dangerous Imperialist, whose Tibetan adventure was +saddling the Indian tax-payer with the costs of his aggressive foreign +policy, and they required no promptings to denounce as the sworn foe of +India a Viceroy who had not only sought to restrict the statutory +freedom of their University, but, as its Chancellor, used language into +which they read a deliberate insult to the Bengalee character. By +partitioning Bengal he had struck both at the dignity of the Bengalee +"nation" and at the nationhood of the Indian Motherland, in whose +honour the old invocation to the goddess Kali, "_Bande Materam_," or +"Hail to the Mother," acquired a new significance and came to be used as +the political war-cry of Indian Nationalism. To that war-cry public +meetings were organised in Calcutta and all over the province. The +native press teemed with denunciatory articles. The wildest rumours were +set afloat as to the more concrete mischiefs which partition portended. +Never had India seen such popular demonstrations. Government, however, +remained inflexible, and the storm abated when it was announced that +Lord Curzon had resigned and was about to leave India--the last and +perhaps the ablest and certainly the most forceful Viceroy of a period +in which efficient administration had come to be regarded as the be-all +and end-all of government. His resignation, however, had nothing to do +with the Partition. He had fought and been defeated by Lord Kitchener, +then, and largely at his instance, Commander-in-Chief in India, over the +reorganisation of the military administration. Lord Curzon stood for the +supremacy of the civil over the military authority, but he made the +mistake of resigning not on the question of principle, on which he +finally agreed to a compromise, but on a subsidiary point which, fatal +as he may have thought it to the spirit of the compromise, appeared to +the outside public to be mainly a personal question. In any case, though +on the merits of the quarrel he might have looked for support from +educated Indian opinion, Bengal was content to rejoice over his +disappearance and to wonder whether with its author the Partition might +not also disappear. + +Another and worthier preoccupation was the impending visit of the Prince +and Princess of Wales to India. King Edward's son was to follow in the +footsteps of his father, who had for the first time made a Royal +progress through the Indian Empire nearly thirty years before. His +progress had been a triumphal one at a period when the internal and +external peace of India seemed equally profound. That of his son was no +less triumphal, though India was just entering on a period of political +unrest undreamt of in the preceding generation. Even in Calcutta, which +had been seething with agitation a few weeks before, the Prince and +Princess were received not only with loyal acclamations but almost with +god-like worship; and all these demonstrations were perfectly genuine. +For with the curious inconsistency which pervades all Indian +speculations religious and political, though countless dynasties have +fallen and countless rulers have come to a violent end in the chequered +annals of Indian history, nothing has ever destroyed the ancient +conception of royalty as partaking of the divine essence. The remoteness +of the Western rulers under whose sceptre India had passed lent if +anything an added mystery and majesty to the royalty they wielded. Even +the avowed enemies of British rule seldom levelled their shafts at the +Throne. That the King can do no wrong is a saying that appealed to the +Indian mind long before the Western-educated classes grasped its real +meaning under a constitutional monarchy, and began to extend its +application even to the King's Government for the purpose of +conveniently discriminating between the British Government, whose good +intentions were generally assumed, and the autocratic Government of +India, whence all mischief sprang. During the whole of the Royal tour, +which extended to all the major provinces of British India and to +several of the Native States, the enthusiasm was general, and even the +Extremists did not venture a discordant note. The Prince and Princess, +whose graciousness never wearied, moved freely amongst the crowds, and +the presence of the future Queen appealed strongly to the women of +India, whose influence we are apt to underrate because until recently it +has been exercised almost exclusively in the seclusion of the zenana. +Even high-caste ladies, Hindus as well as Mahomedans, were known on this +occasion for the first time perhaps in their lives to pass beyond the +outer gates of their houses in order to attend a Royal reception--with +all the precautions of course that have always to be taken to shelter a +_purdah_ party from any contact with the other sex. + +It became the fashion for all classes to draw their own happy auguries +from the Royal visit, but to none did it seem so auspicious as to the +politically-minded Indians. For it coincided with the sweeping defeat of +the Unionist party at the general election of 1905 and the return to +office of a Liberal Government with a crushing majority behind it, whom +the hostility displayed by the Liberal party towards Lord Curzon's +administration on almost every Indian question save that which had +brought about his resignation seemed to pledge to a prompt reversal of +his policy. Was not the appointment to the India Office of such a +stalwart Radical as Mr. John Morley, who had been Gladstone's Home Rule +Secretary for Ireland, enough to justify the expectation that the right +of India, if not to Home Rule, to a large measure of enfranchisement +would receive prompt recognition? If Indians could hardly regard Lord +Curzon's successor as another Ripon, their first impression of Lord +Minto satisfied them that, though the Conservative nominee of Mr. +Balfour's Government, the new Viceroy was neither disposed to tread in +his predecessor's footsteps as an autocratic administrator nor likely to +carry sufficient weight at home to stand in the way of a Secretary of +State who, like many Radical doctrinaires, was essentially what the +French call _un homme d'autorite_. The event proved that they were right +in their estimate of Lord Minto, but wrong in their sanguine expectation +that Mr. Morley would at once break with the old principles of Indian +government or even with Lord Curzon's administrative methods. Bengal +remained partitioned. It was a _chose jugee_ which Mr. Morley was not +prepared to reopen. + +The disillusionment in India was much greater than after the fiasco of +the Ilbert Bill in Lord Ripon's time, and there had been a vast if still +unsuspected change since those days in the whole atmosphere of India. +Disillusionment in the 'eighties was mainly confined to a small group of +Western-educated Indians who had hoped for better things but did not +despair of bringing constitutional methods of agitation to bear upon +British public opinion. In 1906 the Indian National Congress, which they +had founded twenty years before, was sliding rapidly down the inclined +plane which was to lead first to open and violent discord and later on +to disruption. Even before the Partition the Moderates could make but a +poor reply to those who jeered at the paltry results which had attended +their practice of constitutional forms of agitation. For if the Indian +Councils Act of 1892 had opened the doors of the Viceroy's Legislative +Assembly to some of the most distinguished among them, what had it +profited them? The official benches merely gave a courteous hearing to +the incisive criticisms proceeding from men of such undisputed capacity +as Mehta and Gokhale and bore less patiently with the Ciceronian periods +of the great Bengalee tribune Surendranath Banerjee. Government paid +little or no heed to them. Equally powerless had been their passionate +protest against the Partition. Even had they not been in complete +sympathy with popular feeling, they would have been compelled to voice +it or surrender the leadership they still hoped to retain to the new +Extremist party which, under Mr. Tilak's leadership, was carrying his +doctrines and his methods far beyond the limits of the Deccan. Each +annual session of the Congress grew more turbulent and the Moderates +gave ground each year, until at the famous Surat session of 1907 they +realised that they had to make a definite stand or go under. There the +storm burst over the preliminary proceedings before the real issues were +reached. Mr. Tilak's followers assailed the presidential platform of +which the Moderates had still retained possession, and the Congress +broke up in hopeless confusion and disorder. + +But what happened in the Congress was but a pale reflection of what was +happening outside. The Partition was indeed little more than the signal +for an explosion, not merely in Bengal, of which premonitory indications +had been witnessed, but had passed almost unheeded, some ten years +earlier in the Deccan. The cry of _Swaraj_ was caught up and re-echoed +in every province of British India. In Calcutta the vow of _Swadeshi_ +was administered at mass meetings in the famous temple of Kali. Hindu +reactionaries, whose conception of a well-ordered society had not moved +beyond the laws of Manu, fell into line for the moment with the +intellectual products of the modern Indian University. Hindu ascetics +appealed to the credulity of the masses and every Bar Association became +the centre of an active political propaganda on a Western democratic +model. Schoolboys and students were exhorted to abandon their studies +and go out into the streets, where they qualified as patriots by +marching in the van of national demonstrations for _Swaraj_ or by +furnishing picketing parties for the _Swadeshi_ boycott. The native +press, whether printed in the vernacular tongues or in the language of +the British tyrant, reached the extreme limits of licence, and when it +did not actually preach violence it succeeded in producing the +atmosphere which engenders violence. When passions were wrought up to a +white heat by fiery orators and still more fiery newspaper writers, who +knew how to draw equally effectively on the ancient legends of Hindu +mythology and on the contemporary records of Russian anarchism, the cult +of the bomb was easily grafted on to the cult of Shiva, the Destroyer, +and murders, of which the victims were almost as often Indians in +Government service as British-born officials, were invested with a halo +of religious and patriotic heroism. Youths even of the better classes +banded themselves together to collect patriotic funds by plunder and +violence, and revived those old forms of lawlessness which had been +rampant in pre-British days under the name of _dacoity_. Schools and +colleges were found to be honeycombed with secret societies, and a flood +of light was suddenly thrown on the disastrous workings of an +educational system that had been slowly perverted to such ends under the +very eyes of the Government that was supposed to direct and control it. + +Lord Curzon had held a special conference at Simla in 1900 "to consider +the system of education in India," but not a single Indian and only one +non-official European had been invited to take part in it. It was the +intellectual shortcomings of the system with which he was concerned, and +the chief outcome of that conference and of a Commission subsequently +appointed to carry on the inquiry was the Universities Act of 1904, +carried in the face of bitter Indian opposition. Even such broad-minded +and experienced Indians as Gokhale and Mehta suspected the Viceroy of a +desire to hamper the growth of higher Western education on political +grounds. But throughout the four years' controversy Government never +betrayed an inkling of the appalling extent to which inferior secondary +education had been allowed to degenerate in second-and third-rate +schools with second-and third-rate masters into a mere teaching machine, +clumsy and imperfect at that, for the passing of examinations that +tested memory rather than intelligence, and character least of all. The +unfortunate youths who could not stand even that test were left +hopelessly stranded on the road, equally disqualified for a humbler +sphere of life which they had learnt to despise and for the higher walks +to which they had vainly aspired. Soured by defeat, and easily persuaded +to impute it solely to the alien rulers responsible for a system which +had led them merely into a blind alley, they formed the rank and file of +a proletariat that could only by courtesy be called intellectual, but +was just the material out of which every form of discontent is apt to +breed desperadoes. But many were no mere vulgar desperadoes. Amongst +those who were engaged in making bombs and collecting revolvers and +organising dacoities or who actually committed murder not a few +sincerely believed that they were risking or giving their lives in a +great patriotic and religious cause. The _Yugantar_, their chief +Bengalee organ, which had an enormous circulation and sold often at +fancy prices in the streets of Calcutta, was written, according to a +statement made in the High Court by the Government translator whose +business it was to study it, in language so lofty, so pathetic, so +stirring that he found it impossible to convey it into English. The +writers made no secret of their purpose. The young Indian's "mind must +be excited and maddened by such an ideal as will present to him a +picture of everlasting salvation." Murder had its creed to which Dr. +Farquhar assigns a definite place in his _Modern Religious Movements in +India_ with the following as its chief dogmas: + + Indian civilisation in all its branches,--religion, education, art, + industry, home life and government,--is healthy, spiritual, + beautiful and good. It has become corrupted in the course of + centuries, but that is largely the result of the cruelty and + aggression of the Muhammadans in former times and now of the + British. The Indian patriot must toil to restore Indian life and + civilisation. + + Western civilisation in all its parts,--religion, education, art, + business and government,--is gross, materialistic and therefore + degrading to India. The patriotic Indian must recognise the grave + danger lurking in every element of Western influence, must hate it, + and must be on his guard against it. + + India ought to be made truly Indian. There is no place for + Europeans in the country. Indians can manage everything far better + than Europeans can. The British Government, Missions, European + trade and Western influence of every kind, are altogether unhealthy + in India. Everything should belong to the Indians themselves. + + Hence it is a religious duty to get rid of the European and all the + evils that attend him. The better a man understands his religion, + the more clear will be his perception that Europeans and European + influence must be rooted out. All means for the attainment of this + end are justifiable. As Krishna killed Kamsa, so the modern Indian + must kill the European demons that are tyrannically holding India + down. The bloodthirsty goddess Kali ought to be honoured by the + Indian patriot. Even the Baghavad Ghita was used to teach murder. + Lies, deceit, murder, everything, it was argued, may be rightly + used. + +Not till some years later did a Committee, presided over by a British +High Court judge sent out from England for the purpose, fully explore +the many ramifications of a revolutionary movement which had one of its +head centres in London, until the murder of Sir W. Curzon-Wylie by an +Indian student during a crowded reception at the Imperial Institute +aroused the attention of the authorities to the activities of the "India +House," and Mr. Krishnavarma, its familiar genius, had to transfer to +Paris his notorious paper, the _Indian Sociologist_, in which he openly +glorified murder. The "Sedition Committee's" Report was only made public +in 1918, and if the action taken upon it by the Government of India was +to furnish the occasion for another popular explosion different in +character from, but no less formidable than, the explosion which +followed the Partition of Bengal, the facts which it marshalled and the +conclusions which it drew from them with judicial soberness have never +been seriously challenged. It found that the long series of crimes of +which it recorded the genesis and growth had been "directed towards one +and the same objective, the overthrow by force of British rule in +India," and nothing revealed more clearly the mainspring of the movement +than the statistics given as to age, caste, and occupation of persons +who had been actually convicted of revolutionary crimes or killed whilst +committing them. The large majority were between 16 and 25 years of age; +most of them students and teachers; all of them Hindus, and almost all +high-caste Hindus, either Brahmans or Kayasthas--the latter a +writer-caste ranking just below the Brahman caste. These statistics did +not cover the large number of crimes of which the authors escaped +scot-free and were never brought to justice. + +Not the least alarming feature of the situation was the attitude of the +Indian public generally towards this epidemic of political crime which +assumed some forms hitherto quite unknown to India and abhorrent to +most Indians. The movement could only be correctly described as an +Anarchist movement in so far as the methods to which it resorted were +largely modelled upon those of Russian anarchists and aimed, like +theirs, at the subversion of the existing Government. It differed +fundamentally from Russian anarchism in that it was directed against +alien rulers of another faith and another civilisation. That it created +a widespread feeling of apprehension and even of detestation amongst the +great majority of peaceful and sober-minded Indians cannot be doubted, +and especially amongst those who watched with alarm the ravages it was +making amongst the younger generation. But few had the courage to carry +reprobation to the length of assisting Government in the detection and +repression of crimes which terrorism made it less dangerous to extenuate +as lamentable exhibitions of a misguided patriotic frenzy. The +Western-educated classes were completely estranged and smarted so +bitterly over the contempt with which their representations and protests +against the policy of Government had been treated that those even of the +more moderate school of politics were content to throw up their hands in +horror and declare that if they were unable to stem the torrent, the +fault lay entirely with the bureaucracy which had killed by long years +of neglect and hostility the influence they might have otherwise been +able to exert over their fellow-countrymen in the hour of stress. The +Extremists boldly threw the whole responsibility for the movement on +British rule and combined with a perfunctory and dubious condemnation of +the crimes themselves an ecstatic admiration for the heroism which had +driven the youth of India to follow the example of the Russian +_intelligentsia_ in its revolt against an autocracy as brutal and as +odious as that of Russia. Mere measures of repression under the ordinary +law were clearly incapable of coping with a situation which was becoming +no less dangerous in its negative than in its positive aspects. British +rule in India had concentrated so largely on mechanical efficiency that +it had gradually lost sight of the old and finer principles of +Anglo-Indian as well as of British statesmanship based on the paramount +importance of genuine co-operation between British and Indians. During +the Mutiny there were few of the Western-educated classes whose loyalty +to the British _Raj_ ever wavered. Fifty years later, when the _Raj_ was +confronted with a less violent but more insidious movement of revolt, a +large part of the Western-educated classes, whose influence and numbers +had increased immensely in the interval, were, if not in league, at +least to some extent in sympathy with it, and many of those who deplored +and reprobated it remained sulking in their tents. Government, they +declared, had always despised their co-operation. As it had made its +bed, so it must lie. It was a desperately short-sighted attitude, which +has had its nemesis in the "Non-co-operation" movement of the present +day. But, in a situation so severely strained, relief could only come +from England and from a return to the earlier British ideals, and to +those Indians who still looked for it there with some confidence after +the change of Government which had taken place at home in December 1905 +it seemed to come very slowly. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE MORLEY-MINTO REFORMS + + +A British Government of a more advanced type of liberalism than any of +its Liberal predecessors found itself confronted as soon as it took +office with a more difficult situation in India than had ever been +dreamt of since the Mutiny, and the difficulties grew rapidly more +grave. When Mr. Morley went to the India Office during the respite from +agitation against the Partition of Bengal, procured by the visit of the +Prince and Princess of Wales to India even more than by Lord Curzon's +departure from India, the new Secretary of State allowed himself to be +persuaded that an agitation directed, so far, mainly against a harmless +measure of mere administrative importance must be largely artificial, +and he determined to maintain the Partition. He was entirely new to +Indian affairs, and his _Recollections_ show him to have been often +sorely perplexed by the conflict between his own political instincts and +the picture of Indian conditions placed before him by his official +advisers at home and in India. He felt, however, on the whole fairly +confident that he could deal with the situation by producing a moderate +measure of reforms which would satisfy India's political aspirations and +by keeping an extremely vigilant eye on Indian methods of administration +of which "sympathy" was in future to be the key-note rather than mere +efficiency. But when in the course of 1907 the agitation broke out +afresh with increased fury and began to produce a crop of political +outrages, Mr. Morley found himself in a particularly awkward position. +He was known from his Irish days to be no believer in coercion. But the +Government of India was not to be denied when it insisted that a +campaign of murder could not be tolerated and that repression was as +necessary as reform. The Secretary of State agreed reluctantly to +sanction more stringent legislation for dealing with the excesses of the +Extremist press in India, but he was only the more resolved that it must +be accompanied by a liberal reforms scheme. The Viceroy himself shared +this view and lent willing assistance. But the interchange of opinions +between India and Whitehall was as usual terribly lengthy and laborious. +A Royal Proclamation on November 28, 1908, the fiftieth anniversary of +Queen Victoria's Proclamation after the Mutiny, foreshadowed reforms in +"political satisfaction of the claims of important classes representing +ideas that have been fostered and encouraged by British rule." But not +till the following month, _i.e._ three years after Mr. Morley had taken +over the India Office, did the reforms scheme see the light of day. + +It bore his impress. He had a ready ear for Indian grievances and much +understanding for the Moderate Indian point of view. He was prepared to +give Indians a larger consultative voice in the conduct of Indian +affairs, and even to introduce individual Indians not only into his own +Council at Whitehall but even into the Viceroy's Executive Council, the +citadel of British authority in India. He was determined to enforce far +more energetically than most of his predecessors the constitutional +right of the Secretary of State to form and lay down the policy for +which his responsibility was to the British Parliament alone, while the +function of the Government of India was, after making to him whatever +representations it might deem desirable, to carry his decisions +faithfully and fully into execution. He was prepared to exercise also to +the full his right to control the administrative as well as the +executive acts of the Government of India and its officers. He was not +prepared to devolve upon Indians collectively any part of the +constitutional powers vested in the Indian Executive and ultimately +through the Secretary of State in the British Parliament. He was not +therefore prepared to give India any representative institutions that +should circumscribe or share the power of the Indian Executive. The +Indian Councils Act of 1909 was drawn up on those lines. It enlarged the +membership and the functions of the Indian Legislative Councils, and +placed them definitely on an elective basis without doing away +altogether with nominations by Government. The only point upon which Mr. +Morley yielded to pressure was in conceding the principle of community +representation in favour of the Mahomedans, to whom, at a time when they +not only held rigidly aloof from all political agitation but professed +great anxiety as to political concessions of which the benefit would, +they submitted, accrue mainly to the Hindus, Lord Minto had given a +promise that in any future reforms scheme full consideration should be +given to the historical importance and actual influence of their +community rather than to its mere numerical strength. + +The Indian Councils Act, 1909, fell considerably short of the demands +put forward even by the founders of the Congress five-and-twenty years +before, as the new Councils, greatly enlarged, were still to be merely +consultative assemblies. But it did for the first time admit "the living +forces of the elective principle," and to that extent it met the demand +for representative institutions. Indian Moderates could point also to +the presence of an Indian member, Sir Satyendra (now Lord) Sinha, in the +Viceroy's Executive Council and of two Indian members in the Secretary +of State's Council at Whitehall as a definite proof that India would +have henceforth a hearing before, and not as in the past merely after, +the adoption of vital lines of policy. The Act was accepted by the +Moderate leaders as a genuine if not a generous instalment of reform, +and it restored to some extent their influence as the advocates of +constitutional progress by showing that the British Government had not +been altogether deaf to their appeals. It did not of course satisfy the +Extremists, but their influence had suffered a great set-back from the +wrecking of the Surat Congress, their great Deccanee leader was working +out a long term of imprisonment at Mandalay, and with the tide of +anarchism still spreading and visibly demoralising the student class all +over India, even to the undermining of parental authority, the first +feeling of suppressed and largely inarticulate alarm and resentment +developed into a definite reaction in favour of government as by law +established. + +The great wave of unrest which had swept over India was already +subsiding when Lord Minto left India in 1910 amidst genuine +demonstrations of returning goodwill, and the appointment of Lord +Hardinge of Penshurst as his successor was welcomed in the same spirit, +not because Lord Kitchener, who had run him very hard for the +Viceroyalty, was personally unpopular in India, but because he owed to +reactionary supporters the quite unmerited reputation of being "the man +with the big stick." + +The visit of the King and Queen to India at the end of 1911 was +therefore well timed, and it provoked a still greater outburst of +popular enthusiasm than their visit as Prince and Princess of Wales in +1905. For it was the first time that the Sovereign to whom it was given +to rule over India from a remote Western island travelled out to receive +on Indian soil the homage of his Indian subjects and appeared before +them in the full majesty of crown, orb, and sceptre. Apart entirely from +the merits of the measure, the dramatic transfer of the capital of his +Indian Empire from Calcutta to Delhi appealed to the imagination of +Indians as a demonstration of the Royal power no less impressive than +the splendours of the great Durbar at which the Royal command went +forth. Equally did their Majesties fulfil another of the time-honoured +conceptions of royalty by knowing, so to say, when to step down from +their throne and mix freely with the people. It has been from times +immemorial one of the principles of Indian rulership that the ruler +cannot deny to his subjects the privilege of access to his person, and +many are those who have gained more popularity by giving ample +opportunity to their subjects for stating to them their grievances in +the royal presence than by ever actually redressing them. In Calcutta +especially when the King and Queen moved cheerfully amongst the +delirious crowds that had thronged to the Maidan to worship them, the +scene surpassed all previous experiences. For had not one of the +measures announced as the Royal will at the Delhi Durbar been the +revision at last of Lord Curzon's detested Partition of Bengal? The +furious agitation of the first few years had broken in vain against the +dead wall of the _chose jugee_ which Mr. Morley had upheld, and it had +gradually died down. The wound, however, had been still there, and now +the King's hand had touched and healed it. The old Province of Bengal +was not indeed restored within its former limits, but Eastern Bengal, +created as the Hindu Bengalees believed, in favour of Mahomedan +ascendancy, disappeared, and in its stead Behar and Orissa, where a +large part of the population was of a different stock and spoke a +different tongue, were detached to the west and south of Bengal proper +and formed into a separate province which served equally well to relieve +administrative congestion without doing violence to Bengalee sentiment. + +On the very first anniversary, however, of the day of the great Delhi +Durbar an audacious attempt to murder the Viceroy at the moment when he +was making his solemn entry into the new capital came as a painful +reminder that the fangs of Indian anarchism had not yet been drawn. From +one of the balconies of the Chandni Chauk, the chief thoroughfare of the +native city, a bomb was thrown at Lord Hardinge who was riding with Lady +Hardinge on a State elephant, in accordance with Indian usage, on his +way to the Fort where he was to have delivered a message of greeting to +the people of India recalling the memorable results of the Royal visit. +The Viceroy was severely wounded and Lady Hardinge, though she escaped +without any apparent hurt, suffered a shock which at least hastened her +premature death two and a half years later. Lord Hardinge had already +earned the widespread confidence of Indians by his undisguised sympathy +with all their legitimate aspirations, and the Lady Hardinge's School of +Medicine for Indian women stands now at Delhi as an enduring monument, +not only of the keen interest which she took in the cause of Indian +womanhood and in everything that could tend to its advancement, but of +the affection she had won by a rare charm of manner that was, with her, +merely the outward reflection of a gentle and finely tempered nature. +There had been abortive plots against Lord Minto's life, but it had been +deemed politic to minimise their importance. This, however, was an +attempt too flagrant and too nearly fatal to be disguised or denied, and +a thrill of horror which hushed even the Extremists went through the +whole of India, for to the office of the Viceroy as the personal +representative of the sovereign there had always hitherto attached +something of the sanctity with which, according to Indian beliefs, all +kingship is invested. All the more grateful was the response elicited by +the assurance which Lord Hardinge hastened to convey from his sick-bed +that what had happened could and would in no way diminish his affection +and devotion to the people of India or modify the policy of goodwill and +progress for which he stood. Neither he nor India ever forgot that +assurance. + +Unfortunately the artificial basis upon which the Morley-Minto reforms +had been built revealed itself very soon under the searching test of +practical experience. The Councils Act of 1909 had made no attempt to +organise on an effective and genuine basis "the living forces of the +elective principle." The indirect system of election established under +the Act could only produce haphazard and misleading results. An indirect +chain of elections afforded no means of appraising the true +relationship between the elected members of the Councils and their +original electors. The qualifications of candidates, as well as of +electors, varied widely from province to province, but shared one common +characteristic, that the election was more often a matter of form. +Members of the Provincial Councils were returned partly by Municipal and +Local Boards arranged in various groups, without any connection with, or +mandate from, the constituencies by which these bodies had been chosen, +partly by a land-holding community which did not consider itself bound +by the acts of its constituted representatives. The so-called +electorates were never known to give definite mandates to those who +professed to represent them or to pronounce upon any course of action +which their representatives might pursue. Nobody knew what was the +numerical foundation on which an elected member took his seat. It was +almost impossible to trace it back along the chain of indirect +elections. Before the British Reform Bill of 1832 much play was made of +pocket boroughs of twenty or thirty electors. In India, one constituency +electing a member to the Imperial Legislative Council numbered exactly +seven, and there were cases where the representation was pretty well +known to have been divided by agreement between two individuals. Nor did +the recommendations of a Royal Commission on Decentralisation avail to +break down that spirit of over-centralisation which had of late years +marked the policy of the Government of India. The Provincial Governments +still remained bound hand and foot by the necessity of constant +reference to the Central Government, while the latter in its turn was +forced to make an ever-increasing number of references to Whitehall, +where Mr. Morley enforced, far beyond the practice of any previous +Secretary of State, the principle that the Provincial Governments were +responsible to the Central Government, and the Central Government to the +India Office for every detail of administration. + +More galling to Indians was it to have to admit that the expansion of +Indian representation in the Councils had not been followed by any +visible increase of Indian control over the conduct of public affairs. +Whilst disclaiming warmly any intention of paving the way for the +introduction of parliamentary institutions into India, Mr. Morley had +allowed an illusory semblance of parliamentary institutions to be +introduced into the enlarged Councils by requiring their sanction for +legislative measures brought forward by the Executive. The latter had to +go through the same forms of procedure as if its existence depended upon +the support of a parliamentary majority to which it was responsible, +whereas it continued to be irremovable and responsible only to the +Secretary of State. These were in fact mere empty forms, for however +unpalatable any measure might be to the Indian members, or however +powerful their arguments against it, Government could always vote the +Indian opposition down in the Viceroy's Legislative Council, the most +important of all, by mustering the official majority in full force to +deliver their votes according to instructions. In the Provincial +Councils on the other hand in which an unofficial majority had been +conceded, the Indian members were in a position to create a deadlock by +refusing to vote for measures indispensable to the proper conduct of +Government; but whilst the power they could thus exercise might go far +enough to paralyse the Executive, they had no power to turn it out. +These new Councils had been invested with large but mostly negative +powers, and with no positive responsibilities. + +For a time the sentiment of trust which underlay the granting of the +reforms had its effect. Both sides seemed to display a more conciliatory +spirit and the relations between the official and unofficial benches in +the enlarged Councils assumed a more friendly character. In many cases +the influence of the non-official members was successfully exerted to +secure modifications in the legislative measures of Government, though +from a mistaken desire to "save its face" Government too often preferred +to make concessions at private conferences with the Indian leaders +rather than as the outcome of public discussion, and lost thereby a good +deal of the credit which it might have secured by a more open display of +its desire to meet Indian objections. On some occasions before the war +the pressure of Indian opinion even deterred Provincial Governments from +introducing legislative measures which they considered essential to +public safety because they apprehended defeat at the hands of the +unofficial majority in the legislative Councils. But the Indian public +remained generally in ignorance of the extent to which the influence of +the Indian representatives made itself felt, either for good or for +evil, on Government. The bureaucracy, more secretive in India than +elsewhere, had never realised the importance of guiding public opinion, +or, _a fortiori_, the necessity of keeping it informed if you wish to +guide it. The politicians, on the other hand, preferred to make capital +out of those questions on which they failed to make any impression upon +Government, though the real difficulty very often lay in the rigidity of +the statutory control exercised by the Central Government over +Provincial Governments, and by Whitehall over the Central Government. +The inevitable consequences soon became clear. The enlarged Indian +representation appeared to have less power than it really enjoyed, and, +having no responsibility whatever, it was free to make its own bids for +popularity with constituencies equally irresponsible. Resolutions were +introduced which, if they could have carried them, the unofficial +members would often have been much puzzled to carry into effect, and +grievances were voiced which, even when well founded, it was frequently +beyond the power of any Government to remedy. On the other hand, the +Executive was threatened with the possibility of a complete deadlock, +and the concessions by which it could be averted often alarmed not +merely the innate conservatism of the official world but many Indian +interests scarcely less conservative. + +Not till after Mr. Morley had been raised to the peerage and Lord Crewe +had succeeded him at the India Office was anything done to meet the +demand of the Western-educated classes for a larger share in the +administrative work of the country or to redress the very reasonable +grievances of Indians employed in the Government services who were still +for the most part penned up in the Provincial Services as established on +the recommendations of the Aitcheson Committee more than twenty-five +years earlier. In 1912 a Royal Commission went out to India with Lord +Islington as Chairman. It was a body on which the British element in the +Indian Public Services was only represented by a small minority, and +amongst the European members Lord Ronaldshay and Mr. Ramsay Macdonald, +both then in the House of Commons, stood for widely different schools of +politics. Of the three Indian members, Mr. Gokhale, who had become one +of the most influential leaders of the Moderate party, carried by far +the greatest weight, and his premature death before the Commission +completed its Report seriously impaired its usefulness. It spent two +successive winters in taking a mass of evidence from Indians and +Europeans all over India, but its sittings held, except in very rare +cases, in public served chiefly at the time to stir up Indian opinion by +bringing into sharp relief the profound divergencies between the Indian +and the Anglo-Indian point of view, and in a form which on the one hand, +unfortunately, was bound to offend Indian susceptibilities, and on the +other hand was apt to produce the impression that Indians were chiefly +concerned to substitute an indigenous for an alien bureaucracy. Anyhow, +while the Western-educated classes were rapidly coming to the conclusion +that the Minto-Morley reforms had given them the shadow rather than the +substance of political power, they saw in the proceedings of the Public +Services Commission little indication of any radical change in the +attitude of the British official classes towards the question of +training up the people of India to a larger share in the administration. + +In such circumstances the Extremists saw their opportunity to pour +ridicule on the new Councils and preach once more the futility of +constitutional agitation. The Indian National Congress, overshadowed for +a time by the new Councils, began to recover its popularity, and though +the split which had taken place at Surat between Moderates and +Extremists had not yet been mended, there was much talk of reunion. Some +of the Moderates had grown once more faint-hearted. The Extremists who +knew their own minds still constituted a very formidable party, and they +were finding new allies in an unexpected quarter. + +When the Indian National Congress was founded in 1885 and for nearly +thirty years afterwards, the Indian Mahomedans kept severely aloof from +it, partly because they had kept equally aloof from Western education +which had originally brought the leaders of the new political movement +together, and partly because most of those leaders were Hindus, and the +ancient antagonism between Mahomedans and Hindus led the former to +distrust profoundly anything that seemed likely to enhance the influence +of the latter. One intellectual giant among the Mahomedans had indeed +arisen after the Mutiny, during which his loyalty had never wavered, who +laboured hard to convert his co-religionists to Western education. In +spite of bitter opposition from a powerful party, rooted in the old +fanatical orthodoxy of Islam, who resented his broad-mindedness which +went to the length of trying to explain, and even to explain away much +of, the Koran, Sir Seyyid Ahmed Khan succeeded in founding at Aligurh in +1880 a Mahomedan College which soon attracted students from the best +Mahomedan families all over India. His idea was to create there a centre +which should do for young Mahomedans what he himself had watched Oxford +and Cambridge doing for young Englishmen. Education was not to be +divorced as in most Indian colleges from religion, and he was convinced +that a liberal interpretation of the Mahomedan doctrine was no more +incompatible with the essence of Islam than with that of Western +civilisation, with which British rule had come to bring India into +providential contact. Loyalty to British rule was with him synonymous +with loyalty to all the high ideals which he himself pursued and set +before his students. For a whole generation success appeared to crown +this work to which he brought all the fervour of missionary enterprise. +He died full of years and honour in 1898, and one of his last efforts +was an historical refutation of the Ottoman Sultan's claim to the +Khalifate of Islam. He already realised the reactionary tendencies of +the Pan-Islamic propaganda which Abdul Hamid was trying to spread into +India. So great and enduring was the hold of Sir Seyyid Ahmed's +teachings upon the progressive elements in Mahomedan India that the +All-India Moslem League was founded in 1905, almost avowedly in +opposition to the subversive activities which the Indian National +Congress was beginning to develop. It was in this spirit, too, that the +influential deputation headed by the Agha Khan, who, though himself the +head of a dissenting and thoroughly unorthodox Mahomedan community +claiming descent from the Old Man of the Mountain, was then the +recognised political leader of the whole Indian Mahomedan community, +waited on Lord Minto to press upon the Government of India the Mahomedan +view of the political situation created by the Partition of Bengal, lest +political concessions should be hastily made to the Hindus which would +pave the way for the ascendancy of a Hindu majority equally dangerous to +the stability of British rule and to the interests of the Mahomedan +minority whose loyalty was beyond dispute. It was again in the same +spirit, and fortified by the promise which Lord Minto had on that +occasion given them, that they insisted, and insisted successfully, on +the principle of community representation being applied for their +benefit in the Indian Councils Act of 1909. + +A new generation of young Mahomedans had nevertheless been growing up +who knew not Seyyid Ahmed and regarded his teachings as obsolete. The +lessons which they had learnt from their Western education were not his. +They were much more nearly those that the more ardent spirits amongst +the Hindus had imbibed, and they were ready to share with them the new +creed of Indian Nationalism in its most extreme form. Other +circumstances were tending to weaken the faith of the Mahomedan +community in the goodwill, not only of the Government of India, but of +the British Government. Even the most conservative Mahomedans were +disappointed and irritated by the revision of the Partition of Bengal in +1911 when the predominantly Mahomedan Province of Eastern Bengal, +created under Lord Curzon, was merged once more into a largely Hindu +Bengal. The more advanced Mahomedans had been stirred by the +revolutionary upheaval in Constantinople to seek contact with the +Turkish Nationalist leaders who now ruled the one great Mahomedan power +in the world, and they learnt from them to read into British foreign +policy a purpose of deliberate hostility to Islam itself inspired by +dread of the renewed vitality it might derive from the returning +consciousness in many Mahomedan countries of their own independent +nationhood. In that light they saw in the British occupation of Egypt, +in the Anglo-French agreement with regard to Morocco and the +Anglo-Russian agreement with regard to Persia, and last but not least, +in the Italian invasion of Tripoli, the gradual development of a scheme +in which all the powers of Christendom were involved for the extinction +of the temporal power of Islam and, with it inevitably, according to +orthodox doctrine, of its spiritual authority. The Ottoman Empire had +been saved for a time by the protection extended to it for her own +purposes by Germany who had alone stood between it and the +disintegrating machinations of the "European Concert" in +Constantinople, bent on undermining the ascendancy of the ruling +Mahomedan race by its menacing insistence on reforms for the benefit of +the subject Christian races which could result only in the further +aggrandisement of the independent Christian states already carved out of +the Sultans' former dominions in Europe and in the introduction of +similar processes even into their Asiatic dominions. The Balkan wars of +1912-1913 appeared to bear out the theory of a great European conspiracy +directed against Turkey as "the sword of Islam," and whilst the +sympathies of Indian Mahomedans of all classes and schools of thought +were naturally enlisted in favour of their Turkish co-religionists, the +leaders of the advanced Mahomedan party themselves went to +Constantinople in charge of the Red Crescent funds collected in India +and got into close personal touch with the Turkish Nationalists who +ruled in the name of the Sultan but derived their authority from the +"Committee of Union and Progress." The same party had in the meantime +gone a long way towards capturing the All-India Moslem League and +bringing it into line with the advanced wing of the Indian National +Congress. The fusion between the League and the Congress, which was +still very repugnant both to the politically conservative and to the +religious orthodox majority of the Indian Mahomedan community, was not +completed, nor was the reunion of the Moderate and Extremist parties +within the Congress itself, when India was caught up with Great Britain +and most of the nations of the world into the whirlpool of the Great War +on August 4, 1914. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THROUGH THE GREAT WAR TO THE GREAT INDIAN REFORM BILL + + +The genuine outburst of enthusiasm with which India, whether under +direct British administration or under the autonomous rule of indigenous +dynasties, responded to the call of the Empire at the beginning of the +war came almost as a revelation to the British public generally who knew +little about India, and the impression deepened when during the critical +winter of 1914-1915 Indian troops stood shoulder to shoulder with +British troops in the trenches to fill the gap which could not then have +been filled from any other quarter. The loyalty displayed by the Indian +princes and the great land-owning gentry and the old fighting races who +had stood by the British for many generations was no surprise to +Englishmen who knew India; but less expected was the immediate rally to +the British cause of the new Western-educated classes who, baulked of +the political liberties which they regarded as their due, had seemed to +be drifting hopelessly into bitter antagonism to British rule--a rally +which at first included even those who, like Mr. Tilak, just released +from his long detention at Mandalay, had taught hatred and contempt of +the British rulers of India with a violence which implied, even when it +was not definitely expressed, a fierce desire to sever the British +connection altogether. In some cases the homage paid to the +righteousness of the British cause may not have been altogether genuine, +but with the great majority it sprang from one thought, well expressed +by Sir Satyendra Sinha, one of the most gifted and patriotic of India's +sons, in his presidential address to the Indian National Congress in +1915, that, at that critical hour in the world's history, it was for +India "to prove to the great British nation her gratitude for peace and +the blessings of civilisation secured to her under its aegis for the +last hundred and fifty years and more." The tales of German +frightfulness and the guns of the _Emden_ bombarding Madras, which were +an ominous reminder that a far worse fate than British rule might +conceivably overtake India, helped to confirm Indians in the conviction +that the British Empire and India's connection with it were well worth +fighting for. This was one of Germany's many miscalculations, and the +loyalty of the Indian people quite as much as the watchfulness of +Government defeated the few serious efforts made by the disaffected +emissaries and agents in whom she had put her trust to raise the +standard of rebellion in India. All they could do was to feed the +"Indian Section" of the Berlin Foreign Office with cock-and-bull stories +of successful Indian mutinies and risings, which the German public, +however gullible, ceased at last to swallow. Amongst the Indian +Mahomedans there was a small pro-Turkish group, chiefly of an Extremist +complexion, whose appeals to the religious solidarity of Islam might +have proved troublesome when Turkey herself came into the war, had not +Government deemed it advisable to put a stop to the mischievous +activities of the two chief firebrands, the brothers Mahomed Ali and +Shaukat Ali, by interning them under the discretionary powers conferred +upon it by the Defence of India Act. Indian Mahomedan troops fought with +the same gallantry and determination against their Turkish +co-religionists in Mesopotamia and Palestine as against the German enemy +in France and in Africa, and the Mahomedan Punjab answered even more +abundantly than any other province of India every successive call for +fresh recruits to replenish and strengthen the forces of the Empire. + +The British Government and people responded generously to these splendid +demonstrations of India's fundamental loyalty to the British cause and +the British connection. The Prime Minister, Mr. Asquith, declared with +special emphasis that in future Indian questions must be approached from +"a new angle of vision," and Indians, not least the Western-educated +classes, construed his utterance into a pledge of the deepest +significance. For two years India presented on everything that related +to the war a front unbroken by any dissensions. The Imperial Legislative +Council passed, almost without a murmur even at its most drastic +provisions, repugnant as they were to the more advanced Indian members, +a Defence of India Act on the lines of the Defence of the Realm Act at +home, when Lord Hardinge gave an assurance that it was essential to the +proper performance of her part in the war, and it voted spontaneously +and unanimously a contribution of one hundred million pounds by the +Indian Exchequer to the war expenditure of the Empire. India had +thrilled with pride when, at Lord Hardinge's instance, her troops were +first sent, not to act as merely subsidiary forces in subsidiary +war-areas, but to share with British troops the very forefront of the +battle in France, and she thrilled again when an Indian prince, the +Maharajah of Bikanir, and Sir Satyendra Sinha, who was once more playing +a conspicuous part in the political arena, and had been one of the +oldest and ablest members of the moderate Congress party, were sent to +represent India at the first Imperial War Conference in London, and took +their seats side by side with British Ministers and with the Ministers +of the self-governing Dominions. + +There was, however, another side to the picture. If India had displayed +in the best sense of the word an Imperial spirit and made sacrifices +that entitled her to be treated as a partner in, rather than a mere +dependency of, the British Empire, was she still to be denied a large +instalment at least of the political liberties which had been long ago +conferred on the self-governing Dominions? Were her people to be refused +in the self-governing Dominions themselves the equality of treatment +which her representatives were allowed to enjoy in the council-chamber +of the Empire? Whilst the Morley-Minto reforms had disappointed the +political expectations of the Western-educated classes, the measures +adopted in several of the self-governing Dominions to exclude Indian +immigration, and, especially in South Africa, to place severe social and +municipal disabilities on Indians already settled in some of the +provinces of the Union, had caused still more widespread resentment, and +nothing did more to strengthen Lord Hardinge's hold upon Indian +affection than his frank espousal of these Indian grievances, even at +the risk of placing himself in apparent opposition to the Imperial +Government, who had to reckon with the sentiment of the Dominions as +well as with that of India. The war suddenly brought to the front in a +new shape the question of the constitutional relationship not only +between Great Britain and India but between India and the other +component parts of the Empire. It was known in India that, before Lord +Hardinge reached the end of his term of office, extended for six months +till April 1916, he had been engaged in drafting a scheme of reform to +meet Indian political aspirations more fully than Lord Morley had done, +and it was known also in India that schemes of Imperial reconstruction +after the war were already being discussed throughout the Empire. The +Indian politician not unnaturally argued that if, as was generally +conceded, the constitutional relations of the Government of India to the +Imperial Government were to be substantially modified and India to be +advanced to a position approximately similar to that of the +self-governing Dominions whose governments were responsible to their own +peoples, this could be done only by opening up to her too the road to +self-government. The Extremist at once pressed the argument to its +utmost consequences. The India for which he spoke was at that time, he +declared, still willing to accept the British connection on the same +terms as the Dominions, but she must be given Dominion Home Rule at +once--not merely as a goal to be slowly reached by carefully graduated +stages, but as an immediate concession to Indian sentiment, already more +than due to her for her share in the defence of the Empire during the +war. + +In the Legislative Councils there had been a political truce by common +consent after the Government had undertaken to introduce no +controversial measures whilst the war was going on. But the war dragged +on much longer than had been generally anticipated. India, to whom it +brought after the first few months an immense accession of material +prosperity by creating a great demand for all her produce at rapidly +enhanced prices, was so sheltered from its real horrors, and the number +of Indians who had any personal ties with those actually fighting in far +off-lands was after all so small in proportion to the vast population, +that the keen edge of interest in its progress was gradually blunted, +and political speculations as to the position of India after the war +were unwittingly encouraged by the failure of Government to keep Indian +opinion concentrated on the magnitude of the struggle which still +threatened the very existence of the Empire. Circumstances, for which +the British lack of imagination as well as the ponderous machinery of +Indian administration was in some measure responsible, favoured, it must +be admitted, the revival of political agitation. Some three years +elapsed after India was promised a "new angle of vision" before there +was evidence to the Indian eye that anything was being done to redeem +that promise. Lord Hardinge had taken home with him one scheme of +reforms, and his successor, Lord Chelmsford, had set to work with his +Council on another one as soon as he reached Simla. But time passed and +all this travail bore no visible fruits. Outside events also gave rise +to suspicion. The rejection by the House of Lords of the proposed +creation of an Executive Council for the United Provinces caused +widespread irritation amongst even moderate Indians, and the rumours of +a scheme to hasten on Imperial federation and to give the self-governing +Dominions some share in the control of Indian affairs aroused a very +bitter feeling, as Indian opinion still smarted under the treatment of +Indians in other parts of the Empire and remained distrustful of the +temporary compromise only recently arrived at. The Viceroy was very +reserved and reticent, and his reserve and reticence were made the +pretext for assuming that, as he had been appointed under the first +Coalition Government at home when Mr. Chamberlain succeeded Lord Crewe +at the India Office, he was the reactionary nominee of a reactionary +Secretary of State. No assumption could have been more unjust. Lord +Chelmsford's scheme was completed and sent home towards the end of 1916. +But nothing transpired as to its contents, nor as to any action being +taken upon it. Indians inferred that it was indefinitely pigeon-holed in +Whitehall. The very reasonable plea that the Imperial Government, whose +energies had to be devoted to the life-and-death struggle in which the +whole Empire was involved, had little time to devote to a serious study +of such problems as the introduction of grave constitutional changes in +India, was countered by the argument that the same Imperial Government +seemed to find no difficulty in sparing time for such measures as Irish +Home Rule, votes for women, and a large extension of the franchise in +the United Kingdom. + +The long delay, whatever its causes, perplexed and alarmed even moderate +Indian opinion, which had lost the most popular of the leaders capable +of guiding it, and waited in vain for any comforting assurances from +responsible official quarters. Moreover, it allowed the Extreme wing to +set up a standard of political demands which it became more and more +difficult for any Indian to decline altogether to endorse without +exposing himself to the reproach that he was unpatriotic and a creature +of Government. As soon as it became known that Lord Chelmsford was +engaged in elaborating a scheme of post-war reforms, nineteen Indian +members of the Imperial Legislative Council hurriedly put forward a +counter scheme of their own, professedly for the better guidance of +British Ministers. Besides pressing for various more or less practical +reforms, such as the granting of commissions to Indians, the Nineteen +demanded full control for the Provincial Councils over the Executive +subject to a limited veto of the Governor of the Province; direct +election to those Councils--although nothing definite was said about the +franchise; and, in the Imperial Legislative Council, an unofficial +majority and control over the Central Government except in certain +reserved matters. The scheme was hazy, bore evident marks of haste, and +aggravated immensely the dangers with which experience had already shown +the Morley-Minto reforms to be fraught. It was an attempt to make the +Central and Provincial Governments in India dependent upon the caprice +of legislatures, with no mandate from any representative electorate and +no training in responsible government, but completely immune to the +consequences of their own mistakes. It must have led to a hopeless +deadlock and the complete paralysis of Government, but even so it did +not satisfy the more fiery members of the Indian National Congress, +where, in complete unison with the All-India Moslem League, finally +captured by some slight concessions to Mahomedan sentiment, resolutions +were passed more crude and unworkable than the scheme of the Nineteen, +and virtually amounting to Home Rule in its most impracticable shape. + +The Congress was at last passing under Extremist control. Its first +session during the war was held in December 1914 in Bombay, and under +the presidency of Mr. Bupendranath Basu, afterwards a member of the +Secretary of State's Council, the proceedings reflected the general +enthusiasm with which India had rallied to the cause of the Empire. But +before the Congress met again a disease common amongst Indians and +aggravated by overwork and anxiety had carried away in April 1915, still +in the prime of life, the founder of the "Servants of India Society," +Mr. Gokhale, himself perhaps the greatest servant of India that has +toiled in our time for her social as well as her political advancement. +His friends believed that in his case the end was precipitated by an +acute controversy with Mr. Tilak, to whom he had made one last appeal to +abandon his old attitude of irreconcilable opposition. A few months +later, in November, the veteran Sir Pherozeshah Mehta, who had fought +stoutly ever since Surat against any Congress reunion, in which he +clearly foresaw that the Moderates would be the dupes of the Extremists, +passed away in his seventy-first year, but not before he had sent a +message, worded in his old peremptory style, to Sir Satyendra Sinha, +daring him to refuse the chairmanship of the coming session which was to +be held in December in Bombay. Sir Satyendra came, and his great +personal influence kept the Indian National Congress on the rails, and +defeated the projects already on foot once more for delivering it into +the hands of Mr. Tilak and his followers. But the death of those two +pillars of the Moderate party at such a critical juncture proved to be +an irreparable loss. When Mr. Gokhale's political testament was +published, it was dismissed by the Extremists as a well-meant but quite +obsolete document. The Congress found a new and strange Egeria in Mrs. +Besant, who had thrown herself into Indian politics when, owing to +circumstances[2] which had nothing to do with politics, the faith that +many respectable Hindus had placed in her, on the strength of her +theosophical teachings, as a vessel of spiritual election was rudely +shaken. But nothing shook the mesmeric influence which she had acquired +over young India by preaching with rare eloquence the moral and +spiritual superiority of Indian over Western creeds, and condemning the +British administration of India, root and branch, as one of the worst +manifestations of Western materialism. With her remarkable power of +seizing the psychological moment, she had fastened on to the catchword +of "Home Rule for India," into which Indians could read whatever measure +of reform they happened to favour, whilst it voiced the vague aspiration +of India to be mistress in her own house, and to be freed from the +reproach of "dependency" in any future scheme of reconstruction. She +herself gave it the widest interpretation in _New India_, a newspaper +whose extreme views expressed in the most extreme form drew down upon +her not only the action of Government but the censure of the High Court +of Madras. At the Congress session held at Lucknow at the end of 1916 +she shared the honours of a tremendous ovation with Tilak, whose +sufferings--and her own--in the cause of India's freedom her newspaper +compared with those of Christ on the Cross. Resolutions were carried not +only requesting that the King Emperor might be pleased "to issue a +proclamation announcing that it is the aim and intention of British +policy to confer self-government on India at an early date," but setting +forth in detail a series of preliminary reforms to be introduced +forthwith in order to consummate the "bloodless revolution" which, +according to the President's closing oration, was already in full blast. +The All-India Moslem League sitting at the same time at Lucknow followed +the Congress lead. + +To those feverish days at Lucknow the session of the Imperial +Legislative Council held shortly afterwards at Delhi afforded a striking +contrast. The Great War was in its third year, and the end seemed as far +off as ever. The Government of India announced the issue of an Indian +War Loan for L100,000,000 which was well received and speedily +subscribed, and, as an earnest of the revision of the whole fiscal +relations of the Empire after the war, an increase of the import duty on +cotton fabrics, without the corresponding increase of the excise duty +which had always been resented as an unjust protection of the Lancashire +industry, abated an Indian grievance of twenty years' standing. A +Defence Force Bill opening up opportunities for Indians to volunteer and +be trained for active service responded in some measure to the agitation +for a national militia which the Congress had encouraged. The Viceroy +also announced that the system of indentured emigration to Fiji and the +West Indies against which Indian sentiment had begun to rebel was at an +end, and that the problem of Indian education would be submitted to a +strong Commission appointed, with Sir Thomas Sadler at its head, to +inquire in the first place into the position of the Calcutta University, +and he warmly invited the co-operation of Indians of all parties with +the representative Committee under Sir Thomas Holland, then already +engaged in quickening the development of Indian industries which, far +too long neglected by successive governments, was at last receiving +serious attention under the compelling pressure of a world-war. +Government and Legislature met and parted on cordial terms. But Mrs. +Besant never abated the vehemence of her Home Rule campaign, for only by +Home Rule could India, she declared, "be saved from ruin, from becoming +a nation of coolies for the enrichment of others." Access to some of the +provinces was denied to her by Provincial Governments, and the +Government of Madras decided to "intern" her. The "internment" meant +merely that she transferred her residence and most of her activities +from Madras to Ootacamund, the summer quarters of the Madras Government, +where she hoisted the Home Rule flag on her house and continued to +direct the Home Rule movement as vigorously as ever. But in her own +flamboyant language she described herself as having been "drafted into +the modern equivalent for the Middle Ages _oubliette_," and even Indians +who were not wholly in sympathy with her views were aflame with +indignation at her cruel "martyrdom." The Government of India, whilst +acquiescing in the action of the Provincial Governments, maintained an +attitude of masterly inactivity, and neither in India nor at home was an +authoritative word forthcoming as to the birth of the reforms scheme +known to be in laborious gestation. + +The political tension grew more and more acute. When would Simla or +Whitehall break the prolonged silence? The publication of the +Mesopotamian Report only added fuel to the flames, as it was easy to +read into it a condemnation of Indian administration only less sweeping, +if expressed in a more restrained form, than that which Indians had for +years past poured forth upon it. There was no restraint at all in the +fierce attack delivered upon it during the subsequent debate in the +House of Commons by Lord Morley's former Under Secretary of State for +India, Mr. Montagu. He had himself visited India and was personally +known there, and his speech, cabled out at once in full, produced a +tremendous sensation, which was intensified when a few days later he was +appointed Secretary of State for India in succession to Mr. Chamberlain. +There could be no doubt whatever as to the reality of the "new angle of +vision" when on August 20 Mr. Montagu made in the House of Commons and +Lord Chelmsford in Simla a simultaneous announcement, as solemn in its +form as it was far-reaching in its implications. + +The purpose of British policy, it declared, was not only "the increasing +association of Indians in every branch of the administration, but also +the greatest development of self-governing institutions with a view to +the progressive realisation of responsible government in India as an +integral part of the British Empire." + +This momentous announcement was accompanied, it is true, by a +reservation to the effect "that the British Government and the +Government of India, on whom the responsibility lies for the welfare and +advancement of the Indian people, must be judges of the time and measure +of each advance; and they must be guided by the co-operation received +from those upon whom new opportunities of service will thus be +conferred, and by the extent to which it is found that confidence can be +reposed in their sense of responsibility." But it was made clear that +the declaration of policy was not meant to be a mere enunciation of +principles, for it wound up with the statement that His Majesty's +Government had "decided that substantial steps in this direction should +be taken as soon as possible, and that it is of the highest importance +that there should be a free and informal exchange of opinion between +those in authority at home and in India." For that purpose Mr. Montagu +himself was authorised to proceed to India and confer with the Viceroy, +in response to an invitation addressed originally to Mr. Chamberlain and +extended after his resignation to his successor at the India Office. + +Could this great pronouncement have been made a year earlier, and with +the added authority of a Royal proclamation, it might have been received +with such widespread acclamation in India as to drown any but the +shrillest notes of dissent from the irreconcilables. The Moderates +hardly dared to admit that it fulfilled--nay, more than fulfilled--their +hopes, whilst the Extremists in the Indian National Congress, presided +over on this occasion by Mrs. Besant herself, banged, bolted, and barred +the door against any compromise by reaffirming and stiffening into +something akin to an ultimatum the Home Rule resolutions of 1916 just at +the moment when Mr. Montagu was landing in India. But the Secretary of +State was not the man to be perturbed by such demonstrations. He had the +British politician's faith in compromise, and he did not perhaps +understand fully that Indian Extremism represents a very different +quality of opposition from any that a British Minister has yet had to +reckon with in Parliament. He saw Indians of all classes and creeds and +political parties during his tour through India, but on none did he +lavish more time and more patient hearing than upon the Extremists whom +he hoped against hope to convert. He had an easier task when he tried +to disarm the resentment which his vigorous onslaught on the methods and +temper of British administration just before he took office had aroused +amongst the European members of the public services. He conferred with +governors and with heads of departments, and with representatives of the +European community. He received endless deputations and masses of +addresses, and he remained of course in close consultation with the +Viceroy in accordance with the declared object of his mission. After +four strenuous months Mr. Montagu and Lord Chelmsford signed at Simla on +April 22, 1918, a joint report which was laid before Parliament in July. + +Great as had always been the responsibilities of the Secretary of State +and the Viceroy for the government of India "as by law established," +they were on this occasion vastly greater. For two men of widely +different temperaments had to work out together a scheme for shifting +the very axis of government. They rose to the occasion. The +Montagu-Chelmsford Report will rank with the great State papers which +are landmarks of constitutional progress in the history of the British +Empire. It falls naturally and logically into two parts, the first +setting forth the conditions of the problem, the second the +recommendations for its solution; and even if the second had not +provided the foundations for the Act of 1919, the first would have +deserved to live as a masterly survey of the state of India--the first +authoritative one since the transfer to the Crown just sixty years +before. For the first time since the Mutiny it marked a reversion to the +spirit in which the Bentincks and Munros and Elphinstones had almost a +century earlier conceived the mission of England in India to lie in the +training of the Indian people to govern themselves, and for the first +time an attempt was made to appraise generously but fairly the position +of the Western-educated classes and the part they have come to play in +the Indian polity. The passage is worth quoting in full, as the +constitutional changes effected on the lines recommended by the Report +were to give them the opportunity to prove the stuff they were made of +as the political leaders of their country. + + In estimating the politically-minded portion of the people of India + we should not go either to census reports on the one hand, or to + political literature on the other. It is one of the most difficult + portions of our task to see them in their right relation to the + rest of the country. Our obligations to them are plain, for they + are intellectually our children. They have imbibed ideas which we + ourselves have set before them, and we ought to reckon it to their + credit. The present intellectual and moral stir in India is no + reproach but rather a tribute to our work. The _Raj_ would have + been a mechanical and iron thing if the spirit of India had not + responded to it. We must remember, too, that the educated Indian + has come to the front by hard work; he has seized the education + which we offered him because he first saw its advantages; and it is + he who has advocated and worked for political progress. All this + stands to his credit. For thirty years he has developed in his + Congress, and latterly in the Moslem League, free popular + convocations which express his ideals. We owe him sympathy because + he has conceived and pursued the idea of managing his own affairs, + an aim which no Englishman can fail to respect. He has made a + skilful, and on the whole a moderate, use of the opportunities + which we have given him in the legislative councils of influencing + Government and affecting the course of public business, and of + recent years he has by speeches and in the press done much to + spread the idea of a united and self-respecting India among + thousands who had no such conception in their minds. Helped by the + inability of the other classes in India to play a prominent part he + has assumed the place of leader; but his authority is by no means + universally acknowledged and may in an emergency prove weak. + + The prospects of advance very greatly depend upon how far the + educated Indian is in sympathy with and capable of fairly + representing the illiterate masses. The old assumption that the + interests of the ryot must be confided to official hands is + strenuously denied by modern educated Indians. They claim that the + European official must by his lack of imagination and comparative + lack of skill in tongues be gravely handicapped in interpreting the + thoughts and desires of an Asiatic people. On the other hand, it is + argued that in the limited spread of education, the endurance of + caste exclusiveness and of usages sanctioned by caste, and in the + records of some local bodies and councils, may be found reasons + which suggest that the politically-minded classes stand somewhat + apart from and in advance of the ordinary life of the country. Nor + would it be surprising if this were the case. Our educational + policy in the past aimed at satisfying the few who sought after + English education, without sufficient thought of the consequences + which might ensue from not taking care to extend instruction to the + many. We have in fact created a limited _intelligentsia_, who + desire advance; and we cannot stay their progress entirely until + education has been extended to the masses. It has been made a + reproach to the educated classes that they have followed too + exclusively after one or two pursuits, the law, journalism, or + school teaching; and that these are all callings which make men + inclined to overrate the importance of words and phrases. But even + if there is substance in the count, we must take note also how far + the past policy of Government is responsible. We have not succeeded + in making education practical. It is only now, when the war has + revealed the importance of industry, that we have deliberately set + about encouraging Indians to undertake the creation of wealth by + industrial enterprise, and have thereby offered the educated + classes any tangible inducement to overcome their traditional + inclination to look down on practical forms of energy. We must + admit that the educated Indian is a creation peculiarly of our own; + and if we take the credit that is due to us for his strong points + we must admit a similar liability for his weak ones. Let us note + also in justice to him that the progressive Indian appears to + realise the narrow basis of his position and is beginning to + broaden it. In municipal and university work he has taken a useful + and creditable share. We find him organising effort not for + political ends alone, but for various forms of public and social + service. He has come forward and done valuable work in relieving + famine and distress by floods, in keeping order at fairs, in + helping pilgrims, and in promoting co-operative credit. Although + his ventures in the fields of commerce have not been always + fortunate, he is beginning to turn his attention more to the + improvement of agriculture and industry. Above all, he is active in + promoting education and sanitation; and every increase in the + number of educated people adds to his influence and authority. + +The authors of the Report were at the same time by no means unmindful of +England's responsibilities towards the vast masses still quite content +to accept the system of government which she had given them, and who +looked with undiminished faith to their British administrators for the +continuance of the peace and security and even-handed justice which they +had seldom if ever enjoyed in the same measure under their indigenous +rulers. The problem to be solved was "one of political education which +must be practical and also experimental." The politically-minded classes +had to be given an opportunity of learning how to govern and administer; +and the other classes, which have hitherto accepted unquestioningly the +government and administration given to them, had to be taught to +exercise the critical rights of intelligent citizenship. A sphere had to +be found in which Indians could be given work to do, and be held +accountable to their own people for the way they did it. That sphere had +to be circumscribed at first so as not to endanger the foundations of +Government, and yet capable of steady expansion if and in proportion as +the experiment succeeds, until the process of political education should +be complete and Indians should have shown themselves qualified for the +same measure of self-government as the Dominions already enjoy within +the British Empire. + +From a careful examination of the existing structure of Government and +an exhaustive review of present conditions in India, the +Montagu-Chelmsford Report deduced two definite conclusions: + +(1) It is on the Central Government, _i.e._ the Government of India, +that the whole structure rests; and the foundations must not be +disturbed pending experience of the changes to be introduced into less +vital parts. The Government of India must therefore remain wholly +responsible to Parliament, and, saving such responsibility, its +authority in essential matters must during the initial stages of the +experiment remain indisputable. + +(2) While popular control can be at once largely extended in the domain +of local government, the Provinces provide the sphere in which the +earlier steps towards the development of representative institutions and +the progressive realisation of responsible government promised in the +Declaration of August 20, 1917, can be most usefully and safely taken. + +The whole of the second part of the Report was devoted to working out in +considerable detail a practical scheme for giving effect to those two +conclusions. The powers and responsibilities of the Government of India +as the Central Government were left intact, but an All-Indian +legislature consisting of two assemblies, the one as popular and +democratic as a large elective majority proceeding from the broadest +practicable franchise could make it--to be called the Indian Legislative +Assembly--and the other a relatively small upper chamber to be known as +the Council of State which, composed partly of elected members and +partly of members nominated by Government or entitled _ex officio_ to +membership, was expected to provide the desired counterpoise of approved +experience and enlightened conservatism. The Report expressed the pious +hope that "inasmuch as the Council of State will be the supreme +legislative authority for India on all crucial questions and the +revising authority for all Indian legislation," it would "attract the +services of the best men available," and "develop something of the +experience and dignity of a body of Elder Statesmen"--an expression +presumably borrowed, but not very aptly, from Japan, where the Elder +Statesmen have no doubt had immense influence but never any +constitutional status. The Report had, moreover, to contemplate the +possibility of conflict between the Legislature and the Executive, and +in accordance with the first of the two main conclusions at which it had +arrived it proposed to arm the Governor-General in Council with power to +override the Legislature if it failed to pass measures or grant supplies +which he was prepared to "certify" as vital to the peace, safety, and +interests of India. + +For the great experiment in the provincial sphere, the eight provinces +of Bombay, Madras, Bengal, the United Provinces, Behar and Orissa, the +Punjab, the Central Provinces, and Assam, were deemed to be already +ripe. Burma (which is not really India at all, and whose people belong +to another race and to another stage of political development), the +North-West Frontier Province, and Baluchistan (which for strategical +reasons must remain under the direct control of the Government of +India), and a few smaller areas, whose populations are altogether too +backward, were not to be touched at present. The essential feature of +the scheme was the division of the functions of the Provincial +Government into two categories: the one comprising what are now termed +"the reserved subjects," _i.e._ those with which the maintenance of +peace and order and good government is immediately bound up; and the +other, those which, though less vital, very closely affect the daily +life and common interests of the people, and which were to be called +"the transferred subjects," because it was proposed to transfer at once +the largest possible measure of power and responsibility in regard to +them to exclusively Indian shoulders. While all essential power and +responsibility in regard to "the reserved subjects" were to remain +vested in the Governor-in-Council, _i.e._ the executive body consisting +of the Governor and (under the new scheme) one British and one Indian +member of Council, real power and responsibility for dealing with "the +transferred subjects" were to be conferred on Indian Ministers +accountable to a Legislative Council in which there was to be a large +Indian non-official majority, elected also on the broadest possible +franchise. The Provincial Government would thus itself be divided into +two compartments: in the one the Governor-in-Council, responsible as +heretofore to the Government of India and to the Secretary of State, +_i.e._ the British Parliament; in the other the Governor--but not "in +Council"--acting with Indian Ministers responsible to an Indian +legislature. + +This was the system of partial but progressive devolution that had +already come to be known as "Dyarchy," having been propounded in a +somewhat different form by an independent inquirer, Mr. Lionel Curtis, +whose "Letters to the People of India" on responsible Government, though +they at first caused almost as much displeasure in official as in +Extremist circles, did a great deal to educate the mind of the +"politically-minded" classes, and to prepare the ground for the +Montagu-Chelmsford Report. The authors of the Report were themselves +fully alive to the demerits as well as to the merits of dyarchy, and +they were careful to state it as their intention that "the Government +thus composed and with this distribution of functions shall discharge +them as one Government, and that as a general rule it shall deliberate +as a whole." The Governor-in-Council was to have, on the other hand, +within his narrower sphere, powers similar to those retained by the +Viceroy for overriding the Provincial Legislature in extreme cases of +conflict. + +General principles were alone laid down in the Report, and its authors +confined themselves to a rough preliminary indication of their views, as +to the distribution of "reserved" and "transferred" subjects in the +Provinces and as to the constitution of electorates. The latter problem +they stated in brief terms: "We must measure the number of persons who +can in the different parts of the country be reasonably entrusted with +the duties of citizenship. We must ascertain what sort of franchise will +be suited to local conditions, and how interests that may be unable to +find adequate representation in such constituencies are to be +represented." But it was perhaps Mr. Montagu's doctrinaire Radicalism +that betrayed itself in the treatment of the question of "communal" +representation, _i.e._ the creation of separate constituencies for +various communities, which, however important or however much entitled +to make their voices heard, might be submerged in constituencies based +solely on territorial representation. "Communal representation" had been +conceded to so powerful a minority as the Mahomedans under the Indian +Councils Act of 1909; and the Report admitted that it could not be +withdrawn from them, and that it might have to be conceded to other +communities, such as the Sikhs. At the same time it developed at great +length all the theoretical arguments against the principle, viz. that it +is opposed to history, that it perpetuates class division, that it +stereotypes existing relations based on traditions and prejudices which +we should do everything to discourage. + +At the risk even of travelling somewhat beyond the expressed terms of +their reference, the Secretary of State and the Viceroy could not but +recognise that the effects of great constitutional reforms, of which the +statutory application would be necessarily confined to that part of +India that is under direct British administration, must nevertheless +react upon that other smaller but still very considerable part of India +which enjoys more or less complete internal autonomy under its own +hereditary rulers. A growing number of questions, and especially +economic questions, must arise in future, which will affect the +interests of the Native States as directly as those of the rest of +India; and their rulers may legitimately claim, as the Report plainly +admitted, to have constitutional opportunities of expressing their views +and wishes and of conferring with one another and with the Government of +India. For such purposes the Report included suggestions which were to +take shape in the establishment of the Chamber of Princes. + +One other recommendation of the Report deserves special notice, as it +shows the authors to have realised how seriously Parliament, though more +directly responsible than ever for the exercise of due vigilance over +Indian affairs after the transfer to the Crown, had lost touch with +them, since, with the disappearance of the East India Company after the +Mutiny, it ceased to hold the regular and exhaustive inquiries which the +renewal of the Charter had until then periodically required. As their +own scheme was designed merely to give Parliament a lead in the first of +a progressive series of constitutional reforms, they recommended that a +Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry into the working of the new Indian +institutions and the general progress of the people of India should at +stated intervals determine the further stages of advance towards the +final goal of self-government. Such a Commission, armed with power to +examine witnesses, would not only enlighten British public opinion, but +also probe Indian opinion in a much more searching way than can be done +by impassioned and irresponsible arguments and counter-arguments in the +press and on platforms. It would, above all, assist Parliament to master +from time to time the many-sided problem whose progressive solution it +would have constantly to watch and periodically to determine. + +The Report was a document of such magnitude and complexity, and went so +boldly to the roots of Indian government and administration, that even +amongst the absorbing preoccupations of the war, which was only just +emerging for the Allies from the terrible crisis of March-April 1918, +its publication at once provoked a considerable stream of criticism. On +the whole, British public opinion was favourable, though there was a +small but not uninfluential group of British reactionaries who at once +took up, and have ever since maintained, the position that the Report +meant, not the mending, for which they saw, moreover, very little need, +but the ending of British rule in India. Equal divergencies occurred in +Indian public opinion. An Extremist gathering in Madras declared roundly +that "the scheme is so radically wrong in principle and in detail that +in our opinion it is impossible to modify or improve it." In vain had +Mrs. Besant been released from her modern _oubliette_ before Mr. Montagu +started for India. "The scheme," she wrote in her haste, on the very day +of its publication, "is unworthy to be offered by England or to be +accepted by India." In vain had Mr. Montagu allowed himself to be +garlanded by Mr. Tilak, who was not far behind Mrs. Besant in +pronouncing the scheme to be "entirely unacceptable." The Calcutta +Provincial Conference of the Congress party held a few days later +abounded in the same sense, and a special session of the whole Congress +convoked in August in Bombay was only in form somewhat less bitterly +uncompromising, and only because it began to realise that the secession +of the more moderate elements was likely to reduce "the Parliament of +India" to a mere rump. Moderate opinion had not committed itself to +acceptance of the scheme as precipitately as the Extremists to its +rejection, but against rejection pure and simple it set its face at +once, and it rallied so steadily and surely to acceptance that few of +the Moderates attended the Provincial Congress, where they were promptly +howled down, and they determined to hold a Conference of their own in +opposition to the special Congress session. At this Conference, as well +as in the Committee of non-official members of the Indian Legislative +Council, there was a good deal of disjointed criticism of various +recommendations in the Report, not infrequently due to misunderstanding +of their import, but on the whole it was recognised as representing a +great triumph for the cause of political progress on constitutional +lines and therefore for the educated opinion of India. The breach +between the Extremists and the Moderates was clearly defined by Mr. B.L. +Mitter, a prominent Moderate of Calcutta and a member of the new +Moderate organisation, the "National Liberal League": + + The Extremists would have nothing to do with the English in the + Government or outside; the Moderates consider co-operation with the + English necessary for national development, political, industrial, + economic, and otherwise. The Extremists would straightway assume + full responsibility of Government; the Moderates think that would + lead to chaos, and would proceed by stages. It is the difference + between cataclysm and evolution. The Extremists' ideal is + destruction of the existing order of things in the hope that + something better will take its place, for nothing can be worse than + what is; the Moderates' ideal is formation of a new order of things + on definite progressive lines. One is chance, the other is design. + The primary difference (so far as methods are concerned) is that + the Extremists' method is not necessarily constitutional; the + Moderates' method always constitutional. Some Extremists use + violence, others work secretly and spread discontent and + disaffection. Others again, pretending to follow legitimate methods + of agitation, take care not to discourage unconstitutional methods + or even crimes, nay, they miss no opportunity to applaud criminals + as martyrs. There are others, again, who merely idealise and are + content with rousing the passions of the people. Intrigue and abuse + are the general weapons in the Extremists' armoury. The Moderates + always act openly and with dignity, and follow lawful methods of + agitation. The Extremists always oppose the Government. The + Moderates co-operate with authority, and oppose when necessary in + the interests of the country. Lastly, the Extremists appeal only to + the passions of the people; the Moderates appeal to their reason. + +Later developments in India itself were unfortunately to play once more +into the hands of the Extremists, and the leadership was to pass from +Mr. Tilak, who was growing old and died in the summer of 1920, and from +Mrs. Besant too, who, after being bitterly reviled by her former ally, +at last saw the error of her ways and finally went over to the Moderate +camp with the diminishing remnants of her influence, into the hands of a +new and strange figure in Indian politics, Mr. Gandhi, endowed with very +different qualities and greater spiritual influence than either of them. + +But before bringing him on to the stage it may be well to follow the +progress of Indian reforms at home after the publication of the +Montagu-Chelmsford Report. It had been laid before Parliament without +any _imprimatur_ from the Cabinet, and some months passed before, with +the conclusion of the war, His Majesty's Government found leisure to +give it their collective consideration. Not till June 1919 was Mr. +Montagu in a position to move in the House of Commons the second reading +of the great Bill drafted with their authority to give effect in all +essentials to the recommendations of the Report. His powerful and lucid +exposition of its provisions and of the whole situation with which +England was confronted in India made a deep impression on the House, +though it by no means disarmed opposition, and the Bill was remitted for +consideration to a Joint Select Committee of both Houses which, chosen +impartially from all parties, proceeded to take a large mass of evidence +from British and Indian witnesses of every political complexion, and +delivered a very weighty report in November. The views of the Government +of India and of the Provincial Governments, by no means always in accord +amongst themselves, had also been before the Committee, as well as those +of the members of the Secretary of State's Council. But the alternative +proposals submitted were either impracticable or ineffective, and the +Bill which, in so far as it was modified in accordance with its +recommendations, assumed an even more liberal character. Mr. Montagu's +hands were thus strengthened for the final debates in the House of +Commons in which the opposition proved sterile in argument and weak in +numbers, and the Bill was passed through both Houses of Parliament in +time for the constitutional assent of the Crown to be given to it and +for the King-Emperor to address a solemn proclamation to the Viceroy, +Princes, and people of India on the eminently appropriate date of +Christmas Eve 1920. This Royal message of peace and goodwill set forth +in simple language both the purposes and the genesis of the Act: + + I have watched with understanding and sympathy the growing desire + of my Indian people for representative institutions. Starting from + small beginnings, this ambition has steadily strengthened its hold + upon the intelligence of the country. It has pursued its course + along constitutional channels with sincerity and courage. It has + survived the discredit which at times and in places lawless men + sought to cast upon it by acts of violence committed under the + guise of patriotism. It has been stirred to more vigorous life by + the ideals for which the British Commonwealth fought in the Great + War, and it claims support in the part which India has taken in our + common struggles, anxieties, and victories. + + In truth, the desire after political responsibility has its source + at the root of the British connection with India. It has sprung + inevitably from the deeper and wider studies of human thought and + history which that connection has opened to the Indian people. + Without it the work of the British in India would have been + incomplete. It was, therefore, with a wise judgment that the + beginnings of representative institutions were laid many years ago. + Their scope has been extended stage by stage until there now lies + before us a definite step on the road to responsible government. + +The Act, which implemented all the principal recommendations of the +Montagu-Chelmsford Report, superseded within little more than fifty +years the Government of India Act of 1858, under which the Crown first +assumed direct responsibility for the government and administration of +India. The Royal message certainly did not exaggerate its significance. +Its actual provisions are indeed of less moment than its larger +implications and the spirit in which it will be interpreted and carried +into effect. For the right spirit to crown the new Constitution with +success we must look to Indians and British alike, not forgetting that +the changes introduced into the structure of Indian government and +administration are themselves only ancillary to the still more important +changes which must result from the recognition of Indian public opinion +as a powerful and ultimately paramount influence in the shaping of +policy. Such recognition must follow not only from the creation of +Indian representative Assemblies with a large majority of Indian elected +members but from the appointment of Indians, three in number already in +the Government of India, three in the Secretary of State's Council in +Whitehall, and in varying numbers both as Ministers and members of the +Executive Councils in Provincial Governments. Side by side with this +progressive Indianisation of the Executive of which we are witnessing +only the first stage, the Indianisation of the administrative +departments and of the public services, and not least of the Indian +Civil Service, is bound to proceed with increasing rapidity. Indians can +hardly fail to realise that, perhaps for a long time to come, they will +require the experience and driving power of Englishmen, but they will +inevitably claim increasing control over policy, now formally conceded +to them in a large Provincial sphere, until it shall have extended in +successive stages to the whole sphere of Provincial Government and +ultimately to the Central Government itself. Then, and then only, India +will actually emerge into complete Dominion Self-Government. But we +shall do well to remember, and Indians will certainly not allow us to +forget, that the terms of equality, on which her representatives are now +admitted to the innermost counsels of the Empire, have already in many +respects outstripped the Act of 1919. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] _The Evolution of Mrs. Besant_, by the Editor of _Justice_, +Madras, _Justice_ Printing Works, 1918. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE EMERGENCE OF MR. GANDHI + + +Before this great statute could be brought into operation, and even +whilst Parliament was still laboriously evolving it, a strange and +incalculable figure was coming to the forefront in India, who, favoured +by an extraordinary combination of untoward circumstances, was to rally +round him some of the most and many of the least reputable forces which, +sometimes under new disguises, the old and passive civilisation of India +is instinctively driven to oppose to the disintegrating impact upon it +of the active and disturbing energies of Western civilisation. Saint and +prophet in the eyes of the multitude of his followers--saint in the eyes +even of many who have not accepted him as a prophet--Mr. Gandhi preaches +to-day under the uninspiring name of "Non-co-operation," a gospel of +revolt none the less formidable because it is so far mainly a gospel of +negation and retrogression, of destruction not construction. Mr. Gandhi +challenges not only the material but the moral foundations of British +rule. He has passed judgment upon both British rule and Western +civilisation, and, condemning both as "Satanic," his cry is away with +the one and with the other, and "back to the Vedas," the fountain source +of ancient Hinduism. That he is a power in the land none can deny, least +of all since the new Viceroy, Lord Reading, almost immediately on his +arrival in India, spent long hours in close conference with him at +Simla. What manner of man is Mr. Gandhi, whom Indians revere as a +Mahatma, _i.e._ an inspired sage upon whom the wisdom of the ancient +Rishis has descended? What is the secret of his power? + +Born in 1869 in a Gujarat district in the north of the Bombay +Presidency, Mohandas Karamchamd Gandhi comes of very respectable Hindu +parentage, but does not belong to one of the higher castes. His father, +like others of his forebears, was Dewan, or chief administrator, of one +of the small native States of Kathiawar. He himself was brought up for +the Bar and, after receiving the usual English education in India, +completed his studies in England, first as an undergraduate of the +London University and then at the Inner Temple. His friend and +biographer, Mr. H.S.L. Polak, tells us that his mother, whose religious +example and influence made a lasting impression upon his character, held +the most orthodox Hindu views, and only agreed to his crossing "the +Black Water" to England after exacting from him a three-fold vow, which +he faithfully kept, of abstinence from flesh, alcohol, and women. He +returned to India as soon as he had been called to the Bar and began to +practise as an advocate before the Bombay High Court, but in 1893, as +fate would have it, he was to be called to South Africa in connection +with an Indian legal case in Natal. In South Africa he was brought at +once into contact with a bitter conflict of rights between the European +population and the Indian settlers who had originally been induced to go +out and work there at the instance of the white communities who were in +need of cheap labour for the development of the country. The Europeans, +professing to fear the effects of a large admixture of Asiatic elements, +had begun not only to restrict further Indian immigration, but to place +the Indians already in South Africa under many disabilities all the more +oppressive because imposed on racial grounds. Natal treated them +harshly, but scarcely as harshly as the Transvaal, then still under Boer +government. In the Transvaal the Imperial Government took up the cudgels +for them, and the treatment of the Indian settlers there was one of the +grievances pressed by Lord Milner during the negotiations which preceded +the final rupture with the Boer Republics. When the South African war +broke out Mr. Gandhi believed that it would lead to a generous +recognition of the rights of Indians if they at once identified their +cause with that of the British, and he induced Government to accept his +offer of an Indian Ambulance Corps which did excellent service in the +field. Mr. Gandhi himself served with it, was mentioned in despatches, +and received the war medal. His health gave way, and he returned to +India in 1901 where he resumed practice in Bombay with no intention of +returning to South Africa, as he felt confident that when the war was +over the Imperial Government would see to it that the Indians should +have the benefit of the principles which it had itself proclaimed before +going into the war. He was, however, induced to return in 1903 to help +in preparing the Indian memorials to be laid before Mr. Chamberlain +whose visit was imminent in connection with the work of reconstruction. +On his arrival he found that conditions and European opinion were +becoming more instead of less unfavourable for Indians, and though in +1906, when the native rebellion broke out in Natal, he again offered and +secured the acceptance of an Indian Stretcher-Bearer Corps with which he +again served and received the thanks of the Governor, he gradually found +himself driven into an attitude of more and more open opposition and +even conflict with Government by a series of measures imposing more and +more intolerable restraints upon his countrymen. It was in 1906 that he +first took a vow of passive resistance to a law which he regarded as a +deliberate attack upon their religion, their national honour, and their +racial self-respect. In the following year he was consigned, not for the +first time, to jail in Pretoria, but his indomitable attitude helped to +bring about a compromise. It was, however, short-lived, as +misunderstandings occurred as to its interpretation. The struggle broke +out afresh until another provisional settlement promised to lead to a +permanent solution, when Mr. Gokhale, after consultation with the India +Office during a visit to England, was induced in 1912 to proceed to +South Africa and use his good offices in a cause which he had long had +at heart. Whether, as Mr. Gokhale himself always contended, as a +deliberate breach of the promise made to him by the principal Union +Ministers, or as the result of a lamentable misunderstanding, measures +were again taken in 1913 which led Mr. Gandhi to renew the struggle, and +it assumed at once a far more serious character than ever before. It was +then that Mr. Gandhi organised his big strikes of Indian labour and +headed the great strikers' march of protest into the Transvaal which led +to the arrest and imprisonment of the principal leaders and of hundreds +of the rank and file. The furious indignation aroused in India, the +public meetings held in all the large centres, and the protest entered +by the Viceroy himself, Lord Hardinge, in his speech at Madras, combined +with earnest representations from Whitehall, compelled General Smuts to +enter once more the path of conciliation and compromise. As the result +of a Commission of Inquiry the Indians' Relief Act was passed, and in +the correspondence between Mr. Gandhi and General Smuts the latter +undertook on behalf of the South African Government to carry through +other administrative reforms not actually specified in the new Act. Mr. +Gandhi returned to India just after the outbreak of the Great War, and +the Government of India marked its appreciation of the great services +which he had rendered to his countrymen in South Africa by recommending +him for the Kaisar-i-Hind gold medal, which was conferred upon him +amongst the New Year honours of 1915. + +The South African stage of Mr. Gandhi's career is of great importance, +as it goes far to explain both the views and the methods which he +afterwards applied in India. He brought back with him from South Africa +a profound distrust of Western civilisation, of which he had +unquestionably witnessed there some of the worst aspects, and also a +strong belief in the efficacy of passive resistance as the most peaceful +means of securing the redress of all Indian grievances in India as well +as in South Africa should they ever become in his opinion unendurable. +Mr. Gokhale, before he died, obtained a promise from him that for at +least a year he would not attempt to give practical expression to the +extreme views which he had already set forth in the proscribed pamphlet +_Hind Swaraj_. At an early age Mr. Gandhi had fallen under the spell of +Tolstoian philosophy, and he has admitted only quite recently that for a +time he was so much impressed with the doctrines of Christ that he was +inclined to adopt Christianity; but the further study of the spiritual +side of Hinduism convinced him that in it alone the key of salvation +could be found, and all his teachings since then have been based on his +faith in the superiority of the Indian civilisation rooted in Hinduism +to Western civilisation, which for him in fact represents in its present +stage only a triumph of gross materialism and brute force. Nevertheless, +when the Great War broke out, he was prepared to believe that the ordeal +of war in the cause of freedom for which Britain had taken up arms might +lead to the redemption of Western civilisation from its worst evils, and +whilst in London on his way to South Africa he had already offered to +form, and to enrol himself and his wife in, an Indian Volunteer +Ambulance Corps. Yet he was not blind to the flaws of the civilisation +for which he stood. He conducted a temperance campaign amongst his +countrymen in South Africa, and, brought there into close contact with +many Indians of the "untouchable" castes, he revolted against a system +which tried to erect such insurmountable barriers between man and man. +Perhaps the best clue to the many contradictions in which his activities +have continually seemed to involve him was furnished by himself when he +said, "Most religious men I have met are politicians in disguise; I, +however, who wear the guise of a politician am at heart a religious +man," and the doctrine which he holds of all others to be the +corner-stone of his religion is that of _Ahimsa_, which, as he has +described it, "requires deliberate self-suffering, not the deliberate +injuring of the wrongdoer," in the resistance of evil. + +Throughout the war Mr. Gandhi devoted his ceaseless energies chiefly to +preaching social reforms and the moral regeneration of his countrymen. +He was then an honoured guest at European gatherings, as for instance at +the Madras Law dinner in 1915, at various conferences on education, at +the Bombay Provincial Co-operative Conference in 1917 when in connection +with the admirable Co-operative Credit movement in India he lectured on +the moral basis of co-operation, at missionary meetings in which he +showed his intimate familiarity with the gospels by reverently quoting +Christ's words in support of his own plea for mutual forbearance and +tolerance. As late as July 1918 he defined _Swaraj_ as partnership in +the Empire, and war service as the easiest and straightest way to win +_Swaraj_, inviting the people of his own Gujarat country whom he was +addressing to wipe it free of the reproach of effeminacy by contributing +thousands of Sepoys in response to the Viceroy's recent appeal for fresh +recruits for the Indian army at one of the most critical moments during +the war. His comments about the same time on the Montagu-Chelmsford +scheme were by no means unfavourable, and he specifically joined in the +tribute of praise bestowed upon the Indian Civil Service for their +steadfast devotion to duty and great organising ability. Government +itself resorted to his services as the member of a Commission appointed +to inquire into agrarian troubles at Camparan, and his collaboration was +warmly welcomed by his European colleagues. Nor were there any signs of +implacable hostility to British rule in his vigorous protests in the +following year against the anti-Asiatic legislation of the South +African Union which was again stirring up bad feeling in India. + +The circumstances which drove him to declare war against British rule +and Western civilisation arose out of the action taken by Government on +the report of the "Sedition Committee," which, under the presidency of +Mr. Justice Rowlatt, a judge of the High Court of King's Bench, sent out +especially to preside over it, had not only carefully explored the +origins and growth of political crime during the great wave of unrest +after the Partition of Bengal, but recommended that in some directions +the hands of the executive and judicial authorities should be +strengthened to cope with any fresh outbreaks of a similar character. +The Committee pointed out that in spite of the preventive legislation of +1911 it had become apparent before the war broke out that the forces of +law and order were still inadequately equipped to cope with the +situation in Bengal. For the duration of the war the Defence of India +Act had conferred upon Government emergency powers which had enabled the +authorities summarily to intern a large number of those who were known +to be closely connected with the criminal propaganda, but almost as soon +as the war was over their release would follow automatically upon the +expiry of the Defence Act, and a dangerous situation would arise again +if Government had nothing but the old methods of procedure to fall back +upon. + +In January 1919 the Government of India announced that legislation in +conformity with the recommendations of the Sedition Committee would be +required from the Imperial Legislative Council, and two draft bills were +published, one of them embodying permanent alterations in the law and +the other arming the Executive with emergency powers. The publication of +these bills threw the country into a fresh ferment of agitation, and +even an Indian judge of undeniably moderate views, Sir Narain +Chandavarkar, declared that such measures were no longer required, as +with the advent of constitutional reforms revolutionary agitation +would, he believed, cease, and, as a warm supporter of the +Montagu-Chelmsford Report, he felt bound to protest against legislation +so entirely at variance with the spirit in which the Report had been +conceived and with the expectations which it had aroused. The Extremists +read into the bills another proof of the organised hypocrisy +characteristic of British rule in general and of the Report in +particular, and denounced them as a monstrous engine of tyranny and +oppression, against which no Indian would be safe. Government, however, +was not to be moved from its determination, and in explaining the +necessity for proceeding with the bills the Viceroy pointed out in his +opening speech that "the reaction against all authority that had +manifested itself in many parts of the civilised world was unlikely to +leave India entirely untouched and the powers of evil were still +abroad." The Indian non-official members, on the other hand, were solid +in opposition, and even those who did not challenge the report of the +Sedition Committee intimated that now the war was over they could not +acquiesce in such measures until the reforms had come into operation, +and unless it was then found that revolutionary forces were still at +work and constituted a real public danger. The two amendments, supported +by all the Indian non-official members, were voted down by the official +_bloc_. Government did something to allay opposition by agreeing that +the Act which was to have been permanent should operate for three years +only, and the title of the bill was amended to show clearly that its +application would be confined to clearly anarchical and revolutionary +crimes. It was further modified in form in the committee stage, but the +opposition within the Council remained unmoved, and outside the Council +grew more and more fierce. The Extremists who had shrunk from no efforts +to misrepresent the purpose of the bills received a great accession of +strength when Mr. Gandhi instituted the vow of _Satyagraha_, or passive +resistance, under which, if the bills became law, he and his followers +would "severally refuse to obey these laws and such other laws as a +committee to be thereafter appointed might see fit," whilst they would +"faithfully follow the truth and refrain from violence to life, person, +or property." The Moderate leaders at Delhi at once issued a manifesto +condemning _Satyagraha_, but Government stuck to its guns, the bills +being finally passed on March 18, after very hot discussion. Mr. Gandhi, +having formed his committee, proclaimed a _Hartal_, _i.e._ a +demonstrative closing of shops and suspension of business for March 30. +This _Hartal_ at Delhi started a terrible outbreak which spread with +unexpected violence over parts of the Bombay Presidency and the greater +part of the Punjab, with sporadic disturbances in the North-West +Frontier Province, and even in Calcutta. + +The Delhi _Hartal_ brought for the first time into full relief the close +alliance into which the Mahomedan Extremists had been brought with the +Hindu Extremists, as well as the influence which both had acquired over +a considerable section of the lower classes in the two communities. The +political leaders had fallen into line in the Indian National Congress +and the All-India Moslem League during the 1916 and 1917 sessions, when +they united in demanding Home Rule for India, and they had united since +then in rejecting as totally inadequate the scheme of reforms +foreshadowed in the Montagu-Chelmsford Report. But not till towards the +conclusion of the war did the Mahomedan Extremists discover a special +grievance for their own community in the peace terms likely to be +imposed upon a beaten Turkey. That was a grievance far more likely to +appeal to their co-religionists than the political grievances which had +formed the stock-in-trade of Hindu Extremism, if they could be worked +upon to believe that Great Britain and her allies were plotting not +merely against the temporal power of the Ottoman Empire, but against the +Mahomedan religion all over the world by depriving the Sultan of Turkey +of the authority essential to the discharge of his office as Khalif or +spiritual head of Islam. + +The agitation was at first very artificial, for the bulk of Indian +Mahomedans had until recent years known very little about and taken +still less interest in Turkey, and their loyalty had never wavered +during the war. Some of the leading Indian Mahomedans had indeed openly +disputed Sultan Abdul Hamid's claim to the Khalifate of Islam when he +first tried at the end of the last century to import his Pan-Islamic +propaganda into India. But the long delay on the part of the Allies in +formulating their Turkish peace terms allowed time for the movement to +grow and to carry with it the more fanatical element amongst Indian +Mahomedans. The Government of India tried in vain to allay Mahomedan +feeling by receiving deputations from the _Khilafat_ Association founded +to prosecute an intensified campaign in favour of Turkey, and professing +its own deep anxiety to procure what it called "a just peace with +Turkey," for which the Indian delegates to the War and to the Peace +Conferences in Europe had been constantly instructed to plead. The +greatest success which the _Khilafat_ agitators achieved was when Mr. +Gandhi allowed himself to be persuaded by them that the movement was a +splendid manifestation of religious faith, as he himself described it to +me. For, once satisfied that the cause which they had taken up was a +religious cause, he was prepared to make it his own without inquiring +too closely into its historical or political justification. For him it +became a revolt of the Mahomedan religious conscience against the +tyranny of the West just as legitimate as the revolt of the Hindu +conscience against the same tyranny embodied in the Rowlatt Acts. Whilst +Mahomedans proved their emancipation from narrow sectarianism by joining +in the _Satyagraha_ movement of passive resistance in spite of the Hindu +character impressed upon it by its Sanscrit name, it was, he declared, +for Hindus to show that they, too, could rise above ancient prejudice +and resentment by throwing themselves heart and soul into the _Khilafat_ +movement. Both movements were to be demonstrations of the "soul-force" +of India, to be put forth in passive resistance according to his +favourite doctrine of _Ahimsa_, the endurance and not the infliction of +suffering. + +But Mr. Gandhi, with all his visionary idealism, was letting loose +dangerous forces which recked naught of _Ahimsa_. Hindus and Mahomedans +"fraternised" at the Delhi _Hartal_ in attempts to compel its observance +by violence which obliged the authorities to use forcible methods of +repression, and of the five rioters who were killed two were Mahomedans. +These deaths were skilfully exploited by the Extremists of both +denominations, and a day of general mourning for the Delhi "martyrs" was +appointed. The spark had been laid to the train, and Hindus and +Mahomedans continued to "fraternise" in lawlessness, arson, and murder +wherever the mob ran riot. Systematic attempts to destroy railways and +telegraphs at the same moment in widely separated areas pointed to the +existence of a carefully elaborated organisation. Public buildings as +well as European houses were burnt down in half a dozen places, and +Europeans were often savagely attacked and done to death, nowhere more +savagely than at Amritsar, where five Europeans, two of them Bank +managers, were killed with the most fiendish brutality, and a missionary +lady, known for her good works, barely escaped with her life. The +authorities were not slow to take stern measures. Troops were rapidly +moved to the centres of disturbance, flying columns were sent through +the country, and armoured cars and trains and aeroplanes were used to +disperse the rioters. A Resolution issued by the Government of India on +April 14 asserted its determination to use all the powers vested in it +to put down "open rebellion" even by the most drastic means. By the end +of the month the Viceroy was able to announce that order had been +generally restored, though in some places there was still considerable +effervescence. + +Had the measures taken, however stern, been confined to the repression +of actual violence and to the punishment of the guilty, the reaction +produced amongst the great majority of Indians by the atrocities which +Indian mobs had committed, and the appalling spirit of lawlessness which +inspired them, would probably have been at least as great as the +impression which they at first made upon Mr. Gandhi himself, who +suddenly recognised and admitted that he had underrated the "forces of +evil" and advised his disciples to co-operate, as he himself had done at +Ahmedabad, with Government in the restoration of order. The _Satyagraha_ +Committee, of which he was President, resolved to suspend temporarily +"civil disobedience" to the laws, and the fraternisation between +Mahomedans and Hindus cooled down, when important Mahomedan associations +began to protest against the desecration of mosques by the admission of +Hindu "idolaters" to deliver fiery orations to mixed congregations +within the sacred precincts. But before the reaction could take real +effect, it was arrested by rumours of terrible happenings in the course +of the repression in the Punjab which turned the tide of Indian feeling +into an opposite direction, and for those rumours there ultimately +proved to have been no slight foundation. + +The methods adopted in the Punjab had been very different from those +adopted in the Bombay Presidency, where there had been scarcely less +menacing outbursts in some of the northern districts, besides serious +rioting in Bombay itself. In Ahmedabad, the second city of the +Presidency, mob law reigned for two days. There were arson and pillage, +and murder of Europeans and Government officers. Troops had to be +hurried up to quell the disturbances, and for a short time the military +authorities had to take charge. The repression was stern; 28 of the +rioters were killed and 123 wounded in Ahmedabad alone. There were many +arrests and prosecutions. But those stormy days left no bitterness +behind them. The use of military force was not resented, because it was +directed only against the crowds actually engaged in violent rioting. +Martial law was never proclaimed, nor did the military authorities +prolong the exercise of their punitive powers beyond the short period of +active disorder, nor strain it beyond the measures essential to the +suppression of disorder. They never interfered in administrative +matters. The Bombay Government kept their heads, and there was nowhere +any wholesale surrender of the civil authority into military hands. Mr. +Gandhi, who had been turned back by the Punjab Government when he tried +to enter the Punjab, was left free by the Bombay Government, and the +value of his assistance in restoring order in Allahabad, whilst he was +in his first fit of penitence, was acknowledged by the authorities. + +Very different was the intensive enforcement of martial law in the +Punjab. Even when all allowance is made for the more dangerous situation +created by a more martial population and the proximity of an always +turbulent North-Western Frontier with the added menace at that time of +an Afghan invasion, nothing can justify what was done at Amritsar where +the deliberate bloodshed at Jallianwala has marked out April 13, 1919, +as a black day in the annals of British India. One cannot possibly +realise the frightfulness of it until one has actually looked down on +the Jallianwala Bagh--once a garden, but in modern times a waste space +frequently used for fairs and public meetings, about the size perhaps of +Trafalgar Square, and closed in almost entirely by walls above which +rise the backs of native houses facing into the congested streets of the +city. I entered by the same narrow lane by which General Dyer--having +heard that a large crowd had assembled there, many doubtless in +defiance, but many also in ignorance of his proclamation forbidding all +public gatherings--entered with about fifty rifles. I stood on the same +rising ground on which he stood when, without a word of warning, he +opened fire at about 100 yards' range upon a dense crowd, collected +mainly in the lower and more distant part of the enclosure around a +platform from which speeches were being delivered. The crowd was +estimated by him at 6000, by others at 10,000 and more, but practically +unarmed, and all quite defenceless. The panic-stricken multitude broke +at once, but for ten consecutive minutes he kept up a merciless +fusillade--in all 1650 rounds--on that seething mass of humanity, caught +like rats in a trap, vainly rushing for the few narrow exits or lying +flat on the ground to escape the rain of bullets, which he personally +directed to the points where the crowd was thickest. The "targets," to +use his own word, were good, and when at the end of those ten minutes, +having almost exhausted his ammunition, he marched his men off by the +way they came, he had killed, according to the official figures only +wrung out of Government months later, 379, and he left about 1200 +wounded on the ground, for whom, again to use his own word, he did not +consider it his "job" to take the slightest thought. + +In going to Jallianwala I had passed through the streets where, on April +10, when the disorders suddenly broke out in Amritsar, the worst +excesses were committed by the Indian rioters. But for General Dyer's +own statements before the Hunter Commission, one might have pleaded +that, left to his own unbalanced judgment by the precipitate abdication +of the civil authority, he simply "saw red," though the outbreak of the +10th had been quelled before he arrived in Amritsar, and the city had +been free from actual violence for the best part of three days. But, on +his own showing, he deliberately made up his mind whilst marching his +men to Jallianwala, and would not have flinched from still greater +slaughter if the narrowness of the approaches had not compelled him +regretfully to leave his machine-guns behind. His purpose, he declared, +was to "strike terror into the whole of the Punjab." He may have +achieved it for the time, though the evidence on this point is +conflicting, but what he achieved far more permanently and effectively +was to create in the Jallianwala Bagh, purchased since then as a +"Martyrs' Memorial" by the Indian National Congress, a place of +perpetual pilgrimage for racial hatred. + +Then, two days after--not before--Jallianwala came the formal +proclamation of martial law in the Punjab, and though there were no more +Jallianwalas, what but racial hatred could result from a constant stream +of petty and vindictive measures enforced even after the danger of +rebellion, however real it may at first have seemed, had passed away? +Sir Michael O'Dwyer protested, it is true, against General Dyer's +monstrous "crawling order," and it was promptly disallowed. But what of +many other "orders" which were not disallowed? What of the promiscuous +floggings and whippings, the indiscriminate arrests and confiscations, +the so-called "fancy punishments" designed not so much to punish +individual "rebels" as to terrorise and humiliate? What of the whole +judicial or _quasi_-judicial administration of martial law? The +essential facts are on record now in the Report of the Hunter Committee +and in the evidence taken before it, though its findings were not +entirely unanimous and the majority report of the European members, five +in number including the president Lord Hunter, formerly +Solicitor-General for Scotland, was accompanied by a minority report +signed by the three Indian members, two of them now Ministers in the +Government of Bombay and of the United Provinces respectively, who on +several points attached graver importance to the circumstances which +they themselves had chiefly helped to elicit from witnesses under +examination. Upon the Report the Government of India and His Majesty's +Government expressed in turn their views in despatches which are also +public property. The responsibility of the Government of India was so +deeply involved, and in a lesser degree that of the Secretary of State, +that in neither case was judgment likely to err on the side of severity. +The Government of India certainly did not so err, and one must turn to +the despatch embodying the views of the British Government for a +considered judgment which at least set forth in weighty terms the +principles of British policy that had been violated in the Punjab, +however short some may consider it to have fallen of the full +requirements of justice in appraising the gravity of the departure from +those principles in specific cases. + +The Punjab tragedy has had such far-reaching effects in shaking the +confidence of the Indian people in the justice and even in the humanity +of British rule that it is best to quote the language in which the +British Government recorded their judgment in their despatch to the +Government of India: + + The principle which has consistently governed the policy of His + Majesty's Government in directing the methods to be employed, when + military action in support of civil authority is required, may be + broadly stated as using the minimum force necessary. His Majesty's + Government are determined that this principle shall remain the + primary factor of policy whenever circumstances unfortunately + necessitate the suppression of civil disorder by military force + within the British Empire. + + It must regretfully but without possibility of doubt be concluded + that Brigadier-General Dyer's action at Jallianwala Bagh was in + complete violation of this principle. + +The despatch proceeded to take into account the provocation offered and +the great difficulties of the position in which General Dyer was placed. +His omission to give warning before opening fire was nevertheless +declared to have been "inexcusable," his failure to see that some +attempt was made to give medical assistance to the dying and the wounded +an "omission from his obvious duty," and the "crawling order" issued by +him six days later "an offence against every canon of civilised +government." + + Upon a military commander administering martial law in a hostile + country there lies a grave responsibility; when he is compelled to + exercise this responsibility over a population which owes + allegiance and looks for protection to the Government which he + himself is serving, this burden is immeasurably enhanced. It would + prejudice the public safety, with the preservation of which he is + charged, to fetter his free judgment or action either by the + prescription of rigid rules before the event or by over-censorious + criticism when the crisis is past. A situation which is essentially + military must be dealt with in the light of military considerations + which postulate breadth of view and due appreciation of all the + possible contingencies. There are certain standards of conduct + which no civilised Government can with impunity neglect and which + His Majesty's Government are determined to uphold.... That + Brigadier-General Dyer displayed honesty of purpose and unflinching + adherence to his conception of his duty cannot for a moment be + questioned. But his conception of his duty in the circumstances in + which he was placed was so fundamentally at variance with that + which His Majesty's Government have a right to expect from and a + duty to enforce upon officers who hold His Majesty's commission + that it is impossible to regard him as fitted to remain entrusted + with the responsibilities which his rank and position impose upon + him. You have reported to me that the Commander-in-Chief has + directed Brigadier-General Dyer to resign his appointment as + Brigade Commander, and has informed him that he would receive no + further employment in India and that you have concurred. I approve + the decision and the circumstances of the case have been referred + to the Army Council. + +With regard to the administration of martial law the despatch considers +it + + impossible to avoid the conclusion that the majority of Lord + Hunter's Committee have failed to express themselves in terms + which, unfortunately, the facts not only justify, but necessitate. + In paragraphs 16 to 25 of chapter xii. of their report the majority + have dealt with the "intensive" form generally which martial law + assumed and with certain specific instances of undue severity and + of improper punishments or orders. It is unnecessary to + recapitulate the instances which the Committee have enumerated in + detail in both their reports, nor would any useful purpose be + served by attempting to assess, with a view to penalties, the + culpability of individual officers who were responsible for these + orders, but whose conduct in other respects may have been free from + blame or actually commendable. But His Majesty's Government must + express strong disapproval of these orders and punishments and ask + me to leave to you the duty of seeing that this disapproval shall + be unmistakably marked by censure or other action which seems to + you necessary upon those who were responsible for them. The + instances cited by the Committee gave justifiable ground for the + assertion that the administration of martial law in the Punjab was + marred by a spirit which prompted--not generally, but unfortunately + not uncommonly--the enforcement of punishments and orders + calculated, if not intended to humiliate Indians as a race, to + cause unwarranted inconvenience amounting on occasions to + injustice, and to flout the standards of propriety and humanity, + which the inhabitants not only of India in particular but of the + civilised world in general have a right to demand of those set in + authority over them. It is a matter for regret that, + notwithstanding the conduct of the majority, there should have been + some officers in the Punjab who appear to have overlooked the fact + that they were administering martial law, not in order to subdue + the population of a hostile country temporarily occupied as an act + of war, but in order to deal promptly with those who had disturbed + the peace of a population owing allegiance to the King Emperor, and + in the main profoundly loyal to that allegiance. + +This clear enunciation of bed-rock principles and emphatic condemnation +of many of the methods of repression used in the Punjab would have done +more to reassure the public mind in India had the actual punishment +inflicted on General Dyer and a few others been more commensurate with +the gravity of the censure passed on their actions, and in any case it +came far too late. It came too late to stem the rising tide of Indian +bitterness, intensified by many gross exaggerations and deliberate +inventions, which lost all sense of proportion when the Extremists +demanded Sir Michael O'Dwyer's impeachment, though many responsible +Indians had expressed their unabated confidence in him before he left +the Punjab on the expiry of his term of office, just after the troubles, +in terms more unstinted even than those in which the Government of India +and the British Government conveyed their appreciation of his long and +distinguished services--services which assuredly no errors of judgment +committed under great stress could be allowed to overshadow. It came +too late also to correct the effects of the panic that had taken +possession of the European mind when it was still largely in ignorance +of the actual facts. For most Europeans had at once rushed to the +conclusion that the outbreak in the Punjab, in which no single Sepoy +ever took part, was or threatened to be a reproduction of the Mutiny. In +the first days, as a measure of precaution, European women and children +had been hurriedly collected into places of refuge lest the horrible +excesses perpetrated by the Indian mob at Amritsar might prove the +prelude to a repetition of Cawnpore. The hardships and anxiety they +underwent and the murderous outrages actually committed on not a few +Europeans moved most of their fellow countrymen and countrywomen to +unmeasured resentment, and not until they gained at last a fuller +knowledge of all the facts so long allowed to remain obscure did a +gradual reaction set in against the belief which was genuinely +entertained by most Europeans, non-official and official in India, and +which spread from them to England, that General Dyer's action and the +rigours of martial law alone "saved India." + +What drove the iron into the soul of India more than the things actually +done in the Punjab, for which many Indians admit the provocation, was +the reluctance of her rulers to look them in the face, and the tardiness +and half-heartedness of the atonement made for them. Not till nearly +half a year after the troubles had occurred did the Government of India +announce the appointment of the Hunter Committee of Inquiry, and this +announcement was coupled with the introduction of a Bill of Indemnity +for all officers of Government engaged in their repression, which wore, +in the eyes of Indians, however unreasonably, the appearance of an +attempt to shelter them against the possible findings of the Committee. +Again nearly half a year passed before the report of the Committee was +made public, and the bloom had already been taken off it for most +Indians by the report of a Commission instituted on its own account by +the Indian National Congress which, partisan and lurid as it was, never +received full refutation, as the witnesses upon whose evidence it was +based were, for technical reasons, not heard by the Hunter Committee. +The complete surrender of civil authority into military hands first at +Amritsar, and then, under orders from Simla, at Lahore and elsewhere, +was, as His Majesty's Government afterwards acknowledged, a disastrous +departure from the best traditions of the Indian Civil Service. But, +whatever the mistakes committed by the civil authority in the Punjab or +by those charged with the administration of martial law in that +province, there is above the Punjab the Government of India, and its +plea of prolonged ignorance as to the details of the occurrences in the +Punjab can hardly hold water. The preoccupations of the Afghan war which +followed closely on the Punjab troubles were no doubt absorbing, but had +the Viceroy or the Home member or the Commander-in-Chief or one of his +responsible advisers proceeded in person, the moment the disorders were +over, to Lahore or Amritsar, barely more than a night's journey from +Delhi or Simla, is it conceivable that a halt would not have been +forthwith called to proceedings which these high officers of state were +constrained later on unanimously to deplore and reprobate? And if the +Government of India were too slow to move, was there not a Secretary of +State who knew, from statements made to him personally by Sir Michael +O'Dwyer on his return to England, at least enough to insist upon +immediate inquiry on the spot? Mr. Montagu has seldom, it is believed, +hesitated to require in the most peremptory terms full information on +far more trivial matters. Had prompt action been taken in India, there +would never have been any need for the Hunter Committee. As it was, +Indian feeling had run tremendously high before its findings were made +public. So when the Government of India and the Secretary of State +published their belated judgment, the people of India weighed such a +tardy measure of justice against the dissent of an important minority in +the House of Commons and of the majority of the Lords, the stifling of +discussion in the Indian Legislature, which was still more directly +interested in the matter, and above all the unprecedented public +subscriptions in England and in India for the glorification of General +Dyer, whilst the Punjab Government was still haggling over doles to the +widows and orphans of Jallianwala--and, having weighed it, found it +lamentably wanting, until at last the Duke of Connaught's moving speech +at Delhi for the first time began to redress the balance. + +The story of Jallianwala and all that followed in the Punjab scattered +to the winds Mr. Gandhi's threadbare penitence for the horrible violence +of Indian mobs, and he poured out henceforth all the vials of his wrath +on the violence of the repression, far more unpardonable, he declared, +because they were not the outcome of ignorant fanaticism, but of a +definite policy adopted by European officers high in rank and +responsibility. There was no longer any doubt in his mind that a +Government that tolerated or condoned or palliated such things was +"Satanic," and that the whole civilisation for which such a Government +stood was equally Satanic. For Indians to co-operate with it until it +had shown "a complete change of heart" was a deadly sin. To accept any +scheme of constitutional reforms as reparation for the wrongs of the +Punjab with which the wrongs of Turkey were linked up with an increased +fervour of righteous indignation when the terms of the treaty of Sevres +became known, was treachery to the soul of India. Thence it was but a +step to the organisation of a definite "Non-co-operation" movement to +demonstrate the finality of the breach. Mr. Gandhi appealed in the first +place to the educated classes to set the example to the people. He +called upon those on whom the State had conferred honours and titles to +renounce them, upon barristers and pleaders to cease to practise in the +law-courts, and upon parents to withdraw their children from the +schools and colleges tainted with State control and State doles. If +parents would not hearken to him, schoolboys and students were exhorted +to shake themselves free of their own accord. To the people he opened up +simpler ways of "Non-co-operation" by abstaining from tea and sugar and +all articles of consumption and of clothing contaminated by alien hands +or alien industry. If all would join in a common effort he promised that +India would speedily attain _Swaraj_--the term mentioned was generally a +year--and, quit of the railways and telegraphs and all other instruments +and symbols of Western economic bondage, return to the felicity and +greatness of Vedic times. All this, however, was to be done by "soul +force" alone and without violence. + +In the course of the only long conversation I had with Mr. Gandhi I +tried to obtain from him some picture of what India would be like under +_Swaraj_ as he understood it. In a voice as gentle as his whole manner +is persuasive, he explained, more in pity than in anger, that India had +at last recovered her own soul through the fiery ordeal which Hindus and +Mahomedans had undergone in the Punjab, and the perfect act of faith +which the _Khilafat_ meant for all Mahomedans, and that, purged of the +degrading influences of the West, she would find again that peace which +was hers before alien domination divided and exploited her people. As to +the form of government and administration which would then obtain in +India, he would not go beyond a vague assurance that it would be based +on the free will of the people expressed by manhood suffrage for which +Indians were already ripe, if called upon to exercise it upon truly +Indian lines. When I objected that caste, which was the bed-rock of +Hindu social and religious life, was surely a tremendous obstacle to any +real democracy, he admitted that the system would have to be restored to +its pristine purity and redeemed from some of the abuses that had crept +into it. But he upheld the four original castes as laid down in the +Vedas, and even their hereditary character, though in practice some born +in a lower caste might well rise by their own merits and secure the +deference and respect of the highest castes, "such as, for instance, if +I may in all modesty quote my own unworthy case, the highest Brahmans +spontaneously accord to me to-day, though by birth I am only of a lowly +caste." I tried to get on to more solid ground by pointing out that, +whatever views one might hold as to his ultimate goal, the methods he +was employing in trying to break up the existing schools and colleges +and law-courts and to paralyse the machinery of administration was +destructive rather than constructive, and that, confident as he might +feel of substituting better things ultimately for those that he had +destroyed, construction must always be a much slower process than +destruction; and in the meantime infinite and perhaps irreparable harm +would be done. "No," he rejoined--and I think I can convey his words +pretty accurately, but not his curious smile as of boundless compassion +for the incurable scepticism of one in outer darkness--"no, I destroy +nothing that I cannot at once replace. Let your law-courts with their +cumbersome and ruinous procedure disappear, and India will set up her +old _Panchayats_, in which justice will be dispensed in accordance with +her own conscience. For your schools and colleges, upon which lakhs of +rupees have been wasted in bricks and mortar for the erection of +ponderous buildings that weigh as heavily upon our boys as the +educational processes by which you reduce their souls to slavery, we +will give them simpler structures, open to God's air and light, and the +learning of our forefathers that will make them free men once more." Not +that he would exclude all Western literature--Ruskin, for instance, he +would always welcome with both hands--nor Western science so long as it +was applied to spiritual and not to materialistic purposes, nor even +English teachers, if they would become Indianised and were reborn of the +spirit of India. Indeed, what he had looked for, and looked in vain +for, in the rulers of India was "a change of hearts" by which they too +might be reborn of the spirit of India. He hated no one, for that would +be a negation of the great principle of _Ahimsa_, on which he expatiated +with immense earnestness. + +As I watched the slight ascetic frame and mobile features of the Hindu +dreamer in his plain garment of white home-spun, and, beside him, one of +his chief Mahomedan allies, Shaukat Ali, with his great burly figure and +heavy jowl and somewhat truculent manner and his opulent robes +embroidered with the Turkish crescent, I wondered how far Mr. Gandhi had +succeeded in converting his Mahomedan friend to the principle of +_Ahimsa_. Perhaps Mr. Gandhi guessed what was passing in my mind when I +asked him how the fundamental antagonism between the Hindu and the +Mahomedan outlook upon life was to be permanently overcome even if the +common cause held Hindus and Mahomedans together in the struggle for +_Swaraj_. He pointed at once to his "brother" Shaukat as a living proof +of the "change of hearts" that had already taken place in the two +communities. "Has any cloud ever arisen between my brother Shaukat and +myself during the months that we have now lived and worked together? Yet +he is a staunch Mahomedan and I a devout Hindu. He is a meat-eater and I +a vegetarian. He believes in the sword, I condemn all violence. But what +do such differences matter between two men in both of whom the heart of +India beats in unison?" + +I turned thereupon to Mr. Shaukat Ali and asked him whether he would +explain to me the application to India under _Swaraj_ of the Mahomedan +doctrine that the world is divided into two parts, one the "world of +Islam" under Mahomedan rule, and the other "the world of war," in which +infidels may rule for a time but will sooner or later be reduced to +subjection by the sword of Islam. To which of these worlds would +Mahomedans reckon India to belong when she obtained _Swaraj_? Mr. +Shaukat Ali evaded the question by assuring me with much unction that +he could not conceive the possibility of the Hindus doing any wrong to +Islam, but, if the unthinkable happened, Mahomedans, he quickly added, +would know how to redress their wrongs, for they could never renounce +their belief in the sword, and it was indeed because Turkey is the sword +of Islam that they could not see her perish or the Khalifate depart from +her. + +I wondered as I withdrew how long the fiery Mahomedan would keep his +sword sheathed, did he not feel that his own personality and that of his +brother Mahomed Ali would count for very little without the reflected +halo with which they were at least temporarily invested by the +saintliness of Mr. Gandhi's own simple and austere life of +self-renunciation, so different in every way from their own. For it is +to his personality rather than to his teachings that Mr. Gandhi owes his +immense influence with the people. It is a very different influence from +that of Mr. Tilak, to whom he is sometimes, but quite wrongly, compared. +Mr. Tilak belonged by birth to a powerful Deccani Brahman caste with +hereditary traditions of rulership. He was a man of considerable +Sanscrit learning whose researches into the ancient lore of Hinduism +commanded respectful attention amongst European as well as Indian +scholars. Whatever one may think of his politics and of his political +methods, he was an astute politician skilled in all the ways of +political opportunism. Mr. Gandhi is none of these things. He is not a +Brahman, but of the humbler _Bania_ caste; he does not come from the +Deccan, but from Gujarat, a much less distinguished part of the Bombay +Presidency. He does not claim to be anything but a man of the people. He +looks small and fragile and his features are homely. He lives in the +simplest native way, eating simple native food which he is said to +prepare with his own hands, and dresses in the simplest native clothes +from his own spinning-wheel. His private life is unimpeachable--the only +point indeed in which Mr. Tilak resembled him. Though he lays no claim +to Sanscrit erudition, his speeches are replete with references to Hindu +mythology and scripture, but they usually reflect the gentler, and not +the more terrific, aspects of Hinduism. He blurts out the truth as he +conceives it with as little regard for the feelings or prejudices of his +supporters as for those of his opponents. He will tell the most orthodox +Brahman audience at Poona that if they want to be the leaders of the +nation they must give up their worldly notions of caste ascendancy and +their harsh enforcement of "untouchability"; or he will lecture a +youthful Bengalee audience, intensely jealous of their own language, +upon their shameful ignorance of Hindi, which he believes to be the +future language of India and of _Swaraj_. No one could suspect him of +having an axe of his own to grind. He is beyond argument, because his +conscience tells him he is right and his conscience must be right, and +the people believe that he is right, and that his conscience must be +right because he is a _Mahatma_, and as such outside and above caste. +His influence over the Indian Mahomedan cannot be so deep-rooted, and +the ancient antagonism between them and the Hindus still endures amongst +the masses on both sides; but it is of some significance that his warm +espousal of the grievances which large and perhaps growing numbers of +them have been induced to read into the Turkish peace terms, has led +some of his most enthusiastic Mahomedan supporters to bestow upon him +the designation of _Wali_ or Vicegerent which is sometimes used to +connote religious leadership. + +No leader has ever dominated any meeting of the old Indian National +Congress as absolutely as Mr. Gandhi dominated last Christmas at Nagpur +the 20,000 delegates from all parts of India who persisted in calling +themselves the Indian National Congress, though between them and the +original Congress founders few links have survived, and the chief +business of the session was to repudiate the old Congress profession of +loyalty to the British connection as the fundamental article of its +creed, and to eliminate the reference hitherto retained, with the +consent even of the Extremists, to India's participation on equal terms +with the other members of the Empire in all its rights and +responsibilities. The resolution moved and carried at Nagpur stated +bluntly that "the object of the Indian National Congress is the +attainment of _Swaraj_ by the people of India by all legitimate and +peaceful means." Many of the members would have left out the last words +which were intended to ease the scruples of the more weak-kneed +brethren. But Mr. Jinna, a Mahomedan Extremist from Bombay, whose legal +mind in spite of all his bitterness does not blink the cold light of +reason, warned his audience that India could not achieve complete +independence by violent means without wading through rivers of blood. +Mr. Gandhi himself intimated that India did not "want to end the British +connection at all costs unconditionally," but he declared it to be +"derogatory to national dignity to think of the permanence of the +British connection at any cost, and it was impossible to accept its +continuance in the presence of the grievous wrongs done by the British +Government and its refusal to acknowledge or redress them." He explained +that the resolution of which he was the mover could be accepted equally +by "those who believe that by retaining the British connection we can +purify ourselves and purify the British people, and those who have no +such belief." He concluded on a more minatory note: "The British people +will have to beware that if they do not want to do justice, it will be +the bounden duty of every Indian to destroy the Empire"--which Mr. +Mahomed Ali, however, with less diplomacy, declared to be already dead +and buried. + +That the "Non-co-operation" programme was reaffirmed at Nagpur except in +regard to the propaganda amongst schoolboys as differentiated from +students, and that threats were uttered of extending passive resistance +to the non-payment of taxes and more especially of the land tax, were +not matters to cause much surprise to those who had measured the sharply +inclined plane down which "Non-co-operation" was moving. But one hardly +sees how Mr. Gandhi can reconcile the racial hatred which was the +key-note of all the proceedings with his favourite doctrine of _Ahimsa_. +He has, however, himself, on one occasion, openly referred to a time +when legions of Indians may be ready to leap to the sword for _Swaraj_, +and though his appeal is to an inner moral force which he declares to be +unconquerable, he does not always disguise from himself or from his +followers the bloodshed which the exercise of that moral force may +involve. In an article in support of the "Non-co-operation" movement in +his organ _Young India_ the following pregnant passage occurs: + + For me, I say with Cardinal Newman: "I do not ask to see the + distant scene; one step enough for me." The movement is essentially + religious. The business of every God-fearing man is to dissociate + himself from evil in total disregard of consequences. He must have + faith in a good deed producing only a good result; that, in my + opinion, is the Ghita doctrine of work without attachment. God does + not permit man to peep into the future. He follows truth, although + the following of it may endanger life. He knows that it is better + to die in the way of God than to live in the way of Satan. + Therefore, whoever is satisfied that this Government represents the + activity of Satan has no choice left to him but to dissociate + himself from it. + +Are there any limits to the disastrous lengths to which a people may not +be carried away by one who combines to such ends and in such fashion +religious and political leadership? + + + + +CHAPTER X + +SIDE-LIGHTS ON THE ELECTIONS + + +On probably the last of seventeen visits to India spread over some forty +years, I landed after three years' absence in Bombay early in November +1920, on the eve of the first elections for the new popular assemblies +created by the Act of 1919. + +Municipal elections there had been in India for a long time past, and +elections for the Councils since 1909, but on a very restricted +franchise or by indirect processes. To provide a real measure of popular +representation, and even to secure the usefulness of the reforms as a +means of political education for the Indian people, the franchise was +now placed on as broad a basis as possible, whilst in mapping out the +constituencies the principle of separate representation for particular +races and creeds and special interests had to be taken into account. The +territorial basis prevailed largely, and rural and urban constituencies +corresponded roughly to county and borough constituencies in this +country, but besides the "general constituencies" for all qualified +electors indiscriminately, "special constituencies" had to be created +wherever required for "community" representation, whether of Mahomedans, +or, in the Punjab, of Sikhs, or, in Madras, of non-Brahmans, or, in the +large cities, of Europeans and of Eurasians, besides still more +specialised constituencies for the representation of land-holders, +universities, commerce, and industries. There was no female suffrage, +and no plural vote. No elector could vote both in a "general +constituency" and in a "special" one. The qualifications laid down for +the franchise were of a very modest character. Illiteracy was no bar, as +to have made it so in a country where barely 10 per cent of the adult +males attain to the slender standard of literacy adopted for census +purposes would have reduced the electorate to very insignificant +proportions, and many Indians who cannot read or write have often quite +as shrewd a knowledge of affairs as those who can. The franchise varied +in slight details from province to province, but generally speaking was +based on a property qualification measured by payment of land revenue or +of income-tax or of municipal rates. Military service counted as a +special qualification. Under these regulations about 6,200,000 electors +were registered, or nearly 2-3/4 per cent of the total population +throughout India under direct British administration, excluding the +areas to which the Act of 1919 was not to apply. + +The regulations, however, merely supplied the rough framework; the task +of compiling the lists of qualified electors devolved upon the +Government officers and special election commissions appointed _ad hoc_ +throughout the country, and to the much-abused Civil Service mainly +belongs the credit of having made it possible to hold the elections +within less than a year of the passing of the Act. In the Bombay +Presidency, for instance, where I had my first opportunity of seeing the +new electoral system at work, the electoral rolls finally included some +550,000 electors out of a population of about 20,000,000 of widely +different races and creeds, speaking three absolutely different +languages. Even more laborious than the compiling of voters' lists was +the task of explaining to the vast majority of voters what the vote +meant, why they ought to use it, and how they had to record it. At many +polling stations ballot-boxes were provided of different colours or +showing different symbols--a horse, a flag, a cart, a lion, +etc.--adopted by candidates to enable the voter who could not read their +names to drop his ballot ticket into the right box without asking +questions apt to jeopardise the secrecy of the ballot. + +Many voters instinctively distrusted the privilege suddenly thrust on +them, and scented in it some trap laid by Government, perhaps for +extracting fresh taxation, or worse. Many more remained wholly +indifferent and saw no reason for putting themselves to the slightest +trouble in a matter with which they could not see that they had any +personal concern. Except in large centres, the candidates themselves +often did very little to disarm distrust or to combat indifference. +There was little or no electioneering of the kind with which we are +familiar; and when once "Non-co-operation" led to the withdrawal of +Extremist candidates, there was generally no serious line of political +cleavage between the others, who, especially in the rural districts, +where their neighbours already knew all about them, were content to rely +on their local influence and personal reputation to carry them through. + +The battle, in fact, was not fought out chiefly at the polls. It was +waged very fiercely in the press and on the platform between those who +were bent on paralysing the reforms as the malevolent conception of a +"Satanic" Government and those who were determined to bring them to +fruition, not indeed in blind support of Government, but as a means of +exercising constitutional pressure on the Government. Mr. Gandhi +certainly succeeded not only in dissuading his immediate followers but +in frightening a good many respectable citizens who have no heart for +militant politics from coming forward as candidates. Could he have made +"Non-co-operation" universally effective, there would have been no +candidates and no nominations, no elections and no councils. But in this +he failed, as some of the more worldly Extremists foresaw who obeyed him +in this matter with reluctance. In the Bombay Presidency, Gokhale, +though dead, had a large share in the victory of the old principles for +which he had stood when there had been little will to co-operate on the +part either of Government or of the majority of Western-educated +Indians. For none fought the battle of the Moderates more steadfastly +and faced the rowdiness of the "Non-co-operationists" more fearlessly +than Mr. Srinivasa Sastri, who had succeeded him as the head of his +"Servants of India" Society, and Professor Paranjpe, who had long been +closely associated with him in educational work at the Ferguson College +in Poona. Enough Moderates were found to stick to their colours in +practically every constituency, and they secured their seats, in the +absence of Extremist nominations, without contest, or after submitting +their not very acute political differences to the arbitrament of the +polls. + +Nowhere had the Extremists developed their plan of campaign on more +comprehensive lines than in those great United Provinces of Agra and +Oudh, which with their huge and dense population of over forty-eight +millions under one provincial government form the largest and in some +respects the most important administrative unit in British India. It was +within the area which it now covers that the Mutiny broke out and, with +the exception of Delhi itself, was mainly confined and fought out. The +bitter memories of that period have not yet wholly vanished. It contains +a larger proportion than any other province of historic cities--Agra, +Lucknow, Cawnpore, Muttra, Jhansi, Benares, Allahabad, some of them +still the nerve centres of Hinduism and of Islam. The Mahomedans form +only a minority of about one-sixth of the population, but their +influence must not be measured merely by numbers, for one of the +distinctive features of the United Provinces is the survival of a great +landed aristocracy in which the Mahomedans are largely represented. +Nowhere else, indeed, is the land still held in such an overwhelming +proportion by great landlords, or the rights of the humble tillers of +the soil more precarious. + +The Extremists were quick to exploit the various fields of agitation +which those peculiar conditions provide. They even launched the forces +of "Non-co-operation" against the two Indian universities only founded +within the last few years, in deference to the demands of the Indians +themselves, on frankly denominational lines, in derogation of the very +principle of undenominational education that we had upheld in all other +Indian universities. It is one of the many strange anomalies of +Gandhiism that it should have elected to concentrate its wrecking policy +on the very universities in which Islam and Hinduism respectively have +been conceded a closer preserve than anywhere else for the training of +Indian youths in the spirit of the two great national religions of +India. The joint efforts of the Hindu saint and of his chief Mahomedan +henchmen, the brothers Ali, failed to take either the Hindu or the +Mahomedan stronghold by storm. Mr. Gandhi, indeed, showed some +reluctance to press his attack upon the Hindu university at Benares with +anything like the same vigour with which he backed up Mahomed and +Shaukat Ali's raid on the Mahomedan university at Aligurh, and from so +marked a contrast many Mahomedans might have been expected to draw very +obvious conclusions. + +More insidious, and perhaps more dangerous, was the organised attempt of +the Extremists to get hold of the agricultural masses through the +widespread discontent, by no means of recent date, due to the peculiar +conditions of land tenure in these provinces. In an essentially +agricultural country such as India still is, and must probably always +remain, agrarian questions are amongst the most difficult and +complicated with which British rule has had to deal. For they present +themselves in the different provinces in forms as diverse as the past +history and local conditions of each province, long before it was +brought under British administration, had combined to make them. Whereas +in the Bombay Presidency, for instance, land is chiefly held by small +landlords and peasant proprietors, it was held in Agra and Oudh before +they became British by a great landed aristocracy whose rights, like +all established rights, it was a principle of British policy to respect, +and the _talukdars_ of Oudh and the _zemindars_ of Agra stood for the +most part very loyally by the British _Raj_ during the Mutiny, and have +continued to stand by Government in many difficult if not equally +critical moments since then. + +The relationships, varying almost _ad infinitum_ between landlords and +tenants and sub-tenants, have created marked differences which still +exist very widely in the two divisions of the United Provinces. In Agra, +about half the tenants possess at least occupancy rights, but only a +very small percentage in Oudh enjoy even that measure of protection. +There have been successive endeavours to improve the position of the +tillers of the soil by benevolent legislation. But worse even than the +precarious nature of the tenures are the many forms of arbitrary +exaction to which bad landlords can subject their peasants without any +definite breach of the law. Often landlords who want to build a new +house or send a son to England or buy a new motor simply levy an extra +anna in the rupee on their rent-rolls which the wretched tenants dare +not refuse to pay. As in many other matters, the ancient institution of +caste, which is still the corner-stone of the whole Indian social +structure, introduces yet another disturbing factor. For tenants and +sub-tenants who belong to the depressed castes are exposed to much +harsher treatment at the hands of their superior landlords than those +who are privileged to belong to less down-trodden castes. Even the best +landlords who show some real consideration for their people are actuated +rather by a natural kindliness of disposition than by any conscious +sense of duty or recognition of the special responsibilities that attach +to their high position. Government has for some time past realised the +necessity of dealing with these questions on broader lines, but when the +reforms scheme first took substance, legislation was, not unreasonably, +postponed until the new Councils met, though the subject is not one of +those transferred under the Act to Indian ministers. + +Agrarian questions, moreover, are very intimately connected with the +larger question of land revenue, in regard to which there are signs of a +considerable change in the attitude of the politically-minded classes, +or at least of the Moderate section. For a long time the lawyer element, +always very strong in the Indian National Congress, was not particularly +keen to see it take up agrarian questions which would have probably +estranged a good many fat clients, and some, though perhaps fewer, +political supporters, amongst the land-owning classes. The old Congress +platform was, moreover, drawn up by and for the _intelligentsia_ of the +towns, who had little in common with the great rural population of +India; and in so far as it professed to champion also the agricultural +interests of the country, it preferred to concentrate its attacks on the +general system of Indian land revenue and to press for its revision on +the lines of the "permanent settlement" in Bengal--not so much perhaps +on account of any intrinsic merits of that "settlement," as because it +was identified with the province which was then regarded as in the van +of Indian political progress and enlightenment. The "permanent +settlement" in Bengal, effected more than a century and a quarter ago by +Lord Cornwallis under a complete misapprehension, as was afterwards +realised, of the position of the Bengalee _zemindars_, determined once +and for all the proportion of land revenue which Government was entitled +to collect in the province, instead of leaving it, as in other parts of +India it is still left, to be varied from time to time after periodical +inquiry into the constantly varying yield and value of the land. The +result in Bengal has been highly satisfactory from the point of view of +the large land-owners whose property has appreciated enormously with the +general growth of prosperity during a long period, unprecedented in its +earlier annals, of internal and external peace. It has been less +satisfactory to the tenants with inferior and infinitely subdivided +interests who have shared very little in the increased wealth of their +superior landlords, and nowhere else has sub-infeudation been carried to +such extravagant lengths. But for the State, above all, the results have +been singularly unfortunate, as it has debarred itself from taking toll +of the unearned increment that has been constantly accruing to the +_zemindars_. + +So long as the National Congress saw little or no hope of securing the +transfer of any substantial share in the governance of the country to +Indian shoulders, it could afford to indulge in wholesale criticism of +Government finance and to propose sweeping changes without stopping to +consider ways and means or to weigh the ultimate effects upon the +revenue of the State, and it was easy for it to court popularity by +inveighing against the land tax and advocating the extension of the +"permanent settlement" to the whole of India as a sovereign panacea. But +sober Indian politicians have begun to look farther ahead and to reckon +with the costs of the many popular reforms which Indian Ministers will +be expected to carry through in the new Councils. Mr. Gandhi and his +followers, who are determined if possible to wreck them, are deterred by +no such considerations, and the non-payment of the land tax, which must +remain the backbone of Indian revenue, already figures in their +programme of "Non-co-operation," of which the avowed object is to +paralyse Government and render British rule impossible without any +resort to the methods of violence they profess to deprecate. It can +hardly fail to prove a fairly popular cry, for there is no more +unpalatable form of co-operation with Government all the world over than +the payment of taxes, and the Extremists combine this part of their +propaganda with more specialised efforts to capture the confidence of +the particular classes amongst the peasantry who have rent and tenure +grievances by warmly espousing their cause against the landlords and +inciting them to organised resistance. They not only stimulate thereby +a general feeling of unrest and discontent, but they actually carry the +war to the very doors of the great land-owning class which has hitherto +been least accessible to revolutionary influences. + +This was one of the special features of the "Non-co-operation" campaign +in the United Provinces, and Mr. Gandhi himself arrived on the scene to +lend it the full weight of his personal influence on the very eve of the +elections. How extraordinary is the influence of his mesmeric +personality and style of oratory I realised when I drove out on the day +of the elections into a district outside Allahabad where he had himself +addressed on the previous afternoon a vast crowd of twenty thousand +peasants. It was about noon, and only a few creaking bullock-carts and +"the footfall mute of the slow camel"--neither of them suggestive of a +hotly contested election--disturbed the drowsy peace which even in the +coolest season of the year in Upper India falls on the open country when +the sun pours down out of the cloudless sky. Here at a roadside shrine a +group of brightly dressed village women were trying to attract the +attention of a favourite god by ringing the little temple bell. There +some brown-skinned youngsters were driving their flock of goats and +sheep into the leafy shelter of the trees. But the fields, now bare of +crops, were lifeless, and the scattered hamlets mostly fast asleep. +About fifteen miles out we reached the big village of Soraon--almost a +small township--in which there seemed equally little to suggest that +this was the red-letter day in the history of modern India that was to +initiate her people into the great art of self-government. Still the +small court-house, we found, had been swept and garnished for use as a +polling station. Two small groups of people stood listlessly outside the +building, the candidates' agents on the one side of the entrance, and on +the other the _patwaris_--the village scribes who keep the official land +records--brought in from the different villages to attest the signatures +and thumbmarks of the voters. Inside, the presiding officer with his +assistants sat at his table with the freshly printed electoral roll in +front of him and the voting paper to be handed to each voter as he +passed into the inner sanctuary in which the ballot-boxes awaited him. +But voters there were none. From eight in the morning till past twelve +not a single voter had presented himself out of over 1200 assigned to +this polling station, nor did a single one present himself in the course +of the whole day. + +Nowhere else, however, was the boycott so effective, and throughout the +province a full third of the qualified electors recorded their +votes--not a bad percentage under such novel conditions and in the face +of such a determined effort to wreck the elections. The land-owning +class secured the representation to which its hereditary influence +unquestionably entitles it, but it has held so much aloof from modern +education that with some notable exceptions it contributes numbers +rather than capacity to the Council. With forty-four members belonging +to the legal profession out of a total of one hundred members this +Provincial Council, like most others, is doubtless somewhat overstocked +with lawyers. But upon no other profession has Mr. Gandhi urged more +strongly the duty of "Non-co-operation," and that, after having been for +years conspicuous for political disaffection, it should have rallied so +generally in support of the reforms shows how great is the change they +have wrought amongst the Western-educated classes. Nowhere in the United +Provinces was the electoral battle so fierce as in the town of Jhansi, +where Mr. Chintamani, once the irreconcilable editor of the Allahabad +_Leader_, came out at the head of a large poll, though in order to +defeat him the "Non-co-operationists" sacrificed their principles and +put up and supported with their own votes an obscure candidate by whose +election they hoped to bring the new Council into contempt. + +The outstanding feature of the elections in Bengal was the striking +evidence afforded of a return to political sanity in a province which, a +dozen years ago, was the chief political storm-centre in India. Many of +the same leaders who, formerly, at least dallied with lawlessness during +the violent agitation that followed the Partition of Bengal now came +forward openly as champions of constitutional progress on the lines of +the new reforms and as candidates for the new Councils. They knew what +all their own attempts to make a _Swadeshi_ boycott really effective by +developing "national" industries and substituting "national" products +and "national" trade agencies for foreign ones had ended in. They +remembered the failure of the "national" schools and colleges which were +to have supplanted Government schools and colleges. They realised that a +dangerous propaganda which had involved hundreds of immature youths in a +network of criminal conspiracies had tended to the subversion of every +principle of authority, at the expense of the parent at least as much as +of good government and public peace. When the famous Pronouncement of +August 20, 1917, opened up for India the prospect of ultimate +self-government within the Empire, and the recommendations of the +Montagu-Chelmsford Report finally took shape in a new Government of +India Act, there was found a solid body of public opinion in Bengal +which had been taught by actual and very costly experience not to throw +away the substance for the shadow. The most influential perhaps amongst +the Extremists during the Anti-Partition campaign was Mr. Arabindo +Ghose, who, like Mr. Gandhi, had studied in England and with great +distinction. Though, unlike Mr. Gandhi, he never indulged in wholesale +denunciations of Western civilisation, his newspaper, the _Yugantar_, +was a daily trumpet-call to revolt against British rule, and he himself +narrowly escaped conviction on a charge of bomb-making. Yet as far back +as 1910, from his place of retirement in Pondicherry, he issued after +the Morley-Minto reforms had been promulgated a significant message to +his fellow-countrymen advising them to accept partial _Swaraj_ as a +means to ensure complete _Swaraj_, and amongst the literature that +helped to defeat "Non-co-operation" in Bengal, one of the most striking +pamphlets was one entitled "Gandhi or Arabindo?" in which a very fervent +disciple and collaborator of the latter in the most fiery days of the +_Yugantar_ argued with great force the case for co-operation with +Government against "Non-co-operation" as now preached by Mr. Gandhi. +Only less remarkable has been the conversion of many other old Bengalee +leaders, including the veteran Sir Surendranath Banerjee, who never, +however, went quite to the same lengths of extremism. + +During the electoral campaign Mr. Gandhi could still find large +audiences, not all consisting of excitable students, to acclaim him or +to listen open-mouthed to his ceaseless flow of eloquence. But the +electors went to the polls and voted for the candidates against whom he +and his followers had fulminated, and, in the rural districts +especially, election meetings often refused to listen to any elaborate +political dissertations, and wanted only to hear what the candidates +were prepared to do for elementary education, sanitation, schools, +roads, etc. So the Bengal elections too resulted in the return, often by +relatively large bodies of voters, of members pledged and competent to +co-operate with Government. The _Khilafat_ agitation, accompanied in +Bengal as everywhere else by aggressive religious intimidation, affected +the polling in some of the Mahomedan constituencies. But during the +Anti-Partition campaign Mahomedans and Hindus had been in opposite +camps, whereas Mr. Gandhi was now making a strong and to some extent +successful bid for Mahomedan support by endorsing the Mahomedan +grievance. So the Mahomedan change of front merely emphasised +"Non-co-operation's" defeat in Bengal. + +Equally hopeful were the signs of a better understanding and of the +revival of a spirit of friendly co-operation between Indians and +Englishmen in Calcutta, hitherto regarded, not quite without reason, as +a stronghold of reactionary European conservatism, especially amongst +the non-official community. It can hardly be denied that, except where +official relations brought them into contact--and not always +there--Europeans and Indians have lived too much in separate water-tight +compartments until each has ceased to see anything but the beam in the +other's eye. In Calcutta they have been far more rarely drawn together +in commercial and industrial co-operation, and they have rubbed up less +frequently against each other in healthy competition than, for instance, +in Bombay. It is one of the most promising features of the new reforms +that the Europeans, who have hitherto taken very little interest in +anything that was not directly connected with their own business or +their own amusements, have been at last roused to play the part which it +is their duty as well as their right to play in the political life of +the country, and the men who have been returned to sit in the new +Councils as the representatives of the European community seem to +realise fully, the importance of the task that is before them in giving +a practical example of what the helpful co-operation of Europeans with +Indians can do to promote the healthy political life of the country. + +In social service there is an equally large field of co-operation of +which Calcutta has also provided an interesting illustration. In no +other city in India are University students, of whom there are nearly as +many--some 26,000--at the one university of Calcutta as in all the +universities of Great Britain put together, thrown so much on their own +resources without any guidance or control. The bulk of them may never +come in contact even with European professors, let alone with the +European community in general. What opportunities have they of forming +any opinion for themselves of what our civilisation stands for, except +possibly through the medium of cheap cinemas in which its worst and most +vulgar features are thrust before them? Bengalee youths are +extraordinarily quick to respond to the best European influence when it +has once established contact with them. Some teachers do secure a +strong personal hold upon them, most of all in the missionary and other +hostels where they live under the same roof with them, take part in +their games as well as in their studies, and encourage them to express +their own opinions freely and fearlessly. There relations of mutual +friendship and confidence grow up and endure. In this respect the +Y.M.C.A., in which Indian Christians act in close co-operation with +broad-minded Englishmen, has done admirable work, and none better and +with more definite and immediate results than when Government turned to +them for assistance last year in the difficult situation created by the +royal amnesty which required the immediate liberation of nearly a +thousand young Bengalees who, having been more or less concerned in +conspiracies and dacoities during the troublous years before the war, +had been interned after its outbreak under administrative orders. In +many cases they had broken with their families, who were not inclined to +take them back. Many had no means of earning a livelihood. To let them +loose upon the world without any provision for them would have been to +drive them to desperation. The Y.M.C.A. stepped into the breach. They +were given the use of an internment camp which German war _detenus_ had +vacated, and with the help of Mr. B.C. Chatterjee, who was well known to +that particular class of Indians for having constantly appeared as +counsel for the defendants in the innumerable political prosecutions of +the preceding decade, and had himself formed an Indian Committee for a +similar purpose, they induced a large number of these young fellows to +come to them. They were at first rather distrustful, but Mr. +Chatterjee's political past and the warm-hearted sympathy of Mr. Rahu, +an Indian Y.M.C.A. worker who was placed in charge of the hostel, soon +disarmed their suspicions. They learnt to appraise at their real value +the malicious rumours set afoot to prejudice them against their new +friends, and began to respond cordially to a generous treatment, +physical and moral, which was so unlike all that they had heard about +Western methods. They were given food and lodging, newspapers, +magazines, and books, and, when necessary, medical advice and care. They +had opportunities of learning a trade and securing employment as well as +facilities for indoor and outdoor recreation, and carefully planned +social gatherings helped to restore their self-respect and confidence. +To their credit be it said, their conduct was unexceptionable, and not a +single complaint was received with regard to any of those who thus found +a new start in life. One could well credit the assurance that they were +all as much opposed to any reversion to "Non-co-operation" as Sir +Surendranath Banerjee himself. + +Much must always depend upon the example set by those in authority not +only as administrators but as the natural leaders of both European and +Indian society. Lord Ronaldshay, whose appointment as Governor of Bengal +was not at first very well received by the politically minded Indians in +Calcutta, has succeeded by patient effort in convincing them that they +have a genuine as well as a candid friend in him, and even his social +popularity is due not merely to the generosity of his hospitality but to +the keen interest he takes, amongst other things, in the renascence of +Indian art in which Bengal has taken the lead. There is amongst +Europeans in India a good deal of Philistine contempt for all Indian +forms of culture, and Indians are surprised and grateful when Governors +like Lord Ronaldshay, and his predecessor, Lord Carmichael, frankly +acknowledge that whilst Indian painting and Indian music are ruled by +other canons than those of the West, they pursue none the less high +ideals along different paths. What Indians look for too often in vain +from Europeans is any hearty attempt either to understand them or to +make them understand us. The influence which Lord Ronaldshay had +acquired by such forms of co-operation with the Indian mind stood him +and the Bengal Provincial Council in good stead when he had on one +occasion to appeal to it to reconsider its hasty refusal of a grant in +which it would have been impossible for Government to acquiesce, lest he +should be driven to override it by the exercise of the statutory powers +vested in him. He gave it to be understood that, if they became +frequent, such conflicts of opinion between him and the Council would +put an end to his usefulness either to the Government or to the +Presidency, and he would feel justified in demanding his release from +responsibilities he would no longer be able satisfactorily to discharge. +The Council was wise enough to take the hint and not to risk losing a +Governor who had done so much to earn the confidence of Bengal, and by +correcting an error of judgment, due chiefly to inexperience, it +confirmed the victory which had been won over "Non-co-operation" at the +polls. + +Even in the storm-tossed Punjab the new Provincial Council made a better +start than might have been expected from the temper of Lahore and the +other large centres still brooding over the bitter memories of 1919. In +the Punjab and in the neighbouring North-West Frontier Province, +formerly itself part of the Punjab--but excluded from the operation of +the new Government of India Act and therefore lying outside this +survey--the _Khilafat_ agitation has gone deeper than probably in any +other part of India amongst large and very backward Mahomedan +populations. Yet upon the Punjab itself so cruel a lesson has not been +lost as that taught to thousands of unfortunate Mahomedan peasants in +the Frontier Province who were persuaded to give up their lands and trek +into Afghanistan to seek the blessings of Mahomedan rule, and came back +starved and plundered from their ill-starred exodus undertaken for the +sake of Islam. In Lahore and in the other chief urban constituencies +"Non-co-operation," with its usual methods of combined persuasion and +intimidation, was so far successful that not 5 per cent of the electors +went to the poll. In some of the Mahomedan rural constituencies the +attendances at the polls were, on the other hand, fairly large, +especially in those where the influence of old conservative families was +still paramount. Altogether the Punjab Provincial Council is perhaps +less representative of the whole electorate than in any other province +in India. Some official ingenuity had been displayed in grouping remote +towns together without any regard for geography, in order to prevent +townsmen undesirably addicted to advanced political views from standing +as candidates for the rural constituencies in which many of the smaller +towns would otherwise have been naturally merged. This was a last effort +based on the old belief that the population of the Punjab could be +divided into goats and sheep, the goats being the "disloyal" townsmen +and the sheep being the "loyal" peasantry. There may have been substance +in that belief before 1919, but how little there is in it now has been +shown by the large majority who, in an assembly in which it is just the +rural constituencies that are most effectively represented, passed a +Resolution for the remission of the fine imposed on Amritsar to punish +the disorders in that city, already amply punished, they considered, at +Jallianwala. The presence in the new Government of Mr. Harkishen Lal, +himself condemned two years ago under martial law to transportation for +life and treated for months as a common criminal, has done more than +anything else perhaps to restore public confidence. He was elected to +the Council, not by political firebrands, but by a sober constituency +specially constituted to represent the Punjab Industries, and in +courageously choosing him to be one of his new Ministers, the Governor, +Sir Edward MacLagan, gave a striking demonstration, of which the effect +has not been confined to the Punjab, of the profound change that has +been wrought in the attitude of the official world towards the +politically minded classes. + +An appalling incident last spring showed how quick the fierce races of +Northern India are to burst into violent feuds amongst themselves for +which no responsibility can be imputed to their alien rulers. The +Sikhs, though less numerous than the Hindus and the Mahomedans, form an +extremely influential community in the Punjab, which was the cradle and +always has been the stronghold of their religion, and was only a century +ago the seat of their political and military power. Not many years ago, +however, Sikhism, which began in Moghul times as a revolt against the +social and religious trammels of Hinduism as well as against Mahomedan +domination, seemed to be tending steadily towards resorption into the +Hindu system. Its temples, most of them richly endowed, had passed out +of the control of the community, to whom they in theory belonged, into +the possession of lukewarm Mahunts, or incumbents, many of them half +Hinduised and most of them more concerned with the temporal advantages +than with the religious duties of their office. Even in the days of the +militant Sikh Confederacy under Ranjit Singh, upon whom religion sat +rather lightly, there was a growing trend towards laxity of belief and +practice, which continued to spread after the British annexation of the +Punjab had broken the political power of the Sikhs. Strange to say, the +old customs of pure Sikhism survived nowhere so immune from decay as in +the Sikh regiments of our Indian Army. But with the growth of Indian +Nationalism, which often manifested itself at first in a revival of +local and racial patriotism, there arose amongst the Sikhs a vigorous +reform movement which aimed at rebuilding their nationhood on the solid +foundations of the faith originally preached by their ten Gurus, or +religious teachers, and the strict observance of the peculiar customs +that were the badge of their faith. The first important step was the +opening of the Khalsa College for Sikhs at Amritsar in 1892, which did +not, however, fulfil its real purpose until it was gradually emancipated +from Government control. A religious Diwan, or assembly, was constituted +at Lahore, to which local bodies were affiliated, with the object of +preaching purity of religion and promoting the abolition of caste +distinctions and other Hindu influences that had crept back into +Sikhism. + +In its essence a puritan movement, there was unquestionably a +nationalist side to it which tended to render it suspect in the eyes of +many Punjab officials, and these suspicions were heightened by the +_Gadr_ conspiracy fomented in the second year of the war by a number of +Sikhs, who returned from Canada bitterly estranged from British rule by +the anti-Asiatic policy of the Dominion and still more by the fiery +eloquence of Indian revolutionaries in German pay. But against the +disloyalty of a small section must be weighed the loyal war services of +the vast majority of Sikhs, and the Punjab Government proudly boasted at +the time that there were 80,000 Sikhs serving in the army, a proportion +far higher than in the case of any other community. It was doubtless +partly in recognition of such war services that in the reforms scheme +they were given the benefit of "community" representation in the new +Councils on the same lines as the Mahomedans. But with a tenacious +memory of the language used years ago by Lord Minto in reply to +Mahomedan representations, they still complain that the historical +importance and actual influence of their community have not received +nearly as full a measure of consideration. Unfortunately, bitterness was +revived by the large number of Sikhs amongst General Dyer's victims at +Jallianwala, most of them, according to the Sikh version, innocent +country-folk, who had come into Amritsar on that day because it happened +to be a Sikh religious holiday, and had merely strayed into the Bagh out +of harmless and ignorant curiosity. + +The puritan movement struck a dangerous course when it addressed itself +to the recovery of the Sikh shrines which it held to have passed into +the possession of unorthodox and corrupt Mahunts, faithless both to +their religious and temporal trust. Considerable success was achieved by +the exercise, it was affirmed, of mere moral pressure, though not +perhaps always without a display or threat of material pressure behind +it in the event of moral pressure proving inadequate. Amongst others, +the incumbent of the Golden Temple at Amritsar, the most sacred of all +Sikh shrines, was constrained to make a public confession of his +wrongdoings and resign his office into the hands of a Reformers' +Committee. Next to Amritsar in wealth and sanctity came Nankhanda Saheb +with a Mahunt to whom the Reformers imputed all kinds of enormities. A +great popular demonstration against him had been organised for March 5, +and some 150 Sikhs had gone out to make arrangements for sheltering and +feeding several thousands in the immediate vicinity of the shrine. The +Mahunt had already scented danger and he clearly believed in taking the +offensive. He collected some fifty Pathan cut-throats as a Praetorian +guard for the temple, and also, for a purpose which was soon to +transpire, a very large store of petrol. When the advance party of +reformers entered the shrine to perform their morning devotions the +gates were closed upon them and over 100 were butchered, and their +corpses so effectively soaked in oil and burned that when the District +Commissioner and a detachment of troops arrived post-haste on the scene, +the victims could scarcely be counted except by the number of charred +skulls. + +There was a universal thrill of horror and fury, and passions rose so +high that Government found itself suddenly confronted with a situation +which at once put to a severe test the capacity of the new regime to +deal with emergencies endangering law and order. That Indian Ministers +now shared in the responsibility of government, and that there was a +popular assembly to undertake legislation for composing the differences +between the conflicting sections of the Sikh community, helped at least +as much to avert still graver troubles as the object-lesson which the +Nankhanda Saheb tragedy afforded to thoughtful Punjabees of all creeds. +The massacre carried out by a mere handful of Pathans was a grim +reminder of the dangers to which the Punjab would be the first to be +exposed if the hasty severance of the British connection for which Mr. +Gandhi is clamouring were to leave it defenceless against the flood of +lawless savagery that would at once pour down, as so often before in +Indian history, from the wild fastnesses of the North-West Frontier. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +CROSS CURRENTS IN SOUTHERN INDIA + + +The elections in the Southern Provinces presented a somewhat different +picture though the defeat of "Non-co-operation" was equally complete. +The Nerbudda river has been from times immemorial a great dividing line, +climatic, racial, and often political, between Northern and Southern +India. It still is so. For, whilst with a few relatively unimportant +exceptions the whole of British India--save Burma, which, except from an +administrative point of view, is not India at all--has been brought with +perhaps excessive uniformity within the scope of the new constitutional +reforms, many conditions in the Central Provinces and in the great +Presidency of Madras differ widely from those prevailing in the other +major provinces north of the Nerbudda, and the actual failure of +"Non-co-operation" to enforce its boycott of the elections was less +noteworthy than some other features in the new situation. In the Central +Provinces the elections themselves were fought out on much the same +lines as in the north and with very similar results, if allowance is +made for the intellectual backwardness of the province. Political +activity and agitation had been confined in the past mainly to Nagpur, +the capital, and to the western districts, in which a large Mahratta +element predominates especially amongst the better-educated classes. +Most of Mr. Tilak's former followers there had joined the +"Non-co-operation" movement, and their rigid abstention from the +elections left the doors of the Provincial Council wide open for the +representation of more sober Indian opinion. The Extremists showed their +contempt for the new assembly by putting up one or two "freak" +candidates in breach of the boycott they were preaching, and actually +got in a _dhobi_, or laundryman, at Jubbulpur. But the elections were +overshadowed by the preparations for the Nagpur Congress, which was to +be the great Gandhi counterblast to the Reforms, and the Extremists, who +poured into the province from the neighbouring Bombay Presidency, +concentrated their efforts on the creation of an atmosphere of general +unrest favourable to the new line of campaign upon which the rump of the +old Indian National Congress was about to enter with the open +renunciation of the fundamental article of its original creed--loyalty +to the British connection. + +It seems one of the strangest of the many anomalies with which the +Indian situation teems that the Central Provinces should have been +chosen of all others as the scene for a great spectacular demonstration +of revolt against the state of "slavery" to which Indians have been +reduced by a "Satanic" alien rule. It is one of the precepts of Mr. +Gandhi's gospel of "Non-co-operation," though doubtless only as a +counsel of perfection, that Indian husbands and wives must cease to +bring "slave" children into the world until India has attained _Swaraj_. +Yet in the Central Provinces a larger proportion of Indian children than +in any other province are born every year to a state of degradation much +more closely akin to slavery, which is not imposed upon them by any +alien rulers, but by the ancient traditions of those of their own race +and creed whose interest it is to perpetuate at the expense of their +less fortunate fellow-countrymen the most cruel form of caste tyranny. +Of the total population of the Central Provinces, which numbered some +sixteen millions at the last Census in 1911, one-fifth belong to that +order of humanity which stands so low in the eyes of Hindus that it is +unworthy to be reckoned as possessing any caste at all. These no-castes +stand at the very foot of the social ladder of Hinduism, and in theory +at least they can never hope to climb even on to its lowest rungs, +though in practice the most stringent laws can be gradually circumvented +with the help of needy Brahmans or will yield to the pressure of +changing economic conditions. They are "untouchable," _i.e._ that any +physical contact with them involves defilement of which the caste Hindu +can only cleanse himself by ritual ablutions and other forms of +ceremonial purification. Go into a village which is partially inhabited +by these unfortunate people, mostly called Mahars in that part of India, +and you will find that they are forbidden even to draw water from any +but their own wells, as by drawing it from wells used by caste Hindus +they would render them impure. In the larger urban schools under +Government control British laws, which recognise no caste distinctions, +enforce the admission of Mahar boys, some of whom do extremely well. But +in a village school you will often see the poor little "untouchables," +if admitted at all, relegated to mats on the outside verandah, where +they may pick up such scraps of teaching as they can. The Government +inspector of schools may remonstrate, but he knows that few teachers +will make any serious attempt to mend matters, and that if they did the +caste-boys would be withdrawn by their indignant parents. + +When I was touring a few years ago in the Central Provinces with a +British commissioner, who was carrying on an inquiry into certain +grievances of the peasantry in connection with irrigation, the villagers +from the more remote villages were frequently collected along the road +to tell their story, and they brought with them their land-records. +These the "untouchables" had to lay on the ground at the feet of the +Brahman subordinate, who would have been defiled had he taken them +straight out of their hands, and only after they had withdrawn a few +paces did he condescend to pick up the books and verify them before +passing them on to his British superior. The latter, on the other hand, +though the representative, according to Congress orators, of a "Satanic" +Government that has reduced Indians to "slavery," never hesitated to +question the poor "untouchables" closely and good-humouredly, not merely +about the particular matter at issue, but about the condition of their +crops or the health of their village, and sometimes gave a friendly pat +on the back to the youngsters who accompanied their elders, whilst the +Brahman stood by in stony and disgusted silence. + +These caste discriminations doubtless originated in remote ages when the +Aryan conquerors from the north gradually subdued the aboriginal +Dravidian populations. The "untouchables" are mostly remnants of that +population, some of them still very primitive jungle folk whom the +Census classes as "animists," or nature-worshippers, _i.e._ they still +worship trees and stones and the spirits that are supposed to dwell in +them. But they tend gradually to include in their worship some of the +gods and goddesses of the Hindu Pantheon, especially those who are +credited with power to avert the worst scourges to which the people +happen to be subject. Under a sacred roadside tree I have seen in one +place a rude stone, roughly shaped to represent the Goddess of +Small-pox, and alongside of it a clay image of a tiger that had killed a +man on that very spot, set up in the hope of averting further +manifestations of its wrath, and also of appeasing the dead man's soul +so that he might remain quietly within the tiger and become a kindly +protector to the village. The appropriation of Hindu deities is usually +the first step towards their absorption into the Hindu social structure. +Others, the more progressive, have settled down as cultivators, a few +occasionally becoming quite considerable land-owners. Others, again, +have taken to weaving and to petty trade. Under British rule they have +progressed all along the line. A Mahar regiment has been raised, +officered by Mahomedans from the north, as no Hindu would think of +serving with "untouchables," and though Hindu sepoys must not be +brought into proximity with it, it has always behaved very creditably. +Some Mahars are now well educated, and in favour of two of them the +Governor of the Central Provinces has exercised the right conferred upon +him to nominate a certain number of members to the Provincial +Legislative Council in order to give some representation to communities +too backward to secure any for themselves under the existing franchise. + +One of the best results of British governance and of Western education +has been to stimulate even amongst the "untouchables" a new sense of +self-respect and self-reliance and a wholesome desire to emerge from the +degradation to which the custom of centuries has condemned them. It is +amongst them that of late years Christian and even Mahomedan +missionaries have found all over India their most fruitful field, and in +some provinces mass-movements to Christianity have taken place, which +are admittedly due in the first place to a desire for social +emancipation, but will steadily lead, if properly handled, to moral and +religious advancement. One of the great problems now before the +missionary societies of all Christian denominations is how these tens of +thousands of converts can be taught and trained, and it is of great +promise for the future that a Commission of Inquiry composed of British +and American and Indian Christian missionaries has recently issued a +report on Village Education in India which has approached this problem, +amongst others, with a broad-minded appreciation of its economic and +social as well as purely religious aspects. + +Is it surprising that when the Indian National Congress, that has +hitherto done nothing for them beyond embodying in its programme vague +expressions of sympathy, is agitating for the severance of the British +connection, and Extremist orators perambulate the country to preach a +boycott of British officials, the Mahars should have sent in petitions +imploring the Governor not to abandon them or surrender the power which +has alone done something to raise them out of the slough of despond? Mr. +Gandhi, however, who would be a great social reformer had he not +preferred to plunge into a dangerous political agitation, is not himself +blind to such an awful blot as "untouchability" has made on Hindu +civilisation, and some of his followers, prompted perhaps less than he +is himself by a generous reforming spirit, have not been slow to see +what abundant materials lie ready to their hand in these vast masses, +profoundly ignorant and superstitious, if they can only be drawn into +the turbid stream of "Non-co-operation" by some novel and ingenious +appeal to their fears or to their appetites. + +In the Madras Presidency, never swept to the same degree as Bengal or +Bombay by the waves of political unrest, the electoral struggle assumed +a form, peculiar to Southern Indian conditions, in which +"Non-co-operation" entered very little. For Southern India has its own +life-history which differentiates it in many respects from other parts +of India, and in none more so than in the survival of the Brahman's +ancient ascendancy, until recently almost unchallenged in this +stronghold of Hinduism. + +Mostly of the primitive Dravidian stock that inhabited the peninsula +before the great Aryan inflow from the north, and still speaking +Dravidian languages, the people of Southern India have preserved in its +most archaic form the social system of Hinduism which the Aryan +conquerors, probably never more than a small minority, imposed upon them +by the relative superiority of their civilisation quite as much as by +force of arms. Of a much fairer complexion, the Aryans became the ruling +"white" race of those days, and to preserve their racial prestige they +enforced the most rigid laws for the differentiation of caste--which +originally meant colour. The Brahmans, being the law-givers, naturally +framed laws to secure the pre-eminence of their own caste, and to the +present day, for instance, in the more remote parts of Southern India, +men of the lower castes may be seen retiring hastily from the road at +his approach, lest they should pollute the air he breathes by coming +within a forbidden distance of him. + +In Southern India, where Buddhist influence never secured any firm +footing, Hinduism had its golden age during the fourteenth and fifteenth +centuries, whilst the tide of Mahomedan invasion was pouring in +successive waves into Northern and Central India. The last and greatest +of the Hindu kingdoms of Southern India did not succumb to the sword of +Islam till 1565, and the splendid ruins of Vijianagar bear out, if we +make allowance for oriental hyperbole, the contemporary testimony of a +Persian Ambassador that "the pupil of the eye has never seen a place +like it and the ear of intelligence has never been informed that there +existed anything to equal it in the whole world." The Moslem conquerors +laid Vijianagar low. But, by the curious irony of fortune, it was from a +descendant of its royal house, some remnants of which escaped +destruction, that the British, by whom Mahomedan domination was to be in +turn overthrown, received their first grant of land on the Carnatic +coast close to where Madras now stands. + +Mahomedan domination came so late to Southern India and lasted for such +a brief period that it never disturbed, even to the small extent that it +did in Northern India, the social stratifications of Hinduism, which +have equally withstood there more than anywhere else the subtler +pressure of Western civilisation under British rule. Take, for instance, +a small town like Tirupati, only a few miles from Chatnagiri, where the +Rajahs, whose forebears made that momentous grant to Francis Day a +little less than three centuries ago, still live in modest state. Were +Tirupati still ruled by the Vijianagar kings in all their splendour, it +could hardly present a better-preserved picture of ancient Hindu life. +At the foot of a steep range of hills crowned with venerable temples +whose sanctity has from times immemorial attracted a constant stream of +pilgrims, and possessing some famous temples of its own, it is +essentially a Brahman town, and lives almost entirely by ministering, at +more or less extortionate rates, to the material and spiritual needs of +pilgrims, averaging about a thousand a day in ordinary times and scores +of thousands at the special festival seasons, on their way to and from +the sacred hill-top. There are whole streets of lodgings for their use, +consisting chiefly of small bare cubicles, and rows of shops at which +they can purchase their simple vegetarian food and innumerable religious +trifles as mementoes of their pilgrimage. When I approached Tirupati, +early in the morning, a few groups of pilgrims were already on their way +to the hill-sanctuaries and peasants were starting work on the temple +lands outside the town. Sacred monkeys gambolled about the trees and +still more sacred cows had begun to exercise their daily privilege of +browsing for food wherever their fancy leads them, even amongst the +vegetables exposed for sale in the public market-places. The Brahmans +themselves were still engaged in performing their elaborate morning +devotions and ablutions, but the members of their household had already +swept the approach to their low, one-storied, flat-roofed houses and +stencilled on the threshold with white liquid chalk the geomantic +patterns, finished off with scattered marigolds, which keep away the +evil spirits. The Brahman quarters surround the temples, of which of +course only the outer courtyards are accessible to other than high-caste +Hindus. The low-caste "untouchables," who do the menial work of the +town, live strictly segregated in their own quarter, which consists only +of mud huts and even flimsier shelters of platted palm-leaves and +bamboos. The whole town wore an air of leisured superiority as if +conscious that there can be no need for special effort when the gods +bring pilgrims to provide for the wants of its "twice-born" inhabitants. + +There are scores of other Tirupatis in which the Brahman still reigns +supreme by virtue of his _quasi_-sacerdotal caste. But in the public +life of Southern India, as British rule has moulded it, he has owed a +pre-eminence only recently disputed to a monopoly of Western education +in modern times almost as complete as the monopoly which he enjoyed of +Hindu learning and culture before the advent of the British. As soon as +he saw that the British _Raj_ threatened no curtailment of his +hereditary supremacy in the religious and social world of Hinduism, he +was quick to profit by all the material advantages which the country as +a whole derived from a new era of public security and peace. He realised +at once that Western education might open up for him opportunities of +making himself almost as indispensable, if on a somewhat humbler scale, +to the alien rulers of India as he had formerly made himself to the +indigenous rulers in the land. Thus the Brahmans acquired from the first +a virtual monopoly of all the subordinate public services in the Madras +Presidency and, as time went on, of all the higher posts gradually +thrown open to Indians. They crowded also into all the new liberal +professions fostered by Western education, and, above all, into the +legal profession for which they showed, as most Indians do, a very +special aptitude. But, like all monopolists, they were tempted to abuse +their monopoly, the more so as they regarded it merely as a legitimate +adaptation to the new conditions imported by British rule of the ancient +privileges always vested in their caste. They resented any attempt on +the part of Hindus belonging to inferior castes to follow in their +footsteps along the new paths of Western learning and to qualify for a +share of employment in the public services, for which under the British +dispensation all Indians are entitled to compete on equal terms +irrespective of all caste discriminations. The non-Brahmans were slow to +start, and when they did start, they had to contend with the jealous +opposition of the Brahmans, who combined, as Hindu castes know how to +combine, against unwelcome intruders into a profitable field of which +they had secured early possession. When the Public Services Commission +was in Madras eight years ago, we heard many bitter complaints from +non-Brahmans that, whenever one of them did succeed in getting an +appointment under Government, the Brahmans with whom or under whom he +had to work would at once unite to drive him out, either by making his +life intolerable or by turning against him the European superior to +whose ear they had easy access. For it is one of the weaknesses of an +alien bureaucracy that, in regard to routine work at least, its weaker +members are apt to be far too much in the hands of their native +assistants. The Brahmans later on formed the bulk of the new +Western-educated and "politically-minded" class, and the Madrasee +Brahmans played a considerable part in the Indian National Congress +before it broke away from its constitutional moorings. + +The non-Brahmans, nevertheless, under the leadership of such resolute +men as the late Dr. Nair, fought their way steadily to the front, and, +being of course in a large majority, they had only to organise in order +to make full use of the opportunity which a relatively democratic +franchise afforded them for the first time at the recent elections. They +can hardly themselves have foreseen how great their opportunity was, for +they regarded the reforms at first with deep suspicion as calculated +merely to transfer substantive power from a British to a Brahman +bureaucracy, and so deep was their dread of Brahman ascendancy even in +the new Councils that they clamoured to the very end for a much larger +number of seats than the sixteen that were ultimately reserved as +"communal" seats for non-Brahman electorates. They never needed such a +reservation, for they actually carried the day in so many of the +"general" constituencies that out of ninety-eight elected members of the +new Provincial Council only fourteen are Brahmans, and it is the +Brahmans now who complain, not without reason, that their representation +falls short of their legitimate influence in the State, and are already +demanding a reservation of "communal" seats for their own caste in +future. Lord Willingdon, as a constitutional Governor, chose from the +non-Brahman majority in the Council all the three Indian Ministers who +form part of the new Provincial Government and preside over the +"transferred" departments. This is the most startling transformation +scene which any of the Provincial elections has produced. The +non-Brahmans have got the chance which they have long claimed. If they +rise to the occasion, deal with the Brahmans more fairly than the latter +dealt with them, and, remembering the struggle they have had for their +own emancipation, help the "untouchables" to rise in their turn out of +the state of degradation to which centuries of Brahman domination have +condemned them, the reforms may prove to have been perhaps as important +a landmark in the moral regeneration of Hindu society as in the +development of the Indian body politic. For, though it would be unfair +to forget that the rigidity of the great caste system probably alone +saved Hindu society from complete disintegration during centuries of +internal anarchy and foreign invasions, its survival would be fatal now +to the advancement of India on new lines of democratic progress. In any +case the triumph of the non-Brahmans is an unmistakable blow to +"Non-co-operation." Their one grievance against British rule has +hitherto been that it tolerated Brahman ascendancy and refused to +co-operate with them in their passionate struggle against it. But now +there is nothing to damp their zeal or deter them from co-operating with +Government in securing the permanent success of the reforms to which, as +they have to admit in spite of their former suspicions, they owe a +measure of political advancement that far exceeds all their +anticipations. + +In Southern as well as in Northern India the failure of the +Non-co-operationists' frontal attack on the reforms was beyond dispute. +They were resolved to kill them in the womb by laying an interdict upon +the elections to the new popular assemblies. No candidate, Mr. Gandhi +had pronounced, was to enter for election, no elector was to record his +vote. At a moment when the elections were already in progress and should +have at least tempered his optimism, he himself assured me that the +results as a whole would yet afford a most splendid demonstration of the +stern temper of the people that would never trust and would never accept +the mockery of reforms proceeding from a "Satanic" Government. He was +deaf to my suggestion that, even if the temper of the Indian people was +such as he believed it to be, it would have been demonstrated in a +manner far more intelligible to the political mind of the West had his +followers taken part in the elections, and, after sweeping the board in +accordance with his anticipations, had then placed their demands, +whatever they might be, on record before the world, declaring at the +same time that, unless they were fully granted, they would walk out of +every Council Chamber in India and bring down the whole edifice of +reforms, which would then indeed have been hopelessly shattered. Things, +on the contrary, went quite differently. In defiance of Mr. Gandhi, +candidates came forward in almost every constituency, elections were +held everywhere, and except for a few insignificant disturbances created +by his followers they were held in peaceful and orderly fashion. There +were indeed numerous and in some places very large abstentions. That +many of those who kept away from the polls were convinced +"Non-co-operationists" cannot be denied, but no more can it be denied +that many kept away from fear, not altogether unjustified by the event, +of actual violence or of the more insidious forms of intimidation which +social and religious pressure assumes with particularly deadly effect in +India. Reputable members, including a large proportion of the leaders +who had fought for years past the battle of India's political +advancement, took their seats in the Provincial Councils and in the +All-India Legislature at Delhi. They represented, not unfairly on the +whole, all classes and creeds and communities, and even all schools of +political thought, except, of course, the Extremists, who by their own +default remained unrepresented. That the Extremists, whose influence +cannot be ignored, should have remained unrepresented is not a matter +entirely for congratulation, for the complete exclusion, even when +self-inflicted, of any important political party must tend to weaken the +authority of a popular Assembly. At the same time, it may be doubted +whether the abstention of "Non-co-operationists" has deprived the Indian +Councils of more than a very few individuals whose ability and +character, apart from their political opinions, would have given them +any great weight. The splendid demonstration which Mr. Gandhi had +contemplated fell completely flat because an overwhelming proportion of +those to whom he directed his appeal refused to endorse his view that +the great constitutional changes of which the creation of popular +Assemblies was the corner-stone were merely a snare and a delusion, and +to his cry of "Non-co-operation" they opposed an emphatic affirmation of +their belief that the salvation of India lay in co-operation. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE BIRTH OF AN INDIAN PARLIAMENT + + +Only twelve years ago Lord Morley, with all his advanced liberalism and +his broad sympathy for Indian aspirations, could not conceive the +possibility of introducing Parliamentary institutions into India in his +time or for generations to come. He would assuredly have had to revise +his opinion could he have attended the first session of the Indian +Legislative Assembly. In form its proceedings were not unworthy of a +great Parliamentary Assembly. The speeches sometimes rose to a high +level of eloquence all the more noteworthy in that English was not the +mother tongue of those who delivered them. They were, as a rule, sober +and dignified, and if all members did not at once abandon a habit much +favoured in the old Councils of putting long strings of questions and +moving impracticable resolutions in sonorous harangues, often prepared +for them by outside hacks, their own colleagues soon taught them that +such methods were no longer likely to pay even for purposes of +advertisement. The majority quickly acquired a knack of suppressing +wind-bags and bores quietly and effectively. The Act of 1919 reserved to +Government the appointment of the President of the Assembly for the +first four years, after which he will be chosen by the Assembly itself. +Not even the House of Commons could treat the Chair with more unfailing +deference than the Assembly showed to Mr. A.F. Whyte, who brought with +him the prestige of Westminster traditions and experience to which he +from time to time appealed aptly and successfully, and the Assembly +appreciated the tact as well as the firmness with which he discharged +his novel duties. A gentle reminder of what was the usual practice in +the House of Commons was never lost on Indian members whose inexperience +occasionally failed to realise the Parliamentary implications of the +procedure adopted by them, but was always ready to accept guidance that +derived its authority from the wisdom of the Mother of Parliaments. + +But the qualities shown by the Assembly transcended mere matters of +form. Mr. Whyte bore testimony at the close of the session to debates +"well worthy to stand by the side of the best debates in the Imperial +Parliament." It was no empty compliment, for they revealed the makings +of real statesmanship, and the circumstances in which the Indian +Legislature met for the first time to give collective expression to the +feelings of the people of India, called for statesmanship. The +King-Emperor's message impressed them with a sense of the great +responsibilities and great opportunities arising for them out of the +far-reaching rights conferred upon them. The personal appeal with which +the Duke of Connaught accompanied the delivery of the Royal message went +far to dispel "the shadow of Amritsar," which had, in his own apt +phrase, "lengthened over the face of India" and threatened even to +darken their own path. For on no subject had Indian feeling been more +unanimous during the elections all over the country than in regard to +the Punjab tragedy. None had been more persistently exploited by the +"Non-co-operationists" to point their jibes at the "slave-mentality" of +candidates and electors who were merely the willing dupes of a "Satanic" +Government. On no subject did the Assembly feel itself under a greater +obligation to give expression to the unanimous sentiments of the people +it represented--all the greater indeed in that opportunity of expression +had been denied to the old Legislative Council. It was the acid test to +which the sincerity and the whole value of the reforms were put. The +atmosphere of the Assembly was never again so tense as when the crucial +debate was opened by one of the ablest of the younger members of the +Moderate party, Mr. Jamnadas Dwarkadas, from Bombay, on the +administration of martial law in the Punjab in 1919. He asked the +Government (1) to declare its adhesion to the principle of equal +partnership for Indian and European in the British Empire; (2) to +express regret that martial law in the Punjab violated this fundamental +principle; (3) to administer deterrent punishment to officers guilty of +an improper exercise of their powers including the withdrawal of their +pensions; (4) to assure itself that adequate compensation is awarded to +those who lost their relatives at the Jallianwala Bagh and elsewhere. +The speaker moved his Resolution with great firmness and power but also +with great self-restraint. Most of the Indian speeches in support of it +were conceived in much the same spirit, though now and again one got a +glimpse of angrier passions just beneath the surface. Happily the +Government of India responded for the first time with the frankness and +generosity which, had it displayed them in a much earlier stage in its +handling of the Punjab troubles, would have averted many of the worst +consequences. By reprobating, either implicitly or explicitly, the worst +abuses of martial law the Home member, Sir William Vincent, the +Commander-in-chief, Lord Rawlinson, and Sir Godfrey Fell on behalf of +the army administration, succeeded in persuading the Assembly that not +only were methods of humiliation and terrorism absolutely repugnant to +all traditions of British rule, but that the censure and punishment +already inflicted upon officers and officials were in reality far more +serious and effective than the Indian mind had been wont to believe. +Indian members were asked to realise that for a British officer a broken +career is virtually the end of life, and Sir Godfrey Fell had no need to +mention General Dyer's name when he said, "As it was put to me the other +day by a very distinguished general officer, to leave the army in these +circumstances would be to many officers a disgrace worse than death." +Government finally accepted the Resolution as it had been moved with the +exception of the third clause asking for further punishment--a question +which it was not prepared nor in a position to reopen. With the eager +approval of a great many of his Indian colleagues the mover withdrew +that clause and the rest of the Resolution was passed unanimously and, +be it noted, with the support of every European member of the Assembly. + +The atmosphere was thus cleared before the Assembly approached another +and only less delicate question. Some time before the Budget disclosed +the heavy military expenditure to be defrayed out of Indian revenues, +the recommendations of the Committee appointed under the presidency of +Lord Esher to inquire into the administration and organisation of the +army in India had caused widespread alarm. There were peculiar +circumstances connected with the Committee's Report which were +calculated to excite Indian suspicion. The first part, which laid down +the general principles in regard to organisation and administration, was +drawn up in London and received the approval of the Secretary of State +for India before the British members of the Committee proceeded to +India, where their Indian colleagues for the first time joined them, +whilst the President, Lord Esher, himself never went to India at all. To +carry out these principles the Report stated that "the centre of gravity +of probable military operations has shifted from West to East. In the +future we must contemplate the possibility of our armies operating in +the Middle East based partially in India and partially at home.... India +has now been admitted into partnership with the Empire, and the Indian +Army has fought alongside of troops from other parts of the Empire in +every theatre of war. Its responsibilities have thus been greatly +widened, and it can no longer be regarded as a local force whose sphere +of activity is limited to India and the surrounding frontier +territories. It must rather be treated as a part of the Imperial Army +ready to serve in any part of the world." Indians interpreted the Report +as an attempt on the part of the British War Office to throw upon the +Indian Exchequer the cost of a larger army than would be required merely +for Indian defence whilst keeping it under its own control for +employment at the discretion of British Ministers far beyond the +frontiers of India. Official assurances were given both in India and at +home that an exaggerated construction had been placed on the meaning of +the Report, to which, moreover, neither the British Government nor the +Government of India was officially committed, and that in any case +Indian troops would not be required to serve outside India except with +the consent of the Government of India. These assurances did not prevent +the Assembly from passing two Resolutions in which it embodied its +strong protests. The second part of the Report, containing practical +recommendations for the reorganisation of the Indian Army, and alone +based on the results of the inquiry actually conducted in India, was far +less criticised. + +The army estimates themselves would have been enough to cause dismay +even if the estimates of other departments, upon which the Indian public +looks with more favour, had not clearly been pruned down with more than +usual parsimony to meet the large increase in military expenditure. But +Lord Rawlinson, who had done his utmost to reduce them to the extreme +limit of safety as he conceived it in existing circumstances, wisely +decided to take the Assembly as far as possible into his confidence, and +to explain the requirements of the military situation not only from his +seat on the Government bench but in private conferences, at which +members were freely invited to meet him and his advisers. If he did not +altogether convince them, he gave them food for reflection at a time +when not only our own North-West Frontier but the whole of Central Asia +is still in a state of turmoil, Persia a very doubtful quantity, and the +Ameer of Afghanistan far more eager to sign a treaty of alliance with +Soviet Russia than to bring to a friendly conclusion the long-drawn +negotiations which the Government of India has sent the head of its +foreign department to conduct at Kabul. The appointment of a Committee +to visit the North-West Frontier and to study the situation on the spot +was admirably calculated to carry the practical education of Indian +legislators a long step farther. In regard to other matters, too, +Government gave and gained time for reflection by referring them, before +committing itself to any definite pronouncement of policy, to special +committees in which points at issue could be thrashed out much more +effectively and with less heat than if only discussed in full house. + +Nothing, however, could alter the awkward fact that Government had been +compelled to confront the Legislative Assembly at its first session with +a Budget showing a deficit and making calls upon the Indian tax-payer +absolutely unprecedented in the annals of British-Indian State finance. +The deficit amounted to nearly 19 crores of rupees on a Budget of 130 +crores,[3] and the Financial Member, Mr. Hailey, who had only recently +succeeded to the financial department, had to admit that the deficit +could only be met by increased taxation. That the estimates of the +previous year had been so largely exceeded was due beyond dispute to the +growth of military expenditure, which, for the current financial year, +has been put down at 62 crores, or very nearly half the total +expenditure for which provision has to be made. This Budget, moreover, +not only came at a time of general economic depression, but coincided +with the operation of the new financial arrangements between the +Provinces and the Government of India, which have deprived the latter of +the facilities it had formerly for mitigating its own financial +necessities by adjusting to them the doles paid out of the Central +Exchequer to the several Provincial Exchequers. Under the new system +various revenues have been definitely allocated to the Provincial +Governments for their own free disposal, and in return they have to make +fixed annual contributions to the Central Exchequer. These contributions +are in no case to be subject to increase in the future, but on the +contrary to be reduced gradually and to cease at the earliest possible +moment compatible with the irreducible requirements of the Government of +India. The Act of 1919, it is true, transfers to the Indian Legislature +no direct or complete statutory control over revenue and expenditure, +and powers are still vested in the Government of India to override the +Assembly in cases of emergency and to enact supplies which it refuses if +the Governor-General in Council certifies them to be essential to the +peace, tranquillity, and interests of India. But the fact that there was +a deficit which could only be met by increased taxation offered +exceptional opportunities which might easily have been used for +embarrassing obstruction by a young and immature chamber naturally +concerned for its own popularity. Even a direct conflict between the +Government and the Assembly might not have been impossible, and the +consequences would have been lamentable. For if the Government of India +had been driven to use its statutory powers to impose taxation and +secure supplies in opposition to the Legislature during its very first +session, all the hopes of friendly co-operation based on the new +constitution would have been wrecked far more disastrously and +permanently than by any "Non-co-operation" movement. The Legislative +Assembly was wise enough to exercise its rights with sufficient +insistence to show that it was conscious of them, but never to strain +them. It did not refrain from criticism of almost every department in +turn or from motions to reduce the official estimates for them. Many of +the criticisms were sound, and some of the reductions were accepted by +Government. Mr. Hailey handled a delicate situation with unfailing +patience and skill. Even in regard to new taxation he endeavoured to +meet, as far as the exigencies of the Budget allowed, the objections of +the Assembly to such increases as, for instance, higher postal rates, +which press most heavily on the least well-to-do classes. Nothing, +however, helped him so much to get his Budget through without a serious +conflict as the decision of the Government to seek in an increase of the +import duties over two-thirds of the new revenue to be raised to meet +the deficit. For there Government took up common ground with Indian +opinion on fiscal matters and carried into effect the principle laid +down by the Select Joint Committee on the Reforms Bill, and endorsed by +the Secretary of State, that the Government of India must be granted the +same liberty to devise Indian tariff arrangements on a consideration of +Indian interests as all other self-governing parts of the Empire enjoy. +If the Assembly did not see altogether eye to eye with Government as to +the necessity for all this increased expenditure and increased taxation, +its objections were at least mitigated by a form of increased taxation +in which it saw the first step towards fiscal autonomy. In this as in +every other question with which the Legislature had to deal, the +Government of India showed its willingness to accept as far as possible +the guidance of Indian opinion and to act as a national Indian +Government, and not merely as the supreme executive authority under the +Government of the United Kingdom. + +On those terms the Assembly was prepared to take into account the +difficulties and responsibilities inherited by Government from past +policies from which no sudden departure was possible, or desired even, +by responsible Indians who recognise the present limitations of their +experience as well as of their rights. Government and Legislature +therefore parted in mutual goodwill and with increased confidence in the +value of the new policy of co-operation. But the Legislature has only +just commenced to realise the extent of its powers, expressed and +implied. The latter stretch almost immeasurably farther than the +former. Indian-elected members form a large majority in the Legislative +Assembly, which has already so largely overshadowed the Council of State +that it will probably be difficult for the upper house to exercise over +the more popular chamber the corrective influence originally +contemplated. The Government of India, of course, retains its great +statutory powers, but these could hardly be exercised again in +uncompromising opposition to the opinion of the majority of the Assembly +now that out of eight members of the Viceroy's Executive Council, which, +with him, forms the Government of India, no less than three are Indians, +who would presumably be often more amenable than their British +colleagues to the pressure of Indian opinion. Under the Act of 1919 the +Government of India is not responsible to the Assembly. That may come in +a later stage, it has not come yet. But one may rest already assured +that only in extreme cases, and if the majority shows itself far more +irresponsible than it has yet given the slightest reason to fear, is +Government likely to risk a cleavage between British and Indian members +of the Viceroy's Executive Council, or to rely on the fact that no vote +of the Assembly can remove it from office, to provoke or face a conflict +of which the consequences would extend far beyond the walls of the +Legislature. This is a powerful lever of which Indians may quickly learn +the use. + +In another important direction the first session of the Legislature bore +out Sir Thomas Munro's view, expressed, as we have already seen, a +hundred years ago, that in India as elsewhere liberal treatment will be +found the most effectual way of elevating the character of the people. +Nothing perhaps has tended more to alienate the sympathies of Englishmen +from the political aspirations which the founders of the Indian National +Congress were bent upon promoting than the subordination of social to +political reforms. There remained always some distinguished Indians who +ensued both--notably Mr. Gokhale, who founded the society of "the +Servants of India," dedicated chiefly to social reform, of which the +beneficent activities have expanded steadily throughout a decade of +political turmoil. His mantle fell on no unworthy shoulders, and it is a +good omen that his chief disciple, Mr. Srinivasa Sastri, has become the +leader of the Moderate party in the Council of State, as well as one of +the Indian representatives at the recent Imperial Conference in London. +A similar spirit informs the numerous associations that have addressed +themselves, though with perhaps less success so far, to the more glaring +evils of the Hindu religious social system, such as infant marriage, the +prohibition of re-marriage of widows, the rigidity of caste laws in +regard to inter-caste marriage, and to intercourse between the different +castes even at meals. Many interesting experiments have been made by +Indians for infusing into education a new moral tone and discipline on +Indian lines, and it is due to Indian effort no less than to the +encouragement of Government that female education has begun to bridge +over the intellectual gulf that tended to separate more and more the men +and the women of the Western-educated classes. In Madras, to quote only +one instance, there is to-day a high school for girls--almost +unthinkable two decades ago and only opened ten years ago--in which +high-caste Brahman girls live under the same roof and are taught in the +same class-rooms as not only Hindu girls of the non-Brahman castes, but +Mahomedan and native Christian and Eurasian girls from all parts of the +Presidency, and the only real difficulty now experienced is in the +traditional matter of food, and it is circumvented, if not overcome, by +providing seven different kitchens and seven different messes. + +The last attempt on the part of the Government to promote social reforms +by way of legislation was Lord Lansdowne's "Age of Consent" Bill thirty +years ago, and though it was carried through in spite of the violent +opposition of Hindu orthodoxy, which then brought Mr. Tilak into public +life as its leader, an alien Government pledged to complete neutrality +in social and religious matters shrank after that unpleasant experience +from assuming the lead in such matters without having at least the +preponderating bulk of Indian opinion behind it. Not the least +noteworthy event of the first session of the Indian Legislature was the +introduction by Dr. Gour, a Hindu member from the Central Provinces, of +a private Bill legalising civil marriage which British Indian law so far +recognises only between a Christian and a non-Christian, though the +Indian States of Baroda and Indore have legalised them for all their +subjects. Sir Henry Maine wished to move, as far back as 1868, in this +direction when he was Law Member of the Government of India, but to meet +even then a fierce orthodox opposition the provisions of the Bill +finally enacted in 1872 were so whittled down as to make it practically +useless, and it was almost nullified when it came up for interpretation +by the Privy Council. The question does in fact involve many material as +well as social and religious considerations, as matters of personal law +are largely governed by ancient custom in the different communities, and +the point at issue was whether it is possible for a Hindu to cease to be +subject to Hindu law. More recent attempts to make civil marriage lawful +have failed hopelessly. Dr. Gour has had the courage to appeal to the +more liberal spirit for which the new reforms stand, and he defended his +Bill, which is only a permissive Bill, on the grounds that any measure +calculated to break down the ancient barriers between races and creeds +and communities must tend to strengthen the sense of national solidarity +of which the new Indian Legislature is the expression. It remains yet to +be seen what will be the fate of his Bill, but its introduction is in +itself not one of the least hopeful signs of the times. + +If one turns from the Government of India to the new Provincial +Governments and Councils the outlook is, on the whole, not less +encouraging. The statutory powers of the Provincial Councils are more +definite and can be brought more directly to bear upon Government, but +they are not likely to be exercised in any extravagant fashion until +time has shown how Indian Ministers discharge their responsibilities to +the Councils and how the two wings of the new Provincial Governments +work together. In fact, the policy, wisely adopted by Provincial +Governors, of treating the two wings of their Government as equally +associated with them in a common task of governance, has robbed the +distinction between "reserved" and "transferred" subjects, if not of all +reality, at any rate of the invidious appearance of discrimination which +might otherwise have attached to the word "dyarchy." As one Provincial +Governor remarked to me, "We are in reality skipping the dyarchy stage." +Indian Ministers, kept fully informed and drawn into consultation on all +subjects, are learning to understand the difficulties of government and +administration of which, as outside critics, they had little notion, and +to value the experience and knowledge which their European colleagues +and subordinates freely place at their disposal, whilst the latter +benefit both from hearing the Indian point of view and from having to +explain and justify their own. Economic depression and financial +stringency cannot, however, but react unfavourably upon the new system +in the Provinces as well as at Delhi, for all the more practical reforms +in which the ordinary Indian elector, whether politically minded or +otherwise, is most closely interested, and for which he has been looking +to the new Provincial Councils, require money, and a great deal of +money. There is a universal demand for more elementary schools, more +road-making, more sanitation, a more strenuous fight against malaria, a +greater extension of local government and village councils' activities, +and the demand cannot be met except by more expenditure. The Indian +Ministers and Indian members of the Provincial Councils have to face +unpopularity whether by postponing much-needed reforms or by imposing +new taxation in order to carry them out. A great many of the best men +have naturally been attracted to Delhi, but though the proceedings in +the Provincial Councils have more frequently betrayed impatience and +inexperience, and sometimes required the monitory intervention of the +Governor, they have played on the whole creditably the important part +allotted to them in this great constitutional experiment. + +It is far less easy to appraise the value of the attempt which has been +made at the same time to bring that large part of India which lies +outside the sphere of direct British administration into closer touch +with it by the creation of a Chamber of Princes, which will at least sit +under the same roof with the Council of State and the Legislative +Assembly in the great hall of Parliament to be erected in New Delhi. The +moment when the Government of India is departing from its autocratic +traditions and transferring a large part of its powers throughout +British India into the hands of representative assemblies which are to +pave the way towards the democratic goal of responsible government, +seems scarcely well chosen for the creation of a Chamber which must give +greater cohesion, and potentially greater power to resist the spirit of +the age, to a body of ruling Princes and Chiefs who all stand in varying +degrees for archaic forms of despotic government and whose peoples have +for the most part stood hitherto entirely outside the political life of +British India. + +The Native States, as they are commonly called, scattered over nearly +the whole length and breadth of the Indian Empire, cover altogether more +than a third of its total area and include nearly a quarter of its total +population. Some of them can compare in size and wealth with the smaller +States of Europe. Some are but insignificant specks on the map. Great +and small, there are several hundreds of them. Their relations with the +Paramount Power, which have been not inaptly described as those of +subordinate alliance, are governed by treaties and engagements of which +the terms are not altogether uniform. The essence is in all cases the +maintenance of their administrative autonomy under their own dynastic +rulers whose hereditary rights and privileges are permanently guaranteed +to them, subject to their loyalty to the British Crown and to reasonably +good government. The Princes and Chiefs who rule over them--some well, a +few rather badly, most of them perhaps indifferently; some Hindus, some +Mahomedans; some still very conservative and almost mediaeval, some on +genuinely progressive lines; some with a mere veneer of European +modernity--are all equally jealous of their rights and their dignity. +The Native States cannot, however, live wholly in water-tight +compartments. They must be more or less directly affected by what goes +on in British India just across their own often very artificial +boundaries. Their material interests are too closely bound up with those +of their British-Indian neighbours. In many matters, _e.g._ railways, +posts, telegraphs, irrigation, etc., they are in a great measure +dependent upon, and must fall into line with, British India. Their +peoples--even those who do not go to British India for their education +or for larger opportunities of livelihood--are being slowly influenced +by the currents of thought which flow in from British India. + +Political unrest cannot always or permanently be halted at their +frontier, though His Exalted Highness the Nizam of Hyderabad, whose ways +are still largely those of the Moghuls, has not hesitated, albeit +himself a Mahomedan Prince, to proscribe all _Khilafat_ agitation within +his territory. The Extremist Press has already very frequently denounced +ruling Princes and Chiefs as obstacles to the democratic evolution of a +_Swaraj_ India which will have to be removed, and if the Nagpur Congress +pronounced against extending its propaganda to the Native States, it did +so only "for the present" and on grounds of pure and avowed expediency. +Apart from the menace of Indian Extremism, there must obviously be a +fundamental conflict of ideals between ruling Chiefs bent on preserving +their independent political entity and the aspirations towards national +unity entertained by the moderate Indian Nationalists whose influence is +sure to predominate over all the old traditions of Indian governance if +the new reforms are successful. Some Princes are wise enough to swim +with the current and have introduced rudimentary councils and +representative assemblies which at any rate provide a modern facade for +their own patriarchal systems of government. But all are more or less +conscious that their own position is being profoundly modified by +constitutional changes in British India, which must, and indeed are +intended to, alter the very character of the Government representing the +Paramount Power to whose authority they owe their own survival since the +beginning of British rule. Their survival has indeed always been an +anomaly, though hitherto, on the whole, equally creditable to the +British _Raj_ that preserved them from extinction in the old days of +stress and storm and to the rulers who have justified British +statesmanship by their fine loyalty. But in a democratised and +self-governing India it might easily become a much more palpable +anomaly. + +How was this new situation to be dealt with? Some of the ruling Princes +and Chiefs whose views appear to have prevailed with the Secretary of +State and the Government of India, came to the conclusion that they +should combine together and try to secure as a body a recognised +position from which their collective influence might be brought more +effectively to bear upon the Government of India, whatever its new +orientation may ultimately be under the influence of popular assemblies +in British India. Some, doubtless, believed that once in such a position +they would be able to oppose a more effective because more united front +to interference from whatever quarter in the internal affairs of their +States. Circumstances favoured their scheme for the loyalty displayed by +all the Native States, and the distinguished services rendered in person +by not a few Chiefs inclined Government to meet their wishes without +probing them too closely, and in the first place to relax the control +hitherto exercised by its political officers on the spot--often, it must +be confessed, on rather petty and irritating lines. The leading Princes +were encouraged to come to Delhi during the winter season, and those who +favoured a policy of closer combination amongst themselves were those +who responded most freely to these official promptings. Conversations +soon assumed the shape of informal conferences, and, later on, of formal +conferences convened and presided over by the Viceroy. The hidden value +of these conferences must have been far greater than would appear from +the somewhat trivial record of the subjects under discussion, for it is +out of these conferences that the new Chamber of Princes has been +evolved as a permanent consultative body for the consideration of +questions affecting the Native States generally, or of common concern to +them and to British India and to the Empire generally. + +The conception is in itself by no means novel and appeals to many upon +whom the picturesqueness and conservative stability of the Native States +exercise a strong attraction. It can be traced back at least as far as +Lord Lytton's Viceroyalty over forty years ago, and the steadily growing +recognition of the important part which the Native States play in the +Indian Empire culminated during the war in the appointment of an Indian +Prince to represent them specially at the Imperial War Conferences held +in London during the war, and again, after the war was over, at the +Paris Peace Conference. + +But the creation of a Chamber of Princes at this particular juncture +raises very difficult issues. In the first place, though it has been +engineered with great skill and energy by a small group of very +distinguished Princes, mostly Rajput, it is viewed with deep suspicion +by other chiefs who, not being Rajputs, scent in it a scheme for +promoting Rajput ascendancy, and it has received no support at all from +other and more powerful Princes such as the Nizam of Hyderabad, the +Gaikwar of Baroda, the Maharajah of Mysore. Some have always held aloof +from the Delhi Conferences and have intimated plainly that they have no +desire to see any alteration introduced into their treaty relationships +with the Paramount Power. Without their participation no Chamber of +Princes can pull its full weight, and even if most of them considered +themselves bound out of loyalty to the Sovereign to attend an inaugural +ceremony performed by the Duke of Connaught in the name of the +King-Emperor himself, it would be premature to infer that their +opposition has been permanently overcome. The Supreme Government has of +course reiterated the pledges already embodied in the treaties that +there shall be no interference with the ancient rights and privileges of +the Native States and their rulers, but its eminent right to interfere +in cases of extreme urgency has not and cannot be surrendered. It has +been exercised very rarely, and only when administration and government +have fallen flagrantly short of certain standards, established by usage +and generally understood and accepted, which it is perhaps easier to +describe negatively than positively. Misrule cannot be tolerated when it +amounts to a public scandal or takes the form of criminal acts. The +whole question has always bristled with difficulties, and still does. +The tendency, since Lord Curzon's time, has been to relax the control of +the Supreme Government even in matters of slighter moment on which it +had been accustomed to tender advice not always distinguishable from +commands. That some of the Native States, and not the least powerful, +are badly governed is of common notoriety. But if the Supreme Government +has been sometimes inclined to turn a blind eye in such cases, and even +to forget that it has moral obligations towards the subjects as well as +towards the rulers of the Native States, it has been free hitherto to +obey considerations of political expediency which may conceivably not +weigh so much in the future. For the same forces that have obtained the +surrender of the autocratic principle in British India, may demand with +equal insistency its surrender throughout the Native States. Should the +more irresponsible chiefs rely on the solidarity of a Chamber of Princes +to secure for them greater immunity than ever from the just consequences +of misgovernment, they would merely hasten a conflict which undoubtedly +most of their caste have begun to dread between their own archaic +methods and the democratic spirit which the Government of India Act of +1919 has quickened in British India. + +There are many other thorny points. Obviously there could be no room for +all the seven or eight hundred ruling chiefs, great and small, in any +assembly reasonably constituted to represent the Native States. Nor have +they ever enjoyed any uniform status or received any uniform treatment. +Some of them, the most important, have maintained direct relations with +the Government of India; the majority only indirect relations through +the Provincial Governments within whose sphere their territories are +situated. The creation of the Chamber of Princes has necessitated a new +classification of major and minor States, the former entitled to direct, +the latter only to indirect representation, which has naturally caused a +vast amount of jealousy and heartburning. Another consequence still +under discussion is the substitution in most cases of direct relations +with the Government of India for those in which the smaller Native +States now stand to provincial governments. Such transfer must involve +innumerable difficulties and complications, especially in a Presidency +like Bombay, within whose boundaries there are over 300 Native States +inextricably bound up with it by common interests and even by common +administrative needs. Many of them are at first sight inclined to +welcome such a transfer as enhancing their prestige; some of them, +remembering the old saying that "Delhi is a long way off," hope that it +will lessen the prospect of outside interference in their own +administration, however bad it may be or become. But these are hardly +arguments to justify a transfer which can only import a new element of +confusion into an already sufficiently confused situation. + +The Chamber of Princes was opened with all the glitter of oriental pomp +and magnificence, but it only held a few meetings and the proceedings +were veiled in secrecy. Only enough transpired to show that personal +jealousies and clan rivalries were rife even at that early stage. Its +very constitution denies it the assistance for which the Indian Councils +and the Indian Ministers have been wise enough to look from the +co-operation with them of British elements, whose authority in +government and administration is still maintained by statute and so far +undisputed. To the Chamber of Princes the Viceroy alone is in a position +to give guidance, and to shape that illustrious assembly to useful +purposes is one of the many difficult tasks in front of Lord Reading. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[3] At the "stabilised" rate of exchange a crore, or ten million +rupees = one million gold pounds sterling. One hundred lacs make a +crore. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +ECONOMIC FACTORS + + +If the war has wrought great changes in the political life of India, in +its status within the Empire and in its constitutional relations with +the United Kingdom, it has produced equally important changes in its +economic situation and outlook. The Montagu-Chelmsford Report had not +failed to note how largely economic factors entered into the political +situation which the Secretary of State and the Viceroy were primarily +concerned to study. India is, and probably must always remain, +essentially an agricultural country, and its economics must always +suffer from the exceptionally unstable conditions to which, except +within the relatively small areas available for irrigation, dependence +upon a precarious rainfall condemns even the most industrious +agricultural population. Many circumstances had combined to retard the +development of its vast natural resources and the growth of modern +manufacturing industries. Few British administrators during the last +half-century had realised their importance as Lord Dalhousie had done +before the Mutiny, until Lord Curzon created a special department of +commerce and industry in the Government of India. The politically minded +classes, whose education had not trained them to deal with such +questions, were apt to lose themselves in such blind alleys as the +"doctrine of drain." But as they perceived how largely dependent India +was on foreign countries for manufactured goods, whilst her own +domestic industries had been to a great extent crushed in hopeless +competition with the products of the much more highly organised and +equipped industries of European countries, they rushed to the conclusion +that an industrial revival might be promoted by a crude boycott of +foreign imported goods which would at the same time serve as a +manifestation of their political discontent. The _Swadeshi_ movement +failed, as it was bound to fail. But failure intensified the suspicion +that, as India's foreign trade was chiefly with the United Kingdom, her +industrial backwardness was deliberately encouraged in the interests of +British manufactures, and it was not altogether unjustified by the +maintenance of the excise duty on locally manufactured cotton goods, +which protected the interests of Lancashire in the one industrial field +in which Indian enterprise had achieved greatest success. The +introduction of an annual Industrial Conference in connection with the +Indian National Congress was the first organised attempt of the +politically minded classes to link up with politics a movement towards +industrial independence. It assumed increased bitterness with the +disastrous failures of Indian banks started on "national" lines in +Bombay and the Punjab. The cry for fiscal freedom and protection grew +widespread and insistent before the war broke out. Then, under the +pressure of war necessities, the Government of India explored, as it had +never done before, the whole field of India's natural resources and of +the development of Indian industries. At the same time an opportunity +arose for a group of Indian "merchant-venturers"--to use the term in its +fine old Elizabethan sense--who had set themselves to give the lead to +their countrymen, to show what Indian enterprise was capable of +achieving. What it has already achieved deserves to be studied as the +most pregnant illustration of what the future may hold in reserve. + +It is a somewhat chastening reflection that the creation of the one +great metallurgical industry in India has been due not to British but to +Indian capital and enterprise, assisted in the earliest and most +critical stages not by British but by American skill, and that, had it +not been created when it was, our Syrian and Mesopotamian campaigns +could never have been fought to their victorious issue, as Jamsheedpur +produced and could alone at that juncture supply the rails for the +construction of the railways essential to the rapid success of those +great military operations. Equally chastening is the reflection that +from its very inception less than twenty years ago, the pioneers of this +vast undertaking had constantly to reckon with the indifference and +inertia of Anglo-Indian officialdom, and with the almost solitary +exceptions of Sir Thomas Holland, then at the head of the Geological +Survey, and Sir Benjamin Robertson, afterwards Chief Commissioner of the +Central Provinces where the first but unavailing explorations were made, +seldom received more than a minimum of countenance and assistance. Not +till Messrs. Tata's American prospectors had explored this region did +the Government of India realise that untold mineral wealth lay there +within 150 miles of Calcutta, almost on the surface of the soil, and not +until the pressure of the Great War and the inability of India to draw +any longer upon British industry for the most vital supplies compelled +them to turn to Jamsheedpur do they seem to have at all appreciated what +an enterprise that owed little or nothing to them meant to India and the +Empire. When the war was over, Lord Chelmsford paid a visit to +Jamsheedpur and generously acknowledged that debt. "I can hardly +imagine," said the Viceroy, "what we should have done if the Tata +Company had not been able to give us steel rails which have provided not +only for Mesopotamia, but for Egypt, Palestine, and East Africa." One +may therefore hope that the lesson of the war will not be forgotten, and +that Sir Thomas Holland, who has now exchanged the Munitions Board for +the portfolio of Industry, will prevent a relapse into the old +traditions of aloofness now that the war pressure is over. + +The cotton-mills of Bombay, the jute-mills of Calcutta, the goldfields +of Mysore each contribute their own remarkable chapter to the story of +British industrial enterprise in India, but none can compare in point of +romance with the story of the iron and steel industry of Jamsheedpur. It +need only be very briefly recalled. In 1902 Mr. Jamsheedji Tata, a +veteran of the great Parsee community of Bombay and one of the founders +of the Bombay cotton industry, visited the United States. His active +mind had already for some time been busy with the idea of starting a +metallurgic industry in India, and he had received in the course of +conversation with Lord George Hamilton, then Secretary of State for +India, about the only encouragement he ever did receive in England. He +fared better in America. In New York he called with a letter of +introduction from Lord Avebury on Mr. C. Page Perin, an eminent mining +engineer, who was at once impressed both with his visitor and with the +schemes which he unfolded, though they were still quite visionary. Mr. +Perin, who is still the consulting engineer of the Tata Company, agreed +to send a party of American prospectors, and followed them in 1904 to +India. Long was the search and many the hardships undergone, and Mr. +Jamsheedji Tata himself passed away before he could see the fulfilment +of his dream. But Sir Dorab Tata proved himself not unworthy to follow +in his footsteps, and when an area hitherto almost unknown and +unexplored had been definitely located, combining in an extraordinary +degree the primary requisites of adequate coalfields, vast ore deposits +of great wealth, a sufficient water supply, a suitable site for a large +industrial town with good railway communication though still badly +needing development, he and a small group of his Bombay friends tried to +find in London the financial support which they imagined would hardly be +denied to an enterprise of such immense importance for our Indian +Empire. But they failed. It was then that, largely on the advice of Sir +George Clarke, now Lord Sydenham, who was then Governor of +Bombay--whose great services to the economic advancement of India and to +Indian technical education latter-day politicians are too apt to +forget--they appealed to their own fellow-countrymen for the capital +needed. Never had such an appeal been made, but the response was +immediate and ample. The Tata Iron and Steel Works Company was launched +as an Indian Company, and to the present day all the hard cash required +has come out of Indian pockets. In 1908 the first clearance was effected +in what had hitherto been a barren stretch of scrub-jungle sparsely +inhabited by aboriginal Sonthals, one of the most primitive of Indian +races, and in 1910 the first works, erected by an American firm, were +completed and started. As far as the production of pig-iron was +concerned success was immediate, but many difficulties had to be +overcome in the manufacture of steel which had never before been +attempted in a tropical climate. These too, however, had been surmounted +by the end of 1913 in the nick of time to meet the heavy demands and +immense strain of the Great War, towards the end of which Government +took as much as 97 per cent of the steel output and obtained it from the +Company at less than a quarter of the price that it would have commanded +in the Indian open market. + +To-day, just twelve years after the first stake was driven into the +ground, Jamsheedpur is already a town of close on 100,000 inhabitants, +pleasantly situated on rising ground between a considerable river which +flows down sometimes during the rainy season in a devastating torrent +from the lofty plateau of Chota Nagpur into the Bay of Bengal and a +minor affluent whose waters mingle with it close by. The climate is dry +and therefore healthy, though the shade temperature rises in hot weather +to 116, and a finely scarped range of hills over 3500 feet high provides +within easy distance the makings of a small hill station as a refuge, +especially valuable for women and children, from the worst heat of the +torrid season. During the "cold" weather, when the thermometer falls to +between 40 deg. and 50 deg. at night, there can be no more delightful climate in +the world. The war gave a tremendous impetus to the Company's operations +and stimulated the rapid expansion of the works on a far larger scale +than had ever been anticipated, until they now need not fear comparison +with some of the largest and best-equipped works of the same kind in the +West. No doubt is entertained as to the demand for the enormous output +from such a plant. Nor is it contemplated that it will meet anything +like the full needs of India, which are growing apace. Before the war +India imported annually about 1,000,000 tons of steel products, of which +Germany furnished a large and increasing percentage direct or through +Belgium. Equally little room is there to question the continued supply +of either coal or ore. The life of the coal mines which the Tata Company +possess within one hundred miles of their works is estimated at two +hundred years, and they form only a very small portion of the great +carboniferous area known as the Gondwana measures. They produce the best +coking coal in India, and though much inferior as such to most British +coal mines, against this disadvantage can be set off the much greater +richness of the iron ore deposits, carrying between 60 and 67 per cent +of metallic iron. These non-titaniferous deposits are practically +inexhaustible, and those at present used are within forty to fifty miles +of Jamsheedpur. This favoured region supplies also most of the fluxes +required for the manufacture of steel, and even clays for firebricks. + +Of equal promise for the future prosperity of India is the force of +attraction which Jamsheedpur is exercising on other kindred or +subsidiary industries which are establishing themselves in large +numbers, and with Indian as well as European capital behind them, +throughout the same region. + +To keep pace with the growth of the population which such huge and rapid +extensions involve is no easy task, and the Tatas aim at making +Jamsheedpur a model industrial town not unworthy of the high standard +which they have reached in their works. It is to an Englishman, a son of +the late Archbishop Temple, formerly in the Public Works Department, +that the task has been entrusted. The Company own twenty-seven square +miles of land, which is none too little for a town that already has +nearly 100,000 and may in the near future have a quarter of a million +inhabitants. Fortunately the lie of the land, which is undulating and +rises gradually from the level of the river beds, adapts itself both to +aesthetic and sanitary town-planning. There is plenty of scope for +laying out round the existing nucleus a number of new and separate +quarters in which suitable provision can be made for the needs of +different classes of Europeans and Indians, and for applying new +scientific principles which should secure for all, including especially +the children, the light and air so much needed in a large industrial +centre. Many, too, are the novel problems arising out of the governance +of a great heterogeneous community in a town which, though within the +British Indian province of Behar and Orissa, is in many respects +autonomous; and to another Englishman, Mr. Gordhays, who has for the +purpose retired from the Indian Civil Service, Messrs. Tata have +entrusted this equally responsible task. + +How soon such a vital undertaking can be Indian-run as well as +Indian-owned is a question upon the answer to which the future of India +in the economic sphere depends as much as upon the success or failure of +the new Councils in the sphere of political advancement. + +The operations of a steel and iron foundry call for high scientific +attainments, grit, and the power to control large bodies of labour. In +addition to these qualities others are required at Jamsheedpur to deal +with the many physical and social problems which the rapid growth of a +very heterogeneous population and its harmonious and healthy governance +present. What augury can be drawn for the future from the results +already achieved? The board of directors, with whom the ultimate +responsibility rests, has always been exclusively Indian. But, being +sane business men, they realised from the first that they must for some +time rely on Western management, Western technical knowledge, and even +to some extent on Western skilled labour. Having met with little +encouragement in British official quarters in India, or in British +unofficial quarters in England, they turned in the first place to +America. Many Americans occupy responsible posts in the works. The +erection of the first plant was committed to Americans. The Indian +directors never attempted to exclude Englishmen from their employ, nor +did they hesitate to have recourse to British industry when it could +best supply their needs. To keep the balance even they turned before the +war to Germany also. Much of the machinery was purchased from German +firms, who, like the Americans and the British, sent out their own +parties to set up and work the plant which they supplied. In August 1914 +the Germans numbered 250. But they were soon eliminated, and their +places for the most part filled by Englishmen, the smelters from +Middlesbrough importing not only their fine Yorkshire physique and +dialect, but their Trade Union ideas. + +During the war, Government, both in Delhi and in London, were constantly +pressing for an increased output, which meant a large extension of the +works; and as nothing could be obtained from England or brought out +except at extreme risk from submarines, large orders for new plant for +the extensions now in progress had therefore to be placed in America. +The total number of covenanted employees of the Company to-day is 137, +of whom ninety-three are English and forty-four American, and there are +in addition sixty locally employed Europeans. The number of Indians +employed is about 44,500. Nearly half the population of Jamsheedpur is +directly employed by the Company, and almost the whole owes its means of +livelihood to it in less direct forms. It comprises Indians of many +races and creeds and castes and tongues. There are Bengalees and +Madrasees of the educated classes, some of them Brahmans, who are +chiefly engaged in clerical, technical, and managerial work. There are +rougher Pathans and Punjabee Mahomedans, as well as Sikhs, who take more +readily to heavy skilled manual labour. There are artisans and small +traders and shopkeepers from all parts of India, and even a few picked +carpenters from China as pattern-makers. The bulk of the unskilled +labour is drawn from the Sonthal aboriginal population, industrious, +docile, and cheerful as a rule, but abysmally ignorant and credulous, +and liable to sudden gusts of emotion and passion. + +The question of the employment of Indians on the actual processes of +manufacture is largely a question of technical and physical training, +and it has not been lost sight of in Jamsheedpur. Schools have been +started for the education of the Indian children, and though in a +community still largely composed of people who are themselves young, the +number of children of a school-going age is necessarily small, a +secondary school under a Bengalee graduate in science, who was himself +originally trained in Rabindranath Tagore's remarkable school at Bolpur, +already has over 140 boys, and a training institute for higher technical +studies is to follow in due course. Nor are the adult men and women +neglected, for social welfare in all its aspects plays an important part +in the life of Jamsheedpur. + +As to the actual employment of Indians, nowhere has the principle been +more carefully applied that Europeans--a term which in this connection +must be taken to include Americans--are only to be employed when and so +long as no Indian can be found competent to perform the particular work +required. The proportion of Europeans to Indians works out to-day +approximately as 1 to 230, but this figure is in itself somewhat +misleading. Out of the total of 197 Europeans, no fewer than +seventy-five are the highly skilled mechanics who are still absolutely +indispensable as supervisors at the steel-smelting furnaces and the +rolling-mills. Work of this kind requires a powerful physique, long +experience, and plenty of pluck. One has only to look at the muscular, +hard-bitten Americans and Englishmen who stand round the furnaces to see +that they represent a type of humanity which in India is still extremely +rare. The Company have tried eighteen Indians, carefully selected, but +only three have stayed. The up-country races, physically more promising, +lack the training. It will take, it is believed, twenty-five years to +bring on Indians who can be trusted to replace Europeans in these +arduous jobs. + +Nevertheless, in the steel-smelting furnaces there are only forty +European supervisors to 2000 Indian workmen, and in the rolling-mills +only thirty-five to 2200. In other departments much more rapid progress +has been achieved, and the results are already remarkable. Indians do +excellent work as machinists, cranemen, electricians, etc., and even in +the rolling-mills they do all the manual work. The best of them make +reliable gangers and foremen. In the blast furnaces there are only eight +Europeans to 1600 Indians, in the mechanical department only six to +3000, and in the traffic department only one to 1500. In two other +important departments it has been already found possible to place an +Indian in full charge. One of these is the electrical department, which +requires unquestionably high scientific capacity. Another is the coke +ovens, on which 2000 Indians are employed under the sole charge of an +Indian who seemed to me to represent an almost new and very interesting +type--a young Bengalee of good family, nephew to Sir Krishna Gupta, who +was recently a member of the Secretary of State's Council in Whitehall. +He had studied at Harvard, had worked afterwards right through the mill, +and had acquired the habit of organised command, which is still rare +amongst Indians. If Jamsheedpur may be not inaptly regarded as a +microcosm of India, in which the capacity of Indians for self-government +in a wider sense than any merely political experiment connotes is being +subjected to the closest and most severe test, it assuredly holds forth +high promise for the future. + +Yet at the very time when the future of Indian industries seemed to be +at last almost assured, and largely thanks to Indian enterprise, it was +gravely compromised by the miserable breakdown of the most important of +all the services on which the very life of industry depends. The Indian +railways proved altogether incapable of meeting the new demands made +upon them. Even in the essential matter of coal supplies, though the +output of the Indian coal mines suffices for present requirements, huge +dumps of coal accumulated round the mines and could not be moved owing +to the lack of rolling-stock and to the general inadequacy of the +existing railway system. The breakdown may have been due in the first +place to the rapid deterioration of rolling-stock and permanent way that +could not be made good during the war, and has not been made good yet, +but the real causes must be traced much farther back to the parsimonious +and short-sighted railway policy of the Government of India for years +past. Apart from the economic consequences, it is particularly +unfortunate, even from the political point of view, that such a +revelation of inefficiency should have occurred in a field which has +been hitherto most jealously preserved for British enterprise, and just +in the very sphere of Western activity which has appealed most strongly +to Indians of all classes. + +Of all the Western inventions which we have brought to India, the +railway is certainly the most popular, perhaps because the modern love +of travel has developed largely out of the ancient practice, still +continued, of pilgrimages _en masse_ to popular shrines, near and far. +During the great days when the worship of Juganath reaches its climax +and half a million pilgrims pour into Puri from all parts of India, the +terminus of the branch-line from the Calcutta-Madras railway is busier +than Epsom Downs station on Derby Day. A big Indian railway station--the +Howrah terminus in Calcutta, the Victoria Terminus in Bombay, the +Central Station in Delhi--is in itself at all times a microcosm of +India. It is never empty, never silent by day or by night. It is always +alive, always crowded, always full of Indian sounds and smells. It is a +camping ground not only for those who are actually going to travel but +also for those who merely come to give their friends a send-off or to +greet them on arrival. No Indian of any position can be allowed to +depart or to arrive without a party of friends to garland him with +flowers, generally the crude yellow "temple" marigolds. The ordinary +Indian to whom time is of little value cares nothing for time-tables. He +goes to the station when he feels moved to do so, and waits there +patiently for the next train that will take him to his destination or +bring the friends he wants to meet. He does not in the least mind +waiting for two, three, or four hours--sometimes in more remote parts of +the country for the best part of twelve or even of twenty-four hours. +Only the Europeans and a few Western-educated Indians who have learnt +business habits ever think of "catching" a train. So the Indian railway +station has a constant and generally dense floating population that +squat in the day-time in separate groups, men, women, and children +together, according to their caste, hugging the slender bundles which +constitute their luggage, chattering and arguing, shouting and +quarrelling, as their mood may be, but on the whole wonderfully +good-humoured and patient. At night they stretch themselves out full +length on the ground, drawing their scanty garments well over their +heads and leaving their legs and feet exposed, or, if the air is chilly +and they possess a blanket, rolling themselves up in it tightly like so +many shrouded corpses in long and serried rows, till the shriek of an +incoming train arouses them. Then, whether it be their train or not, +there is a din of yelling voices, a frenzied rush up and down the +platform, and, even before those who want to get out have had time to +alight, a headlong scramble for places--as often as not in the wrong +carriages and always apparently in those that are already crammed full, +as the Indian is essentially gregarious--and out again with fearful +shouts and shrill cries if a bundle has gone astray, or an agitated +mother has mislaid her child, or a traveller discovers at the last +moment that it is not after all the train he wants. In nine cases out of +ten there is really no need for such frantic hurry. Even express trains +take their time about it whenever they do stop, and ordinary trains have +a reputation for slowness and unpunctuality to which they seldom fail to +live up. But, as if to make up for the long hours of patient waiting, +the struggling and the shouting go on _crescendo_ till the train is at +last under way again. For, besides the actual passengers coming and +going, the platforms are alive with hawkers of all sorts who minister to +their clamorous needs--sellers of newspapers and of cigarettes and of +the betel-nut which dyes the chewer's mouth red, of sweetmeats and +refreshments suited to the different castes and creeds, Mahomedan +water-carriers from whom alone their co-religionists will take water to +fill their drinking-vessels, and Brahman water-carriers who can in like +manner alone pour out water for Hindus of all castes. And all have their +own peculiar cries, discordant but insistent. + +Who that has passed at night through one of the great junctions on the +Upper Indian railways, say Saharampur or Umballa or Delhi, can ever +forget such sounds and sights of pandemonium? Or who would care to miss +during the daylight hours the open window on to the kaleidoscopic scenes +of Indian life at every halt? Here a turbaned Rajput chief with his +whiskers fiercely twirled back under his ears descends from the train to +be greeted and garlanded by a throng of expectant retainers who look as +if they had stepped straight out of an old Moghul picture. Or a fat and +prosperous Mahomedan _zemindar_ in a gold-embroidered velvet coat and +patent-leather boots struts along the platform convoying his fluttering +household of heavily veiled ladies, all a-twitter with excitement, to +the _purdah_ carriage specially reserved for them. Or a band of +mendicant ascetics, their almost naked bodies smeared all over with +fresh ashes and the trident of Shiva painted on their foreheads, return +with well-filled begging-bowls from some favourite shrine. Or an excited +crowd, all wearing the little white Gandhi cap, rend the air with shouts +of _Mahatma Gandhi-ki jai!_ in honour of some travelling apostle of +"Non-co-operation." And all over India the swarm of humbler travellers, +who lend their own note of varied colour even to the smallest way-side +stations, seems to increase every year, whether one crosses the vast +drab plains of Upper India or climbs the steep face of the Western Ghats +on to the sun-scorched plateau of the Deccan, or is unmercifully jolted +through the gentler and more verdant landscapes of Southern India. + +One change, however, since pre-war days none can fail to mark. +Travelling is far less comfortable. Trains are fewer and far more +crowded. The rolling-stock is war-worn and dilapidated, for it could not +be renewed during the war, as, although a great deal of railway material +can be produced in Indian workshops, some absolutely essential parts +have always been imported from England--as many Indians believe for the +purpose of subordinating Indian railways to the industrial interests of +Great Britain. Even the permanent way has deteriorated. But the mere +discomfort inflicted upon travellers is a small matter, and it is +chiefly on grounds of racial feeling that Indians are beginning to cry +out against the many outward and visible forms of discrimination in +favour of European travellers. What the most moderate and thoughtful +Indians are concerned about is the futility of talking of the +development of Indian industries and the starting of new ones when +railroads and rolling-stock can no longer handle even the existing +traffic or move the essential raw materials. The problem brought to the +front by the grave crisis through which the Indian railway system is now +passing is neither new nor accidental. It is the outcome of antiquated +methods of railway administration and finance, of which it was possible +to disguise the defects so long as they were not subjected to any +searching strain. The war provided that strain, and the system showed, +it must be admitted, wonderful endurance under it so long as the war +lasted. But since the end of the war it has betrayed such grave symptoms +of imminent collapse that Government have been compelled to appoint an +independent Committee of Inquiry, with a fair proportion of Indian +members on it, which with a man like Sir William Acworth as Chairman +will, it may be hoped, not be content merely to pass judgment upon it, +but will be able also to point to a better way in the future. The +evidence produced before the Committee furnishes ample material for a +scathing indictment of the system. + +There are altogether only some 35,000 miles of railroad in India to-day, +or about as much as before the war in European Russia, the most backward +of all European countries, whose population was little more than a third +of that of India. The Government of India may claim that this is a +magnificent return for the L380,000,000 of capital expenditure that +these railways represent to-day in its books, and that the profits which +they have yielded for the last twenty years with steadily increasing +abundance to the State show the money to have been well invested. But +how if these results have been achieved only by a short-sighted and +narrow-minded policy which sacrificed the future to the present? + +Of the Indian railways some are owned and worked by the State, some are +owned by the State and worked by companies, some are owned and worked by +companies under contracts with the State. The companies that own and +work their own lines are for the most part domiciled in England, and the +evidence already taken before the Committee shows how little power is +left by the London Boards to the local agents who manage them, and how +often the interests of the public and of the country appear to be +subordinated to the narrow view taken at home of the companies' own +interests. But however flagrant the special shortcomings of the +company-owned railways may be, the root of the evil common to all lies +in the policy laid down by and for the Government of India, in whom the +supreme control has always been vested as a professedly necessary +consequence of the financial guarantees given by the State and the right +of ultimate purchase reserved to it. That control, which has passed +through many different incarnations in the course of the last +half-century, has been exercised since 1905 by a Railway Board of three +members outside of, but subordinate to, the Government of India. It is +represented in the Viceroy's Executive Council by the Member for +Commerce and Industry, but its real master and the ultimate authority in +all matters of railway policy is and always has been the Finance Member +of the Government of India, who in turn has to adapt himself to the +exigencies of Whitehall. The Finance Member, who lays down the annual +amount that can be allocated to railway expenditure out of revenue, cuts +the cloth of the Railway Board in accordance not so much with the needs +of the railways themselves as with the requirements of his annual +budget. For when the yield of the Indian railways began to constitute an +important source of Government revenue, the Finance Member, instead of +devoting it to the equipment and expansion of railways, however +essential to the future prosperity of the country, was easily prevailed +upon to regard it, in part at least, as a convenient lucky-bag to draw +upon, especially in difficult times, for meeting the demands of other +departments, and especially of the Army Department, always the most +insatiable of all. In the same way, however clear a case could be made +out from the point of view of the railways for capital expenditure to be +met by raising loans at home or in India, the decision was not based so +much on the intrinsic merits of such an operation as on the immediate +effect it was likely to have on the British or Indian money market in +respect of other financial operations with which the Secretary of State +was saddled. The result has been that before the war the Indian railways +were kept on the shortest possible commons, and that having been +inevitably starved during the war, without any reserves to fall back +upon, they are clamouring to-day for financial assistance for the mere +upkeep of open lines and the renewal of rolling-stock, without which +they are threatened with complete paralysis, whilst the Government of +India, confronted on the one hand with the categorical imperative of the +Esher Committee and the fantastic extravagance of the Army Department +since the Afghan war, and on the other with the appalling losses already +incurred in consequence of Whitehall's currency and exchange policy, has +never been in a worse position to give such assistance. + +The keen searchlight of the war has been turned effectively on many weak +points in the government and administration of India besides railway +policy, and the Indian currency and exchange policy stands out now as +one of the most disturbing factors in the economic situation. + +India played her part in the war, and played it well, but she was never +called upon to bear any crushing share in its financial burdens. The +Indian Legislature unanimously and spontaneously granted L100,000,000 in +1917 towards Imperial war expenditure, and another L140,000,000 of +Indian money went into the two Indian war loans and issues of Treasury +notes. But the increase in India's actual military expenditure during +the war was small, as the Imperial Exchequer continued to bear all the +extra cost of the Indian forces employed outside India, and the last +Indian war budget, 1918-19, showed an excess of only about L23,000,000 +over the last pre-war budget, 1913-14--an increase easily met by +relatively small additional taxation. Moreover, the Indian export trade, +after a temporary set-back on the first outbreak of hostilities, +received a tremendous impetus from the pressing demand for Indian +produce at rapidly increasing prices, and the lucrative development of +many new as well as old industries and of natural resources too long +neglected. The balance of trade which before the war had generally been +slightly against India then shifted rapidly, and the scale turned +heavily in her favour till the end of the war. The total value of the +supplies of all sorts, foodstuffs, raw materials, and manufactured +products, sent out from India to other parts of the British Empire and +to Allied countries has been estimated at some L250,000,000. + +For India as a whole the war years were fat years, though the wealth +poured into the country was, as usual, very unevenly distributed, and +some sections of the population were very hard hit by the tremendous +rise in the cost of living. Lean years were bound to come in India as +elsewhere when the war was over. But the reaction would hardly have led +to such a serious crisis had it not been for complications which have +arisen out of the peculiarities of a unique exchange and currency +system. This system presumes a gold standard, but it is in reality a +gold exchange system by which, in the absence of an Indian gold +currency, the exchange as between the Indian silver rupee and the +British gold sovereign has to be kept at the gold point of the legally +established rate of the rupee to the sovereign by delicately balanced +operations directed from Whitehall. These consist in the sale of +"Council bills" at gold point by the Secretary of State for India when +the balance of trade is in favour of India, and in the sale of "Reverse +Councils" at gold point by the Government of India when the balance of +trade is against India. + +The system worked fairly well until the second year of the war, when the +balance of trade turned in favour of India and soon assumed +unprecedented proportions. The enormous Indian exports could not be paid +for in goods, as the Allied countries had neither goods nor freight +available for maintaining their own export trade. Nor could they be +paid for in bullion, as gold and silver were taken under rigid control. +Nor could internal borrowings in India (though the success of the Indian +war loans was a phenomenon hitherto undreamt of) suffice to finance the +expenditure incurred in India on behalf of the Imperial Government. The +Government of India made very large purchases of silver, which combined +with the stimulated world-demand to drive the price of the white metal +up to inordinate levels, and to keep pace with this rise and avoid an +intolerable loss on the coining of rupees the rate of exchange--_i.e._ +the rate at which the Secretary of State sells "Council bills" in +London--was raised until it actually reached 2s. 5d. for the rupee. To +meet the balance of Imperial expenditure in India the Government of +India issued currency notes against London Treasury bills. + +The result of these operations was that at the end of the war the funds +standing to the credit of the Government of India in London had been +swollen to the unprecedented figure of L106,000,000, a large proportion +of which had to be paid back to India when, with the cessation of the +abnormal conditions induced by the war, the balance of trade turned +against her, and the rate of exchange had been raised from the legal +standard of sixteenpence to the rupee to 2s. 5d. The very important +question then arose of the future legal ratio of the rupee to the +sovereign or the L1 sterling. A Committee was appointed to advise the +Secretary of State as to the best means of securing fixity of exchange +under the new conditions; it took evidence in London during the year +1919 and reported towards the end of the year. A majority of the +Committee recommended that the rupee should be linked with the gold +sovereign and not with the L1 sterling, which had become divorced from +gold under the pressure of war finance, and that the legally established +ratio of 1s. 4d. or fifteen rupees to the sovereign should be raised to +2s., _i.e._ ten rupees to the sovereign. The Secretary of State accepted +the recommendations of the majority of the Committee, and in February +1920 steps were taken to establish the new ratio regardless of the fact +that signs were indubitably discerned in the previous month showing that +the economic current had turned against India. The rupee was to be +"stabilised" at 2s. gold. The only dissentient voice in the Currency +Committee had been that of the one Indian member, a Bombay bullion +broker, Mr. D. Merwanji Dalal, who probably had more practical knowledge +and experience of the problem than all the ten signatories of the +Majority Report, and he had pleaded in vain for the retention of the old +ratio of fifteen rupees to the sovereign. The event was soon to +demonstrate his sagacity. The Secretary of State in order to establish +the new ratio sold "Reverse Councils" at rates from 2s. 11d. downwards. +The attempt failed egregiously, for the rupee fell steadily, and has now +fallen to and under 1s. 4d. The money represented by the Indian balances +with the Secretary of State had been put down in London at 1s. 4d. +upwards, and India had to pay at the rate of 2s. 11d. downwards to get +it back. The difference between the two rates represents, it is +calculated, a loss to the Indian tax-payer of thirty-five crores of +rupees, or L35,000,000 at the "stabilised" rate ordained by Government. + +But the actual loss to India on these exchange transactions is not the +worst outcome of these conjuring tricks, as they have been +contemptuously called by Indian critics of Whitehall. Faith both in the +omnipotence and in the honesty of Government was by no means extinct in +Indian business circles, and when Government undertook to "stabilise" +the rupee at 2s. gold Indian merchants assumed that Government could and +would do what it said it was going to do. Their stocks of imported goods +had been completely depleted during the war, and prosperity had bred, as +usual, a spirit of excessive optimism. Enormous orders for cotton +piece-goods and other British manufactures were placed in England on the +basis of a 2s. rupee just when prices there had soared to their +dizziest heights. By the time the British manufacturers had fulfilled +their contracts and the goods were delivered in India, not only had the +rupee fallen headlong but prices too had declined, and the Indian +importer found that he had made both ways a terribly bad bargain, of +which in many cases he could not possibly fulfil his share. There was +L15,000,000 worth of Manchester piece-goods alone lying in India at one +time last winter on board the ships that brought them out or in the +docks. Of these the Indian importer simply refused to take delivery, +because to do so would have meant ruin, as, what with the depreciation +of the rupee and the fall in market prices, they seldom represented +one-half, sometimes not a quarter, of the cost to him, if he took them +up. It was useless to preach to him about the sanctity of contract, for +had not Government itself, he declared, set the example of a gross +breach of contract by undertaking and then failing to "stabilise" its +own rupee currency? Government pleaded that it had given no undertaking +that could be construed as a contract, but the Indian retorted that the +Government's word had been hitherto held as good as its bond, and Indian +Extremists found only too ready hearers when they imputed the exchange +policy of Whitehall not so much to mere incompetence as to unholy +influences behind Whitehall which robbed India in order to fill British +pockets. + +A wiser spirit ultimately prevailed, and merchants and buyers came +together and agreed to compromise, and large stocks were gradually +cleared. If this year's monsoon is followed by good harvests, and the +European markets recover something of their former activity, Indian +trade will be gradually restored to more normal conditions. But the +ordeal which it has passed through will have taught some enduring +lessons. + +Remembering, too, the large profits which London firms used to make on +silver purchases for the Government of India, and the enormous Indian +balances kept in London in pre-war times which were supposed to be +essential to the maintenance of Indian credit but were still more +clearly of great convenience for London bankers who had the use of them, +Indians who are by no means Extremists ask themselves not unreasonably +why, instead of leaving the ordinary laws of supply and demand to work +through the ordinary channels of financial and commercial enterprise, +the Secretary of State should persist in carrying on big financial +operations connected with the adjustment of the balance of trade or any +purpose other than his official requirements in regard to what are known +as "home charges," _i.e._ payments to be made in England on account of +the Government of India. + +That the effects of the present system as it has worked recently have +been deplorable from a political as well as from an economic point of +view is shown by the large number of recruits made by Mr. Gandhi from +what one might have regarded as the most unlikely classes. Indian +merchants whose interests would seem to be bound up with the maintenance +of order and public tranquillity, Bombay _Banias_ and Calcutta +_Marwaris_, have thrown themselves into the "Non-co-operation" movement +out of sheer bitterness and loss of confidence in British good faith, +boycotting British imported goods and supplying a large part of the +funds without which even a Mahatma cannot carry on a prolonged political +agitation. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +SHOALS AND ROCKS AHEAD + + +Unless the economic situation improves again with a rapidity beyond even +sanguine expectations, Government will have to lay before the Indian +Legislature next winter a budget scarcely less unpleasant than the last +one. Even if expenditure does not outrun the estimates, revenue can +hardly fail to fall short of them. Mr. Hailey, with perhaps forced +optimism, seems to have reckoned upon taxation old and new continuing to +yield at much the same rate during a year which began and is likely to +end in great depression as during the preceding year, a great part of +which had been a "boom" year. In the same way he budgeted on a 1s. 8d. +rupee, though the rate of exchange for the rupee was then under, and has +only quite recently[4] risen above, 1s. 4d. This means an inevitable and +considerable loss to the Government of India on all the home charges +which it has to remit to London. Another deficit to be met by another +increase of taxation would be a strain upon the Assembly far more trying +than that to which this year's Budget subjected it. Indian opinion will +press for further steps towards complete fiscal autonomy. Scarcely a +single Indian is a convinced free trader. In the old Indian National +Congress the desire not to estrange the sympathies of the Liberal party +in England, and the lack of interest then taken by Indian politicians in +economic questions, kept the issue somewhat in the background until the +Extremists raised it in the form of _Swadeshi_ and in an attempt to +organise a boycott of British imported goods. The immense development of +Indian industries during the war has made protection once more a very +live issue, for if that development is arrested or languishes as the +result of the general economic situation, the louder will be the demand +for protection. Even the outcry at first raised last winter in +Lancashire against the increase of the Indian import duties as an +intolerable blow to British textile industries, though at once firmly +checked by the Secretary of State, provoked enough irritation in India +to show how deeply engrained is the suspicion that, from the days of the +East India Company onward, the industrial and commercial interests of +India have always been deliberately or instinctively sacrificed to those +of Great Britain. Indians regard complete fiscal autonomy as one of the +first steps towards the fulfilment of the pledge of self-government, and +indeed as the logical consequence of the recommendation already made by +the Joint Select Committee of both Houses of Parliament. To believe that +in such matters the Government of India would now place itself in +opposition to the views of the Indian Legislature is to ignore the whole +spirit of the constitutional changes. + +To the economic factors that react unfavourably upon a difficult +political situation must be added the growth of labour troubles, which +Extremist agitators know how to exploit to the utmost even when they do +not actually foment them. Strikes are as common to-day in India as they +are in England, and the epidemic has sometimes spread from industrial +workers to those employed by municipalities and by the State. There have +been strikes not only in the big cotton mills and jute mills and other +large manufacturing industries, but also amongst postmen, and amongst +railwaymen on State as well as on private-owned lines, amongst tram-car +drivers and conductors, and even amongst city scavengers. Lightning +strikes without any notice are of growing frequency. Some are +short-lived, others very obstinate, dragging on for weeks and months. +Some are grotesquely frivolous, others by no means lack justification or +excuse. Intimidation often not unaccompanied by violent assaults on +non-strikers is an ugly feature common to most of them. They sometimes +lead to very serious riots and bloodshed. They have played a prominent +part in the worst disorders of the last few years. Nowhere have they +assumed at times a more threatening shape than in the Bombay Presidency, +for in the cotton mills of Bombay itself and of the Ahmedabad district, +which employ over 200,000 hands, are collected the largest +agglomerations of factory workers in India. + +Labour troubles were bound to come with the introduction of Western +methods of industrial development and Western machinery. It has led, and +very rapidly, to a demand for labour which the urban population could +not supply. But the wages soon attracted immigrants from the more or +less distant countryside, where at certain seasons of the year there is +little work to be done on the land. It became the custom for an +increasingly large number of rural districts to send their men into the +towns, where they worked for a few months. Then they went away after +they had put by a little money and came back again when they had +exhausted their hoard. These migrations became more and more regular and +on a larger scale as the demand for labour increased, and they +constitute to-day the feature which radically differentiates the problem +of Indian labour from that of British labour. There has not yet grown up +in India an industrial population permanently rooted in the towns. It is +still largely migratory, returning from time to time for more or less +lengthy periods to field-work in the villages, which remain the real +home. The Indian factory operative has not yet ceased to be a man of the +country rather than of the town. Hence perhaps the conditions under +which he is sometimes content to live whilst he is working in a town--in +Bombay, for instance, for the most part in huge overcrowded blocks, +known as _chawls_, ill lighted, ill ventilated, in a foul atmosphere and +unspeakable dirt--may seem to him less intolerable as he can look +forward to exchanging them again some day for the light and air which +surround even the most squalid village hovels. If there were reason to +believe that improved housing conditions such as are now assured to +Bombay by the huge city improvement schemes which, under Sir George +Lloyd's energetic impulse, are expanding the limits and transforming +almost beyond recognition the appearance of the most congested quarters +of the most congested of modern Indian cities, or even that increased +wages would substantially affect the temper of Indian labour, one might +look forward to the future in this respect with less apprehension. But +in Bombay labour troubles have been scarcely less rife in the best- than +in the worst-conducted mills. In Calcutta the British jute-mill owners +have set a splendid example to Indian employers of labour, and the +mill-hands, now largely imported from other provinces, not only work +under the best possible conditions of light and air, but are housed in +spacious quarters specially built for them, well ventilated and +scientifically drained, with playing-fields and elementary schools for +the swarms of children who certainly look healthy and well-fed and +happy. The Birmingham mills in Madras are recognised to be, from the +same point of view, second to none in the world. But the most humane and +generous employers--whether European or Indian--are as liable as the +most grasping and callous to see their workers suddenly carried away by +a great wave of unreasoning discontent and passion. + +The greater the general unrest amongst these excitable and terribly +ignorant masses, the more urgent is the need for the establishment of +some effective means of determining the social and economic justice of +the claims of labour, as well as for the adjustment of actual conflicts +by bringing employers and employed together in a friendly atmosphere. A +real organisation of labour in its own sphere of interests and the +constitution of responsible trades unions would probably go far to +prevent labour from turning for encouragement and support to agitators +who have never been workers themselves, who have no personal knowledge +of its processes or of its needs, and who exploit its discontent, +reasonable or unreasonable, for purposes as disastrous, if fulfilled, to +its permanent interests as to those of the employers and of the whole +community. A Congress which called itself the first "All-India Trades +Union Congress" met this year in Bombay. The present organisation of +labour in India can hardly be said to justify the title it assumed, and +in answer to a deputation which waited on the Governor, Sir George Lloyd +expressed a legitimate desire for more information than was contained in +its high-flown address as to the status of these unions, their method of +formation, their constitution, their system of ballot and election, and +the actual experience in the several trades of those who claimed to +represent them. That information was not and could not be furnished, +because the ninety-two Trades Unions alleged to have been represented +are at present little more than embryonic. Their spokesmen have not +risen to the leadership of labour out of its own ranks by superior +industry and knowledge. Their organisation has not been a spontaneous +growth from within, but artificially promoted from without. The vast +majority of unskilled workers are illiterate, and even amongst ordinary +skilled labour the level of education is still extremely low. The actual +workers are therefore quite unable to organise, or even to think out the +simplest labour problems for themselves, and they easily become the +dupes and tools of outsiders--frequently lawyers or professional +politicians--who are not always disinterested sympathisers, but more +often stimulate and exploit grievances which may in themselves be +legitimate for purposes which have little to do with the real interests +of labour. + +The economic causes of the growing frequency of strikes during recent +years have not yet been all explored, and Sir George Lloyd responded to +a crying need when, in his reply to the deputation, he announced that +the Bombay Government was about to establish a Labour Bureau under a +competent official from the British Board of Trade to advise it in the +interests of labour. One of the greatest difficulties in dealing with +industrial disputes in India is, the Governor rightly observed, the +absence of all trustworthy materials for forming an accurate judgment on +the actual cost of living for the working man, and the ever fluctuating +relations between the wages he receives and the expenditure he has to +incur even for the mere necessaries of life. + +With a two-and three-fold appreciation, during and especially since the +war, in the cost both of the cotton stuffs which the working man needs +even for his scanty apparel and of the foodstuffs which constitute his +meagre fare, discontent grew steadily more acute, and wages, though more +than once enhanced, did not always keep pace with that appreciation. If +in circumstances, often of undoubted hardship, labour had been +sufficiently equipped to state its own case, or had found disinterested +friends to state it clearly and temperately, it would have been easier +to admit that economic causes sufficed, in some cases at least, to +explain, and perhaps even to justify, the increasing use of the strike +weapon. But there is unhappily very abundant evidence to show that +strikes would not have been so frequent, so precipitate, and so +tumultuous, had not political agitation at least contributed to foment +them as part of a scheme for promoting a general upheaval. The +Extremists, who, with few exceptions, have no part or lot in labour, +either as employers or as workers, began to carry on in Mr. Tilak's days +amongst the mill-hands of Bombay an active propaganda which originally +had little to do with labour. The mill-hands played an evil part in the +worst excesses committed during the outbreak in and around Ahmedabad in +April 1919, and twice within the last two years they have seriously +threatened the peace of Bombay itself and held up for weeks together the +normal life of the great city, necessitating the employment of large +military forces to overawe them, and to avert through the exercise of +disciplined forbearance collisions with which the police alone would +have been unable to cope, and which, when once started, could probably +have been quelled only at the cost of considerable bloodshed. Mr. Gandhi +has a great personal hold over the factory workers, especially in +Western India. Sometimes he uses it to restrain them, sometimes, though +one may hope less deliberately, he works dangerously on their emotions. +His influence when he preaches temperance to them on temperate lines may +be all to the good, and except that, when he denounces tea also, because +it is tainted with Western capitalism, he is waging war against a +popular substitute for spirits, one need not quarrel with the solemn +processions of mill-hands proceeding to a favourite shrine to break a +symbolical teapot in the presence of the deity as a pledge of +renunciation. But not all Mr. Gandhi's followers can be credited with +his earnest sympathies for labour, largely inspired by his detestation +of a "machine age," and he himself lapses into language that seems to +preach more rigid abstention from drink than from violence. + +Factory legislation has never been neglected in India, though until +recently the chief impulse has had to proceed from Government itself. A +great increase of public interest has taken place in the last years, and +in India perhaps even more than anywhere else the activity in this +respect of the League of Nations and of the International Labour Office +has elicited prompt and vigorous response. The Secretary of State has +created at the India Office a new department for dealing with labour and +industry. India has had her own representation at international labour +conferences, and the Government of India is now engaged on a new Factory +Act in accordance with the draft covenants and recommendations of the +Washington Conference. Indeed in some directions the Bill is in advance +of Washington. The statutory definition of a child presents special +difficulties in India, where physical development is more precocious +than in Western countries, but, instead of making the general limit of +age for juvenile work lower, the Bill proposes to raise it not to +fourteen but to fifteen years, whilst still permitting the employment of +younger children on special and very stringent conditions. Provisions +are also made for securing longer daily intervals during the working +hours as well as a weekly holiday. Further legislation will be +introduced for the benefit of industrial workers, more particularly as +regards Trade Union rights and compensation for accidents. But however +excellent such measures may be, only the spread of education and the +better organisation with it of labour itself can be expected to give any +real stability to large struggling masses invested by the new economic +forces that have sprung so rapidly into existence with tremendous powers +for mischief, but with no individual or collective sense of +responsibility. + +But the most dangerous rocks ahead are the questions which directly or +indirectly raise the racial issue. Even during the first session of the +Indian Legislature it could be seen underlying the attitude of Indian +members towards military expenditure, and military expenditure, not +likely to diminish, will be a sore subject again when the next budget is +introduced at Delhi. If one looks merely at the growth of such +expenditure, the enormously increased cost of the British Army which, in +respect of the British forces serving in India, falls upon the Indian +exchequer, furnishes Indians with a specious plea for reducing the +number of British troops as a measure of mere economy. But even if one +could concede the Indian argument that, in a contented India marching +towards self-government under the new constitution, there can no longer +be the same necessity for large British garrisons to guarantee the +safety of British rule, any considerable reduction of the proportion of +British to Indian forces in India would disturb the foundations of our +own military organisation in peace time, based for the last fifty years +on a certain fixed proportion of British regulars serving at home and +abroad. That an Indian territorial army would, on paper at least, be +less costly is beyond dispute, and if ultimately officered entirely or +almost entirely by Indians, it would meet the Indian demand for a +military career for those of the educated classes who regard themselves +now as shut out in practice from the profession of arms. That demand +cannot be met merely by the granting of British commissions to a few +Indian officers, which is already raising many difficult regimental +problems not easily grasped by Indians familiar only with the civil +administration. The difficulties do not arise so much out of objections +taken by the British officers, however repugnant still is to most of +them the idea of ever having to take orders from an Indian superior +officer, as out of the feelings, even if they be mere prejudices, of the +existing class of native officers and of the rank and file who belong to +the old and have no liking for the new India. Most of the politically +minded Indians are beginning, too, to measure the demands made upon +India for her military contribution to the needs of the Empire by those +that are made upon the self-governing Dominions. "We are quite willing," +they say, "to bear our share of the military burdens of the Empire as +equal partners in it, and"--as some at any rate add--"we recognise that +in view of our geographical position, which lays us almost alone amongst +the Dominions open to the dangers of invasion on our land frontiers, we +require a larger army for our own defence. But even taking that into +account, as well as our inability at present to make any contribution in +kind to the naval defence of the Empire, can we be expected to submit to +military expenditure absorbing almost half our revenues? Can you point +to a single Dominion that is asked to make an annual sacrifice +comparable to that? Are we not at least entitled to claim that the +Indian tax-payer's money should not be spent merely on the maintenance +of British garrisons that are here to-day and gone to-morrow, and of an +Indian army that is so constituted as to lack all the essentials of a +national army, but should go to the building up of an army really worthy +to take its place on equal terms when India attains to self-government +with the other armies of a commonwealth of free nations?" + +The racial issue dominates in a far graver form the whole question of +the status and treatment of Indians in the Dominions and Crown Colonies. +For there it enters a much larger field which extends far beyond India. +In India so far, in speaking of the racial issue, Indians and Europeans +alike have hitherto had in mind chiefly the relations between the ruling +and the subject race. When the rulers all belong to one race and come +from a far distant country not to settle permanently but chiefly to +maintain, each one in his own sphere and during his appointed time, the +continuity of rulership over millions of subjects of another and very +different race with a different civilisation, an additional element of +discord is introduced into their relations. But since Great Britain +achieved dominion over India the main issue between rulers and ruled has +been how far on the one hand British rulers should devolve on to their +Indian subjects a share in the government and administration of the +country, and how far on the other hand their Indian subjects could +hasten such devolution by various forms of pressure. Whatever part any +purely racial antagonism may have played in the controversy, the British +rulers of India have at least since 1833, and still more since the +Queen's Proclamation in 1858, debarred themselves from basing on racial +differences their refusal or reluctance to meet the growing aspirations +of their Indian subjects. They have been content to plead the political +immaturity of the Indian people and the lack of individual +qualifications amongst all but a few Indians, and even these +disabilities they had deliberately undertaken and expressed their +anxiety to remove by the introduction of Western education. Neither +colour nor descent, it was specifically declared, were to constitute +any barrier. It is quite otherwise with the question of the right of +Indians to immigrate into other parts of the Empire, and of the measure +of rights they are to enjoy as settlers there. It brings us face to face +with the racial issue pure and simple and in its widest aspects. There +is an open and declared conflict between the claims of the Dominions to +exclude or to restrict the rights of Indian settlers on grounds of +colour and descent for the avowed purpose of maintaining the paramount +ascendancy of one race over another, and the claims put forward by +Indians as British subjects to have access to all parts of the Empire +and to possess the same rights as other British subjects already enjoy +there. Some of the arguments employed to justify the attitude of the +Dominions allege inferior social standards of Indian life, but behind +them and quite undisguised is the supreme argument that Indians belong +to a coloured race and, in consequence, have no interests or rights that +can possibly prevail against those of a superior white race. + +The magnitude of the issue and the resentment which it has caused in +India are, it is true, out of all proportion to the actual number of +Indians who have immigrated into other parts of the Empire. The Indians +are not a migratory people. Mostly engaged in agriculture, they cling, +as peasants are apt to do all over the world, to their own bit of land +and familiar surroundings. It is difficult even to induce them to move +from one part of India to another, and, intensely conservative in their +habits and outlook, with no horizon wider than their own village, they +generally prefer, even under the stress of economic pressure, the ills +they know of. But that does not affect the issue raised in the most +acute and naked form in some of the States now forming the South African +Union. To Mr. Gandhi's experiences and struggles in Natal and the +Transvaal can be traced back, as I have already shown, a great deal of +the bitterness which has now led him to denounce British rule as +"Satanic." It is only about fifty years ago that Indians began to go +across to South Africa, when the Government of Natal with the consent +and assistance of the Government of India sought to engage Indians to +work as indentured labourers on sugar and tea plantations. In 1911, the +year of the last census, the number of Indians in the Union was about +150,000, and, immigration having been since then checked and finally +stopped, they cannot have increased by more than 10 per cent during the +last decade. Of the total in 1911, 133,000 were in Natal, 11,000 in the +Transvaal, and 7000 in the Cape, with barely 100 in the Orange Free +State. The proportion of Indians to the total European population of the +Union, which was then about 1,400,000, was therefore only just over one +to ten. But they had not remained merely indentured labourers as at the +beginning. When their labour contracts expired many settled in the +country, acquiring small plots of land as their own or becoming petty +traders, artisans, etc., and, being frugal and hard-working and of a +higher type than the Kaffir and other natives, they throve as a whole. +The white population, who had found them at first very useful, began to +see in them either dangerous competitors or an undesirable element +calculated to complicate the social problems in a country in which the +European formed anyhow but a small minority face to face with 6,000,000 +natives. Both the old Boer Government in the Transvaal and the Colonial +Government of Natal set to work to curtail by legislative enactments and +local regulations the rights which Indians had been at first allowed to +enjoy, and to assimilate their treatment to that of the lowest and most +backward natives. The Indians were systematically subjected to the +disabilities and indignities against which Mr. Gandhi for the first time +led them to organise a violent agitation and finally to offer passive +resistance. + +The agreement arrived at between General Smuts and Mr. Gandhi in 1914 +was in the nature of a compromise which gave the Indians some relief +without conceding the principle of equal rights, and it only brought the +long struggle to a temporary close. The old sore was reopened with the +Asiatics' Trading and Land Act of 1919, which, the Indians contend, +wantonly violated both the terms and the spirit of the 1914 settlement +and which Europeans have declared to be "necessary in the interests of a +white population." The chief grievances of the Indians are the denial of +representation and franchise (except in Cape Colony), their segregation +within appointed areas, and the curtailment of their "inherent right to +trade." Some Europeans would fain deny that colour prejudice affects +their view of the problem, which they regard as essentially eugenic and +economic. As far as the mixture of races is concerned the European's +objections to it should be readily understood by the Indians, whose own +caste laws are as rigidly directed as any in the world against the +drawbacks of miscegenation. The European, however, has legislated not to +prevent mixed marriages but to arrest the general depression of the +standards of life--low wages, a lower standard of skill in skilled +trades, and low housing conditions which, he alleges, have resulted from +the unrestricted influx of a large coloured population into the +towns--and he uses the term "coloured" to include the Indians. With +regard to the restrictions of trade licences he deduces the necessity +for them from the economic effects of unrestricted competition which has +led, he declares, to the bankruptcy of European firms, to their +displacement in the same premises by Indians, and to the depreciation of +European property. But, the Indian replies, if Indians have thriven in +South Africa in the past it is because they work harder and live more +frugally, and if they flourish more especially as traders it is because +Europeans, finding it to their interest to trade with them, have been +their best customers. Apart from the material ruin which South African +legislation has brought upon many Indians, what they most deeply resent +is unquestionably its specifically racial character. They may suffer +fewer personal disabilities as to travelling on railways and in +tram-cars and walking on street pavements than they did a few years +ago, when very special precautions had to be taken to prevent such a +distinguished Indian as Mr. Gokhale being exposed to them during his +visit to South Africa. But they still suffer, they complain, under the +supreme indignity of racial discrimination with which South African +legislation is openly stamped. Repatriation could only take place slowly +even if the cost of compensation, which no fair-minded European could +then reasonably deny, were not in itself an almost insurmountable +obstacle. From the merely practical point of view the question therefore +is now reduced to the discovery of a _modus vivendi_ for the Indian +community now in South Africa, and it would be very near a solution if +legislation to secure the economic and eugenic standards on which the +Afrikander lays so much stress were so framed as to apply to the whole +population, even should it in practice bear more heavily on the Indian +than on the European, if the former less frequently rose to the required +standards. A similar solution would remove the sense of grievance +arising out of the denial of the franchise in Natal and the Transvaal, +of which the injustice seems to Indians to be merely heightened by the +fact that it has been given to them in Cape Colony, where they form a +much smaller minority. But there is no sign that the temper of the South +African Union, in which British and Dutch are united on no issue more +firmly than on this one, will abate its claim to treat the Indians +within its borders as an inferior race that has no rights to be weighed +against the interests, real or assumed, of the superior white race. + +The Government of India has never questioned the reality of Indian +grievances in South Africa. In 1903, shortly after the Boer war, Lord +Curzon strongly urged the British Government to enforce their redress in +the Transvaal whilst it was still governed as a Crown Colony. At the end +of 1913, when the struggle was most acute, Lord Hardinge expressed his +sympathy with a frankness and warmth which fluttered Ministerial +dovecots both at home and in the Union. Since then Indian troops have +fought during the war side by side with South African troops, and the +representatives of India have sat in the War and Peace Councils of the +Empire side by side with Ministers of the South African Union. So long +as South African legislation bears the impress of racial discrimination +the Government of India is bound to maintain its opposition to it, and +the more fully it voices Indian opinion under the new constitution, the +more emphatic its opposition must be. + +In other Dominions the Indian question is much less acute, as there has +never been anything like the same amount of Indian immigration, and it +is now practically stopped. But it must be remembered that it was the +return to India of a large number of Sikhs who were refused permission +to land in British Columbia that was the signal for grave disorders in +the Punjab in the second year of the war. And not so long ago the Aga +Khan, as well known in London as in India, had to give up visiting +Australia in view of the many humiliating formalities to which as an +Asiatic he would have been subjected before being allowed to land there. +It is surely not beyond the resources of statesmanship to devise at +least a scheme by which Indians of good repute who wish to travel for +purposes of business or study, or for the mere satisfaction of a +legitimate curiosity to see other parts of the Empire, should be free to +do so without any restraints on the score of race. The attitude of the +other Dominions seems certainly to be at present far less uncompromising +than that of the South African Union, and one may look forward with some +confidence to an agreement by which the rights of Indians already +settled in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada will obtain sufficient +recognition to satisfy Indian self-respect. + +The Indian question is not, however, confined to the Dominions. It is +unfortunately in some of the Crown Colonies that it has recently assumed +an even more serious aspect than in South Africa, inasmuch as in the +Crown Colonies the British Government is directly responsible for the +treatment of Indians, whilst only indirectly in a Dominion, where the +primary responsibility rests with the Dominion Government. The question +of Indian indentured labour in Fiji, British Guiana, and some other +smaller colonies is of lesser importance, though Indians have been +deeply moved by stories of ill-treatment inflicted upon them by European +planters, and indenture itself is held nowadays to connote a state +almost of servitude incompatible with Indian national self-respect. +There the Government of India has a remedy in its own hands. It can +stop, and is stopping, the export of Indian labour to those colonies. +Far graver is the situation that has only recently been created for +Indians in the Crown Colony of East Africa, known since the war as +Kenia. Indians were settled in that part of Africa even before British +authority was ever established there, and Mr. Churchill, now Secretary +of State for the Colonies, himself admitted some years ago, after his +travels in that part of the world, that without the Indians the country +would never have reached its present stage of development and +prosperity. Whilst if in the case of a self-governing Dominion the +British Government can at least urge, as an excuse for its acquiescence +in the disabilities imposed upon Indians, that it cannot override the +constitutionally expressed will of the Dominion people, it can plead no +such excuse where a Crown Colony is concerned over which its authority +is absolute and final. This is indeed the point on which the Government +of India laid stress last winter in a long and closely reasoned despatch +elaborating the view already formally enunciated by the Viceroy that in +a Crown Colony Indians have a constitutional right to equality of status +with all other British subjects. That right has, it is contended, been +violated in Kenia in regard more especially to the three major questions +of franchise, segregation, and land ownership. At the very moment when, +in India, elected assemblies have been created under a new constitution +on the broadest possible franchise, the Legislative Council of Kenia, +with a population of 35,000 Indians and only 11,000 Europeans, is so +constituted that it has only two Indian members out of fourteen, whilst +of the remaining twelve, eleven are European and one represents the very +backward Arab community. Land ownership in the uplands has been reserved +exclusively for Europeans on the plea that the climate of the lowlands +to which the Indians are relegated is more suitable for them than for +Europeans. Yet the climatic argument is itself disregarded when, even in +the lowlands, racial segregation is enforced in areas reserved there too +for Europeans alone. The representations of the Government of India have +commanded the attention they deserve, and the Colonial Office has sent +out instructions to the Kenia authorities to suspend all segregation +measures. The whole question will, one may hope, be reopened and settled +on a new basis of justice for Indians. The British settlers will surely +themselves recognise, on further consideration, that their interests +cannot be allowed to override the far larger obligations of Great +Britain to the people of India. + +The question of the treatment of Indians in the Crown Colonies is one +that has to be settled between the British Government and the Government +of India, and it could not therefore come before the Imperial +Cabinet--or Conference--recently attended by the Prime Ministers of all +the Dominions assembled in London. But in regard to that question in the +Dominions, Mr. Srinivasa Sastri, one of India's representatives, laid +down in their presence firmly and plainly the principle on which all +Indians are at one: + + There is no conviction more strongly in our minds than this, that a + full enjoyment of citizenship within the British Empire applies not + only to the United Kingdom but to every self-governing Dominion + within its compass. We have already agreed to a subtraction from + the integrity of the rights by the compromise of 1918 to which my + predecessor, Lord Sinha, was a party--that each Dominion and each + self-governing part of the Empire should be free to regulate the + composition of its population by suitable immigration laws. On that + compromise there is no intention whatever to go back, but we plead + on behalf of those who are already fully domiciled in the various + self-governing Dominions according to the laws under which those + Dominions are governed--to these peoples there is no reason + whatever to deny the full rights of citizenship--it is for them + that we plead, where they are lawfully settled, that they must be + admitted into the general body of citizenship, and no deduction + must be made from the rights that other British subjects enjoy. + +In commending the matter to his audience for earnest consideration and +satisfactory settlement, Mr. Srinivasa Sastri spoke with the added +authority of his position as a member of the Indian Legislature and one +of the ablest leaders of the Moderate party. "It is," he said, "of the +most urgent and pressing importance that we should be able to carry back +a message of hope and of good cheer." He will have to report to the +Legislature on his mission when he returns to India, and no part of his +report will be looked for with more anxiety or more closely scrutinised. + +Indians have already demonstrated their willingness to recognise +accomplished facts and to accept in practice any reasonable settlement +which does not strike fatally at the principle laid down by Mr. +Srinivasa Sastri, not only on behalf of his fellow-countrymen, but in +the name of the Government of India, which here again has acted as a +national Indian Government. South Africa, it may be, will nevertheless +persist in subordinating to a narrow conception of her own interests the +higher interests of Imperial unity, which, if it ever ceased to include +India, would assuredly be a much poorer thing. It is all the more +essential that if India's faith in the Empire is not to be, perhaps +irretrievably, shaken, South Africa should remain, in her refusal to +honour the pledge of partnership given to India on behalf of the whole +Empire, a solitary exception amongst the self-governing Dominions, and +that the United Kingdom, whose responsibility to India is most directly +involved, should insist that the pledge be redeemed to the full in the +Crown Colonies which are under the immediate and direct control of the +Imperial Government. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] August 1921. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE INCLINED PLANE OF GANDHIISM + + +Those who have persistently derided the "Non-co-operation" movement and +announced its imminent collapse have been scarcely less wide of the mark +than Mr. Gandhi himself when he began to predict that it would bring +_Swaraj_ to India by a date, not always quite the same, but always less +than a year distant. The original programme of "Non-co-operation" has +hitherto failed egregiously. Only very few lawyers have abandoned their +practice in "Satanic" law-courts at his behest, still fewer Indians have +surrendered the distinctions conferred on them by Government. A +mischievous ferment has been introduced once more into Indian schools +and colleges. Some youths have foolishly wrecked their own future, or +seen it wrecked for them, by attempts to boycott and obstruct the +examinations on which their career so often depends. But neither have +Mr. Gandhi and his followers destroyed the schools and colleges against +which they have waged war, nor created in anything more than embryo, and +in extremely few places, the "national" schools and colleges that were +to take their place. Even Rabindranath Tagore, whose poetic imagination +was at first fired by Mr. Gandhi's appeal to renounce the title of +knighthood awarded to him in recognition of his literary genius, has had +enough practical experience of education, as he himself has conceived +and carried it into execution on his own quite original lines, to be +driven at last to admit that Indian youths are asked to bring their +patriotic offering of sacrifice, "not to a fuller education, but to +non-education." With his craving for metaphysical accuracy of +expression, he has even denounced the "no" of "Non-co-operation" as "in +its passive moral form asceticism, and in its active moral form +violence." The conclusion wrung from his reluctant idealism is one at +which the large majority of sober-minded Indians arrived long before the +poet. They gave effect to it as voters at the elections in defiance of +Mr. Gandhi's boycott, and their representatives gave effect to it in the +legislatures which Mr. Gandhi no less vainly boycotted. + +Yet in spite of Mr. Gandhi's repeated failures "Non-co-operation" is not +dead. It has a widespread organisation, with committees in every town +and emissaries particularly active in the large villages and in many +rural districts. It had the enthusiastic support at Nagpur of the large +assemblage that still retains the name, but little else, of the old +Indian National Congress. It does not lack funds, for Mr. Gandhi +professes to have gathered in the crore of rupees which he asked for +within the appointed twelvemonth. It controls a large part of the Indian +Press, though mostly of the less reputable type, more vituperative and +mendacious, in spite of all Indian Press laws, than anything conceived +of in this country where there are no Press laws. Mr. Gandhi himself +goes on preaching "Non-co-operation" with unabated conviction and +unresting energy, the same picture always of physical frailty and +unconquerable spirit, travelling all over the country in crowded +third-class carriages, worshipped by huge crowds that hang on his +sainted lips--and pausing only in his feverish campaign to spend a short +week at Simla in daily conference with Lord Reading. That the new +Viceroy should have thought it advisable almost immediately after his +arrival in India to hold such prolonged intercourse with Mr. Gandhi is +the best proof that the Mahatma is no mere dreamer whose influence is +evanescent, but a power to be reckoned with. The Simla interviews did +not seem to have been entirely fruitless when Mr. Gandhi extracted from +his chief Mahomedan lieutenants, the brothers Ali, a disavowal, however +half-hearted, of any intention to incite to violence in certain speeches +delivered by them for which they would otherwise have had to be +prosecuted. It looked as if he had made a more effective stand than on +other occasions against the importation of violence into +"Non-co-operation," and proved the reality of the influence which he is +believed to have all along exercised to curb his Mahomedan followers who +do not share his disbelief in violence. But Simla only deflected him for +a short time from his dangerous course. + +In the whole of this strange movement nothing is more mysterious than +the hold which Mr. Gandhi has over Mahomedans as well as Hindus, though +the wrongs of Turkey, which are ever in his mouth, touch only very +remotely the great mass of Indian Mahomedans, whilst the old antagonism +of the two communities is still simmering and bubbling and apt to boil +over on the slightest provocation. Collisions are most frequent during +religious festivals, especially if they happen to be held by both +communities at the same time. The chief stone of offence for Hindus is +the sacrifice of cows, the most sacred to them of all animals, without +which the Mahomedans consider their great annual festival of _Bakar-Id_ +cannot be complete. Mahomedans, on the other hand, to whom musical +instruments as an accompaniment to religious worship are abhorrent, are +often driven wild when Hindu processions pass with their bands playing +in front of a mosque. Only four years ago, when the compact between the +National Congress and the Moslem League was still quite fresh, riots +broke out simultaneously during the _Bakar-Id_ over a great part of the +Patna district, which were only suppressed after a large tract of some +forty miles square had passed into the hands of the Hindu mobs, when a +considerable military force reached the scenes of turmoil and disorder, +for the like of which, according to the Government Resolution, it was +necessary to go back over a period of sixty years to the days of the +great Mutiny. It would be of little purpose to enumerate many other +instances of disorders on a lesser scale that have occurred since then +in connection with cow-killing. When staying for a few days last winter +in Nellore, a small town in the Madras Presidency, _i.e._ in a part of +India noted for its quietude, I had a pertinent illustration of the +often trivial but none the less dangerous forms that the persistent +animosity between Hindus and Mahomedans can assume. In Nellore, itself a +very sleepy hollow, the Mahomedans are not quite in such a hopelessly +small minority as they generally are in Southern India, for they number +about 6000 out of 30,000 inhabitants. The few "Non-co-operationists" in +the place, Hindu and Mahomedan, professed to have formed a +"Reconciliation Committee" to prevent their co-religionists from flying +at each other's throats. Their efforts were not, however, sufficient to +relieve the local authorities from the necessity of putting some of the +police on special service for the protection of respectable Hindu +traders of the same caste as Mr. Gandhi himself in their daily comings +and goings through certain quarters of the city against the more unruly +of their Mahomedan fellow-citizens. The usual bad feeling had been +exacerbated by an affray, already the best part of a year old, when one +of the Hindu processions from the four great temples of the city +perversely altered its accustomed route and passed down the streets +leading to the chief mosque with bands defiantly playing, and a party of +Mahomedans lying in wait for them rushed out and assaulted them with +brick-bats, until they were dispersed by a few rifle-shots from the +police. Apart from such major provocation, each side indulges in minor +pin-pricks that keep up a constant irritation. It is an old custom at +both Hindu and Mahomedan festivals for youths to dress up as tigers and +lions, who add an element of terror to the pageant by roaring to order. +Of late years each community has tried to deny to the other the right +to introduce this element of frightfulness into its processions, and +these harmless wild beasts have frequently been made to repent of their +disguise with bruised bodies and broken heads. In one large village in +the Nellore district serious trouble arose over an attempt on the part +of the Mahomedans to halt their procession for the purpose of +distributing "jaggery" water in close proximity to an enclosure set +apart by the Hindus for the nuptials of their god and goddess at an +annual marriage festival, and the _Taluk_ magistrate had to issue a +formal order, enforced by policemen on special duty, forbidding the +Mahomedans to place the objectionable pot of water within twenty feet of +the wedding enclosure. In all such cases both sides appeal promptly for +help to the authorities, and one of the chief and not least wearisome of +the British administrator's tasks is to be for ever on the watch in +order if possible to avert, by timely suasion and measures of +precaution, the serious trouble that may at any moment arise out of +trifles which to the European mind must seem grotesquely insignificant. +Indians themselves admit that it is an even more difficult task for +them, as Indian-born officials must almost always belong to one or other +of the two communities, and their impartiality be therefore congenitally +suspect to one side or the other. + +There can be no worthier purpose for either government or public men or +private individuals to pursue than a real reconciliation between two +great communities estranged, not only by fundamentally different +religious beliefs and traditions, but by enduring memories of +century-long conflicts and of the very often oppressive domination of +Mahomedan rulers over conquered Hindu peoples held down in spite of +their numerical superiority by the sheer weight of superior force. There +may have been Englishmen who, believing in the shallow maxim _Divide ut +imperes_, have relied on that estrangement to fortify British rule; but +such has never been the principle of British policy. It has constantly +sought, on the contrary, to prevent and suppress as far as possible +disorders which, whenever they break out afresh, inevitably revive and +quicken the ancient antagonism, and to attenuate it, slowly but +steadily, by the exercise of even-handed justice and the pacifying +influences of education and the rule of law. + +Has the alliance between Mr. Gandhi and the Ali brothers or the fusion +between the Congress and League Extremists, Hindu and Mahomedan, proved +more effective? How far down has this Hindu and Mahomedan fraternisation +really reached that is based above all on common hatred of a "Satanic" +Government? How far has it even temporarily checked the instinctive +tendency of the masses in both communities to break away from their +allies and go for each other rather than for that common enemy against +whom "Non-co-operation" bids them combine? Frequent outbreaks continue +to reveal from time to time the _ignes cineri suppositos doloso_. They +mostly follow the same course. _Khilafat_ agitators terrorise the +law-abiding population, extorting subscriptions for _Khilafat_ funds, +compelling shopkeepers to close their shops for _Khilafat_ +demonstrations, and so forth, until they are driven to appeal to the +authorities for protection. Then an attempt is made to arrest some of +the ringleaders or to disarm the _Khilafat_ "volunteers," who, when they +have no more modern weapons, know how to use their _lathis_ or heavy +iron-tipped staves with often deadly effect. Rioting starts on a large +scale to the cry of "Religion! Religion!" the small local police force +is helpless, and very soon the whole fury of the Mahomedan mob turns +against the Hindus, as at Malegaon, in the Bombay Presidency, where they +set a Hindu temple on fire and threw into the flames the body of an +unfortunate Hindu sub-inspector of police who had been vainly attempting +to save a Hindu quarter from arson. Troops are hurried up from the +nearest military station, and usually as soon as they appear order is +restored with the employment of a minimum amount of force. Numerous +arrests are made, and a few of the local firebrands are ultimately +prosecuted and convicted. But at "Non-co-operation" headquarters the +_Khilafat_ propaganda goes on undisturbed, and all the appearances of +Hindu-Mahomedan unity are ostentatiously kept up. Mr. Mahomed Ali +preaches to Hindus as well as to Mahomedans that it will be their duty +to give the Ameer of Afghanistan every assistance in their power when he +descends with his armies to rescue India from her foreign oppressors. An +All-India _Khilafat_ Conference announces that, if the British +Government fights openly or secretly against the Turkish Nationalists at +Angora, the Indian National Congress will proclaim the Republic of India +at its next session, and meanwhile declares it unlawful for any +Mahomedan to serve in the Indian army, since a "Satanic" Government may +at any moment use it to fight against Mustafa Kemal's forces at Angora. +It is impossible to believe that on such lines "Non-co-operation" can +bring Mahomedans and Hindus permanently together, or can drag the bulk +of the sober and conservative Mahomedan community away from its solid +moorings, but the effect of such appeals to the turbulent and fanatical +elements, more numerous and more easily roused amongst Mahomedans than +amongst Hindus, spreads and grows with the impunity conceded to them. + +If, on the other hand, the Hindus may be on the whole less prone to +violence than the Mahomedans, with whom the sword is still the symbol of +their faith, the grave agrarian disturbances which have twice this year +resulted from the "Non-co-operation" campaign in the United Provinces, +and other disorders of a similar kind on a less serious scale in other +provinces, show that Hindus too are not proof against temptations to +violence. Mr. Gandhi may go on preaching non-violence, and he may +himself still disapprove of violence and refuse to believe that his +teachings, as interpreted at least by many of his followers, are as +certain to produce violence as the night is to produce darkness; but +that "Non-co-operation" more and more frequently spells violence is +beyond dispute, and more and more faint-hearted--to put it very +mildly--are his reprobations of violence. + +The most threatening feature of the "Non-co-operation" movement, now +that it has failed so completely in its appeal to the better and more +educated classes, is that it is concentrating all its energies on the +ignorant and excitable masses. If one takes a long view of India's +progress under the new dispensation, it may well be a source of +satisfaction and encouragement that the insane lengths to which +"Non-co-operation" has gone have served at least to drive in a deep +wedge between the Moderates and the Extremists. But in the immediate +future "Non-co-operation" may prove not less but more formidable +because, except with a few eccentrics, it has lost whatever hold it may +have had for a time on the politically minded _intelligentsia_, and +feels, therefore, no longer under any restraint in addressing itself to +hungry appetites and primitive passions amongst the backward Hindu +masses as well as amongst Mahomedans. That it has not appealed to them +in vain there are increasingly ominous indications in such wanton +destruction as the firing of immense areas of forest in the Kumoon +district of the United Provinces. For the gods to be worshipped in fear +and trembling are the gods that revel in, and can only be placated by, +destruction. Wherever there are local discontents--and such there must +always be in a vast country and amongst vast populations that too often +have a hard struggle for bare existence--"Non-co-operation" is at once +on the spot to envenom the sores. Economic conditions aggravated by the +great rise in prices for all the necessaries of life since the Great War +press heavily on the most helpless classes. The vitality of the whole +population has been depressed for years past by the ravages of the +plague, now fortunately much abated, which have carried off about eight +million lives within the last two decades, and by the still more +appalling ravages of two epidemics of influenza which in 1918 within +one twelvemonth carried off some six or seven millions of lives, mostly +in their very best years, and left many more millions of lives either +older or younger wretchedly enfeebled. Add to all this the many direct +and indirect reactions of the general unrest which in so many different +forms has spread over the whole face of the globe, and of the particular +forms of political unrest which have kept India in periodical ferment +since 1905, constantly fed by violent speeches and by a still more +violent vernacular press. All these discontents "Non-co-operation" has +set itself to link up to a common purpose by inflaming racial hatred, +stirred as never since the Mutiny by the story, bad enough in itself and +unscrupulously distorted and exaggerated, of the events in the Punjab +which has been for two years the trump card of the Extremists, with an +additional appeal to the religious fanaticism of the Mahomedans in the +alleged wrong done to their faith by the Turkish peace terms. +Consciously and unconsciously Mr. Gandhi has lent his saintly +countenance to all these menacing features of the "Non-co-operation" +movement, and given them a religious sanction which captures many who +would not have succumbed but for their faith in a Mahatma who can do and +say no wrong. + +One of the weapons of "Non-co-operation" which Mr. Gandhi has lately +sharpened up is the boycott of British imported goods, now reiterated +and clearly defined in relation first of all to British textiles. Not +only must the Indian wear nothing but home-spun cotton cloth, but the +Indian importer must cease to do any business with British firms, and +Indian mills must forgo their profits in order to help the boycott. Mr. +Gandhi has inaugurated the boycott by presiding over huge sacrificial +bonfires of imported cloth on the seashore at Bombay, amidst the +acclamations of vast crowds all wearing the little "Gandhi" white cap +which is the badge of "Non-co-operation." This is the same mad form of +_Swadeshi_ that Mr. Tilak preached over twenty years ago in the Deccan, +and the Anti-Partition agitators over fifteen years ago in Bengal. It +failed in both cases. Is it less likely to fail to-day when post-war +economic conditions both in England and in India militate still more +strongly against its success, however much it may for a time appeal to +Indian sentiment and to the disgust of Indian traders with Government's +currency and exchange policy? Mr. Gandhi admitted it was impracticable +unless carried out in the spirit of religious self-sacrifice for the +Motherland, which impelled him even to veto the suggestion made by some +of his own followers that the existing stocks of imported cloth, instead +of being burnt, should be given away in charity to the poor. He may +himself really dream of an India from whose face the busy cities built +up by European enterprise, and the railways, the telegraphs, and every +other symbol of a Satanic civilisation shall have disappeared, and +Indians shall all be content to lead in their own primitive villages the +simplest of simple lives clad only in the produce of their handlooms, +fed only on the fruits of their own fields, and governed only by their +own _panchayats_ in accordance with Vedic precepts and under the +protection of their favourite gods. But how many Extremists who shelter +behind his name are not already speculating on the failure of the +_Swadeshi_ movement to which their dupes are committed, in order that +when disillusionment comes it shall add to the area of popular +discontent in which racial hatred is most easily sown? Non-payment of +taxes is another of the weapons which "Non-co-operation" has threatened +to use, and it includes non-payment of the land-tax which would directly +incite the whole agricultural population to lawlessness, and an attack +upon excise revenue which in the shape of a temperance movement, in +itself perfectly commendable, has already led to many cases of +indefensible violence, chiefly in the urban industrial centres. He has +not yet committed himself openly to "civil disobedience" on the scale +for which many Extremists are already clamouring, but he has started on +an inclined plane along which he may not have the power, or even the +will, to arrest his descent. Much will depend on this year's monsoon. If +the rains are good and the harvests abundant, the peasants, relieved for +the time from the pressure of the economic struggle, will be less +inclined to take--even at his behest--the risk of refusing payment of +taxes. Should there unfortunately be another bad season following on +last year's partial failure,[5] the temptation may prove irresistible if +reinforced by the religious exaltation which Mr. Gandhi knows so well +how to call forth. Deep down, too, there is always the latent antagonism +of all the irreconcilable elements in an ancient civilisation of which +British rule no more than Mahomedan domination, and in still earlier +times the spiritual revolt of Buddhism, has shaken the hold upon the +Hindu masses. + +By a strange fatality the confidence of the inarticulate millions upon +which we have hitherto prided ourselves has been turned into bitterness +and hatred hitherto unknown amongst large sections of them at the very +moment when we have for the first time regained in a large measure the +confidence of the _intelligentsia_, and we have to reckon with the +possibility of popular disturbances which may call for strong action +just when on broad grounds of policy any resort to force must be +specially undesirable. One of the retributions which always overtake +such mistakes in the manner of employing force as were made two years +ago in the Punjab is that the actual employment of force, however +legitimate, becomes discredited. The Government of India realises--and +no one probably more fully than Lord Reading after his visit to +Amritsar--that with the Punjab fresh in their memories, even Indian +Moderates must require very strong evidence before they give any willing +support to the employment of force, even if circumstances arise to make +it inevitable for the mere maintenance of public order which no +government can allow to be wantonly imperilled. Such evidence is +accumulating only too fast. When the time comes for action, the +existence of a responsible body of Indian opinion, constitutionally +organised, and constitutionally represented in the new Legislatures, +will give Government the moral backing and the moral courage which +failed it with disastrous results in 1919. + +It is sad to see a man of Mr. Gandhi's immense power for good drifting +into such deep waters. Mr. Gokhale, who had given him his enthusiastic +support in South Africa, warned him on his return to India that methods +of agitation and passive resistance which were permissible there under +great provocation, and had been used by him with considerable success, +would be quite unwarranted in India where they would only lead to +disaster. Mr. Gokhale died soon afterwards and Mr. Gandhi has +disregarded his advice. At times he has given signs of profound +discouragement and talked of retiring to the Himalayas to spend the rest +of his days in meditation, as pious Hindus not infrequently do. At times +in a more worldly mood he seems to be playing for a crown of martyrdom, +and he was perhaps bidding for it when soon after a series of interviews +with the Viceroy, conducted on both sides with perfect courtesy, he +replied to the official announcement of the impending visit of the +Prince of Wales to India by proclaiming it to be the duty of Indians to +boycott the heir to the Throne in the same way in which he had exhorted +them last winter to boycott the Duke of Connaught. He must certainly +have been bidding for it when in the course of a raging and tearing +temperance campaign in Bombay he declared, it seems, that liquor shops +must be closed even if it cost rivers of blood. Government has so far +wisely shrunk from adding to his halo as a saint that of a "confessor +and martyr." But he may yet force Government's hands.[6] For there must +be limits to the impunity granted even to a Mahatma who professes and +preaches the doctrine of _Ahimsa_, but whose footsteps are dogged by +violence which is the negation of _Ahimsa_. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[5] Later reports promise a far better monsoon than was at first +indicated. + +[6] Whilst these pages are going through the press, reports are coming +in of a Moplah rising on the Malabar coast, far more ominous than any +of the disturbances already referred to in this chapter. The Moplahs +are an extremely backward and unruly race, with an infusion of Arab +blood, always notorious for their fierce Mahomedan fanaticism, wrought +up to a white heat by a recent visit from the two Mahomedan firebrands +of "Non-co-operation." The murder of Europeans, the burning and +looting of Government buildings, the tearing up of railways and +telegraphs, recall the worst excesses committed by Indian mobs two +years ago in the Punjab. But on this occasion there has been no +Mahomedan-Hindu fraternisation. The Moplahs have vented their +_Khilafat_ fury equally upon the helpless Hindu populations of the +whole district, who have been slaughtered and plundered or forcibly +converted to Islam as in the earliest days of Mahomedan domination. +Hindu members of the Legislative Assembly, realising that their +co-religionists owe their safety only to the military forces which are +being rushed up by a Satanic Government to arrest a campaign of sheer +murder and rapine, may well ask, as Mr. Jamnadas Dwarkadas has just +done, how long such men as Mahomed and Shaukat Ali are to be allowed +to go on preaching the doctrines which the Moplahs have so effectively +carried into practice. However local this outbreak may remain, it is +only another and a more sinister symptom of the widespread upheaval +against all constituted authority into which "Non-co-operation" has +degenerated under the leadership of Mr. Gandhi and his Mahomedan +allies. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE INDIAN PROBLEM A WORLD PROBLEM + + +A great constitutional experiment, of which the expressed purpose is to +bring a self-governing India into full and equal partnership with all +other parts of the British Empire, has been courageously launched in +deep waters still only partially explored, and it has resisted the first +onslaught of a singular combination of malignant forces. It is too early +yet to speak with absolute assurance of its enduring success. For +success must depend upon many factors outside India as well as within. +All that can be said with confidence is that it has made a far more +promising start than might have been looked for even in less +unfavourable circumstances, and many Englishmen, and Indians also, who +disliked and distrusted the reforms and would have preferred to stand in +the old ways, are coming round to the belief that in their success lies +the best and possibly the one real hope for the future. Faith is +naturally strongest in those who see in the experiment the natural and +logical corollary of that even bolder experiment initiated nearly a +hundred years ago when we introduced Western education in India. That +was the great turning-point in the history of British rule. We had gone +to India with no purpose of seeking dominion, but circumstances had +forced dominion upon us. With dominion had come the recognition of the +great responsibilities which it involved, and having imposed upon India +our own rule of law we imposed it also upon the agencies through which +we then exercised dominion--a self-denying ordinance for ourselves, for +Indians a pledge of justice. Dominion pure and simple made room for +dominion regarded as a great trust. But when we introduced Western +education, we placed upon our trusteeship a new and wider construction. +We invited Indians to enter into intellectual partnership with our own +civilisation, and for the purpose, admitted at the time but afterwards +sometimes forgotten, of training them to a share in the responsibilities +of Indian government and administration. Many Englishmen from that +moment contemplated intellectual partnership as the means to political +partnership as the end. That was indeed--nearly a century before Mr. +Asquith coined the phrase--"the new angle of vision." The Mutiny +distorted it, and it remained obscured when the great experiment was +found to result, like all human experiments, in the production of some +evil as well as of much good. If the tares may have been sometimes more +conspicuous than the wheat, we should ask ourselves whether our own lack +of vigilance and forethought did not contribute to the luxuriant growth +of tares in a soil naturally congenial to them. After many hesitations, +and some tentative and half-hearted steps, we at length recognised that +intellectual partnership however imperfect must lead towards a closer +political partnership. It became, indeed, impossible for us to refuse to +do so without being untrue to the principles that had governed not only +our own national evolution long before the war, but all our declared war +aims and all our appeals, which never went unheeded, to Indian loyalty +and co-operation during the war. + +The experiment can only succeed if it secures the steadfast and hearty +extension to new purposes of the co-operation between British and +Indians to which the British connection with India has owed from the +very beginning, as I have tried to show, its chief strength and its best +results. One may feel confident that amongst the British in India there +will be few to deny their co-operation, though scepticism and prejudice +may die hard and social relations may prove even harder to harmonise +than political relations. The new Constitution was inaugurated under +Lord Chelmsford's Viceroyalty. If he perhaps failed, especially at +certain gravely critical moments, to rise above a somewhat narrow and +unimaginative conception of his functions as the supreme depositary of +British authority in India, and was too apt to regard himself always as +merely _primus inter pares_ in a governing body, peculiarly liable from +its constitution to hesitate and procrastinate even in emergencies +requiring prompt decision, Lord Chelmsford was as upright, honourable, +and courageous an English gentleman as this country has ever sent out as +Viceroy, and India will always gratefully associate his name with the +reforms which have opened up a new era in her history. His place has now +been taken by another Viceroy, Lord Reading, whose appointment at a time +when so many Indians were smarting under a deep sense of injustice has +been all the more heartily welcomed as, apart from many other +qualifications, he went out to India with the special prestige of a +great justiciary who had exchanged for the Viceroyalty the exalted post +of Lord Chief Justice of England. Lord Reading's own liberalism is a +sufficient guarantee that he will apply himself with all his approved +ability to the carrying out of the new reforms. But, if anything more +had been needed, the revised Instrument of Instructions under Royal Sign +Manual which he took out with him for his guidance prescribed both for +the Government of India and for the Provincial Governments the utmost +restraint, "unless grave reason to the contrary appears," in any +exercise of the emergency powers still vested in them in opposition to +the policy and wishes of the Indian representative assemblies. "For, +above all things," His Majesty concluded, "it is Our will and pleasure +that the plans laid by Our Parliament for the progressive realisation of +responsible government in British India may come to fruition, to the end +that British India may attain its due place among Our Dominions." + +That in carrying out those instructions Lord Reading will be able to +rely on the full support of the British members of his own Executive +Council and of the Provincial Governments the most practical proof has +been already given in the wise and conciliatory attitude displayed by +them during the first session of the new Legislatures in Delhi and in +the Provinces, in marked contrast to the sense of impregnable authority +too often made manifest when autocratic power was still entrenched +behind official majorities voting to order. To the credit of the public +services, and not least of the Indian Civil Service, I should add that, +if I may venture to judge by the great majority of those I know best, +there is now a genuine desire to make the reforms a success, however +apprehensive some of them may have formerly been. The change +unquestionably often involves considerable sacrifices of power, and even +sometimes power for good, as well as of old traditions and prejudices, +and such sacrifices come hardest to those whose habits of life and mind +are already set, but they are worth making. It is far easier for the +younger men who have more recently joined to realise that their +opportunities of service to India and to the Empire will, if anything, +be greater than before, though they will call for somewhat different +qualities, as their influence will now depend more upon capacity to +persuade than to give orders. To the non-official British communities +the European-elected members of the new Assemblies have already given an +admirable lead by the cordiality of their personal relations with their +Indian colleagues, as well as by such public manifestations of goodwill +and sound judgment as their unanimous vote in support of the Indian +resolution on Amritsar in the Legislative Assembly. One of the greatest +obstacles to fruitful co-operation is racial aloofness, even amongst the +best-disposed Indians and Europeans, and every Englishman can on his own +account and within his own sphere do something to overcome it. + +The visit of the Duke of Connaught last winter to India for the express +purpose of representing the King-Emperor at the opening of the new +Councils in the three great Presidencies, and of delivering a Royal +Message of unprecedented import to the new Indian Legislature in the +Imperial capital, bore perhaps its happiest fruits in the personal +appeal, prompted by his old love and knowledge of the Indian people, in +which he sought to dispel "the shadow of Amritsar" that had "lengthened +over the face of India," and did in fact do much to dispel it. The +Prince of Wales is to follow this winter not only in the Duke's recent +footsteps, but, as heir to the Throne, in the footsteps of his royal +father and grandfather. Even if opinions are divided as to the political +expediency of his visit before the clouds that still overhang the Indian +horizon have been dispelled, we may rest assured that his personal +qualities will win for him too the affection and reverence which the +Indian people are traditionally and instinctively inclined to give to +those whom the gods have invested with the heaven-born attributes of +kingship. + +That Indian co-operation will not fail us if we persevere in ensuing it, +not only in the letter of the great Statute of 1919 but in the spirit of +the King-Emperor's messages to his Indian people, is an assumption which +there is much to justify us in making. But, for the present, it cannot +be much more than an assumption. In support of it we can rely not only, +one may hope, on the continued support of large if inarticulate masses, +and of the old conservative interests that have been content to stand +aloof from all political agitation, but also on the fine rally of the +great majority of the politically minded classes in India whom +intellectual partnership has to some extent prepared for political +partnership. They still form, unfortunately, but a very small numerical +minority. But their influence cannot be measured by mere numbers. If it +grew in the past even when we were showing more impatience than +sympathy with its aspirations, it may be expected to grow still more +rapidly in future under new conditions that give it more recognition and +more encouragement. In all countries the impulse to progress has always +proceeded from small minorities, and in India the small but active +minority from which it has proceeded has been essentially of our own +making, since it owes to us all its conceptions of political freedom and +national unity and the very language in which it has learnt to express +them. Out of the ancient world of India we have raised a new Indian +middle class, with one foot perhaps still lingering in Indian +civilisation but with the other certainly planted in Western +civilisation. It has long claimed that its leaders were fit to be the +leaders of a nation. We have now conceded that claim. It rests with +those leaders to make it good. They have already given proofs of both +political wisdom and courage; for it is they who bore the brunt of the +battle against the wreckers of the new Constitution during the elections +and won it, and it is they who, forming the majority in the new +assemblies, have shown sagacity and moderation in the exercise of their +new rights and the discharge of their new responsibilities as the means +to closer co-operation between Indians and British. But the opposing +forces arrayed against co-operation, as I have shown in the previous +chapter, are still formidable. They assume many different shapes. They +exploit many different forms of popular discontent. If they have failed +to lay hold of the better and more educated classes, they have captured +in some parts at least the masses that were never before anti-British. +They have inflamed the racial hatred which untoward incidents helped to +stir up. In Mr. Gandhi they have found a strangely potent leader who +appeals to the religious emotions of both Hindus and Mahomedans to shake +themselves free from the degrading yoke of an alien civilisation, and +implores them to return to the ancient and better ways of India's own +civilisation. + +It is just there that Mr. Gandhi strikes a responsive chord in many +thoughtful Indians who repudiate him as a political leader. For their +faith in either the material or moral superiority of Western +civilisation is, one must admit, far less general and deep-seated than +it still was only a generation ago. The emergence of Japan and her +sweeping victories on land and water over the great European power that +tried to humble her dealt the first heavy blow at their belief in the +material superiority of the West. Just as severely shaken is their +belief in its moral superiority, even with many whose loyalty to the +British cause never wavered during the Great War and who still pride +themselves on India's share in its final victory, when they see how the +world of Western civilisation has been reft asunder by four years of +frightful conflict which drenched all Europe with blood and left half of +it at least plunged in black ruin. We have preached to Indians, not +untruly, but with an insistence that seems to them now more than ever to +savour of self-righteousness, that our superior civilisation redeemed +them out of the anarchy and strife which devastated India before British +rule brought her peace and order and justice. Now they ask themselves +how it comes, then, that the Western civilisation which they are told to +thank for their own salvation has not saved Europe itself from the chaos +which has overtaken it to-day. Still more searching are the questions +that they ask when they see the great powers that have been fortunate +enough to emerge victorious from the struggle still postulating the +superiority of Western civilisation as sufficient grounds for denying to +other races who do not share it or have only recently come under its +influence the right to equal treatment. Their gorge rises most of all +when Western civilisation actually bases its claim to superiority not on +ethical but on racial grounds, and nations that profess to be followers +of Christ, Himself of Asiatic birth and descent, carve out the world +which He died to save--not for the benefit of one race alone--into +water-tight compartments, from some of which the Asiatic is to be +excluded by a colour-bar, but to all of which the white man is to have +access for such purposes and by such means as he himself deems right. If +the British Empire stands for a merely racial civilisation of which the +benefit is reserved for the white man only, what, they ask, is the value +of a promise of partnership in it when Indians are _ipso facto_ racially +disqualified from partnership? + +There lies the rub. The argument may have been stated in an extreme +form, but it has to be faced, for it goes home to many Indians who would +not be moved by Mr. Gandhi's cruder abuse of a "Satanic" civilisation. +The overshadowing danger, and not in India alone, may be to-morrow, if +not already to-day, that of a racial conflict. Is there any other way to +avert it than by a frank recognition of racial equality in the sense of +equality of rightful opportunity 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 +already preoccupying the Indian mind in which competitive rather than +common interests will have to be reckoned with--fiscal questions, +questions relating to India's share in the defence of the Empire and of +India's right to develop and control her own military and perhaps some +day her own naval forces, questions affecting the common rights of +British citizenship and the organic constitution of the Empire? +Obviously in none of these questions can India expect her views and +interests always to prevail. What she claims is that her voice be heard +and listened to, not as that of an inferior supplicating for boons but +with the deference and the desire for an agreed settlement by mutual +consent to which the promise of equal partnership already, she holds, +entitles her. That claim she will press, too, in questions affecting the +status and rights of her people in the Dominions and in the Colonies +with the insistence born of a new sense of nationhood which has +intensified a much older race-consciousness. Heavy will be the +responsibility of those within the Empire who meet her with an +uncompromising assertion of the white man's superior rights and +interests as the _suprema lex et suprema salus Imperii_. + +It is not, indeed, the future of India alone that is at stake. If we +look beyond India to the rest of the great continent of Asia, and beyond +our own Empire to the great American Republic with which we have so much +in common, recognition or denial of racial equality lies close beneath +the surface where burning questions still threaten the world with war. +The British people have made in India the first bold attempt to rob the +issue of its worst sting. If we persevere and can succeed we shall not +only strengthen immeasurably the foundations of our far-flung Empire, +but we shall enable it to play an immeasurably useful part in averting a +world danger. For the British Empire with its Western and Eastern +aspects, with its great Western democracies and its oriental peoples, +more advanced than and as gifted as any Asiatic people, seems to-day to +be providentially so constituted that it may act more effectively than +any other power as a link between the great Asiatic and the great +Western powers of Europe and America, between the races and the +civilisations which they represent. + +We may restore in India, and through India all over Asia, a new and +reinvigorated faith in the British Empire's mission, if we do not shrink +from putting into practice in our dealings with her the principle of +partnership in rights and duties on which our Imperial Commonwealth of +Nations has been built up. We have enshrined that principle in the new +constitutional charter we have of our own free will bestowed upon India. +But if we pay only half-hearted homage to it, and our own people, +whether at home, or in other parts of the Empire, or in India itself, +whether statesmen or soldiers, or administrators or merchants, succumb +to the temptation of trying still to combine with it in practice a +disingenuous survival of the old idea of domination of one race over +another, after we have so solemnly repudiated it, we shall drift the +more rapidly and disastrously on to the quicksands of racial strife and +chronic disorder which, though they may fail to overthrow British rule, +would steadily weaken, and perhaps paralyse, its power for good that is +after all its one enduring justification. If, on the other hand, we +fulfil that which we have always recognised, and to-day with renewed +clearness of vision, to be our mission in India, by reconciling the best +elements in Indian civilisation and our own, and if we can convert our +commonwealth of free British nations into a commonwealth of free Western +and Eastern nations on a basis of real equality, we shall set an example +of no less value to others than will be to ourselves our own +achievement. The failure in its latest and most crucial stage of the +great adventure upon which we entered three centuries ago, not, let us +for the moment assume, through lack of Indian co-operation or of the +desire on the part of the British in India to co-operate with Indians, +but through the inability of the British people as a whole and +throughout the Empire to rise to so great an opportunity, would react +far beyond the confines of India. The tide of racial hatred which may +yet be stemmed would rise and perhaps not only undermine the present +fabric of our Empire, but strew East and West with the wreckage of +disappointed hopes and embittered animosities. + +There are some who hold that the British Empire has made its last if +most glorious effort in the Great War, and that in it Western +civilisation proclaimed itself bankrupt and committed suicide. That +cannot be. The cause for which the British people fought and made such +appalling sacrifices was not unworthy of them or of our civilisation. +Heavy clouds hang over the future and obscure the paths of the nations. +But in India, where East and West meet as nowhere else, Britain has +lighted a beacon which, if she keep it burning, will show to both the +way of escape from a more disastrous conflict than that from which the +West has just emerged battered and bleeding--a conflict not between +nations but between races. + + + + +INDEX + + +Abyssinian victory over Italians, 112 + +Acworth, Sir William, 260 + +Adawa, battle of, 112 + +Afghan invasions, 3, 61-2 + +Aga Khan, the, 136, 282 + +Age of Consent Bill, 1891, 95-6, 113, 236 + +Agra and Oudh, _see_ United Provinces + +Agrarian questions, Indian, 197-201 + +_Ahimsa_, doctrine of, 170, 175, 188, 192, 298 + +Ahmed Shah Durani, 61 + +Ahmed Shahi dynasty, 53, 54 + +Ahmedabad, 50, 53-5; outbreak in, 176-7, 273 + +Ahmednagar, 50 + +Ajatasatni, King, 28 + +Akbar, Emperor, 3, 5, 51, 53, 56, 57-61 + +Ala-ud-Din Khilji, 48 + +Alai Darwazah, the, 48 + +Alexander the Great's invasion, 27, 28, 33 + +Ali brothers, the, Mahomed and Shaukat, 140, 188-9, 191, 197, 288, 291, +297 _n_. + +Aligurh, Mahomedan College at, 135-6, 197 + +Allahabad outbreak, 177 + +All-India Moslem League, 136, 138, 145, 147, 173 + +All-India Trades Congress, 272 + +Altamsh, 36, 47 + +Americans in Tata Company, 248, 253 + +Amritsar: outbreak, 175-6, 183; + Jallianwala Bagh, 177-9, 211; + British Government's despatch, 180-82; + Duke of Connaught on, 228, 303; + Resolutions on, 209, 228-30, 302 + +Annexation policy of Dalhousie, 81 + +Arya Somaj, 95 + +Aryan races, 15, 22, 31, 35; + social system, 22-3, 42-3, 217, 219 + +Asiatics' Trading and Land Act (South Africa), 281 + +Asoka, King, 2, 27, 29-32, 35 + +Asquith, Rt. Hon. H.H., on a "new angle of vision," 141, 300 + +_Asvamedha_, the, 2, 4, 32, 37, 40 + +Aurungzeb, Emperor, 61 + +Australia and Asiatics, 282 + + +Baber, Emperor, 3, 56 + +Baghavat-Ghita, the, 35, 113 + +_Bakar-Id_ festival, 288 + +Bana, the Brahman, 39 + +"_Bande Materam_," 115 + +Banerjee, Sir Surendranath, 118, 204, 207 + +Basu, Mr. Bupendranath, 145 + +Baz Bahadur, 53 + +Behar and Orissa, 8, 129 + +Benares University, Gandhi and, 197 + +Bendusara, King, 29 + +Bengal Presidency, 69, 71, 72, 114 + elections in, 202-4 + "Non-co-operation" fails in, 203-4, 208 + Partition of, _see_ Partition + permanent settlement in, 199-200 + +Bengalees: + unrest among, 12, 114-115, 203 + Western education and, 8, 205-7 + +Bentinck, Lord William, 79, 80, 98 + +Besant, Mrs., 146, 148, 150, 159, 161 + +Bhuvaneshwar temples, 38 + +Bidar, 50 + +Bijapur, 50, 55 + +Bikanir, Maharajah of, 141 + +Bimbisara, King, 26, 27 + +Bolpur, school at, 254 + +Bombay, 6 + city improvement, 271 + cotton mills, 270, 271 + labour troubles, 270, 273-4 + +Bombay Presidency, 69, 71 + elections in, 194-6 + +Bonnerji, Mr., 92, 93 + +Boycott movements, 4, 113, 294. + See _Swadeshi_ + +Brahmanas, the, 16, 17-18 + +Brahmans: + Akbar and, 60 + supremacy of, 17-18, 23, 27, 37-8, 41, 44, 45, 84, 190, 219-220, + 221-4; + Buddhism and, 27; + Gandhi and, 190 + temple, 11 + +Brahmo-Somaj movement, 80, 95 + +British, arrival of, in India, 3-4, 5, 62, 66-7, 220 + +British administration, share of Indians in, 12-13, 97, 101-10, 132-5, +163-4 + +British Army in India, 275-7 + +British Empire, India's partnership in, its implications, 164, 306-10 + +British rule: + co-operation the principle of, 12-13, 66-8, 74, 204-8, 300-301 + education and, 79-82, 299-300 + evolution of, 66-83. _See_ Crown sovereignty, East India Company, + Parliamentary control + Gandhi and, 191 + goal of, 12-13, 76-7, 79, 149, 162-4, 301-2 + +Bubonic plague appears, 88 + +Buddha, 25, 26, 27-8; + bones of, discovered, 34 + +Buddhism, rise and fall of, 27, 29-34, 39-40 + Hinduism and, 31, 34-5 + +Budget deficit, 268-9 + + +Calcutta, 6-12 + capital removed from, 128, 129 + co-operation revived in, 204-5 + labour conditions in, 271 + Supreme Court created, 72 + Western-educated women in, 8 + +Calcutta University, 8, 114, 205-6 + +Canada and Indian immigrants, 211, 282 + +Canning, Lord, 82-3, 91 + +Cape Colony, Indians in, 280, 281 + +Carmichael, Lord, 207 + +Caste system, the, 23, 43-5, 64, 107, 215-19, 224 + Akbar hostile to, 58, 60 + Gandhi and, 169, 186-7, 219 + reform attempted, 236 + +Central Provinces: + caste system in, 215-19 + "Non-co-operation" campaign in, 214-15, 218-19 + +Chamber of Princes, the, 1, 2, 158, 239, 241-5 + +Chamberlain, Rt. Hon. Austen, 144, 150 + +Chanakya, 29 + +Chandavarkar, Sir Narain, 171 + +Chandni Chauk bomb outrage, 129-30 + +Chandragupta I., 37 + +Chandragupta II., 37, 38 + +Chandragupta Maurya, 28-9 + +Charnock, Job, 10 + +Chatterjee, Mr. B.C., 206 + +_Chawls_, 271 + +Chelmsford, Lord, 143, 144, 145, 172, 301. + _See_ Montagu-Chelmsford reforms + +Chinese travellers in India, 24, 25, 26, 33, 38, 39, 40 + +Chintamani, Mr., 202 + +Chitawan Brahmans, 113 + +Christian converts, training of, 218 + +Churchill, Rt. Hon. Winston, 283 + +Civil Service, _see_ Indian Civil Service + +Clive, Lord, 68, 70, 86 + +Coal mines of Tata Company, 251 + +Community representation, 127, 157-8, 193, 211, 223-4 + +Connaught, H.R.H. the Duke of, + inauguration ceremonies and speeches by, 1, 2, 4, 185, 228, 243, 303 + boycott of, 4, 6, 12 + +Co-operation, the principle of British rule, 12-13, 66-8, 74, 204-8, +300-301 + +Cornwallis, Lord, 199 + +Cotton imports duty, 147-8, 247, 269 + +Council of State proposed, 155 + +Crewe, Lord, 134 + +Crown colonies and Indians, 277, 282-5, 306-8 + +Crown sovereignty over India, 73, 86 + +Currency and exchange policy, 262, 263-7 + +Currency Committee, 264-5 + +Curtis, Mr. Lionel, 157 + +Curzon, Lord, 103, 114-15, 120, 246 + and Indians in Transvaal, 281 + Partition of Bengal by, 103, 114-15 + Universities Act of, 120 + +Curzon-Wylie, Sir W., murdered, 122 + + +Dalal, Mr. D. Merwanji, 265 + +Dalhousie, Lord, 8, 80-82, 246 + +Defence Force Bill, 148 + +Defence of India Act, 140, 141, 171 + +Delhi, 1, 2, 3, 4, 47, 49, 56, 57, 61 + capital restored to, 4, 5, 128 + Durbar, 4, 128, 129 + Fort, 1, 3 + George V. at, 4, 128, 129 + _Hartal_ in, 4, 6, 173, 175 + +Dharma, 22 + +District Officers, 102 + +Dominion Home Rule for India, 143, 149, 163-4, 301-2 + +Dominions, _see_ Self-governing Dominions + +Dravidian races, 63, 64, 217, 219 + +Duff, Dr. Alexander, 78 + +Dufferin, Lord, 93, 94 + +Dwarkadas, Mr. Jamnadas, 229, 297 _n._ + +"Dyarchy," 156-7, 238 + +Dyer, General, 177-9, 180-81, 182, 185, 229 + + +Eastern Bengal, 114, 129, 137 + +East India Company, 62, 66, 67-8, 69-70, 86 + Crown control of, 73 + Indian co-operation with, 74, 77 + monopoly surrendered by, 74 + Parliamentary control of, 68-73 + +Economic factors in life of India, 246-7, 268-9; + industry, 247-256; + railways, 256-62; + currency and exchange, 262-7 + +Edward VII., 4; + visits India as Prince of Wales, 115 + +Elections: + Non-Brahman success in, 223-4 + "Non-co-operation" campaign and, 193-6, 201-4, 208-9, 214-215, 219, + 224-6, 287 + under Councils Act (1909), 130-31 + +English language, benefit of, 4, 111 + +Esher, Lord, 230 + +Esher Committee's Report, 230-231, 262 + +Europeans and Indians, relations between, 98-101, 204-8 + +Extremist party, 118, 123, 135, 142-3, 144-5, 266, 267 + campaigns during elections, 195, 196-7, 201-4, 208-9, 214-15, 219, + 224-6, 287 + Congress captured by, 145-7, 150 + labour troubles and, 269, 273-274 + Moderate party and, 118, 135, 160-61 + Montagu-Chelmsford reforms and, 150, 159-60 + Native states and, 240-41 + Rowlatt Acts and, 172-3 + + +Fa-Hien, 25, 38 + +Factory legislation in India, 274-275 + +Faizi, Abul, 59 + +Family system, Hindu, 20-21 + +Farquhar, Dr. J.N., 95 _n._, 121 + +Fatehpur Sikri, 58-9, 61 + +Fazl, Abul, 59, 60 + +Fell, Sir Godfrey, 229 + +Firishta, 53 + +Firuz Shah, 48-9 + +Fiscal policy, 147-8, 268-9 + +Fort William, Calcutta, 7 + +France, war with, and British rule, 67, 69, 70 + +Franchise qualifications, 193-4 + + +_Gadr_ conspiracy, 211 + +Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchamd, 4, 6, 12, 161, 165-75, 177, 185-192, 203, 304 + caste system and, 169, 186-7, 219 + Hinduism of, 5, 13-14, 169, 190 + Indians in South Africa and, 166-8, 169, 170, 171, 278-9 + labour and, 274 + "Non-co-operation" movement of, 4, 13, 165, 185-6, 191-2, 197, 215, + 286-7; + election campaigns, 195, 200, 201, 202, 204, 224-5, 226 + Reading, Lord, and, 165, 287-8 + _Swadeshi_ organised by, 294-5 + _Swaraj_ as conceived by, 170, 189-90, 295 + violence opposed by, 170, 175, 188, 192, 292-3, 294, 297-8 + +Ganj Bakhsh, tomb of, 54 + +Garnath pillar, 30 + +"Gate of Victory" inscription, 59 + +Gaur, 50 + +George V., King-Emperor: + in India (as Prince of Wales), 115-17, 125; + (as King), 4, 128-9 + message of (1920), 1, 162-3, 228, 303 + +Ghijas-ud-Din, 52 + +Ghose, Mr. Arabindo, 203 + +Ghridrakuta mountain, 26 + +Ghulam Kadir, 62 + +Ghuri dynasty, 51-3 + +Gokhale, Mr., 98, 118, 120, 134, 146, 168, 235; + Gandhi and, 169, 297 + +Gol Kumbaz, the, 55 + +Golconda, 50 + +Gordhays, Mr., 252 + +Gour, Dr., 237 + +Government House, Calcutta, 7 + +Government of India Act, 1919, 162-3, 164, 203, 233, 235 + +Governor-General, post of, 71, 72, 73, 86 + +Great War, the: + Gandhi and, 169, 170 + India's part in, 138, 139-41, 147, 262, 264, 282 + Western civilisation discredited by, 305, 310 + +Gujerat, Indian culture in, 53 + +Gupta dynasty, 37-8, 43 + + +Hailey, Mr., 232, 233-4, 268 + +Hamilton, Lord George, 249 + +Hardinge, Lady, 129, 130 + +Hardinge of Penshurst, Lord, 128, 129-30, 141, 142, 143; + and Indians in South Africa, 142, 168, 281 + +Harsha, King, 39-41 + +_Hartal_ proclaimed, 4, 6, 12, 173 + +Hastings, Lord, 75 + +Hastings, Warren, 71, 72-3, 74, 78 + +Hathi Singh, temple of, 53 + +Hellenic influence in India, 33-4 + +Hemu, 57 + +Hindola Mahal, the, 52 + +Hindu architecture, 54, 55-6 + +Hindu family system, 20-21 + +Hinduism, 5, 13-14, 16-25, 35, 60, 95-6, 220 + Buddhism and, 31, 34-5 + enduring power of, 5, 13-14, 32, 42-3, 45, 63-5 + Gandhi and, 5, 13-14, 169, 190 + Mahomedan domination and, 5, 14, 45, 63-5, 220 + reform movements in, 80 + scriptures and doctrines of, 16-25 + social system of, 8-9, 23, 42-5, 64, 107, 215-20 + Western education and, 84-5 + +Hindus: + Akbar and, 58, 59, 60, 61 + Mahomedans and, _see_ Mahomedans + as revolutionaries, 119, 122 + +_History of the War of Independence of 1857_ (Savarkar), 85 + +Hiuen-Tsang, 26, 33, 39, 40 + +Holland, Sir Thomas, 148, 248 + +Home Rule for India, 145, 147, 148, 150 + +Horse sacrifice, see _Asvamedha_ + +Humayun, Emperor, 56 + +Hume, Mr., 93 + +Huns, invasion of, 38 + +Hunter, Lord, 179 + +Hunter Committee, 179, 181-2, 183 + +Hushang Ghuri, 51-2 + + +Ilbert Bill, the, 91 + +Imperial Conference, Indian citizenship question in, 284-5 + +Imperial Legislative Council, 145, 147 + +Imperial War Conference, Indian representatives at, 141, 282 + +Indentured emigration stopped, 148, 283 + +India: + Dominion self-government for, 76-7, 79, 143, 149, 163-4, 301-2 + economics of, _see_ Economic factors + and Great War, 138, 139-41, 147, 262-3, 264, 282 + partnership of, in Empire, 142, 143, 164, 306-10 + population of, 88 + trade of, 88, 246-7, 262-4 + +Indian administration, Indian share in, 12-13, 86, 89, 97, 101-10, +132-5, 163-4 + +Indian Army, 68, 85, 89, 139; + in Flanders, 139, 141 + expenditure on, 230-32, 262, 275-7 + Indians in, 89-90 + territorial, 276, 277 + +Indian Civil Service, position of Indians in, 97, 102, 134, 163, 302 + +Indian co-operation, _see_ Co-operation + +Indian Councils Act (1892), 93-4, 118; + (1909), 127-8, 130-31, 137, 157 + +Indian education, 75, 78-82, 89 + Commission on, 148 + Curzon conference on, 120 + defects of, 97-8, 119-20 + Montagu-Chelmsford Report on, 152-3 + +Indian finance, 230-34, 268 + currency and exchange, 262, 263-7 + +Indian fiscal policy, 88, 234, 246-7, 268-9 + +Indian industries, 88, 246-56, 269 + +Indian Legislative Assembly, 2, 155, 225-6; + first session, 227-237, 302 + Royal Message to, 228, 303 + +Indian Local Government Act (1888), 93 + +Indian National Congress, 92, 95-96, 108; + Surat, 118, 135; + Bombay, 140, 145, 146, 160; + Lucknow, 147; + Nagpur, 190-191, 215, 240, 287 + All-India Moslem League and, 138, 173 + Amritsar Commission of, 183-4 + Extremists capture, 145-7, 150 + Mahomedans and, 92-3, 109, 135, 173 + Montagu-Chelmsford reforms and, 150, 160 + Sinha at, 140, 146 + +Indian Nationalism, 35, 111-13 + +Indian representation not actual control, 132-4 + +_Indian Sociologist_, the, 122 + +Indian taxation, 87, 232-4, 295-6 + +Indian War Loan, 141, 147, 262, 264 + +Indians: + in administration, _see_ Indian administration + Crown Colonies and, 277, 282-5, 306-8 + Europeans and, relations between, 98-101, 204-8 + in industry, 8, 253-6 + self-governing Dominions and, 142, 144, 166-9, 170-71, 211, 277-85, + 306-10 + travelling, 256-9 + +Indo-Mahomedan architecture, 54-5 + +Indraprasthra (Indrapat), 2 + +Industrial development of India, 88, 247-56, 269 + +Infant widowhood, 9, 21, 107 + +Iron and steel industry, 247-56 + +Iron Pillar, 2, 3 + +Irrigation, 87 + +Islington, Lord, 134 + +Islington Commission, 134 + + +Jaganath, temple of, 64, 256 + +Jahaz Mahal, the, 52 + +Jaina school of architecture, 53, 54 + +Jainism, 27, 43, 53 + +Jallianwala Bagh massacre, 177-9, 211. + _See_ Amritsar + +Jamsheedpur, 248, 249-56 + +Japanese victories and Indian opinion, 112, 305 + +Jehanghir, Emperor, 59, 60 + +Jhansi elections, 202 + +Jinna, Mr., 191 + +Jodh Bai palace, 58 + +Jones, Sir William, 23 + + +Kaikobad, 48 + +Kali, 9-12; + temple at Calcutta, 119 + +Kali-Kata, 10 + +Kalidasa, 37, 38 + +Kanishka, 32, 33 + +Karma doctrine, 19, 20-21 + +Kauravas, 2 + +Kayastha caste, 122 + +Kenia, position of Indians in, 283-4 + +Khalifate of Islam, the, 136, 173-4 + +Khalsa College, 210 + +_Khilafat_ movement, 174, 175, 204, 208, 240, 291; + rising, 297 _n._ + +Khilji dynasty, 48 + +Kitchener, Lord, 115, 128 + +Krishna cult, 63 + +Krishnavarma, Mr., 122 + +Kshatrya caste, 23 + +Kushan kingdom, 33-4 + +Kutub-ed-Din, 3, 47 + +Kutub Minar, the, 2, 47 + +_Kuwwet-el-Islam_ Mosque, 3, 47 + + +Labour and Industry department, 274 + +Labour Bureau, 273 + +Labour problems and unrest, 269-275 + +Lady Hardinge's School of Medicine, 130 + +Lahore, 208, 210-11 + +Lake, Lord, 4, 62 + +Lal, Mr. Harkishen, 209 + +Land revenue questions, 199-201 + +Land-tax, 87, 199-200, 295-6 + +Languages, rivalry of, 37-8 + +Lansdowne, Lord, 93, 95, 113, 236 + +Lawyers, Indian, 8, 108-9, 202 + +_Letters to the People of India_ (Curtis), 157 + +Lloyd, Sir George, 271, 272-3 + +Lodi dynasty, 49, 56 + +Lord North's Act, 71 + +Lucknow Congress, 147 + +Lyall, Sir Alfred, 45 + +Lytton, Lord, 91 + + +Macaulay's Minute, 79, 81 + +Macdonald, Mr. Ramsay, 134 + +MacLagan, Sir Edward, 209 + +Madras, mills in, 271 + +Madras Presidency, 69, 71; + elections in, 219, 222-4 + +Magadha, kingdom of, 16 + +Mahabharata, the, 2, 25, 35 + +Maha-Kal temple, 36-7 + +Mahars, 216-19 + +Mahavira, 27 + +Mahmud Bigarah, 55 + +Mahmud of Ghazni, 3, 46 + +Mahmud Khilji, 52 + +Mahomed Tughluk, 48, 49 + +Mahomedan art and architecture, 50, 54, 55 + +Mahomedan College, Aligurh, 135-136 + +Mahomedan conquest and domination, 3, 5, 42, 46-9, 62, 220 + +Mahomedan kingdoms, 49-50 + +Mahomedanism, 64, 65 + +Mahomedans, 109, 197 + community representation of, 127, 137, 157, 193, 211 + Congress and attitude of, 92-3, 109, 135, 173 + Hindus and: + antagonism between, 64, 65, 135, 188-9, 288-293; + mingling of, 5, 50-51, 173, 174-5, 176 + Partition and, 114, 136, 137 + Turkey, position of, and, 137-8, 140, 173-4, 189, 190, 292 + +Mahrattas, 4, 5, 61, 62, 113, 214 + +Maidan, the, Calcutta, 7 + +Maine, Sir Henry, 237 + +Malabar Hill, Bombay, 6 + +Malegaon riots, 291 + +Mandu, 50, 51-3 + +Manu, code of, 22, 23-4, 38 + +Marriage, Hindu laws and, 9, 237 + +Mary, Queen, visits India: + (as Princess of Wales), 115, 116, 125; + (as Queen), 128-9 + +Maurya dynasty, 28-32, 43 + +Maya, 19 + +Megasthenes, 28, 29 + +Mehta, Sir Pherozeshah, 92, 93, 118, 120, 146 + +Mesopotamian Report, 149 + +Mihiragula, 38 + +Mimansa system, 19-20 + +Mining development in India, 88, 249-56 + +Minto, Lord, 117, 126, 128, 130, 136-7. + _See_ Morley-Minto reforms + +Miriam-uz-Zemani, 59 + +Mitter, Mr. B.L., 160-61 + +Moderate party, 118, 135, 150, 160 + election successes of, 196 + Extremist breach with, 118, 135, 160-61 + +_Modern Religious Movements in India_ (Farquhar), 95 _n._, 121 + +Moghul Empire, 3, 4, 5, 56, 57; + fall of, 61-2, 67, 72 + +Montagu, Rt. Hon. E.S., 149, 150-51, 159, 161, 184; + exchange operations of, 264-7 + +Montagu-Chelmsford reforms and Report, 149-50, 151-9, 161, 203, 246 + Act passed, 162-3, 203 + reception of, 159-62 + +Moplah rising, 297 _n._ + +Morley, Lord, 117, 125-7, 131, 132, 227 + +Morley-Minto reforms, 126, 127, 130-34, 142, 145 + +Munro, Sir Thomas, minute by, 76-7, 235 + +Murders, political, 119, 120, 121, 122 + +Mutiny of 1857, the, 83, 84-7, 99, 101, 124 + + +Nadir Shah, 61 + +Nagpur Congress, 190-91, 215, 240, 287 + +Nair, Dr., 223 + +Nankhanda Saheb massacre, 212-213 + +Naoroji, Dadabhai, 92, 94 + +Natal and Indian settlers, 166, 167, 278, 279 + +Nationalism: + European, 111; + Indian, 35, 111-13 + +Native States, 68 + administration of, 239-41, 243 + constitutional reforms and, 158, 241 + +Nellore incidents, 289-90 + +_New India_, 147 + +Nivedita, Sister, 95 + +Nizam of Hyderabad, 240, 243 + +Non-Brahmans, increasing influence of, 223-4 + +"Non-co-operation" movement, 4, 13, 165, 185-6, 191-2, 197, 267, 286 + election campaign, _see_ Elections + present dangers from, 287-8, 293-8 + +Non-payment of taxes, 295-6 + +North-West Frontier Province, _Khilafat_ movement in, 208 + + +O'Dwyer, Sir Michael, 179, 182, 184 + +Oudh, annexation of, 81 + + +Pal, Bepin Chandra, 112 + +Pandavas, 2, 4 + +Panipat, battles of, 56, 57, 62 + +Paranjpe, Professor, 196 + +Parliamentary apathy on Indian questions, 109-10, 158 + +Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry suggested, 159 + +Partition of Bengal, 103, 114, 117, 125, 129; + agitation against, 110, 114-15, 118-20; + revised, 129, 137 + Mahomedans and, 114, 136, 137 + +Pataliputra, 27, 28-9, 31 + +Pathan massacre of Sikhs, 212-13 + +Patna riots, 288-9 + +Perin, Mr. C. Page, 249 + +Permanent settlement, the, 199-200 + +Pitt's Act, 72, 73 + +Plassey, battle of, 68, 85 + +Polak, Mr. H.S.L., 166 + +Population of India, 88 + +Portuguese in India, 62 + +Prayaga, 39 + +Presidents, East India Company, 69, 71 + +Press, "Non-co-operation," 287 + +Press restrictions, 91, 93, 126 + +Prirthana Somaj, 95 + +Prithvi Raja, 3, 42, 47 + +Provincial Governments, 131, 133, 155-6, 237-8 + +Provincial Legislative Councils, 94, 131, 132, 237-9 + +Provincial representative government, 154, 155-8 + +Public services, position of Indians in, 12-13, 86, 89, 97, 101-10, +132-5, 163-4 + +Public Services Commission, 134-5 + +Punjab, the: + elections in, 208-9 + outbreak in, and repressive measures, 173, 175, 176, 177-185, 228-30, + 282, 294, 296 + +Purana Kilat, 2 + +Puri, pilgrimages to, 256 + +Purushpura, 32; + _stupa_, 33-4 + +Pushyamitra Sunga, 32 + + +Queen Victoria Memorial Hall, Calcutta, 7 + + +Racial equality, necessity of, 306-310 + +Rahu, Mr., 206 + +Railway Board, 261 + +Railways, Indian: + 1857-1905, 87; + present condition, 256-262 + +Raja Bikram, 3, 37, 38 + +Raja Birbal, 59 + +Rajagriha, 25-6 + +_Rajasuya_ rite, 32 + +Rajput princes, 242 + +Rajput states, 41-2, 57, 61 + +Rakhina, Sultana, 58 + +Ramayana, the, 35 + +Ranade, Mr., 92, 96 + +Ranee Sepree mosque, 55 + +Rawlinson, Lord, 229, 231 + +Reading, Lord, 301, 302; + Gandhi's interview with, 165, 287-8 + +Reay, Lord, 93 + +_Recollections_ (Morley), 125 + +Representative institutions inaugurated, 1-2, 4, 228, 243 + +"Reserved subjects," 156, 157, 238 + +Ripon, Lord, 91, 93 + +River-confluences, worship of, 39-40 + +Robertson, Sir Benjamin, 248 + +Ronaldshay, Lord, 134, 207-8 + +Rowlatt, Mr. Justice, 171 + +Rowlatt Acts, 171-3 + +Roy, Ram Mohun, 80 + +Royalty, Indian attitude to, 128, 129, 303 + +Rup Mati, 53 + +Rupee, stabilisation of the, 264-6 + +Russian anarchism and Indian, 123 + +Russian menace to India, 89 + + +Sadler, Sir Thomas, 148 + +Sakti worship, 63 + +Samadragupta, 37 + +Sankhya Darshana, the, 19, 27 + +Sanskrit, 18, 37-8 + +Sastri, Mr. Srinivasa, 196, 236, 284-5 + +Sasunaga dynasty, 16 + +_Sati_, practice of, 36, 60, 64, 80 + +_Satyagraha_, 172-3, 174, 176 + +Sawarkar, Vinayak, 85 + +Secretary of State for India, 73, 86, 126-7, 131 + Council of, Indians on, 126, 127, 163 + exchange operations of, 263, 264-7 + +Sedition Committee, 122, 171 + +Self-governing Dominions, treatment of Indians by, 142, 144, 166-9, +170-71, 211, 277-85, 306-10 + +Self-government, Indian, 76-7, 79, 145, 147, 148, 150, 163-4, 301-2 + +Sen, Keshab Chundra, 95 + +Senart, M., 44 + +"Servants of India" Society, 146, 196, 235-6 + +Seyyid Ahmed Khan, Sir, 135-6 + +Seyyid dynasty, 49 + +Shah Alam II., 62 + +Sher Shah, 56, 57 + +Shiva, cult of, 34, 40, 41, 63; + and Uma, 36 + +Shivaji, 5, 61, 113 + +Shudra caste, 23 + +Sidi Dervish, 48 + +Sikh confederacy defeated, 81 + +Sikhism, reforms in, 210-12 + +Sikhs, 210-12; + massacred by Pathans, 212 + Canada and, 282 + +Sinha, Lord (formerly Sir Satyendra), 8, 127, 140, 141, 146 + +Slave dynasty, 47-8 + +Smriti, 22 + +Smuts, General, 168, 279 + +Sonthals, the, 250, 254 + +South Africa, Union of, and Indian grievances, 142, 166-8, 169, 170-71, +278-82, 285 + +South African War, Indians and, 112, 167 + +Southern India, elections in, 214, 219, 222-6 + +Spooner, Dr., 34 + +Steel and iron industry, 247-56 + +Strikes, 269-71, 272, 273 + +Students, unrest among, 119-20, 122, 128, 286 + +Sultan of Turkey and Khalifate of Islam, 136, 173-4 + +Surat Congress, 118, 135 + +_Swadeshi_ movement, 12, 113, 119, 203, 247, 269, 294-5 + +_Swaraj_, 110, 119, 188-9, 191 + Gandhi's conception of, 170, 186-8, 192 + Royal Message and, 1, 4 + +Sydenham, Lord, 249-50 + + +Tagore, Rabindranath, 254, 286 + +Tantras, the, 63 + +Tata, Jamsheedji, 249 + +Tata, Sir Dorab, 249 + +Tata Company, the, 248, 249-256 + +Taxation problems, 87, 232-4; + non-payment movement, 295-296 + +Telang, Mr., 92, 96 + +Telegraph system, Indian, 1857-1905, 87 + +Temple, Mr., 252 + +Thanesvar, battle of, 47 + +Tilak, Bal Gangadhar, 95-6, 118, 139, 146, 147, 159, 161, 237, 295 + Gandhi and, 189 + imprisonment of, 113, 128 + +Timur, invasion of, 3, 49, 56 + +Tirupati, 220-21 + +Trade, Indian, 88, 246-7, 262-4 + +Trades Unions in India, 272, 275 + +"Transferred subjects," 156, 157, 238 + +Transvaal and Indian settlers, 166-7, 168, 279, 281 + +Tughluk dynasty, 48-9 + +Turkey, war with, and Indian Mahomedans, 137-8, 140, 173-174, 189, +190, 292 + +Turkish Nationalism, 137, 138 + + +Ujjain, 29, 35-7 + +United Provinces: + agrarian questions in, 196, 197, 201 + "Non-co-operation" campaign in, 196, 202, 292, 293 + +Universities, Indian, 82, 197 + +Universities Act of 1904, 120 + +"Untouchables," 216-19, 221 + +Upanishads, the, 16 + + +Vaishya caste, 23 + +Vedantic system, 19, 27 + +Vedas, the, 16-17, 18 + +Viceroy, 86 + Executive Council of, Indians on, 94, 102, 126, 127, 235 + Legislative Council of, 132 + +Victoria, Queen-Empress, 4; + proclamation by, 86-7, 89 + +Vijianagar, 55, 220 + +Vikramadytia, King, 2, 3, 37, 38 + +Vincent, Sir William, 229 + +Vishnu cult, 63 + +Vivekananda, Swami, 95 + + +Wales, Prince of, Indian visit of: + (Edward VII.), 115; + (George V.), 115-17, 125; + (present), 303 + +Wellesley, Marquess, 7 + +Western civilisation: + Gandhi and, 14, 169, 304, 306 + Great War discredits, 305-6, 310 + +Western education, 8, 79-80, 97-8, 135-6 + Brahman monopoly of, 222-3 + Hinduism and, 84-5 + implications of, 152-3, 299-300 + +Western-educated classes, 4, 124 + co-operation by, 139, 202, 303-4 + Curzon and, 100, 114 + grievances of, 89-91, 97, 98-110, 134-5 + Montagu-Chelmsford Report on, 152-3 + social reform not attempted by, 107-8 + unrest among, 111-15, 123-4 + +White Huns, the, 38 + +Whyte, Mr. A.F., 227-8 + +Widows, _see_ Infant widowhood + +Willingdon, Lord, 224 + +Women, Indian, position of, 8, 21, 64-5, 82, 236 + +Wood, Sir Charles, 81 + + +Yoga system, 19 + +_Young India_, 192 + +Y.M.C.A., valuable work of, 206-7 + +Yudhisthira, 2 + +Yueh Chis, the, 33 + +_Yugantar_, the, 121, 203 + + + + +THE END + +_Printed by_ R. & R. 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