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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/16444-8.txt b/16444-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..68537a4 --- /dev/null +++ b/16444-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13508 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Indian Unrest, by 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: Indian Unrest + +Author: Valentine Chirol + +Release Date: August 5, 2005 [EBook #16444] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INDIAN UNREST *** + + + + +Produced by Million Book Project, Juliet Sutherland, Graeme +Mackreth and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + +INDIAN UNREST + +By + +VALENTINE CHIROL + + +A Reprint, revised and enlarged, from "The Times," +with an introduction by Sir Alfred Lyall + + + _We have now, as it were, before + us, in that vast congeries of peoples + we call India, a long, slow march + in uneven stages through all the + centuries from the fifth to the twentieth._ + + --VISCOUNT MORLEY. + + + +MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED + +ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON + +1910 + +DEDICATED BY PERMISSION + +TO + +VISCOUNT MORLEY + +AS A TRIBUTE +OF PRIVATE FRIENDSHIP AND +PUBLIC RESPECT + +CONTENTS + + CHAPTER PAGE + + INTRODUCTION. BY SIR ALFRED C. LYALL VII + + I. A GENERAL SURVEY 1 + + II. SWARAJ ON THE PLATFORM AND IN THE PRESS 8 + + III. A HINDU REVIVAL 24 + + IV. BRAHMANISM AND DISAFFECTION IN THE DECCAN 37 + + V. POONA AND KOLHAPUR 64 + + VI. BENGAL BEFORE THE PARTITION 72 + + VII. THE STORM IN BENGAL 81 + + VIII. THE PUNJAB AND THE ARYA SAMAJ 106 + + IX. THE POSITION OF THE MAHOMEDANS 118 + + X. SOUTHERN INDIA 136 + + XI. REVOLUTIONARY ORGANIZATIONS OUTSIDE INDIA 145 + + XII. THE INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS 154 + + XIII. CONSTITUTIONAL REFORMS 162 + + XIV. THE DEPRESSED CASTES 176 + + XV. THE NATIVE STATES 185 + + XVI. CROSS CURRENTS 198 + + XVII. THE GROWTH OF WESTERN EDUCATION 207 + + XVIII. THE INDIAN STUDENT 216 + + XIX. SOME MEASURES OF EDUCATIONAL REFORM 229 + + XX. THE QUESTION OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 238 + + XXI. PRIMARY EDUCATION 246 + + XXII. SWADESHI AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS 254 + + XXIII. THE FINANCIAL AND FISCAL RELATIONS + BETWEEN INDIA AND GREAT BRITAIN 271 + + XXIV. THE POSITION OF INDIANS IN THE EMPIRE 280 + + XXV. SOCIAL AND OFFICIAL RELATIONS 288 + + XXVI. THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA 306 + + XXVII. CONCLUSIONS 319 + + NOTES 335 + + INDEX 361 + +_The numerals above the line in the body of the book refer to notes at +the end of the volume._ + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + +BY SIR ALFRED C. LYALL. + + +The volume into which Mr. Valentine Chirol has collected and republished +his valuable series of articles in _The Times_ upon Indian unrest is an +important and very instructive contribution to the study of what is +probably the most arduous problem in the politics of our far-reaching +Empire. His comprehensive survey of the whole situation, the arrangement +of evidence and array of facts, are not unlike what might have been +found in the Report of a Commission appointed to investigate the causes +and the state of affairs to which the troubles that have arisen in India +may be ascribed. + +At different times in the world's history the nations foremost in +civilization have undertaken the enterprise of founding a great European +dominion in Asia, and have accomplished it with signal success. The +Macedonian Greeks led the way; they were followed by the Romans; and in +both instances their military superiority and organizing genius enabled +them to subdue and govern for centuries vast populations in Western +Asia. European science and literature flourished in the great cities of +the East, where the educated classes willingly accepted and supported +foreign rulership as their barrier against a relapse into barbarism; nor +have we reason for believing that it excited unusual discontent or +disaffection among the Asiatic peoples. But the Greek and Roman Empires +in Asia have disappeared long ago, leaving very little beyond scattered +ruins; and in modern times it is the British dominion in India that has +revived and is pursuing the enterprise of ruling and civilizing a great +Asiatic population, of developing the political intelligence and +transforming the ideas of an antique and, in some respects, a primitive +society. + +That the task must be one of prodigious difficulty, not always free from +danger, has been long known to those who watched the experiment with +some accurate foresight of the conditions attending it. Yet the recent +symptoms of virulent disease in some parts of the body politic, though +confined to certain provinces of India, have taken the British nation by +surprise. Mr. Chirol's book has now exhibited the present state and +prospect of the adventure; he has examined the causes and the +consequences of the prevailing unrest; he has collected ample evidence, +and he has consulted all the best authorities, Indian and European, on +the subject. His masterly analysis of all this material shows wide +acquaintance with the facts, and rare insight into the character and +motives, the aims and methods, of those who are engaged in stirring up +the spirit of revolt against the British Government. He has pointed to +instances where the best intentions of the administrators have led them +wrong; his whole narrative illustrates the perils that beset a +Government necessarily pledged to moral and material reform, which finds +its own principles perverted against its efforts, and its foremost +opponents among the class that has been the first to profit by the +benefits which that Government has conferred upon them. + +The nineteenth century had been pre-eminently an era of the development +of rapid and easy communication between distant parts of the world, +particularly between Europe and Asia. So long as these two continents +remained far apart the condition of Asia was unchanged and stationary; +if there was any change it had been latterly retrogressive, for in +India at any rate the eighteenth century was a period of abnormal and +extensive political confusion. In Europe, on the other hand, national +wealth, scientific discoveries, the arts of war and peace, had made +extraordinary progress. Population had increased and multiplied; and +partly by territorial conquests, partly by pacific penetration, the +Western nations overflowed politically into Asia during the nineteenth +century. They brought with them larger knowledge, novel ideas and +manners, which have opened the Asiatic mind to new influences and +aspirations, to the sense of needs and grievances not previously felt or +even imagined. The effect, as can now be clearly perceived, has been to +produce an abrupt transition from old to new ways, from the antique +order of society towards fresh models; and to this may be ascribed the +general unsettlement, the uneasy stir, that pervade Asia at the present +moment. Its equilibrium has been disturbed by the high speed at which +Europe has been pushing eastward; and the principal points of contact +and penetration are in India. + +Moreover, towards the latter end of the nineteenth century and in the +first years of the present century came events which materially altered +the attitude of Asiatic nations towards European predominance. The +defeat of the Italians by the Abyssinians in 1896 may indeed be noted as +the first decisive victory gained by troops that may be reckoned +Oriental over a European army in the open field, for at least three +centuries. The Japanese war, in which Russia lost battles not only by +land, but also at sea, was even a more significant and striking warning +that the era of facile victories in Asia had ended; since never before +in all history had an Asiatic navy won a great sea-fight against +European fleets. That the unquiet spirit, which from these general +causes has been spreading over the Eastern Continent, should be +particularly manifest in countries under European Governments is not +unnatural; it inevitably roused the latent dislike of foreign rule, +with which a whole people is never entirely content. Precisely similar +symptoms are to be observed in the Asiatic possessions of France, and in +Egypt; nor is Algeria yet altogether reconciled to the _régime_ of its +conquerors. + +That in India the British Government has found the centres of active +disaffection located in the Maratha country and in Lower Bengal, is a +phenomenon which can be to a large extent accounted for by reference to +Anglo-Indian history. The fact that Poona is one focus of sedition has +been attributed in this volume to the survival among the Maratha +Brahmins of the recollection that "far into the eighteenth century Poona +was the capital of a theocratic State in which behind the Throne of the +Peshwas both spiritual and secular authority were concentrated in the +hands of the Brahmins." The Peshwas, as their title implies, had been +hereditary Ministers who governed in the name of the reigning dynasty +founded by the famous Maratha leader Sivajee, whose successors they set +aside. But before the end of the eighteenth century the secular +authority of the Peshwas had become almost nominal, and the real power +in the State had passed into the grasp of a confederation of chiefs of +predatory armies, whose violence drove the last Peshwa, more than a +century ago, to seek refuge in a British camp. The political sovereignty +of the Brahmins had disappeared from the time when he placed himself +under British protection; and the Maratha chiefs (who were not Brahmins) +only acknowledged our supremacy after some fiercely contested battles; +with the result that they were confined to and confirmed in the +possession of the territories now governed by their descendants. But it +is quite true that to the memory of a time when for once, and once only, +in Indian history, their caste established a great secular dominion, may +be ascribed the tendency to disloyalty among the Maratha Brahmins. + +The case of Bengal is very different. Poona and Calcutta are separated +geographically almost by the whole breadth of India between two seas; +yet the historical antecedents of the Bengalees and Marathas are even +further apart. The Marathas were the leaders of revolt against the +Moghal Empire; they were formidable opponents to the rise of the British +power; their chiefs fought hard before yielding to British authority. On +the other hand, Lower Bengal belonged to a province that had fallen away +from the Moghal Empire, and which was transferred from its Mahomedan +Governor to a British General by the result of a single battle at +Plassey. The Bengalees took no part in the contest, and they had very +good reason for willing acquiescence in the change of masters. + +In a comparison, therefore, of the Marathas with the people of Bengal, +we have a remarkable instance of the production of similar effects from +causes very distinct and dissimilar. In the former case their present +unrest may be traced, in a large degree, to the memories of early +rulership and to warlike traditions. In the latter case there can be no +such recollections, military or political, for the country has had no +experience whatever of a state of war, since Lower Bengal is perhaps the +only considerable province of India which has enjoyed profound peace +during nearly 150 years. It is no paradox to suggest that this prolonged +tranquillity has had some share in stimulating the audacity of Bengalee +unrest, for the literary classes seem to have no clear notion that the +real game of revolutionary politics is necessarily rough and +dangerous--certain, moreover, to fail whenever the British Government +shall have resolved that it is being carried too far, and must end. + +But it is beyond question that the promoters of disaffection on both +sides of India have been making strenuous exertions to enlist in the +movement the influence of Brahminism; and upon this point the book +rightly lays particular stress. + +The position and privileges of the Brahmins are rightly compared to +those of the Levites; they are the depositories of orthodox tradition; +they preside over and hold (not exclusively) a monopoly for the +performance of the sacred rites and offices; and ritual in Hinduism, as +in most of the ancient religions, is the essential element; it is +closely connected with the rules of caste, which unite and divide +innumerable groups within the pale of Hinduism. And in India the +peculiar institution of caste, the strict regulation of social +intercourse, particularly in regard to inter-marriage and the sharing of +food, prevails to an extent quite unknown elsewhere in the world. The +divisions of caste have always operated to weaken the body politic in +India, and thus to facilitate foreign conquest; but, on the other hand, +they have opposed a stiff barrier to the invasion of foreign religions, +to the fusion of alien races with the Hindu people, and to any success +in what may be called national unification. + +One can easily understand the formidable power invested by this system +in the Brahmins, and the enormous obstacles that it might raise against +the introduction of Western ideas, manners, and education. Nevertheless +we all know, and we have seen it with real satisfaction, that the +Brahmins, very much to the credit of their intelligence and sagacity, +have been forward in accepting the new learning, the expansion of +general knowledge, offered to them by English schools and Universities; +they have acquired our language, they have studied our sciences; they +are prominent in the professions of law and medicine, which the English +have created; they enter our civil services, they even serve in the +Indian Army. Yet their readiness to adopt secular culture does not seem +to have abated their religious authority, or to have sensibly weakened +their influence over the people at large. And indeed the fact that the +Brahmins, with others of the educated classes, should have been able, +for their own purposes, to appeal simultaneously to the darkest +superstitions of Hinduism and to extreme ideas of Western democracy--to +disregard caste rules personally and to stir up caste prejudices among +the masses--will not greatly surprise those who have observed the +extraordinary elasticity of practical Hinduism, the fictions and +anomalies which can be invented or tolerated at need. But the beliefs +and practices of popular Hinduism are obviously irreconcilable with the +principles of modern civilization; and the various indications of a +desire to reform and purify their ancient religion may be partly due to +the perception among educated Hindus that so contradictory a position is +ultimately untenable, that the incongruity between sacrifices to the +goddess Kali and high University degrees is too manifest. + +The course and consequences of the measures taken by the British +Government to promote Western education in India has been attentively +studied by the author of this volume. It is a story of grave political +miscalculation, containing a lesson that has its significance for other +nations which have undertaken a similar enterprise. Ignorance is +unquestionably the root of many evils; and it was natural that in the +last century certain philosophers should have assumed education to be +the certain cure for human delusions; and that statesmen like Macaulay +should have declared education to be the best and surest remedy for +political discontent and for law-breaking. In any case it was the clear +and imperative duty of the British Government to attempt the +intellectual emancipation of India as the best justification of British +rule. We have since discovered, by experience, that, although education +is a sovereign remedy for many ills--is indeed indispensable to healthy +progress--yet an indiscriminate or superficial administration of this +potent medicine may engender other disorders. It acts upon the frame of +an antique society as a powerful dissolvent, heating weak brains, +stimulating rash ambitions, raising inordinate expectations of which the +disappointment is bitterly resented. That these effects are well known +even in Europe may be read in a remarkable French novel published not +long ago, "Les Déracinés," which, describes the road to ruin taken by +poor collegians who had been uprooted from the soil of their humble +village. And in Asia the disease is necessarily much more virulent, +because the transition has been more sudden, and the contrast between +old ideas of life and new aspirations is far sharper. From the report of +an able French official upon the Indo-Chinese Colonies we may learn that +the existing system of educating the natives has proved to be +mischievous, needing radical reform. Of the Levantine youths in the +Syrian towns, the product of European schools, a French traveller writes +(1909), "C'est une tourbe de déclassés"; while in China some leaders of +agitation for democratic changes in the oldest of all Empires are said +to be those who have qualified by competitive examination for public +employ, and have failed to obtain it. In every country the crowd of +expectants far outnumbers the places available. If, indeed, the +Government which introduced Western education into Bengal had been +native instead of foreign, it would have found itself entangled in +difficulties no less grave than those which now confront the British +rulers; and there can be little doubt that it would probably have broken +down under them. + +The phases through which the State's educational policy in India have +passed during the last fifty years are explained at length in this +volume. The Government was misled in the wrong direction by the reports +of two Commissions between 1880 and 1890, whose mistakes were discerned +at the time by those who had some tincture of political prudence. The +problem is now to reconstruct on a better plan, to try different lines +of advance. But some of us have heard of an enterprising pioneer in a +difficult country, who confidently urged travellers to take a new route +by assuring them that it avoided the hills on the old road. Whether the +hills were equally steep on his other road he did not say. And in the +present instance it may not be easy to strike out a fresh path which may +be clear from the complications that have been suffered to grow up +round our system of Indian education; while no one proposes to turn +back. The truth is that in India the English have been throughout +obliged to lay out their own roads, and to feel their way, without any +precedents to guide them. No other Government, European or Asiatic, has +yet essayed to administer a great Oriental population, alien in race and +religion, by institutions of a representative type, reckoning upon free +discussion and an unrestricted Press for reasonable consideration of its +measures and fair play, relying upon secular education and absolute +religious neutrality to control the unruly affections of sinful men. It +is now seen that our Western ideas and inventions, moral and material, +are being turned against us by some of those to whom we have imparted an +elementary aptitude for using them. And thus we have the strange +spectacle, in certain parts of India, of a party capable of resorting to +methods that are both reactionary and revolutionary, of men who offer +prayers and sacrifices to ferocious divinities and denounce the +Government by seditious journalism, preaching primitive superstition in +the very modern form of leading articles. The mixture of religion with +politics has always produced a highly explosive compound, especially in +Asia. + +These agitations are in fact the symptoms of what are said by +Shakespeare to be the "cankers of a calm world"; they are the natural +outcome of artificial culture in an educational hothouse, among classes +who have had for generations no real training in rough or hazardous +politics. The outline of the present situation in India is that we have +been disseminating ideas of abstract political right, and the germs of +representative institutions, among a people that had for centuries been +governed autocratically, and in a country where local liberties and +habits of self-government had been long obliterated or had never +existed. At the same time we have been spreading modern education +broadcast throughout the land, where, before English rule, learning had +not advanced beyond the stage of Europe in the middle ages. These may +be taken to be the primary causes of the existing Unrest; and meanwhile +the administrative machine has been so efficiently organized, it has +run, hitherto, so easily and quietly, as to disguise from inexperienced +bystanders the long discipline and training in affairs of State that are +required for its management. Nor is it clearly perceived that the real +driving power lies in the forces held in reserve by the British nation +and in the respect which British guardianship everywhere commands. That +Indians should be liberally invited to share the responsibilities of +high office is now a recognized principle of public policy. But the +process of initiation must be gradual and tentative; and vague notions +of dissolving the British connexion only prove incompetence to realize +the whole situation, external and internal, of the country. Across the +frontiers of India are warlike nations, who are intent upon arming +themselves after the latest modern pattern, though for the other +benefits of Western science and learning they show, as yet, very little +taste or inclination. They would certainly be a serious menace to a weak +Government in the Indian plains, while their sympathy with a literary +class would be uncommonly slight. Against intruders of this sort the +British hold securely the gates of India; and it must be clear that the +civilization and future prosperity of the whole country depend entirely +upon their determination to maintain public tranquillity by strict +enforcement of the laws; combined with their policy of admitting the +highest intellects and capacities to the Councils of the State, and of +assigning reasonable administrative and legislative independence to the +great provinces in accord with the unity of a powerful Empire. + +A.C. LYALL + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +A GENERAL SURVEY. + + +That there is a lull in the storm of unrest which has lately swept over +India is happily beyond doubt. Does this lull indicate a gradual and +steady return to more normal and peaceful conditions? Or, as in other +cyclonic disturbances in tropical climes, does it merely presage fiercer +outbursts yet to come? Has the blended policy of repression and +concession adopted by Lord Morley and Lord Minto really cowed the forces +of criminal disorder and rallied the representatives of moderate opinion +to the cause of sober and Constitutional progress? Or has it come too +late either permanently to arrest the former or to restore confidence +and courage to the latter? + +These are the two questions which the present situation in India most +frequently and obviously suggests, but it may be doubted whether they by +any means cover the whole field of potential developments. They are +based apparently upon the assumption that Indian unrest, even in its +most extreme forms, is merely the expression of certain political +aspirations towards various degrees of emancipation from British +tutelage, ranging from a larger share in the present system of +administration to a complete revolution in the existing relations +between Great Britain and India, and that, the issues thus raised being +essentially political, they can be met by compromise on purely political +lines. This assumption ignores, I fear, certain factors of very great +importance, social, religious, and economic, which profoundly affect, if +they do not altogether overshadow, the political problem. The question +to which I propose to address myself is whether Indian unrest represents +merely, as we are prone to imagine, the human and not unnatural +impatience of subject races fretting under an alien rule which, however +well intentioned, must often be irksome and must sometimes appear to be +harsh and arbitrary; or whether to-day, in its more extreme forms at any +rate, it does not represent an irreconcilable reaction against all that +not only British rule but Western civilization stands for. + +I will not stop at present to discuss how far the lamentable +deficiencies of the system of education which we have ourselves +introduced into India have contributed to the Indian unrest. That that +system has been productive of much good few will deny, but few also can +be so blind as to ignore the fact that it tends on the one hand to +create a semi-educated proletariate, unemployed and largely +unemployable, and on the other hand, even where failure is less +complete, to produce dangerous hybrids, more or less superficially +imbued with Western ideas, and at the same time more or less completely +divorced from the realities of Indian life. Many other circumstances +also which have helped the promoters of disaffection I must reserve for +subsequent discussion. Some of them are economic, such as the remarkable +rise in prices during the last decade. This has seriously enhanced the +cost of living in India and has specially affected the very classes +amongst whom disaffection is most widespread. The clerk, the teacher, +the petty Government official, whose exiguous salaries have remained the +same, find themselves to-day relatively, and in many cases actually, +worse off than the artisan or even the labourer, whose wages have in +many cases risen in proportion to the increased cost of living. Plague, +which in the course of the last 14 years has carried off over 6,000,000 +people, and two terrible visitations of famine have caused in different +parts of the country untold misery and consequent bitterness. On the +other hand, the growth of commerce and industry and the growing interest +taken by all classes in commercial and industrial questions have led to +a corresponding resentment of the fiscal restraints placed upon India by +the Imperial Government for the selfish benefit, as it is contended, of +the British manufacturer and trader. Much bad blood has undoubtedly been +created by the treatment of British Indians in South Africa and the +attitude adopted in British Colonies generally towards Asiatic +immigrants. The social relations between the two races in India +itself--always a problem of infinite difficulty--have certainly not been +improved by the large influx of a lower class of Europeans which the +development of railways and telegraphs and other industries requiring +technical knowledge have brought in their train. Nor can it be denied +that the growing pressure of office work as well as the increased +facilities of home leave and frequent transfers from one post to another +have inevitably to some extent lessened the contact between the +Anglo-Indian official and the native population. Of more remote +influences which have indirectly reacted upon the Indian mind it may +suffice for the present to mention the South African War, which lowered +the prestige of our arms, and the Russo-Japanese War, which was regarded +as the first blow dealt to the ascendency of Europe over Asia, though it +may be worth noting that in his novel, "The Prince of Destiny," Mr. Surat +Kumar Ghosh lays repeated emphasis on the impression produced in India +some years earlier by the defeat of the Italian forces in Abyssinia. +Each of the above points has its own importance and deserves to be +closely studied, for upon the way in which we shall in the future handle +some of the delicate questions which they raise will largely depend our +failure or our success in coping with Indian unrest--that is, in +preventing its invasion of other classes than those to which it has been +hitherto confined. But the clue to the real spirit which informs Indian +unrest must be sought elsewhere. + +Two misconceptions appear to prevail very widely at home with regard to +the nature of the unrest. The first is that disaffection of a virulent +and articulate character is a new phenomenon in India; the second is +that the existing: disaffection represents a genuine, if precocious and +misdirected, response on the part of the Western educated classes to the +democratic ideals of the modern Western world which our system of +education has imported into India. It is easy to account for the +prevalence of both these misconceptions. We are a people of notoriously +short memory, and, when a series of sensational dastardly crimes, +following on a tumultuous agitation in Bengal and a campaign of +incredible violence in the native Press, at last aroused and alarmed the +British public, the vast majority of Englishmen were under the +impression that since the black days of the Mutiny law and order had +never been seriously assailed in India, and they therefore rushed to the +conclusion that, if the _pax Britannica_ had been so rudely and suddenly +shaken, the only possible explanation lay in some novel wave of +sentiment or some grievous administrative blunder which had abruptly +disturbed the harmonious relations between the rulers and the ruled. +People had forgotten that disaffection in varying forms and degrees of +intensity has existed at all times amongst certain sections of the +population, and under the conditions of our rule can hardly be expected +to disappear altogether. Whether British statesmanship has always +sufficiently reckoned with its existence is another question. More than +30 years ago, for instance, the Government of India had to pass a Bill +dealing with the aggressive violence of the vernacular Press on +precisely the same grounds that were alleged in support of this year's +Press Bill, and with scarcely less justification, whilst just 13 years +ago two British officials fell victims at Poona to a murderous +conspiracy, prompted by a campaign of criminal virulence in the Press, +closely resembling those which have more recently robbed India of many +valuable lives. + +To imagine that Indian unrest has been a sudden growth because its +outward manifestations have assumed new and startling forms of violence +is a dangerous delusion; and no less misleading is the assumption that +it is merely the outcome of Western education or the echo of Western +democratic aspirations, because it occasionally, and chiefly for +purposes of political expediency, adopts the language of Western +demagogues. Whatever its modes of expression, its main spring is a +deep-rooted antagonism to all the principles upon which Western society, +especially in a democratic country like England, has been built up. It +is in that antagonism--in the increasing violence of that +antagonism--which is a conspicuous feature of the unrest, that the +gravest danger lies. + +But if in this respect the problems with which we are confronted appear +to me more serious and complex than official optimism is sometimes +disposed to admit, I have no hesitation is saying that there is no cause +for despondency if we will only realize how strong our position in India +still is, and use our strength wisely and sympathetically, but, at the +same time, with firmness and consistency. It is important to note at the +outset that the more dangerous forms of unrest are practically confined +to the Hindus, and amongst them to a numerically small proportion of the +vast Hindu community. Not a single Mahomedan has been implicated in, +though some have fallen victims to, the criminal conspiracies of the +last few years. Not a single Mahomedan of any account is to be found in +the ranks of disaffected politicians. For reasons, in fact, which I +shall set forth later on, it may be confidently asserted that never +before have the Mahomedans of India as a whole identified their +interests and their aspirations so closely as at the present day with +the consolidation and permanence of British rule. It is almost a +misnomer to speak of Indian unrest. Hindu unrest would be a far more +accurate term, connoting with far greater precision the forces +underlying it, though to use it without reservation would be to do a +grave injustice to the vast numbers of Hindus who are as yet untainted +with disaffection. These include almost all the Hindu ruling chiefs and +landed aristocracy, as well as the great mass of the agricultural +classes which form in all parts of India the overwhelming majority of +the population. Very large areas, moreover, are still entirely free from +unrest, which, except for a few sporadic outbreaks in other districts, +has been hitherto mainly confined to three distinct areas--the Mahratta +Deccan, which comprises a great part of the Bombay Presidency and +several districts of the Central Provinces, Bengal, with the new +province of Eastern Bengal, and the Punjab. In those regions it is the +large cities that have been the real hot-beds of unrest, and, great as +is their influence, it must not be forgotten that in India scarcely +one-tenth of the population lives in cities, or even in small townships +with more than 5,000 inhabitants. Whereas in England one-third of the +population is gathered together in crowded cities of 100,000 inhabitants +and over, there are but twenty-eight cities of that size in the whole of +India, with an aggregate population of less than 7,000,000 out of a +total of almost 300,000,000. + +That a movement confined to a mere fraction of the population of India +has no title to be called a "national" movement would scarcely need to +be argued, even if the variegated jumble of races and peoples, castes +and creeds that make up the population of India were not in itself an +antithesis to all that the word "national" implies. Nevertheless it +would be equally foolish to underrate the forces which underlie this +movement, for they have one common _nexus_, and a very vital one. They +are the dominant forces of Hinduism--forces which go to the very root of +a social and religious system than which none in the history of the +human race has shown greater vitality and stability. Based upon caste, +the most rigid of all social classifications, Hinduism has secured for +some 3,000 years or more to the higher castes, and especially to the +Brahmans, the highest of all castes, a social supremacy for which there +is no parallel elsewhere. At the same time, inflexibly as they have +dominated Hinduism, these higher castes have themselves preserved a +flexibility of mind and temper which has enabled them to adapt +themselves with singular success to the vicissitudes of changing times +without any substantial sacrifice of their inherited traditions and +aspirations. Thus it is amongst high-caste Hindus that for the last +three-quarters of a century English education has chiefly spread, and, +indeed, been most eagerly welcomed; it is amongst them that British +administration has recruited the great majority of its native servants +in every branch of the public service; it is amongst them also that are +chiefly recruited the liberal professions, the Press, the +schoolmasters--in fact all those agencies through which public opinion +and the mind of the rising generation are most easily moulded and +directed. That it is amongst them also that the spirit of revolt against +British ascendency is chiefly and almost exclusively rife constitutes +the most ominous feature of Indian unrest. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +SWARAJ ON THE PLATFORM AND IN THE PRESS. + + +Before proceeding to describe the methods by which Indian unrest has +been fomented, and to study as far as possible its psychology, it may be +well to set forth succinctly the political purpose to which it is +directed, as far as there is any unity of direction. One of the chief +difficulties one encounters in attempting to define its aims is the +vagueness that generally characterizes the pronouncements of Indian +politicians. There is, indeed, one section that makes no disguise either +of its aspirations or of the way in which it proposes to secure their +fulfilment. Its doctrines are frankly revolutionary, and it openly +preaches propaganda by deed--i.e., by armed revolt, if and when it +becomes practicable, and, in the meantime, by assassination, dynamite +outrages, dacoities, and all the other methods of terrorism dear to +anarchists all over the world. But that section is not very numerous, +nor would it in itself be very dangerous, if it did not exercise so +fatal a fascination upon the immature mind of youth. The real difficulty +begins when one comes to that much larger section of "advanced" +politicians who are scarcely less bitterly opposed to the maintenance of +British rule, but, either from prudential motives or lest they should +prematurely alarm and alienate the representatives of what is called +"moderate" opinion, shrink from the violent assertion of India's claim +to complete political independence and, whilst helping to create the +atmosphere that breeds outrages, profess to deprecate them. + +The difficulty is further enhanced by the reluctance of many of the +"moderates" to break with their "advanced" friends by proclaiming, once +and for all, their own conviction that within no measurable time can +India in her own interests afford to forgo the guarantees of internal +peace and order and external security which the British _Raj_ alone can +afford. Hence the desire on both sides to find some common denominator +in a nebulous formula which each can interpret as to time and manner +according to its own desires and aims. That formula seems to have been +discovered in the term _Swaraj_, or self-rule, which, when +euphemistically translated into Colonial self-government for India, +offers the additional advantage of presenting the political aspirations +of Indian "Nationalism" in the form least likely to alarm Englishmen, +especially those who do not care or wish to look below the surface and +whose sympathies are readily won by any catchword that appeals to +sentimental Liberalism. Now if _Swaraj_, or Colonial self-government, +represents the _minimum_ that will satisfy Indian Nationalists, it is +important to know exactly what in their view it really means. +Fortunately on this point we have some _data_ of indisputable authority. +They are furnished in the speeches of an "advanced" leader, who does not +rank amongst the revolutionary extremists, though his refusal to give +evidence in the trial of a seditious newspaper with which he had been +connected brought him in 1907 within the scope of the Indian Criminal +Code. Mr. Bepin Chandra Pal, a high-caste Hindu and a man of great +intellectual force and high character, has not only received a Western +education, but has travelled a great deal in Europe and in America, and +is almost as much at home in London as in Calcutta. A little more than +three years ago he delivered in Madras a series of lectures on the "New +Spirit," which have been republished in many editions and may be +regarded as the most authoritative programme of "advanced" political +thought in India. What adds greatly to the significance of those +speeches is that Mr. Pal borrowed their keynote from the Presidential +address delivered in the preceding year by the veteran leader of the +"moderates," Mr. Dadabhai Naoroji, at the annual Session of the Indian +National Congress. The rights of India, Mr. Naoroji had said, "can be +comprised in one word--self-government or _Swaraj_, like that of the +United Kingdom or the Colonies." It was reserved for Mr. Pal to define +precisely how such _Swaraj_ could be peacefully obtained and what it +must ultimately lead to. He began by brushing away the notion that any +political concessions compatible with the present dependency of India +upon Great Britain could help India to _Swaraj_. I will quote his own +words, which already foreshadowed the contemptuous reception given by +"advanced" politicians to the reforms embodied in last year's Indian +Councils Act:-- + + You may get a High Court judgeship here, membership + of the Legislative Council there, possibly an Executive + Membership of the Council. Or do you want an expansion + of the Legislative Councils? Do you want that a few Indians + shall sit as your representatives in the House of Commons? + Do you want a large number of Indians in the Civil Service? + Let us see whether 50, 100, 200, or 300 civilians will make + the Government our own.... The whole Civil Service + might be Indian, but the Civil servants have to carry out + orders--they cannot direct, they cannot dictate the policy. + One swallow does not make the summer. One civilian, + 100 or 1,000 civilians in the service of the British Government + will not make that Government Indian. There are traditions, + there are laws, there are policies to which every civilian, be + he black or brown or white, must submit, and as long as + these traditions have not been altered, as long as these principles + have not been amended, as long as that policy has not + been radically changed, the supplanting of European by + Indian agency will not make for self-government in this + country. + +Nor is it from the British Government that Mr. Pal looks for, or would +accept, _Swaraj_:-- + + If the Government were to come and tell me to-day "Take + _Swaraj" I would say thank you for the gift, but I will not + have that which I cannot acquire by my own hand.... + Our programme is that we shall so work in the country, + so combine the resources of the people, so organize the forces + of the nation, so develop the instincts of freedom in the community, + that by this means we shall--_shall_ in the imperative--compel + the submission to our will of any power that may set + itself against us. + +Equally definite is Mr. Pal as to the methods by which _Swaraj_ is to be +made "imperative." They consist of _Swadeshi_ in the economic domain, +i.e., the encouragement of native industries reinforced by the boycott +of imported goods which will kill British commerce and, in the political +domain, passive resistance reinforced by the boycott of Government +service. + + They say:--Can you boycott all the Government offices? + Whoever said that we would? Whoever said that there + would not be found a single Indian to serve the Government + or the European community here? But what we can do is this. + We can make the Government impossible without entirely + making it impossible for them to find people to serve them. + The administration may be made impossible in a variety of + ways. It is not actually that every deputy magistrate + should say: I won't serve in it. It is not that when one + man resigns nobody will be found to take his place. But + if you create this spirit in the country the Government service + will gradually imbibe this spirit, and a whole office may go + on strike. That does not put an end to the administration, + but it creates endless complications in the work of administration, + and if these complications are created in every + part of the country, the administration will have been brought + to a deadlock and made none the less impossible, for the + primary thing is the prestige of the Government and the + boycott strikes at the root of that prestige.... We + can reduce every Indian in Government service to the position + of a man who has fallen from the dignity of Indian citizenship.... + No man shall receive social honours because he is a + Hakim or a Munsiff or a Huzur Sheristadar.... No law + can compel one to give a chair to a man who comes to his + house. He may give it to an ordinary shopkeeper; he may + refuse it to the Deputy Magistrate or the Subordinate Judge. + He may give his daughter in marriage to a poor beggar, + he may refuse her to the son of a Deputy Magistrate, because + it is absolutely within his rights, absolutely within legal + bounds. + + Passive resistance is recognized as legitimate in England. + It is legitimate in theory even in India, and if it is made + illegal by new legislation, these laws will infringe on the primary + rights of personal freedom and will tread on dangerous + grounds. Therefore it seems to me that by means of the boycott + we shall be able to do the negative work that will have + to be done for the attainment of _Swaraj_. Positive work + will have to be done. Without positive training no self-government + will come to the boycotter. It will (come) + through the organization of our village life; of + our talukas and districts. Let our programme + include the setting up of machinery for popular administration, + and running parallel to, but independent of, the existing + administration of the Government.... In the Providence + of God we shall then be made rulers over many things. + This is our programme. + +But Mr. Pal himself admits that even if this programme can be fulfilled, +this _Swaraj_, this absolute self-rule which he asks for, is +fundamentally incompatible with the maintenance of the British +connexion. + + Is really self-government within the Empire a practicable + ideal? What would it mean? It would mean either no + real self-government for us or no real overlordship for England. + Would we be satisfied with the shadow of self-government? + If not, would England be satisfied with the shadow of overlordship? + In either case England would not be satisfied + with a shadowy overlordship, and we refuse to be satisfied + with a shadowy self-government. And therefore no compromise + is possible under such conditions between self-government + in India and the overlordship of England. If self-government + is conceded to us, what would be England's + position not only in India, but in the British Empire itself? + Self-government means the right of self-taxation; it means + the right of financial control; it means the right of the + people to impose protective and prohibitive tariffs on foreign + imports. The moment we have the right of self-taxation, + what shall we do? We shall not try to be engaged in this + uphill work of industrial boycott. But we shall do what + every nation has done. Under the circumstances in which + we live now, we shall impose a heavy prohibitive protective + tariff upon every inch of textile fabric from Manchester, + upon every blade of knife that comes from Leeds. We shall + refuse to grant admittance to a British soul into our territory. + We would not allow British capital to be engaged in + the development of Indian resources, as it is now engaged. + We would not grant any right to British capitalists to dig + up the mineral wealth of the land and carry it to their own + isles. We shall want foreign capital. But we shall apply + for foreign loans in the open market of the whole world, + guaranteeing the credit of the Indian Government, the + Indian nation, for the repayment of the loan, just as America + has done and is doing, just as Russia is doing now, just as + Japan has been doing of late. And England's commercial + interests would not be furthered in the way these are being + furthered now, under the conditions of popular self-government, + though it might be within the Empire. But what + would it mean within the Empire? It would mean that + England would have to enter into some arrangement with + us for some preferential tariff. England would have to come + to our markets on the conditions that we would impose + upon her for the purpose, if she wanted an open door in + India, and after a while, when we have developed our resources + a little and organized our industrial life, we would want the + open door not only to England, but to every part of the + British Empire. And do you think it is possible for a small + country like England with a handful of population, although + she might be enormously wealthy, to compete on fair and + equitable terms with a mighty continent like India, with + immense natural resources, with her teeming populations, + the soberest and most abstemious populations known to any + part of the world? + + If we have really self-government within the Empire, if + we have the rights of freedom of the Empire as Australia + has, as Canada has, as England has to-day, if we, 300 millions + of people, have that freedom of the Empire, the Empire + would cease to be British. It would be the Indian Empire, + and the alliance between England and India would be absolutely + an unequal alliance. That would be, if we had really + self-government within the Empire, exactly the relation as + co-partners in a co-British or anti-British Empire of the + future; and if the day comes when England will be reduced + to the alternative of having us as an absolutely independent + people or a co-partner with her in the Empire, she would + prefer to have us, like the Japanese, as an ally and no longer + a co-partner, because we are bound to be the predominant + partner in this Imperial firm. Therefore no sane Englishman, + politician or publicist can ever contemplate seriously the + possibility of a self-governing India, like the self-governing + colonies, forming a vital and organic part of the British + Empire. Therefore it is that Lord Morley says that so + long as India remains under the control of Great Britain + the government of India must continue to be a personal + and absolute one. Therefore it seems to me that this ideal, + the practically attainable ideal of self-government within the + Empire, when we analyse it with care, when we study it in + the light of common human psychology, when we study + it in the light of our past experience of the racial characteristics + of the British people, when we study it in the light of past + British history in India and other parts of the world, when + we study and analyse this ideal of self-government within + the Empire, we find it is a far more impracticable thing to + attain than even our ideal _Swaraj_. + +I have quoted Mr. Pal's utterances at some length, because they are the +fullest and the most frank exposition available of what lies beneath the +claim to Colonial self-government as it is understood by "advanced" +politicians. No one can deny the merciless logic with which he analyses +the inevitable results of _Swaraj_, and Englishmen may well be grateful +to him for having disclosed them so fearlessly. British sympathizers who +are reluctant to look behind a formula which commends itself to their +peculiar predilections, naturally dislike any reference to Mr. Pal's +interpretation of Indian "self-government," and would even impugn his +character in order the better to question his authority. But they cannot +get over the fact that in India, very few "moderate" politicians have +had the courage openly to repudiate his programmes, though many of them +realize its dangers, whilst the "extremists" want a much shorter cut to +the same goal. It is only by pledging itself to _Swaraj_ that the Indian +National Congress has been able to maintain a semblance of unity. + +Moreover, if any doubt still lingers as to the inner meaning of _Swaraj_ +and _Swadeshi_, and other kindred war-cries of Indian Nationalism, the +language of the Nationalist Press remains on record to complete our +enlightenment. However incompatible with the maintenance of British rule +may be the propositions set forth by Mr. Bepin Chandra Pal, they contain +no incitement to violence, no virulent diatribes against Englishmen. It +is in the Press rather than on the platform that Indian politicians, +whether "extreme" or merely "advanced" are apt to let themselves go. +They write down to the level of their larger audiences. So little has +hitherto been done to enlighten public opinion at home as to the gravity +of the evil which the recent Indian Press law has at last, though very +tardily, done something to repress that many Englishmen are still +apparently disposed to regard that measure as an oppressive, or at least +dubious, concession to bureaucratic impatience of criticism none the +less healthy for being sometimes excessive.[1] The following quotations, +taken from vernacular papers before the new Press law was enacted, will +serve to show what Lord Morley meant when he said, "You may put picric +acid in the ink and the pen just as much as in any steel bomb," and +again, "It is said that these incendiary articles are 'mere froth.' Yes, +they are froth, but froth stained with bloodshed." Even when they +contain no definite incitement to murder, no direct exhortation to +revolt, they will show how systematically, how persistently the wells of +Indian public opinion have been poisoned for years past by those who +claim to represent the intelligence and enlightenment of modern India. +Only too graphically also do they illustrate one of the most +unpleasantly characteristic features of the literature of Indian +unrest--namely, its insidious appeals to the Hindu Scriptures and the +Hindu deities, and its deliberate vilification of everything English. +Calumny and abuse, combined with a wealth of sacred imagery, supply the +place of any serious process of reasoning such as is displayed in Mr. +Pal's programme with all its uncompromising hostility. + +In the first place, a few specimens of the hatred which animates the +champions of _Swaraj_--of Indian independence, or, at least, of Colonial +self-government. The _Hind Swarajya_ is nothing if not plain-spoken:-- + + Englishmen! Who are Englishmen? They are the present + rulers of this country. But how did they become + our rulers? By throwing the noose of dependence round our + necks, by making us forget our old learning, by leading us + along the path of sin, by keeping us ignorant of the use of + arms.... Oh! my simple countrymen! By their + teaching adultery has entered our homes, and women have + begun to be led astray.... Alas! Has India's golden + land lost all her heroes? Are all eunuchs, timid and afraid, + forgetful of their duty, preferring to die a slow death of torture, + silent witnesses of the ruin of their country? Oh! + Indians, descended from a race of heroes! Why are you afraid + of Englishmen? They are not gods, but men like yourselves, + or, rather, monsters who have ravished your Sita-like beauty + [Sita, the spouse of Rama, was abducted by the demon + Ravana, and recovered with the help of the Monkey God + Hanuman and his army of monkeys]. If there be any Rama + amongst you, let him go forth to bring back your Sita. Raise + the banner of Swadesh, crying Victory to the Mother! Rescue + the truth and accomplish the good of India. + +The Calcutta _Yugantar_ argues that "sedition has no meaning from the +Indian standpoint." + + If the whole nation is inspired to throw off its yoke and + become independent, then in the eye of God and the eye of + Justice whose claim is more reasonable, the Indian's or the + Englishman's? The Indian has come to see that independence + is the panacea for all his evils. He will therefore even + swim in a sea of blood to reach his goal. The British + dominion over India is a gross myth. It is because the Indian + holds this myth in his bosom that his sufferings are so great + to-day. Long ago the Indian Rishis [inspired sages] preached + the destruction of falsehood and the triumph of truth. And + this foreign rule based on injustice is a gross falsehood. It + must be subverted and true _Swadeshi_ rule established. May + truth be victorious! + +The _Gujarat_ hails the Hindu New Year which is coming "to take away the +curse of the foreigners":-- + + Oh noble land of the Aryas, thou who wert so great art like + a caged bird. Are thy powerful sons, Truth and Love, dead? + Has thy daughter Lakshmi plunged into the sea? or art + thou overwhelmed with grief because rogues and demons + have plundered thee? ["Demons" is the term usually affected + by Nationalist journalists when they refer to Englishmen.] + +The _Shakti_ declares that:-- + + By whatever names--anarchists, extremists, or seditionists + --those may be called who are taking part in the movement + for independence, whatever efforts may be made to humiliate + and to crush them, however many patriots may be sent to + jail, or into exile, yet the spirit pervading the whole atmosphere + will never be checked, for the spirit is so strong and spontaneous + that it must clearly be directed by Divine Providence. + +The following appears In the _Kal_ (Poona):-- + + We Aryans are no sheep. We have our own country, our + religion, our heroes, our statesmen, our soldiers. We do + not owe them to contact with the English. These things + are not new to us. When the ancestors of those who boast + to-day of their enterprise and their civilization were in a + disgusting state of barbarism, or rather centuries before then, + we were in full possession of all the ennobling qualities of + head and heart. This holy and hoary land of ours will surely + regain her position and be once more by her intrinsic lustre + the home of wealth, arts, and peace. A holy inspiration + is spreading, that people must sacrifice their lives in the + cause of what has once been determined to be their duty. + Heroes are springing up in our midst, though brutal imprisonment + reduce them to skeletons. Let us devote ourselves + to the service of the Mother. A man maddened by + devotion will do everything and anything to achieve his + ideal. His strength will be adamantine. Just as a widow + immolates herself on the funeral pyre of her husband, let + us die for the Mother. + +The _Dharma_ (Calcutta) emphasizes specially the religious side of the +movement:-- + + We are engaged in preaching religion and we are putting + our energy into this agitation, looking on it as the principal + part of our religion.... The present agitation, in its + initial stages, had a strong leaven of the spirit of Western + politics in it, but at present a clear consciousness of Aryan + greatness and a strong love and reverential spirit towards + the Motherland have transformed it into a shape in which + the religious element predominates. Politics is part of religion, + but it has to be cultivated in an Aryan way, in accordance + with the precepts of Aryan religion. + +Nowhere is the cult of the "terrible goddess," worshipped under many +forms, but chiefly under those of Kali and Durga, more closely +associated with Indian unrest than in Bengal. Hence the frequency of the +appeals to her in the Bengal Press. The _Dacca Gazette_ welcomes the +festival of Durga with the following outburst:-- + + Indian brothers! There is no more time for lying asleep. + Behold, the Mother is coming. Oh Mother, the giver of all + good! Turn your eyes upon your degraded children. Mother, + they are now stricken with disease and sorrow. Oh Shyama, + the reliever of the three kinds of human afflictions, relieve + our sorrows. Come Mother, the destroyer of the demons, + and appear at the gates of Bengal. + +The Barisal _Hitaishi_ refers also to the Durga festival, in which the +weird and often horrible and obscene rites of _Skakti_ worship not +infrequently play a conspicuous part:-- + + What have we learnt from the _Shakti Puja_? Sooner or + later this great _Puja_ will yield the desired results. When the + Hindus realize the true magnificence of the worship of the + Mother, they will be roused from the slumber of ages, and + the auspicious dawn of awakenment will light up the horizon. + You must acquire great power from the worship of the Mother. + Ganesh, the god who grants success, has his seat assigned + to him on the left of the great Mother. Why should you + despair of obtaining success? Look at Kartiki, the god + who is the chief commander of the armies of the gods, who + has stationed himself to the right of the Mother; he is + coming forward with his bow, to assist you against the demons + of sin, who stand in the way of your accomplishing that great + object, and as he is up in arms, who can resist? + +The _Khulnavasi_ breaks out into poetry:-- + + For what sins, O Mother Durga, are thy sons thus dispirited + and their hearts crushed with injustice? The demons + are in the ascendant, and constantly triumphing over godliness. + Awake, Oh Mother, who tramplest on the demons! + Thy helpless sons, lean for want of food, worn out in the + struggle with the demons, are, struck with terror at the way + in which they are being ruled. Famine and plague and + disease are rife, and unrighteousness triumphs. Awake, Oh + Goddess Durga! I see the lightning flashing from the + point of thy bow, the world quaking at thy frowns, and + creation trembling under thy tread. Let a river of blood + flow, overwhelming the hearts of the demons. + +The _Kalyani_ chides the Hindus for breaking their _Swadeshi_ vows to +Durga:-- + + You have made all sorts of vows to stick to Swadeshi, + but you are still using _bilati_ [foreign] salt, sugar, and + cloths which are polluted with the blood and fat of animals. + You swear by the Mother, and then you go and disobey her + and defile her temples. Do you know that it is owing to your + sins that Mother Durga has not come to accept your worship + in Bengal this year? In fact, she is heaving deep sighs of + sorrow--sighs which will bring a cataclysmic storm upon you. + If you still care to save your country from utter ruin, mend + your ways and keep your promises to the Mother. + +In other provinces where other deities are more popular it is they who +are similarly called in aid. The _Bedari_ of Lahore, for instance, +reproduces from the Puranas the story of the tyrant Rajah Harnakath, who +brought death on himself at the hands of Vishnu for attempting to kill +his son Prahlad, whose offence was that he believed in God and +championed the cause of justice, in order to liken British statesmen and +Anglo-Indian officials to the wicked Rajah and the Indians to Prahlad. +As most British statesmen and their representatives abroad are the +enemies of liberty and justice and support slavery and oppression, the +fall of Great Britain is near at hand, and India will then pass into the +possession of her own sons. + +The _Prem_ of Firozpur is inclined even to give Mr. Keir Hardie a niche +in the Hindu Pantheon. Its editor dreamt he was at a meeting in a free +and contented country. It was attended by some other Indians, and one of +them recited verses bewailing the condition of India, which was once a +heaven on earth and was now converted into a hell by its foreign rulers, +&c. After prayers had been recited for India, some heavenly beings +appeared, one of whom swore to do his best to relieve the sufferings of +Indians. The editor learnt on inquiry that the dream country was +England, the Indian speaker Bepin Chandra Pal, and the heavenly being +Mr. Keir Hardie! + +The _Sahaik_, of Lahore, furnishes an apt illustration of the scurrilous +abuse and calumny which constitute one of the favourite weapons of Hindu +writers. Referring to the Malaria Conference held last year, it begins +by remarking that when a famine occurs-- + + relief works are opened only when the sufferings of the famine-stricken + become acute, and their supervision is entrusted + to a fat-salaried Englishman who swallows up half the collections, + which amount could have fed hundreds of the poor + people. Thus also with the forthcoming inquiries concerning + malarial fever, which is spreading all over the country. + Every Indian knows that, like the plague, this form of fever + is due to the poverty and consequent physical weakness + of the people. It is, however, to the mosquito that the + authorities went for the causes of the disease, just as to + the rats for the causes of plague. Different medicines + and instruments were invented for extirpating the insect, + doctors were also employed, and rewards paid for the writing + of books. In this way crores of rupees went into the pockets + of English shopkeepers and others. A trial is now being + given to quinine, and lakhs-worth sold to Indians, English + quinine manufacturers being thus enriched. Again a commission + is about to sit on the heights of Simla. The commissioners + will enjoy feasts and dances and drink brandy which + will cost poor natives lakhs of rupees, and afterwards they + will devise means to develop the trade in quinine or other + drugs. + +The Ranjpur _Vartabaha_ writes that in the local charitable dispensary a +surgical operation was performed on a patient who died in two hours, and +that a similar operation on a pregnant woman resulted in her death. It +adds, with delicate sarcasm, that "the Chief Medical Officer should get +his salary increased." The idea that Englishmen deliberately want to +depopulate India is one that is sedulously propagated. Thus the _Jhang +Sial_ jeers at British "generosity" which has "converted India, one of +the richest countries in the world, into the land of the starving," and +British "wisdom" for wishing to "starve out the natives and reign over +empty brick and mortar buildings." + +The _Akash_ (Delhi), referring to the pension granted to the widow of +Sir W. Curzon Wyllie, asks whether "the English can hold up their heads +after this. Even their widows are fed by India. A nation whose widows +are fed by another should never boast that it is an Imperial and +self-respecting nation." + +In the same spirit another Punjab paper argues ironically from the +speech of a Mahomedan member of the Punjab Legislative Council in +condemnation of Dhingra that "all the white-skinned Europeans, including +the English rulers of India, must be the lowest born people in the +world, seeing that they are in the habit of killing natives every day." + +No public servants who venture to discharge their duty loyally fare +worse at the hands of the Nationalist Press than Judges--especially if +they are Indians. Mr. Justice Davar was the Parsee Judge who sentenced +Tilak. The _Kesari_ declared that "he had already settled the sentence +in his own mind after a careful consideration of external +circumstances," and "had made himself the laughing-stock of the whole +world, like the meddlesome monkey in the fable who came to grief in +trying to pull out the peg 'from a half-sawed beam,'" Now the _Kesari_ +was Tilak's own paper, and he was convicted on two seditious articles +that had appeared in its columns, but the _Kal_, another Poona sheet, +also maintained that everything was done on a prearranged plan. "There +is no sense in saying that Mr. Tilak was sentenced according to law. +There was mockery of justice, not justice." It added that "if the Hindus +are to suppose Mr. Tilak guilty because an English Court of Justice had +condemned him, Christians will have to forswear Christ because He was +crucified by a Roman Court." The _Karnatak Vaibhau_ recalled the story +of the notorious washerman who, by scandalizing Rama, had been +immortalized in the Ramayana. In the same way the names of Strachey--who +sentenced Tilak at his first trial in 1897--and Davar would be +remembered as long as history endured. + +Quotations could be multiplied _ad infinitum_ and _ad nauseam_ from the +same papers--I have given only one from each--and from scores of others. +These will suffice to show what the freedom of the Press stood for in +India, in a country where there is an almost superstitious reverence +for, and faith in, the printed word, where the influence of the Press is +in proportion to the ignorance of the vast majority of its readers, and +where, unfortunately the more violent and scurrilous a newspaper +becomes, the more its popularity grows among the very classes that boast +of their education. They are by no means obscure papers, and some of +them, such as the _Kal_ the _Hind Swarajya_, and especially the +_Yugantar,_ which became at one time a real power in Bengal, achieved a +circulation hitherto unknown to the Indian Press. Can any Englishman, +however fervent his faith in liberty, regret that some at least of these +papers have now disappeared either as the result of prosecutions under +the Indian Criminal Code or from the operation of the new Press Law? The +mischief they have done still lives and will not be easily eradicated. +It is the fashion in certain quarters to reply:--"But look at the +Anglo-Indian newspapers, at the aggressive and contemptuous tone they +assume towards the natives of India, at the encouragement they +constantly give to racial hatred." Though I am not concerned to deny +that, in the columns of a few English organs, there may be occasional +lapses from good taste and right feeling, such sweeping charges against +the Anglo-Indian Press as a whole are absolutely grotesque, and its most +malevolent critics would be at a loss to quote anything, however +remotely, resembling the exhortations to hatred and violence which have +been the stock-in-trade not only of the most popular newspapers in the +vernaculars, but of some even of the leading newspapers published in +English, but edited and owned by Indians. + +Even such extracts as I have given above from vernacular newspapers do +not by any means represent the lengths to which Indian "extremism" can +go. They represent merely the literature of unrest which has been openly +circulated in India. There is another and still more poisonous form +which is smuggled into India from abroad and surreptitiously circulated. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +A HINDU REVIVAL + + +Thirty years ago, when I first visited India, the young Western-educated +Hindu was apt to be, at least intellectually, _plus royaliste que le +roi._ he plucked with both hands at the fruits of the tree of Western +knowledge. Some were enthusiastic students of English literature, and +especially of English poetry. They had their Wordsworth and their +Browning Societies. Others steeped themselves in English history and +loved to draw their political inspiration from Milton and Burke and John +Stuart Mill. Others, again, were the humble disciples of Kant and +Schlegel, of Herbert Spencer and Darwin. But whatever their special +talent bent might be, the vast majority professed allegiance to Western +ideals, and if they had not altogether-and often far too +hastily-abjured, or learned secretly to despise, the beliefs and customs +of their forefathers, they were at any rate anxious to modify and bring +them into harmony with those of their Western teachers. They may often +have disliked the Englishman, but they respected and admired him; if +they resented his frequent assumption of the unqualified superiority, +they were disposed to admit that it was not without justification. The +enthusiasm kindled in the first half of the last century by the great +missionaries, like Carey and Duff, who had made distinguished converts +among the highest classes of Hindu society, had begun to wane; but if +educated Hindus had grown more reluctant to accept the dogmas of +Christianity, they were still ready to acknowledge the superiority of +Western ethics, and the Brahmo Samaj in Bengal, the Prarthana Samaj in +Bombay, the Social Reform movement which found eloquent advocates all +over India, and not least in Madras, and other agencies of a similar +character for purging Hindu life of its more barbarous and superstitious +associations, bore witness to the ascendancy which Western standards of +morality exercised over the Hindu mind. Keshub Chunder Sen was not +perhaps cast in so fine a mould as Ram Mohan Roy or the more +conservative Dr. Tagore, but his ideals were the same, and his +life-dream was to find a common denominator for Hinduism and +Christianity which should secure a thorough reform of Hindu society +without denationalizing it. + +Nor were the milder forms of political activity promoted by the founders +of the Indian National Congress inconsistent with the acceptance of +British rule or with the recognition of the great benefits which it has +conferred upon India, and least of all with a genuine admiration for +Western civilization. For many of them at least the political boons +which they craved from their rulers were merely the logical corollaries +of the moral and intellectual as well as of the material boons which +they had already received. The fierce political agitation of later years +denies the benefits of British rule and even the superiority of the +civilization for which it stands. It has invented the legend of a golden +age, when all the virtues flourished and India was a land flowing with +milk and honey until British lust of conquest brought it to ruin. No +doubt even to-day there are many eminent Hindus who would still rely +upon the older methods, and who have sufficiently assimilated the +education they have received at the hands of Englishmen to share +wholeheartedly the faith and pride of the latter in British ideals of +liberty and self-government, and to be honestly convinced that those +ideals might be more fully realized in the government of their own +country if British administrators would only repose greater confidence +in the natives of India and give them a larger share in the conduct of +public affairs. But men of this type are now to be found chiefly amongst +the older generation. + +No one who has studied, however scantily, the social and religious +system which for the sake of convenience we call Hinduism will deny the +loftiness of the philosophic conceptions which underlie even the +extravagances of its creed or the marvellous stability of the complex +fabric based upon its social code. It may seem to us to present in many +of its aspects an almost unthinkable combination of spiritualistic +idealism and of gross materialism, of asceticism and of sensuousness, of +over-weening arrogance when it identifies the human self with the +universal self and merges man in the Divinity and the Divinity in man, +and of demoralizing pessimism when it preaches that life itself is but a +painful illusion, and that the sovereign remedy and end of all evils is +non-existence. Its mythology is often as revolting as the rigidity of +its caste laws, which condemn millions of human beings to such social +abasement that their very touch--the very shadow thrown by their +body--is held to pollute the privileged mortals who are born into the +higher castes. Nevertheless, Hinduism has for more than thirty centuries +responded to the social and religious aspirations of a considerable +fraction of the human race. It represents a great and ancient +civilization, and that the Hindus should cling to it is not surprising. +Nor is it surprising that after the first attraction exerted by the +impact of an alien civilization equipped with all the panoply of +organized force and scientific achievements had worn off, a certain +reaction should have ensued. In the same way it was inevitable that, +after the novelty of British rule, of the law and order and security for +life and property which it had established, had gradually worn away, +those who had never experienced the evils from which it had freed India +should begin to chafe under the restraints which it imposed. What is +disheartening and alarming are the lengths to which this reaction has +been carried. For among the younger generation of Hindus there has +unquestionably grown up a deep-seated and bitter hostility not only to +British rule and to British methods of administration, but to all the +influences of Western civilization, and the rehabilitation of Hindu +customs and beliefs has proceeded _pari passu_ with the growth of +political disaffection. + +Practices which an educated Hindu would have been at pains to explain +away, if he had not frankly repudiated them thirty years ago, now find +zealous apologists. Polytheism is not merely extolled as the poetic +expression of eternal verities, but the gods and goddesses of the Hindu +pantheon are being invested with fresh sanctity. The Brahmo Saniaj is +still a great influence for good, but it appears to be gradually losing +vitality, and though its literary output is still considerable, its +membership is shrinking. The Prarthana Samaj is moribund. The fashion of +the day is for religious "revivals," in which the worship of Kali, the +sanguinary goddess of destruction, or the cult of Shivaji-Maharaj, the +Mahratta chieftain who humbled in his day the pride of the alien +conquerors of Hindustan, plays an appropriately conspicuous part. The +Arya-Samaj, which is spreading all over the Punjab and in the United +Provinces, represents in one of its aspects a revolt against Hindu +orthodoxy, but in another it represents equally a revolt against Western +ideals, for in the teachings of its founder, Dayanand, it has found an +aggressive gospel which bases the claims of Aryan, _i.e._, Hindu, +supremacy on the Vedas as the one ultimate source of human and Divine +wisdom. The exalted character of Vedantic philosophy has been as widely +recognized among European students as the subtle beauty of many of the +Upanishads, in which the cryptic teachings of the Vedas have been +developed along different and often conflicting lines of thought to +suit the eclecticism of the Hindu mind. But the Arya-Samaj has not been +content to assert the ethical perfection of the Vedas. In its zeal to +proclaim the immanent superiority of Aryan civilization--it repudiates +the term Hindu as savouring of an alien origin--over Western +civilization, it claims to have discovered in the Vedas the germs of all +the discoveries of modern science, even to wireless telegraphy and +aeroplanes. + +Just as the political agitation in India has derived invaluable +encouragement from a handful of British members of Parliament and other +sympathizers in Europe and America, so this Hindu revival has been +largely stimulated and to some extent prompted by Europeans and +Americans. Not only the writings of English and German scholars, like +Max Müller and Deutsch, helped enormously to revive the interest of +educated Hindus in their ancient literature and earlier forms of +religion, but it was in the polemical tracts of European writers that +the first protagonists of Hindu reaction against Christian influences +found their readiest weapons of attack. The campaign was started in 1887 +by the Hindu Tract Society of Madras, which set itself first to inflame +popular fanaticism against the missionaries, who, especially in the +south of India, had been the pioneers of Western education. Bradlaugh's +text-books and the pamphlets of many lesser writers belonging to the +same school of thought were eagerly translated into the vernacular, and +those that achieved the greatest popularity were books like "The Evil of +Continence," in which not only Christian theology, but Christian +morality was held up to scorn and ridicule. The advent of the +theosophists, heralded by Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott, gave a +fresh impetus to the revival, and certainly no Hindu has done so much to +organize and consolidate the movement as Mrs. Annie Besant, who, in her +Central Hindu College at Benares and her Theosophical Institution at +Adyar, near Madras, has openly proclaimed her faith in the superiority +of the whole Hindu system to the vaunted civilization of the West. Is it +surprising that Hindus should turn their backs upon our civilization[2] +when a European of highly-trained intellectual power and with an +extraordinary gift of eloquence comes and tells them that it is they who +possess and have from all times possessed the key to supreme wisdom; +that their gods, their philosophy, their morality are on a higher plane +of thought than the West has ever reached? Is it surprising that with +such encouragement Hinduism should no longer remain on the defensive, +but, discarding in this respect all its own traditions as a +non-proselytizing creed, should send out missionaries to preach the +message of Hindu enlightenment to those still groping in the darkness of +the West? The mission of Swami Vivekananda to the Chicago Congress of +Religions is in itself one of the most striking incidents in the history +of Hindu revivalism, but it is perhaps less wonderful than the triumph +he achieved when he returned to India accompanied by a chosen band of +eager disciples from the West. + +There are, indeed, endless forms to this revival of Hinduism--as endless +as to Hinduism itself--but what it is perhaps most important for us to +note is that, wherever political agitation assumes the most virulent +character, there the Hindu revival also assumes the most extravagant +shapes. Secret societies place their murderous activities under the +special patronage of one or other of the chief popular deities. Their +vows are taken "on the sacred water of the Ganges," or "holding the +sacred Tulsi plant," or "in the presence of Mahadevi"--the great +goddess who delights in bloody sacrifices, Charms and amulets, +incantations and imprecations, play an important part in the ceremonies +of initiation. In some quarters there has been some recrudescence of +the _Shakti_ cultus, with its often obscene and horrible rites, and the +unnatural depravity which was so marked a feature in the case of the +band of young Brahmans who conspired to murder Mr. Jackson at Nasik +represents a form of erotomania which is certainly much more common +amongst Hindu political fanatics than amongst Hindus in general. + +By no means all, however, are of this degenerate type, and the _Bhagvat +Gita_ has been impressed into the service of sedition by men who would +have been as incapable of dabbling in political as in any other form of +crime, had they not been able to invest it with a religious sanction. +There is no more beautiful book in the sacred literature of the Hindus; +there is none in which the more enlightened find greater spiritual +comfort; yet it is in the _Bhagvat Gita_ that, by a strange perversion, +the Hindu conspirator has sought and claims to have found texts that +justify murder as a divinely inspired deed when it is committed in the +sacred cause of Hinduism. Nor is it only the extremists who appeal in +this fashion to Hindu religious emotionalism. It is often just as +difficult to appraise the subtle differences which separate the +"moderate" from the "advanced" politician and the "advanced" politician +from the extremist as it is to distinguish between the various forms and +gradations of the Hindu revival in its religious and social aspects. But +it was in the courtyard of the great temple of Kali at Calcutta in the +presence of "the terrible goddess" that the "leaders of the Bengali +nation," men who, like Mr. Surendranath Banerjee, have always professed +to be "moderates," held their chief demonstrations against "partition" +and administered the _Swadeshi_ oath to their followers. Equally +noteworthy is the part played by the revival of Ganpati celebrations in +honour of Ganesh, the elephant-headed god, perhaps the most popular of +all Hindu deities, in stimulating political disaffection in the Deccan. + +Hand in hand with this campaign for the glorification of Hinduism at the +expense of Western civilization there has been carried on another and +far more invidious campaign for the vilification of everything British. +The individual Englishman is denounced as a bloodsucker and a tyrant; +his personal integrity is impugned and derided; his methods of +administration are alleged to be wilfully directed to the +impoverishment, and even to the depopulation, of India; his social +customs are traduced as depraved and corrupt; even his women-folk are +accused of common wantonness. This systematized form of personal calumny +is a scarcely less significant feature of the literature of Indian +unrest than its appeals to the Hindu scriptures and to the Hindu deities +and its exploitation of the religious sentiment for the promotion of +racial hatred. _Swadeshi_ and _Swaraj_ are the battle-cries of this new +Hindu "nationalism," but they mean far more than a mere claim to fiscal +or even political independence. They mean an organized uplifting of the +old Hindu traditions, social and religious, intellectual and moral, +against the imported ideals of an alien race and an alien civilization, +and the sincerity of some, at least, of the apostles of this new creed +cannot be questioned. With Mr. Arabindo Ghose, they firmly believe that +"the whole moral strength of the country is with us, justice is with us, +nature is with us, and the law of God, which is higher than any human +law, justifies our action." + +This is a grave phenomenon not to be contemptuously dismissed as the +folly of ill-digested knowledge or summarily judged and condemned, in a +spirit of self-righteousness, as an additional proof of the innate +depravity and ingratitude of the East. It undoubtedly represents a deep +stirring of the waters amongst a people endowed with no mean gifts of +head and heart, and if it has thrown up much scum, it affords glimpses +of nobler elements which time may purify and bring to the surface. Nor +if our rule and our civilization are to prevail must we be unmindful of +our own responsibility or forget that our presence and the influences we +brought with us first stirred the waters. + +The part played by Brahmanism in Indian unrest is far more conspicuous +in some parts of India than in others, and for reasons which are +generally not far to seek. Wherever it has been most active, it connotes +perhaps more than anything else the reactionary side of that unrest. +Though there have been and still are many enlightened Brahmans who have +cordially responded to the best influences of Western education, and +have worked with admirable zeal and courage to bridge the gulf between +Indian and European civilization, Brahmanism as a system represents the +antipodes of all that British rule must stand for in India, and +Brahmanism has from times immemorial dominated Hindu society--dominated +it, according to the Hindu Nationalists, for its salvation. "If," writes +one of them, "Mother India, though reduced to a mere skeleton by the +oppression of alien rulers during hundreds of years, still preserves her +vitality, it is because the Brahmans have never relaxed in their +devotion to her. She has witnessed political and social revolutions. +Famines and pestilence have shorn her of her splendour. But the Brahmans +have stood by her through all the vicissitudes of fortune. It is they +who raised her to the highest pinnacle of glory, and it is they whose +ministrations still keep up the drooping spirits of her children." + +The Brahmans are the sacerdotal caste of India. They are at the same +time the proudest and the closest aristocracy that the world has ever +seen, for they form not merely an aristocracy of birth in the strictest +sense of the term, but one of divine origin. Of the Brahman it may be +said as of no other privileged mortal except perhaps the Levite of the +Old Testament: _Nascitur non fit_. No king, however powerful, can make +or unmake a Brahman, no genius, however transcendent, no services, +however conspicuous, no virtues, however pre-eminent, can avail to raise +a Hindu from a lower caste to the Brahman's estate. In early times the +caste laws must have been less rigid, for otherwise there would only be +Aryan Brahmans, whereas in the South of India there are many Brahmans +of obviously Dravidian stock. But to-day not even the Brahmans +themselves can raise to their own equal one who is not born of their +caste, though by the exercise of the castely authority they can in +specific cases outcaste a fellow-Brahman who has offended against the +immutable laws of caste, and, except for minor transgressions which +allow of atonement and reinstatement, when once outcasted he and his +descendants cease for ever to be Brahmans. The Brahmans might be at a +loss to make good their claim that they date back to the remote ages of +the Vedas. But a good deal more than two thousand years have passed +since they constituted themselves the only authorized intermediaries +between mankind and the gods. In them became vested the monopoly of the +ancient language in which all religious rites are performed, and with a +monopoly of the knowledge of Sanskrit they retained a monopoly of +learning long after Sanskrit itself had become a dead language. Like the +priests who wielded a Latin pen in the Middle Ages in Europe, they sat +as advisers and conscience-keepers in the councils of every Hindu ruler. +To the present day they alone can expound the Hindu scriptures, they +alone can approach the gods in their temples, they alone can minister to +the spiritual needs of such of the lower castes as are credited with +sufficient human dignity to be in any way worthy of their ministrations. + +In the course of ages differences and distinctions have gradually grown +up amongst them, and they have split up into innumerable septs and +sub-castes. As they multiplied from generation to generation an +increasing proportion were compelled to supplement the avocations +originally sacred to their caste by other and lowlier means of +livelihood. There are to-day over 14 million Brahmans in India, and a +very large majority of them have been compelled to adopt agricultural, +military, and mercantile pursuits which, as we know from the Code of +Manu were already regarded as, in certain circumstances, legitimate or +excusable for a Brahman even in the days of that ancient law-giver. In +regard to all other castes, however, the Brahman, humble as his worldly +_status_ may be, retains an undisputed pre-eminence which he never +forgets or allows to be forgotten, though it may only be a pale +reflection of the prestige and authority of his more exalted +caste-men--a prestige and authority, be it added, which have often been +justified by individual achievements. How far the influence of +Brahmanism as a system has been socially a good or an evil influence I +am not concerned to discuss, but, however antagonistic it may be at the +present moment to the influence of Western civilization, it would be +unfair to deny that it has shown itself and still shows itself capable +of producing a very high type both of intellect and of character. Nor +could it otherwise have survived as it has the vicissitudes of +centuries. + +Neither the triumph of Buddhism, which lasted for nearly 500 years, nor +successive waves of Mahomedan conquest availed to destroy the power of +Brahmanism, nor has it been broken by British supremacy. Inflexibly as +he dominates a social system in all essentials more rigid than any +other, the Brahman has not only recognised the need of a certain +plasticity in its construction which allows for constant expansion, but +he has himself shown unfailing adaptability in all non-essentials to +varying circumstances. To the requirements of their new Western masters +the Brahmans adapted themselves from the first with admirable +suppleness, and when a Western system of education was introduced into +India in the first half of the last century, they were quicker than any +other class to realize how it could be used to fortify their own +position. The main original object of the introduction of Western +education into India was the training of a sufficient number of young +Indians to fill the subordinate posts in the public offices with +English-speaking natives. The Brahmans responded freely to the call, and +they soon acquired almost the same monopoly of the new Western learning +as they had enjoyed of Hindu lore through the centuries. With the +development of the great administrative services, with the substitution +of English for the vernacular tongues as the only official language, +with the remodelling of judicial administration and procedure on British +lines, with the growth of the liberal professions and of the Press, +their influence constantly found new fields of activity, whilst through +the old traditional channels it continued to permeate those strata of +Hindu society with which the West had established little or no contact. + +Nevertheless the spread of Western ideas and habits was bound to loosen +to some extent the Brahmans' hold upon Hindu society, for that hold is +chiefly rooted in the immemorial sanctity of custom, which new habits +and methods imported from the West necessarily tended to undermine. +Scrupulous--and, according to many earnest Englishmen, over-scrupulous--as +we were to respect religious beliefs and prejudices, the influence of +Western civilization could not fail to clash directly or indirectly with +many of the ordinances of Hindu orthodoxy. In non-essentials Brahmanism +soon found it expedient to relax the rigour of caste obligations, as for +instance to meet the hard case of young Hindus who could not travel across +the "black water" to Europe for their studies without breaking caste, or +indeed travel even in their own country in railways and river steamers +without incurring the pollution of bodily contact with the "untouchable" +castes. Penances were at first imposed which had gradually to be lightened +until they came to be merely nominal. Graver issues were raised when such +ancient customs as infant marriage and the degradation of child widows +were challenged. The ferment of new ideas was spreading amongst the +Brahmans themselves. Some had openly discarded their ancestral faith, and +many more were moved to search their own scriptures for some interpretation +of the law less inconsistent with Western standards. It seemed at one +moment as if, under the inspiration of men like Ranade in the Deccan and +Tagore in Bengal, Brahmanism itself was about to take the lead in purging +Hinduism of its most baneful superstitions and bringing it into line with +the philosophy and ethics of the West. But the liberal movement failed to +prevail against the forces of popular superstition and orthodox bigotry, +combined with the bitterness too frequently resulting from the failure +of Western education to secure material success or even an adequate +livelihood for those who had departed from the old ways. Though there +have been and still are many admirable exceptions, Brahmanism remained +the stronghold of reaction against the Western invasion. Of recent +years, educated Brahmans have figured prominently in the social and +religious revival of Hinduism, and they have figured no less +prominently, whether in the ranks of the extremists or amongst the +moderate and advanced politicians, in the political movement which has +accompanied that revival. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +BRAHMANISM AND DISAFFECTION IN THE DECCAN. + + +Fundamental as is the antagonism between the civilization represented by +the British _Raj_ and the essential spirit of Brahmanism. It is not, of +course, always or everywhere equally acute, for there is no more +uniformity about Brahmanism than about any other Indian growth. But in +the Deccan Brahmanism has remained more fiercely militant than in any +other part of India, chiefly perhaps because nowhere had it wielded such +absolute power within times which may still be called recent. Far into +the eighteenth century Poona had been the capital of a theocratic State +in which behind the throne of the Peshwas both spiritual and secular +authority were concentrated in the hands of the Brahmans. Such memories +are slow to die and least of all in an ancient and conservative country +like India, and there was one sept of Brahmans, at any rate, who were +determined not to let them die. + +The Chitpavan Brahmans are undoubtedly the most powerful and the most +able of all the Brahmans of the Deccan. A curious legend ascribes their +origin to the miraculous intervention of Parashurama, the sixth Avatar +of the god Vishnu, who finding no Brahmans to release him by the +accustomed ritual from the defilement of his earthly labours, dragged on +to shore the bodies of fourteen barbarians that he had found washed up +from the ocean, burnt them on a funeral pyre and then breathed life and +Brahmanhood into their ashes. On these new made Brahmans he conferred +the name Chitpavan, which means "purified by fire," and all the land of +the Konkan from which, by a bolt from his arrow, he caused the sea for +ever to recede. Every Chitpavan to-day claims descent from one or other +of the fourteen divinely Brahmanized barbarians, whom some believe to +have been hardy Norsemen driven in their long ships on to the sandy +shores of what is now the Bombay Presidency. At any rate, as has been +well said of them, Western daring and Eastern craft look out alike from +the alert features and clear parchment skin and through the strange +stone-grey eyes of the Chitpavan. It was not, however, till about two +centuries ago that the Chitpavan Brahmans began to play a conspicuous +part in Indian history, when one of this sept, Balaji Vishvanath Rao, +worked his way up at the Court of the Mahratta King Shahu to the +position of Peshwa, or Prime Minister, which he succeeded even in +bequeathing to his son, the great Bajirao Balaji, who led the Mahratta +armies right up to the walls of Delhi. Bajirao's son not only succeeded +as Balaji II., but on the death of King Shahu disposed of his Royal +master's family by a bold Palace conspiracy and openly assumed sovereign +powers. The crushing defeat of Panipat brought him to his grave, and +though the dynasty was still continued, and regained some of its lustre +under Madhao Rao I., the Peshwas subsequently became little more than +_rois fainéants_ in the hands of their Ministers, and especially in +those of the great Regent Nana Phadnavis. He, too, was a Chitpavan +Brahman, and it was under his reign that his fellow caste-men acquired +so complete a monopoly of all the chief offices of State that the +Mahratta Empire became essentially a Chitpavan Empire. The British arms +ultimately defeated the dreams of universal dominion which, in the then +condition of India, the Chitpavans might well have hoped to establish +on the ruins of the great Moghul Empire. But British rule did not +destroy their power. They were quick to adapt themselves to new +conditions and above all to avail themselves of the advantages of +Western education. Their great administrative abilities compelled +recognition, and Chitpavans swarm to-day in every Government office of +the Deccan as they did in the days of Nana Phadnavis. They sit on the +Bench, they dominate the Bar, they teach in the schools, they control +the vernacular Press, they have furnished almost all the most +conspicuous names in the modern literature and drama of Western India as +well as in politics. Of the higher appointments held by natives in the +Presidency of Bombay, the last census tells us that the Hindus held 266 +against 86 held by Parsees and 23 held by Mahomedans, and that out of +those held by the Hindus, more than 72 per cent. were held by Brahmans, +though the Brahmans form less than one-fourteenth of the total Hindu +population of the province. All Brahmans are not, of course, Chitpavans, +but the Chitpavans supply an overwhelming majority of those Government +officials, and their ascendency over every other Brahman sept in +Maharashtra is undisputed. From the Deccan, moreover, their influence +has spread practically all over India and, especially, in the native +States, which have recruited amongst the Chitpavans some of their ablest +public servants. Amongst Chitpavans are to be found many of the most +enlightened and progressive Indians of our times and many have served +the British _Raj_ with unquestioned loyalty and integrity. But amongst +many others--perhaps indeed amongst the great majority--there has +undoubtedly been preserved for the last hundred years from the time of +the downfall of the Peshwa dominion to the present day, an unbroken +tradition of hatred towards British rule, an undying hope that it might +some day be subverted and their own ascendency restored. Not to go back +to the exploits of Nana Sahib, himself a Chitpavan, and his followers +during the Mutiny, or to the Ramoshi rebellion round Poona in 1879, it +was in Poona that the native Press, mainly conducted by Brahmans, first +assumed that tone of virulent hostility towards British rule and British +rulers which led to the Press Act of 1879, and some of the worst +extracts quoted at that time by the Government of India in support of +that measure were taken from Poona newspapers. It was in Poona that some +years later the assassination of two English officials by a young +Chitpavan Brahman was the first outcome of a fresh campaign, leading +directly to political murder. It was by another Chitpavan Brahman that +Mr. Jackson was murdered last December at Nasik; his accomplices were +with one exception Chitpavan Brahmans, and to the same sept of Brahmans +belong nearly all the defendants in the great conspiracy trial now +proceeding at Bombay. + +But if there were already, more than 20 years ago, wild and +irreconcilable spirits bent on fomenting disaffection, there were +amongst the Deccanee Brahmans themselves a small intellectual _élite_ +who, though by no means servile apologists of British rule, fully +realized that their primary duty was not to stir up popular passion +against alien rulers, but to bring Hindu society into closer communion +with the higher civilization which those rulers, whatever their +shortcomings, undoubtedly represented. Conspicuous amongst such men was +Mahadev Govind Ranade. Equally conspicuous in the opposite camp was a +man of a very different stamp, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, who was destined to +become one of the most dangerous pioneers of disaffection. It was a +Hindu gentleman and a Brahman who told me that if I wanted to study the +psychology of Indian unrest I should begin by studying Tilak's career. +"Tilak's onslaught in Poona upon Ranade, his alliance with the bigots of +orthodoxy, his appeals to popular superstition in the new Ganpati +celebrations, to racial fanaticism in the 'Anti-Cow-killing Movement,' +to Mahratta sentiment in the cult which he introduced of Shivaji, his +active propaganda amongst schoolboys and students, his gymnastic +societies, his preaching in favour of physical training, and last but +not least his control of the Press and the note of personal violence +which he imparted to newspaper polemics, represent the progressive +stages of a highly-organized campaign which has served as a model to the +apostles of unrest all over India." This was a valuable piece of advice, +for, if any one can claim to be truly the father of Indian unrest, it is +Bal Gangadhar Tilak. The story of his initial campaign in the Deccan, +though it dates back to the closing decades of the last century, is +still well worth studying, and has, in fact, never received adequate +attention, for on the one hand it pricks the shallow view that Indian +unrest is merely an echo of the Japanese victories in Manchuria, and, on +the other hand, it illustrates clearly the close connexion that exists +between the forces of Indian political disaffection and those of social +and religious reaction, whilst the methods which he employed and the +results which attended his activity have been reproduced with singular +fidelity in subsequent phases of the movement. + +When Tilak entered upon public life in the early eighties, the Brahmans +of the Deccan were divided into two camps, one of which, headed at first +by the late Mr. Justice Ranade, consisted of a small intellectual +_élite_, who held, without forgoing their right to criticize British +administrators or to promote political reforms by constitutional +methods, that Indians of all creeds, including the Hindus, should begin +by reforming their own social institutions, and bring them into greater +harmony with Western standards. Tilak, a Chitpavan Brahman of +considerable erudition, who had graduated with honours at Bombay, had, +however, inherited his full share of Chitpavan hostility to British +ascendency. He was also by temperament and ambition impatient of all +restraint, and jealous of the commanding authority which a man like +Ranade owed quite as much to the nobility of his character as to his +social position and force of intellect. In opposition to Ranade, with +whom he had at first co-operated as an educationist, Tilak drifted +rapidly into the reactionary camp. The battle was first engaged over the +control of the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha and the Education Society, two +progressive associations which, though mainly composed of Brahmans, +included a sprinkling of Mahomedans and of non-Brahman Hindus. Tilak had +thrown himself into journalism, and after the repeal of the Indian Press +Law on the return of a Liberal Administration to office at home in 1881, +he had been amongst the first to revive the incendiary methods which it +had temporarily and very successfully checked. His first onslaught upon +Ranade's position, however, failed, and instead of supplanting him, it +was he who was compelled in 1890 to sever his connexion with the +Education Society. + +Tilak's defeat was short lived. The introduction of the Age of Consent +Bill, in 1890, to mitigate the evils of Hindu child-marriage, gave him a +fresh opening. Ranade, discouraged and alarmed by the violence of the +Tilak party, had by this time retired from the forefront of the fray, +but in Dr. Bhandarkar, Mr. Justice Tilang, Mr. A.K. Nulkar, Mr. (now Sir +N.G.) Chandavarkar, and other courageous Hindu reformers, with whom Mr. +Gokhale was always ready to co-operate against the forces of religious +superstition, he had left disciples ready to carry on the good fight. +Tilak raised against them a storm of passion and prejudice. In the +columns of the _Kesari_, of which he had become sole proprietor, he +denounced every Hindu who supported the measure as a renegade and a +traitor to the cause of Hinduism, and thus won the support of +conservative orthodoxy, which had hitherto viewed with alarm some of his +literary excursions into the field of Vedantic exegesis. With the help +of the brothers Natu, who were the recognized leaders of Hindu +orthodoxy, he carried his propaganda into the schools and colleges in +the teeth of the Moderate party, and, proclaiming that unless they +learnt to employ force the Hindus must expect to be impotent witnesses +of the gradual downfall of all their ancient institutions, he proceeded +to organize gymnastic societies in which physical training and the use +of more or less primitive weapons were taught in order to develop the +martial instincts of the rising generation. + +If amongst many Brahmans of Maharashtra hatred of the British is the +dominant passion, amongst the Mahratta population at large whatever +there is of racial and religious jealousy is mainly directed against the +Mahomedans. This is partly, no doubt, a legacy of the old days of +Mahomedan supremacy. In 1893 some riots in Bombay of a more severe +character than usual gave Tilak an opportunity of broadening the new +movement by enlisting in its support the old anti-Mahomedan feeling of +the people. He not only convoked popular meetings in which his fiery +eloquence denounced the Mahomedans as the sworn foes of Hinduism, but he +started an organization known as the "Anti-Cow-Killing Society," which +was intended and regarded as a direct provocation to the Mahomedans, +who, like ourselves, think it no sacrilege to eat beef. In vain did +liberal Hindus appeal to him to desist from these inflammatory methods. +Their appeals had no effect upon him, and merely served his purpose by +undermining the little authority they still possessed. Government had +forbidden Hindu processions to play music whilst passing in front of +Mahomedan mosques, as this was a fertile cause of riotous affrays. Tilak +not only himself protested against this "interference with the liberties +of the people," but insisted that the Sarvajanik Sabha should identify +itself with the "national" cause and memorialize Government for the +removal of a prohibition so offensive to Hindu sentiment. The Moderates +hesitated, but were overawed by popular clamour and the threats of the +Tilak Press. The Mahomedans and a few other members repudiated the +memorial and resigned. Tilak, though not yet in absolute control of the +Sabha, became already practically its master. No one knew better than he +how to compel submission by packed meetings and organized rowdyism. + +Tilak's propaganda had at the same time steadily assumed a more and more +anti-British character, and it was always as the allies and the tools of +Government, in its machinations against Hinduism, that the Hindu +reformers and the Mahomedans had in turn been denounced. In order to +invest it with a more definitely religious sanction, Tilak placed it +under the special patronage of the most popular deity in India. Though +Ganesh, the elephant-headed god, is the god of learning whom Hindu +writers delight to invoke on the title-page of their books, there is +scarcely a village or a frequented roadside in India that does not show +some rude presentment of his familiar features, usually smeared over +with red ochre, Tilak could not have devised a more popular move than +when he set himself to organize annual festivals in honour of Ganesh, +known as Ganpati celebrations, and to found in all the chief centres of +the Deccan Ganpati societies, each with its _mela_ or choir recruited +among his youthful bands of gymnasts. These festivals gave occasion for +theatrical performances[3] and religious songs in which the legends of +Hindu mythology were skilfully exploited to stir up hatred of the +"foreigner"--and _mlenccha_, the term employed for "foreigner," applied +equally to Europeans and to Mahomedans--as well as for tumultuous +processions only too well calculated to provoke affrays with the +Mahomedans and with the police, which in turn led to judicial +proceedings that served as a fresh excuse for noisy protests and +inflammatory pleadings. With the Ganpati celebrations the area of +Tilak's propaganda was widely increased. + +But the movement had yet to be given a form which should directly appeal +to the fighting instincts of the Mahrattas and stimulate active +disaffection by reviving memories of olden times when under Shivaji's +leadership they had rolled back the tide of Musulman conquest and +created a Mahratta Empire of their own. The legends of Shivaji's prowess +still lingered in Maharashtra, where the battlemented strongholds which +he built crown many a precipitous crag of the Deccan highlands. In a +valley below Pratabghar the spot is still shown where Shivaji induced +the Mahomedan general, Afzul Khan, to meet him in peaceful conference +half-way between the contending armies, and, as he bent down to greet +his guest, plunged into his bowels the famous "tiger's claw," a hooked +gauntlet of steel, while the Mahratta forces sprang out of ambush and +cut the Mahomedan army to pieces. But if Shivaji's memory still lived, +it belonged to a past which was practically dead and gone. Only a few +years, before an Englishman who had visited Shivaji's tomb had written +to a local newspaper calling attention to the ruinous condition into +which the people of Maharashtra had allowed the last resting-place of +their national hero to fall. Some say it was this letter which first +inspired Tilak with the idea of reviving Shivaji's memory and converting +it into a living force. Originally it was upon the great days of the +Poona Peshwas that Tilak had laid the chief stress, and he may possibly +have discovered that theirs were not after all names to conjure with +amongst non-Brahman Mahrattas, who had suffered heavily enough at their +hands. At any rate, Tilak brought Shivaji to the forefront and set in +motion a great "national" propaganda which culminated in 1895 in the +celebration at all the chief centres of Brahman activity in the Deccan +of Shivaji's reputed birthday, the principal commemoration being held +under Tilak's own presidency at Raighar, where the Mahratta chieftain +had himself been crowned. What was the purpose and significance of this +movement may be gathered from a _Shlok_ or sacred poem improvised on +this occasion by one of Tilak's disciples who to acquire sinister +notoriety. + + Let us be prompt like Shivaji to engage in desperate enterprises. + Take up your swords and shields and we shall cut + off countless heads of enemies. Listen! Though we shall + have to risk our lives in a national war, we shall assuredly + shed the life-blood of our enemies. + +It was on the occasion of the Shivaji "coronation festivities" that the +right--nay, the duty--to commit murder for political purposes was first +publicly expounded. With Tilak in the chair, a Brahman professor got up +to vindicate Shivaji's bloody deed:-- + + Who dares to call that man a murderer who, when only + nine years old, had received Divine inspiration not to bow + down before a Mahomedan Emperor? Who dares to condemn + Shivaji for disregarding a minor duty in the performance + of a major one? Had Shivaji committed five or fifty + crimes more terrible, I would have been equally ready to + prostrate myself not once but one hundred times before the + image of our lord Shivaji ... Every Hindu, every + Mahratta must rejoice at this spectacle, for we too are all + striving to regain our lost independence, and it is only by + combination that we can throw off the yoke. + +Tilak himself was even more outspoken:-- + + It is needless to make further researches as to the killing + of Afzul Khan. Let us even assume that Shivaji deliberately + planned and executed the murder. Was the act good or + evil? This question cannot be answered from the standpoint + of the Penal Code or of the laws of Manu or according + to the principles of morality laid down in the systems of the + West or of the East. The laws which bind society are for + common folk like you and me. No one seeks to trace the + genealogy of a Rishi or to fasten guilt upon a Maharaj. Great + men are above the common principles of morality. Such + principles do not reach to the pedestal of a great man. Did + Shivaji commit a sin in killing Afzul Khan? The answer to + this question can be found in the Mahabharata itself. The + Divine Krishna teaching in the Gita tells us we may kill + even our teachers and our kinsmen, and no blame attaches + if we are not actuated by selfish desires. Shivaji did nothing + from a desire to fill his own belly. It was in a praiseworthy + object that he murdered Afzul Khan for the good of others. + If thieves enter our house and we have not strength to drive + them out, should we not without hesitation shut them in, + and burn them alive? God has conferred on the _mlencchas_ + (foreigners) no grant of Hindustan inscribed on imperishable + brass. Shivaji strove to drive them forth out of the land of + his birth, but he was guiltless of the sin of covetousness. + Do not circumscribe your vision like frogs in a well. Rise + above the Penal Code into the rarefied atmosphere of the + sacred Bhaghavad Gita and consider the action of great men. + +In the reflected blaze of this apotheosis of Shivaji, Tilak stood forth +as the appointed leader of the "nation." He was the triumphant champion +of Hindu orthodoxy, the high-priest of Ganesh, the inspired prophet of a +new "nationalism," which in the name of Shivaji would cast out the hated +_mlencchas_ and restore the glories of Mahratta history. The Government +feared him, for people could put no other construction on the official +confirmation of his election when he was returned in 1895 as a member of +the Bombay Legislative Council--above all, when inside the Council-room +he continued with the same audacity and the same impunity his campaign +of calumny and insult. His activity was unceasing. He disdained none of +the arts which make for popularity. His house was always open to those +who sought in the right spirit for assistance or advice. He had absolute +control of the Sabha and ruled the municipality of Poona. In private and +in public, through his speeches and through his newspapers, he worked +upon the prejudices and passions of both the educated and the +uneducated, and especially upon the crude enthusiasm of the young. +Towards the end of 1896 the Deccan was threatened with famine. Hungry +stomachs are prompt to violence, and Tilak started a "no-rent" campaign. +Like all Tilak's schemes in those days it was carefully designed to +conceal as far as possible any direct incitement to the withholding of +land revenue. His missionaries went round with a story that Government +had issued orders not to collect taxes where the crops had fallen below +a certain yield. The _rayats_ believed them, and when the tax-gatherer +arrived they refused payment. Trouble then arose. Outrages such as the +mutilation of the Queen's statue at Bombay, the attempt to fire the +Church Mission Hall, the assaults upon "moderate" Hindus who refused to +toe the line, became ominously frequent. Worse was to follow when the +plague appeared. The measures at first adopted by Government to check +the spread of this new visitation doubtless offended in many ways +against the customs and prejudices of the people, especially the +searching and disinfection of houses, and the forcible removal of +plague-patients even when they happened to be Brahmans. What Tilak could +do by secret agitation and by a rabid campaign in the Press to raise +popular resentment to a white heat he did. The _Kesari_ published +incitements to violence which were put into the mouth of Shivaji +himself[4]. The inevitable consequences ensued. On June 27, 1897, on +their way back from an official reception in celebration of Queen +Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, Mr. Rand, an Indian civilian, who was +President of the Poona Plague Committee, and Lieutenant Ayerst, of the +Commissariat Department, were shot down by Damodhar Chapekur, a young +Chitpavan Brahman, on the Ganeshkind road. No direct connexion has been +established between that crime and Tilak. But, like the murderer of Mr. +Jackson at Nasik last winter, the murderer of Rand and Ayerst--the same +young Brahman who had recited the _Shlok_, which I have quoted above, at +the great Shivaji celebration--declared that it was the doctrines +expounded in Tilak's newspapers that had driven him to the deed. The +murderer who had merely given effect to the teachings of Tilak was +sentenced to death, but Tilak himself, who was prosecuted for a +seditious article published a few days before the murder, received only +a short term of imprisonment, and was released before the completion of +his term under certain pledges of good behaviour which he broke as soon +as it suited him to break them. + +Thus ended the first campaign of Indian unrest, which, in its details, +has served as an incitement and a model to all those who have conducted +subsequent operations in the same field. + +The Poona murders sent a thrill of horror throughout India and caused a +momentary sensation even in England. But though Government was not +wholly blind to the warning, it could not decide what ought to be done, +and beyond tinkering at one or two sections of the Criminal Code bearing +on Press offences, it did nothing until history had repeated itself on a +much larger scale. Tilak was generously released from prison before the +expiration of his sentence, and his release was construed in the Deccan +as a fresh triumph. He was acclaimed by his followers as a "national" +martyr and hero. After a short "rest-cure" in a sanatorium Tilak +returned to the _Kesari_, which, in the hands of his co-adjutors, two +other Chitpavan Brahmans, Mr. Kelkar and Mr. Khadilkar, had lost nothing +of its vitriolic pungency in his absence. The celebration with renewed +pomp in 1900 of Shivaji's "birthday" at Raighar marked the resumption of +Tilak's operations. I need not stop to recount all the incidents of this +second campaign in the Deccan, in which Ganpati celebrations, Shivaji +festivals, gymnastic societies, &c., played exactly the same part as in +the first campaign. For three or four years the Tai Maharaj case, in +which, as executor of one of his friends, Shri Baba Maharaj, a Sirdar of +Poona, Tilak was attacked by the widow and indicted on charges of +forgery, perjury, and corruption, absorbed a great deal of his time, +but, after long and wearisome proceedings, the earlier stages of the +case ended in a judgment in his favour which was greeted as another +triumph for him, and not unnaturally though, as recent developments have +shown, quite prematurely,[5] won him much sympathy, even amongst those +who were politically opposed to him. But throughout this ordeal Tilak +never relaxed his political activity either in the Press or in the +manifold organizations which he controlled. + +His influence, moreover, was rapidly extending far beyond, Poona and the +Deccan. He had at an early date associated himself with, the Indian +National Congress, and he was secretary of the Standing Committee for +the Deccan. His Congress work had brought him into contact with the +politicians of other provinces, and upon none did his teachings and his +example produce so deep an impression as upon the emotional Bengalees. +He had not the gift of sonorous eloquence which they possess, and he +never figured conspicuously as an orator at the annual sessions of +Congress. But his calculating resourcefulness and his indomitable +energy, even his masterfulness, impressed them all the more, and in the +two memorable sessions held at Benares in 1905 and at Calcutta in 1906, +when the agitation over the Partition of Bengal was at its height, his +was the dominant personality, not at the tribune, but in the lobbies. He +had been one of the first champions of _Swadeshi_ as an economic weapon +in the struggle against British rule, and he saw in the adoption of the +boycott, with all the lawlessness which it involved, an unprecedented +opportunity of stimulating the active forces of disaffection. As far as +Bengal was concerned, an "advanced" Press which always took its cue from +Tilak's _Kesari_ had already done its work, and Tilak could rely upon +the enthusiastic support of men like Mr. Bepin Chandra Pal and Mr. +Arabindo Ghose, who were politically his disciples, though their +religious and social standpoints were in many respects different, Mr. +Surendranath Banerjee, who subsequently fell out with Tilak, had at +first modelled his propaganda very largely upon that of the Deccan +leader. Not only had he tried to introduce into Bengal the singularly +inappropriate cult of Shivaji, but he had been clearly inspired by +Tilak's methods in placing the _Swadeshi_ boycott in Bengal under the +special patronage of so popular a deity as the "terrible goddess" Kali. +Again, he had followed Tilak's example in brigading schoolboys and +students into youthful gymnastic societies for purposes of political +agitation, Tilak's main object at the moment was to pledge the rest of +India, as represented in the Congress, to the violent course upon which +Bengal was embarking. Amongst the "moderate" section outside Bengal +there was a disposition to confine its action to platonic expressions of +sympathy with the Bengalees and with the principle of _Swadeshi_--in +itself perfectly legitimate--as a movement for the encouragement of +native industries. At Benares in 1905 the Congress had adopted a +resolution which only conditionally endorsed the boycott, and the +increasing disorders which had subsequently accompanied its enforcement +had tended to enhance rather than to diminish the reluctance of the +Moderate party to see the Congress definitely pledged to it when it met +at the end of 1906 in Calcutta. The "advanced" party led by Mr. Bepin +Chandra Pal had put forward Tilak's candidature to the presidency, and a +split which seemed imminent was only avoided by a compromise which saved +appearances. Sir Pherozeshah Mehta, a leading Parsee of Bombay, who had +been drawn into co-operation with the Congress under the influence of +the political Liberalism which he had heard expounded in England by +Gladstone and Bright, played at this critical period an important part +which deserves recognition. He was as eloquent as any Bengalee, and he +possessed in a high degree the art of managing men. In politics he was +as stout an opponent of Tilak's violent methods as was Mr. Gokhale on +social and religious questions, and he did perhaps more than any one +else to prevent the complete triumph of Tilakism in the Congress right +down to the Surat upheaval. Thanks largely to his efforts, the veteran +Mr. Naoroji was elected to the chair at Calcutta. None could venture +openly to oppose him, for he was almost the father of the Congress, +which in its early days had owed so much to the small group of liberal +Parsees whom he had gathered about him, and his high personal character +and rectitude of purpose had earned for him universal respect. +Nevertheless, a resolution as amended by Tilak was adopted which, +without mentioning the word "boycott," pledged the Congress to encourage +its practice. But there was considerable heartburning, and the Moderates +were suspected of contemplating some retrograde move at the following +annual session. Tilak was determined to frustrate any such scheme, and +before the Congress assembled at Surat he elaborated at a Nationalist +conference with Mr. Arabindo Ghose in the chair, a plan of campaign +which was to defeat the "moderates" by demanding, before the election of +the president, an undertaking that the resolutions of the Calcutta +conference should be upheld. The plan, however, was only half +successful. The first day's proceedings produced a violent scene in +which the howling down of Mr. Surendranath Banerjee by the "advanced" +wing revealed the personal jealousies that had grown up between the old +Bengalee leader on the one hand and Tilak and his younger followers in +Bengal on the other. The second day's proceedings ended in still wilder +confusion, and after something like a free fight the Congress broke up +after an irreparable rupture, from which its prestige has never +recovered. + +Tilak's own prestige, however, with the "advanced" party never stood +higher, either in then Deccan or outside of it. In the Deccan he not +only maintained all his old activities, but had extended their field. +Besides the _Kal_, edited by another Chitpawan Brahman, and the +_Rashtramadt_ at Poona, which went to even greater lengths than Tilak's +own _Kesari_, lesser papers obeying his inspiration had been established +in many of the smaller centres. A movement had been set on foot for the +creation of "national" schools, entirely independent of State support, +and therefore of State supervision, in which disaffection could, without +let or hindrance, be made part and parcel of the curriculum. Such were +the schools closed down last year in the Central Provinces and this year +at Telegaon. The great development of the cotton industry during the +last ten years, especially in Bombay itself--which has led to vast +agglomerations of labour under conditions unfamiliar in India--had given +Tilak an opportunity of establishing contact with a class of the +population hitherto outside the purview of Indian politics. There are +nearly 100 cotton spinning and weaving mills, employing over 100,000 +operatives, congregated mostly in the northern suburbs of the city. +Huddled together in huge tenements this compact population affords by +its density, as well as by its ignorance, a peculiarly accessible field +to the trained agitator. Tilak's emissaries, mostly Brahmans of the +Deccan, brought, moreover, to their nefarious work the added prestige of +a caste which seldom condescends to rub shoulders with those whose mere +contact may involve "pollution." In this, as in many other cases, +politics were closely mixed up with philanthropy, for the conditions of +labour in India are by no means wholly satisfactory, and it would be +unfair to deny to many of Tilak's followers a genuine desire to mitigate +the evils and hardships to which their humbler fellow-creatures were +exposed. Prominent amongst such evils was the growth of drunkenness, and +it would have been all to his honour that Tilak hastened to take up the +cause of temperance, had he not perverted it, as he perverted everything +else, to the promotion of race-hatred. His primary motives may have been +excellent, but he subordinated all things to his ruling anti-British +passion, whilst the fervour of his philanthropic professions won for him +the sympathy and co-operation of many law-abiding citizens who would +otherwise have turned a deaf ear to his political doctrines. He must +have had a considerable command of funds for the purposes of his +propaganda, and though he doubtless had not a few willing and generous +supporters, many subscribed from fear of the lash which he knew how to +apply through the Press to the tepid and the recalcitrant, just as his +gymnastic societies sometimes resolved themselves into juvenile bands of +dacoities to swell the coffers of _Swaraj_. Not even Mr. Gokhale with +all his moral and intellectual force could stem the flowing tide of +Tilak's popularity in the Deccan; and in order not to be swept under he +was perhaps often compelled like many other Moderates to go further than +his own judgment can have approved. Tilak commanded the allegiance of +barristers and pleaders, schoolmasters and professors, clerks in +Government offices--in fact, of the large majority of the so-called +educated classes, largely recruited amongst his own and other Brahman +castes; and his propaganda had begun to filter down not only to the +coolies in the cities, but even to the rayats, or at least the head-men +in the villages. + +More than that. From the Deccan, as we have already seen in his +relations with the Indian National Congress, his influence was projected +far and wide. His house was a place of pilgrimage for the disaffected +from all parts of India. His prestige as a Brahman of the Brahmans and a +pillar of orthodoxy, in spite of the latitude of the views which he +sometimes expressed in regard to the depressed castes, his reputation +for profound learning in the philosophies both of the West and of the +East, his trenchant style, his indefatigable activity, the glamour of +his philanthropy, his accessibility to high and low, his many acts of +genuine kindliness, the personal magnetism which, without any great +physical advantages, he exerted upon most of those who came in contact +with him, and especially upon the young, combined to equip him more +fully than any other Indian politician for the leadership of a +revolutionary movement. + +The appeal which Tilak made to the Hindus was twofold. He taught them, +on the one hand, that India, and especially Maharashtra, the land of the +Mahrattas, had been happier and better and more prosperous under a Hindu +_raj_ than it had ever been or could ever be under the rule of alien +"demons"; and that if the British _raj_ had at one time served some +useful purpose in introducing India to the scientific achievements of +Western civilisation, it had done so at ruinous cost, both material and +moral, to the Indians whose wealth it had drained and whose social and +religious institutions it had undermined, and on the other hand he held +out to them the prospect that, if power were once restored to the +Brahmans, who had already learnt all that there was of good to be +learnt from the English, the golden age would return for gods and men. +That Tilak himself hardly believed in the possibility of overthrowing +British rule is more than probable, but what some Indians who knew him +well tell me he did believe was that the British could be driven or +wearied by a ceaseless and menacing agitation into gradually +surrendering to the Brahmans the reality of power, as did the later +Peshwas, and remaining content with the mere shadow of sovereignty. As +one of his organs blurted it out:--"If the British yield all power to us +and retain only nominal control, we may yet be friends." + +Such was the position when, on June 24, 1908, Tilak was arrested in +Bombay on charges connected with the publication in the _Kesari_ of +articles containing inflammatory comments on the Muzafferpur outrage, in +which Mrs. and Miss Kennedy had been killed by a bomb--the first of a +long list of similar outrages in Bengal. Not in the moment of first +excitement, but weeks afterwards, the _Kesari_ had commented on this +crime in terms which the Parsee Judge, Mr. Justice Davar, described in +his summing up as follows:--"They are seething with sedition; they +preach violence; they speak of murders with approval; and the cowardly +and atrocious act of committing murders with bombs not only meets with +your approval, but you hail the advent of the bomb into India as if +something had come to India for its good." The bomb was extolled in +these articles as "a kind of witchcraft, a charm, an amulet," and the +_Kesari_ delighted in showing that neither the "supervision of the +police" nor "swarms of detectives" could stop "these simple playful +sports of science," Whilst professing to deprecate such methods, it +threw the responsibility upon Government, which allowed "keen +disappointment to overtake thousands of intelligent persons who have +been awakened to the necessity of securing the rights of _Swaraj_." +Tilak spoke four whole days in his own defence--21-1/2 hours +altogether--but the jury returned a verdict of "Guilty," and he was +sentenced to six years' transportation, afterwards commuted on account +of his age and health to simple imprisonment at Mandalay. + +The prosecution of a man of Tilak's popularity and influence at a time +when neither the Imperial Government nor the Government of India had +realized the full danger of the situation was undoubtedly a grave +measure of which a weaker Government than that of Bombay under Sir +George Clarke might well have shirked the responsibility. There were +serious riots after the trial. From the moment of his arrest Tilak's +followers had put it about amongst the mill-hands that he was in prison +because he was their friend and had sought to obtain better pay for +them. Some of his supporters are said to have declared during the trial +that there would be a day's bloodshed for every year to which he might +be sentenced by the Court, and, as a matter of fact, he was sentenced to +six years' imprisonment and the riots lasted six days. The rioting +assumed at times a very threatening character. The European police +frequently had to use their revolvers, and the troops had several times +to fire in self-defence. But rigorous orders had been issued by the +authorities to avoid as far as possible the shedding of blood, and both +the police and the military forces exercised such steady self-restraint +that casualties were relatively few, and the violence of the mob never +vented itself upon the European population of the city. The gravity of +the disturbances, however, showed the extent and the lawless character +of the influence which Tilak had already acquired over the lower classes +in Bombay, and not merely over the turbulent mill-hands. In the heart of +the city many Hindu shops were closed "out of sympathy with Tilak," and +the most violent rioting on one day occurred amongst the Bhattias and +Banias employed in the cloth market, who had hitherto been regarded as +very orderly and rather timid folk. The trouble in Bombay was certainly +not a sudden and spontaneous outburst of popular feeling. It bore +throughout the impress of careful and deliberate organization. By a +happy combination of sympathy and firmness Sir George Clarke had, +however, won the respect of the vast majority of the community, and +though he failed to secure the active support which he might have +expected from the "moderates," there were few of them who did not +secretly approve and even welcome his action. Its effects were great and +enduring, for Tilak's conviction was a heavy blow--perhaps the heaviest +which has been dealt--to the forces of unrest, at least in the Deccan; +and some months later one of the organs of his party, the _Rashtramat_, +reviewing the occurrences of the year, was fain to admit that "the +sudden removal of Mr. Tilak's towering personality threw the whole +province into dismay and unnerved the other leaders." + +The agitation in the Deccan did not die out with Tilak's disappearance, +for he left his stamp upon a new generation, which he had educated and +trained. More than a year after Tilak had been removed to Mandalay, his +doctrines bore fruit in the murder of Mr. Jackson, the Collector of +Nasik--a murder which, in the whole lamentable record of political +crimes in India, stands out in many ways pre-eminently infamous and +significant. The chief executive officer of a large district, "Pundit" +Jackson, as he was familiarly called, was above all a scholar, devoted +to Indian studies, and his sympathy with all forms of Indian thought was +as genuine as his acquaintance with them was profound. His affection for +the natives was such as, perhaps, to blind him to their faults, and like +the earliest victims of the Indian Mutiny he entertained to the very +last an almost childlike confidence in the loyalty of the whole people. +Only a few days before his death he expressed his conviction that +disaffection had died out in Nasik, and that he could go anywhere, and +at any hour without the slightest risk of danger. That he was very +generally respected and even beloved by many there can be no doubt, and +there is no reason to question the sincerity of the regrets which found +expression on the announcement of his impending transfer to Bombay in a +series of farewell entertainments, both public and private, by the +inhabitants of the city. Only two days before the fatal 21st of +December, an ode in Marathi addressed to him at a reception organized by +the Municipal Council dwelt specially upon his gentleness of soul and +kindliness of manner. + +Yet this was the man whom the fanatical champions of Indian Nationalism +in the Deccan singled out for assassination as a protest against British +tyranny. The trial of the actual murderer and of those who aided and +abetted him abundantly demonstrated the cold-blooded premeditation which +characterized this crime. Numerous consultations had taken place ever +since the previous September between the murderer and his accomplices as +to the manner and time of the deed. It was repeatedly postponed because +the accomplices who belonged to Nasik were afraid of rendering active +assistance which might compromise them, though they were ready enough to +arm the hand of the wretched youth from Aurungabad who had volunteered +to strike the blow. Ready as he was to kill any Englishman, he himself +had some misgivings as to the expediency of selecting a victim whose +personal qualities were so universally recognized, and these misgivings +were only allayed by the assurance that all that was mere hypocrisy on +poor Jackson's part. It was the news of Jackson's approaching departure +for Bombay that finally precipitated the catastrophe. The murderer +practised carefully with the pistol given to him and other precautions +were taken so that, even if the first attempt was foiled, Jackson should +not escape alive from the theatre--the native theatre which he had been +asked to honour with his attendance. So the young Chitpavan Brahman, +Ananta Luxman Kanhere, waylaid the Englishman as he was entering, shot +him first in the back, and then emptied the contents of his revolver +upon him, as he turned round. Mr. Jackson fell dead in front of the +friends who were accompanying him, two young English ladies and a young +civilian of his staff, who had only joined a month before from England +and faced without flinching this gruesome initiation into the service. +It all happened in a moment, and the native Deputy Collector, Mr. +Palshikar, who leapt forward to Mr. Jackson's assistance, was only able +to strike down the murderer and tear from him the second weapon with +which he was armed. Thanks also to Mr. Palshikar's presence of mind, +information was at once sent to the railway station, and the escape of +some of the accomplices prevented, whose confessions materially helped +in promoting the ends of justice. + +But besides the facts which were brought out in evidence during the +trial at Bombay, there are some features connected with the crime to +which attention may be usefully directed, as they lie outside the +province of the Law Courts. In the first place, it must be noted that +not only the murderer but the majority of those implicated in the crime +were Chitpavan Brahmans, and at the same time they were the strange +products both of the Western education which we have imported into India +and of the religious revivalism which underlies the present political +agitation. They were certainly moral, if not physical, degenerates, and +most of them notoriously depraved, none bearing in this respect a worse +character than the actual murderer. I happened, when at Nasik, to see +the latter whilst he was performing his ablutions in front of the +Government building in which he was confined. Four policemen were in +charge of him, but he seemed absolutely unconcerned, and after having +washed himself leisurely, proceeded to discharges his devotions, looking +around all the while with a certain self-satisfied composure, before +returning to his cell. His appearance was puny, undergrown, and +effeminate, and his small, narrow, and elongated head markedly +prognathous, but he exercised over some of his companions a passionate, +if unnatural, fascination which, I have been told by one who was present +at the trial, betrayed itself shamelessly in their attitude and the +glances they exchanged with him during the proceedings. Distorted pride +of race and of caste combined with neuroticism and eroticism appear to +have co-operated here in producing as complete a type of moral +perversion as the records of criminal pathology can well show. + +What are the secret forces by which these wretched puppets were set in +motion? Their activity was certainly not spontaneous. Who was it that +pulled the strings? There is reason to believe that the revolver with +which the murder was committed was one of a batch sent out by the Indian +ringleaders, who until the murder of Sir W. Curzon-Wyllie, had their +headquarters at the famous "India House," in Highgate, of which Swami +Krishnavarma was originally one of the moving spirits. Upon this and +other cognate points the trial of Vinayak Savarkar, formerly the London +correspondent of one of Tilak's organs and a familiar of the "India +House," and of some twenty-five other Hindus on various charges of +conspiracy which is now proceeding in the High Court of Bombay, may be +expected to throw some very instructive light. + +The atmosphere of Nasik was no doubt exceptionally favourable for such +morbid growths. For Nasik is no ordinary provincial town of India. It is +one of the great strongholds of Hinduism. Its population is only about +25,000, but of these about 9,000 belong to the Brahmanical caste, though +only about 1,000 are Chitpavan Brahmans, the rest being mainly Deshastha +Brahmans, another great sept of the Deccanee sacerdotal caste. It is a +city of peculiar sanctity with the Hindus. The sacred Godavery--so +sacred that it is called there the _Ganga_--i.e. the Ganges--flows +through it, and its bathing _ghats_ which line the river banks and its +ancient temples and innumerable shrines attract a constant flow of +pilgrims from all parts of India. Indeed, many of the great Hindu +houses of India maintain there a family priest to look after their +spiritual interests. Nasik was, moreover, a city beloved of the Peshwas, +and, next to Poona preserves, perhaps, more intimate associations with +the great days of the Mahratta Empire than any other city of the Deccan. +But though no doubt these facts might account for a certain latent +bitterness against the alien rulers who dashed the cup of victory away +from the lips of the Mahrattas, just as the latter were establishing +their ascendency on the crumbling ruins of the Moghul Empire, they do +not suffice to account for the attitude of the people generally in +presence of such a crime as the assassination of Mr. Jackson. For if +murder is a heinous crime by whomsoever it may be committed, it ranks +amongst Hindus as specially heinous when committed by a Brahman. How is +it that in this instance, instead of outcasting the murderer, many +Brahmans continued more or less secretly to glorify his crime as "the +striking down of the flag from the fort"? How is it that, when there was +ample evidence to show that murder had been in the air of Nasik for +several months before the perpetration of the deed, not a single +warning, not a single hint, ever reached Mr. Jackson, except from the +police, whose advice, unfortunately, his blindly trustful nature led him +to ignore to the very end? How is it that, even after its perpetration, +though there was much genuine sympathy with the victim and many eloquent +speeches were delivered to express righteous abhorrence of the crime, no +practical help was afforded to the authorities in pursuing the +ramifications of the conspiracy which had "brought disgrace on the holy +city of Nasik"? + +All this opens up wide fields for speculation, but there is one point +which a statement solemnly made by the murderer of Mr. Jackson has +placed beyond the uncertainties of speculation. In reply to the +magistrate who asked him why he committed the murder, Kanhere said:-- + + I read of many instances of oppression in the _Kesari_, the + _Rashtramat_ and the _Kal_ and other newspapers. I think + that by killing _sahibs_ [Englishmen] we people can get justice. + I never got injustice myself nor did any one I know. I now + regret killing Mr. Jackson. I killed a good man causelessly. + +Can anything be much more eloquent and convincing than the terrible +pathos of this confession?[6] The three papers named by Kanhere were +Tilak's organs. It was no personal experience or knowledge of his own +that had driven Kanhere to his frenzied deed, but the slow persistent +poison dropped into his ear by the Tilak Press. Though it was Kanhere's +hand that struck down "a good man causelessly," was not Tilak rather +than Kanhere the real author of the murder? It was merely the story of +the Poona murders of 1897 over again. + +Other incidents besides the Nasik tragedy have occurred since Tilak's +conviction to show how dangerous was the spirit which his doctrines had +aroused. One of the, gravest, symptomatically, was the happily +unsuccessful attempt to throw a bomb at the Viceroy and Lady Minto +whilst they were driving through the streets of Ahmedabad during their +visit to the Bombay Presidency last November. For that outrage +constituted an ominous breach of all the old Hindu traditions which +invest the personal representative of the Sovereign with a special +sanctity. + +But in spite of spasmodic outbreaks, of which we may not yet have seen +the end, aggressive disloyalty in the Deccan has been at least +temporarily set back since the downfall of Tilak. The firmer attitude +adopted by the Government of India and such repressive measures as the +Press Act, combined with judicious reforms, have done much; but it was +by the prosecution of Tilak that the forces of militant unrest lost +their ablest and boldest leader--perhaps the only one who might have +concentrated their direction, not only in the Deccan, but in the whole +of India, in his own hands and given to the movement, with all its +varied and often conflicting tendencies, an organization and unity which +it still happily seems to lack. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +POONA AND KOLHAPUR. + + +It is not, after all, in British India (i.e., in that part of India +which we directly administer) that the Brahmanical and reactionary +character of Indian unrest, at any rate in the Deccan, can best be +studied. There it can always be disguised under the "patriotic" aspects +of a revolt against alien rule. To appreciate its real tendencies we +must go to a Native State of the Deccan about 100 miles south of Poona. +Kolhapur is the most important of the Native States under the charge of +the Bombay Government, and its ruler is the only ruling Mahratta chief +who can claim direct descent from the great Shivaji, the +"Shivaji-Maharaj" whose cult Tilak made one of the central features of +his political propaganda. He is the "Chhatrapati Maharajah," and is +acknowledged to be as such the head of the Mahratta Princes of India. +One would have thought that such a lineage would have sufficed in itself +to invest the Maharajah of Kolhapur with a certain measure of sanctity +in the eyes of Tilak and his followers. Far from it. His Highness is an +enlightened ruler and a man of great simplicity of character. He takes a +keen interest in the administration of his State, and has undertaken, at +no small cost to his Exchequer, one of the most important irrigation +works yet attempted in any Native State. But he committed what Tilak +and his friends regarded as two unforgivable offences: he fought against +the intolerance of the Brahmans and he is a faithful friend end ally of +the British _Raj_. Hence they set in motion against him, the descendant +of Shivaji, in his own State, exactly the same machinery of agitation +and conspiracy which they have set in motion against British rule in +British India. + +It is a curious and most instructive story. There had been long +minorities in Kolhapur, and, especially during the more or less nominal +reign of the present Maharajah's predecessor, Shivaji IV., who +ultimately went mad, the Prime Minister, a Chitpavan Brahman of +Ratnagiri, acquired almost supreme power in the State, and filled every +important post with his fellow caste men, of whom he introduced more +than a hundred into the public service. Under Chitpavan rule the +interests of the people of the soil were systematically neglected in +Kolhapur, as they had been throughout the Deccan in the later days of +the Chitpavan theocracy at Poona, and privileges and possessions were +showered upon members of the favoured caste. On his accession in 1894 +the present Maharajah appointed as his Prime Minister, with a view to +very necessary reforms in the administration, a Kayastha Prabhu, Rao +Bahadur Sabnis, who, though a high-caste Hindu, was not a Brahman. There +has long been great rivalry between the Brahmans and the Prabhus, who +belong mostly to the moderate progressive school of Hinduism. The +appointment of Mr. Sabnis, besides portending unpalatable reforms, was +therefore in itself very unwelcome to the Kolhapur Brahmans, amongst +whom one of the most influential, Mr. B.N. Joshi, the Chief Judge, was a +personal friend of Tilak. Consternation increased when the young +Maharajah announced his intention of promoting to positions of trust +such non-Brahmans as should be found capable of filling them and +actually started educating non-Brahmans for the purpose. In order to put +pressure upon their ruler, the Brahmans had recourse to one of the most +powerful weapons with which the semi-religious, semi-social structure of +Hinduism has armed them. They questioned his caste and refused to recite +at certain religious ceremonies in his family the Vedic hymns, to which +as a Kshatriya (i.e., as a member of the "twice-born" caste ranking +next to the Brahmans) his Highness claimed to be traditionally entitled. +The stalwart Brahmans of the Deccan allege, it seems, that in this _Kali +Yuga_, or Age of Darkness, there can be no Kshatriyas, since there is no +room or a warrior caste in the orthodox sense under an alien rule, and +that therefore the Hindus who are neither Brahmans nor pariahs can at +best be Shudras--a "clean" caste, but not even entitled to wear the +"sacred thread" reserved for the highest castes. + +The Maharajah remained firm, for this insult, though aimed chiefly at +him, affected equally all high-caste Mahrattas who were not Brahmans. To +their credit be it said, several of the more progressive Brahmans, +braving the pressure of their fellow caste-men at Poona and in Kolhapur +itself, stood by his Highness. The dispute was aggravated when the +Rajpadhya--the family priest of the Kolhapur ruling family--himself +refused the Vedic ritual to his Highness, even when two Judges, both +Brahmans, who were appointed to form with him a committee of three to +decide the issue, pronounced in favour of the Maharajah's claim. His +Highness then took the case to the Sankeshwar Shankaracharya, the +highest religious authority with jurisdiction in such matters. But the +feud only grew the more bitter, as, owing to the death of the incumbent +of that high office, rival candidatures were put forward to the +succession by the Maharajah's supporters on the one hand and by Tilak +and his friends on the other. To the present day the feud continues, and +the present Shankaracharya is not recognized by the Poona school of +Brahmans. Nor is he likely to be, as he has had the unique courage +publicly to condemn as a Brahman the murder of Mr. Jackson by Brahmans. + +I have already remarked with reference to the Nasik tragedy that, if +murder is a heinous crime by whomsoever committed, it ranks amongst +Hindus as specially heinous when committed by a Brahman; and I have +asked several Brahmans how it is that instead of outcasting the murderer +many Brahmans continue more or less secretly to glorify his crime. Some +have admitted that there is a strong case for the public excommunication +of Brahmans guilty of political murder, some have regretted that no such +action has ever been taken by the caste authorities, some have argued +that caste organization has been so loosened that any collective action +would be impracticable. Only in Kolhapur has a Brahman, qualified to +speak with the highest religious authority in the name of Hindu sacred +law, been found to have in this respect the courage of his convictions. +This Brahman was no less a personage than the Shankaracharya of the +Karveer Petha, who took the very noteworthy step of issuing a +proclamation solemnly reprobating the murder committed by a Brahman "in +the holy city of Nasik" as "a stain on the Brahmanical religion of mercy +emphatically preached by Manu and other law-givers." After paying a warm +tribute to Mr. Jackson's personal qualities and great learning, and +quoting sacred texts to show that "such a murder is to be condemned the +more when a Brahman commits it," and renders the murderer liable to the +most awful penalties in the next world, the proclamation proceeded to +declare that "his Holiness is pleased to excommunicate the wicked +persons who have committed the present offence, and who shall commit +similar offences against the State, and none of the disciples of this +Petha shall have any dealings with such sinful men." + +Amongst the majority of Brahmans in Kolhapur and elsewhere this +proclamation, I fear, found no echo, for their hostility towards their +own Maharajah had often assumed or encouraged criminal forms of +violence. It had certainly not remained confined to the spiritual +domain, and it became absolutely savage when, in 1902, his Highness +declared that he would reserve at least half the posts in the State for +qualified men of the non-Brahman communities. Under the constant +inspiration of Poona, the Tilak Press waged relentless war against his +Highness, preaching disaffection towards his Government, just as it +preached disaffection towards the British _Raj_; and the agitation in +Kolhapur itself was reinforced by the advent of a large number of Poona +Brahmans who, in consequence of a recrudescence of plague, fled from +that city to the Maharajah's capital. They flung themselves eagerly into +the fray, and had the audacity even to start a mock "Parliament." But +the Maharajah was determined to be master in his own State, and in Mr. +Sabnis he had found a Prime Minister who loyally and courageously +carried out his policy for the improvement of the administration and the +spread of education amongst the non-Brahman castes. The Maharajah +realizes that Brahman ascendency cannot be broken down permanently +unless the non-Brahman castes are adequately equipped to compete with +them in the public services. Amongst these there is plenty of loyalty to +the ruling chief, for his Mahratta subjects have not wholly forgotten +the tyranny of Chitpavan Brahman rule either under Shivaji IV.'s Prime +Minister or in the less recent times of the Poona Peshwas. One of the +most interesting institutions in Kolhapur is a hostel specially endowed +for non-Brahman, Mahratta, Mahomedan, and Jain youths who are following +the courses of the Rajaram College. The control of education plays in +Kolhapur as conspicuous a part as at Poona in the struggle between the +forces of order and disorder, and it is amongst the Kolhapur youth that +the latter have made their most strenuous exertions and with the same +lawless results. + +The first organization started at Kolhapur in imitation of Poona was a +Shivaji club, with which were associated bands of gymnasts, Ganpati +choirs, an anti-cow-killing society, &c., all on the lines of those +founded by Tilak. It was suppressed in 1900 as several of its members +had been implicated in the disturbances at Bir, where a young "patriot" +had proclaimed himself Rajah and collected a sufficient number of armed +followers to require a military force to suppress the rebellion. The +disturbances at Bir were, in fact, the starting point of that new form +of political propagandism which takes the shape of dacoities or armed +robberies for the benefit of the "patriotic" war-chest. After the +suppression of the Kolhapur Shivaji Club, many of its leading members +disappeared for a time, but only to carry on their operations in other +parts of India, where they entered into relations with secret societies +of a similar type. Three years later the club had been practically +revived under the new name of "Belapur Swami Club," so called in honour +of the late Swami of Belapur, to whose wooden slippers the members of +the club were in the habit of doing worship, whilst his shrine was used +as a sanctuary for sedition-mongers and a store-house for illicit +weapons. "Political" dacoities were soon in vogue again, and in 1905 +there was an epidemic of house-breaking in and around Kolhapur, which +enriched the club with several thousands of rupees and a few arms. Seven +members were finally arrested and some made full confessions. All of +these except one were Brahmans and mostly quite well connected. But even +those who were convicted got off with light sentences, and the campaign, +which clearly had powerful aiders and abettors both inside Kolhapur and +outside, was only temporarily checked. + +Nor was it to stop at dacoities. A regular semi-military organization +was introduced, and bands of young men used to go out into the country +to carry out mimic manoeuvres. It is of no slight significance that +photographs have been discovered of groups of these young men--some of +whom were subsequently convicted for serious offences--with Tilak +himself in their midst. They were in constant communication with Poona, +and when the Poona extremists began to specialize on bombs they were +amongst the neophytes of the new cult. A conspiracy was hatched of which +the admitted purpose was to murder Colonel Ferris, the Political Agent, +at the wedding of the Maharajah's daughter on March 21, 1908, but, if it +had been carried out successfully, the Maharajah himself and many of his +other guests would almost inevitably have been killed at the same time. +For, as was disclosed in the subsequent trial, a bomb was prepared and +despatched from Poona which was to have been hurled into the wedding +_pandal_ or enclosure railed off in the courtyard of the Palace for the +Maharajah and his family and the principal guests, including Colonel +Ferris. Fortunately the bomb, which was subsequently discovered, did not +reach Kolhapur in time. The conspirators had to fall back upon less +potent weapons. Thanks to the Arms Act, which is one of the favourite +grievances of Indian Nationalism, they had great difficulty in obtaining +arms, but they secured a few, and on April 16, 1908, when Colonel +Ferris, who was retiring, left Kolhapur, some of the conspirators +followed him into the train, and, alighting at one of the stations, +attempted to shoot him, but, again fortunately, their cartridges missed +fire. A few weeks later placards giving formulae for the making of bombs +were actually posted up on the doors of schools and other buildings, and +this was followed by a theft of dangerous chemicals from a Kolhapur +private school. Finally ten youths, nine of whom were Brahmans, were +committed for trial on these offences before a special Sessions Judge, +lent by Government, and eight of them were convicted. + +Quite as much as these convictions the downfall of Tilak helped to quell +the forces of unrest in the State of Kolhapur as well as in the rest of +the Deccan. For in Kolhapur, as in Poona, it was the Brahman Press +controlled by Tilak that familiarized the rising generation with the +idea of political murder. In the year which preceded the Kolhapur +conspiracy, and just after the first dastardly bomb outrage at +Muzafferpur to which Mrs. and Miss Kennedy fell victims, an article +appeared in the _Vishvavritta_, a Kolhapur monthly magazine, for which +its editor, Mr. Bijapurkar, a Brahman, who until 1905 had been Professor +of Sanscrit at the Rajaram College, was subsequently prosecuted and +convicted. The article, which was significantly headed "The potency of +Vedic prayers," recalled various cases in which the Vedas lay down the +duty of retaliation upon "alien" oppressors. "To kill such people +involves no sin, and when Kshatriyas and Vaidhyas do not come forward to +kill them, Brahmans should take up arms and protect religion. When one +is face to face with such people they should be slaughtered without +hesitation. Not the slightest blame attaches to the slayer." Moreover, +lest these exhortations should be construed merely as a philosophic +treatise on Vedic teaching, the writer was careful to add that "these +doctrines are not to be kept in books, but must be taught even to babes +and sucklings." + +Thus in a Native State of the Deccan, just as in British-administered +Deccan, we find the same methods and the same doctrines adopted by the +Brahmans, with the same demoralizing results, in pursuance of the same +purpose, now under one guise and now under another, the maintenance or +restoration of their own theocratic power, whether it be threatened by a +Hindu ruler of their own race, or by "alien" rulers and the "alien" +civilization for which they stand. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +BENGAL BEFORE THE PARTITION. + + +It is a far cry in every sense from the Deccan to Bengal. There is a +greater diversity of races, languages, social customs, physical +conditions, &c., between the different provinces of India than is often +to be found between the different countries of Europe. Few differ more +widely than the Deccan and Bengal--the Deccan, a great table-land raised +on an average over 2,000ft. above sea level, broken by many deep-cut +river valleys and throwing up lofty ridges of bare rock, entirely +dependent for its rainfall upon the south-west monsoon, which alone and +in varying degrees of abundancy relieves the thirst of a thin soil +parched during the rest of the year by a fierce dry heat--Bengal, a vast +alluvial plain, with a hot, damp climate, watered and fertilized by +great rivers like the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, which drain the +greater part of the Himalayas. The Deccan is thinly populated; it has no +great waterways; there are few large cities and few natural facilities +of communication between them, but the population, chiefly Mahratta +Hindus, with a fair sprinkling of Mahomedans, survivors of the Moghul +Empire, are a virile race, wiry rather than sturdy, with tenacious +customs and traditions and a language--Marathi--which has a copious +popular literature. Maharashtra, moreover, has historical traditions, by +no means inglorious, of its own. It has played, and is conscious of +having played, a conspicuous part in the history of India down to +relatively recent times; and the Brahmans of Maharashtra, who were once +its rulers, have preserved to the present day the instincts and the +aspirations of a ruling race, combined with great force and subtleness +of intellect. In Bengal, on the other hand, there is a dense population, +concentrated in part in large towns and cities along the great +waterways, but also spread over the whole surface of the rich plains and +deltas. The Bengalees are a quick-witted, imaginative, and warm-hearted +people who have been the victims rather than the makers of history. The +tide of conquest has swept over them again and again from times +immemorial, but generally without leaving any lasting impression upon +their elastic and rather timid temperament. With all his receptive +qualities, his love of novelty and readiness to learn, his retentive +memory, his luxuriant imagination, his gift of facile eloquence, the +Bengalee has seldom shown himself to be a born ruler of men. + +All these differences are reflected in the unrest in Bengal, though on +the surface it presents a close resemblance to the unrest in the Deccan, +and there have been constant contact and co-operation between the +leaders. Except as a geographical expression, Bengal is practically a +creation of British rule and of Western education. The claim of the +modern Bengalees to be regarded as a "nation" has no historical basis. +The inhabitants of Bengal are of mixed Dravidian, Mongolian, and Aryan +origin, and in no other speech of India, writes Sir H. Risley, is the +literary language cultivated by the educated classes more widely +divorced, not only from the many popular dialects spoken in the +province, but from that of ordinary conversation. Literary Bengalee is +not even an altogether indigenous growth. It owes its birth mainly to +the labours of English missionaries, like Carey, in the first half of +the last century, assisted by the Pundits of Calcutta. Yet it is upon +this community of language that the Bengalees mainly found their claim +to recognition as a "nation"; or, to put it in another form, their claim +rests upon education as they understand it--i.e., upon the high +proportion of literacy that exists in Bengal as compared with most parts +of India. Education is unquestionably a power in Bengal. It has not +superseded caste, which in all essentials is still unbroken, but it has +to some extent overshadowed it. + +The Brahmans of Bengal have never within historical times been a +politically dominant force. They did not condescend to take office even +in the remote days when there were Hindu Kings in Bengal, and still less +under Mahomedan rule. They were content to be learned in Sanscrit and in +the Hindu Scriptures, and they left secular knowledge to the Kayasthas, +or writer caste, with whom they preserved, notwithstanding certain rigid +barriers, much more intimate relations than usually exist between +different Hindu castes. There is a tradition that the highest Brahman +septs of Bengal are the descendants of five priests of special sanctity +whom King Adisur of Eastern Bengal in the ninth century attracted to his +Court from the holiest centres of Hinduism, and that the servants who +accompanied them founded the septs to which precedence is still accorded +amongst the Kayasthas of Bengal, and both have been at pains to preserve +the purity of their descent by a most exclusive and complicated, and +often unsavoury, system of matrimonial alliances known as Kulinism. +Hence in Bengal the Brahmans share their social primacy to an extent +unknown in other parts of India with the Kayasthas, and also with +another high caste, the Vaidhyas, who formerly monopolized the practice +of Hindu medicine. The _nexus_ is education, and that _nexus_ has been +strengthened since the advent of British rule and of Western education. +When the educational enterprise of the early British missionaries was +followed up, under the impulse of Dr. Duff, the greatest figure in the +missionary annals of India, and of Ram Mohun Roy, the most learned and +earnest of all reforming Brahmans, by the famous Government Minute of +March 7, 1835, many distinguished members of all these three castes +responded to the call and began to qualify for employment under +Government and for the liberal professions that were opening out in the +new India we were making. They were first in the field, and, though +other castes have followed suit, it is they who have practically +monopolized the public offices, the Bar, the Press, and the teaching +profession. It was they who were the moving spirits of the Brahmo Samaj +and of Social Reform when progressive ideas seemed to be on the point of +permeating Hinduism. But when the reaction came which first found public +expression in the resistance provoked by the Age of Consent Act of 1891 +for mitigating the evils of Hindu child marriage, and the spirit of +reform was deflected from the social and religious into the political +domain, it was they again who showed the most aptitude to clothe the new +political movement in all the forms of Western political activities. It +was Mr. W.O. Bonnerjee, an able Bengalee lawyer of moderate and +enlightened views, who presided over the first Indian National Congress +at Bombay and delivered an opening address of which the moderation has +rarely been emulated, and though the Congress movement originated in +Bombay rather than in Bengal, the fluent spokesmen of Bengal very soon +had the satisfaction of feeling that for the first time in Indian +history Bengal might claim to be marching in the van. + +Owing to his greater plasticity and imagination, the Bengalee has +certainly often assimilated English ideas as few other Indians have. +None can question, for instance, the genuine Western culture and sound +learning of men like Dr. Ashutosh Mookerjee, the Vice-Chancellor of the +Calcutta University, or Dr. Rash Behari Ghose, than whom the English Bar +itself has produced few greater lawyers; and it would be easy to quote +many other names of scarcely less distinction amongst the many highly +educated Bengalees who have served and are still serving the State with +undoubted loyalty and ability. With the spread of English education, +habits of tolerance have grown up, at any rate as to externals; and +though on the crucial point of inter-marriage caste law has lost hardly +anything of its rigidity, religion, in the ordinary intercourse of life, +seems to sit almost as lightly upon educated Hindu society in Calcutta +as upon English society in London. Another result of English education, +combined with the absence of such traditions of Brahman supremacy as are +still recent and powerful in the Deccan, has been to invest the +political aspirations of the Bengalees with that democratic tinge which +has won the sympathies of English Radicals; and, even if the tinge in +most cases be very slight, the Bengalee's own adaptability enables him +to clothe his opinions with extraordinary skill and verisimilitude in +the form which he intuitively knows will best suit an English audience. +Of any real democratic spirit amongst the educated classes of Bengal it +is difficult to find a trace, for they are separated from the masses +whom they profess to represent by a social gulf which only a few of the +most enlightened amongst them have so far even recognized the necessity +of making some attempt to bridge if they wish to give the slightest +plausibility to their professions. It would be less far-fetched, though +the analogy would still be very halting, to compare the position of the +Bengalee "moderates" with that of the middle classes in England before +the Reform Bill of 1832, who had no idea of emancipating the masses, but +only of emancipating themselves to some extent from the control of a +close oligarchy. From this point of view there are undoubtedly, and +especially amongst the elder generation, many educated Bengalees who are +convinced that in claiming by political agitation a larger share in the +administration and government of the country they are merely carrying +into practice the blameless theories of civic life and political +activity which their reading of English history has taught them. Their +influence, however, has been rapidly undermined by a new and essentially +revolutionary school, who combine with a spirit of revolt against all +Western authority a reversion to some of the most reactionary +conceptions of authority that the East has ever produced, and, +unfortunately, it is this new school which has now got hold of the +younger educated classes. + +Education, to which in its more primitive forms the Bengalees owed +whatever influence they retained under Mahomedan rule, has given them +under British rule far larger opportunities which they have turned to +account with no mean measure of success. I must reserve the thorny +question of education for separate treatment. All I need say for the +present is that, had it grown less instead of more superficial, had it +been less divorced from discipline and moral training as well as from +the realities of Indian life, the results might have been very +different. As it is, in the form given to it in our Indian schools and +colleges, which have been allowed to drift more and more into native +hands, English education has steadily deteriorated in quality as the +output has increased in quantity. The sacrifices made by many Bengalees +in humble circumstances to procure for their sons the advantages of what +is called higher education are often pathetic, but the results of this +mania for higher education, however laudable in itself, have been +disastrous. Every year large batches of youths with a mere smattering of +knowledge are turned out into a world that has little or no use for +them. Soured on the one hand by their own failure, or by the failure of +such examinations as they may have succeeded in passing to secure for +them the employment to which they aspired, and scorning the sort of work +to which they would otherwise have been trained, they are ripe for every +revolt. That is the material upon which the leaders of unrest have most +successfully worked, and it is only recently that some of the more +sober-minded Bengalees of the older generation have begun to realize the +dangers inherent in such a system. When in 1903 Lord Curzon brought in +his Universities Bill to mitigate some of the most glaring evils of the +system, there was a loud and unanimous outcry in Bengal that Government +intended to throttle higher education because it was education that was +making a "nation" of Bengal. Subsequent events have shown that that +measure was not only urgently needed, but that it came too late to cure +the mischief already done, and was, if anything, too circumscribed in +its scope. The storm it raised was intensified shortly afterwards by +Lord Curzon's famous Convocation speech, into which the sensitive and +emotional Bengalee hastened to read a humiliating indictment of the +"nation." Such a storm showed how heavily laden was the atmosphere with +dangerous electricity. + +For some years past the influence of Tilak and his irreconcilable school +had been projected from the Deccan into Bengal, and nowhere did it make +itself so rapidly felt as in the Press. The _Calcutta Review_ has been +publishing a very instructive history of the Indian Press by Mr. S.C. +Sanial, a Hindu scholar who has had the advantage of consulting +authentic and hitherto unpublished documents. His erudite work shows how +the native Press of India first grew up in Bengal as the direct product +of English education, and faithfully reflected all the fluctuations of +educated Bengalee opinion, many of the most influential native +newspapers continuing to be published in English, side by side with, and +often under the same control as, more popular papers published in the +vernacular. Among the "advanced" journalists of Bengal, none had fallen +so entirely under the spell of Tilak's magnetic personality as Mr. Bepin +Chandra Pal and Mr. Arabindo Ghose, and the former's _New India_ and the +latter's _Bande_ also published in English, soon outstripped the +aggressiveness of Mr. Surendranath Banerjee's _Bengalee_. For though +not immune from the reaction against Western influences and in favour of +Hinduism as a religious and social system, the school represented by Mr. +Banerjee confined itself at first mainly to political agitation and to +criticism of British methods of administration. The new school +represented, perhaps most conspicuously, by Mr. Arabindo Ghose scarcely +disguised its hostility to British rule itself and to all that British +ascendancy stands for. Hinduism for the Hindus, or, as they preferred to +put it, "Arya for the Aryans," was the war-cry of zealots, half +fanatics, half patriots, whose mysticism found in the sacred story of +the _Bhagvat Gita_ not only the charter of Indian independence but the +sanctification of the most violent means for the overthrow of an alien +rule. With this "Aryan" reaction, having to a great extent the force of +religious enthusiasm behind it, orthodoxy also recovered ground, and +Brahmanism was not slow to show how potent it still is even in Bengal +when it appeals to the superstitions of the masses. In one form or +another this spirit had spread like wildfire not only among the students +but among the teachers, and the schools of physical training to which +young Bengal had taken, partly under the influence of our British love +of sports and partly from a legitimate desire to remove from their +"nation" the stigma of unmanliness, were rapidly transforming themselves +into political societies modelled upon the bands of gymnasts which +figured so prominently in Tilak's propaganda in the Deccan. Among the +older men, some yielded to the new spirit from fear of being elbowed out +by their youngers, some were genuinely impatient of the tardiness of the +constitutional reforms for which they had looked to the agency of the +Indian National Congress; a few perhaps welcomed the opportunity of +venting the bitterness engendered by social slights, real or imaginary, +or by disappointments in Government service. + +Such appears to have been the _état d'âme_ of Bengal when the +Government of India promulgated the measure of administrative +redistribution known as the Partition of Bengal. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE STORM IN BENGAL. + + +The merits or demerits of the Partition of Bengal have already been +discussed to satiety. As far as its purpose was to promote +administrative efficiency it is no longer on its defence. Bengal proper +is still the most populous province in India, but it has been brought +within limits that at least make efficient administration practicable. +The eastern districts, now included in the new province, which had been +hitherto lamentably neglected, have already gained enormously by the +change, which was at the same time only an act of justice to the large +Mahomedan majority who received but scanty consideration from Calcutta. +The only people who perhaps suffered inconvenience or material loss were +absentee landlords, pleaders, and moneylenders, and some of the +merchants of Calcutta, Anglo-Indian as well as native, who believed +their interests to be affected by the transfer of the seat of provincial +government for the Eastern Bengal districts to Dacca. Nevertheless the +Partition was the signal for an agitation such as India had not hitherto +witnessed. I say advisedly the signal rather than the cause. For if the +Partition in itself had sufficed to rouse spontaneous popular feeling, +it would have been unnecessary for the leaders of the agitation to +resort in the rural districts to gross misrepresentations of the objects +of that measure. What all the smouldering discontent, all the +reactionary disaffection centred in Calcutta read into the Partition was +a direct attack upon the primacy of the educated classes that had made +Calcutta the capital of the Bengalee "nation." The Universities Act of +1904, it was alleged, had been the first attempt on the part of a +masterful Viceroy to reduce their influence by curtailing their control +of higher education. Partition was a further attempt to hamper their +activities by cutting half the "nation" adrift from its "intellectual" +capital. This was a cry well calculated to appeal to many "moderates," +whom the merely political aspects of the question would have left +relatively unmoved and it certainly proved effective, for in Calcutta +feeling ran very strong. Whilst "monster" demonstrations were organized +in Calcutta and in the principal towns of the _mofussil_, the wildest +reports were sedulously disseminated amongst the rural population. +Partition was meant to pave the way for undoing the Permanent Settlement +which governs the Land Revenue in Bengal, and, once the Permanent +Settlement out of the way, Government would screw up the land tax. As +for the creation of the new province, it was intended to facilitate the +compulsory emigration of the people from the plains, who would be driven +to work on the Englishmen's tea plantations in the far-off jungles of +Assam. Reports of this kind were well calculated to alarm both the +_Zemindars_, who had waxed fat on the Permanent Settlement, and the +credulous _rayats_, whose labour is indispensable to the _zemindar_ +squirarchy. In the towns, on the other hand, the masses were told that +Partition was an insult to the "terrible goddess" Kali, the most popular +of all Hindu deities in Bengal, and, in order to popularize the protest +amongst the small townsfolk, amongst artisans and petty traders, the cry +of _Swadeshi_ was coupled with that of _Bande Mataram_. + +The spirit of revolt against Western political authority had been for +some time past spreading to the domain of economics. _Swadeshi_ in +itself and so far as it means the intelligent encouragement of +indigenous is perfectly legitimate, and in this sense the Government of +India had practised _Swadeshi_ long before it was taken up for purposes +of political agitation by those who look upon it primarily as an +economic weapon against their rulers. It was now to receive a formidable +development. _Swadeshi_ must strike at the flinty heart of the British +people by cutting off the demand for British manufactured goods and +substituting in their place the products of native labour. At the first +great meeting held at the Calcutta Town Hall to protest against +Partition, the building was to have been draped in black as a sign of +"national" mourning, but the idea was ostentatiously renounced because +the only materials available were of English manufacture. Not only did +the painful circumstances of the hour forbid any self-respecting +Bengalee from using foreign-made articles, but some means had to be +found of compelling the lukewarm to take the same lofty view of their +duties. So the cry of boycott was raised, and it is worth noting, as +evidence of the close contact and co-operation between the forces of +unrest in the Deccan and in Bengal, that at the same time as it was +raised in Calcutta by Mr. Surendranath Banerjee it was raised also at +Poona by Tilak who perhaps foresaw much more clearly the lawlessness to +which it would lead. For, though the cry fell on deaf ears in Bombay, +the boycott did not remain by any means an idle threat in Bengal. The +movement was placed under the special patronage of Kali and vows were +administered to large crowds in the forecourts of her great temple at +Calcutta and in her various shrines all over Bengal. The religious +character with which the leaders sought to invest the boycott propaganda +showed how far removed was the _swadeshi_ which they preached from a +mere innocent economic propaganda for the furtherance of native +industries. For a description of the Tantric rites connected with +_Shakti_ worship I must refer readers to M. Barth's learned work on "The +religions of India," of which an English translation has been published +by Messrs Trübner in their Oriental series. In its extreme forms +_Shakti_ worship finds expression in licentious aberrations which, +however lofty may be the speculative theories that gave birth to them, +represent the most extravagant forms of delirious mysticism. Yet such +men as Mr. Surendranath Banerjee[7], who in his relations with +Englishmen claims to represent the fine flower of Western education and +Hindu enlightenment, did not hesitate to call the popularity of _Shakti_ +worship in aid in order to stimulate the boycott of British goods. To +prevent any blacksliding the agitators had ready to hand an organization +which they did not hesitate to use. The gymnastic societies founded in +Bengal for physical training and semi-military drill on the model of +those established by Tilak in the Deccan were transformed into bands of +_samitis_ or "national volunteers," and students and schoolboys who had +been encouraged from the first to take part in public meetings and to +parade the streets in procession as a protest against Partition, were +mobilized to picket the bazaars and enforce the boycott. Nor were their +methods confined to moral suasion. Where it failed they were quite ready +to use force. The Hindu leaders had made desperate attempts to enlist +the support of the Mahomedans, and not without some success, until the +latter began to realize the true meaning both of the Partition and of +the agitation against it. Nothing was better calculated to enlighten +them than another feature introduced also from the Deccan into the +"national" propaganda. In the Deccan the cult of Shivaji, as the epic +hero of Mahratta history, was intelligible enough. But in Bengal his +name had been for generations a bogey with which mothers hushed their +babies, and the Mahratta Ditch in Calcutta still bears witness to the +terror produced by the daring raids of Mahratta horsemen. To set Shivaji +up in Bengal on the pedestal of Nationalism in the face of such +traditions was no slight feat, and all Mr. Surendranath Banerjee's +popularity barely availed to perform it successfully. But to identify +the cause of Nationalism with the cult of the Mahratta warrior-king who +had first arrested the victorious career and humbled the pride of the +Mahomedan conquerors of Hindustan was not the way to win over to it the +Mahomedans of Bengal. In Eastern Bengal especially, with the exception +of a few landlords and pleaders whose interests were largely bound up +with those of the Hindus, the Mahomedans as a community had everything +to gain and nothing to lose by the Partition. For those amongst them who +were merchants the boycott spelt serious injury to their trade and led +in some instances to reprisals in which the Hindus fared badly. Whenever +it happened in this way that the biter was bit, the Bengalee Press +accused the Government of encouraging the revival of sectarian strife, +just as it denounced every measure for the maintenance of order which +the Government was compelled to take in the discharge of one of its most +elementary duties, as brutal repression and arbitrary vindictiveness, +and any mistake of procedure made by some subordinate official under the +stress of a very critical situation was distorted and magnified into a +gross denial of justice. But it was out of the punishments very properly +inflicted upon the misguided schoolboys and students whom the +politicians had put in the forefront of the fray that the greatest +capital was made. Whilst the politicians themselves prudently remained +for the most part in Calcutta, making high-sounding speeches and writing +inflammatory articles, or were careful in their own overt demonstrations +not to overstep the extreme bounds of legality, they showered telegrams +and letters of congratulation on the young "martyrs" who had been duly +castigated. + +The leaders of the movement had also another string to their bow which +they used with considerable effect. Never before had there been such +close contact between Indian politicians and certain groups of English +politicians. Lord Curzon's fall and the extremely injudicious +references to Partition made by Mr. Brodrick, the then Secretary of +State, in the correspondence published after the resignation of the +Viceroy, had from the first given a great stimulus to the anti-Partition +campaign, Mr. Brodrick's remarks led the Bengalees to form a very +exaggerated estimate of the personal part played by Lord Curzon in the +question of Partition, and they not unnaturally concluded that, if the +Secretary of State had merely sanctioned the Partition in order to +humour the Viceroy, he might easily be induced to reconsider the matter +when once Lord Curzon had been got out of the way. Their hopes in that +quarter were, it is true, very soon dashed, but only to be strung up +again to the highest pitch of expectancy when the Conservative +Government fell from power, and was replaced by a Liberal +Administration, with Mr. John Morley at the India Office and an +overwhelming majority in the House of Commons, in which the Radical +element was very strongly represented. Several of the leading Radical +organs in England had for a long time past joined hands with the +Bengalee Press in denouncing Lord Curzon and all his works, and, most +fiercely of all, the Partition of Bengal. The Bengalee politicians, +moreover, not only had the active sympathy of a large section of Radical +opinion at home, but they had in the House itself the constant +co-operation of a small but energetic group of members, who constituted +themselves into an "Indian party," and were ever ready to act as the +spokesmen of Indian discontent. Some of them were of that earnest type +of self-righteousness which loves to smell out unrighteousness in their +fellow countrymen, especially in those who are serving their country +abroad; some were hypnotized by the old shibboleths of freedom, even +when freedom merely stands for licence; some were retired Anglo-Indians, +whose experience in the public service in India would have carried +greater weight had not the peculiar acerbity of their language seemed to +betray the bitterness of personal disappointment. Every invention or +exaggeration of the Bengalee Press found its way into the list of +questions to be asked of the Secretary of State, who, with less +knowledge than he has since acquired, doubtless considered himself bound +to pass them on for inquiry to the Government of India. A large +proportion of these questions were aimed at Sir Bampfylde Fuller, who, +as the first Lieutenant-Governor of the new province of Eastern Bengal, +had been singled out for every form of vituperation and calumny, and no +subject figured more prominently amongst them than the disciplinary +treatment of turbulent schoolboys and students. It is so easy to appeal +to the generous sentiments of the British public in favour of poor boys, +supposed to be of tender years, dragged into police courts by harsh +bureaucrats for some hasty action prompted by the generous, if foolish, +exuberance of youth, especially when the British public is quite unaware +that in India most students and many schoolboys are more or less +full-grown and often already married. Every one of these questions was +duly advertised in the columns of the Bengalee Press, and their +cumulative effect was to produce the impression that the British +Parliament was following events in Bengal with feverish interest and +with overwhelming sympathy for the poor oppressed Bengalee. + +Nevertheless, there came a moment when the first feverish excitement +seemed to wane. Time had gone on, and though there was a new Viceroy in +India and a new Secretary of State at Whitehall, the Partition had +remained an accomplished fact. The visit of the Prince and Princess of +Wales to Calcutta had temporarily exercised a restraining influence on +the political leaders, and the presence of Royalty in a country where +reverence for the Throne is still a powerful tradition seemed to hush +even the forces of militant sedition. In Eastern Bengal, where the +agitation had been much fiercer than in Bengal proper, the energy and +devotion displayed by the Lieutenant-Governor in fighting a serious +threat of famine had won for him the respect of many of his opponents, +and the situation was beginning to lose some of its acuteness when it +was suddenly announced that Sir Bampfylde Fuller had resigned. The +effect was instantaneous. The points at issue between Sir Bampfylde +Fuller and the Government of India have been fully and frequently +debated, and it is needless to discuss here the reasons given for his +resignation, or for its prompt acceptance by the Viceroy. What I am +concerned with is the effect produced by that incident. It was immediate +and disastrous. The Bengalee leaders took heart. They claimed Sir +Bampfylde's downfall as their triumph--theirs and their allies' at +Westminster. Those, on the other hand, who imagined that it was Sir +Bampfylde's methods that had intensified the agitation and that his +removal would restore peace--even the sort of half peace which had been +so far maintained in Bengal proper under the milder sway of Sir Andrew +Fraser--were very soon undeceived. For if for a short time Sir Bampfylde +Fuller's successor was spared, the Government of Eastern Bengal was +compelled before long to take, more vigorous measures than he had ever +contemplated, and the agitation, which had hitherto refrained from +exhibiting its more violent aspects in Bengal proper, not only ceased to +show any discrimination, but everywhere broadened and deepened. The +veteran leaders, who still posed as "moderates," ceased to lead or, +swept away by the forces they had helped to raise, were compelled to +quicken their pace like the Communist leader in Paris who rushed after +his men exclaiming:--_Je suis leur chef, il faut bien que je les suive_. +The question of Partition itself receded into the background, and the +issue, until then successfully veiled and now openly raised, was not +whether Bengal should be one unpartitioned province or two partitioned +provinces under British rule, but whether British rule itself was to +endure in Bengal or, for the matter of that, anywhere in India. + +The first phase of unrest in Bengal, at any rate in its outward +manifestations, had been mainly political, and on the whole free from +any open exhibition of disloyalty to the British _Raj_. With the +Partition of Bengal it passed into a second phase in which, new economic +issues were superadded to the political issues, if they did not +altogether overshadow them, and the _Swadeshi_ movement and the boycott +soon imported methods of violence and lawlessness which had hitherto +been considered foreign to the Bengalee temperament. This phase did not +last for much more than a year after the Partition, for, when once +started on the inclined plane of lawlessness, the agitation rapidly +developed into a much wider and deeper revolt, in which _Swadeshi_ held +its place, but only in a subordinate position. The revolt began rapidly +to assume the revolutionary complexion, in the religious and social as +well as in the political domain, which Tilak had for years past, as we +have seen, laboured to impart to his propaganda in the Deccan, and, as +far as his personal influence and counsels availed, in every part of +India with which he was in contact. The ground had already been prepared +for this transformation by spadework in the Bengalee Press conducted by +two of Tilak's chief disciples in Bengal. One was Mr. Bepin Chandra Pal, +the bold exponent of _Swaraj_, whose programme I have already quoted. +The other was Mr. Arabindo Ghose, one of the most remarkable figures +that Indian unrest has produced. Educated in England, and so thoroughly +that when he returned to India he found it difficult to express himself +in Bengali, he is not only a high-caste Hindu, but he is one of those +Hindu mystics who believe that, by the practice of the most extreme +forms of _Yoga_ asceticism, man can transform himself into a super-man, +and he has constituted himself the high priest of a religious revival +which has taken a profound hold on the imagination of the emotional +youth of Bengal. His ethical gospel is not devoid of grandeur. It is +based mainly on the teachings of Krishna to Arjuna as revealed in the +_Bhagvad Gita_, and I cannot hope to define its moral purpose better +than by borrowing the following sentence from Mrs. Besant's introduction +to her translation of "The Lord's Song":-- + + It is meant to lift the aspirant from the lower levels of + renunciation where objects are renounced, to the loftier + heights where desires are dead and where the Yogi dwells + in calm and ceaseless contemplation, while his body and + mind are actively employed in discharging the duties that + fall to his lot in life. + +This reading of the _Bhagvad Gita_ differentiates the newer Indian +conception of renunciation, which does not exclude but rather prescribes +the duty of service to society, from the older conception, which was +concerned merely to procure the salvation of the individual by his +complete detachment from all mundane affairs. With this gospel of active +self-sacrifice none can assuredly quarrel, but it is the revolutionary +form which Mr. Arabindo Ghose would see given to such activity that, +unfortunately, chiefly fascinates the rising generation of Bengalees. +For him British rule and the Western civilization for which it stands +threaten the very life of Hinduism, and therefore British rule and all +that it stands for must go, and in order that they may go every Hindu +must be up and doing. That Mr. Arabindo Ghose himself holds violence and +murder to be justifiable forms of activity for achieving that purpose +cannot be properly alleged, for though he has several times been placed +on his trial and in one instance for actual complicity in political +crime--namely, in the Maniktolla bomb case--and though he is at present +a fugitive from justice, the law has so far acquitted him. But that his +followers have based upon his teachings a propaganda by deed of the most +desperate character is beyond dispute. It has been openly expounded with +fanatical fervour and pitiless logic in a newspaper edited by his +brother, Barendra Ghose, of which the file constitutes one of the most +valuable and curious of human documents. + +Of the three Bengali newspapers that came into the field soon after +Partition as the explicit champions of revolution--- the _Sandhya_, the +_Navasakti_, to which Mr. Arabindo Ghose was himself a frequent +contributor, and the _Yugantar_--the last named achieved the greatest +and most startling popularity. It was founded in 1906 by Barendra Kumar +Ghose, a brother of Arabindo, and by Bhupendranath Dutt, only brother of +the celebrated Swami Vivekananda, who visited Europe and America as the +missionary of the Hindu revival and has been revered in India, since his +premature death in 1905, as a modern _rishi_ and a no less great one +than those of ancient Vedic times. Barendra Ghose, who had studied +history and political literature at Baroda, where Arabindo was a +Professor in the Gaekwar's College, had originally intended to start a +religious institution, and whilst he edited the _Yugantar_ he founded a +hostel for youths attending "National" schools. The _Yugantar_ set +itself to preach revolution as a religious even more than a political +movement. Its profession of faith is to be found in an article headed +"The Age of the Gita again in India":-- + + God (i.e., Khrisna in the Gita) has said, "Oh, descendant + of Bharata, whenever there be a decline of righteousness and + the rise of unrighteousness, then I shall become incarnate + again. I shall be born in every Yuga [era] to rescue the good, + to destroy the wrongdoer, and to establish righteousness." + + In the _Dwapara-Yuga_ [the era which preceded the present + _Kali-Yuga_, or era of darkness] when righteousness was on + the wane and unrighteousness was springing up in the sacred + land of India under the hands of Duryyodhana and other + miscreants engaged in wickedness, then God, by becoming + incarnate again and awakening his favourite disciple Arjuna + to duty, re-established the kingdom of righteousness in India. + At the present time righteousness is declining and unrighteousness + is springing up in India. A handful of alien robbers is + ruining the crores of the people of India by robbing the wealth + of India. Through the hard grinding of their servitude, + the ribs of this countless people are being broken to pieces. + Endless endeavours are being made in order that this great + nation by losing, as an inevitable result of this subjection, + its moral, intellectual and physical power, its wealth, its + self-reliance, and all other qualities, may be turned into the + condition of the beasts of burden or be wholly extinguished. + Why, oh Indians, are you losing heart, at the sight of many + obstacles in your path, to make a stand against this unrighteousness? + Fear not, oh Indians. God will not remain + inactive at the sight of such unrighteousness in His kingdom. + He will keep His word. Placing firm reliance on the promise + of God, invoke His power, and He will descend in your midst + to destroy unrighteousness. Do not be afraid. "When the + lightning of heaven flashes in their hearts, men perform + impossible deeds." + +The article closes with a lyrical vision of the India of the future, +with "the independent flag of righteousness" unfurled, her virtues +restored, plague and famine banished, her industries brought to the +highest pitch of scientific development, her armies and fleets going +forth "to use the unlimited strength, knowledge, and righteousness of +India for the benefit of the whole world." + +The _Yugantar_ at the same time set forth in a series of articles the +scheme by which the enfranchisement of India was to be achieved--a +scheme which was little more than a reasoned exposition of the methods +already adopted in the previous decade by Tilak in the Deccan. These +articles form a manual of directions for "the army of young men which is +the _Nrisinha_ and the _Varaha_ and the _Kalki_ incarnation of God, +saving the good and destroying the wicked"--the _Kalki_ incarnation +being that in which Vishnu is to come and deliver India from the +foreigner. To shake off slavery the first essential is that the educated +classes shall learn to hate slavery. Then the lower classes will soon +follow their lead. "It is easy to incite the lower classes to any +particular work. But the incitement of the educated depends on a firm +belief." Therefore the "poisonous" effects of slavery must be constantly +brought home, and "we must always be trying to destroy the present +unnatural liking for a state of servitude." The aspiration for freedom +must be converted into a firm resolve, and to divert the Bengalee "from +the unfailing attraction of a livelihood" to the cause of freedom "his +mind must be excited and maddened by such an ideal as will present to +him a picture of everlasting salvation." Public opinion must be built up +by the newspapers, "which must be filled with the discussion of the +necessity of independence and revolution," by soul-stirring musical and +theatrical performances, glorifying the lives of Indian heroes and their +great deeds in the cause of freedom, and by patriotic songs. "When in +the Mahratta country the high-souled Shivaji stood up for independence +the songs of the bards helped powerfully in his work." Above all, the +materials for "a great sacrifice for liberty" must be prepared. "The +stratagems known as resorting to cover in English military tactics are +very necessary in all political endeavour," and "the enemy" must be kept +constantly occupied by them. "A _Bande Mataram_ procession to-day, a +conference or congress to-morrow, a flourish of _Swadeshi_ speeches the +day after, and so on." A "great commotion may with advantage be made +over small incidents," but "it must always be remembered that these do +not constitute our real effort, and are very trifling accompaniments" +which serve to keep the enemy busy and the country awake "whilst we are +training," and the training consists in the organization, discreetly and +silently, of bands of young men "with power to conceal secret counsel" +and "to remain under complete obedience." Every band must "recognize the +cultivation of physical strength as a principal means of attaining our +object." Each band, working down from the chief town of the district, +must be connected with other bands, and all must be initiated in the +_Shakti mantra_--that _Shakti_ worship which constitutes one of the most +powerful and popular appeals to the sensuous side of Hindu mysticism. As +for arming the bands, there are different ways of collecting arms, and +in this business "there can be no considerations of right or wrong, for +everything is laid at the feet of the goddess of independence." Bombs +can be manufactured in secret places, and guns can be imported from +foreign countries, for "the people of the West will sell their own +Motherland for money," or they can be obtained from the native troops +who, "though driven by hunger to accept service under Government, are +men of our own flesh and blood," or, perhaps, even "secretly" from other +Great Powers. Funds also can be collected in similar ways. Much money is +required, and amongst other things for "secret preachers at home and +abroad." It can be obtained "by voluntary donations," or "by the +application of force," which is perfectly justifiable since the money is +to be taken and used "for the good of society." Thefts and dacoities +are, under normal conditions, crimes because they destroy the sense of +social security, but "to destroy it for the highest good is no sin, but +rather a work of religious merit." The taking of blood is, in the +circumstances, equally praiseworthy. "The law of the English is +established on brute force, and if to liberate ourselves we too must use +brute force, it is right that we should do so." Nor is this doctrine +merely stated in general terms:-- + + Will the Bengali worshippers of _Shakti_ shrink from the + shedding of blood? The number of Englishmen in this + country is not above one lakh and a half, and what is the + number of English officials in each district? If you are firm + in your resolution you can in a single day bring English rule + to an end. Lay down your life, but first take a life. The + worship of the goddess will not be consummated if you sacrifice + your lives at the shrine of independence without shedding blood. + +These are the doctrines of revolutionary Hinduism expounded day by day +for nearly two years by a group of highly educated young Bengalees, the +effectiveness of whose appeal to sacred traditions was enhanced by +remarkable qualities of style. I have before me a letter from a Hindu +scholar who certainly has no sympathy with the methods advocated by the +_Yugantar_--"Nothing like these articles ever appeared before in Bengali +literature." "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh," +and this was essentially true in the case of the _Yugantar_. The +Government translator confessed in the High Court that he had never +before read, in Bengali, language so lofty, so pathetic, and so +stirring, that it was impossible to convey it in an English translation. +Yet, the writers had never learnt to write Bengali in their school-days, +and the organ tone of Milton, which was distinctly audible in the +Bengali, betrayed their English education. The sale was unbounded. The +circulation of the _Yugantar_ rose to over 50,000, a figure never +attained before by any Indian newspaper, and sometimes when there was a +special run upon a number the Calcutta newsboys would get a rupee for a +single copy before the issue was exhausted. So great indeed was the +demand that the principal articles, forming a complete gospel of +revolution, were republished in a small volume, entitled _Mukti con +pathe_: "Which way does salvation lie?" Not only were these appeals to +racial and religious passion reflected in many other papers all over +Bengal, but the most lamentable fact of all was that scarcely any native +paper, even amongst those of an avowedly moderate complexion, attempted +to counteract, or ventured to protest against, either the matter or the +tone of these publications. Their success, on the other hand, induced +not a few to follow suit. What is forgotten in England by the +uncompromising champions of the freedom of the Press is that in a +country like ours, with its party system fully represented in the public +Press, even the newspapers which either party may consider most +mischievous find their corrective in the newspapers of the other party. +In India that is not the case. There is no healthy play of public +opinion. The classes whose confidence in the British _Raj_ is still +unshaken are practically unrepresented in the Press, which is mostly in +the hands of the intellectuals, of whom the majority are drifting into +increasing estrangement, while the minority are generally too timid to +try to stem the flowing tide. Nor, if the "moderates" in Bengal were +overawed by the violence of the new creed, can the whole blame be laid +upon their shoulders when one remembers how little was being done by +Government, and how ineffective that little was to check this +incendiarism. Though there were many Press prosecutions, and action was +repeatedly taken against the _Yugantar_ in respect of particular +articles, the limited powers possessed by Government were totally +inadequate, and it was not till the Indian Newspapers (Incitement to +Offences) Act was passed in June, 1908, that the _Yugantar_ was +suppressed. In the meantime it had left an indelible mark on Indian +history, and many innocent victims paid with their lives for the +extraordinary supineness displayed during those first disastrous two +years of Lord Minto's administration. + +The list of outrages and deeds of violence which had begun in Bengal in +1907 grew heavier and heavier as 1908 wore on, but none perhaps created +such a sensation there as the murder of Mrs. and Miss Kennedy, who were +killed at Muzafferpur on April 30, 1908, by a bomb intended for the +Magistrate, Mr. Kingsford. The bomb had been thrown by a young Bengalee, +Khudiram Bose, and it was the first occasion on which an Indian had used +this product of modern science with murderous effect. The excitement was +intense. The majority of the Bengalee papers, it is true, were fain to +reprobate or at least to deprecate this particular form of propaganda, +but such comments were perfunctory, whilst they generally agreed to cast +the whole responsibility upon an alien Government whose resistance to +their "national" aspirations goaded impatient patriotism to these +extremes. Even amongst many who did not actually sympathize with the +murderer there seems to have been a lurking sense of pride that it was a +Bengalee who had had the courage to lay down his life in the striking of +such a blow. Khudiram Bose at any rate was not "lily-livered." Khudiram +Bose at any rate had shown that "determination" with the lack of which +the writers in the _Yugantar_ had so often taunted their fellow-countrymen. +So for the Nationalists of Bengal he became a martyr and a hero. Students +and many others put on mourning for him and schools were closed for two or +three days as a tribute to his memory. His photographs had an immense sale, +and by-and-by the young Bengalee bloods took to wearing _dhotis_ with +Khudiram Bose's name woven into the border of the garment. + +Bomb explosions followed in quick succession in Calcutta itself, and a +secret manufacture of explosives was discovered in a suburban garden. +Norendranath Gosain, who had turned approver in this last case, was shot +dead in Alipur Gaol, and a Hindu police-inspector in the streets of +Calcutta. Four attempts made upon the life of the Lieutenant-Governor of +Bengal, Sir Andrew Fraser, showed how little effect leniency had upon +the growing fierceness of the revolutionists. Scarcely a month and often +not a week passed without adding to the tale of outrages. I need not +recite them in detail. Perhaps the most significant feature was the +double purpose many of them indicated of defeating the detection and +punishment of crime and of striking terror into Indians who ventured to +serve the British, _Raj_[8]. Thus, on February 10, 1909, Mr. Ashutosh +Biswas, the Public Prosecutor and a Hindu of high character and +position, was shot dead outside the Alipur Police Court, and, in like +manner nearly a year later, Mr. Shams-ul-Alam, a Mahomedan Inspector of +the Criminal Investigation Department in the High Court itself of +Calcutta. Sedition was seething over the greater part of both Bengals, +and though the agricultural population remained for the most part +untouched or indifferent, there were few even of the smaller towns and +larger villages that were not visited by the missionaries of revolution. +_Swadeshi_ and the boycott were now merely an accompaniment to the +deeper and more menacing trumpet-call of open revolt, but they helped +"to keep the country awake" even where the true spirit of _Swaraj_ had +not yet been kindled. The _mofussil_ was honeycombed with secret +societies, whose daring dacoities served not only to collect the sinews +of war, but to impress the timid and recalcitrant with the powerlessness +of the State to protect them against the midnight raider. Truly the +teachings of the _Yugantar_ were bearing fruit, even to the laying down +of life and the taking of life. Unlike the majority of Bengalee +agitators, the writers in the _Yugantar_, it must be admitted, did not +flinch from the danger of practising what they taught. Most of them came +ultimately within the grasp of the Criminal Code, and Barendra Ghose, +who was arrested in connexion with the manufacture of bombs in the +Maniktolla garden, was sentenced to death, though subsequently +reprieved. His brother, Arabindo, on the other hand, though arrested at +the same time, had the good fortune to be acquitted. The work done by +the _Yugantar_ lived, nevertheless, after it, and is still living. + +A very heavy responsibility must at the same time attach to those +responsible both at home and in India for the extraordinary tolerance +too long extended to this criminal propaganda. For two whole years it +was carried on with relative impunity under the very eyes of the +Government of India in Calcutta. Month after month they must have seen +its audacity grow in direct proportion to official apathy. They must +have seen a reign of lawlessness and intimidation spread steadily over a +great part of the Metropolitan province. The failure of the ordinary +machinery of justice to check these crying evils was repeatedly brought +home to them. Yet it was not until 1908 that the necessity of +exceptional measures to cope with an exceptional situation was tardily +and very reluctantly realized. The Indian Explosive Substances Act and +Summary Justice Act of 1908, together with the Press Act of the same +year and the more drastic one enacted last February, have at last to +some extent checked the saturnalia of lawlessness that continued, though +with signs of abatement, into the beginning of this year. The Press Act +of 1910, especially, seems to have really arrested the poisonous flow +of printer's ink and with it the worst forms of crime to which it +maddened the feverish blood of Bengal. But some of those who are most +intimately acquainted with the inner workings of the revolutionary +movement hold strongly that none of these enactments had such an +immediately sobering effect as the deportation of the nine prominent +Bengalees who were arrested at the end of 1908. Such a measure is, I +know, very repugnant to British traditions and British sentiment, and in +this particular instance it unfortunately included two men whose +criminal guilt was subsequently believed not to be altogether beyond +doubt, though it may well have been argued that by financing and +administering a dangerous organization such as the _Anusilan Samiti_ +they made themselves responsible for the deeds of its members. +Nevertheless, the deportation struck just at that type of agitator whose +influence is most pernicious because it is most subtle, and whose +responsibility is greatest because of his more experienced years and +greater social position. Such a measure, however, is only warranted in +extreme circumstances and cannot be transformed into indefinite +detention. The grounds on which Government announced the release of +these deportees last winter were even more unhappily chosen than the +moment for the announcement, but the event seems so far to have +justified Lord Minto's confidence, though one of the deported agitators, +Pulin Bahari Das, of Dacca, has had to be rearrested and is now under +trial at Dacca for conspiracy of a most serious character. There is +still much lawlessness in both Bengals.[9] The continued prevalence of +political dacoities, and especially the difficulty experienced in +securing legal evidence against them, are distinctly unfavourable +symptoms. There are many peaceful citizens who will give private +information as to the outrages committed by these bands, consisting +mainly of youths of respectable connexions, but that so few have the +courage to face terrorism by going into the witness-box shows that the +secret societies which inspire such terror have not yet been broken up. +The extent to which disaffection is rampant in the native Bar also +hampers the administration of justice, for whilst there is an eager +competition for earning political notoriety by an eloquent defence of +political prisoners, it is sometimes difficult to find pleaders who will +undertake to conduct prosecutions. On the other hand, it is all to the +good that many of those who were ready to coquet with sedition in its +earlier stages or who had not the moral courage to speak out against it +seem now to be taking heart, and in this respect the reforms embodied in +the Indian Councils Act have usefully supplemented the sobering effect +of repressive legislation. For one of the stock arguments of "advanced" +politicians has been the failure of the "moderates" to obtain any +recognition from Government, and the enlargement of the Legislative +Councils took the sting out of that taunt. Independently, however, of +the reforms, the extreme violence of language and of methods which had +come into vogue was bound to produce some reaction. Amongst the educated +classes, many respectable fathers of families, whatever their political +opinions may be, have taken fright at the growth of turbulence and +insubordination in schools and colleges, which were often carried into +the home circle; for when once the principle of authority has been +undermined the parent's authority cannot remain unshaken. In the same +way some even of the "advanced" leaders have been alarmed by the +development of secret societies which often attract young men of very +good connexions, and they have proposed to use for the detection and +suppression of dacoities the local bands of "national volunteers" whom +they formerly helped to organize for the purpose of enforcing the +boycott and stimulating unrest. How far, even if unreservedly exercised, +the influence of such men as Mr. Surendranath Banerjee will be as potent +for checking the mischief as it was for promoting it remains to be +seen. For the present also the boycott is being discountenanced in the +same quarters, though Mr. Banerjee, presumably to "save his face," +professes to have agreed only to a suspension pending the revision of +Partition. But his paper, the _Bengalee_, is almost the only one that +pretends to regard the Partition as still an open question. It has been +eclipsed by far graver issues, of which the further development cannot +yet be foreseen. + +The return to more sober counsels seems to be confined unhappily to the +older generation, and the older generation, even if we include in it the +middle-aged, must before long pass away. What we have to reckon with, +especially in Bengal, is the revolt of the younger generation, and this +revolt draws its inspiration from religious and philosophical sources +which no measures merely political, either of repression or of +conciliation, can reach. It often represents a perversion of the finest +qualities, as, apparently, in the case of Birendranath Gupta, who +murdered Shams-ul-Alam in the Calcutta High Court last January. An +English missionary who knew him well assured me that in his large +experience of Indian youths he had never met one of more exemplary +character or higher ideals, nor one who seemed more incapable of +committing such a crime. The oaths and vows administered on initiation +to secret societies are not directed only to political ends. They impose +on the initiates in the most explicit terms a life of self-denial, and +sometimes celibacy; and though these vows do not always avail against +some of the worst forms of sensuality, it would be foolish and wrong to +generalize from unworthy exceptions. In its moral aspects the revolt of +young Bengal represents very frequently a healthy reaction against sloth +and self-indulgence and the premature exhaustion of manhood which is +such a common feature in a society that has for centuries been taught to +disregard physiological laws in the enforcement of child marriage. To +this extent it is a revolt, though in the name of Hinduism, against +some of the worst results of the Hindu social system, and that it has +spread so largely amongst the Brahmans of Bengal shows that it has +affected even the rigidity of Brahmanism. Thus, whereas we have seen in +Kolhapur the Brahmans of the Deccan assert that in this "age of +darkness" there can be no Kshatriyas, their fellow-caste-men in Bengal +are quite willing to invest Kayasthas with the sacred thread, on the +ground that they are really of Kshatriya descent, in order to stimulate +martial virtues amongst the Bengalees by reviving for their benefit the +old Vedic caste of warriors. Equally significant is the propaganda that +has been carried on by Brahmans amongst the Namasudras, a large and +mainly agricultural caste, chiefly located in the Jessor district of +Bengal and the Faridpur district of Eastern Bengal. The purpose of the +propaganda was political, but the inducement offered to the Namasudras +in order to stimulate their Nationalism was that the Brahmans would +relax the rigour of caste in favour of those who took _the Swadeshi_ +vow, and it is stated that, in several villages where they succeeded in +making a large number of converts, the Brahman agitators marked their +approval by condescending to have their "twice-born" heads shaved by the +village barber--an act which, however trivial it may seem to us, +constituted an absolutely revolutionary breach with a 3,000 years-old +past. + +On the other hand, the constant invocation of the "terrible goddess," +whether as Kali or as Durga, against the alien oppressors, shows that +Brahmanism in Bengal is equally ready to appeal to the grossest and most +cruel superstitions of the masses. In another of her forms she is +represented holding in her hand her head, which has been severed from +her body, whilst the blood gushing from her trunk flows into her open +mouth. A very popular picture of the goddess in this form has been +published with a text to the effect that the great goddess as seen +therein symbolizes "the Motherland" decapitated by the English, but +nevertheless preserving her vitality unimpaired by drinking her own +blood. It is not surprising that amongst extremists one of the favourite +euphemisms[10] applied to the killing of an Englishman is "sacrificing a +white goat to Kali." In 1906 I was visiting one of the Hindu temples at +Benares and found in the courtyard a number of young students who had +come on an excursion from Bengal. I got into conversation with them, and +they soon began to air, for my benefit, their political views, which +were decidedly "advanced." They were, however, quite civil and friendly, +and they invited me to come up to the temple door and see them sacrifice +to Kali a poor bleating kid that they had brought with them. When I +declined, one of them who had already assumed a rather more truculent +tone came forward and pressed me, saying that if I would accompany them +they would not mind even sacrificing a white goat. There was a general +shout of laughter at what was evidently regarded by the others as a huge +joke. I turned away, though I did not then understand its grim humour, +as I do now. + +The blind hatred of everything English with which the younger generation +is so largely saturated can only, in most cases, be the result of the +teachings that have impressed upon them the existence of a fundamental +antagonism between Hindu ideals and ours. Like the wretched Kanhere at +Nasik, they would have to admit that they never suffered injustice +themselves nor knew of any one who had. A great many have never come +into contact with a single Englishman, and their ignorance even of the +system of government under which they live is profound. Not the least +ominous symptom is that this spirit of revolt seems to have obtained a +firm hold of the zenana; and the Hindu woman behind the _purdah_ often +exercises a greater influence upon her husband and her sons than the +Englishwoman who moves freely about the world. Absolute evidence in such +matters is difficult to obtain, but there was a very significant and +quite authentic case last year, which I may as well quote here, though +it occurred in the Bombay Presidency. Two Brahman ladies of good +position from Bombay were discovered at Kolhapur wearing the garb of +_sanyasis_, i.e., mendicant ascetics. They confessed that they had left +their homes, to which the police wisely restored them, to invoke the +assistance of a great ruling chief of Southern India in a plot to +exterminate the hated foreigner, and their main object in starting upon +this insane venture had been to regain their hold upon their husbands' +affections by a great "patriotic" achievement. That real _sanyasis_ are +frequently the missionaries of sedition is certain, and their reputed +sanctity gives them access to the zenana. In Bengal even small boys of +so tender an age as still to have the run of zenanas have, I am told, +been taught the whole patter of sedition, and go about from house to +house dressed up as little _sanyasis_ in little yellow robes preaching +hatred of the English. + +The question is, can we extricate the better elements from this tangle +of passion and prejudice? There are many foul spots in the Hindu revival +in Bengal, apart even from tendencies which we cannot but regard as +politically criminal. At the same time there runs through it a strain of +idealism which probably constitutes its real force, and also our danger. +For strangely emotional and often a creature of his senses, the Bengalee +is accessible to spiritual influences with which the worldly-ambitious +Brahmanism of the Deccan, for instance, is rarely informed. He is always +apt to rush to extremes, and just as amongst the best representatives of +the educated classes there was in the last century a revolt against the +Hindu social and religious creed of their ancestors which tended first +towards Christianity or at least the ethics of Christianity and then +towards Western agnosticism, so the present revolt may be regarded in +some of its aspects as a reaction against these earlier tendencies; and +in spite of its extreme violence it may not be any more permanent. The +problem is still full of unknown quantities; but the known quantities +are at any rate sufficient to make us appreciate its gravity. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE PUNJAB AND THE ARYA SAMAJ. + + +The Punjab, the Land of the Five Rivers, differs as widely both from the +Deccan and from Bengal as these two differ the one from the other. It +has been more than any other part of India the battlefield of warring +races and creeds and the seat of power of mighty dynasties. Among its +cities it includes Imperial Delhi and Runjit Singh's Lahore. It is a +country of many peoples and of many dialects. It is the home of the +Sikhs, but the Mahomedans, ever since the days of the Moghul Empire, +form the majority of the population, and the proportion of Hindus is +smaller than in any other province of India, except Eastern Bengal. +Owing to the very small rainfall, its climate is intensely dry--fiercely +hot during the greater part of the year, and cold even to freezing +during the short winter months. Nowhere in India has British rule done +so much to bring peace and security and to induce prosperity. The +alluvial lands are rich but thirsty, and irrigation works on a scale of +unparalleled magnitude were required to compel the soil to yield +beneficent harvests. At the most critical moment in the history of +British India it was against the steadfastness of the Punjab, then under +the firm but patriarchal sway of Sir John Lawrence, that the Mutiny +spent itself, and until a few years ago there seemed to be no reason +whatever for questioning the loyalty of a province which the forethought +of Government and the skill of Anglo-Indian engineers were gradually +transforming into a land of plenty. Least of all did any one question +the loyalty of the Sikhs. Many of them believed that British rule was +the fulfilment of a prophecy of one of their martyred _gurus_, and the +Sikh regiments were regarded as the flower of the Native Army. + +Yet it was in the Punjab, at Lahore and at Rawal Pindi, that the first +serious disturbances occurred in 1907 which aroused public opinion at +home to the reality of Indian unrest, and stirred the Government of +India to such strong repressive measures as the deportation of two +prominent agitators under an ancient Ordinance of 1818 never before +applied in such connexion. Local and temporary causes may to some extent +have accounted for those disturbances. An increase in the land revenue +demanded in the Rawal Pindi district was very strongly resented. The +regulations issued with regard to the tenure of land in some of the new +irrigation colonies were probably unwise and carried out with some +harshness. Famine in the unirrigated tracts, and especially the plague, +which had desolated parts of the province, had created much misery and +bitterness. Other and more remote causes of a social and economic +character had also been at work. Nowhere had Anglo-Indian legislation +and the introduction of elaborate forms of legal procedure produced +results more unfortunate and less foreseen by their authors than in the +Punjab. The conversion of the occupants of the land into full +proprietors was intended to give greater stability and security to the +peasant ownership of land, but the result was to improve the position of +the moneylender, who, owing to the thriftlessness of the Indian _rayat_ +and the extravagant expenditure to which he is from time to time driven +by traditional custom in regard to marriages, funerals, and other family +ceremonies, has always played a disastrously important part in village +life. As M. Chailley remarks in his admirable study of these problems, +"the agricultural debtor had now two securities to offer." He had +always been able to pledge his harvest, and now he could pledge also his +land. On the other hand, "a strict system of law and procedure afforded +the moneylender the means of rapidly realizing his dues," and the +pleader, who is himself a creation of that system, was ever at the elbow +of both parties to encourage ruinous litigation to his own professional +advantage. Special laws were successively enacted by Government to check +these new evils, but they failed to arrest altogether a process which +was bringing about a veritable revolution in the tenure of land, and +mainly to the detriment of an essentially peaceful and law-abiding class +that furnished a large and excellent contingent to the Native Army. The +wretched landowner who found himself deprived of his land by legal +process held our methods rather than his own extravagance responsible +for his ruin, and on the other hand, the pleaders and their clients, the +moneylenders, who were generally Hindus, resented equally our +legislative attempts to hamper a process so beneficial to themselves. + +But all these were only contributory causes. There were still deeper +influences at work which have operated in the Punjab in the same +direction as the forces of unrest in the Deccan and in Bengal, but +differ from them nevertheless in their origin and in some of their +manifestations. In the Punjab too the keynote of unrest is a spirit of +revolt not merely against British administrative control, but, in theory +at least, against Western influence generally, though in some respects +it bears very strongly the impress of the Western influence which it +repudiates. The motive force is not conservative Brahmanism as in the +Deccan, nor does it betray the impetuous emotionalism of Bengal. It is +less rigid and purely reactionary than the former, and better +disciplined than the latter. + +Orthodox Hinduism ceased to be a dominant factor in the Punjab when the +flood of Mahomedan conquest swept over the land of the Five Rivers. Even +Islam did not break the power of caste, and very distinct traces of +caste still survive amongst the Mahomedan community itself. But nowhere +has caste been so much shaken as in the Punjab, for the infinity of +sub-castes into which each caste has resolved itself gives the measure +of its disintegration. Sikhism still represents the most successful +revolt against its tyranny in the later history of Hinduism. Hence the +relatively slight ascendency enjoyed by the Brahmans in the Punjab +amongst the Hindus themselves, even the Brahmans having split up into so +many sub-castes and sub-sub-castes that many a non-Brahman Hindu will +hardly accept food cooked by the lower order of Brahmans--and, next to +inter-marriage, food is the great test of caste. Nevertheless it is +amongst the Hindus of the Punjab that one of the earliest apostles of +reaction against the West has found the largest and most enthusiastic +body of followers. Swami Dayanand Saraswati, the founder of the Arya +Samaj, was a Brahman of Kathiawar; he was not born in the Punjab, and it +was not in the Punjab but in Bombay, where, however, it struck no roots, +that he founded the Arya Samaj. Only in the later years of his life did +the Punjab become the chief centre of his activities. The doctrines he +taught were embodied by him in his _Satyarath Prakash_, which has become +the Bible of his disciples, and in his _Veda Bashya Basmika_, a +commentary on the Vedas. He had at an early age lost faith in the Hindu +Pantheon, and to this extent he was a genuine religious reformer, for he +waged relentless war against the worship of idols, and whether his +claims to Vedantic learning be or be not conceded, his creed was "Back +to the Vedas." His ethical code, on the other hand, was vague, and he +pandered strangely in some directions to the weaknesses of the flesh, +and in others to popular prejudices. Nothing in the Vedas, for instance, +prohibits either the killing of cattle or the eating of bovine flesh. +But, in deference to one of the most universal of Hindu superstitions, +Dayanand did not hesitate to include cow-killing amongst the deadliest +sins. Here we have in fact the keynote of his doctrines. The sanctity of +the cow is the touchstone of Hindu hostility to both Christian and +Mahomedan, and the whole drift of Dayanand's teachings is far less to +reform Hinduism than to rouse it into active resistance to the alien +influences which threatened, in his opinion, to denationalize it. Hence +the outrageously aggressive tone of his writings wherever he alludes +either to Christianity or to Mahomedanism. It is the advent of +"meat-eating and wine-drinking foreigners, the slaughterers of kine and +other animals," that has brought "trouble and suffering" upon "the +Aryas"--he discards the word Hindu on account of its Persian +origin--whilst before they came into the country India enjoyed "golden +days," and her people were "free from disease and prosperous and +contented." In fact, "Arya for the Aryans" was the cry that frequently +predominated in Dayanand's teachings over that of "Back to the Vedas," +and Lajpat Rai, one of his most zealous disciples, has stated +emphatically that "the scheme of Swami Dayanand has its foundation on +the firm rock of _Swadeshi_ and _Swajati_." + +Since Dayanand's death the Arya Samaj has split up into two +sections--the "vegetarians" who with regard to religious doctrine may be +described as the orthodox, and the "meat-eaters," as the +latitudinarians. It is difficult to differentiate between the precise +tendencies of these two sections, whose feuds seem to be waning. In both +are to be found not a few progressive and enlightened Aryas who, +whatever their political activities may be, have undoubtedly applied +themselves with no small success to the carrying out of that part of +Dayanand's gospel which was directed to the reforming of Hinduism. Their +influence has been constantly exerted to check, the marriages between +mere boys and almost infant girls which have done so much physical as +well as moral mischief to Hindu society, and also to improve the +wretched lot of Hindu widows whose widowhood with all that it entails of +menial degradation often begins before they have ever really been wives. +To this end the Aryas have not hesitated to encourage female education, +and the Girls' Orphanage at Jalandhar, where there is also a widows' +home, has shown what excellent social results can be achieved in that +direction. Again in the treatment of the "untouchable" low-castes, the +Arya Samaj may claim to have been the first native body to break new +ground and to attempt something akin to the work of social reclamation +of which Christianity and, in a lesser degree, Islam had hitherto had +the monopoly. Schools and especially industrial classes have been +established in various districts which cannot fail to raise the _status_ +of the younger generation and gradually to emancipate the lower castes +from the bondage in which they have been hitherto held. These and many +other new departures conceived in the same liberal spirit at first +provoked the vehement hostility of the orthodox Hindus, who at one time +stopped all social intercourse with the Arya reformers. But whereas in +other parts of India the idea of social reform came to be associated +with that of Western ascendency and therefore weakened and gave way +before the rising tide of reaction against that ascendency, it has been +associated in the Punjab with the cry of "Arya for the Aryans," and the +political activities of the Arya Samaj, or at least of a number of its +most prominent members who have figured conspicuously in the +anti-British agitation of the last few years, have secured for it from +Hindu orthodoxy a measure of tolerance and even of good will which its +social activities would certainly not otherwise have received. That the +Arya Samaj, which shows the impress of Western influence in so much of +its social work, should at the same time have associated itself so +intimately with a political movement directed against British rule is +one of the many anomalies presented by the problem of Indian unrest. + +Many Aryas, indeed, deny strenuously that the Samaj is disaffected, or +even that it concerns itself with politics, and the president of the +Lahore branch, Mr. Roshan Lal, assured me that it devotes itself solely +to moral and religious reform. I do not question that assurance, as far +as Mr. Roshan Lal is himself personally concerned, and it may be true +that the Samaj has never committed itself as a body to any political +programme, and that many individual members hold aloof from politics; +but the evidence that many others, and not the least influential, have +played a conspicuous part in the seditious agitation of the last few +years, both in the Punjab and in the neighbouring United Provinces, is +overwhelming. In the Rawal Pindi riots in 1907 the ringleaders were +Aryas, and in the violent propaganda which for about two years preceded +the actual outbreak of violence none figured more prominently than Lala +Lajpat Rai and Ajit Singh, both prominent Aryas. The immediate effect +produced by their deportation in restoring order is in itself +corroborative evidence of the share they were believed to have taken in +producing lawlessness. Ajit Singh himself is at the present moment a +fugitive from justice, against whom proceedings _in absentia_ were +instituted this winter in Lahore for translating and publishing +seditious books that dealt with the making of bombs, the taking of life, +the destruction of buildings, &c. In the course of these proceedings +letters from Lajpat Rai were produced in Court showing that just about +the time of the disturbances he had been in communication with Shyamji +Krishnavarma, of _Indian Sociologist_ fame, for a supply of books +"containing true ideas on politics" for the students of Lahore, as well +as for assistance towards defraying the cost of "political +missionaries." In one of these letters also Lajpat Rai, after remarking +that "the people are in a sullen mood" and that "the agricultural +classes have begun to agitate," adds significantly that his "only fear +is that the bursting out may not be premature." Lajpat Rai's +correspondent was another prominent Arya, Bhai Parmanand, who, whilst he +was Professor at the Dayanand Anglo-Vedic College, was found in +possession of various formulae for the manufacture of bombs, including +the same manual that was discovered in the Maniktola Garden at +Calcutta. + +In Patiala, one of the Sikh native States of the Punjab, Aryas +constituted the great majority of defendants, 76 in number, and many of +them officials and persons of position, who were put on their trial last +December for seditious practices. So seriously were the charges felt to +reflect upon the Arya Samaj as a whole that one of its leading legal +members was briefed on its behalf for the defence. From the speech made +by counsel for the prosecution in opening the case it appears that some +of the defendants were schoolmasters, who were charged with preaching +revolutionary doctrines in their schools and carrying on correspondence +of the same character with old pupils; others were charged with +circulating papers of the _Yugantar_ and _Swarajiya_ type; others with +holding secret meetings and delivering inflammatory lectures; others +again with distributing pictures and photographs of well-known +revolutionists, including Khudiram Bose, the Muzafferpur murderer. Not +only were most of these defendants Aryas, but they were very prominent +Aryas, who had founded local branches of the Samaj or been members of +committees in the State of Patiala. How far the evidence outlined by +counsel would have borne out these charges it is impossible to say, +though one may properly assume it to have been of a very formidable +character, for after the case had been opened against them the +defendants hastened to send in a petition invoking the clemency of the +Maharajah. They expressed therein their deep sorrow for any conduct open +to misconstruction, tendered their unqualified apology for any +indiscreet acts they might have committed, and testified their "great +abhorrence and absolute detestation" of anarchists and seditionists and +their diabolical methods. His Highness thereupon ordered the prosecution +to be abandoned, but at the same time banished the defendants from his +State and declared their posts to be forfeited by such as had been in +his service, and only in a few cases were these punishments +subsequently remitted. + +The large number of Aryas who have unquestionably taken part in the +political agitation of the last few years certainly tends to corroborate +the very compromising certificate given only two years ago to the Samaj +by Krishnavarma himself in his murder-preaching organ. He not only +stated that "of all movements in India for the political regeneration of +the country none is so potent as the Arya Samaj," but he added that "the +ideal of that society as proclaimed by its founder is an absolutely free +and independent form of national Government," and Krishnavarma, it must +be remembered, had been appointed by Dayanand to be a member of the +first governing body in the lifetime of the founder and, after his +death, one of the trustees of his will. + +What makes the question of the real tendencies of the Arya Samaj one of +very grave importance for the future is that it has embarked upon an +educational experiment of a peculiar character which may have an immense +effect upon the rising generation. One of its best features is the +attention it has devoted to education, and to that of girls as well as +of boys. But it was not till 1898 that the governing body of the Samaj +in the Punjab decided to carry into execution a scheme for restoring the +Vedic system of education which Dayanand had conceived but had never +been able to carry out. Under this system the child is committed at an +early age to the exclusive care of a spiritual teacher or _guru_, who +stands to him _in loco parentis_ and even more, for Manu says that "of +him who gives natural birth, and of him who gives knowledge of the +Vedas, the giver of sacred knowledge is the more venerable father, since +second or divine birth ensures life to the twice-born, both in this +world and eternally." In the _gurukuls_ or seminaries founded by the +Arya Samaj pupils or _chelas_ are admitted between the ages of six and +ten. From that moment they, are practically cut off from the outer world +during the whole course of their studies, which cover a period of 16 +years altogether--i.e., ten years in the lower school and six years in +the upper, to which they pass up as _Brahmacharis._ During the whole of +that period no student is allowed to visit his family, except in cases +of grave emergency, and his parents can only see him with the permission +of the head of the _gurukul_ and not more than once a month. There are +at present three _gurukuls_ in the Punjab, but the most important one, +with over 250 students, is at Kangri, in the United Provinces, five +miles from the sacred city of Hardwar, where the Ganges flows out of a +gorge into the great plain. A large and very popular _mela_ or fair is +held annually at Kangri, and it is attended by the _Brahmacharis,_ who +act as volunteers for the maintenance of order and collect funds for the +support of their _gurukul_. The enthusiasm is said to be very great, and +donations last year are credibly reported to have exceeded 300,000 +rupees. + +Life in the _gurukuls_ is simple and even austere, the discipline +rigorous, the diet of the plainest, and a great deal of time is given to +physical training. As the _chelas_ after 16 years of this monastic +training at the hands of their _gurus_ are to be sent out as +missionaries to propagate the Arya doctrines throughout India, the +influence of these institutions in the moulding of Indian character and +Indian opinion in the future cannot fail to be considerable. Some five +years more must elapse before we shall be able to judge the result by +the first batch of _chelas_ who will then be going forth into the world. +For the present one can only echo the hope tersely expressed a few +months ago by Sir Louis Dane, the Lieutenant Governor of the Punjab, in +reply to assurances of loyalty from the President of the Arya Samaj, +that "what purports to be a society for religious and social reform and +advancement may not be twisted from its proper aims" and "degenerate +into a political organization with objects which are not consonant with +due loyalty to the Government as established." But neither the spirit of +Dayanand's own teachings nor the record of many of his disciples, +including some of those actually connected with the _gurukuls_, is in +this respect encouraging. + +There has been, however, no recurrence of serious disturbances in the +Punjab since 1907, and if the native Press lost little of its virulence +until the new Press Act of this year, and numerous prosecutions bore +witness to the continued prevalence of sedition, the province has been +free from the murderous outrages and dacoities which have been so +lamentable a feature of the unrest in Bengal and in the Deccan. None the +less there is still a very strong undercurrent of anti-British feeling. +It has partly been fostered in the large cities by Bengalee immigrants +who have come into the Punjab in considerable numbers, and thanks to +their higher education have acquired great influence at the Bar and in +the Press, but it is rife wherever the Arya Samaj is known to be most +active, and the Arya Samaj has already proved a very powerful +proselytizing agency. Its meeting houses serve not only for religious +ceremonies, but also as social clubs for the educated classes in all the +larger towns where they congregate. Access to them is readily given to +Hindus and Sikhs who have not actually joined the Samaj. They are +attracted by the political discussions which are carried on there with +great freedom, and having no such resorts of their own, they are soon +tempted to obtain the fuller privileges of membership. In this way the +Samaj has made many converts among the educated classes and even among +native officials. But its influence is by no means confined to them. It +makes many converts among the Sikhs, and not a few among _Nau-Muslims_ +or Mahomedans who have embraced Islam in relatively recent times and +mainly for the purpose of escaping from the tyranny of caste. For the +same reason it attracts low-caste Hindus, for though it does not +ostentatiously denounce or defy caste, it has the courage to ignore it. +Though the Arya leaders are generally men of education and sometimes of +great culture, they know how to present their creed in a popular form +that appeals to the lower classes and especially to the agricultural +population. One of the most unpleasant features has been the propaganda +carried on by them among the Sepoys of the Native Army, and especially +among the Jats and the Sikhs, with whom they have many points of +affinity. The efforts of the Aryas seem to be chiefly directed to +checking enlistment, but they have at times actually tampered with the +loyalty of certain regiments, and their emissaries have been found +within the lines of the native troops. Sikhism itself is at the present +day undergoing a fresh process of transformation. Whilst it tends +generally to be reabsorbed into Hinduism, the very remarkable movement +for sinking the old class distinctions--themselves a survival of +caste--and recognizing the equality of all Sikhs, is clearly due to the +influence of the Arya Samaj. The evolution of the Arya Samaj recalls +very forcibly that of Sikhism, which originally, when founded by Nanak +in the early part of the 16th century, was merely a religious and moral, +reform movement, and nevertheless within 50 years developed under Har +Govind into a formidable political and military organization. It is not, +therefore, surprising that some of those who know the Punjab best and +the sterner stuff of which its martial races are made look upon it as a +potentially more dangerous centre of trouble than either the Deccan or +Bengal. One of the most mischievous results of the Aryan propaganda, and +one which may well cause the most immediate anxiety, is the growing +antagonism which it has bred between Hindus and Mahomedans, for the +Mahomedans are convinced that the Arya Samaj is animated with no less +bitter hostility towards Islam than towards British rule. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE POSITION OF THE MAHOMEDANS. + + +Whilst I was at Delhi one of the leading Mahomedans of the old Moghul +capital drove me out one afternoon to the great Mosque which still bears +witness, in the splendour of its surviving fragments quite as much as in +the name it bears, _Kuwwat ul Islam_, or Power of Islam, to the ancient +glories of Mahomedan rule in India. Two or three other Mahomedan +gentlemen had come out to meet us, and there, under the shadow of the +Kutub Minar, the loftiest and noblest minaret from which the Musulman +call to prayer has ever gone forth, we sat in the Alai Darwazah, the +great porch of red sandstone and white marble which formed the south +entrance to the outer enclosure of the Mosque, and still presents in the +stately grandeur of its proportions and the infinite variety and +delicacy of its marble lattice work, one of the most perfect monuments +of early Mahomedan art, and discussed for upwards of two hours the +future that lies before the Mahomedan community of India. It is a scene +I shall never forget, so startling was the contrast between the racial +and religious pride of power which those walls had for centuries +reflected and the note of deep and almost gloomy apprehension to which +they now rang. For if the burden of my friends story was reasoned +loyalty to the British _Raj_, it was weighted with profound anxiety as +to the future that awaited the Mahomedans of India, either should our +_Raj_ disappear or should it gradually lose its potency and be merged in +a virtual ascendency of Hinduism under the specious mantle of Indian +self-government. They spoke without bitterness or resentment. They +acknowledged freely the shortcomings of their own community, its +intellectual backwardness, its reluctance to depart from the ancient +ways and to realize the necessity of equipping itself for successful +competition under new conditions, its lack of organization, due to an +inadequate sense of the duty of social service, and the selfishness and +jealousy often displayed by different sections and classes. They were +beginning to awaken to the dangerous consequences of their shortcomings, +but would time be given to them to repair them? The British _Raj_ had +always claimed that its mission in India was to hold the balance evenly +between the different races and creeds and classes, and to exercise its +paternal authority equally to the detriment of none and for the benefit +of all. That the Hindus had from the beginning secured a considerably +larger share in Government employment of all kinds was, no doubt, +inevitable, as they had shown much greater alacrity to qualify +themselves by education on Western lines than the Mahomedans, +unfortunately, had until much more recently begun to show. But so long +as Government _employés_ were merely the servants of Government, and +Hindus had no more influence than the Mahomedans in shaping the policy +of the Government, the Mahomedans had no serious grievance, or, at any +rate, none for which they had not themselves very largely to blame. But +of late years they had seen the policy of the British Government itself +gradually yielding to the pressure of Hindu agitation and the British +_Raj_ actually divesting itself of some of the powers which it had +hitherto retained undiminished for the benefit, in fact if not in +theory, of certain classes which, however loudly they might claim to be +the representatives of the Indian people, represented with few +exceptions nothing but the political ambitions of aggressive Hinduism. +The Mahomedans, they assured me, recognized quite as fully as, and +perhaps, more sincerely than, the Hindus the generous spirit which had +inspired the British Government to grant the reforms embodied in the +Indian Councils Act, but they also realized what it was far more +difficult for Englishmen to realize, that those reforms must inevitably +tend to give the Hindus a predominant share, as compared with the +Mahomedans, in the counsels of Government. In its original shape the +scheme of reforms had indeed threatened the Mahomedans with gross +unfairness and the wrath which its subsequent modification in deference +to Mahomedan representations had roused among the Hindu politicians was +in itself enough to betray to all who had eyes to see and ears to hear +the purpose to which they had hoped to turn the excessive predominance +they had claimed and expected. That purpose was to advance the political +ascendency of Hinduism which was the goal of Hindu aspirations, whether +under the British _Raj_ or without it. + +The whole tendency of the Hindu revival, social, religious, and +political, during the last 20 years had been as consistently +anti-Mahomedan as anti-British, and even more so. Some of the more +liberal and moderate Hindu leaders no doubt honestly contemplated the +evolution of an Indian "nation" in which Mahomedan and Hindu might sink +their racial and religious differences, but these were leaders with a +constantly diminishing body of followers. Even among the Extremists not +a few would gladly have purchased by pious professions of good will a +temporary alliance with the Mahomedans against the British _Raj_, +subject to an ulterior settlement of accounts for their own benefit. But +the Mahomedans, with their many close points of contact with the Hindus, +knew, as Englishmen could not know, what were the real sentiments and +hopes of the advanced leaders into whose hands passed the control of +militant Hinduism. They had noted the constant exhortation of the Hindu +Nationalist Press that the youth of India must prepare for the coming +Lalki incarnation of Vishnu when the _mlencchas_--i.e., the infidels, +Moslem as well as British--should be driven out of India. The attitude +of the Hindus towards the Mahomedans of Eastern Bengal, after the +Partition, had shown how they resented the position that the creation of +the new province gave the Moslem element. Nor had the Mahomedans in the +Punjab been left without a foretaste of what was to come. In every +Government office, in every profession, the Hindus were banding +themselves closer and closer together against their few Mahomedan +colleagues. The Mahomedans had refused to join in the boycott of British +goods, and in Delhi, in Lahore, and in many other cities the word had +been passed round among the Hindus not to deal with Mahomedan shops, not +to trade with Mahomedan merchants. Some of the more violent spirits were +even prepared to challenge the Mahomedans in places where the Mahomedan +element is strong and excitable, in order that the inevitable +intervention of the British troops for the restoration of order should +lead to the shedding of Mahomedan blood, and thus perhaps drive the +Mahomedans themselves in to disaffection. What educated Mahomedans, they +told me, chiefly feared, and the Hindus themselves chiefly hoped--for +new of them probably believed in any speedy overthrow of British +rule--was that the British Government and the British people would be +wearied by an agitation of which it was difficult for Englishmen to +grasp the real inwardness into making successive concession to the +Hindus which would gradually give them such a controlling voice in the +government of the country that they would actually be in a position to +achieve their policy of ascendency under the aegis of the British _Raj_. +Such fears might seem exaggerated, but the Mahomedans could not but take +note of the extent to which the Hindu politicians had already secured +the ear of an important section of the British Press and of not a few +members of the British Parliament, whilst in those same quarters the +Mahomedan case never even obtained a hearing, and when the Mahomedans at +last realized the necessity of creating an organization for the defence +of their legitimate interests they were denounced for reviving racial +and religious hatred. For 20 years and more the educated Mahomedans had +strictly followed the advice of their revered leader, Sir Syed Ahmed, +and had put their trust in the sense of justice of the British +Government and the fair-mindedness of the British people instead of +plunging into political agitation. They had not lost their faith in the +British Government or in the British people if their case was properly +put before them, but they felt that if they were not to become the +victims of organized misrepresentation they must have an organization of +their own which should speak for them with authority. Moreover, it was +impossible for the Mahomedans to stand any longer completely aloof from +politics, since the general trend of events in India and the enlargement +of the Indian Councils had thrust new responsibilities upon the leaders +of their community. Of those responsibilities none was more fully +realized than that of showing their loyalty to the British _Raj_--a +loyalty all the more unalterable in that it was based upon their growing +conviction that the maintenance of the British _Raj_ was essential to +the welfare, and even to the existence, of the Mahomedans of India. + +As I write I have before me a letter from another Mahomedan friend, a +man both of European education and very wide knowledge of his Indian +co-religionists, with whom he enjoys exceptional credit. I was so much +impressed with the prevalence of this form of fatalism that I wrote and +asked him for his opinion. This is his answer:-- + + Moslems feel that while at present the Government in India + is British in spirit as well as in name, there are already indications + that it might gradually become Hindu in fact, though + the British form might remain. The whole object of the + advanced Congress Party and of the leaders of the Nationalist + movement is not the overthrow of British rule in name, but in + fact. You may say that this is a wild apprehension, and that + the Government is not foolish enough or weak enough to + degenerate into a mere form. That may be the attitude + of an Englishman who is in India only as a bird of passage + (and all Englishmen are there as birds of passage, for only those + whose children belong to the country are permanently bound + up with it). For us who live here, and whose children are to + live here, the distant as well as the immediate future is of + essential importance. Now what is the tendency of Government? + Can any one deny that, taken as a whole, it is towards + Hindu predominance in the long run? English observers + must not forget that there is throughout India amongst Hindus + a strong tendency towards imitating the National movements + that have proved successful in European history. Now, + while _vis-à-vis_ the British the Hindu irreconcilables assume + the attitude of the Italian patriots towards the hated Austrian, + _vis-à-vis_ the Moslems there is a very different European + model for them to follow. Not only Tilak and his school in + Poona, but throughout the Punjab and Bengal the constant + talk of the Nationalists is that the Moslems must be driven + out of India as they were driven out of Spain. + + This is no invention of ours. Nor is it quite so wild as it + appears at first sight. I have gone into the matter carefully + and I can certainly conceive circumstances--50 or 100 years + hence--that would make India intolerable for our upper middle + classes; and once you get rid of the intelligent and wealthy + Moslems the masses could be reduced to absolute subjection + in the hands of Hindu rulers. Far be it from me to say that + all Hindus are of this purpose or that the school of "liberal + Nationalism" to which Gokhale belongs has ceased to exist. + But the other school predominates, and as our very existence + is at stake we Moslems do not want to take any risks or to see + even the very first steps taken towards transforming the + British into a Hindu _raj_. Yet those steps are now being taken, + though not quite so fast as we at one time feared and Hindus + expected. That the sad and terrible fate which our people + had in Spain may still be ours in India is a proposition that + sounds extravagant at first, but I for my part (and most + thoughtful Moslems agree with me) consider it quite possible, + and in a matter of such moment we must take possibilities + as well at probabilities into consideration. + + The Imperial problem in India is not to get this or that law + changed, or so and so many troops increased, or such and such + measures of repression or concession adopted. It is to bring + about a new mental and spiritual attitude, and to replace + the narrow "Nationalism" of the present day by a broad + and truly liberal Imperialism in the practical sense of securing + general recognition for India's difficulties and divisions, and for + the natural and necessary maintenance of the British connexion + and of British rule. The statesman who can suggest + practical means for carrying out this intellectual conversion + will certainly have saved England and India much unhappiness + and disaster. + +On the other hand, I am bound to say that there are also many Mahomedans +who, though professing similar apprehensions, show no disposition +towards fatalistic resignation. For they believe that, whatever may be +the fate of the British _raj_, the future must belong to the more virile +peoples of India, and certainly those who do not merely put their trust +in the fighting traditions of a conquering race may find a good deal of +encouragement for the faith within them from the vital statistics of +Hindus and Mahomedans respectively in India. + +Whilst it is most important that nothing should be done to give colour +to the idea sedulously promoted by the Hindu politician that Government +intend to favour, or, as he generally puts it, to "pamper," the +Mahomedans at the expense of the Hindus, it is equally important that +Government should do nothing to strengthen the apprehensions entertained +by so many intelligent and educated Mahomedans. Those apprehensions are +no doubt exaggerated, and may even be quite unfounded; but they +correspond exactly with what I have been told were Tilak's hopes and +anticipations, and if we will only take the trouble to try to see things +as they may well strike an Indian Mahomedan we can hardly dismiss them +as wholly unreasonable. + +The antagonism between the two communities is not the creation or the +result of British rule. It is the legacy of centuries of conflict before +British rule was ever heard of in India. It has been and must be one of +the chief objects of British statesmanship to compose this conflict, and +the Mahomedans do not deny that their British rulers have always +desired to deal as fairly with them as with the Hindus. They hold, +however, that, as a matter of fact, British rule has in many ways worked +out to the relative detriment of Mahomedan influence and to the greater +advantage of the Hindus. Nor is that fact rendered any more palatable to +the Mahomedans because it is mainly due to the greater adaptability and +suppleness displayed by the Hindus ever since India has been brought +into contact with Western education and Western methods. The +establishment of English as the official language of the Law Courts and +of all public Departments necessarily favoured the Hindus by displacing +Persian and the vernaculars in which the Mahomedans were most +proficient. At the present day the vast majority of Indians employed in +every branch of the Government service are Hindus, and this majority is +entirely out of proportion to the numerical preponderancy of the Hindu +community at large[11]. According to the last Census Report the Hindus +of Bengal (which was then unpartitioned), though only twice as numerous +as the Mahomedans, held 1,235 higher appointments under Government in +Bengal, as against only 141 held by Mahomedans. In the Bombay Presidency +the Hindus held 266 such appointments, as against 23 held by Mahomedans; +and in the Central Provinces 339, as against 75. Of the provinces in +reference to which the report furnishes detailed statistics the United +Provinces alone failed to show the same disparity, the number of posts +held by the Mahomedans, 453, against 711 held by Hindus, being actually +and very largely in excess of their proportion to population. The +Mahomedans, moreover, complain that where Mahomedans are employed as +clerks in Government Departments the head clerks, who are almost always +Hindus and alone have direct access to the English superior officers, +use their influence with the latter to prejudice them against their +Mahomedan subordinates. Education has passed very largely from our own +hands into those of Hindu teachers. In all the liberal professions, at +the Bar, in the Press, the preponderance of Hindus is greatly out of +proportion even to the numerical preponderance of the Hindu population +as a whole. Intelligent Mahomedans are conscious that all this is to a +great extent the result of the backwardness of their community, but +hardships are none the less hardships because they are largely of one's +own making. Again, the principal seat of the Government of India and +those of the two great Presidency Governments are in centres of Hindu +life where the voice of the Mahomedan element does not make itself +easily heard. + +Then Mahomedans who watch public opinion in England note that one of the +two great parties in the State has for many years past professed to +recognize in the views of Hindu politicians a commendable affinity to +its own political principles, whilst the memory of its greatest leader, +Mr. Gladstone, is chiefly associated in India with a violent hostility +to Turkey, which, at any rate amongst many of his followers, degenerated +into violent denunciations of Islam in general. By his personal +qualities Lord Ripon, the most pronounced Liberal ever sent out in our +time as Viceroy, endeared himself to many Mahomedans as well as to the +Hindus, but he never made any secret of his political sympathies with +Hindu aspirations. Whilst Unionist Governments were in office, with only +one short break during a period of nearly 20 years, and especially +whilst Lord Curzon was Viceroy, the alliance between the Hindu leaders +and Radical politicians at home became more and more intimate. The Hindu +National Congress, which the Mahomedans had come to regard as little +more than a Hindu political organization, was not only generally +acclaimed by English newspapers of an advanced complexion as the +exponent of a new-born Indian democracy, but it had founded[12] in +London an organ of its own, _India_, subsidized out of its funds, and +edited and managed by Englishmen, which may not have a very large +circulation at home, but is the chief purveyor of Indian news to a large +part of the Liberal Press. When Radical members of Parliament visited +India the views they chiefly cared to make themselves acquainted with or +reproduced when they went home were the views of Hindu politicians, and +when the latter visited England they could always depend upon the +demonstrative hospitality not only of Radical clubs and associations but +also of the Radical Press for their political propaganda. + +When the Liberal Party returned to power at the end of 1905 the majority +in the new House of Commons included a very active group that identified +itself wholeheartedly with a campaign which, in Bengal, soon assumed a +character of scarcely less hostility to the Mahomedans than to the +British Administration, and the new Government announced their intention +of preparing a scheme of reforms which, whatever its merits, was greeted +in India as a concession to Hindu rather than to Mahomedan sentiment. +For the Mahomedan has always been a believer in personal rule, and one +of the objects of the reforms scheme was to diminish to some extent that +element in the Indian Administration. Moreover, when it was first +outlined by the Secretary of State, the scheme contained provisions +which seemed to the Mahomedans to be at variance both with principles of +fair and equal treatment for all races and creeds and classes upon which +British rule had hitherto been based, and with the specific pledges +given by the Viceroy to the Mahomedan deputation that waited upon him +four years ago at Simla when the reforms were first contemplated. The +new representation in the enlarged Indian Councils was based +proportionally upon a rough estimate of the populations of India which +credited the Hindus with millions that are either altogether outside the +pale of Hinduism or belong to those castes which the majority of +educated Hindus of the higher castes still regard as "untouchable." The +effect would have been to give the Hindus what the Mahomedans regarded +as an unfairly excessive representation. Happily, though, the question +trembled for a long time in the balance, Lord Morley listened to the +remonstrances of the Mahomedans, and in its final shape the Indian +Councils Act made very adequate provision for the representation of +Mahomedan interests. But the Mahomedans saw in the angry disappointment +of the Hindu politicians when the scheme was thus modified ample +justification for the fears they had entertained. Even as it is--and the +Mahomedans recognize both the many good points of the scheme and Lord +Morley's desire to deal fairly with them--these new reforms may well +seem to the Mahomedans to have enured mainly to the benefit of the +Hindus. The Mahomedans appreciate as warmly as the Hindus the +appointment of an Indian member to the Viceroy's Executive Council, and +if the first Indian member was to be a Hindu they admit that Mr. Sinha +had exceptional qualifications for the high post to which he was called. +The Indian members added under the now Act to the Executive Councils of +Bombay and Madras are also both Hindus, and another Hindu will almost +certainly be nominated in like manner to the Executive Council of +Bengal. None of these appointments may be open to objection, but the +fact nevertheless remains that it is the Hindus and not the Mahomedans +who will have had the immediate benefit of this new departure to which +Indian opinion attaches the greatest importance. + +The fact is that the more we delegate of our authority in India to the +natives of India on the principles which we associate with +self-government, the more we must necessarily in practice delegate it to +the Hindus, who form the majority, however much we may try to protect +the rights and interests of the Mahomedan minority. This is what the +Mahomedans know and fear. This is what explains their insistence upon +separate electorates wherever the elective principle comes into play in +the composition of representative bodies. It is not merely that they +have yet to learn the elementary business of electoral organization, in +which the Hindus, on the contrary, have shown great proficiency, and +that they have consequently fared badly even in local bodies where their +numbers ought to have secured them more adequate representation. Many +Mahomedans realize the disadvantage of locking up their community in a +watertight compartment, but they regard it as the lesser evil. It is, +they contend, an essential safeguard not only against an excessive Hindu +predominance in elective or partly elective bodies, but also against the +growing disposition which they note amongst those who claim to be the +spokesmen of the rising British democracy to accelerate the rate at +which political concessions should be made to Hindu opinion, and also to +disregard the claim of the Mahomedan minority to be protected against +any abuse by the Hindus of the power which a majority must necessarily +wield. + +My object is to explain the views actually held by the leaders of the +Indian Mahomedan community, rather than to endorse or to controvert +them. Even if the construction they place upon the attitude of their +Hindu fellow-countrymen and of an influential section of British public +opinion be wholly unreasonable, the fact that that attitude is liable to +such a construction is one which we ought to bear in mind. Nor can it be +disputed that, however generous the sentiments that prompt us to +delegate some part of our authority to elective or partly elective +assemblies, it must to some extent diminish the power of the Executive +to ensure that equality of treatment for all races and creeds and +classes by which we have hitherto justified our rule in India. Our sense +of equity should make us, therefore, all the more scrupulously careful +to adjust the balance as evenly as possible under the new conditions +which we are ourselves creating, and to err, if at all, in favour of the +protection of minorities. Elementary considerations of statesmanship +impose the same obligation upon us. + +The Mahomedans of India form more than a fifth of the whole population. +They are not racially any more homogeneous than the Hindus, and except +towards the north-western frontier, where they are to be found chiefly +amongst the half-tamed tribes of the Indian borderland, and in the +Punjab and United Provinces, where there are many descendants of the +Moslem conquerors, they consist chiefly of converted Hindus who accepted +Islam as a consequence of Mahomedan rule. But whatever racial +differences there may be amongst them, they are now bound together by a +creed which has an extraordinary welding power. That there are also +explosive potentialities in their creed the Wahabi rising in Bengal +little more than 30 years ago and the chronic turbulence of the tribes +and frequent exploits of _ghazis_ on the north-western frontier are +there to show. But amongst the large body of Mahomedans scattered +through India, and especially amongst the higher classes, Islam has in a +great measure lost its aggressive character. Surrounded on all sides by +an overwhelming majority of Hindus, whose religion he regards as +detestably idolatrous, the Indian Moslem is inclined to sink his +hostility to Christianity and to regard us less as "infidels" than as +fellow-believers in the central article of his monotheistic faith, the +unity of God. We, too, in his eyes are a "People of the Book," though +our Book is not the Koran, but the Bible, of which he does not +altogether deny the sacred character. Other things also often draw him +towards the Englishman. The Englishman to him represents a ruling race, +and to such an one he feels that he who also represents a once ruling +race can yield a more willing allegiance than to any one of a race which +he himself ruled over. Equally his fighting and his sporting instincts +also appeal to many Englishmen. Hence both Englishmen and Mahomedans in +India frequently feel that they have more in common than either of them +has with the Hindu. The Mahomedans, moreover, consisting very largely of +the most virile races in India, have always furnished some of the best +contingents of the British Indian Army. Their loyalty has never wavered +except during the Mutiny, and modern Indian writers of the Nationalist +school are themselves at pains to show that, though the mutineers +rallied round the feeble descendant of the Moghul Emperors as the only +available figurehead, and many Mahomedans proved themselves good +"patriots," it was Hindus like Nana Sahib and Tantia Tope and the Ranee +of Jhansi who were the real heroes and moving spirits of that "War of +Indian Independence." + +In our day the British connexion has had no stouter and more convinced +supporter than the late Sir Syed Ahmad, than whom no Mahomedan has +deserved or enjoyed greater influence over his Indian co-religionists. +Not only does his educational work, based on the English public school +system, live after him in the college which he founded at Aligarh, but +also his political faith which taught the vast majority of educated +Mahomedans to regard their future as bound up with the preservation of +British rule. The revival of Hinduism has only served to strengthen that +faith by bringing home to the Mahomedans the value of British rule as a +bulwark against the Hindu ascendency which in the more or less remote +future they have unquestionably begun to dread. The creation of a +political organization like the All-India Moslem League, which is an +outcome of the new apprehensions evoked by Hindu aspirations, may appear +on the surface to be a departure from the teachings of Sir Syed Ahmad, +who, when the Indian National Congress was appealing in its early days +for Mahomedan support, urged his people to hold altogether aloof from +politics and to rely implicitly upon the good will and good faith of +Government. But things have moved rapidly since Sir Syed Ahmad's time, +and when the British Government themselves create fresh opportunities +for every Indian community to make its voice heard in political counsel, +the Mahomedans hold that none can afford to stand back. + +The Moslem League founded by the Aga Khan, one of the most broad-minded +and highly-educated of Indians, with the full approval of the late Nawab +Mohsin-ul-Mulk, the confidant and successor of Sir Syed Ahmad, is +moreover not merely or even chiefly a political organization. It is +intended to serve as a centre for the maintenance and consolidation of +the communal interests of the Mahomedans all over India in their social, +educational, and economic as well as political aspects. Its programme +was unfolded at the annual meeting of the League held in January last at +Delhi both in an address read on behalf of Mr. Ameer Ali, who was +detained in England by his duties on the Judicial Committee of the Privy +Council, and in a speech delivered by the Aga Khan, the recognized +leader of the whole community. The programme of the Moslem League puts +forward no such ambitious demands as self-government for India. All it +asks for is "the ordered development of the country under the Imperial +Crown." It accepts the reforms with much more gratitude and enthusiasm +than were displayed by the spokesman of the Indian National Congress at +Lahore, and it accepts them in no narrow or sectarian spirit. The Aga +Khan was in fact at special pains to indicate the various directions in +which Mahomedans and Hindus might and ought to act in harmonious +co-operation. The functions of the Mahomedan representatives on the new +Councils would, the Aga Khan said, be threefold. + + In the first place they must co-operate as representative + Indian citizens with other Indians in advancing the well-being + of the country by working wholeheartedly for the + spread of education, for the establishment of free and universal + primary education, for the promotion of commerce and + industry, for the improvement of agriculture by the establishment + of co-operative credit and distribution societies, and + for the development of the natural resources of India. Here, + indeed, is a wide field of work for Hindus and Mahomedans + acting together. In the second place our representatives + must be ready to co-operate with the Hindus and all other + sections of society in securing for them all those advantages + that serve their peculiar conditions and help their social + welfare, for although the two sister communities have developed + on different lines, each suffers from some peculiar + weakness in addition to the misfortunes common to + general economic and educational backwardness. And then + our representatives must watch and promote social measures + required exclusively for the benefit of their Moslem co-religionists, + with the co-operation, we hope, of the Hindu + members, for we too have needs that are not known to them + and which we alone can fully understand. + +No language could be more generous or more statesmanlike. The Aga Khan +doubtless realizes that, whatever the more or less remote future may +have in store for the two communities, their increasing antagonism in +consequence of the aggressive tendencies, displayed by Hindu +"nationalism" during the last few years is pregnant with immediate +danger, and nowhere more so than in the Punjab where he was speaking. +Not only have the preachers of the Arya Samaj, taking their cue from the +writings of their apostle Dayanand, frequently indulged, both in the +Press and on the platform, in outrageous attacks upon the Mahomedans' +religion, but the militant Hindus have visited upon the Mahomedans their +refusal to join in an anti-British agitation by enforcing against them a +commercial and social boycott, none the less oppressive and damaging +because it is not openly proclaimed. The bitterness thus engendered +found vent in serious riots this year at Peshawar, just as it did in +Eastern Bengal, when the boycott campaign there was at its height. Even +in Hyderabad, the capital of the Nizam's dominions, where, under the +wise administration of a great Mahomedan ruler whose Prime Minister is a +Hindu, the relations between Moslem and Hindu have hitherto been quite +harmonious, a change is gradually making itself felt under the +inspiration of a small group of Bengali Hindus who have brought with +them the Nationalist cry of "Arya for the Aryan." The animosity which +has always existed between the Mahomedans and the Hindus, especially +amongst the lower orders, has been a constant source of anxiety to +Anglo-Indian administrators. As far as it springs from the clash of +religious beliefs, social customs, and historical traditions, it can +only be eradicated by the slow process of education. The most trivial +incident, the meeting of rival processions, the maltreatment of a cow, +so sacred to the Hindus, some purely personal quarrel suddenly leads to +violent affrays in which the whole populace on both sides joins in +without knowing even what it is all about. The danger must be enormously +heightened if one community begins to believe that the other community +is compassing deep-laid schemes for the promotion of its own ultimate +ascendancy. The political agitation conducted by the Hindus has for some +time past tended to create such a belief amongst the Mahomedans. As far +back as 1893, at the time of the Bombay riots and of Tilak's +"anti-cow-killing" propaganda in the Deccan, which spread sporadically +to other parts of India, the Bombay Government reported "an uneasy +feeling among Mahomedans that they and their faith were suffering at the +hands of the Hindus, that they were being gradually but surely edged out +of the position they have hitherto held, and that their religion needed +some special protection." That uneasy feeling has gradually ripened +since then into a widespread and deep-rooted conviction--not the least +of the many deplorable results of a movement that claims to be called +"national." + +It would be an evil day for the internal peace of India if a people +still so proud of their history, so jealous of their religion, and so +conscious of their virile superiority as the Mahomedans came to believe +that they could only trust to their own right hand, and no longer to the +authority and sense of justice of the British _Raj_, to avert the +dangers which they foresee in the future from the establishment of an +overt or covert Hindu ascendancy. Some may say that it would be an +equally evil day for the British _Raj_ if the Mahomedans came to believe +in the futility of unrequited loyalty and joined hands with its enemies +in the confident anticipation that, whatever welter might follow the +collapse of British rule, they could not fail sooner or later to fight +their way once more to the front. Certainly at no time since we have +ruled India has greater circumspection been needed in holding the +balance between the two communities. It would be as impolitic to forget +that the Mahomedans have held steadfastly aloof from the anti-British +movement of the last few years and represent on the whole a great +conservative force, as to create the impression amongst the Hindus at +large, of whom the vast majority are still our friends, that we are +disposed to visit upon them the disloyalty of what is after all a small +section of their community by unduly favouring the Mahomedans at their +expense. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +SOUTHERN INDIA. + + +Unrest in its most dangerous forms has hitherto been almost entirely +confined to the Deccan, Bengal, and the Punjab. It has spread to some +extent from the Bombay Presidency into the Central Provinces, which, +indeed, include part of the Deccan, and it has overflowed both from +Bengal and from the Punjab into some of the neighbouring districts of +the United Provinces. But thanks very largely to the firm and +experienced hands in which the administration of the Central Provinces +under their Commissioner, Mr. Craddock, and that of the United Provinces +under their Lieutenant-Governor, Sir John Hewett, have rested during +these troublous years, the situation there has never got seriously out +of hand. Except in Peshawar, where the political propaganda of a +somewhat militant colony of Bengalees has stimulated the latent +antagonism between Hindus and Mahomedans, our difficulties in the new +Frontier Province, as well as along the whole North-West frontier, are +of quite a different order, and though the turbulence of Pathan tribes +and the occasional outbreaks of Moslem fanaticism amongst them are a +cause of constantly recurring anxiety to the Government of India, it is +not amongst those hardy and only half-tamed hillsmen that the cry of +_Swadeshi_ and _Swaraj_ from Bengal or of "Arya for the Aryans" from the +Punjab is likely to elicit any response. Such echoes of far away +sedition as may reach their mountain fastnesses provoke only vague +wonder at the forbearance and leniency of British rulers, and if ever +the British _Raj_ were in jeopardy, Pathan and Baluch would be the first +to sharpen their swords and shoulder their rifles either in response to +our call or in order to descend on their own account, as their forbears +have done before, into the fair plains of Hindustan and carve out +kingdoms for themselves from the chaos that would follow the collapse of +British power. Along the North-East frontier British India marches with +semi-independent States that have little or nothing in common with the +rest of India. Nepal, Bhutan, and Sikkim are Himalayan highlands +inhabited chiefly by Mongolian Buddhists, who have far more affinity +with Tibetans and Chinese than with their Indian neighbours to the +south. Assam is little more than an administrative dependency of Eastern +Bengal, whilst Burma has been even more accurately described as a mere +appendage of India, attached for purposes of administrative convenience +to our Indian Empire, but otherwise as effectively divided from it by +race, religion, customs, and tradition as by the waters of the Bay of +Bengal and the dense jungles of the Patkai Mountains. + +In none of these borderlands has Hinduism ever struck root, and in none +of them, therefore, is Indian Nationalism, which is so largely bound up +with Hinduism, likely to find a congenial soil. But that Southern India +where Hinduism is supreme should have remained hitherto so little +affected by the political agitation which has swept across India further +north from the Deccan to Bengal may at first sight cause some surprise. +Yet the explanation is not far to seek, if one bears in mind the +profound differences which nature itself has imposed upon this vast +sub-continent. Southern India, which may be defined as including the +whole of the Madras Presidency and the three native States of Mysore, +Cochin, and Travancore, differs, indeed, almost immeasurably from +Central and Northern India. South of the high, sun-scorched plateau of +the Deccan, from the mouth of the Kistna to the Indian Ocean, the great +Indian peninsula rapidly narrows. Tempered by more frequent rains and +the moist breezes which sweep across it from both the Malabar and the +Coromandel coasts, the climate is more equable and the heat, though more +continuous, is less fierce. The whole character of the country is +luxuriantly tropical, and though the lowlands are not more fertile than +the matchless delta of the Ganges, the more varied prodigality of nature +shows itself alike in the waving forests of cocoanut, which are common +all along the coast, in the rich tobacco-fields of Madura and +Coimbatore, in the plantations of cinchona, pepper, cardamoms, and other +spices on the slopes of the Nilgiri highlands, and in the splendid +growths of teak, ebony, and sandalwood that clothe the Western Ghats. +The population, which in some parts attains extraordinary density and +lives almost exclusively on the fruits of the soil, is of the old +Dravidian stock, industrious and frugal as in other parts of India, and +of a placid and gentle temper. Nowhere else in India does one come into +such close contact with its original non-Aryan peoples; and nowhere else +has the earliest type of religious and social institutions evolved by +the superior civilization of the Aryans been so completely preserved +from the disturbing influences of later ages. And yet--such are the +curious contrasts which abound in this strange country--nowhere else +does one find so many living survivals of the intercourse which occurred +from time to time between India and the West, many centuries before +Europe turned her eyes towards that Terra Incognita. Nowhere, for +instance, has Christianity made more converts of recent years, perhaps +because in Southern India there may still be found indigenous Christian +communities which trace their origin back to the first centuries of the +Christian era. Even if there be no historical foundation for the +tradition that it was St. Thomas the Apostle who himself first +evangelized Southern India, and was ultimately martyred at St. Thomas's +Mount near Madras, there is good authority for believing that +Christianity was imported not many centuries later into Southern India +by the Nestorian or Chaldæan missionaries from Persia and Mesopotamia, +whose apostolic zeal ranged all over Asia, even into Tibet and Tartary. +According to the Saxon chronicle, our own King Alfred sent alms to India +in 883 for St. Thomas and St. Bartholomew, and at that date there +certainly existed, besides some small Christian communities on the +Coromandel coast, two flourishing communities on the Malabar coast, +where the so-called Syrian Church has maintained itself to the present +day. Another curious and perhaps equally ancient link with the West may +still be seen to survive to-day in the small community of white Jews at +Cochin, which, according to their own tradition, was founded when their +forefathers were driven out of Palestine after the destruction of the +second Temple. To the charter which they still have in their possession, +inscribed, like most west coast title deeds, on copper plates, the date +assigned by the best authorities is about 700 A.D., and the powers and +privileges which were specifically conferred upon their ancestors show +that at that period already they had acquired in a remarkable degree the +confidence and friendship of the Hindu Kings of Malabar. The decline of +both Christian and Jewish communities seems to have begun, indeed, with +the appearance of the first Portuguese invaders from Europe, whose +incursions destroyed the peace and tolerance which Christian and Jew had +enjoyed in the days of undisturbed Hindu rule. + +To what period the subjection of the old Dravidian stock to the superior +civilization of the Aryans dates back, or in what manner it was +continued, there is little as yet to show. All that is actually known is +that at some very remote period Aryan Hinduism was imported into +Southern India by Brahmans from the north, who established it in the +first place probably by force, and whose descendants have ever since +maintained the claims of their sacred caste to a position of religious +and social pre-eminence even greater than that which any other Brahmans +of the present day have succeeded in retaining. Nowhere else in India +does the Brahman, as such, wield the power and assert the prerogatives +which the Namputri Brahman enjoys on the Malabar coast. Even the +Maharajahs of Travancore, who by birth belong to the Kshatrya or warrior +caste, have to be "born again" by a peculiar and costly ceremony into +the superior caste before they ascend the throne, and one sept of the +Namputri Brahmans successfully exacts in the person of the head of the +Azhvancheri family recognition of its spiritual overlordship by personal +homage from the Maharajah once in every six years. Nothing, perhaps, +conveys more graphically the extraordinary sanctity which attaches to +the Brahman caste than the uncompromising manner in which all along the +Malabar coast they have enforced and maintained the laws of ceremonial +"pollution." Nowhere else have such stringent rules been enacted to fix +the precise distance at which the bodily presence of a member of the +lower castes is held to defile the sacred person of the Brahman. A Bazar +may approach, but must not touch him; a Chogan may not approach him +within 24 feet, nor a Kanisan within 36, nor a Pulayan within 64, nor a +Nayadi within 72 feet. Equally definite and elaborate are the manifold +restrictions on marriage, commensality, occupation, food, ceremonial +observances and personal conduct which affect the mutual relations not +only between the different castes but also between the innumerable +sub-castes into which the higher castes especially have in turns split +up. The laws which govern marriage, descent, and inheritance amongst the +more important castes throw a peculiarly interesting light on the +archaic type of society which has survived in Southern India. Under the +matriarchal system of _Manumakkathayam_, which on the Malabar coast +obtains to the present day, descent is traced only through the female +line. The male member of the family inherits, but he does so only as +the son of a female member of the family through whom he may justly +claim kinship, or, to put it in another form, a man's natural heir is +not his son, or his brother's son, or the descendant of a common male +ancestor, but his sister's, or his sister's daughter's son, or the +descendant of a common female ancestress. In the event of failure of +heirs through the female line, adoption is permissible, but the adoption +must be of females, through whose subsequent offspring the line of +natural descent may be carried on. With this ancient system are bound up +forms of matrimonial union and tenure of property into the complicated +and peculiar nature of which I need not enter here. + +In the wild hill countries weird remnants of the most primitive races +still survive that have not yet been brought within the pale of +Hinduism, and here and there a sprinkling of Mahomedans remains as a +reminder of the shortlived incursions of Moslem conquerors from the +north. But ninety per cent. of the population consists of Hindus, and +the social and religious supremacy of Hinduism has never been seriously +assailed. Nowhere has Hindu architecture taken such majestic shape, the +massive pylons of Madura and Tanjore recalling the imperishable grandeur +of the noblest Egyptian temples on the Nile. Southern India is in fact a +land of stately shrines which dominate the whole country just as our own +great cathedrals dominated England in the Middle Ages. Yet in Southern +India, Hinduism has not assumed the aggressive character which it has +developed in other regions. Perhaps it feels too secure of the +unchallenged supremacy which it has enjoyed through the ages as a social +and religious force without ever aspiring to direct political +ascendancy. Perhaps the admixture of Dravidian blood has imparted to it +a more serene tolerance. Perhaps it appreciates more fully the relief +from the turmoils strife, and bloodshed which was brought to Southern +India by the advent of British rule. Compare the legend of a pre-British +"golden age" propagated by Tilak and his disciples in the Deccan and in +Bengal with the remarkable picture of the condition of Southern India at +the time when the British power first appeared on the scene which was +drawn by a Madras Brahman, the late Mr. Srinivasaraghava Iyangar:-- + + Southern India had been devastated by wars, famines, + and bands of plunderers; the cultivating classes were ground + down by oppressive taxation, by the illegal exactions of the + officers of Government, of the renters employed to collect + the Government dues, and of the sowkars without whose + assistance the ryots could not subsist and carry on their + calling, and who kept them in a state little removed from + perpetual bondage; trade was hampered by insecurity of + property, defective communications, and onerous transit + duties; the vast majority of the population suffered extreme + hardships when there was even a partial failure of crops in + small tracts, owing to the great difficulty and cost of obtaining + supplies of grain from more favoured regions; the peasantry + and even possessors of considerable landed property, when not + holding office under Government themselves, were cowering + before the pettiest Government officer and submitting to + tortures and degrading personal ill-treatment inflicted on the + slightest pretext; persons who had chanced to acquire + wealth, if they belonged to the lower classes, dared not openly + use it for purposes of enjoyment or display for fear of being + plundered by the classes above them; the agricultural classes + as a whole had few wants beyond those imposed by the + necessity for bare subsistence, no ambition or enterprise to + try untrodden ways, and no example to stimulate them to + endeavour to better their condition, while the rigid usages + of castes and communities in which society was organized + repressed all freedom of action and restricted the scope for + individual initiative. To understand the full significance + of the change which has come over the country one has to + contrast what he sees at present, unsatisfactory as it may + appear from some points of view, with the state of things + described above.... Remembering that methods of + progress calculated to evoke national feeling and religious + enthusiasm are unavailable under the conditions of the case, + the progress that has been made ... is little short of + marvellous. + +It was from Madras that the British power set forth on its +unpremeditated course of conquest which was destined ultimately to +reach from Tuticorin to the Himalayas. Since the beginning of the +nineteenth century the Madras Presidency has been in the fortunate +position of having no history. Its northern rivals call it despitefully +the "benighted" Presidency. No epithet, however, could be more +undeserved, for if its annals for the last hundred years have been +unsensational, its record in respect of education, intelligent +administration, material prosperity, and all that goes with peaceful +continuous progress would entitle it rather to be called the "Model" +Presidency. The Native States of Southern India, and above all Mysore, +which was for many years under direct British administration, will +equally bear favourable comparison with any of the Native States of +Central or Northern India. From the standpoint of education, Southern +India has long held and probably still holds the lead, thanks in a great +measure to the large Christian communities which comprise more than +two-thirds of the whole Christian population of India. But in the +statistics of literacy based on the last census, the Brahmans figure at +the head of all the Hindu castes with the very creditable proportion of +578 males and 40 females per mille. The Western-educated classes in +Southern India, whilst as progressive as in any other part, show greater +mental balance than in Bengal, and less reactionary tendencies than in +the Deccan. Western education has been a steady and perhaps on the whole +a more solid growth in Southern India. It has produced a large number of +able and distinguished public servants of unimpeachable loyalty to the +British _raj_. The harvest yielded by the ingermination of Western ideas +has produced fewer tares. Educated Hindus of the higher castes have +played an important part in social reform, and many of them have been +associated with the moderate section of the Indian National Congress. +The enthusiastic reception given to Mr. Bepin Chandra Pal, during his +short crusade at Madras three years ago on behalf of _Swaraj_, showed +that, especially amongst the younger generation, there is at least an +appreciable minority who are ready to listen to the doctrines of +advanced Nationalism, and the existence of inflammable materials was +revealed in the riots which occurred not long afterwards at Tinnevelly +and Tuticorin, and again a year later at Guntur. But these appear to +have been merely sporadic outbreaks which were promptly quelled, and the +undisturbed peace which has prevailed since then throughout Southern +India, at a time when whole provinces in other parts have been +honeycombed with sedition, is one of the most encouraging features of +the situation. There is in the Hinduism of Southern India a peculiar +element of conservative quietism to which lawlessness in any form seems +to be repugnant. Probably also the racial cry of "Arya for the Aryans" +raised in the North of India as the watchword of an anti-British +movement is not calculated to rouse the blood of a purely Dravidian +population, however powerful the ties created by a common social and +religious system. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +REVOLUTIONARY ORGANIZATIONS OUTSIDE INDIA. + + +It required nothing less than the shock of a murder perpetrated in the +heart of London to open the eyes of those in authority at home to the +nature of the revolutionary propaganda which has been, and is still +being, carried on outside India in sympathy, and often in connivance, +with the more violent leaders of the anti-British agitation in India +itself. Even now it may be doubted whether they fully realize the +importance of the support which the extremists receive from outside +India. I am not alluding to the moral countenance which the Hindu +reaction has received from eccentric Americans and Europeans on the look +out for any novel religious sensation, or which "advanced" politicians +have derived from sympathetic members of Parliament and journalists in +England[13], but to the secret organizations established in Europe and +in America by the Indian extremists themselves as a base for hostile +operations against the British _Raj_. However loudly the extremists +protest against the importation of Western influences into India they +have certainly not been too proud to borrow the methods of Western +revolutionists. They have of all Indians been the most slavish imitators +of the West, as represented, at any rate, by the Irish Fenian and the +Russian anarchist. Their literature is replete with references to both. +Tilak took his "No-rent" campaign in the Deccan from Ireland, and the +Bengalees were taught to believe in the power of the boycott by +illustrations taken from contemporary Irish history. When the informer +Gosain was shot dead in Alipur gaol the Nationalists gloried in the +deed, which had far excelled that of Patrick O'Donnell, who shot dead +James Carey, the approver in the Phoenix Park murders, inasmuch as +Gosain had been murdered before he could complete his "treachery," +whereas the murder of Carey had been only a tardy "retribution" which +could not undo the past. The use of the bomb has become the common +property of revolutionists all over the world, but the employment of +amateur dacoits, or armed bands of robbers, for replenishing the +revolutionary war-chest has been directly taken from the revolutionary +movement in Russia a few years ago. The annals of the Italian +_risorgimento_ have also been put under contribution, and whilst there +is no Indian life of Cavour, Lajpat Rai's Life of Mazzini and Vinayak +Savarkar's translation of Mazzini's Autobiography are favourite +Nationalist text-books of the milder order. European works on various +periods of revolutionary history figure almost invariably amongst +seizures of a far more compromising character whenever the Indian police +raids some centre of Nationalist activity. Hence in the literature of +unrest one frequently comes across the strangest juxtaposition of names, +Hindu deities, and Cromwell and Washington, and celebrated anarchists +all being invoked in the same breath. + +Equally foreign in its origin has been the establishment of various +centres of revolutionary activity outside of India. In America there +appear to be two distinct organizations both having their headquarters +in California, and branches in Chicago, New York, and other important +cities. The Indo-American Association runs an English periodical, _Free +Hindustan_, which was originally started in Canada and thence +transferred to Seattle when it began to attract the attention of the +Canadian authorities. The moving spirits are students, chiefly from +Bengal, who have found ready helpers amongst the Irish-American Fenians. +They have also been able to make not a few converts amongst the +unfortunate British Indian immigrants who suffered heavily from the +anti-Asiatic campaign along the Pacific slope, and some of these +converts, being Sikhs and old soldiers, were of special value, as +through them direct contact could be established with the regiments to +which they had belonged, or, at any rate, with the classes from which an +important section of the native army is recruited. Large quantities of +seditious leaflets, circulated broadcast three years ago amongst Sepoys, +were printed in America. The other organization, called the Young Indian +Association, with "head centres" and "inner" and "outer circles" that +have a genuine Fenian ring, is even more "extreme," and is connected +with the "Indian Red Flag" in India, to which Khudiram Bose, who +murdered Mrs. and Miss Kennedy at Muzafferpur, and other young fanatics +of the same type belonged. The Young Indian Association seems to devote +itself chiefly to the study of explosives and to smuggling arms into +India. In Anglo-Indian official circles extreme reticence is naturally +observed in these matters, but from other sources I have seen evidence +to show that both these associations were in frequent communication with +the seditious Press all over India, in the Deccan as well as in Bengal +and in the Punjab. + +The emergence of Japan has created so powerful an impression in India +that one is not surprised to find the Indian revolutionaries, who live +for the most part in the dreamland of their own ignorance, looking in +that quarter for guidance and even, perhaps, for assistance. But they +have been sorely disappointed. Indian students are well received in +Japan, but they are in nowise specially petted or pampered, and when +they begin to air their political opinions and to declaim against +British rule they are very speedily put in their place. Crossing the +Pacific from Japan to America last year I met one who had spent two or +three years at Tokyo and was going on to continue his technical studies +in the United States. He was a pleasant and intelligent young fellow, +and confessed to me that what he had seen in Japan had very much +modified the views he had held when he left Bengal as to the ripeness of +his fellow-countrymen for independence or self-government. He had +received a great deal of kindness from his Japanese professors, but the +general attitude of the Japanese was by no means friendly, and there was +no trace of sympathy with the political agitation in India. There is an +Indo-Japanese Society in Tokyo, but it has no connexion with politics, +and the Indians complain that it is run for the benefit of the Japanese +rather than for theirs. Those who have joined it in the hope of using it +as a base for anti-British operations have certainly got very little for +their pains. They occasionally write articles for the very few Socialist +papers of Japan, but their effective contribution to the cause is of +trifling account. + +The most dangerous organization outside India was unquestionably that +which had its headquarters at the "India House" at Highgate. It was +there that Dinghra appears to have concocted the plot which resulted in +the murder of Sir W. Curzon Wyllie and Dr. Lalcaca, and though the +London correspondent of the _Kal_, Vinayak Savarkar, who was arrested +this year in London to take his trial on the gravest charges at Bombay, +magnified the success of the plot by describing its chief victim as "the +eyes of the Secretary of State through which he saw all Indian affairs," +there is some reason to believe that Dinghra expected to find at the +reception another Anglo-Indian official whom the "extremists" were +particularly anxious to "remove," and only in his absence struck at Sir +W. Curzon Wyllie. There is reason, too, to believe that it was from this +"India House" also that came both the idea of murdering Mr. Jackson and +the weapons used by the murderer. Though students from all parts of +India were enticed into the "India House," the organization seems to +have been controlled by Deccan Brahmans, and in the first instance by +Shyamji Krishnavarma, who founded scholarships in connexion with it to +honour the Indian "martyrs" executed for murderous outrages in India. +When the authorities in London very tardily awoke after the murder of +Sir W. Curzon Wyllie to the dangerous nature of this organization, to +which _The Times_ first drew attention in the spring of 1908, it was +still controlled from the Continent by Krishnavarma, who had retreated +to Paris long before, leaving his lieutenants to carry on his campaign +amongst the young Indian students. The _Indian Sociologist_ itself +continued to be openly published in London and to advocate assassination +until the tragedy at the Imperial Institute led the authorities to take +woefully-belated action in prosecuting successively two printers of the +sheet, which was then transferred to Paris. + +That altogether considerable quantities of incendiary literature have +been produced abroad and imported into India through these various +organizations is beyond doubt. Sometimes books like Savarkar's "War of +Indian Independence of 1857"--in its way a very remarkable history of +the Mutiny, combining considerable research with the grossest +perversions of facts and great literary power with the most savage +hatred--were bound in false covers as "Pickwick Papers," or other +equally innocuous works. Other seditious leaflets besides those for the +incitement of mutiny in the native army appear to have come from +America, whilst newspapers like the _Talvar_ and the _Bande Mataram_, +which preach the same gospel of murder as Krishnavarrna's _Indian +Sociologist_, are printed on the Continent of Europe. These papers are +either smuggled into India in large parcels or sent through the post in +envelopes addressed by name to students in schools and colleges, as well +as to schoolmasters, pleaders, Government _employés_--in fact, to all +sorts and conditions of people who, for some reason or other, are +supposed to be suitable recipients. They naturally fall sometimes into +quite the wrong hands. + +The importance which the "extremists" attach to the maintenance of these +channels of communication with India appears from the following extract +from the March issue of the _Bande Mataram_, which purports to be +published in Geneva, and calls itself "a monthly organ of Indian +independence":-- + + We must recognize at present that the importation of + revolutionary literature into India is the sheet-anchor of + the party. It keeps up the spirit of all young men, and + assures them that the party is living. We must therefore + try to strengthen all groups of workers outside India. The + centre of gravity of political work has been shifted from + Calcutta, Poona, and Lahore to Paris, Geneva, Berlin, London, + and New York. The Wahabi conspiracy of 1862 was completely + crushed because there was no centre in foreign + countries where the work could be carried on during the period + of persecution. We must take this lesson to heart, that if + we desire to hear more of the murder of British officials as + a token of the progress and vitality of the party we must + strengthen and establish centres of work in many foreign + countries. The circulation of revolutionary leaflets, journals, + and manifestoes should be looked upon as a sacred duty + by all patriots. We are not exaggerating the importance + of this work when we use that expression. Let us look upon + every leaf of revolutionary literature with almost superstitious + veneration and try to make it reach India by all + means in our power. For it is the seed of life of our + people, &c. + +As to the importation of arms into India, the murder of Mr. Jackson, +"another Nationalist fête celebrated at Nasik amidst the rejoicings of +all true patriots," furnishes an occasion for similar exultation:-- + + We know that the hero possessed Browning pistols. Now + these pistols are not manufactured in India, but in Europe. + How have they been imported by the revolutionaries? It + is clear that this fact is a testimony to the efficiency of our + organization and the secrecy of our activity. Besides, the + imported arms are not the only weapons on which we have + to rely. Daggers can be manufactured in India out of sharp + nails to stab all vile agents of the British Government, English + or Indian. + +Increased vigilance in this country as well as in the Indian Customs and +Post Offices is, however, beginning to check these importations, and +only two months later the _Bande Mataram_ was already compelled to +strike a less exuberant note. It declares, of course, that "our movement +cannot be repressed so long as there are patriotic Indians living under +other flags than the Union Jack," but it recognizes that the situation +"gives rise to anxious thought," and it winds up in a somewhat depressed +tone:-- + + We admit that for the present all active propaganda among + the young men of India with a view to the acquisition of new + workers is exceedingly difficult. But there are hundreds of + patriotic Indian students in America and Japan who can be + inspired with apostolic fervour if only some capable workers + are sent among them. The harvest is plenteous, but the + labourers are few. We should now realize that, even if the + Government succeeds in checkmating us in India at every + step, there is ample scope for work for several years among + Indians living abroad. We should reflect that steady work + is its own reward. We must not imagine that the Idea + is not making progress because our particular journal cannot + be circulated, or because those workers whom we know + personally have been lost. Again, we must not fancy that if + heroic exploits of political assassination do not occur every + week the movement will die out. + +It is not only in regard to the introduction of poisonous literature or +of weapons into India that the activity of these organizations deserves +to be closely and continuously watched. One of their main objects, as +the _Bande Mataram_ points out, is to gain over young Indians who go +abroad, especially those who go abroad for purposes of study. The India +Office has recognized the necessity of establishing some organization in +London to keep in touch with them and to rescue them from unwholesome +influences, political and other. This is a step in the right direction, +but much more will require to be done, and not only in London. +Committees should be formed in other centres, and public-spirited +Englishmen abroad could not do more useful work than by social service +of this kind. If we want to do any real and permanent good we must +spread our nets as wide as the revolutionists have spread theirs. In +Paris, for instance, Krishnavarma has set up, since he migrated to the +other side of the Channel, an organization for waylaying and +indoctrinating young Indians on their way to England, so as to induce +them to hold aloof from those who would wish to be their friends when +they arrive in London. The number of Indian students abroad is bound to +go on increasing, especially with the growing demand for scientific and +technical education for which the provision hitherto made in India is +regarded as inadequate. Indian parents and Indian associations that +ought to know better are apt to think that, if they can only provide for +a youth's travelling expenses, he will somehow be able afterwards to +shift for himself. It is not infrequently the misery and distress to +which he thus finds himself reduced abroad that drive the young Indian +into political recklessness, or, at least, render him peculiarly liable +to temptation. British manufacturers might also render valuable +assistance. Indian parents complain that, owing to the resentment which +crimes like the murder of Sir W. Curzon Wyllie have provoked there is +great reluctance now on the part of British firms to admit Indians as +apprentices to their works, and that in consequence they are compelled +to go to other countries where they are treated with less suspicion. +This reluctance is perhaps in reality more often due to the fear lest +young Indians should afterwards turn their knowledge to too good an +account, as the Japanese have often done, in the promotion of competing +industries in their own country. However that may be, the results are +certainly regrettable. For, if there is one thing that has impressed +itself on me during my last visit to India, it is that, if we want to +retain our hold, not only upon the country, but upon the people, we must +neglect no opportunity of arresting the estrangement which is growing up +between us and the younger generation of Indians. It is upon this +estrangement that the revolutionary organizations outside of India +chiefly rely for the success of their propaganda, and nothing helps them +more than the bitterness with which young Indians who come abroad often +return to India ready for any desperate adventure[14]. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS. + + +It is impossible to acquit the Congress of having contributed to the +growth of active and violent unrest, though the result may have lain far +both from the purpose of its chief originators and from the desire of +the majority of its members. Western education has largely failed in +India because the Indian, not unnaturally, fails to bring an education +based upon conceptions entirely alien to the world in which he moves +into any sort of practical relation with his own life. So with the +Indian politician, who, even with the best intentions, fails to bring +the political education which he has borrowed from the West into any +sort of practical relation with the political conditions of India. + +The Indian National Congress assumed unto itself almost from the +beginning the functions of a Parliament. There was and is no room for a +Parliament in India, because, so long as British rule remains a reality, +the Government of India, as Lord Morley has plainly stated, must be an +autocracy--benevolent and full of sympathy with Indian ideas, but still +an autocracy. Nor would the Congress have been in any way qualified to +discharge the functions of a Parliament had there been room for one. For +it represents only one class, or rather a section of one class--the +Western educated middle, and mainly professional, class, consisting +chiefly of lawyers, doctors, schoolmasters, newspaper men; an important +and influential class, no doubt, but one which itself only represents an +infinitesimal fraction--barely, perhaps, one-hundredth part--of the +whole population. To what extent it is really representative even of +that small section it is impossible to say, as the members are not +returned by any clearly defined body of constituents or by any formal +process of election. Originally it attracted the support of not a few +non-Hindus, though the Hindu element always largely preponderated, and a +small group of distinguished Parsees, headed by Mr. Dadhabai Naoroji, +together with a sprinkling of Mahomedans, helped to justify its claim to +be called National, in so far as that appellation connoted the +representation of the different creeds and races of India. But gradually +most of the Mahomedans dropped out, as it became more and more an +exponent of purely Hindu opinion, and the Parsees retained little more +than the semblance of the authority they had at one time enjoyed. + +On broader grounds still the Congress could never be called National in +the Western democratic sense of the term, for whatever exceptions it may +have been willing to make in favour of individuals, there can be no +question of popular representation in India so long as the Hindu caste +system prevails, under which whole classes numbering millions and +millions are regarded and treated as beyond the pale and actually +"untouchable." From time to time a few enlightened Hindus recognize the +absurdity of posturing as the champions of democratic ideals so long as +this monstrous anomaly subsists, but, whilst professing in theory to +repudiate it, the Indian National Congress has during the whole course +of its existence taken no effective step towards removing it. Nor is the +Congress any more representative of the toiling masses that are not +"unclean." No measures have been more bitterly assailed in the Congress +than those which, like the Punjab Land Alienation Act of 1900, were +framed and have operated for the benefit of the agricultural and other +humbler classes--i.e., of the real "people of India," in whose name +the Congress speaks so loudly and with so little title. + +An earlier generation of Hindus had fully recognized the urgency of +social problems, like that of the "depressed" castes, and had realized +that, until Indians had brought their own customs and beliefs to some +extent into line with the social customs and beliefs of the West, they +could not hope to raise their political life on to the Western plane. +The Indian National Congress, unfortunately, succumbed to the specious +plea put forward in an evil hour many years ago by a distinguished +Hindu, afterwards a Judge of the Bombay High Court, Mr. K.T. Telang, who +was himself unquestionably an enlightened social reformer, that the +"line of least resistance" was to press for political concessions from +England where they had "friends amongst the garrison," instead of +fighting an uphill battle for social reforms against the dead-weight of +popular ignorance and prejudice amongst their own people. That many +members of the Congress take part also in social reform conferences and +are fully alive to the importance of social reform cannot alter the fact +that, by turning its corporate back upon the cause they have at heart, +the Indian National Congress has arrested instead of promoting one of +the most promising movements to which Western education had given birth. + +Do not, however, let us throw the blame wholly upon the Congress. For, +like Mr. Telang, it has been induced to put its trust in "the friends +amongst the garrison"--Englishmen often of widely different types and +characters, like Bradlaugh and Hume and Webb and Sir William Wedderburn, +and in more recent days Sir Henry Cotton and Mr. Mackarness--and upon +them must rest no small responsibility for the diversion of many of the +best talents and energies of educated India from the thorny path of +social reform into the more popular field of political agitation. + +What has been the result? A self-constituted body of Indian gentlemen +who have no title to represent the people and a very slender title to +represent the upper classes of Indian society, but who, as I have +already said, doubtless represent to some extent a considerable and +influential section of Western educated opinion, might have given very +useful assistance to Anglo-Indian legislators and administrators had +they devoted themselves to the study of those social problems in the +solution of which it is peculiarly difficult and dangerous for an alien +Government to take any initiative. Instead of that, they set before +themselves a task that was impossible because they had no _status_ to +perform it. They were fighting all the time in the air, and their +proceedings therefore lacked reality. The Congress was not only an +irresponsible body, but it was never steadied by a healthy divergency of +opinions and the presentation of conflicting arguments. It was not even +a debating society, for all represented practically the same interests, +held the same views, made the same speeches, which there was no one to +question or to refute. Hence the monotony of the proceedings, the +sameness of the speeches, sometimes marked with great ability, and +generally delivered with much eloquence and fervour, at the short annual +sessions. The proceedings were usually controlled by a small caucus who +drew up long-winded resolutions, often embodying half a score of +resolutions carried in previous sessions. Some one delivered a +soul-stirring oration, and then the "omnibus" resolution, which was not +even always read out, was put to the vote and passed unanimously. Every +one knew beforehand that every speaker would attack the policy of +Government, whether he dealt with the ancient stock grievances or with +some new question raised by the legislative and administrative measures +of the current year; and every one knew also that all the others would +applaud. There was no other way of bidding for popularity and making a +mark than by achieving pre-eminence in the arts of pungent criticism and +exuberant rhetoric. Behind the scenes there were, doubtless, often +fierce fights and jealousies, and the struggles _in camera_ are reported +to have been sometimes very violent and bitter. But an unbroken front +was maintained to the outside world, and the divisions which ultimately +almost shipwrecked the Congress very rarely showed themselves on the +surface of its proceedings till nearly 20 years after its birth. + +The attitude of Government who had accepted the Congress's assurances of +loyalty, and recognized its aims, as defined by it, to be "perfectly +legitimate in themselves," was laid down for the first time officially +in 1890, under Lord Lansdowne's Viceroyalty, in terms that were +certainly not hostile:-- + + The Government of India recognize that the Congress + movement is regarded as representing in India what in Europe + would be called the more advanced Liberal Party as distinguished + from the great body of Conservative opinion which + exists side by side with it. They desire themselves to maintain + an attitude of neutrality in their relations with both + parties, so long as these act strictly within constitutional limits. + +To the principles of that declaration the Government of India has +strictly adhered ever since, even when, as in 1905, the Congress might +have been deemed to have over-stepped those constitutional limits by +endorsing the Bengalee doctrine of boycott. + +Though the majority of the Congress probably glided unconsciously or +without any deliberate purpose from, its earlier attitude of +remonstrance and entreaty into violent denunciation of Government and +all its works, there had always been a small group determined to drive +or to manoeuvre their colleagues as a body into an attitude of open and +irreconcilable hostility. That group was headed by Tilak, the strongest +personality in Indian politics, who was gradually making recruits among +the more ardent spirits all over India. On one occasion, as far back as +1895, when the Congress held its annual session in his own city of +Poona, he had attempted to commit it to the aggressive doctrines which +he was already preaching in the Deccan, but he soon discovered that the +temper of the majority was against him. He was, however, far too +tenacious ever to accept defeat. He bided his time. He knew he had to +reckon with powerful personal jealousies, and he remained in the +background. His opportunity did not come till ten years later when he +pulled the strings at the two successive sessions held in 1905 at +Benares and in 1906 at Calcutta. It was then that the Congress passed +from mere negative antagonism into almost direct defiance of Government. +It must have been a proud moment for Tilak when the very man who had +often fought so courageously against his inflammatory methods and +reactionary tendencies in the Deccan, Mr. Gokhale, played into his +hands, and from the presidential chair at Benares got up to commend the +boycott as a political weapon used for a definite political purpose. A +year later, it is true, Mr. Gokhale and the "moderate" party in the +Congress, who had seen in the meantime to what lawlessness the boycott +was leading, were anxious to undo or to mitigate at the Calcutta session +what they had helped to do at Benares. But again, by dint of lobbying +and even more by threatening to break up the Congress, Tilak carried the +day, and a resolution was passed in the form upon which he insisted to +the effect that the boycott movement was legitimate. It was not till the +following year at Surat, after the preaching of lawlessness had begun to +yield its inevitable harvest of crime, that the "moderates" recoiled at +last from the quicksands into which the "extremists" were leading them. +Tilak, however, carried out his threat, and he and his friends wrecked +that session of the Congress amidst scenes of disgraceful riot and +confusion. + +Yet even after this the "moderates" lacked the courage of their +convictions. The breach has never been altogether repaired, but there +have been frequent negotiations and exchanges of courtesies. In the very +next year at Madras a man as incapable of promoting or approving +criminal forms of agitation as Dr. Rash Behari Ghose was holding out the +olive branch to "the wayward wanderers" who had treated him so +despitefully at Surat; and last year at Lahore, when Pandit Mohan +Malavya was expounding from the chair the latest formula adopted by +Congress as a definition of its aims, his chief anxiety seemed to be to +prove that it offered no obstacle to the return of the Surat insurgents +to the fold. This formula, it may be mentioned, lays down that "the +objects of the Indian National Congress are the attainment by the people +of India of a system of Government similar to that enjoyed by the +self-governing members of the British Empire and a participation by them +in the rights and responsibilities of the Empire on equal terms." This +is a formula which many "moderates" no doubt construe in a spirit of +genuine loyalty, but it does not exclude the construction which more +"advanced" politicians like Mr. Pal place upon _Swaraj_. + +The last session of the Congress at Lahore, in December last, is +generally admitted to have aroused very little enthusiasm, and there are +many who believe that, weakened as it has been by recent dissensions, it +will scarcely survive the creation of the new enlarged Councils. These +Councils have been so constituted that they will be able to discharge +usefully the functions which the Congress arrogated to itself without +any title or authority. Perhaps it was the consciousness that the +Congress would at any rate be henceforth overshadowed by the new +Councils that led Pandit Malavya to inveigh so bitterly in his +presidential address at Lahore against the shape ultimately given to the +reforms. What one may hope above all is that the Councils will help to +give the Indian "moderates" a little more self-reliance than they have +hitherto shown. The Indian National Congress has at all times contained +many men of high character and ability, devoted to what they conceived +to be the best interests of their country, and at first, at any rate, +quite ready to acknowledge the benefits of British rule and to testify +to their conviction that the maintenance of British rule is essential to +the welfare and safety of India. Many of them must have seen that the +constant denunciation of Government by men who claimed to represent the +intelligence of the country must tend to stimulate a spirit of +disaffection and revolt amongst their more ignorant and inexperienced +fellow-countrymen. Yet not one of them had the courage to face the risk +of temporary unpopularity by pointing out the danger of the inclined +plane down which they were sliding, until they actually saw themselves +being swept hopelessly off their feet at Surat. It was then too late to +avert the consequences of pusillanimity or to shake off their share of +responsibility for the evils which the tolerance they had too long +extended to the methods of their more violent colleagues had helped to +produce. One of the main purposes of the Indian National Congress has +avowedly been to set up a claim for the introduction of representative +government in India. Yet it has itself seldom escaped the control of a +handful of masterful leaders who have ruled it in the most irresponsible +and despotic fashion. The Congress has, in fact, displayed exactly the +same feature which has been so markedly manifested in the case of +municipalities, namely, the tendency of "representative" institutions in +India to resolve themselves into machines operated by, and for the +benefit of, an extremely limited and domineering oligarchy. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +CONSTITUTIONAL REFORMS. + + +When Lord Minto closed at the end of March the first Session of the +Imperial Council, as the Viceroy's Legislative Council, enlarged under +the Indian Councils Act of 1909, is now officially designated, in +contradistinction to the enlarged Provincial Councils of Provincial +Governments, his Excellency very properly described it as "a memorable +Session." It was, indeed, far more than that. Even to the outward eye +the old Council Chamber at Government House presented a very significant +spectacle, to which the portrait of Warren Hastings over the Viceregal +Chair always seemed to add a strange note of admiration. The round table +at which the members of the Viceroy's Legislative Council used to +gather, with far less of formality, had disappeared, and the 59 members +of the enlarged Council had their appointed seats disposed in a double +hemicycle facing the Chair. They sat for the most part according to +provinces, and the features as well as, in some cases, the dresses, of +the Indian members showed at a glance how representative this new +Council really was. + +The tall burly frame of the Kuvar Sahib of Patiala was only more +conspicuous than that of the Maharajah of Burdawan because the former +wore the many-folded turban and brocaded dress of his Sikh ancestry, +whereas the latter, like most Bengalees of the upper classes, has +adopted the much more commonplace broadcloth of the West. The bold, +hawk-like features of Malik Umar Hyat Khan of Tiwana in the Punjab were +as characteristic of the fighting Pathan from the North as were the +Rajah of Mahmudabad's more delicate features of the Mahomedan +aristocracy of the erstwhile kingdom of Oudh. The white _swadeshi_ +garments affected by Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, from the United +Provinces--who opened the last meeting of the Indian National Congress +at Lahore with a presidential address which lasted for two hours and a +quarter, and wound up with an apology for its brevity on the ground that +he had had no time to prepare it--testified, at any rate more loudly, to +the sternness of his patriotic convictions than the equally _swadeshi_ +homespun, cut at least in European fashion, of another "advanced" +politician, Mr. Bhupendranath Bose, of Bengal. More worthy of attention +was the keen, refined, and intellectual face of Mr. G.K. Gokhale, the +Deccanee Brahman with the Mahratta cap, who, by education, belongs to +the West quite as much as to the East, and, by birth, to the ruling +caste of the last dominant race before the advent of the British _Raj_. +The red fez worn by the majority of Mahomedan members showed that their +community had certainly not failed in this instance to secure the +generous measure of representation which Lord Minto spontaneously +promised to them three years ago at Simla. The peculiar glazed black +headdress of the Parsee and the silk kerchief of the Burman in turn +indicated the racial catholicity of the assembly in which Sir Sassoon +David, of Bombay, worthily represents, by his authority as a financier, +the small Jewish community of India. + +Nor were the different interests and classes, with two important +exceptions, less adequately represented than the different races and +creeds. Besides the great territorial magnates, of whom I have already +mentioned two or three by name, there were not a few other well-known +representatives of the landed interests which, in a country like India +where agriculture is still the greatest of all national industries, have +a special claim to respectful hearing, even though they have hitherto +for the most part held aloof from the fashionable methods of political +agitation. There was indeed a good deal of disappointment among the +urban professional classes, in whose eyes a Western education--or rather +education on what are, often quite erroneously, conceived to be Western +lines--should apparently constitute the one indispensable qualification +for public life. But they too had secured no inconsiderable number of +seats, and if the voice of the Indian National Congress did not +predominate it had certainly not been reduced to silence. + +Doubts were freely expressed among Englishmen before the meetings of the +new Councils as to the competence of the Anglo-Indian officials for the +novel duties allotted to them in these assemblies. It was argued, not +unreasonably, that men who had never been trained or accustomed to take +part in public discussions might find themselves at a disadvantage in +controversial encounters with the quick-witted Hindu politician. It is +generally admitted now that the first Session at any rate of the +Imperial Council by no means justified any such apprehensions. Not a few +official members, it is true, were inclined at first to rely exclusively +upon their written notes, and there was indeed, from beginning to end, +but little room for the rapid thrust and skilled parry of debate to +which we are accustomed at Westminster. Most of the Indian members +themselves had carefully prepared their speeches beforehand, and read +them out from typed or even printed drafts before them. In many cases +the speeches had been communicated two or three days ahead to the Press, +and sometimes a speech was printed and commented upon in the favoured +organ of some honourable member, though he had ultimately changed his +mind and preserved silence, without, however, informing the editor of +the fact. In other cases a speech was published without the +interruptions and calls to order which had compelled the orator to drop +out some of his most cherished periods. As it was the custom for Indian +members to communicate also to the departments immediately concerned the +gist of the remarks which they proposed to make, the official members +were tempted at first to frame their replies on similar lines and to +read out elaborate statements bristling with figures, which would have +been much more suitable for circulation as printed minutes. But +gradually many of them took courage and showed that they could speak +easily and simply, and quite as effectively as most of the Indian +members. + +Indeed, one of the best speeches of this kind was that delivered on the +last day but one of the Session by Mr. P.C. Lyon, a nominated member for +Eastern Bengals, in reply to the fervid oration of Mr. Bupendranath Bose +on the threadbare topic of Partition. On this, as on other occasions, +the florid style of eloquence cultivated by the leaders of the Indian +National Congress fell distinctly flat in the calmer atmosphere of the +Council-room, as indeed Mr. Gokhale warned some of his friends it was +bound to do. During the last two days discussion was allowed somewhat +needlessly under the new rules, to roam at large over all manner of +irrelevant subjects, but on this occasion it served at least one useful +purpose. If it were not that the Bengalee politician has no other +grievance to substitute for it, the question of the Partition of Bengal +should, one would think, have received its _quietus_, for two excellent +speeches, delivered with much simple force by Maulvi Syed Shams ul Huda, +Mahomedan member for Eastern Bengal, and by Mr. Mazhar-ul-Haq, another +Mahomedan who sits for Bengal, completed the discomfiture which poor Mr. +Bose had already experienced at Mr. Lyon's hands. + +Needless to say that amongst the Indian members it was the politician, +and especially the more "advanced" politician, who figured most +prominently in the discussions. The more conservative Indians were +usually content to listen, with more or less visible signs of weariness, +to the facile and sometimes painfully long-winded eloquence of their +colleagues. When they did intervene, however, their speeches were +usually short and none the less effective. In most of the divisions that +were taken they supported the Government, and in no single instance was +the Government majority hard pressed. The minority in support of any +resolution resisted by Government never reached 20, and generally +fluctuated somewhere between 16 and 20. The only resolution which would +have certainly combined all the native members in support of it was Mr. +Gokhale's resolution with regard to the position of British Indians in +South Africa, but, as it was accepted by Government, it was passed _nem. +con._ without a division. + +That in these circumstances the official members who are at the same +time heads of the most important administrative and executive +departments should be kept in constant attendance during debates in +which many of them, are not in any way directly concerned, and that they +should thus be detained in Calcutta at a season when their presence +would be far more useful elsewhere, constitutes one of the most serious +of the many practical drawbacks of the new system for which a remedy +will have to be found. It is as if not only the Parliamentary +representatives but the permanent officials of our own great public +departments were expected to sit through the debates in the House of +Commons, without even the facilities which the private rooms of +Ministers, the library, and the smoking rooms at Westminster afford for +quiet intervals of work between the division bells. Nor is that all. The +Council sat during the very months of the short "cold weather," when it +is customary and alone practicable for heads of departments to undertake +their annual tours of inspection. The _reductio ad absurdum_ is surely +reached in the case of the Commander-in-Chief and the Chief of the +Staff. Though the Imperial Council is itself debarred from dealing with +Army questions, they could be seen any day sitting through the debates +merely because their votes might conceivably be required to maintain the +official majority, and, except for one or two short excursions in the +intervals between the meetings of Council, they were tied to Calcutta +when they ought to have been travelling about the country and inspecting +the troops. Yet, it is generally admitted that at no period since the +Mutiny has it been more important for the Commander-in-Chief to maintain +the closest possible contact with the native army--especially when the +Commander-in-Chief is as popular with the Indian soldier as Sir O'Moore +Creagh. + +Another obvious drawback of the present arrangements is the +inconvenience to which members of Council from the provinces were +subjected by the irregular intervals at which the Council held its +actual sittings. Either they had to waste their time at Calcutta during +the intervals, to the detriment of their interests at home, or they had +to spend days in railway carriages rushing backwards and forwards from +their homes to the capital, for in a country of such magnificent +distances there are few journeys that take less than 24 hours, and from +Calcutta, for instance, either to Madras or to Bombay takes the best +part of 48 hours. Unless arrangements are remodelled so as to enable the +Council to transact its business, whether _in pleno_ or in committee, +either in one session or in two short sessions, but in any case +continuously, many of its most valuable members, who have important +business, of their own which they cannot afford to neglect, will cease +to attend, and the Council will not only lose much of the representative +character, which is one of its best features at present, but will fall +inevitably under the preponderating influence of the professional +politician. In his closing speech Lord Minto outlined a scheme which +would in some measure meet this difficulty, but it is doubtful whether +it will prove by any means adequate. Another point which requires +consideration is whether it is desirable for the Viceroy to preside +himself over the deliberations of the Council. Even if he could properly +afford the time for it, it seems hardly expedient that the immediate +representative of the King-Emperor should be drawn into the arena of +public controversies. Proceedings are bound to grow more and more +contentious, and delicate questions of procedure will arise and have to +be settled from the chair. These are all matters in which the Viceroy +should not be committed to the premature exercise, on the spur of the +moment, of his supreme authority. + +One of the chief purposes which the creation of the new Councils is +intended to achieve is that of enlightening Indian opinion throughout +the country by means of the enlarged opportunities given for the +discussion of public affairs. But that purpose will be defeated unless +the discussions receive adequate publicity. They certainly did not do so +this winter. Not only is the art of gallery reporting still in its +infancy, but many of the Indian newspapers have still to learn that "it +is not cricket" to report only the speeches of their political friends +and to omit or compress into a few lines the speeches of their +adversaries. A glaring instance of this shortcoming was afforded by the +_Bengalee_. The Nationalist organ published Mr. Bupendra Nath Bose's +speech on the partition of Bengal _in extenso_, as he had intended to +deliver it, without taking the slightest notice of the fact that he was +repeatedly called to order by the Viceroy and had in consequence to drop +out whole passages of his oration, and it published practically nothing +else--though perhaps no other indictment of the Government during the +whole session was more successfully refuted, both by the official +spokesman, Mr. Lyon, and by other Indian members. Apart, however, from +any such deliberate unfairness, the communication of speeches in advance +to the Press should be strenuously discountenanced. Many official +members showed that they could perfectly well dispense with the +doubtful advantage of knowing beforehand exactly what their critics were +going to say, and, if once this practice is stopped, newspapers, +relieved from the temptation of giving undue preference to easy "copy," +will learn to cultivate and to rely upon more legitimate methods of +reporting. It is to be hoped also that the _Gazette of India_, which +publishes the official verbatim reports, will not in future lag so far +behind the actual proceedings. + +All these are minor points. The dominant feature of the Session was that +in spite of wide divergences of views, the proceedings were generally +dignified, sometimes even to the verge of dulness, and with one or two +exceptions they were marked by good feeling on all sides. It would be +unfair not to give to Mr. Gokhale his full share of credit for this +happy result. Though often an unrelenting critic of the Administration, +he struck from the first a note of studied moderation and restraint to +which most of his political friends attuned their utterances. He +naturally assumed the functions of the leader of his Majesty's +Opposition, and he discharged them, not only with the ability which +every one expected of him, but with the urbanity and self-restraint of a +man conscious of his responsibilities as well as of his powers. His was, +amongst the Indian members, not only the master mind, but the dominant +personality. The European members, on the other hand, showed themselves +invariably courteous and good-tempered, and not a few awkward corners +were turned by a little good-humoured banter. Nor was it unusual to see +the Englishman come and sit down by the side of the Indian member to +whose indictment he had just been replying, and in friendly conversation +take all personal sting out of the controversy. As Lord Minto aptly put +it, the Council-room "has brought people together. Official and +non-official members have met each other. The official wall which of +necessity to some extent separated them has been broken down. They have +talked over many things together." From this point of view, if future +sessions fulfil the promise of the first one, the Imperial Council may +grow into a potent instrument for good. + +Of the deeper significance which underlay the meeting of this remarkable +assembly it is still perhaps premature to speak. But cautious and +tentative as was the attitude of all parties concerned, and free as, +from beginning to end, the proceedings were from any startling +incidents, no one can have watched them without being conscious of the +presence of new forces of vast potentiality which must tend to modify +very profoundly the relations between the governors and the governed in +India itself, and possibly even between India and the Mother Country. +They are the forces, largely still unknown, which have been brought into +play by Lord Morley's Constitutional reforms, and though they made +themselves naturally more conspicuously felt in the Imperial Council at +Calcutta, they were present in every one of the enlarged Legislative +Councils of the Provincial Governments. + +It is no part of my purpose to recount in detail the long, though +generally dispassionate, controversy to which these reforms gave rise. +We may not all be agreed as to the necessity or wisdom of some of the +changes embodied in them, and some may think that we are inclined to +travel too fast and too far on a road which Indians have not up to the +present shown themselves qualified to tread without danger. But there +are few Englishmen either at home or in India who do not recognize the +statesmanlike spirit in which Lord Morley, loyally seconded throughout +by Lord Minto, has approached the very difficult problem of giving to +the people of India a larger consultative voice in administration as +well as in legislation without jeopardizing the stability or impairing +the supremacy of British control. The future alone can show how far +these far-reaching changes will justify the generous expectations of +their author, but taken as a whole they undoubtedly represent a +constructive work which is fully worthy of the fine record of British +rule in India. + +How very far-reaching they are the merest indication of their most +salient features will suffice to indicate. For the sake of convenience, +though they form a homogeneous whole, they may be divided roughly into +two categories--those that affect the Executive Councils and those that +have remodelled the Legislative Councils. To the former category +belong:-- + +(1) The appointment of an Indian member to the Viceroy's Executive +Council. Mr. S.P. Sinha, a Bengalee barrister in large practice, was +appointed to be legal member, and the ability and distinction with which +he discharged the duties of his high office have gone far to remove the +misgivings of many of those who were at first opposed to this new +departure. It is the more to be regretted that his services will be lost +to the new Viceroy, as he has announced his intention of retiring, for +personal reasons, at the end of Lord Minto's Viceroyalty[15]. + +(2) The appointment of one Indian member to the Executive Councils of +the Governors of Madras and Bombay. The Rajah of Bobbili has been +appointed in Madras and Mr. M.B. Chaubal in Bombay. An Indian will also +be appointed to the Executive Council of the Lieutenant-Governor of +Bengal as soon as that body has been finally constituted[16], and +similar appointments will be made to the Executive Councils of the chief +Indian provinces when the powers taken to create those bodies shall be +put into operation. + +(3) The appointment of two Indians, one a Hindu and the other a +Mahomedan, to be members of the Council of the Secretary of State, +generally known as the India Council, in Whitehall. Mr. K.G. Gupta and +Mr. Husain Bilgrami were appointed by Lord Morley in 1907. Mr. Bilgrami +retired early in 1910 owing to ill-health and his place has been taken +by Mr. M.A. Ali Baig. + +In principle, the introduction of natives of India into these inner +lines of the British Executive power undoubtedly constitutes, as Lord +Lansdowne has said, a "tremendous innovation," but it may be doubted +whether in practice the consequences will be as considerable as those of +the changes effected by the India Councils Act of 1909 in the +composition and attributions of the Imperial and Provincial Legislative +Councils. These changes are of a twofold character. In the first place +the total number of members has been very materially increased--e.g., +in the Imperial Legislative Council from 21 to a _maximum_ of 60; in the +Madras and Bombay Legislative Councils from 24 to a _maximum_ of 50; in +the Bengal Legislative Council from 20 to 50, &c. Room has thus been +made for the introduction of a much larger number of elected members, of +whom there will be in future not less than 135 altogether in the +different Legislative Councils, as against only 39 under the old +statutes. Still more important than the mere increase in the number of +elected members is the radical change in the proportion they will bear +to official members. Except in the Imperial Council, where, at the +instance of Lord Morley, a small official majority has been retained +which Lord Minto himself was willing to dispense with, there will no +longer be any official majority. The regulations determining the +electorates and the mode of election have been framed with praiseworthy +elasticity in accordance with local requirements, and care has been +taken to provide as far as possible for an adequate representation of +all the most important communities and interests. In view of the +manifold and profound lines of cleavage which exist in Indian society, +it is extremely improbable that all the elected members will ever +combine against the official minority except in such rare and improbable +cases as might produce an absolute consensus of Indian opinion, and in +such cases it is even more improbable that Government would ignore so +striking a manifestation. Nevertheless, as a safeguard against the +possibility of factious opposition, the right of veto has been reserved +to the Provincial Executives and in the last resort to the +Governor-General in Council. + +Thus the Indian Councils Act of 1909 cannot be said to have actually +modified the position of the Indian Legislatures. With regard to the +most important of them--viz., the Imperial Council--Lord Morley was +careful to make this perfectly clear in his despatch of November 27, +1908, in which he reviewed the proposals put forward in the Government +of India despatch of October 1. "It is an essential condition of the +reform policy," the Secretary of State wrote, "that the Imperial +supremacy should in no degree be compromised. I must therefore regard it +as essential that your Excellency's Council, in its legislative as well +as in its executive character, should continue to be so constituted as +to ensure its constant and uninterrupted power to fulfil the +constitutional obligation that it owes, and must always owe, to his +Majesty's Government and to the Imperial Parliament." The Indian +Executive therefore remains, as hitherto, responsible only to the +Imperial Government at home, and the Imperial Council can exercise over +it no directly controlling power. The same holds good, _mutatis +mutandis_, of the Provincial Executives and their Councils. + +Indirectly, however, the Indian Councils Act of 1909 materially modifies +the relations between the Legislative Councils and the Executive by +giving to elected and non-official members opportunities which they have +never enjoyed before of discussing public policy and making their voices +heard and their influence felt on both administrative and legislative +matters. The revised rules of procedure, under which supplementary +questions may be grafted on to interpellations, and resolutions can be +moved not only in connexion with the financial statements of Government, +but, with certain specified reservations, on most matters of general +public interest, are undoubtedly calculated to afford a vastly larger +scope than in the past to the activities of Indian Legislatures, and it +will depend very much upon the ability and resourcefulness of members +themselves to what extent they may utilize these facilities for the +purpose of ultimately creating real powers of control. In an extremely +interesting and dispassionate study of the Indian Constitution, and of +the effects which the new reforms may have upon it, Mr. Rangaswami +Iyengar, a Hindu journalist of Madras, comes to the conclusion that "if +the powers now entrusted to the Councils are used with care, wisdom, and +discrimination, precedents and procedure analogous to those of the House +of Commons might gradually grow up, and might serve as a useful means if +not of directly controlling the Executive--a power which under the +present constitutional arrangement of the Government of India it is +impossible that the Council should possess--at least of directing the +Executive into correct and proper channels in regard to administrative +policy and administrative action." Not the least important of the +changes are those made in regard to Budget procedure. Indian +Legislatures will no more than in the past have power to vote or to veto +the Budget, but they will have henceforth an opportunity of setting +forth their views before the Budget has assumed its final shape. Members +will be able to discuss beforehand any changes in taxation, as well as +any new loans or additional grants to local governments, and they will +be taken into the confidence of Government with regard to the +determination of public expenditure. No doubt important heads of revenue +are still excluded from the purview of the Councils, but members will +have the right of placing on record their views in the form of +resolutions on all items not specifically excluded from their +cognisance, and the Finance Member will be bound to explain the reasons +why Government declines to accept any resolution that may have been +passed in the first two stages of the Budget. Much will depend upon the +reasonable and practical use which members make of these novel +opportunities, for, to quote Mr. Iyengar again, "the progress of +constitutional government is not dependent so much upon what is +expressly declared to be constitutional rights as upon what is silently +built up in the form of constitutional conventions." + +In the great speech in which Lord Morley gave the House of Lords the +first outline of his Indian reforms scheme there was one singularly +pregnant passage. "We at any rate," he said, "have no choice or option. +As an illustrious member of this House once said, we are watching a +great and stupendous process, the reconstruction of a decomposed +society. What we found was described as a parallel to Europe in the +fifth century, and we have now, as it were, before us in that vast +congeries of people we call India, a long, slow march in uneven stages +through all the centuries from the fifth to the twentieth. Stupendous +indeed, and to guide that transition with sympathy, political wisdom, +and courage, with a sense of humanity, duty, and national honour, may +well be called a glorious mission." Whether we succeed in that mission +must depend largely upon the loyal assistance we receive from those +Indians who claim, in virtue of their superior education, to represent +this twentieth century. Lord Morley has fulfilled in no niggardly spirit +his pledge to associate the people of India with the Government far more +closely than has hitherto been the case in the work of actual day-to-day +administration as well as in the more complex problems of legislation. +It rests now with the Indian representatives both in the Executive and +Legislative Councils to justify Lord Morley's expectations by using the +new machinery which he has placed in their hands not for purposes of +mere destructive criticism and malevolent obstruction, but for +intelligent and constructive co-operation with the British rulers of +India, to whom alone, whatever may be their shortcomings, India owes it +that the spirit of the twentieth century has spread to her shores. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE DEPRESSED CASTES. + + +The only classes in British India for whom no real representation has +been devised in the enlarged Indian Councils are the millions of humble +toilers who constitute what are known as the "depressed castes." Under +present social conditions in India, this was probably inevitable. +Though, rather unreasonably, the vast majority of them go to swell the +numbers of the Hindu population in the census upon which Hindu +representation ought, according to Hindu politicians, to be based, those +politicians have certainly not as yet shown any title to speak on their +behalf. For there is no more striking contrast to the liberal and +democratic professions of a body which claims, as does the Indian +National Congress, to represent an enlightened, progressive, and +national Hinduism than the fact that in the course of its 25 years' +existence it has scarcely done anything to give practical effect to its +theoretical repudiation of a social system that condemns some 50 +millions out of the 300 millions of the Hindu population of India to a +life of unspeakable degradation. For a long time to come, the depressed +castes will probably find, as in the past, their truest friends and best +qualified representatives among the European members of Council, who, +just because they are aliens, are free from all the influences, whether +of interest or of prejudice, which tend to divide Hindu society into so +many watertight compartments. Let any one who has any doubts on this +point read some of the documents published in the Blue-books on the +reforms--petitions from low-caste communities imploring Government not +to commit the defence of their interests to the Hindu Brahman, but to +continue to them the direct and unselfish protection which they have +hitherto enjoyed at the hands of British administrators. + +The "depressed classes" of whom we generally speak as Pariahs, though +the name properly belongs only to one particular caste, the Pareiyas in +Southern India, include all Hindus who do not belong to the four highest +or "clean" castes of Hinduism, and they are therefore now officially and +euphemistically designated as the Panchamas--i.e., the fifth caste. +Many of the Panchamas, especially in Southern India, are little better +than bonded serfs; others are condemned to this form of ostracism by the +trades they ply. Such are not only the scavengers and sweepers, but also +the workers in leather, the Chamars and Muchis of Northern and Central +India, and the Chakilians and Madigas of Southern India, who with their +families number 14 or 15 million souls; the washermen, the +_tadi_-drawers and vendors of spirituous liquors, the pressers of oil, +and, in many parts of the country, the cowherd and shepherd castes, &c. +They are generally regarded as descendants of the aboriginal tribes +overwhelmed centuries ago by the tide of Aryan conquest. Some of those +tribes, grouped together in the Indian Census under the denominational +rubric of "Animists" and numbering about 8-1/2 millions, have survived +to the present day in remote hills and jungles without being absorbed +into the Hindu social system, and have preserved their primitive +beliefs, in which fetish worship, and magic are the dominant elements. +Low as is their social _status_, it is but little lower than that of the +Panchamas who have obtained a footing on the nethermost rung of the +social ladder of Hinduism without being admitted to any sort of contact +with its higher civilization or even to the threshold of its temples. + +Hinduism with all its rigidity is, it is true, sufficiently elastic to +sanction, at least tacitly, a slow process of evolution by which the +Panchama castes--for there are many castes even amongst the +"untouchables"--gradually shake off to some extent the slough of +"uncleanness" and establish some sort of ill-defined relations even with +Brahmanism. For whilst there is on the one hand a slowly ascending scale +by which the Panchamas may ultimately hope to smuggle themselves in +amongst the inferior Sudras, the lowest of the four "clean" castes, so +there is a descending scale by which Brahmans, under the pressure of +poverty or disrepute, sink to so low a place in Brahmanism that they are +willing to lend their ministrations, at a price, to the more prosperous +of the Panchamas and help them on their way to a higher _status_. Thus +probably half the Sudras of the present day were at some more or less +remote period Panchamas. Again, during periods of great civil commotion, +as in the 18th century, when brute force was supreme, not a few +Panchamas, especially low-caste Mahrattas, made their way to the front +as soldiers of fortune, and even carved out kingdoms to themselves at +the point of the sword. Orthodox Hinduism bowed in such cases to the +accomplished fact, just as it has acquiesced in later years when +education and the equality of treatment brought by British rule have +enabled a small number of Panchamas to qualify for employment under +Government. + +But these exceptions are so rare and the evolutionary process is so +infinitely slow and laborious that they do not visibly affect the +yawning gulf between the "clean" higher-caste Hindu and the "unclean" +Panchama. The latter may have learned to do _puja_ to Shiva or Kali or +other members of the Hindu Pantheon, but he is not allowed within the +precincts of their sanctuaries and has to worship from afar. Nor are the +disabilities of the Panchama merely spiritual. In many villages he has +to live entirely apart. He is not even allowed to draw water from the +village well, lest he should "pollute" it by his touch, and where there +is no second well for the "untouchables," the hardship is cruel, +especially in seasons of drought when casual water dries up. In every +circumstance of his life the vileness of his lot is brought home to the +wretched pariah by an elaborate and relentless system of social +oppression. I will only quote one or two instances which have come +within my own observation. The respective distances beyond which +Panchamas must not approach a Brahman lest they "pollute" him differ +according to their degree of uncleanness. Though they have been laid +down with great precision, it is growing more and more difficult to +enforce them with the increasing promiscuity of railway and street-car +intercourse, but in more remote parts of India, and especially in the +south, the old rules are still often observed. In Cochin a few years ago +I was crossing a bridge, and just in front of me walked a +respectable-looking native. He suddenly turned tail, and running back to +the end of the bridge from which we had both come, plunged out of sight +into the jungle on the side of the road. He had seen a Brahman entering +on to the bridge from the other end, and he had fled incontinently +rather than incur the resentment of that high-caste gentleman by +inflicting upon him the "pollution" of forbidden proximity as the +bridge, though a fairly broad one, was not wide enough for them to pass +each other at the prescribed distance. In the native State of Travancore +it is not uncommon to see a Panchama witness in a lawsuit standing about +a hundred yards from the Court so as not to defile the Brahman Judge and +pleaders, whilst a row of _peons_, or messengers, stationed between him +and the Court, hand on its questions to him and pass back his replies. + +No doubt the abject ignorance and squalor and the repulsive habits of +many of these unfortunate castes help to explain and to perpetuate their +ostracism, but they do not exculpate a social system which prescribes +or tolerates such a state of things. That if a kindly hand is extended +to them, even the lowest of these depressed can be speedily raised to a +higher plane has been abundantly shown by the efforts of Christian +missionaries. They are only now beginning to extend their activities to +the depressed castes of Northern India, but in Southern India important +results have already been achieved. The Bishop of Madras claims that +within the last 40 years, in the Telugu country alone, some 250,000 +Panchamas have become Christians, and in Travancore another 100,000. +During the last two decades especially the philanthropic work done by +the missionaries in plague and famine time has borne a rich harvest, for +the Panchamas have naturally turned a ready ear to the spiritual +ministrations of those who stretched out their hands to help them in the +hour of extreme need. Bishop Whitehead, who has devoted himself +particularly to this question, assures me that, in Southern India at +least, the rate at which the elevation of the depressed castes can be +achieved depends mainly upon the amount of effort which the Christian +missions can put forth. If their organizations can be adequately +strengthened and extended so as to deal with the increasing numbers of +inquirers and converts, and, above all, to train native teachers, he is +convinced that we may be within measurable distance of the reclamation +of the whole Panchama population. What the effect would be from the +social as well as the religious point of view may be gathered from a +recent report of the Telugu Mission, which most lay witnesses would, I +believe readily confirm:-- + + If we look at the signs of moral and spiritual progress + during the last 40 years, the results of the mission work have + been most encouraging. It is quite true that naturally the + Panchamas are poor, dirty, ignorant, and, as a consequence + of many centuries of oppression, peculiarly addicted + to the more mean and servile vices. But the most hopeful + element in their case is that they are conscious of their + degradation and eager to escape from it. As a consequence, + when formed into congregations under the care of earnest + and capable teachers, they make marked progress materially, + intellectually, and morally. Their gross ignorance disappears; + they become cleaner and more decent in their persons + and homes; they give up cattle poisoning and grain stealing, + two crimes particularly associated with their class; they + abstain from the practice of infant marriage and concubinage, + to which almost all classes of Hindu society are addicted; + they lose much of the old servile spirit which led them to + grovel at the feet of their social superiors, and they acquire + more sense of the rights and dignity which belong to + them as men. Where they are able to escape their + surroundings they prove themselves in no way inferior, + either in mental or in moral character, to the best of their + fellow-countrymen. Especially is this the case in the Mission + Boarding Schools, where the change wrought is a moral + miracle. In many schools and colleges Christian lads of + Panchama origin are holding their own with, and in not a + few cases are actually outstripping, their Brahman competitors. + ... In one district the Hindus themselves + bore striking testimony to the effect of Christian teaching on + the pariahs, "Before they became Christians," one of them + said, "we had always to lock up our storehouses, and were + always having things stolen. But now all that is changed, + We can leave our houses open and never lose anything." + +In the heyday of the Hindu Social Reform Movement, before it was checked +by the inrush of political agitation, the question of the elevation of +the depressed castes was often and earnestly discussed by progressive +Hindus themselves, but it is only recently that it has again been taken +up seriously by some of the Hindu leaders, and notably by Mr. Gokhale. +One of the utterances that has produced the greatest impression in Hindu +circles is a speech made last year by the Gaekwar of Baroda, a Hindu +Prince who not only professes advanced Liberal views, but whose heart +naturally goes out to the depressed castes, as the fortunes of his own +house were made in the turmoil of the eighteenth century by a Mahratta +of humble extraction, if not actually of low-caste origin. His Highness +does not attempt to minimize the evils of the system. + + The same principles which impel us to ask for political + Justice for ourselves should actuate us to show social justice + to each other.... By the sincerity of our efforts to + uplift the depressed classes we shall be judged fit to achieve + the objects of our national desire.... The system which + divides us into innumerable castes claiming to rise by + minutely graduated steps from the pariah to the Brahman + is a whole tissue of injustice, splitting men equal by nature + into divisions high and low, based not on the natural standard + of personal qualities but on accidents of birth. The eternal + struggle between caste and caste for social superiority has + become a constant source of ill-feeling.... Want of + education is practically universal amongst the depressed + classes, but this cannot have been the cause of their fall, for + many of the so-called higher classes in India share in the + general ignorance. Unlike them, however, they are unable + to attend the ordinary schools owing to the idea that it is + pollution to touch them. To do so is to commit a sin offensive + alike to religion and to conventional morality. Of + professions as a means of livelihood these depressed classes + have a very small choice. Here, too, the supposed pollution + of their touch comes in their way. On every hand we find + that the peculiar difficulty from which they suffer, in addition to + others that they share with other classes, is their "untouchableness." + +After a powerful argument against the theory of "untouchableness" and +against priestly intolerance, the Gaekwar urges not only upon Hindus, +but upon Government the duty of attacking in all earnestness this +formidable problem. + + A Government within easy reach of the latest thought, + with unlimited moral and material resources, such as there + is in India, should not remain content with simply asserting + the equality of men under the common law and maintaining + order, but must sympathetically see from time to time that + the different sections of its subjects are provided with ample + means of progress. Many of the Indian States where they + are at all alive to the true functions of government, owing + to less elevating surroundings or out of nervousness, fear to + strike out a new path and find it less troublesome to follow + the policy of _laisser faire_ and to walk in the footsteps of the + highest Government in India, whose declared policy is to let + the social and religious matters of the people alone except + where questions of grave importance are involved. When + one-sixth of the people are in a chronically depressed and + ignorant condition, no Government can afford to ignore + the urgent necessity of doing what it can for their elevation. + +Can the Government of India afford to disregard so remarkable an appeal? +The question is not merely a social and moral question, but also a +political one. Whilst some high-caste Hindus are beginning to recognize +its urgency, the more prosperous of the socially depressed castes +themselves are showing signs of restlessness under the ostracism to +which they are subjected. From almost all of these castes a few +individuals have always emerged, who acquired wealth and the relative +recognition that wealth brings with it, and the numbers of such +individuals are increasing. In some cases a whole caste has seen its +circumstances improve under new economic conditions entirety beyond its +own control--like the Namasudras of Bengal, who, as agriculturists, have +had their share of the growing agricultural prosperity of that region. +They are materially better off than they used to be, and so they are no +longer content with their old social _status_ of inferiority. Not only +Christian but Mahomedan missionaries have been at work amongst them, and +though the vast majority remain Hindus, they note, like the Panchamas +all over India must note, the immediate rise in the social scale of +their fellow-caste-men who embrace either Christianity or Islam. For it +is one of the anomalies of this peculiar conception that the most +untouchable Hindu ceases to be quite as untouchable when he becomes a +Christian or a Mahomedan. The Bengalee politician was quick to see the +danger of losing hold altogether of the Namasudras, and he set up a +propaganda of his own, which I have already described, with the object +of winning them over to his side and to his methods of agitation by +promising them in return a relaxation of caste stringency. The question +with which we are confronted is whether we shall ourselves take a hand +in the elevation of the depressed castes or whether we shall leave it to +others, many of whom would exploit them for their own purposes. Is not +this an opportunity for the Government of India to respond to the +Gaekwar's invitation and depart for once from their traditional policy +of _laisser faire_? In the Christian Missions they have an admirable +organization ready to hand which merely requires encouragement and +support. Though there are manifold dangers in giving official +countenance to proselytizing work amongst the higher classes of Indian +society, none of those objections can reasonably lie to co-operating in +the reclamation of whole classes which the orthodox Hindu regards as +beyond the pale of human intercourse. From the religious point of view, +this is a matter which should engage the earnest attention of the great +missionary societies of this country. The hour seems to be at hand when +a great and combined effort is required of them. From the moral and +social point of view they may well claim in this connexion the sympathy +and support of all denominations and no-denominations that are +interested in the welfare and progress of backward races. From the +political point of view the conversion of so many millions of the +population of India to the faith of their rulers would open up prospects +of such moment that I need not expatiate upon them. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE NATIVE STATES. + + +One of the chief features of the original scheme of constitutional +reforms submitted to the Secretary of State by the Government of India +was the creation of an Imperial Advisory Council composed of ruling +chiefs and territorial magnates. The proposal gave rise to a variety of +objections, the most serious one being the difficulty of adjusting the +relations to the Government of India of a Council in which the most +conspicuous members could have had no definite _locus standi_ in regard +to the internal affairs of British India--i.e., of the larger part of +our Indian dependency under direct British administration. The +difficulty was evaded by dropping the proposal. But to evade a +difficulty is only to postpone it. Though the constitutional reforms are +confined, in their immediate application, to British India, measures of +such far-reaching importance must react more or less directly upon the +whole of our Indian Empire. Is it therefore politic, or, indeed, +possible, to leave out of account the Native States, which occupy +altogether about one-third of the total area of India and have an +aggregate population of over 68 millions, or to ignore the rulers +charged with their administration? + +The Native States of India vary in size and importance from powerful +principalities like the Nizam's State of Hyderabad, with an area of +82,000 miles--nearly equal to that of England and Wales and Scotland--- +and a population of over 11 millions, down to diminutive chiefships, +smaller than the holdings of a great English landlord. Distributed +throughout the whole length and breadth of the peninsula, they display +the same extraordinary variety of races and creeds and castes and +languages and customs and traditions as the provinces under the +immediate governance of the Viceroy, and their rulers themselves +represent almost every phase and aspect of Indian history. The Princes +of Rajputana, headed by the Maharana of Udaipur, with genealogies +reaching back into the mythical ages, have handed down to the present +day the traditions of Hindu chivalry. In the south of India, the rulers +of Mysore and Cochin and Iravancore, who also claim Rajput blood, still +personify the subjection of the older Dravidian races to the Aryan +invaders from the north. Mahratta chiefs like Scindia and the Gaekwar +date from the great uplifting of the Mahratta power in the eighteenth +century, whilst the Maharajah of Kolhapur is a descendant of Shivaji, +the first Mahratta chieftain to stem the tide of Mahomedan conquest more +than a century earlier. The great majority of the ruling princes and +chiefs are Hindus, but besides the Nizam, the most powerful of all, +there are not a few Mahomedan rulers who have survived the downfall of +Moslem supremacy, just as the Sikh chiefs of Patiala, Nabha, and +Kapurthala, in the Punjab, still recall the great days of Ranjit Singh +and the Sikh confederacy. In some of the Native States the ruling +families are neither of the same race nor of the same creed as the +majority of their subjects. The Nizam is a Sunni Mahomedan, but most of +his subjects are Hindus, and of the Mahomedans some of the most +influential are Shias. The Maharajah of Kashmir, a Hindu Rajput, rules +over many Mongolian Buddhists, whilst there are but few Mahrattas in +Gwalior or Indore, though both Holkar and Scindia are, Mahratta +Princes. + +In all the Native States the system of government is more or less of the +old patriarchal or personal type which has always obtained in the East, +but in its application it exhibits many variations which reflect +sometimes the idiosyncrasies of the ruler and sometimes the dominant +forces of inherited social traditions. In Cochin and Travancore, for +instance, the ancient ascendency of the Northern Brahmans over the +Dravidian subject races survives in some of its most archaic forms. +Udaipur and Jaipur have perhaps preserved more than any other States of +Rajputana the aristocratic conservatism of olden days, whilst some of +the younger Rajput chiefs have moved more freely with the times and with +their own Western education. The Gaekwar has gone further than any other +ruling chief in introducing into his State of Baroda the outward forms +of what we call Western progress, though his will is probably in all +essentials as absolute as that of Scindia, another Mahratta chief, whose +interest in every form of Western activity is displayed almost as much +in his physical energy as in his intellectual alertness. Some no doubt +abandon the conduct of public affairs almost entirely to their Ministers +and prefer a life of easy self-indulgence. Others, on the contrary, are +keen administrators, and insist upon doing everything themselves. As +masterful a ruler as any in the whole of India is a lady, the Begum of +Bhopal, a Mahomedan Princess of rare attainments and character. The +Nizam, on the other hand, though an absolute ruler, has recently placed +it on record that he attributes the peaceful content and law-abiding +character of his subjections to the liberal traditions he has inherited +from his ancestors. "They were singularly free from all religious and +racial prejudices. Their wisdom and foresight induced them to employ +Hindus and Mahomedans, Europeans, and Parsees alike, in carrying on the +administration, and they reposed entire confidence in their officers +whatever religion and race they belonged to." To those principles his +Highness rightly claims to have himself adhered. + +Again, though the relationship of the Supreme Government to all these +rulers is one of suzerainty, it is governed in each particular case by +special and different treaties which vary the extent and nature of the +control exercised over them. In some of its aspects, the principles of +our policy towards them were admirably set forth in a speech delivered +in November, 1909, by Lord Minto at Udaipur. "In guaranteeing their +internal independence and in undertaking their protection against +external aggression, it naturally follows that the Imperial Government +has assumed a certain degree of responsibility for the general soundness +of their administration, and would not consent to incur the reproach of +being an indirect instrument of misrule. There are also certain matters +in which it is necessary for the Government of India to safeguard the +interests of the community as a whole, as well as those of the Paramount +Power, such as railways, telegraphs, and other services of an Imperial +character." At the same time the Viceroy wisely laid great stress on the +fact that, in pursuance of the pledges given by the British Crown to the +rulers of the Native States, "our policy is with rare exceptions one of +non-interference in their internal affairs," and he pointed out that, as +owing to the varying conditions of different States "any attempt at +complete uniformity and subservience to precedent" must be dangerous, he +had endeavoured "to deal with questions as they arose with reference to +existing treaties, the merits of each case, local conditions, antecedent +circumstances, and the particular stage of development, feudal and +constitutional, of individual principalities." It is obviously +impossible to enforce a more rigid control over the feudatory States at +the same time as we are delegating larger powers to the natives of India +under direct British administration. This is a point which Lord Minto +might indeed have emphasized with advantage. For there seems to be a +growing tendency, probably at home rather than in India, to ignore our +responsibilities towards the ruling chiefs, and to regard them as more +or less negligible quantities in the constitutional experiments we are +making in our Indian Empire. When an emergency arises such as a frontier +war or a military expedition in the Sudan or in China, we appeal +unhesitatingly to the loyalty of the Princes of India, and so far they +have cheerfully borne their share in these Imperial enterprises though +they were never drawn into consultation beforehand, and their own +material interests were not directly involved. On the other hand, +questions which do involve their material interests, questions which +necessarily affect the well-being of their States quite as much as that +of British India, questions of tariff and of currency that react upon +the economic prosperity of the whole of India are settled between +Whitehall and Government House at Calcutta without their opinion being +even invited. Sometimes even decisions are taken without their knowledge +on matters that directly affect their own exchequers, as in the matter +of the opium trade with China. Some of the native States are the largest +producers of the Indian poppy, and in order to satisfy the +susceptibilities, very meritorious in themselves, of our national +conscience, we lightheartedly impose upon them, without consultation or +prospect of compensation, the sacrifice, which costs us nothing, of one +of the most valuable products of their soil and chief sources of +revenue. Can they do otherwise than draw unfavourable comparisons +between the harsh measure meted out to them in this matter and the +generous treatment of the West Indies by the Mother Country when +£20,000,000 were voted out of the Imperial Exchequer towards +compensation for the material losses arising out of the abolition of +slavery? + +How important it is to associate the Princes of India with the purposes +of our Indian policy has seldom been more clearly shown than during +these last troublous years when the forces of disaffection have revealed +themselves as a serious public danger. The principle of authority +cannot be attacked in British India without suffering diminution in the +Native States. They are not shut up in watertight compartments and +sedition cannot be preached on one side of a border, which in most cases +is merely an administrative boundary line, without finding an echo on +the other side. The prestige of an Indian Prince in his own land is +great. It is rooted in most cases in ancient traditions to which no +alien rulers can appeal. Nevertheless some of the most experienced and +enlightened of the ruling chiefs showed a much earlier and livelier +appreciation of the subversive tendencies of Indian unrest than those +responsible for the governance of British India. Some of them, like the +Maharajahs of Kolhapur and of Patiala, have been brought face to face +with the same violent, and even with the same criminal, methods of +agitation as the Government of India has had to deal with in provinces +under British administration. The Maharajah of Jaipur and Maharajah +Scindia felt themselves constrained just about a year ago to enact +vigorous measures on their own account against sedition and against the +importation into their States of seditious literature which was still +allowed to circulate with impunity in British India, whilst the State of +Bikanir was the first to introduce an Explosive Substances Act +immediately after the epidemic of bomb-throwing had broken out in +Bengal. Other States have also taken strong preventive measures, but +many have fortunately been spared so far any serious trouble within +their own borders, and their rulers have been able to study the problem +merely as interested observers and from the point of view of the general +welfare of the country. + +On August 65 1909, the Viceroy took the unusual step of communicating +direct with all the principal ruling Princes and Chiefs of India on the +subject of the Active unrest prevalent in many parts of the country, and +invited an exchange of opinions "with a view to mutual co-operation +against a common danger." Some doubts were then expressed as to the +wisdom of such a course, on the ground that it might create in the +protected States an impression of exaggerated alarm. 'But the tone and +substance of the replies which his Excellency's communication elicited +showed that there was no reason for any such apprehensions. The Ruling +Chiefs, on the contrary, appreciated and reciprocated the confidence +reposed in them, and their replies, indeed, constitute an exceptionally +interesting and instructive set of documents; for the very diversity of +origin and traditions and influence gives peculiar weight to the +position assumed by the rulers of the Native States towards the forces +of active unrest in India. Had those forces merely been engaged in a +legitimate struggle for the enlargement of Indian rights and liberties, +it is scarcely conceivable that the Ruling Princes and Chiefs should +have passed judgment against them with such overwhelming unanimity. + +It may be argued that in replying to a Viceregal _Kharita_, the Ruling +Chiefs could hardly do less than recognize the existence of the "common +danger" to which Lord Minto had drawn their attention. But the careful +analysis of the influences behind the agitation and the practical +suggestions for dealing with it which the majority of the replies +contain, prove that their opinions are certainly not framed "to order." +They represent the convictions and experience of a group of responsible +Indians better situated in some respects to obtain accurate information +about the doings and feelings of their fellow-countrymen than any +Anglo-Indian administrators can be. The language of the Nizam is +singularly apt and direct, "Once the forces of lawlessness and disorder +are let loose there is no knowing where they will stop. It is true that, +compared with the enormous population of India, the disaffected people +are a very insignificant minority, but, given time and opportunity, +there exists the danger of this small minority spreading its tentacles +all over the country and inoculating with its poisonous doctrines the +classes and masses hitherto untouched by this seditious movement." The +Maharana of Udaipur, speaking with the authority of his unique position +amongst Hindus as the premier Prince of Rajputana, not only condemns an +agitation "which is detrimental to all good government and social +administration," but declares it to be "a great disgrace to their name +as also to their religious beliefs that, in spite of the great +prosperity India has enjoyed under the British _régime_, people are +acting in such an ungrateful way." No less emphatic is the Mahratta +ruler of Gwalior:--"The question is undoubtedly a grave one, affecting +as it does the future well-being of India," and "it particularly behoves +those who preside over the destinies of the people and have large +personal stakes to do all in their power to grapple with it vigorously." +The Maharajah of Jaipur, one of the wisest of the older generation of +Hindu rulers, agrees that "only a small fraction of the population has +been contaminated by the seditious germ," but he adds significantly that +"that fraction has, it seems, been carefully organized by able, rich, +and unscrupulous men," and he does not hesitate to declare that "an +organized and concerted campaign, offensive and defensive, against the +common enemy is what is wanted." + +According to the Rajah of Dewas, one of the most enlightened of the +younger Hindu chiefs, "it is a well known fact that the endeavours of +the seditious party are directed not only against the Paramount Power, +but against all constituted forms of government in India, through an +absolutely misunderstood sense of 'patriotism,' and through an +attachment to the popular idea of 'government by the people,' when every +level-headed Indian must admit that India generally has not in any way +shown its fitness for a popular government." He goes so far even as to +state his personal conviction that history and all "sound-minded" people +agree that India cannot really attain to the standard of popular +government as understood by the West. + +It is another Hindu ruler, the Rajah of Ratlam, who points out the close +connexion, upon which I have had to lay repeated stress, between +religious revivalism and sedition. He recognizes that "Hindus, and for +the matter of that all Oriental peoples, are swayed more by religion +than by anything else." Government have hitherto adopted, and rightly +adopted, the policy of allowing perfect freedom in the matter of +religious beliefs, but as the seditionists are seeking to connect their +anarchical movement with religion, and the political _Sadhu_ is abroad, +it is high time to change the policy of non-interference in so-called +religious affairs. The new religion which is now being preached, "with +its worship of heroes like Shivaji and the doctrine of India for India +alone," deserves, this Hindu Prince boldly declares, to be treated as +Thuggism and Suttee were treated, which both claimed the sanction of +religion. "It pains me," he adds, "to write as above, but already +religion has played a prominent part in this matter, and religious books +were found in almost every search made for weapons and bombs. The _rôle_ +of the priest or the _Sadhu_ is most convenient, and rulers have bowed, +and do bow, to religious preachers. These people generally distort the +real import of religious precepts, and thereby vitiate the public mind. +The founders are sly enough to flatter the Government by an occasional +address breathing loyalty and friendship, but it is essential to check +this religious propaganda." + +The rulers of the Native States are not content merely to profess +loyalty and reprobate disaffection. With the exception of the Gaekwar, +whose reply, without striking any note of substantial dissent, is, +marked, by a certain coolness that has won for him the applause of the +Nationalist Press, they respond heartily to the Viceroy's request for +suggestions as to the most effective measures to cope with the evil. +Most of them put in the very forefront of their recommendations the +necessity of checking the licence of the Indian Press, to which they +attribute the main responsibility for the widening of the gulf between +the rulers and the ruled. And it should be remembered that these +opinions were expressed some months before the Imperial Government and +the Government of India decided to introduce the new Press Act. The +Nizam holds that newspapers publishing false allegations or exaggerated +reports should be officially called upon "to print formal contradiction +or correction as directed." For, in his Highness's opinion, "it is no +longer safe or desirable to treat with silent contempt any perverse +statement which is publicly made, because the spread of education on the +one hand has created a general interest in the news of the country, and +a section of the Press, on the other hand, deliberately disseminates +news calculated to promote enmity between Europeans and Indians, or to +excite hatred of Government and its officers in the ignorant and +credulous minds." Several Chiefs recommend more summary proceedings and +less publicity in the case of political offences, as, though such +measures may appear arbitrary at first sight, "they are quite suited to +the country." Several agree that a closer watch should be kept on +"religious mendicants" who go about in the guise of _Sadhus_ preaching +sedition, and that a more intimate exchange of secret intelligence +should take place with regard to the seditious propaganda between the +different States and the Government of India. Others believe in the +creation of counter-organizations to inform and encourage the loyal +elements. + +But it is perhaps on the question of education that some of the Ruling +Chiefs speak with the greatest weight and authority, and there is +nothing they more deeply deplore than the divorce of secular instruction +from religious and moral training, which they hold responsible for much +of the present mischief. "Strange as it may sound," says the Rajah of +Dewas, "it is a well-known fact that the germs of the present unrest in +India were laid by that benefactor of the human race, education." +Another Chief is of opinion that, as the formation of character is the +highest object of education, all public schools should be graded by the +results they achieve in this direction rather than by high percentages +in examinations; whilst others strongly recommend the extension of the +residential college system and greater care in the selection of good +teachers. + +One may possibly not agree with all the opinions expressed or with all +the recommendations made in this correspondence, but their general +uniformity cannot fail to carry weight. It certainly carried weight with +both the Government of India and the Imperial Government. Not only did +it admittedly contribute to the enactment of the Indian Press Bill of +February last, but it has probably also contributed to bring about a +more general recognition of the urgency of the Indian educational +problem. The effect produced in India itself by the publication of the +views held by the rulers of Native States, many of whom enjoy great +prestige and influence far beyond the limits of their immediate +dominions, was naturally considerable. The "extremists" were lashed to +fury, and none of the seditious leaflets directed against the "alien" +rulers and "sun-dried bureaucrats" was more violent than one issued in +reply to these utterances of the rulers of their own race. One of the +ruling Chiefs to whom it had been sent gave me a copy of it as "a +characteristic document." It is headed: "Choose, O Indian Princes." It +begins, it is true, by assuring them that there is not as yet any +cut-and-dried scheme for dealing with them. + + No one but the voice of the Mother herself will and can + determine when once She comes to herself and stands free + what constitution shall be adopted by Her for the guidance + of Her life after the revolution is over. ... Without + going into details we may mention this much, that whether + the head of the Imperial Government of the Indian Nation + be a President or a King depends upon how the revolution + develops itself ... The Mother must be free, must + be one and united, must make her will supreme. Then it + may be that She gives out this Her will either wearing a kingly + crown on Her head or a Republican mantle round Her sacred + form. + +But after being exhorted in impassioned accents either to sacrifice +themselves in the great national struggle now at hand, or at the very +least to stand back and keep the ring, they are warned as to the +consequences of disregarding these admonitions:-- + + Forget not, O Princes! that a strict account will be asked + of your doings and non-doings, and a people newly-born + will not fail to pay you in the coin you paid. Every one + who shall have actively betrayed the trust of the people, + disowned his fathers, and debased his blood by arraying + himself against the Mother--he shall be crushed to dust + and ashes.... Do you doubt our grim earnestness! + If so hear the name of Dhingra and be dumb. In the name + of that martyr, O Indian Princes, we ask you to think + solemnly and deeply upon these words. Choose as you will + and you will reap what you sow. Choose whether you shall + be the first of the nation's fathers or the last of the nation's + tyrants. + +In some less rabid quarters an attempt has been made to decry the views +of the native rulers as emanating from petty Oriental despots, terrified +by the onward march of the new Indian democracy. If so it is strange +that whilst these "despots" make no secret of their attitude towards +disaffection, they are equally outspoken on the necessity of a liberal +and progressive policy. The Nizam himself states emphatically that he is +"a great believer in conciliation and repression going hand in hand to +cope with the present condition of India. While sedition should be +localized and rooted out sternly, and even mercilessly, deep sympathy +and unreserved reliance should manifest themselves in all dealings with +loyal subjects without distinction of creed, caste, and colour." +Unfortunately it requires at the present day more courage for an Indian +to hold such language as that than to coquet, as many politicians do, +with violence and crime. Indians in high position are peculiarly +sensitive to printed attacks, perhaps because behind such attacks there +often lurk forms of social pressure, rendered possible by their caste +system, with which we, happily for ourselves, are totally unfamiliar. +One of the most discouraging features of the present situation is that +so few among the "moderate" politicians who are known to share and +approve the views expressed by the Princes of India have had the moral +courage to endorse them publicly. + +The fearless response made by the ruling Chiefs to Lord Minto's appeal +for advice and support in the repression of sedition conveys at the same +time another lesson which we may well take to heart. The Government of +India consulted them after the danger had arisen and become manifest. Is +it not possible that, had we maintained closer touch with them in the +past, had we appreciated more fully the value of their knowledge and +experience, the danger might never have arisen or would never have +attained such threatening proportions? At any rate, now that the +consciousness of a common danger has drawn Princes and Government closer +together, no time should be lost in establishing some machinery which +would secure for the future a more sustained and intimate co-operation +between them. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +CROSS CURRENTS + + +The political aspects of Indian unrest have compelled me to dwell +chiefly upon the evil forces which it has generated. But contact with +the West has acted as a powerful ferment for good as well as for evil +upon every class of Indian society that has come more or less directly +under its influence. Were it otherwise we should indeed have to admit +the moral bankruptcy of our civilization. The forces of unrest are made +up of many heterogeneous and often conflicting elements, and even in +their most mischievous manifestations there are sometimes germs of good +which it should be our business to preserve and to develop. Largely as +the classes touched, however superficially, by Western education have of +late years been invaded by a spirit of reaction and of revolt against +all for which that education stands, they have not yet by any means been +wholly conquered by it. It is the breath of the West that has stirred +the spiritual and intellectual activity of which Hindu revivalism and +political disaffection, glorified under the name of Nationalism, are +unfortunately the most prominent and the most recent but not the only +outcome. Another and much healthier outcome is the sense of social duty +and social service which has grown up amongst many educated Indians of +all races and creeds, and amongst none more markedly than amongst the +Hindus. Traditions of mutual helpfulness are indeed deep-rooted in +India as in all Oriental communities. Mutual helpfulness is the best +feature of the caste system, of the Hindu family system, of the old +Indian village system, and it explains the absence in a country where +there is so much poverty of those abject forms of pauperism with which +we are compelled at home to deal through the painful medium of our Poor +Laws. But until the leaven of Western ideas had been imported into India +mutual helpfulness was generally confined within the narrow limits of +distinct and separate social units. It is now slowly expanding out of +watertight compartments into a more spacious conception of the social +inter-dependence of the different classes of the community. This +expansion of the Indian's social horizon began with the social reform +movement which had kindled the enthusiasm, of an older generation in the +'70's and '80's of the last century. Far from being, as some contend, a +by-product of the more recent Nationalism, which had never been heard of +at that period, its progress, as I have already shown, has been hampered +not only by the reactionary tendencies of this Nationalism in religious +and social matters, but by the diversion of some of the best energies of +the country into the relatively barren field of political agitation. + +Though social reform has been checked, it has not been altogether +arrested, nor can it be arrested so long as British rule, by the mere +fact of its existence, maintains the ascendency of Western ideals. +Happily there are still plenty of educated Indians who realize that the +liberation of Indian society from the trammels which are of its own +making is much more urgent than its enfranchisement from an alien yoke. +Even amongst politicians of almost every complexion the necessity of +removing from the Indian social system the reproach of degrading +anachronisms is finding at least theoretical recognition. Alongside of +more conspicuous political organizations devoted mainly to political +propaganda, other organizations have been quietly developing all over +India whose chief purpose it is to grapple with social, religious, and +economic problems which are not, or need not necessarily be, in any way +connected with politics. Their voices are too often drowned by the +louder clamour of the politicians pure and simple, and they attract +little attention outside India. But no one who has spent any time in +India can fail to be struck with the many-sided activities revealed in +all the non-political conventions and conferences and congresses held +annually all over the country. Within the last 12 months there have been +philanthropic and religious conferences like the All India Temperance +Conference, the Christian Endeavour Convention, the Theosophical +Convention, social conferences like the Indian National Social +Conference, the Moslem Educational Congress, and the Sikh Educational +Conference, economic conferences like the Industrial Conference held at +Lahore in connexion with the Punjab Industrial and Agricultural +Exhibition, not to speak of many others, such as the Rajput Conference, +the Hindu Punjab Conference, the Kshatrya Conference, the Parsee +Conference, &c., which dealt with the narrower interests of particular +castes or communities, but nevertheless gathered together +representatives of those interests from all parts of India, or any rate +from a whole province. Some of these meetings may be made to subserve +political purposes. Others, like the Parsee Conference, betray +reactionary tendencies in the most unexpected places, for the Parsee +community, which has thriven more than any other on Western education +and has prided itself upon being the most progressive and enlightened of +all Indian communities, is the last one in which one would have looked +for the triumph, however temporary, of a strangely benighted orthodoxy. +But the majority of these gatherings represent an honest and earnest +attempt to apply, as far as possible, the teachings of Western +experience to the solution of Indian problems, and to subject Indian +customs and beliefs to the test of modern criticism. They apply +themselves, moreover, chiefly to questions in which no alien Government +like that of India can take the initiative without serious risk of being +altogether ahead of native opinion and arousing dangerous antagonism. As +Mr. Lala Dev Raj, the chairman of the last Social Conference at Lahore, +for instance, put it:-- + + The reforms advocated here strike at those harmful and + undesirable customs which are purely of our own creation and + which must be bidden farewell to, as our eyes are being opened + to them. If we cannot do that, we can hardly call ourselves + a living community. + +The results of all this activity may not so far have been very marked, +but the mere fact that the supreme sanction of tradition, which was +formerly almost undisputed, is now subjected to discussion is bound to +make some impression, even upon those whose political concepts are +based, upon the immanent superiority of Hinduism. The new interpretation +of the _Baghvat Gita_, though sometimes distorted to hideous ends, has +itself been inspired by a broader appreciation of social duty than there +was room for in the Hindu theory of life before it had been modified by +Western influences. So long as the spirit of social endeavour kindled by +men like Ram Mohun Roy and Keshab Chunder Sen and Mahadev Govind Ranade +is kept alive, even though by much lesser men, we may well hope that the +present wave of revolt will ultimately spend itself on the dead shore of +a factious and artificial reaction, incompatible with the purpose to +which their own best efforts were devoted, of bringing the social life +of India into harmony with Western civilization. + +A phenomenon, which may prove to have a deep significance is that, side +by side with these larger organisations for the promotion of social +reform which only claim incidental service from their members, a number +of smaller societies are growing up of which the members are bound +together by much closer ties and more stringent obligations, and in +some cases even by solemn vows to renounce the world and to devote +themselves wholly to a life of social service. Many of them present +features of special interest which deserve recognition, but I must be +content to describe one of them to which the personality of its founder +lends exceptional importance. This is the society of "The Servants of +India," founded by Mr. Gokhale at Poona. Mr. Gokhale's career itself +exemplifies the cross-currents that are often so perplexing a feature of +Indian unrest. He is chiefly known in England as one of the leading and +certainly most interesting figures in Indian politics. A Chitpavan +Brahman by birth, with the blood of the old dominant caste of +Maharashtra in his veins, he has often been, both in the Viceroy's +Legislative Council and in that of his own Presidency, a severe and even +bitter critic of an alien Government, of which he nevertheless admits +the benefit, and even the necessity, for India. On the other hand, +though he proclaims himself a Nationalist, and though, on one occasion +at least, when he presided over the stormy session of the Indian +National Congress at Calcutta in December, 1906, which endorsed the +Bengalee boycott movement, he lent the weight of his authority to a +policy that was difficult to reconcile with constitutional methods of +opposition, his reason and his moral sense have always revolted against +the reactionary appeals to religious prejudice and racial hatred by +which men like Tilak have sought to stimulate a perverted form of Indian +patriotism. Highly educated both as a Western and an Eastern scholar, he +approaches perhaps more nearly than any of his fellow-countrymen to the +Western type of doctrinaire, Radical in politics and agnostic in regard +to religion, but with a dash of passion and enthusiasm which the Western +doctrinaire is apt to lack. When Tilak opened his first campaign of +unrest in the Deccan by attacking the Hindu reformers, he found few +stouter opponents than Mr. Gokhale, who was one of Ranade's staunchest +disciples and supporters. Nor did Tilak ever forgive him. His newspapers +never ceased to pursue him with relentless ferocity, and only last year +Mr. Gokhale had to appeal to the Law Courts for protection against the +scurrilous libels of the "extremist" Press. + +His own experiences in political life since he resigned his work as a +professor at the Ferguson College in Poona in order to take a larger +share in public affairs have probably helped to convince Mr. Gokhale +that his fellow-countrymen for the most part still lack many essential +qualifications for the successful discharge of those civic duties which +are the corollary of the civic rights he claims for them. He does not, +it is understood, desire to seek re-election to the Imperial Council at +Calcutta after the expiry of its present powers, two years hence, as he +wishes to devote himself chiefly to the educational work, which, in one +form or another, has perhaps always been the most absorbing interest of +his life. When he was a professor at the Ferguson College teaching was +with him a vocation rather than a profession, and, if one may judge by +his practice, he believes that only those who are prepared to set an +example of selflessness and almost ascetic simplicity of life can hope +to promote the moral and social as well as the political advancement of +India. It is on these principles that he founded five years ago the +"Servants of India" Society, recruited in the first instance amongst a +few personal followers and supported hitherto by the voluntary +contributions of his admirers. The objects of the Society as laid down +by its promoters are "to train national missionaries for the service of +India and to promote by all constitutional means the true interests of +the Indian people." Its members "frankly accept the British connexion as +ordained, in the inscrutable dispensation of Providence, for India's +good," and they recognize that "self-government within the Empire and a +higher life generally for their countrymen" constitute a goal which +"cannot be attained without years of earnest and patient effort and +sacrifices worthy of the cause." As to its immediate functions, "much of +the work," it is stated, "must be directed towards building up in the +country a higher type of character and capacity than is generally +available at present," and to this end the Society "will train men +prepared to devote their lives to the cause of the country in a +religious spirit." The constitution of the Society recalls in fact that +of some of the great religious societies of Christendom, and not least +that of the Jesuits, though with this cardinal difference, that it is +essentially non-sectarian and substitutes as its ideal the service of +India for the service of God, much in the same way as the Japanese have +to a large extent merged their religious creeds in an idealized cult of +Japan. + +Every "Servant of India" takes at the time of admission into the society +the following seven vows;-- + + (a) That the country will always be first in his thoughts, + and that he will give to her service the best that is in him. + + (b) That in serving the country he will seek no personal + advantage for himself. + + (c) That he will regard all Indians as brothers and will + work for the advancement of all, without distinction of caste + or creed. + + (d) That he will be content with such provision for himself + and his family, if any, as the society may be able to make, + and will devote no part of his energies to earning money for + himself. + + (e) That he will lead a pure personal life. + + (f) That he will engage in no personal quarrel with any one. + + (g) That he will always keep in view the aims of the society + and watch over its interests with the utmost zeal, doing all + he can to advance its work and never doing anything inconsistent + with its objects. + +The head of the society, called the First Member--who is Mr. Gokhale--is +to hold office for life, and its affairs are to be conducted in +accordance with by-laws framed for the purpose by the First Member, who +will be assisted by a council of three, one of whom will be his own +nominee, whilst two will be elected by the ordinary members. The powers +assigned to the First Member are very extensive and include that of +recommending the names of three ordinary members, one of whom, when the +time comes, shall be chosen to succeed him. His authority is, in fact, +the dominant one, whether over the probationers under training for a +period of five years, three of which are to be spent at the society's +home in Poona, or over the ordinary members admitted to the full +privileges of the society, or over those who, as _attachés_, associates, +and permanent assistants, are very closely affiliated to it without +being actually received into membership. The scheme is, of course, at +present in its infancy, as the society still numbers only about 25, the +majority of whom have not yet completed their term of probation. Mr. +Gokhaie, however, hopes very soon to have 50 probationers constantly in +residence, and he has already gathered together in the well-appointed +buildings of the society's home just outside Poona, in close proximity +to the Ferguson College, a group of young men, to some of whom he kindly +introduced me, who have evidently caught the fervour of his enthusiasm. +One of the latest recruits was by birth a Mahomedan, of whom Mr. Gokhale +was specially proud, as he is very anxious that the society shall be, in +fact as well as in theory, representative of all castes and creeds. + +One of the first questions which this remarkable experiment suggests is +whether the ideals which Mr. Gokhale sets before the "Servants of India" +will suffice to supply the necessary driving power. Hitherto some form +of religious faith and the hope of some heavenly reward have alone +availed to induce men to renounce the world and all its material +interests and surrender themselves to a life of rigorous and selfless +discipline in the service of their fellow-creatures, or rather in the +service of God through their fellow-creatures. Mr. Gokhale's society +makes no claim to any religious sanction. Though Indian asceticism has +from the most remote times found devotees willing to lead a life of far +more complete self-annihilation than any that the most rigorous +monastic orders of Christendom have ever imposed, or that, for the +matter of that, Mr. Gokhale seeks to impose upon his followers, it has +always been inspired by some religious conception. Will the "Servants of +India" find the same permanent inspiration in the cult of an Indian +Motherland, however highly spiritualized, that has no rewards to offer +either in this world or in any other? On the political as well as other +potentialities of such an organization as Mr. Gokhale contemplates there +is no need to dwell. For the "Servants of India," moulded by one mind +and trained to obey one will, are to go forth as missionaries throughout +India, in the highways and by-ways, among the "untouchables" as well as +among the higher classes, preaching to each and all the birth of an +Indian nation. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +THE GROWTH OF WESTERN EDUCATION. + + +The rising generation represent the India of the future, and though +those who come within the orbit of the Western education we have +introduced still constitute only a very small fraction of the whole +youth of India, their numbers and their influence are growing steadily +and are bound to go on growing. If we are losing our hold over them, it +is a poor consolation to be told that we still retain our hold over +their elders. I therefore regard the estrangement of the young Indian, +and especially of the young Hindu who has passed or is passing through +our schools and colleges, as the most alarming phenomenon of the present +day, and I am convinced that of all the problems with which British +statesmanship is confronted in India none is more difficult and more +urgent than the educational problem. We are too deeply pledged now to +the general principles upon which our educational policy in India is +based for even its severest critics to contemplate the possibility of +abandoning it. But for this very reason it is all the more important +that we should realize the grave defects of the existing system, or, as +some would say, want of system, in order that we may, so far as +possible, repair or mitigate them. There can be no turning back, and +salvation lies not in doing less for Indian education, but in doing +more and in doing it better. + +Four very important features of the system deserve to be noted at the +outset:--(1) Following the English practice, Government exercises no +direct control over educational institutions other than those maintained +by the State, though its influence is brought in several ways indirectly +to bear upon all that are not prepared to reject the benefits which it +can extend to them; (2) Government has concentrated its efforts mainly +upon higher education, and has thus begun from the top in the +over-sanguine belief that education would ultimately filter down from +the higher to the lower strata of Indian society; (3) instruction in the +various courses, mostly literary, which constitute higher education is +conveyed through the medium of English, a tongue still absolutely +foreign to the vast majority; and (4) education is generally confined to +the training of the intellect and divorced not only, absolutely, from +all religious teaching, but also, very largely, from all moral training +and discipline, with the result that the vital side of education which +consists in the formation of character has been almost entirely +neglected. + +To make the present situation intelligible, I must recapitulate, however +briefly, the phases through which our Indian system of education has +passed. The very scanty encouragement originally given, to education by +the East India Company was confined to promoting the study of the +Oriental languages still used at that time in the Indian Courts of Law +in order to qualify young Indians for Government employment and chiefly +in the subordinate posts of the judicial service. After long and fierce +controversies on the rival merits of the vernaculars and of English as +the more suitable vehicle for the expansion of education, Macaulay's +famous Minute of March 7, 1835, determined a revolution of which only +very few at the time foresaw, however faintly, the ultimate +consequences. Lord William Bentinck's Government decided that "the +great object of the British Government ought to be the promotion of +English literature and science, and that all the funds appropriated for +the purpose of education would be best employed in English education +alone." + +Another influence--too often forgotten--had at least as large a share as +Macaulay's in this tremendous departure. That was the influence of the +great missionary, Dr. Alexander Duff, who inspired the prohibition of +suttee and other measures which marked the withdrawal of the countenance +originally given by the East India Company to religious practices +incompatible, in the opinion of earnest Christians, with the sovereignty +of a Christian Power. Duff had made up his mind, in direct opposition to +Carey and other earlier missionaries, that the supremacy of the English +language over the vernaculars must be established as a preliminary to +the Christianization of India. He had himself opened in 1830 an English +school in Calcutta with an immediate success which had confounded all +his opponents. His authority was great both at home and in India, and +was reflected equally in Lord Hardinge's Educational Order of 1844, +which threw a large number of posts in the public service open to +English-speaking Indians without distinction of race or creed, and in +Sir Charles Wood's Educational Despatch of 1854, which resulted in the +creation of a Department for Public Instruction, the foundation of the +three senior Universities of Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, the +affiliation to them of schools and colleges for purposes of examination, +and the inauguration of the "grant-in-aid" system for the encouragement +of native educational enterprise by guaranteeing financial support +according to a fixed scale to all schools that satisfied certain tests +of efficiency in respect of secular instruction. Duff's influence had +assured the supremacy of English in secular education, but he never +succeeded in inducing Government to go a step beyond neutrality in +regard to religious education, and though the remarkable successes which +he had in the meantime achieved, not only as a teacher but as a +missionary, amongst the highest classes of Calcutta society no doubt led +him to hope that, even without any active co-operation from Government, +the spread of English education would in itself involve the spread of +both Christian ethics and Christian doctrine, he never ceased to preach +the necessity of combining religious and moral with secular education or +to prophesy the evils which would ensue from their divorce. + +The system inaugurated by the Educational Minute of 1835 and developed +in the Educational Orders of 1854 began well. The number of young +Indians who took advantage of it was relatively small. They were drawn +mostly from the better classes, and they were brought into direct +contact with their English teachers, many of them very remarkable men +whose influence naturally, and often unconsciously, helped to form the +character of their pupils as well as to develop their intellect--and +most of all, perhaps, in the mission schools; for the Christian missions +were at that time the dominant factor in Indian educational work. In +1854 when there were only 12,000 scholars in all the Government schools, +mission schools mustered four times that number and the rights they +acquired, under the Orders of 1854, to participate in the new +"grants-in-aid" helped them to retain the lead which in some respects, +though not as to numbers, they still maintain. For more than 50 years +after the Minute of 1835, and especially during the two or three decades +that followed the Orders of 1854, the new system produced a stamp of men +who seemed fully to justify the hopes of its original founders--not +merely men with a sufficient knowledge of English to do subordinate work +as clerks and minor _employés_ of Government, but also men of great +intellectual attainments and of high character, who filled with +distinction the highest posts open to Indians in the public service, sat +on the Bench, and practised at the Bar, and, in fact, made a mark for +themselves in the various fields of intellectual activity developed by +contact with the West. It is much to be regretted that no _data_ have +ever been collected to show what proportion men of this stamp bore to +the aggregate number of students under the new system. The proportion +was certainly small, but it was at any rate large enough to reflect +credit upon the system as a whole and to disguise its inherent defects. +It is characteristic of the narrowness of official interest in +educational questions that, whereas abundant statistics are forthcoming +on all subjects connected with material progress, no attempt seems to +have been made to follow the results of Western education statistically +into the after-life of high school pupils and college students. We know +that a certain number have emerged into public distinction, but there is +nothing to show, except in the most, general way, how many have turned +their education to humbler but still profitable account, or how many +have turned it to no account at all. + +Paradoxical as it may sound, it is the eagerness of young India to +respond to our educational call that has led to the breakdown of the +system in some of the most important functions of education. In its +earlier stages those who claimed the benefit of the new system were +chiefly drawn from the intellectual _élite_--i.e., from the classes +which had had the monopoly of knowledge, though it was not Western +knowledge, before the introduction of Western education. With the +success which the new system achieved the demand grew rapidly, and the +quality of the output diminished as it increased in quantity. On the one +hand education came to be regarded by the Indian public less and less as +an end in itself, and more and more as merely an avenue either to +lucrative careers or to the dignified security of appointments, however +modest, under Government, and, in either case, to a higher social +_status_, which ultimately acquired a definite money value in the +matrimonial market. The grant-in-aid system led to the foundation of +large numbers of schools and colleges under private native management, +in which the native element became gradually supreme or at least vastly +predominant, and it enabled them to adopt so low a scale of fees that +many parents who had never dreamt of literacy for themselves were +encouraged to try and secure for some at least of their children the +benefit of this miraculous Open Sesame to every kind of worldly +advancement. Much of the raw material pressed into secondary schools was +quite unsuitable, and little or no attempt was made to sift it in the +rough. Numbers therefore began to drop out somewhere on the way, +disappointed of their more ambitious hopes and having acquired just +enough new ideas to unfit them for the humbler work to which they might +otherwise have been brought up[17]. On the other hand, whilst schools +and colleges, chiefly under private native management, were multiplied +in order to meet the growing demand, the instruction given in them +tended to get petrified into mechanical standards, which were appraised +solely or mainly by success in the examination lists. In fact, education +in the higher sense of the term gave way to the mere cramming of +undigested knowledge into more or less receptive brains with a view to +an inordinate number of examinations, which marked the various stages of +this artificial process. The personal factor also disappeared more and +more in the relations between scholars and teachers as the teaching +staff failed to keep pace with the enormous increase in numbers. + +All these deteriorating influences, though they were perhaps not then so +visible on the surface, were already at work in the 80's, when two +important Government Commissions were held whose labours, with the most +excellent intentions, were destined to have directly and indirectly, the +most baneful effects upon Indian education. The one was the Education +Commission of 1882-83, appointed by Lord Ripon, with Sir William Hunter +as President, and the other the Public Service Commission of 1886-87, +appointed by Lord Dufferin, with Sir Charles Aitchison as President. It +is quite immaterial whether the steps taken by the Government of India +during the subsequent decade were actually due to the recommendations of +the Education Commission, or whether the Report of the Commission merely +afforded a welcome opportunity to carry into practice the views that +were then generally in the ascendant. The eloquence of the Commission, +if I may borrow the language appropriately used to me by a very +competent authority, was chiefly directed towards representing the +important benefits that would be likely to accrue to Government and to +education by the relaxation of Government's control over education, the +withdrawal of Government from the management of schools, and the +adoption of a general go-as-you-please policy. Amongst the definite +results which we undoubtedly owe to the labours of that Commission was +the acclimatization in India of Sir Robert Lowe's system of "payment by +results," which was then already discredited in England. Just at the +time when the transfer of the teacher's influence from European into +native hands was being thus accelerated, the Public Service Commission, +not a single member of which was an educational officer, produced a +series of recommendations which had the effect of changing very much for +the worse the position and prospects of Indians in the Educational +Department. Before the Commission sat, Indians and Europeans used to +work side by side in the superior graded service of the Department, and +until quite recently they had drawn the same pay. The Commission +abolished this equality and comradeship and put the Europeans and the +Indians into separate pens. The European pen was named the Indian +Educational Service, and the native pen was named the Provincial +Educational Service. Into the Provincial Service were put Indians +holding lower posts than any held by Europeans and with no prospect of +ever rising to the _maximum_ salaries hitherto within their reach. To +pretend that equality was maintained under the new scheme is idle, and +the grievance thus created has caused a bitterness which is not allayed +by the fact that the Commission created analogous grievances in other +branches of the public service. Nor was this all the mischief done. It +quickened the impulse already given by the Education Commission by +formally recommending that the recruitment of Englishmen for the +Education Department should be reduced to a _minimum_, and, especially, +that even fewer inspectors of schools than the totally inadequate number +then existing should be recruited from England. It is interesting to +note in view of subsequent developments that, whilst this recommendation +was tacitly ignored by the Provincial Governments in some parts of +India, as in Madras and in Bombay, it was accepted and applied in +Bengal--i.e., in the province where our educational system has +displayed its gravest shortcomings. + +From that time forward the dominant influence in secondary schools and +colleges drifted steadily and rapidly out of the hands of Englishmen +into those of Indians long before there was a sufficient supply of +native teachers fitted either by tradition or by training to conduct an +essentially Western system of education. Not only did the number of +native teachers increase steadily and enormously, but that of the +European teachers actually decreased. Dr. Ashutosh Mookerjee, the +Vice-Chancellor of the Calcutta University, told me, for instance, that +when he entered the Presidency College about 1880 all the professors, +except a few specialists for purely Oriental subjects, were English, and +the appointment, whilst he was there, of an Indian for the first time as +an ordinary professor created quite a sensation. Last year there were +only eight English professors as against 23 Indians, though, during the +same 30 years, the number of pupils had increased from a little over 350 +to close on 700--i.e., it had nearly doubled. The Calcutta Presidency +College is, even so, far better off in this respect than most colleges +except the missionary institutions, in which the European staff of +teachers has been maintained at a strength that explains their continued +success. Out of 127 colleges there are 30 to-day with no Europeans at +all on the staff, and these colleges contain about one-fifth of the +students in all colleges. Of the other colleges 16 have only one +European professor, 21 only two, and so forth. In the secondary schools +the proportion of native to European teachers is even more overwhelming. +From the point of view of mere instruction the results have been highly +unsatisfactory. From the point of view of moral training and discipline +and the formation of character they have been disastrous. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +THE INDIAN STUDENT. + + +The fundamental weakness of our Indian educational system is that the +average Indian student cannot bring his education into any direct +relation with the world in which, outside the class or lecture room, he +continues to live. For that world is still the old Indian world of his +forefathers, and it is as far removed as the poles asunder from the +Western world which claims his education. I am not speaking now of the +relatively still very small class amongst whom Western ideas are already +sufficiently acclimatized for the parents to be able to supplement in +their own homes the education given to their children in our schools and +colleges. Nor am I speaking of the students who live in hostels under +the superintendence of high-minded Englishmen, and especially of +missionaries such as those of the Oxford Mission in Calcutta, or the +Madras Christian College, who have to reject scores of applicants for +want of space. Those also form but a small minority. In Calcutta, for +instance, out of 4,500 students barely 1,000 live in hostels, and not +all hostels are by any means satisfactory. In the Indian Universities +there is no collegiate life such as English Universities afford, and in +India most of the secondary schools as well as colleges are +non-residential. The majority of those who attend them, unless they live +at home, have therefore to board out with friends or to live in +promiscuous messes, or, as is too often the case, in lodgings of a very +undesirable character, sometimes even in brothels, and almost always +under conditions intellectually, morally, and physically deleterious. + +Lest I may be accused of exaggeration or bias, I will appeal here to the +testimony of Dr. Garfield Williams, a missionary of the highest repute +and experience, and in profound sympathy with the natives of India. +Speaking at the Missionary Conference at Calcutta last winter, he +said:-- + + The conditions and environment of the student in Calcutta + are such as to make the formation of character almost impossible.... + He is not a student in the best sense of + the word, for he has not the scholarly instincts of a student-- + I speak, of course, of the average student, not of the exceptional + one. His parents send him to the University to pass + one or two examinations, and these have to be passed in order + to enable him to attain a higher salary.... His work + is sheer "grind." The acquisition of good notes for lectures + is the first essential for him, and the professor who gives + good clear-cut notes so that a man can dispense with any + text-books is the popular professor--and for two reasons: + first of all, it saves the expense of buying the text-book, + and then, of course, it helps to get through the examination. + That is a reason why two boys of the same village will go + to different colleges because they can then "swap" notes. + It is a very rare thing for a student to have money enough + to buy more than one of the suggested books on a given + subject for examination. He learns by heart one book + and the notes of lectures of two or three of the favourite + professors in Calcutta. There is many a man who has even + got through his examinations without any text-book of any + kind to help him, simply by committing to memory volumes + of lecture notes.... I know of no student who labours + more strenuously than the Bengalee student. The question + is how to prevent this ridiculous wastage of students; + how to prevent the production of this disappointed man + who is a student only in name. He never had any desire + to be a student in nature; he was brought up without that + desire ... and indeed, if he be a boy with real scholarly + instincts, and he happens to fail in his examinations, it makes + it all the worse, for his parents will not recognize those + scholarly instincts of his--all they want is a quick return + for the money spent on his education, and he will have to + make that return from a Rs.30 salary instead of a Rs.50 one. + +Can there be anything more pathetic and more alarming than the picture +that Dr. Williams draws of the student's actual life?-- + + He gets up about 6, and having dressed (which is not a + long process) he starts work. Until 10, if you go into his + mess, you will see him "grinding" away at his text-book, + under the most amazing conditions for work--usually stretched + out upon his bed or sitting on the side of it. The room is + almost always shared with some other occupant, usually + with two or three or more other occupants, mostly engaged + in the same task if they are students. At 10 the + boy gets some food, and then goes of to his college for about + four or five hours of lectures. A little after 3 in the afternoon + he comes home to his mess, and between 3 and 5 is usually + seen lounging about his room, dead tired but often engaged + in discussion with his room-mates or devouring the newspaper, + which is his only form of recreation and his only bit of excitement. + At 5 he will go out for a short stroll down College-street + or around College-square. This is his one piece of + exercise, if such you can call it. At dusk he returns to his + ill-lighted, stuffy room and continues his work, keeping it up, + with a short interval for his evening meal, until he goes to + bed, the hour of bed-time depending upon the proximity + of his examination. A very large percentage when they + actually sit for their examinations are nothing short of + physical wrecks. + +Dr. Williams proceeds to quote Dr. Mullick, an eminent Hindu physician +who has devoted himself to helping young students:-- + + The places where the students live huddled up together + are most hurtful to their constitutions. The houses are + dirty, dingy, ill-ventilated, and crowded. Even in case of + infectious sickness ... they lie in the same place as + others, some of whom they actually infect. Phthisis is getting + alarmingly common among students owing to the sputum of + infected persons being allowed to float about with the dust + in crowded messes.... Most of them live in private + messes where a hired cook and single servant have complete + charge of his food and house-keeping, and things are stolen, + foodstuffs are adulterated, badly cooked and badly served. + +Dr. Williams, who states emphatically that "it is not exaggeration to +say that the student is often half-starved," goes on to deal with the +moral drawbacks of a life which is under no effective supervision and is +not even under the restraints, implied in the term "good form," that +play so important a part in Universities where there is a real +collegiate life. + + When you segregate your young men by thousands in the + heart of this "city of dreadful night," amid conditions of + life which are most antagonistic to moral and physical well-being... + the result is a foregone conclusion, and it + does not only mean physical degeneration, it also means moral + degeneration, and it becomes a most potent predisposing + factor in political disease. Of that there can be no shadow + of doubt. + +The material conditions are not, it is true, nearly so bad in many other +parts of India as they are in Bengal, and especially in Calcutta (though +the Bengalees claim the intellectual primacy of India), and it is on the +moral and physical evils produced by those conditions that Dr. Garfield +Williams chiefly dwells. But the intellectual evils for all but a small +minority are in their way quite as grave, and they are inherent to the +system. Take the case of a boy brought up until he is old enough to go +to school in some small town of the _mofussil_, anywhere in India, by +parents who have never been drawn into any contact, however remote, with +Western ideas or Western knowledge. From these purely Indian +surroundings his parents, who are willing to stint themselves in order +that their son may get a post under Government, send him to a secondary +school, let us say in the chief town of the district, or in a University +city. There again he boards with friends of his family, if they have +any, or in more or less reputable lodgings amidst the same purely Indian +surroundings, and his only contact with the Western world is through +school-books in a foreign tongue, of which it is difficult enough for +him to grasp even the literal meaning, let alone the spirit, which his +native teachers have themselves too often only, very partially imbibed +and are therefore quite unable to communicate[18]. From the secondary +school he passes for his University course, if he gets so far, in +precisely the same circumstances into a college which is merely a higher +form of school. Whilst attending college our student still continues to +live amidst the same purely Indian surroundings, and his contact with +the Western world is still limited to his text-books. Even the best +native teacher can hardly interpret that Western world to him as a +trained European can, and unless our student intends to become a doctor +or an engineer, and has to pass through the schools of medicine or +engineering, where he is bound to be a good deal under English teachers, +he may perfectly well, and very often does, go through his whole course +of studies in school and in college without ever coming into personal +contact with an Englishman. How can he be expected under such conditions +to assimilate Western knowledge or to form even a remote conception of +the customs and traditions, let alone the ideals, embodied in Western +knowledge? + +Try and imagine for a moment, however absurd it may seem, what would +have been the effect upon the brains of the youth of our own country if +it had been subject to Chinese rule for the last 100 years, and the +Chinese, without interfering with our own social customs or with our +religious beliefs, had taken charge of higher education and insisted +upon conveying to our youth a course of purely Chinese instruction +imparted through Chinese text-books, and taught mainly by Englishmen, +for the most part only one degree more familiar than their pupils with +the inwardness of Chinese thought and Chinese ethics. The effect could +hardly have been more bewildering than the effect produced in many cases +similar to that which I have instanced on the brain of the Indian youth +when he emerges from our schools and colleges. + +It may be said that such cases are extreme cases, but extreme as they +are, they are not exceptional. The exceptions must be sought rather +amongst the small minority, who, in spite of all these drawbacks, +display such a wonderful gift of assimilation, or, it might perhaps be +more correctly termed, of intuition, that they are able to transport +themselves into a new world of thought, or at any rate to see into it, +as it were, through a glass darkly. But the number of those who possess +this gift has probably always been small, and smaller still, with the +reduction of the European element in the teaching staff, is the number +growing of those who have a fair chance of developing that gift, even if +nature has endowed them with it. A comparison of the Census Report of +1901 with the figures given in the Educational Statistics for 1901-2 +shows that the total number of Europeans then engaged in Indian +educational work was barely, 500, of whom less than half were employed +by Government, whilst that of the Indians engaged in similar work in +colleges and secondary schools alone was about 27,500. As the number of +Indian students and scholars receiving higher education amounts to +three-quarters of a million, it is obvious that so slight a European +leaven, whatever its quality--and its quality is not always what it +should be--can produce but little impression upon so huge a mass. + +Our present system of Indian education in fact presents in an +exaggerated form, from the point of view of the cultivation of the +intellect, most of the defects alleged against a classical education by +its bitterest opponents in Western countries, where, after all, the +classics form only a part, however important, of the curriculum, and +neither Latin nor Greek is the only medium for the teaching of every +subject. From the point of view of the formation of character according +to Western standards, and even from that of physical improvement, the +case is even worse. In Western countries the education given in our +schools, from the Board school to the University, is always more or +less on the same plane as that of the class from which the boys who +attend them are drawn. It is merely the continuation and the complement +of the education our children receive in their own homes from the moment +of their birth, and it moves on the same lines as the world in which +they live and move and have their being. In India, with rare exceptions, +it is not so, but exactly the reverse. + +On the deficiencies of the system, from the moral point of view, a new +and terribly lurid light has been shed within the last few years. There +has been no more deplorable feature in the present political agitation +than the active part taken in it by Indian schoolboys and students. It +has been a prominent feature everywhere, but nowhere more so than in the +Bengal provinces, where from the very outset of the boycott movement in +1905 picketing of the most aggressive character was conducted by bands +of young Hindus who ought to have been doing their lessons. That was +only the beginning, and the state of utter demoralization that was +ultimately reached may be gathered from the following statements in the +last Provincial Report on Education (1908-9), issued by the Government +of Eastern Bengal:-- + + On the 7th of August [1908] most of the Hindu students + abstained from attending the college and high schools at + Comilla as a demonstration in connexion with the boycott + anniversary. Immediately afterwards, on the date of the + execution of the Muzafferpur murderer, the boys of several + schools in the province attended barefooted and without + shirts and in some cases fasting.... At Jamalpur the + demonstration lasted a week.... Later in the year, on + the occasion of the execution of one of the Alipur murderers, + the pupils of the Sandip Cargill school made a similar demonstration. + +The report adds, in a sanguine vein, that, as a result of various +disciplinary measures, a marked improvement had subsequently taken +place, but quite recent events, during the great conspiracy trial at +Dacca, show that something more than disciplinary measures is required +to eradicate the spirit which inspired such occurrences. + +The heaviest responsibility rests on those who, claiming to be the +intellectual leaders of the country, not only instigated its youth to +take part in political campaigns, but actually placed them in the +forefront of the fray. However reprehensible from our British point of +view other features of a seditious agitation may be, to none does so +high a degree of moral culpability attach as to the deliberate efforts +made by Hindu politicians to undermine the fundamental principles of +authority by stirring up the passions or appealing to the religious +sentiment of inexperienced youth at the most emotional period of +life.[19] Even the fact that political murders have been invariably +perpetrated by misguided youths of the student class is hardly as +ominous as the homage paid to the murderers' memories by whole schools +and colleges. Most ominous of all is the tolerance, and sometimes the +encouragement, extended to such demonstrations by schoolmasters and +professors. These are symptoms that point to a grave moral disease +amongst the teachers as well as the taught, which we can only ignore at +our peril and at the sacrifice of our duty towards the people of India. +In his last two Convocation speeches, Dr. Ashutosh Mookerjee has himself +felt constrained to lay special stress on the question of teachers and +politics. Alluding in 1909 to "the lamentable events of the last 12 +months," he maintained, "without hesitation," that "the most strenuous +efforts must be unfalteringly made by all persons truly interested in +the future of the rising generation to protect our youths from the hands +of irresponsible people who recklessly seek to seduce our students from +the path of academic life and to plant in their immature minds the +poisonous seeds of hatred against constituted Government." This year he +was even more outspoken, and laid it down that even the teacher "who +scrupulously abstains from political matters within his class-room, but +at the same time devotes much or all of his leisure hours to political +activities and agitation, and whose name and speeches are prominently +before the world in connexion with political organizations and +functions," fails in his duty towards his pupils; for "their minds will +inevitably be attracted towards political affairs and political +agitation if they evidently constitute the main life-interest and +life-work of one who stands towards them in a position of authority." +Teachers should therefore avoid everything that tends "to impart to the +minds of our boys a premature bias towards politics." + +A most admirable exhortation; but I had an opportunity of estimating the +weight that it carried with some of the political leaders of Bengal when +I accepted an invitation from Mr. Surendranath Banerjee to meet a few +Bengalee students in an informal way and have a talk with them. They +were bright, pleasant lads, and, if they had been left to themselves, I +might have had an interesting talk with them about their studies and +their prospects in life, but Mr. Banerjee and several other politicians +who were present insisted upon giving to the conversation a political +turn of a disagreeably controversial character which seemed to me +entirely out of place. + +The mischievous incitements of politicians would not, however, have +fallen on to such receptive soil if economic conditions, for which we +are ourselves at least partly responsible, had not helped to create an +atmosphere in which political disaffection is easily bred amongst both +teachers and taught. The rapid rise in the cost of living has affected +no class more injuriously than the old clerkly castes from which the +teaching staff and the scholars of our schools and colleges are mainly +recruited. Their material position now often compares unfavourably with +that of the skilled workman and even of the daily labourer, whose higher +wages have generally kept pace with the appreciation of the necessaries +of life. This is a cause of great bitterness even amongst those who at +the end of their protracted, course of studies get some small billet +for their pains. The bitterness is, of course, far greater amongst those +who fail altogether. The rapid expansion of an educational system that +has developed far in excess of the immediate purpose for which it was +originally introduced was bound to result in a great deal of +disappointment for the vast number of Indians who regarded it merely as +an avenue to Government employment. For the demand outran the supply, +and the deterioration in the quality of education consequent upon this +too rapid expansion helped at the same time to restrict the possible +demand. F.A.'s (First Arts) and even B.A.'s are now too often drugs in +the market. Nothing is more pathetic than the hardships to which both +the young Indian and his parents will subject themselves in order that +he may reach the coveted goal of University distinctions, but +unfortunately, as such distinctions are often achieved merely by a +process of sterile cramming which leaves the recipients quite unable to +turn mere feats of memory to any practical account, the sacrifices prove +to have been made in vain. Whilst the skilled artisan, and even the +unskilled labourer, can often command from 12 annas to 1 rupee (1s. to +1s. 4d.) a day, the youth who has sweated himself and his family through +the whole course of higher education frequently looks in vain for +employment at Rs.30 (£2) and even at Rs.20 a month. In Calcutta not a +few have been taken on by philanthropic Hindus to do mechanical labour +in jute mills at Rs.15 a month simply to keep them from starvation. +Things have in fact reached this pitch, that our educational system is +now turning out year by year a semi-educated proletariat which is not +only unemployed, but in many cases almost unemployable. A Hindu +gentleman who is one of the highest authorities on education told me +that in Bengal, where this evil has reached the most serious dimensions, +he estimates the number of these unemployed at over 40,000. This is an +evil which no change in the relative number of Europeans and natives +employed in Government and other services could materially affect. Even +if every Englishman left India, it would present just as grave a problem +to the rulers of the country, except that the bitterness engendered +would not be able to vent itself, as it too often does now, on the alien +rulers who have imported the alien system of education by which many of +those who fail believe themselves to have been cruelly duped. + +Similar causes have operated to produce discontent amongst the teachers, +who in turn inoculate their pupils with the virus of disaffection. It +was much easier to multiply schools and colleges than to train a +competent teaching staff. Official reports seldom care to look +unpleasant facts in the face, and the periodical reports both of the +Imperial Department of Public Education and of the Provincial +Departments have always been inclined to lay more stress upon the +multiplication of educational institutions and the growth in the numbers +of pupils and students than upon the weak points of the system. +Nevertheless, there is one unsatisfactory feature that the most +confirmed optimists cannot ignore. Hardly a single one of these reports +but makes some reference to the deficiencies and incapacity of the +native teaching staff. The last quinquennial report issued by Mr. +Orange, the able Director-General of Public Education, who is now +leaving India, contains a terse but very significant passage. "Speaking +generally," he writes, "it may be said that the qualifications and the +pay of the teachers in secondary schools are below any standard that +could be thought reasonable; and the inquiries which are now being made +into the subject have revealed a state of things that is scandalous in +Bengal and Eastern Bengal, and is unsatisfactory in every province." +Very little information is forthcoming as to the actual qualifications +or pay of the teachers. It appears, however, from the inspection of high +schools by the Calcutta University that out of one group of 3,054 +teachers over 2,100 receive salaries of less than 30 rupees (£2) a +month. One cannot, therefore, be surprised to hear that in Bengal "only +men of poor attainments adopt the profession, and the few who are well +qualified only take up work in schools as a stepping-stone to some more +remunerative career." That career is frequently found in the Press, +where the disgruntled ex-schoolmaster adds his quota of gall to the +literature of disaffection. But he is still more dangerous when he +remains a schoolmaster and uses his position to teach disaffection to +his pupils either by precept or by example. + +I have already alluded to the unfortunate effect of the recommendations +of the Public Service Commission of 1886-7 on the native side of the +Education Service. But if it has become more difficult to attract to it +the right type of Indians, it has either become almost as difficult to +attract the right type of Europeans, or the influence they are able to +exercise has materially diminished. In the first place, their numbers +are quite inadequate. Out of about 500 Europeans actually engaged in +educational work in India less than half are in the service of the +State. Many of them are admittedly very capable men, and not a few +possess high University credentials. But so long as the Indian +Educational Service is regarded and treated as an inferior branch of the +public service, we cannot expect its general tone to be what it should +be in view of the supreme importance of the functions it has to +discharge. One is often told that the conditions are at least as +attractive as those offered by an educational career at home. Even if +that be so, it would not affect my contention that, considering how +immeasurably more difficult is the task of training the youth of an +entirely alien race according to Western standards, and how vital that +task is for the future of British rule in India, the conditions should +be such as to attract, not average men, but the very best men that we +can produce. As it is, the Education Department cannot be said to +attract the best men, for these go into the Civil Service, and only +those, as a rule, enter the Educational Service who either, having made +up their minds early to seek a career in India, have failed to pass the +Civil Service examinations, or, having originally intended to take up +the teaching profession in England, are subsequently induced to come out +to India by disappointments at home or by the often illusory hope of +bettering their material prospects. When they arrive they begin work +without any knowledge of the character and customs of the people. Some +are employed in inspection and others as professors, and the latter +especially are apt to lose heart when they realize the thanklessness of +their task and their social isolation. In some cases indifference is the +worst result, but in others--happily rare--they themselves, I am +assured, catch the surrounding contagion of discontent, and their +influence tends rather to promote than to counteract the estrangement of +the rising generation committed to their charge. Some men, no doubt, +rise superior to all these adverse conditions and, in comparing the men +of the present day with those of the past, one is apt to remember only +the few whose names still live in the educational annals of India and to +forget the many who have passed away without making any mark. The fact, +however, remains that nowadays the Europeans who have the greatest +influence over their Indian pupils are chiefly to be found amongst the +missionaries with whom teaching is not so much a profession as a +vocation. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +SOME MEASURES OF EDUCATIONAL REFORM. + + +Though already in 1889, when Lord Lansdowne was Viceroy, an important +resolution, drafted by Sir Anthony (now Lord) MacDonnell as Secretary to +Government, was issued, drawing attention to some of the most glaring +defects of our educational system from the point of view of intellectual +training and of discipline, and containing valuable recommendations for +remedying them, it seems to have had very little practical effect. A +more fruitful attempt to deal with the question was made during Lord +Curzon's Viceroyalty. He summoned and presided over an Educational +Conference, of which the results were embodied in a Government +Resolution issued on March 11, 1904, and in the Universities Act of the +same year. They were received at the time with a violent outburst of +indignation by Indian politicians, who claim to represent the educated +intellect of the country. The least that Lord Curzon was charged with +was a deliberate attempt to throttle higher education in India. This +factious outcry has now died away, except amongst the irreconcilables, +and Dr. Ashutosh Mookerjee, an authority whom even Hindu partisanship +can hardly repudiate, declared in his last Convocation speech that the +new regulations which are now being brought into operation, far from +bearing out the apprehensions of "alarmist prophets," have been +distinctly beneficial to the better and stronger class of students. + +To summarize very briefly the work of the Conference, it recognized in +the first place the importance of the vernaculars as the proper medium +for instruction in the lower stages of education, whilst maintaining the +supremacy of English in the higher stages. It sought to give a more +practical character to high-school training by promoting the "modern +side," hitherto overshadowed by a mainly literary curriculum, and it +endeavoured to make the school courses self-sufficing and self-contained +instead of merely a stepping-stone to the University courses. To this +end secondary schools were encouraged to give more importance to School +Final Examinations as a general test of proficiency and not to regard +their courses as almost exclusively preparatory to the University +Entrance Examination. Great stress was also laid upon the improvement of +training colleges for teachers as well as upon the development of +special schools for industrial, commercial, and agricultural +instruction. Nor were the ethics of education, altogether forgotten in +their bearings upon the maintenance of healthy discipline. Government +emphasized the great importance of a large extension of the system of +hostels or boarding-houses, under proper supervision, in connexion with +colleges and secondary schools, as a protection against the moral +dangers of life in large towns; and whilst provision was made for the +more rigorous inspection of schools to test their qualifications both +for Government grants-in-aid and for affiliation to Universities, +certain reforms were also introduced into the constitution and +management of the Universities themselves. + +The results already achieved are not inconsiderable. The provision of +hostels, in which Lord Curzon was deeply interested, has made great +progress, and one may hope that the conditions of student life described +by Dr. Garfield Williams in Calcutta are typical of a state of things +already doomed to disappear, though at the present rate of progress it +can only disappear very slowly. In Madras there is a fine building for +the Presidency College students and also for those of the Madras +Christian College. In Bombay Government are giving money for the +extension of the boarding accommodation of the three chief colleges. In +Allahabad, Agra, Lucknow, Meerut, Bareilly, Lahore, and many other +centres old residential buildings are being extended or new ones +erected. The new Dacca College, in the capital of Eastern Bengal, is one +of the most conspicuous and noteworthy results of the Partition. In +Calcutta itself little has been done except in the missionary +institutions; and it is certainly very discouraging to note that an +excellent and very urgent scheme for removing the Presidency College, +the premier college of Bengal, from the slums in which it is at present +in every way most injuriously confined, to a healthy suburban site has +been shelved by the Bengal Government partly under financial pressure +and partly because of the lukewarmness of native opinion. What is no +doubt really wanted is the wholesale removal of all the Colleges +connected with the Calcutta University altogether from their present +surroundings, but to refuse to make a beginning with the Presidency +College is merely to prove once more that _le mieux est l'ennemi du +bien_. + +In regard to the University Entrance Examinations, the latest Madras +returns, which were alone sufficiently complete to illustrate the effect +of the new regulations, showed that the increased stringency of the +tests had resulted in a healthy decrease in the number of +matriculations, whilst the standard had been materially raised. In +Calcutta the University inspection of schools and colleges and the +exercise by the Universities of their discretionary powers in matters of +affiliation have grown much more effective. That the powers of the +University Senates have not been unduly curtailed is only too clearly +shown on the other hand by the effective resistance hitherto offered at +Bombay to the scheme of reforms proposed by Sir George Clarke. To the +most important features of the scheme, which were the provision of a +course of practical science for all first-year students, a systematic +bifurcation of courses, the lightening of the number of subjects in +order to secure somewhat more thoroughness, and compulsory teaching of +Indian history and polity, no serious objection could be raised, but the +politicians on the Senate effectively blocked discussion. + +A great deal still remains to be done, and can be done, on the lines of +the resolution of 1904. The speed at which it can be done must, no +doubt, be governed in some directions by financial considerations. The +extension of the hostel system, for instance, which is indispensable to +the removal of some of the worst moral and physical influences upon +education, is largely a matter of money. So is too to some extent the +strengthening of the educational staff, European and native, which is +also urgently needed. The best Indians cannot be attracted unless they +are offered a living wage in some measure consonant with the dignity of +so important a profession, and our schools and colleges will continue to +be too often nursery grounds of sedition so long as we do not redress +the legitimate grievances of teachers on starvation wages. But though +improved prospects may attract better men in the future, the actual +inefficiency of a huge army of native teachers, far too hastily +recruited and imperfectly trained, can at best be but slowly mended. We +want more and better training colleges for native teachers, but that is +not all. The great Mahomedan College at Aligarh, one of the best +educational institutions in India, partly because it is wholly +residential, has obtained excellent results by sending some of its +students who intend to return as teachers to study Western educational +methods in Europe after they have completed their course in India. The +same practice might be extended elsewhere. + +To raise the standard of the Europeans in the Educational Service +something more than a mere improvement of material conditions is +required. Additions are being made to both the teaching and the +inspecting staff. But what is above all needed is to get men to join who +regard teaching not merely as a livelihood, but as a vocation, and to +inform them with a better understanding both of the people whose +children they have to train and of the character and methods of the +Government they have to serve. This can hardly be done except by +associating the Educational Service much more closely with what are now +regarded as the higher branches of the public service in India. No +Englishmen are in closer touch with the realities of Indian life than +Indian civilians, and means must be found to break down the wall which +now rigidly separates the Educational Service from the Civil Service. +Opportunities might usefully be given to young Englishmen when they +first join the Educational Service in India to acquire a more intimate +knowledge of Indian administrative work, as well as of the character and +customs and language of the people amongst whom their lot is to be cast, +by serving an apprenticeship with civilians in the _mofussil_. The +appointment of such a very able civilian as Mr. Harcourt Butler to be +the first Minister of Education in India may be taken as an indication +that Lord Morley realizes the importance of rescuing the Educational +Service from the watertight compartment in which it has hitherto been +much too closely confined. We can hardly hope to restore English +influence over education to the position which it originally occupied. +There are 1,200 high schools for boys in India to-day, of which only +220 are under public management, and, even for the latter, it would be +difficult to provide an English headmaster apiece. What we can do is to +follow up the policy which has been lately resumed of increasing the +number of high schools under Government control, until we have at least +one in every district, and in every large centre one with an English +headmaster which should be the model school for the division. + +A much vexed question is whether it is impossible to raise the fees +charged for higher education with a view to checking the wastage which +results from the introduction into our schools and colleges of so much +unsuitable raw material. The fees now charged for the University course +are admittedly very low, even for Indian standards. The total cost of +maintaining an Indian student throughout his four years' college course +ranges from a _minimum_ of £40 to a _maximum_ of £110--i.e., from £10 +to £27 10s. per annum. The actual fees for tuition vary from three to +twelve rupees (4s. to 16s.) a month in different colleges. Very large +contributions, amounting roughly to double the total aggregate of fees, +have therefore to be made from public funds towards the cost of +collegiate education. Is it fair to throw so heavy a burden on the +Indian taxpayer for the benefit of a very small section of the +population amongst whom, moreover, many must be able to afford the +whole, or at least a larger proportion, of the cost of their children's +education? Is it wise by making higher instruction so cheap to tempt +parents to educate children often of poor or mediocre abilities out of +their own plane of life? Would it not be better at any rate to raise the +fees generally and to devote the sums yielded by such increase to +exhibitions and scholarships for the benefit of the few amongst the +humbler classes who show exceptional promise? + +Against this it is urged that it would be entirely at variance with +Indian traditions to associate standards of knowledge with standards of +wealth, and, in practice, education has, I understand, been found to be +worst where the fees bear the greatest proportion to the total +expenditure. The same arguments equally apply for and against raising +the fees in secondary schools. In regard to the latter, however, the +opponents of any general increase of fees make, nevertheless, a +suggestion which deserves consideration. In many schools the fees begin +at a very low figure--eight annas (8d.) a month in the lowest forms and +rise to three, four, and even five rupees (4s. 5s. 4d. and 6s. 8d.) a +month in the highest forms. It is this initial cheapness which induces +so many thoughtless parents to send their boys to secondary schools +without having considered whether they can afford to keep them through +the whole course, whilst it fosters the notion that badly paid and badly +qualified teachers are good enough for the early, which are often the +most important, stages, of a boy's education. To obviate these evils it +is suggested that the fees for all forms should be equalized. + +I shall have occasion later on to point out the immense importance of +giving greater encouragement to scientific and technical education. +Government service and the liberal professions are already overstocked, +and it is absolutely necessary to check the tendency of young Indians to +go in for a merely literary education for which, even if it were more +thorough than it can be under existing conditions, there is no longer +any sufficient outlet. The demand which is arising all over India for +commercial and industrial development should afford an unrivalled +opportunity of deflecting education into more useful and practical +channels. + +Some better machinery than exists at present seems also to be required +to bring the Educational Service into touch with parents. Education can +nowhere be a question of mere pedagogics, and least of all in India. Yet +there is evidently a strong tendency to treat it as such. To take only +one instance, the tasks imposed upon schoolboys and students by the +exigencies of an elaborate curriculum are often excessive, and there +have been cases when the intervention of other authorities has been +necessary to bring the education officers to listen to the reasonable +grievances of parents. If in these and other matters parents were more +freely consulted, they would probably be more disposed to give education +officers the support of their parental authority. There are many points +upon which native opinion would not be so easily misled by +irreconcilable politicians if greater trouble were taken to explain the +questions at issue. + +What is evidently much wanted is greater elasticity. In a country like +India, which is an aggregation of many widely different countries, the +needs and the wishes of the people must differ very widely and cannot be +met by cast-iron regulations, however admirable in theory. It is +earnestly to be hoped that the creation of a separate portfolio in the +Government of India will not involve the strengthening of the +centralizing tendencies which have been the bane of Indian education +since the days of Macaulay, himself one of the greatest theorists that +ever lived. We cannot afford to relax the very little control we +exercise over education, but education is just one of the matters in +which Provincial Governments should be trusted to ascertain, and to give +effect to, the local requirements of the people. In another direction, +however, the creation of a Ministry for Education should be all to the +good. If any real and comprehensive improvements are to be carried out +they will cost a great deal of money, and in the ordinary sense of the +term it will not be reproductive expenditure, though no expenditure, if +wisely applied, can yield more valuable results. As a member of +Council--i.e., as a member of the Government of India--Mr. Butler must +carry much greater weight in recommending the necessary expenditure than +a Director-General of Public Education or than a Provincial Governor, +especially as the expenditure will probably have to be defrayed largely +out of Imperial and not merely out of Provincial funds. If the +educational problem is the most vital and the most urgent one of all at +the present hour in India, it stands to reason that no more disastrous +blunder could be made than to stint the new department created for its +solution. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +THE QUESTION OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. + + +There remains one vital aspect of the educational problem which was left +untouched by the Educational Resolution of 1904, and has been left +untouched ever since we entered three-quarters of a century ago on an +educational experiment unparalleled in the world's history--a more +arduous experiment even than that of governing the 300 millions of India +with a handful of Englishmen. Many nations have conquered remote +dependencies inhabited by alien races, imposed their laws upon them, and +held them in peaceful subjection, though even this has never been done +on the same scale of magnitude as by the British rulers of India. We +alone have attempted to educate them in our own literature and science +and to make them by education the intellectual partners of the +civilization that subdued them. Of the two tasks, that of government and +that of education, the latter is not by any means the easier. For good +government involves as little interference as possible with the beliefs +and customs and traditions of the people, whereas good education means +the substitution for them of the intellectual and moral conceptions of +what we regard as our higher civilization. Good government represents +to that extent a process of conservation; good education must be +partially a destructive, almost a revolutionary, process. Yet upon the +more difficult and delicate problems of education we have hitherto, it +is to be feared, bestowed less thought and less vigilance than upon +administrative problems in India. The purpose we have had in view is +presumably that which Dr. Ashutosh Mookerjee admirably defined in his +last address to the University of Calcutta as "the raising up of loyal +and honourable citizens for the welfare of the State." But is it a +purpose which those responsible for our Indian system of education have +kept steadily before them? Is it a purpose that could possibly be +achieved by the _laisser faire_ policy of the State in regard to the +moral and religious side of education? If so, how is it that we have had +of late such alarming evidence of our frequent failure to achieve it? + +The divorce of education from religion is still on its trial in Western +countries, which rely upon a highly-developed code of ethics and an +inherited sense of social and civic duty to supply the place of +religious sanctions. In India, as almost everywhere in the East, +religion in some form or another, from the fetish worship of the +primitive hill tribes to the Pantheistic philosophy of the most cultured +Brahman or the stern Monotheism of the orthodox Moslem, is the dominant +force in the life both of every individual and of every separate +community to which the individual belongs. Religion is, in fact, the +basic element of Indian life, and morality apart from religion is an +almost impossible conception for all but an infinitesimal fraction of +Western-educated Indians. Hence, even if the attempt had been or were in +the future made to instil ethical notions into the minds of the Indian +youth independently of all religious teaching, it could only result in +failure. For the Hindu, perhaps more than for any other, religion +governs life from the hour of his birth to that of his death. His birth +and his death are in fact only links in a long chain of existences +inexorably governed by religion. His religion may seem to us to consist +chiefly of ritual and ceremonial observances which sterilize any higher +spiritual life. But even if such an impression is not due mainly to our +own want of understanding, the very fact that every common act of his +daily life is a religious observance, just as the caste into which he is +born has been determined by the degree in which he has fulfilled similar +religious observances in a former cycle of lives, shows how completely +his religion permeates his existence. The whole world in which he lives +and moves and has his being, in so far as it is not a mere illusion of +the senses, is for him an emanation of the omnipresent deity that he +worships in a thousand different shapes, from the grotesque to the +sublime. + +Yet in a country where religion is the sovereign influence we have, from +the beginning, absolutely ignored it in education. It is no doubt quite +impossible for the State in a country like India with so many creeds and +sects, whose tenets are often repugnant to all our own conceptions not +only of religion but of morality, to take any direct part in providing +the religious instruction which would be acceptable to Indian parents. +But was it necessary altogether to exclude such instruction from our +schools and colleges? Has not its exclusion tended to create in the +minds of many Indians the belief that our professions of religious +neutrality are a pretence, and that, however rigorously the State may +abstain from all attempts to use education as a medium for Christian +propaganda, it nevertheless uses it to undermine the faith of the rising +generations in their own ancestral creeds? Even if they acquit us of any +deliberate purpose, are they not at any rate entitled to say that such +have been too often the results? Did not the incipient revolt against +all the traditions of Hinduism that followed the introduction of Western +education help to engender the wholesale reaction against Western +influences which, underlies the present unrest? + +Few problems illustrate more strikingly the tremendous difficulties that +beset a Government such as ours in India. On the one hand, Indian +religious conceptions are in many ways so diametrically opposed to all +that British rule stands for that the State cannot actively lend itself +to maintain or promote them. On the other hand, they provide the ties +which hold the whole fabric of Indian society together, and which cannot +be hastily loosened without serious injury and even danger to the State. +This has been made patent to the most careless observer by the events of +the last few years that have revealed, as with a lurid flash of +lightning, the extent to which the demoralization of our schools and +colleges had proceeded. If any Englishman has doubts as to the connexion +in this matter of cause and effect, let him ask respectable Indian +parents who hold aloof from politics. They have long complained that the +spirit of reverence and the respect for parental authority are being +killed by an educational system which may train the intellect and impart +useful worldly knowledge, but withdraws their youths from the actual +supervision and control of the parents or of the _guru_, who for +spiritual guidance stood _in loco parentis_ under the old Hindu system +of education, and estranges them from all the ideas of their own Hindu +world[20]. That parents often genuinely resent the banishment of all +religious influence from our schools and colleges appears from the fact +that many of them prefer to Government institutions those conducted by +missionaries in which, though no attempt is made to proselytize, a +religious, albeit a Christian, atmosphere is to some extent maintained. +It is on similar grounds also that the promoters of the new movement in +favour of "National Schools" advocate the maintenance of schools which +purchase complete immunity from Government control by renouncing all the +advantages of grants-in-aid and of University affiliation. They have +been started mainly under the patronage of "advanced" politicians, and +have too often turned out to be mere hot-beds of sedition, but their +_raison d'être_ is alleged to be the right of Hindu parents to bring up +Hindu children in a Hindu atmosphere. + +From the opposite pole in politics, most of the ruling chiefs in their +replies to Lord Minto's request for their opinions on the growth of +disaffection call attention to this aspect of education, and the Hindu +princes especially lay great stress on the neglect of religious and +moral instruction. I will quote only the Maharajah of Jaipur, a Hindu +ruler universally revered, for his high character and great +experience:-- + + My next point has reference to the neglect there seems to + be of religious education, a point to which I drew your + Excellency's attention at the State banquet at Jaipur on the + 29th October, 1909. I must say I have great faith in a system + of education, in which secular and religious instruction are + harmoniously combined, as the formation of character + entirely depends upon a basework of religion, and the noble + ideals which our sacred books put before the younger generation + will, I fervently hope, make them loyal and dutiful + citizens of the Empire. Such ideals must inevitably have + their effect on impressionable young men, and it is perhaps + due to such ideals that sedition and anarchy have obtained + so small a footing in the Native States as a whole. In the + Chiefs' College Conference, held at the Mayo College in 1904, + I impressed upon my colleagues the necessity of religious + education for the sons of the chiefs and nobles of Rajputana, + and it should be one of the principal objects in all schools for + the Pandits and the Moulvies to instil in the minds of their + pupils correct notions as to the duty they owe to the community + they belong to and to their Sovereign. + +In this respect the ruling chiefs unquestionably reflect the views which +prevail amongst the better-class Indians in British India as well as in +the Native States. The Government of India cannot afford to disregard +them. The Resolution of 1904, it is true, laid it down again definitely +that "in Government institutions, the instruction is and must continue +to be exclusively secular." But much has happened since 1904 to reveal +the evils which our educational system has engendered and to lend +weight to the representations made by responsible exponents of sober +Indian opinion in favour of one of the remedies which it is clearly +within our power to apply. Nor need we really depart from our +time-honoured principle of neutrality in religious matters. All we have +to do is to set apart, in the curriculum of our schools and colleges, +certain hours during which they will be open, on specified conditions, +for religious instruction in the creed in which the parents desire their +children to be brought up. There is no call for compulsion. This is just +one of the questions in which the greatest latitude should be left to +local Governments, who are more closely in touch than the Central +Government with the sentiment and wishes of the different communities. I +am assured that there would be little difficulty in forming local +committees to settle whether there was a sufficiently strong feeling +amongst parents in favour of a course of religious instruction and to +determine the lines upon which it should be given. Some supervision +would have to be exercised by the State, but in the Educational Service +there are, it is to be hoped, enough capable and enlightened +representatives of the different creeds to exercise the necessary amount +of supervision in a spirit both of sympathy for the spiritual needs of +their people and of loyalty to the Government they serve. It may be +objected that there are so many jarring sects, so many divisions of +caste, that it would be impossible ever to secure an agreement as to the +form to be imparted to religious instruction. Let us recognize but not +overrate the difficulty. In each of the principal religions of India a +substantial basis can be found to serve as a common denominator between +different groups, as, for instance, in the Koran for all Mahomedans and +in the Shastras for the great majority of high-caste Hindus. At any +rate, if the effort is made and fails through no fault of ours, but +through the inability of Indian parents to reconcile their religious +differences, the responsibility to them will no longer lie with us. + +Another objection will probably be raised by earnest Christians who +would hold themselves bound in conscience to protest against any +facilities being given by a Christian State for instruction in religious +beliefs which they reprobate. Some of these austere religionists may +even go so far as to contend that, rather than tolerate the teaching of +"false doctrines," it is better to deprive Indian children of all +religious teaching. To censure of this sort, however, the State already +lays itself open in India. There are educational institutions--and some +of the best, like the Mahomedan College at Aligurh--maintained by +denominational communities on purpose to secure religious education. Yet +the State withdraws from them neither recognition nor assistance because +pupils are taught to be good Mahomedans or good Hindus. Why should it be +wrong to make religious instruction permissive in other Indian schools +which are not wholly or mainly supported by private endeavour? Is not +the "harmonious combination of secular and religious instruction" for +which the Maharajah of Jaipur pleads better calculated than our present +policy of _laisser faire_ to refine and purify Indian religious +conceptions, and to bring about that approximation of Eastern to Western +ideals, towards which the best Indian minds were tending before the +present revolt against Western ascendency? + +Here is surely a question bound up with all the main-springs of Indian +life in which we may be rightly asked "to govern according to Indian +ideas." Can we expect that the youth of India will grow up to be +law-abiding citizens if we deprive them of what their parents hold to be +"the keystone to the formation of character"? Can we close our eyes to +what so many responsible Indians regard as one of the chief causes of +the demoralization which has crept into our schools and colleges? The +State can, doubtless, exact in many ways more loyal co-operation from +Indian teachers in safeguarding their pupils from the virus of +disaffection. It can, for instance, intimate that it will cease to +recruit public servants from schools in which sedition is shown to be +rife. It can hold them collectively responsible, as some Indians +themselves recommend for crimes perpetrated by youths whom they have +helped to pervert. But these are rigorous measures that we can hardly +take with a good conscience so long as our educational system can be +charged with neglecting or undermining, however unintentionally, the +fabric upon which Indian conceptions of morality are based. So long as +we take no steps to refute a charge which, in view of recent evidence, +can no longer be dismissed as wholly unfounded, can we expect education +to fulfil the purpose rightly assigned to it by Dr. Mookerjee--"the +raising up of loyal and honourable citizens for the welfare of the +State?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +PRIMARY EDUCATION. + + +It is too late in the day now to discuss whether it was wise to begin +our educational policy as we did from the top and to devote so much of +our energies and resources to secondary at the expense of primary +education. The result has certainly been to widen the gulf which divides +the different classes of Indian society and to give to those who have +acquired some veneer, however superficial, of Western education the only +articulate voice, often quite out of proportion to their importance, as +the interpreters of Indian interests and desires. One million is a +liberal estimate of the number of Indians who have acquired and retained +some knowledge of English; whilst at the last census, out of a total +population of 294 millions, less than sixteen millions could read and +write in any language--not fifteen millions out of the whole male +population and not one million out of the whole female population--and +this modest amount of literacy is mainly confined to a few privileged +castes. + +With the growth of a school of Indian politicians bent upon undermining +British rule, the almost inconceivable ignorance in which the masses are +still plunged has become a real danger to the State, for it has proved +an all too receptive soil for the calumnies and lies of the political +agitator, who, too well educated himself to believe what he retails to +others, knows exactly the form of calumny and lie most likely to appeal +to the credulity of his uninformed fellow-countrymen. I refer +especially to such very widespread and widely believed stories as that +Government disseminates plague by poisoning the wells and that it +introduces into the plague inoculation serum drugs which destroy +virility in order to keep down the birth-rate. No one has put this point +more strongly than Lord Curzon:-- + + What is the greatest danger in India? What is the source + of suspicion, superstition, outbreaks, crime---yes, and also + of much of the agrarian discontent and suffering amongst + the masses? It is ignorance. And what is the only antidote + to ignorance? Knowledge. + +Curiously enough, it was one of Lord Curzon's bitterest opponents who +corroborated him on this point by relating in the course of a recent +debate how, when the Chinsurah Bridge was built some years ago over the +Hughli, "the people believed that hundreds and thousands of men were +being sacrificed and their heads cut off and carried to the river to be +put under the piers to give the bridge stability, so that the goddess +might appreciate the gift and let the piers remain." And he added:--"I +know that ignorant people were afraid to go out at nights, lest they +might be seized and their heads cut off and thrown under the piers of +the Hughli Bridge." + +It was, however, on more general consideration, as is his wont, that Mr. +Gokhale moved his resolution in the first Session of the Imperial +Council at Calcutta last winter for making elementary education free and +compulsory, and for the early appointment of a committee to frame +definite proposals. + + Three movements [he claimed] have combined to give + to mass education the place which it occupies at present + amongst the duties of the State--the humanitarian movement + which reformed prisons and liberated the slave, the + democratic movement which admitted large masses of men + to a participation in Government, and the industrial movement + which brought home to nations the recognition that + the general spread of education in a country, even when it + did not proceed beyond the elementary stage, meant the + increased efficiency of the worker. + +The last of these three considerations is, perhaps, that which just now +carries the most weight with moderate men in India, where the general +demand for industrial and commercial development is growing loud and +insistent, and Mr. Gokhale's resolution met with very general support +from his Mahomedan, as well as from his Hindu, colleagues. But, in the +minds of disaffected politicians, another consideration is, it must be +feared, also present, to which utterance is not openly given. It is the +hope that the extension of primary schools may serve, as has that of +secondary schools to promote the dissemination of seditious doctrines, +especially amongst the "depressed castes" to which the political +agitator has so far but rarely secured access. + +Whatever danger may lie in that direction, it cannot be allowed to +affect the policy of Government, who gave to Mr. Gokhale's resolution a +sufficiently sympathetic reception to induce him to withdraw it for the +present. To the principle of extending primary education the Government +of India have indeed long been committed, and increased efforts were +recommended, both in the Educational Despatch of 1854 and by the +Education Commission of 1883. Stress was equally laid upon it by the +Resolution of 1904 under Lord Curzon, who already, in 1902, had caused +additional grants, amounting to more than a quarter of a million +sterling, to be given to provincial Governments for the purpose. Under +Lord Minto's administration Government seemed at one moment to have gone +very much further and to have accepted at any rate the principle of free +education, for in 1907 the Finance Member conveyed in Council an +assurance from the Secretary of State that "notwithstanding the absence +of Budget provision, if a suitable scheme should be prepared and +sanctioned by him, he will be ready to allow it to be carried into +effect in the course of the year, provided that the financial position +permits." It was rather unfortunate that hopes should be so prematurely +raised, and it would surely have been wiser to consult the local +Governments before than after such a pronouncement. For when they were +consulted their replies, especially as to the abolition of fees, were +mostly unfavourable, and this year also Government, whilst expressing +its good will, felt bound to defer any decision until the question had +been more fully studied and the financial situation had improved. + +The present situation is certainly unsatisfactory. In 1882 there were +85,000 primary schools in India recognized by the Educational Department +which gave elementary education to about 2,000,000 pupils. In 1907, +according to the last quinquennial report, the total attendance had +increased to 3,631,000; but though the increase appears very +considerable, the Director-General of Education had to admit that, +assuming progress to be maintained at the present rate, "several +generations would still elapse before all the boys of school age were in +school." And Mr. Gokhale's resolution applies, at least ultimately, to +girls as well as to boys! Now in British India--i.e., without counting +the Native States--the total number of boys of school-going age on the +basis of the four years' course proposed for India would be nearly 12 +millions, and there must be about an equal number of girls. The total +cost to the State according to the estimates of local Governments would +be no less than £15,000,000 per annum, whilst non-recurring expenditure +would amount to £18,000,000. The fees at present paid by parents for +primary education, which is already free in some parts of India and in +certain circumstances, make up only about £210,000 per annum. The whole +of the enormous difference would, therefore, be thrown upon the Indian +taxpayers, who now have to find for primary education less than £650,000 +per annum. Even Mr. Gokhale does not, of course, propose that this +educational and financial revolution should be effected by a stroke of +the pen, and one of his Hindu colleagues held that, it would be contrary +to all Hindu traditions for parents to avail themselves of free +education if they could afford to pay a reasonable sum for it. + +But even if the state of Indian finances were likely within any +appreciable time to warrant an approximate approach to such vast +expenditure, or if Government could entertain the suggestions made by +Mr. Gokhale for meeting it, partly by raising the import duties from 5 +to 7-1/2 per cent, and imposing other taxes, and partly by wholesale +retrenchment in other departments, the financial difficulty is not the +only one to be overcome. Model schoolhouses could no doubt be built all +over India, if the money were forthcoming, instead of the wretched +accommodation which exists now, and is so inadequate that in the Bombay +Presidency alone there are said to be 100,000 boys for whom parents +want, but cannot obtain, primary education. But what of the teachers? +These cannot be improvised, however many millions Government may be +prepared to spend. There is an even greater deficiency of good teachers +than of good schoolhouses, and, in some respects, the value of primary +education still more than that of secondary education depends upon good +teachers--teachers who are capable of explaining what they teach and not +merely of reeling off by rote, and imperfectly, to their pupils lessons +which they themselves imperfectly understand. The total number of +teachers engaged in primary education exceeds 100,000, but their +salaries barely average Rs.8 (10s. 8d.) a month. So miserable a pittance +abundantly explains their inefficiency. But there it is, and a new army +of teachers--nearly half a million altogether--would have to be trained +before primary education, whether free and compulsory, as Mr. Gokhale +would have it, or optional and for payment, as others propose, could be +usefully placed within the reach of the millions of Indian children of a +school-going age. + +In this as in all other matters, the Government of India cannot afford +to stand still, and will have to take Indian opinion more and more into +account. But whilst there is a very general consensus that more should +be done by the State for primary education, there is no unanimity as to +its being made free and compulsory. Various Indian members of Council +have expressed themselves against it on different grounds. Some contend +that many parents cannot afford, as bread-winners, to be deprived of the +help of their children. According to others, there is already much +complaint amongst parents that school-going boys do not make good +agriculturists and affect to consider work in the fields as beneath +their dignity. Others, again, ask, and with some reason, who is going to +care for boys of that age who may have to leave their homes and be +removed from parental control in order to attend school. There is, +doubtless, something in all these objections. Assuming that Government +can do more than it has hitherto done to further primary education, the +wisest course would be to improve the quality rather than the quantity, +and, most of all, the quality of the teachers. Here, again, uniformity +should be avoided rather than ensued. No primary curriculum can be +evolved which will meet the needs alike of the rural population and of +the townsfolk, or of the different parts of India with their varying +conditions of climate and temperament. Even more than with regard to +secondary schools, the needs of parents must be consulted, and the +greatest latitude given to provincial Governments to vary the system in +a practical spirit and in accordance with local requirements. Nor can +the opinion, strongly held by many parents, be overlooked that religious +instruction cannot be safely excluded from the training of such young +children. Some of the objects to be kept specially in view have been +well stated by Mr. Orange, the Director-General of Public Education:-- + + We desire to see, if not in every village, within reach of + every village, a school, not an exotic, but a village school, + in which the village itself can take pride, and of which the + first purpose will be to train up good men and women and good + citizens; and the second; to impart useful knowledge, not + forgetting while doing so to train the eye and the hand so + that the children when they leave school, whether for the + field or the workshop, will have begun to learn the value of + accurate observation and to feel the joy of intelligent and + exact manual work. + +This is undoubtedly the goal towards which primary education should be +directed, but it can only be reached by steady and continuous effort +spread over a long term of years. Otherwise we shall discover, again too +late, that, as in the case of secondary education, most haste is worst +speed. + +I shall not attempt to deal with the question of female education, +either primary or secondary, for it is so intimately bound up with the +peculiarities of Indian, and especially Hindu, society, that it would be +difficult for the State to take any vigorous initiative without running +a great risk of alarming and alienating native opinion[21]. Owing to +Indian social customs and to the practice of early marriage or at least +of early seclusion, for girls, their education presents immense +practical difficulties which do not exist in the case of boys. Hence the +slow progress it has made. At the last census only eight per thousand +women could read and write; and in the whole of India only about half a +million girls, or four out of every 100 of a school-going age,--even on +the basis of a four years' course, are receiving any kind of education. +Of such as do go to school nine out of ten only go to primary schools. +Mr. Gokhale himself has abandoned the idea of making primary education +compulsory for girls as well as for boys. Female education is just one +of the questions upon which Indian opinion must be left to ripen, +Government giving, in proportion as it ripens, such assistance as can be +legitimately expected. It has long engaged the attention of enlightened +Indians, and in some communities, especially amongst the Aryas of the +Punjab, some headway is being made. The Parsees, of course, as in all +educational and philanthropic developments, have always been in the +van. With the growth of Western education the Indian woman of the higher +classes cannot indefinitely lag behind, and, if only to make their +daughters more eligible for marriage, the most conservative Indian +parents will be compelled to educate them, as some have already done, so +that they shall not be separated from their male partners by an +unfathomable gulf of intellectual inferiority. In Calcutta, in Bombay, +in Madras, and indeed in all the principal cities of India, one may +already meet native ladies, both Hindu and Mahomedan, of education and +refinement, who, however few their numbers, are shining examples of what +Indian womanhood can rise to when once it is emancipated from the +trammels of antiquated custom. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +SWADESHI AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS. + + +Was it not Talleyrand who said that speech had been given to man in +order to enable him to disguise his thoughts? Indian politicians are no +Talleyrands, but they sometimes seem to have framed their vocabulary on +purpose to disguise political conceptions which most of them for various +reasons shrink from defining at present with decision. We have already +seen how elastic is the word _Swaraj_, self-government, or rather +self-rule. In the mouth of the "moderates" of the Indian National +Congress it means, we are assured, only a pious aspiration towards the +same position which our self-governing Colonies enjoy within the Empire. +For the "advanced" politician _Swaraj_ means a transition stage which he +hopes and believes must infallibly lead to a complete severance of the +ties that unite India to the Empire. For the "extremists" it means the +immediate and violent emancipation of India from British rule, and +absolute independence. So it is with the term _Swadeshi_, which means +anything from the perfectly legitimate and commendable encouragement of +Indian trade and industry to the complete exclusion of foreign, and +especially of British, goods by a "national" and often forcible +"boycott" as part of a political campaign against British rule. + +Political _Swadeshi_ bases itself upon a Nationalist legend that a +"golden age" prevailed in India before we appeared on the scene, and +that British rule has deliberately drained India of her wealth. Even if +we have to, admit that Indian home industries have suffered heavily from +the old commercial policy of the East India Company and from the +formidable competition of the organized and scientific processes of +British industry, this legend hardly deserves to be treated seriously. +The _reductio ad absurdum_ of the argument has certainly been reached +when Mr. Keir Hardie alleges that Indian loans raised in England +constitute "a regular soaking drain upon India because the interest is +paid to bondholders in this country [England], and is not therefore +benefiting the people from whom it is taken." I can only commend this +sapient contention to our self-governing Colonies, who have all had +recourse in turn to British capital for the development of their +resources, and paid interest on their loans to British bondholders +without being apparently conscious of any "soaking drain." The supposed +"drain" is estimated in various ways, but a common method adopted is to +lay stress upon the excess of exports over imports[22]. Lord Curzon has +rightly pointed out that economically this test is quite fallacious; and +that in the richest country in the world, America, the value of the +exports exceeds the imports by over £100,000,000 per annum. Home charges +represent three-fourths of the "drain," and these may be calculated at +about £18,000,000 annually. Of this sum, £6,750,000 is paid in interest +on railway capital; but the railways are a source of profit, and the +payment comes from the railway passenger. Moreover, in course of time, +the Indian railways will become, and are becoming, a property of +enormous value to the State. The interest on India's public debt is +£3,000,000, but it has to be remembered how much India has benefited by +expenditure which has proved reproductive. Sir Bampfylde Fuller has +stated that the lowest estimate of the increase in produce obtained +through irrigation works alone is estimated at £30,000,000 annually. In +the last 50 years the total volume of Indian trade, imports and exports, +has increased from £40,000,000 to £200,000,000. The remaining items are +roughly, home military charges, £2,000,000; India Office, &c., £250,000; +leave allowances, £750,000; pensions, £4,000,000. A considerable part of +these pensions represent merely deferred pay. Moreover, unlike some +other countries, e.g., the United States, where £32,000,000 are spent +on pensions, mostly unearned, India has had good value, brimming over, +for her pensions. The private remittances to England, which must be +added to these sums, are not treated in any other country as an economic +loss. No American economist would so regard the enormous annual sums +remitted by immigrants to Ireland, Italy, and other European countries, +or the vast annual expenditure of American tourists in Europe. Indian +immigrants remit £400,000 annually to India from the Straits Settlements +and Malay States alone, and considerable sums must be sent from East and +South Africa and Ceylon, as well as smaller sums from Mauritius and the +West Indies. Yet these colonies do not apparently complain about a +"drain" to India. + +What India is entitled to ask is whether Indian loans have been expended +for the benefit of the Indian people, and the answer is conclusive. +India possesses to-day assets in the shape of railways, irrigation +canals, and other public works which, as marketable properties, +represent more than her total indebtedness, without even taking into +account the enormous value of the "unearned increment" they have +produced for the benefit of the people of India. If, therefore, we look +at the Government of India for a moment as merely a board of directors +conducting a great development business on behalf of the Indian people, +they can certainly show an excellent balance-sheet. Let us admit that +some of the "home charges" may be open to discussion, and I shall have a +word or two or say about them later on. But taken altogether they may +fairly be regarded as the not unreasonable cost of administering a +concern which, if we wished to liquidate it and to retire from business +to-morrow, would leave a handsome surplus to India after paying off the +whole debt contracted in her name. The case was stated very fairly by +the late Mr. Ranade, whose teachings all but the most "advanced" +politicians still profess to reverence, when he delivered the inaugural +address at the first Industrial Conference held just 20 years ago at +Poona:-- + + There are some people who think that as long as we have + a heavy tribute to pay to England which takes away nearly + 20 crores of our surplus exports, we are doomed, and can + do nothing to help ourselves. This is, however, hardly a + fair or manly position to take up. A portion of the burden + represents interest on moneys advanced to, or invested in, + our country, and so far from complaining, we have reason + to be thankful that we have a creditor who supplies our needs + at such a low rate of interest. Another portion represents + the value of stores supplied to us, the like of which we cannot + produce here. The remainder is alleged to be more or less + necessary for the purpose of administration, defence, and + payment of pensions, and, though there is good cause for + complaint that it is not all necessary, we should not forget + the fact that we are enabled by reason of this British connexion + to levy an equivalent tribute from China by our opium + monopoly. + +If India must now forgo this tribute from China, it is not at any rate +the fault of the Government of India that the whole cost of the +awakening of the national conscience in England to the iniquity of the +opium traffic is being thrown upon India. + +The question is not whether we have done well, but whether we might not +have done better, and whether the economic development of India, +industrial, commercial, and agricultural, has kept pace with that of the +rest of the world. If the answer in this case is more doubtful, we have +to bear in mind the idiosyncrasies of the Indian people and especially +of the educated classes. Indians have been as a rule disinclined to +invest their money in commerce or industry or in scientific forms of +agriculture. It is estimated that the hoarded wealth of India amounts, +at a conservative calculation, to £300,000,000, and this probably +represents gold alone. The annual absorption of gold by India is very +great. Lord Rothschild remarked to the Currency Commission that none of +the smooth gold bars sent to India ever came back. There is, in +addition, an enormous sum hoarded in silver rupees and silver ornaments. +It is no uncommon sight, in the cities of Upper India, to see a child +wearing only one ragged, dirty garment, but loaded with massive silver +ornaments. Indians who have money and do not merely hoard it prefer to +lend it out, often at usurious rates of interest, to their needy or +thriftless fellow-countrymen. Until quite recently the educated classes +have held almost entirely aloof from any but the liberal professions. +Science in any form has been rarely taken up by University students, and +for every B.Sc. the honours lists have shown probably a hundred B.A.'s. +The Indian National Congress itself, as it represented mainly those +classes, naturally displayed the same tendencies, and for a long time it +devoted its energies to so-called political problems rather than to +practical economic questions. Hence the almost complete failure of the +Western-educated Indian to achieve any marked success in commercial and +industrial undertakings, and nowhere has that failure been more complete +than in Bengal, where it would be difficult to quote more than one +really brilliant exception. Hence also no doubt some of the political +bitterness which those classes display. Within the last few years, +however, the politician has realized that, whilst commercial and +industrial development was steadily expanding and the demand for it was +increasing on all sides, he was left standing on a barren shore. He has +done his best, or rather his worst, to convert _Swadeshi_ into a +political weapon. His efforts have only been temporarily and partially +successful. But we may rest assured that long after this spurious +political _Swadeshi_ has disappeared, the legitimate form of _Swadeshi_ +will endure--the _Swadeshi_ that does not boycott imported goods merely +because they come from England, but is bent on stimulating the +production in India of articles of the same or of better quality which +can be sold cheaper, and can, therefore, beat the imported goods in the +Indian markets. + +To this form of _Swadeshi_ it is undoubtedly the duty and the interest +of the Government of India to respond. We are bound as trustees for the +people of India to promote Indian trade and industry by all the means in +our power, and we are equally bound to help to open up new fields of +activity for the young Indians whom our educational system has diverted +from the old paths, and who no longer find for their rapidly increasing +numbers any sufficient outlet in the public services and liberal +professions which originally absorbed them. No reforms in our +educational system can be permanently effective unless we check the +growth of the intellectual proletariat, which plays so large a part in +Indian unrest, by diverting the energies of young India into new and +healthier channels. At the same time there can be no better material +antidote to the spread of disaffection than the prosperity which would +attend the expansion of trade and industry and give to increasing +numbers amongst the Western-educated classes a direct interest in the +maintenance of law and order. There are amongst those classes too many +who, having little or nothing to lose, are naturally prone to fish in +the troubled waters of sedition. + +In regard to agriculture, which is, and is bound to remain, the greatest +of all Indian industries, for it supports 70, and perhaps 80, per cent, +of the whole population, the Government of India have no reason to be +ashamed of their record. Famines can never be banished from a country +where vast tracts are entirely dependent upon an extremely uncertain +rainfall, and the population is equally dependent upon the fruits of the +soil. But besides the scientific organization of famine relief, the +public works policy of Government has been steadily and chiefly directed +to the reduction of famine areas. Not only has the construction of a +great system of railways facilitated the introduction of foodstuffs into +remote famine-stricken districts, but irrigation works, devised on a +scale and with a skill which have made India the premier school of +irrigation for the rest of the world, have added enormously both to the +area of cultivation and to that where cultivation is secured against +failure of the rainfall. The arid valley of the Indus has been converted +into a perennial granary, and in the Punjab alone irrigation canals have +already added 8,000,000 acres of unusual fertility to the land under +tillage, and have given to 5,000,000 acres more the protection against +drought in years of deficient rainfall which they formerly lacked. +Plantations of tea, coffee, cinchona, &c., and the cultivation of jute +have added within the last 25 years some £30,000,000 a year to the value +of Indian exports. Jute alone covers the whole of the so-called "drain." + +The fact, nevertheless, cannot be denied, though it is an unpleasant +admission, that a large proportion of the immense agricultural +population of India have remained miserably poor. Indian, politicians +ascribe this poverty to the crushing burden of the land revenue +collected by Government--a burden which has been shown to work out only +to about 1s. 8d. per acre of crop and is being steadily reduced in +relation to the gross revenue of the country--but they say nothing about +the exactions of the native landlord, who has, for instance in Bengal, +monopolized at the expense of the peasantry almost the whole benefit of +the Permanent Settlement. Some very significant facts with regard to +_rayatwari_ landlords were brought out in a debate this year in the +Legislative Council of Madras, when Mr. Atkinson, in reply to one of his +Hindu colleagues who had been denouncing the Government assessments in +certain villages, produced an overwhelming array of figures to show +that in those very villages the rents exacted by native landlords varied +between eight and eleven times the amount which they paid to Government. +Nor do Indian politicians say much about the native moneylender, who is +far more responsible than the tax-gatherer for the poverty of the +peasant. Still less do they say about the extravagance of native +customs, partly religious and partly social, which makes the peasant an +easy prey to the moneylender, to whom he is too often driven when he has +a child to marry or a parent to bury or a Brahman to entertain. +Indebtedness is the great curse of Indian agriculture, and the peasant's +chief necessity is cheap credit obtained on a system that will not cause +him to sink deeper into the mire. Here again it is not Indian +politicians, but the British rulers of India who have found a solution, +and it is of such importance and promise that it deserves more than mere +passing mention. + +It has been found in the adaptation to Indian requirements of the +well-known Raffeisen system. Sir William Wedderburn was, I believe, +actually the earliest advocate of this movement, but the first practical +experiments were made in Madras as a result of exhaustive investigation +by Sir Frederick Nicholson and in the United Provinces when Sir Antony +(now Lord) MacDonnell was Lieutenant-Governor, and one of the many +measures passed by Lord Curzon for the benefit of the humbler classes in +India, with little or no support from the politicians and often in +despite of their vehement opposition, whilst Nationalist newspapers +jeered at "a scheme for extracting money from wealthy natives in order +that Government might make a show of benevolence at other people's +expense," was an Act giving legal sanction to the operations of a system +of co-operative banks and credit societies. It found a healthy basis +ready made in the Indian village system, and though it would never have +succeeded without the informing energy and integrity of "sun-dried +bureaucrats" and the countenance given to it by Government, it has had +the cordial support of many capable native gentlemen. It is now only +eight years old, but it has begun to spread with amazing rapidity. The +report of the Calcutta Conference of Registrars last winter showed that +the number of societies of all kinds had risen from 1,357 in the +preceding year to 2,008, and their aggregate working capital from 44 +lakhs to nearly 81 (one lakh or Rs.100,000=£6,666). The new movement is, +of course, still only in its infancy, but it is full of promise. The +moneylender, who was at first bitterly hostile, is beginning to realize +that by providing capital for the co-operative banks he can get, on the +whole, an adequate return with much better security for his money than +in the old days of great gains and, also, great losses. One of the +healthiest features is that, notwithstanding the great expansion of the +system, during the last twelve months, the additional working capital +required was mainly provided by private individuals and only a very +small amount by Government. Another hopeful feature is that the money +saved to the peasant by the lower interest he has to pay on his debts +pending repayment is now going into modern machinery and improved +methods of agriculture. The new system appeals most strongly to poor and +heavily indebted villages, and in the Punjab, where the results are +really remarkable, especially in some of the backward Mahomedan +districts, it is hoped, that within a few years nearly half the peasant +indebtedness, estimated at 25 to 30 millions sterling, will have been +wiped off. + +Practical education is, however, as urgently needed for Indian +agriculture as for any other form of Indian industry. The selection of +land and of seeds, the use of suitable manures, an intelligent rotation +of crops, the adoption of better methods and less antiquated implements +can only be brought about by practical education, and the demand for it +is one that Government will hear put forward with growing insistency by +the new Councils on which Indian landowners have been wisely granted +the special representation that the agricultural interests of India so +abundantly deserve. + +It was the "sun-dried bureaucrat" again who in regard to Indian +industries as well as to Indian agriculture preached and practised sound +_Swadeshi_ before the word had ever been brought into vogue by the +Indian politician. The veteran Sir George Birdwood, Sir George Watt, Sir +Edward Buck, and many others have stood forth for years as the champions +of Indian art and Indian home industries. As far back as 1883, a +Resolution was passed by Government expressing its desire "to give the +utmost encouragement to every effort to substitute for articles now +obtained from Europe articles of _bona fide_ local manufacture or +indigenous origin." In 1886, a special Economic Department was created +to keep up the elaborate survey of the economic products of India which +Sir George Watt had just completed under State direction. But the most +important administrative measure was the creation under Lord Curzon of a +separate portfolio of Commerce and Industry in the Government of India, +to which a civilian, Sir John Hewett, was appointed with very +conspicuous success. It was also under Lord Curzon that the most +vigorous impulse was given to technical education of which the claims +had already been advocated by many distinguished Anglo-Indian officials, +such as Sir Antony MacDonnell and Sir Auckland Colvin. The results of an +exhaustive inquiry conducted throughout India by a Committee of +carefully selected officers were embodied in the Educational Resolution +of 1904. Particular stress was laid upon the importance of industrial, +commercial, and art and craft schools as the preparatory stages of +technical education, for which, in its higher forms, provision had +already been made in such institutions as the engineering colleges at +Sibpur, Rurki, Jubbulpore, and Madras, the College of Science at Poona, +and the Technical Institute of Bombay. Until then the record of +technical schools had too often resembled the description which Mr. +Butler, the new Minister of Education, tersely gave of that of the +Lucknow Industrial School--"a record of inconstant purpose with breaks +of unconcern." Not only did the question of technical education receive +more systematic treatment, but a special assignment of Rs.244,000 a year +was made in 1905 by the Government of India in aid of the provincial +revenues for its improvement and extension. It was not, however, until +the liberality of the late Mr. J.N. Tata and his sons, one of the best +known Parsee families of Bombay, recently placed a considerable income +for the purpose at the disposal of Government that steps have been taken +to establish an "Indian Institute of Science" worthy of the name, to +which the Mysore Government, who have given a site for it in Bangalore, +as well as the Government of India, have promised handsome financial +assistance. + +Whilst the encouragement given to Indian technical education has until +quite lately proceeded far more from the British rulers of India than +from any native quarter, it has been also until quite lately British +capital and British enterprise that have contributed mostly to the +development of Indian industry and commerce. The amount of British +capital invested in India for its commercial and industrial development +has been estimated at £350,000,000, and this capital incidentally +furnishes employment for large numbers of Indians. Half a million are +employed, on the railways alone. Another half million work on the tea +estates. The Bombay and Ahmedabad cotton mills represent at the present +day the only important and successful application of Indian capital and +Indian enterprise to industrial development. The woollen, cotton, and +leather industries of Cawnpore, which has become one of the chief +manufacturing centres of India, and the great jute industry of Bengal +were promoted almost exclusively by British, and not by indigenous +effort. Real _Swadeshi_, stimulated by British teaching and by British +enterprise, was thus already in full swing when the Indian politician +took up the cry and too often perverted it to criminal purposes, and, +though he may have helped to rouse his sluggish fellow countrymen to +healthy as well as to mischievous activity, it may be doubted whether +any good he has done has not been more than counterbalanced by the +injurious effect upon capital of a violent and often openly seditious +agitation. Mr. Gokhale himself seems to have awakened to this danger, +when in an eloquent speech delivered by him at Lucknow, in support of +_Swadeshi_ in 1907, he protested, rather late in the day, against the +"narrow, exclusive, and intolerant spirit" in which some advocates of +the cause were seeking to promote it, and laid stress upon the +importance of capital as well as of enterprise and skill as an +indispensable factor of success. British investments are large, but not +so large as they might and should be, and the reluctance to invest in +India grows with the uneasiness caused by political unrest. + +That an immense field lies open in India for industrial development need +scarcely be argued. It has been explored with great knowledge and +ability in a very instructive article contributed last January to the +_Asiatic Quarterly Review_ by Mr. A.C. Chatterjee, an Indian member of +the Civil Service. Amongst the many instances he gives of industries +clamouring for the benefits of applied science, I will quote only the +treatment of oil seeds, the manufacture of paper from wood pulp and wood +meal, the development of leather factories and tanneries, as well as of +both vegetable and chemical dyes, the sugar industry, and metal +work--all of which, if properly instructed and directed, would enable +India to convert her own raw materials with profit into finished +products either for home consumption or for exportation abroad. It is at +least equally important for India to save her home industries, and +especially her hand-weaving industry, the wholesale destruction of +which under the pressure of the Lancashire power loom has thrown so +many poor people on to the already over-crowded land. Here, as Mr. +Chatterjee wisely remarks, combination and organization are badly +needed, for "the hand industry has the greatest chances of survival when +it adopts the methods of the power industry without actual resort to +power machinery." The articles on the Indian industrial problem in +_Science Progress_ for April and July, by Mr. Alfred Chatterton, +Director of Industries, Madras, are also worth careful attention. He +remarks quite truly that her inexhaustible supplies of cheap labour are +"India's greatest asset"; but he too wisely holds that the factory +system of the West should only be guardedly extended and under careful +precautions. The Government of India have at present under consideration +important legislative measures for preventing the undue exploitation of +both child and adult labour--measures which are already being denounced +by the native Press as "restrictive" legislation devised by the "English +cotton kings" in order to "stifle the indigenous industries of India in +their infancy"! + +What Government can do for the pioneering of new industries is shown by +the success of the State dairies in Northern India and of Mr. +Chatterton's experiments in the manufacturing of aluminium in Madras. +There is an urgent demand at present for industrial research +laboratories and experimental work all over India, and above all for +better and more practical education. But it would seem that, in this +direction, the impetus given by Lord Curzon has somewhat slackened under +Lord Minto's administration, owing, doubtless, to the absorbing claims +of the political situation and of political reforms. + +In speaking in the Calcutta Council on a resolution for the +establishment of a great Polytechnic College, the Home Member was able +to point to a fairly long list of measures taken at no small cost by the +State to promote technical education in all parts of India, and he +rightly urged that there would be little use in creating a sort of +technical University until a larger proportion of students had qualified +for it by taking advantage of the more elementary courses already +provided for them. His answer would, however, have been more convincing +could he have shown that existing institutions are always adequately +equipped and that considered schemes which have the support of the best +Indian as well as of the best official opinion are not subjected to +merely dilatory objections at headquarters. Three years ago, after the +Naini Tal Industrial Conference, the most representative ever perhaps +held in India, Sir John Hewett, who had been made Lieutenant-Governor of +the United Provinces after having been the first to hold the new +portfolio of Commerce and Industry, developed a scheme for the creation +of a Technological College at Cawnpore, which met with unanimous +approval. Nothing has yet been done to give effect to it, and it was not +only the Indian but many of the European members, official as well as +unofficial, of the Viceroy's Legislative Council who sympathized with +Mr. Mudholkar's protest when he asked with some bitterness what must be +the impression produced in India by the shelving of a scheme that was +supported by men of local experiences by the head of the Provincial +Government, and by the Government of India, because people living 6,000 +miles away did not consider it to be absolutely flawless. + +In one direction at any rate, India can rightly demand that Government +should be left an entirely free hand--namely, in regard to the very +large orders which have to be placed every year by the great spending +departments. It has now been laid down by the Secretary of State that +Indian industry should supply the needs of Government in respect of all +articles that are, in whole or in part, locally manufactured. But Indian +industry would be able to supply much more if the Government of India +were in a position to give it more assured support. The case of the +Bengal Iron and Steel Company has been quoted to me, which was +compelled to close down its steel works and to reduce the number of its +iron furnaces in blast from four to two because the promises of support +received from Government when the company took over the works proved to +be largely and quite inexcusably illusory. For works of this kind cannot +be run at present in India unless they can depend upon the hearty +support of Government, which, through the Railways and Public Works +Department, is the main, and, indeed, the only, consumer on a large +scale. + +At the present moment, Messrs. Tata are making a truly gigantic +endeavour to acclimatize the iron and steel industry in India by the +erection of immense works at Sakti in Bengal, where they have within +easy reach a practically unlimited supply of the four necessary raw +materials iron ore, coking coal, flux, and manganese ore. To utilize +these, plant is being set up of a yearly capacity of 120,000 tons of +foundry iron, rails, shapes, and merchant bars, and plans have been +drawn out for an industrial city of 20,000 inhabitants. The enterprise +is entirely in Indian hands with an initial share capital of £1,545,000 +administered by an Indian board of directors, who have engaged American +experts to organize the works. Government has granted various railway +facilities to the company and has placed with them an order for 200,000 +tons of rails for periodical delivery. Upon the future of these works +will probably depend for many years to come the success of the +metallurgical and other kindred industries of India, and it is to be +hoped that Government will be allowed to give them all reasonable +assistance without interference from home. Another purely Indian +enterprise--also under the auspices of Messrs. Tata--is a great scheme +for catching the rainfall of the Western Ghats and creating a +hydro-electric supply of power which will, amongst other uses, drive +most of the Bombay mills. + +In regard to minor Indian industries, hints have, I am assured, too +frequently been sent out from England that the claims of British +industry to Government support must not be forgotten. Even now no change +has been made in the regulations which compel the Government of India to +purchase all articles not wholly or partly manufactured in India through +the Stores Department of the India Office. The delay thus caused in +itself represents a serious loss, for it appears to take an average of +nine months for any order through that Department to be carried out, and +further delays arise whenever some modification in the original indent +is required. Nowadays merchants in India keep for ordinary purposes of +trade such large collections of samples that in nine cases out of ten +Government Departments could settle at once upon what they want and +their orders would be carried out both more quickly and more cheaply. +The maintenance of these antiquated regulations, which are very +injurious to Indian trade, is attributed by Indians mainly to the +influence of powerful vested interests in England. + +The time would also seem to, have arrived when, with the development of +Indian trade and industry, private contracts might with advantage be +substituted for the more expensive and slower activities of the Public +Works Department. Work done by that Department is bound to be more +expensive, for its enormous establishment has to be maintained on the +same footing whether financial conditions allow or do not allow +Government to embark on large public works expenditure, and when they do +not, the proportion of establishment charges to the actual cost of works +is ruinous. When the Calcutta Port Trust and other institutions of the +same character put out to contract immense works running every year into +millions, why, it is asked, should not Government do the same? Some +works like irrigation works may properly be reserved for the Public +Works Department, but to mobilize the Department whenever a bungalow has +to be built or a road made by Government, is surely ridiculous. + +Indian opinion is at present just in the mood when reasonable +concessions of this kind would make an excellent impression; and, if +they are not made spontaneously, the enlarged Indian Councils will soon +exert pressure to obtain them. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +THE FINANCIAL AND FISCAL RELATIONS BETWEEN INDIA AND GREAT BRITAIN. + + +When Lord Morley introduced his Indian reforms scheme, a section at +least of the party to which he belongs supported it not only on general +grounds, but more especially in the belief that it would strengthen the +hands of the Imperial Government in dealing with the hide-bound +officialism of which the Government of India is in the eyes of some +British Radicals the visible embodiment. None of them, probably, +anticipated that the boot would be on the other leg. If the Government +of India have sometimes sacrificed Indian interests to British +interests, it has been almost exclusively in connexion with the +financial and fiscal relations between the two countries, and often +against the better judgment and sense of justice of Anglo-Indian +officials. In this respect the enlarged Indian Councils will lend far +greater weight than in the past to any representations which the +Government of India may make at Whitehall. + +Even in the course of its first session at Calcutta the Imperial Council +has given abundant indications of its attitude. In the Budget debate, +Sir Vithaldas Thackersey, one of the Indian elected members from Bombay, +remarked very pointedly that "there is an impression abroad that, in +deciding most important questions of economic and financial policy, the +Government are obliged to be guided by political exigencies." Official +secrets have a way of leaking out in India, and Sir Vithaldas knew what +he was talking about when he added with regard to the Budget under +discussion--"It is generally believed that, if the Government of India +had had a freer hand, they would have preferred the raising of the +general tariff or a duty on sugar, which would have been less +objectionable than the levying of the proposed enhanced duties in the +teeth of the practically unanimous opposition of the non-official +members of this Council and of the public generally". + +It is certainly unfortunate that on the first occasion on which the +Government of India had to lay a financial statement before the enlarged +Council, Indian members should have come to the conclusion that the +unpopular Budget submitted to them was not the one originally proposed +by the Indian Finance Department, but that it had been imposed upon that +Department by the Secretary of State in deference to the exigencies of +British party politics. Equally unfortunate is it that the financial +difficulties which this Budget had to meet were mainly due to the loss +of revenue on opium in consequence of the arrangements made by Great +Britain with China, in which Indian interests had received very scant +consideration. Not only had Sir Edward Baker, when he was Finance +Minister three years ago, given an assurance that the new opium policy +would be carried out without any resort to extra taxation, but there is +a strong feeling in India that the praiseworthy motives which have +induced the Imperial Government to come to terms with China on the +subject of the opium trade would be still more creditable to the British +people had not the Indian taxpayer been left, with his fellow-sufferers +in Hong-Kong and Singapore, to bear the whole cost of British moral +rectitude. The Imperial Council did not confine itself, either, to +criticism of what had happened. Sir Vithaldas Thackersey had probably +every Indian and many official members with him when he made the +following very clear intimation as to the future:--"We are prepared to +bear our burdens, and all that we ask is that the country should be +allowed greater freedom in choosing the methods of raising revenue. I am +unable to see how it will be injurious to the interests of Government if +this Council is allowed a more real share as regards what articles shall +be taxed and what duties shall be paid." + +It is upon such questions as these that the voice of the enlarged +Councils will in future cause much more frequent embarrassment to the +Imperial Government than to the Government of India, and I shall be much +surprised if they have not to listen to it in regard to various "home +charges" with which the Government of India have from time to time very +reluctantly agreed to burden Indian finance at the bidding of Whitehall. +The Indian Nationalist Press has not been alone in describing the recent +imposition on the Indian taxpayer of a capitation allowance amounting to +£300,000 a year to meet the increased cost of the British soldier as +"the renewed attempt of a rapacious War Office to raid the helpless +Indian Treasury," and even the increase in the pay of the native +soldier, which Lord Kitchener obtained for him, does not prevent him and +his friends from drawing their own comparison between the squalor of the +quarters in which he is still housed and the relatively luxurious +barracks built for Tommy Atkins under Lord Kitchener's administration at +the expense of the Indian taxpayer. It is no secret that the Government +of India have also frequently remonstrated in vain when India has been +charged full measure and overflowing in respect of military operations +in which the part borne by her has been governed less by her own direct +interests than by the necessity of making up with the help of Indian +contingents the deficiencies of our military organization at home. It +was no Indian politician but the Government of India who expressed the +opinion that:-- + + The Imperial Government keeps in India and quarters + upon the revenues of that country as large a portion of its + army as it thinks can possibly be required to maintain its + dominion there; that it habitually treats that army as a + reserve force available for Imperial purposes; that it has + uniformly detached European regiments from the garrison + of India to take part in Imperial wars whenever it has been + found necessary or convenient to do so; and, more than this, + that it has drawn not less freely upon the native army of + India, towards the maintenance of which it contributes + nothing, to aid in contests outside of India with which the + Indian Government has had little or no concern. + +All these are, however, but secondary issues to the much larger one +which the creation of the new Councils must tend to bring to the front +with all the force of the increased weight given to them by the recent +reforms. For that issue will raise the whole principle of our fiscal +relations with India, if it results in a demand for the protection of +Indian industries against the competition of imported manufactures by an +autonomous tariff. It must be remembered that the desire for Protection +is no new thing in India. Whether we like it or not, whether we be Free +Traders or Tariff Reformers, we have to reckon with the fact that almost +every Indian is a Protectionist at heart, whatever he may be in theory. +The Indian National Congress has hitherto fought shy of making +Protection a prominent plank of its platform, lest it should offend its +political friends in England. Yet as far back as 1902 a politician as +careful as Mr. Surendranath Banerjee to avoid in his public utterances +anything that might alienate British Radicalism, declared in his +inaugural address at the 18th session of the Congress that "if we had a +potential voice in the government of our own country there would be no +question as to what policy we should follow. We would unhesitatingly +adopt a policy of Protection." This note has been accentuated since the +political campaign in favour of militant Swadeshism, and when English +Radicals sympathize with the _Swadeshi_ boycott as a protest against +the Partition of Bengal, they would do well to recollect that, before +Indian audiences, the most violent forms of _Swadeshi_ are constantly +defended on the ground that British industrial greed, of which Free +Trade is alleged to be the highest expression, has left no other weapons +to India for the defence of her material interests. Mr. Lala Lajpat Rai, +who has the merit of often speaking with great frankness, addressed +himself once in the following terms to "those estimable gentlemen in +India who believe in the righteousness of the British nation as +represented by the electors of Great Britain and Ireland, and who are +afraid of offending them by the boycott of English-made goods": + + If there are any two classes into which the British nation + can roughly be divided they are either manufacturers or + the working men. Both are interested in keeping the Indian + market open for the sale and consumption of their manufactures. + They are said to be the only friends to whom we + can appeal against the injustice of the Anglo-Indian bureaucracy. + Offend them, we are told, and you are undone. You + lose the good will of the only classes who can help you and + who are prepared to listen to your grievances. But, boycott + or no boycott, any movement calculated to increase the manufacturing + power of India is likely to incur the displeasure + of the British elector. He is a very well-educated animal, + a keen man of business, who can at once see through things + likely to affect his pocket, however cleverly they may be + put or arranged by those who hold an interest which is really + adverse to his. He is not likely to be hoodwinked by the + cry of _Swadeshi_ minus the boycott, because, really speaking, + if effectively worked and organized, both are one and the + same thing. + +That _Swadeshi_ as understood by educated Indians of all classes and of +all political complexions means in some form or other Protection was +made clear even in the Imperial Council. The Finance Member, Sir +Fleetwood Wilson, was himself fain to pay homage to it, but his sympathy +did not disarm Mr. Chitnavis, an Indian member whose speech deserves to +be recorded, as it embodied the opinions entertained by 99 out of every +1,000 Indians who are interested in economic questions and by a very +large number of Anglo-Indians, both official and non-official:-- + + The country must be grateful to him [the Finance Member] + for his sympathetic attitude towards Indian industries. + "I think _Swadeshi_ is good, and if the outcome of the changes + I have laid before the Council result in some encouragement + of Indian industries, I for one shall not regret it." For a + Finance Minister to say even so much is not a small thing + in the present state of India's dependence upon the most + pronounced and determined Free Trade country in the + world.... At the same time we regret the absence + of fiscal autonomy for India and the limitations under which + this Government has to frame its industrial policy. We + regret that Government cannot give the country a protective + tariff forthwith. However excellent Free Trade may be for + a country in an advanced stage of industrial development, + it must be conceded that Protection is necessary for the + success and development of infant industries. Even pronounced + protagonists of Free Trade do not view this idea + with disfavour. That Indian manufacturing industry is + in its infancy does not admit of controversy. Why should + not India, then, claim special protection for her undeveloped + industry? Even countries remarkable for their industrial + enterprise and excellence protect their industries. The + United States and Germany are decidedly Protectionist. The + British Colonies have protective tariffs... protective + in purpose, scope, and effect. They are not like the Indian + import duties, levied for revenue purposes. The Indian + appeal for Protection cannot in the circumstances be unreasonable. + The development of the industries is a matter + of great moment to the Empire, and the popular leanings + towards Protectionism ought to engage the sympathy of + Government. The imposition of import duties for revenue + purposes is sanctioned by precedent and principle alike. + ... And yet for a small import duty of 3-1/2 per cent, + upon cotton goods a countervailing Excise duty upon home + manufactures is imposed in disregard of Indian public opinion, + and the latest pronouncement of the Secretary of State has + dispelled all expectations of the righting of this wrong. + +No measure has done greater injury to the cause of Free Trade in India +or more permanent discredit to British rule than this Excise duty on +Indian manufactured cotton, for none has done more to undermine Indian +faith in the principles of justice upon which British rule claims, and, +on the whole, most legitimately claims, to be based. In obedience to +British Free Trade principles, all import duties were finally abolished +in India at the beginning of the eighties, except on liquors and on +salt, which were subject to an internal Excise duty. In 1894, however, +the Government of India were compelled by financial stress to revive the +greater part of the old 5 per cent tariff on imports, excluding cottons, +until the end of the year when cottons were included and under pressure +from England. Lord Elgin's Government had to agree to levy a +countervailing Excise duty of 5 per cent on cotton fabrics manufactured +in Indian power mills. After a good deal of heated correspondence the +Government of India were induced in February, 1896, to reduce the duty +on cotton manufactured goods imported from abroad to 3-1/2 per cent., with +the same reduction of the Indian Excise duty, whilst cotton yarns were +altogether freed from duty. This arrangement is still in force. + +Rightly or wrongly, every Indian believes that the Excise duty was +imposed upon India for the selfish benefit of the British cotton +manufacturer and under the pressure of British party politics. He +believes, as was once sarcastically remarked by an Indian member of the +Viceroy's Legislative Council, that, so long as Lancashire sends 60 +members to Westminster, the British Government will always have 60 +reasons for maintaining the Excise duty. To the English argument that +the duty is "only a small one" the Indian reply is that, according to +the results of an elaborate statistical inquiry conducted at the +instance of the late Mr. Jamsetjee N. Tata, a 3-1/2 per cent Excise duty on +cotton cloth is equivalent to a 7 per cent duty on capital invested in +weaving under Indian conditions. The profits are very fluctuating and +the depreciation of plant is considerable. Equally fallacious is +another argument that the duty is in reality paid by Englishmen. The +capital engaged in the Indian cotton industry is, it is contended, not +British, but almost exclusively Indian, and a large proportion is held +by not over-affluent Indian shareholders. + +There is nothing to choose between the records of the two great +political parties at home in their treatment of England's financial and +fiscal relations with India, and English Tariff Reformers have as a rule +shown little more disposition than English Free Traders to study Indian +interests. In fact, until Mr. M. de P. Webb, a member of the Bombay +Legislative Council, published under the title of "India and the Empire" +an able exposition of the Tariff problem in relation to India, very few +Tariff Reformers seemed even to take India into account in their schemes +of Imperial preference. I hope, therefore, to be absolved from all +suspicion of party bias in drawing attention to a question which is, I +believe, destined to play in the near future a most important--perhaps +even a determining--part in the relations of India to the British +Empire. + +One of the first things that struck me on my return to India this +year--and struck me most forcibly--was the universality and vehemence of +the demand for a new economic policy directed with energy and system to +the expansion of Indian trade and industry. It is a demand with which +the great majority of Anglo-Indian officials are in full sympathy, and +it is in fact largely the outcome of their own efforts to stimulate +Indian interest in the question. There is very little doubt that the +Government of India would be disposed to respond to it speedily and +heartily on the lines I have already briefly indicated. Will the +Imperial Government and the British democracy lend them a helping hand +or even leave a free hand to them? If not, we shall assuredly find +ourselves confronted with an equally universal and vehement demand for +Protection pure and simple by the erection of an Indian Tariff wall +against the competition of imported manufactures. I need hardly point +out how the rejection of such a demand would be exploited by the +political agitator or how it would rally to the side of active +disaffection some of the most conservative and influential classes in +India. For if, as those Englishmen who claim a monopoly of sympathy with +the people of India are continually preaching, we must be prepared to +sacrifice administrative efficiency to sympathy, how could we shelter +ourselves on an economic issue behind theories of the greater economic +efficiency of Free Trade? If we are to try "to govern India in +accordance with Indian ideas"--a principle with which I humbly but fully +agree--how could we justify the refusal to India, of the fiscal autonomy +for which there is a far more widespread and genuine demand than for +political autonomy? + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +THE POSITION OF INDIANS IN THE EMPIRE. + + +The problems of Indian administration are in themselves difficult enough +to solve, but even more difficult are some of the problems connected +with the relations of India and her peoples to the rest of the Empire. +One of these has assumed during the last few years a character of +extreme gravity, which neither the Imperial Government nor the British +public seems to have at all adequately grasped. + +"I think," said Mr. Gokhale in moving his resolution for the prohibition +of Indian indentured labour for Natal, "I am stating the plain truth +when I say that no single question of our time has evoked more bitter +feelings throughout India--feelings in the presence of which the best +friends of British rule have had to remain helpless--than the continued +ill-treatment of Indians in South Africa." + +Every Indian member of the Viceroy's Legislative Council who spoke +during that debate, whatever race or creed or caste he represented, +endorsed the truth of Mr. Gokhale's statement, and had a vote been taken +on the resolution it would have had what no other resolution moved +during the whole session would have secured--the unanimous support of +the whole body of Indian members and the sympathy of every English +member, official as well as unofficial. The Government of India wisely +averted a division by accepting the resolution. Not a single attempt was +made either by the Viceroy in the chair or by other representatives of +Government to controvert either Mr. Gokhale's statement or the +overwhelming array of facts showing the nature and extent of the +ill-treatment of Indians in South Africa, which was presented by the +mover of the resolution and by every Indian speaker who followed him. +The whole tone of the debate was extremely dignified and +self-restrained, but no Englishman can have listened to it without a +deep sense of humiliation. For the first time in history the Government +of India had to sit dumb whilst judgment was pronounced in default +against the Imperial Government upon a question which has stirred the +resentment of every single community of our Indian Empire. It was the +one question which called forth very deep feeling in the Indian National +Congress at Lahore last December, where subscriptions and donations +flowed in freely to defray the expenses of a campaign throughout India, +and it figured just as prominently in the proceedings of the All-India +Moslem League, which held its annual meeting there in the following +month. In fact, Mahomedans have the additional grievance that the laws +of the Transvaal discriminate by name against those of their faith. +There is scarcely a city of any importance in India in which public +meetings have not testified to the interest and indignation which the +subject arouses in every class of Indian audience. + +This is a very grave fact. I need not enter into the details of the +question. They are well known. There may be some exaggerations, Indian +immigrants may not always be drawn from desirable classes, there may be +differences of opinion as to the wisdom of the attitude taken up by some +of the Indians in South Africa, and Englishmen may sympathize with the +desire of British and Dutch colonists to check the growth of another +alien population in their midst. But that the Indian has not received +there the just treatment to which he is entitled as a subject of the +British Crown, and that disabilities and indignities are heaped upon him +because he is an Indian, are broad facts that are not and cannot be +disputed. The resolution adopted by the Imperial Council, with the +sanction of the Government of India, was formally directed against Natal +because it is only in regard to Natal that India possesses an effective +weapon of retaliation in withholding the supply of indentured labour +which is indispensable to the prosperity of that colony. But the Indian +grievance is not confined to Natal; it is even greater in the Transvaal. +Still less is it confined to the particular class of Indians who +emigrate as indentured labourers to South Africa. What Indians feel most +bitterly is that however well educated, however respectable and even +distinguished may be an Indian who goes to or resides in South Africa, +and especially in the Transvaal, he is treated as an outcast and is at +the mercy of harsh laws and regulations framed for his oppression, and +often interpreted with extra harshness by the officials who are left to +apply them. This bitterness is intensified by the recollection that, +before the South African War, the wrongs of British Indians in the +Transvaal figured prominently in the catalogue of charges brought by the +Imperial Government against the Kruger _régime_ and contributed not a +little to precipitate its downfall. In prosecuting the South African War +Great Britain drew freely upon India for assistance of every kind except +actual Indian combatants. Not only was it the loyalty of India that +enabled the British troops who saved Natal to be embarked hurriedly at +Bombay, but it was the constant supply from India of stores of all +kinds, of transport columns, of hospital bearers, &c., which, to a great +extent, made up throughout the war for the deficiencies of the British +War Office. There are monuments erected in South Africa which testify to +the devotion of British Indians who, though non-combatants, laid down +their lives in the cause of the Empire. Yet, as far as the British +Indians are concerned, the end of it all has been that their lot in the +Transvaal since it became a British Colony is harder than it was In the +old Kruger days, and the British colonists in the Transvaal, who were +ready enough to use Indian grievances as a stick with which to beat +Krugerism, have now joined hands with the Dutch in refusing to redress +them. The Government of India have repeatedly urged upon the Imperial +Government the gravity of this question, and Lord Curzon especially +pressed upon his friends, when they were in office, the vital importance +of effecting some acceptable settlement whilst the Transvaal was still a +Crown Colony, and, therefore, more amenable to the influence of the +Mother Country than it would be likely to prove when once endowed with +self-government. Yet the Imperial Government after a succession of +half-hearted and ineffective protests have now finally acquiesced in the +perpetuation and even the aggravation of wrongs which some ten years ago +they solemnly declared to be intolerable. + +Apart from the sense of justice upon which Englishmen pride themselves, +it is impossible to overlook the disastrous consequences of this _gran +rifiuto_ for the prestige of British rule in India. One of the Indian +Members of Council, Mr. Dadabhoy, indicated them in terms as moderate as +they were significant:-- + + In 1899 Lord Lansdowne feared the moral consequences + in India of a conviction of the powerlessness of the British + _Raj_ to save the Indian settlers in the Transvaal from oppression + and harsh treatment. That was when there was peace all + over this country, when sedition, much more anarchism, + was an unheard-of evil. If the situation was disquieting then, + what is it now when the urgent problem of the moment + is how to put down and prevent the growth of unrest In the + land? The masses do not understand the niceties of the + relations between the Mother Country and the Colonies; + they do not comprehend the legal technicalities. The British + _Raj_ has so far revealed itself to them as a power whose influence + is irresistible, and when they find that, with all its traditional + omnipotence, it has not succeeded in securing to their countrymen + --admittedly a peaceable and decent body of settlers who + rendered valuable services during the war--equal treatment + at the hands of a small Dependency, they become disheartened + and attribute the failure to the European colonist's influence + over the Home Government. That is an impression which is + fraught with incalculable potentialities of mischief and which + British statesmanship should do everything in its power + to dispel. The present political situation in India adds + special urgency to the case. + +No comments of mine could add to the significance of this warning. + +The measure contemplated by Mr. Gokhale's resolution may have some +direct effect upon Natal, whose leading statesmen have repeatedly +acknowledged the immense value of Indian indentured labour to the +Colony, and may indirectly affect public opinion in the Transvaal. But +behind the immediate question of the worse or better treatment of +Indians in South Africa stand much larger questions, which Mr. Gokhale +did not hesitate to state with equal frankness:-- + + Behind all the grievances of which I have spoken to-day + three questions of vital importance emerge to view. First, + what is the _status_ of us Indians in this Empire? Secondly, + what is the extent of the responsibility which lies on the + Imperial Government to ensure to us just and humane and, + gradually, even equal treatment in this Empire? And, + thirdly, how far are the self-governing members of this + Empire bound by its cardinal principles, or are they to share + in its privileges only and not to bear their share of the disadvantages? + +These issues have been raised in their most acute form in South Africa, +but they exist also in Australia, and even in Canada, where many Indians +suffered heavily from the outburst of anti-Asiatic feeling which swept +along the Pacific Coast a couple of years ago. They involve the position +of Asiatic subjects of the Crown in all the self-governing Dominions and +indirectly in many of the Crown Colonies, for they affect the relations +of the white and coloured races throughout the Empire. Here, however, I +must confine myself to the Indian aspects. I have discussed them with a +good many Indians, and they are quite alive to the difficulties of the +situation. Though they resent the colour bar, they realize the strength +of the feeling there is in the Colonies in favour of preserving the +white race from intermixture with non-white races. It is, in fact, a +feeling they themselves in some ways share, for, in India the +unfortunate Eurasian meets with even less sympathy from Indians than +from Europeans. Indian susceptibilities may even find some consolation +in the fact that Colonial dislike of the Indian immigrant is to a great +extent due to his best qualities. "Indians," said Mr. Mudholkar, +appealing to Lord Minto, "are hated, as your Lordship's predecessor +pointed out, on account of their very virtues. It is because they are +sober, thrifty, industrious, more attentive to their business than the +white men that their presence in the Colonies is considered +intolerable." Educated Indians know how little hold the Mother Country +has over her Colonies in these matters. They know that both British and +Anglo-Indian statesmen have recognized their grievances without being +able to secure their redress, and it is interesting to note how warm +were the tributes paid in the Imperial Council to the energy with which +Lord Curzon had upheld their cause, by some of those who were most +bitterly opposed to him when he was in India. They know, on the other +hand, that though the British Labour Party can afford to profess great +sympathy for Indian political aspirations in India, it has never +tried--or, if it has tried, it has signally failed--to exercise the +slightest influence in favour of Indian claims to fair treatment with +its allies in the Colonies, where the Labour Party is always the most +uncompromising advocate of a policy of exclusion and oppression, and +they know the power which the Labour Party wields in all our Colonies. + +They are, therefore, I believe, ready, to reckon with the realities of +the situation and to agree with Lord Curzon that "the common rights of +British citizenship cannot be held to override the rights of +self-protection conceded to self-governing Colonies"--rights which, +moreover, are often exercised to the detriment of immigrants from the +Mother Country itself. They will, on the other hand, urge the +withholding of Indian labour if the Colonies are unwilling to treat it +with fairness and humanity, and they argue rightly enough, that India, +to whom the emigration of tens of thousands of her people is not an +unmixed advantage, will lose far less than Colonies whose development +will be starved by the loss of labour they cannot themselves supply. An +influential Indian Member stated in Council that they have accepted the +view that complete freedom of immigration is beyond the pale of +practical politics, and is not to be pressed as things stand. All that +they ask, he added, in the Transvaal is for the old Indian residents to +be allowed to live peaceably, as in Cape Colony for instance, without +being treated like habitual criminals, and for men of education and +position to be allowed to come in, so that they may have teachers, +ministers of religion, and doctors for themselves and their people. In +Natal they ask for the maintenance of the rights and privileges they +have had for years and years. On such lines a practical working +arrangement with the Colonies should not be beyond the bounds of +possibility. But what Indians also demand is that laws and regulations +of an exceptional character which may be accepted in regard to +immigration shall not be applicable to Indians who merely wish to travel +in the Colonies. An Indian of very high position whom every one from the +King downwards welcomes when he comes to England, wished a few years ago +to visit Australia, but before doing so he wrote to a friend there to +inquire whether he would be subjected to any unpleasant formalities. The +answer he received discouraged him. These are the sort of difficulties +which Indians claim should be removed, and one practical suggestion I +have heard put forward is that, on certain principles to be laid down by +mutual agreement between the Imperial Government, the Governments of +the Dominions, and the Government of India, the latter should have power +to issue passports to Indian subjects which would be recognized and +would exempt them from all vexatious formalities throughout the Empire. + +The whole question is one that cannot be allowed to drag on indefinitely +without grave danger to the Empire. It evidently cannot be solved +without the co-operation of the Colonies. Next year the Imperial +Conference meets again in the capital of the Empire. If, in the +meantime, the Imperial Government were to enter into communication with +the Government of India and with the Crown Colonies, so many of whom are +closely interested in Indian labour, they should be in a position to lay +before the representatives of the Dominions assembled in London next +March considered proposals which would afford a basis for discussion +and, one may hope, for a definite agreement. A recognition of the right +of Colonial Governments to regulate the conditions on which British +Indians may be allowed admission as indentured labourers or for +permanent residence ought to secure guarantees for the equitable and +humane treatment of those who have been already admitted, or shall +hereafter be admitted, and also an undertaking that Indians of good +position armed with specified credentials from the Government of India, +travelling either for pleasure or for purposes of scientific study or on +business or with other legitimate motives, would be allowed to enter and +travel about for a reasonable period without let or hindrance of any +sort. That is the _minimum_ which would, I believe, satisfy the best +Indian opinion, and it is inconceivable that if the situation were +freely and frankly explained to our Colonial kinsmen they would reject a +settlement so essential to the interests and to the credit of the whole +Empire in relation to India. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +SOCIAL AND OFFICIAL RELATIONS. + + +On few subjects are more ignorant or malevolent statements made than on +the attitude of Englishmen in India towards the natives of the country. +That social relations between Englishmen and Indians seldom grow +intimate is true enough, but not that the fault lies mainly with +Englishmen. At the risk of being trite, I must recall a few elementary +considerations. + +The bedrock difficulty is that Indian customs prevent any kind of +intimacy between English and Indian families. Even in England the +relations between men who are excluded from acquaintance with each +other's families can rarely be called intimate, and except in the very +few cases of Indian families that are altogether Westernized, Indian +habits rigidly exclude Englishmen from admission into the homes of +Indian gentlemen, whether Hindu or Mahomedan. Intercourse between Indian +and English ladies is in the same way almost entirely confined to formal +visits paid by the latter to the zenana and the harem, and to so-called +_Purdah_ parties, given in English houses, in which Indian ladies are +entertained as far as possible under the same conditions that prevail in +their own homes--i.e., to the total exclusion of all males. So long as +Indian ladies are condemned to a life of complete seclusion the +interests they have in common with their English visitors must +necessarily be very few. On the other hand, it is not surprising that +Englishmen, knowing the views that many Indian men entertain with regard +to the position of women, do not care to encourage them to visit their +own houses on a footing of intimacy that would necessarily bring them +into more or less familiar contact with their English wives and sisters +and daughters. There is very much to admire in the family relations, and +especially in the filial relations, that exist in an Indian home, +whether Hindu or Mahomedan, but it is idle to pretend that Indian ideas +with regard to the relations between the sexes are the same as ours. In +these circumstances any social fusion between even the better classes of +the two races seems to be for the present out of the question. + +Very sincere and creditable efforts are now, it is true, being made on +both sides to diminish the gulf that divides English and Indian society, +and I have been at various gatherings which were attended by Englishmen +and Englishwomen and by Indians, among whom there was sometimes even a +sprinkling of Indian ladies. But the English host and hostess invariably +found it difficult to prevent their Indian guests forming groups of +their own, and each group seemed to be as reluctant to mingle with other +Indian groups of a different class or caste as with their English +fellow-guests. Indian society has been for centuries split up by race +and caste and creed distinctions into so many watertight compartments +that it does not care for the Western forms of social intercourse, which +tend to ignore those distinctions. It is Indians themselves who regard +us, much more than we regard ourselves, as a separate caste. Moreover, +for the ordinary and somewhat desultory conversation which plays so +large a part in Western sociability the Indian has very little +understanding. He always imagines that conversation must have some +definite purpose, and though he has far, more than most English men, the +gift of ready and courteous speech, and often will talk for a long time +both discursively and pleasantly, it is almost always as a preliminary +to the introduction of some particular topic in which his personal +interests are more or less directly involved. A question which causes a +good deal of soreness is the rigid exclusion of Indians from many +Anglo-Indian clubs. But though a little more elasticity as to the +entertainment of Indian "guests" might reasonably be conceded to Indian +susceptibilities, a club is after all just as much as his house an +Englishman's castle, and it is only in India that any one would venture +to suggest that a club should not settle its rules of membership as it +thinks fit. In the large cities at least there should, however, be room +for clubs which, like the Calcutta Club at Calcutta, serve the very +useful purpose of bringing together by mutual consent the higher classes +of Indians and Englishmen, official and non-official. Yet even there the +exigencies of caste observances, especially in the case of Hindus, +militate against the more convivial forms of intercourse which the +Englishman particularly affects. There are not a few Hindu members who +will talk or play bridge with their English fellow-members into the +small hours of the morning, but who consider themselves bound in +conscience not to sit down to dinner with them; whilst some will +doubtless feel obliged to perform ceremonial ablutions when they go +home. Others again, for similar reasons, would decline to join any +European club. They are no more to be blamed than Englishmen who prefer +to reserve membership of their clubs to Europeans, but the fact remains +and has to be reckoned with. + +The best and most satisfactory relations are those maintained between +Englishmen and Indians who understand and respect each other's +peculiarities. No class of Englishman in India fulfils those conditions +more fully than the Indian Civil Service. It is, I know, the _bête +noire_ of the Indian politician, and even Englishmen who ought to know +better seem to think that, once they have labelled it a "bureaucracy," +that barbarous name is enough to hang it--or enough, at least, to lend +plausibility to the charge that Anglo-Indian administrators are arrogant +and harsh in their personal dealings with Indians and ignorant and +unsympathetic in their methods of government. + +That the English civilian goes out to India with a tolerably high +intellectual and moral equipment can hardly be disputed, for he +represents the pick of the young men who qualify for our Civil Service +at home as well as abroad, and in respect of character, integrity, and +intelligence the British Civil Service can challenge comparison with +that of any other country in the world. Why should he suddenly change +into a narrow-minded, petty tyrant as soon as he sets foot in India? A +great part at least of his career is spent in the very closest contact +with the people, for he often lives for years together in remote +districts where he has practically no other society than that of +natives. He generally knows and speaks fluently more than one +vernacular, though, owing to the multiplicity of Indian languages--there +are five, for instance, in the Bombay Presidency alone--- he may find +himself suddenly transferred to a district in which the vernaculars he +has learnt are of no use to him. Part of his time is always spent "in +camp"--_i.e._ moving about from village to village, receiving petitions, +investigating cases, listening to complaints. Perhaps none of the +ordinary duties of administration bring him so closely into touch with +the people as the collection of land revenue, for it is there that his +sense of fairness comes most conspicuously into play and wins +recognition. Hence, for instance, in Bengal one of the bad results of +the "Permanent Settlement" of the land revenue, which leaves no room for +the Collector's ordinary work, has been that the people and the civilian +know generally less about each other than in other parts of India. Few +Indians venture to impugn the Englishman's integrity and impartiality in +adjudging cases in which material interests are concerned, or in +settling differences between natives; and nowhere are those qualities +more valuable and more highly appreciated than in a country accustomed +for centuries to every form of oppression and of social pressure for +which the multitudinous claims of caste and family open up endless +opportunities. As he has no permanent ties of his own in India, it does +not matter to him personally whether the individual case he has to +settle goes in favour of A or of B, or whether the native official, whom +he appoints or promotes, belongs to this or to that caste. The people +know this, and because they have learned to trust the Englishman's sense +of fair play, they appeal, whenever they get the chance, to the European +official rather than to one of their own race. But it is especially in +times of stress, in the evil days of famine or of plague, that they turn +to him for help. Nowhere is the "sun-dried bureaucrat" seen to better +advantage than in the famine or plague camp, where the "bureaucrat" +would come hopelessly to grief, but where the English civilian, not +being a "bureaucrat," triumphs over difficulties by sheer force of +character and power of initiative. It is just in such emergencies, for +which the most elaborate "regulations" cannot wholly provide, that the +superiority of the European over the native official is most +conspicuous. If "Padgett, M.P.", would go out to India in the hot rather +than in the cold weather, and instead of either merely enjoying the +splendid hospitality of the chief centres of Anglo-Indian society, or +borrowing his views of British administration from the Indian +politicians of the large cities, would spend some of his time with a +civilian in an up-country station and follow his daily round of work +amidst the real people of India, he would probably come home with very +different and much more accurate ideas of what India is and of what the +relations are between the Anglo-Indian official and the natives of the +country. + +Far from having flooded India, as is often alleged, with a horde of +overpaid officials, we may justly claim that no Western nation has ever +attempted to govern an alien dependency with a smaller staff of its own +race, or has admitted the subject races to so large a participation in +its public services. The whole vast machinery of executive and judicial +administration in British India employs over 1,250,000 Indians, and only +a little more than 5,000 Englishmen altogether, of whom about one-sixth +constitute what is called _par excellence_ the Civil Service of India. +Not the least remarkable achievement of British rule has been the +building up of a great body of Indian public servants capable of rising +to offices of great trust. Not only, for instance, do Indian Judges sit +on the Bench in the High Courts on terms of complete equality with their +European colleagues, but magisterial work all over India is done chiefly +by Indians. The same holds good of the Revenue Department and of the +much, and often very unjustly, abused Department of Police; and, in +fact, as Anglo-Indian officials are the first to acknowledge, there is +not a department which could be carried on to-day without the loyal and +intelligent co-operation of the Indian public servant. There is room for +improving the position of Indians, not only, as I have already pointed +out, in the Educational Department, but probably in every branch of the +"Provincial" service, which corresponds roughly with what was formerly +called the "Un-covenanted" service. As far back as 1879 Lord Lytton laid +down rules which gave to natives of India one-sixth of the appointments +until then reserved for the "Covenanted" service, and we have certainly +not yet reached the limit of the number of Indians who may ultimately +with advantage be employed in the different branches of the public +service; but few who know the defects as well as the good qualities of +the native will deny that to reduce hastily the European leaven in any +department would be to jeopardize its moral as well as its +administrative efficiency. The condition of the police, for instance, is +a case in point, for any survival of the bad old native traditions is +due very largely to the insufficiency of European control. Mr. Gokhale +has himself admitted as one of the reasons for founding his society of +"Servants of India" the necessity of "building up a higher type of +character and capacity than is generally available in the country." For +the same reason we must move slowly and cautiously in substituting +Indians for Europeans in the very small number of posts which the latter +still occupy. That the highest offices of executive control must be very +largely held by Englishmen so long as we continue to be responsible for +the government of India is admitted by all but the most "advanced" +Indian politicians, and it is to qualify for and to hold such positions +that the Indian Civil Service--formerly the "Covenanted" service--is +maintained. It consists of a small _élite_ of barely I,200 men, mostly, +but not exclusively, Englishmen, for it includes nearly 100 Indians. It +is recruited by competitive examinations held in England, and this is +one of the chief grievances of Indians. But in order to preserve the +very high standard it has hitherto maintained, it seems essential that +Indians who wish to enter it should have had not only the Western +education which Indian Universities might be expected to provide, but +the thoroughly English training which India certainly does not as yet +supply. + +In the eyes of the disaffected Indian politician the really unpardonable +sin of the Civil Service is that it constitutes the bulwark of British +rule, the one permanent link between the Government of India and the +manifold millions entrusted to their care. I have already had occasion +to show, incidentally, how unfounded is the charge that, through +ignorance and want of sympathy, the British civilian is callous to the +real interests and sentiments of the people in dealing with the larger +problems of Indian statesmanship. The contrary is the case, for to him +belongs the credit of almost every measure passed during the last 50 +years for the benefit of the Indian masses, and passed frequently in the +teeth of vehement opposition from the Indian politician. Nor is it +surprising that it should be so. For the Indian politician--generally a +townsman--is, as a rule, drawn from and represents classes that have +very little in common with the great bulk of the people, who are +agriculturists. The British civilian, on the other hand, often spends +the best years of his life in rural districts, seldom even visited by +the politician, and therefore knows much more about the needs and the +feelings of the people among whom he lives and moves. In the best sense +of the word he is in fact the one real democrat in India. The very fact +that he is a bird of passage in the country makes him absolutely +independent of the class interests and personal bias to which the +politician is almost always liable. Moreover, the chief, and perfectly +legitimate, object to which the Anglo-Indian administrator is bound to +address himself is, as Mr. Bepin Chandra Pal once candidly admitted, to +capture "the heart, the mind of the people ... to secure, if not the +allegiance, at least the passive, the generous acquiescence of the +general mass of the population." To make his meaning perfectly clear, +Mr. Pal instanced the rural reforms, the agricultural banks and other +things which had been done in Lord Curzon's time, "to captivate the mind +of the teeming masses," and he added that "he is a foolish politician in +India who allows the Government to capture the mind of the masses to the +exclusion of his own influence and his own countrymen." Mr. Pal is from +his point of view perfectly logical, and so were the writers in the +_Yugantar_, who, when they elaborated their scheme of revolutionary +propaganda, declared that the first step must be to undermine the +confidence of the people in their rulers and to destroy the spirit of +contentedness under an alien yoke. But could there be a more striking +tribute to the intelligent and sympathetic treatment of the interests of +the Indian masses by their British rulers than such admissions on the +part of the enemies of British rule? + +From this point of view nothing but good should result from the larger +opportunities given by the recent reforms for the discussion of Indian +questions in the enlarged Councils, so long as the Indian +representatives in these Councils are drawn, as far as possible, from +the different classes which, to some extent, reflect the different +interests of the multitudinous communities that make up the people of +India. The British civilian will have a much better chance than he has +hitherto had of meeting his detractors in the open, and, if one may +judge by the proceedings last winter, when the Councils met for the +first time under the new conditions, there is little reason to fear, as +many did at first, that he will be taken at a disadvantage in debate +owing to the greater fluency and rhetorical resourcefulness of the +Indian politician. It was not only in the Imperial Council in Calcutta +that the official members, having the better case and stating it quite +simply, proved more than a match for the more exuberant eloquence of +their opponents. On the contrary, the personal contact established in +the enlarged Councils between the Anglo-Indian official and the better +class of Indian politician may well serve to diminish the prejudices +which exist on both sides. It is, I believe, quite a mistake to suppose +that the British civilian generally resents the recent reforms, though +he may very well resent the spirit of hostility and suspicion in which +they were advocated and welcomed in some quarters, as if they were +specially directed against the European element in the Civil Service. A +practical difficulty is the heavy call which attendance in Council will +make upon Civil servants who have to represent Government in these +assemblies. Already for many years past the amount of work, and +especially of office work, has steadily increased and without any +corresponding increase of the establishment. Hence the civilian has less +time to receive Indian visitors, and he is often obliged to curtail the +period he spends during the year in camp. Hence also the growing +frequency of transfers and of officiating or temporary appointments. +There are, in fact, to-day barely enough men to go round, and, +obviously, the more frequently a man is moved, the less chance he has of +getting thoroughly acquainted with the people among whom he has to work +in a country such as India, where within the limits of the same province +you may find half a dozen widely different communities speaking +different languages and having different creeds and customs. Perhaps, +too, for the same reasons, there is a tendency towards over-centralization +in the "Secretariats" or permanent departments at the seat of government, +whether in Simla or in the provincial capitals, and the less favoured +civilian who bears the heat and burden of the day in the _mofussil_ is both +more dependent upon them and more jealous of the many advantages they +naturally enjoy. Posts and telegraphs and the multiplying of "regulations" +everywhere tend to weaken personal initiative. Nor can it be denied that +with the increased facilities of travel to and from Europe civilians no +longer look upon India quite so much as their home. The local _liaisons_, +not uncommon in pre-Mutiny days, are now things of the past, and the +married man of to-day who has to send his children home for their +education, and often his wife too, either on account of the climate or +to look after the children, is naturally more disposed to count up his +years of service and to retire on his pension at the earliest opportunity. +The increased cost of living in India and the depreciation of the rupee +have also made the service less attractive from the purely pecuniary point +of view, whilst in other ways it must suffer indirectly from such changes +as the reduction of the European staff in the Indian Medical Department. +The substitution of Indian for European doctors in outlying stations where +there are no European practitioners is a distinct hardship for married +officials, as there is a good deal more than mere prejudice to explain the +reluctance of Englishwomen to be treated by native medical advisers. Nor +is it possible to disguise the soreness caused throughout the Indian Civil +Service by the recent appointment of a young member of the English +Civil Service to one of the very highest posts in India. No one +questions Mr. Clark's ability, but is he really more able than every one +of the many men who passed with him, and for many years before him, +through the same door into the public service and elected to work in +India rather than at home? No Minister would have thought of promoting +him now to an Under-Secretaryship of State in England, and apart from +the grave reflection upon the Indian Civil Service--- and the belief +generally entertained amongst Indians that it was meant to be a +reflection upon the Indian Civil Service--his appointment to a far +higher Indian office implies a grave misconception of the proper +functions of a Council which constitutes the Government of India. + +None of these minor considerations, however, will substantially affect +the future of the Indian Civil Service if only it continues to receive +from public opinion at home, and from the Imperial Government as well as +from the Government of India, the loyal support and encouragement which +the admirable work it performs, often under very trying conditions, +deserves. An unfortunate impression has undoubtedly been created during +the last few years in the Indian Civil Service that there is no longer +the same assurance of such support and encouragement either from +Whitehall or from Simla, whilst the attacks of irresponsible partisans +have redoubled in intensity and virulence, and have found a louder and +louder echo both on the platform and in the Press at home. The loss of +contact between the Government of India and Anglo-Indian administrators +has been as painfully felt as the frigid tone of many official +utterances in Parliament, which have seemed inspired by a desire more +often to avoid party embarrassments at Westminster than to protect +public servants, who have no means of defending themselves, against even +the grossest forms of misrepresentation and calumny, leading straight to +the revolver and the bomb of the political assassin. The British +civilian is not going to be frightened by one more risk added to the +vicissitudes of an Indian career, but can you expect him to be proof +against discouragement when many of his fellow-countrymen exhaust their +ingenuity in extenuating or in casting upon him the primary +responsibility for the new Indian gospel of murder which is being +preached against him? Mr. Montagu was well inspired in protesting +against such "hostile, unsympathetic, and cowardly criticism" as was +conveyed in Mr. Mackarness's pamphlet; but this pamphlet was mere sour +milk compared with the vitriol which the native Press had been allowed +to pour forth day after day on the British official in India before any +action was taken by Government to defend him. + +The new Viceroy, who himself belongs to one of the most important +branches of the British Civil Service, may be trusted to display in his +handling of the British civilian the tact and sympathy required to +sustain him in the performance of arduous duties which are bound to +become more complex and exacting as our system of government departs +further from the old patriarchal type. Our task in India must grow more +and more difficult, and will demand more than ever the best men that we +can give to its accomplishment. The material prizes which an Indian +career has to offer may be fewer and less valuable, whilst the pressure +of work, the penalties of exile, the hardship of frequent separation +from kith and kin, the drawbacks of an always trying and often +treacherous climate, will for the most part not diminish. But the many +sided interests and the real magnitude and loftiness of the work to be +done in India will continue to attract the best Englishmen so long as +they can rely upon fair treatment at the hands of the Mother Country. If +that failed them there would speedily be an end not only to the Indian +Civil Service, but to British rule itself. For the sword cannot govern, +only maintain government, and can maintain it only as long as government +itself retains the respect and acquiescence of the great masses of the +Indian peoples which have been won, not by generals or by Secretaries of +State, or even by Viceroys, but by the patient and often obscure +spadework of the Indian Civil Service--by its integrity, its courage, +its knowledge, its efficiency, and its unfailing sense of justice. + +Complaints of the aloofness of the British civilian very seldom proceed +either from Indians of the upper classes or from the humbler folk. They +generally proceed from the new, more or less Western-educated middle +class whose attitude towards British officials is seldom calculated to +promote cordial relations; and they are also sometimes inspired by +another class of Indian who, one may hope, will before long have +vanished, but whom of all others the civilian is bound to keep at arm's +length. There are men who would get a hold upon him, if he is a young +man, by luring him into intrigues with native women, or by inveigling +him into the meshes of the native moneylender, or who, by less +reprehensible means, strive to establish themselves on a footing of +intimacy with him merely in order to sell to other Indians the influence +which they acquire or pretend to have acquired over him. Cases of this +kind are no doubt rare, and growing more and more rare, as social +conditions are passing away which in earlier days favoured them. Less +objectionable, but nevertheless to be kept also at arm's length, is the +far more numerous class of natives known in India as _umedwars_, who are +always anxious to seize on to the coat tails of the Anglo-Indian +official in order to heighten their own social _status_, and, if +possible, to wheedle out of Government some of those minor titles or +honorific distinctions to which Indian society attaches so much +importance. + +In other branches of the public service selection has not always +operated as successfully as the competitive system for the Civil +Service. Men are too often sent out as lawyers or as doctors, or even, +as I have already pointed out, to join the Education Department, with +inadequate qualifications, and they are allowed to enter upon their +work without any knowledge of the language and customs of the people. +Such cases are generally the result of carelessness or ignorance at +home, but some of them, I fear, can only be described as "jobs"--and +there is no room in India for jobs. The untravelled Indian is also +brought into contact to-day with an entirely different class of +Englishman. The globe-trotter, who is often an American, though the +native cannot be expected to distinguish between him and the Englishman, +constantly sins from sheer ignorance against the customs of the country. +Then, again, with railways and telegraphs and the growth of commerce and +industry a type of Englishman has been imported to fill subordinate +positions in which some technical knowledge is required, who, whatever +his good qualities, is much rougher and generally much more strongly +imbued with, or more prone to display, a sense of racial superiority. +Nor is he kept under the same discipline as Tommy Atkins, who is +generally an easy-going fellow, and looks upon the native with +good-natured, if somewhat contemptuous, amusement, though he, too, is +sometimes a rough customer when he gets "above himself," or when his +temper is ruffled by prickly heat, that most common but irritating of +hot-weather ailments. In this connexion the remarkable growth of +temperance among British soldiers in India is doubly satisfactory. + +On the whole, the relations between the lower classes of Europeans and +natives in the large cities, where they practically alone come into +contact, seldom give rise to serious trouble; and it is between +Europeans and natives of the higher classes that, unfortunately, +personal disputes from time to time occur, which unquestionably produce +a great deal of bad blood--disputes in which Englishmen have forgotten +not only the most elementary rules of decent behaviour, but the +self-respect which our position in India makes it doubly obligatory on +every Englishman to observe in his dealings with Indians. Some of these +incidents have been wilfully exaggerated, others have been wantonly +invented. Most of them have taken place in the course of railway +journeys, and without wishing to palliate them, one may reasonably point +out that, even in Europe, people, when travelling, will often behave +with a rudeness which they would be ashamed to display in other +circumstances, and that long railway journeys in the stifling heat of +India sometimes subject the temper to a strain unknown in more temperate +climates. In some cases, too, it is our ignorance of native customs +which causes the trouble, and the habits of even high-class Indians are +now and then unpleasant. A few months ago, I shared a railway +compartment one night with an Indian gentleman of good position and +pleasant address, belonging to a sect which carries to the most extreme +lengths the respect for all forms of life, however repulsive. Had I been +a stranger to India and ignorant of these conscientious eccentricities, +I might well have objected very strongly to some of the proceedings of +my companion, who spent a good deal of his time in searching his person +and his garments for certain forms of animal life, which he carefully +deposited in a little silver box carried for this special purpose. +Nevertheless it must be admitted that there have been from time to time +cases of brutality towards natives sufficiently gross and inexcusable to +create a very deplorable impression. I have met educated Indians who, +though they have had no unpleasant experiences of the kind themselves, +prefer to avoid entering a railway carriage occupied by Europeans lest +they should expose themselves even to the chance of insulting treatment. +On the other hand, speaking from personal experience as well as from +what I have heard on unimpeachable authority, I have no hesitation in +saying that there are evil-disposed, Indians, especially of late years, +who deliberately seek to provoke disagreeable incidents by their own +misbehaviour, either in the hope of levying blackmail or in order to +make political capital by posing as the victims of English brutality. +But even when Englishmen put themselves entirely in the wrong, there is +perhaps a tendency amongst Anglo-Indians--chiefly amongst the +non-official community--to treat such cases with undue leniency, and it +is one of the curious ironies of fate that Lord Curzon, whom the +Nationalist Press has singled out for constant abuse and denunciation as +the prototype of official tyranny, was the one Viceroy who more than any +other jeopardized his popularity with his fellow countrymen in India by +insisting upon rigorous justice being done where Indians had, in his +opinion, suffered wrongs of this kind at the hands of Europeans. + +It is a lamentable fact that, amongst Indians, the greatest bitterness +with regard to the social relations between the two races often proceeds +from those who have been educated in England. There is, first of all, +the young Indian who, having mixed freely with the best type of +Englishmen and Englishwomen, finds himself on his return to India quite +out of touch with his own people, and yet has to live their life. Cases +of this kind are especially pathetic, when, having imbibed European +ideals of womanhood, he is obliged to marry some girl chosen by his +parents, with whom, however estimable she may be, he has nothing in +common. Such is the contrariety of human nature that he usually visits +his unhappiness, not on the social system which has resumed its hold +upon him, but on the civilization which has killed his belief in it. +Then there is the very mischievous type of young Indian who, having been +left to his own devices in England, and without any good introductions, +brings back to India and retails there impressions of English society, +male and female, gathered from the very undesirable surroundings into +which he has drifted in London and other large cities. It is he who is +often responsible for one of the most deplorable features in the +propaganda of the seditious Press--namely, the scandalous libels upon +the character of English domestic life, and especially upon the morality +of English womanhood--by which it is sought to undermine popular +respect for and confidence in the Englishman. But our own responsibility +must also be very great, so long as we allow the young Indian who comes +to England to drift hopelessly, without help or guidance, among the +rocks and shoals of English life. Men of our own race, and carefully +picked men, come from our oversea Dominions to study in our colleges, +and we have a special organization to look after their moral and +material welfare. For years past we have allowed young Indians to come +and go, and no responsible hand has been stretched out to save them from +the manifold temptations of an entirely alien society in which isolation +is almost bound to spell degradation and bitterness. + +Considering, however, the many inevitable causes of friction and the +inherent imperfections of human nature, whether white or coloured, one +may safely say that between Englishmen of all conditions and Indians of +all conditions there often and, indeed, generally exist pleasanter +relations than are to be found elsewhere between people of any two races +so widely removed. They are never closer than when special circumstances +help to break down the barriers. The common instincts and the common +dangers of their profession create often singularly strong ties of +regard and affection between the sepoy of all ranks and his British +officers--especially on campaign. In domestic tribulations, as well as +in public calamities, Indians, at least of the lower classes, will often +turn more readily and confidently for help to the Englishman who lives +amongst them than to their own people. I need not quote instances of the +extraordinary influence which many European missionaries have acquired +by their devoted labours amongst the poor, the sick, and the suffering, +and in former times, perhaps more than in recent times, even with +Indians of the higher classes. In ordinary circumstances we have to +recognize the existence of both sides of obstacles to anything like +intimacy. Many Indian ideas and habits are repugnant to us, but so also +are many of ours to them. Indians have their own conceptions of dignity +and propriety which our social customs frequently offend. If Englishmen +and Englishwomen in high places in India would exert their influence to +invest the social life of Europeans in the chief resorts of Anglo-Indian +society with a little more decorum and seriousness, they would probably +be doing better service to a good understanding between the two races in +social matters than by trying to break down by sheer insistence, however +well meant, the barriers which diametrically opposite forms of +civilization have placed between them. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA. + + +In the very able speech in which, on July 27, Mr. Montagu, the new +Under-Secretary of State for India, introduced the Indian Budget in the +House of Commons, one passage referred to the relations between the +Secretary of State and the Viceroy in terms which have deservedly +attracted very great attention[23]. Differences of opinion, sometimes of +an acute character, have at intervals occurred between Secretaries of +State and Viceroys as to their relative attributions. Mr. Montagu's +language, however, would seem to constitute an assertion of the powers +of the Secretary of State far in excess not only of past practice but of +any reasonable interpretation of legislative enactments on the subject. +After congratulating Lord Minto on the completion of, a "difficult +reign," Mr. Montagu said:-- + + The relations of a Viceroy to the Secretary of State are + intimate and responsible. The Act of Parliament says + "That the Secretary of State in Council shall superintend, + direct, and control all acts, operations, and concerns which in + any way relate to or concern the government or revenues of + India, and all grants of salaries, gratuities, and allowances, + and all other payments and charges whatever out of or on + the revenues of India." It will be seen how wide, how far + reaching, and how complete these powers are. Lord Morley + and his Council, working through the agency of Lord Minto, + have accomplished much.... I believe that men of + all parties will be grateful that Lord Morley remains to carry + out the policy he has initiated. + +It is to be regretted in the first place that Mr. Montagu should not +have been more careful to make his quotation accurate. For, as quoted by +him, the Act would make it obligatory upon the Secretary of State to +supervise practically every act of the Government of India, whereas the +powers of the Secretary of State, who has succeeded to the powers of the +old Board of Control of the East India Company, are discretionary +powers. The statute from which the Secretary of State actually derives +his powers is the Government of India Act, 1858, which under section 3 +declares that the Secretary of State "shall have and perform all such or +the like powers and duties in any wise relating to the government or +revenues of India and all such or the like powers over all officers +appointed or continued under this Act as might or should have been +exercised or performed" by the Company and Board of Control, and those +powers and duties are defined in the following terms in the Act of 1833 +(3 and 4 William IV., c. 85, sec. 25), which Mr. Montagu would seem to +have had in his mind, though he quoted it imperfectly: "The said Board +[of Control] shall have and be invested with full power and authority to +superintend, direct, and control all acts, operations, and concerns, +&c." The difference, as has been very properly pointed out in the +_Manchester Guardian_, no unfriendly critic of the present +Administration, is "between exercising control and the power to exercise +control, between 'shall' and 'may.' If these words of the Act were to be +abbreviated, the right abbreviation would have been 'may.' This is the +word used by Sir Courtenay Ilbert in his summary of the Secretary of +State's powers (The Government of India, p. 145);--'... the Secretary +of State may, subject to the provisions embodied in this digest, +superintend, direct, and control all acts, operations, and concerns, +&c.' This difference between 'shall' and 'may' is, of course, vital. +'Shall' implies that the Secretary of State is standing over the Viceroy +in everything he does; 'may' simply reserves to him the right of control +where he disapproves. 'Shall' imparts an agency of an inferior order; +'may' safeguards the rights of the Crown and Parliament without +impairing the dignity of the Viceregal office." + +Of greater importance, however, is the construction which Mr. Montagu +places on these statutes. There are three fundamental objections to the +doctrine of "agency" which he propounds in regard to the functions of +the Viceroy. In the first place, it ignores one of the most important +features of his office--one, indeed, to which supreme importance +attaches in a country such as India, where the sentiment of reverence +for the Sovereign is rooted in the most ancient traditions of all races +and creeds. The Viceroy is the direct and personal representative of the +King-Emperor, and in that capacity, at any rate, it would certainly be +improper to describe him as the "agent" of the Secretary of State. From +this point of view, any attempt to lower his office would tend +dangerously to weaken the prestige of the Crown, which, to put it on the +lowest grounds, is one of the greatest assets of the British _Raj_. In +the second place, Mr. Montagu ignores equally another distinctive +feature of the Viceroy's office, especially important in regard to his +relations with the Secretary of State--namely, that, in his executive as +well as in his legislative capacity, the Viceroy is not a mere +individual, but the Governor-General in Council. Mr. Montagu omitted to +quote the important section of the Act of 1833, confirmed in subsequent +enactments, which declared that:-- + + The superintendence, direction, and control of the whole + civil and military government of all the said territories and + revenues in India shall be and is hereby vested in a Governor-General + and Councillors to be styled "the Governor-General + of India in Council." + +The only title recognized by statute to the Viceroy is that of +Governor-General in Council, and how material is this conjunction of the +Governor-General with his Council is shown by the exceptional character +of the circumstances in which power is given to the Governor-General to +act on his own responsibility alone, and by the extreme rareness of the +cases in which a Governor-General has exercised that power. + +Thus, on the one hand, Mr. Montagu forgets the Crown when he talks of +the Secretary of State acting through the agency of the Viceroy; and, on +the other hand, he forgets the Governor-General in Council when he talks +of the relations between the Viceroy and the Secretary of State--whose +proper designation, moreover, is Secretary of State in Council, for, +like the Governor-General, the Secretary of State has a Council +intimately associated with him by statute in the discharge of his +constitutional functions. Though the cases in which the Secretary of +State cannot act without the concurrence of the Council of India, who +sit with him at the India Office, are limited to matters involving the +grant or appropriation of revenues, and in other matters he is not +absolutely bound to consult them and still less to accept their +recommendations, the Act of Parliament quoted by Mr. Montagu clearly +implies that, in the exercise of all the functions which it assigns to +him, he is expected to act generally in consultation and in concert with +his Council, since those functions are assigned to him specifically as +Secretary of State in Council. + +Now, as to the nature of the relations between the Governor-General in +Council and the Secretary of State in Council as above defined by +statute. The ultimate responsibility for Indian government, as Mr. +Montagu intimated, rests unquestionably with the Imperial Government +represented by the Secretary of State for India, and therefore, in the +last resort, with the people of the United Kingdom represented by +Parliament. The question is, What is in theory and practice the proper +mode of discharging this, "ultimate responsibility" for Indian +government? It is not a question which can be authoritatively answered, +but, if we may infer an answer from the spirit of legislative enactments +and from the usage that has hitherto prevailed, it may still be summed +up in the same language in which John Stuart Mill described the function +of the Home Government in the days of the old East India Company--"The +principal function of the Home Government is not to direct the details +of administration, but to scrutinize and revise the past acts of the +Indian Governments; to lay down principles and to issue general +instructions for their future guidance, and to give or refuse sanction +to great political measures which are referred home for approval." This +seems undoubtedly to be the view of the relations, inherited from the +East India Company, between the Secretary of State and the Government of +India which has been accepted and acted upon on both sides until +recently. Nor is any other view compatible with the Charter Act of 1833, +or with the Government of India Act of 1858, which, in all matters +pertinent to this issue, was based upon, and confirmed the principles of +the earlier statute. The Secretary of State exercises general guidance +and control, but, as Mill laid it down no less forcibly, "the Executive +Government of India is and must be seated in India itself." Such +relations are clearly very different from those of principal and agent +which Mr. Montagu would apparently wish to substitute for them. + +Besides the special emphasis he laid on his definition of the relations +between the Viceroy and the Secretary of State, other reasons have led +to the belief that the Under-Secretary, who spoke with a full sense of +his responsibility as the representative of the Secretary of State, was +giving calculated expression to the views of his chief. I am not going +to anticipate the duties of the historian, whose business it will be to +establish the share of initiative and responsibility that belong to Lord +Morley and Lord Minto respectively in regard to the Indian policy of +the last five years. Whilst something more than an impression generally +prevails both at home and in India that Mr. Montagu's definition does in +fact very largely apply to the relations between the present Viceroy and +the Secretary of State, and that every measure carried out in India has +originated in Whitehall, it is only fair to bear in mind that Lord +Morley has never himself put forward any such claim, nor has Lord Minto +ever admitted it. The Viceroy, on the contrary, has been at pains to +emphasize on several occasions his share, and indeed to claim for +himself the initiative, of all the principal measures carried out during +his tenure of office, and especially of the new scheme of Indian +reforms, of which the paternity is ascribed by most people to Lord +Morley. + +The Secretary of State's great personality may partly account for the +belief that he has entirely overshadowed the Viceroy, all the more in +that he has certainly overshadowed the Council of India as never before. +But if Lord Minto has reason to complain, of the prevalence of this +belief, he cannot be unaware that he too has helped to build it up by +neglecting to associate his own Council with himself as closely as even +his most masterful predecessors had hitherto been careful to do. + +Lord Minto's position has no doubt been one of very peculiar difficulty, +and no one will grudge him the warm tribute paid to him by Mr. Montagu. +Whatever the merits of the great controversy between Lord Curzon and +Lord Kitchener, the overruling of the Government of India by the Home +Government on a question of such magnitude and the circumstances in +which Lord Curzon was compelled to resign had dealt a very heavy blow to +the authority and prestige of the Viceregal office in India. Within a +few weeks of Lord Minto's arrival in India the Unionist Government who +had appointed him fell, and a Liberal Government came into power who +could not be expected to display any special consideration for their +predecessors nominee unless he showed himself to be in sympathy with +their policy. Lord Minto's friends can therefore very reasonably argue +that his chief anxiety was, quite legitimately, to avoid any kind of +friction with the new Secretary of State which might have led to the +supersession of another Viceroy so soon after the unfortunate crisis +that had ended in Lord Curzon's resignation. If this was the object that +Lord Minto had in view, his attitude has certainly been most successful, +for Lord Morley has repeatedly testified to the loyalty and cordiality +with which the Viceroy has constantly co-operated with him. That the +Secretary of State and the Viceroy have, nevertheless, not always seen +eye to eye with regard to the interference of the India Office in the +details of Indian administration appears clearly from a telegram read +out by Lord Morley himself in the House of Lords on February 23, 1909. +In the course of this telegram, which acknowledged in the most generous +terms the strong support of the Secretary of State in all dealings with +sedition, the Viceroy made the following curious admission:--"The +question of the control of Indian administration by the Secretary of +State, mixed up as it is with the old difficulties of centralization, we +may very possibly look at from different points of view." The curtain +fell upon this restrained attempt to assert what Lord Minto evidently +regarded eighteen months ago as his legitimate position, and to the +public eye it has not been raised again since then. But in India +certainly the fear is often expressed in responsible quarters that, +notwithstanding the courageous support which Lord Morley has given to +legislative measures for dealing with the worst forms of seditious +agitation, their effect has been occasionally weakened by that +interference from home in the details of Indian administration of which +Lord Minto's telegram contains the only admission known to the public. + +It is difficult to believe that Lord Minto's position would not have +been stronger had he not allowed the Governor-General in Council to +suffer such frequent eclipses. The Governor-General's Council during +Lord Minto's tenure of office may have been exceptionally weak, and +there will always be a serious element of weakness in it so long as +membership of Council is not recognized to be the crowning stage of an +Indian career. So long as it is, as at present too frequently happens, +merely a stepping-stone to a Lieutenant-Governorship, it is idle to +expect that the hope of advancement will not sometimes act as a +restraint upon the independence and sense of individual responsibility +which a seat in Council demands. In any case, the effacement of Council +during the last few years behind the Viceroy has not been calculated to +dispel the widespread impression that, both in Calcutta and in +Whitehall, there has been a tendency to substitute for the +constitutional relations between the Governor-General in Council and the +Secretary of State in Council more informal and personal relations +between Lord Minto and Lord Morley, which, however excellent, are +difficult to reconcile with the principles essential to the maintenance +of a strong Government of India. Private letters and private telegrams +are very useful helps to a mutual understanding, but they cannot safely +supplant, or encroach upon, the more formal and regular methods of +communication, officially recorded for future reference, in consultation +and concert with the Councils on either side, as by statute established. + +There is a twofold danger in any eclipse, even partial, of the +Governor-General in Council. One of the remarks I have heard most +frequently all over India, and from Indians as well as from Englishmen, +is that "there is no longer any Government of India"; and it is a remark +which, however exaggerated in form, contains a certain element of truth. +To whatever extent the Viceroy, in his relations with Whitehall, +detaches himself from his Council, to that extent the centre of +executive stability is displaced and the door is opened to that constant +interference from home in the details of Indian administration which is +all the more to be deprecated if there appear to be any suspicion of +party pressure. Lord Morley has so often and so courageously stood up +for sound principles of Indian government against the fierce attacks of +the extreme wing of his party, and he has shown, on the whole, so much +moderation and insight in his larger schemes of constructive +statesmanship, whilst Lord Minto has won for himself so much personal +regard during a very difficult period, that criticism may appear +invidious. But the tone adopted, especially during the first years of +Lord Morley's administration, in official replies to insidious +Parliamentary questions aimed at Indian administrators, the alacrity +with which they were transmitted from the India Office to Calcutta, the +acquiescence with which they were received there, and the capital made +out of them by political agitators when they were spread broadcast over +India contributed largely to undermine the principle of authority upon +which, as Lord Morley has himself admitted, Indian government must rest. +For the impression was thus created in India that there was no detail of +Indian administration upon which an appeal might not be successfully +made through Parliament to the Secretary of State over the head of the +Government of India. Now if, as Lord Morley has also admitted, +Parliamentary government is inconceivable in India, it is equally +inconceivable that Indian government can be carried on under a running +fire of malevolent or ignorant criticism from a Parliament 6,000 miles +away. That is certainly not the sort of Parliamentary control +contemplated in the legislative enactments which guarantee the "ultimate +responsibility" of the Secretary of State. + +At the same time the effacement of the Viceroy's Executive Council has +weakened that collective authority of the Government of India without +which its voice must fail to carry full weight in Whitehall. Every +experienced Anglo-Indian administrator, for instance, had been quick to +realize what were bound to be the consequences of the unbridled licence +of the extremist Press and of an openly seditious propaganda. Yet the +Government of India under Lord Minto lacked the cohesion necessary to +secure the sanction of the Secretary of State to adequate legislative +action, repugnant to party traditions at home, until we had already +begun to reap the bloody harvest of an exaggerated tolerance, and with +the Viceroy himself the views of the ruling chiefs seem to have carried +greater weight in urging action on the Secretary of State than the +opinions recorded at a much earlier date by men entitled to his +confidence and entrusted under his orders with the administration of +British India. + +Even if one could always be certain of having men of transcendent +ability at the India Office and at Government House in Calcutta, it is +impossible that they should safely dispense with the permanent +corrective to their personal judgment and temperament--not to speak of +outside pressure--which their respective Councils have been created by +law to supply. Let us take first of all the case of the Viceroy. His +position as the head of the Government of India may be likened to that +of the Prime Minister at home, and the position of the Viceroy's +Executive Council to that of the Ministers who, as heads of the +principal executive Departments, form the Cabinet over which the Prime +Minister presides. But no head of the Executive at home stands so much +in need of capable and experienced advisers as the Viceroy, who +generally goes out to India without any personal knowledge of the vast +sub-continent and the 300 million people whom he is sent out to govern +for five years with very far-reaching powers, and often without any +administrative experience, though he has to take charge of the most +complicated administrative machine in the world. Even when he has gone +out to India, his opportunities of getting to know the country and its +peoples are actually very scant. He spends more than six months of the +year at Simla, an essentially European and ultra-official hill-station +perched up in the clouds and entirely out of touch with Indian life, and +another four months he spends in Calcutta, which, again, is only +partially Indian, or, at any rate, presents but one aspect of the +many-sided life of India. It takes a month for the great public +departments to transport themselves and their archives from Calcutta to +Simla at the beginning of the hot weather, and another month in the +autumn for the pilgrimage back from the hills to Calcutta. It is only +during these two months that the Viceroy can travel about freely and +make himself acquainted with other parts of the vast Dependency +committed to his care, and, though railways have shortened distances, +rapid journeys in special trains with great ceremonial programmes at +every halting point scarcely afford the same opportunities as the more +leisurely progress of olden days, when the Governor-General's camp, as +it moved from place to place, was open to visitors from the whole +surrounding country. Moreover, the machinery of administration grows +every year more ponderous and complicated, and the Viceroy, unless he is +endowed with an almost superhuman power and quickness of work, is apt to +find himself entangled in the meshes of never-ending routine. It is in +order to supply the knowledge and experience which a Viceroy in most +cases lacks when he first goes out, and in some cases is never able to +acquire during his whole tenure of office, that his Executive Council is +so constituted, in theory and as far as possible in practice, that it +combines with administrative experience in the several Departments over +which members respectively preside such a knowledge collectively of the +whole of India that the Viceroy can rely upon expert advice and +assistance in the transaction of public business and, not least, in +applying with due regard for Indian conditions the principles of policy +laid down for his guidance by the Home Government. These were the +grounds upon which Lord Morley justified the appointment to the +Viceroy's Executive Council of an Indian member who, besides being +thoroughly qualified to take charge of the special portfolio entrusted +to him, would bring into Council a special and intimate knowledge of +native opinion and sentiment. These are the grounds upon which, by the +way, Lord Morley cannot possibly justify the appointment of Mr. Clark as +Member for Commerce and Industry, for a young subordinate official, +however brilliant, of an English public Department cannot bring into the +Viceroy's Executive Council either special or general knowledge of +Indian affairs. Such an appointment must to that extent weaken rather +than strengthen the Government of India. + +The same arguments which apply in India to the conjunction of the +Governor-General with his Council apply, _mutatis mutandis_, with +scarcely less force to the importance of the part assigned to the +Council of India as advisers of the Secretary of State at the India +Office. + +If we look at the Morley-Minto _régime_ from another point of view, it +is passing strange that the tendency to concentrate the direction of +affairs in India in the hands of the Viceroy and to subject the Viceroy +in turn to the closer and more immediate control of the Secretary of +State, whilst simultaneously diminishing _pro tanto_ the influence of +their respective Councils, should have manifested itself just at this +time, when it is Lord Morley who presides over the India Office. For no +statesman has ever proclaimed a more ardent belief in the virtues of +decentralization than Lord Morley, and Lord Morley himself is largely +responsible for legislative reforms which will not only strengthen the +hands of the provincial Governments in their dealings with the +Government of India, but will enable and, indeed, force the Government +of India to assume on many vital questions an attitude of increased +independence towards the Imperial Government. The more we are determined +to govern India in accordance with Indian ideas and with Indian +interests, the more we must rely upon a strong, intelligent, and +self-reliant Government of India. The peculiar conditions of India +exclude the possibility of Indian self-government on colonial lines, but +what we may, and probably must, look forward to at no distant date is +that, with the larger share in legislation and administration secured to +Indians by such measures as the Indian Councils Act, the Government of +India will speak with growing authority as the exponent of the best +Indian opinion within the limits compatible with the maintenance of +British rule, and that its voice will therefore ultimately carry +scarcely less weight at home in the determination of Indian policy than +the voice of our self-governing Dominions already carries in all +questions concerning their internal development. + +The future of India lies in the greatest possible decentralization in +India subject to the general, but unmeddlesome, control of the +Governor-General in Council, and in the greatest possible freedom of the +Government of India from all interference from home, except in regard to +those broad principles of policy which it must always rest with the +Imperial Government, represented by the Secretary of State in Council, +to determine. It is only in that way that, to use one of Mr. Montagu's +phrases, we can hope successfully to "yoke" to our own "democratic" +system "a Government so complex and irresponsible to the peoples which +it governs as the Government of India." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +CONCLUSIONS. + + +No Viceroy has for fifty years gone out to India at so critical a moment +as that at which Lord Hardinge of Penshurst is about to take up the +reins of government. In one respect only is he more favoured than most +of his predecessors. The Anglo-Russian agreement, of which he himself +helped to lay the foundations when he was Ambassador at St. Petersburg, +has removed the greatest of all the dangers that threatened the external +security of India and the peace of Central Asia during the greater part +of the nineteenth century. It does not, however, follow that the +Government of India can look forward with absolute confidence to +continued immunity from all external troubles. Save for the Tibetan +expedition and one or two small punitive expeditions against Pathan +tribes, there have been no military operations on the Indian frontier +since the Terai campaign was brought to a close in 1898. But signs are, +unfortunately, not wanting of a serious recrudescence of restlessness on +the North-West Frontier, where the very necessary measures taken to cut +off supplies of arms from the Persian Gulf have contributed to stimulate +the chronic turbulence of the unruly tribesmen. There is no definite +evidence at present that they are receiving direct encouragement from +Cabul, but it is at least doubtful whether the somewhat exaggerated +deference shown to the Ameer on the occasion of his visit three years +ago to India has permanently improved our relations with him, and though +he is no longer able to play off Russia and England against each other, +he has not yet brought himself to signify his adhesion to the Convention +which defined our understanding with Russia in regard to Afghan affairs. +The condition of Persia, and especially of the southern provinces, has +created a situation which cannot be indefinitely tolerated, whilst the +provocative temper displayed by the Turkish authorities under the new +_régime_ at various points on the Persian Gulf is only too well +calculated to produce unpleasant complications, however anxious we must +be to avoid them, if only in view of the feeling which any estrangement +between Mahomedan Powers and Great Britain inevitably produces amongst +Indian Moslems. The high-handed action of China in Tibet, and, indeed, +all along the north-eastern borderland of our Indian Empire, has +introduced a fresh element of potential trouble which the Government of +India cannot safely disregard, for we are bound not only to protect our +own frontiers, but also to safeguard the interests of Nepal and Bhutan, +where, as well as in Sikkim, the fate of Tibet and the flight of the +Dalai Lama have caused no slight perturbation. In Nepal especially, +which is one of the most valuable recruiting grounds of the Indian Army, +Chinese ascendency cannot be allowed to overshadow British influence. +Lord Hardinge is by profession a peacemaker, and how efficient a +peacemaker he proved himself to be at St. Petersburg during the +Russo-Japanese war will only be fully known when the historian has +access to the secret records of that critical period of Anglo-Russian +relations. But it must not be forgotten that the maintenance of peace +along such a vast and still largely unsettled borderland as that of +India may at any moment be frustrated by disturbing forces over which +the most peacefully disposed Viceroy has little or no control. + +Peace and sound finance, which is inseparable from peace, have certainly +never been more essential to India than at the present juncture. For +without them the difficulty of solving the most absorbing and urgent of +the internal problems of India will be immeasurably enhanced. There is a +lull in the storm of unrest, but after the repeated disappointments to +which official optimism has been subjected within the last few years, he +would be a sanguine prophet who would venture to assert that this lull +presages a permanent return to more normal conditions. Has the creation +of a new political machinery which gives a vastly enlarged scope to the +activities of Indian constitutional reformers, definitely rallied the +waverers and restored courage and confidence to the representatives of +sober and law-abiding opinion, or will they continue to follow the lead +of impatient visionaries clamouring, as Lord Morley once put it, for the +moon which we cannot give them? Have the forces of aggressive +disaffection been actually disarmed by the so-called measures of +"repression," or have they merely been compelled for the time being to +cover their tracks and modify their tactics, until the relaxation of +official vigilance or the play of party politics in England or some +great international crisis opens up a fresh opportunity for militant +sedition? To these momentous questions the next five years will +doubtless go far to furnish a conclusive answer, and it will be +determined in no small measure by the statesmanship, patience, and +firmness which Lord Hardinge will bring to the discharge of the +constitutional functions assigned to him as Viceroy--i.e., as the +personal representative of the King Emperor, and as Governor-General in +Council--i.e., as the head of the Government of India. + +I have attempted, however imperfectly, to trace to their sources some of +the chief currents and cross-currents of the great confused movement +which is stirring the stagnant waters of Indian life--the steady impact +of alien ideas on an ancient and obsolescent civilization; the more or +less imperfect assimilation of those ideas by the few; the dread and +resentment of them by those whose traditional ascendency they threaten; +the disintegration of old beliefs, and then again their aggressive +revival; the careless diffusion of an artificial system of education, +based none too firmly on mere intellectualism, and bereft of all moral +or religious sanction; the application of Western theories of +administration and of jurisprudence to a social formation stratified on +lines of singular rigidity; the play of modern economic forces upon +primitive conditions of industry and trade; the constant and unconscious +but inevitable friction between subject races and their alien rulers; +the reverberation of distant wars and distant racial conflicts; the +exaltation of an Oriental people in the Far East; the abasement of +Asiatics in South Africa--all these and many other conflicting +influences culminating in the inchoate revolt of a small but very active +minority which, on the one hand, frequently disguises under an appeal to +the example and sympathy of Western democracy a reversion to the old +tyranny of caste and to the worst superstitions of Hinduism, and, on the +other hand, arms, with the murderous methods of Western Anarchism, the +fervour of Eastern mysticism compounded in varying proportions of +philosophic transcendentalism and degenerate sensuousness. + +In so far as this movement is directed to the immediate subversion of +British rule, we need not exaggerate its importance, unless the British +Empire were involved in serious complications elsewhere which might +encourage the seditious elements in India to break out into open +rebellion. We are too often, in fact, inclined to underrate the strength +of the foundations upon which our rule rests. For it alone lends--and +can within any measurable time lend--substantial reality to the mere +geographical expression which India is. A few Indians may dream of a +united India under Indian rule, but the dream is as wild to-day as that +of the few European Socialists who dream of the United States of Europe. +India has never approached to political unity any more than Europe has, +except under the compulsion of a conqueror. For India and Europe are +thus far alike that they are both geographically self-contained +continents, but inhabited by a great variety of nations whose different +racial and religious affinities, whose different customs and traditions, +tend to divide them far more than any interests they may have in common +tend to unite them. We have got too much into the habit of talking about +India and the Indians as if they were one country and one people, and we +too often forget that there are far more absolutely distinct languages +spoken in India than in Europe; that there are far more profound racial +differences between the Mahratta and the Bengalee than between the +German and the Portuguese, or between the Punjabee and the Tamil than +between the Russian and the Italian; that, not to speak of other creeds, +the religious antagonism between Hindu and Mahomedan is often more +active than any that exists to-day between Protestants and Roman +Catholics, even, let us say, in Ulster; and that caste has driven into +Indian society lines of far deeper cleavage than any class distinctions +that have survived in Europe. + +We do not rule India, as is sometimes alleged, by playing off one race +or one creed against another and by accentuating and fostering these +ancient divisions, but we are able to rule because our rule alone +prevents these ancient divisions from breaking out once more into open +and sanguinary strife. British rule is the form of government that +divides Indians the least. The majority of intelligent and sober-minded +Indians who have a stake in the country welcome it and support it +because they feel it to be the only safeguard against the clash of rival +races and creeds, which would ultimately lead to the oppressive +ascendency of some one race or creed; and the great mass of the +population yield to it an inarticulate and instinctive acquiescence +because it gives them a greater measure of security, justice, and +tranquillity than their forbears ever enjoyed. + +There are only two forces that aspire to substitute themselves for +British rule, or at least to make the continuance of British rule +subservient to their own ascendency. One is the ancient and reactionary +force of Brahmanism, which, having its roots in the social and religious +system we call Hinduism, operates upon a very large section--but still +only a section--of the population who are Hindus. The other is a modern +and, in its essence, progressive force generated by Western education, +which operates to some extent over the whole area of India, but only +upon an infinitesimal fraction of the population recruited among a few +privileged castes. Its only real _nexus_ is a knowledge, often very +superficial, of the English language and of English political +institutions. Though both these forces have developed of late years a +spirit of revolt against British rule, neither of them has in itself +sufficient substance to be dangerous. The one is too old, the other too +young. But the most rebellious elements in both have effected a +temporary and unnatural alliance on the basis of an illusory +"Nationalism" which appeals to nothing in Indian history, but is +calculated and meant to appeal with dangerous force to Western sentiment +and ignorance. + +It rests with us to break up that unnatural alliance. We may not +reconcile aggressive Brahmanism to Western civilization, but we can +combat the evil influences for which it stands and which many +enlightened Brahmans have long since recognized; and we can combat them +most effectively by rallying to our side the better and more progressive +elements which, in spite of its many imperfections, Western education +and the contact with Western civilization have already produced. To that +end we must shrink from no sacrifices to improve our methods of +education. The evils for which we have to find remedies have been of +slow growth, and they can only be slowly cured. But they can be cured by +patient and sustained effort, and by carrying courageously into practice +the principle, which none of us will challenge in theory, that the +formation of character on a sound moral basis, inseparable in India from +a sound religious basis, is at least as important a part of the +educational process as the development of the intellect. + +That, however, is not all. If we are to save and to foster the better +elements, we must stamp out the worse. Do not let us be frightened by +mere words. To talk, as some do, of the Indian Press being "gagged" by +the new Press Act is absurd. It is as free to-day as it has always been +to criticize Government as fully and fearlessly, and, one may add, often +as unjustly, as party newspapers in this country are wont to criticize +the Government of the day. It is no longer free to preach revolution and +murder with the cynical audacity shown in some of the quotations I have +given various Nationalist organs. "Repression" in India, whether of the +seditious press, or of secret societies, or of unlawful meetings, means +nothing more cruel or oppressive than the application of surgery to +diseased growths which threaten to infect the whole organism--and +especially so immature and sensitive an organism as the +semi-Westernized, semi-educated section of Indian society to-day +represents. This surgical treatment will probably also have to be +patient and sustained, for here too we have to deal with evils of no +sudden growth, though some of their worst outward manifestations have +come suddenly upon us. Even if the improvement be more rapid than we +have any right to expect, do not let us throw away our surgical +instruments, but rather preserve them against any possible relapse. We +have to remember not only what we owe to ourselves, but what we owe +equally to the many well-meaning but timid Indians who look to us for +protection against the insidious forms of terrorism to which the +disaffected minority can subject them[24]. The number of our active +enemies may be few, but great is the number of our friends who are of +opinion that we are more anxious to conciliate the one sinner who may or +may not repent than to encourage the 99 just who persevere. + +We want the Western-educated Indian. We have made him, and we cannot +unmake him if we would. But we must see that he is a genuine product of +the best that Western education can give, and not merely an Indian who +can speak English and adapt his speech to English ears in order to lend +plausibility to the revival in new forms of ancient religious or social +tyrannies. We must remember also that even the best type of +Western-educated Indian only speaks at present for a minute section of +the population of India, and that, when he does not speak, as he often +naturally does, merely in the interests of the small class which he +represents, he has not yet by any means proved his title to speak for +the scores of millions of his fellow-countrymen who are still living in +the undisturbed atmosphere of the Indian Middle Ages. One of the dangers +we have to guard against is that, because the Western-educated Indian is +to the stay-at-home Englishman, and even to the Englishman whose +superficial knowledge of India is confined to brief visits to the chief +cities of India, the most, and indeed the only, articulate Indian, we +should regard him as the only or the most authoritative mouthpiece of +the needs and wishes of other classes or of the great mass of his +fellow-countrymen with whom he is often in many ways in less close touch +than the Englishman who lives in their midst. + +The weak point of the recent political reforms is that they were +intended to benefit, not wholly, but mainly, that particular class. In +so far as they may help to satisfy the legitimate aspirations of the +moderate Indian politician they deserve praise; and in that respect, as +far as one can judge at this very early stage, they are not without +promise. In effect they have also helped to give other important +interests opportunities of organization and expression. Apart from the +great Mahomedan community, whose political aspirations are largely +different from, and opposed to, those of Hinduism, there are +agricultural interests, always of supreme importance in such a country +as India, and industrial and commercial interests of growing importance +which cannot be adequately represented by the average Indian politician +who is chiefly recruited from the towns and from, professions that have +little or no knowledge of or sympathy with them. The politician, for +instance, is too often a lawyer, and he has thriven upon a system of +jurisprudence and legal procedure which we have imported into India with +the best intentions, but with results that have sometimes been simply +disastrous to a thriftless and litigious people. Hence the suspicion and +dislike entertained by large numbers of quiet, respectable Indians for +any political institutions that tend to increase the influence of the +Indian _vakeel_ and of the class he represents. Our object, therefore, +both in the education and in the political training of Indians, should +be to divert the activities of the new Western-educated classes into +economic channels which would broaden their own horizon, and to give +greater encouragement and recognition to the interests of the very large +and influential classes that hold entirely aloof from politics but look +to us for guidance and help in the development of the material resources +of the country. We have their support at present, but to retain it we +must carefully avoid creating the impression that political agitation is +the only lever that acts effectively upon Government, and that in the +relations of India and Great Britain--and especially in their fiscal and +financial relations--the exigencies of party politics at home and the +material interests of the predominant partner must invariably prevail. + +Whilst, subject to the maintenance of effective executive control, we +have extended and must continue steadily to extend the area of civil +employment for Indians in the service of the State, there would +certainly seem to be room also for affording them increased +opportunities of military employment. It is a strange anomaly that, at a +time when we have no hesitation in introducing Indians into our +Executive Councils, those who serve the King-Emperor in the Indian Army +can only rise to quite subordinate rank. A good deal has no doubt been +done to improve the quality of the native officer from the point of view +of military education, but, under present conditions, the Indian Army +does not offer a career that can attract Indians of good position, +though it is just among the landed aristocracy and gentry of India that +military traditions are combined with the strongest traditions of +loyalty. By the creation of an Imperial Cadet Corps Lord Curzon took a +step in the right direction which was warmly welcomed at the time, but +has received very little encouragement since his departure from India. +Something more than that seems to be wanted to-day. Some of the best +military opinion in India favours, I believe, an experimental scheme for +the gradual promotion of native officers, carefully selected and +trained, to field rank in a certain number of regiments which would +ultimately be entirely officered by Indians--just in the same way as a +certain number of regiments in the Egyptian Army have always been wholly +officered by Egyptians. Indeed, we need not go outside India to find +even now, in the Native States, Indian forces exclusively officered by +Indians. The effect upon the whole Native Army of some such measure as I +have indicated would be excellent; and though we could never hope to +retain India merely by the sword against the combined hostility of its +various peoples, the Native Army must always be a factor of first-rate +importance, both for the prevention and the repression of any spasmodic +outbreak of revolt. It is no secret that reiterated attempts have been +made to shake its loyalty, and in some isolated cases not altogether +without success. But the most competent authorities, whilst admitting +the need for vigilance, deprecate any serious alarm, and it is all to +the good that British officers no longer indulge in the blind optimism +which prevailed among those of the old Sepoy regiments before the +Mutiny. + +One point which Englishmen are apt to forget, and which has been rather +lost sight of In the recent political reforms, is that more than a fifth +of the population of our Indian Empire--about one third of its total +area--is under the direct administration not of the Government of India, +but of the Ruling Chiefs. They represent great traditions and great +interests, which duty and statesmanship equally forbid us to ignore. The +creation of an Imperial Council, in which they would have sat with +representatives of the Indian aristocracy of British India, was an +important feature of the original scheme of reforms proposed by the +Government of India. It was abandoned for reasons of which I am not +concerned to dispute the validity. But the idea underlying it was +unquestionably sound, and Lord Minto acted upon it when he drew the +Ruling Chiefs into consultation as to the prevention of sedition. Some +means will have to be found to embody it in a more regular and permanent +shape. If we were to attempt to introduce what are called democratic +methods into the government of British India without seeking the +adhesion and support of the feudatory Princes, we should run a grave +risk of estranging one of the most loyal and conservative forces in the +Indian Empire. The administrative autonomy of the native States is +sometimes put forward as an argument in favour of the self-government +which Indian politicians demand. It Is an argument based on complete +ignorance. With one or two exceptions, far more apparent than real, the +Native States are governed by patriarchal methods, which may be +thoroughly suited to the traditions and needs of their subjects, but are +much further removed than the methods of government in British India +from the professed aspirations of the Indian National Congress. Just as +the Ruling Chiefs rightly complained of the effect upon their own people +of the seditious literature imported into their States from British +India before we were at last induced to check the output of the +"extremist" Press, so they would be justified in resenting any grave +political changes in British India which would react dangerously upon +their own position and their relations with their own subjects. When we +talk of governing India in accordance with Indian ideas, we cannot +exclude the ideas of the very representative and influential class of +Indians to which none are better qualified to give expression than the +Ruling Chiefs. One further suggestion. The policy of annexation has long +since been abandoned, and the question to-day is whether we might not go +further and give ruling powers to a few great chiefs of approved loyalty +and high character, who possess in British India estates more populous +and important than those of many whom we have always recognized as +Ruling Chiefs. The objections to so novel a departure are, I know, +serious, and may be overwhelming--foremost among them being the +reluctance hitherto shown by the people themselves whenever, for +purposes of administrative convenience, any slight readjustment of +boundaries has been proposed that involved the transfer to a native +State of even a few villages until then under British Administration. + +The political reforms with which Lord Minto's Viceroyalty will remain +identified are only just on their trial. All that can safely be said at +present is that they are full of promise, and it would be rash to +predict whether and when it may be safe to proceed further in the +direction to which, they point. It is difficult even to say yet awhile +what share they have had, independently of the "repressive" measures +that accompanied them, in stemming at least temporarily the tide of +active sedition. Time is required to mature their fruits whether for +good or for evil. One may hope that, though they address themselves +only to the political elements of the present unrest, they will tend to +facilitate the treatment of the economic and social factors of the +Indian problem. It is these that now chiefly and most urgently claim the +attention of the British rulers of India. To rescue education from its +present unhealthy surroundings and to raise it on to a higher plane +whilst making it more practical, to promote the industrial and +commercial expansion of India so as to open up new fields for the +intellectual activity of educated Indians, to strengthen the old ties +and to create new ones that shall bind the ancient conservative as well +as the modern progressive forces of Indian society to the British _Raj_ +by an enlightened sense of self-interest are slower and more arduous +tasks and demand more patient and sustained statesmanship than any +adventures in constitutional changes. But it is only by the successful +achievement of such tasks that we can expect to retain the loyal +acquiescence of the Princes and peoples of India in the maintenance of +British rule. + +The sentiment of reverence for the Crown is widespread and deep-rooted +among all races and creeds in India[25]. It is perhaps the one tradition +common to all. It went out spontaneously to Queen Victoria, whose length +of years and widowed isolation appealed with a peculiar sense of lofty +and pathetic dignity to the imagination of her Indian peoples. It has +been materially reinforced by the pride of personal acquaintance, since +India has been twice honoured with the presence of the immediate +successor to the Throne. The late King's visit to India has not yet +faded from the memory of the older generation, and that of the present +King-Emperor and his gracious Consort is, of course, still fresh in the +recollection of all. How powerful is the hold which the majesty of the +Crown exercises upon Princes and peoples in India was very strikingly +shown by the calming effect, however temporary, which the presence of +the Prince and Princess of Wales had in Bengal four years ago, at the +very moment when political agitation in that province was developing +into almost open sedition; and it was shown once more this year by the +hush of subdued grief that passed over the whole of India at the sudden +news of King Edward's death. Only such rabid papers as Tilak's old +organ, the _Kesari_, ventured an attempt to counteract the deep +impression produced by that lamentable event, and it could only attempt +to do so, very ineffectively, by a spiteful and ignorant depreciation of +the position and personality of the Sovereign, and of the part played by +him in a Western democracy. + +In spite of the traditional prestige attaching to the Crown, we cannot, +however, reasonably look for loyalty from India in the sense in which we +look for it from our own people or from our kinsmen beyond the seas. +There can never be between Englishmen and Indians the same community of +historical traditions, of racial affinity, of social institutions, of +customs and beliefs that exists between people of our own stock +throughout the British Empire. The absence of these sentimental bonds, +which cannot be artificially forged, makes it impossible that we should +ever concede to India the rights of self-government which we have +willingly conceded to the great British communities of our own race. And +there is another and scarcely less cogent reason. The justification of +our presence in India is that it gives peace and security to all the +various races and creeds which make up one-fifth of the population of +this globe. To introduce self-government into India would necessarily be +to hand it over to the ascendency of the strongest. That we are debarred +from doing by the very terms on which we hold India, and that is what +Lord Morley must have had in his mind, when, in supporting the Indian +Councils Act last year, he specifically excluded all possibility of such +assemblies ever leading to the establishment of Parliamentary government +in India. The sooner that is made perfectly clear the better. But just +because executive self-government is inconceivable in India so long as +British rule is maintained, we must recognize the special +responsibility that consequently devolves upon us not only to do many +things for India which we do not attempt to do for our self-governing +Dominions, but, above all, not to force upon India things which we +should not dream of forcing upon them, and especially in matters in +which British material interests may appear to be closely concerned. We +must continue to govern India as the greatest of the dependencies of the +British Crown, but we must do our utmost to satisfy Indians of all +classes and castes and beliefs that we govern them as none of their race +could govern them, with an equal and absolutely impartial regard for all +law-abiding communities, with an intelligent appreciation of their +peculiar interests, and with genuine consideration for all their ideas, +so long as those ideas are compatible with the maintenance and security +of British rule. + + * * * * * + +The retirement of Lord Morley has been announced just as these last +pages are going to press. The announcement has been received with +genuine and widespread regret at home, where criticism of certain +details and aspects of his administration has never detracted from a +genuine recognition of the lofty sense of duty and broad and courageous +statesmanship which he has displayed throughout a very critical period +in the history of our Indian Empire. It will assuredly be received with +the same feeling in India by all those who have at heart the destinies +of the British _Raj_ and the interests of the countless peoples +committed to our charge. Lord Morley's tenure of office will remain for +all times memorable in Anglo-Indian annals. He has set for the Indian +ship of State a new course upon which she will be kept with increasing +confidence in the future if we keep steadily before us the wise words +which, with his own singular felicity of speech, he addressed two years +ago to the Indian Civil Service:--"We have a clouded moment before us +now. We shall get through it--but only with self-command and without any +quackery or cant, whether it be the quackery of blind violence disguised +as love of order, or the cant of unsound and misapplied sentiment, +divorced from knowledge and untouched by any cool consideration of +facts." + + + + +NOTES + +NOTE 1. + +THE NATIVE PRESS. + +Not a single Indian member of the Imperial Council made any serious +attempt to controvert the following description given by Sir Herbert +Risley of the demoralization of the native Press when he introduced the +new Press Bill on February 4, 1910:--We see the most influential and +widely-read portion of the Indian Press incessantly occupied in +rendering the Government by law established odious in the sight of the +Indian people. The Government is foreign, and therefore selfish and +tyrannical. It drains the country of its wealth; it has impoverished the +people, and brought about famine on a scale and with a frequency unknown +before; its public works, roads, railways, and canals have generated +malaria; it has introduced plague, by poisoning wells, in order to +reduce the population that has to be held in subjection it has deprived +the Indian peasant of his land; the Indian artisan of his industry, and +the Indian merchant of his trade; it has destroyed religion by its +godless system of education; it seeks to destroy caste by polluting +maliciously and of set purpose, the salt and sugar that men eat and the +cloth that they wear; it allows Indians to be ill-treated in British +Colonies; it levies heavy taxes and spends them on the army; it pays +high salaries to Englishmen, and employs Indians only in the worst paid +posts--in short, it has enslaved a whole people, who are now struggling +to be free. + +My enumeration may not be exhaustive but these are some of the +statements that are now being implanted as axioms in the minds of rising +generation of educated youths, the source from which we recruit the +great body of civil officials who administer India. If nothing more were +said, if the Press were content to-- + +"let the lie Have time on its own wings to fly" things would be bad +enough. But very much more is said. Every day the Press proclaims, +openly or by suggestion or allusion, that the only cure for the ills of +India is independence from foreign rule, independence to be won by +heroic deeds, self-sacrifice, martyrdom on the part of the young, in any +case by some form of violence. Hindu mythology, ancient and modern +history, and more especially the European literature of revolution, are +ransacked to furnish examples that justify revolt and proclaim its +inevitable success. The methods of guerilla warfare as practised in +Circassia, Spain, and South Africa; Mazzini's gospel of political +assassination; Kossuth's most violent doctrines; the doings of Russian +Nihilists; the murder of the Marquis Ito; the dialogue between Arjuna +and Krishna in the "Gita," a book that is to Hindus what the "Imitation +of Christ" is to emotional Christians--all these are pressed into the +service of inflaming impressionable minds. The last instance is perhaps +the worst. I can imagine no more wicked desecration than that the +sacrilegious hand of the Anarchist should be laid upon the Indian song +of songs, and that a masterpiece of transcendental philosophy and +religious ecstasy should be perverted to the base uses of preaching +political murder. + +The consequences of this ever-flowing stream of slander and incitement +to outrage are now upon us. What was dimly foreseen a few years ago has +actually come to pass. We are at the present moment confronted with a +murderous conspiracy, whose aim it is to subvert the Government of the +country and to make British rule impossible by establishing general +terrorism. Their organization is effective and far-reaching; their +numbers are believed to be considerable; the leaders work in secret and +are blindly obeyed by their youthful followers. The method they favour +at present is political assassination; the method of Mazzini in his +worst moods. Already they have a long score of murders or attempted +murders to their account. There were two attempts to blow up Sir Andrew +Fraser's train and one, of the type with which we are now unhappily +familiar, to shoot him on a public occasion. Two attempts were made to +murder Mr. Kingsford, one of which caused the death of two English +ladies. Inspector Nanda Lal Banerji, Babu Ashutosh Biswas, the Public +Prosecutor at Alipore, Sir William Curzon-Wyllie, Mr. Jackson, and only +the other day Deputy Supdt. Shams-ul-Alum have been shot in the most +deliberate and cold-blooded fashion. Of three informers two have been +killed, and on the third vengeance has been taken by the murder of his +brother in the sight of his mother and sisters. Mr. Allen, the +magistrate of Dacca, was shot through the lungs and narrowly escaped +with his life. Two picric acid bombs were thrown at His Excellency the +Viceroy at Ahmedabad, and only failed to explode by reason of their +faulty construction. Not long afterwards an attempt was made with a bomb +on the Deputy Commissioner of Umballa. + +These things are the natural and necessary consequence of the teachings +of certain journals. They have prepared the soil in which anarchy +flourishes; they have sown the seed and they are answerable for the +crop. This is no mere general statement; the chain of causation is +clear. Not only does the campaign of violence date from the change in +the tone of the Press, but specific outbursts of incitement have been +followed by specific outrages. + +And now, Sir, I appeal to the Council in the name of all objects that +patriotic Indians have at heart to give their cordial approval to this +Bill. It is called for in the interests of the State, of our officers +both Indian and European, and most of all of the rising generation of +young men. In this matter, indeed, the interests of the State and the +interests of the people are one and the same. If it is good for India +that British rule should continue, it is equally essential that the +relations between Government and the educated community should be +cordial and intimate, and that cannot long be the case if the organs of +that community lay themselves out to embitter those relations in every +sort of way and to create a permanent atmosphere of latent and often +open hostility. In the long run people will believe what they are told, +if they are told it often enough, and if they hear nothing on the other +side. There is plenty of work in India waiting to be done, but it will +be done, if the energies of the educated classes are wasted in incessant +abuse and suspicion of Government. As regards the officers of Government +the case is clear. At all costs they must be protected from intimidation +and worse. And it is our Indian officials who stand in most need of +protection, for they are most exposed to the danger. The detailed work +of investigation and detection necessarily falls upon them, and they are +specially vulnerable through their families. They have done most +admirable work during the troubles of the last few years, and have +displayed under most trying conditions courage and loyalty that are +beyond all praise. We are bound in honour to protect them from threats +of murder and outrage which sooner or later bring about their own +fulfilment. + +To my mind, Sir, the worst feature of the present situation is the +terrible influence that the Press exercises upon the student class. I +was talking about this about a month ago with a distinguished Indian who +is in close touch with schools and colleges in Bengal. He took a most +gloomy view of the present state of things and the prospects of the +immediate future. According to him the younger generation had got +entirely out of hand, and many of them had become criminal fanatics +uncontrollable by their parents or their masters. + +I believe. Sir, that this Bill will prove to be a wholesome and +beneficial measure of national education, that it will in course of time +prevent a number of young men from drifting into evil courses and +ruining their prospects in life, and that in passing it this Council +will earn the lasting gratitude of many thousands of Indian parents. + +NOTE 2 + +THE SUPERIORITY OF HINDU CIVILIZATION. In an "Open Letter to his +Countrymen," published at the Sri Narayan Press in Calcutta, Mr. +Arabindo Ghose has in so many words proclaimed the superiority of Hindu +to Western civilization. "We reject," he writes, "the claim of aliens to +force upon us a civilization inferior to our own or to keep us out of +our inheritance on the untenable ground of a superior fitness." + +NOTE 3 + +SEDITIOUS PLAYS. + +One of the most popular of these plays is _The Killing of Kichaka +(Kichaka-vadd)_. The author, Mr. Khadilkar, was assistant editor of the +_Kesari_ until Tilak was arrested and convicted in 1908, and he then +took over the chief editorship. The play has been acted all over the +Deccan as well as in Bombay City to houses packed with large native +audiences. The following account of it appeared in _The Times_ of +January 18 last: Founded upon the Mahabharata, _The Killing of Kichaka_ +seems at first sight a purely classical drama. It will be remembered by +Oriental students that Duryodhan, jealous of his cousin Yudhistira, +Emperor of Hastinapura and the eldest of the five Pandava brothers, +induced him to play at dice with a Court gambler called Sakuni. To him +the infatuated monarch lost his wealth, his kingdom, his own and his +brother's freedom, and lastly that of Draupadi, the wife of all the +brothers. Eventually, at the intercession of Duryodhan's father, it was +agreed that the Emperor, in full settlement of his losses, should with +his brothers and Draupadi abandon Hastinapura to Duryodhan for 13 years. +Of these 12 were to be spent in the forest and one in disguise in some +distant city. Should, however, the disguise of any be penetrated, all +would be obliged to pass a further 12 years in the forest. When the 12 +years had expired, the brothers fixed on Viratnagar, the capital of +Virata, King of the Malyas, in which to spend their year of concealment. +Yudhistira took the name of Kankbhat, a professional dicer, and Bhima +that of Ballava, a professional cook. Under their pseudonyms all five +brothers obtained posts in the King's service, while Draupadi, styling +herself a _sairandhri_ or tirewoman, entered the service of the Queen +Sudeshna. Before the year of concealment ended Kichaka, the brother of +Queen Sudeshna and commander-in-chief of the Malya forces, returned from +a visit to Duryodhan at Hastinapura. Duryodhan had given him as presents +Yudhistira's regalia and Draupadi's jewels, and Kichaka boasted that, as +Duryodhan's friend, he would one after the other kill the five Pandavas +in single combat and then wed their queen. While telling King Virata's +Court of his reception, his eye fell on Draupadi, and learning that she +was a _sairandhri_ and being struck with her beauty, he formally +requested the King Virata that she might be sent to his harem. The King +consenting, Yudhistira was faced with the dilemma of suffering his +queen's dishonour or of revealing his identity. Eventually his brother +Bhima solved the difficulty by secretly killing Kichaka. + +It is out of this story that Mr. Khadilkar has sought for the materials +of his play. It opens with the return of Kichaka to Viratnagar and his +passion for the beautiful _sairandhri_. The latter seeks in turn the +protection of the King and his queen, and of Kichaka's wife Ratnaprabha; +but Kichaka, who as commander-in-chief and on account of the number of +his followers is all-powerful in Malya, becomes daily more insistent. He +reminds the King of his past exploits, and threatens to leave his +service, taking his followers with him. Finally, Virata is driven to +make a feeble compromise. He will not himself hand over the _sairandhri_ +to Kichaka, but he will have her sent to a temple of Bairoba outside the +town, washing his hands of all responsibility as to subsequent events. +All this time the rescue of Draupadi has been repeatedly discussed +between Yudhistira and his brother Bhima. The former is all for mild +methods, feeling sure that justice will ultimately prevail. The mighty +Bhima wishes to strangle Kichaka regardless of consequences. At last +Bhima and Draupadi together extract from him a most reluctant +permission. Bhima goes secretly to the Bairoba temple, and removing from +its stand the god's idol, he takes its place. So hidden, he is present +when Draupadi, abandoned by the King's guards, is seized upon by +Kichaka. In vain Draupadi appeals to the latter for mercy. He laughs +alike at tears and menaces, and is about to carry her off in triumph +when the god Bairoba is seen to rise from his pedestal. It is Bhima. He +seizes the terrified Kichaka, hurls him to the floor, and strangles him +at Draupadi's feet. + +ITS ALLEGORICAL MEANING. + +These things are an allegory. Although his name is nowhere uttered on +the stage or mentioned in the printed play every one in the theatre +knows that Kichaka is really intended to be Lord Curzon, that Draupadi +is India, and that Yudhistira is the Moderate and Bhima the Extremist +Party. Every now and again unmistakable clues are provided. The +question, indeed, admits of no doubt, for since the play first appeared +in 1907 the whole Deccan has been blazoning forth the identity of the +characters. Once they have been recognized, the inner meaning of the +play becomes clear. A weak Government at home, represented by King +Virata, has given the Viceroy a free hand. He has made use of it to +insult and humiliate India. Of her two champions, the Moderates advocate +gentle--that is, constitutional--measures. The Extremists, out of +deference to the older party, agree, although satisfied of the +ineffectiveness of this course. Waiting until this has been +demonstrated, they adopt violent methods, and everything becomes easy. +The oppressor is disposed of without difficulty. His followers--namely, +the Anglo-Indians--are, as it is prophesied in the play and as narrated +in the Mahabharata, massacred with equal ease. And the Extremists boast +that, having freed their country, they will be able to defend it against +all invaders, thus averting the calamities which, according to Lord +Morley, would overtake India on the disappearance of the British. + +It may be said that all this is mere fooling. But no Englishman who has +seen the play acted would agree. All his life he will remember the +tense, scowling faces of the men as they watch Kichaka's outrageous +acts, the glistening eyes of the Brahmin ladies as they listen to +Draupadi's entreaties, their scorn of Yudhistira's tameness, their +admiration of Bhima's passionate protests, and the deep hum of +satisfaction which approves the slaughter of the tyrant. + +NOTE 4 + +SHIVAJI'S EXHORTATIONS. + +In the _Kesari_ just a week before the Poona murders, the following +verses were put into the mouth of Shivaji: + + "I delivered my country by establishing 'Swaraj' and saving religion. + I betook myself to the Paradise of Indra to shake off the great + exhaustion that came upon me from my labours. Why, O my beloved ones, + have you awakened me? I planted in the soil of Maharashtra virtues that + may be likened to the Kalpavriksha (one of the five trees of Indra's + Paradise that yields whatsoever may be desired); sublime policy based + on strong foundations, valour in the battlefield like that of Karma, + patriotism, genuine unselfishness, and unity, the best of all. ... Alas, + alas! all I see now is the ruin of my country. Those forts of mine to + build which I poured out money, to acquire which torrents of fiery blood + streamed forth, from which I sallied forth to victory roaring like a + lion--all those are crumbling away. What a desolation is this! + Foreigners are dragging out Lakshmi (the goddess of Good Fortune) by the + hand of persecution. Along with her Plenty has fled, and with Plenty, + Health. The wicked Akabaya (the goddess of Misfortune) stalks with + Famine at her side through the country, and relentless Death scatters + foul diseases." + + "Say, where are those splendid ones who promptly shed their blood + on the spot where my perspiration fell? They eat bread once in a day, + but not even enough of that. They toil through hard times by tightening + up their bellies. O People, how have you tolerated in the sacred places + the carrying off to prison of those holy preceptors, those religious + teachers of mine, those saintly Brahmans whom I protected--who, while + they devoted themselves to their religious practices in times of peace, + exchanged the Darbah (sacrificial grass) in their hands for weapons + which they used manfully when occasion required. The cow, the + foster-mother of babes when their mother leaves them, the mainstay of the + hard-worked peasant, the importer of strength to my people, whom I + worshipped as my mother and protected more than my life, is taken + daily to the slaughter-house and ruthlessly butchered by the + unbelievers.... How can I bear this heartrending spectacle? Have + all our leaders become like helpless figures on the chess-board? What + misfortune has overtaken the land!" + +NOTE 5 + +TILAK IN THE CIVIL COURTS. + +The Tai Maharaj case came up once more in September on the Appellate +side of the Bombay High Court on appeal against the decision of the +Lower Courts. It was contended on behalf of Tai Maharaj, the widow, that +her adoption of one Jagganath was invalid owing to the undue influence +brought to bear upon her at the time by Tilak and one of his friends and +political associates, Mr. G.S. Khaparde, who were executors under the +will of her husband, Shri Baba Maharajah. Mr. Justice Chandavarkar, in +the course of his judgment reversing the decisions of the Lower Courts, +said that on the one hand they had a young inexperienced widow, with a +right of ownership but ignorant of that right, and led to believe that +she was legally subject to the control of the executors of her husband's +will as regarded the management of the estate which she had by law +inherited from her son, prevented from going to Kolhapur even to attend +a marriage in a family of relations, and anxious to adopt a boy from +Kolhapur as far as possible. On the other hand they had two men of +influence learned in the law, taking her to an out-of-the-way place +ostensibly for the selection of a boy, and then, as it were, hustling +her there by representing that everything was within, their discretion, +and thereby forcing her to adopt their nominee. In these circumstances +they came to the conclusion that the adoption was not valid, because it +was brought about by means of undue influence exercised over Tai Maharaj +by both Tilak and Khaparde. + +Mr. Justice Chandavarkar is a Hindu Judge of the highest reputation, and +the effect of this judgment is extremely damaging to Tilak's private +reputation as a man of honour, or even of common honesty. + +NOTE 6 + +KHUDIRAM BOSE'S CONFESSION. + +A similar confession was made by Khudiram Bose, the author of the fatal +bomb outrage at Muzafferpur. When he was brought before the District +Magistrate on May 1, 1908, within twenty-four hours of the crime, he +stated: I came to Muzafferpur five or six days ago from Calcutta to kill +Mr. Kingsford. I came of my own initiative, having read in various +papers things which incited me to come to this determination. These +papers were the _Sandhya, Hitabadi, Jugantar_ and many others. They +wrote of great _Zoolum_ done to India by the English Government. Mr. +Kingsford's name was not specially mentioned, but I determined to kill +him because he put several men in gaol. Besides reading the papers I +heard the lectures of Bpin Pal, Surendranath Banerjee, Gisputty +Kabyatirtha, and others. There were lectures in Beadon-square and +College-square [in the student quarter of Calcutta], and they inspired +me to do this. There is also a Sanyasi who lectures in Beadon-square, +who is very strong. + +NOTE 7 + + +RELIGION AND POLITICS + +On this point a very important piece of evidence has been recently +produced in Court in the course of the Dacca Conspiracy trial. It is a +letter, of which the authenticity is beyond dispute, written by Mr. +Surendranath Banerjee to one of the extremist leaders, in which he +suggests means for carrying out the proposed celebration of the +"boycott" anniversary on August 7 in spite of the prohibition of public +meetings under the Seditious Meetings Act. "My suggestion," writes this +distinguished politician, who is also the head of Ripon College, one of +the most popular colleges in Calcutta, "is that you should organize a +religious ceremony on the 7th of August such as _Shakti-puja_ and +_Kali-puja_, and have _Swadeshi kalka_ or _jatra_ and _Swadeshi_ +conversation by having a sort of conference. Give a religious turn to +the movement. As for the Muhammedans, if you can get them to your side, +why not have a _wuz_ followed by _Swadeshi_ preaching? Kindly let me +know what you do. But something must be done." _Shakti_ rites and the +worship of Kali are associated with some of the most libidinous and +cruel of Hindu superstitions. The simultaneous attempt to attract +Mahomedans by grafting "_Swadeshi_ preaching" on to one of their +accustomed religious services betrays Mr. Surendranath Banerjee's +cynical indifference to any and every form of religious creed so long as +it can be exploited in the interest of his political creed. + +NOTE 8 + +THE "REMOVAL OF INFORMERS." + +Shortly after the murder of Shams-ul-Alam, the following "Appeal" was +printed and issued in Calcutta with reference to the "removal of +informers": + + HATYA NOY JAGNA. + (Not Murder but Sacrifice.) + Cash price: the head of a European or the heads of two Informers. + 50th issue Calcutta, Sunday, 6th Chaitra, 1316. + +Tempted by gold, some native devils in form of men, the disgrace of +India--the police--arrested those great men Barendra Ghose and others +who worked for the freedom of their country by sacrificing their +interests and dedicating their lives in the performance of the sacred +ceremony of _Jagna_, preparing bombs. The greatest of these devils in +human form, Ashitosh Biswas, began to pave for these heroes the way to +the gallows. Bravo, Charu! [the murderer of Biswas] all honour to your +parents. To glorify them, to show the highest degree of courage, +disregarding the paltry short span of life, you removed the figure of +that monster from the world. Not long ago, the Whites by force and +trick, filched India from the Mahomedans. That mean wretch +Shams-ul-Alam, who espoused the cause of the enemies of Alamghir +Padshah, who put a stain on the name of his forefathers for the sake of +gold--to-day you have removed that fiend from the sacred soil of India. +From Nuren Gossain to Talit Chakravarti, all turned approvers through +the machinations of that fiendish wizard Shams-ul-Alam and by his +torture. Had you not removed that ally of the monsters, could there be +any hope for India? + +Many have raised the cry that to rebel is a great sin. But what is +rebellion? Is there anything in India to rebel against? Can a Feringhee +be recognized as the King of India, whose very touch, whose mere shadow +compels Hindus to purify themselves? + +These are merely Western Robbers looting India.... Extirpate them, ye +good sons of India, wherever you find them, without mercy, and with them +their spies and secret agents. Last year 19 lakhs of men died of fever, +smallpox, cholera, plague, and other diseases in Bengal alone. Think +yourselves fortunate that you were not counted amongst those, but +remember that plague and cholera may attack you to-morrow, and is it not +better for you to die like heroes? + +When God has so ordained, think ye not that at this auspicious moment it +is the duty of every good son of India to slay these white enemies? Do +not allow yourselves to die of plague and cholera, thus polluting the +sacred soil of Mother-India. Our _Shastras_ are our guide for +discriminating between virtue and vice. Our _Shastras_ repeatedly tell +us that the killing of these white fiends and of their aiders and +abettors is equal to a great ceremonial sacrifice _(Asyamedh Jagna_.) +Come, one and all. Let us offer our sacrifice before the altar in +chorus, and pray that in this ceremony all white serpents may perish in +its flames as the vipers perished in the serpent slaying ceremony of +_Janmajob_. Keep in mind that it is not murder but _Jagna_--a +sacrificial rite. + +NOTE 9 + +BENGALEE LAWLESSNESS. + +A very striking, and at the same time sober, picture of the conditions +produced by Bengalee methods of agitation is to be found in the speech +delivered at the opening of the Provincial Legislature of Eastern Bengal +at Dacca on April 6, 1910, by Sir Lancelot Hare, the Lieutenant-Governor +appointed in succession to Sir Bampfylde Fuller. "We have had abundant +experience," he said, "in the last three years that the advocacy of the +boycott at public meetings is invariably followed by acts of tyranny and +brutality and illegal interference with the rights of a free people to +buy and sell as they, and not as a particular set of agitators, prefer. +No district officer anxious to maintain the peace of his district can +allow a recrudescence of these disturbances. I have seen it denied that +there have been such cases, but the state calendar of crime is there to +refute such an assertion; and you and I well know that the cases which +have been brought to trial bear a very small proportion to the cases +which have arisen but which the raiyats have been afraid to press home. +When we remember the enormous power of the zemindar following from the +unfortunate absence of any record of right upon which the tenant can +lean, and rely, we can well understand how a raiyat hesitates to oppose +his landlord's will. I have seen, it claimed that such advocacy of the +boycott is a constitutional right. The extraordinary fallacy of this +assertion hardly needs refuting. With a democratic Government an appeal +to the public is an appeal to the Government, as it is an appeal to the +voter who appoints the member of Parliament who appoints the Government. +Such a condition does not exist in this country, and when an agitator +who wishes to press his views on Government says that the boycott will +be preached until Government takes a particular course which Government +has decided is not for the good of the people, and has announced that it +will not adopt, such an appeal is not a constitutional act nor an appeal +to Government but an act of defence and open resistance to Government. +This Government now as always will do what it believes to be in the best +interests of the people. It will always give such regard as it can to +respectful representations, even when they come from a small minority +only of the population; but appeals to force and violence, appeals to +the mob for race hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness, do not +constitute constitutional agitation. I would say a few words on the +mischief of the boycott agitation. The boycott agitation has been the +curse of this province for the past five years, causing endless +suffering and unrest, obstructing the path of progress, exciting +ill-feeling between Government and the people, and hindering their +co-operation in the work of reconstitution and reform. The agitation has +displayed itself in many evil forms, all tending to oppression, and +lawlessness." + + +"MANY-HEADED MISCHIEF." + +It is difficult to review this many-headed mischief in a few words, but +its main features may readily be brought to mind. First there is the +economic disturbance which resulted from the enforcement of the boycott +whether by persuasion, or by intimidation or by force. This has been a +very real mischief and a very real suffering in many parts of the +country where the cultivators found themselves unable to obtain the +products to which they were accustomed at prices which they could afford +to pay. Next is to be noted the violent scenes in the bazaars, where the +sale of British goods was sought to be obstructed by organized force. +The deplorable riot at Jamalpore, with its terrible sequel, is only one +among many such scenes. A closely allied evil was the picketing of the +bazaars by students and other young men, which became an intolerable +nuisance until it was put down with a strong hand. The case at +Jhalakati, where the young boycotters practically took possession of the +bazaar, is a prominent typical instance. Then followed the numerous +cases of interference with individuals with the accompaniment of assault +and mischief and criminal restraint. The long list of crimes of this +nature that have been punished in due course would be wearisome to +repeat. No less mischievous and perhaps even more widespread and more +common have been the cases of criminal intimidation, in which notices +have been posted, or letters have been sent, threatening vendors or +purchasers individually or collectively with arson or murder or other +outrage. Wealthy zemindars and bankers, shopkeepers of all grades, and +villagers and townsfolk have alike prayed to be protected from such +interference in the lawful pursuit of their ordinary avocations; and too +often it has been impossible to afford this protection. That these +threats were not mere idle extravagance has been proved to the hilt by +the grave incidents that have actually taken place. More widespread, +more difficult to deal with, and causing even greater suffering than +these violent methods has been the social persecution which has been +exercised upon those who have failed to bow down to the orders of the +boycotters. This is one of the most serious chapters in the whole +history of the agitation, and Government has again had to deplore the +sufferings to which quiet and law-abiding persons have been subjected. +The constitution of Hindu society lends itself with great readiness to +this form of compulsion, and no weapon is more feared than social +ostracism when ruthlessly used in pursuance of a political object. +Another most grave aspect of the boycott agitation has been the constant +attempt to excite disaffection against Government by public meetings, +speeches, propagandist tours, newspapers, pamphlets, songs, flaunting +and noisy processions, and dramatic performances. Every effort has been +made to try and persuade the people that the Government is hostile, +callous, and neglectful and that boycott, and its kindred measures, are +the means by which to bring it to a better course. Some of the worst +offenders have been prosecuted under the law and have paid the penalty +of their crimes, but it is impossible by such means to counteract or +nullify the mischief that they and others have caused. + + +YOUTHS AND POLITICS. + +There remains another point which is at the present time of the most +sinister significance. The promoters of the agitation conceived the +deplorable idea that their propaganda might best be spread, and that +their designs might best be carried out by the youths of the country. +From this selection has arisen what is now the worst feature of the +situation. It is impossible to condemn too strongly the use of the +students and other youths to foster political aims. It has resulted in a +wave of excitement amongst immature and impressionable minds throughout +the affected districts. In this province in the first instance this evil +exhibited itself in the constant appearance of youths in the forefront +of political demonstration, however hostile and objectionable in +character. This phenomenon was naturally accompanied by numerous +instances of indiscipline among students which Government has repeatedly +been obliged to denounce. The effect on the minds of the most +impressionable youths, and especially among those who had a ready means +of livelihood and an available occupation, has reached a pitch which was +doubtless never contemplated by the more sober among those who initiated +this regrettable movement. Nevertheless a series of crimes in which +youths belonging to the respectable classes have been known to +participate must be regarded as directly attributable to the excitement +of political agitation. It is impossible to avoid mentioning in this +connexion the system of national schools which was to be lauded in all +three of the prohibited Conferences, and which has been encouraged in +other similar meetings that are taking place. + +During the past few years in this Province the record of these schools +is an evil one. They were established in open hostility to the State +system of education, which is the true national system, and several of +the most important were opened for the purpose of receiving boys +expelled from or punished in other schools for taking part in political +demonstrations of a most reprehensible character. Their subsequent +history has accorded with the spirit in which they were founded and +their close connexion with forms of political agitation most unhealthy +for young minds has been evinced in many a regrettable incident. + +THE OUTLOOK. + +If we review the present position we find that during the past year +there has been some subsidence of the acute stage of the malady, or +rather it has taken a different turn. The bulk of the reasonable +inhabitants have become wearied of the senseless agitation which brings +annoyance and suffering without doing them good. There is less active +boycott and the ordinary citizen has become less amenable to the leaders +of the agitation. But in spite of this, two circumstances stand +out--first, the local leaders have not in general abated one tittle of +their efforts to enforce the boycott, and where in any locality they +showed signs of resting, their chiefs are ready to urge them forward; +secondly, the perversion of our young men has reached a most alarming +stage, not merely from the point of view of the crime and the sense of +insecurity that it engenders, but also from the more general aspect of +the character and prospects of the rising generation. Many parents have +most bitter reason to lament their failure to guide, control, and +restrain their children. On the 7th August boycott celebrations occurred +at the headquarters of each district of the Dacca division, and at a +number of places in the interior. The boycott vow was everywhere renewed +and at several meetings speeches were delivered, the tendency and object +of which was to excite renewed disaffection and to stir up zeal for the +cause. The observances for the 16th October were prescribed in an order +of the chiefs published in the Calcutta papers, and the local leaders +did their best to carry out these instructions. Rakhibandan bathing, +abstinence from cooked food, and the solemn renewal of the boycott vow +were the principal features. In some places public meetings were held +and again the tone of several speakers was most reprehensible. District +conferences and other similar meetings played their usual important part +in the year's programme. In the Dacca division, Jhalakati, Faridpur, and +Pangsa were selected as the theatres of those performances. The +resolutions were varied in character, but however guarded and mild their +phraseology, the speeches advocated boycott in its most blatant form, +and sentiments were expressed tending to keep alive the most pernicious +and dangerous characteristics of the political and social situation. +Similar conferences, in which the boycott played a prominent part, and +in which ill-feeling against the Government was excited, were held in +August and September at Pabna and Dinajpur, and in the Sylhet district +in October a series of meetings took place. In a portion of the Faridpur +district, the unsettled condition of which has for some time been a +cause of anxiety, the inhabitants are mostly Namasudras. The ostensible +object of these meetings was to raise the social condition of the +people, but it appears from the accounts published in the Press that the +Anti-Partition agitation and the boycott of foreign goods were urged and +the promise of social privilege was only made as a reward or return for +promising to take the boycott vow. This condition of affairs could not +be permitted to continue indefinitely, and it became evident that sooner +or later--and the sooner the better--the mischief must be stopped and +the people of the province given the opportunity which they need and +desire to settle down to their normal life and to co-operation with the +Government for their material and moral progress. + + +NOTE 10 + +SACRIFICING "WHITE GOATS" + +The term occurs, for instance, in one of the most violent fly-sheets +issued only a few months ago from a clandestine press in India, under +the heading _Yagantar_, killing no murder:-- + +Rise up, rise up, O sons of India, arm yourselves with bombs, despatch +the white _Asuras_ to Yana's abode. Invoke the mother Kali; nerve your +arm with valour. The Mother asks for sacrificial offerings. What does +the Mother want? The cocoanut? No. A fowl or a sheep or a buffalo? No, +She wants many white _Asuras_. The Mother is thirsting after the blood +of the Feringhees who have bled her profusely. Satisfy her thirst. +Killing the Feringhee, we say, is no murder. Brother, chant this verse +while slaying the Feringhee white goat, for killing him is no murder: +With the close of a long era, the Feringhee Empire draws to an end for +behold! Kali rises in the East. + + +NOTE 11 + +HINDUS AND MAHOMEDANS IN GOVERNMENT SERVICE. + +Some statistics have been collected lately by the Moslem League with +reference to the relative numbers of Hindus and Mahomedans employed in +Government service in India. The figures are still subject to revision, +and therefore can only be given as approximately correct. Moreover, the +classification adopted does not seem to have been precisely the same in +the different provinces. But even if a considerable margin is allowed +for discrepancies which may yet have to be rectified, the figures quoted +below for several important branches of the service are instructive:-- + + EXECUTIVE OFFICERS OF THE RANK OF DEPUTY COLLECTORS, DEPUTY + MAGISTRATES, ASSISTANT COMMISSIONERS, &c. + + Hindus. Mahomedans. + ----------------------------------+----------+-------------- + Bombay .. .. .. ..| 53 | 9 + Madras .. .. .. ..| 61 | 7 + Bengal .. .. .. ..| 265 | 59 + Eastern Bengal .. .. ..| 136 | 49 + Central Provinces .. .. ..| 60 | 24 + United Provinces .. .. ..| 125 | 98 + Punjab .. .. .. ..| 74 | 68 + + + SUB-DEPUTY COLLECTORS, SUB-DEPUTY MAGISTRATES, &c. + + Hindus. Mahomedans. + ----------------------------------+----------+-------------- + Bombay .. .. .. ..| 186 | 3 + Madras .. .. .. ..| 151 | 11 + Bengal .. .. .. ..| 165 | 33 + Eastern Bengal .. .. ..| 107 | 39 + Central Provinces .. .. ..| 52 | 16 + United Provinces .. .. ..| 122 | 106 + Punjab .. .. .. ..| 142 | 90 + + + SUB-DEPUTY JUDGES AND MUNSIFFS + + Hindus. Mahomedans. + ----------------------------------+----------+-------------- + Bombay .. .. .. ..| 109 | 2 + Madras .. .. .. ..| 132 | 1 + Bengal .. .. .. ..| 195 | 17 + Eastern Bengal .. .. ..| 21 | 1 + Central Provinces .. .. ..| 117 | 6 + United Provinces .. .. ..| 111 | 35 + Punjab .. .. .. ..| 81 | 52 + + EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT. + + Hindus. Mahomedans. + ----------------------------------+----------+-------------- + Bombay .. .. .. ..| 39 | 17 + Madras .. .. .. ..| 127 | 10 + Bengal .. .. .. ..| 110 | 16 + Eastern Bengal .. .. ..| 56 | 15 + Central Provinces .. .. ..| 23 | 2 + United Provinces .. .. ..| 58 | 5 + Punjab .. .. .. ..| 53 | 6 + +NOTE 12 + +INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS SUBSIDIES TO ITS SUPPORTERS IN ENGLAND. + +The following resolutions passed by the Indian National Congress show +that considerable financial support has been regularly given by that +body towards the expenses of its London organ, _India_, and of the +British committee it co-operates with. + +MADRAS, 1898. + +"That a sum of Rs.60,000 be assigned for the expenses of the British +Committee and the cost of the Congress publication _India_, and also for +the expenses of the Joint-General Secretary's Office, and that the +several circles do contribute, as arranged, either now or hereafter in +Committee for the year 1899." + +AHMEDABAD, 1902. + +"That with a view to meet the balance required to defray the expenses of +_India_ and the British Committee a special delegation fee of Rs.10 be +paid by each delegate in addition to the usual fee now paid by him with +effect from 1902." + +MADRAS, 1903. + +"That a sum of Rs.10,500 be assigned for the expenses of the British +Committee and that the several Congress circles do contribute the amount +allotted to each." + +BOMBAY, 1904. + +"That a sum of £700 be assigned for the expenses of the British +Committee and that the several Congress circles do contribute the amount +allotted to each." + +NOTE 13 + +AN ENGLISH SOCIALIST "MANIFESTO." + +The support given to Indian Nationalists by a certain class of +politicians in England goes sometimes to such lengths that the tolerance +extended to them is open to very serious question. For instance, in a +London newspaper which calls itself "the Organ of Social Democracy," +_Justice_ there appeared on August 27 a "Manifesto" headed "The Infamies +of Liberal Rule in India," which contained, along with much +indiscriminate denunciation of British tyranny, the outrageous statement +that Savarkar, who is now undergoing trial in Bombay on grave charges, +including the abetment of murder, had been arrested in England "for an +alleged political offence, and in order that he might not have a fair +trial defended by Council, and safeguarded by public opinion in this +country, he was sent back to India, where, innocent or guilty, his +condemnation could be officially ensured." In conclusion, it was +stated:--"We, at any rate, shall take care that this little manifesto of +ours shall be distributed in the native languages throughout Hindustan, +in order that the population of that great Empire may know that there is +an active and growing party in this island which has neither part nor +lot in the outrages and crimes committed by our rulers, and that its +members heartily sympathize with the legitimate efforts of Indians of +all races, castes, and creeds to emancipate themselves finally from the +monstrous domination under which they suffer to-day." + +Many loyal Indians, and indeed the disloyal ones too, may very +reasonably ask whether it is right and just to allow language of this +kind to be used and circulated with impunity in this country when, if it +were used and circulated in India, it would at once give rise to a +criminal prosecution. + +NOTE 14 + +INDIAN STUDENTS IN ENGLAND. + +An Indian Correspondent of _The Times_ who has made a special study of +the condition of his fellow-countrymen studying in England writes that +it would be almost impossible for an Englishman who has never been in +the East to realize the enormous difference between the life to which +the student has been used and the life to which he has come. In many +instances his home is in some far off lonely village. He may have been +to some town to study in a Government or missionary school or college. +But that has not given him an insight into English life. In the +Government institution he sees little of his English teacher or +professor outside lessons or lecture hours. He never has the chance of +knowing an English lady. The student has little time for more than his +studies, so numerous are the subjects and the prescribed text-books for +Indian examinations. In the vacations the Professors go to the hills, or +sail for England, and the student goes back to his village. He has +acquired little or no knowledge of the English. He comes to England +feeling there is a gulf between the East and the West, save in the case +of a missionary interest in his soul. He is by nature extremely +sensitive. On board ship he and his brother Indians keep together. The +English passengers, fatigued after a period of hard work in a hot +climate, have no energy left for the effort of trying to draw out and +know this batch of silent Orientals. So the gulf gapes wide. If they +tarry in Marseilles or Paris there are those who are anxious and ready +to widen this gulf between the Indians and English. Then the student +arrives in London, where a man can be more lonely than anywhere in the +world. Here he has to find a dwelling. The man from a dreamy, lonely, +Eastern village, from the land of the sun has to select an abode in +London. Hotels and boarding houses and lodgings there are in abundance; +but the hotel or boarding house or lodging suitable to this man's +need--fitted to introduce him to English life, may exist, but how is he +to find it? He is not only bewildered, he is terribly home-sick. His +wish to come to England has been, gratified, but oh! for a sight of his +own people and, his simple home. He must drown this longing as best he +may. There are many ways of drowning it in London. There are many who +will assist him to forget what he had better never forget--his village +home. But after all there are some English people who will know him. He +has found lodgings, and the landlady and her family make themselves most +agreeable. He knows no other English people. He wants friendliness so +far away from home, so these and theirs become his friends. + +In London the majority of Indian students gain admission to the Inns of +Court. The new regulations, which come into force in January next, were +intended to render admission more difficult to attain; but they will +fail of their purpose, for success in the Oxford and Cambridge senior +local examinations is a qualification for admission, and these +examinations are held in various parts of India. Students will in future +avoid entering the Indian Universities, but will get private coaching, +and sit for these examinations in India, with a view to gaining +admission to one or other of the Inns. It never seems to have occurred +to the Honourable Societies of the Inns to take any steps to look after +the well-being of these numberless students, who bring hundreds of +pounds to their coffers every year. So different is their position from +that of the English student that their case merits special attention. To +look after them might be unusual, it would certainly be expedient. The +eating of a few dinners and attendance at certain lectures are no tax on +the student's time. He puts off real study to the last moment. It is so +easy to learn all the subjects just before each examination. With a few +exceptions the English and Indian students do not speak to each other. +So the Inns do not provide the Indian with society. A youth from the +East, dwelling in a London lodging, finding himself for the first time +in command of a banking account, with abundance of leisure, and no +English friends of his own standing--can he become a loyal, useful +citizen of our Empire? + +Some of them go to Oxford and Cambridge. They have heard in India, from +some Indians who were up at these Universities from ten to fifteen years +ago, how delightful the life is--how sociable the undergraduates, how +hospitable the dons. Surely then at these ancient seats of learning they +will find friendliness, and will come to know the English. They go up +only to find disappointment. The numbers have largely increased and all +sorts and conditions of men come. Colleges are reluctant to admit them. +The English undergraduate accepts any man who is good at games and ready +to enter into the University life, but leaves severely alone the man of +any nationality who has had no opportunity of learning English games, +and who is too shy and sensitive to show what he is worth. Those who are +good at games get on, the others are far from being happy. A few gain +admission to colleges, the rest are "unattached." Lodging-house +existence at Oxford or Cambridge is preferable to that in London; but it +does not assist to a knowledge of the English. Foreigners at the +Universities take the trouble to try and know the Indian, and extend to +him that friendship which the English undergraduate, through youthful +lack of thought, withholds. The Imperial instinct is lacking in the +youth of to-day; else would they realize that it is an important duty to +try and know fellow-subjects from a distant part of the Empire. There is +nothing that Orientals will not do to make the stranger to their country +feel at home. They cannot understand the reserved Occidental who leaves +the stranger to his Western country all alone. Some of the Indian +students think that the only way to bid for the English undergraduate's +acquaintance is by a lavish expenditure on wine parties; and so he +spends largely, and acquires an acquaintance, but not with the typical +Englishman. If Indian students at the old Universities are only to know +each other or foreigners, how are they to be bound by a loyal attachment +to England? At Edinburgh the gulf is wide indeed. A number of Colonial +students help to make it wider. The two sides seldom or never meet. +They just tolerate each other's presence. So the Indian student is +tempted to seek for company in circles which do not help his education +or tend to elevate him. Should such a state of things continue? + +Engineering and medical students are in better case than others. Their +work is so hard and exacting, if they do it aright, they have no time to +feel solitude. The one complaint of engineering students is that they +find it enormously difficult to gain opportunities for learning the +practical side of their work. Firms are most reluctant to admit them as +apprentices. France and Germany welcome them, and Continental firms +extend to them the aid the English firms deny. Is it always to be so? +Other nations gaining that esteem and gratitude which England should so +jealously acquire and guard. Americans, too, are winning the good will +of the Indian student both in India and abroad. They have well-equipped +schools and colleges all over India. They spare no efforts to make the +Indian student feel they are there solely for him. They are with him in +and out of school and college hours. They inspire him with their +enthusiasm. Wherever they meet him they give him a grip of the hand +which leaves him in no doubt as to their frank friendliness. Yet it is +not to America nor to any other nation that India belongs, but to +England. But there is no security in mere possession. The only safety +lies in the constant effort to hold--to hold pleasantly, gaining the +heart and head. + +Surely the fact that many influences are at work systematically striving +to estrange these students from England should rouse the English to +effort. It may not be an easy task to gain these men. It will need +patience and zeal. There must be no touch of patronage in the attempt. +Their deep-rooted belief that no real friendship can exist between the +English and the Indian has to be overcome; the much misrepresentation +which has made the Indian student misjudge the English character has to +be counteracted and set right. It must be remembered that he is a being +far away from home, excessively sensitive, situated in extremely unusual +surroundings and in most cases having lost that religious belief without +which no Oriental is really happy or able to live and be his best. He +is, in truth, not himself. Such is the student who is to be won to +attachment. The difficulty of the task should appeal to the English +nature. + +What is required is not a sudden and indiscriminate rush to seek out and +know the Indian student. That would not last and would lead to much +disappointment on both sides. The great need of the present is workers +who know both sides and who will judiciously draw them together. +Connecting links to bring the right Indians into touch with the right +English. They will need very special qualifications, these workers, if +they are to succeed. There is enough to be done to employ the full time +of exceptionally energetic men. Wonders could be worked if England only +realized her duty to these men. The Indian student would return to his +home at any rate with no feeling of bitterness. He would have his chance +of seeing the real English, and of being influenced aright. +Misconceptions would be banished. He would live in an atmosphere better +adapted to hard work. He would attain a higher standard in his studies +and examinations. He would be better fitted to be a useful citizen. +Friendliness would, at any rate, have blunted antagonistic tendencies. +And what a difference it would make to his people! The father who has +spent so much on him would no longer feel that his son has lost and not +gained by crossing the seas. The mother who, though behind the purdah, +has eagerly been watching his career, dwelling lovingly on the weekly +news, counting the days to his return, would no longer need to weep that +it is not well with her son, who has come back so different from all she +had hoped. Whole families would bless the England which had made their +member manly, upright, better for his sojourn there, fitted to earn a +living honourably, and possessed of grit to strive to do his best. And +he, the student, stirred, by memories of kindness in the West, would win +those with whom he comes in contact to a friendlier feeling for the +British race. The seditionist would find no soil here ready for his +seed. Could anything be better worth accomplishing? + + +NOTE 15 + +THE VICEROY'S EXECUTIVE COUNCIL. + + +A Mahomedan gentleman, Mr. Ali Imam, has been appointed to succeed Mr. +Sinha as Indian member of the Viceroy's Executive Council. He too is a +leading member of the Bengal Bar, and, like Mr. Sinha, will take charge +of the Legal Department. Though the selection of a Mahomedan in +succession to a Hindu cannot fail to gratify Indian Moslems, Mr. Ali +Imam's appointment should not be altogether unacceptable to the Hindus. +For when the details of the reforms' scheme were being worked out in +India, he adopted, on the subject of separate electorates for the +Mahomedan community, a line of his own which was applauded by the +Hindus, but was very much resented by the vast majority of his +co-religionists. The Government of India seemed inclined to favour his +proposals, and he proceeded to England to press them upon Lord Morley. +But the Secretary of State wisely decided that the pledges originally +given by Lord Minto to the Indian Mahomedans must be scrupulously and +fully redeemed, so as to secure to them substantial representation in +the new Councils. + + +NOTE 16 + +The first Indian Member of the Bengal Executive Council is expected to +be Mr. R.N. Mookerjee, a partner in the well-known Calcutta firm of +Messrs. Martin and Co., to whom I have referred (page 258) as "the one +brilliant exception" amongst Western-educated Bengalees, who has +achieved signal success in commerce and industry and has shown the +possibility and the advantages of intelligent and business-like +co-operation in those fields between Englishmen and Indians. + + +NOTE 17 + +THE WASTAGE IN INDIAN UNIVERSITIES. + +The most striking feature about the number of graduates at the Indian +Universities is not the magnitude of their total or any increase in it, +but the very high proportion of wastage. It takes 24,000 candidates at +Matriculation to secure 11,000 passes, it takes 7,000 candidates at the +Intermediate examination to secure 2,800 passes, and it takes 4,750 +candidates for the B.A. degree to secure 1,900 passes. + +There are 18,000 students at college in order to supply an annual output +of 1,935 graduates. This means that a very large number fall out by the +way without completing successfully their University career. The +phenomenon, peculiar to India, of candidates for employment urging as a +qualification that they have failed at a University examination (meaning +that they have passed the preceding examination and added thereto some +years of study for the next) is due to two causes, the large number of +students whom the University rejects at its examinations before it +grants the B.A. degree to the remainder, and the dearth of graduates. +_(Quinquennial Report on the Progress of Education in India for_ +1902-1907, by Mr. H.W. Orange, Director-General of Education.) + + + +NOTE 18 + +ENGLISH HISTORY IN INDIAN SCHOOLS. + + +At the opening of an Educational Conference held last April in Bombay +under the joint auspices of the Director of Public Instruction and of +the Teachers' Association, the Governor, Sir George Clarke, alluded to +some of the effects of Western education on the younger generation of +Indians:--"It is widely admitted by the thoughtful Indians that there +are signs of the weakening of parental influence, of the loss of +reverence for authority, of a decadence of manners and of growing moral +laxity. The restraining forces of ancient India have lost some of their +power; the restraining forces of the West are inoperative in India. +There has thus been a certain moral loss without any corresponding gain. +The educated European may throw off the sanctions of religion; but he +has to live in a social environment which has been built up on the basis +of Christian morality, and he cannot divest himself of the influences +which have formed his conscience. The educated or partially educated +Indian who has learned to look on life and the affairs of men from a +Western standpoint has no such environment and may find himself morally +rudderless on an ocean of doubt. The restraints of ancient philosophies, +which have unconsciously helped to shape the lives of millions in India +who had only the dimmest knowledge of them, have disappeared from his +mental horizon. There is nothing to take their place. Ancient customs, +some of them salutary and ennobling, have come to be regarded as +obsolete. No other customs of the better sort have come to take their +place, and blindly to copy the superficial customs of the West is to +ignore all that is best in western civilization." + +Commenting on his Excellency's speech, the Bombay _Examiner_, a weekly +paper very ably conducted in the interests of the Roman Catholic +missions, drew attention, in the following terms to some of the causes +of the mischief. + +(1) The study of English history in schools reveals a gradual transition +from an unlimited monarchy to a limited monarchy differing barely from a +republic, the gradual transfer of political power from kings and +aristocracy through the barons and then through the burghers and finally +to the whole people. In reality this process took almost a thousand +years, but in the schoolroom it is compressed into a term. The +gradualness of the process, the long preparation of each class of +citizens, the slow political education of the masses, all of which forms +a long historical perspective, is through the medium of the text-book +thrown upon, the screen at once as a flat picture. It may not occur +perhaps to the young mind to apply the precedent to his own country; but +as soon as he falls under the influence of the political agitator the +question, suggests itself: If the English people thus fought their way +to supremacy, why should not the Indian people do the same? Losing +sight of the perspective of history, it seems to him feasible that India +should achieve in one bound what it took nearly a thousand years for the +English people to bring about. + +(2) In studying political economy and social science he meets with such +principles as these--that the ruler is merely the delegate and +representative of the people, from whose will he derives all his power. +This power is to be exercised for the well-being of the people who have +conferred it, and according to their will in conferring it. The old idea +that all power, even that conferred through the people, is ultimately +derived from God and exercised in His Name, is of course never heard of. +The ruler is a public servant of the collective nation, and that is all. +To introduce this notion among a people whose idea of government has run +for thousands of years on the lines of absolute monarchy and hereditary +if not divine right is nothing short of revolutionary. All idea of the +sacredness of authority is at once gone. The Government is a thing to be +dictated to by the people, to be threatened and bullied and even +exterminated if it does not comply with the nation's wishes. Hence as +soon as the political agitator appears on the scene nothing seems more +plausible to the raw mind of the student than an endeavour to upset the +existing order of things. This cannot, of course, all be done at once; +but at least a beginning can be made. Let us agitate for the redress of +this or that grievance, for the increase of native appointments, and the +like; and if we do not at once get what we ask for, let us try what +bullying and intimidation can do--aspiring ultimately to substitute a +representative for a monarchical form of government, and having secured +this, wait the opportune moment for driving the foreigner into the sea. +Thus a change which, to be successful, would require the gradual +education of the people for generations, is to be forced on at once; and +"if constitutional means are not sufficient to achieve our ambition, why +not try what unconstitutional means will do?" + +NOTE 19 + +A SHAMELESS APPEAL. + +Perhaps the most audacious defence of the enlistment by Hindu +politicians of schoolboys and students in the service of a lawless +propaganda occurs in an article in the _Bengalee_ of August 2, 1906, +shamelessly appealing to the language of Christ. The _Bengalee_, which +is published in English, is Mr. Surendranath Banerjee's organ:-- + +"In all great movements boys and young men play a prominent part, the +divine message comes first to them; and they are persecuted and they +suffer for their faith. 'Suffer the little children to come unto Me,' +are the words of the divinely-inspired Founder of Christianity; and the +faith that is inseparable from childhood and youth is the faith which +has built up great creeds and has diffused them through the world. Our +boys and young men have been persecuted for their _Swadeshism_; and +their sufferings have made _Swadeshism_ strong and vigorous." + +_NOTE 20 (page_ 241). + +THE BRAHMANS AND WESTERN EDUCATION. + +The special caste grievances of Brahmans against Western education are +very frankly set forth in a speech on "The Duties of Brahmans," +delivered in Bombay at the beginning of this year to his fellow +caste-men by Rao Sahib Joshi, a distinguished and very enlightened, +member of the Yajurvidi Palshikar sept of Brahmans. Mr. Joshi, who laid +great stress upon the duty of loyalty to the British _Raj_, began by +recalling the patent conferred upon them by a British Governor of Bombay +at the beginning of the eighteenth century for the protection of their +privileges, especially in connexion with the teaching of medicine. But +their community had gradually lost ground from various causes, and +amongst those which he enumerated, he laid the chief stress upon the +diffusion of secular education. He fully recognized the benefits of +English education, but "all education being of a secular character, it +made the new generation a class of sceptics. People brought up with +English ideas, and in the atmosphere of secular education, now began to +pay less respect to their Gurus and hereditary priests. In former days +when the Guru or head priest came to one's house people used to say:--'I +bow down to the Guru; the Guru is Brahma, the Guru is Vishnu, the Guru +is Shiwa; verily the Guru is the Sublime Brahma!' This idea, this +respect the secular English education shattered to pieces, and so the +income and importance of the hereditary priests dwindled down." + + +NOTE 21 + +FEMALE EDUCATION. + +In his quinquennial review of the progress of education in India, Mr. +H.W. Orange quotes the following remarks by Mr. Sharp, Director of +Public Instruction in Eastern Bengal, on the position of female +education, adding that they describe the prevailing, if not quite +universal, state of affairs:-- + +"All efforts to promote female education have hitherto encountered +peculiar difficulties. These difficulties arise chiefly from the customs +of the people themselves. The material considerations, which have formed +a contributing factor in the spread of boys' schools, are inoperative in +the case of girls. The natural and laudable desire for education as an +end in itself, which is evinced by the upper and middle classes as +regards their sons, is no match for the conservative instincts of the +Mahomedans, the system of early marriage among the Hindus, and the rigid +seclusion of women which is a characteristic of both. These causes +prevent any but the most elementary education from being given to girls. +The lack of female teachers and the alleged unsuitability of the +curriculum, which is asserted to have been framed more with a view to +the requirements of boys than those of girls, form subsidiary reasons or +excuses against more rapid progress. To these difficulties may be added +the belief, perhaps more widely felt than expressed, that the general +education of women means a social revolution, the extent of which cannot +be foreseen. 'Indian gentlemen,' it has been well said, 'may thoroughly +allow that when the process has been completed, the nation will rise in +intelligence, in character and in all the graces of life. But they are +none the less apprehensive that while the process of education is going +on, while the lessons of emancipation are being learnt and stability has +not yet been reached, while, in short, society is slowly struggling to +adjust itself to the new conditions, the period of transition will be +marked by the loosening of social ties, the upheaval of customary ways, +and by prolonged and severe domestic embarrassment.' There is, it is +true, an advanced section of the community that is entirely out of +sympathy with this view. In abandoning child-marriage they have got rid +of the chief obstacle to female education; and it is among them, +consequently, that female education has made proportionately the +greatest progress in quantity and still more in quality. But outside +this small and well-marked class, the demand for female education is +much less active and spontaneous.... In fact the people at large +encourage or tolerate the education of their girls only up to an age and +up to a standard at which it can do little good, or, according to their +point of view, little harm." + + +NOTE 22 + +THE THEORY OF THE "DRAIN." + +The Master of Elibank, then Under-Secretary of State, included in his +Indian Budget speech on Aug. 5, 1909, a brief but effective refutation +of the "drain" theory:-- + +"If the House will allow me, I wish to digress for a moment to deal with +a charge that is constantly made, and has recently been repeated, to the +effect that there is poverty in India which is largely due to the +political and commercial drain on the country year by year, the +political, it is asserted, amounting to £30,000,000 and the commercial +to £40,000,000. These figures have been placed even higher by those who +wish to blacken the Indian Administration in order to bolster up a +malicious agitation against this country. I think it is incumbent upon +the representative of the Indian Government in this House to deal with +the statement. I may at once say that it has no foundation in fact. +(Hear, hear.) Its origin is to be found, no doubt, in the fact that +India makes annually considerable payments in England in return for +services rendered, such as the loan of British capital; but there is no +justification for describing these payments as a drain, and their amount +is only a fraction of the figures which I have just quoted. Let me deal +first with the question of amount. As the method by which India makes +her payments in England is that she exports more than she imports, all +calculations as to the amount of payments must necessarily be based on +the returns of Indian trade, which show by how much the Indian exports +exceed her imports. If the trade returns are examined for 1904, 1906, +and 1906, after making due allowance for the capital sent to India in +connexion with Government transactions, the average excess of exports +over imports, or in other words payments by India to England for +services rendered, is £23,900,000 per year during the three years that +have been mentioned. This payment is made up of, first, £21,200,000, +being the average annual amount of the Government remittance during +three years, which corresponds to the alleged political drain of +£30,000,000; and, secondly, £2,700,000, the average annual amount of +private remittances during the same period, which total has been most +carefully examined and corresponds to the alleged commercial drain of +£40,000,000. Now let us examine for a moment the nature of these two +remittances. The Government remittance is mainly for the payment of home +charges--namely, those charges in England which are normally met from +revenue. These charges, in the three years to which I have referred, +averaged £18,250,000, made up in the following manner:--Interest on +debt, £9,600,000; payments for stores, ordered and purchased in this +country, which cannot be manufactured in India, £2,500,000; pensions and +furlough pay to civil and military officers, £5,000,000; and +miscellaneous, £1,250,000. It will thus be seen that alter deducting +£5,000,000 for pensions and furlough pay, the bulk of the remittance +represents interest for railway developments and other matters with +which the interests of the peoples of India are intimately bound up. +Besides the home charges proper, certain sums were remitted to England +by the Government to defray capital charges. These bring the Government +remittances to the total of £21,200,000 already mentioned. Now let us +turn for a moment to the supposed commercial drain of £40,000,000 per +year, which, as I have endeavoured to show, is in reality £2,700,000, +being the difference during the period referred to between the private +remittances from India, representing private profits, savings, &c., sent +home to England, and the private remittances to India representing the +transmission of English capital to that country. We can therefore say +definitely that whatever India may have sent to England within the three +years, she received from England as capital a sum falling short of that +amount by £2,700,000 a year; and perhaps I might incidentally remind the +House that at the end of 1907 the capital outlay on railways alone in +India amounted to £265,000,000 sterling, the bulk of which is British +capital, but by no means represents the full amount of British capital +invested in India, which has taken its part in commercially developing +its resources and providing employment for the masses of people in that +great continent. Hon. members who have followed a recent discussion in +the pages of the _Economist_ as to whether £300,000,000 or £500,000,000 +was the amount of British capital invested in India for its commercial +and industrial development and for providing employment of the people in +that land, will agree that the sum could not be placed lower than +£350,000,000." + +NOTE 23 + + +THE SECRETARY OF STATE AND THE VICEROY. + +This issue was raised, for instance, during the Viceroyalty of Lord +Northbrook, when Lord Salisbury was Secretary of State, Mr. Bernard +Mallett's memoir of Lord Northbrook contains the following noteworthy +remarks upon the subject by Lord Cramer, who, as Major Baring, was +Private Secretary to Lord Northbrook:-- + +There can be no doubt that Lord Salisbury's idea was to conduct the +government of India to a very large extent by private correspondence +between the Secretary of State and the Viceroy. He was disposed to +neglect and, I also think, to underrate the value of the views of the +Anglo-Indian officials ... This idea inevitably tended to bring the +Viceroy into the same relation to the Secretary of State for India as +that in which an Ambassador or Minister at a foreign Court stands to the +Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs ... Lord Northbrook's general +view was the exact opposite of all this, and I am strongly convinced +that he was quite right ... He recognized the subordinate position of +the Viceroy, but he held that Parliament had conferred certain rights +not only on the Viceroy but on his Council which differentiated them in +a very notable degree from subordinate officials such as those in the +diplomatic service ... Lord Northbrook regarded the form of government +in India as a very wise combination which enabled both purely English +and Anglo-Indian experience to be brought to bear on the treatment of +Indian questions. He did not by any means always follow the Indian +official view; but he held strongly, in the first place, that to put +aside that view and not to accord to the two Councils in London and +Calcutta their full rights was unconstitutional in this sense that, +though the form might be preserved, the spirit of the Act of Parliament +regulating the government of India would be evaded. In the second place, +he held that for a Viceroy or a Secretary of State without Indian +experience to overrule those who possessed such experience was an +extremely unwise proceeding, and savoured of an undue exercise of that +autocratic power of which he himself was very unjustly accused. + + +NOTE 24 + +THE DIFFICULTIES OF LOYAL HINDUS. + +A Hindu gentleman who has taken a considerable part in the struggle +against Brahmanical disloyalty and intolerance in the Deccan has sent me +a copy of a letter addressed to the _Times of India_ in which he +explains the peculiar difficulties with which loyal Hindus find +themselves confronted:-- + +Englishmen hardly appreciate the true magnitude of the difficulties we +have to contend with in any attempt to expose sedition. All the social +forces that exist in Hindu society run counter to anti-Brahminical +movements. The influence which the Brahmins exercise on the popular mind +is still considerable. A man who is damned by the village-priest or the +Brahmin kulkarni is doomed for good. Loyalty has been rendered odious to +the ordinary mind by this as well as by many other influences. Loyalty +is flattery. This is a dictum now almost universally recognized in the +Deccan. A supporter of the Government is a "Johukum," a "hireling," or a +"traitor." The Press has of late become sufficiently powerful to make or +mar the reputation of a man so far as the native public is concerned. +Every advocate of Government measures--even of the best of them--is held +up to ridicule by the Press. This is immediately reflected in the most +exaggerated form in what we may call public opinion in the land. +Certainly very great courage is necessary in one who is called upon to +bear calumny such as this from his society and his castemen. But there +are other forces more threatening still. The rowdier section of the +people never fails to hoot the man out on every possible occasion and +even the women of his family may be subjected to indignities. The vakils +are a very powerful class in the Deccan. Many of them do not openly +dabble in politics; but you can hardly find many among them who do not +sympathize with extremist politics. The landholders, traders and +agriculturists in general are always in need of the services or, as they +think, of the favour of the legal profession whose prejudices will never +be wounded by the classes mentioned. The vakils, I may say, are to be +propitiated by every one who wishes to conduct any public movement. But +a loyal movement can never save itself from condemnation at the hands of +this powerful class. + +Although reluctantly, I must add that the lower services of the +Government are filled by men who passively help extremism. They form the +bulk of the total constituency of our public Press. That is a fact to +show their political inclinations. Even they do not hesitate to use +their little arts to worry a man known to be "anti-political" whenever +he happens to come in contact with them. An agriculturist friend of mine +who belonged to the caste to which I have the honour to belong once +came to me and asked me why I was taking a particular step connected +with the political movements in Kolhapur. The reason he gave for his +attempt to dissuade me from participation in any anti-Brahmanical +movement was that every Jain would be put to immense trouble in his +dealings with pleaders and clerks simply because another Jain (in this +instance myself) was against the leaders of their caste! Another class +which always forms a check on a pro-government man is composed of the +chiefs, sirdars, landholders, &c., who belong to the agitators' caste +and who certainly cherish admiration for the doings of the "patriots." +Many of us have to come in contact with some one or other belonging to +this class and if he be known to favour anything against the great +figures of the city-politics, his business is sure to be spoilt. + +This is in brief the doleful tale of the loyalist in the Deccan. I shall +briefly touch upon one or two things with reference to what will +strengthen the hands of the loyal citizen. The first thing is that the +Government should boldly come forward to help on the coming into +existence of a bigger class of educated men among the backward or lower +classes of the Deccan. The suspicion that they too will join hands with +the agitator must vanish once for all. The half-heartedness due to such +lurking suspicion gives a fine tool in the hands of Government's +enemies. The English people should realize the probable danger of this +and should use their vast resources to create a strong body of educated +men from the ranks of the loyal castes. H.H. the Maharaja of Kolhapur, +in his attempts to break down Brahmanical supremacy, found nothing so +useful as the bringing into being of such a class and for this he is +doing the best he can. Unless this example is followed by the +Government, there is no hope of a strong loyal party coming forth to +combat the evil work done by Extremists. The strengthening of the loyal +Press such as it exists and adding to it is another measure the +Government might wisely adopt. + + +NOTE 25 + +HINDU THEORIES OF GOVERNMENT. + +Englishmen are apt to ignore the hold which ancient Hindu traditions +concerning the rights and duties of kingship and the old Hindu theories +of government derived from the sacred books of Hinduism still have on +the Indian mind. They have been recently reviewed in an article +contributed to _The Times_ from a very scholarly pen. + +The ancient Hindu theory of government is fully disclosed in the +_Mahabharata_, the most majestic work ever produced by the human +intellect, a work, too, which is to-day as popular with Indians as when +40 centuries ago it was chanted to instruct the youth and beguile the +tedium of the princes of Hastinapura. Unlike all systems of government +known to the West, the Hindu system contains no popular element +whatever. In it we find no Witanagemote in which the nobles may advise +the monarch; still less has it any place for a _comitia centuriata_, +with its stormy masses of spearmen, to scrutinize and control the +encroachments of the Royal prerogative. In the kingdoms described In the +_Mahabharata_ the inhabitants are rigidly divided into four wholly +distinct and separate classes (_Udhyog Parva_, p. 67, Roy's +translation). First come the Brahmans whose duty it is to study, to +teach, to minister at sacrifices--receiving in return gifts from, +"known" or, as we should say, respectable persons. Then follow the +_Kshattriyas_ or the warrior class, whose whole life has to be spent in +fighting and in warlike exercises. Thirdly come the _Vaisyas_ who +acquire merit by accumulating wealth through commerce, cattle-breeding, +and agriculture. Fourthly, we have the _Sudras_, or serfs, who are bound +to obey the other three classes, but who are forbidden to study their +scriptures or partake in their sacrifices. + +High over all classes is the King. He is the living symbol of strength +and power. He is "the tiger among men," the "bull of the Bharata race," +and his form and features bear the visible impress of the Most High. The +whole arduous business of government rests on his shoulders. He cannot +appeal to his subjects to help him in carrying out good administration +nor can he leave his duties to others. For to beseech and to renounce +are both against the laws of his order (_Vana Parva_, p. 457). At the +utmost he can employ counsellors to advise him, but their numbers must +never exceed eight (_Çanti Parva_, p. 275). In any case they only tender +advice when asked (_Udhyog Parva_, p. 100), and the full responsibility +of all acts rests on the King only. It is he who must keep up the +arsenals, the depôts, the camps, the stables for the cavalry, the lines +for the elephants, and replenish the military storehouses with bows and +arrows. It is he who must maintain in efficient repair his six different +kinds of citadels--his water citadels, his earth citadels, his hill +citadels, his human citadels, his forest citadels, and his mud citadels +(_Çanti Parva_, p. 277). It is he who must see that the capital has +abundant provisions, impassable trenches, impenetrable walls; that it +teems with elephants, cavalry horses, and war chariots. He must maintain +an efficient staff of spies to ascertain the strength of neighbouring +monarchs and do his utmost to cause dissension among their servants +(_Çanti Parva_, p. 224). The War Office and the Foreign Office are alike +under his immediate headship. It is for him to conclude treaties, to +lead to battle his armies, and during peace to keep them prepared for +war (_Çanti Parva_, p. 228). But the duty which comes before all others +is to protect his subjects. That, indeed, is imposed on him as a +religious duty. "For having protected his Kingdom a King becomes +sanctified and finally sports in Heaven" (_Çanti Parva_, p. 68). +"Whether he does or does not do any other religious acts, if only he +protects his subjects he is thought to accomplish all religion." +(ibid., p. 193). + +In return for the proper discharge of his innumerable tasks, he is +regarded by his subjects as the incarnation of Indra. He is entitled to +a sixth share of the gross revenue of the country. Fearful penalties +attach to the infringement of his rights. "That man who even thinks of +doing an injury to the King meets with grief here and Hell hereafter" +(_Çanti Parva_, p. 221). "He will be destroyed like a deer that has +taken poison." On the other hand, should the King fail to meet his +obligations--and above all, if he does not protect his subjects--he +offends grievously, "These persons should be avoided like a leaky boat +on the sea, a preceptor who does not speak, a priest who has not studied +the Scriptures, a King who does not grant protection" (_Çanti Parva_, p. +176). "A King who does not protect his kingdom takes upon himself a +quarter of its sins" (_Drona Parva_, p. 625). In the last resort his +subjects will be freed from their allegiance. "If a powerful King +approaches kingdoms torn by anarchy from desire of annexing them to his +dominions the people should go forward and receive the invader with +respect." + +In a similar manner the entire civil administration must be conducted +by the King. He must see to it that wide roads, shops, and water +conduits are constructed. He must look after the streets and by-paths. +He must treat all classes impartially, and, above all, scrutinize +carefully the work of the Courts of Justice. "The penal code properly +applied by the ruler maketh the warders [i.e., Judges] adhere to their +respective duties, and leadeth to an acquisition by the ruler himself of +virtue." (_Udhyog Parva,_ p. 383). But although the subjects have the +right to expect justice they cannot expect kindness or even easy +condescension. "The heart of a King is as hard as thunder" _(Çanti +Parva,_ p. 57). "Knowledge makes a man proud, but the King makes him +humble" _(Çanti Parva,_ p. 223). "When the King rules with a complete +and strict reliance on the science of chastisements, the foremost of +ages called the Kirta is said to set in" (ibid., p. 228). "The King +must be skilful in smiting" (ibid., p. 174). "Fierceness and ambition +are the qualities of the King" (ibid., p. 59). "The King who is mild +is regarded as the worst of his kind, like an elephant that is reft of +fierceness" (ibid., p. 171). Indeed, failure to treat subjects with +rigour is visited with penalties as tremendous as failure to protect +them. "They forget their own position and most truly transcend it. They +disclose the secret counsels of their master; without the least anxiety +they set at nought the King's commands. They wish to sport with the King +as with a bird on a string" (ibid., p. 172). And in the end they +destroy him. "The King should always be heedful of his subjects as also +of his foes. If he becomes heedless they fall on him like vultures upon +carrion" (_Çanti Parva,_ p. 289). + +Here we have commended as a pattern of administration a despotism such +as the West has never experienced. It is inquisitorial, +severe--sometimes, perhaps, wantonly cruel. But from the fearful +pitfalls that encompass weakness it is certain to be sleeplessly +vigilant and in the highest degree virile, forceful, and efficient. Now +it will be asked what bearing the doctrines of a work four thousand +years old have on the problems of the present day. But it must be +remembered, as that eminent scholar, the late Mr. Jackson, the victim of +the abominable Nasik outrage, pointed out, that Hindu civilization and +Hindu thought are at bottom the same now as in the days of Yudhisthira. + +The _Mahabharata_ is the constant companion from youth to age of every +educated Indian. Its tales have provided matter for the poetry, the +drama, and the folk-songs of all ages and of all languages. No Hindu +will live in a house facing south, as it is there that lives Yama, the +god of death. No Hindu will go to sleep without murmuring _Takshaka_ as +a preventive against snake-bite. For Takshaka rescued the snakes from +the vengeance of Janamajaya, the great-grandson of the _Mahabharata_ +hero Arjuna. The independent Indian Princes conduct their administration +exactly on the lines indicated in the _Mahabharata_, and even States as +enlightened as Baroda and Kolhapur still adhere to the Council of eight +Ministers recommended in that immortal work. Indeed, its teachings +really explain the puzzle of Indian loyalty to the British Government. +According to Western ideas, no amount of _pax Britannica_ would +compensate the conquered for foreign rule. The Poles still sigh for the +bad old days of independence and misrule, and are in no way comforted by +the efficiency of German administration. But the Indian's allegiance to +his native kings was, as the _Mahabharata_, lays down, released by their +weakness, and he readily transferred his loyalty to those who, although +foreign, had yet shown that they could govern vigorously. + + + + +INDEX + + Acts of Parliament: + Age of Consent Act (1891),42, 75. + Charter Act (1833), 307, 308, 310. + Explosive Substances Act (1908), 98. + Government of India Act (1858), 307, 310. + Indian Councils Act (1909), 10, 100, 120, 162-175. + Indian Newspapers (Incitement + to Offences) Act, (1908), 96, 98. + Press Act (1910), 15, 98-99,335-337. + Punjab Land Alienation Act (1900), 156. + Summary Justice Act (1908), 98. + Universities Act (1904), 78,2, 229. + + Administration of British India, + comparison of the total + number of Englishmen and + Indians employed in, 293. + + Aga Khan, 132, 133. + + Age of Consent Act, 1891,42, 75. + + Agriculture, the greatest of + all Indian industries, 259; + need for practical education in, 262. + + Ahmad, Sir Syed, 122, 131. + + Aitchison, Sir Charles, 213. + + Ajit Singh, proceedings against, 112. + + _Akash_, newspaper, Delhi, 21. + + Ali, Mr. Ameer, 132. + + All-India Moslem League, 131,132, 281. + + All-India Temperance Conference, 200. + + America, Indian revolutionary + organizations in, 146, 147. + + Anglo-Russian Agreement, 319. + + "Animists," 177. + + Anti Cow-killing Society, founded by Tilak in 1893, 43. + + _Anusilan Samiti_ Society, 99. + + Army, Indian, position of Indians in, 328. + + Arya Samaj, 27; founded by Swami Dayanand, 109; work + of, 110-112; seditious activity of its members, 112-114; + its scheme for restoring the Vedic system of education, 114; + Sir Louis Dane on, 115; + a powerful proselytizing agency, 116; + propaganda in the Native Army, 117; + hostile to Islam as to British rule, 117. + + _Asiatic Quarterly Review_ cited, 265. + + Atkinson, Mr. (Madras), on _ryotwari_ landlords, 260. + + Ayerst, Lieut., murder of, 48. + + Baig, Mr. M.A. Ali, 171. + + Baker, Sir Edward, 272. + + _Bande Mataram_, newspaper, 78, 149, 150, 151. + + Banerjee, Mr. Surendranath, 30, 50, 52, 79, 83, 84, 88, + 01, 224, 274, 341, 353. + + Banks, co-operative, 261-262. + + Bannerjee, Mr. W.C., President of the first Indian + National Congress, 75. + + Bar, Native, disaffection in, 100. + + Baroda, Gaekwar of, on the elevation of the depressed + castes, 181-183; + on the unrest, 193. + + Baroda, State of, 186, 187 + + _Bedari_, newspaper, Lahore, 19. + + Bekanir, State of, 190. + + Belapur Swami Club, 69. + + Bengal, before the Partition, 72-80; + compared with the Deccan, 72-73; + education in, 77, 214; + Brahmanism in, 74, 102; + the storm in, 81-105; + outrages in, 96; + deportation of nine prominent agitators, 99; + disaffection in the native Bar, 100; + comparison of the number of Hindus and Mahommedans + in Government employ, 125; + Sir Lancelot Hare on the lawlessness in, 342-345. + + Bengal, Partition of, agitation against, 50; + the signal rather than the cause of agitation, 81. + + Bengal Iron and Steel Company, 268. + + _Bengalee_, newspaper, 79, 101, 168, 353. + + Besant, Mrs. Annie, influence of, 28-29. + + _Bhagvat Gita_, 30, 79, 90, 201. + + Bhandarkar, Dr., 42. + + Bhopal, State of, 187. + + Bijapurkar, Mr., 71. + + Bilgrami, Mr. Husain, 171. + + Bir, disturbances at, 69. + + Birdwood, Sir George, 263. + + Biswas, Mr. Ashutosh, murder of, 97. + + Blavatsky, Mme., 28. + + Bobbili, Rajah of, 171. + + Bombay, comparison of the number of Hindus and Mahommedans + in Government employ, 125. + + Bombay Technical Institute, 264. + + Bose, Mr. Bhupendranath, 163, 165, 168. + + Bose, Khudiram, murderer of Mrs. and Miss Kennedy, 96, + 97, 147, 340, 341. + + Brahmanism, the system and its influences, 32-33; + the stronghold of reaction, 36; + most militant in the Deccan, 37; + part played in the unrest in the Deccan, 37-63; + in Bengal, 74, 102; + in the Punjab, 109; + in Southern India, 140-141; + one of the two forces which aspire to + substitute themselves for British rule, 324. + + Brahmans, number in India, 33; + number holding higher Government appointments in + Bombay Presidency, 39; + their grievances against Western education, 353-354. + + Brahmo Samaj, 25, 27, 75. + + Brodrick, Mr. (now Viscount Midleton), 86. + + Buck, Sir Edward, 263. + + Budget, Indian, and the new Councils, 174. + + Burdwan, Maharajah of, 162. + + Butler, Mr. Harcourt, first Minister of Education, 233, + 237, 264. + + Calcutta Presidency College, comparison of the + number of English and Indian professors, 214. + + _Calcutta Review_, 78. + + Capital, British, invested in India, 264. + + Carey, Rev. Eustace, 24, 73, 209. + + Cawnpore, proposal to establish a Technological College at, + 267. + + Central Hindu College, Benares, 28. + + Central Provinces, comparison of the number of Hindus and + Mahommedans in Government employ, 125. + + Chailley, J., _Administrative Problems of British India_, 107-108. + + Chakilians, 177. + + Chamars, 177. + + Chandavarkar, Mr. Justice (Sir N.G.), 42, 340. + + Chapekur, Damodhar, murderer of Rand and Ayerst, 48. + + Charter Act of 1833, 307, 308, 310. + + Chatterjee, Mr. A.C., 285, 260. + + Chatterton, Mr. Alfred, Director of Industries, Madras, 266. + + Chaubal, Mr. M.B., 171. + + Chitnavis, Mr., 275, 276. + + Chitpavans, most powerful and most able of the Brahmans, 37-38. + + Christian Endeavour Convention, 200. + + Civil Service, Indian, 290-301. + + Clark, Mr., Minister for Commerce and Industry, 298, 317. + + Clarke, Sir George S., 56, 57, 232, 352. + + Clubs, Anglo-Indian, exclusion of Indians from, 290. + + Cochin, State of, 186-187. + + Colvin, Sir Auckland, 263. + + Commerce and Industry, Portfolio of, 263. + + Cost of living, increase during last decade, 2; + effect on teaching profession, 224. + + Cotton, duties on, 277. + + Cotton, Sir Henry, 156. + + Council of India, 171, 317. + + Craddock, Mr. B.H., 136. + + Creagh, Sir O'Moore, 167. + + Credit societies, 261-262. + + Cromer, Lord (then Major Baring), on the relations between + the Secretary of State and the Viceroy, 356-357. + + Crown, influence of the, 331. + + Curzon, Lord, 126, 229, 231, 266, 286, 295, 303; + his Universities Bill (1904), 78; + effect of his fall on the anti-Partition campaign, 86; + on ignorance in India, 247; + on primary education, 248; + on the excess of imports over exports, 255; + on co-operative banks and credit societies, 261; + on technical education, 263; + creation of a separate portfolio of Commerce and Industry, 263; + on the ill-treatment of Indians in South Africa, 283; + tributes to his attitude on the question of the _status_ + of Indians in the Empire, 285; + controversy with Lord Kitchener, 311; + creation of Imperial Cadet Corps, 329. + + DACCA COLLEGE, 231. + + Dacca Conspiracy Trial, 341. + + _Dacca Gazette_, 18. + + Dadabhoy, Mr., 283. + + Dairies, State, in Northern India, 266. + + Dane, Sir Louis, 115. + + Das, Pulin Bahari, 99. + + Davar, Mr. Justice, 22, 55. + + David, Sir Sassoon, 163. + + Dayanand, Swami, founder of the Arya Samaj, 27, 109, 110. + + Deccan, unrest in, 37-63; compared with Bengal, 72-73. + + Deportation, of nine prominent Bengalee agitators (1908), 99; + of two agitators from the Punjab (1907), 107. + + Depressed castes, 167-134. + + Dewas, Rajah of, on the unrest, 192, 194-195. + + _Dharma_, newspaper, Calcutta, 18. + + Dhingra, murderer of Sir W. Curzon Wyllie, 21, 148. + + "Drain," the, 255, 355-356. + + Duff, Dr. Alexander, 24, 75, 209. + + Dufferin, Lord, 213. + + Durga, worship of, 18, 102. + + Dutt, Mr. Bhupendranath, 91. + + Economic Department, creation of (1886), 263. + + Economic progress of India, 254-270. + + Education:-- + _General_.--Deficiencies of the system, 2; + effect on the Bengalees, 77; + most difficult and most urgent problem in India, 207; + four important features of the system, 208; + system displays its gravest shortcomings in Bengal, 214; + greater elasticity wanted, 236; + grievances of Brahmans against Western education, 353-354. + + _History of System_: Macaulay's Minute (1835), 208-210; + Lord Hardinge's Educational Order (1844), 209; + influence of Dr. Alexander Duff, 209; + Sir Charles Wood's Educational Dispatch (1854),209-210; + Education Commission (1882-1883), 212; + Public Service Commission (1886-87), 212; + Sir Antony MacDonnell's resolution (1889), 229; + Government Resolution (March 11, 1904), 229, 263; + Conference presided over by Lord Curzon, 229-230. + + _Primary_, 246-253; number of scholars in Government + schools (1854), 210; Mr. + Gokhale's resolution for free and compulsory education, 247; + Educational Dispatch (1854), 248; + Education Commission(1882-83), 248; + Government Resolution (1904), 248; + present situation, 249; + cost of making primary education free, 249; + difficulty of finding teachers, 250; + Mr. Orange on the aims to be kept in view, 251-252. + + _Higher_: Universities Bill (1904), 78, 82, 229; + Europeans on staff of secondary schools and colleges, 215; + the Indian student, 216-221; + Dr. Garfield Williams on the Indian student, 217-219; + provision of hostels for students, 231; + question of raising fees charged for higher education, 234; + wastage in Indian Universities, 351-352. + + _Female_, 252-253; + views of Mr. Sharp, 354-355. + + _Scientific and Technical_: need of encouragement, 235; + technical education, 263-267; + proposal to establish a Technological College at Cawnpore, 267. + + _Religious_, 238-245; + the Maharajah of Jaipur on the need of religious education, 242. + + _Service_: total number of Europeans in, 221; + effect of rise in the cost of living on the teaching profession, 224; + deficiencies of the native teaching staff, 226; + pay of teachers, 226-227; + effect of Public Service Commission (1886-87) on the native side of + the service, 227; + need of more and better training colleges for teachers, 232; + teachers must be brought into touch with parents, 235-236. + + _"National" Schools, 241-242. + + _Vedic System_, 114-115. + + Education, Minister of (Mr. Harcourt Butler), 233, 237, 264. + + Elibank, Master of, on the "drain" theory, 355-356. + + Empire, _status_ of Indians in the, 284. + + Engineering Colleges, 263. + + _Evil of Continence, The_, translated into the vernacular, 28. + + _Examiner_, newspaper, Bombay, 352-353. + + Executive Councils, reforms in, 171. + + Explosive Substances Act (1908), 98. + + Famines, 3; reduction of famine areas, 260. + + Ferris, Col., conspiracy to murder (1908), 70. + + Financial and fiscal relations between India and Great + Britain, 271-279. + + Fraser, Sir Andrew, 88, 97. + + _Free Hindustan_, newspaper, Seattle, 147. + + Fuller, Sir Bampfylde, 87, 88, 255. + + Ganesh, celebrations in honour of, 30, 44. + + Ganpati celebrations, in honour of Ganesh, 30, 44. + + _Gazette of India_, 169. + + Ghose, Mr. Arabindo, 50, 52, 78, 79, 89, 90, 98, 337. + + Ghose, Mr. Barendra Kumar, 90, 91, 98. + + Ghose, Dr. Rash Behari, 75, 160. + + Ghosh, Mr. Surat Kumar, 3. + + Gladstone, Mr., attitude towards Mahommedanism, 126. + + Gokhale, Mr. G.K., 42, 53,159, 163, 165, 169, 181, + 202-206, 247, 252, 265, 280, 284, 294. + + Gosain, Norendranath, murder of, 97, 146. + + Government of India, 306-318; + respective powers of the Secretary of State and + Viceroy, 306-310; + Government of India Act (1858), 307, 310; + Charter Act (1833), 307, 308; + Sir Courtenay Ilbert's summary of the powers of the Secretary + of State, 307-308; + "Governor-General in Council," 308; + "Secretary of State in Council," 309; + ultimate responsibility with the people of + the United Kingdom represented by Parliament, 309; + John Stuart Mill on the function of the Home Government, 310; + twofold danger in any eclipse of the Governor-General + in Council, 313-314; + Council of India, 317; + need for decentralization in India, 318. + + _Government of India, The_, by Sir C. Ilbert, 307-308. + + _Gujarat_, newspaper, 17. + + Guntur, riots in, 144. + + Gupta, Birendranath, murderer of Mr. Shams-ul-Alam, 101. + + Gupta, Mr. K.G., 171. + + _Gurukuls_, in the Punjab, 114-115. + + Gwalior, Maharajah of, on the unrest, 192. + + Gwalior, State of, 186, 187, 190. + + Hardie, Mr. Keir, 20, 255. + + Hardinge, Lord, Educational Order (1844), 209. + + Hardinge, Lord (present Viceroy), 299, 319, 320, 321. + + Hare, Sir Lancelot, on the lawlessness in Bengal, 342-345. + + Hewett, Sir John, 136, 263, 267. + + _Hind Swarajya_, newspaper, 16. + + Hinduism, loftiness of its philosophic conceptions, 26; + Western allies of, 28; + theory of government, 358-360. + + Hindu revival, the, 24-36; + as consistently anti-Mahommedan as anti-British, 120-121, 133-134; + leaders allied with Radical politicians, 126-127. + + Hindus, most dangerous forms of unrest confined to, 5; + number holding Government appointments, 39, 125, 346-347; + difficulties of loyal Hindus, 357-358; + their antagonism to Mahommedans, 120-121, 133-134; + this antagonism not the creation or the result of British rule, + 124-125. + + Hindu women, influence of, 103-104. + + Hindu Punjab Conference, 200. + + Hindu Tract Society of Madras, campaign against missionaries, 28. + + _Hitabadi_, newspaper, 340. + + _Hitaishi_, newspaper, Barisal, 18. + + Hunter, Sir William, 212. + + Hyderabad, State of, 186-187. + + Ilbert, Sir Courtenay, _The Government of India_, 306. + + Imam, Mr. Ali, appointed member of Viceroy's Council, 351. + + Imperial Advisory Council, proposal to establish, 185. + + Imperial Cadet Corps, created by Lord Curzon, 329. + + Imperial Council, first session of, 162; drawbacks to, 166-167; + reporting of debates, 163-169; + can exercise no directly controlling power over Executive, 173; + Mr. Gokhale's resolution in regard to elementary education, 247; + resolution in regard to the ill-treatment of Indians in South Africa, + 280. + + India, financial and fiscal relations with Great Britain, 271; + relations with the rest of the Empire, 280. + + _India_, newspaper, 126, 347. + + _India and the Empire_, by Mr. M. de P. Webb, 278. + + "India House," Highgate, 60, 148. + + Indians, British, treatment of in South Africa, 3, 166; + _status_ of in the Empire, 287; + question urgently calls for settlement, 287. + + Indian Councils, duties of Anglo-Indian officials in, 164. + + Indian Councils Act (1909), 10, 100, 120, 162-175. + + Indian Institute of Science, 264. + + Indian newspapers (Incitement to Offences) Act (1908), 96. + + "Indian Red Flag" organization, 147. + + _Indian Sociologist_, newspaper, 112, 149. + + Indo-American Association, 147. + + Indore, State of, 187. + + Industrial Conference, 200, 267. + + Iron and steel industry in India, 268. + + Irrigation, 260. + + Iyangar, Mr. Srinivasaraghava, 142. + + Iyengar, Mr. Rangaswami, 174-175. + + Jackson, Mr., murder of, 30, 40, 48, 57-59, 67, 150. + + Jaipur, Maharajah of, on the unrest, 192; + on the need for religious education, 242, 244. + + Jaipur, State of, 187, 190. + + Japan, attitude towards Indian agitators, 148. + + _Jhang Sial_, newspaper, 21. + + Joshi, Mr. B.N., 65. + + Joshi, Rao Sahib, 354. + + Jubbulpore Engineering College, 263. + + _Justice_, newspaper, 347-348. + + _Kal_, newspaper, Poona, 17, 22, 52, 148. + + Kali, worship of, 18, 27, 102; + sacrifice of "white goats" to, 103, 345-346. + + Kanhere, Ananta Luxman, murderer of Mr. Jackson, 58, 62, 103. + + Kapurthala, State of, 188. + + _Karnatak Vaibhav_, newspaper, 22. + + Kashmir, State of, 186. + + Kayasthas, 102. + + Kelkar, Mr., on the staff of the _Kesari_, 49. + + Kennedy, Mrs. and Miss, murder of, 55, 96, 147. + + _Kesari_, newspaper, 22, 42, 48, 49, 52, 382, 337, 339. + + Khadilkar, Mr., on the staff of the _Kesari_, 49, 337. + + Khataiyas, 102. + + _Khulnavasi_, newspaper, 19. + + _Killing of Kichaka, The_, play by Mr. Khadilkar, 337-339. + + Kingsford, Mr., magistrate at Muzafferpur, 96. + + Kitchener, Lord, 273, 311. + + Kolhapur, State of, 64, 69, 186, 190. + + Kolhapur, Maharajah of, 64, 65, 66. + + Kolhapur Shivaji Club, suppressed, 69. + + Krishnavarma, Shyamji, 60, 112, 114, 149, 152. + + Kshatrya Conference, 200. + + Lahore, disturbances at (1907), 107. + + Lal, Mr. Roshan, President of the Lahore branch of the + Arya Samaj, 111-112. + + Lalcaca, Dr., murder of, 148. + + Lansdowne, Lord, 158, 172, 229. + + Legislative Councils, reforms in, 172. + + Literacy, in Southern India, 143; + in India generally, 246; + amongst Indian women, 252. + + Lyon, Mr. P.C., 165, 168. + + Lytton, Lord, 293. + + MacDonnell, Sir Antony, 261, 263. + + Mackarness, Mr., 156, 299. + + Madigas, 177. + + Madras, Bishop of, 180. + + Madras Engineering College, 263. + + _Mahabharata_, 358-360. + + Mahmudabad, Rajah of, 163. + + Mahommedan College, Aligarh, 233, 244. + + Mahommedans, not implicated in the unrest, 5; + Number holding Government appointments, 39, 125, 346-347; + everything to gain from the Partition of Bengal, 85; + difficult position of, 118-135; Hindu antagonism to, 120-121, 133-134; + representation in the Indian Councils, 127-128; + desire separate electorates, 128; + number in India, 130. + + Malaria Conference, (1909), 20. + + Malavya, Pandit Mohan, 160, 163. + + Maniktolla bomb outrage, 90, 98. + + Manu, Code of, 33. + + _Manumakkathayam_ system, in Southern India, 140-141. + + Mazhar-ul-Haq, Mr., 165. + + Mazzini, _Autobiography_ translated by Vinayak Savarkar, 146; + _Life of_, by Lajpat Rai, 146. + + Mehta, Sir Pherozeshah, 51. + + Military charges, on the Government of India, 273-274. + + Minto, Lord, 1, 90, 99, 163, 167,169, 170, 172, 138, 197, 248, 266, 306, + 311, 313, 314, 315, 329; + attempted assassination of, 62; + relations with Lord Morley, 311-312. + + _Mlenccha_, term applied by Hindus equally to Europeans and Mahommedans, + 44. + + Mohsin-ul-Mulk, Nawab, 132. + + Moneylenders, influence of, 107, 108, 261. + + Montagu, Mr. E.S., Under-Secretary of State for India, 299, 306-311, 313. + + Mookerjee, Dr. Ashutosh, 75, 214, 223, 230, 239, 245. + + Mookerjee, Mr. E.N., 351. + + Morley, Lord, 1, 15, 86, 128, 154, 172, 173, 175, 233, 271, 306, 311, + 313, 314, 316, 317, 321, 332; + constitutional reforms, 170-175; + relations with Lord Minto, 311-312; + retirement of, 333-334. + + Moslem Educational Congress, 200. + + Muchis, 177. + + Mudholkar, Mr., 267, 285. + + _Mukti con pathe_ ("Which way does salvation lie?"), reprinted from the + _Yugantar_, 95. + + Mullick, Dr., on the Indian student, 218-219. + + Mysore, State of, 143, 186. + + Nabha, State of, 186. + + Namasudras, Brahman agitation among, 102; rise of, 183. + + Naoroji, Mr. Dadabhai, 10, 51, 155. + + Nasik, murder of Mr. Jackson at, 57; a great stronghold + of Hinduism, 60. + + Natal, Indian indentured labour for, 280. + + National Congress, Indian, 154-161; + ideas of founders, 25; + subsidies to supporters in England, 347; + meetings of: Poona (1895), 159; + Benares (1905), 50, 51, 159; + Calcutta (1906), 50, 51, 159, 202; + Surat (1907), 52, 159; + Madras (1908), 160; + Lahore (1909), 160, 163, 281. + + "National" schools, 241-242. + + National Social Conference, Indian, 200. + + Native Princes, on the unrest, 190-196; + influence of, 329-330. + + Native States, 185-197; + total population of, 185; + proposal to establish an Imperial Advisory Council, 185; + no voice in questions of tariff, &c., 189; + Lord Minto on our policy towards, 188; + their action in regard to the unrest, 190. + + Natu, the brothers, allied with Tilak, 42. + + _Navasakti_, newspaper, 91. + + _New India_, newspaper, 78. + + Nicholson, Sir Frederick, 261. + + Nizam, of Hyderabad, 186-187; + on the unrest, 191-192, 194, 196. + + Northbrook, Lord, 356-357. + + Nulkar, Mr. A.K., 42. + + Official relations between Englishmen and Indians, 290-301. + + Olcott, Col., 28. + + Opium policy, 189, 272. + + Orange, Mr. H.W., 226, 251, 352, 354. + + Oxford Mission, Calcutta, 216. + + Pal, Mr. Bepin Chandra, 9, 10-14, 50, 51, 78, 89, 143-144, 160, 295. + + Palshikar, Mr., 59. + + Panchamas, 177-184, 180-181. + + Parciyas, 177. + + Parmanand, Bhai, 112. + + Parsee Conference, 200. + + Parsees, number holding higher Government appointments in + Bombay Presidency, 39. + + Patiala, Kur Sahib of, 162. + + Patiala, State of, 113, 186, 190. + + "Permanent Settlement" in Bengal, 260, 291. + + Poona College of Science, 263. + + Prarthana Samaj, 25, 27. + + _Prem_, newspaper, Firozpur, 20. + + Press, Indian, 325, 335-337. + _Akash_ (Delhi), 21. + _Bande Mataram_, 78, 149, 150, 151. + _Bedari_ (Lahore), 19. + _Bengalee_, 79, 101, 168, 353. + _Calcutta Review_, 78. + _Dacca Gazette_, 18. + _Dharma_ (Calcutta), 18. + _Examiner_ (Bombay), 352-353. + _Free Hindustan_ (Seattle), 147. + _Gazette of India_, 169. + _Gujarat_, 17. + _Hind Swarajya_, 16. + _Hitabadi_, 340. + _Hitaishi_ (Barisal), 18. + _India_, 126, 347. + _Indian Sociologist_, 112, 149. + _Jhang Sial_, 21. + _Justice_, 347-348. + _Kal_ (Poona), 17, 22, 52, 148. + _Karnatak Vaibhav_, 22. + _Kesari_, 22, 42, 48, 49, 52, 332, 337, 339. + _Khulnavasi_, 19. + _Navasakti_, 91. + _New India_, 78. + _Prem_ (Firozpur), 20. + _Rashtramat_ (Poona), 52, 57. + _Sahaik_ (Lahore), 20. + _Sandhya_, 91, 340. + _Shakti_, 17. + _Swarajiya_, 113. + _Talvar_, 149. + _Vartabaha_ (Ranjpur), 21. + _Vishvavritta_, 71. + _Yugantar_ (Calcutta), 16, 91-96, 98, 113, 295, 340. + + Press Act (1908), 96, 98. + + Press Act (1910), 15, 98-99; + Sir H. Risley's speech on its introduction, 335-337. + + _Press, History of the Indian_, by Sir. G.C. Sanial., 78. + + _Prince of Destiny, The_, by Mr. S.K. Ghosh, 3. + + Protection, Indian desire for, 274. + + Public Service Commission (1886-1887), 212, 227. + + Public Instruction, Department of, 209. + + Public Works Department, 289. + + Punjab, 106; + deportation of two prominent agitators (1907), 107; + Brahmanism in, 109; + _gurukuls_ in, 114-115; + free from outrages and dacoities, 116. + + Punjab Land Alienation Act (1900), 156. + + Raffeisen System, the, 261. + + Rai, Mr. Lala Lajput, 110, 112, 146, 275. + + Raj, Mr. Lala Dev, 201. + + Rajput Conference, 200. + + Ranade, Mahadev Govind, 36, 40, 41, 201, 257. + + Rand, Mr., murder of, 48. + + _Rashtramat_, newspaper, Poona, 52, 57. + + Ratlam, Rajah of, on the unrest, 193. + + Rawal Pindi, disturbances at (1907), 107, 112. + + Religion, the basic element of Indian life, 239-240. + + Ripon, Lord, 126, 212. + + Risley, Sir H., on the language of Bengal, 73; + on the demoralization of the Native Press, 335-337. + + Roy, Ram Mohun, 25, 75, 201. + + Rurki Engineering College, 263. + + Sabnis, Rao Bahadur, 65, 68. + + _Sahaik_, newspaper, Lahore, 20. + + Salisbury, Lord, 356. + + _Samitis_, or "national volunteers," 84. + + _Sandhya_, newspaper, 91, 340. + + Sanial, Mr. G.C., _History of the Indian Press_, 78. + + Sanyasis, 103. + + _Satyarath Prakash_, by Swami Dayanand, 109. + + Savarkar, Vinayak, 60, 146, 148, 140. + + _Science Progress_, 266. + + Secretary of State for India, powers of, 306-310; + position in regard to Viceroy, 356-357. + + Sen, Keshub Chunder, 25, 201. + + "Servants of India" society, 202-206, 294. + + Shakti worship, 18, 29, 83-84, 93. + + _Shakti_, newspaper, 17. + + Shains-ul-Alam, Mr., murder of, 97, 101, 341-342. + + Shams-ul-Huda, Maulvi Syed, 165. + + Sharp, Mr., on female education, 354-355. + + Shivaji-Maharaj, cult of, 27, 45, 84, 339-340. + + Sibpur Engineering College, 263. + + Sikh Educational Conference, 200. + + Sikhs, loyalty of, 107. + + Sinha, Mr. S.P., 128, 171. + + Social reform in India, 198-206. + + Social relations between Englishmen and Indians, 3, 288-305. + + South Africa, ill-treatment of British Indians in, 3, 281-282. + + Southern India, position in, 137-144. + + Strachey, Mr. Justice. 22. + + Student, the Indian, 216-228. + + Sudras, 178. + + Summary Justice Act (1908), 98. + + _Swadeshi_, 11, 30, 31, 83, 254-270, 275. + + _Swaraj_, 9, 10-14, 31, 254. + + _Swarajiya_, newspaper, 113. + + Tagore, Dr., 25, 36 + + Tai Maharaj case, 49, 340. + + _Talvar_, newspaper, 149. + + Tata, Mr. Jamsetjee N., 264, 277. + + Tata, Messrs., and the iron and steel industry. 268. + + Telang, Mr. K.T., 156. + + Telugu Mission, work among the Namasudras 180-181. + + Thackersey, Sir Vithalda, 271-273. + + Theosophists, influence on Hindu revival, 28. + + Tilak, Bal Gangadhar, a Chitpavan Brahman, 40; + the father of Indian unrest, 41; + initial campaign in the Deccan, 41-48; + compelled to sever his connexion with the Poona Educational Society, + 42; + denounces the Age of Consent Bill, 42; + forms the Anti Cow-killing Society, 43; + organizes Ganpati celebrations, 44; + becomes master of the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha, 44; + revives the memory of Shivaji, 45-46; + returned as member of the Bombay Legislative Councils 47; + "no-rent" campaign, 47; + imprisoned (1897), 48; + the Tai Maharaj case, 49, 340; + begins second campaign in the Deccan, 49; + associates himself with the Indian National Congress, 50; + one of the first champions of _Swadeshi_, 50; + starts movement for the creation of "national" schools, 52; + influence on the cotton operatives in Bombay, 53; + twofold appeal to Hindus, 54; + arrested (1908), 55; + riots in Bombay following his sentence, 50; + his conviction a heavy blow to the forces of unrest, 57; + the _Kesari_ and the _Kal_ on his sentence, 22; + his connexion with the Indian National Congress, 159-160. + + Tilang, Mr. Justice., 42. + + Tinnevelly, riots in, 144. + + Tiwana, Malik Umar Hyat Khan of, 163. + + Travancore, State of, 186-187. + + Tuticorin, riots in, 144. + + Udaipur, Maharana of, on the unrest, 192. + + Udaipur, State of, 186-187. + + United Provinces, comparison of the number of Hindus and + Mahommedans in Government employ, 125. + + Universities, Indian, wastage in, 351-352. + + Universities Act (1904), 78, 82, 229. + + _Vartabaha_, newspaper, Ranjpur, 21. + + _Veda Bashya Basmika_, by Swami Dayanand, 109. + + Vedic system of education, 114-115. + + Viceroy of India, powers of, 306-310; + position in regard to the Secretary of State, 356-357. + + _Vishvavritta_, newspaper. 71. + + Vivekananda, Swaini, 29, 91. + + _War of Indian Independence of 1857_, by Savarkar, 149. + + Watt, Sir George, 263. + + Webb, Mr. M. de P., 278. + + Wedderburn, Sir William, 261. + + Whitehead, Dr., Bishop of Madras, 180. + + Williams, Dr. Garfield, on the Indian Student, 317-219. + + Wilson, Sir Fleetwood, 275. + + Wood, Sir Charles, Educational Dispatch (1854), 209. + + Wyllie, Sir W. Curzon, murder of, 21, 148-149. + + Young India Association, 147. + + _Yugantar_, newspaper, Calcutta, 16, 91-96, 98, 113, 295, 340. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Indian Unrest, by Valentine Chirol + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INDIAN UNREST *** + +***** This file should be named 16444-8.txt or 16444-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/4/4/16444/ + +Produced by Million Book Project, Juliet Sutherland, Graeme +Mackreth and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** + diff --git a/16444-8.zip b/16444-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..33e6d4b --- /dev/null +++ b/16444-8.zip diff --git a/16444.txt b/16444.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7fa5a0c --- /dev/null +++ b/16444.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13508 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Indian Unrest, by 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: Indian Unrest + +Author: Valentine Chirol + +Release Date: August 5, 2005 [EBook #16444] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INDIAN UNREST *** + + + + +Produced by Million Book Project, Juliet Sutherland, Graeme +Mackreth and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + +INDIAN UNREST + +By + +VALENTINE CHIROL + + +A Reprint, revised and enlarged, from "The Times," +with an introduction by Sir Alfred Lyall + + + _We have now, as it were, before + us, in that vast congeries of peoples + we call India, a long, slow march + in uneven stages through all the + centuries from the fifth to the twentieth._ + + --VISCOUNT MORLEY. + + + +MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED + +ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON + +1910 + +DEDICATED BY PERMISSION + +TO + +VISCOUNT MORLEY + +AS A TRIBUTE +OF PRIVATE FRIENDSHIP AND +PUBLIC RESPECT + +CONTENTS + + CHAPTER PAGE + + INTRODUCTION. BY SIR ALFRED C. LYALL VII + + I. A GENERAL SURVEY 1 + + II. SWARAJ ON THE PLATFORM AND IN THE PRESS 8 + + III. A HINDU REVIVAL 24 + + IV. BRAHMANISM AND DISAFFECTION IN THE DECCAN 37 + + V. POONA AND KOLHAPUR 64 + + VI. BENGAL BEFORE THE PARTITION 72 + + VII. THE STORM IN BENGAL 81 + + VIII. THE PUNJAB AND THE ARYA SAMAJ 106 + + IX. THE POSITION OF THE MAHOMEDANS 118 + + X. SOUTHERN INDIA 136 + + XI. REVOLUTIONARY ORGANIZATIONS OUTSIDE INDIA 145 + + XII. THE INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS 154 + + XIII. CONSTITUTIONAL REFORMS 162 + + XIV. THE DEPRESSED CASTES 176 + + XV. THE NATIVE STATES 185 + + XVI. CROSS CURRENTS 198 + + XVII. THE GROWTH OF WESTERN EDUCATION 207 + + XVIII. THE INDIAN STUDENT 216 + + XIX. SOME MEASURES OF EDUCATIONAL REFORM 229 + + XX. THE QUESTION OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 238 + + XXI. PRIMARY EDUCATION 246 + + XXII. SWADESHI AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS 254 + + XXIII. THE FINANCIAL AND FISCAL RELATIONS + BETWEEN INDIA AND GREAT BRITAIN 271 + + XXIV. THE POSITION OF INDIANS IN THE EMPIRE 280 + + XXV. SOCIAL AND OFFICIAL RELATIONS 288 + + XXVI. THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA 306 + + XXVII. CONCLUSIONS 319 + + NOTES 335 + + INDEX 361 + +_The numerals above the line in the body of the book refer to notes at +the end of the volume._ + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + +BY SIR ALFRED C. LYALL. + + +The volume into which Mr. Valentine Chirol has collected and republished +his valuable series of articles in _The Times_ upon Indian unrest is an +important and very instructive contribution to the study of what is +probably the most arduous problem in the politics of our far-reaching +Empire. His comprehensive survey of the whole situation, the arrangement +of evidence and array of facts, are not unlike what might have been +found in the Report of a Commission appointed to investigate the causes +and the state of affairs to which the troubles that have arisen in India +may be ascribed. + +At different times in the world's history the nations foremost in +civilization have undertaken the enterprise of founding a great European +dominion in Asia, and have accomplished it with signal success. The +Macedonian Greeks led the way; they were followed by the Romans; and in +both instances their military superiority and organizing genius enabled +them to subdue and govern for centuries vast populations in Western +Asia. European science and literature flourished in the great cities of +the East, where the educated classes willingly accepted and supported +foreign rulership as their barrier against a relapse into barbarism; nor +have we reason for believing that it excited unusual discontent or +disaffection among the Asiatic peoples. But the Greek and Roman Empires +in Asia have disappeared long ago, leaving very little beyond scattered +ruins; and in modern times it is the British dominion in India that has +revived and is pursuing the enterprise of ruling and civilizing a great +Asiatic population, of developing the political intelligence and +transforming the ideas of an antique and, in some respects, a primitive +society. + +That the task must be one of prodigious difficulty, not always free from +danger, has been long known to those who watched the experiment with +some accurate foresight of the conditions attending it. Yet the recent +symptoms of virulent disease in some parts of the body politic, though +confined to certain provinces of India, have taken the British nation by +surprise. Mr. Chirol's book has now exhibited the present state and +prospect of the adventure; he has examined the causes and the +consequences of the prevailing unrest; he has collected ample evidence, +and he has consulted all the best authorities, Indian and European, on +the subject. His masterly analysis of all this material shows wide +acquaintance with the facts, and rare insight into the character and +motives, the aims and methods, of those who are engaged in stirring up +the spirit of revolt against the British Government. He has pointed to +instances where the best intentions of the administrators have led them +wrong; his whole narrative illustrates the perils that beset a +Government necessarily pledged to moral and material reform, which finds +its own principles perverted against its efforts, and its foremost +opponents among the class that has been the first to profit by the +benefits which that Government has conferred upon them. + +The nineteenth century had been pre-eminently an era of the development +of rapid and easy communication between distant parts of the world, +particularly between Europe and Asia. So long as these two continents +remained far apart the condition of Asia was unchanged and stationary; +if there was any change it had been latterly retrogressive, for in +India at any rate the eighteenth century was a period of abnormal and +extensive political confusion. In Europe, on the other hand, national +wealth, scientific discoveries, the arts of war and peace, had made +extraordinary progress. Population had increased and multiplied; and +partly by territorial conquests, partly by pacific penetration, the +Western nations overflowed politically into Asia during the nineteenth +century. They brought with them larger knowledge, novel ideas and +manners, which have opened the Asiatic mind to new influences and +aspirations, to the sense of needs and grievances not previously felt or +even imagined. The effect, as can now be clearly perceived, has been to +produce an abrupt transition from old to new ways, from the antique +order of society towards fresh models; and to this may be ascribed the +general unsettlement, the uneasy stir, that pervade Asia at the present +moment. Its equilibrium has been disturbed by the high speed at which +Europe has been pushing eastward; and the principal points of contact +and penetration are in India. + +Moreover, towards the latter end of the nineteenth century and in the +first years of the present century came events which materially altered +the attitude of Asiatic nations towards European predominance. The +defeat of the Italians by the Abyssinians in 1896 may indeed be noted as +the first decisive victory gained by troops that may be reckoned +Oriental over a European army in the open field, for at least three +centuries. The Japanese war, in which Russia lost battles not only by +land, but also at sea, was even a more significant and striking warning +that the era of facile victories in Asia had ended; since never before +in all history had an Asiatic navy won a great sea-fight against +European fleets. That the unquiet spirit, which from these general +causes has been spreading over the Eastern Continent, should be +particularly manifest in countries under European Governments is not +unnatural; it inevitably roused the latent dislike of foreign rule, +with which a whole people is never entirely content. Precisely similar +symptoms are to be observed in the Asiatic possessions of France, and in +Egypt; nor is Algeria yet altogether reconciled to the _regime_ of its +conquerors. + +That in India the British Government has found the centres of active +disaffection located in the Maratha country and in Lower Bengal, is a +phenomenon which can be to a large extent accounted for by reference to +Anglo-Indian history. The fact that Poona is one focus of sedition has +been attributed in this volume to the survival among the Maratha +Brahmins of the recollection that "far into the eighteenth century Poona +was the capital of a theocratic State in which behind the Throne of the +Peshwas both spiritual and secular authority were concentrated in the +hands of the Brahmins." The Peshwas, as their title implies, had been +hereditary Ministers who governed in the name of the reigning dynasty +founded by the famous Maratha leader Sivajee, whose successors they set +aside. But before the end of the eighteenth century the secular +authority of the Peshwas had become almost nominal, and the real power +in the State had passed into the grasp of a confederation of chiefs of +predatory armies, whose violence drove the last Peshwa, more than a +century ago, to seek refuge in a British camp. The political sovereignty +of the Brahmins had disappeared from the time when he placed himself +under British protection; and the Maratha chiefs (who were not Brahmins) +only acknowledged our supremacy after some fiercely contested battles; +with the result that they were confined to and confirmed in the +possession of the territories now governed by their descendants. But it +is quite true that to the memory of a time when for once, and once only, +in Indian history, their caste established a great secular dominion, may +be ascribed the tendency to disloyalty among the Maratha Brahmins. + +The case of Bengal is very different. Poona and Calcutta are separated +geographically almost by the whole breadth of India between two seas; +yet the historical antecedents of the Bengalees and Marathas are even +further apart. The Marathas were the leaders of revolt against the +Moghal Empire; they were formidable opponents to the rise of the British +power; their chiefs fought hard before yielding to British authority. On +the other hand, Lower Bengal belonged to a province that had fallen away +from the Moghal Empire, and which was transferred from its Mahomedan +Governor to a British General by the result of a single battle at +Plassey. The Bengalees took no part in the contest, and they had very +good reason for willing acquiescence in the change of masters. + +In a comparison, therefore, of the Marathas with the people of Bengal, +we have a remarkable instance of the production of similar effects from +causes very distinct and dissimilar. In the former case their present +unrest may be traced, in a large degree, to the memories of early +rulership and to warlike traditions. In the latter case there can be no +such recollections, military or political, for the country has had no +experience whatever of a state of war, since Lower Bengal is perhaps the +only considerable province of India which has enjoyed profound peace +during nearly 150 years. It is no paradox to suggest that this prolonged +tranquillity has had some share in stimulating the audacity of Bengalee +unrest, for the literary classes seem to have no clear notion that the +real game of revolutionary politics is necessarily rough and +dangerous--certain, moreover, to fail whenever the British Government +shall have resolved that it is being carried too far, and must end. + +But it is beyond question that the promoters of disaffection on both +sides of India have been making strenuous exertions to enlist in the +movement the influence of Brahminism; and upon this point the book +rightly lays particular stress. + +The position and privileges of the Brahmins are rightly compared to +those of the Levites; they are the depositories of orthodox tradition; +they preside over and hold (not exclusively) a monopoly for the +performance of the sacred rites and offices; and ritual in Hinduism, as +in most of the ancient religions, is the essential element; it is +closely connected with the rules of caste, which unite and divide +innumerable groups within the pale of Hinduism. And in India the +peculiar institution of caste, the strict regulation of social +intercourse, particularly in regard to inter-marriage and the sharing of +food, prevails to an extent quite unknown elsewhere in the world. The +divisions of caste have always operated to weaken the body politic in +India, and thus to facilitate foreign conquest; but, on the other hand, +they have opposed a stiff barrier to the invasion of foreign religions, +to the fusion of alien races with the Hindu people, and to any success +in what may be called national unification. + +One can easily understand the formidable power invested by this system +in the Brahmins, and the enormous obstacles that it might raise against +the introduction of Western ideas, manners, and education. Nevertheless +we all know, and we have seen it with real satisfaction, that the +Brahmins, very much to the credit of their intelligence and sagacity, +have been forward in accepting the new learning, the expansion of +general knowledge, offered to them by English schools and Universities; +they have acquired our language, they have studied our sciences; they +are prominent in the professions of law and medicine, which the English +have created; they enter our civil services, they even serve in the +Indian Army. Yet their readiness to adopt secular culture does not seem +to have abated their religious authority, or to have sensibly weakened +their influence over the people at large. And indeed the fact that the +Brahmins, with others of the educated classes, should have been able, +for their own purposes, to appeal simultaneously to the darkest +superstitions of Hinduism and to extreme ideas of Western democracy--to +disregard caste rules personally and to stir up caste prejudices among +the masses--will not greatly surprise those who have observed the +extraordinary elasticity of practical Hinduism, the fictions and +anomalies which can be invented or tolerated at need. But the beliefs +and practices of popular Hinduism are obviously irreconcilable with the +principles of modern civilization; and the various indications of a +desire to reform and purify their ancient religion may be partly due to +the perception among educated Hindus that so contradictory a position is +ultimately untenable, that the incongruity between sacrifices to the +goddess Kali and high University degrees is too manifest. + +The course and consequences of the measures taken by the British +Government to promote Western education in India has been attentively +studied by the author of this volume. It is a story of grave political +miscalculation, containing a lesson that has its significance for other +nations which have undertaken a similar enterprise. Ignorance is +unquestionably the root of many evils; and it was natural that in the +last century certain philosophers should have assumed education to be +the certain cure for human delusions; and that statesmen like Macaulay +should have declared education to be the best and surest remedy for +political discontent and for law-breaking. In any case it was the clear +and imperative duty of the British Government to attempt the +intellectual emancipation of India as the best justification of British +rule. We have since discovered, by experience, that, although education +is a sovereign remedy for many ills--is indeed indispensable to healthy +progress--yet an indiscriminate or superficial administration of this +potent medicine may engender other disorders. It acts upon the frame of +an antique society as a powerful dissolvent, heating weak brains, +stimulating rash ambitions, raising inordinate expectations of which the +disappointment is bitterly resented. That these effects are well known +even in Europe may be read in a remarkable French novel published not +long ago, "Les Deracines," which, describes the road to ruin taken by +poor collegians who had been uprooted from the soil of their humble +village. And in Asia the disease is necessarily much more virulent, +because the transition has been more sudden, and the contrast between +old ideas of life and new aspirations is far sharper. From the report of +an able French official upon the Indo-Chinese Colonies we may learn that +the existing system of educating the natives has proved to be +mischievous, needing radical reform. Of the Levantine youths in the +Syrian towns, the product of European schools, a French traveller writes +(1909), "C'est une tourbe de declasses"; while in China some leaders of +agitation for democratic changes in the oldest of all Empires are said +to be those who have qualified by competitive examination for public +employ, and have failed to obtain it. In every country the crowd of +expectants far outnumbers the places available. If, indeed, the +Government which introduced Western education into Bengal had been +native instead of foreign, it would have found itself entangled in +difficulties no less grave than those which now confront the British +rulers; and there can be little doubt that it would probably have broken +down under them. + +The phases through which the State's educational policy in India have +passed during the last fifty years are explained at length in this +volume. The Government was misled in the wrong direction by the reports +of two Commissions between 1880 and 1890, whose mistakes were discerned +at the time by those who had some tincture of political prudence. The +problem is now to reconstruct on a better plan, to try different lines +of advance. But some of us have heard of an enterprising pioneer in a +difficult country, who confidently urged travellers to take a new route +by assuring them that it avoided the hills on the old road. Whether the +hills were equally steep on his other road he did not say. And in the +present instance it may not be easy to strike out a fresh path which may +be clear from the complications that have been suffered to grow up +round our system of Indian education; while no one proposes to turn +back. The truth is that in India the English have been throughout +obliged to lay out their own roads, and to feel their way, without any +precedents to guide them. No other Government, European or Asiatic, has +yet essayed to administer a great Oriental population, alien in race and +religion, by institutions of a representative type, reckoning upon free +discussion and an unrestricted Press for reasonable consideration of its +measures and fair play, relying upon secular education and absolute +religious neutrality to control the unruly affections of sinful men. It +is now seen that our Western ideas and inventions, moral and material, +are being turned against us by some of those to whom we have imparted an +elementary aptitude for using them. And thus we have the strange +spectacle, in certain parts of India, of a party capable of resorting to +methods that are both reactionary and revolutionary, of men who offer +prayers and sacrifices to ferocious divinities and denounce the +Government by seditious journalism, preaching primitive superstition in +the very modern form of leading articles. The mixture of religion with +politics has always produced a highly explosive compound, especially in +Asia. + +These agitations are in fact the symptoms of what are said by +Shakespeare to be the "cankers of a calm world"; they are the natural +outcome of artificial culture in an educational hothouse, among classes +who have had for generations no real training in rough or hazardous +politics. The outline of the present situation in India is that we have +been disseminating ideas of abstract political right, and the germs of +representative institutions, among a people that had for centuries been +governed autocratically, and in a country where local liberties and +habits of self-government had been long obliterated or had never +existed. At the same time we have been spreading modern education +broadcast throughout the land, where, before English rule, learning had +not advanced beyond the stage of Europe in the middle ages. These may +be taken to be the primary causes of the existing Unrest; and meanwhile +the administrative machine has been so efficiently organized, it has +run, hitherto, so easily and quietly, as to disguise from inexperienced +bystanders the long discipline and training in affairs of State that are +required for its management. Nor is it clearly perceived that the real +driving power lies in the forces held in reserve by the British nation +and in the respect which British guardianship everywhere commands. That +Indians should be liberally invited to share the responsibilities of +high office is now a recognized principle of public policy. But the +process of initiation must be gradual and tentative; and vague notions +of dissolving the British connexion only prove incompetence to realize +the whole situation, external and internal, of the country. Across the +frontiers of India are warlike nations, who are intent upon arming +themselves after the latest modern pattern, though for the other +benefits of Western science and learning they show, as yet, very little +taste or inclination. They would certainly be a serious menace to a weak +Government in the Indian plains, while their sympathy with a literary +class would be uncommonly slight. Against intruders of this sort the +British hold securely the gates of India; and it must be clear that the +civilization and future prosperity of the whole country depend entirely +upon their determination to maintain public tranquillity by strict +enforcement of the laws; combined with their policy of admitting the +highest intellects and capacities to the Councils of the State, and of +assigning reasonable administrative and legislative independence to the +great provinces in accord with the unity of a powerful Empire. + +A.C. LYALL + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +A GENERAL SURVEY. + + +That there is a lull in the storm of unrest which has lately swept over +India is happily beyond doubt. Does this lull indicate a gradual and +steady return to more normal and peaceful conditions? Or, as in other +cyclonic disturbances in tropical climes, does it merely presage fiercer +outbursts yet to come? Has the blended policy of repression and +concession adopted by Lord Morley and Lord Minto really cowed the forces +of criminal disorder and rallied the representatives of moderate opinion +to the cause of sober and Constitutional progress? Or has it come too +late either permanently to arrest the former or to restore confidence +and courage to the latter? + +These are the two questions which the present situation in India most +frequently and obviously suggests, but it may be doubted whether they by +any means cover the whole field of potential developments. They are +based apparently upon the assumption that Indian unrest, even in its +most extreme forms, is merely the expression of certain political +aspirations towards various degrees of emancipation from British +tutelage, ranging from a larger share in the present system of +administration to a complete revolution in the existing relations +between Great Britain and India, and that, the issues thus raised being +essentially political, they can be met by compromise on purely political +lines. This assumption ignores, I fear, certain factors of very great +importance, social, religious, and economic, which profoundly affect, if +they do not altogether overshadow, the political problem. The question +to which I propose to address myself is whether Indian unrest represents +merely, as we are prone to imagine, the human and not unnatural +impatience of subject races fretting under an alien rule which, however +well intentioned, must often be irksome and must sometimes appear to be +harsh and arbitrary; or whether to-day, in its more extreme forms at any +rate, it does not represent an irreconcilable reaction against all that +not only British rule but Western civilization stands for. + +I will not stop at present to discuss how far the lamentable +deficiencies of the system of education which we have ourselves +introduced into India have contributed to the Indian unrest. That that +system has been productive of much good few will deny, but few also can +be so blind as to ignore the fact that it tends on the one hand to +create a semi-educated proletariate, unemployed and largely +unemployable, and on the other hand, even where failure is less +complete, to produce dangerous hybrids, more or less superficially +imbued with Western ideas, and at the same time more or less completely +divorced from the realities of Indian life. Many other circumstances +also which have helped the promoters of disaffection I must reserve for +subsequent discussion. Some of them are economic, such as the remarkable +rise in prices during the last decade. This has seriously enhanced the +cost of living in India and has specially affected the very classes +amongst whom disaffection is most widespread. The clerk, the teacher, +the petty Government official, whose exiguous salaries have remained the +same, find themselves to-day relatively, and in many cases actually, +worse off than the artisan or even the labourer, whose wages have in +many cases risen in proportion to the increased cost of living. Plague, +which in the course of the last 14 years has carried off over 6,000,000 +people, and two terrible visitations of famine have caused in different +parts of the country untold misery and consequent bitterness. On the +other hand, the growth of commerce and industry and the growing interest +taken by all classes in commercial and industrial questions have led to +a corresponding resentment of the fiscal restraints placed upon India by +the Imperial Government for the selfish benefit, as it is contended, of +the British manufacturer and trader. Much bad blood has undoubtedly been +created by the treatment of British Indians in South Africa and the +attitude adopted in British Colonies generally towards Asiatic +immigrants. The social relations between the two races in India +itself--always a problem of infinite difficulty--have certainly not been +improved by the large influx of a lower class of Europeans which the +development of railways and telegraphs and other industries requiring +technical knowledge have brought in their train. Nor can it be denied +that the growing pressure of office work as well as the increased +facilities of home leave and frequent transfers from one post to another +have inevitably to some extent lessened the contact between the +Anglo-Indian official and the native population. Of more remote +influences which have indirectly reacted upon the Indian mind it may +suffice for the present to mention the South African War, which lowered +the prestige of our arms, and the Russo-Japanese War, which was regarded +as the first blow dealt to the ascendency of Europe over Asia, though it +may be worth noting that in his novel, "The Prince of Destiny," Mr. Surat +Kumar Ghosh lays repeated emphasis on the impression produced in India +some years earlier by the defeat of the Italian forces in Abyssinia. +Each of the above points has its own importance and deserves to be +closely studied, for upon the way in which we shall in the future handle +some of the delicate questions which they raise will largely depend our +failure or our success in coping with Indian unrest--that is, in +preventing its invasion of other classes than those to which it has been +hitherto confined. But the clue to the real spirit which informs Indian +unrest must be sought elsewhere. + +Two misconceptions appear to prevail very widely at home with regard to +the nature of the unrest. The first is that disaffection of a virulent +and articulate character is a new phenomenon in India; the second is +that the existing: disaffection represents a genuine, if precocious and +misdirected, response on the part of the Western educated classes to the +democratic ideals of the modern Western world which our system of +education has imported into India. It is easy to account for the +prevalence of both these misconceptions. We are a people of notoriously +short memory, and, when a series of sensational dastardly crimes, +following on a tumultuous agitation in Bengal and a campaign of +incredible violence in the native Press, at last aroused and alarmed the +British public, the vast majority of Englishmen were under the +impression that since the black days of the Mutiny law and order had +never been seriously assailed in India, and they therefore rushed to the +conclusion that, if the _pax Britannica_ had been so rudely and suddenly +shaken, the only possible explanation lay in some novel wave of +sentiment or some grievous administrative blunder which had abruptly +disturbed the harmonious relations between the rulers and the ruled. +People had forgotten that disaffection in varying forms and degrees of +intensity has existed at all times amongst certain sections of the +population, and under the conditions of our rule can hardly be expected +to disappear altogether. Whether British statesmanship has always +sufficiently reckoned with its existence is another question. More than +30 years ago, for instance, the Government of India had to pass a Bill +dealing with the aggressive violence of the vernacular Press on +precisely the same grounds that were alleged in support of this year's +Press Bill, and with scarcely less justification, whilst just 13 years +ago two British officials fell victims at Poona to a murderous +conspiracy, prompted by a campaign of criminal virulence in the Press, +closely resembling those which have more recently robbed India of many +valuable lives. + +To imagine that Indian unrest has been a sudden growth because its +outward manifestations have assumed new and startling forms of violence +is a dangerous delusion; and no less misleading is the assumption that +it is merely the outcome of Western education or the echo of Western +democratic aspirations, because it occasionally, and chiefly for +purposes of political expediency, adopts the language of Western +demagogues. Whatever its modes of expression, its main spring is a +deep-rooted antagonism to all the principles upon which Western society, +especially in a democratic country like England, has been built up. It +is in that antagonism--in the increasing violence of that +antagonism--which is a conspicuous feature of the unrest, that the +gravest danger lies. + +But if in this respect the problems with which we are confronted appear +to me more serious and complex than official optimism is sometimes +disposed to admit, I have no hesitation is saying that there is no cause +for despondency if we will only realize how strong our position in India +still is, and use our strength wisely and sympathetically, but, at the +same time, with firmness and consistency. It is important to note at the +outset that the more dangerous forms of unrest are practically confined +to the Hindus, and amongst them to a numerically small proportion of the +vast Hindu community. Not a single Mahomedan has been implicated in, +though some have fallen victims to, the criminal conspiracies of the +last few years. Not a single Mahomedan of any account is to be found in +the ranks of disaffected politicians. For reasons, in fact, which I +shall set forth later on, it may be confidently asserted that never +before have the Mahomedans of India as a whole identified their +interests and their aspirations so closely as at the present day with +the consolidation and permanence of British rule. It is almost a +misnomer to speak of Indian unrest. Hindu unrest would be a far more +accurate term, connoting with far greater precision the forces +underlying it, though to use it without reservation would be to do a +grave injustice to the vast numbers of Hindus who are as yet untainted +with disaffection. These include almost all the Hindu ruling chiefs and +landed aristocracy, as well as the great mass of the agricultural +classes which form in all parts of India the overwhelming majority of +the population. Very large areas, moreover, are still entirely free from +unrest, which, except for a few sporadic outbreaks in other districts, +has been hitherto mainly confined to three distinct areas--the Mahratta +Deccan, which comprises a great part of the Bombay Presidency and +several districts of the Central Provinces, Bengal, with the new +province of Eastern Bengal, and the Punjab. In those regions it is the +large cities that have been the real hot-beds of unrest, and, great as +is their influence, it must not be forgotten that in India scarcely +one-tenth of the population lives in cities, or even in small townships +with more than 5,000 inhabitants. Whereas in England one-third of the +population is gathered together in crowded cities of 100,000 inhabitants +and over, there are but twenty-eight cities of that size in the whole of +India, with an aggregate population of less than 7,000,000 out of a +total of almost 300,000,000. + +That a movement confined to a mere fraction of the population of India +has no title to be called a "national" movement would scarcely need to +be argued, even if the variegated jumble of races and peoples, castes +and creeds that make up the population of India were not in itself an +antithesis to all that the word "national" implies. Nevertheless it +would be equally foolish to underrate the forces which underlie this +movement, for they have one common _nexus_, and a very vital one. They +are the dominant forces of Hinduism--forces which go to the very root of +a social and religious system than which none in the history of the +human race has shown greater vitality and stability. Based upon caste, +the most rigid of all social classifications, Hinduism has secured for +some 3,000 years or more to the higher castes, and especially to the +Brahmans, the highest of all castes, a social supremacy for which there +is no parallel elsewhere. At the same time, inflexibly as they have +dominated Hinduism, these higher castes have themselves preserved a +flexibility of mind and temper which has enabled them to adapt +themselves with singular success to the vicissitudes of changing times +without any substantial sacrifice of their inherited traditions and +aspirations. Thus it is amongst high-caste Hindus that for the last +three-quarters of a century English education has chiefly spread, and, +indeed, been most eagerly welcomed; it is amongst them that British +administration has recruited the great majority of its native servants +in every branch of the public service; it is amongst them also that are +chiefly recruited the liberal professions, the Press, the +schoolmasters--in fact all those agencies through which public opinion +and the mind of the rising generation are most easily moulded and +directed. That it is amongst them also that the spirit of revolt against +British ascendency is chiefly and almost exclusively rife constitutes +the most ominous feature of Indian unrest. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +SWARAJ ON THE PLATFORM AND IN THE PRESS. + + +Before proceeding to describe the methods by which Indian unrest has +been fomented, and to study as far as possible its psychology, it may be +well to set forth succinctly the political purpose to which it is +directed, as far as there is any unity of direction. One of the chief +difficulties one encounters in attempting to define its aims is the +vagueness that generally characterizes the pronouncements of Indian +politicians. There is, indeed, one section that makes no disguise either +of its aspirations or of the way in which it proposes to secure their +fulfilment. Its doctrines are frankly revolutionary, and it openly +preaches propaganda by deed--i.e., by armed revolt, if and when it +becomes practicable, and, in the meantime, by assassination, dynamite +outrages, dacoities, and all the other methods of terrorism dear to +anarchists all over the world. But that section is not very numerous, +nor would it in itself be very dangerous, if it did not exercise so +fatal a fascination upon the immature mind of youth. The real difficulty +begins when one comes to that much larger section of "advanced" +politicians who are scarcely less bitterly opposed to the maintenance of +British rule, but, either from prudential motives or lest they should +prematurely alarm and alienate the representatives of what is called +"moderate" opinion, shrink from the violent assertion of India's claim +to complete political independence and, whilst helping to create the +atmosphere that breeds outrages, profess to deprecate them. + +The difficulty is further enhanced by the reluctance of many of the +"moderates" to break with their "advanced" friends by proclaiming, once +and for all, their own conviction that within no measurable time can +India in her own interests afford to forgo the guarantees of internal +peace and order and external security which the British _Raj_ alone can +afford. Hence the desire on both sides to find some common denominator +in a nebulous formula which each can interpret as to time and manner +according to its own desires and aims. That formula seems to have been +discovered in the term _Swaraj_, or self-rule, which, when +euphemistically translated into Colonial self-government for India, +offers the additional advantage of presenting the political aspirations +of Indian "Nationalism" in the form least likely to alarm Englishmen, +especially those who do not care or wish to look below the surface and +whose sympathies are readily won by any catchword that appeals to +sentimental Liberalism. Now if _Swaraj_, or Colonial self-government, +represents the _minimum_ that will satisfy Indian Nationalists, it is +important to know exactly what in their view it really means. +Fortunately on this point we have some _data_ of indisputable authority. +They are furnished in the speeches of an "advanced" leader, who does not +rank amongst the revolutionary extremists, though his refusal to give +evidence in the trial of a seditious newspaper with which he had been +connected brought him in 1907 within the scope of the Indian Criminal +Code. Mr. Bepin Chandra Pal, a high-caste Hindu and a man of great +intellectual force and high character, has not only received a Western +education, but has travelled a great deal in Europe and in America, and +is almost as much at home in London as in Calcutta. A little more than +three years ago he delivered in Madras a series of lectures on the "New +Spirit," which have been republished in many editions and may be +regarded as the most authoritative programme of "advanced" political +thought in India. What adds greatly to the significance of those +speeches is that Mr. Pal borrowed their keynote from the Presidential +address delivered in the preceding year by the veteran leader of the +"moderates," Mr. Dadabhai Naoroji, at the annual Session of the Indian +National Congress. The rights of India, Mr. Naoroji had said, "can be +comprised in one word--self-government or _Swaraj_, like that of the +United Kingdom or the Colonies." It was reserved for Mr. Pal to define +precisely how such _Swaraj_ could be peacefully obtained and what it +must ultimately lead to. He began by brushing away the notion that any +political concessions compatible with the present dependency of India +upon Great Britain could help India to _Swaraj_. I will quote his own +words, which already foreshadowed the contemptuous reception given by +"advanced" politicians to the reforms embodied in last year's Indian +Councils Act:-- + + You may get a High Court judgeship here, membership + of the Legislative Council there, possibly an Executive + Membership of the Council. Or do you want an expansion + of the Legislative Councils? Do you want that a few Indians + shall sit as your representatives in the House of Commons? + Do you want a large number of Indians in the Civil Service? + Let us see whether 50, 100, 200, or 300 civilians will make + the Government our own.... The whole Civil Service + might be Indian, but the Civil servants have to carry out + orders--they cannot direct, they cannot dictate the policy. + One swallow does not make the summer. One civilian, + 100 or 1,000 civilians in the service of the British Government + will not make that Government Indian. There are traditions, + there are laws, there are policies to which every civilian, be + he black or brown or white, must submit, and as long as + these traditions have not been altered, as long as these principles + have not been amended, as long as that policy has not + been radically changed, the supplanting of European by + Indian agency will not make for self-government in this + country. + +Nor is it from the British Government that Mr. Pal looks for, or would +accept, _Swaraj_:-- + + If the Government were to come and tell me to-day "Take + _Swaraj" I would say thank you for the gift, but I will not + have that which I cannot acquire by my own hand.... + Our programme is that we shall so work in the country, + so combine the resources of the people, so organize the forces + of the nation, so develop the instincts of freedom in the community, + that by this means we shall--_shall_ in the imperative--compel + the submission to our will of any power that may set + itself against us. + +Equally definite is Mr. Pal as to the methods by which _Swaraj_ is to be +made "imperative." They consist of _Swadeshi_ in the economic domain, +i.e., the encouragement of native industries reinforced by the boycott +of imported goods which will kill British commerce and, in the political +domain, passive resistance reinforced by the boycott of Government +service. + + They say:--Can you boycott all the Government offices? + Whoever said that we would? Whoever said that there + would not be found a single Indian to serve the Government + or the European community here? But what we can do is this. + We can make the Government impossible without entirely + making it impossible for them to find people to serve them. + The administration may be made impossible in a variety of + ways. It is not actually that every deputy magistrate + should say: I won't serve in it. It is not that when one + man resigns nobody will be found to take his place. But + if you create this spirit in the country the Government service + will gradually imbibe this spirit, and a whole office may go + on strike. That does not put an end to the administration, + but it creates endless complications in the work of administration, + and if these complications are created in every + part of the country, the administration will have been brought + to a deadlock and made none the less impossible, for the + primary thing is the prestige of the Government and the + boycott strikes at the root of that prestige.... We + can reduce every Indian in Government service to the position + of a man who has fallen from the dignity of Indian citizenship.... + No man shall receive social honours because he is a + Hakim or a Munsiff or a Huzur Sheristadar.... No law + can compel one to give a chair to a man who comes to his + house. He may give it to an ordinary shopkeeper; he may + refuse it to the Deputy Magistrate or the Subordinate Judge. + He may give his daughter in marriage to a poor beggar, + he may refuse her to the son of a Deputy Magistrate, because + it is absolutely within his rights, absolutely within legal + bounds. + + Passive resistance is recognized as legitimate in England. + It is legitimate in theory even in India, and if it is made + illegal by new legislation, these laws will infringe on the primary + rights of personal freedom and will tread on dangerous + grounds. Therefore it seems to me that by means of the boycott + we shall be able to do the negative work that will have + to be done for the attainment of _Swaraj_. Positive work + will have to be done. Without positive training no self-government + will come to the boycotter. It will (come) + through the organization of our village life; of + our talukas and districts. Let our programme + include the setting up of machinery for popular administration, + and running parallel to, but independent of, the existing + administration of the Government.... In the Providence + of God we shall then be made rulers over many things. + This is our programme. + +But Mr. Pal himself admits that even if this programme can be fulfilled, +this _Swaraj_, this absolute self-rule which he asks for, is +fundamentally incompatible with the maintenance of the British +connexion. + + Is really self-government within the Empire a practicable + ideal? What would it mean? It would mean either no + real self-government for us or no real overlordship for England. + Would we be satisfied with the shadow of self-government? + If not, would England be satisfied with the shadow of overlordship? + In either case England would not be satisfied + with a shadowy overlordship, and we refuse to be satisfied + with a shadowy self-government. And therefore no compromise + is possible under such conditions between self-government + in India and the overlordship of England. If self-government + is conceded to us, what would be England's + position not only in India, but in the British Empire itself? + Self-government means the right of self-taxation; it means + the right of financial control; it means the right of the + people to impose protective and prohibitive tariffs on foreign + imports. The moment we have the right of self-taxation, + what shall we do? We shall not try to be engaged in this + uphill work of industrial boycott. But we shall do what + every nation has done. Under the circumstances in which + we live now, we shall impose a heavy prohibitive protective + tariff upon every inch of textile fabric from Manchester, + upon every blade of knife that comes from Leeds. We shall + refuse to grant admittance to a British soul into our territory. + We would not allow British capital to be engaged in + the development of Indian resources, as it is now engaged. + We would not grant any right to British capitalists to dig + up the mineral wealth of the land and carry it to their own + isles. We shall want foreign capital. But we shall apply + for foreign loans in the open market of the whole world, + guaranteeing the credit of the Indian Government, the + Indian nation, for the repayment of the loan, just as America + has done and is doing, just as Russia is doing now, just as + Japan has been doing of late. And England's commercial + interests would not be furthered in the way these are being + furthered now, under the conditions of popular self-government, + though it might be within the Empire. But what + would it mean within the Empire? It would mean that + England would have to enter into some arrangement with + us for some preferential tariff. England would have to come + to our markets on the conditions that we would impose + upon her for the purpose, if she wanted an open door in + India, and after a while, when we have developed our resources + a little and organized our industrial life, we would want the + open door not only to England, but to every part of the + British Empire. And do you think it is possible for a small + country like England with a handful of population, although + she might be enormously wealthy, to compete on fair and + equitable terms with a mighty continent like India, with + immense natural resources, with her teeming populations, + the soberest and most abstemious populations known to any + part of the world? + + If we have really self-government within the Empire, if + we have the rights of freedom of the Empire as Australia + has, as Canada has, as England has to-day, if we, 300 millions + of people, have that freedom of the Empire, the Empire + would cease to be British. It would be the Indian Empire, + and the alliance between England and India would be absolutely + an unequal alliance. That would be, if we had really + self-government within the Empire, exactly the relation as + co-partners in a co-British or anti-British Empire of the + future; and if the day comes when England will be reduced + to the alternative of having us as an absolutely independent + people or a co-partner with her in the Empire, she would + prefer to have us, like the Japanese, as an ally and no longer + a co-partner, because we are bound to be the predominant + partner in this Imperial firm. Therefore no sane Englishman, + politician or publicist can ever contemplate seriously the + possibility of a self-governing India, like the self-governing + colonies, forming a vital and organic part of the British + Empire. Therefore it is that Lord Morley says that so + long as India remains under the control of Great Britain + the government of India must continue to be a personal + and absolute one. Therefore it seems to me that this ideal, + the practically attainable ideal of self-government within the + Empire, when we analyse it with care, when we study it in + the light of common human psychology, when we study + it in the light of our past experience of the racial characteristics + of the British people, when we study it in the light of past + British history in India and other parts of the world, when + we study and analyse this ideal of self-government within + the Empire, we find it is a far more impracticable thing to + attain than even our ideal _Swaraj_. + +I have quoted Mr. Pal's utterances at some length, because they are the +fullest and the most frank exposition available of what lies beneath the +claim to Colonial self-government as it is understood by "advanced" +politicians. No one can deny the merciless logic with which he analyses +the inevitable results of _Swaraj_, and Englishmen may well be grateful +to him for having disclosed them so fearlessly. British sympathizers who +are reluctant to look behind a formula which commends itself to their +peculiar predilections, naturally dislike any reference to Mr. Pal's +interpretation of Indian "self-government," and would even impugn his +character in order the better to question his authority. But they cannot +get over the fact that in India, very few "moderate" politicians have +had the courage openly to repudiate his programmes, though many of them +realize its dangers, whilst the "extremists" want a much shorter cut to +the same goal. It is only by pledging itself to _Swaraj_ that the Indian +National Congress has been able to maintain a semblance of unity. + +Moreover, if any doubt still lingers as to the inner meaning of _Swaraj_ +and _Swadeshi_, and other kindred war-cries of Indian Nationalism, the +language of the Nationalist Press remains on record to complete our +enlightenment. However incompatible with the maintenance of British rule +may be the propositions set forth by Mr. Bepin Chandra Pal, they contain +no incitement to violence, no virulent diatribes against Englishmen. It +is in the Press rather than on the platform that Indian politicians, +whether "extreme" or merely "advanced" are apt to let themselves go. +They write down to the level of their larger audiences. So little has +hitherto been done to enlighten public opinion at home as to the gravity +of the evil which the recent Indian Press law has at last, though very +tardily, done something to repress that many Englishmen are still +apparently disposed to regard that measure as an oppressive, or at least +dubious, concession to bureaucratic impatience of criticism none the +less healthy for being sometimes excessive.[1] The following quotations, +taken from vernacular papers before the new Press law was enacted, will +serve to show what Lord Morley meant when he said, "You may put picric +acid in the ink and the pen just as much as in any steel bomb," and +again, "It is said that these incendiary articles are 'mere froth.' Yes, +they are froth, but froth stained with bloodshed." Even when they +contain no definite incitement to murder, no direct exhortation to +revolt, they will show how systematically, how persistently the wells of +Indian public opinion have been poisoned for years past by those who +claim to represent the intelligence and enlightenment of modern India. +Only too graphically also do they illustrate one of the most +unpleasantly characteristic features of the literature of Indian +unrest--namely, its insidious appeals to the Hindu Scriptures and the +Hindu deities, and its deliberate vilification of everything English. +Calumny and abuse, combined with a wealth of sacred imagery, supply the +place of any serious process of reasoning such as is displayed in Mr. +Pal's programme with all its uncompromising hostility. + +In the first place, a few specimens of the hatred which animates the +champions of _Swaraj_--of Indian independence, or, at least, of Colonial +self-government. The _Hind Swarajya_ is nothing if not plain-spoken:-- + + Englishmen! Who are Englishmen? They are the present + rulers of this country. But how did they become + our rulers? By throwing the noose of dependence round our + necks, by making us forget our old learning, by leading us + along the path of sin, by keeping us ignorant of the use of + arms.... Oh! my simple countrymen! By their + teaching adultery has entered our homes, and women have + begun to be led astray.... Alas! Has India's golden + land lost all her heroes? Are all eunuchs, timid and afraid, + forgetful of their duty, preferring to die a slow death of torture, + silent witnesses of the ruin of their country? Oh! + Indians, descended from a race of heroes! Why are you afraid + of Englishmen? They are not gods, but men like yourselves, + or, rather, monsters who have ravished your Sita-like beauty + [Sita, the spouse of Rama, was abducted by the demon + Ravana, and recovered with the help of the Monkey God + Hanuman and his army of monkeys]. If there be any Rama + amongst you, let him go forth to bring back your Sita. Raise + the banner of Swadesh, crying Victory to the Mother! Rescue + the truth and accomplish the good of India. + +The Calcutta _Yugantar_ argues that "sedition has no meaning from the +Indian standpoint." + + If the whole nation is inspired to throw off its yoke and + become independent, then in the eye of God and the eye of + Justice whose claim is more reasonable, the Indian's or the + Englishman's? The Indian has come to see that independence + is the panacea for all his evils. He will therefore even + swim in a sea of blood to reach his goal. The British + dominion over India is a gross myth. It is because the Indian + holds this myth in his bosom that his sufferings are so great + to-day. Long ago the Indian Rishis [inspired sages] preached + the destruction of falsehood and the triumph of truth. And + this foreign rule based on injustice is a gross falsehood. It + must be subverted and true _Swadeshi_ rule established. May + truth be victorious! + +The _Gujarat_ hails the Hindu New Year which is coming "to take away the +curse of the foreigners":-- + + Oh noble land of the Aryas, thou who wert so great art like + a caged bird. Are thy powerful sons, Truth and Love, dead? + Has thy daughter Lakshmi plunged into the sea? or art + thou overwhelmed with grief because rogues and demons + have plundered thee? ["Demons" is the term usually affected + by Nationalist journalists when they refer to Englishmen.] + +The _Shakti_ declares that:-- + + By whatever names--anarchists, extremists, or seditionists + --those may be called who are taking part in the movement + for independence, whatever efforts may be made to humiliate + and to crush them, however many patriots may be sent to + jail, or into exile, yet the spirit pervading the whole atmosphere + will never be checked, for the spirit is so strong and spontaneous + that it must clearly be directed by Divine Providence. + +The following appears In the _Kal_ (Poona):-- + + We Aryans are no sheep. We have our own country, our + religion, our heroes, our statesmen, our soldiers. We do + not owe them to contact with the English. These things + are not new to us. When the ancestors of those who boast + to-day of their enterprise and their civilization were in a + disgusting state of barbarism, or rather centuries before then, + we were in full possession of all the ennobling qualities of + head and heart. This holy and hoary land of ours will surely + regain her position and be once more by her intrinsic lustre + the home of wealth, arts, and peace. A holy inspiration + is spreading, that people must sacrifice their lives in the + cause of what has once been determined to be their duty. + Heroes are springing up in our midst, though brutal imprisonment + reduce them to skeletons. Let us devote ourselves + to the service of the Mother. A man maddened by + devotion will do everything and anything to achieve his + ideal. His strength will be adamantine. Just as a widow + immolates herself on the funeral pyre of her husband, let + us die for the Mother. + +The _Dharma_ (Calcutta) emphasizes specially the religious side of the +movement:-- + + We are engaged in preaching religion and we are putting + our energy into this agitation, looking on it as the principal + part of our religion.... The present agitation, in its + initial stages, had a strong leaven of the spirit of Western + politics in it, but at present a clear consciousness of Aryan + greatness and a strong love and reverential spirit towards + the Motherland have transformed it into a shape in which + the religious element predominates. Politics is part of religion, + but it has to be cultivated in an Aryan way, in accordance + with the precepts of Aryan religion. + +Nowhere is the cult of the "terrible goddess," worshipped under many +forms, but chiefly under those of Kali and Durga, more closely +associated with Indian unrest than in Bengal. Hence the frequency of the +appeals to her in the Bengal Press. The _Dacca Gazette_ welcomes the +festival of Durga with the following outburst:-- + + Indian brothers! There is no more time for lying asleep. + Behold, the Mother is coming. Oh Mother, the giver of all + good! Turn your eyes upon your degraded children. Mother, + they are now stricken with disease and sorrow. Oh Shyama, + the reliever of the three kinds of human afflictions, relieve + our sorrows. Come Mother, the destroyer of the demons, + and appear at the gates of Bengal. + +The Barisal _Hitaishi_ refers also to the Durga festival, in which the +weird and often horrible and obscene rites of _Skakti_ worship not +infrequently play a conspicuous part:-- + + What have we learnt from the _Shakti Puja_? Sooner or + later this great _Puja_ will yield the desired results. When the + Hindus realize the true magnificence of the worship of the + Mother, they will be roused from the slumber of ages, and + the auspicious dawn of awakenment will light up the horizon. + You must acquire great power from the worship of the Mother. + Ganesh, the god who grants success, has his seat assigned + to him on the left of the great Mother. Why should you + despair of obtaining success? Look at Kartiki, the god + who is the chief commander of the armies of the gods, who + has stationed himself to the right of the Mother; he is + coming forward with his bow, to assist you against the demons + of sin, who stand in the way of your accomplishing that great + object, and as he is up in arms, who can resist? + +The _Khulnavasi_ breaks out into poetry:-- + + For what sins, O Mother Durga, are thy sons thus dispirited + and their hearts crushed with injustice? The demons + are in the ascendant, and constantly triumphing over godliness. + Awake, Oh Mother, who tramplest on the demons! + Thy helpless sons, lean for want of food, worn out in the + struggle with the demons, are, struck with terror at the way + in which they are being ruled. Famine and plague and + disease are rife, and unrighteousness triumphs. Awake, Oh + Goddess Durga! I see the lightning flashing from the + point of thy bow, the world quaking at thy frowns, and + creation trembling under thy tread. Let a river of blood + flow, overwhelming the hearts of the demons. + +The _Kalyani_ chides the Hindus for breaking their _Swadeshi_ vows to +Durga:-- + + You have made all sorts of vows to stick to Swadeshi, + but you are still using _bilati_ [foreign] salt, sugar, and + cloths which are polluted with the blood and fat of animals. + You swear by the Mother, and then you go and disobey her + and defile her temples. Do you know that it is owing to your + sins that Mother Durga has not come to accept your worship + in Bengal this year? In fact, she is heaving deep sighs of + sorrow--sighs which will bring a cataclysmic storm upon you. + If you still care to save your country from utter ruin, mend + your ways and keep your promises to the Mother. + +In other provinces where other deities are more popular it is they who +are similarly called in aid. The _Bedari_ of Lahore, for instance, +reproduces from the Puranas the story of the tyrant Rajah Harnakath, who +brought death on himself at the hands of Vishnu for attempting to kill +his son Prahlad, whose offence was that he believed in God and +championed the cause of justice, in order to liken British statesmen and +Anglo-Indian officials to the wicked Rajah and the Indians to Prahlad. +As most British statesmen and their representatives abroad are the +enemies of liberty and justice and support slavery and oppression, the +fall of Great Britain is near at hand, and India will then pass into the +possession of her own sons. + +The _Prem_ of Firozpur is inclined even to give Mr. Keir Hardie a niche +in the Hindu Pantheon. Its editor dreamt he was at a meeting in a free +and contented country. It was attended by some other Indians, and one of +them recited verses bewailing the condition of India, which was once a +heaven on earth and was now converted into a hell by its foreign rulers, +&c. After prayers had been recited for India, some heavenly beings +appeared, one of whom swore to do his best to relieve the sufferings of +Indians. The editor learnt on inquiry that the dream country was +England, the Indian speaker Bepin Chandra Pal, and the heavenly being +Mr. Keir Hardie! + +The _Sahaik_, of Lahore, furnishes an apt illustration of the scurrilous +abuse and calumny which constitute one of the favourite weapons of Hindu +writers. Referring to the Malaria Conference held last year, it begins +by remarking that when a famine occurs-- + + relief works are opened only when the sufferings of the famine-stricken + become acute, and their supervision is entrusted + to a fat-salaried Englishman who swallows up half the collections, + which amount could have fed hundreds of the poor + people. Thus also with the forthcoming inquiries concerning + malarial fever, which is spreading all over the country. + Every Indian knows that, like the plague, this form of fever + is due to the poverty and consequent physical weakness + of the people. It is, however, to the mosquito that the + authorities went for the causes of the disease, just as to + the rats for the causes of plague. Different medicines + and instruments were invented for extirpating the insect, + doctors were also employed, and rewards paid for the writing + of books. In this way crores of rupees went into the pockets + of English shopkeepers and others. A trial is now being + given to quinine, and lakhs-worth sold to Indians, English + quinine manufacturers being thus enriched. Again a commission + is about to sit on the heights of Simla. The commissioners + will enjoy feasts and dances and drink brandy which + will cost poor natives lakhs of rupees, and afterwards they + will devise means to develop the trade in quinine or other + drugs. + +The Ranjpur _Vartabaha_ writes that in the local charitable dispensary a +surgical operation was performed on a patient who died in two hours, and +that a similar operation on a pregnant woman resulted in her death. It +adds, with delicate sarcasm, that "the Chief Medical Officer should get +his salary increased." The idea that Englishmen deliberately want to +depopulate India is one that is sedulously propagated. Thus the _Jhang +Sial_ jeers at British "generosity" which has "converted India, one of +the richest countries in the world, into the land of the starving," and +British "wisdom" for wishing to "starve out the natives and reign over +empty brick and mortar buildings." + +The _Akash_ (Delhi), referring to the pension granted to the widow of +Sir W. Curzon Wyllie, asks whether "the English can hold up their heads +after this. Even their widows are fed by India. A nation whose widows +are fed by another should never boast that it is an Imperial and +self-respecting nation." + +In the same spirit another Punjab paper argues ironically from the +speech of a Mahomedan member of the Punjab Legislative Council in +condemnation of Dhingra that "all the white-skinned Europeans, including +the English rulers of India, must be the lowest born people in the +world, seeing that they are in the habit of killing natives every day." + +No public servants who venture to discharge their duty loyally fare +worse at the hands of the Nationalist Press than Judges--especially if +they are Indians. Mr. Justice Davar was the Parsee Judge who sentenced +Tilak. The _Kesari_ declared that "he had already settled the sentence +in his own mind after a careful consideration of external +circumstances," and "had made himself the laughing-stock of the whole +world, like the meddlesome monkey in the fable who came to grief in +trying to pull out the peg 'from a half-sawed beam,'" Now the _Kesari_ +was Tilak's own paper, and he was convicted on two seditious articles +that had appeared in its columns, but the _Kal_, another Poona sheet, +also maintained that everything was done on a prearranged plan. "There +is no sense in saying that Mr. Tilak was sentenced according to law. +There was mockery of justice, not justice." It added that "if the Hindus +are to suppose Mr. Tilak guilty because an English Court of Justice had +condemned him, Christians will have to forswear Christ because He was +crucified by a Roman Court." The _Karnatak Vaibhau_ recalled the story +of the notorious washerman who, by scandalizing Rama, had been +immortalized in the Ramayana. In the same way the names of Strachey--who +sentenced Tilak at his first trial in 1897--and Davar would be +remembered as long as history endured. + +Quotations could be multiplied _ad infinitum_ and _ad nauseam_ from the +same papers--I have given only one from each--and from scores of others. +These will suffice to show what the freedom of the Press stood for in +India, in a country where there is an almost superstitious reverence +for, and faith in, the printed word, where the influence of the Press is +in proportion to the ignorance of the vast majority of its readers, and +where, unfortunately the more violent and scurrilous a newspaper +becomes, the more its popularity grows among the very classes that boast +of their education. They are by no means obscure papers, and some of +them, such as the _Kal_ the _Hind Swarajya_, and especially the +_Yugantar,_ which became at one time a real power in Bengal, achieved a +circulation hitherto unknown to the Indian Press. Can any Englishman, +however fervent his faith in liberty, regret that some at least of these +papers have now disappeared either as the result of prosecutions under +the Indian Criminal Code or from the operation of the new Press Law? The +mischief they have done still lives and will not be easily eradicated. +It is the fashion in certain quarters to reply:--"But look at the +Anglo-Indian newspapers, at the aggressive and contemptuous tone they +assume towards the natives of India, at the encouragement they +constantly give to racial hatred." Though I am not concerned to deny +that, in the columns of a few English organs, there may be occasional +lapses from good taste and right feeling, such sweeping charges against +the Anglo-Indian Press as a whole are absolutely grotesque, and its most +malevolent critics would be at a loss to quote anything, however +remotely, resembling the exhortations to hatred and violence which have +been the stock-in-trade not only of the most popular newspapers in the +vernaculars, but of some even of the leading newspapers published in +English, but edited and owned by Indians. + +Even such extracts as I have given above from vernacular newspapers do +not by any means represent the lengths to which Indian "extremism" can +go. They represent merely the literature of unrest which has been openly +circulated in India. There is another and still more poisonous form +which is smuggled into India from abroad and surreptitiously circulated. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +A HINDU REVIVAL + + +Thirty years ago, when I first visited India, the young Western-educated +Hindu was apt to be, at least intellectually, _plus royaliste que le +roi._ he plucked with both hands at the fruits of the tree of Western +knowledge. Some were enthusiastic students of English literature, and +especially of English poetry. They had their Wordsworth and their +Browning Societies. Others steeped themselves in English history and +loved to draw their political inspiration from Milton and Burke and John +Stuart Mill. Others, again, were the humble disciples of Kant and +Schlegel, of Herbert Spencer and Darwin. But whatever their special +talent bent might be, the vast majority professed allegiance to Western +ideals, and if they had not altogether-and often far too +hastily-abjured, or learned secretly to despise, the beliefs and customs +of their forefathers, they were at any rate anxious to modify and bring +them into harmony with those of their Western teachers. They may often +have disliked the Englishman, but they respected and admired him; if +they resented his frequent assumption of the unqualified superiority, +they were disposed to admit that it was not without justification. The +enthusiasm kindled in the first half of the last century by the great +missionaries, like Carey and Duff, who had made distinguished converts +among the highest classes of Hindu society, had begun to wane; but if +educated Hindus had grown more reluctant to accept the dogmas of +Christianity, they were still ready to acknowledge the superiority of +Western ethics, and the Brahmo Samaj in Bengal, the Prarthana Samaj in +Bombay, the Social Reform movement which found eloquent advocates all +over India, and not least in Madras, and other agencies of a similar +character for purging Hindu life of its more barbarous and superstitious +associations, bore witness to the ascendancy which Western standards of +morality exercised over the Hindu mind. Keshub Chunder Sen was not +perhaps cast in so fine a mould as Ram Mohan Roy or the more +conservative Dr. Tagore, but his ideals were the same, and his +life-dream was to find a common denominator for Hinduism and +Christianity which should secure a thorough reform of Hindu society +without denationalizing it. + +Nor were the milder forms of political activity promoted by the founders +of the Indian National Congress inconsistent with the acceptance of +British rule or with the recognition of the great benefits which it has +conferred upon India, and least of all with a genuine admiration for +Western civilization. For many of them at least the political boons +which they craved from their rulers were merely the logical corollaries +of the moral and intellectual as well as of the material boons which +they had already received. The fierce political agitation of later years +denies the benefits of British rule and even the superiority of the +civilization for which it stands. It has invented the legend of a golden +age, when all the virtues flourished and India was a land flowing with +milk and honey until British lust of conquest brought it to ruin. No +doubt even to-day there are many eminent Hindus who would still rely +upon the older methods, and who have sufficiently assimilated the +education they have received at the hands of Englishmen to share +wholeheartedly the faith and pride of the latter in British ideals of +liberty and self-government, and to be honestly convinced that those +ideals might be more fully realized in the government of their own +country if British administrators would only repose greater confidence +in the natives of India and give them a larger share in the conduct of +public affairs. But men of this type are now to be found chiefly amongst +the older generation. + +No one who has studied, however scantily, the social and religious +system which for the sake of convenience we call Hinduism will deny the +loftiness of the philosophic conceptions which underlie even the +extravagances of its creed or the marvellous stability of the complex +fabric based upon its social code. It may seem to us to present in many +of its aspects an almost unthinkable combination of spiritualistic +idealism and of gross materialism, of asceticism and of sensuousness, of +over-weening arrogance when it identifies the human self with the +universal self and merges man in the Divinity and the Divinity in man, +and of demoralizing pessimism when it preaches that life itself is but a +painful illusion, and that the sovereign remedy and end of all evils is +non-existence. Its mythology is often as revolting as the rigidity of +its caste laws, which condemn millions of human beings to such social +abasement that their very touch--the very shadow thrown by their +body--is held to pollute the privileged mortals who are born into the +higher castes. Nevertheless, Hinduism has for more than thirty centuries +responded to the social and religious aspirations of a considerable +fraction of the human race. It represents a great and ancient +civilization, and that the Hindus should cling to it is not surprising. +Nor is it surprising that after the first attraction exerted by the +impact of an alien civilization equipped with all the panoply of +organized force and scientific achievements had worn off, a certain +reaction should have ensued. In the same way it was inevitable that, +after the novelty of British rule, of the law and order and security for +life and property which it had established, had gradually worn away, +those who had never experienced the evils from which it had freed India +should begin to chafe under the restraints which it imposed. What is +disheartening and alarming are the lengths to which this reaction has +been carried. For among the younger generation of Hindus there has +unquestionably grown up a deep-seated and bitter hostility not only to +British rule and to British methods of administration, but to all the +influences of Western civilization, and the rehabilitation of Hindu +customs and beliefs has proceeded _pari passu_ with the growth of +political disaffection. + +Practices which an educated Hindu would have been at pains to explain +away, if he had not frankly repudiated them thirty years ago, now find +zealous apologists. Polytheism is not merely extolled as the poetic +expression of eternal verities, but the gods and goddesses of the Hindu +pantheon are being invested with fresh sanctity. The Brahmo Saniaj is +still a great influence for good, but it appears to be gradually losing +vitality, and though its literary output is still considerable, its +membership is shrinking. The Prarthana Samaj is moribund. The fashion of +the day is for religious "revivals," in which the worship of Kali, the +sanguinary goddess of destruction, or the cult of Shivaji-Maharaj, the +Mahratta chieftain who humbled in his day the pride of the alien +conquerors of Hindustan, plays an appropriately conspicuous part. The +Arya-Samaj, which is spreading all over the Punjab and in the United +Provinces, represents in one of its aspects a revolt against Hindu +orthodoxy, but in another it represents equally a revolt against Western +ideals, for in the teachings of its founder, Dayanand, it has found an +aggressive gospel which bases the claims of Aryan, _i.e._, Hindu, +supremacy on the Vedas as the one ultimate source of human and Divine +wisdom. The exalted character of Vedantic philosophy has been as widely +recognized among European students as the subtle beauty of many of the +Upanishads, in which the cryptic teachings of the Vedas have been +developed along different and often conflicting lines of thought to +suit the eclecticism of the Hindu mind. But the Arya-Samaj has not been +content to assert the ethical perfection of the Vedas. In its zeal to +proclaim the immanent superiority of Aryan civilization--it repudiates +the term Hindu as savouring of an alien origin--over Western +civilization, it claims to have discovered in the Vedas the germs of all +the discoveries of modern science, even to wireless telegraphy and +aeroplanes. + +Just as the political agitation in India has derived invaluable +encouragement from a handful of British members of Parliament and other +sympathizers in Europe and America, so this Hindu revival has been +largely stimulated and to some extent prompted by Europeans and +Americans. Not only the writings of English and German scholars, like +Max Mueller and Deutsch, helped enormously to revive the interest of +educated Hindus in their ancient literature and earlier forms of +religion, but it was in the polemical tracts of European writers that +the first protagonists of Hindu reaction against Christian influences +found their readiest weapons of attack. The campaign was started in 1887 +by the Hindu Tract Society of Madras, which set itself first to inflame +popular fanaticism against the missionaries, who, especially in the +south of India, had been the pioneers of Western education. Bradlaugh's +text-books and the pamphlets of many lesser writers belonging to the +same school of thought were eagerly translated into the vernacular, and +those that achieved the greatest popularity were books like "The Evil of +Continence," in which not only Christian theology, but Christian +morality was held up to scorn and ridicule. The advent of the +theosophists, heralded by Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott, gave a +fresh impetus to the revival, and certainly no Hindu has done so much to +organize and consolidate the movement as Mrs. Annie Besant, who, in her +Central Hindu College at Benares and her Theosophical Institution at +Adyar, near Madras, has openly proclaimed her faith in the superiority +of the whole Hindu system to the vaunted civilization of the West. Is it +surprising that Hindus should turn their backs upon our civilization[2] +when a European of highly-trained intellectual power and with an +extraordinary gift of eloquence comes and tells them that it is they who +possess and have from all times possessed the key to supreme wisdom; +that their gods, their philosophy, their morality are on a higher plane +of thought than the West has ever reached? Is it surprising that with +such encouragement Hinduism should no longer remain on the defensive, +but, discarding in this respect all its own traditions as a +non-proselytizing creed, should send out missionaries to preach the +message of Hindu enlightenment to those still groping in the darkness of +the West? The mission of Swami Vivekananda to the Chicago Congress of +Religions is in itself one of the most striking incidents in the history +of Hindu revivalism, but it is perhaps less wonderful than the triumph +he achieved when he returned to India accompanied by a chosen band of +eager disciples from the West. + +There are, indeed, endless forms to this revival of Hinduism--as endless +as to Hinduism itself--but what it is perhaps most important for us to +note is that, wherever political agitation assumes the most virulent +character, there the Hindu revival also assumes the most extravagant +shapes. Secret societies place their murderous activities under the +special patronage of one or other of the chief popular deities. Their +vows are taken "on the sacred water of the Ganges," or "holding the +sacred Tulsi plant," or "in the presence of Mahadevi"--the great +goddess who delights in bloody sacrifices, Charms and amulets, +incantations and imprecations, play an important part in the ceremonies +of initiation. In some quarters there has been some recrudescence of +the _Shakti_ cultus, with its often obscene and horrible rites, and the +unnatural depravity which was so marked a feature in the case of the +band of young Brahmans who conspired to murder Mr. Jackson at Nasik +represents a form of erotomania which is certainly much more common +amongst Hindu political fanatics than amongst Hindus in general. + +By no means all, however, are of this degenerate type, and the _Bhagvat +Gita_ has been impressed into the service of sedition by men who would +have been as incapable of dabbling in political as in any other form of +crime, had they not been able to invest it with a religious sanction. +There is no more beautiful book in the sacred literature of the Hindus; +there is none in which the more enlightened find greater spiritual +comfort; yet it is in the _Bhagvat Gita_ that, by a strange perversion, +the Hindu conspirator has sought and claims to have found texts that +justify murder as a divinely inspired deed when it is committed in the +sacred cause of Hinduism. Nor is it only the extremists who appeal in +this fashion to Hindu religious emotionalism. It is often just as +difficult to appraise the subtle differences which separate the +"moderate" from the "advanced" politician and the "advanced" politician +from the extremist as it is to distinguish between the various forms and +gradations of the Hindu revival in its religious and social aspects. But +it was in the courtyard of the great temple of Kali at Calcutta in the +presence of "the terrible goddess" that the "leaders of the Bengali +nation," men who, like Mr. Surendranath Banerjee, have always professed +to be "moderates," held their chief demonstrations against "partition" +and administered the _Swadeshi_ oath to their followers. Equally +noteworthy is the part played by the revival of Ganpati celebrations in +honour of Ganesh, the elephant-headed god, perhaps the most popular of +all Hindu deities, in stimulating political disaffection in the Deccan. + +Hand in hand with this campaign for the glorification of Hinduism at the +expense of Western civilization there has been carried on another and +far more invidious campaign for the vilification of everything British. +The individual Englishman is denounced as a bloodsucker and a tyrant; +his personal integrity is impugned and derided; his methods of +administration are alleged to be wilfully directed to the +impoverishment, and even to the depopulation, of India; his social +customs are traduced as depraved and corrupt; even his women-folk are +accused of common wantonness. This systematized form of personal calumny +is a scarcely less significant feature of the literature of Indian +unrest than its appeals to the Hindu scriptures and to the Hindu deities +and its exploitation of the religious sentiment for the promotion of +racial hatred. _Swadeshi_ and _Swaraj_ are the battle-cries of this new +Hindu "nationalism," but they mean far more than a mere claim to fiscal +or even political independence. They mean an organized uplifting of the +old Hindu traditions, social and religious, intellectual and moral, +against the imported ideals of an alien race and an alien civilization, +and the sincerity of some, at least, of the apostles of this new creed +cannot be questioned. With Mr. Arabindo Ghose, they firmly believe that +"the whole moral strength of the country is with us, justice is with us, +nature is with us, and the law of God, which is higher than any human +law, justifies our action." + +This is a grave phenomenon not to be contemptuously dismissed as the +folly of ill-digested knowledge or summarily judged and condemned, in a +spirit of self-righteousness, as an additional proof of the innate +depravity and ingratitude of the East. It undoubtedly represents a deep +stirring of the waters amongst a people endowed with no mean gifts of +head and heart, and if it has thrown up much scum, it affords glimpses +of nobler elements which time may purify and bring to the surface. Nor +if our rule and our civilization are to prevail must we be unmindful of +our own responsibility or forget that our presence and the influences we +brought with us first stirred the waters. + +The part played by Brahmanism in Indian unrest is far more conspicuous +in some parts of India than in others, and for reasons which are +generally not far to seek. Wherever it has been most active, it connotes +perhaps more than anything else the reactionary side of that unrest. +Though there have been and still are many enlightened Brahmans who have +cordially responded to the best influences of Western education, and +have worked with admirable zeal and courage to bridge the gulf between +Indian and European civilization, Brahmanism as a system represents the +antipodes of all that British rule must stand for in India, and +Brahmanism has from times immemorial dominated Hindu society--dominated +it, according to the Hindu Nationalists, for its salvation. "If," writes +one of them, "Mother India, though reduced to a mere skeleton by the +oppression of alien rulers during hundreds of years, still preserves her +vitality, it is because the Brahmans have never relaxed in their +devotion to her. She has witnessed political and social revolutions. +Famines and pestilence have shorn her of her splendour. But the Brahmans +have stood by her through all the vicissitudes of fortune. It is they +who raised her to the highest pinnacle of glory, and it is they whose +ministrations still keep up the drooping spirits of her children." + +The Brahmans are the sacerdotal caste of India. They are at the same +time the proudest and the closest aristocracy that the world has ever +seen, for they form not merely an aristocracy of birth in the strictest +sense of the term, but one of divine origin. Of the Brahman it may be +said as of no other privileged mortal except perhaps the Levite of the +Old Testament: _Nascitur non fit_. No king, however powerful, can make +or unmake a Brahman, no genius, however transcendent, no services, +however conspicuous, no virtues, however pre-eminent, can avail to raise +a Hindu from a lower caste to the Brahman's estate. In early times the +caste laws must have been less rigid, for otherwise there would only be +Aryan Brahmans, whereas in the South of India there are many Brahmans +of obviously Dravidian stock. But to-day not even the Brahmans +themselves can raise to their own equal one who is not born of their +caste, though by the exercise of the castely authority they can in +specific cases outcaste a fellow-Brahman who has offended against the +immutable laws of caste, and, except for minor transgressions which +allow of atonement and reinstatement, when once outcasted he and his +descendants cease for ever to be Brahmans. The Brahmans might be at a +loss to make good their claim that they date back to the remote ages of +the Vedas. But a good deal more than two thousand years have passed +since they constituted themselves the only authorized intermediaries +between mankind and the gods. In them became vested the monopoly of the +ancient language in which all religious rites are performed, and with a +monopoly of the knowledge of Sanskrit they retained a monopoly of +learning long after Sanskrit itself had become a dead language. Like the +priests who wielded a Latin pen in the Middle Ages in Europe, they sat +as advisers and conscience-keepers in the councils of every Hindu ruler. +To the present day they alone can expound the Hindu scriptures, they +alone can approach the gods in their temples, they alone can minister to +the spiritual needs of such of the lower castes as are credited with +sufficient human dignity to be in any way worthy of their ministrations. + +In the course of ages differences and distinctions have gradually grown +up amongst them, and they have split up into innumerable septs and +sub-castes. As they multiplied from generation to generation an +increasing proportion were compelled to supplement the avocations +originally sacred to their caste by other and lowlier means of +livelihood. There are to-day over 14 million Brahmans in India, and a +very large majority of them have been compelled to adopt agricultural, +military, and mercantile pursuits which, as we know from the Code of +Manu were already regarded as, in certain circumstances, legitimate or +excusable for a Brahman even in the days of that ancient law-giver. In +regard to all other castes, however, the Brahman, humble as his worldly +_status_ may be, retains an undisputed pre-eminence which he never +forgets or allows to be forgotten, though it may only be a pale +reflection of the prestige and authority of his more exalted +caste-men--a prestige and authority, be it added, which have often been +justified by individual achievements. How far the influence of +Brahmanism as a system has been socially a good or an evil influence I +am not concerned to discuss, but, however antagonistic it may be at the +present moment to the influence of Western civilization, it would be +unfair to deny that it has shown itself and still shows itself capable +of producing a very high type both of intellect and of character. Nor +could it otherwise have survived as it has the vicissitudes of +centuries. + +Neither the triumph of Buddhism, which lasted for nearly 500 years, nor +successive waves of Mahomedan conquest availed to destroy the power of +Brahmanism, nor has it been broken by British supremacy. Inflexibly as +he dominates a social system in all essentials more rigid than any +other, the Brahman has not only recognised the need of a certain +plasticity in its construction which allows for constant expansion, but +he has himself shown unfailing adaptability in all non-essentials to +varying circumstances. To the requirements of their new Western masters +the Brahmans adapted themselves from the first with admirable +suppleness, and when a Western system of education was introduced into +India in the first half of the last century, they were quicker than any +other class to realize how it could be used to fortify their own +position. The main original object of the introduction of Western +education into India was the training of a sufficient number of young +Indians to fill the subordinate posts in the public offices with +English-speaking natives. The Brahmans responded freely to the call, and +they soon acquired almost the same monopoly of the new Western learning +as they had enjoyed of Hindu lore through the centuries. With the +development of the great administrative services, with the substitution +of English for the vernacular tongues as the only official language, +with the remodelling of judicial administration and procedure on British +lines, with the growth of the liberal professions and of the Press, +their influence constantly found new fields of activity, whilst through +the old traditional channels it continued to permeate those strata of +Hindu society with which the West had established little or no contact. + +Nevertheless the spread of Western ideas and habits was bound to loosen +to some extent the Brahmans' hold upon Hindu society, for that hold is +chiefly rooted in the immemorial sanctity of custom, which new habits +and methods imported from the West necessarily tended to undermine. +Scrupulous--and, according to many earnest Englishmen, over-scrupulous--as +we were to respect religious beliefs and prejudices, the influence of +Western civilization could not fail to clash directly or indirectly with +many of the ordinances of Hindu orthodoxy. In non-essentials Brahmanism +soon found it expedient to relax the rigour of caste obligations, as for +instance to meet the hard case of young Hindus who could not travel across +the "black water" to Europe for their studies without breaking caste, or +indeed travel even in their own country in railways and river steamers +without incurring the pollution of bodily contact with the "untouchable" +castes. Penances were at first imposed which had gradually to be lightened +until they came to be merely nominal. Graver issues were raised when such +ancient customs as infant marriage and the degradation of child widows +were challenged. The ferment of new ideas was spreading amongst the +Brahmans themselves. Some had openly discarded their ancestral faith, and +many more were moved to search their own scriptures for some interpretation +of the law less inconsistent with Western standards. It seemed at one +moment as if, under the inspiration of men like Ranade in the Deccan and +Tagore in Bengal, Brahmanism itself was about to take the lead in purging +Hinduism of its most baneful superstitions and bringing it into line with +the philosophy and ethics of the West. But the liberal movement failed to +prevail against the forces of popular superstition and orthodox bigotry, +combined with the bitterness too frequently resulting from the failure +of Western education to secure material success or even an adequate +livelihood for those who had departed from the old ways. Though there +have been and still are many admirable exceptions, Brahmanism remained +the stronghold of reaction against the Western invasion. Of recent +years, educated Brahmans have figured prominently in the social and +religious revival of Hinduism, and they have figured no less +prominently, whether in the ranks of the extremists or amongst the +moderate and advanced politicians, in the political movement which has +accompanied that revival. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +BRAHMANISM AND DISAFFECTION IN THE DECCAN. + + +Fundamental as is the antagonism between the civilization represented by +the British _Raj_ and the essential spirit of Brahmanism. It is not, of +course, always or everywhere equally acute, for there is no more +uniformity about Brahmanism than about any other Indian growth. But in +the Deccan Brahmanism has remained more fiercely militant than in any +other part of India, chiefly perhaps because nowhere had it wielded such +absolute power within times which may still be called recent. Far into +the eighteenth century Poona had been the capital of a theocratic State +in which behind the throne of the Peshwas both spiritual and secular +authority were concentrated in the hands of the Brahmans. Such memories +are slow to die and least of all in an ancient and conservative country +like India, and there was one sept of Brahmans, at any rate, who were +determined not to let them die. + +The Chitpavan Brahmans are undoubtedly the most powerful and the most +able of all the Brahmans of the Deccan. A curious legend ascribes their +origin to the miraculous intervention of Parashurama, the sixth Avatar +of the god Vishnu, who finding no Brahmans to release him by the +accustomed ritual from the defilement of his earthly labours, dragged on +to shore the bodies of fourteen barbarians that he had found washed up +from the ocean, burnt them on a funeral pyre and then breathed life and +Brahmanhood into their ashes. On these new made Brahmans he conferred +the name Chitpavan, which means "purified by fire," and all the land of +the Konkan from which, by a bolt from his arrow, he caused the sea for +ever to recede. Every Chitpavan to-day claims descent from one or other +of the fourteen divinely Brahmanized barbarians, whom some believe to +have been hardy Norsemen driven in their long ships on to the sandy +shores of what is now the Bombay Presidency. At any rate, as has been +well said of them, Western daring and Eastern craft look out alike from +the alert features and clear parchment skin and through the strange +stone-grey eyes of the Chitpavan. It was not, however, till about two +centuries ago that the Chitpavan Brahmans began to play a conspicuous +part in Indian history, when one of this sept, Balaji Vishvanath Rao, +worked his way up at the Court of the Mahratta King Shahu to the +position of Peshwa, or Prime Minister, which he succeeded even in +bequeathing to his son, the great Bajirao Balaji, who led the Mahratta +armies right up to the walls of Delhi. Bajirao's son not only succeeded +as Balaji II., but on the death of King Shahu disposed of his Royal +master's family by a bold Palace conspiracy and openly assumed sovereign +powers. The crushing defeat of Panipat brought him to his grave, and +though the dynasty was still continued, and regained some of its lustre +under Madhao Rao I., the Peshwas subsequently became little more than +_rois faineants_ in the hands of their Ministers, and especially in +those of the great Regent Nana Phadnavis. He, too, was a Chitpavan +Brahman, and it was under his reign that his fellow caste-men acquired +so complete a monopoly of all the chief offices of State that the +Mahratta Empire became essentially a Chitpavan Empire. The British arms +ultimately defeated the dreams of universal dominion which, in the then +condition of India, the Chitpavans might well have hoped to establish +on the ruins of the great Moghul Empire. But British rule did not +destroy their power. They were quick to adapt themselves to new +conditions and above all to avail themselves of the advantages of +Western education. Their great administrative abilities compelled +recognition, and Chitpavans swarm to-day in every Government office of +the Deccan as they did in the days of Nana Phadnavis. They sit on the +Bench, they dominate the Bar, they teach in the schools, they control +the vernacular Press, they have furnished almost all the most +conspicuous names in the modern literature and drama of Western India as +well as in politics. Of the higher appointments held by natives in the +Presidency of Bombay, the last census tells us that the Hindus held 266 +against 86 held by Parsees and 23 held by Mahomedans, and that out of +those held by the Hindus, more than 72 per cent. were held by Brahmans, +though the Brahmans form less than one-fourteenth of the total Hindu +population of the province. All Brahmans are not, of course, Chitpavans, +but the Chitpavans supply an overwhelming majority of those Government +officials, and their ascendency over every other Brahman sept in +Maharashtra is undisputed. From the Deccan, moreover, their influence +has spread practically all over India and, especially, in the native +States, which have recruited amongst the Chitpavans some of their ablest +public servants. Amongst Chitpavans are to be found many of the most +enlightened and progressive Indians of our times and many have served +the British _Raj_ with unquestioned loyalty and integrity. But amongst +many others--perhaps indeed amongst the great majority--there has +undoubtedly been preserved for the last hundred years from the time of +the downfall of the Peshwa dominion to the present day, an unbroken +tradition of hatred towards British rule, an undying hope that it might +some day be subverted and their own ascendency restored. Not to go back +to the exploits of Nana Sahib, himself a Chitpavan, and his followers +during the Mutiny, or to the Ramoshi rebellion round Poona in 1879, it +was in Poona that the native Press, mainly conducted by Brahmans, first +assumed that tone of virulent hostility towards British rule and British +rulers which led to the Press Act of 1879, and some of the worst +extracts quoted at that time by the Government of India in support of +that measure were taken from Poona newspapers. It was in Poona that some +years later the assassination of two English officials by a young +Chitpavan Brahman was the first outcome of a fresh campaign, leading +directly to political murder. It was by another Chitpavan Brahman that +Mr. Jackson was murdered last December at Nasik; his accomplices were +with one exception Chitpavan Brahmans, and to the same sept of Brahmans +belong nearly all the defendants in the great conspiracy trial now +proceeding at Bombay. + +But if there were already, more than 20 years ago, wild and +irreconcilable spirits bent on fomenting disaffection, there were +amongst the Deccanee Brahmans themselves a small intellectual _elite_ +who, though by no means servile apologists of British rule, fully +realized that their primary duty was not to stir up popular passion +against alien rulers, but to bring Hindu society into closer communion +with the higher civilization which those rulers, whatever their +shortcomings, undoubtedly represented. Conspicuous amongst such men was +Mahadev Govind Ranade. Equally conspicuous in the opposite camp was a +man of a very different stamp, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, who was destined to +become one of the most dangerous pioneers of disaffection. It was a +Hindu gentleman and a Brahman who told me that if I wanted to study the +psychology of Indian unrest I should begin by studying Tilak's career. +"Tilak's onslaught in Poona upon Ranade, his alliance with the bigots of +orthodoxy, his appeals to popular superstition in the new Ganpati +celebrations, to racial fanaticism in the 'Anti-Cow-killing Movement,' +to Mahratta sentiment in the cult which he introduced of Shivaji, his +active propaganda amongst schoolboys and students, his gymnastic +societies, his preaching in favour of physical training, and last but +not least his control of the Press and the note of personal violence +which he imparted to newspaper polemics, represent the progressive +stages of a highly-organized campaign which has served as a model to the +apostles of unrest all over India." This was a valuable piece of advice, +for, if any one can claim to be truly the father of Indian unrest, it is +Bal Gangadhar Tilak. The story of his initial campaign in the Deccan, +though it dates back to the closing decades of the last century, is +still well worth studying, and has, in fact, never received adequate +attention, for on the one hand it pricks the shallow view that Indian +unrest is merely an echo of the Japanese victories in Manchuria, and, on +the other hand, it illustrates clearly the close connexion that exists +between the forces of Indian political disaffection and those of social +and religious reaction, whilst the methods which he employed and the +results which attended his activity have been reproduced with singular +fidelity in subsequent phases of the movement. + +When Tilak entered upon public life in the early eighties, the Brahmans +of the Deccan were divided into two camps, one of which, headed at first +by the late Mr. Justice Ranade, consisted of a small intellectual +_elite_, who held, without forgoing their right to criticize British +administrators or to promote political reforms by constitutional +methods, that Indians of all creeds, including the Hindus, should begin +by reforming their own social institutions, and bring them into greater +harmony with Western standards. Tilak, a Chitpavan Brahman of +considerable erudition, who had graduated with honours at Bombay, had, +however, inherited his full share of Chitpavan hostility to British +ascendency. He was also by temperament and ambition impatient of all +restraint, and jealous of the commanding authority which a man like +Ranade owed quite as much to the nobility of his character as to his +social position and force of intellect. In opposition to Ranade, with +whom he had at first co-operated as an educationist, Tilak drifted +rapidly into the reactionary camp. The battle was first engaged over the +control of the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha and the Education Society, two +progressive associations which, though mainly composed of Brahmans, +included a sprinkling of Mahomedans and of non-Brahman Hindus. Tilak had +thrown himself into journalism, and after the repeal of the Indian Press +Law on the return of a Liberal Administration to office at home in 1881, +he had been amongst the first to revive the incendiary methods which it +had temporarily and very successfully checked. His first onslaught upon +Ranade's position, however, failed, and instead of supplanting him, it +was he who was compelled in 1890 to sever his connexion with the +Education Society. + +Tilak's defeat was short lived. The introduction of the Age of Consent +Bill, in 1890, to mitigate the evils of Hindu child-marriage, gave him a +fresh opening. Ranade, discouraged and alarmed by the violence of the +Tilak party, had by this time retired from the forefront of the fray, +but in Dr. Bhandarkar, Mr. Justice Tilang, Mr. A.K. Nulkar, Mr. (now Sir +N.G.) Chandavarkar, and other courageous Hindu reformers, with whom Mr. +Gokhale was always ready to co-operate against the forces of religious +superstition, he had left disciples ready to carry on the good fight. +Tilak raised against them a storm of passion and prejudice. In the +columns of the _Kesari_, of which he had become sole proprietor, he +denounced every Hindu who supported the measure as a renegade and a +traitor to the cause of Hinduism, and thus won the support of +conservative orthodoxy, which had hitherto viewed with alarm some of his +literary excursions into the field of Vedantic exegesis. With the help +of the brothers Natu, who were the recognized leaders of Hindu +orthodoxy, he carried his propaganda into the schools and colleges in +the teeth of the Moderate party, and, proclaiming that unless they +learnt to employ force the Hindus must expect to be impotent witnesses +of the gradual downfall of all their ancient institutions, he proceeded +to organize gymnastic societies in which physical training and the use +of more or less primitive weapons were taught in order to develop the +martial instincts of the rising generation. + +If amongst many Brahmans of Maharashtra hatred of the British is the +dominant passion, amongst the Mahratta population at large whatever +there is of racial and religious jealousy is mainly directed against the +Mahomedans. This is partly, no doubt, a legacy of the old days of +Mahomedan supremacy. In 1893 some riots in Bombay of a more severe +character than usual gave Tilak an opportunity of broadening the new +movement by enlisting in its support the old anti-Mahomedan feeling of +the people. He not only convoked popular meetings in which his fiery +eloquence denounced the Mahomedans as the sworn foes of Hinduism, but he +started an organization known as the "Anti-Cow-Killing Society," which +was intended and regarded as a direct provocation to the Mahomedans, +who, like ourselves, think it no sacrilege to eat beef. In vain did +liberal Hindus appeal to him to desist from these inflammatory methods. +Their appeals had no effect upon him, and merely served his purpose by +undermining the little authority they still possessed. Government had +forbidden Hindu processions to play music whilst passing in front of +Mahomedan mosques, as this was a fertile cause of riotous affrays. Tilak +not only himself protested against this "interference with the liberties +of the people," but insisted that the Sarvajanik Sabha should identify +itself with the "national" cause and memorialize Government for the +removal of a prohibition so offensive to Hindu sentiment. The Moderates +hesitated, but were overawed by popular clamour and the threats of the +Tilak Press. The Mahomedans and a few other members repudiated the +memorial and resigned. Tilak, though not yet in absolute control of the +Sabha, became already practically its master. No one knew better than he +how to compel submission by packed meetings and organized rowdyism. + +Tilak's propaganda had at the same time steadily assumed a more and more +anti-British character, and it was always as the allies and the tools of +Government, in its machinations against Hinduism, that the Hindu +reformers and the Mahomedans had in turn been denounced. In order to +invest it with a more definitely religious sanction, Tilak placed it +under the special patronage of the most popular deity in India. Though +Ganesh, the elephant-headed god, is the god of learning whom Hindu +writers delight to invoke on the title-page of their books, there is +scarcely a village or a frequented roadside in India that does not show +some rude presentment of his familiar features, usually smeared over +with red ochre, Tilak could not have devised a more popular move than +when he set himself to organize annual festivals in honour of Ganesh, +known as Ganpati celebrations, and to found in all the chief centres of +the Deccan Ganpati societies, each with its _mela_ or choir recruited +among his youthful bands of gymnasts. These festivals gave occasion for +theatrical performances[3] and religious songs in which the legends of +Hindu mythology were skilfully exploited to stir up hatred of the +"foreigner"--and _mlenccha_, the term employed for "foreigner," applied +equally to Europeans and to Mahomedans--as well as for tumultuous +processions only too well calculated to provoke affrays with the +Mahomedans and with the police, which in turn led to judicial +proceedings that served as a fresh excuse for noisy protests and +inflammatory pleadings. With the Ganpati celebrations the area of +Tilak's propaganda was widely increased. + +But the movement had yet to be given a form which should directly appeal +to the fighting instincts of the Mahrattas and stimulate active +disaffection by reviving memories of olden times when under Shivaji's +leadership they had rolled back the tide of Musulman conquest and +created a Mahratta Empire of their own. The legends of Shivaji's prowess +still lingered in Maharashtra, where the battlemented strongholds which +he built crown many a precipitous crag of the Deccan highlands. In a +valley below Pratabghar the spot is still shown where Shivaji induced +the Mahomedan general, Afzul Khan, to meet him in peaceful conference +half-way between the contending armies, and, as he bent down to greet +his guest, plunged into his bowels the famous "tiger's claw," a hooked +gauntlet of steel, while the Mahratta forces sprang out of ambush and +cut the Mahomedan army to pieces. But if Shivaji's memory still lived, +it belonged to a past which was practically dead and gone. Only a few +years, before an Englishman who had visited Shivaji's tomb had written +to a local newspaper calling attention to the ruinous condition into +which the people of Maharashtra had allowed the last resting-place of +their national hero to fall. Some say it was this letter which first +inspired Tilak with the idea of reviving Shivaji's memory and converting +it into a living force. Originally it was upon the great days of the +Poona Peshwas that Tilak had laid the chief stress, and he may possibly +have discovered that theirs were not after all names to conjure with +amongst non-Brahman Mahrattas, who had suffered heavily enough at their +hands. At any rate, Tilak brought Shivaji to the forefront and set in +motion a great "national" propaganda which culminated in 1895 in the +celebration at all the chief centres of Brahman activity in the Deccan +of Shivaji's reputed birthday, the principal commemoration being held +under Tilak's own presidency at Raighar, where the Mahratta chieftain +had himself been crowned. What was the purpose and significance of this +movement may be gathered from a _Shlok_ or sacred poem improvised on +this occasion by one of Tilak's disciples who to acquire sinister +notoriety. + + Let us be prompt like Shivaji to engage in desperate enterprises. + Take up your swords and shields and we shall cut + off countless heads of enemies. Listen! Though we shall + have to risk our lives in a national war, we shall assuredly + shed the life-blood of our enemies. + +It was on the occasion of the Shivaji "coronation festivities" that the +right--nay, the duty--to commit murder for political purposes was first +publicly expounded. With Tilak in the chair, a Brahman professor got up +to vindicate Shivaji's bloody deed:-- + + Who dares to call that man a murderer who, when only + nine years old, had received Divine inspiration not to bow + down before a Mahomedan Emperor? Who dares to condemn + Shivaji for disregarding a minor duty in the performance + of a major one? Had Shivaji committed five or fifty + crimes more terrible, I would have been equally ready to + prostrate myself not once but one hundred times before the + image of our lord Shivaji ... Every Hindu, every + Mahratta must rejoice at this spectacle, for we too are all + striving to regain our lost independence, and it is only by + combination that we can throw off the yoke. + +Tilak himself was even more outspoken:-- + + It is needless to make further researches as to the killing + of Afzul Khan. Let us even assume that Shivaji deliberately + planned and executed the murder. Was the act good or + evil? This question cannot be answered from the standpoint + of the Penal Code or of the laws of Manu or according + to the principles of morality laid down in the systems of the + West or of the East. The laws which bind society are for + common folk like you and me. No one seeks to trace the + genealogy of a Rishi or to fasten guilt upon a Maharaj. Great + men are above the common principles of morality. Such + principles do not reach to the pedestal of a great man. Did + Shivaji commit a sin in killing Afzul Khan? The answer to + this question can be found in the Mahabharata itself. The + Divine Krishna teaching in the Gita tells us we may kill + even our teachers and our kinsmen, and no blame attaches + if we are not actuated by selfish desires. Shivaji did nothing + from a desire to fill his own belly. It was in a praiseworthy + object that he murdered Afzul Khan for the good of others. + If thieves enter our house and we have not strength to drive + them out, should we not without hesitation shut them in, + and burn them alive? God has conferred on the _mlencchas_ + (foreigners) no grant of Hindustan inscribed on imperishable + brass. Shivaji strove to drive them forth out of the land of + his birth, but he was guiltless of the sin of covetousness. + Do not circumscribe your vision like frogs in a well. Rise + above the Penal Code into the rarefied atmosphere of the + sacred Bhaghavad Gita and consider the action of great men. + +In the reflected blaze of this apotheosis of Shivaji, Tilak stood forth +as the appointed leader of the "nation." He was the triumphant champion +of Hindu orthodoxy, the high-priest of Ganesh, the inspired prophet of a +new "nationalism," which in the name of Shivaji would cast out the hated +_mlencchas_ and restore the glories of Mahratta history. The Government +feared him, for people could put no other construction on the official +confirmation of his election when he was returned in 1895 as a member of +the Bombay Legislative Council--above all, when inside the Council-room +he continued with the same audacity and the same impunity his campaign +of calumny and insult. His activity was unceasing. He disdained none of +the arts which make for popularity. His house was always open to those +who sought in the right spirit for assistance or advice. He had absolute +control of the Sabha and ruled the municipality of Poona. In private and +in public, through his speeches and through his newspapers, he worked +upon the prejudices and passions of both the educated and the +uneducated, and especially upon the crude enthusiasm of the young. +Towards the end of 1896 the Deccan was threatened with famine. Hungry +stomachs are prompt to violence, and Tilak started a "no-rent" campaign. +Like all Tilak's schemes in those days it was carefully designed to +conceal as far as possible any direct incitement to the withholding of +land revenue. His missionaries went round with a story that Government +had issued orders not to collect taxes where the crops had fallen below +a certain yield. The _rayats_ believed them, and when the tax-gatherer +arrived they refused payment. Trouble then arose. Outrages such as the +mutilation of the Queen's statue at Bombay, the attempt to fire the +Church Mission Hall, the assaults upon "moderate" Hindus who refused to +toe the line, became ominously frequent. Worse was to follow when the +plague appeared. The measures at first adopted by Government to check +the spread of this new visitation doubtless offended in many ways +against the customs and prejudices of the people, especially the +searching and disinfection of houses, and the forcible removal of +plague-patients even when they happened to be Brahmans. What Tilak could +do by secret agitation and by a rabid campaign in the Press to raise +popular resentment to a white heat he did. The _Kesari_ published +incitements to violence which were put into the mouth of Shivaji +himself[4]. The inevitable consequences ensued. On June 27, 1897, on +their way back from an official reception in celebration of Queen +Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, Mr. Rand, an Indian civilian, who was +President of the Poona Plague Committee, and Lieutenant Ayerst, of the +Commissariat Department, were shot down by Damodhar Chapekur, a young +Chitpavan Brahman, on the Ganeshkind road. No direct connexion has been +established between that crime and Tilak. But, like the murderer of Mr. +Jackson at Nasik last winter, the murderer of Rand and Ayerst--the same +young Brahman who had recited the _Shlok_, which I have quoted above, at +the great Shivaji celebration--declared that it was the doctrines +expounded in Tilak's newspapers that had driven him to the deed. The +murderer who had merely given effect to the teachings of Tilak was +sentenced to death, but Tilak himself, who was prosecuted for a +seditious article published a few days before the murder, received only +a short term of imprisonment, and was released before the completion of +his term under certain pledges of good behaviour which he broke as soon +as it suited him to break them. + +Thus ended the first campaign of Indian unrest, which, in its details, +has served as an incitement and a model to all those who have conducted +subsequent operations in the same field. + +The Poona murders sent a thrill of horror throughout India and caused a +momentary sensation even in England. But though Government was not +wholly blind to the warning, it could not decide what ought to be done, +and beyond tinkering at one or two sections of the Criminal Code bearing +on Press offences, it did nothing until history had repeated itself on a +much larger scale. Tilak was generously released from prison before the +expiration of his sentence, and his release was construed in the Deccan +as a fresh triumph. He was acclaimed by his followers as a "national" +martyr and hero. After a short "rest-cure" in a sanatorium Tilak +returned to the _Kesari_, which, in the hands of his co-adjutors, two +other Chitpavan Brahmans, Mr. Kelkar and Mr. Khadilkar, had lost nothing +of its vitriolic pungency in his absence. The celebration with renewed +pomp in 1900 of Shivaji's "birthday" at Raighar marked the resumption of +Tilak's operations. I need not stop to recount all the incidents of this +second campaign in the Deccan, in which Ganpati celebrations, Shivaji +festivals, gymnastic societies, &c., played exactly the same part as in +the first campaign. For three or four years the Tai Maharaj case, in +which, as executor of one of his friends, Shri Baba Maharaj, a Sirdar of +Poona, Tilak was attacked by the widow and indicted on charges of +forgery, perjury, and corruption, absorbed a great deal of his time, +but, after long and wearisome proceedings, the earlier stages of the +case ended in a judgment in his favour which was greeted as another +triumph for him, and not unnaturally though, as recent developments have +shown, quite prematurely,[5] won him much sympathy, even amongst those +who were politically opposed to him. But throughout this ordeal Tilak +never relaxed his political activity either in the Press or in the +manifold organizations which he controlled. + +His influence, moreover, was rapidly extending far beyond, Poona and the +Deccan. He had at an early date associated himself with, the Indian +National Congress, and he was secretary of the Standing Committee for +the Deccan. His Congress work had brought him into contact with the +politicians of other provinces, and upon none did his teachings and his +example produce so deep an impression as upon the emotional Bengalees. +He had not the gift of sonorous eloquence which they possess, and he +never figured conspicuously as an orator at the annual sessions of +Congress. But his calculating resourcefulness and his indomitable +energy, even his masterfulness, impressed them all the more, and in the +two memorable sessions held at Benares in 1905 and at Calcutta in 1906, +when the agitation over the Partition of Bengal was at its height, his +was the dominant personality, not at the tribune, but in the lobbies. He +had been one of the first champions of _Swadeshi_ as an economic weapon +in the struggle against British rule, and he saw in the adoption of the +boycott, with all the lawlessness which it involved, an unprecedented +opportunity of stimulating the active forces of disaffection. As far as +Bengal was concerned, an "advanced" Press which always took its cue from +Tilak's _Kesari_ had already done its work, and Tilak could rely upon +the enthusiastic support of men like Mr. Bepin Chandra Pal and Mr. +Arabindo Ghose, who were politically his disciples, though their +religious and social standpoints were in many respects different, Mr. +Surendranath Banerjee, who subsequently fell out with Tilak, had at +first modelled his propaganda very largely upon that of the Deccan +leader. Not only had he tried to introduce into Bengal the singularly +inappropriate cult of Shivaji, but he had been clearly inspired by +Tilak's methods in placing the _Swadeshi_ boycott in Bengal under the +special patronage of so popular a deity as the "terrible goddess" Kali. +Again, he had followed Tilak's example in brigading schoolboys and +students into youthful gymnastic societies for purposes of political +agitation, Tilak's main object at the moment was to pledge the rest of +India, as represented in the Congress, to the violent course upon which +Bengal was embarking. Amongst the "moderate" section outside Bengal +there was a disposition to confine its action to platonic expressions of +sympathy with the Bengalees and with the principle of _Swadeshi_--in +itself perfectly legitimate--as a movement for the encouragement of +native industries. At Benares in 1905 the Congress had adopted a +resolution which only conditionally endorsed the boycott, and the +increasing disorders which had subsequently accompanied its enforcement +had tended to enhance rather than to diminish the reluctance of the +Moderate party to see the Congress definitely pledged to it when it met +at the end of 1906 in Calcutta. The "advanced" party led by Mr. Bepin +Chandra Pal had put forward Tilak's candidature to the presidency, and a +split which seemed imminent was only avoided by a compromise which saved +appearances. Sir Pherozeshah Mehta, a leading Parsee of Bombay, who had +been drawn into co-operation with the Congress under the influence of +the political Liberalism which he had heard expounded in England by +Gladstone and Bright, played at this critical period an important part +which deserves recognition. He was as eloquent as any Bengalee, and he +possessed in a high degree the art of managing men. In politics he was +as stout an opponent of Tilak's violent methods as was Mr. Gokhale on +social and religious questions, and he did perhaps more than any one +else to prevent the complete triumph of Tilakism in the Congress right +down to the Surat upheaval. Thanks largely to his efforts, the veteran +Mr. Naoroji was elected to the chair at Calcutta. None could venture +openly to oppose him, for he was almost the father of the Congress, +which in its early days had owed so much to the small group of liberal +Parsees whom he had gathered about him, and his high personal character +and rectitude of purpose had earned for him universal respect. +Nevertheless, a resolution as amended by Tilak was adopted which, +without mentioning the word "boycott," pledged the Congress to encourage +its practice. But there was considerable heartburning, and the Moderates +were suspected of contemplating some retrograde move at the following +annual session. Tilak was determined to frustrate any such scheme, and +before the Congress assembled at Surat he elaborated at a Nationalist +conference with Mr. Arabindo Ghose in the chair, a plan of campaign +which was to defeat the "moderates" by demanding, before the election of +the president, an undertaking that the resolutions of the Calcutta +conference should be upheld. The plan, however, was only half +successful. The first day's proceedings produced a violent scene in +which the howling down of Mr. Surendranath Banerjee by the "advanced" +wing revealed the personal jealousies that had grown up between the old +Bengalee leader on the one hand and Tilak and his younger followers in +Bengal on the other. The second day's proceedings ended in still wilder +confusion, and after something like a free fight the Congress broke up +after an irreparable rupture, from which its prestige has never +recovered. + +Tilak's own prestige, however, with the "advanced" party never stood +higher, either in then Deccan or outside of it. In the Deccan he not +only maintained all his old activities, but had extended their field. +Besides the _Kal_, edited by another Chitpawan Brahman, and the +_Rashtramadt_ at Poona, which went to even greater lengths than Tilak's +own _Kesari_, lesser papers obeying his inspiration had been established +in many of the smaller centres. A movement had been set on foot for the +creation of "national" schools, entirely independent of State support, +and therefore of State supervision, in which disaffection could, without +let or hindrance, be made part and parcel of the curriculum. Such were +the schools closed down last year in the Central Provinces and this year +at Telegaon. The great development of the cotton industry during the +last ten years, especially in Bombay itself--which has led to vast +agglomerations of labour under conditions unfamiliar in India--had given +Tilak an opportunity of establishing contact with a class of the +population hitherto outside the purview of Indian politics. There are +nearly 100 cotton spinning and weaving mills, employing over 100,000 +operatives, congregated mostly in the northern suburbs of the city. +Huddled together in huge tenements this compact population affords by +its density, as well as by its ignorance, a peculiarly accessible field +to the trained agitator. Tilak's emissaries, mostly Brahmans of the +Deccan, brought, moreover, to their nefarious work the added prestige of +a caste which seldom condescends to rub shoulders with those whose mere +contact may involve "pollution." In this, as in many other cases, +politics were closely mixed up with philanthropy, for the conditions of +labour in India are by no means wholly satisfactory, and it would be +unfair to deny to many of Tilak's followers a genuine desire to mitigate +the evils and hardships to which their humbler fellow-creatures were +exposed. Prominent amongst such evils was the growth of drunkenness, and +it would have been all to his honour that Tilak hastened to take up the +cause of temperance, had he not perverted it, as he perverted everything +else, to the promotion of race-hatred. His primary motives may have been +excellent, but he subordinated all things to his ruling anti-British +passion, whilst the fervour of his philanthropic professions won for him +the sympathy and co-operation of many law-abiding citizens who would +otherwise have turned a deaf ear to his political doctrines. He must +have had a considerable command of funds for the purposes of his +propaganda, and though he doubtless had not a few willing and generous +supporters, many subscribed from fear of the lash which he knew how to +apply through the Press to the tepid and the recalcitrant, just as his +gymnastic societies sometimes resolved themselves into juvenile bands of +dacoities to swell the coffers of _Swaraj_. Not even Mr. Gokhale with +all his moral and intellectual force could stem the flowing tide of +Tilak's popularity in the Deccan; and in order not to be swept under he +was perhaps often compelled like many other Moderates to go further than +his own judgment can have approved. Tilak commanded the allegiance of +barristers and pleaders, schoolmasters and professors, clerks in +Government offices--in fact, of the large majority of the so-called +educated classes, largely recruited amongst his own and other Brahman +castes; and his propaganda had begun to filter down not only to the +coolies in the cities, but even to the rayats, or at least the head-men +in the villages. + +More than that. From the Deccan, as we have already seen in his +relations with the Indian National Congress, his influence was projected +far and wide. His house was a place of pilgrimage for the disaffected +from all parts of India. His prestige as a Brahman of the Brahmans and a +pillar of orthodoxy, in spite of the latitude of the views which he +sometimes expressed in regard to the depressed castes, his reputation +for profound learning in the philosophies both of the West and of the +East, his trenchant style, his indefatigable activity, the glamour of +his philanthropy, his accessibility to high and low, his many acts of +genuine kindliness, the personal magnetism which, without any great +physical advantages, he exerted upon most of those who came in contact +with him, and especially upon the young, combined to equip him more +fully than any other Indian politician for the leadership of a +revolutionary movement. + +The appeal which Tilak made to the Hindus was twofold. He taught them, +on the one hand, that India, and especially Maharashtra, the land of the +Mahrattas, had been happier and better and more prosperous under a Hindu +_raj_ than it had ever been or could ever be under the rule of alien +"demons"; and that if the British _raj_ had at one time served some +useful purpose in introducing India to the scientific achievements of +Western civilisation, it had done so at ruinous cost, both material and +moral, to the Indians whose wealth it had drained and whose social and +religious institutions it had undermined, and on the other hand he held +out to them the prospect that, if power were once restored to the +Brahmans, who had already learnt all that there was of good to be +learnt from the English, the golden age would return for gods and men. +That Tilak himself hardly believed in the possibility of overthrowing +British rule is more than probable, but what some Indians who knew him +well tell me he did believe was that the British could be driven or +wearied by a ceaseless and menacing agitation into gradually +surrendering to the Brahmans the reality of power, as did the later +Peshwas, and remaining content with the mere shadow of sovereignty. As +one of his organs blurted it out:--"If the British yield all power to us +and retain only nominal control, we may yet be friends." + +Such was the position when, on June 24, 1908, Tilak was arrested in +Bombay on charges connected with the publication in the _Kesari_ of +articles containing inflammatory comments on the Muzafferpur outrage, in +which Mrs. and Miss Kennedy had been killed by a bomb--the first of a +long list of similar outrages in Bengal. Not in the moment of first +excitement, but weeks afterwards, the _Kesari_ had commented on this +crime in terms which the Parsee Judge, Mr. Justice Davar, described in +his summing up as follows:--"They are seething with sedition; they +preach violence; they speak of murders with approval; and the cowardly +and atrocious act of committing murders with bombs not only meets with +your approval, but you hail the advent of the bomb into India as if +something had come to India for its good." The bomb was extolled in +these articles as "a kind of witchcraft, a charm, an amulet," and the +_Kesari_ delighted in showing that neither the "supervision of the +police" nor "swarms of detectives" could stop "these simple playful +sports of science," Whilst professing to deprecate such methods, it +threw the responsibility upon Government, which allowed "keen +disappointment to overtake thousands of intelligent persons who have +been awakened to the necessity of securing the rights of _Swaraj_." +Tilak spoke four whole days in his own defence--21-1/2 hours +altogether--but the jury returned a verdict of "Guilty," and he was +sentenced to six years' transportation, afterwards commuted on account +of his age and health to simple imprisonment at Mandalay. + +The prosecution of a man of Tilak's popularity and influence at a time +when neither the Imperial Government nor the Government of India had +realized the full danger of the situation was undoubtedly a grave +measure of which a weaker Government than that of Bombay under Sir +George Clarke might well have shirked the responsibility. There were +serious riots after the trial. From the moment of his arrest Tilak's +followers had put it about amongst the mill-hands that he was in prison +because he was their friend and had sought to obtain better pay for +them. Some of his supporters are said to have declared during the trial +that there would be a day's bloodshed for every year to which he might +be sentenced by the Court, and, as a matter of fact, he was sentenced to +six years' imprisonment and the riots lasted six days. The rioting +assumed at times a very threatening character. The European police +frequently had to use their revolvers, and the troops had several times +to fire in self-defence. But rigorous orders had been issued by the +authorities to avoid as far as possible the shedding of blood, and both +the police and the military forces exercised such steady self-restraint +that casualties were relatively few, and the violence of the mob never +vented itself upon the European population of the city. The gravity of +the disturbances, however, showed the extent and the lawless character +of the influence which Tilak had already acquired over the lower classes +in Bombay, and not merely over the turbulent mill-hands. In the heart of +the city many Hindu shops were closed "out of sympathy with Tilak," and +the most violent rioting on one day occurred amongst the Bhattias and +Banias employed in the cloth market, who had hitherto been regarded as +very orderly and rather timid folk. The trouble in Bombay was certainly +not a sudden and spontaneous outburst of popular feeling. It bore +throughout the impress of careful and deliberate organization. By a +happy combination of sympathy and firmness Sir George Clarke had, +however, won the respect of the vast majority of the community, and +though he failed to secure the active support which he might have +expected from the "moderates," there were few of them who did not +secretly approve and even welcome his action. Its effects were great and +enduring, for Tilak's conviction was a heavy blow--perhaps the heaviest +which has been dealt--to the forces of unrest, at least in the Deccan; +and some months later one of the organs of his party, the _Rashtramat_, +reviewing the occurrences of the year, was fain to admit that "the +sudden removal of Mr. Tilak's towering personality threw the whole +province into dismay and unnerved the other leaders." + +The agitation in the Deccan did not die out with Tilak's disappearance, +for he left his stamp upon a new generation, which he had educated and +trained. More than a year after Tilak had been removed to Mandalay, his +doctrines bore fruit in the murder of Mr. Jackson, the Collector of +Nasik--a murder which, in the whole lamentable record of political +crimes in India, stands out in many ways pre-eminently infamous and +significant. The chief executive officer of a large district, "Pundit" +Jackson, as he was familiarly called, was above all a scholar, devoted +to Indian studies, and his sympathy with all forms of Indian thought was +as genuine as his acquaintance with them was profound. His affection for +the natives was such as, perhaps, to blind him to their faults, and like +the earliest victims of the Indian Mutiny he entertained to the very +last an almost childlike confidence in the loyalty of the whole people. +Only a few days before his death he expressed his conviction that +disaffection had died out in Nasik, and that he could go anywhere, and +at any hour without the slightest risk of danger. That he was very +generally respected and even beloved by many there can be no doubt, and +there is no reason to question the sincerity of the regrets which found +expression on the announcement of his impending transfer to Bombay in a +series of farewell entertainments, both public and private, by the +inhabitants of the city. Only two days before the fatal 21st of +December, an ode in Marathi addressed to him at a reception organized by +the Municipal Council dwelt specially upon his gentleness of soul and +kindliness of manner. + +Yet this was the man whom the fanatical champions of Indian Nationalism +in the Deccan singled out for assassination as a protest against British +tyranny. The trial of the actual murderer and of those who aided and +abetted him abundantly demonstrated the cold-blooded premeditation which +characterized this crime. Numerous consultations had taken place ever +since the previous September between the murderer and his accomplices as +to the manner and time of the deed. It was repeatedly postponed because +the accomplices who belonged to Nasik were afraid of rendering active +assistance which might compromise them, though they were ready enough to +arm the hand of the wretched youth from Aurungabad who had volunteered +to strike the blow. Ready as he was to kill any Englishman, he himself +had some misgivings as to the expediency of selecting a victim whose +personal qualities were so universally recognized, and these misgivings +were only allayed by the assurance that all that was mere hypocrisy on +poor Jackson's part. It was the news of Jackson's approaching departure +for Bombay that finally precipitated the catastrophe. The murderer +practised carefully with the pistol given to him and other precautions +were taken so that, even if the first attempt was foiled, Jackson should +not escape alive from the theatre--the native theatre which he had been +asked to honour with his attendance. So the young Chitpavan Brahman, +Ananta Luxman Kanhere, waylaid the Englishman as he was entering, shot +him first in the back, and then emptied the contents of his revolver +upon him, as he turned round. Mr. Jackson fell dead in front of the +friends who were accompanying him, two young English ladies and a young +civilian of his staff, who had only joined a month before from England +and faced without flinching this gruesome initiation into the service. +It all happened in a moment, and the native Deputy Collector, Mr. +Palshikar, who leapt forward to Mr. Jackson's assistance, was only able +to strike down the murderer and tear from him the second weapon with +which he was armed. Thanks also to Mr. Palshikar's presence of mind, +information was at once sent to the railway station, and the escape of +some of the accomplices prevented, whose confessions materially helped +in promoting the ends of justice. + +But besides the facts which were brought out in evidence during the +trial at Bombay, there are some features connected with the crime to +which attention may be usefully directed, as they lie outside the +province of the Law Courts. In the first place, it must be noted that +not only the murderer but the majority of those implicated in the crime +were Chitpavan Brahmans, and at the same time they were the strange +products both of the Western education which we have imported into India +and of the religious revivalism which underlies the present political +agitation. They were certainly moral, if not physical, degenerates, and +most of them notoriously depraved, none bearing in this respect a worse +character than the actual murderer. I happened, when at Nasik, to see +the latter whilst he was performing his ablutions in front of the +Government building in which he was confined. Four policemen were in +charge of him, but he seemed absolutely unconcerned, and after having +washed himself leisurely, proceeded to discharges his devotions, looking +around all the while with a certain self-satisfied composure, before +returning to his cell. His appearance was puny, undergrown, and +effeminate, and his small, narrow, and elongated head markedly +prognathous, but he exercised over some of his companions a passionate, +if unnatural, fascination which, I have been told by one who was present +at the trial, betrayed itself shamelessly in their attitude and the +glances they exchanged with him during the proceedings. Distorted pride +of race and of caste combined with neuroticism and eroticism appear to +have co-operated here in producing as complete a type of moral +perversion as the records of criminal pathology can well show. + +What are the secret forces by which these wretched puppets were set in +motion? Their activity was certainly not spontaneous. Who was it that +pulled the strings? There is reason to believe that the revolver with +which the murder was committed was one of a batch sent out by the Indian +ringleaders, who until the murder of Sir W. Curzon-Wyllie, had their +headquarters at the famous "India House," in Highgate, of which Swami +Krishnavarma was originally one of the moving spirits. Upon this and +other cognate points the trial of Vinayak Savarkar, formerly the London +correspondent of one of Tilak's organs and a familiar of the "India +House," and of some twenty-five other Hindus on various charges of +conspiracy which is now proceeding in the High Court of Bombay, may be +expected to throw some very instructive light. + +The atmosphere of Nasik was no doubt exceptionally favourable for such +morbid growths. For Nasik is no ordinary provincial town of India. It is +one of the great strongholds of Hinduism. Its population is only about +25,000, but of these about 9,000 belong to the Brahmanical caste, though +only about 1,000 are Chitpavan Brahmans, the rest being mainly Deshastha +Brahmans, another great sept of the Deccanee sacerdotal caste. It is a +city of peculiar sanctity with the Hindus. The sacred Godavery--so +sacred that it is called there the _Ganga_--i.e. the Ganges--flows +through it, and its bathing _ghats_ which line the river banks and its +ancient temples and innumerable shrines attract a constant flow of +pilgrims from all parts of India. Indeed, many of the great Hindu +houses of India maintain there a family priest to look after their +spiritual interests. Nasik was, moreover, a city beloved of the Peshwas, +and, next to Poona preserves, perhaps, more intimate associations with +the great days of the Mahratta Empire than any other city of the Deccan. +But though no doubt these facts might account for a certain latent +bitterness against the alien rulers who dashed the cup of victory away +from the lips of the Mahrattas, just as the latter were establishing +their ascendency on the crumbling ruins of the Moghul Empire, they do +not suffice to account for the attitude of the people generally in +presence of such a crime as the assassination of Mr. Jackson. For if +murder is a heinous crime by whomsoever it may be committed, it ranks +amongst Hindus as specially heinous when committed by a Brahman. How is +it that in this instance, instead of outcasting the murderer, many +Brahmans continued more or less secretly to glorify his crime as "the +striking down of the flag from the fort"? How is it that, when there was +ample evidence to show that murder had been in the air of Nasik for +several months before the perpetration of the deed, not a single +warning, not a single hint, ever reached Mr. Jackson, except from the +police, whose advice, unfortunately, his blindly trustful nature led him +to ignore to the very end? How is it that, even after its perpetration, +though there was much genuine sympathy with the victim and many eloquent +speeches were delivered to express righteous abhorrence of the crime, no +practical help was afforded to the authorities in pursuing the +ramifications of the conspiracy which had "brought disgrace on the holy +city of Nasik"? + +All this opens up wide fields for speculation, but there is one point +which a statement solemnly made by the murderer of Mr. Jackson has +placed beyond the uncertainties of speculation. In reply to the +magistrate who asked him why he committed the murder, Kanhere said:-- + + I read of many instances of oppression in the _Kesari_, the + _Rashtramat_ and the _Kal_ and other newspapers. I think + that by killing _sahibs_ [Englishmen] we people can get justice. + I never got injustice myself nor did any one I know. I now + regret killing Mr. Jackson. I killed a good man causelessly. + +Can anything be much more eloquent and convincing than the terrible +pathos of this confession?[6] The three papers named by Kanhere were +Tilak's organs. It was no personal experience or knowledge of his own +that had driven Kanhere to his frenzied deed, but the slow persistent +poison dropped into his ear by the Tilak Press. Though it was Kanhere's +hand that struck down "a good man causelessly," was not Tilak rather +than Kanhere the real author of the murder? It was merely the story of +the Poona murders of 1897 over again. + +Other incidents besides the Nasik tragedy have occurred since Tilak's +conviction to show how dangerous was the spirit which his doctrines had +aroused. One of the, gravest, symptomatically, was the happily +unsuccessful attempt to throw a bomb at the Viceroy and Lady Minto +whilst they were driving through the streets of Ahmedabad during their +visit to the Bombay Presidency last November. For that outrage +constituted an ominous breach of all the old Hindu traditions which +invest the personal representative of the Sovereign with a special +sanctity. + +But in spite of spasmodic outbreaks, of which we may not yet have seen +the end, aggressive disloyalty in the Deccan has been at least +temporarily set back since the downfall of Tilak. The firmer attitude +adopted by the Government of India and such repressive measures as the +Press Act, combined with judicious reforms, have done much; but it was +by the prosecution of Tilak that the forces of militant unrest lost +their ablest and boldest leader--perhaps the only one who might have +concentrated their direction, not only in the Deccan, but in the whole +of India, in his own hands and given to the movement, with all its +varied and often conflicting tendencies, an organization and unity which +it still happily seems to lack. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +POONA AND KOLHAPUR. + + +It is not, after all, in British India (i.e., in that part of India +which we directly administer) that the Brahmanical and reactionary +character of Indian unrest, at any rate in the Deccan, can best be +studied. There it can always be disguised under the "patriotic" aspects +of a revolt against alien rule. To appreciate its real tendencies we +must go to a Native State of the Deccan about 100 miles south of Poona. +Kolhapur is the most important of the Native States under the charge of +the Bombay Government, and its ruler is the only ruling Mahratta chief +who can claim direct descent from the great Shivaji, the +"Shivaji-Maharaj" whose cult Tilak made one of the central features of +his political propaganda. He is the "Chhatrapati Maharajah," and is +acknowledged to be as such the head of the Mahratta Princes of India. +One would have thought that such a lineage would have sufficed in itself +to invest the Maharajah of Kolhapur with a certain measure of sanctity +in the eyes of Tilak and his followers. Far from it. His Highness is an +enlightened ruler and a man of great simplicity of character. He takes a +keen interest in the administration of his State, and has undertaken, at +no small cost to his Exchequer, one of the most important irrigation +works yet attempted in any Native State. But he committed what Tilak +and his friends regarded as two unforgivable offences: he fought against +the intolerance of the Brahmans and he is a faithful friend end ally of +the British _Raj_. Hence they set in motion against him, the descendant +of Shivaji, in his own State, exactly the same machinery of agitation +and conspiracy which they have set in motion against British rule in +British India. + +It is a curious and most instructive story. There had been long +minorities in Kolhapur, and, especially during the more or less nominal +reign of the present Maharajah's predecessor, Shivaji IV., who +ultimately went mad, the Prime Minister, a Chitpavan Brahman of +Ratnagiri, acquired almost supreme power in the State, and filled every +important post with his fellow caste men, of whom he introduced more +than a hundred into the public service. Under Chitpavan rule the +interests of the people of the soil were systematically neglected in +Kolhapur, as they had been throughout the Deccan in the later days of +the Chitpavan theocracy at Poona, and privileges and possessions were +showered upon members of the favoured caste. On his accession in 1894 +the present Maharajah appointed as his Prime Minister, with a view to +very necessary reforms in the administration, a Kayastha Prabhu, Rao +Bahadur Sabnis, who, though a high-caste Hindu, was not a Brahman. There +has long been great rivalry between the Brahmans and the Prabhus, who +belong mostly to the moderate progressive school of Hinduism. The +appointment of Mr. Sabnis, besides portending unpalatable reforms, was +therefore in itself very unwelcome to the Kolhapur Brahmans, amongst +whom one of the most influential, Mr. B.N. Joshi, the Chief Judge, was a +personal friend of Tilak. Consternation increased when the young +Maharajah announced his intention of promoting to positions of trust +such non-Brahmans as should be found capable of filling them and +actually started educating non-Brahmans for the purpose. In order to put +pressure upon their ruler, the Brahmans had recourse to one of the most +powerful weapons with which the semi-religious, semi-social structure of +Hinduism has armed them. They questioned his caste and refused to recite +at certain religious ceremonies in his family the Vedic hymns, to which +as a Kshatriya (i.e., as a member of the "twice-born" caste ranking +next to the Brahmans) his Highness claimed to be traditionally entitled. +The stalwart Brahmans of the Deccan allege, it seems, that in this _Kali +Yuga_, or Age of Darkness, there can be no Kshatriyas, since there is no +room or a warrior caste in the orthodox sense under an alien rule, and +that therefore the Hindus who are neither Brahmans nor pariahs can at +best be Shudras--a "clean" caste, but not even entitled to wear the +"sacred thread" reserved for the highest castes. + +The Maharajah remained firm, for this insult, though aimed chiefly at +him, affected equally all high-caste Mahrattas who were not Brahmans. To +their credit be it said, several of the more progressive Brahmans, +braving the pressure of their fellow caste-men at Poona and in Kolhapur +itself, stood by his Highness. The dispute was aggravated when the +Rajpadhya--the family priest of the Kolhapur ruling family--himself +refused the Vedic ritual to his Highness, even when two Judges, both +Brahmans, who were appointed to form with him a committee of three to +decide the issue, pronounced in favour of the Maharajah's claim. His +Highness then took the case to the Sankeshwar Shankaracharya, the +highest religious authority with jurisdiction in such matters. But the +feud only grew the more bitter, as, owing to the death of the incumbent +of that high office, rival candidatures were put forward to the +succession by the Maharajah's supporters on the one hand and by Tilak +and his friends on the other. To the present day the feud continues, and +the present Shankaracharya is not recognized by the Poona school of +Brahmans. Nor is he likely to be, as he has had the unique courage +publicly to condemn as a Brahman the murder of Mr. Jackson by Brahmans. + +I have already remarked with reference to the Nasik tragedy that, if +murder is a heinous crime by whomsoever committed, it ranks amongst +Hindus as specially heinous when committed by a Brahman; and I have +asked several Brahmans how it is that instead of outcasting the murderer +many Brahmans continue more or less secretly to glorify his crime. Some +have admitted that there is a strong case for the public excommunication +of Brahmans guilty of political murder, some have regretted that no such +action has ever been taken by the caste authorities, some have argued +that caste organization has been so loosened that any collective action +would be impracticable. Only in Kolhapur has a Brahman, qualified to +speak with the highest religious authority in the name of Hindu sacred +law, been found to have in this respect the courage of his convictions. +This Brahman was no less a personage than the Shankaracharya of the +Karveer Petha, who took the very noteworthy step of issuing a +proclamation solemnly reprobating the murder committed by a Brahman "in +the holy city of Nasik" as "a stain on the Brahmanical religion of mercy +emphatically preached by Manu and other law-givers." After paying a warm +tribute to Mr. Jackson's personal qualities and great learning, and +quoting sacred texts to show that "such a murder is to be condemned the +more when a Brahman commits it," and renders the murderer liable to the +most awful penalties in the next world, the proclamation proceeded to +declare that "his Holiness is pleased to excommunicate the wicked +persons who have committed the present offence, and who shall commit +similar offences against the State, and none of the disciples of this +Petha shall have any dealings with such sinful men." + +Amongst the majority of Brahmans in Kolhapur and elsewhere this +proclamation, I fear, found no echo, for their hostility towards their +own Maharajah had often assumed or encouraged criminal forms of +violence. It had certainly not remained confined to the spiritual +domain, and it became absolutely savage when, in 1902, his Highness +declared that he would reserve at least half the posts in the State for +qualified men of the non-Brahman communities. Under the constant +inspiration of Poona, the Tilak Press waged relentless war against his +Highness, preaching disaffection towards his Government, just as it +preached disaffection towards the British _Raj_; and the agitation in +Kolhapur itself was reinforced by the advent of a large number of Poona +Brahmans who, in consequence of a recrudescence of plague, fled from +that city to the Maharajah's capital. They flung themselves eagerly into +the fray, and had the audacity even to start a mock "Parliament." But +the Maharajah was determined to be master in his own State, and in Mr. +Sabnis he had found a Prime Minister who loyally and courageously +carried out his policy for the improvement of the administration and the +spread of education amongst the non-Brahman castes. The Maharajah +realizes that Brahman ascendency cannot be broken down permanently +unless the non-Brahman castes are adequately equipped to compete with +them in the public services. Amongst these there is plenty of loyalty to +the ruling chief, for his Mahratta subjects have not wholly forgotten +the tyranny of Chitpavan Brahman rule either under Shivaji IV.'s Prime +Minister or in the less recent times of the Poona Peshwas. One of the +most interesting institutions in Kolhapur is a hostel specially endowed +for non-Brahman, Mahratta, Mahomedan, and Jain youths who are following +the courses of the Rajaram College. The control of education plays in +Kolhapur as conspicuous a part as at Poona in the struggle between the +forces of order and disorder, and it is amongst the Kolhapur youth that +the latter have made their most strenuous exertions and with the same +lawless results. + +The first organization started at Kolhapur in imitation of Poona was a +Shivaji club, with which were associated bands of gymnasts, Ganpati +choirs, an anti-cow-killing society, &c., all on the lines of those +founded by Tilak. It was suppressed in 1900 as several of its members +had been implicated in the disturbances at Bir, where a young "patriot" +had proclaimed himself Rajah and collected a sufficient number of armed +followers to require a military force to suppress the rebellion. The +disturbances at Bir were, in fact, the starting point of that new form +of political propagandism which takes the shape of dacoities or armed +robberies for the benefit of the "patriotic" war-chest. After the +suppression of the Kolhapur Shivaji Club, many of its leading members +disappeared for a time, but only to carry on their operations in other +parts of India, where they entered into relations with secret societies +of a similar type. Three years later the club had been practically +revived under the new name of "Belapur Swami Club," so called in honour +of the late Swami of Belapur, to whose wooden slippers the members of +the club were in the habit of doing worship, whilst his shrine was used +as a sanctuary for sedition-mongers and a store-house for illicit +weapons. "Political" dacoities were soon in vogue again, and in 1905 +there was an epidemic of house-breaking in and around Kolhapur, which +enriched the club with several thousands of rupees and a few arms. Seven +members were finally arrested and some made full confessions. All of +these except one were Brahmans and mostly quite well connected. But even +those who were convicted got off with light sentences, and the campaign, +which clearly had powerful aiders and abettors both inside Kolhapur and +outside, was only temporarily checked. + +Nor was it to stop at dacoities. A regular semi-military organization +was introduced, and bands of young men used to go out into the country +to carry out mimic manoeuvres. It is of no slight significance that +photographs have been discovered of groups of these young men--some of +whom were subsequently convicted for serious offences--with Tilak +himself in their midst. They were in constant communication with Poona, +and when the Poona extremists began to specialize on bombs they were +amongst the neophytes of the new cult. A conspiracy was hatched of which +the admitted purpose was to murder Colonel Ferris, the Political Agent, +at the wedding of the Maharajah's daughter on March 21, 1908, but, if it +had been carried out successfully, the Maharajah himself and many of his +other guests would almost inevitably have been killed at the same time. +For, as was disclosed in the subsequent trial, a bomb was prepared and +despatched from Poona which was to have been hurled into the wedding +_pandal_ or enclosure railed off in the courtyard of the Palace for the +Maharajah and his family and the principal guests, including Colonel +Ferris. Fortunately the bomb, which was subsequently discovered, did not +reach Kolhapur in time. The conspirators had to fall back upon less +potent weapons. Thanks to the Arms Act, which is one of the favourite +grievances of Indian Nationalism, they had great difficulty in obtaining +arms, but they secured a few, and on April 16, 1908, when Colonel +Ferris, who was retiring, left Kolhapur, some of the conspirators +followed him into the train, and, alighting at one of the stations, +attempted to shoot him, but, again fortunately, their cartridges missed +fire. A few weeks later placards giving formulae for the making of bombs +were actually posted up on the doors of schools and other buildings, and +this was followed by a theft of dangerous chemicals from a Kolhapur +private school. Finally ten youths, nine of whom were Brahmans, were +committed for trial on these offences before a special Sessions Judge, +lent by Government, and eight of them were convicted. + +Quite as much as these convictions the downfall of Tilak helped to quell +the forces of unrest in the State of Kolhapur as well as in the rest of +the Deccan. For in Kolhapur, as in Poona, it was the Brahman Press +controlled by Tilak that familiarized the rising generation with the +idea of political murder. In the year which preceded the Kolhapur +conspiracy, and just after the first dastardly bomb outrage at +Muzafferpur to which Mrs. and Miss Kennedy fell victims, an article +appeared in the _Vishvavritta_, a Kolhapur monthly magazine, for which +its editor, Mr. Bijapurkar, a Brahman, who until 1905 had been Professor +of Sanscrit at the Rajaram College, was subsequently prosecuted and +convicted. The article, which was significantly headed "The potency of +Vedic prayers," recalled various cases in which the Vedas lay down the +duty of retaliation upon "alien" oppressors. "To kill such people +involves no sin, and when Kshatriyas and Vaidhyas do not come forward to +kill them, Brahmans should take up arms and protect religion. When one +is face to face with such people they should be slaughtered without +hesitation. Not the slightest blame attaches to the slayer." Moreover, +lest these exhortations should be construed merely as a philosophic +treatise on Vedic teaching, the writer was careful to add that "these +doctrines are not to be kept in books, but must be taught even to babes +and sucklings." + +Thus in a Native State of the Deccan, just as in British-administered +Deccan, we find the same methods and the same doctrines adopted by the +Brahmans, with the same demoralizing results, in pursuance of the same +purpose, now under one guise and now under another, the maintenance or +restoration of their own theocratic power, whether it be threatened by a +Hindu ruler of their own race, or by "alien" rulers and the "alien" +civilization for which they stand. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +BENGAL BEFORE THE PARTITION. + + +It is a far cry in every sense from the Deccan to Bengal. There is a +greater diversity of races, languages, social customs, physical +conditions, &c., between the different provinces of India than is often +to be found between the different countries of Europe. Few differ more +widely than the Deccan and Bengal--the Deccan, a great table-land raised +on an average over 2,000ft. above sea level, broken by many deep-cut +river valleys and throwing up lofty ridges of bare rock, entirely +dependent for its rainfall upon the south-west monsoon, which alone and +in varying degrees of abundancy relieves the thirst of a thin soil +parched during the rest of the year by a fierce dry heat--Bengal, a vast +alluvial plain, with a hot, damp climate, watered and fertilized by +great rivers like the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, which drain the +greater part of the Himalayas. The Deccan is thinly populated; it has no +great waterways; there are few large cities and few natural facilities +of communication between them, but the population, chiefly Mahratta +Hindus, with a fair sprinkling of Mahomedans, survivors of the Moghul +Empire, are a virile race, wiry rather than sturdy, with tenacious +customs and traditions and a language--Marathi--which has a copious +popular literature. Maharashtra, moreover, has historical traditions, by +no means inglorious, of its own. It has played, and is conscious of +having played, a conspicuous part in the history of India down to +relatively recent times; and the Brahmans of Maharashtra, who were once +its rulers, have preserved to the present day the instincts and the +aspirations of a ruling race, combined with great force and subtleness +of intellect. In Bengal, on the other hand, there is a dense population, +concentrated in part in large towns and cities along the great +waterways, but also spread over the whole surface of the rich plains and +deltas. The Bengalees are a quick-witted, imaginative, and warm-hearted +people who have been the victims rather than the makers of history. The +tide of conquest has swept over them again and again from times +immemorial, but generally without leaving any lasting impression upon +their elastic and rather timid temperament. With all his receptive +qualities, his love of novelty and readiness to learn, his retentive +memory, his luxuriant imagination, his gift of facile eloquence, the +Bengalee has seldom shown himself to be a born ruler of men. + +All these differences are reflected in the unrest in Bengal, though on +the surface it presents a close resemblance to the unrest in the Deccan, +and there have been constant contact and co-operation between the +leaders. Except as a geographical expression, Bengal is practically a +creation of British rule and of Western education. The claim of the +modern Bengalees to be regarded as a "nation" has no historical basis. +The inhabitants of Bengal are of mixed Dravidian, Mongolian, and Aryan +origin, and in no other speech of India, writes Sir H. Risley, is the +literary language cultivated by the educated classes more widely +divorced, not only from the many popular dialects spoken in the +province, but from that of ordinary conversation. Literary Bengalee is +not even an altogether indigenous growth. It owes its birth mainly to +the labours of English missionaries, like Carey, in the first half of +the last century, assisted by the Pundits of Calcutta. Yet it is upon +this community of language that the Bengalees mainly found their claim +to recognition as a "nation"; or, to put it in another form, their claim +rests upon education as they understand it--i.e., upon the high +proportion of literacy that exists in Bengal as compared with most parts +of India. Education is unquestionably a power in Bengal. It has not +superseded caste, which in all essentials is still unbroken, but it has +to some extent overshadowed it. + +The Brahmans of Bengal have never within historical times been a +politically dominant force. They did not condescend to take office even +in the remote days when there were Hindu Kings in Bengal, and still less +under Mahomedan rule. They were content to be learned in Sanscrit and in +the Hindu Scriptures, and they left secular knowledge to the Kayasthas, +or writer caste, with whom they preserved, notwithstanding certain rigid +barriers, much more intimate relations than usually exist between +different Hindu castes. There is a tradition that the highest Brahman +septs of Bengal are the descendants of five priests of special sanctity +whom King Adisur of Eastern Bengal in the ninth century attracted to his +Court from the holiest centres of Hinduism, and that the servants who +accompanied them founded the septs to which precedence is still accorded +amongst the Kayasthas of Bengal, and both have been at pains to preserve +the purity of their descent by a most exclusive and complicated, and +often unsavoury, system of matrimonial alliances known as Kulinism. +Hence in Bengal the Brahmans share their social primacy to an extent +unknown in other parts of India with the Kayasthas, and also with +another high caste, the Vaidhyas, who formerly monopolized the practice +of Hindu medicine. The _nexus_ is education, and that _nexus_ has been +strengthened since the advent of British rule and of Western education. +When the educational enterprise of the early British missionaries was +followed up, under the impulse of Dr. Duff, the greatest figure in the +missionary annals of India, and of Ram Mohun Roy, the most learned and +earnest of all reforming Brahmans, by the famous Government Minute of +March 7, 1835, many distinguished members of all these three castes +responded to the call and began to qualify for employment under +Government and for the liberal professions that were opening out in the +new India we were making. They were first in the field, and, though +other castes have followed suit, it is they who have practically +monopolized the public offices, the Bar, the Press, and the teaching +profession. It was they who were the moving spirits of the Brahmo Samaj +and of Social Reform when progressive ideas seemed to be on the point of +permeating Hinduism. But when the reaction came which first found public +expression in the resistance provoked by the Age of Consent Act of 1891 +for mitigating the evils of Hindu child marriage, and the spirit of +reform was deflected from the social and religious into the political +domain, it was they again who showed the most aptitude to clothe the new +political movement in all the forms of Western political activities. It +was Mr. W.O. Bonnerjee, an able Bengalee lawyer of moderate and +enlightened views, who presided over the first Indian National Congress +at Bombay and delivered an opening address of which the moderation has +rarely been emulated, and though the Congress movement originated in +Bombay rather than in Bengal, the fluent spokesmen of Bengal very soon +had the satisfaction of feeling that for the first time in Indian +history Bengal might claim to be marching in the van. + +Owing to his greater plasticity and imagination, the Bengalee has +certainly often assimilated English ideas as few other Indians have. +None can question, for instance, the genuine Western culture and sound +learning of men like Dr. Ashutosh Mookerjee, the Vice-Chancellor of the +Calcutta University, or Dr. Rash Behari Ghose, than whom the English Bar +itself has produced few greater lawyers; and it would be easy to quote +many other names of scarcely less distinction amongst the many highly +educated Bengalees who have served and are still serving the State with +undoubted loyalty and ability. With the spread of English education, +habits of tolerance have grown up, at any rate as to externals; and +though on the crucial point of inter-marriage caste law has lost hardly +anything of its rigidity, religion, in the ordinary intercourse of life, +seems to sit almost as lightly upon educated Hindu society in Calcutta +as upon English society in London. Another result of English education, +combined with the absence of such traditions of Brahman supremacy as are +still recent and powerful in the Deccan, has been to invest the +political aspirations of the Bengalees with that democratic tinge which +has won the sympathies of English Radicals; and, even if the tinge in +most cases be very slight, the Bengalee's own adaptability enables him +to clothe his opinions with extraordinary skill and verisimilitude in +the form which he intuitively knows will best suit an English audience. +Of any real democratic spirit amongst the educated classes of Bengal it +is difficult to find a trace, for they are separated from the masses +whom they profess to represent by a social gulf which only a few of the +most enlightened amongst them have so far even recognized the necessity +of making some attempt to bridge if they wish to give the slightest +plausibility to their professions. It would be less far-fetched, though +the analogy would still be very halting, to compare the position of the +Bengalee "moderates" with that of the middle classes in England before +the Reform Bill of 1832, who had no idea of emancipating the masses, but +only of emancipating themselves to some extent from the control of a +close oligarchy. From this point of view there are undoubtedly, and +especially amongst the elder generation, many educated Bengalees who are +convinced that in claiming by political agitation a larger share in the +administration and government of the country they are merely carrying +into practice the blameless theories of civic life and political +activity which their reading of English history has taught them. Their +influence, however, has been rapidly undermined by a new and essentially +revolutionary school, who combine with a spirit of revolt against all +Western authority a reversion to some of the most reactionary +conceptions of authority that the East has ever produced, and, +unfortunately, it is this new school which has now got hold of the +younger educated classes. + +Education, to which in its more primitive forms the Bengalees owed +whatever influence they retained under Mahomedan rule, has given them +under British rule far larger opportunities which they have turned to +account with no mean measure of success. I must reserve the thorny +question of education for separate treatment. All I need say for the +present is that, had it grown less instead of more superficial, had it +been less divorced from discipline and moral training as well as from +the realities of Indian life, the results might have been very +different. As it is, in the form given to it in our Indian schools and +colleges, which have been allowed to drift more and more into native +hands, English education has steadily deteriorated in quality as the +output has increased in quantity. The sacrifices made by many Bengalees +in humble circumstances to procure for their sons the advantages of what +is called higher education are often pathetic, but the results of this +mania for higher education, however laudable in itself, have been +disastrous. Every year large batches of youths with a mere smattering of +knowledge are turned out into a world that has little or no use for +them. Soured on the one hand by their own failure, or by the failure of +such examinations as they may have succeeded in passing to secure for +them the employment to which they aspired, and scorning the sort of work +to which they would otherwise have been trained, they are ripe for every +revolt. That is the material upon which the leaders of unrest have most +successfully worked, and it is only recently that some of the more +sober-minded Bengalees of the older generation have begun to realize the +dangers inherent in such a system. When in 1903 Lord Curzon brought in +his Universities Bill to mitigate some of the most glaring evils of the +system, there was a loud and unanimous outcry in Bengal that Government +intended to throttle higher education because it was education that was +making a "nation" of Bengal. Subsequent events have shown that that +measure was not only urgently needed, but that it came too late to cure +the mischief already done, and was, if anything, too circumscribed in +its scope. The storm it raised was intensified shortly afterwards by +Lord Curzon's famous Convocation speech, into which the sensitive and +emotional Bengalee hastened to read a humiliating indictment of the +"nation." Such a storm showed how heavily laden was the atmosphere with +dangerous electricity. + +For some years past the influence of Tilak and his irreconcilable school +had been projected from the Deccan into Bengal, and nowhere did it make +itself so rapidly felt as in the Press. The _Calcutta Review_ has been +publishing a very instructive history of the Indian Press by Mr. S.C. +Sanial, a Hindu scholar who has had the advantage of consulting +authentic and hitherto unpublished documents. His erudite work shows how +the native Press of India first grew up in Bengal as the direct product +of English education, and faithfully reflected all the fluctuations of +educated Bengalee opinion, many of the most influential native +newspapers continuing to be published in English, side by side with, and +often under the same control as, more popular papers published in the +vernacular. Among the "advanced" journalists of Bengal, none had fallen +so entirely under the spell of Tilak's magnetic personality as Mr. Bepin +Chandra Pal and Mr. Arabindo Ghose, and the former's _New India_ and the +latter's _Bande_ also published in English, soon outstripped the +aggressiveness of Mr. Surendranath Banerjee's _Bengalee_. For though +not immune from the reaction against Western influences and in favour of +Hinduism as a religious and social system, the school represented by Mr. +Banerjee confined itself at first mainly to political agitation and to +criticism of British methods of administration. The new school +represented, perhaps most conspicuously, by Mr. Arabindo Ghose scarcely +disguised its hostility to British rule itself and to all that British +ascendancy stands for. Hinduism for the Hindus, or, as they preferred to +put it, "Arya for the Aryans," was the war-cry of zealots, half +fanatics, half patriots, whose mysticism found in the sacred story of +the _Bhagvat Gita_ not only the charter of Indian independence but the +sanctification of the most violent means for the overthrow of an alien +rule. With this "Aryan" reaction, having to a great extent the force of +religious enthusiasm behind it, orthodoxy also recovered ground, and +Brahmanism was not slow to show how potent it still is even in Bengal +when it appeals to the superstitions of the masses. In one form or +another this spirit had spread like wildfire not only among the students +but among the teachers, and the schools of physical training to which +young Bengal had taken, partly under the influence of our British love +of sports and partly from a legitimate desire to remove from their +"nation" the stigma of unmanliness, were rapidly transforming themselves +into political societies modelled upon the bands of gymnasts which +figured so prominently in Tilak's propaganda in the Deccan. Among the +older men, some yielded to the new spirit from fear of being elbowed out +by their youngers, some were genuinely impatient of the tardiness of the +constitutional reforms for which they had looked to the agency of the +Indian National Congress; a few perhaps welcomed the opportunity of +venting the bitterness engendered by social slights, real or imaginary, +or by disappointments in Government service. + +Such appears to have been the _etat d'ame_ of Bengal when the +Government of India promulgated the measure of administrative +redistribution known as the Partition of Bengal. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE STORM IN BENGAL. + + +The merits or demerits of the Partition of Bengal have already been +discussed to satiety. As far as its purpose was to promote +administrative efficiency it is no longer on its defence. Bengal proper +is still the most populous province in India, but it has been brought +within limits that at least make efficient administration practicable. +The eastern districts, now included in the new province, which had been +hitherto lamentably neglected, have already gained enormously by the +change, which was at the same time only an act of justice to the large +Mahomedan majority who received but scanty consideration from Calcutta. +The only people who perhaps suffered inconvenience or material loss were +absentee landlords, pleaders, and moneylenders, and some of the +merchants of Calcutta, Anglo-Indian as well as native, who believed +their interests to be affected by the transfer of the seat of provincial +government for the Eastern Bengal districts to Dacca. Nevertheless the +Partition was the signal for an agitation such as India had not hitherto +witnessed. I say advisedly the signal rather than the cause. For if the +Partition in itself had sufficed to rouse spontaneous popular feeling, +it would have been unnecessary for the leaders of the agitation to +resort in the rural districts to gross misrepresentations of the objects +of that measure. What all the smouldering discontent, all the +reactionary disaffection centred in Calcutta read into the Partition was +a direct attack upon the primacy of the educated classes that had made +Calcutta the capital of the Bengalee "nation." The Universities Act of +1904, it was alleged, had been the first attempt on the part of a +masterful Viceroy to reduce their influence by curtailing their control +of higher education. Partition was a further attempt to hamper their +activities by cutting half the "nation" adrift from its "intellectual" +capital. This was a cry well calculated to appeal to many "moderates," +whom the merely political aspects of the question would have left +relatively unmoved and it certainly proved effective, for in Calcutta +feeling ran very strong. Whilst "monster" demonstrations were organized +in Calcutta and in the principal towns of the _mofussil_, the wildest +reports were sedulously disseminated amongst the rural population. +Partition was meant to pave the way for undoing the Permanent Settlement +which governs the Land Revenue in Bengal, and, once the Permanent +Settlement out of the way, Government would screw up the land tax. As +for the creation of the new province, it was intended to facilitate the +compulsory emigration of the people from the plains, who would be driven +to work on the Englishmen's tea plantations in the far-off jungles of +Assam. Reports of this kind were well calculated to alarm both the +_Zemindars_, who had waxed fat on the Permanent Settlement, and the +credulous _rayats_, whose labour is indispensable to the _zemindar_ +squirarchy. In the towns, on the other hand, the masses were told that +Partition was an insult to the "terrible goddess" Kali, the most popular +of all Hindu deities in Bengal, and, in order to popularize the protest +amongst the small townsfolk, amongst artisans and petty traders, the cry +of _Swadeshi_ was coupled with that of _Bande Mataram_. + +The spirit of revolt against Western political authority had been for +some time past spreading to the domain of economics. _Swadeshi_ in +itself and so far as it means the intelligent encouragement of +indigenous is perfectly legitimate, and in this sense the Government of +India had practised _Swadeshi_ long before it was taken up for purposes +of political agitation by those who look upon it primarily as an +economic weapon against their rulers. It was now to receive a formidable +development. _Swadeshi_ must strike at the flinty heart of the British +people by cutting off the demand for British manufactured goods and +substituting in their place the products of native labour. At the first +great meeting held at the Calcutta Town Hall to protest against +Partition, the building was to have been draped in black as a sign of +"national" mourning, but the idea was ostentatiously renounced because +the only materials available were of English manufacture. Not only did +the painful circumstances of the hour forbid any self-respecting +Bengalee from using foreign-made articles, but some means had to be +found of compelling the lukewarm to take the same lofty view of their +duties. So the cry of boycott was raised, and it is worth noting, as +evidence of the close contact and co-operation between the forces of +unrest in the Deccan and in Bengal, that at the same time as it was +raised in Calcutta by Mr. Surendranath Banerjee it was raised also at +Poona by Tilak who perhaps foresaw much more clearly the lawlessness to +which it would lead. For, though the cry fell on deaf ears in Bombay, +the boycott did not remain by any means an idle threat in Bengal. The +movement was placed under the special patronage of Kali and vows were +administered to large crowds in the forecourts of her great temple at +Calcutta and in her various shrines all over Bengal. The religious +character with which the leaders sought to invest the boycott propaganda +showed how far removed was the _swadeshi_ which they preached from a +mere innocent economic propaganda for the furtherance of native +industries. For a description of the Tantric rites connected with +_Shakti_ worship I must refer readers to M. Barth's learned work on "The +religions of India," of which an English translation has been published +by Messrs Truebner in their Oriental series. In its extreme forms +_Shakti_ worship finds expression in licentious aberrations which, +however lofty may be the speculative theories that gave birth to them, +represent the most extravagant forms of delirious mysticism. Yet such +men as Mr. Surendranath Banerjee[7], who in his relations with +Englishmen claims to represent the fine flower of Western education and +Hindu enlightenment, did not hesitate to call the popularity of _Shakti_ +worship in aid in order to stimulate the boycott of British goods. To +prevent any blacksliding the agitators had ready to hand an organization +which they did not hesitate to use. The gymnastic societies founded in +Bengal for physical training and semi-military drill on the model of +those established by Tilak in the Deccan were transformed into bands of +_samitis_ or "national volunteers," and students and schoolboys who had +been encouraged from the first to take part in public meetings and to +parade the streets in procession as a protest against Partition, were +mobilized to picket the bazaars and enforce the boycott. Nor were their +methods confined to moral suasion. Where it failed they were quite ready +to use force. The Hindu leaders had made desperate attempts to enlist +the support of the Mahomedans, and not without some success, until the +latter began to realize the true meaning both of the Partition and of +the agitation against it. Nothing was better calculated to enlighten +them than another feature introduced also from the Deccan into the +"national" propaganda. In the Deccan the cult of Shivaji, as the epic +hero of Mahratta history, was intelligible enough. But in Bengal his +name had been for generations a bogey with which mothers hushed their +babies, and the Mahratta Ditch in Calcutta still bears witness to the +terror produced by the daring raids of Mahratta horsemen. To set Shivaji +up in Bengal on the pedestal of Nationalism in the face of such +traditions was no slight feat, and all Mr. Surendranath Banerjee's +popularity barely availed to perform it successfully. But to identify +the cause of Nationalism with the cult of the Mahratta warrior-king who +had first arrested the victorious career and humbled the pride of the +Mahomedan conquerors of Hindustan was not the way to win over to it the +Mahomedans of Bengal. In Eastern Bengal especially, with the exception +of a few landlords and pleaders whose interests were largely bound up +with those of the Hindus, the Mahomedans as a community had everything +to gain and nothing to lose by the Partition. For those amongst them who +were merchants the boycott spelt serious injury to their trade and led +in some instances to reprisals in which the Hindus fared badly. Whenever +it happened in this way that the biter was bit, the Bengalee Press +accused the Government of encouraging the revival of sectarian strife, +just as it denounced every measure for the maintenance of order which +the Government was compelled to take in the discharge of one of its most +elementary duties, as brutal repression and arbitrary vindictiveness, +and any mistake of procedure made by some subordinate official under the +stress of a very critical situation was distorted and magnified into a +gross denial of justice. But it was out of the punishments very properly +inflicted upon the misguided schoolboys and students whom the +politicians had put in the forefront of the fray that the greatest +capital was made. Whilst the politicians themselves prudently remained +for the most part in Calcutta, making high-sounding speeches and writing +inflammatory articles, or were careful in their own overt demonstrations +not to overstep the extreme bounds of legality, they showered telegrams +and letters of congratulation on the young "martyrs" who had been duly +castigated. + +The leaders of the movement had also another string to their bow which +they used with considerable effect. Never before had there been such +close contact between Indian politicians and certain groups of English +politicians. Lord Curzon's fall and the extremely injudicious +references to Partition made by Mr. Brodrick, the then Secretary of +State, in the correspondence published after the resignation of the +Viceroy, had from the first given a great stimulus to the anti-Partition +campaign, Mr. Brodrick's remarks led the Bengalees to form a very +exaggerated estimate of the personal part played by Lord Curzon in the +question of Partition, and they not unnaturally concluded that, if the +Secretary of State had merely sanctioned the Partition in order to +humour the Viceroy, he might easily be induced to reconsider the matter +when once Lord Curzon had been got out of the way. Their hopes in that +quarter were, it is true, very soon dashed, but only to be strung up +again to the highest pitch of expectancy when the Conservative +Government fell from power, and was replaced by a Liberal +Administration, with Mr. John Morley at the India Office and an +overwhelming majority in the House of Commons, in which the Radical +element was very strongly represented. Several of the leading Radical +organs in England had for a long time past joined hands with the +Bengalee Press in denouncing Lord Curzon and all his works, and, most +fiercely of all, the Partition of Bengal. The Bengalee politicians, +moreover, not only had the active sympathy of a large section of Radical +opinion at home, but they had in the House itself the constant +co-operation of a small but energetic group of members, who constituted +themselves into an "Indian party," and were ever ready to act as the +spokesmen of Indian discontent. Some of them were of that earnest type +of self-righteousness which loves to smell out unrighteousness in their +fellow countrymen, especially in those who are serving their country +abroad; some were hypnotized by the old shibboleths of freedom, even +when freedom merely stands for licence; some were retired Anglo-Indians, +whose experience in the public service in India would have carried +greater weight had not the peculiar acerbity of their language seemed to +betray the bitterness of personal disappointment. Every invention or +exaggeration of the Bengalee Press found its way into the list of +questions to be asked of the Secretary of State, who, with less +knowledge than he has since acquired, doubtless considered himself bound +to pass them on for inquiry to the Government of India. A large +proportion of these questions were aimed at Sir Bampfylde Fuller, who, +as the first Lieutenant-Governor of the new province of Eastern Bengal, +had been singled out for every form of vituperation and calumny, and no +subject figured more prominently amongst them than the disciplinary +treatment of turbulent schoolboys and students. It is so easy to appeal +to the generous sentiments of the British public in favour of poor boys, +supposed to be of tender years, dragged into police courts by harsh +bureaucrats for some hasty action prompted by the generous, if foolish, +exuberance of youth, especially when the British public is quite unaware +that in India most students and many schoolboys are more or less +full-grown and often already married. Every one of these questions was +duly advertised in the columns of the Bengalee Press, and their +cumulative effect was to produce the impression that the British +Parliament was following events in Bengal with feverish interest and +with overwhelming sympathy for the poor oppressed Bengalee. + +Nevertheless, there came a moment when the first feverish excitement +seemed to wane. Time had gone on, and though there was a new Viceroy in +India and a new Secretary of State at Whitehall, the Partition had +remained an accomplished fact. The visit of the Prince and Princess of +Wales to Calcutta had temporarily exercised a restraining influence on +the political leaders, and the presence of Royalty in a country where +reverence for the Throne is still a powerful tradition seemed to hush +even the forces of militant sedition. In Eastern Bengal, where the +agitation had been much fiercer than in Bengal proper, the energy and +devotion displayed by the Lieutenant-Governor in fighting a serious +threat of famine had won for him the respect of many of his opponents, +and the situation was beginning to lose some of its acuteness when it +was suddenly announced that Sir Bampfylde Fuller had resigned. The +effect was instantaneous. The points at issue between Sir Bampfylde +Fuller and the Government of India have been fully and frequently +debated, and it is needless to discuss here the reasons given for his +resignation, or for its prompt acceptance by the Viceroy. What I am +concerned with is the effect produced by that incident. It was immediate +and disastrous. The Bengalee leaders took heart. They claimed Sir +Bampfylde's downfall as their triumph--theirs and their allies' at +Westminster. Those, on the other hand, who imagined that it was Sir +Bampfylde's methods that had intensified the agitation and that his +removal would restore peace--even the sort of half peace which had been +so far maintained in Bengal proper under the milder sway of Sir Andrew +Fraser--were very soon undeceived. For if for a short time Sir Bampfylde +Fuller's successor was spared, the Government of Eastern Bengal was +compelled before long to take, more vigorous measures than he had ever +contemplated, and the agitation, which had hitherto refrained from +exhibiting its more violent aspects in Bengal proper, not only ceased to +show any discrimination, but everywhere broadened and deepened. The +veteran leaders, who still posed as "moderates," ceased to lead or, +swept away by the forces they had helped to raise, were compelled to +quicken their pace like the Communist leader in Paris who rushed after +his men exclaiming:--_Je suis leur chef, il faut bien que je les suive_. +The question of Partition itself receded into the background, and the +issue, until then successfully veiled and now openly raised, was not +whether Bengal should be one unpartitioned province or two partitioned +provinces under British rule, but whether British rule itself was to +endure in Bengal or, for the matter of that, anywhere in India. + +The first phase of unrest in Bengal, at any rate in its outward +manifestations, had been mainly political, and on the whole free from +any open exhibition of disloyalty to the British _Raj_. With the +Partition of Bengal it passed into a second phase in which, new economic +issues were superadded to the political issues, if they did not +altogether overshadow them, and the _Swadeshi_ movement and the boycott +soon imported methods of violence and lawlessness which had hitherto +been considered foreign to the Bengalee temperament. This phase did not +last for much more than a year after the Partition, for, when once +started on the inclined plane of lawlessness, the agitation rapidly +developed into a much wider and deeper revolt, in which _Swadeshi_ held +its place, but only in a subordinate position. The revolt began rapidly +to assume the revolutionary complexion, in the religious and social as +well as in the political domain, which Tilak had for years past, as we +have seen, laboured to impart to his propaganda in the Deccan, and, as +far as his personal influence and counsels availed, in every part of +India with which he was in contact. The ground had already been prepared +for this transformation by spadework in the Bengalee Press conducted by +two of Tilak's chief disciples in Bengal. One was Mr. Bepin Chandra Pal, +the bold exponent of _Swaraj_, whose programme I have already quoted. +The other was Mr. Arabindo Ghose, one of the most remarkable figures +that Indian unrest has produced. Educated in England, and so thoroughly +that when he returned to India he found it difficult to express himself +in Bengali, he is not only a high-caste Hindu, but he is one of those +Hindu mystics who believe that, by the practice of the most extreme +forms of _Yoga_ asceticism, man can transform himself into a super-man, +and he has constituted himself the high priest of a religious revival +which has taken a profound hold on the imagination of the emotional +youth of Bengal. His ethical gospel is not devoid of grandeur. It is +based mainly on the teachings of Krishna to Arjuna as revealed in the +_Bhagvad Gita_, and I cannot hope to define its moral purpose better +than by borrowing the following sentence from Mrs. Besant's introduction +to her translation of "The Lord's Song":-- + + It is meant to lift the aspirant from the lower levels of + renunciation where objects are renounced, to the loftier + heights where desires are dead and where the Yogi dwells + in calm and ceaseless contemplation, while his body and + mind are actively employed in discharging the duties that + fall to his lot in life. + +This reading of the _Bhagvad Gita_ differentiates the newer Indian +conception of renunciation, which does not exclude but rather prescribes +the duty of service to society, from the older conception, which was +concerned merely to procure the salvation of the individual by his +complete detachment from all mundane affairs. With this gospel of active +self-sacrifice none can assuredly quarrel, but it is the revolutionary +form which Mr. Arabindo Ghose would see given to such activity that, +unfortunately, chiefly fascinates the rising generation of Bengalees. +For him British rule and the Western civilization for which it stands +threaten the very life of Hinduism, and therefore British rule and all +that it stands for must go, and in order that they may go every Hindu +must be up and doing. That Mr. Arabindo Ghose himself holds violence and +murder to be justifiable forms of activity for achieving that purpose +cannot be properly alleged, for though he has several times been placed +on his trial and in one instance for actual complicity in political +crime--namely, in the Maniktolla bomb case--and though he is at present +a fugitive from justice, the law has so far acquitted him. But that his +followers have based upon his teachings a propaganda by deed of the most +desperate character is beyond dispute. It has been openly expounded with +fanatical fervour and pitiless logic in a newspaper edited by his +brother, Barendra Ghose, of which the file constitutes one of the most +valuable and curious of human documents. + +Of the three Bengali newspapers that came into the field soon after +Partition as the explicit champions of revolution--- the _Sandhya_, the +_Navasakti_, to which Mr. Arabindo Ghose was himself a frequent +contributor, and the _Yugantar_--the last named achieved the greatest +and most startling popularity. It was founded in 1906 by Barendra Kumar +Ghose, a brother of Arabindo, and by Bhupendranath Dutt, only brother of +the celebrated Swami Vivekananda, who visited Europe and America as the +missionary of the Hindu revival and has been revered in India, since his +premature death in 1905, as a modern _rishi_ and a no less great one +than those of ancient Vedic times. Barendra Ghose, who had studied +history and political literature at Baroda, where Arabindo was a +Professor in the Gaekwar's College, had originally intended to start a +religious institution, and whilst he edited the _Yugantar_ he founded a +hostel for youths attending "National" schools. The _Yugantar_ set +itself to preach revolution as a religious even more than a political +movement. Its profession of faith is to be found in an article headed +"The Age of the Gita again in India":-- + + God (i.e., Khrisna in the Gita) has said, "Oh, descendant + of Bharata, whenever there be a decline of righteousness and + the rise of unrighteousness, then I shall become incarnate + again. I shall be born in every Yuga [era] to rescue the good, + to destroy the wrongdoer, and to establish righteousness." + + In the _Dwapara-Yuga_ [the era which preceded the present + _Kali-Yuga_, or era of darkness] when righteousness was on + the wane and unrighteousness was springing up in the sacred + land of India under the hands of Duryyodhana and other + miscreants engaged in wickedness, then God, by becoming + incarnate again and awakening his favourite disciple Arjuna + to duty, re-established the kingdom of righteousness in India. + At the present time righteousness is declining and unrighteousness + is springing up in India. A handful of alien robbers is + ruining the crores of the people of India by robbing the wealth + of India. Through the hard grinding of their servitude, + the ribs of this countless people are being broken to pieces. + Endless endeavours are being made in order that this great + nation by losing, as an inevitable result of this subjection, + its moral, intellectual and physical power, its wealth, its + self-reliance, and all other qualities, may be turned into the + condition of the beasts of burden or be wholly extinguished. + Why, oh Indians, are you losing heart, at the sight of many + obstacles in your path, to make a stand against this unrighteousness? + Fear not, oh Indians. God will not remain + inactive at the sight of such unrighteousness in His kingdom. + He will keep His word. Placing firm reliance on the promise + of God, invoke His power, and He will descend in your midst + to destroy unrighteousness. Do not be afraid. "When the + lightning of heaven flashes in their hearts, men perform + impossible deeds." + +The article closes with a lyrical vision of the India of the future, +with "the independent flag of righteousness" unfurled, her virtues +restored, plague and famine banished, her industries brought to the +highest pitch of scientific development, her armies and fleets going +forth "to use the unlimited strength, knowledge, and righteousness of +India for the benefit of the whole world." + +The _Yugantar_ at the same time set forth in a series of articles the +scheme by which the enfranchisement of India was to be achieved--a +scheme which was little more than a reasoned exposition of the methods +already adopted in the previous decade by Tilak in the Deccan. These +articles form a manual of directions for "the army of young men which is +the _Nrisinha_ and the _Varaha_ and the _Kalki_ incarnation of God, +saving the good and destroying the wicked"--the _Kalki_ incarnation +being that in which Vishnu is to come and deliver India from the +foreigner. To shake off slavery the first essential is that the educated +classes shall learn to hate slavery. Then the lower classes will soon +follow their lead. "It is easy to incite the lower classes to any +particular work. But the incitement of the educated depends on a firm +belief." Therefore the "poisonous" effects of slavery must be constantly +brought home, and "we must always be trying to destroy the present +unnatural liking for a state of servitude." The aspiration for freedom +must be converted into a firm resolve, and to divert the Bengalee "from +the unfailing attraction of a livelihood" to the cause of freedom "his +mind must be excited and maddened by such an ideal as will present to +him a picture of everlasting salvation." Public opinion must be built up +by the newspapers, "which must be filled with the discussion of the +necessity of independence and revolution," by soul-stirring musical and +theatrical performances, glorifying the lives of Indian heroes and their +great deeds in the cause of freedom, and by patriotic songs. "When in +the Mahratta country the high-souled Shivaji stood up for independence +the songs of the bards helped powerfully in his work." Above all, the +materials for "a great sacrifice for liberty" must be prepared. "The +stratagems known as resorting to cover in English military tactics are +very necessary in all political endeavour," and "the enemy" must be kept +constantly occupied by them. "A _Bande Mataram_ procession to-day, a +conference or congress to-morrow, a flourish of _Swadeshi_ speeches the +day after, and so on." A "great commotion may with advantage be made +over small incidents," but "it must always be remembered that these do +not constitute our real effort, and are very trifling accompaniments" +which serve to keep the enemy busy and the country awake "whilst we are +training," and the training consists in the organization, discreetly and +silently, of bands of young men "with power to conceal secret counsel" +and "to remain under complete obedience." Every band must "recognize the +cultivation of physical strength as a principal means of attaining our +object." Each band, working down from the chief town of the district, +must be connected with other bands, and all must be initiated in the +_Shakti mantra_--that _Shakti_ worship which constitutes one of the most +powerful and popular appeals to the sensuous side of Hindu mysticism. As +for arming the bands, there are different ways of collecting arms, and +in this business "there can be no considerations of right or wrong, for +everything is laid at the feet of the goddess of independence." Bombs +can be manufactured in secret places, and guns can be imported from +foreign countries, for "the people of the West will sell their own +Motherland for money," or they can be obtained from the native troops +who, "though driven by hunger to accept service under Government, are +men of our own flesh and blood," or, perhaps, even "secretly" from other +Great Powers. Funds also can be collected in similar ways. Much money is +required, and amongst other things for "secret preachers at home and +abroad." It can be obtained "by voluntary donations," or "by the +application of force," which is perfectly justifiable since the money is +to be taken and used "for the good of society." Thefts and dacoities +are, under normal conditions, crimes because they destroy the sense of +social security, but "to destroy it for the highest good is no sin, but +rather a work of religious merit." The taking of blood is, in the +circumstances, equally praiseworthy. "The law of the English is +established on brute force, and if to liberate ourselves we too must use +brute force, it is right that we should do so." Nor is this doctrine +merely stated in general terms:-- + + Will the Bengali worshippers of _Shakti_ shrink from the + shedding of blood? The number of Englishmen in this + country is not above one lakh and a half, and what is the + number of English officials in each district? If you are firm + in your resolution you can in a single day bring English rule + to an end. Lay down your life, but first take a life. The + worship of the goddess will not be consummated if you sacrifice + your lives at the shrine of independence without shedding blood. + +These are the doctrines of revolutionary Hinduism expounded day by day +for nearly two years by a group of highly educated young Bengalees, the +effectiveness of whose appeal to sacred traditions was enhanced by +remarkable qualities of style. I have before me a letter from a Hindu +scholar who certainly has no sympathy with the methods advocated by the +_Yugantar_--"Nothing like these articles ever appeared before in Bengali +literature." "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh," +and this was essentially true in the case of the _Yugantar_. The +Government translator confessed in the High Court that he had never +before read, in Bengali, language so lofty, so pathetic, and so +stirring, that it was impossible to convey it in an English translation. +Yet, the writers had never learnt to write Bengali in their school-days, +and the organ tone of Milton, which was distinctly audible in the +Bengali, betrayed their English education. The sale was unbounded. The +circulation of the _Yugantar_ rose to over 50,000, a figure never +attained before by any Indian newspaper, and sometimes when there was a +special run upon a number the Calcutta newsboys would get a rupee for a +single copy before the issue was exhausted. So great indeed was the +demand that the principal articles, forming a complete gospel of +revolution, were republished in a small volume, entitled _Mukti con +pathe_: "Which way does salvation lie?" Not only were these appeals to +racial and religious passion reflected in many other papers all over +Bengal, but the most lamentable fact of all was that scarcely any native +paper, even amongst those of an avowedly moderate complexion, attempted +to counteract, or ventured to protest against, either the matter or the +tone of these publications. Their success, on the other hand, induced +not a few to follow suit. What is forgotten in England by the +uncompromising champions of the freedom of the Press is that in a +country like ours, with its party system fully represented in the public +Press, even the newspapers which either party may consider most +mischievous find their corrective in the newspapers of the other party. +In India that is not the case. There is no healthy play of public +opinion. The classes whose confidence in the British _Raj_ is still +unshaken are practically unrepresented in the Press, which is mostly in +the hands of the intellectuals, of whom the majority are drifting into +increasing estrangement, while the minority are generally too timid to +try to stem the flowing tide. Nor, if the "moderates" in Bengal were +overawed by the violence of the new creed, can the whole blame be laid +upon their shoulders when one remembers how little was being done by +Government, and how ineffective that little was to check this +incendiarism. Though there were many Press prosecutions, and action was +repeatedly taken against the _Yugantar_ in respect of particular +articles, the limited powers possessed by Government were totally +inadequate, and it was not till the Indian Newspapers (Incitement to +Offences) Act was passed in June, 1908, that the _Yugantar_ was +suppressed. In the meantime it had left an indelible mark on Indian +history, and many innocent victims paid with their lives for the +extraordinary supineness displayed during those first disastrous two +years of Lord Minto's administration. + +The list of outrages and deeds of violence which had begun in Bengal in +1907 grew heavier and heavier as 1908 wore on, but none perhaps created +such a sensation there as the murder of Mrs. and Miss Kennedy, who were +killed at Muzafferpur on April 30, 1908, by a bomb intended for the +Magistrate, Mr. Kingsford. The bomb had been thrown by a young Bengalee, +Khudiram Bose, and it was the first occasion on which an Indian had used +this product of modern science with murderous effect. The excitement was +intense. The majority of the Bengalee papers, it is true, were fain to +reprobate or at least to deprecate this particular form of propaganda, +but such comments were perfunctory, whilst they generally agreed to cast +the whole responsibility upon an alien Government whose resistance to +their "national" aspirations goaded impatient patriotism to these +extremes. Even amongst many who did not actually sympathize with the +murderer there seems to have been a lurking sense of pride that it was a +Bengalee who had had the courage to lay down his life in the striking of +such a blow. Khudiram Bose at any rate was not "lily-livered." Khudiram +Bose at any rate had shown that "determination" with the lack of which +the writers in the _Yugantar_ had so often taunted their fellow-countrymen. +So for the Nationalists of Bengal he became a martyr and a hero. Students +and many others put on mourning for him and schools were closed for two or +three days as a tribute to his memory. His photographs had an immense sale, +and by-and-by the young Bengalee bloods took to wearing _dhotis_ with +Khudiram Bose's name woven into the border of the garment. + +Bomb explosions followed in quick succession in Calcutta itself, and a +secret manufacture of explosives was discovered in a suburban garden. +Norendranath Gosain, who had turned approver in this last case, was shot +dead in Alipur Gaol, and a Hindu police-inspector in the streets of +Calcutta. Four attempts made upon the life of the Lieutenant-Governor of +Bengal, Sir Andrew Fraser, showed how little effect leniency had upon +the growing fierceness of the revolutionists. Scarcely a month and often +not a week passed without adding to the tale of outrages. I need not +recite them in detail. Perhaps the most significant feature was the +double purpose many of them indicated of defeating the detection and +punishment of crime and of striking terror into Indians who ventured to +serve the British, _Raj_[8]. Thus, on February 10, 1909, Mr. Ashutosh +Biswas, the Public Prosecutor and a Hindu of high character and +position, was shot dead outside the Alipur Police Court, and, in like +manner nearly a year later, Mr. Shams-ul-Alam, a Mahomedan Inspector of +the Criminal Investigation Department in the High Court itself of +Calcutta. Sedition was seething over the greater part of both Bengals, +and though the agricultural population remained for the most part +untouched or indifferent, there were few even of the smaller towns and +larger villages that were not visited by the missionaries of revolution. +_Swadeshi_ and the boycott were now merely an accompaniment to the +deeper and more menacing trumpet-call of open revolt, but they helped +"to keep the country awake" even where the true spirit of _Swaraj_ had +not yet been kindled. The _mofussil_ was honeycombed with secret +societies, whose daring dacoities served not only to collect the sinews +of war, but to impress the timid and recalcitrant with the powerlessness +of the State to protect them against the midnight raider. Truly the +teachings of the _Yugantar_ were bearing fruit, even to the laying down +of life and the taking of life. Unlike the majority of Bengalee +agitators, the writers in the _Yugantar_, it must be admitted, did not +flinch from the danger of practising what they taught. Most of them came +ultimately within the grasp of the Criminal Code, and Barendra Ghose, +who was arrested in connexion with the manufacture of bombs in the +Maniktolla garden, was sentenced to death, though subsequently +reprieved. His brother, Arabindo, on the other hand, though arrested at +the same time, had the good fortune to be acquitted. The work done by +the _Yugantar_ lived, nevertheless, after it, and is still living. + +A very heavy responsibility must at the same time attach to those +responsible both at home and in India for the extraordinary tolerance +too long extended to this criminal propaganda. For two whole years it +was carried on with relative impunity under the very eyes of the +Government of India in Calcutta. Month after month they must have seen +its audacity grow in direct proportion to official apathy. They must +have seen a reign of lawlessness and intimidation spread steadily over a +great part of the Metropolitan province. The failure of the ordinary +machinery of justice to check these crying evils was repeatedly brought +home to them. Yet it was not until 1908 that the necessity of +exceptional measures to cope with an exceptional situation was tardily +and very reluctantly realized. The Indian Explosive Substances Act and +Summary Justice Act of 1908, together with the Press Act of the same +year and the more drastic one enacted last February, have at last to +some extent checked the saturnalia of lawlessness that continued, though +with signs of abatement, into the beginning of this year. The Press Act +of 1910, especially, seems to have really arrested the poisonous flow +of printer's ink and with it the worst forms of crime to which it +maddened the feverish blood of Bengal. But some of those who are most +intimately acquainted with the inner workings of the revolutionary +movement hold strongly that none of these enactments had such an +immediately sobering effect as the deportation of the nine prominent +Bengalees who were arrested at the end of 1908. Such a measure is, I +know, very repugnant to British traditions and British sentiment, and in +this particular instance it unfortunately included two men whose +criminal guilt was subsequently believed not to be altogether beyond +doubt, though it may well have been argued that by financing and +administering a dangerous organization such as the _Anusilan Samiti_ +they made themselves responsible for the deeds of its members. +Nevertheless, the deportation struck just at that type of agitator whose +influence is most pernicious because it is most subtle, and whose +responsibility is greatest because of his more experienced years and +greater social position. Such a measure, however, is only warranted in +extreme circumstances and cannot be transformed into indefinite +detention. The grounds on which Government announced the release of +these deportees last winter were even more unhappily chosen than the +moment for the announcement, but the event seems so far to have +justified Lord Minto's confidence, though one of the deported agitators, +Pulin Bahari Das, of Dacca, has had to be rearrested and is now under +trial at Dacca for conspiracy of a most serious character. There is +still much lawlessness in both Bengals.[9] The continued prevalence of +political dacoities, and especially the difficulty experienced in +securing legal evidence against them, are distinctly unfavourable +symptoms. There are many peaceful citizens who will give private +information as to the outrages committed by these bands, consisting +mainly of youths of respectable connexions, but that so few have the +courage to face terrorism by going into the witness-box shows that the +secret societies which inspire such terror have not yet been broken up. +The extent to which disaffection is rampant in the native Bar also +hampers the administration of justice, for whilst there is an eager +competition for earning political notoriety by an eloquent defence of +political prisoners, it is sometimes difficult to find pleaders who will +undertake to conduct prosecutions. On the other hand, it is all to the +good that many of those who were ready to coquet with sedition in its +earlier stages or who had not the moral courage to speak out against it +seem now to be taking heart, and in this respect the reforms embodied in +the Indian Councils Act have usefully supplemented the sobering effect +of repressive legislation. For one of the stock arguments of "advanced" +politicians has been the failure of the "moderates" to obtain any +recognition from Government, and the enlargement of the Legislative +Councils took the sting out of that taunt. Independently, however, of +the reforms, the extreme violence of language and of methods which had +come into vogue was bound to produce some reaction. Amongst the educated +classes, many respectable fathers of families, whatever their political +opinions may be, have taken fright at the growth of turbulence and +insubordination in schools and colleges, which were often carried into +the home circle; for when once the principle of authority has been +undermined the parent's authority cannot remain unshaken. In the same +way some even of the "advanced" leaders have been alarmed by the +development of secret societies which often attract young men of very +good connexions, and they have proposed to use for the detection and +suppression of dacoities the local bands of "national volunteers" whom +they formerly helped to organize for the purpose of enforcing the +boycott and stimulating unrest. How far, even if unreservedly exercised, +the influence of such men as Mr. Surendranath Banerjee will be as potent +for checking the mischief as it was for promoting it remains to be +seen. For the present also the boycott is being discountenanced in the +same quarters, though Mr. Banerjee, presumably to "save his face," +professes to have agreed only to a suspension pending the revision of +Partition. But his paper, the _Bengalee_, is almost the only one that +pretends to regard the Partition as still an open question. It has been +eclipsed by far graver issues, of which the further development cannot +yet be foreseen. + +The return to more sober counsels seems to be confined unhappily to the +older generation, and the older generation, even if we include in it the +middle-aged, must before long pass away. What we have to reckon with, +especially in Bengal, is the revolt of the younger generation, and this +revolt draws its inspiration from religious and philosophical sources +which no measures merely political, either of repression or of +conciliation, can reach. It often represents a perversion of the finest +qualities, as, apparently, in the case of Birendranath Gupta, who +murdered Shams-ul-Alam in the Calcutta High Court last January. An +English missionary who knew him well assured me that in his large +experience of Indian youths he had never met one of more exemplary +character or higher ideals, nor one who seemed more incapable of +committing such a crime. The oaths and vows administered on initiation +to secret societies are not directed only to political ends. They impose +on the initiates in the most explicit terms a life of self-denial, and +sometimes celibacy; and though these vows do not always avail against +some of the worst forms of sensuality, it would be foolish and wrong to +generalize from unworthy exceptions. In its moral aspects the revolt of +young Bengal represents very frequently a healthy reaction against sloth +and self-indulgence and the premature exhaustion of manhood which is +such a common feature in a society that has for centuries been taught to +disregard physiological laws in the enforcement of child marriage. To +this extent it is a revolt, though in the name of Hinduism, against +some of the worst results of the Hindu social system, and that it has +spread so largely amongst the Brahmans of Bengal shows that it has +affected even the rigidity of Brahmanism. Thus, whereas we have seen in +Kolhapur the Brahmans of the Deccan assert that in this "age of +darkness" there can be no Kshatriyas, their fellow-caste-men in Bengal +are quite willing to invest Kayasthas with the sacred thread, on the +ground that they are really of Kshatriya descent, in order to stimulate +martial virtues amongst the Bengalees by reviving for their benefit the +old Vedic caste of warriors. Equally significant is the propaganda that +has been carried on by Brahmans amongst the Namasudras, a large and +mainly agricultural caste, chiefly located in the Jessor district of +Bengal and the Faridpur district of Eastern Bengal. The purpose of the +propaganda was political, but the inducement offered to the Namasudras +in order to stimulate their Nationalism was that the Brahmans would +relax the rigour of caste in favour of those who took _the Swadeshi_ +vow, and it is stated that, in several villages where they succeeded in +making a large number of converts, the Brahman agitators marked their +approval by condescending to have their "twice-born" heads shaved by the +village barber--an act which, however trivial it may seem to us, +constituted an absolutely revolutionary breach with a 3,000 years-old +past. + +On the other hand, the constant invocation of the "terrible goddess," +whether as Kali or as Durga, against the alien oppressors, shows that +Brahmanism in Bengal is equally ready to appeal to the grossest and most +cruel superstitions of the masses. In another of her forms she is +represented holding in her hand her head, which has been severed from +her body, whilst the blood gushing from her trunk flows into her open +mouth. A very popular picture of the goddess in this form has been +published with a text to the effect that the great goddess as seen +therein symbolizes "the Motherland" decapitated by the English, but +nevertheless preserving her vitality unimpaired by drinking her own +blood. It is not surprising that amongst extremists one of the favourite +euphemisms[10] applied to the killing of an Englishman is "sacrificing a +white goat to Kali." In 1906 I was visiting one of the Hindu temples at +Benares and found in the courtyard a number of young students who had +come on an excursion from Bengal. I got into conversation with them, and +they soon began to air, for my benefit, their political views, which +were decidedly "advanced." They were, however, quite civil and friendly, +and they invited me to come up to the temple door and see them sacrifice +to Kali a poor bleating kid that they had brought with them. When I +declined, one of them who had already assumed a rather more truculent +tone came forward and pressed me, saying that if I would accompany them +they would not mind even sacrificing a white goat. There was a general +shout of laughter at what was evidently regarded by the others as a huge +joke. I turned away, though I did not then understand its grim humour, +as I do now. + +The blind hatred of everything English with which the younger generation +is so largely saturated can only, in most cases, be the result of the +teachings that have impressed upon them the existence of a fundamental +antagonism between Hindu ideals and ours. Like the wretched Kanhere at +Nasik, they would have to admit that they never suffered injustice +themselves nor knew of any one who had. A great many have never come +into contact with a single Englishman, and their ignorance even of the +system of government under which they live is profound. Not the least +ominous symptom is that this spirit of revolt seems to have obtained a +firm hold of the zenana; and the Hindu woman behind the _purdah_ often +exercises a greater influence upon her husband and her sons than the +Englishwoman who moves freely about the world. Absolute evidence in such +matters is difficult to obtain, but there was a very significant and +quite authentic case last year, which I may as well quote here, though +it occurred in the Bombay Presidency. Two Brahman ladies of good +position from Bombay were discovered at Kolhapur wearing the garb of +_sanyasis_, i.e., mendicant ascetics. They confessed that they had left +their homes, to which the police wisely restored them, to invoke the +assistance of a great ruling chief of Southern India in a plot to +exterminate the hated foreigner, and their main object in starting upon +this insane venture had been to regain their hold upon their husbands' +affections by a great "patriotic" achievement. That real _sanyasis_ are +frequently the missionaries of sedition is certain, and their reputed +sanctity gives them access to the zenana. In Bengal even small boys of +so tender an age as still to have the run of zenanas have, I am told, +been taught the whole patter of sedition, and go about from house to +house dressed up as little _sanyasis_ in little yellow robes preaching +hatred of the English. + +The question is, can we extricate the better elements from this tangle +of passion and prejudice? There are many foul spots in the Hindu revival +in Bengal, apart even from tendencies which we cannot but regard as +politically criminal. At the same time there runs through it a strain of +idealism which probably constitutes its real force, and also our danger. +For strangely emotional and often a creature of his senses, the Bengalee +is accessible to spiritual influences with which the worldly-ambitious +Brahmanism of the Deccan, for instance, is rarely informed. He is always +apt to rush to extremes, and just as amongst the best representatives of +the educated classes there was in the last century a revolt against the +Hindu social and religious creed of their ancestors which tended first +towards Christianity or at least the ethics of Christianity and then +towards Western agnosticism, so the present revolt may be regarded in +some of its aspects as a reaction against these earlier tendencies; and +in spite of its extreme violence it may not be any more permanent. The +problem is still full of unknown quantities; but the known quantities +are at any rate sufficient to make us appreciate its gravity. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE PUNJAB AND THE ARYA SAMAJ. + + +The Punjab, the Land of the Five Rivers, differs as widely both from the +Deccan and from Bengal as these two differ the one from the other. It +has been more than any other part of India the battlefield of warring +races and creeds and the seat of power of mighty dynasties. Among its +cities it includes Imperial Delhi and Runjit Singh's Lahore. It is a +country of many peoples and of many dialects. It is the home of the +Sikhs, but the Mahomedans, ever since the days of the Moghul Empire, +form the majority of the population, and the proportion of Hindus is +smaller than in any other province of India, except Eastern Bengal. +Owing to the very small rainfall, its climate is intensely dry--fiercely +hot during the greater part of the year, and cold even to freezing +during the short winter months. Nowhere in India has British rule done +so much to bring peace and security and to induce prosperity. The +alluvial lands are rich but thirsty, and irrigation works on a scale of +unparalleled magnitude were required to compel the soil to yield +beneficent harvests. At the most critical moment in the history of +British India it was against the steadfastness of the Punjab, then under +the firm but patriarchal sway of Sir John Lawrence, that the Mutiny +spent itself, and until a few years ago there seemed to be no reason +whatever for questioning the loyalty of a province which the forethought +of Government and the skill of Anglo-Indian engineers were gradually +transforming into a land of plenty. Least of all did any one question +the loyalty of the Sikhs. Many of them believed that British rule was +the fulfilment of a prophecy of one of their martyred _gurus_, and the +Sikh regiments were regarded as the flower of the Native Army. + +Yet it was in the Punjab, at Lahore and at Rawal Pindi, that the first +serious disturbances occurred in 1907 which aroused public opinion at +home to the reality of Indian unrest, and stirred the Government of +India to such strong repressive measures as the deportation of two +prominent agitators under an ancient Ordinance of 1818 never before +applied in such connexion. Local and temporary causes may to some extent +have accounted for those disturbances. An increase in the land revenue +demanded in the Rawal Pindi district was very strongly resented. The +regulations issued with regard to the tenure of land in some of the new +irrigation colonies were probably unwise and carried out with some +harshness. Famine in the unirrigated tracts, and especially the plague, +which had desolated parts of the province, had created much misery and +bitterness. Other and more remote causes of a social and economic +character had also been at work. Nowhere had Anglo-Indian legislation +and the introduction of elaborate forms of legal procedure produced +results more unfortunate and less foreseen by their authors than in the +Punjab. The conversion of the occupants of the land into full +proprietors was intended to give greater stability and security to the +peasant ownership of land, but the result was to improve the position of +the moneylender, who, owing to the thriftlessness of the Indian _rayat_ +and the extravagant expenditure to which he is from time to time driven +by traditional custom in regard to marriages, funerals, and other family +ceremonies, has always played a disastrously important part in village +life. As M. Chailley remarks in his admirable study of these problems, +"the agricultural debtor had now two securities to offer." He had +always been able to pledge his harvest, and now he could pledge also his +land. On the other hand, "a strict system of law and procedure afforded +the moneylender the means of rapidly realizing his dues," and the +pleader, who is himself a creation of that system, was ever at the elbow +of both parties to encourage ruinous litigation to his own professional +advantage. Special laws were successively enacted by Government to check +these new evils, but they failed to arrest altogether a process which +was bringing about a veritable revolution in the tenure of land, and +mainly to the detriment of an essentially peaceful and law-abiding class +that furnished a large and excellent contingent to the Native Army. The +wretched landowner who found himself deprived of his land by legal +process held our methods rather than his own extravagance responsible +for his ruin, and on the other hand, the pleaders and their clients, the +moneylenders, who were generally Hindus, resented equally our +legislative attempts to hamper a process so beneficial to themselves. + +But all these were only contributory causes. There were still deeper +influences at work which have operated in the Punjab in the same +direction as the forces of unrest in the Deccan and in Bengal, but +differ from them nevertheless in their origin and in some of their +manifestations. In the Punjab too the keynote of unrest is a spirit of +revolt not merely against British administrative control, but, in theory +at least, against Western influence generally, though in some respects +it bears very strongly the impress of the Western influence which it +repudiates. The motive force is not conservative Brahmanism as in the +Deccan, nor does it betray the impetuous emotionalism of Bengal. It is +less rigid and purely reactionary than the former, and better +disciplined than the latter. + +Orthodox Hinduism ceased to be a dominant factor in the Punjab when the +flood of Mahomedan conquest swept over the land of the Five Rivers. Even +Islam did not break the power of caste, and very distinct traces of +caste still survive amongst the Mahomedan community itself. But nowhere +has caste been so much shaken as in the Punjab, for the infinity of +sub-castes into which each caste has resolved itself gives the measure +of its disintegration. Sikhism still represents the most successful +revolt against its tyranny in the later history of Hinduism. Hence the +relatively slight ascendency enjoyed by the Brahmans in the Punjab +amongst the Hindus themselves, even the Brahmans having split up into so +many sub-castes and sub-sub-castes that many a non-Brahman Hindu will +hardly accept food cooked by the lower order of Brahmans--and, next to +inter-marriage, food is the great test of caste. Nevertheless it is +amongst the Hindus of the Punjab that one of the earliest apostles of +reaction against the West has found the largest and most enthusiastic +body of followers. Swami Dayanand Saraswati, the founder of the Arya +Samaj, was a Brahman of Kathiawar; he was not born in the Punjab, and it +was not in the Punjab but in Bombay, where, however, it struck no roots, +that he founded the Arya Samaj. Only in the later years of his life did +the Punjab become the chief centre of his activities. The doctrines he +taught were embodied by him in his _Satyarath Prakash_, which has become +the Bible of his disciples, and in his _Veda Bashya Basmika_, a +commentary on the Vedas. He had at an early age lost faith in the Hindu +Pantheon, and to this extent he was a genuine religious reformer, for he +waged relentless war against the worship of idols, and whether his +claims to Vedantic learning be or be not conceded, his creed was "Back +to the Vedas." His ethical code, on the other hand, was vague, and he +pandered strangely in some directions to the weaknesses of the flesh, +and in others to popular prejudices. Nothing in the Vedas, for instance, +prohibits either the killing of cattle or the eating of bovine flesh. +But, in deference to one of the most universal of Hindu superstitions, +Dayanand did not hesitate to include cow-killing amongst the deadliest +sins. Here we have in fact the keynote of his doctrines. The sanctity of +the cow is the touchstone of Hindu hostility to both Christian and +Mahomedan, and the whole drift of Dayanand's teachings is far less to +reform Hinduism than to rouse it into active resistance to the alien +influences which threatened, in his opinion, to denationalize it. Hence +the outrageously aggressive tone of his writings wherever he alludes +either to Christianity or to Mahomedanism. It is the advent of +"meat-eating and wine-drinking foreigners, the slaughterers of kine and +other animals," that has brought "trouble and suffering" upon "the +Aryas"--he discards the word Hindu on account of its Persian +origin--whilst before they came into the country India enjoyed "golden +days," and her people were "free from disease and prosperous and +contented." In fact, "Arya for the Aryans" was the cry that frequently +predominated in Dayanand's teachings over that of "Back to the Vedas," +and Lajpat Rai, one of his most zealous disciples, has stated +emphatically that "the scheme of Swami Dayanand has its foundation on +the firm rock of _Swadeshi_ and _Swajati_." + +Since Dayanand's death the Arya Samaj has split up into two +sections--the "vegetarians" who with regard to religious doctrine may be +described as the orthodox, and the "meat-eaters," as the +latitudinarians. It is difficult to differentiate between the precise +tendencies of these two sections, whose feuds seem to be waning. In both +are to be found not a few progressive and enlightened Aryas who, +whatever their political activities may be, have undoubtedly applied +themselves with no small success to the carrying out of that part of +Dayanand's gospel which was directed to the reforming of Hinduism. Their +influence has been constantly exerted to check, the marriages between +mere boys and almost infant girls which have done so much physical as +well as moral mischief to Hindu society, and also to improve the +wretched lot of Hindu widows whose widowhood with all that it entails of +menial degradation often begins before they have ever really been wives. +To this end the Aryas have not hesitated to encourage female education, +and the Girls' Orphanage at Jalandhar, where there is also a widows' +home, has shown what excellent social results can be achieved in that +direction. Again in the treatment of the "untouchable" low-castes, the +Arya Samaj may claim to have been the first native body to break new +ground and to attempt something akin to the work of social reclamation +of which Christianity and, in a lesser degree, Islam had hitherto had +the monopoly. Schools and especially industrial classes have been +established in various districts which cannot fail to raise the _status_ +of the younger generation and gradually to emancipate the lower castes +from the bondage in which they have been hitherto held. These and many +other new departures conceived in the same liberal spirit at first +provoked the vehement hostility of the orthodox Hindus, who at one time +stopped all social intercourse with the Arya reformers. But whereas in +other parts of India the idea of social reform came to be associated +with that of Western ascendency and therefore weakened and gave way +before the rising tide of reaction against that ascendency, it has been +associated in the Punjab with the cry of "Arya for the Aryans," and the +political activities of the Arya Samaj, or at least of a number of its +most prominent members who have figured conspicuously in the +anti-British agitation of the last few years, have secured for it from +Hindu orthodoxy a measure of tolerance and even of good will which its +social activities would certainly not otherwise have received. That the +Arya Samaj, which shows the impress of Western influence in so much of +its social work, should at the same time have associated itself so +intimately with a political movement directed against British rule is +one of the many anomalies presented by the problem of Indian unrest. + +Many Aryas, indeed, deny strenuously that the Samaj is disaffected, or +even that it concerns itself with politics, and the president of the +Lahore branch, Mr. Roshan Lal, assured me that it devotes itself solely +to moral and religious reform. I do not question that assurance, as far +as Mr. Roshan Lal is himself personally concerned, and it may be true +that the Samaj has never committed itself as a body to any political +programme, and that many individual members hold aloof from politics; +but the evidence that many others, and not the least influential, have +played a conspicuous part in the seditious agitation of the last few +years, both in the Punjab and in the neighbouring United Provinces, is +overwhelming. In the Rawal Pindi riots in 1907 the ringleaders were +Aryas, and in the violent propaganda which for about two years preceded +the actual outbreak of violence none figured more prominently than Lala +Lajpat Rai and Ajit Singh, both prominent Aryas. The immediate effect +produced by their deportation in restoring order is in itself +corroborative evidence of the share they were believed to have taken in +producing lawlessness. Ajit Singh himself is at the present moment a +fugitive from justice, against whom proceedings _in absentia_ were +instituted this winter in Lahore for translating and publishing +seditious books that dealt with the making of bombs, the taking of life, +the destruction of buildings, &c. In the course of these proceedings +letters from Lajpat Rai were produced in Court showing that just about +the time of the disturbances he had been in communication with Shyamji +Krishnavarma, of _Indian Sociologist_ fame, for a supply of books +"containing true ideas on politics" for the students of Lahore, as well +as for assistance towards defraying the cost of "political +missionaries." In one of these letters also Lajpat Rai, after remarking +that "the people are in a sullen mood" and that "the agricultural +classes have begun to agitate," adds significantly that his "only fear +is that the bursting out may not be premature." Lajpat Rai's +correspondent was another prominent Arya, Bhai Parmanand, who, whilst he +was Professor at the Dayanand Anglo-Vedic College, was found in +possession of various formulae for the manufacture of bombs, including +the same manual that was discovered in the Maniktola Garden at +Calcutta. + +In Patiala, one of the Sikh native States of the Punjab, Aryas +constituted the great majority of defendants, 76 in number, and many of +them officials and persons of position, who were put on their trial last +December for seditious practices. So seriously were the charges felt to +reflect upon the Arya Samaj as a whole that one of its leading legal +members was briefed on its behalf for the defence. From the speech made +by counsel for the prosecution in opening the case it appears that some +of the defendants were schoolmasters, who were charged with preaching +revolutionary doctrines in their schools and carrying on correspondence +of the same character with old pupils; others were charged with +circulating papers of the _Yugantar_ and _Swarajiya_ type; others with +holding secret meetings and delivering inflammatory lectures; others +again with distributing pictures and photographs of well-known +revolutionists, including Khudiram Bose, the Muzafferpur murderer. Not +only were most of these defendants Aryas, but they were very prominent +Aryas, who had founded local branches of the Samaj or been members of +committees in the State of Patiala. How far the evidence outlined by +counsel would have borne out these charges it is impossible to say, +though one may properly assume it to have been of a very formidable +character, for after the case had been opened against them the +defendants hastened to send in a petition invoking the clemency of the +Maharajah. They expressed therein their deep sorrow for any conduct open +to misconstruction, tendered their unqualified apology for any +indiscreet acts they might have committed, and testified their "great +abhorrence and absolute detestation" of anarchists and seditionists and +their diabolical methods. His Highness thereupon ordered the prosecution +to be abandoned, but at the same time banished the defendants from his +State and declared their posts to be forfeited by such as had been in +his service, and only in a few cases were these punishments +subsequently remitted. + +The large number of Aryas who have unquestionably taken part in the +political agitation of the last few years certainly tends to corroborate +the very compromising certificate given only two years ago to the Samaj +by Krishnavarma himself in his murder-preaching organ. He not only +stated that "of all movements in India for the political regeneration of +the country none is so potent as the Arya Samaj," but he added that "the +ideal of that society as proclaimed by its founder is an absolutely free +and independent form of national Government," and Krishnavarma, it must +be remembered, had been appointed by Dayanand to be a member of the +first governing body in the lifetime of the founder and, after his +death, one of the trustees of his will. + +What makes the question of the real tendencies of the Arya Samaj one of +very grave importance for the future is that it has embarked upon an +educational experiment of a peculiar character which may have an immense +effect upon the rising generation. One of its best features is the +attention it has devoted to education, and to that of girls as well as +of boys. But it was not till 1898 that the governing body of the Samaj +in the Punjab decided to carry into execution a scheme for restoring the +Vedic system of education which Dayanand had conceived but had never +been able to carry out. Under this system the child is committed at an +early age to the exclusive care of a spiritual teacher or _guru_, who +stands to him _in loco parentis_ and even more, for Manu says that "of +him who gives natural birth, and of him who gives knowledge of the +Vedas, the giver of sacred knowledge is the more venerable father, since +second or divine birth ensures life to the twice-born, both in this +world and eternally." In the _gurukuls_ or seminaries founded by the +Arya Samaj pupils or _chelas_ are admitted between the ages of six and +ten. From that moment they, are practically cut off from the outer world +during the whole course of their studies, which cover a period of 16 +years altogether--i.e., ten years in the lower school and six years in +the upper, to which they pass up as _Brahmacharis._ During the whole of +that period no student is allowed to visit his family, except in cases +of grave emergency, and his parents can only see him with the permission +of the head of the _gurukul_ and not more than once a month. There are +at present three _gurukuls_ in the Punjab, but the most important one, +with over 250 students, is at Kangri, in the United Provinces, five +miles from the sacred city of Hardwar, where the Ganges flows out of a +gorge into the great plain. A large and very popular _mela_ or fair is +held annually at Kangri, and it is attended by the _Brahmacharis,_ who +act as volunteers for the maintenance of order and collect funds for the +support of their _gurukul_. The enthusiasm is said to be very great, and +donations last year are credibly reported to have exceeded 300,000 +rupees. + +Life in the _gurukuls_ is simple and even austere, the discipline +rigorous, the diet of the plainest, and a great deal of time is given to +physical training. As the _chelas_ after 16 years of this monastic +training at the hands of their _gurus_ are to be sent out as +missionaries to propagate the Arya doctrines throughout India, the +influence of these institutions in the moulding of Indian character and +Indian opinion in the future cannot fail to be considerable. Some five +years more must elapse before we shall be able to judge the result by +the first batch of _chelas_ who will then be going forth into the world. +For the present one can only echo the hope tersely expressed a few +months ago by Sir Louis Dane, the Lieutenant Governor of the Punjab, in +reply to assurances of loyalty from the President of the Arya Samaj, +that "what purports to be a society for religious and social reform and +advancement may not be twisted from its proper aims" and "degenerate +into a political organization with objects which are not consonant with +due loyalty to the Government as established." But neither the spirit of +Dayanand's own teachings nor the record of many of his disciples, +including some of those actually connected with the _gurukuls_, is in +this respect encouraging. + +There has been, however, no recurrence of serious disturbances in the +Punjab since 1907, and if the native Press lost little of its virulence +until the new Press Act of this year, and numerous prosecutions bore +witness to the continued prevalence of sedition, the province has been +free from the murderous outrages and dacoities which have been so +lamentable a feature of the unrest in Bengal and in the Deccan. None the +less there is still a very strong undercurrent of anti-British feeling. +It has partly been fostered in the large cities by Bengalee immigrants +who have come into the Punjab in considerable numbers, and thanks to +their higher education have acquired great influence at the Bar and in +the Press, but it is rife wherever the Arya Samaj is known to be most +active, and the Arya Samaj has already proved a very powerful +proselytizing agency. Its meeting houses serve not only for religious +ceremonies, but also as social clubs for the educated classes in all the +larger towns where they congregate. Access to them is readily given to +Hindus and Sikhs who have not actually joined the Samaj. They are +attracted by the political discussions which are carried on there with +great freedom, and having no such resorts of their own, they are soon +tempted to obtain the fuller privileges of membership. In this way the +Samaj has made many converts among the educated classes and even among +native officials. But its influence is by no means confined to them. It +makes many converts among the Sikhs, and not a few among _Nau-Muslims_ +or Mahomedans who have embraced Islam in relatively recent times and +mainly for the purpose of escaping from the tyranny of caste. For the +same reason it attracts low-caste Hindus, for though it does not +ostentatiously denounce or defy caste, it has the courage to ignore it. +Though the Arya leaders are generally men of education and sometimes of +great culture, they know how to present their creed in a popular form +that appeals to the lower classes and especially to the agricultural +population. One of the most unpleasant features has been the propaganda +carried on by them among the Sepoys of the Native Army, and especially +among the Jats and the Sikhs, with whom they have many points of +affinity. The efforts of the Aryas seem to be chiefly directed to +checking enlistment, but they have at times actually tampered with the +loyalty of certain regiments, and their emissaries have been found +within the lines of the native troops. Sikhism itself is at the present +day undergoing a fresh process of transformation. Whilst it tends +generally to be reabsorbed into Hinduism, the very remarkable movement +for sinking the old class distinctions--themselves a survival of +caste--and recognizing the equality of all Sikhs, is clearly due to the +influence of the Arya Samaj. The evolution of the Arya Samaj recalls +very forcibly that of Sikhism, which originally, when founded by Nanak +in the early part of the 16th century, was merely a religious and moral, +reform movement, and nevertheless within 50 years developed under Har +Govind into a formidable political and military organization. It is not, +therefore, surprising that some of those who know the Punjab best and +the sterner stuff of which its martial races are made look upon it as a +potentially more dangerous centre of trouble than either the Deccan or +Bengal. One of the most mischievous results of the Aryan propaganda, and +one which may well cause the most immediate anxiety, is the growing +antagonism which it has bred between Hindus and Mahomedans, for the +Mahomedans are convinced that the Arya Samaj is animated with no less +bitter hostility towards Islam than towards British rule. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE POSITION OF THE MAHOMEDANS. + + +Whilst I was at Delhi one of the leading Mahomedans of the old Moghul +capital drove me out one afternoon to the great Mosque which still bears +witness, in the splendour of its surviving fragments quite as much as in +the name it bears, _Kuwwat ul Islam_, or Power of Islam, to the ancient +glories of Mahomedan rule in India. Two or three other Mahomedan +gentlemen had come out to meet us, and there, under the shadow of the +Kutub Minar, the loftiest and noblest minaret from which the Musulman +call to prayer has ever gone forth, we sat in the Alai Darwazah, the +great porch of red sandstone and white marble which formed the south +entrance to the outer enclosure of the Mosque, and still presents in the +stately grandeur of its proportions and the infinite variety and +delicacy of its marble lattice work, one of the most perfect monuments +of early Mahomedan art, and discussed for upwards of two hours the +future that lies before the Mahomedan community of India. It is a scene +I shall never forget, so startling was the contrast between the racial +and religious pride of power which those walls had for centuries +reflected and the note of deep and almost gloomy apprehension to which +they now rang. For if the burden of my friends story was reasoned +loyalty to the British _Raj_, it was weighted with profound anxiety as +to the future that awaited the Mahomedans of India, either should our +_Raj_ disappear or should it gradually lose its potency and be merged in +a virtual ascendency of Hinduism under the specious mantle of Indian +self-government. They spoke without bitterness or resentment. They +acknowledged freely the shortcomings of their own community, its +intellectual backwardness, its reluctance to depart from the ancient +ways and to realize the necessity of equipping itself for successful +competition under new conditions, its lack of organization, due to an +inadequate sense of the duty of social service, and the selfishness and +jealousy often displayed by different sections and classes. They were +beginning to awaken to the dangerous consequences of their shortcomings, +but would time be given to them to repair them? The British _Raj_ had +always claimed that its mission in India was to hold the balance evenly +between the different races and creeds and classes, and to exercise its +paternal authority equally to the detriment of none and for the benefit +of all. That the Hindus had from the beginning secured a considerably +larger share in Government employment of all kinds was, no doubt, +inevitable, as they had shown much greater alacrity to qualify +themselves by education on Western lines than the Mahomedans, +unfortunately, had until much more recently begun to show. But so long +as Government _employes_ were merely the servants of Government, and +Hindus had no more influence than the Mahomedans in shaping the policy +of the Government, the Mahomedans had no serious grievance, or, at any +rate, none for which they had not themselves very largely to blame. But +of late years they had seen the policy of the British Government itself +gradually yielding to the pressure of Hindu agitation and the British +_Raj_ actually divesting itself of some of the powers which it had +hitherto retained undiminished for the benefit, in fact if not in +theory, of certain classes which, however loudly they might claim to be +the representatives of the Indian people, represented with few +exceptions nothing but the political ambitions of aggressive Hinduism. +The Mahomedans, they assured me, recognized quite as fully as, and +perhaps, more sincerely than, the Hindus the generous spirit which had +inspired the British Government to grant the reforms embodied in the +Indian Councils Act, but they also realized what it was far more +difficult for Englishmen to realize, that those reforms must inevitably +tend to give the Hindus a predominant share, as compared with the +Mahomedans, in the counsels of Government. In its original shape the +scheme of reforms had indeed threatened the Mahomedans with gross +unfairness and the wrath which its subsequent modification in deference +to Mahomedan representations had roused among the Hindu politicians was +in itself enough to betray to all who had eyes to see and ears to hear +the purpose to which they had hoped to turn the excessive predominance +they had claimed and expected. That purpose was to advance the political +ascendency of Hinduism which was the goal of Hindu aspirations, whether +under the British _Raj_ or without it. + +The whole tendency of the Hindu revival, social, religious, and +political, during the last 20 years had been as consistently +anti-Mahomedan as anti-British, and even more so. Some of the more +liberal and moderate Hindu leaders no doubt honestly contemplated the +evolution of an Indian "nation" in which Mahomedan and Hindu might sink +their racial and religious differences, but these were leaders with a +constantly diminishing body of followers. Even among the Extremists not +a few would gladly have purchased by pious professions of good will a +temporary alliance with the Mahomedans against the British _Raj_, +subject to an ulterior settlement of accounts for their own benefit. But +the Mahomedans, with their many close points of contact with the Hindus, +knew, as Englishmen could not know, what were the real sentiments and +hopes of the advanced leaders into whose hands passed the control of +militant Hinduism. They had noted the constant exhortation of the Hindu +Nationalist Press that the youth of India must prepare for the coming +Lalki incarnation of Vishnu when the _mlencchas_--i.e., the infidels, +Moslem as well as British--should be driven out of India. The attitude +of the Hindus towards the Mahomedans of Eastern Bengal, after the +Partition, had shown how they resented the position that the creation of +the new province gave the Moslem element. Nor had the Mahomedans in the +Punjab been left without a foretaste of what was to come. In every +Government office, in every profession, the Hindus were banding +themselves closer and closer together against their few Mahomedan +colleagues. The Mahomedans had refused to join in the boycott of British +goods, and in Delhi, in Lahore, and in many other cities the word had +been passed round among the Hindus not to deal with Mahomedan shops, not +to trade with Mahomedan merchants. Some of the more violent spirits were +even prepared to challenge the Mahomedans in places where the Mahomedan +element is strong and excitable, in order that the inevitable +intervention of the British troops for the restoration of order should +lead to the shedding of Mahomedan blood, and thus perhaps drive the +Mahomedans themselves in to disaffection. What educated Mahomedans, they +told me, chiefly feared, and the Hindus themselves chiefly hoped--for +new of them probably believed in any speedy overthrow of British +rule--was that the British Government and the British people would be +wearied by an agitation of which it was difficult for Englishmen to +grasp the real inwardness into making successive concession to the +Hindus which would gradually give them such a controlling voice in the +government of the country that they would actually be in a position to +achieve their policy of ascendency under the aegis of the British _Raj_. +Such fears might seem exaggerated, but the Mahomedans could not but take +note of the extent to which the Hindu politicians had already secured +the ear of an important section of the British Press and of not a few +members of the British Parliament, whilst in those same quarters the +Mahomedan case never even obtained a hearing, and when the Mahomedans at +last realized the necessity of creating an organization for the defence +of their legitimate interests they were denounced for reviving racial +and religious hatred. For 20 years and more the educated Mahomedans had +strictly followed the advice of their revered leader, Sir Syed Ahmed, +and had put their trust in the sense of justice of the British +Government and the fair-mindedness of the British people instead of +plunging into political agitation. They had not lost their faith in the +British Government or in the British people if their case was properly +put before them, but they felt that if they were not to become the +victims of organized misrepresentation they must have an organization of +their own which should speak for them with authority. Moreover, it was +impossible for the Mahomedans to stand any longer completely aloof from +politics, since the general trend of events in India and the enlargement +of the Indian Councils had thrust new responsibilities upon the leaders +of their community. Of those responsibilities none was more fully +realized than that of showing their loyalty to the British _Raj_--a +loyalty all the more unalterable in that it was based upon their growing +conviction that the maintenance of the British _Raj_ was essential to +the welfare, and even to the existence, of the Mahomedans of India. + +As I write I have before me a letter from another Mahomedan friend, a +man both of European education and very wide knowledge of his Indian +co-religionists, with whom he enjoys exceptional credit. I was so much +impressed with the prevalence of this form of fatalism that I wrote and +asked him for his opinion. This is his answer:-- + + Moslems feel that while at present the Government in India + is British in spirit as well as in name, there are already indications + that it might gradually become Hindu in fact, though + the British form might remain. The whole object of the + advanced Congress Party and of the leaders of the Nationalist + movement is not the overthrow of British rule in name, but in + fact. You may say that this is a wild apprehension, and that + the Government is not foolish enough or weak enough to + degenerate into a mere form. That may be the attitude + of an Englishman who is in India only as a bird of passage + (and all Englishmen are there as birds of passage, for only those + whose children belong to the country are permanently bound + up with it). For us who live here, and whose children are to + live here, the distant as well as the immediate future is of + essential importance. Now what is the tendency of Government? + Can any one deny that, taken as a whole, it is towards + Hindu predominance in the long run? English observers + must not forget that there is throughout India amongst Hindus + a strong tendency towards imitating the National movements + that have proved successful in European history. Now, + while _vis-a-vis_ the British the Hindu irreconcilables assume + the attitude of the Italian patriots towards the hated Austrian, + _vis-a-vis_ the Moslems there is a very different European + model for them to follow. Not only Tilak and his school in + Poona, but throughout the Punjab and Bengal the constant + talk of the Nationalists is that the Moslems must be driven + out of India as they were driven out of Spain. + + This is no invention of ours. Nor is it quite so wild as it + appears at first sight. I have gone into the matter carefully + and I can certainly conceive circumstances--50 or 100 years + hence--that would make India intolerable for our upper middle + classes; and once you get rid of the intelligent and wealthy + Moslems the masses could be reduced to absolute subjection + in the hands of Hindu rulers. Far be it from me to say that + all Hindus are of this purpose or that the school of "liberal + Nationalism" to which Gokhale belongs has ceased to exist. + But the other school predominates, and as our very existence + is at stake we Moslems do not want to take any risks or to see + even the very first steps taken towards transforming the + British into a Hindu _raj_. Yet those steps are now being taken, + though not quite so fast as we at one time feared and Hindus + expected. That the sad and terrible fate which our people + had in Spain may still be ours in India is a proposition that + sounds extravagant at first, but I for my part (and most + thoughtful Moslems agree with me) consider it quite possible, + and in a matter of such moment we must take possibilities + as well at probabilities into consideration. + + The Imperial problem in India is not to get this or that law + changed, or so and so many troops increased, or such and such + measures of repression or concession adopted. It is to bring + about a new mental and spiritual attitude, and to replace + the narrow "Nationalism" of the present day by a broad + and truly liberal Imperialism in the practical sense of securing + general recognition for India's difficulties and divisions, and for + the natural and necessary maintenance of the British connexion + and of British rule. The statesman who can suggest + practical means for carrying out this intellectual conversion + will certainly have saved England and India much unhappiness + and disaster. + +On the other hand, I am bound to say that there are also many Mahomedans +who, though professing similar apprehensions, show no disposition +towards fatalistic resignation. For they believe that, whatever may be +the fate of the British _raj_, the future must belong to the more virile +peoples of India, and certainly those who do not merely put their trust +in the fighting traditions of a conquering race may find a good deal of +encouragement for the faith within them from the vital statistics of +Hindus and Mahomedans respectively in India. + +Whilst it is most important that nothing should be done to give colour +to the idea sedulously promoted by the Hindu politician that Government +intend to favour, or, as he generally puts it, to "pamper," the +Mahomedans at the expense of the Hindus, it is equally important that +Government should do nothing to strengthen the apprehensions entertained +by so many intelligent and educated Mahomedans. Those apprehensions are +no doubt exaggerated, and may even be quite unfounded; but they +correspond exactly with what I have been told were Tilak's hopes and +anticipations, and if we will only take the trouble to try to see things +as they may well strike an Indian Mahomedan we can hardly dismiss them +as wholly unreasonable. + +The antagonism between the two communities is not the creation or the +result of British rule. It is the legacy of centuries of conflict before +British rule was ever heard of in India. It has been and must be one of +the chief objects of British statesmanship to compose this conflict, and +the Mahomedans do not deny that their British rulers have always +desired to deal as fairly with them as with the Hindus. They hold, +however, that, as a matter of fact, British rule has in many ways worked +out to the relative detriment of Mahomedan influence and to the greater +advantage of the Hindus. Nor is that fact rendered any more palatable to +the Mahomedans because it is mainly due to the greater adaptability and +suppleness displayed by the Hindus ever since India has been brought +into contact with Western education and Western methods. The +establishment of English as the official language of the Law Courts and +of all public Departments necessarily favoured the Hindus by displacing +Persian and the vernaculars in which the Mahomedans were most +proficient. At the present day the vast majority of Indians employed in +every branch of the Government service are Hindus, and this majority is +entirely out of proportion to the numerical preponderancy of the Hindu +community at large[11]. According to the last Census Report the Hindus +of Bengal (which was then unpartitioned), though only twice as numerous +as the Mahomedans, held 1,235 higher appointments under Government in +Bengal, as against only 141 held by Mahomedans. In the Bombay Presidency +the Hindus held 266 such appointments, as against 23 held by Mahomedans; +and in the Central Provinces 339, as against 75. Of the provinces in +reference to which the report furnishes detailed statistics the United +Provinces alone failed to show the same disparity, the number of posts +held by the Mahomedans, 453, against 711 held by Hindus, being actually +and very largely in excess of their proportion to population. The +Mahomedans, moreover, complain that where Mahomedans are employed as +clerks in Government Departments the head clerks, who are almost always +Hindus and alone have direct access to the English superior officers, +use their influence with the latter to prejudice them against their +Mahomedan subordinates. Education has passed very largely from our own +hands into those of Hindu teachers. In all the liberal professions, at +the Bar, in the Press, the preponderance of Hindus is greatly out of +proportion even to the numerical preponderance of the Hindu population +as a whole. Intelligent Mahomedans are conscious that all this is to a +great extent the result of the backwardness of their community, but +hardships are none the less hardships because they are largely of one's +own making. Again, the principal seat of the Government of India and +those of the two great Presidency Governments are in centres of Hindu +life where the voice of the Mahomedan element does not make itself +easily heard. + +Then Mahomedans who watch public opinion in England note that one of the +two great parties in the State has for many years past professed to +recognize in the views of Hindu politicians a commendable affinity to +its own political principles, whilst the memory of its greatest leader, +Mr. Gladstone, is chiefly associated in India with a violent hostility +to Turkey, which, at any rate amongst many of his followers, degenerated +into violent denunciations of Islam in general. By his personal +qualities Lord Ripon, the most pronounced Liberal ever sent out in our +time as Viceroy, endeared himself to many Mahomedans as well as to the +Hindus, but he never made any secret of his political sympathies with +Hindu aspirations. Whilst Unionist Governments were in office, with only +one short break during a period of nearly 20 years, and especially +whilst Lord Curzon was Viceroy, the alliance between the Hindu leaders +and Radical politicians at home became more and more intimate. The Hindu +National Congress, which the Mahomedans had come to regard as little +more than a Hindu political organization, was not only generally +acclaimed by English newspapers of an advanced complexion as the +exponent of a new-born Indian democracy, but it had founded[12] in +London an organ of its own, _India_, subsidized out of its funds, and +edited and managed by Englishmen, which may not have a very large +circulation at home, but is the chief purveyor of Indian news to a large +part of the Liberal Press. When Radical members of Parliament visited +India the views they chiefly cared to make themselves acquainted with or +reproduced when they went home were the views of Hindu politicians, and +when the latter visited England they could always depend upon the +demonstrative hospitality not only of Radical clubs and associations but +also of the Radical Press for their political propaganda. + +When the Liberal Party returned to power at the end of 1905 the majority +in the new House of Commons included a very active group that identified +itself wholeheartedly with a campaign which, in Bengal, soon assumed a +character of scarcely less hostility to the Mahomedans than to the +British Administration, and the new Government announced their intention +of preparing a scheme of reforms which, whatever its merits, was greeted +in India as a concession to Hindu rather than to Mahomedan sentiment. +For the Mahomedan has always been a believer in personal rule, and one +of the objects of the reforms scheme was to diminish to some extent that +element in the Indian Administration. Moreover, when it was first +outlined by the Secretary of State, the scheme contained provisions +which seemed to the Mahomedans to be at variance both with principles of +fair and equal treatment for all races and creeds and classes upon which +British rule had hitherto been based, and with the specific pledges +given by the Viceroy to the Mahomedan deputation that waited upon him +four years ago at Simla when the reforms were first contemplated. The +new representation in the enlarged Indian Councils was based +proportionally upon a rough estimate of the populations of India which +credited the Hindus with millions that are either altogether outside the +pale of Hinduism or belong to those castes which the majority of +educated Hindus of the higher castes still regard as "untouchable." The +effect would have been to give the Hindus what the Mahomedans regarded +as an unfairly excessive representation. Happily, though, the question +trembled for a long time in the balance, Lord Morley listened to the +remonstrances of the Mahomedans, and in its final shape the Indian +Councils Act made very adequate provision for the representation of +Mahomedan interests. But the Mahomedans saw in the angry disappointment +of the Hindu politicians when the scheme was thus modified ample +justification for the fears they had entertained. Even as it is--and the +Mahomedans recognize both the many good points of the scheme and Lord +Morley's desire to deal fairly with them--these new reforms may well +seem to the Mahomedans to have enured mainly to the benefit of the +Hindus. The Mahomedans appreciate as warmly as the Hindus the +appointment of an Indian member to the Viceroy's Executive Council, and +if the first Indian member was to be a Hindu they admit that Mr. Sinha +had exceptional qualifications for the high post to which he was called. +The Indian members added under the now Act to the Executive Councils of +Bombay and Madras are also both Hindus, and another Hindu will almost +certainly be nominated in like manner to the Executive Council of +Bengal. None of these appointments may be open to objection, but the +fact nevertheless remains that it is the Hindus and not the Mahomedans +who will have had the immediate benefit of this new departure to which +Indian opinion attaches the greatest importance. + +The fact is that the more we delegate of our authority in India to the +natives of India on the principles which we associate with +self-government, the more we must necessarily in practice delegate it to +the Hindus, who form the majority, however much we may try to protect +the rights and interests of the Mahomedan minority. This is what the +Mahomedans know and fear. This is what explains their insistence upon +separate electorates wherever the elective principle comes into play in +the composition of representative bodies. It is not merely that they +have yet to learn the elementary business of electoral organization, in +which the Hindus, on the contrary, have shown great proficiency, and +that they have consequently fared badly even in local bodies where their +numbers ought to have secured them more adequate representation. Many +Mahomedans realize the disadvantage of locking up their community in a +watertight compartment, but they regard it as the lesser evil. It is, +they contend, an essential safeguard not only against an excessive Hindu +predominance in elective or partly elective bodies, but also against the +growing disposition which they note amongst those who claim to be the +spokesmen of the rising British democracy to accelerate the rate at +which political concessions should be made to Hindu opinion, and also to +disregard the claim of the Mahomedan minority to be protected against +any abuse by the Hindus of the power which a majority must necessarily +wield. + +My object is to explain the views actually held by the leaders of the +Indian Mahomedan community, rather than to endorse or to controvert +them. Even if the construction they place upon the attitude of their +Hindu fellow-countrymen and of an influential section of British public +opinion be wholly unreasonable, the fact that that attitude is liable to +such a construction is one which we ought to bear in mind. Nor can it be +disputed that, however generous the sentiments that prompt us to +delegate some part of our authority to elective or partly elective +assemblies, it must to some extent diminish the power of the Executive +to ensure that equality of treatment for all races and creeds and +classes by which we have hitherto justified our rule in India. Our sense +of equity should make us, therefore, all the more scrupulously careful +to adjust the balance as evenly as possible under the new conditions +which we are ourselves creating, and to err, if at all, in favour of the +protection of minorities. Elementary considerations of statesmanship +impose the same obligation upon us. + +The Mahomedans of India form more than a fifth of the whole population. +They are not racially any more homogeneous than the Hindus, and except +towards the north-western frontier, where they are to be found chiefly +amongst the half-tamed tribes of the Indian borderland, and in the +Punjab and United Provinces, where there are many descendants of the +Moslem conquerors, they consist chiefly of converted Hindus who accepted +Islam as a consequence of Mahomedan rule. But whatever racial +differences there may be amongst them, they are now bound together by a +creed which has an extraordinary welding power. That there are also +explosive potentialities in their creed the Wahabi rising in Bengal +little more than 30 years ago and the chronic turbulence of the tribes +and frequent exploits of _ghazis_ on the north-western frontier are +there to show. But amongst the large body of Mahomedans scattered +through India, and especially amongst the higher classes, Islam has in a +great measure lost its aggressive character. Surrounded on all sides by +an overwhelming majority of Hindus, whose religion he regards as +detestably idolatrous, the Indian Moslem is inclined to sink his +hostility to Christianity and to regard us less as "infidels" than as +fellow-believers in the central article of his monotheistic faith, the +unity of God. We, too, in his eyes are a "People of the Book," though +our Book is not the Koran, but the Bible, of which he does not +altogether deny the sacred character. Other things also often draw him +towards the Englishman. The Englishman to him represents a ruling race, +and to such an one he feels that he who also represents a once ruling +race can yield a more willing allegiance than to any one of a race which +he himself ruled over. Equally his fighting and his sporting instincts +also appeal to many Englishmen. Hence both Englishmen and Mahomedans in +India frequently feel that they have more in common than either of them +has with the Hindu. The Mahomedans, moreover, consisting very largely of +the most virile races in India, have always furnished some of the best +contingents of the British Indian Army. Their loyalty has never wavered +except during the Mutiny, and modern Indian writers of the Nationalist +school are themselves at pains to show that, though the mutineers +rallied round the feeble descendant of the Moghul Emperors as the only +available figurehead, and many Mahomedans proved themselves good +"patriots," it was Hindus like Nana Sahib and Tantia Tope and the Ranee +of Jhansi who were the real heroes and moving spirits of that "War of +Indian Independence." + +In our day the British connexion has had no stouter and more convinced +supporter than the late Sir Syed Ahmad, than whom no Mahomedan has +deserved or enjoyed greater influence over his Indian co-religionists. +Not only does his educational work, based on the English public school +system, live after him in the college which he founded at Aligarh, but +also his political faith which taught the vast majority of educated +Mahomedans to regard their future as bound up with the preservation of +British rule. The revival of Hinduism has only served to strengthen that +faith by bringing home to the Mahomedans the value of British rule as a +bulwark against the Hindu ascendency which in the more or less remote +future they have unquestionably begun to dread. The creation of a +political organization like the All-India Moslem League, which is an +outcome of the new apprehensions evoked by Hindu aspirations, may appear +on the surface to be a departure from the teachings of Sir Syed Ahmad, +who, when the Indian National Congress was appealing in its early days +for Mahomedan support, urged his people to hold altogether aloof from +politics and to rely implicitly upon the good will and good faith of +Government. But things have moved rapidly since Sir Syed Ahmad's time, +and when the British Government themselves create fresh opportunities +for every Indian community to make its voice heard in political counsel, +the Mahomedans hold that none can afford to stand back. + +The Moslem League founded by the Aga Khan, one of the most broad-minded +and highly-educated of Indians, with the full approval of the late Nawab +Mohsin-ul-Mulk, the confidant and successor of Sir Syed Ahmad, is +moreover not merely or even chiefly a political organization. It is +intended to serve as a centre for the maintenance and consolidation of +the communal interests of the Mahomedans all over India in their social, +educational, and economic as well as political aspects. Its programme +was unfolded at the annual meeting of the League held in January last at +Delhi both in an address read on behalf of Mr. Ameer Ali, who was +detained in England by his duties on the Judicial Committee of the Privy +Council, and in a speech delivered by the Aga Khan, the recognized +leader of the whole community. The programme of the Moslem League puts +forward no such ambitious demands as self-government for India. All it +asks for is "the ordered development of the country under the Imperial +Crown." It accepts the reforms with much more gratitude and enthusiasm +than were displayed by the spokesman of the Indian National Congress at +Lahore, and it accepts them in no narrow or sectarian spirit. The Aga +Khan was in fact at special pains to indicate the various directions in +which Mahomedans and Hindus might and ought to act in harmonious +co-operation. The functions of the Mahomedan representatives on the new +Councils would, the Aga Khan said, be threefold. + + In the first place they must co-operate as representative + Indian citizens with other Indians in advancing the well-being + of the country by working wholeheartedly for the + spread of education, for the establishment of free and universal + primary education, for the promotion of commerce and + industry, for the improvement of agriculture by the establishment + of co-operative credit and distribution societies, and + for the development of the natural resources of India. Here, + indeed, is a wide field of work for Hindus and Mahomedans + acting together. In the second place our representatives + must be ready to co-operate with the Hindus and all other + sections of society in securing for them all those advantages + that serve their peculiar conditions and help their social + welfare, for although the two sister communities have developed + on different lines, each suffers from some peculiar + weakness in addition to the misfortunes common to + general economic and educational backwardness. And then + our representatives must watch and promote social measures + required exclusively for the benefit of their Moslem co-religionists, + with the co-operation, we hope, of the Hindu + members, for we too have needs that are not known to them + and which we alone can fully understand. + +No language could be more generous or more statesmanlike. The Aga Khan +doubtless realizes that, whatever the more or less remote future may +have in store for the two communities, their increasing antagonism in +consequence of the aggressive tendencies, displayed by Hindu +"nationalism" during the last few years is pregnant with immediate +danger, and nowhere more so than in the Punjab where he was speaking. +Not only have the preachers of the Arya Samaj, taking their cue from the +writings of their apostle Dayanand, frequently indulged, both in the +Press and on the platform, in outrageous attacks upon the Mahomedans' +religion, but the militant Hindus have visited upon the Mahomedans their +refusal to join in an anti-British agitation by enforcing against them a +commercial and social boycott, none the less oppressive and damaging +because it is not openly proclaimed. The bitterness thus engendered +found vent in serious riots this year at Peshawar, just as it did in +Eastern Bengal, when the boycott campaign there was at its height. Even +in Hyderabad, the capital of the Nizam's dominions, where, under the +wise administration of a great Mahomedan ruler whose Prime Minister is a +Hindu, the relations between Moslem and Hindu have hitherto been quite +harmonious, a change is gradually making itself felt under the +inspiration of a small group of Bengali Hindus who have brought with +them the Nationalist cry of "Arya for the Aryan." The animosity which +has always existed between the Mahomedans and the Hindus, especially +amongst the lower orders, has been a constant source of anxiety to +Anglo-Indian administrators. As far as it springs from the clash of +religious beliefs, social customs, and historical traditions, it can +only be eradicated by the slow process of education. The most trivial +incident, the meeting of rival processions, the maltreatment of a cow, +so sacred to the Hindus, some purely personal quarrel suddenly leads to +violent affrays in which the whole populace on both sides joins in +without knowing even what it is all about. The danger must be enormously +heightened if one community begins to believe that the other community +is compassing deep-laid schemes for the promotion of its own ultimate +ascendancy. The political agitation conducted by the Hindus has for some +time past tended to create such a belief amongst the Mahomedans. As far +back as 1893, at the time of the Bombay riots and of Tilak's +"anti-cow-killing" propaganda in the Deccan, which spread sporadically +to other parts of India, the Bombay Government reported "an uneasy +feeling among Mahomedans that they and their faith were suffering at the +hands of the Hindus, that they were being gradually but surely edged out +of the position they have hitherto held, and that their religion needed +some special protection." That uneasy feeling has gradually ripened +since then into a widespread and deep-rooted conviction--not the least +of the many deplorable results of a movement that claims to be called +"national." + +It would be an evil day for the internal peace of India if a people +still so proud of their history, so jealous of their religion, and so +conscious of their virile superiority as the Mahomedans came to believe +that they could only trust to their own right hand, and no longer to the +authority and sense of justice of the British _Raj_, to avert the +dangers which they foresee in the future from the establishment of an +overt or covert Hindu ascendancy. Some may say that it would be an +equally evil day for the British _Raj_ if the Mahomedans came to believe +in the futility of unrequited loyalty and joined hands with its enemies +in the confident anticipation that, whatever welter might follow the +collapse of British rule, they could not fail sooner or later to fight +their way once more to the front. Certainly at no time since we have +ruled India has greater circumspection been needed in holding the +balance between the two communities. It would be as impolitic to forget +that the Mahomedans have held steadfastly aloof from the anti-British +movement of the last few years and represent on the whole a great +conservative force, as to create the impression amongst the Hindus at +large, of whom the vast majority are still our friends, that we are +disposed to visit upon them the disloyalty of what is after all a small +section of their community by unduly favouring the Mahomedans at their +expense. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +SOUTHERN INDIA. + + +Unrest in its most dangerous forms has hitherto been almost entirely +confined to the Deccan, Bengal, and the Punjab. It has spread to some +extent from the Bombay Presidency into the Central Provinces, which, +indeed, include part of the Deccan, and it has overflowed both from +Bengal and from the Punjab into some of the neighbouring districts of +the United Provinces. But thanks very largely to the firm and +experienced hands in which the administration of the Central Provinces +under their Commissioner, Mr. Craddock, and that of the United Provinces +under their Lieutenant-Governor, Sir John Hewett, have rested during +these troublous years, the situation there has never got seriously out +of hand. Except in Peshawar, where the political propaganda of a +somewhat militant colony of Bengalees has stimulated the latent +antagonism between Hindus and Mahomedans, our difficulties in the new +Frontier Province, as well as along the whole North-West frontier, are +of quite a different order, and though the turbulence of Pathan tribes +and the occasional outbreaks of Moslem fanaticism amongst them are a +cause of constantly recurring anxiety to the Government of India, it is +not amongst those hardy and only half-tamed hillsmen that the cry of +_Swadeshi_ and _Swaraj_ from Bengal or of "Arya for the Aryans" from the +Punjab is likely to elicit any response. Such echoes of far away +sedition as may reach their mountain fastnesses provoke only vague +wonder at the forbearance and leniency of British rulers, and if ever +the British _Raj_ were in jeopardy, Pathan and Baluch would be the first +to sharpen their swords and shoulder their rifles either in response to +our call or in order to descend on their own account, as their forbears +have done before, into the fair plains of Hindustan and carve out +kingdoms for themselves from the chaos that would follow the collapse of +British power. Along the North-East frontier British India marches with +semi-independent States that have little or nothing in common with the +rest of India. Nepal, Bhutan, and Sikkim are Himalayan highlands +inhabited chiefly by Mongolian Buddhists, who have far more affinity +with Tibetans and Chinese than with their Indian neighbours to the +south. Assam is little more than an administrative dependency of Eastern +Bengal, whilst Burma has been even more accurately described as a mere +appendage of India, attached for purposes of administrative convenience +to our Indian Empire, but otherwise as effectively divided from it by +race, religion, customs, and tradition as by the waters of the Bay of +Bengal and the dense jungles of the Patkai Mountains. + +In none of these borderlands has Hinduism ever struck root, and in none +of them, therefore, is Indian Nationalism, which is so largely bound up +with Hinduism, likely to find a congenial soil. But that Southern India +where Hinduism is supreme should have remained hitherto so little +affected by the political agitation which has swept across India further +north from the Deccan to Bengal may at first sight cause some surprise. +Yet the explanation is not far to seek, if one bears in mind the +profound differences which nature itself has imposed upon this vast +sub-continent. Southern India, which may be defined as including the +whole of the Madras Presidency and the three native States of Mysore, +Cochin, and Travancore, differs, indeed, almost immeasurably from +Central and Northern India. South of the high, sun-scorched plateau of +the Deccan, from the mouth of the Kistna to the Indian Ocean, the great +Indian peninsula rapidly narrows. Tempered by more frequent rains and +the moist breezes which sweep across it from both the Malabar and the +Coromandel coasts, the climate is more equable and the heat, though more +continuous, is less fierce. The whole character of the country is +luxuriantly tropical, and though the lowlands are not more fertile than +the matchless delta of the Ganges, the more varied prodigality of nature +shows itself alike in the waving forests of cocoanut, which are common +all along the coast, in the rich tobacco-fields of Madura and +Coimbatore, in the plantations of cinchona, pepper, cardamoms, and other +spices on the slopes of the Nilgiri highlands, and in the splendid +growths of teak, ebony, and sandalwood that clothe the Western Ghats. +The population, which in some parts attains extraordinary density and +lives almost exclusively on the fruits of the soil, is of the old +Dravidian stock, industrious and frugal as in other parts of India, and +of a placid and gentle temper. Nowhere else in India does one come into +such close contact with its original non-Aryan peoples; and nowhere else +has the earliest type of religious and social institutions evolved by +the superior civilization of the Aryans been so completely preserved +from the disturbing influences of later ages. And yet--such are the +curious contrasts which abound in this strange country--nowhere else +does one find so many living survivals of the intercourse which occurred +from time to time between India and the West, many centuries before +Europe turned her eyes towards that Terra Incognita. Nowhere, for +instance, has Christianity made more converts of recent years, perhaps +because in Southern India there may still be found indigenous Christian +communities which trace their origin back to the first centuries of the +Christian era. Even if there be no historical foundation for the +tradition that it was St. Thomas the Apostle who himself first +evangelized Southern India, and was ultimately martyred at St. Thomas's +Mount near Madras, there is good authority for believing that +Christianity was imported not many centuries later into Southern India +by the Nestorian or Chaldaean missionaries from Persia and Mesopotamia, +whose apostolic zeal ranged all over Asia, even into Tibet and Tartary. +According to the Saxon chronicle, our own King Alfred sent alms to India +in 883 for St. Thomas and St. Bartholomew, and at that date there +certainly existed, besides some small Christian communities on the +Coromandel coast, two flourishing communities on the Malabar coast, +where the so-called Syrian Church has maintained itself to the present +day. Another curious and perhaps equally ancient link with the West may +still be seen to survive to-day in the small community of white Jews at +Cochin, which, according to their own tradition, was founded when their +forefathers were driven out of Palestine after the destruction of the +second Temple. To the charter which they still have in their possession, +inscribed, like most west coast title deeds, on copper plates, the date +assigned by the best authorities is about 700 A.D., and the powers and +privileges which were specifically conferred upon their ancestors show +that at that period already they had acquired in a remarkable degree the +confidence and friendship of the Hindu Kings of Malabar. The decline of +both Christian and Jewish communities seems to have begun, indeed, with +the appearance of the first Portuguese invaders from Europe, whose +incursions destroyed the peace and tolerance which Christian and Jew had +enjoyed in the days of undisturbed Hindu rule. + +To what period the subjection of the old Dravidian stock to the superior +civilization of the Aryans dates back, or in what manner it was +continued, there is little as yet to show. All that is actually known is +that at some very remote period Aryan Hinduism was imported into +Southern India by Brahmans from the north, who established it in the +first place probably by force, and whose descendants have ever since +maintained the claims of their sacred caste to a position of religious +and social pre-eminence even greater than that which any other Brahmans +of the present day have succeeded in retaining. Nowhere else in India +does the Brahman, as such, wield the power and assert the prerogatives +which the Namputri Brahman enjoys on the Malabar coast. Even the +Maharajahs of Travancore, who by birth belong to the Kshatrya or warrior +caste, have to be "born again" by a peculiar and costly ceremony into +the superior caste before they ascend the throne, and one sept of the +Namputri Brahmans successfully exacts in the person of the head of the +Azhvancheri family recognition of its spiritual overlordship by personal +homage from the Maharajah once in every six years. Nothing, perhaps, +conveys more graphically the extraordinary sanctity which attaches to +the Brahman caste than the uncompromising manner in which all along the +Malabar coast they have enforced and maintained the laws of ceremonial +"pollution." Nowhere else have such stringent rules been enacted to fix +the precise distance at which the bodily presence of a member of the +lower castes is held to defile the sacred person of the Brahman. A Bazar +may approach, but must not touch him; a Chogan may not approach him +within 24 feet, nor a Kanisan within 36, nor a Pulayan within 64, nor a +Nayadi within 72 feet. Equally definite and elaborate are the manifold +restrictions on marriage, commensality, occupation, food, ceremonial +observances and personal conduct which affect the mutual relations not +only between the different castes but also between the innumerable +sub-castes into which the higher castes especially have in turns split +up. The laws which govern marriage, descent, and inheritance amongst the +more important castes throw a peculiarly interesting light on the +archaic type of society which has survived in Southern India. Under the +matriarchal system of _Manumakkathayam_, which on the Malabar coast +obtains to the present day, descent is traced only through the female +line. The male member of the family inherits, but he does so only as +the son of a female member of the family through whom he may justly +claim kinship, or, to put it in another form, a man's natural heir is +not his son, or his brother's son, or the descendant of a common male +ancestor, but his sister's, or his sister's daughter's son, or the +descendant of a common female ancestress. In the event of failure of +heirs through the female line, adoption is permissible, but the adoption +must be of females, through whose subsequent offspring the line of +natural descent may be carried on. With this ancient system are bound up +forms of matrimonial union and tenure of property into the complicated +and peculiar nature of which I need not enter here. + +In the wild hill countries weird remnants of the most primitive races +still survive that have not yet been brought within the pale of +Hinduism, and here and there a sprinkling of Mahomedans remains as a +reminder of the shortlived incursions of Moslem conquerors from the +north. But ninety per cent. of the population consists of Hindus, and +the social and religious supremacy of Hinduism has never been seriously +assailed. Nowhere has Hindu architecture taken such majestic shape, the +massive pylons of Madura and Tanjore recalling the imperishable grandeur +of the noblest Egyptian temples on the Nile. Southern India is in fact a +land of stately shrines which dominate the whole country just as our own +great cathedrals dominated England in the Middle Ages. Yet in Southern +India, Hinduism has not assumed the aggressive character which it has +developed in other regions. Perhaps it feels too secure of the +unchallenged supremacy which it has enjoyed through the ages as a social +and religious force without ever aspiring to direct political +ascendancy. Perhaps the admixture of Dravidian blood has imparted to it +a more serene tolerance. Perhaps it appreciates more fully the relief +from the turmoils strife, and bloodshed which was brought to Southern +India by the advent of British rule. Compare the legend of a pre-British +"golden age" propagated by Tilak and his disciples in the Deccan and in +Bengal with the remarkable picture of the condition of Southern India at +the time when the British power first appeared on the scene which was +drawn by a Madras Brahman, the late Mr. Srinivasaraghava Iyangar:-- + + Southern India had been devastated by wars, famines, + and bands of plunderers; the cultivating classes were ground + down by oppressive taxation, by the illegal exactions of the + officers of Government, of the renters employed to collect + the Government dues, and of the sowkars without whose + assistance the ryots could not subsist and carry on their + calling, and who kept them in a state little removed from + perpetual bondage; trade was hampered by insecurity of + property, defective communications, and onerous transit + duties; the vast majority of the population suffered extreme + hardships when there was even a partial failure of crops in + small tracts, owing to the great difficulty and cost of obtaining + supplies of grain from more favoured regions; the peasantry + and even possessors of considerable landed property, when not + holding office under Government themselves, were cowering + before the pettiest Government officer and submitting to + tortures and degrading personal ill-treatment inflicted on the + slightest pretext; persons who had chanced to acquire + wealth, if they belonged to the lower classes, dared not openly + use it for purposes of enjoyment or display for fear of being + plundered by the classes above them; the agricultural classes + as a whole had few wants beyond those imposed by the + necessity for bare subsistence, no ambition or enterprise to + try untrodden ways, and no example to stimulate them to + endeavour to better their condition, while the rigid usages + of castes and communities in which society was organized + repressed all freedom of action and restricted the scope for + individual initiative. To understand the full significance + of the change which has come over the country one has to + contrast what he sees at present, unsatisfactory as it may + appear from some points of view, with the state of things + described above.... Remembering that methods of + progress calculated to evoke national feeling and religious + enthusiasm are unavailable under the conditions of the case, + the progress that has been made ... is little short of + marvellous. + +It was from Madras that the British power set forth on its +unpremeditated course of conquest which was destined ultimately to +reach from Tuticorin to the Himalayas. Since the beginning of the +nineteenth century the Madras Presidency has been in the fortunate +position of having no history. Its northern rivals call it despitefully +the "benighted" Presidency. No epithet, however, could be more +undeserved, for if its annals for the last hundred years have been +unsensational, its record in respect of education, intelligent +administration, material prosperity, and all that goes with peaceful +continuous progress would entitle it rather to be called the "Model" +Presidency. The Native States of Southern India, and above all Mysore, +which was for many years under direct British administration, will +equally bear favourable comparison with any of the Native States of +Central or Northern India. From the standpoint of education, Southern +India has long held and probably still holds the lead, thanks in a great +measure to the large Christian communities which comprise more than +two-thirds of the whole Christian population of India. But in the +statistics of literacy based on the last census, the Brahmans figure at +the head of all the Hindu castes with the very creditable proportion of +578 males and 40 females per mille. The Western-educated classes in +Southern India, whilst as progressive as in any other part, show greater +mental balance than in Bengal, and less reactionary tendencies than in +the Deccan. Western education has been a steady and perhaps on the whole +a more solid growth in Southern India. It has produced a large number of +able and distinguished public servants of unimpeachable loyalty to the +British _raj_. The harvest yielded by the ingermination of Western ideas +has produced fewer tares. Educated Hindus of the higher castes have +played an important part in social reform, and many of them have been +associated with the moderate section of the Indian National Congress. +The enthusiastic reception given to Mr. Bepin Chandra Pal, during his +short crusade at Madras three years ago on behalf of _Swaraj_, showed +that, especially amongst the younger generation, there is at least an +appreciable minority who are ready to listen to the doctrines of +advanced Nationalism, and the existence of inflammable materials was +revealed in the riots which occurred not long afterwards at Tinnevelly +and Tuticorin, and again a year later at Guntur. But these appear to +have been merely sporadic outbreaks which were promptly quelled, and the +undisturbed peace which has prevailed since then throughout Southern +India, at a time when whole provinces in other parts have been +honeycombed with sedition, is one of the most encouraging features of +the situation. There is in the Hinduism of Southern India a peculiar +element of conservative quietism to which lawlessness in any form seems +to be repugnant. Probably also the racial cry of "Arya for the Aryans" +raised in the North of India as the watchword of an anti-British +movement is not calculated to rouse the blood of a purely Dravidian +population, however powerful the ties created by a common social and +religious system. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +REVOLUTIONARY ORGANIZATIONS OUTSIDE INDIA. + + +It required nothing less than the shock of a murder perpetrated in the +heart of London to open the eyes of those in authority at home to the +nature of the revolutionary propaganda which has been, and is still +being, carried on outside India in sympathy, and often in connivance, +with the more violent leaders of the anti-British agitation in India +itself. Even now it may be doubted whether they fully realize the +importance of the support which the extremists receive from outside +India. I am not alluding to the moral countenance which the Hindu +reaction has received from eccentric Americans and Europeans on the look +out for any novel religious sensation, or which "advanced" politicians +have derived from sympathetic members of Parliament and journalists in +England[13], but to the secret organizations established in Europe and +in America by the Indian extremists themselves as a base for hostile +operations against the British _Raj_. However loudly the extremists +protest against the importation of Western influences into India they +have certainly not been too proud to borrow the methods of Western +revolutionists. They have of all Indians been the most slavish imitators +of the West, as represented, at any rate, by the Irish Fenian and the +Russian anarchist. Their literature is replete with references to both. +Tilak took his "No-rent" campaign in the Deccan from Ireland, and the +Bengalees were taught to believe in the power of the boycott by +illustrations taken from contemporary Irish history. When the informer +Gosain was shot dead in Alipur gaol the Nationalists gloried in the +deed, which had far excelled that of Patrick O'Donnell, who shot dead +James Carey, the approver in the Phoenix Park murders, inasmuch as +Gosain had been murdered before he could complete his "treachery," +whereas the murder of Carey had been only a tardy "retribution" which +could not undo the past. The use of the bomb has become the common +property of revolutionists all over the world, but the employment of +amateur dacoits, or armed bands of robbers, for replenishing the +revolutionary war-chest has been directly taken from the revolutionary +movement in Russia a few years ago. The annals of the Italian +_risorgimento_ have also been put under contribution, and whilst there +is no Indian life of Cavour, Lajpat Rai's Life of Mazzini and Vinayak +Savarkar's translation of Mazzini's Autobiography are favourite +Nationalist text-books of the milder order. European works on various +periods of revolutionary history figure almost invariably amongst +seizures of a far more compromising character whenever the Indian police +raids some centre of Nationalist activity. Hence in the literature of +unrest one frequently comes across the strangest juxtaposition of names, +Hindu deities, and Cromwell and Washington, and celebrated anarchists +all being invoked in the same breath. + +Equally foreign in its origin has been the establishment of various +centres of revolutionary activity outside of India. In America there +appear to be two distinct organizations both having their headquarters +in California, and branches in Chicago, New York, and other important +cities. The Indo-American Association runs an English periodical, _Free +Hindustan_, which was originally started in Canada and thence +transferred to Seattle when it began to attract the attention of the +Canadian authorities. The moving spirits are students, chiefly from +Bengal, who have found ready helpers amongst the Irish-American Fenians. +They have also been able to make not a few converts amongst the +unfortunate British Indian immigrants who suffered heavily from the +anti-Asiatic campaign along the Pacific slope, and some of these +converts, being Sikhs and old soldiers, were of special value, as +through them direct contact could be established with the regiments to +which they had belonged, or, at any rate, with the classes from which an +important section of the native army is recruited. Large quantities of +seditious leaflets, circulated broadcast three years ago amongst Sepoys, +were printed in America. The other organization, called the Young Indian +Association, with "head centres" and "inner" and "outer circles" that +have a genuine Fenian ring, is even more "extreme," and is connected +with the "Indian Red Flag" in India, to which Khudiram Bose, who +murdered Mrs. and Miss Kennedy at Muzafferpur, and other young fanatics +of the same type belonged. The Young Indian Association seems to devote +itself chiefly to the study of explosives and to smuggling arms into +India. In Anglo-Indian official circles extreme reticence is naturally +observed in these matters, but from other sources I have seen evidence +to show that both these associations were in frequent communication with +the seditious Press all over India, in the Deccan as well as in Bengal +and in the Punjab. + +The emergence of Japan has created so powerful an impression in India +that one is not surprised to find the Indian revolutionaries, who live +for the most part in the dreamland of their own ignorance, looking in +that quarter for guidance and even, perhaps, for assistance. But they +have been sorely disappointed. Indian students are well received in +Japan, but they are in nowise specially petted or pampered, and when +they begin to air their political opinions and to declaim against +British rule they are very speedily put in their place. Crossing the +Pacific from Japan to America last year I met one who had spent two or +three years at Tokyo and was going on to continue his technical studies +in the United States. He was a pleasant and intelligent young fellow, +and confessed to me that what he had seen in Japan had very much +modified the views he had held when he left Bengal as to the ripeness of +his fellow-countrymen for independence or self-government. He had +received a great deal of kindness from his Japanese professors, but the +general attitude of the Japanese was by no means friendly, and there was +no trace of sympathy with the political agitation in India. There is an +Indo-Japanese Society in Tokyo, but it has no connexion with politics, +and the Indians complain that it is run for the benefit of the Japanese +rather than for theirs. Those who have joined it in the hope of using it +as a base for anti-British operations have certainly got very little for +their pains. They occasionally write articles for the very few Socialist +papers of Japan, but their effective contribution to the cause is of +trifling account. + +The most dangerous organization outside India was unquestionably that +which had its headquarters at the "India House" at Highgate. It was +there that Dinghra appears to have concocted the plot which resulted in +the murder of Sir W. Curzon Wyllie and Dr. Lalcaca, and though the +London correspondent of the _Kal_, Vinayak Savarkar, who was arrested +this year in London to take his trial on the gravest charges at Bombay, +magnified the success of the plot by describing its chief victim as "the +eyes of the Secretary of State through which he saw all Indian affairs," +there is some reason to believe that Dinghra expected to find at the +reception another Anglo-Indian official whom the "extremists" were +particularly anxious to "remove," and only in his absence struck at Sir +W. Curzon Wyllie. There is reason, too, to believe that it was from this +"India House" also that came both the idea of murdering Mr. Jackson and +the weapons used by the murderer. Though students from all parts of +India were enticed into the "India House," the organization seems to +have been controlled by Deccan Brahmans, and in the first instance by +Shyamji Krishnavarma, who founded scholarships in connexion with it to +honour the Indian "martyrs" executed for murderous outrages in India. +When the authorities in London very tardily awoke after the murder of +Sir W. Curzon Wyllie to the dangerous nature of this organization, to +which _The Times_ first drew attention in the spring of 1908, it was +still controlled from the Continent by Krishnavarma, who had retreated +to Paris long before, leaving his lieutenants to carry on his campaign +amongst the young Indian students. The _Indian Sociologist_ itself +continued to be openly published in London and to advocate assassination +until the tragedy at the Imperial Institute led the authorities to take +woefully-belated action in prosecuting successively two printers of the +sheet, which was then transferred to Paris. + +That altogether considerable quantities of incendiary literature have +been produced abroad and imported into India through these various +organizations is beyond doubt. Sometimes books like Savarkar's "War of +Indian Independence of 1857"--in its way a very remarkable history of +the Mutiny, combining considerable research with the grossest +perversions of facts and great literary power with the most savage +hatred--were bound in false covers as "Pickwick Papers," or other +equally innocuous works. Other seditious leaflets besides those for the +incitement of mutiny in the native army appear to have come from +America, whilst newspapers like the _Talvar_ and the _Bande Mataram_, +which preach the same gospel of murder as Krishnavarrna's _Indian +Sociologist_, are printed on the Continent of Europe. These papers are +either smuggled into India in large parcels or sent through the post in +envelopes addressed by name to students in schools and colleges, as well +as to schoolmasters, pleaders, Government _employes_--in fact, to all +sorts and conditions of people who, for some reason or other, are +supposed to be suitable recipients. They naturally fall sometimes into +quite the wrong hands. + +The importance which the "extremists" attach to the maintenance of these +channels of communication with India appears from the following extract +from the March issue of the _Bande Mataram_, which purports to be +published in Geneva, and calls itself "a monthly organ of Indian +independence":-- + + We must recognize at present that the importation of + revolutionary literature into India is the sheet-anchor of + the party. It keeps up the spirit of all young men, and + assures them that the party is living. We must therefore + try to strengthen all groups of workers outside India. The + centre of gravity of political work has been shifted from + Calcutta, Poona, and Lahore to Paris, Geneva, Berlin, London, + and New York. The Wahabi conspiracy of 1862 was completely + crushed because there was no centre in foreign + countries where the work could be carried on during the period + of persecution. We must take this lesson to heart, that if + we desire to hear more of the murder of British officials as + a token of the progress and vitality of the party we must + strengthen and establish centres of work in many foreign + countries. The circulation of revolutionary leaflets, journals, + and manifestoes should be looked upon as a sacred duty + by all patriots. We are not exaggerating the importance + of this work when we use that expression. Let us look upon + every leaf of revolutionary literature with almost superstitious + veneration and try to make it reach India by all + means in our power. For it is the seed of life of our + people, &c. + +As to the importation of arms into India, the murder of Mr. Jackson, +"another Nationalist fete celebrated at Nasik amidst the rejoicings of +all true patriots," furnishes an occasion for similar exultation:-- + + We know that the hero possessed Browning pistols. Now + these pistols are not manufactured in India, but in Europe. + How have they been imported by the revolutionaries? It + is clear that this fact is a testimony to the efficiency of our + organization and the secrecy of our activity. Besides, the + imported arms are not the only weapons on which we have + to rely. Daggers can be manufactured in India out of sharp + nails to stab all vile agents of the British Government, English + or Indian. + +Increased vigilance in this country as well as in the Indian Customs and +Post Offices is, however, beginning to check these importations, and +only two months later the _Bande Mataram_ was already compelled to +strike a less exuberant note. It declares, of course, that "our movement +cannot be repressed so long as there are patriotic Indians living under +other flags than the Union Jack," but it recognizes that the situation +"gives rise to anxious thought," and it winds up in a somewhat depressed +tone:-- + + We admit that for the present all active propaganda among + the young men of India with a view to the acquisition of new + workers is exceedingly difficult. But there are hundreds of + patriotic Indian students in America and Japan who can be + inspired with apostolic fervour if only some capable workers + are sent among them. The harvest is plenteous, but the + labourers are few. We should now realize that, even if the + Government succeeds in checkmating us in India at every + step, there is ample scope for work for several years among + Indians living abroad. We should reflect that steady work + is its own reward. We must not imagine that the Idea + is not making progress because our particular journal cannot + be circulated, or because those workers whom we know + personally have been lost. Again, we must not fancy that if + heroic exploits of political assassination do not occur every + week the movement will die out. + +It is not only in regard to the introduction of poisonous literature or +of weapons into India that the activity of these organizations deserves +to be closely and continuously watched. One of their main objects, as +the _Bande Mataram_ points out, is to gain over young Indians who go +abroad, especially those who go abroad for purposes of study. The India +Office has recognized the necessity of establishing some organization in +London to keep in touch with them and to rescue them from unwholesome +influences, political and other. This is a step in the right direction, +but much more will require to be done, and not only in London. +Committees should be formed in other centres, and public-spirited +Englishmen abroad could not do more useful work than by social service +of this kind. If we want to do any real and permanent good we must +spread our nets as wide as the revolutionists have spread theirs. In +Paris, for instance, Krishnavarma has set up, since he migrated to the +other side of the Channel, an organization for waylaying and +indoctrinating young Indians on their way to England, so as to induce +them to hold aloof from those who would wish to be their friends when +they arrive in London. The number of Indian students abroad is bound to +go on increasing, especially with the growing demand for scientific and +technical education for which the provision hitherto made in India is +regarded as inadequate. Indian parents and Indian associations that +ought to know better are apt to think that, if they can only provide for +a youth's travelling expenses, he will somehow be able afterwards to +shift for himself. It is not infrequently the misery and distress to +which he thus finds himself reduced abroad that drive the young Indian +into political recklessness, or, at least, render him peculiarly liable +to temptation. British manufacturers might also render valuable +assistance. Indian parents complain that, owing to the resentment which +crimes like the murder of Sir W. Curzon Wyllie have provoked there is +great reluctance now on the part of British firms to admit Indians as +apprentices to their works, and that in consequence they are compelled +to go to other countries where they are treated with less suspicion. +This reluctance is perhaps in reality more often due to the fear lest +young Indians should afterwards turn their knowledge to too good an +account, as the Japanese have often done, in the promotion of competing +industries in their own country. However that may be, the results are +certainly regrettable. For, if there is one thing that has impressed +itself on me during my last visit to India, it is that, if we want to +retain our hold, not only upon the country, but upon the people, we must +neglect no opportunity of arresting the estrangement which is growing up +between us and the younger generation of Indians. It is upon this +estrangement that the revolutionary organizations outside of India +chiefly rely for the success of their propaganda, and nothing helps them +more than the bitterness with which young Indians who come abroad often +return to India ready for any desperate adventure[14]. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS. + + +It is impossible to acquit the Congress of having contributed to the +growth of active and violent unrest, though the result may have lain far +both from the purpose of its chief originators and from the desire of +the majority of its members. Western education has largely failed in +India because the Indian, not unnaturally, fails to bring an education +based upon conceptions entirely alien to the world in which he moves +into any sort of practical relation with his own life. So with the +Indian politician, who, even with the best intentions, fails to bring +the political education which he has borrowed from the West into any +sort of practical relation with the political conditions of India. + +The Indian National Congress assumed unto itself almost from the +beginning the functions of a Parliament. There was and is no room for a +Parliament in India, because, so long as British rule remains a reality, +the Government of India, as Lord Morley has plainly stated, must be an +autocracy--benevolent and full of sympathy with Indian ideas, but still +an autocracy. Nor would the Congress have been in any way qualified to +discharge the functions of a Parliament had there been room for one. For +it represents only one class, or rather a section of one class--the +Western educated middle, and mainly professional, class, consisting +chiefly of lawyers, doctors, schoolmasters, newspaper men; an important +and influential class, no doubt, but one which itself only represents an +infinitesimal fraction--barely, perhaps, one-hundredth part--of the +whole population. To what extent it is really representative even of +that small section it is impossible to say, as the members are not +returned by any clearly defined body of constituents or by any formal +process of election. Originally it attracted the support of not a few +non-Hindus, though the Hindu element always largely preponderated, and a +small group of distinguished Parsees, headed by Mr. Dadhabai Naoroji, +together with a sprinkling of Mahomedans, helped to justify its claim to +be called National, in so far as that appellation connoted the +representation of the different creeds and races of India. But gradually +most of the Mahomedans dropped out, as it became more and more an +exponent of purely Hindu opinion, and the Parsees retained little more +than the semblance of the authority they had at one time enjoyed. + +On broader grounds still the Congress could never be called National in +the Western democratic sense of the term, for whatever exceptions it may +have been willing to make in favour of individuals, there can be no +question of popular representation in India so long as the Hindu caste +system prevails, under which whole classes numbering millions and +millions are regarded and treated as beyond the pale and actually +"untouchable." From time to time a few enlightened Hindus recognize the +absurdity of posturing as the champions of democratic ideals so long as +this monstrous anomaly subsists, but, whilst professing in theory to +repudiate it, the Indian National Congress has during the whole course +of its existence taken no effective step towards removing it. Nor is the +Congress any more representative of the toiling masses that are not +"unclean." No measures have been more bitterly assailed in the Congress +than those which, like the Punjab Land Alienation Act of 1900, were +framed and have operated for the benefit of the agricultural and other +humbler classes--i.e., of the real "people of India," in whose name +the Congress speaks so loudly and with so little title. + +An earlier generation of Hindus had fully recognized the urgency of +social problems, like that of the "depressed" castes, and had realized +that, until Indians had brought their own customs and beliefs to some +extent into line with the social customs and beliefs of the West, they +could not hope to raise their political life on to the Western plane. +The Indian National Congress, unfortunately, succumbed to the specious +plea put forward in an evil hour many years ago by a distinguished +Hindu, afterwards a Judge of the Bombay High Court, Mr. K.T. Telang, who +was himself unquestionably an enlightened social reformer, that the +"line of least resistance" was to press for political concessions from +England where they had "friends amongst the garrison," instead of +fighting an uphill battle for social reforms against the dead-weight of +popular ignorance and prejudice amongst their own people. That many +members of the Congress take part also in social reform conferences and +are fully alive to the importance of social reform cannot alter the fact +that, by turning its corporate back upon the cause they have at heart, +the Indian National Congress has arrested instead of promoting one of +the most promising movements to which Western education had given birth. + +Do not, however, let us throw the blame wholly upon the Congress. For, +like Mr. Telang, it has been induced to put its trust in "the friends +amongst the garrison"--Englishmen often of widely different types and +characters, like Bradlaugh and Hume and Webb and Sir William Wedderburn, +and in more recent days Sir Henry Cotton and Mr. Mackarness--and upon +them must rest no small responsibility for the diversion of many of the +best talents and energies of educated India from the thorny path of +social reform into the more popular field of political agitation. + +What has been the result? A self-constituted body of Indian gentlemen +who have no title to represent the people and a very slender title to +represent the upper classes of Indian society, but who, as I have +already said, doubtless represent to some extent a considerable and +influential section of Western educated opinion, might have given very +useful assistance to Anglo-Indian legislators and administrators had +they devoted themselves to the study of those social problems in the +solution of which it is peculiarly difficult and dangerous for an alien +Government to take any initiative. Instead of that, they set before +themselves a task that was impossible because they had no _status_ to +perform it. They were fighting all the time in the air, and their +proceedings therefore lacked reality. The Congress was not only an +irresponsible body, but it was never steadied by a healthy divergency of +opinions and the presentation of conflicting arguments. It was not even +a debating society, for all represented practically the same interests, +held the same views, made the same speeches, which there was no one to +question or to refute. Hence the monotony of the proceedings, the +sameness of the speeches, sometimes marked with great ability, and +generally delivered with much eloquence and fervour, at the short annual +sessions. The proceedings were usually controlled by a small caucus who +drew up long-winded resolutions, often embodying half a score of +resolutions carried in previous sessions. Some one delivered a +soul-stirring oration, and then the "omnibus" resolution, which was not +even always read out, was put to the vote and passed unanimously. Every +one knew beforehand that every speaker would attack the policy of +Government, whether he dealt with the ancient stock grievances or with +some new question raised by the legislative and administrative measures +of the current year; and every one knew also that all the others would +applaud. There was no other way of bidding for popularity and making a +mark than by achieving pre-eminence in the arts of pungent criticism and +exuberant rhetoric. Behind the scenes there were, doubtless, often +fierce fights and jealousies, and the struggles _in camera_ are reported +to have been sometimes very violent and bitter. But an unbroken front +was maintained to the outside world, and the divisions which ultimately +almost shipwrecked the Congress very rarely showed themselves on the +surface of its proceedings till nearly 20 years after its birth. + +The attitude of Government who had accepted the Congress's assurances of +loyalty, and recognized its aims, as defined by it, to be "perfectly +legitimate in themselves," was laid down for the first time officially +in 1890, under Lord Lansdowne's Viceroyalty, in terms that were +certainly not hostile:-- + + The Government of India recognize that the Congress + movement is regarded as representing in India what in Europe + would be called the more advanced Liberal Party as distinguished + from the great body of Conservative opinion which + exists side by side with it. They desire themselves to maintain + an attitude of neutrality in their relations with both + parties, so long as these act strictly within constitutional limits. + +To the principles of that declaration the Government of India has +strictly adhered ever since, even when, as in 1905, the Congress might +have been deemed to have over-stepped those constitutional limits by +endorsing the Bengalee doctrine of boycott. + +Though the majority of the Congress probably glided unconsciously or +without any deliberate purpose from, its earlier attitude of +remonstrance and entreaty into violent denunciation of Government and +all its works, there had always been a small group determined to drive +or to manoeuvre their colleagues as a body into an attitude of open and +irreconcilable hostility. That group was headed by Tilak, the strongest +personality in Indian politics, who was gradually making recruits among +the more ardent spirits all over India. On one occasion, as far back as +1895, when the Congress held its annual session in his own city of +Poona, he had attempted to commit it to the aggressive doctrines which +he was already preaching in the Deccan, but he soon discovered that the +temper of the majority was against him. He was, however, far too +tenacious ever to accept defeat. He bided his time. He knew he had to +reckon with powerful personal jealousies, and he remained in the +background. His opportunity did not come till ten years later when he +pulled the strings at the two successive sessions held in 1905 at +Benares and in 1906 at Calcutta. It was then that the Congress passed +from mere negative antagonism into almost direct defiance of Government. +It must have been a proud moment for Tilak when the very man who had +often fought so courageously against his inflammatory methods and +reactionary tendencies in the Deccan, Mr. Gokhale, played into his +hands, and from the presidential chair at Benares got up to commend the +boycott as a political weapon used for a definite political purpose. A +year later, it is true, Mr. Gokhale and the "moderate" party in the +Congress, who had seen in the meantime to what lawlessness the boycott +was leading, were anxious to undo or to mitigate at the Calcutta session +what they had helped to do at Benares. But again, by dint of lobbying +and even more by threatening to break up the Congress, Tilak carried the +day, and a resolution was passed in the form upon which he insisted to +the effect that the boycott movement was legitimate. It was not till the +following year at Surat, after the preaching of lawlessness had begun to +yield its inevitable harvest of crime, that the "moderates" recoiled at +last from the quicksands into which the "extremists" were leading them. +Tilak, however, carried out his threat, and he and his friends wrecked +that session of the Congress amidst scenes of disgraceful riot and +confusion. + +Yet even after this the "moderates" lacked the courage of their +convictions. The breach has never been altogether repaired, but there +have been frequent negotiations and exchanges of courtesies. In the very +next year at Madras a man as incapable of promoting or approving +criminal forms of agitation as Dr. Rash Behari Ghose was holding out the +olive branch to "the wayward wanderers" who had treated him so +despitefully at Surat; and last year at Lahore, when Pandit Mohan +Malavya was expounding from the chair the latest formula adopted by +Congress as a definition of its aims, his chief anxiety seemed to be to +prove that it offered no obstacle to the return of the Surat insurgents +to the fold. This formula, it may be mentioned, lays down that "the +objects of the Indian National Congress are the attainment by the people +of India of a system of Government similar to that enjoyed by the +self-governing members of the British Empire and a participation by them +in the rights and responsibilities of the Empire on equal terms." This +is a formula which many "moderates" no doubt construe in a spirit of +genuine loyalty, but it does not exclude the construction which more +"advanced" politicians like Mr. Pal place upon _Swaraj_. + +The last session of the Congress at Lahore, in December last, is +generally admitted to have aroused very little enthusiasm, and there are +many who believe that, weakened as it has been by recent dissensions, it +will scarcely survive the creation of the new enlarged Councils. These +Councils have been so constituted that they will be able to discharge +usefully the functions which the Congress arrogated to itself without +any title or authority. Perhaps it was the consciousness that the +Congress would at any rate be henceforth overshadowed by the new +Councils that led Pandit Malavya to inveigh so bitterly in his +presidential address at Lahore against the shape ultimately given to the +reforms. What one may hope above all is that the Councils will help to +give the Indian "moderates" a little more self-reliance than they have +hitherto shown. The Indian National Congress has at all times contained +many men of high character and ability, devoted to what they conceived +to be the best interests of their country, and at first, at any rate, +quite ready to acknowledge the benefits of British rule and to testify +to their conviction that the maintenance of British rule is essential to +the welfare and safety of India. Many of them must have seen that the +constant denunciation of Government by men who claimed to represent the +intelligence of the country must tend to stimulate a spirit of +disaffection and revolt amongst their more ignorant and inexperienced +fellow-countrymen. Yet not one of them had the courage to face the risk +of temporary unpopularity by pointing out the danger of the inclined +plane down which they were sliding, until they actually saw themselves +being swept hopelessly off their feet at Surat. It was then too late to +avert the consequences of pusillanimity or to shake off their share of +responsibility for the evils which the tolerance they had too long +extended to the methods of their more violent colleagues had helped to +produce. One of the main purposes of the Indian National Congress has +avowedly been to set up a claim for the introduction of representative +government in India. Yet it has itself seldom escaped the control of a +handful of masterful leaders who have ruled it in the most irresponsible +and despotic fashion. The Congress has, in fact, displayed exactly the +same feature which has been so markedly manifested in the case of +municipalities, namely, the tendency of "representative" institutions in +India to resolve themselves into machines operated by, and for the +benefit of, an extremely limited and domineering oligarchy. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +CONSTITUTIONAL REFORMS. + + +When Lord Minto closed at the end of March the first Session of the +Imperial Council, as the Viceroy's Legislative Council, enlarged under +the Indian Councils Act of 1909, is now officially designated, in +contradistinction to the enlarged Provincial Councils of Provincial +Governments, his Excellency very properly described it as "a memorable +Session." It was, indeed, far more than that. Even to the outward eye +the old Council Chamber at Government House presented a very significant +spectacle, to which the portrait of Warren Hastings over the Viceregal +Chair always seemed to add a strange note of admiration. The round table +at which the members of the Viceroy's Legislative Council used to +gather, with far less of formality, had disappeared, and the 59 members +of the enlarged Council had their appointed seats disposed in a double +hemicycle facing the Chair. They sat for the most part according to +provinces, and the features as well as, in some cases, the dresses, of +the Indian members showed at a glance how representative this new +Council really was. + +The tall burly frame of the Kuvar Sahib of Patiala was only more +conspicuous than that of the Maharajah of Burdawan because the former +wore the many-folded turban and brocaded dress of his Sikh ancestry, +whereas the latter, like most Bengalees of the upper classes, has +adopted the much more commonplace broadcloth of the West. The bold, +hawk-like features of Malik Umar Hyat Khan of Tiwana in the Punjab were +as characteristic of the fighting Pathan from the North as were the +Rajah of Mahmudabad's more delicate features of the Mahomedan +aristocracy of the erstwhile kingdom of Oudh. The white _swadeshi_ +garments affected by Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, from the United +Provinces--who opened the last meeting of the Indian National Congress +at Lahore with a presidential address which lasted for two hours and a +quarter, and wound up with an apology for its brevity on the ground that +he had had no time to prepare it--testified, at any rate more loudly, to +the sternness of his patriotic convictions than the equally _swadeshi_ +homespun, cut at least in European fashion, of another "advanced" +politician, Mr. Bhupendranath Bose, of Bengal. More worthy of attention +was the keen, refined, and intellectual face of Mr. G.K. Gokhale, the +Deccanee Brahman with the Mahratta cap, who, by education, belongs to +the West quite as much as to the East, and, by birth, to the ruling +caste of the last dominant race before the advent of the British _Raj_. +The red fez worn by the majority of Mahomedan members showed that their +community had certainly not failed in this instance to secure the +generous measure of representation which Lord Minto spontaneously +promised to them three years ago at Simla. The peculiar glazed black +headdress of the Parsee and the silk kerchief of the Burman in turn +indicated the racial catholicity of the assembly in which Sir Sassoon +David, of Bombay, worthily represents, by his authority as a financier, +the small Jewish community of India. + +Nor were the different interests and classes, with two important +exceptions, less adequately represented than the different races and +creeds. Besides the great territorial magnates, of whom I have already +mentioned two or three by name, there were not a few other well-known +representatives of the landed interests which, in a country like India +where agriculture is still the greatest of all national industries, have +a special claim to respectful hearing, even though they have hitherto +for the most part held aloof from the fashionable methods of political +agitation. There was indeed a good deal of disappointment among the +urban professional classes, in whose eyes a Western education--or rather +education on what are, often quite erroneously, conceived to be Western +lines--should apparently constitute the one indispensable qualification +for public life. But they too had secured no inconsiderable number of +seats, and if the voice of the Indian National Congress did not +predominate it had certainly not been reduced to silence. + +Doubts were freely expressed among Englishmen before the meetings of the +new Councils as to the competence of the Anglo-Indian officials for the +novel duties allotted to them in these assemblies. It was argued, not +unreasonably, that men who had never been trained or accustomed to take +part in public discussions might find themselves at a disadvantage in +controversial encounters with the quick-witted Hindu politician. It is +generally admitted now that the first Session at any rate of the +Imperial Council by no means justified any such apprehensions. Not a few +official members, it is true, were inclined at first to rely exclusively +upon their written notes, and there was indeed, from beginning to end, +but little room for the rapid thrust and skilled parry of debate to +which we are accustomed at Westminster. Most of the Indian members +themselves had carefully prepared their speeches beforehand, and read +them out from typed or even printed drafts before them. In many cases +the speeches had been communicated two or three days ahead to the Press, +and sometimes a speech was printed and commented upon in the favoured +organ of some honourable member, though he had ultimately changed his +mind and preserved silence, without, however, informing the editor of +the fact. In other cases a speech was published without the +interruptions and calls to order which had compelled the orator to drop +out some of his most cherished periods. As it was the custom for Indian +members to communicate also to the departments immediately concerned the +gist of the remarks which they proposed to make, the official members +were tempted at first to frame their replies on similar lines and to +read out elaborate statements bristling with figures, which would have +been much more suitable for circulation as printed minutes. But +gradually many of them took courage and showed that they could speak +easily and simply, and quite as effectively as most of the Indian +members. + +Indeed, one of the best speeches of this kind was that delivered on the +last day but one of the Session by Mr. P.C. Lyon, a nominated member for +Eastern Bengals, in reply to the fervid oration of Mr. Bupendranath Bose +on the threadbare topic of Partition. On this, as on other occasions, +the florid style of eloquence cultivated by the leaders of the Indian +National Congress fell distinctly flat in the calmer atmosphere of the +Council-room, as indeed Mr. Gokhale warned some of his friends it was +bound to do. During the last two days discussion was allowed somewhat +needlessly under the new rules, to roam at large over all manner of +irrelevant subjects, but on this occasion it served at least one useful +purpose. If it were not that the Bengalee politician has no other +grievance to substitute for it, the question of the Partition of Bengal +should, one would think, have received its _quietus_, for two excellent +speeches, delivered with much simple force by Maulvi Syed Shams ul Huda, +Mahomedan member for Eastern Bengal, and by Mr. Mazhar-ul-Haq, another +Mahomedan who sits for Bengal, completed the discomfiture which poor Mr. +Bose had already experienced at Mr. Lyon's hands. + +Needless to say that amongst the Indian members it was the politician, +and especially the more "advanced" politician, who figured most +prominently in the discussions. The more conservative Indians were +usually content to listen, with more or less visible signs of weariness, +to the facile and sometimes painfully long-winded eloquence of their +colleagues. When they did intervene, however, their speeches were +usually short and none the less effective. In most of the divisions that +were taken they supported the Government, and in no single instance was +the Government majority hard pressed. The minority in support of any +resolution resisted by Government never reached 20, and generally +fluctuated somewhere between 16 and 20. The only resolution which would +have certainly combined all the native members in support of it was Mr. +Gokhale's resolution with regard to the position of British Indians in +South Africa, but, as it was accepted by Government, it was passed _nem. +con._ without a division. + +That in these circumstances the official members who are at the same +time heads of the most important administrative and executive +departments should be kept in constant attendance during debates in +which many of them, are not in any way directly concerned, and that they +should thus be detained in Calcutta at a season when their presence +would be far more useful elsewhere, constitutes one of the most serious +of the many practical drawbacks of the new system for which a remedy +will have to be found. It is as if not only the Parliamentary +representatives but the permanent officials of our own great public +departments were expected to sit through the debates in the House of +Commons, without even the facilities which the private rooms of +Ministers, the library, and the smoking rooms at Westminster afford for +quiet intervals of work between the division bells. Nor is that all. The +Council sat during the very months of the short "cold weather," when it +is customary and alone practicable for heads of departments to undertake +their annual tours of inspection. The _reductio ad absurdum_ is surely +reached in the case of the Commander-in-Chief and the Chief of the +Staff. Though the Imperial Council is itself debarred from dealing with +Army questions, they could be seen any day sitting through the debates +merely because their votes might conceivably be required to maintain the +official majority, and, except for one or two short excursions in the +intervals between the meetings of Council, they were tied to Calcutta +when they ought to have been travelling about the country and inspecting +the troops. Yet, it is generally admitted that at no period since the +Mutiny has it been more important for the Commander-in-Chief to maintain +the closest possible contact with the native army--especially when the +Commander-in-Chief is as popular with the Indian soldier as Sir O'Moore +Creagh. + +Another obvious drawback of the present arrangements is the +inconvenience to which members of Council from the provinces were +subjected by the irregular intervals at which the Council held its +actual sittings. Either they had to waste their time at Calcutta during +the intervals, to the detriment of their interests at home, or they had +to spend days in railway carriages rushing backwards and forwards from +their homes to the capital, for in a country of such magnificent +distances there are few journeys that take less than 24 hours, and from +Calcutta, for instance, either to Madras or to Bombay takes the best +part of 48 hours. Unless arrangements are remodelled so as to enable the +Council to transact its business, whether _in pleno_ or in committee, +either in one session or in two short sessions, but in any case +continuously, many of its most valuable members, who have important +business, of their own which they cannot afford to neglect, will cease +to attend, and the Council will not only lose much of the representative +character, which is one of its best features at present, but will fall +inevitably under the preponderating influence of the professional +politician. In his closing speech Lord Minto outlined a scheme which +would in some measure meet this difficulty, but it is doubtful whether +it will prove by any means adequate. Another point which requires +consideration is whether it is desirable for the Viceroy to preside +himself over the deliberations of the Council. Even if he could properly +afford the time for it, it seems hardly expedient that the immediate +representative of the King-Emperor should be drawn into the arena of +public controversies. Proceedings are bound to grow more and more +contentious, and delicate questions of procedure will arise and have to +be settled from the chair. These are all matters in which the Viceroy +should not be committed to the premature exercise, on the spur of the +moment, of his supreme authority. + +One of the chief purposes which the creation of the new Councils is +intended to achieve is that of enlightening Indian opinion throughout +the country by means of the enlarged opportunities given for the +discussion of public affairs. But that purpose will be defeated unless +the discussions receive adequate publicity. They certainly did not do so +this winter. Not only is the art of gallery reporting still in its +infancy, but many of the Indian newspapers have still to learn that "it +is not cricket" to report only the speeches of their political friends +and to omit or compress into a few lines the speeches of their +adversaries. A glaring instance of this shortcoming was afforded by the +_Bengalee_. The Nationalist organ published Mr. Bupendra Nath Bose's +speech on the partition of Bengal _in extenso_, as he had intended to +deliver it, without taking the slightest notice of the fact that he was +repeatedly called to order by the Viceroy and had in consequence to drop +out whole passages of his oration, and it published practically nothing +else--though perhaps no other indictment of the Government during the +whole session was more successfully refuted, both by the official +spokesman, Mr. Lyon, and by other Indian members. Apart, however, from +any such deliberate unfairness, the communication of speeches in advance +to the Press should be strenuously discountenanced. Many official +members showed that they could perfectly well dispense with the +doubtful advantage of knowing beforehand exactly what their critics were +going to say, and, if once this practice is stopped, newspapers, +relieved from the temptation of giving undue preference to easy "copy," +will learn to cultivate and to rely upon more legitimate methods of +reporting. It is to be hoped also that the _Gazette of India_, which +publishes the official verbatim reports, will not in future lag so far +behind the actual proceedings. + +All these are minor points. The dominant feature of the Session was that +in spite of wide divergences of views, the proceedings were generally +dignified, sometimes even to the verge of dulness, and with one or two +exceptions they were marked by good feeling on all sides. It would be +unfair not to give to Mr. Gokhale his full share of credit for this +happy result. Though often an unrelenting critic of the Administration, +he struck from the first a note of studied moderation and restraint to +which most of his political friends attuned their utterances. He +naturally assumed the functions of the leader of his Majesty's +Opposition, and he discharged them, not only with the ability which +every one expected of him, but with the urbanity and self-restraint of a +man conscious of his responsibilities as well as of his powers. His was, +amongst the Indian members, not only the master mind, but the dominant +personality. The European members, on the other hand, showed themselves +invariably courteous and good-tempered, and not a few awkward corners +were turned by a little good-humoured banter. Nor was it unusual to see +the Englishman come and sit down by the side of the Indian member to +whose indictment he had just been replying, and in friendly conversation +take all personal sting out of the controversy. As Lord Minto aptly put +it, the Council-room "has brought people together. Official and +non-official members have met each other. The official wall which of +necessity to some extent separated them has been broken down. They have +talked over many things together." From this point of view, if future +sessions fulfil the promise of the first one, the Imperial Council may +grow into a potent instrument for good. + +Of the deeper significance which underlay the meeting of this remarkable +assembly it is still perhaps premature to speak. But cautious and +tentative as was the attitude of all parties concerned, and free as, +from beginning to end, the proceedings were from any startling +incidents, no one can have watched them without being conscious of the +presence of new forces of vast potentiality which must tend to modify +very profoundly the relations between the governors and the governed in +India itself, and possibly even between India and the Mother Country. +They are the forces, largely still unknown, which have been brought into +play by Lord Morley's Constitutional reforms, and though they made +themselves naturally more conspicuously felt in the Imperial Council at +Calcutta, they were present in every one of the enlarged Legislative +Councils of the Provincial Governments. + +It is no part of my purpose to recount in detail the long, though +generally dispassionate, controversy to which these reforms gave rise. +We may not all be agreed as to the necessity or wisdom of some of the +changes embodied in them, and some may think that we are inclined to +travel too fast and too far on a road which Indians have not up to the +present shown themselves qualified to tread without danger. But there +are few Englishmen either at home or in India who do not recognize the +statesmanlike spirit in which Lord Morley, loyally seconded throughout +by Lord Minto, has approached the very difficult problem of giving to +the people of India a larger consultative voice in administration as +well as in legislation without jeopardizing the stability or impairing +the supremacy of British control. The future alone can show how far +these far-reaching changes will justify the generous expectations of +their author, but taken as a whole they undoubtedly represent a +constructive work which is fully worthy of the fine record of British +rule in India. + +How very far-reaching they are the merest indication of their most +salient features will suffice to indicate. For the sake of convenience, +though they form a homogeneous whole, they may be divided roughly into +two categories--those that affect the Executive Councils and those that +have remodelled the Legislative Councils. To the former category +belong:-- + +(1) The appointment of an Indian member to the Viceroy's Executive +Council. Mr. S.P. Sinha, a Bengalee barrister in large practice, was +appointed to be legal member, and the ability and distinction with which +he discharged the duties of his high office have gone far to remove the +misgivings of many of those who were at first opposed to this new +departure. It is the more to be regretted that his services will be lost +to the new Viceroy, as he has announced his intention of retiring, for +personal reasons, at the end of Lord Minto's Viceroyalty[15]. + +(2) The appointment of one Indian member to the Executive Councils of +the Governors of Madras and Bombay. The Rajah of Bobbili has been +appointed in Madras and Mr. M.B. Chaubal in Bombay. An Indian will also +be appointed to the Executive Council of the Lieutenant-Governor of +Bengal as soon as that body has been finally constituted[16], and +similar appointments will be made to the Executive Councils of the chief +Indian provinces when the powers taken to create those bodies shall be +put into operation. + +(3) The appointment of two Indians, one a Hindu and the other a +Mahomedan, to be members of the Council of the Secretary of State, +generally known as the India Council, in Whitehall. Mr. K.G. Gupta and +Mr. Husain Bilgrami were appointed by Lord Morley in 1907. Mr. Bilgrami +retired early in 1910 owing to ill-health and his place has been taken +by Mr. M.A. Ali Baig. + +In principle, the introduction of natives of India into these inner +lines of the British Executive power undoubtedly constitutes, as Lord +Lansdowne has said, a "tremendous innovation," but it may be doubted +whether in practice the consequences will be as considerable as those of +the changes effected by the India Councils Act of 1909 in the +composition and attributions of the Imperial and Provincial Legislative +Councils. These changes are of a twofold character. In the first place +the total number of members has been very materially increased--e.g., +in the Imperial Legislative Council from 21 to a _maximum_ of 60; in the +Madras and Bombay Legislative Councils from 24 to a _maximum_ of 50; in +the Bengal Legislative Council from 20 to 50, &c. Room has thus been +made for the introduction of a much larger number of elected members, of +whom there will be in future not less than 135 altogether in the +different Legislative Councils, as against only 39 under the old +statutes. Still more important than the mere increase in the number of +elected members is the radical change in the proportion they will bear +to official members. Except in the Imperial Council, where, at the +instance of Lord Morley, a small official majority has been retained +which Lord Minto himself was willing to dispense with, there will no +longer be any official majority. The regulations determining the +electorates and the mode of election have been framed with praiseworthy +elasticity in accordance with local requirements, and care has been +taken to provide as far as possible for an adequate representation of +all the most important communities and interests. In view of the +manifold and profound lines of cleavage which exist in Indian society, +it is extremely improbable that all the elected members will ever +combine against the official minority except in such rare and improbable +cases as might produce an absolute consensus of Indian opinion, and in +such cases it is even more improbable that Government would ignore so +striking a manifestation. Nevertheless, as a safeguard against the +possibility of factious opposition, the right of veto has been reserved +to the Provincial Executives and in the last resort to the +Governor-General in Council. + +Thus the Indian Councils Act of 1909 cannot be said to have actually +modified the position of the Indian Legislatures. With regard to the +most important of them--viz., the Imperial Council--Lord Morley was +careful to make this perfectly clear in his despatch of November 27, +1908, in which he reviewed the proposals put forward in the Government +of India despatch of October 1. "It is an essential condition of the +reform policy," the Secretary of State wrote, "that the Imperial +supremacy should in no degree be compromised. I must therefore regard it +as essential that your Excellency's Council, in its legislative as well +as in its executive character, should continue to be so constituted as +to ensure its constant and uninterrupted power to fulfil the +constitutional obligation that it owes, and must always owe, to his +Majesty's Government and to the Imperial Parliament." The Indian +Executive therefore remains, as hitherto, responsible only to the +Imperial Government at home, and the Imperial Council can exercise over +it no directly controlling power. The same holds good, _mutatis +mutandis_, of the Provincial Executives and their Councils. + +Indirectly, however, the Indian Councils Act of 1909 materially modifies +the relations between the Legislative Councils and the Executive by +giving to elected and non-official members opportunities which they have +never enjoyed before of discussing public policy and making their voices +heard and their influence felt on both administrative and legislative +matters. The revised rules of procedure, under which supplementary +questions may be grafted on to interpellations, and resolutions can be +moved not only in connexion with the financial statements of Government, +but, with certain specified reservations, on most matters of general +public interest, are undoubtedly calculated to afford a vastly larger +scope than in the past to the activities of Indian Legislatures, and it +will depend very much upon the ability and resourcefulness of members +themselves to what extent they may utilize these facilities for the +purpose of ultimately creating real powers of control. In an extremely +interesting and dispassionate study of the Indian Constitution, and of +the effects which the new reforms may have upon it, Mr. Rangaswami +Iyengar, a Hindu journalist of Madras, comes to the conclusion that "if +the powers now entrusted to the Councils are used with care, wisdom, and +discrimination, precedents and procedure analogous to those of the House +of Commons might gradually grow up, and might serve as a useful means if +not of directly controlling the Executive--a power which under the +present constitutional arrangement of the Government of India it is +impossible that the Council should possess--at least of directing the +Executive into correct and proper channels in regard to administrative +policy and administrative action." Not the least important of the +changes are those made in regard to Budget procedure. Indian +Legislatures will no more than in the past have power to vote or to veto +the Budget, but they will have henceforth an opportunity of setting +forth their views before the Budget has assumed its final shape. Members +will be able to discuss beforehand any changes in taxation, as well as +any new loans or additional grants to local governments, and they will +be taken into the confidence of Government with regard to the +determination of public expenditure. No doubt important heads of revenue +are still excluded from the purview of the Councils, but members will +have the right of placing on record their views in the form of +resolutions on all items not specifically excluded from their +cognisance, and the Finance Member will be bound to explain the reasons +why Government declines to accept any resolution that may have been +passed in the first two stages of the Budget. Much will depend upon the +reasonable and practical use which members make of these novel +opportunities, for, to quote Mr. Iyengar again, "the progress of +constitutional government is not dependent so much upon what is +expressly declared to be constitutional rights as upon what is silently +built up in the form of constitutional conventions." + +In the great speech in which Lord Morley gave the House of Lords the +first outline of his Indian reforms scheme there was one singularly +pregnant passage. "We at any rate," he said, "have no choice or option. +As an illustrious member of this House once said, we are watching a +great and stupendous process, the reconstruction of a decomposed +society. What we found was described as a parallel to Europe in the +fifth century, and we have now, as it were, before us in that vast +congeries of people we call India, a long, slow march in uneven stages +through all the centuries from the fifth to the twentieth. Stupendous +indeed, and to guide that transition with sympathy, political wisdom, +and courage, with a sense of humanity, duty, and national honour, may +well be called a glorious mission." Whether we succeed in that mission +must depend largely upon the loyal assistance we receive from those +Indians who claim, in virtue of their superior education, to represent +this twentieth century. Lord Morley has fulfilled in no niggardly spirit +his pledge to associate the people of India with the Government far more +closely than has hitherto been the case in the work of actual day-to-day +administration as well as in the more complex problems of legislation. +It rests now with the Indian representatives both in the Executive and +Legislative Councils to justify Lord Morley's expectations by using the +new machinery which he has placed in their hands not for purposes of +mere destructive criticism and malevolent obstruction, but for +intelligent and constructive co-operation with the British rulers of +India, to whom alone, whatever may be their shortcomings, India owes it +that the spirit of the twentieth century has spread to her shores. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE DEPRESSED CASTES. + + +The only classes in British India for whom no real representation has +been devised in the enlarged Indian Councils are the millions of humble +toilers who constitute what are known as the "depressed castes." Under +present social conditions in India, this was probably inevitable. +Though, rather unreasonably, the vast majority of them go to swell the +numbers of the Hindu population in the census upon which Hindu +representation ought, according to Hindu politicians, to be based, those +politicians have certainly not as yet shown any title to speak on their +behalf. For there is no more striking contrast to the liberal and +democratic professions of a body which claims, as does the Indian +National Congress, to represent an enlightened, progressive, and +national Hinduism than the fact that in the course of its 25 years' +existence it has scarcely done anything to give practical effect to its +theoretical repudiation of a social system that condemns some 50 +millions out of the 300 millions of the Hindu population of India to a +life of unspeakable degradation. For a long time to come, the depressed +castes will probably find, as in the past, their truest friends and best +qualified representatives among the European members of Council, who, +just because they are aliens, are free from all the influences, whether +of interest or of prejudice, which tend to divide Hindu society into so +many watertight compartments. Let any one who has any doubts on this +point read some of the documents published in the Blue-books on the +reforms--petitions from low-caste communities imploring Government not +to commit the defence of their interests to the Hindu Brahman, but to +continue to them the direct and unselfish protection which they have +hitherto enjoyed at the hands of British administrators. + +The "depressed classes" of whom we generally speak as Pariahs, though +the name properly belongs only to one particular caste, the Pareiyas in +Southern India, include all Hindus who do not belong to the four highest +or "clean" castes of Hinduism, and they are therefore now officially and +euphemistically designated as the Panchamas--i.e., the fifth caste. +Many of the Panchamas, especially in Southern India, are little better +than bonded serfs; others are condemned to this form of ostracism by the +trades they ply. Such are not only the scavengers and sweepers, but also +the workers in leather, the Chamars and Muchis of Northern and Central +India, and the Chakilians and Madigas of Southern India, who with their +families number 14 or 15 million souls; the washermen, the +_tadi_-drawers and vendors of spirituous liquors, the pressers of oil, +and, in many parts of the country, the cowherd and shepherd castes, &c. +They are generally regarded as descendants of the aboriginal tribes +overwhelmed centuries ago by the tide of Aryan conquest. Some of those +tribes, grouped together in the Indian Census under the denominational +rubric of "Animists" and numbering about 8-1/2 millions, have survived +to the present day in remote hills and jungles without being absorbed +into the Hindu social system, and have preserved their primitive +beliefs, in which fetish worship, and magic are the dominant elements. +Low as is their social _status_, it is but little lower than that of the +Panchamas who have obtained a footing on the nethermost rung of the +social ladder of Hinduism without being admitted to any sort of contact +with its higher civilization or even to the threshold of its temples. + +Hinduism with all its rigidity is, it is true, sufficiently elastic to +sanction, at least tacitly, a slow process of evolution by which the +Panchama castes--for there are many castes even amongst the +"untouchables"--gradually shake off to some extent the slough of +"uncleanness" and establish some sort of ill-defined relations even with +Brahmanism. For whilst there is on the one hand a slowly ascending scale +by which the Panchamas may ultimately hope to smuggle themselves in +amongst the inferior Sudras, the lowest of the four "clean" castes, so +there is a descending scale by which Brahmans, under the pressure of +poverty or disrepute, sink to so low a place in Brahmanism that they are +willing to lend their ministrations, at a price, to the more prosperous +of the Panchamas and help them on their way to a higher _status_. Thus +probably half the Sudras of the present day were at some more or less +remote period Panchamas. Again, during periods of great civil commotion, +as in the 18th century, when brute force was supreme, not a few +Panchamas, especially low-caste Mahrattas, made their way to the front +as soldiers of fortune, and even carved out kingdoms to themselves at +the point of the sword. Orthodox Hinduism bowed in such cases to the +accomplished fact, just as it has acquiesced in later years when +education and the equality of treatment brought by British rule have +enabled a small number of Panchamas to qualify for employment under +Government. + +But these exceptions are so rare and the evolutionary process is so +infinitely slow and laborious that they do not visibly affect the +yawning gulf between the "clean" higher-caste Hindu and the "unclean" +Panchama. The latter may have learned to do _puja_ to Shiva or Kali or +other members of the Hindu Pantheon, but he is not allowed within the +precincts of their sanctuaries and has to worship from afar. Nor are the +disabilities of the Panchama merely spiritual. In many villages he has +to live entirely apart. He is not even allowed to draw water from the +village well, lest he should "pollute" it by his touch, and where there +is no second well for the "untouchables," the hardship is cruel, +especially in seasons of drought when casual water dries up. In every +circumstance of his life the vileness of his lot is brought home to the +wretched pariah by an elaborate and relentless system of social +oppression. I will only quote one or two instances which have come +within my own observation. The respective distances beyond which +Panchamas must not approach a Brahman lest they "pollute" him differ +according to their degree of uncleanness. Though they have been laid +down with great precision, it is growing more and more difficult to +enforce them with the increasing promiscuity of railway and street-car +intercourse, but in more remote parts of India, and especially in the +south, the old rules are still often observed. In Cochin a few years ago +I was crossing a bridge, and just in front of me walked a +respectable-looking native. He suddenly turned tail, and running back to +the end of the bridge from which we had both come, plunged out of sight +into the jungle on the side of the road. He had seen a Brahman entering +on to the bridge from the other end, and he had fled incontinently +rather than incur the resentment of that high-caste gentleman by +inflicting upon him the "pollution" of forbidden proximity as the +bridge, though a fairly broad one, was not wide enough for them to pass +each other at the prescribed distance. In the native State of Travancore +it is not uncommon to see a Panchama witness in a lawsuit standing about +a hundred yards from the Court so as not to defile the Brahman Judge and +pleaders, whilst a row of _peons_, or messengers, stationed between him +and the Court, hand on its questions to him and pass back his replies. + +No doubt the abject ignorance and squalor and the repulsive habits of +many of these unfortunate castes help to explain and to perpetuate their +ostracism, but they do not exculpate a social system which prescribes +or tolerates such a state of things. That if a kindly hand is extended +to them, even the lowest of these depressed can be speedily raised to a +higher plane has been abundantly shown by the efforts of Christian +missionaries. They are only now beginning to extend their activities to +the depressed castes of Northern India, but in Southern India important +results have already been achieved. The Bishop of Madras claims that +within the last 40 years, in the Telugu country alone, some 250,000 +Panchamas have become Christians, and in Travancore another 100,000. +During the last two decades especially the philanthropic work done by +the missionaries in plague and famine time has borne a rich harvest, for +the Panchamas have naturally turned a ready ear to the spiritual +ministrations of those who stretched out their hands to help them in the +hour of extreme need. Bishop Whitehead, who has devoted himself +particularly to this question, assures me that, in Southern India at +least, the rate at which the elevation of the depressed castes can be +achieved depends mainly upon the amount of effort which the Christian +missions can put forth. If their organizations can be adequately +strengthened and extended so as to deal with the increasing numbers of +inquirers and converts, and, above all, to train native teachers, he is +convinced that we may be within measurable distance of the reclamation +of the whole Panchama population. What the effect would be from the +social as well as the religious point of view may be gathered from a +recent report of the Telugu Mission, which most lay witnesses would, I +believe readily confirm:-- + + If we look at the signs of moral and spiritual progress + during the last 40 years, the results of the mission work have + been most encouraging. It is quite true that naturally the + Panchamas are poor, dirty, ignorant, and, as a consequence + of many centuries of oppression, peculiarly addicted + to the more mean and servile vices. But the most hopeful + element in their case is that they are conscious of their + degradation and eager to escape from it. As a consequence, + when formed into congregations under the care of earnest + and capable teachers, they make marked progress materially, + intellectually, and morally. Their gross ignorance disappears; + they become cleaner and more decent in their persons + and homes; they give up cattle poisoning and grain stealing, + two crimes particularly associated with their class; they + abstain from the practice of infant marriage and concubinage, + to which almost all classes of Hindu society are addicted; + they lose much of the old servile spirit which led them to + grovel at the feet of their social superiors, and they acquire + more sense of the rights and dignity which belong to + them as men. Where they are able to escape their + surroundings they prove themselves in no way inferior, + either in mental or in moral character, to the best of their + fellow-countrymen. Especially is this the case in the Mission + Boarding Schools, where the change wrought is a moral + miracle. In many schools and colleges Christian lads of + Panchama origin are holding their own with, and in not a + few cases are actually outstripping, their Brahman competitors. + ... In one district the Hindus themselves + bore striking testimony to the effect of Christian teaching on + the pariahs, "Before they became Christians," one of them + said, "we had always to lock up our storehouses, and were + always having things stolen. But now all that is changed, + We can leave our houses open and never lose anything." + +In the heyday of the Hindu Social Reform Movement, before it was checked +by the inrush of political agitation, the question of the elevation of +the depressed castes was often and earnestly discussed by progressive +Hindus themselves, but it is only recently that it has again been taken +up seriously by some of the Hindu leaders, and notably by Mr. Gokhale. +One of the utterances that has produced the greatest impression in Hindu +circles is a speech made last year by the Gaekwar of Baroda, a Hindu +Prince who not only professes advanced Liberal views, but whose heart +naturally goes out to the depressed castes, as the fortunes of his own +house were made in the turmoil of the eighteenth century by a Mahratta +of humble extraction, if not actually of low-caste origin. His Highness +does not attempt to minimize the evils of the system. + + The same principles which impel us to ask for political + Justice for ourselves should actuate us to show social justice + to each other.... By the sincerity of our efforts to + uplift the depressed classes we shall be judged fit to achieve + the objects of our national desire.... The system which + divides us into innumerable castes claiming to rise by + minutely graduated steps from the pariah to the Brahman + is a whole tissue of injustice, splitting men equal by nature + into divisions high and low, based not on the natural standard + of personal qualities but on accidents of birth. The eternal + struggle between caste and caste for social superiority has + become a constant source of ill-feeling.... Want of + education is practically universal amongst the depressed + classes, but this cannot have been the cause of their fall, for + many of the so-called higher classes in India share in the + general ignorance. Unlike them, however, they are unable + to attend the ordinary schools owing to the idea that it is + pollution to touch them. To do so is to commit a sin offensive + alike to religion and to conventional morality. Of + professions as a means of livelihood these depressed classes + have a very small choice. Here, too, the supposed pollution + of their touch comes in their way. On every hand we find + that the peculiar difficulty from which they suffer, in addition to + others that they share with other classes, is their "untouchableness." + +After a powerful argument against the theory of "untouchableness" and +against priestly intolerance, the Gaekwar urges not only upon Hindus, +but upon Government the duty of attacking in all earnestness this +formidable problem. + + A Government within easy reach of the latest thought, + with unlimited moral and material resources, such as there + is in India, should not remain content with simply asserting + the equality of men under the common law and maintaining + order, but must sympathetically see from time to time that + the different sections of its subjects are provided with ample + means of progress. Many of the Indian States where they + are at all alive to the true functions of government, owing + to less elevating surroundings or out of nervousness, fear to + strike out a new path and find it less troublesome to follow + the policy of _laisser faire_ and to walk in the footsteps of the + highest Government in India, whose declared policy is to let + the social and religious matters of the people alone except + where questions of grave importance are involved. When + one-sixth of the people are in a chronically depressed and + ignorant condition, no Government can afford to ignore + the urgent necessity of doing what it can for their elevation. + +Can the Government of India afford to disregard so remarkable an appeal? +The question is not merely a social and moral question, but also a +political one. Whilst some high-caste Hindus are beginning to recognize +its urgency, the more prosperous of the socially depressed castes +themselves are showing signs of restlessness under the ostracism to +which they are subjected. From almost all of these castes a few +individuals have always emerged, who acquired wealth and the relative +recognition that wealth brings with it, and the numbers of such +individuals are increasing. In some cases a whole caste has seen its +circumstances improve under new economic conditions entirety beyond its +own control--like the Namasudras of Bengal, who, as agriculturists, have +had their share of the growing agricultural prosperity of that region. +They are materially better off than they used to be, and so they are no +longer content with their old social _status_ of inferiority. Not only +Christian but Mahomedan missionaries have been at work amongst them, and +though the vast majority remain Hindus, they note, like the Panchamas +all over India must note, the immediate rise in the social scale of +their fellow-caste-men who embrace either Christianity or Islam. For it +is one of the anomalies of this peculiar conception that the most +untouchable Hindu ceases to be quite as untouchable when he becomes a +Christian or a Mahomedan. The Bengalee politician was quick to see the +danger of losing hold altogether of the Namasudras, and he set up a +propaganda of his own, which I have already described, with the object +of winning them over to his side and to his methods of agitation by +promising them in return a relaxation of caste stringency. The question +with which we are confronted is whether we shall ourselves take a hand +in the elevation of the depressed castes or whether we shall leave it to +others, many of whom would exploit them for their own purposes. Is not +this an opportunity for the Government of India to respond to the +Gaekwar's invitation and depart for once from their traditional policy +of _laisser faire_? In the Christian Missions they have an admirable +organization ready to hand which merely requires encouragement and +support. Though there are manifold dangers in giving official +countenance to proselytizing work amongst the higher classes of Indian +society, none of those objections can reasonably lie to co-operating in +the reclamation of whole classes which the orthodox Hindu regards as +beyond the pale of human intercourse. From the religious point of view, +this is a matter which should engage the earnest attention of the great +missionary societies of this country. The hour seems to be at hand when +a great and combined effort is required of them. From the moral and +social point of view they may well claim in this connexion the sympathy +and support of all denominations and no-denominations that are +interested in the welfare and progress of backward races. From the +political point of view the conversion of so many millions of the +population of India to the faith of their rulers would open up prospects +of such moment that I need not expatiate upon them. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE NATIVE STATES. + + +One of the chief features of the original scheme of constitutional +reforms submitted to the Secretary of State by the Government of India +was the creation of an Imperial Advisory Council composed of ruling +chiefs and territorial magnates. The proposal gave rise to a variety of +objections, the most serious one being the difficulty of adjusting the +relations to the Government of India of a Council in which the most +conspicuous members could have had no definite _locus standi_ in regard +to the internal affairs of British India--i.e., of the larger part of +our Indian dependency under direct British administration. The +difficulty was evaded by dropping the proposal. But to evade a +difficulty is only to postpone it. Though the constitutional reforms are +confined, in their immediate application, to British India, measures of +such far-reaching importance must react more or less directly upon the +whole of our Indian Empire. Is it therefore politic, or, indeed, +possible, to leave out of account the Native States, which occupy +altogether about one-third of the total area of India and have an +aggregate population of over 68 millions, or to ignore the rulers +charged with their administration? + +The Native States of India vary in size and importance from powerful +principalities like the Nizam's State of Hyderabad, with an area of +82,000 miles--nearly equal to that of England and Wales and Scotland--- +and a population of over 11 millions, down to diminutive chiefships, +smaller than the holdings of a great English landlord. Distributed +throughout the whole length and breadth of the peninsula, they display +the same extraordinary variety of races and creeds and castes and +languages and customs and traditions as the provinces under the +immediate governance of the Viceroy, and their rulers themselves +represent almost every phase and aspect of Indian history. The Princes +of Rajputana, headed by the Maharana of Udaipur, with genealogies +reaching back into the mythical ages, have handed down to the present +day the traditions of Hindu chivalry. In the south of India, the rulers +of Mysore and Cochin and Iravancore, who also claim Rajput blood, still +personify the subjection of the older Dravidian races to the Aryan +invaders from the north. Mahratta chiefs like Scindia and the Gaekwar +date from the great uplifting of the Mahratta power in the eighteenth +century, whilst the Maharajah of Kolhapur is a descendant of Shivaji, +the first Mahratta chieftain to stem the tide of Mahomedan conquest more +than a century earlier. The great majority of the ruling princes and +chiefs are Hindus, but besides the Nizam, the most powerful of all, +there are not a few Mahomedan rulers who have survived the downfall of +Moslem supremacy, just as the Sikh chiefs of Patiala, Nabha, and +Kapurthala, in the Punjab, still recall the great days of Ranjit Singh +and the Sikh confederacy. In some of the Native States the ruling +families are neither of the same race nor of the same creed as the +majority of their subjects. The Nizam is a Sunni Mahomedan, but most of +his subjects are Hindus, and of the Mahomedans some of the most +influential are Shias. The Maharajah of Kashmir, a Hindu Rajput, rules +over many Mongolian Buddhists, whilst there are but few Mahrattas in +Gwalior or Indore, though both Holkar and Scindia are, Mahratta +Princes. + +In all the Native States the system of government is more or less of the +old patriarchal or personal type which has always obtained in the East, +but in its application it exhibits many variations which reflect +sometimes the idiosyncrasies of the ruler and sometimes the dominant +forces of inherited social traditions. In Cochin and Travancore, for +instance, the ancient ascendency of the Northern Brahmans over the +Dravidian subject races survives in some of its most archaic forms. +Udaipur and Jaipur have perhaps preserved more than any other States of +Rajputana the aristocratic conservatism of olden days, whilst some of +the younger Rajput chiefs have moved more freely with the times and with +their own Western education. The Gaekwar has gone further than any other +ruling chief in introducing into his State of Baroda the outward forms +of what we call Western progress, though his will is probably in all +essentials as absolute as that of Scindia, another Mahratta chief, whose +interest in every form of Western activity is displayed almost as much +in his physical energy as in his intellectual alertness. Some no doubt +abandon the conduct of public affairs almost entirely to their Ministers +and prefer a life of easy self-indulgence. Others, on the contrary, are +keen administrators, and insist upon doing everything themselves. As +masterful a ruler as any in the whole of India is a lady, the Begum of +Bhopal, a Mahomedan Princess of rare attainments and character. The +Nizam, on the other hand, though an absolute ruler, has recently placed +it on record that he attributes the peaceful content and law-abiding +character of his subjections to the liberal traditions he has inherited +from his ancestors. "They were singularly free from all religious and +racial prejudices. Their wisdom and foresight induced them to employ +Hindus and Mahomedans, Europeans, and Parsees alike, in carrying on the +administration, and they reposed entire confidence in their officers +whatever religion and race they belonged to." To those principles his +Highness rightly claims to have himself adhered. + +Again, though the relationship of the Supreme Government to all these +rulers is one of suzerainty, it is governed in each particular case by +special and different treaties which vary the extent and nature of the +control exercised over them. In some of its aspects, the principles of +our policy towards them were admirably set forth in a speech delivered +in November, 1909, by Lord Minto at Udaipur. "In guaranteeing their +internal independence and in undertaking their protection against +external aggression, it naturally follows that the Imperial Government +has assumed a certain degree of responsibility for the general soundness +of their administration, and would not consent to incur the reproach of +being an indirect instrument of misrule. There are also certain matters +in which it is necessary for the Government of India to safeguard the +interests of the community as a whole, as well as those of the Paramount +Power, such as railways, telegraphs, and other services of an Imperial +character." At the same time the Viceroy wisely laid great stress on the +fact that, in pursuance of the pledges given by the British Crown to the +rulers of the Native States, "our policy is with rare exceptions one of +non-interference in their internal affairs," and he pointed out that, as +owing to the varying conditions of different States "any attempt at +complete uniformity and subservience to precedent" must be dangerous, he +had endeavoured "to deal with questions as they arose with reference to +existing treaties, the merits of each case, local conditions, antecedent +circumstances, and the particular stage of development, feudal and +constitutional, of individual principalities." It is obviously +impossible to enforce a more rigid control over the feudatory States at +the same time as we are delegating larger powers to the natives of India +under direct British administration. This is a point which Lord Minto +might indeed have emphasized with advantage. For there seems to be a +growing tendency, probably at home rather than in India, to ignore our +responsibilities towards the ruling chiefs, and to regard them as more +or less negligible quantities in the constitutional experiments we are +making in our Indian Empire. When an emergency arises such as a frontier +war or a military expedition in the Sudan or in China, we appeal +unhesitatingly to the loyalty of the Princes of India, and so far they +have cheerfully borne their share in these Imperial enterprises though +they were never drawn into consultation beforehand, and their own +material interests were not directly involved. On the other hand, +questions which do involve their material interests, questions which +necessarily affect the well-being of their States quite as much as that +of British India, questions of tariff and of currency that react upon +the economic prosperity of the whole of India are settled between +Whitehall and Government House at Calcutta without their opinion being +even invited. Sometimes even decisions are taken without their knowledge +on matters that directly affect their own exchequers, as in the matter +of the opium trade with China. Some of the native States are the largest +producers of the Indian poppy, and in order to satisfy the +susceptibilities, very meritorious in themselves, of our national +conscience, we lightheartedly impose upon them, without consultation or +prospect of compensation, the sacrifice, which costs us nothing, of one +of the most valuable products of their soil and chief sources of +revenue. Can they do otherwise than draw unfavourable comparisons +between the harsh measure meted out to them in this matter and the +generous treatment of the West Indies by the Mother Country when +L20,000,000 were voted out of the Imperial Exchequer towards +compensation for the material losses arising out of the abolition of +slavery? + +How important it is to associate the Princes of India with the purposes +of our Indian policy has seldom been more clearly shown than during +these last troublous years when the forces of disaffection have revealed +themselves as a serious public danger. The principle of authority +cannot be attacked in British India without suffering diminution in the +Native States. They are not shut up in watertight compartments and +sedition cannot be preached on one side of a border, which in most cases +is merely an administrative boundary line, without finding an echo on +the other side. The prestige of an Indian Prince in his own land is +great. It is rooted in most cases in ancient traditions to which no +alien rulers can appeal. Nevertheless some of the most experienced and +enlightened of the ruling chiefs showed a much earlier and livelier +appreciation of the subversive tendencies of Indian unrest than those +responsible for the governance of British India. Some of them, like the +Maharajahs of Kolhapur and of Patiala, have been brought face to face +with the same violent, and even with the same criminal, methods of +agitation as the Government of India has had to deal with in provinces +under British administration. The Maharajah of Jaipur and Maharajah +Scindia felt themselves constrained just about a year ago to enact +vigorous measures on their own account against sedition and against the +importation into their States of seditious literature which was still +allowed to circulate with impunity in British India, whilst the State of +Bikanir was the first to introduce an Explosive Substances Act +immediately after the epidemic of bomb-throwing had broken out in +Bengal. Other States have also taken strong preventive measures, but +many have fortunately been spared so far any serious trouble within +their own borders, and their rulers have been able to study the problem +merely as interested observers and from the point of view of the general +welfare of the country. + +On August 65 1909, the Viceroy took the unusual step of communicating +direct with all the principal ruling Princes and Chiefs of India on the +subject of the Active unrest prevalent in many parts of the country, and +invited an exchange of opinions "with a view to mutual co-operation +against a common danger." Some doubts were then expressed as to the +wisdom of such a course, on the ground that it might create in the +protected States an impression of exaggerated alarm. 'But the tone and +substance of the replies which his Excellency's communication elicited +showed that there was no reason for any such apprehensions. The Ruling +Chiefs, on the contrary, appreciated and reciprocated the confidence +reposed in them, and their replies, indeed, constitute an exceptionally +interesting and instructive set of documents; for the very diversity of +origin and traditions and influence gives peculiar weight to the +position assumed by the rulers of the Native States towards the forces +of active unrest in India. Had those forces merely been engaged in a +legitimate struggle for the enlargement of Indian rights and liberties, +it is scarcely conceivable that the Ruling Princes and Chiefs should +have passed judgment against them with such overwhelming unanimity. + +It may be argued that in replying to a Viceregal _Kharita_, the Ruling +Chiefs could hardly do less than recognize the existence of the "common +danger" to which Lord Minto had drawn their attention. But the careful +analysis of the influences behind the agitation and the practical +suggestions for dealing with it which the majority of the replies +contain, prove that their opinions are certainly not framed "to order." +They represent the convictions and experience of a group of responsible +Indians better situated in some respects to obtain accurate information +about the doings and feelings of their fellow-countrymen than any +Anglo-Indian administrators can be. The language of the Nizam is +singularly apt and direct, "Once the forces of lawlessness and disorder +are let loose there is no knowing where they will stop. It is true that, +compared with the enormous population of India, the disaffected people +are a very insignificant minority, but, given time and opportunity, +there exists the danger of this small minority spreading its tentacles +all over the country and inoculating with its poisonous doctrines the +classes and masses hitherto untouched by this seditious movement." The +Maharana of Udaipur, speaking with the authority of his unique position +amongst Hindus as the premier Prince of Rajputana, not only condemns an +agitation "which is detrimental to all good government and social +administration," but declares it to be "a great disgrace to their name +as also to their religious beliefs that, in spite of the great +prosperity India has enjoyed under the British _regime_, people are +acting in such an ungrateful way." No less emphatic is the Mahratta +ruler of Gwalior:--"The question is undoubtedly a grave one, affecting +as it does the future well-being of India," and "it particularly behoves +those who preside over the destinies of the people and have large +personal stakes to do all in their power to grapple with it vigorously." +The Maharajah of Jaipur, one of the wisest of the older generation of +Hindu rulers, agrees that "only a small fraction of the population has +been contaminated by the seditious germ," but he adds significantly that +"that fraction has, it seems, been carefully organized by able, rich, +and unscrupulous men," and he does not hesitate to declare that "an +organized and concerted campaign, offensive and defensive, against the +common enemy is what is wanted." + +According to the Rajah of Dewas, one of the most enlightened of the +younger Hindu chiefs, "it is a well known fact that the endeavours of +the seditious party are directed not only against the Paramount Power, +but against all constituted forms of government in India, through an +absolutely misunderstood sense of 'patriotism,' and through an +attachment to the popular idea of 'government by the people,' when every +level-headed Indian must admit that India generally has not in any way +shown its fitness for a popular government." He goes so far even as to +state his personal conviction that history and all "sound-minded" people +agree that India cannot really attain to the standard of popular +government as understood by the West. + +It is another Hindu ruler, the Rajah of Ratlam, who points out the close +connexion, upon which I have had to lay repeated stress, between +religious revivalism and sedition. He recognizes that "Hindus, and for +the matter of that all Oriental peoples, are swayed more by religion +than by anything else." Government have hitherto adopted, and rightly +adopted, the policy of allowing perfect freedom in the matter of +religious beliefs, but as the seditionists are seeking to connect their +anarchical movement with religion, and the political _Sadhu_ is abroad, +it is high time to change the policy of non-interference in so-called +religious affairs. The new religion which is now being preached, "with +its worship of heroes like Shivaji and the doctrine of India for India +alone," deserves, this Hindu Prince boldly declares, to be treated as +Thuggism and Suttee were treated, which both claimed the sanction of +religion. "It pains me," he adds, "to write as above, but already +religion has played a prominent part in this matter, and religious books +were found in almost every search made for weapons and bombs. The _role_ +of the priest or the _Sadhu_ is most convenient, and rulers have bowed, +and do bow, to religious preachers. These people generally distort the +real import of religious precepts, and thereby vitiate the public mind. +The founders are sly enough to flatter the Government by an occasional +address breathing loyalty and friendship, but it is essential to check +this religious propaganda." + +The rulers of the Native States are not content merely to profess +loyalty and reprobate disaffection. With the exception of the Gaekwar, +whose reply, without striking any note of substantial dissent, is, +marked, by a certain coolness that has won for him the applause of the +Nationalist Press, they respond heartily to the Viceroy's request for +suggestions as to the most effective measures to cope with the evil. +Most of them put in the very forefront of their recommendations the +necessity of checking the licence of the Indian Press, to which they +attribute the main responsibility for the widening of the gulf between +the rulers and the ruled. And it should be remembered that these +opinions were expressed some months before the Imperial Government and +the Government of India decided to introduce the new Press Act. The +Nizam holds that newspapers publishing false allegations or exaggerated +reports should be officially called upon "to print formal contradiction +or correction as directed." For, in his Highness's opinion, "it is no +longer safe or desirable to treat with silent contempt any perverse +statement which is publicly made, because the spread of education on the +one hand has created a general interest in the news of the country, and +a section of the Press, on the other hand, deliberately disseminates +news calculated to promote enmity between Europeans and Indians, or to +excite hatred of Government and its officers in the ignorant and +credulous minds." Several Chiefs recommend more summary proceedings and +less publicity in the case of political offences, as, though such +measures may appear arbitrary at first sight, "they are quite suited to +the country." Several agree that a closer watch should be kept on +"religious mendicants" who go about in the guise of _Sadhus_ preaching +sedition, and that a more intimate exchange of secret intelligence +should take place with regard to the seditious propaganda between the +different States and the Government of India. Others believe in the +creation of counter-organizations to inform and encourage the loyal +elements. + +But it is perhaps on the question of education that some of the Ruling +Chiefs speak with the greatest weight and authority, and there is +nothing they more deeply deplore than the divorce of secular instruction +from religious and moral training, which they hold responsible for much +of the present mischief. "Strange as it may sound," says the Rajah of +Dewas, "it is a well-known fact that the germs of the present unrest in +India were laid by that benefactor of the human race, education." +Another Chief is of opinion that, as the formation of character is the +highest object of education, all public schools should be graded by the +results they achieve in this direction rather than by high percentages +in examinations; whilst others strongly recommend the extension of the +residential college system and greater care in the selection of good +teachers. + +One may possibly not agree with all the opinions expressed or with all +the recommendations made in this correspondence, but their general +uniformity cannot fail to carry weight. It certainly carried weight with +both the Government of India and the Imperial Government. Not only did +it admittedly contribute to the enactment of the Indian Press Bill of +February last, but it has probably also contributed to bring about a +more general recognition of the urgency of the Indian educational +problem. The effect produced in India itself by the publication of the +views held by the rulers of Native States, many of whom enjoy great +prestige and influence far beyond the limits of their immediate +dominions, was naturally considerable. The "extremists" were lashed to +fury, and none of the seditious leaflets directed against the "alien" +rulers and "sun-dried bureaucrats" was more violent than one issued in +reply to these utterances of the rulers of their own race. One of the +ruling Chiefs to whom it had been sent gave me a copy of it as "a +characteristic document." It is headed: "Choose, O Indian Princes." It +begins, it is true, by assuring them that there is not as yet any +cut-and-dried scheme for dealing with them. + + No one but the voice of the Mother herself will and can + determine when once She comes to herself and stands free + what constitution shall be adopted by Her for the guidance + of Her life after the revolution is over. ... Without + going into details we may mention this much, that whether + the head of the Imperial Government of the Indian Nation + be a President or a King depends upon how the revolution + develops itself ... The Mother must be free, must + be one and united, must make her will supreme. Then it + may be that She gives out this Her will either wearing a kingly + crown on Her head or a Republican mantle round Her sacred + form. + +But after being exhorted in impassioned accents either to sacrifice +themselves in the great national struggle now at hand, or at the very +least to stand back and keep the ring, they are warned as to the +consequences of disregarding these admonitions:-- + + Forget not, O Princes! that a strict account will be asked + of your doings and non-doings, and a people newly-born + will not fail to pay you in the coin you paid. Every one + who shall have actively betrayed the trust of the people, + disowned his fathers, and debased his blood by arraying + himself against the Mother--he shall be crushed to dust + and ashes.... Do you doubt our grim earnestness! + If so hear the name of Dhingra and be dumb. In the name + of that martyr, O Indian Princes, we ask you to think + solemnly and deeply upon these words. Choose as you will + and you will reap what you sow. Choose whether you shall + be the first of the nation's fathers or the last of the nation's + tyrants. + +In some less rabid quarters an attempt has been made to decry the views +of the native rulers as emanating from petty Oriental despots, terrified +by the onward march of the new Indian democracy. If so it is strange +that whilst these "despots" make no secret of their attitude towards +disaffection, they are equally outspoken on the necessity of a liberal +and progressive policy. The Nizam himself states emphatically that he is +"a great believer in conciliation and repression going hand in hand to +cope with the present condition of India. While sedition should be +localized and rooted out sternly, and even mercilessly, deep sympathy +and unreserved reliance should manifest themselves in all dealings with +loyal subjects without distinction of creed, caste, and colour." +Unfortunately it requires at the present day more courage for an Indian +to hold such language as that than to coquet, as many politicians do, +with violence and crime. Indians in high position are peculiarly +sensitive to printed attacks, perhaps because behind such attacks there +often lurk forms of social pressure, rendered possible by their caste +system, with which we, happily for ourselves, are totally unfamiliar. +One of the most discouraging features of the present situation is that +so few among the "moderate" politicians who are known to share and +approve the views expressed by the Princes of India have had the moral +courage to endorse them publicly. + +The fearless response made by the ruling Chiefs to Lord Minto's appeal +for advice and support in the repression of sedition conveys at the same +time another lesson which we may well take to heart. The Government of +India consulted them after the danger had arisen and become manifest. Is +it not possible that, had we maintained closer touch with them in the +past, had we appreciated more fully the value of their knowledge and +experience, the danger might never have arisen or would never have +attained such threatening proportions? At any rate, now that the +consciousness of a common danger has drawn Princes and Government closer +together, no time should be lost in establishing some machinery which +would secure for the future a more sustained and intimate co-operation +between them. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +CROSS CURRENTS + + +The political aspects of Indian unrest have compelled me to dwell +chiefly upon the evil forces which it has generated. But contact with +the West has acted as a powerful ferment for good as well as for evil +upon every class of Indian society that has come more or less directly +under its influence. Were it otherwise we should indeed have to admit +the moral bankruptcy of our civilization. The forces of unrest are made +up of many heterogeneous and often conflicting elements, and even in +their most mischievous manifestations there are sometimes germs of good +which it should be our business to preserve and to develop. Largely as +the classes touched, however superficially, by Western education have of +late years been invaded by a spirit of reaction and of revolt against +all for which that education stands, they have not yet by any means been +wholly conquered by it. It is the breath of the West that has stirred +the spiritual and intellectual activity of which Hindu revivalism and +political disaffection, glorified under the name of Nationalism, are +unfortunately the most prominent and the most recent but not the only +outcome. Another and much healthier outcome is the sense of social duty +and social service which has grown up amongst many educated Indians of +all races and creeds, and amongst none more markedly than amongst the +Hindus. Traditions of mutual helpfulness are indeed deep-rooted in +India as in all Oriental communities. Mutual helpfulness is the best +feature of the caste system, of the Hindu family system, of the old +Indian village system, and it explains the absence in a country where +there is so much poverty of those abject forms of pauperism with which +we are compelled at home to deal through the painful medium of our Poor +Laws. But until the leaven of Western ideas had been imported into India +mutual helpfulness was generally confined within the narrow limits of +distinct and separate social units. It is now slowly expanding out of +watertight compartments into a more spacious conception of the social +inter-dependence of the different classes of the community. This +expansion of the Indian's social horizon began with the social reform +movement which had kindled the enthusiasm, of an older generation in the +'70's and '80's of the last century. Far from being, as some contend, a +by-product of the more recent Nationalism, which had never been heard of +at that period, its progress, as I have already shown, has been hampered +not only by the reactionary tendencies of this Nationalism in religious +and social matters, but by the diversion of some of the best energies of +the country into the relatively barren field of political agitation. + +Though social reform has been checked, it has not been altogether +arrested, nor can it be arrested so long as British rule, by the mere +fact of its existence, maintains the ascendency of Western ideals. +Happily there are still plenty of educated Indians who realize that the +liberation of Indian society from the trammels which are of its own +making is much more urgent than its enfranchisement from an alien yoke. +Even amongst politicians of almost every complexion the necessity of +removing from the Indian social system the reproach of degrading +anachronisms is finding at least theoretical recognition. Alongside of +more conspicuous political organizations devoted mainly to political +propaganda, other organizations have been quietly developing all over +India whose chief purpose it is to grapple with social, religious, and +economic problems which are not, or need not necessarily be, in any way +connected with politics. Their voices are too often drowned by the +louder clamour of the politicians pure and simple, and they attract +little attention outside India. But no one who has spent any time in +India can fail to be struck with the many-sided activities revealed in +all the non-political conventions and conferences and congresses held +annually all over the country. Within the last 12 months there have been +philanthropic and religious conferences like the All India Temperance +Conference, the Christian Endeavour Convention, the Theosophical +Convention, social conferences like the Indian National Social +Conference, the Moslem Educational Congress, and the Sikh Educational +Conference, economic conferences like the Industrial Conference held at +Lahore in connexion with the Punjab Industrial and Agricultural +Exhibition, not to speak of many others, such as the Rajput Conference, +the Hindu Punjab Conference, the Kshatrya Conference, the Parsee +Conference, &c., which dealt with the narrower interests of particular +castes or communities, but nevertheless gathered together +representatives of those interests from all parts of India, or any rate +from a whole province. Some of these meetings may be made to subserve +political purposes. Others, like the Parsee Conference, betray +reactionary tendencies in the most unexpected places, for the Parsee +community, which has thriven more than any other on Western education +and has prided itself upon being the most progressive and enlightened of +all Indian communities, is the last one in which one would have looked +for the triumph, however temporary, of a strangely benighted orthodoxy. +But the majority of these gatherings represent an honest and earnest +attempt to apply, as far as possible, the teachings of Western +experience to the solution of Indian problems, and to subject Indian +customs and beliefs to the test of modern criticism. They apply +themselves, moreover, chiefly to questions in which no alien Government +like that of India can take the initiative without serious risk of being +altogether ahead of native opinion and arousing dangerous antagonism. As +Mr. Lala Dev Raj, the chairman of the last Social Conference at Lahore, +for instance, put it:-- + + The reforms advocated here strike at those harmful and + undesirable customs which are purely of our own creation and + which must be bidden farewell to, as our eyes are being opened + to them. If we cannot do that, we can hardly call ourselves + a living community. + +The results of all this activity may not so far have been very marked, +but the mere fact that the supreme sanction of tradition, which was +formerly almost undisputed, is now subjected to discussion is bound to +make some impression, even upon those whose political concepts are +based, upon the immanent superiority of Hinduism. The new interpretation +of the _Baghvat Gita_, though sometimes distorted to hideous ends, has +itself been inspired by a broader appreciation of social duty than there +was room for in the Hindu theory of life before it had been modified by +Western influences. So long as the spirit of social endeavour kindled by +men like Ram Mohun Roy and Keshab Chunder Sen and Mahadev Govind Ranade +is kept alive, even though by much lesser men, we may well hope that the +present wave of revolt will ultimately spend itself on the dead shore of +a factious and artificial reaction, incompatible with the purpose to +which their own best efforts were devoted, of bringing the social life +of India into harmony with Western civilization. + +A phenomenon, which may prove to have a deep significance is that, side +by side with these larger organisations for the promotion of social +reform which only claim incidental service from their members, a number +of smaller societies are growing up of which the members are bound +together by much closer ties and more stringent obligations, and in +some cases even by solemn vows to renounce the world and to devote +themselves wholly to a life of social service. Many of them present +features of special interest which deserve recognition, but I must be +content to describe one of them to which the personality of its founder +lends exceptional importance. This is the society of "The Servants of +India," founded by Mr. Gokhale at Poona. Mr. Gokhale's career itself +exemplifies the cross-currents that are often so perplexing a feature of +Indian unrest. He is chiefly known in England as one of the leading and +certainly most interesting figures in Indian politics. A Chitpavan +Brahman by birth, with the blood of the old dominant caste of +Maharashtra in his veins, he has often been, both in the Viceroy's +Legislative Council and in that of his own Presidency, a severe and even +bitter critic of an alien Government, of which he nevertheless admits +the benefit, and even the necessity, for India. On the other hand, +though he proclaims himself a Nationalist, and though, on one occasion +at least, when he presided over the stormy session of the Indian +National Congress at Calcutta in December, 1906, which endorsed the +Bengalee boycott movement, he lent the weight of his authority to a +policy that was difficult to reconcile with constitutional methods of +opposition, his reason and his moral sense have always revolted against +the reactionary appeals to religious prejudice and racial hatred by +which men like Tilak have sought to stimulate a perverted form of Indian +patriotism. Highly educated both as a Western and an Eastern scholar, he +approaches perhaps more nearly than any of his fellow-countrymen to the +Western type of doctrinaire, Radical in politics and agnostic in regard +to religion, but with a dash of passion and enthusiasm which the Western +doctrinaire is apt to lack. When Tilak opened his first campaign of +unrest in the Deccan by attacking the Hindu reformers, he found few +stouter opponents than Mr. Gokhale, who was one of Ranade's staunchest +disciples and supporters. Nor did Tilak ever forgive him. His newspapers +never ceased to pursue him with relentless ferocity, and only last year +Mr. Gokhale had to appeal to the Law Courts for protection against the +scurrilous libels of the "extremist" Press. + +His own experiences in political life since he resigned his work as a +professor at the Ferguson College in Poona in order to take a larger +share in public affairs have probably helped to convince Mr. Gokhale +that his fellow-countrymen for the most part still lack many essential +qualifications for the successful discharge of those civic duties which +are the corollary of the civic rights he claims for them. He does not, +it is understood, desire to seek re-election to the Imperial Council at +Calcutta after the expiry of its present powers, two years hence, as he +wishes to devote himself chiefly to the educational work, which, in one +form or another, has perhaps always been the most absorbing interest of +his life. When he was a professor at the Ferguson College teaching was +with him a vocation rather than a profession, and, if one may judge by +his practice, he believes that only those who are prepared to set an +example of selflessness and almost ascetic simplicity of life can hope +to promote the moral and social as well as the political advancement of +India. It is on these principles that he founded five years ago the +"Servants of India" Society, recruited in the first instance amongst a +few personal followers and supported hitherto by the voluntary +contributions of his admirers. The objects of the Society as laid down +by its promoters are "to train national missionaries for the service of +India and to promote by all constitutional means the true interests of +the Indian people." Its members "frankly accept the British connexion as +ordained, in the inscrutable dispensation of Providence, for India's +good," and they recognize that "self-government within the Empire and a +higher life generally for their countrymen" constitute a goal which +"cannot be attained without years of earnest and patient effort and +sacrifices worthy of the cause." As to its immediate functions, "much of +the work," it is stated, "must be directed towards building up in the +country a higher type of character and capacity than is generally +available at present," and to this end the Society "will train men +prepared to devote their lives to the cause of the country in a +religious spirit." The constitution of the Society recalls in fact that +of some of the great religious societies of Christendom, and not least +that of the Jesuits, though with this cardinal difference, that it is +essentially non-sectarian and substitutes as its ideal the service of +India for the service of God, much in the same way as the Japanese have +to a large extent merged their religious creeds in an idealized cult of +Japan. + +Every "Servant of India" takes at the time of admission into the society +the following seven vows;-- + + (a) That the country will always be first in his thoughts, + and that he will give to her service the best that is in him. + + (b) That in serving the country he will seek no personal + advantage for himself. + + (c) That he will regard all Indians as brothers and will + work for the advancement of all, without distinction of caste + or creed. + + (d) That he will be content with such provision for himself + and his family, if any, as the society may be able to make, + and will devote no part of his energies to earning money for + himself. + + (e) That he will lead a pure personal life. + + (f) That he will engage in no personal quarrel with any one. + + (g) That he will always keep in view the aims of the society + and watch over its interests with the utmost zeal, doing all + he can to advance its work and never doing anything inconsistent + with its objects. + +The head of the society, called the First Member--who is Mr. Gokhale--is +to hold office for life, and its affairs are to be conducted in +accordance with by-laws framed for the purpose by the First Member, who +will be assisted by a council of three, one of whom will be his own +nominee, whilst two will be elected by the ordinary members. The powers +assigned to the First Member are very extensive and include that of +recommending the names of three ordinary members, one of whom, when the +time comes, shall be chosen to succeed him. His authority is, in fact, +the dominant one, whether over the probationers under training for a +period of five years, three of which are to be spent at the society's +home in Poona, or over the ordinary members admitted to the full +privileges of the society, or over those who, as _attaches_, associates, +and permanent assistants, are very closely affiliated to it without +being actually received into membership. The scheme is, of course, at +present in its infancy, as the society still numbers only about 25, the +majority of whom have not yet completed their term of probation. Mr. +Gokhaie, however, hopes very soon to have 50 probationers constantly in +residence, and he has already gathered together in the well-appointed +buildings of the society's home just outside Poona, in close proximity +to the Ferguson College, a group of young men, to some of whom he kindly +introduced me, who have evidently caught the fervour of his enthusiasm. +One of the latest recruits was by birth a Mahomedan, of whom Mr. Gokhale +was specially proud, as he is very anxious that the society shall be, in +fact as well as in theory, representative of all castes and creeds. + +One of the first questions which this remarkable experiment suggests is +whether the ideals which Mr. Gokhale sets before the "Servants of India" +will suffice to supply the necessary driving power. Hitherto some form +of religious faith and the hope of some heavenly reward have alone +availed to induce men to renounce the world and all its material +interests and surrender themselves to a life of rigorous and selfless +discipline in the service of their fellow-creatures, or rather in the +service of God through their fellow-creatures. Mr. Gokhale's society +makes no claim to any religious sanction. Though Indian asceticism has +from the most remote times found devotees willing to lead a life of far +more complete self-annihilation than any that the most rigorous +monastic orders of Christendom have ever imposed, or that, for the +matter of that, Mr. Gokhale seeks to impose upon his followers, it has +always been inspired by some religious conception. Will the "Servants of +India" find the same permanent inspiration in the cult of an Indian +Motherland, however highly spiritualized, that has no rewards to offer +either in this world or in any other? On the political as well as other +potentialities of such an organization as Mr. Gokhale contemplates there +is no need to dwell. For the "Servants of India," moulded by one mind +and trained to obey one will, are to go forth as missionaries throughout +India, in the highways and by-ways, among the "untouchables" as well as +among the higher classes, preaching to each and all the birth of an +Indian nation. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +THE GROWTH OF WESTERN EDUCATION. + + +The rising generation represent the India of the future, and though +those who come within the orbit of the Western education we have +introduced still constitute only a very small fraction of the whole +youth of India, their numbers and their influence are growing steadily +and are bound to go on growing. If we are losing our hold over them, it +is a poor consolation to be told that we still retain our hold over +their elders. I therefore regard the estrangement of the young Indian, +and especially of the young Hindu who has passed or is passing through +our schools and colleges, as the most alarming phenomenon of the present +day, and I am convinced that of all the problems with which British +statesmanship is confronted in India none is more difficult and more +urgent than the educational problem. We are too deeply pledged now to +the general principles upon which our educational policy in India is +based for even its severest critics to contemplate the possibility of +abandoning it. But for this very reason it is all the more important +that we should realize the grave defects of the existing system, or, as +some would say, want of system, in order that we may, so far as +possible, repair or mitigate them. There can be no turning back, and +salvation lies not in doing less for Indian education, but in doing +more and in doing it better. + +Four very important features of the system deserve to be noted at the +outset:--(1) Following the English practice, Government exercises no +direct control over educational institutions other than those maintained +by the State, though its influence is brought in several ways indirectly +to bear upon all that are not prepared to reject the benefits which it +can extend to them; (2) Government has concentrated its efforts mainly +upon higher education, and has thus begun from the top in the +over-sanguine belief that education would ultimately filter down from +the higher to the lower strata of Indian society; (3) instruction in the +various courses, mostly literary, which constitute higher education is +conveyed through the medium of English, a tongue still absolutely +foreign to the vast majority; and (4) education is generally confined to +the training of the intellect and divorced not only, absolutely, from +all religious teaching, but also, very largely, from all moral training +and discipline, with the result that the vital side of education which +consists in the formation of character has been almost entirely +neglected. + +To make the present situation intelligible, I must recapitulate, however +briefly, the phases through which our Indian system of education has +passed. The very scanty encouragement originally given, to education by +the East India Company was confined to promoting the study of the +Oriental languages still used at that time in the Indian Courts of Law +in order to qualify young Indians for Government employment and chiefly +in the subordinate posts of the judicial service. After long and fierce +controversies on the rival merits of the vernaculars and of English as +the more suitable vehicle for the expansion of education, Macaulay's +famous Minute of March 7, 1835, determined a revolution of which only +very few at the time foresaw, however faintly, the ultimate +consequences. Lord William Bentinck's Government decided that "the +great object of the British Government ought to be the promotion of +English literature and science, and that all the funds appropriated for +the purpose of education would be best employed in English education +alone." + +Another influence--too often forgotten--had at least as large a share as +Macaulay's in this tremendous departure. That was the influence of the +great missionary, Dr. Alexander Duff, who inspired the prohibition of +suttee and other measures which marked the withdrawal of the countenance +originally given by the East India Company to religious practices +incompatible, in the opinion of earnest Christians, with the sovereignty +of a Christian Power. Duff had made up his mind, in direct opposition to +Carey and other earlier missionaries, that the supremacy of the English +language over the vernaculars must be established as a preliminary to +the Christianization of India. He had himself opened in 1830 an English +school in Calcutta with an immediate success which had confounded all +his opponents. His authority was great both at home and in India, and +was reflected equally in Lord Hardinge's Educational Order of 1844, +which threw a large number of posts in the public service open to +English-speaking Indians without distinction of race or creed, and in +Sir Charles Wood's Educational Despatch of 1854, which resulted in the +creation of a Department for Public Instruction, the foundation of the +three senior Universities of Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, the +affiliation to them of schools and colleges for purposes of examination, +and the inauguration of the "grant-in-aid" system for the encouragement +of native educational enterprise by guaranteeing financial support +according to a fixed scale to all schools that satisfied certain tests +of efficiency in respect of secular instruction. Duff's influence had +assured the supremacy of English in secular education, but he never +succeeded in inducing Government to go a step beyond neutrality in +regard to religious education, and though the remarkable successes which +he had in the meantime achieved, not only as a teacher but as a +missionary, amongst the highest classes of Calcutta society no doubt led +him to hope that, even without any active co-operation from Government, +the spread of English education would in itself involve the spread of +both Christian ethics and Christian doctrine, he never ceased to preach +the necessity of combining religious and moral with secular education or +to prophesy the evils which would ensue from their divorce. + +The system inaugurated by the Educational Minute of 1835 and developed +in the Educational Orders of 1854 began well. The number of young +Indians who took advantage of it was relatively small. They were drawn +mostly from the better classes, and they were brought into direct +contact with their English teachers, many of them very remarkable men +whose influence naturally, and often unconsciously, helped to form the +character of their pupils as well as to develop their intellect--and +most of all, perhaps, in the mission schools; for the Christian missions +were at that time the dominant factor in Indian educational work. In +1854 when there were only 12,000 scholars in all the Government schools, +mission schools mustered four times that number and the rights they +acquired, under the Orders of 1854, to participate in the new +"grants-in-aid" helped them to retain the lead which in some respects, +though not as to numbers, they still maintain. For more than 50 years +after the Minute of 1835, and especially during the two or three decades +that followed the Orders of 1854, the new system produced a stamp of men +who seemed fully to justify the hopes of its original founders--not +merely men with a sufficient knowledge of English to do subordinate work +as clerks and minor _employes_ of Government, but also men of great +intellectual attainments and of high character, who filled with +distinction the highest posts open to Indians in the public service, sat +on the Bench, and practised at the Bar, and, in fact, made a mark for +themselves in the various fields of intellectual activity developed by +contact with the West. It is much to be regretted that no _data_ have +ever been collected to show what proportion men of this stamp bore to +the aggregate number of students under the new system. The proportion +was certainly small, but it was at any rate large enough to reflect +credit upon the system as a whole and to disguise its inherent defects. +It is characteristic of the narrowness of official interest in +educational questions that, whereas abundant statistics are forthcoming +on all subjects connected with material progress, no attempt seems to +have been made to follow the results of Western education statistically +into the after-life of high school pupils and college students. We know +that a certain number have emerged into public distinction, but there is +nothing to show, except in the most, general way, how many have turned +their education to humbler but still profitable account, or how many +have turned it to no account at all. + +Paradoxical as it may sound, it is the eagerness of young India to +respond to our educational call that has led to the breakdown of the +system in some of the most important functions of education. In its +earlier stages those who claimed the benefit of the new system were +chiefly drawn from the intellectual _elite_--i.e., from the classes +which had had the monopoly of knowledge, though it was not Western +knowledge, before the introduction of Western education. With the +success which the new system achieved the demand grew rapidly, and the +quality of the output diminished as it increased in quantity. On the one +hand education came to be regarded by the Indian public less and less as +an end in itself, and more and more as merely an avenue either to +lucrative careers or to the dignified security of appointments, however +modest, under Government, and, in either case, to a higher social +_status_, which ultimately acquired a definite money value in the +matrimonial market. The grant-in-aid system led to the foundation of +large numbers of schools and colleges under private native management, +in which the native element became gradually supreme or at least vastly +predominant, and it enabled them to adopt so low a scale of fees that +many parents who had never dreamt of literacy for themselves were +encouraged to try and secure for some at least of their children the +benefit of this miraculous Open Sesame to every kind of worldly +advancement. Much of the raw material pressed into secondary schools was +quite unsuitable, and little or no attempt was made to sift it in the +rough. Numbers therefore began to drop out somewhere on the way, +disappointed of their more ambitious hopes and having acquired just +enough new ideas to unfit them for the humbler work to which they might +otherwise have been brought up[17]. On the other hand, whilst schools +and colleges, chiefly under private native management, were multiplied +in order to meet the growing demand, the instruction given in them +tended to get petrified into mechanical standards, which were appraised +solely or mainly by success in the examination lists. In fact, education +in the higher sense of the term gave way to the mere cramming of +undigested knowledge into more or less receptive brains with a view to +an inordinate number of examinations, which marked the various stages of +this artificial process. The personal factor also disappeared more and +more in the relations between scholars and teachers as the teaching +staff failed to keep pace with the enormous increase in numbers. + +All these deteriorating influences, though they were perhaps not then so +visible on the surface, were already at work in the 80's, when two +important Government Commissions were held whose labours, with the most +excellent intentions, were destined to have directly and indirectly, the +most baneful effects upon Indian education. The one was the Education +Commission of 1882-83, appointed by Lord Ripon, with Sir William Hunter +as President, and the other the Public Service Commission of 1886-87, +appointed by Lord Dufferin, with Sir Charles Aitchison as President. It +is quite immaterial whether the steps taken by the Government of India +during the subsequent decade were actually due to the recommendations of +the Education Commission, or whether the Report of the Commission merely +afforded a welcome opportunity to carry into practice the views that +were then generally in the ascendant. The eloquence of the Commission, +if I may borrow the language appropriately used to me by a very +competent authority, was chiefly directed towards representing the +important benefits that would be likely to accrue to Government and to +education by the relaxation of Government's control over education, the +withdrawal of Government from the management of schools, and the +adoption of a general go-as-you-please policy. Amongst the definite +results which we undoubtedly owe to the labours of that Commission was +the acclimatization in India of Sir Robert Lowe's system of "payment by +results," which was then already discredited in England. Just at the +time when the transfer of the teacher's influence from European into +native hands was being thus accelerated, the Public Service Commission, +not a single member of which was an educational officer, produced a +series of recommendations which had the effect of changing very much for +the worse the position and prospects of Indians in the Educational +Department. Before the Commission sat, Indians and Europeans used to +work side by side in the superior graded service of the Department, and +until quite recently they had drawn the same pay. The Commission +abolished this equality and comradeship and put the Europeans and the +Indians into separate pens. The European pen was named the Indian +Educational Service, and the native pen was named the Provincial +Educational Service. Into the Provincial Service were put Indians +holding lower posts than any held by Europeans and with no prospect of +ever rising to the _maximum_ salaries hitherto within their reach. To +pretend that equality was maintained under the new scheme is idle, and +the grievance thus created has caused a bitterness which is not allayed +by the fact that the Commission created analogous grievances in other +branches of the public service. Nor was this all the mischief done. It +quickened the impulse already given by the Education Commission by +formally recommending that the recruitment of Englishmen for the +Education Department should be reduced to a _minimum_, and, especially, +that even fewer inspectors of schools than the totally inadequate number +then existing should be recruited from England. It is interesting to +note in view of subsequent developments that, whilst this recommendation +was tacitly ignored by the Provincial Governments in some parts of +India, as in Madras and in Bombay, it was accepted and applied in +Bengal--i.e., in the province where our educational system has +displayed its gravest shortcomings. + +From that time forward the dominant influence in secondary schools and +colleges drifted steadily and rapidly out of the hands of Englishmen +into those of Indians long before there was a sufficient supply of +native teachers fitted either by tradition or by training to conduct an +essentially Western system of education. Not only did the number of +native teachers increase steadily and enormously, but that of the +European teachers actually decreased. Dr. Ashutosh Mookerjee, the +Vice-Chancellor of the Calcutta University, told me, for instance, that +when he entered the Presidency College about 1880 all the professors, +except a few specialists for purely Oriental subjects, were English, and +the appointment, whilst he was there, of an Indian for the first time as +an ordinary professor created quite a sensation. Last year there were +only eight English professors as against 23 Indians, though, during the +same 30 years, the number of pupils had increased from a little over 350 +to close on 700--i.e., it had nearly doubled. The Calcutta Presidency +College is, even so, far better off in this respect than most colleges +except the missionary institutions, in which the European staff of +teachers has been maintained at a strength that explains their continued +success. Out of 127 colleges there are 30 to-day with no Europeans at +all on the staff, and these colleges contain about one-fifth of the +students in all colleges. Of the other colleges 16 have only one +European professor, 21 only two, and so forth. In the secondary schools +the proportion of native to European teachers is even more overwhelming. +From the point of view of mere instruction the results have been highly +unsatisfactory. From the point of view of moral training and discipline +and the formation of character they have been disastrous. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +THE INDIAN STUDENT. + + +The fundamental weakness of our Indian educational system is that the +average Indian student cannot bring his education into any direct +relation with the world in which, outside the class or lecture room, he +continues to live. For that world is still the old Indian world of his +forefathers, and it is as far removed as the poles asunder from the +Western world which claims his education. I am not speaking now of the +relatively still very small class amongst whom Western ideas are already +sufficiently acclimatized for the parents to be able to supplement in +their own homes the education given to their children in our schools and +colleges. Nor am I speaking of the students who live in hostels under +the superintendence of high-minded Englishmen, and especially of +missionaries such as those of the Oxford Mission in Calcutta, or the +Madras Christian College, who have to reject scores of applicants for +want of space. Those also form but a small minority. In Calcutta, for +instance, out of 4,500 students barely 1,000 live in hostels, and not +all hostels are by any means satisfactory. In the Indian Universities +there is no collegiate life such as English Universities afford, and in +India most of the secondary schools as well as colleges are +non-residential. The majority of those who attend them, unless they live +at home, have therefore to board out with friends or to live in +promiscuous messes, or, as is too often the case, in lodgings of a very +undesirable character, sometimes even in brothels, and almost always +under conditions intellectually, morally, and physically deleterious. + +Lest I may be accused of exaggeration or bias, I will appeal here to the +testimony of Dr. Garfield Williams, a missionary of the highest repute +and experience, and in profound sympathy with the natives of India. +Speaking at the Missionary Conference at Calcutta last winter, he +said:-- + + The conditions and environment of the student in Calcutta + are such as to make the formation of character almost impossible.... + He is not a student in the best sense of + the word, for he has not the scholarly instincts of a student-- + I speak, of course, of the average student, not of the exceptional + one. His parents send him to the University to pass + one or two examinations, and these have to be passed in order + to enable him to attain a higher salary.... His work + is sheer "grind." The acquisition of good notes for lectures + is the first essential for him, and the professor who gives + good clear-cut notes so that a man can dispense with any + text-books is the popular professor--and for two reasons: + first of all, it saves the expense of buying the text-book, + and then, of course, it helps to get through the examination. + That is a reason why two boys of the same village will go + to different colleges because they can then "swap" notes. + It is a very rare thing for a student to have money enough + to buy more than one of the suggested books on a given + subject for examination. He learns by heart one book + and the notes of lectures of two or three of the favourite + professors in Calcutta. There is many a man who has even + got through his examinations without any text-book of any + kind to help him, simply by committing to memory volumes + of lecture notes.... I know of no student who labours + more strenuously than the Bengalee student. The question + is how to prevent this ridiculous wastage of students; + how to prevent the production of this disappointed man + who is a student only in name. He never had any desire + to be a student in nature; he was brought up without that + desire ... and indeed, if he be a boy with real scholarly + instincts, and he happens to fail in his examinations, it makes + it all the worse, for his parents will not recognize those + scholarly instincts of his--all they want is a quick return + for the money spent on his education, and he will have to + make that return from a Rs.30 salary instead of a Rs.50 one. + +Can there be anything more pathetic and more alarming than the picture +that Dr. Williams draws of the student's actual life?-- + + He gets up about 6, and having dressed (which is not a + long process) he starts work. Until 10, if you go into his + mess, you will see him "grinding" away at his text-book, + under the most amazing conditions for work--usually stretched + out upon his bed or sitting on the side of it. The room is + almost always shared with some other occupant, usually + with two or three or more other occupants, mostly engaged + in the same task if they are students. At 10 the + boy gets some food, and then goes of to his college for about + four or five hours of lectures. A little after 3 in the afternoon + he comes home to his mess, and between 3 and 5 is usually + seen lounging about his room, dead tired but often engaged + in discussion with his room-mates or devouring the newspaper, + which is his only form of recreation and his only bit of excitement. + At 5 he will go out for a short stroll down College-street + or around College-square. This is his one piece of + exercise, if such you can call it. At dusk he returns to his + ill-lighted, stuffy room and continues his work, keeping it up, + with a short interval for his evening meal, until he goes to + bed, the hour of bed-time depending upon the proximity + of his examination. A very large percentage when they + actually sit for their examinations are nothing short of + physical wrecks. + +Dr. Williams proceeds to quote Dr. Mullick, an eminent Hindu physician +who has devoted himself to helping young students:-- + + The places where the students live huddled up together + are most hurtful to their constitutions. The houses are + dirty, dingy, ill-ventilated, and crowded. Even in case of + infectious sickness ... they lie in the same place as + others, some of whom they actually infect. Phthisis is getting + alarmingly common among students owing to the sputum of + infected persons being allowed to float about with the dust + in crowded messes.... Most of them live in private + messes where a hired cook and single servant have complete + charge of his food and house-keeping, and things are stolen, + foodstuffs are adulterated, badly cooked and badly served. + +Dr. Williams, who states emphatically that "it is not exaggeration to +say that the student is often half-starved," goes on to deal with the +moral drawbacks of a life which is under no effective supervision and is +not even under the restraints, implied in the term "good form," that +play so important a part in Universities where there is a real +collegiate life. + + When you segregate your young men by thousands in the + heart of this "city of dreadful night," amid conditions of + life which are most antagonistic to moral and physical well-being... + the result is a foregone conclusion, and it + does not only mean physical degeneration, it also means moral + degeneration, and it becomes a most potent predisposing + factor in political disease. Of that there can be no shadow + of doubt. + +The material conditions are not, it is true, nearly so bad in many other +parts of India as they are in Bengal, and especially in Calcutta (though +the Bengalees claim the intellectual primacy of India), and it is on the +moral and physical evils produced by those conditions that Dr. Garfield +Williams chiefly dwells. But the intellectual evils for all but a small +minority are in their way quite as grave, and they are inherent to the +system. Take the case of a boy brought up until he is old enough to go +to school in some small town of the _mofussil_, anywhere in India, by +parents who have never been drawn into any contact, however remote, with +Western ideas or Western knowledge. From these purely Indian +surroundings his parents, who are willing to stint themselves in order +that their son may get a post under Government, send him to a secondary +school, let us say in the chief town of the district, or in a University +city. There again he boards with friends of his family, if they have +any, or in more or less reputable lodgings amidst the same purely Indian +surroundings, and his only contact with the Western world is through +school-books in a foreign tongue, of which it is difficult enough for +him to grasp even the literal meaning, let alone the spirit, which his +native teachers have themselves too often only, very partially imbibed +and are therefore quite unable to communicate[18]. From the secondary +school he passes for his University course, if he gets so far, in +precisely the same circumstances into a college which is merely a higher +form of school. Whilst attending college our student still continues to +live amidst the same purely Indian surroundings, and his contact with +the Western world is still limited to his text-books. Even the best +native teacher can hardly interpret that Western world to him as a +trained European can, and unless our student intends to become a doctor +or an engineer, and has to pass through the schools of medicine or +engineering, where he is bound to be a good deal under English teachers, +he may perfectly well, and very often does, go through his whole course +of studies in school and in college without ever coming into personal +contact with an Englishman. How can he be expected under such conditions +to assimilate Western knowledge or to form even a remote conception of +the customs and traditions, let alone the ideals, embodied in Western +knowledge? + +Try and imagine for a moment, however absurd it may seem, what would +have been the effect upon the brains of the youth of our own country if +it had been subject to Chinese rule for the last 100 years, and the +Chinese, without interfering with our own social customs or with our +religious beliefs, had taken charge of higher education and insisted +upon conveying to our youth a course of purely Chinese instruction +imparted through Chinese text-books, and taught mainly by Englishmen, +for the most part only one degree more familiar than their pupils with +the inwardness of Chinese thought and Chinese ethics. The effect could +hardly have been more bewildering than the effect produced in many cases +similar to that which I have instanced on the brain of the Indian youth +when he emerges from our schools and colleges. + +It may be said that such cases are extreme cases, but extreme as they +are, they are not exceptional. The exceptions must be sought rather +amongst the small minority, who, in spite of all these drawbacks, +display such a wonderful gift of assimilation, or, it might perhaps be +more correctly termed, of intuition, that they are able to transport +themselves into a new world of thought, or at any rate to see into it, +as it were, through a glass darkly. But the number of those who possess +this gift has probably always been small, and smaller still, with the +reduction of the European element in the teaching staff, is the number +growing of those who have a fair chance of developing that gift, even if +nature has endowed them with it. A comparison of the Census Report of +1901 with the figures given in the Educational Statistics for 1901-2 +shows that the total number of Europeans then engaged in Indian +educational work was barely, 500, of whom less than half were employed +by Government, whilst that of the Indians engaged in similar work in +colleges and secondary schools alone was about 27,500. As the number of +Indian students and scholars receiving higher education amounts to +three-quarters of a million, it is obvious that so slight a European +leaven, whatever its quality--and its quality is not always what it +should be--can produce but little impression upon so huge a mass. + +Our present system of Indian education in fact presents in an +exaggerated form, from the point of view of the cultivation of the +intellect, most of the defects alleged against a classical education by +its bitterest opponents in Western countries, where, after all, the +classics form only a part, however important, of the curriculum, and +neither Latin nor Greek is the only medium for the teaching of every +subject. From the point of view of the formation of character according +to Western standards, and even from that of physical improvement, the +case is even worse. In Western countries the education given in our +schools, from the Board school to the University, is always more or +less on the same plane as that of the class from which the boys who +attend them are drawn. It is merely the continuation and the complement +of the education our children receive in their own homes from the moment +of their birth, and it moves on the same lines as the world in which +they live and move and have their being. In India, with rare exceptions, +it is not so, but exactly the reverse. + +On the deficiencies of the system, from the moral point of view, a new +and terribly lurid light has been shed within the last few years. There +has been no more deplorable feature in the present political agitation +than the active part taken in it by Indian schoolboys and students. It +has been a prominent feature everywhere, but nowhere more so than in the +Bengal provinces, where from the very outset of the boycott movement in +1905 picketing of the most aggressive character was conducted by bands +of young Hindus who ought to have been doing their lessons. That was +only the beginning, and the state of utter demoralization that was +ultimately reached may be gathered from the following statements in the +last Provincial Report on Education (1908-9), issued by the Government +of Eastern Bengal:-- + + On the 7th of August [1908] most of the Hindu students + abstained from attending the college and high schools at + Comilla as a demonstration in connexion with the boycott + anniversary. Immediately afterwards, on the date of the + execution of the Muzafferpur murderer, the boys of several + schools in the province attended barefooted and without + shirts and in some cases fasting.... At Jamalpur the + demonstration lasted a week.... Later in the year, on + the occasion of the execution of one of the Alipur murderers, + the pupils of the Sandip Cargill school made a similar demonstration. + +The report adds, in a sanguine vein, that, as a result of various +disciplinary measures, a marked improvement had subsequently taken +place, but quite recent events, during the great conspiracy trial at +Dacca, show that something more than disciplinary measures is required +to eradicate the spirit which inspired such occurrences. + +The heaviest responsibility rests on those who, claiming to be the +intellectual leaders of the country, not only instigated its youth to +take part in political campaigns, but actually placed them in the +forefront of the fray. However reprehensible from our British point of +view other features of a seditious agitation may be, to none does so +high a degree of moral culpability attach as to the deliberate efforts +made by Hindu politicians to undermine the fundamental principles of +authority by stirring up the passions or appealing to the religious +sentiment of inexperienced youth at the most emotional period of +life.[19] Even the fact that political murders have been invariably +perpetrated by misguided youths of the student class is hardly as +ominous as the homage paid to the murderers' memories by whole schools +and colleges. Most ominous of all is the tolerance, and sometimes the +encouragement, extended to such demonstrations by schoolmasters and +professors. These are symptoms that point to a grave moral disease +amongst the teachers as well as the taught, which we can only ignore at +our peril and at the sacrifice of our duty towards the people of India. +In his last two Convocation speeches, Dr. Ashutosh Mookerjee has himself +felt constrained to lay special stress on the question of teachers and +politics. Alluding in 1909 to "the lamentable events of the last 12 +months," he maintained, "without hesitation," that "the most strenuous +efforts must be unfalteringly made by all persons truly interested in +the future of the rising generation to protect our youths from the hands +of irresponsible people who recklessly seek to seduce our students from +the path of academic life and to plant in their immature minds the +poisonous seeds of hatred against constituted Government." This year he +was even more outspoken, and laid it down that even the teacher "who +scrupulously abstains from political matters within his class-room, but +at the same time devotes much or all of his leisure hours to political +activities and agitation, and whose name and speeches are prominently +before the world in connexion with political organizations and +functions," fails in his duty towards his pupils; for "their minds will +inevitably be attracted towards political affairs and political +agitation if they evidently constitute the main life-interest and +life-work of one who stands towards them in a position of authority." +Teachers should therefore avoid everything that tends "to impart to the +minds of our boys a premature bias towards politics." + +A most admirable exhortation; but I had an opportunity of estimating the +weight that it carried with some of the political leaders of Bengal when +I accepted an invitation from Mr. Surendranath Banerjee to meet a few +Bengalee students in an informal way and have a talk with them. They +were bright, pleasant lads, and, if they had been left to themselves, I +might have had an interesting talk with them about their studies and +their prospects in life, but Mr. Banerjee and several other politicians +who were present insisted upon giving to the conversation a political +turn of a disagreeably controversial character which seemed to me +entirely out of place. + +The mischievous incitements of politicians would not, however, have +fallen on to such receptive soil if economic conditions, for which we +are ourselves at least partly responsible, had not helped to create an +atmosphere in which political disaffection is easily bred amongst both +teachers and taught. The rapid rise in the cost of living has affected +no class more injuriously than the old clerkly castes from which the +teaching staff and the scholars of our schools and colleges are mainly +recruited. Their material position now often compares unfavourably with +that of the skilled workman and even of the daily labourer, whose higher +wages have generally kept pace with the appreciation of the necessaries +of life. This is a cause of great bitterness even amongst those who at +the end of their protracted, course of studies get some small billet +for their pains. The bitterness is, of course, far greater amongst those +who fail altogether. The rapid expansion of an educational system that +has developed far in excess of the immediate purpose for which it was +originally introduced was bound to result in a great deal of +disappointment for the vast number of Indians who regarded it merely as +an avenue to Government employment. For the demand outran the supply, +and the deterioration in the quality of education consequent upon this +too rapid expansion helped at the same time to restrict the possible +demand. F.A.'s (First Arts) and even B.A.'s are now too often drugs in +the market. Nothing is more pathetic than the hardships to which both +the young Indian and his parents will subject themselves in order that +he may reach the coveted goal of University distinctions, but +unfortunately, as such distinctions are often achieved merely by a +process of sterile cramming which leaves the recipients quite unable to +turn mere feats of memory to any practical account, the sacrifices prove +to have been made in vain. Whilst the skilled artisan, and even the +unskilled labourer, can often command from 12 annas to 1 rupee (1s. to +1s. 4d.) a day, the youth who has sweated himself and his family through +the whole course of higher education frequently looks in vain for +employment at Rs.30 (L2) and even at Rs.20 a month. In Calcutta not a +few have been taken on by philanthropic Hindus to do mechanical labour +in jute mills at Rs.15 a month simply to keep them from starvation. +Things have in fact reached this pitch, that our educational system is +now turning out year by year a semi-educated proletariat which is not +only unemployed, but in many cases almost unemployable. A Hindu +gentleman who is one of the highest authorities on education told me +that in Bengal, where this evil has reached the most serious dimensions, +he estimates the number of these unemployed at over 40,000. This is an +evil which no change in the relative number of Europeans and natives +employed in Government and other services could materially affect. Even +if every Englishman left India, it would present just as grave a problem +to the rulers of the country, except that the bitterness engendered +would not be able to vent itself, as it too often does now, on the alien +rulers who have imported the alien system of education by which many of +those who fail believe themselves to have been cruelly duped. + +Similar causes have operated to produce discontent amongst the teachers, +who in turn inoculate their pupils with the virus of disaffection. It +was much easier to multiply schools and colleges than to train a +competent teaching staff. Official reports seldom care to look +unpleasant facts in the face, and the periodical reports both of the +Imperial Department of Public Education and of the Provincial +Departments have always been inclined to lay more stress upon the +multiplication of educational institutions and the growth in the numbers +of pupils and students than upon the weak points of the system. +Nevertheless, there is one unsatisfactory feature that the most +confirmed optimists cannot ignore. Hardly a single one of these reports +but makes some reference to the deficiencies and incapacity of the +native teaching staff. The last quinquennial report issued by Mr. +Orange, the able Director-General of Public Education, who is now +leaving India, contains a terse but very significant passage. "Speaking +generally," he writes, "it may be said that the qualifications and the +pay of the teachers in secondary schools are below any standard that +could be thought reasonable; and the inquiries which are now being made +into the subject have revealed a state of things that is scandalous in +Bengal and Eastern Bengal, and is unsatisfactory in every province." +Very little information is forthcoming as to the actual qualifications +or pay of the teachers. It appears, however, from the inspection of high +schools by the Calcutta University that out of one group of 3,054 +teachers over 2,100 receive salaries of less than 30 rupees (L2) a +month. One cannot, therefore, be surprised to hear that in Bengal "only +men of poor attainments adopt the profession, and the few who are well +qualified only take up work in schools as a stepping-stone to some more +remunerative career." That career is frequently found in the Press, +where the disgruntled ex-schoolmaster adds his quota of gall to the +literature of disaffection. But he is still more dangerous when he +remains a schoolmaster and uses his position to teach disaffection to +his pupils either by precept or by example. + +I have already alluded to the unfortunate effect of the recommendations +of the Public Service Commission of 1886-7 on the native side of the +Education Service. But if it has become more difficult to attract to it +the right type of Indians, it has either become almost as difficult to +attract the right type of Europeans, or the influence they are able to +exercise has materially diminished. In the first place, their numbers +are quite inadequate. Out of about 500 Europeans actually engaged in +educational work in India less than half are in the service of the +State. Many of them are admittedly very capable men, and not a few +possess high University credentials. But so long as the Indian +Educational Service is regarded and treated as an inferior branch of the +public service, we cannot expect its general tone to be what it should +be in view of the supreme importance of the functions it has to +discharge. One is often told that the conditions are at least as +attractive as those offered by an educational career at home. Even if +that be so, it would not affect my contention that, considering how +immeasurably more difficult is the task of training the youth of an +entirely alien race according to Western standards, and how vital that +task is for the future of British rule in India, the conditions should +be such as to attract, not average men, but the very best men that we +can produce. As it is, the Education Department cannot be said to +attract the best men, for these go into the Civil Service, and only +those, as a rule, enter the Educational Service who either, having made +up their minds early to seek a career in India, have failed to pass the +Civil Service examinations, or, having originally intended to take up +the teaching profession in England, are subsequently induced to come out +to India by disappointments at home or by the often illusory hope of +bettering their material prospects. When they arrive they begin work +without any knowledge of the character and customs of the people. Some +are employed in inspection and others as professors, and the latter +especially are apt to lose heart when they realize the thanklessness of +their task and their social isolation. In some cases indifference is the +worst result, but in others--happily rare--they themselves, I am +assured, catch the surrounding contagion of discontent, and their +influence tends rather to promote than to counteract the estrangement of +the rising generation committed to their charge. Some men, no doubt, +rise superior to all these adverse conditions and, in comparing the men +of the present day with those of the past, one is apt to remember only +the few whose names still live in the educational annals of India and to +forget the many who have passed away without making any mark. The fact, +however, remains that nowadays the Europeans who have the greatest +influence over their Indian pupils are chiefly to be found amongst the +missionaries with whom teaching is not so much a profession as a +vocation. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +SOME MEASURES OF EDUCATIONAL REFORM. + + +Though already in 1889, when Lord Lansdowne was Viceroy, an important +resolution, drafted by Sir Anthony (now Lord) MacDonnell as Secretary to +Government, was issued, drawing attention to some of the most glaring +defects of our educational system from the point of view of intellectual +training and of discipline, and containing valuable recommendations for +remedying them, it seems to have had very little practical effect. A +more fruitful attempt to deal with the question was made during Lord +Curzon's Viceroyalty. He summoned and presided over an Educational +Conference, of which the results were embodied in a Government +Resolution issued on March 11, 1904, and in the Universities Act of the +same year. They were received at the time with a violent outburst of +indignation by Indian politicians, who claim to represent the educated +intellect of the country. The least that Lord Curzon was charged with +was a deliberate attempt to throttle higher education in India. This +factious outcry has now died away, except amongst the irreconcilables, +and Dr. Ashutosh Mookerjee, an authority whom even Hindu partisanship +can hardly repudiate, declared in his last Convocation speech that the +new regulations which are now being brought into operation, far from +bearing out the apprehensions of "alarmist prophets," have been +distinctly beneficial to the better and stronger class of students. + +To summarize very briefly the work of the Conference, it recognized in +the first place the importance of the vernaculars as the proper medium +for instruction in the lower stages of education, whilst maintaining the +supremacy of English in the higher stages. It sought to give a more +practical character to high-school training by promoting the "modern +side," hitherto overshadowed by a mainly literary curriculum, and it +endeavoured to make the school courses self-sufficing and self-contained +instead of merely a stepping-stone to the University courses. To this +end secondary schools were encouraged to give more importance to School +Final Examinations as a general test of proficiency and not to regard +their courses as almost exclusively preparatory to the University +Entrance Examination. Great stress was also laid upon the improvement of +training colleges for teachers as well as upon the development of +special schools for industrial, commercial, and agricultural +instruction. Nor were the ethics of education, altogether forgotten in +their bearings upon the maintenance of healthy discipline. Government +emphasized the great importance of a large extension of the system of +hostels or boarding-houses, under proper supervision, in connexion with +colleges and secondary schools, as a protection against the moral +dangers of life in large towns; and whilst provision was made for the +more rigorous inspection of schools to test their qualifications both +for Government grants-in-aid and for affiliation to Universities, +certain reforms were also introduced into the constitution and +management of the Universities themselves. + +The results already achieved are not inconsiderable. The provision of +hostels, in which Lord Curzon was deeply interested, has made great +progress, and one may hope that the conditions of student life described +by Dr. Garfield Williams in Calcutta are typical of a state of things +already doomed to disappear, though at the present rate of progress it +can only disappear very slowly. In Madras there is a fine building for +the Presidency College students and also for those of the Madras +Christian College. In Bombay Government are giving money for the +extension of the boarding accommodation of the three chief colleges. In +Allahabad, Agra, Lucknow, Meerut, Bareilly, Lahore, and many other +centres old residential buildings are being extended or new ones +erected. The new Dacca College, in the capital of Eastern Bengal, is one +of the most conspicuous and noteworthy results of the Partition. In +Calcutta itself little has been done except in the missionary +institutions; and it is certainly very discouraging to note that an +excellent and very urgent scheme for removing the Presidency College, +the premier college of Bengal, from the slums in which it is at present +in every way most injuriously confined, to a healthy suburban site has +been shelved by the Bengal Government partly under financial pressure +and partly because of the lukewarmness of native opinion. What is no +doubt really wanted is the wholesale removal of all the Colleges +connected with the Calcutta University altogether from their present +surroundings, but to refuse to make a beginning with the Presidency +College is merely to prove once more that _le mieux est l'ennemi du +bien_. + +In regard to the University Entrance Examinations, the latest Madras +returns, which were alone sufficiently complete to illustrate the effect +of the new regulations, showed that the increased stringency of the +tests had resulted in a healthy decrease in the number of +matriculations, whilst the standard had been materially raised. In +Calcutta the University inspection of schools and colleges and the +exercise by the Universities of their discretionary powers in matters of +affiliation have grown much more effective. That the powers of the +University Senates have not been unduly curtailed is only too clearly +shown on the other hand by the effective resistance hitherto offered at +Bombay to the scheme of reforms proposed by Sir George Clarke. To the +most important features of the scheme, which were the provision of a +course of practical science for all first-year students, a systematic +bifurcation of courses, the lightening of the number of subjects in +order to secure somewhat more thoroughness, and compulsory teaching of +Indian history and polity, no serious objection could be raised, but the +politicians on the Senate effectively blocked discussion. + +A great deal still remains to be done, and can be done, on the lines of +the resolution of 1904. The speed at which it can be done must, no +doubt, be governed in some directions by financial considerations. The +extension of the hostel system, for instance, which is indispensable to +the removal of some of the worst moral and physical influences upon +education, is largely a matter of money. So is too to some extent the +strengthening of the educational staff, European and native, which is +also urgently needed. The best Indians cannot be attracted unless they +are offered a living wage in some measure consonant with the dignity of +so important a profession, and our schools and colleges will continue to +be too often nursery grounds of sedition so long as we do not redress +the legitimate grievances of teachers on starvation wages. But though +improved prospects may attract better men in the future, the actual +inefficiency of a huge army of native teachers, far too hastily +recruited and imperfectly trained, can at best be but slowly mended. We +want more and better training colleges for native teachers, but that is +not all. The great Mahomedan College at Aligarh, one of the best +educational institutions in India, partly because it is wholly +residential, has obtained excellent results by sending some of its +students who intend to return as teachers to study Western educational +methods in Europe after they have completed their course in India. The +same practice might be extended elsewhere. + +To raise the standard of the Europeans in the Educational Service +something more than a mere improvement of material conditions is +required. Additions are being made to both the teaching and the +inspecting staff. But what is above all needed is to get men to join who +regard teaching not merely as a livelihood, but as a vocation, and to +inform them with a better understanding both of the people whose +children they have to train and of the character and methods of the +Government they have to serve. This can hardly be done except by +associating the Educational Service much more closely with what are now +regarded as the higher branches of the public service in India. No +Englishmen are in closer touch with the realities of Indian life than +Indian civilians, and means must be found to break down the wall which +now rigidly separates the Educational Service from the Civil Service. +Opportunities might usefully be given to young Englishmen when they +first join the Educational Service in India to acquire a more intimate +knowledge of Indian administrative work, as well as of the character and +customs and language of the people amongst whom their lot is to be cast, +by serving an apprenticeship with civilians in the _mofussil_. The +appointment of such a very able civilian as Mr. Harcourt Butler to be +the first Minister of Education in India may be taken as an indication +that Lord Morley realizes the importance of rescuing the Educational +Service from the watertight compartment in which it has hitherto been +much too closely confined. We can hardly hope to restore English +influence over education to the position which it originally occupied. +There are 1,200 high schools for boys in India to-day, of which only +220 are under public management, and, even for the latter, it would be +difficult to provide an English headmaster apiece. What we can do is to +follow up the policy which has been lately resumed of increasing the +number of high schools under Government control, until we have at least +one in every district, and in every large centre one with an English +headmaster which should be the model school for the division. + +A much vexed question is whether it is impossible to raise the fees +charged for higher education with a view to checking the wastage which +results from the introduction into our schools and colleges of so much +unsuitable raw material. The fees now charged for the University course +are admittedly very low, even for Indian standards. The total cost of +maintaining an Indian student throughout his four years' college course +ranges from a _minimum_ of L40 to a _maximum_ of L110--i.e., from L10 +to L27 10s. per annum. The actual fees for tuition vary from three to +twelve rupees (4s. to 16s.) a month in different colleges. Very large +contributions, amounting roughly to double the total aggregate of fees, +have therefore to be made from public funds towards the cost of +collegiate education. Is it fair to throw so heavy a burden on the +Indian taxpayer for the benefit of a very small section of the +population amongst whom, moreover, many must be able to afford the +whole, or at least a larger proportion, of the cost of their children's +education? Is it wise by making higher instruction so cheap to tempt +parents to educate children often of poor or mediocre abilities out of +their own plane of life? Would it not be better at any rate to raise the +fees generally and to devote the sums yielded by such increase to +exhibitions and scholarships for the benefit of the few amongst the +humbler classes who show exceptional promise? + +Against this it is urged that it would be entirely at variance with +Indian traditions to associate standards of knowledge with standards of +wealth, and, in practice, education has, I understand, been found to be +worst where the fees bear the greatest proportion to the total +expenditure. The same arguments equally apply for and against raising +the fees in secondary schools. In regard to the latter, however, the +opponents of any general increase of fees make, nevertheless, a +suggestion which deserves consideration. In many schools the fees begin +at a very low figure--eight annas (8d.) a month in the lowest forms and +rise to three, four, and even five rupees (4s. 5s. 4d. and 6s. 8d.) a +month in the highest forms. It is this initial cheapness which induces +so many thoughtless parents to send their boys to secondary schools +without having considered whether they can afford to keep them through +the whole course, whilst it fosters the notion that badly paid and badly +qualified teachers are good enough for the early, which are often the +most important, stages, of a boy's education. To obviate these evils it +is suggested that the fees for all forms should be equalized. + +I shall have occasion later on to point out the immense importance of +giving greater encouragement to scientific and technical education. +Government service and the liberal professions are already overstocked, +and it is absolutely necessary to check the tendency of young Indians to +go in for a merely literary education for which, even if it were more +thorough than it can be under existing conditions, there is no longer +any sufficient outlet. The demand which is arising all over India for +commercial and industrial development should afford an unrivalled +opportunity of deflecting education into more useful and practical +channels. + +Some better machinery than exists at present seems also to be required +to bring the Educational Service into touch with parents. Education can +nowhere be a question of mere pedagogics, and least of all in India. Yet +there is evidently a strong tendency to treat it as such. To take only +one instance, the tasks imposed upon schoolboys and students by the +exigencies of an elaborate curriculum are often excessive, and there +have been cases when the intervention of other authorities has been +necessary to bring the education officers to listen to the reasonable +grievances of parents. If in these and other matters parents were more +freely consulted, they would probably be more disposed to give education +officers the support of their parental authority. There are many points +upon which native opinion would not be so easily misled by +irreconcilable politicians if greater trouble were taken to explain the +questions at issue. + +What is evidently much wanted is greater elasticity. In a country like +India, which is an aggregation of many widely different countries, the +needs and the wishes of the people must differ very widely and cannot be +met by cast-iron regulations, however admirable in theory. It is +earnestly to be hoped that the creation of a separate portfolio in the +Government of India will not involve the strengthening of the +centralizing tendencies which have been the bane of Indian education +since the days of Macaulay, himself one of the greatest theorists that +ever lived. We cannot afford to relax the very little control we +exercise over education, but education is just one of the matters in +which Provincial Governments should be trusted to ascertain, and to give +effect to, the local requirements of the people. In another direction, +however, the creation of a Ministry for Education should be all to the +good. If any real and comprehensive improvements are to be carried out +they will cost a great deal of money, and in the ordinary sense of the +term it will not be reproductive expenditure, though no expenditure, if +wisely applied, can yield more valuable results. As a member of +Council--i.e., as a member of the Government of India--Mr. Butler must +carry much greater weight in recommending the necessary expenditure than +a Director-General of Public Education or than a Provincial Governor, +especially as the expenditure will probably have to be defrayed largely +out of Imperial and not merely out of Provincial funds. If the +educational problem is the most vital and the most urgent one of all at +the present hour in India, it stands to reason that no more disastrous +blunder could be made than to stint the new department created for its +solution. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +THE QUESTION OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. + + +There remains one vital aspect of the educational problem which was left +untouched by the Educational Resolution of 1904, and has been left +untouched ever since we entered three-quarters of a century ago on an +educational experiment unparalleled in the world's history--a more +arduous experiment even than that of governing the 300 millions of India +with a handful of Englishmen. Many nations have conquered remote +dependencies inhabited by alien races, imposed their laws upon them, and +held them in peaceful subjection, though even this has never been done +on the same scale of magnitude as by the British rulers of India. We +alone have attempted to educate them in our own literature and science +and to make them by education the intellectual partners of the +civilization that subdued them. Of the two tasks, that of government and +that of education, the latter is not by any means the easier. For good +government involves as little interference as possible with the beliefs +and customs and traditions of the people, whereas good education means +the substitution for them of the intellectual and moral conceptions of +what we regard as our higher civilization. Good government represents +to that extent a process of conservation; good education must be +partially a destructive, almost a revolutionary, process. Yet upon the +more difficult and delicate problems of education we have hitherto, it +is to be feared, bestowed less thought and less vigilance than upon +administrative problems in India. The purpose we have had in view is +presumably that which Dr. Ashutosh Mookerjee admirably defined in his +last address to the University of Calcutta as "the raising up of loyal +and honourable citizens for the welfare of the State." But is it a +purpose which those responsible for our Indian system of education have +kept steadily before them? Is it a purpose that could possibly be +achieved by the _laisser faire_ policy of the State in regard to the +moral and religious side of education? If so, how is it that we have had +of late such alarming evidence of our frequent failure to achieve it? + +The divorce of education from religion is still on its trial in Western +countries, which rely upon a highly-developed code of ethics and an +inherited sense of social and civic duty to supply the place of +religious sanctions. In India, as almost everywhere in the East, +religion in some form or another, from the fetish worship of the +primitive hill tribes to the Pantheistic philosophy of the most cultured +Brahman or the stern Monotheism of the orthodox Moslem, is the dominant +force in the life both of every individual and of every separate +community to which the individual belongs. Religion is, in fact, the +basic element of Indian life, and morality apart from religion is an +almost impossible conception for all but an infinitesimal fraction of +Western-educated Indians. Hence, even if the attempt had been or were in +the future made to instil ethical notions into the minds of the Indian +youth independently of all religious teaching, it could only result in +failure. For the Hindu, perhaps more than for any other, religion +governs life from the hour of his birth to that of his death. His birth +and his death are in fact only links in a long chain of existences +inexorably governed by religion. His religion may seem to us to consist +chiefly of ritual and ceremonial observances which sterilize any higher +spiritual life. But even if such an impression is not due mainly to our +own want of understanding, the very fact that every common act of his +daily life is a religious observance, just as the caste into which he is +born has been determined by the degree in which he has fulfilled similar +religious observances in a former cycle of lives, shows how completely +his religion permeates his existence. The whole world in which he lives +and moves and has his being, in so far as it is not a mere illusion of +the senses, is for him an emanation of the omnipresent deity that he +worships in a thousand different shapes, from the grotesque to the +sublime. + +Yet in a country where religion is the sovereign influence we have, from +the beginning, absolutely ignored it in education. It is no doubt quite +impossible for the State in a country like India with so many creeds and +sects, whose tenets are often repugnant to all our own conceptions not +only of religion but of morality, to take any direct part in providing +the religious instruction which would be acceptable to Indian parents. +But was it necessary altogether to exclude such instruction from our +schools and colleges? Has not its exclusion tended to create in the +minds of many Indians the belief that our professions of religious +neutrality are a pretence, and that, however rigorously the State may +abstain from all attempts to use education as a medium for Christian +propaganda, it nevertheless uses it to undermine the faith of the rising +generations in their own ancestral creeds? Even if they acquit us of any +deliberate purpose, are they not at any rate entitled to say that such +have been too often the results? Did not the incipient revolt against +all the traditions of Hinduism that followed the introduction of Western +education help to engender the wholesale reaction against Western +influences which, underlies the present unrest? + +Few problems illustrate more strikingly the tremendous difficulties that +beset a Government such as ours in India. On the one hand, Indian +religious conceptions are in many ways so diametrically opposed to all +that British rule stands for that the State cannot actively lend itself +to maintain or promote them. On the other hand, they provide the ties +which hold the whole fabric of Indian society together, and which cannot +be hastily loosened without serious injury and even danger to the State. +This has been made patent to the most careless observer by the events of +the last few years that have revealed, as with a lurid flash of +lightning, the extent to which the demoralization of our schools and +colleges had proceeded. If any Englishman has doubts as to the connexion +in this matter of cause and effect, let him ask respectable Indian +parents who hold aloof from politics. They have long complained that the +spirit of reverence and the respect for parental authority are being +killed by an educational system which may train the intellect and impart +useful worldly knowledge, but withdraws their youths from the actual +supervision and control of the parents or of the _guru_, who for +spiritual guidance stood _in loco parentis_ under the old Hindu system +of education, and estranges them from all the ideas of their own Hindu +world[20]. That parents often genuinely resent the banishment of all +religious influence from our schools and colleges appears from the fact +that many of them prefer to Government institutions those conducted by +missionaries in which, though no attempt is made to proselytize, a +religious, albeit a Christian, atmosphere is to some extent maintained. +It is on similar grounds also that the promoters of the new movement in +favour of "National Schools" advocate the maintenance of schools which +purchase complete immunity from Government control by renouncing all the +advantages of grants-in-aid and of University affiliation. They have +been started mainly under the patronage of "advanced" politicians, and +have too often turned out to be mere hot-beds of sedition, but their +_raison d'etre_ is alleged to be the right of Hindu parents to bring up +Hindu children in a Hindu atmosphere. + +From the opposite pole in politics, most of the ruling chiefs in their +replies to Lord Minto's request for their opinions on the growth of +disaffection call attention to this aspect of education, and the Hindu +princes especially lay great stress on the neglect of religious and +moral instruction. I will quote only the Maharajah of Jaipur, a Hindu +ruler universally revered, for his high character and great +experience:-- + + My next point has reference to the neglect there seems to + be of religious education, a point to which I drew your + Excellency's attention at the State banquet at Jaipur on the + 29th October, 1909. I must say I have great faith in a system + of education, in which secular and religious instruction are + harmoniously combined, as the formation of character + entirely depends upon a basework of religion, and the noble + ideals which our sacred books put before the younger generation + will, I fervently hope, make them loyal and dutiful + citizens of the Empire. Such ideals must inevitably have + their effect on impressionable young men, and it is perhaps + due to such ideals that sedition and anarchy have obtained + so small a footing in the Native States as a whole. In the + Chiefs' College Conference, held at the Mayo College in 1904, + I impressed upon my colleagues the necessity of religious + education for the sons of the chiefs and nobles of Rajputana, + and it should be one of the principal objects in all schools for + the Pandits and the Moulvies to instil in the minds of their + pupils correct notions as to the duty they owe to the community + they belong to and to their Sovereign. + +In this respect the ruling chiefs unquestionably reflect the views which +prevail amongst the better-class Indians in British India as well as in +the Native States. The Government of India cannot afford to disregard +them. The Resolution of 1904, it is true, laid it down again definitely +that "in Government institutions, the instruction is and must continue +to be exclusively secular." But much has happened since 1904 to reveal +the evils which our educational system has engendered and to lend +weight to the representations made by responsible exponents of sober +Indian opinion in favour of one of the remedies which it is clearly +within our power to apply. Nor need we really depart from our +time-honoured principle of neutrality in religious matters. All we have +to do is to set apart, in the curriculum of our schools and colleges, +certain hours during which they will be open, on specified conditions, +for religious instruction in the creed in which the parents desire their +children to be brought up. There is no call for compulsion. This is just +one of the questions in which the greatest latitude should be left to +local Governments, who are more closely in touch than the Central +Government with the sentiment and wishes of the different communities. I +am assured that there would be little difficulty in forming local +committees to settle whether there was a sufficiently strong feeling +amongst parents in favour of a course of religious instruction and to +determine the lines upon which it should be given. Some supervision +would have to be exercised by the State, but in the Educational Service +there are, it is to be hoped, enough capable and enlightened +representatives of the different creeds to exercise the necessary amount +of supervision in a spirit both of sympathy for the spiritual needs of +their people and of loyalty to the Government they serve. It may be +objected that there are so many jarring sects, so many divisions of +caste, that it would be impossible ever to secure an agreement as to the +form to be imparted to religious instruction. Let us recognize but not +overrate the difficulty. In each of the principal religions of India a +substantial basis can be found to serve as a common denominator between +different groups, as, for instance, in the Koran for all Mahomedans and +in the Shastras for the great majority of high-caste Hindus. At any +rate, if the effort is made and fails through no fault of ours, but +through the inability of Indian parents to reconcile their religious +differences, the responsibility to them will no longer lie with us. + +Another objection will probably be raised by earnest Christians who +would hold themselves bound in conscience to protest against any +facilities being given by a Christian State for instruction in religious +beliefs which they reprobate. Some of these austere religionists may +even go so far as to contend that, rather than tolerate the teaching of +"false doctrines," it is better to deprive Indian children of all +religious teaching. To censure of this sort, however, the State already +lays itself open in India. There are educational institutions--and some +of the best, like the Mahomedan College at Aligurh--maintained by +denominational communities on purpose to secure religious education. Yet +the State withdraws from them neither recognition nor assistance because +pupils are taught to be good Mahomedans or good Hindus. Why should it be +wrong to make religious instruction permissive in other Indian schools +which are not wholly or mainly supported by private endeavour? Is not +the "harmonious combination of secular and religious instruction" for +which the Maharajah of Jaipur pleads better calculated than our present +policy of _laisser faire_ to refine and purify Indian religious +conceptions, and to bring about that approximation of Eastern to Western +ideals, towards which the best Indian minds were tending before the +present revolt against Western ascendency? + +Here is surely a question bound up with all the main-springs of Indian +life in which we may be rightly asked "to govern according to Indian +ideas." Can we expect that the youth of India will grow up to be +law-abiding citizens if we deprive them of what their parents hold to be +"the keystone to the formation of character"? Can we close our eyes to +what so many responsible Indians regard as one of the chief causes of +the demoralization which has crept into our schools and colleges? The +State can, doubtless, exact in many ways more loyal co-operation from +Indian teachers in safeguarding their pupils from the virus of +disaffection. It can, for instance, intimate that it will cease to +recruit public servants from schools in which sedition is shown to be +rife. It can hold them collectively responsible, as some Indians +themselves recommend for crimes perpetrated by youths whom they have +helped to pervert. But these are rigorous measures that we can hardly +take with a good conscience so long as our educational system can be +charged with neglecting or undermining, however unintentionally, the +fabric upon which Indian conceptions of morality are based. So long as +we take no steps to refute a charge which, in view of recent evidence, +can no longer be dismissed as wholly unfounded, can we expect education +to fulfil the purpose rightly assigned to it by Dr. Mookerjee--"the +raising up of loyal and honourable citizens for the welfare of the +State?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +PRIMARY EDUCATION. + + +It is too late in the day now to discuss whether it was wise to begin +our educational policy as we did from the top and to devote so much of +our energies and resources to secondary at the expense of primary +education. The result has certainly been to widen the gulf which divides +the different classes of Indian society and to give to those who have +acquired some veneer, however superficial, of Western education the only +articulate voice, often quite out of proportion to their importance, as +the interpreters of Indian interests and desires. One million is a +liberal estimate of the number of Indians who have acquired and retained +some knowledge of English; whilst at the last census, out of a total +population of 294 millions, less than sixteen millions could read and +write in any language--not fifteen millions out of the whole male +population and not one million out of the whole female population--and +this modest amount of literacy is mainly confined to a few privileged +castes. + +With the growth of a school of Indian politicians bent upon undermining +British rule, the almost inconceivable ignorance in which the masses are +still plunged has become a real danger to the State, for it has proved +an all too receptive soil for the calumnies and lies of the political +agitator, who, too well educated himself to believe what he retails to +others, knows exactly the form of calumny and lie most likely to appeal +to the credulity of his uninformed fellow-countrymen. I refer +especially to such very widespread and widely believed stories as that +Government disseminates plague by poisoning the wells and that it +introduces into the plague inoculation serum drugs which destroy +virility in order to keep down the birth-rate. No one has put this point +more strongly than Lord Curzon:-- + + What is the greatest danger in India? What is the source + of suspicion, superstition, outbreaks, crime---yes, and also + of much of the agrarian discontent and suffering amongst + the masses? It is ignorance. And what is the only antidote + to ignorance? Knowledge. + +Curiously enough, it was one of Lord Curzon's bitterest opponents who +corroborated him on this point by relating in the course of a recent +debate how, when the Chinsurah Bridge was built some years ago over the +Hughli, "the people believed that hundreds and thousands of men were +being sacrificed and their heads cut off and carried to the river to be +put under the piers to give the bridge stability, so that the goddess +might appreciate the gift and let the piers remain." And he added:--"I +know that ignorant people were afraid to go out at nights, lest they +might be seized and their heads cut off and thrown under the piers of +the Hughli Bridge." + +It was, however, on more general consideration, as is his wont, that Mr. +Gokhale moved his resolution in the first Session of the Imperial +Council at Calcutta last winter for making elementary education free and +compulsory, and for the early appointment of a committee to frame +definite proposals. + + Three movements [he claimed] have combined to give + to mass education the place which it occupies at present + amongst the duties of the State--the humanitarian movement + which reformed prisons and liberated the slave, the + democratic movement which admitted large masses of men + to a participation in Government, and the industrial movement + which brought home to nations the recognition that + the general spread of education in a country, even when it + did not proceed beyond the elementary stage, meant the + increased efficiency of the worker. + +The last of these three considerations is, perhaps, that which just now +carries the most weight with moderate men in India, where the general +demand for industrial and commercial development is growing loud and +insistent, and Mr. Gokhale's resolution met with very general support +from his Mahomedan, as well as from his Hindu, colleagues. But, in the +minds of disaffected politicians, another consideration is, it must be +feared, also present, to which utterance is not openly given. It is the +hope that the extension of primary schools may serve, as has that of +secondary schools to promote the dissemination of seditious doctrines, +especially amongst the "depressed castes" to which the political +agitator has so far but rarely secured access. + +Whatever danger may lie in that direction, it cannot be allowed to +affect the policy of Government, who gave to Mr. Gokhale's resolution a +sufficiently sympathetic reception to induce him to withdraw it for the +present. To the principle of extending primary education the Government +of India have indeed long been committed, and increased efforts were +recommended, both in the Educational Despatch of 1854 and by the +Education Commission of 1883. Stress was equally laid upon it by the +Resolution of 1904 under Lord Curzon, who already, in 1902, had caused +additional grants, amounting to more than a quarter of a million +sterling, to be given to provincial Governments for the purpose. Under +Lord Minto's administration Government seemed at one moment to have gone +very much further and to have accepted at any rate the principle of free +education, for in 1907 the Finance Member conveyed in Council an +assurance from the Secretary of State that "notwithstanding the absence +of Budget provision, if a suitable scheme should be prepared and +sanctioned by him, he will be ready to allow it to be carried into +effect in the course of the year, provided that the financial position +permits." It was rather unfortunate that hopes should be so prematurely +raised, and it would surely have been wiser to consult the local +Governments before than after such a pronouncement. For when they were +consulted their replies, especially as to the abolition of fees, were +mostly unfavourable, and this year also Government, whilst expressing +its good will, felt bound to defer any decision until the question had +been more fully studied and the financial situation had improved. + +The present situation is certainly unsatisfactory. In 1882 there were +85,000 primary schools in India recognized by the Educational Department +which gave elementary education to about 2,000,000 pupils. In 1907, +according to the last quinquennial report, the total attendance had +increased to 3,631,000; but though the increase appears very +considerable, the Director-General of Education had to admit that, +assuming progress to be maintained at the present rate, "several +generations would still elapse before all the boys of school age were in +school." And Mr. Gokhale's resolution applies, at least ultimately, to +girls as well as to boys! Now in British India--i.e., without counting +the Native States--the total number of boys of school-going age on the +basis of the four years' course proposed for India would be nearly 12 +millions, and there must be about an equal number of girls. The total +cost to the State according to the estimates of local Governments would +be no less than L15,000,000 per annum, whilst non-recurring expenditure +would amount to L18,000,000. The fees at present paid by parents for +primary education, which is already free in some parts of India and in +certain circumstances, make up only about L210,000 per annum. The whole +of the enormous difference would, therefore, be thrown upon the Indian +taxpayers, who now have to find for primary education less than L650,000 +per annum. Even Mr. Gokhale does not, of course, propose that this +educational and financial revolution should be effected by a stroke of +the pen, and one of his Hindu colleagues held that, it would be contrary +to all Hindu traditions for parents to avail themselves of free +education if they could afford to pay a reasonable sum for it. + +But even if the state of Indian finances were likely within any +appreciable time to warrant an approximate approach to such vast +expenditure, or if Government could entertain the suggestions made by +Mr. Gokhale for meeting it, partly by raising the import duties from 5 +to 7-1/2 per cent, and imposing other taxes, and partly by wholesale +retrenchment in other departments, the financial difficulty is not the +only one to be overcome. Model schoolhouses could no doubt be built all +over India, if the money were forthcoming, instead of the wretched +accommodation which exists now, and is so inadequate that in the Bombay +Presidency alone there are said to be 100,000 boys for whom parents +want, but cannot obtain, primary education. But what of the teachers? +These cannot be improvised, however many millions Government may be +prepared to spend. There is an even greater deficiency of good teachers +than of good schoolhouses, and, in some respects, the value of primary +education still more than that of secondary education depends upon good +teachers--teachers who are capable of explaining what they teach and not +merely of reeling off by rote, and imperfectly, to their pupils lessons +which they themselves imperfectly understand. The total number of +teachers engaged in primary education exceeds 100,000, but their +salaries barely average Rs.8 (10s. 8d.) a month. So miserable a pittance +abundantly explains their inefficiency. But there it is, and a new army +of teachers--nearly half a million altogether--would have to be trained +before primary education, whether free and compulsory, as Mr. Gokhale +would have it, or optional and for payment, as others propose, could be +usefully placed within the reach of the millions of Indian children of a +school-going age. + +In this as in all other matters, the Government of India cannot afford +to stand still, and will have to take Indian opinion more and more into +account. But whilst there is a very general consensus that more should +be done by the State for primary education, there is no unanimity as to +its being made free and compulsory. Various Indian members of Council +have expressed themselves against it on different grounds. Some contend +that many parents cannot afford, as bread-winners, to be deprived of the +help of their children. According to others, there is already much +complaint amongst parents that school-going boys do not make good +agriculturists and affect to consider work in the fields as beneath +their dignity. Others, again, ask, and with some reason, who is going to +care for boys of that age who may have to leave their homes and be +removed from parental control in order to attend school. There is, +doubtless, something in all these objections. Assuming that Government +can do more than it has hitherto done to further primary education, the +wisest course would be to improve the quality rather than the quantity, +and, most of all, the quality of the teachers. Here, again, uniformity +should be avoided rather than ensued. No primary curriculum can be +evolved which will meet the needs alike of the rural population and of +the townsfolk, or of the different parts of India with their varying +conditions of climate and temperament. Even more than with regard to +secondary schools, the needs of parents must be consulted, and the +greatest latitude given to provincial Governments to vary the system in +a practical spirit and in accordance with local requirements. Nor can +the opinion, strongly held by many parents, be overlooked that religious +instruction cannot be safely excluded from the training of such young +children. Some of the objects to be kept specially in view have been +well stated by Mr. Orange, the Director-General of Public Education:-- + + We desire to see, if not in every village, within reach of + every village, a school, not an exotic, but a village school, + in which the village itself can take pride, and of which the + first purpose will be to train up good men and women and good + citizens; and the second; to impart useful knowledge, not + forgetting while doing so to train the eye and the hand so + that the children when they leave school, whether for the + field or the workshop, will have begun to learn the value of + accurate observation and to feel the joy of intelligent and + exact manual work. + +This is undoubtedly the goal towards which primary education should be +directed, but it can only be reached by steady and continuous effort +spread over a long term of years. Otherwise we shall discover, again too +late, that, as in the case of secondary education, most haste is worst +speed. + +I shall not attempt to deal with the question of female education, +either primary or secondary, for it is so intimately bound up with the +peculiarities of Indian, and especially Hindu, society, that it would be +difficult for the State to take any vigorous initiative without running +a great risk of alarming and alienating native opinion[21]. Owing to +Indian social customs and to the practice of early marriage or at least +of early seclusion, for girls, their education presents immense +practical difficulties which do not exist in the case of boys. Hence the +slow progress it has made. At the last census only eight per thousand +women could read and write; and in the whole of India only about half a +million girls, or four out of every 100 of a school-going age,--even on +the basis of a four years' course, are receiving any kind of education. +Of such as do go to school nine out of ten only go to primary schools. +Mr. Gokhale himself has abandoned the idea of making primary education +compulsory for girls as well as for boys. Female education is just one +of the questions upon which Indian opinion must be left to ripen, +Government giving, in proportion as it ripens, such assistance as can be +legitimately expected. It has long engaged the attention of enlightened +Indians, and in some communities, especially amongst the Aryas of the +Punjab, some headway is being made. The Parsees, of course, as in all +educational and philanthropic developments, have always been in the +van. With the growth of Western education the Indian woman of the higher +classes cannot indefinitely lag behind, and, if only to make their +daughters more eligible for marriage, the most conservative Indian +parents will be compelled to educate them, as some have already done, so +that they shall not be separated from their male partners by an +unfathomable gulf of intellectual inferiority. In Calcutta, in Bombay, +in Madras, and indeed in all the principal cities of India, one may +already meet native ladies, both Hindu and Mahomedan, of education and +refinement, who, however few their numbers, are shining examples of what +Indian womanhood can rise to when once it is emancipated from the +trammels of antiquated custom. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +SWADESHI AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS. + + +Was it not Talleyrand who said that speech had been given to man in +order to enable him to disguise his thoughts? Indian politicians are no +Talleyrands, but they sometimes seem to have framed their vocabulary on +purpose to disguise political conceptions which most of them for various +reasons shrink from defining at present with decision. We have already +seen how elastic is the word _Swaraj_, self-government, or rather +self-rule. In the mouth of the "moderates" of the Indian National +Congress it means, we are assured, only a pious aspiration towards the +same position which our self-governing Colonies enjoy within the Empire. +For the "advanced" politician _Swaraj_ means a transition stage which he +hopes and believes must infallibly lead to a complete severance of the +ties that unite India to the Empire. For the "extremists" it means the +immediate and violent emancipation of India from British rule, and +absolute independence. So it is with the term _Swadeshi_, which means +anything from the perfectly legitimate and commendable encouragement of +Indian trade and industry to the complete exclusion of foreign, and +especially of British, goods by a "national" and often forcible +"boycott" as part of a political campaign against British rule. + +Political _Swadeshi_ bases itself upon a Nationalist legend that a +"golden age" prevailed in India before we appeared on the scene, and +that British rule has deliberately drained India of her wealth. Even if +we have to, admit that Indian home industries have suffered heavily from +the old commercial policy of the East India Company and from the +formidable competition of the organized and scientific processes of +British industry, this legend hardly deserves to be treated seriously. +The _reductio ad absurdum_ of the argument has certainly been reached +when Mr. Keir Hardie alleges that Indian loans raised in England +constitute "a regular soaking drain upon India because the interest is +paid to bondholders in this country [England], and is not therefore +benefiting the people from whom it is taken." I can only commend this +sapient contention to our self-governing Colonies, who have all had +recourse in turn to British capital for the development of their +resources, and paid interest on their loans to British bondholders +without being apparently conscious of any "soaking drain." The supposed +"drain" is estimated in various ways, but a common method adopted is to +lay stress upon the excess of exports over imports[22]. Lord Curzon has +rightly pointed out that economically this test is quite fallacious; and +that in the richest country in the world, America, the value of the +exports exceeds the imports by over L100,000,000 per annum. Home charges +represent three-fourths of the "drain," and these may be calculated at +about L18,000,000 annually. Of this sum, L6,750,000 is paid in interest +on railway capital; but the railways are a source of profit, and the +payment comes from the railway passenger. Moreover, in course of time, +the Indian railways will become, and are becoming, a property of +enormous value to the State. The interest on India's public debt is +L3,000,000, but it has to be remembered how much India has benefited by +expenditure which has proved reproductive. Sir Bampfylde Fuller has +stated that the lowest estimate of the increase in produce obtained +through irrigation works alone is estimated at L30,000,000 annually. In +the last 50 years the total volume of Indian trade, imports and exports, +has increased from L40,000,000 to L200,000,000. The remaining items are +roughly, home military charges, L2,000,000; India Office, &c., L250,000; +leave allowances, L750,000; pensions, L4,000,000. A considerable part of +these pensions represent merely deferred pay. Moreover, unlike some +other countries, e.g., the United States, where L32,000,000 are spent +on pensions, mostly unearned, India has had good value, brimming over, +for her pensions. The private remittances to England, which must be +added to these sums, are not treated in any other country as an economic +loss. No American economist would so regard the enormous annual sums +remitted by immigrants to Ireland, Italy, and other European countries, +or the vast annual expenditure of American tourists in Europe. Indian +immigrants remit L400,000 annually to India from the Straits Settlements +and Malay States alone, and considerable sums must be sent from East and +South Africa and Ceylon, as well as smaller sums from Mauritius and the +West Indies. Yet these colonies do not apparently complain about a +"drain" to India. + +What India is entitled to ask is whether Indian loans have been expended +for the benefit of the Indian people, and the answer is conclusive. +India possesses to-day assets in the shape of railways, irrigation +canals, and other public works which, as marketable properties, +represent more than her total indebtedness, without even taking into +account the enormous value of the "unearned increment" they have +produced for the benefit of the people of India. If, therefore, we look +at the Government of India for a moment as merely a board of directors +conducting a great development business on behalf of the Indian people, +they can certainly show an excellent balance-sheet. Let us admit that +some of the "home charges" may be open to discussion, and I shall have a +word or two or say about them later on. But taken altogether they may +fairly be regarded as the not unreasonable cost of administering a +concern which, if we wished to liquidate it and to retire from business +to-morrow, would leave a handsome surplus to India after paying off the +whole debt contracted in her name. The case was stated very fairly by +the late Mr. Ranade, whose teachings all but the most "advanced" +politicians still profess to reverence, when he delivered the inaugural +address at the first Industrial Conference held just 20 years ago at +Poona:-- + + There are some people who think that as long as we have + a heavy tribute to pay to England which takes away nearly + 20 crores of our surplus exports, we are doomed, and can + do nothing to help ourselves. This is, however, hardly a + fair or manly position to take up. A portion of the burden + represents interest on moneys advanced to, or invested in, + our country, and so far from complaining, we have reason + to be thankful that we have a creditor who supplies our needs + at such a low rate of interest. Another portion represents + the value of stores supplied to us, the like of which we cannot + produce here. The remainder is alleged to be more or less + necessary for the purpose of administration, defence, and + payment of pensions, and, though there is good cause for + complaint that it is not all necessary, we should not forget + the fact that we are enabled by reason of this British connexion + to levy an equivalent tribute from China by our opium + monopoly. + +If India must now forgo this tribute from China, it is not at any rate +the fault of the Government of India that the whole cost of the +awakening of the national conscience in England to the iniquity of the +opium traffic is being thrown upon India. + +The question is not whether we have done well, but whether we might not +have done better, and whether the economic development of India, +industrial, commercial, and agricultural, has kept pace with that of the +rest of the world. If the answer in this case is more doubtful, we have +to bear in mind the idiosyncrasies of the Indian people and especially +of the educated classes. Indians have been as a rule disinclined to +invest their money in commerce or industry or in scientific forms of +agriculture. It is estimated that the hoarded wealth of India amounts, +at a conservative calculation, to L300,000,000, and this probably +represents gold alone. The annual absorption of gold by India is very +great. Lord Rothschild remarked to the Currency Commission that none of +the smooth gold bars sent to India ever came back. There is, in +addition, an enormous sum hoarded in silver rupees and silver ornaments. +It is no uncommon sight, in the cities of Upper India, to see a child +wearing only one ragged, dirty garment, but loaded with massive silver +ornaments. Indians who have money and do not merely hoard it prefer to +lend it out, often at usurious rates of interest, to their needy or +thriftless fellow-countrymen. Until quite recently the educated classes +have held almost entirely aloof from any but the liberal professions. +Science in any form has been rarely taken up by University students, and +for every B.Sc. the honours lists have shown probably a hundred B.A.'s. +The Indian National Congress itself, as it represented mainly those +classes, naturally displayed the same tendencies, and for a long time it +devoted its energies to so-called political problems rather than to +practical economic questions. Hence the almost complete failure of the +Western-educated Indian to achieve any marked success in commercial and +industrial undertakings, and nowhere has that failure been more complete +than in Bengal, where it would be difficult to quote more than one +really brilliant exception. Hence also no doubt some of the political +bitterness which those classes display. Within the last few years, +however, the politician has realized that, whilst commercial and +industrial development was steadily expanding and the demand for it was +increasing on all sides, he was left standing on a barren shore. He has +done his best, or rather his worst, to convert _Swadeshi_ into a +political weapon. His efforts have only been temporarily and partially +successful. But we may rest assured that long after this spurious +political _Swadeshi_ has disappeared, the legitimate form of _Swadeshi_ +will endure--the _Swadeshi_ that does not boycott imported goods merely +because they come from England, but is bent on stimulating the +production in India of articles of the same or of better quality which +can be sold cheaper, and can, therefore, beat the imported goods in the +Indian markets. + +To this form of _Swadeshi_ it is undoubtedly the duty and the interest +of the Government of India to respond. We are bound as trustees for the +people of India to promote Indian trade and industry by all the means in +our power, and we are equally bound to help to open up new fields of +activity for the young Indians whom our educational system has diverted +from the old paths, and who no longer find for their rapidly increasing +numbers any sufficient outlet in the public services and liberal +professions which originally absorbed them. No reforms in our +educational system can be permanently effective unless we check the +growth of the intellectual proletariat, which plays so large a part in +Indian unrest, by diverting the energies of young India into new and +healthier channels. At the same time there can be no better material +antidote to the spread of disaffection than the prosperity which would +attend the expansion of trade and industry and give to increasing +numbers amongst the Western-educated classes a direct interest in the +maintenance of law and order. There are amongst those classes too many +who, having little or nothing to lose, are naturally prone to fish in +the troubled waters of sedition. + +In regard to agriculture, which is, and is bound to remain, the greatest +of all Indian industries, for it supports 70, and perhaps 80, per cent, +of the whole population, the Government of India have no reason to be +ashamed of their record. Famines can never be banished from a country +where vast tracts are entirely dependent upon an extremely uncertain +rainfall, and the population is equally dependent upon the fruits of the +soil. But besides the scientific organization of famine relief, the +public works policy of Government has been steadily and chiefly directed +to the reduction of famine areas. Not only has the construction of a +great system of railways facilitated the introduction of foodstuffs into +remote famine-stricken districts, but irrigation works, devised on a +scale and with a skill which have made India the premier school of +irrigation for the rest of the world, have added enormously both to the +area of cultivation and to that where cultivation is secured against +failure of the rainfall. The arid valley of the Indus has been converted +into a perennial granary, and in the Punjab alone irrigation canals have +already added 8,000,000 acres of unusual fertility to the land under +tillage, and have given to 5,000,000 acres more the protection against +drought in years of deficient rainfall which they formerly lacked. +Plantations of tea, coffee, cinchona, &c., and the cultivation of jute +have added within the last 25 years some L30,000,000 a year to the value +of Indian exports. Jute alone covers the whole of the so-called "drain." + +The fact, nevertheless, cannot be denied, though it is an unpleasant +admission, that a large proportion of the immense agricultural +population of India have remained miserably poor. Indian, politicians +ascribe this poverty to the crushing burden of the land revenue +collected by Government--a burden which has been shown to work out only +to about 1s. 8d. per acre of crop and is being steadily reduced in +relation to the gross revenue of the country--but they say nothing about +the exactions of the native landlord, who has, for instance in Bengal, +monopolized at the expense of the peasantry almost the whole benefit of +the Permanent Settlement. Some very significant facts with regard to +_rayatwari_ landlords were brought out in a debate this year in the +Legislative Council of Madras, when Mr. Atkinson, in reply to one of his +Hindu colleagues who had been denouncing the Government assessments in +certain villages, produced an overwhelming array of figures to show +that in those very villages the rents exacted by native landlords varied +between eight and eleven times the amount which they paid to Government. +Nor do Indian politicians say much about the native moneylender, who is +far more responsible than the tax-gatherer for the poverty of the +peasant. Still less do they say about the extravagance of native +customs, partly religious and partly social, which makes the peasant an +easy prey to the moneylender, to whom he is too often driven when he has +a child to marry or a parent to bury or a Brahman to entertain. +Indebtedness is the great curse of Indian agriculture, and the peasant's +chief necessity is cheap credit obtained on a system that will not cause +him to sink deeper into the mire. Here again it is not Indian +politicians, but the British rulers of India who have found a solution, +and it is of such importance and promise that it deserves more than mere +passing mention. + +It has been found in the adaptation to Indian requirements of the +well-known Raffeisen system. Sir William Wedderburn was, I believe, +actually the earliest advocate of this movement, but the first practical +experiments were made in Madras as a result of exhaustive investigation +by Sir Frederick Nicholson and in the United Provinces when Sir Antony +(now Lord) MacDonnell was Lieutenant-Governor, and one of the many +measures passed by Lord Curzon for the benefit of the humbler classes in +India, with little or no support from the politicians and often in +despite of their vehement opposition, whilst Nationalist newspapers +jeered at "a scheme for extracting money from wealthy natives in order +that Government might make a show of benevolence at other people's +expense," was an Act giving legal sanction to the operations of a system +of co-operative banks and credit societies. It found a healthy basis +ready made in the Indian village system, and though it would never have +succeeded without the informing energy and integrity of "sun-dried +bureaucrats" and the countenance given to it by Government, it has had +the cordial support of many capable native gentlemen. It is now only +eight years old, but it has begun to spread with amazing rapidity. The +report of the Calcutta Conference of Registrars last winter showed that +the number of societies of all kinds had risen from 1,357 in the +preceding year to 2,008, and their aggregate working capital from 44 +lakhs to nearly 81 (one lakh or Rs.100,000=L6,666). The new movement is, +of course, still only in its infancy, but it is full of promise. The +moneylender, who was at first bitterly hostile, is beginning to realize +that by providing capital for the co-operative banks he can get, on the +whole, an adequate return with much better security for his money than +in the old days of great gains and, also, great losses. One of the +healthiest features is that, notwithstanding the great expansion of the +system, during the last twelve months, the additional working capital +required was mainly provided by private individuals and only a very +small amount by Government. Another hopeful feature is that the money +saved to the peasant by the lower interest he has to pay on his debts +pending repayment is now going into modern machinery and improved +methods of agriculture. The new system appeals most strongly to poor and +heavily indebted villages, and in the Punjab, where the results are +really remarkable, especially in some of the backward Mahomedan +districts, it is hoped, that within a few years nearly half the peasant +indebtedness, estimated at 25 to 30 millions sterling, will have been +wiped off. + +Practical education is, however, as urgently needed for Indian +agriculture as for any other form of Indian industry. The selection of +land and of seeds, the use of suitable manures, an intelligent rotation +of crops, the adoption of better methods and less antiquated implements +can only be brought about by practical education, and the demand for it +is one that Government will hear put forward with growing insistency by +the new Councils on which Indian landowners have been wisely granted +the special representation that the agricultural interests of India so +abundantly deserve. + +It was the "sun-dried bureaucrat" again who in regard to Indian +industries as well as to Indian agriculture preached and practised sound +_Swadeshi_ before the word had ever been brought into vogue by the +Indian politician. The veteran Sir George Birdwood, Sir George Watt, Sir +Edward Buck, and many others have stood forth for years as the champions +of Indian art and Indian home industries. As far back as 1883, a +Resolution was passed by Government expressing its desire "to give the +utmost encouragement to every effort to substitute for articles now +obtained from Europe articles of _bona fide_ local manufacture or +indigenous origin." In 1886, a special Economic Department was created +to keep up the elaborate survey of the economic products of India which +Sir George Watt had just completed under State direction. But the most +important administrative measure was the creation under Lord Curzon of a +separate portfolio of Commerce and Industry in the Government of India, +to which a civilian, Sir John Hewett, was appointed with very +conspicuous success. It was also under Lord Curzon that the most +vigorous impulse was given to technical education of which the claims +had already been advocated by many distinguished Anglo-Indian officials, +such as Sir Antony MacDonnell and Sir Auckland Colvin. The results of an +exhaustive inquiry conducted throughout India by a Committee of +carefully selected officers were embodied in the Educational Resolution +of 1904. Particular stress was laid upon the importance of industrial, +commercial, and art and craft schools as the preparatory stages of +technical education, for which, in its higher forms, provision had +already been made in such institutions as the engineering colleges at +Sibpur, Rurki, Jubbulpore, and Madras, the College of Science at Poona, +and the Technical Institute of Bombay. Until then the record of +technical schools had too often resembled the description which Mr. +Butler, the new Minister of Education, tersely gave of that of the +Lucknow Industrial School--"a record of inconstant purpose with breaks +of unconcern." Not only did the question of technical education receive +more systematic treatment, but a special assignment of Rs.244,000 a year +was made in 1905 by the Government of India in aid of the provincial +revenues for its improvement and extension. It was not, however, until +the liberality of the late Mr. J.N. Tata and his sons, one of the best +known Parsee families of Bombay, recently placed a considerable income +for the purpose at the disposal of Government that steps have been taken +to establish an "Indian Institute of Science" worthy of the name, to +which the Mysore Government, who have given a site for it in Bangalore, +as well as the Government of India, have promised handsome financial +assistance. + +Whilst the encouragement given to Indian technical education has until +quite lately proceeded far more from the British rulers of India than +from any native quarter, it has been also until quite lately British +capital and British enterprise that have contributed mostly to the +development of Indian industry and commerce. The amount of British +capital invested in India for its commercial and industrial development +has been estimated at L350,000,000, and this capital incidentally +furnishes employment for large numbers of Indians. Half a million are +employed, on the railways alone. Another half million work on the tea +estates. The Bombay and Ahmedabad cotton mills represent at the present +day the only important and successful application of Indian capital and +Indian enterprise to industrial development. The woollen, cotton, and +leather industries of Cawnpore, which has become one of the chief +manufacturing centres of India, and the great jute industry of Bengal +were promoted almost exclusively by British, and not by indigenous +effort. Real _Swadeshi_, stimulated by British teaching and by British +enterprise, was thus already in full swing when the Indian politician +took up the cry and too often perverted it to criminal purposes, and, +though he may have helped to rouse his sluggish fellow countrymen to +healthy as well as to mischievous activity, it may be doubted whether +any good he has done has not been more than counterbalanced by the +injurious effect upon capital of a violent and often openly seditious +agitation. Mr. Gokhale himself seems to have awakened to this danger, +when in an eloquent speech delivered by him at Lucknow, in support of +_Swadeshi_ in 1907, he protested, rather late in the day, against the +"narrow, exclusive, and intolerant spirit" in which some advocates of +the cause were seeking to promote it, and laid stress upon the +importance of capital as well as of enterprise and skill as an +indispensable factor of success. British investments are large, but not +so large as they might and should be, and the reluctance to invest in +India grows with the uneasiness caused by political unrest. + +That an immense field lies open in India for industrial development need +scarcely be argued. It has been explored with great knowledge and +ability in a very instructive article contributed last January to the +_Asiatic Quarterly Review_ by Mr. A.C. Chatterjee, an Indian member of +the Civil Service. Amongst the many instances he gives of industries +clamouring for the benefits of applied science, I will quote only the +treatment of oil seeds, the manufacture of paper from wood pulp and wood +meal, the development of leather factories and tanneries, as well as of +both vegetable and chemical dyes, the sugar industry, and metal +work--all of which, if properly instructed and directed, would enable +India to convert her own raw materials with profit into finished +products either for home consumption or for exportation abroad. It is at +least equally important for India to save her home industries, and +especially her hand-weaving industry, the wholesale destruction of +which under the pressure of the Lancashire power loom has thrown so +many poor people on to the already over-crowded land. Here, as Mr. +Chatterjee wisely remarks, combination and organization are badly +needed, for "the hand industry has the greatest chances of survival when +it adopts the methods of the power industry without actual resort to +power machinery." The articles on the Indian industrial problem in +_Science Progress_ for April and July, by Mr. Alfred Chatterton, +Director of Industries, Madras, are also worth careful attention. He +remarks quite truly that her inexhaustible supplies of cheap labour are +"India's greatest asset"; but he too wisely holds that the factory +system of the West should only be guardedly extended and under careful +precautions. The Government of India have at present under consideration +important legislative measures for preventing the undue exploitation of +both child and adult labour--measures which are already being denounced +by the native Press as "restrictive" legislation devised by the "English +cotton kings" in order to "stifle the indigenous industries of India in +their infancy"! + +What Government can do for the pioneering of new industries is shown by +the success of the State dairies in Northern India and of Mr. +Chatterton's experiments in the manufacturing of aluminium in Madras. +There is an urgent demand at present for industrial research +laboratories and experimental work all over India, and above all for +better and more practical education. But it would seem that, in this +direction, the impetus given by Lord Curzon has somewhat slackened under +Lord Minto's administration, owing, doubtless, to the absorbing claims +of the political situation and of political reforms. + +In speaking in the Calcutta Council on a resolution for the +establishment of a great Polytechnic College, the Home Member was able +to point to a fairly long list of measures taken at no small cost by the +State to promote technical education in all parts of India, and he +rightly urged that there would be little use in creating a sort of +technical University until a larger proportion of students had qualified +for it by taking advantage of the more elementary courses already +provided for them. His answer would, however, have been more convincing +could he have shown that existing institutions are always adequately +equipped and that considered schemes which have the support of the best +Indian as well as of the best official opinion are not subjected to +merely dilatory objections at headquarters. Three years ago, after the +Naini Tal Industrial Conference, the most representative ever perhaps +held in India, Sir John Hewett, who had been made Lieutenant-Governor of +the United Provinces after having been the first to hold the new +portfolio of Commerce and Industry, developed a scheme for the creation +of a Technological College at Cawnpore, which met with unanimous +approval. Nothing has yet been done to give effect to it, and it was not +only the Indian but many of the European members, official as well as +unofficial, of the Viceroy's Legislative Council who sympathized with +Mr. Mudholkar's protest when he asked with some bitterness what must be +the impression produced in India by the shelving of a scheme that was +supported by men of local experiences by the head of the Provincial +Government, and by the Government of India, because people living 6,000 +miles away did not consider it to be absolutely flawless. + +In one direction at any rate, India can rightly demand that Government +should be left an entirely free hand--namely, in regard to the very +large orders which have to be placed every year by the great spending +departments. It has now been laid down by the Secretary of State that +Indian industry should supply the needs of Government in respect of all +articles that are, in whole or in part, locally manufactured. But Indian +industry would be able to supply much more if the Government of India +were in a position to give it more assured support. The case of the +Bengal Iron and Steel Company has been quoted to me, which was +compelled to close down its steel works and to reduce the number of its +iron furnaces in blast from four to two because the promises of support +received from Government when the company took over the works proved to +be largely and quite inexcusably illusory. For works of this kind cannot +be run at present in India unless they can depend upon the hearty +support of Government, which, through the Railways and Public Works +Department, is the main, and, indeed, the only, consumer on a large +scale. + +At the present moment, Messrs. Tata are making a truly gigantic +endeavour to acclimatize the iron and steel industry in India by the +erection of immense works at Sakti in Bengal, where they have within +easy reach a practically unlimited supply of the four necessary raw +materials iron ore, coking coal, flux, and manganese ore. To utilize +these, plant is being set up of a yearly capacity of 120,000 tons of +foundry iron, rails, shapes, and merchant bars, and plans have been +drawn out for an industrial city of 20,000 inhabitants. The enterprise +is entirely in Indian hands with an initial share capital of L1,545,000 +administered by an Indian board of directors, who have engaged American +experts to organize the works. Government has granted various railway +facilities to the company and has placed with them an order for 200,000 +tons of rails for periodical delivery. Upon the future of these works +will probably depend for many years to come the success of the +metallurgical and other kindred industries of India, and it is to be +hoped that Government will be allowed to give them all reasonable +assistance without interference from home. Another purely Indian +enterprise--also under the auspices of Messrs. Tata--is a great scheme +for catching the rainfall of the Western Ghats and creating a +hydro-electric supply of power which will, amongst other uses, drive +most of the Bombay mills. + +In regard to minor Indian industries, hints have, I am assured, too +frequently been sent out from England that the claims of British +industry to Government support must not be forgotten. Even now no change +has been made in the regulations which compel the Government of India to +purchase all articles not wholly or partly manufactured in India through +the Stores Department of the India Office. The delay thus caused in +itself represents a serious loss, for it appears to take an average of +nine months for any order through that Department to be carried out, and +further delays arise whenever some modification in the original indent +is required. Nowadays merchants in India keep for ordinary purposes of +trade such large collections of samples that in nine cases out of ten +Government Departments could settle at once upon what they want and +their orders would be carried out both more quickly and more cheaply. +The maintenance of these antiquated regulations, which are very +injurious to Indian trade, is attributed by Indians mainly to the +influence of powerful vested interests in England. + +The time would also seem to, have arrived when, with the development of +Indian trade and industry, private contracts might with advantage be +substituted for the more expensive and slower activities of the Public +Works Department. Work done by that Department is bound to be more +expensive, for its enormous establishment has to be maintained on the +same footing whether financial conditions allow or do not allow +Government to embark on large public works expenditure, and when they do +not, the proportion of establishment charges to the actual cost of works +is ruinous. When the Calcutta Port Trust and other institutions of the +same character put out to contract immense works running every year into +millions, why, it is asked, should not Government do the same? Some +works like irrigation works may properly be reserved for the Public +Works Department, but to mobilize the Department whenever a bungalow has +to be built or a road made by Government, is surely ridiculous. + +Indian opinion is at present just in the mood when reasonable +concessions of this kind would make an excellent impression; and, if +they are not made spontaneously, the enlarged Indian Councils will soon +exert pressure to obtain them. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +THE FINANCIAL AND FISCAL RELATIONS BETWEEN INDIA AND GREAT BRITAIN. + + +When Lord Morley introduced his Indian reforms scheme, a section at +least of the party to which he belongs supported it not only on general +grounds, but more especially in the belief that it would strengthen the +hands of the Imperial Government in dealing with the hide-bound +officialism of which the Government of India is in the eyes of some +British Radicals the visible embodiment. None of them, probably, +anticipated that the boot would be on the other leg. If the Government +of India have sometimes sacrificed Indian interests to British +interests, it has been almost exclusively in connexion with the +financial and fiscal relations between the two countries, and often +against the better judgment and sense of justice of Anglo-Indian +officials. In this respect the enlarged Indian Councils will lend far +greater weight than in the past to any representations which the +Government of India may make at Whitehall. + +Even in the course of its first session at Calcutta the Imperial Council +has given abundant indications of its attitude. In the Budget debate, +Sir Vithaldas Thackersey, one of the Indian elected members from Bombay, +remarked very pointedly that "there is an impression abroad that, in +deciding most important questions of economic and financial policy, the +Government are obliged to be guided by political exigencies." Official +secrets have a way of leaking out in India, and Sir Vithaldas knew what +he was talking about when he added with regard to the Budget under +discussion--"It is generally believed that, if the Government of India +had had a freer hand, they would have preferred the raising of the +general tariff or a duty on sugar, which would have been less +objectionable than the levying of the proposed enhanced duties in the +teeth of the practically unanimous opposition of the non-official +members of this Council and of the public generally". + +It is certainly unfortunate that on the first occasion on which the +Government of India had to lay a financial statement before the enlarged +Council, Indian members should have come to the conclusion that the +unpopular Budget submitted to them was not the one originally proposed +by the Indian Finance Department, but that it had been imposed upon that +Department by the Secretary of State in deference to the exigencies of +British party politics. Equally unfortunate is it that the financial +difficulties which this Budget had to meet were mainly due to the loss +of revenue on opium in consequence of the arrangements made by Great +Britain with China, in which Indian interests had received very scant +consideration. Not only had Sir Edward Baker, when he was Finance +Minister three years ago, given an assurance that the new opium policy +would be carried out without any resort to extra taxation, but there is +a strong feeling in India that the praiseworthy motives which have +induced the Imperial Government to come to terms with China on the +subject of the opium trade would be still more creditable to the British +people had not the Indian taxpayer been left, with his fellow-sufferers +in Hong-Kong and Singapore, to bear the whole cost of British moral +rectitude. The Imperial Council did not confine itself, either, to +criticism of what had happened. Sir Vithaldas Thackersey had probably +every Indian and many official members with him when he made the +following very clear intimation as to the future:--"We are prepared to +bear our burdens, and all that we ask is that the country should be +allowed greater freedom in choosing the methods of raising revenue. I am +unable to see how it will be injurious to the interests of Government if +this Council is allowed a more real share as regards what articles shall +be taxed and what duties shall be paid." + +It is upon such questions as these that the voice of the enlarged +Councils will in future cause much more frequent embarrassment to the +Imperial Government than to the Government of India, and I shall be much +surprised if they have not to listen to it in regard to various "home +charges" with which the Government of India have from time to time very +reluctantly agreed to burden Indian finance at the bidding of Whitehall. +The Indian Nationalist Press has not been alone in describing the recent +imposition on the Indian taxpayer of a capitation allowance amounting to +L300,000 a year to meet the increased cost of the British soldier as +"the renewed attempt of a rapacious War Office to raid the helpless +Indian Treasury," and even the increase in the pay of the native +soldier, which Lord Kitchener obtained for him, does not prevent him and +his friends from drawing their own comparison between the squalor of the +quarters in which he is still housed and the relatively luxurious +barracks built for Tommy Atkins under Lord Kitchener's administration at +the expense of the Indian taxpayer. It is no secret that the Government +of India have also frequently remonstrated in vain when India has been +charged full measure and overflowing in respect of military operations +in which the part borne by her has been governed less by her own direct +interests than by the necessity of making up with the help of Indian +contingents the deficiencies of our military organization at home. It +was no Indian politician but the Government of India who expressed the +opinion that:-- + + The Imperial Government keeps in India and quarters + upon the revenues of that country as large a portion of its + army as it thinks can possibly be required to maintain its + dominion there; that it habitually treats that army as a + reserve force available for Imperial purposes; that it has + uniformly detached European regiments from the garrison + of India to take part in Imperial wars whenever it has been + found necessary or convenient to do so; and, more than this, + that it has drawn not less freely upon the native army of + India, towards the maintenance of which it contributes + nothing, to aid in contests outside of India with which the + Indian Government has had little or no concern. + +All these are, however, but secondary issues to the much larger one +which the creation of the new Councils must tend to bring to the front +with all the force of the increased weight given to them by the recent +reforms. For that issue will raise the whole principle of our fiscal +relations with India, if it results in a demand for the protection of +Indian industries against the competition of imported manufactures by an +autonomous tariff. It must be remembered that the desire for Protection +is no new thing in India. Whether we like it or not, whether we be Free +Traders or Tariff Reformers, we have to reckon with the fact that almost +every Indian is a Protectionist at heart, whatever he may be in theory. +The Indian National Congress has hitherto fought shy of making +Protection a prominent plank of its platform, lest it should offend its +political friends in England. Yet as far back as 1902 a politician as +careful as Mr. Surendranath Banerjee to avoid in his public utterances +anything that might alienate British Radicalism, declared in his +inaugural address at the 18th session of the Congress that "if we had a +potential voice in the government of our own country there would be no +question as to what policy we should follow. We would unhesitatingly +adopt a policy of Protection." This note has been accentuated since the +political campaign in favour of militant Swadeshism, and when English +Radicals sympathize with the _Swadeshi_ boycott as a protest against +the Partition of Bengal, they would do well to recollect that, before +Indian audiences, the most violent forms of _Swadeshi_ are constantly +defended on the ground that British industrial greed, of which Free +Trade is alleged to be the highest expression, has left no other weapons +to India for the defence of her material interests. Mr. Lala Lajpat Rai, +who has the merit of often speaking with great frankness, addressed +himself once in the following terms to "those estimable gentlemen in +India who believe in the righteousness of the British nation as +represented by the electors of Great Britain and Ireland, and who are +afraid of offending them by the boycott of English-made goods": + + If there are any two classes into which the British nation + can roughly be divided they are either manufacturers or + the working men. Both are interested in keeping the Indian + market open for the sale and consumption of their manufactures. + They are said to be the only friends to whom we + can appeal against the injustice of the Anglo-Indian bureaucracy. + Offend them, we are told, and you are undone. You + lose the good will of the only classes who can help you and + who are prepared to listen to your grievances. But, boycott + or no boycott, any movement calculated to increase the manufacturing + power of India is likely to incur the displeasure + of the British elector. He is a very well-educated animal, + a keen man of business, who can at once see through things + likely to affect his pocket, however cleverly they may be + put or arranged by those who hold an interest which is really + adverse to his. He is not likely to be hoodwinked by the + cry of _Swadeshi_ minus the boycott, because, really speaking, + if effectively worked and organized, both are one and the + same thing. + +That _Swadeshi_ as understood by educated Indians of all classes and of +all political complexions means in some form or other Protection was +made clear even in the Imperial Council. The Finance Member, Sir +Fleetwood Wilson, was himself fain to pay homage to it, but his sympathy +did not disarm Mr. Chitnavis, an Indian member whose speech deserves to +be recorded, as it embodied the opinions entertained by 99 out of every +1,000 Indians who are interested in economic questions and by a very +large number of Anglo-Indians, both official and non-official:-- + + The country must be grateful to him [the Finance Member] + for his sympathetic attitude towards Indian industries. + "I think _Swadeshi_ is good, and if the outcome of the changes + I have laid before the Council result in some encouragement + of Indian industries, I for one shall not regret it." For a + Finance Minister to say even so much is not a small thing + in the present state of India's dependence upon the most + pronounced and determined Free Trade country in the + world.... At the same time we regret the absence + of fiscal autonomy for India and the limitations under which + this Government has to frame its industrial policy. We + regret that Government cannot give the country a protective + tariff forthwith. However excellent Free Trade may be for + a country in an advanced stage of industrial development, + it must be conceded that Protection is necessary for the + success and development of infant industries. Even pronounced + protagonists of Free Trade do not view this idea + with disfavour. That Indian manufacturing industry is + in its infancy does not admit of controversy. Why should + not India, then, claim special protection for her undeveloped + industry? Even countries remarkable for their industrial + enterprise and excellence protect their industries. The + United States and Germany are decidedly Protectionist. The + British Colonies have protective tariffs... protective + in purpose, scope, and effect. They are not like the Indian + import duties, levied for revenue purposes. The Indian + appeal for Protection cannot in the circumstances be unreasonable. + The development of the industries is a matter + of great moment to the Empire, and the popular leanings + towards Protectionism ought to engage the sympathy of + Government. The imposition of import duties for revenue + purposes is sanctioned by precedent and principle alike. + ... And yet for a small import duty of 3-1/2 per cent, + upon cotton goods a countervailing Excise duty upon home + manufactures is imposed in disregard of Indian public opinion, + and the latest pronouncement of the Secretary of State has + dispelled all expectations of the righting of this wrong. + +No measure has done greater injury to the cause of Free Trade in India +or more permanent discredit to British rule than this Excise duty on +Indian manufactured cotton, for none has done more to undermine Indian +faith in the principles of justice upon which British rule claims, and, +on the whole, most legitimately claims, to be based. In obedience to +British Free Trade principles, all import duties were finally abolished +in India at the beginning of the eighties, except on liquors and on +salt, which were subject to an internal Excise duty. In 1894, however, +the Government of India were compelled by financial stress to revive the +greater part of the old 5 per cent tariff on imports, excluding cottons, +until the end of the year when cottons were included and under pressure +from England. Lord Elgin's Government had to agree to levy a +countervailing Excise duty of 5 per cent on cotton fabrics manufactured +in Indian power mills. After a good deal of heated correspondence the +Government of India were induced in February, 1896, to reduce the duty +on cotton manufactured goods imported from abroad to 3-1/2 per cent., with +the same reduction of the Indian Excise duty, whilst cotton yarns were +altogether freed from duty. This arrangement is still in force. + +Rightly or wrongly, every Indian believes that the Excise duty was +imposed upon India for the selfish benefit of the British cotton +manufacturer and under the pressure of British party politics. He +believes, as was once sarcastically remarked by an Indian member of the +Viceroy's Legislative Council, that, so long as Lancashire sends 60 +members to Westminster, the British Government will always have 60 +reasons for maintaining the Excise duty. To the English argument that +the duty is "only a small one" the Indian reply is that, according to +the results of an elaborate statistical inquiry conducted at the +instance of the late Mr. Jamsetjee N. Tata, a 3-1/2 per cent Excise duty on +cotton cloth is equivalent to a 7 per cent duty on capital invested in +weaving under Indian conditions. The profits are very fluctuating and +the depreciation of plant is considerable. Equally fallacious is +another argument that the duty is in reality paid by Englishmen. The +capital engaged in the Indian cotton industry is, it is contended, not +British, but almost exclusively Indian, and a large proportion is held +by not over-affluent Indian shareholders. + +There is nothing to choose between the records of the two great +political parties at home in their treatment of England's financial and +fiscal relations with India, and English Tariff Reformers have as a rule +shown little more disposition than English Free Traders to study Indian +interests. In fact, until Mr. M. de P. Webb, a member of the Bombay +Legislative Council, published under the title of "India and the Empire" +an able exposition of the Tariff problem in relation to India, very few +Tariff Reformers seemed even to take India into account in their schemes +of Imperial preference. I hope, therefore, to be absolved from all +suspicion of party bias in drawing attention to a question which is, I +believe, destined to play in the near future a most important--perhaps +even a determining--part in the relations of India to the British +Empire. + +One of the first things that struck me on my return to India this +year--and struck me most forcibly--was the universality and vehemence of +the demand for a new economic policy directed with energy and system to +the expansion of Indian trade and industry. It is a demand with which +the great majority of Anglo-Indian officials are in full sympathy, and +it is in fact largely the outcome of their own efforts to stimulate +Indian interest in the question. There is very little doubt that the +Government of India would be disposed to respond to it speedily and +heartily on the lines I have already briefly indicated. Will the +Imperial Government and the British democracy lend them a helping hand +or even leave a free hand to them? If not, we shall assuredly find +ourselves confronted with an equally universal and vehement demand for +Protection pure and simple by the erection of an Indian Tariff wall +against the competition of imported manufactures. I need hardly point +out how the rejection of such a demand would be exploited by the +political agitator or how it would rally to the side of active +disaffection some of the most conservative and influential classes in +India. For if, as those Englishmen who claim a monopoly of sympathy with +the people of India are continually preaching, we must be prepared to +sacrifice administrative efficiency to sympathy, how could we shelter +ourselves on an economic issue behind theories of the greater economic +efficiency of Free Trade? If we are to try "to govern India in +accordance with Indian ideas"--a principle with which I humbly but fully +agree--how could we justify the refusal to India, of the fiscal autonomy +for which there is a far more widespread and genuine demand than for +political autonomy? + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +THE POSITION OF INDIANS IN THE EMPIRE. + + +The problems of Indian administration are in themselves difficult enough +to solve, but even more difficult are some of the problems connected +with the relations of India and her peoples to the rest of the Empire. +One of these has assumed during the last few years a character of +extreme gravity, which neither the Imperial Government nor the British +public seems to have at all adequately grasped. + +"I think," said Mr. Gokhale in moving his resolution for the prohibition +of Indian indentured labour for Natal, "I am stating the plain truth +when I say that no single question of our time has evoked more bitter +feelings throughout India--feelings in the presence of which the best +friends of British rule have had to remain helpless--than the continued +ill-treatment of Indians in South Africa." + +Every Indian member of the Viceroy's Legislative Council who spoke +during that debate, whatever race or creed or caste he represented, +endorsed the truth of Mr. Gokhale's statement, and had a vote been taken +on the resolution it would have had what no other resolution moved +during the whole session would have secured--the unanimous support of +the whole body of Indian members and the sympathy of every English +member, official as well as unofficial. The Government of India wisely +averted a division by accepting the resolution. Not a single attempt was +made either by the Viceroy in the chair or by other representatives of +Government to controvert either Mr. Gokhale's statement or the +overwhelming array of facts showing the nature and extent of the +ill-treatment of Indians in South Africa, which was presented by the +mover of the resolution and by every Indian speaker who followed him. +The whole tone of the debate was extremely dignified and +self-restrained, but no Englishman can have listened to it without a +deep sense of humiliation. For the first time in history the Government +of India had to sit dumb whilst judgment was pronounced in default +against the Imperial Government upon a question which has stirred the +resentment of every single community of our Indian Empire. It was the +one question which called forth very deep feeling in the Indian National +Congress at Lahore last December, where subscriptions and donations +flowed in freely to defray the expenses of a campaign throughout India, +and it figured just as prominently in the proceedings of the All-India +Moslem League, which held its annual meeting there in the following +month. In fact, Mahomedans have the additional grievance that the laws +of the Transvaal discriminate by name against those of their faith. +There is scarcely a city of any importance in India in which public +meetings have not testified to the interest and indignation which the +subject arouses in every class of Indian audience. + +This is a very grave fact. I need not enter into the details of the +question. They are well known. There may be some exaggerations, Indian +immigrants may not always be drawn from desirable classes, there may be +differences of opinion as to the wisdom of the attitude taken up by some +of the Indians in South Africa, and Englishmen may sympathize with the +desire of British and Dutch colonists to check the growth of another +alien population in their midst. But that the Indian has not received +there the just treatment to which he is entitled as a subject of the +British Crown, and that disabilities and indignities are heaped upon him +because he is an Indian, are broad facts that are not and cannot be +disputed. The resolution adopted by the Imperial Council, with the +sanction of the Government of India, was formally directed against Natal +because it is only in regard to Natal that India possesses an effective +weapon of retaliation in withholding the supply of indentured labour +which is indispensable to the prosperity of that colony. But the Indian +grievance is not confined to Natal; it is even greater in the Transvaal. +Still less is it confined to the particular class of Indians who +emigrate as indentured labourers to South Africa. What Indians feel most +bitterly is that however well educated, however respectable and even +distinguished may be an Indian who goes to or resides in South Africa, +and especially in the Transvaal, he is treated as an outcast and is at +the mercy of harsh laws and regulations framed for his oppression, and +often interpreted with extra harshness by the officials who are left to +apply them. This bitterness is intensified by the recollection that, +before the South African War, the wrongs of British Indians in the +Transvaal figured prominently in the catalogue of charges brought by the +Imperial Government against the Kruger _regime_ and contributed not a +little to precipitate its downfall. In prosecuting the South African War +Great Britain drew freely upon India for assistance of every kind except +actual Indian combatants. Not only was it the loyalty of India that +enabled the British troops who saved Natal to be embarked hurriedly at +Bombay, but it was the constant supply from India of stores of all +kinds, of transport columns, of hospital bearers, &c., which, to a great +extent, made up throughout the war for the deficiencies of the British +War Office. There are monuments erected in South Africa which testify to +the devotion of British Indians who, though non-combatants, laid down +their lives in the cause of the Empire. Yet, as far as the British +Indians are concerned, the end of it all has been that their lot in the +Transvaal since it became a British Colony is harder than it was In the +old Kruger days, and the British colonists in the Transvaal, who were +ready enough to use Indian grievances as a stick with which to beat +Krugerism, have now joined hands with the Dutch in refusing to redress +them. The Government of India have repeatedly urged upon the Imperial +Government the gravity of this question, and Lord Curzon especially +pressed upon his friends, when they were in office, the vital importance +of effecting some acceptable settlement whilst the Transvaal was still a +Crown Colony, and, therefore, more amenable to the influence of the +Mother Country than it would be likely to prove when once endowed with +self-government. Yet the Imperial Government after a succession of +half-hearted and ineffective protests have now finally acquiesced in the +perpetuation and even the aggravation of wrongs which some ten years ago +they solemnly declared to be intolerable. + +Apart from the sense of justice upon which Englishmen pride themselves, +it is impossible to overlook the disastrous consequences of this _gran +rifiuto_ for the prestige of British rule in India. One of the Indian +Members of Council, Mr. Dadabhoy, indicated them in terms as moderate as +they were significant:-- + + In 1899 Lord Lansdowne feared the moral consequences + in India of a conviction of the powerlessness of the British + _Raj_ to save the Indian settlers in the Transvaal from oppression + and harsh treatment. That was when there was peace all + over this country, when sedition, much more anarchism, + was an unheard-of evil. If the situation was disquieting then, + what is it now when the urgent problem of the moment + is how to put down and prevent the growth of unrest In the + land? The masses do not understand the niceties of the + relations between the Mother Country and the Colonies; + they do not comprehend the legal technicalities. The British + _Raj_ has so far revealed itself to them as a power whose influence + is irresistible, and when they find that, with all its traditional + omnipotence, it has not succeeded in securing to their countrymen + --admittedly a peaceable and decent body of settlers who + rendered valuable services during the war--equal treatment + at the hands of a small Dependency, they become disheartened + and attribute the failure to the European colonist's influence + over the Home Government. That is an impression which is + fraught with incalculable potentialities of mischief and which + British statesmanship should do everything in its power + to dispel. The present political situation in India adds + special urgency to the case. + +No comments of mine could add to the significance of this warning. + +The measure contemplated by Mr. Gokhale's resolution may have some +direct effect upon Natal, whose leading statesmen have repeatedly +acknowledged the immense value of Indian indentured labour to the +Colony, and may indirectly affect public opinion in the Transvaal. But +behind the immediate question of the worse or better treatment of +Indians in South Africa stand much larger questions, which Mr. Gokhale +did not hesitate to state with equal frankness:-- + + Behind all the grievances of which I have spoken to-day + three questions of vital importance emerge to view. First, + what is the _status_ of us Indians in this Empire? Secondly, + what is the extent of the responsibility which lies on the + Imperial Government to ensure to us just and humane and, + gradually, even equal treatment in this Empire? And, + thirdly, how far are the self-governing members of this + Empire bound by its cardinal principles, or are they to share + in its privileges only and not to bear their share of the disadvantages? + +These issues have been raised in their most acute form in South Africa, +but they exist also in Australia, and even in Canada, where many Indians +suffered heavily from the outburst of anti-Asiatic feeling which swept +along the Pacific Coast a couple of years ago. They involve the position +of Asiatic subjects of the Crown in all the self-governing Dominions and +indirectly in many of the Crown Colonies, for they affect the relations +of the white and coloured races throughout the Empire. Here, however, I +must confine myself to the Indian aspects. I have discussed them with a +good many Indians, and they are quite alive to the difficulties of the +situation. Though they resent the colour bar, they realize the strength +of the feeling there is in the Colonies in favour of preserving the +white race from intermixture with non-white races. It is, in fact, a +feeling they themselves in some ways share, for, in India the +unfortunate Eurasian meets with even less sympathy from Indians than +from Europeans. Indian susceptibilities may even find some consolation +in the fact that Colonial dislike of the Indian immigrant is to a great +extent due to his best qualities. "Indians," said Mr. Mudholkar, +appealing to Lord Minto, "are hated, as your Lordship's predecessor +pointed out, on account of their very virtues. It is because they are +sober, thrifty, industrious, more attentive to their business than the +white men that their presence in the Colonies is considered +intolerable." Educated Indians know how little hold the Mother Country +has over her Colonies in these matters. They know that both British and +Anglo-Indian statesmen have recognized their grievances without being +able to secure their redress, and it is interesting to note how warm +were the tributes paid in the Imperial Council to the energy with which +Lord Curzon had upheld their cause, by some of those who were most +bitterly opposed to him when he was in India. They know, on the other +hand, that though the British Labour Party can afford to profess great +sympathy for Indian political aspirations in India, it has never +tried--or, if it has tried, it has signally failed--to exercise the +slightest influence in favour of Indian claims to fair treatment with +its allies in the Colonies, where the Labour Party is always the most +uncompromising advocate of a policy of exclusion and oppression, and +they know the power which the Labour Party wields in all our Colonies. + +They are, therefore, I believe, ready, to reckon with the realities of +the situation and to agree with Lord Curzon that "the common rights of +British citizenship cannot be held to override the rights of +self-protection conceded to self-governing Colonies"--rights which, +moreover, are often exercised to the detriment of immigrants from the +Mother Country itself. They will, on the other hand, urge the +withholding of Indian labour if the Colonies are unwilling to treat it +with fairness and humanity, and they argue rightly enough, that India, +to whom the emigration of tens of thousands of her people is not an +unmixed advantage, will lose far less than Colonies whose development +will be starved by the loss of labour they cannot themselves supply. An +influential Indian Member stated in Council that they have accepted the +view that complete freedom of immigration is beyond the pale of +practical politics, and is not to be pressed as things stand. All that +they ask, he added, in the Transvaal is for the old Indian residents to +be allowed to live peaceably, as in Cape Colony for instance, without +being treated like habitual criminals, and for men of education and +position to be allowed to come in, so that they may have teachers, +ministers of religion, and doctors for themselves and their people. In +Natal they ask for the maintenance of the rights and privileges they +have had for years and years. On such lines a practical working +arrangement with the Colonies should not be beyond the bounds of +possibility. But what Indians also demand is that laws and regulations +of an exceptional character which may be accepted in regard to +immigration shall not be applicable to Indians who merely wish to travel +in the Colonies. An Indian of very high position whom every one from the +King downwards welcomes when he comes to England, wished a few years ago +to visit Australia, but before doing so he wrote to a friend there to +inquire whether he would be subjected to any unpleasant formalities. The +answer he received discouraged him. These are the sort of difficulties +which Indians claim should be removed, and one practical suggestion I +have heard put forward is that, on certain principles to be laid down by +mutual agreement between the Imperial Government, the Governments of +the Dominions, and the Government of India, the latter should have power +to issue passports to Indian subjects which would be recognized and +would exempt them from all vexatious formalities throughout the Empire. + +The whole question is one that cannot be allowed to drag on indefinitely +without grave danger to the Empire. It evidently cannot be solved +without the co-operation of the Colonies. Next year the Imperial +Conference meets again in the capital of the Empire. If, in the +meantime, the Imperial Government were to enter into communication with +the Government of India and with the Crown Colonies, so many of whom are +closely interested in Indian labour, they should be in a position to lay +before the representatives of the Dominions assembled in London next +March considered proposals which would afford a basis for discussion +and, one may hope, for a definite agreement. A recognition of the right +of Colonial Governments to regulate the conditions on which British +Indians may be allowed admission as indentured labourers or for +permanent residence ought to secure guarantees for the equitable and +humane treatment of those who have been already admitted, or shall +hereafter be admitted, and also an undertaking that Indians of good +position armed with specified credentials from the Government of India, +travelling either for pleasure or for purposes of scientific study or on +business or with other legitimate motives, would be allowed to enter and +travel about for a reasonable period without let or hindrance of any +sort. That is the _minimum_ which would, I believe, satisfy the best +Indian opinion, and it is inconceivable that if the situation were +freely and frankly explained to our Colonial kinsmen they would reject a +settlement so essential to the interests and to the credit of the whole +Empire in relation to India. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +SOCIAL AND OFFICIAL RELATIONS. + + +On few subjects are more ignorant or malevolent statements made than on +the attitude of Englishmen in India towards the natives of the country. +That social relations between Englishmen and Indians seldom grow +intimate is true enough, but not that the fault lies mainly with +Englishmen. At the risk of being trite, I must recall a few elementary +considerations. + +The bedrock difficulty is that Indian customs prevent any kind of +intimacy between English and Indian families. Even in England the +relations between men who are excluded from acquaintance with each +other's families can rarely be called intimate, and except in the very +few cases of Indian families that are altogether Westernized, Indian +habits rigidly exclude Englishmen from admission into the homes of +Indian gentlemen, whether Hindu or Mahomedan. Intercourse between Indian +and English ladies is in the same way almost entirely confined to formal +visits paid by the latter to the zenana and the harem, and to so-called +_Purdah_ parties, given in English houses, in which Indian ladies are +entertained as far as possible under the same conditions that prevail in +their own homes--i.e., to the total exclusion of all males. So long as +Indian ladies are condemned to a life of complete seclusion the +interests they have in common with their English visitors must +necessarily be very few. On the other hand, it is not surprising that +Englishmen, knowing the views that many Indian men entertain with regard +to the position of women, do not care to encourage them to visit their +own houses on a footing of intimacy that would necessarily bring them +into more or less familiar contact with their English wives and sisters +and daughters. There is very much to admire in the family relations, and +especially in the filial relations, that exist in an Indian home, +whether Hindu or Mahomedan, but it is idle to pretend that Indian ideas +with regard to the relations between the sexes are the same as ours. In +these circumstances any social fusion between even the better classes of +the two races seems to be for the present out of the question. + +Very sincere and creditable efforts are now, it is true, being made on +both sides to diminish the gulf that divides English and Indian society, +and I have been at various gatherings which were attended by Englishmen +and Englishwomen and by Indians, among whom there was sometimes even a +sprinkling of Indian ladies. But the English host and hostess invariably +found it difficult to prevent their Indian guests forming groups of +their own, and each group seemed to be as reluctant to mingle with other +Indian groups of a different class or caste as with their English +fellow-guests. Indian society has been for centuries split up by race +and caste and creed distinctions into so many watertight compartments +that it does not care for the Western forms of social intercourse, which +tend to ignore those distinctions. It is Indians themselves who regard +us, much more than we regard ourselves, as a separate caste. Moreover, +for the ordinary and somewhat desultory conversation which plays so +large a part in Western sociability the Indian has very little +understanding. He always imagines that conversation must have some +definite purpose, and though he has far, more than most English men, the +gift of ready and courteous speech, and often will talk for a long time +both discursively and pleasantly, it is almost always as a preliminary +to the introduction of some particular topic in which his personal +interests are more or less directly involved. A question which causes a +good deal of soreness is the rigid exclusion of Indians from many +Anglo-Indian clubs. But though a little more elasticity as to the +entertainment of Indian "guests" might reasonably be conceded to Indian +susceptibilities, a club is after all just as much as his house an +Englishman's castle, and it is only in India that any one would venture +to suggest that a club should not settle its rules of membership as it +thinks fit. In the large cities at least there should, however, be room +for clubs which, like the Calcutta Club at Calcutta, serve the very +useful purpose of bringing together by mutual consent the higher classes +of Indians and Englishmen, official and non-official. Yet even there the +exigencies of caste observances, especially in the case of Hindus, +militate against the more convivial forms of intercourse which the +Englishman particularly affects. There are not a few Hindu members who +will talk or play bridge with their English fellow-members into the +small hours of the morning, but who consider themselves bound in +conscience not to sit down to dinner with them; whilst some will +doubtless feel obliged to perform ceremonial ablutions when they go +home. Others again, for similar reasons, would decline to join any +European club. They are no more to be blamed than Englishmen who prefer +to reserve membership of their clubs to Europeans, but the fact remains +and has to be reckoned with. + +The best and most satisfactory relations are those maintained between +Englishmen and Indians who understand and respect each other's +peculiarities. No class of Englishman in India fulfils those conditions +more fully than the Indian Civil Service. It is, I know, the _bete +noire_ of the Indian politician, and even Englishmen who ought to know +better seem to think that, once they have labelled it a "bureaucracy," +that barbarous name is enough to hang it--or enough, at least, to lend +plausibility to the charge that Anglo-Indian administrators are arrogant +and harsh in their personal dealings with Indians and ignorant and +unsympathetic in their methods of government. + +That the English civilian goes out to India with a tolerably high +intellectual and moral equipment can hardly be disputed, for he +represents the pick of the young men who qualify for our Civil Service +at home as well as abroad, and in respect of character, integrity, and +intelligence the British Civil Service can challenge comparison with +that of any other country in the world. Why should he suddenly change +into a narrow-minded, petty tyrant as soon as he sets foot in India? A +great part at least of his career is spent in the very closest contact +with the people, for he often lives for years together in remote +districts where he has practically no other society than that of +natives. He generally knows and speaks fluently more than one +vernacular, though, owing to the multiplicity of Indian languages--there +are five, for instance, in the Bombay Presidency alone--- he may find +himself suddenly transferred to a district in which the vernaculars he +has learnt are of no use to him. Part of his time is always spent "in +camp"--_i.e._ moving about from village to village, receiving petitions, +investigating cases, listening to complaints. Perhaps none of the +ordinary duties of administration bring him so closely into touch with +the people as the collection of land revenue, for it is there that his +sense of fairness comes most conspicuously into play and wins +recognition. Hence, for instance, in Bengal one of the bad results of +the "Permanent Settlement" of the land revenue, which leaves no room for +the Collector's ordinary work, has been that the people and the civilian +know generally less about each other than in other parts of India. Few +Indians venture to impugn the Englishman's integrity and impartiality in +adjudging cases in which material interests are concerned, or in +settling differences between natives; and nowhere are those qualities +more valuable and more highly appreciated than in a country accustomed +for centuries to every form of oppression and of social pressure for +which the multitudinous claims of caste and family open up endless +opportunities. As he has no permanent ties of his own in India, it does +not matter to him personally whether the individual case he has to +settle goes in favour of A or of B, or whether the native official, whom +he appoints or promotes, belongs to this or to that caste. The people +know this, and because they have learned to trust the Englishman's sense +of fair play, they appeal, whenever they get the chance, to the European +official rather than to one of their own race. But it is especially in +times of stress, in the evil days of famine or of plague, that they turn +to him for help. Nowhere is the "sun-dried bureaucrat" seen to better +advantage than in the famine or plague camp, where the "bureaucrat" +would come hopelessly to grief, but where the English civilian, not +being a "bureaucrat," triumphs over difficulties by sheer force of +character and power of initiative. It is just in such emergencies, for +which the most elaborate "regulations" cannot wholly provide, that the +superiority of the European over the native official is most +conspicuous. If "Padgett, M.P.", would go out to India in the hot rather +than in the cold weather, and instead of either merely enjoying the +splendid hospitality of the chief centres of Anglo-Indian society, or +borrowing his views of British administration from the Indian +politicians of the large cities, would spend some of his time with a +civilian in an up-country station and follow his daily round of work +amidst the real people of India, he would probably come home with very +different and much more accurate ideas of what India is and of what the +relations are between the Anglo-Indian official and the natives of the +country. + +Far from having flooded India, as is often alleged, with a horde of +overpaid officials, we may justly claim that no Western nation has ever +attempted to govern an alien dependency with a smaller staff of its own +race, or has admitted the subject races to so large a participation in +its public services. The whole vast machinery of executive and judicial +administration in British India employs over 1,250,000 Indians, and only +a little more than 5,000 Englishmen altogether, of whom about one-sixth +constitute what is called _par excellence_ the Civil Service of India. +Not the least remarkable achievement of British rule has been the +building up of a great body of Indian public servants capable of rising +to offices of great trust. Not only, for instance, do Indian Judges sit +on the Bench in the High Courts on terms of complete equality with their +European colleagues, but magisterial work all over India is done chiefly +by Indians. The same holds good of the Revenue Department and of the +much, and often very unjustly, abused Department of Police; and, in +fact, as Anglo-Indian officials are the first to acknowledge, there is +not a department which could be carried on to-day without the loyal and +intelligent co-operation of the Indian public servant. There is room for +improving the position of Indians, not only, as I have already pointed +out, in the Educational Department, but probably in every branch of the +"Provincial" service, which corresponds roughly with what was formerly +called the "Un-covenanted" service. As far back as 1879 Lord Lytton laid +down rules which gave to natives of India one-sixth of the appointments +until then reserved for the "Covenanted" service, and we have certainly +not yet reached the limit of the number of Indians who may ultimately +with advantage be employed in the different branches of the public +service; but few who know the defects as well as the good qualities of +the native will deny that to reduce hastily the European leaven in any +department would be to jeopardize its moral as well as its +administrative efficiency. The condition of the police, for instance, is +a case in point, for any survival of the bad old native traditions is +due very largely to the insufficiency of European control. Mr. Gokhale +has himself admitted as one of the reasons for founding his society of +"Servants of India" the necessity of "building up a higher type of +character and capacity than is generally available in the country." For +the same reason we must move slowly and cautiously in substituting +Indians for Europeans in the very small number of posts which the latter +still occupy. That the highest offices of executive control must be very +largely held by Englishmen so long as we continue to be responsible for +the government of India is admitted by all but the most "advanced" +Indian politicians, and it is to qualify for and to hold such positions +that the Indian Civil Service--formerly the "Covenanted" service--is +maintained. It consists of a small _elite_ of barely I,200 men, mostly, +but not exclusively, Englishmen, for it includes nearly 100 Indians. It +is recruited by competitive examinations held in England, and this is +one of the chief grievances of Indians. But in order to preserve the +very high standard it has hitherto maintained, it seems essential that +Indians who wish to enter it should have had not only the Western +education which Indian Universities might be expected to provide, but +the thoroughly English training which India certainly does not as yet +supply. + +In the eyes of the disaffected Indian politician the really unpardonable +sin of the Civil Service is that it constitutes the bulwark of British +rule, the one permanent link between the Government of India and the +manifold millions entrusted to their care. I have already had occasion +to show, incidentally, how unfounded is the charge that, through +ignorance and want of sympathy, the British civilian is callous to the +real interests and sentiments of the people in dealing with the larger +problems of Indian statesmanship. The contrary is the case, for to him +belongs the credit of almost every measure passed during the last 50 +years for the benefit of the Indian masses, and passed frequently in the +teeth of vehement opposition from the Indian politician. Nor is it +surprising that it should be so. For the Indian politician--generally a +townsman--is, as a rule, drawn from and represents classes that have +very little in common with the great bulk of the people, who are +agriculturists. The British civilian, on the other hand, often spends +the best years of his life in rural districts, seldom even visited by +the politician, and therefore knows much more about the needs and the +feelings of the people among whom he lives and moves. In the best sense +of the word he is in fact the one real democrat in India. The very fact +that he is a bird of passage in the country makes him absolutely +independent of the class interests and personal bias to which the +politician is almost always liable. Moreover, the chief, and perfectly +legitimate, object to which the Anglo-Indian administrator is bound to +address himself is, as Mr. Bepin Chandra Pal once candidly admitted, to +capture "the heart, the mind of the people ... to secure, if not the +allegiance, at least the passive, the generous acquiescence of the +general mass of the population." To make his meaning perfectly clear, +Mr. Pal instanced the rural reforms, the agricultural banks and other +things which had been done in Lord Curzon's time, "to captivate the mind +of the teeming masses," and he added that "he is a foolish politician in +India who allows the Government to capture the mind of the masses to the +exclusion of his own influence and his own countrymen." Mr. Pal is from +his point of view perfectly logical, and so were the writers in the +_Yugantar_, who, when they elaborated their scheme of revolutionary +propaganda, declared that the first step must be to undermine the +confidence of the people in their rulers and to destroy the spirit of +contentedness under an alien yoke. But could there be a more striking +tribute to the intelligent and sympathetic treatment of the interests of +the Indian masses by their British rulers than such admissions on the +part of the enemies of British rule? + +From this point of view nothing but good should result from the larger +opportunities given by the recent reforms for the discussion of Indian +questions in the enlarged Councils, so long as the Indian +representatives in these Councils are drawn, as far as possible, from +the different classes which, to some extent, reflect the different +interests of the multitudinous communities that make up the people of +India. The British civilian will have a much better chance than he has +hitherto had of meeting his detractors in the open, and, if one may +judge by the proceedings last winter, when the Councils met for the +first time under the new conditions, there is little reason to fear, as +many did at first, that he will be taken at a disadvantage in debate +owing to the greater fluency and rhetorical resourcefulness of the +Indian politician. It was not only in the Imperial Council in Calcutta +that the official members, having the better case and stating it quite +simply, proved more than a match for the more exuberant eloquence of +their opponents. On the contrary, the personal contact established in +the enlarged Councils between the Anglo-Indian official and the better +class of Indian politician may well serve to diminish the prejudices +which exist on both sides. It is, I believe, quite a mistake to suppose +that the British civilian generally resents the recent reforms, though +he may very well resent the spirit of hostility and suspicion in which +they were advocated and welcomed in some quarters, as if they were +specially directed against the European element in the Civil Service. A +practical difficulty is the heavy call which attendance in Council will +make upon Civil servants who have to represent Government in these +assemblies. Already for many years past the amount of work, and +especially of office work, has steadily increased and without any +corresponding increase of the establishment. Hence the civilian has less +time to receive Indian visitors, and he is often obliged to curtail the +period he spends during the year in camp. Hence also the growing +frequency of transfers and of officiating or temporary appointments. +There are, in fact, to-day barely enough men to go round, and, +obviously, the more frequently a man is moved, the less chance he has of +getting thoroughly acquainted with the people among whom he has to work +in a country such as India, where within the limits of the same province +you may find half a dozen widely different communities speaking +different languages and having different creeds and customs. Perhaps, +too, for the same reasons, there is a tendency towards over-centralization +in the "Secretariats" or permanent departments at the seat of government, +whether in Simla or in the provincial capitals, and the less favoured +civilian who bears the heat and burden of the day in the _mofussil_ is both +more dependent upon them and more jealous of the many advantages they +naturally enjoy. Posts and telegraphs and the multiplying of "regulations" +everywhere tend to weaken personal initiative. Nor can it be denied that +with the increased facilities of travel to and from Europe civilians no +longer look upon India quite so much as their home. The local _liaisons_, +not uncommon in pre-Mutiny days, are now things of the past, and the +married man of to-day who has to send his children home for their +education, and often his wife too, either on account of the climate or +to look after the children, is naturally more disposed to count up his +years of service and to retire on his pension at the earliest opportunity. +The increased cost of living in India and the depreciation of the rupee +have also made the service less attractive from the purely pecuniary point +of view, whilst in other ways it must suffer indirectly from such changes +as the reduction of the European staff in the Indian Medical Department. +The substitution of Indian for European doctors in outlying stations where +there are no European practitioners is a distinct hardship for married +officials, as there is a good deal more than mere prejudice to explain the +reluctance of Englishwomen to be treated by native medical advisers. Nor +is it possible to disguise the soreness caused throughout the Indian Civil +Service by the recent appointment of a young member of the English +Civil Service to one of the very highest posts in India. No one +questions Mr. Clark's ability, but is he really more able than every one +of the many men who passed with him, and for many years before him, +through the same door into the public service and elected to work in +India rather than at home? No Minister would have thought of promoting +him now to an Under-Secretaryship of State in England, and apart from +the grave reflection upon the Indian Civil Service--- and the belief +generally entertained amongst Indians that it was meant to be a +reflection upon the Indian Civil Service--his appointment to a far +higher Indian office implies a grave misconception of the proper +functions of a Council which constitutes the Government of India. + +None of these minor considerations, however, will substantially affect +the future of the Indian Civil Service if only it continues to receive +from public opinion at home, and from the Imperial Government as well as +from the Government of India, the loyal support and encouragement which +the admirable work it performs, often under very trying conditions, +deserves. An unfortunate impression has undoubtedly been created during +the last few years in the Indian Civil Service that there is no longer +the same assurance of such support and encouragement either from +Whitehall or from Simla, whilst the attacks of irresponsible partisans +have redoubled in intensity and virulence, and have found a louder and +louder echo both on the platform and in the Press at home. The loss of +contact between the Government of India and Anglo-Indian administrators +has been as painfully felt as the frigid tone of many official +utterances in Parliament, which have seemed inspired by a desire more +often to avoid party embarrassments at Westminster than to protect +public servants, who have no means of defending themselves, against even +the grossest forms of misrepresentation and calumny, leading straight to +the revolver and the bomb of the political assassin. The British +civilian is not going to be frightened by one more risk added to the +vicissitudes of an Indian career, but can you expect him to be proof +against discouragement when many of his fellow-countrymen exhaust their +ingenuity in extenuating or in casting upon him the primary +responsibility for the new Indian gospel of murder which is being +preached against him? Mr. Montagu was well inspired in protesting +against such "hostile, unsympathetic, and cowardly criticism" as was +conveyed in Mr. Mackarness's pamphlet; but this pamphlet was mere sour +milk compared with the vitriol which the native Press had been allowed +to pour forth day after day on the British official in India before any +action was taken by Government to defend him. + +The new Viceroy, who himself belongs to one of the most important +branches of the British Civil Service, may be trusted to display in his +handling of the British civilian the tact and sympathy required to +sustain him in the performance of arduous duties which are bound to +become more complex and exacting as our system of government departs +further from the old patriarchal type. Our task in India must grow more +and more difficult, and will demand more than ever the best men that we +can give to its accomplishment. The material prizes which an Indian +career has to offer may be fewer and less valuable, whilst the pressure +of work, the penalties of exile, the hardship of frequent separation +from kith and kin, the drawbacks of an always trying and often +treacherous climate, will for the most part not diminish. But the many +sided interests and the real magnitude and loftiness of the work to be +done in India will continue to attract the best Englishmen so long as +they can rely upon fair treatment at the hands of the Mother Country. If +that failed them there would speedily be an end not only to the Indian +Civil Service, but to British rule itself. For the sword cannot govern, +only maintain government, and can maintain it only as long as government +itself retains the respect and acquiescence of the great masses of the +Indian peoples which have been won, not by generals or by Secretaries of +State, or even by Viceroys, but by the patient and often obscure +spadework of the Indian Civil Service--by its integrity, its courage, +its knowledge, its efficiency, and its unfailing sense of justice. + +Complaints of the aloofness of the British civilian very seldom proceed +either from Indians of the upper classes or from the humbler folk. They +generally proceed from the new, more or less Western-educated middle +class whose attitude towards British officials is seldom calculated to +promote cordial relations; and they are also sometimes inspired by +another class of Indian who, one may hope, will before long have +vanished, but whom of all others the civilian is bound to keep at arm's +length. There are men who would get a hold upon him, if he is a young +man, by luring him into intrigues with native women, or by inveigling +him into the meshes of the native moneylender, or who, by less +reprehensible means, strive to establish themselves on a footing of +intimacy with him merely in order to sell to other Indians the influence +which they acquire or pretend to have acquired over him. Cases of this +kind are no doubt rare, and growing more and more rare, as social +conditions are passing away which in earlier days favoured them. Less +objectionable, but nevertheless to be kept also at arm's length, is the +far more numerous class of natives known in India as _umedwars_, who are +always anxious to seize on to the coat tails of the Anglo-Indian +official in order to heighten their own social _status_, and, if +possible, to wheedle out of Government some of those minor titles or +honorific distinctions to which Indian society attaches so much +importance. + +In other branches of the public service selection has not always +operated as successfully as the competitive system for the Civil +Service. Men are too often sent out as lawyers or as doctors, or even, +as I have already pointed out, to join the Education Department, with +inadequate qualifications, and they are allowed to enter upon their +work without any knowledge of the language and customs of the people. +Such cases are generally the result of carelessness or ignorance at +home, but some of them, I fear, can only be described as "jobs"--and +there is no room in India for jobs. The untravelled Indian is also +brought into contact to-day with an entirely different class of +Englishman. The globe-trotter, who is often an American, though the +native cannot be expected to distinguish between him and the Englishman, +constantly sins from sheer ignorance against the customs of the country. +Then, again, with railways and telegraphs and the growth of commerce and +industry a type of Englishman has been imported to fill subordinate +positions in which some technical knowledge is required, who, whatever +his good qualities, is much rougher and generally much more strongly +imbued with, or more prone to display, a sense of racial superiority. +Nor is he kept under the same discipline as Tommy Atkins, who is +generally an easy-going fellow, and looks upon the native with +good-natured, if somewhat contemptuous, amusement, though he, too, is +sometimes a rough customer when he gets "above himself," or when his +temper is ruffled by prickly heat, that most common but irritating of +hot-weather ailments. In this connexion the remarkable growth of +temperance among British soldiers in India is doubly satisfactory. + +On the whole, the relations between the lower classes of Europeans and +natives in the large cities, where they practically alone come into +contact, seldom give rise to serious trouble; and it is between +Europeans and natives of the higher classes that, unfortunately, +personal disputes from time to time occur, which unquestionably produce +a great deal of bad blood--disputes in which Englishmen have forgotten +not only the most elementary rules of decent behaviour, but the +self-respect which our position in India makes it doubly obligatory on +every Englishman to observe in his dealings with Indians. Some of these +incidents have been wilfully exaggerated, others have been wantonly +invented. Most of them have taken place in the course of railway +journeys, and without wishing to palliate them, one may reasonably point +out that, even in Europe, people, when travelling, will often behave +with a rudeness which they would be ashamed to display in other +circumstances, and that long railway journeys in the stifling heat of +India sometimes subject the temper to a strain unknown in more temperate +climates. In some cases, too, it is our ignorance of native customs +which causes the trouble, and the habits of even high-class Indians are +now and then unpleasant. A few months ago, I shared a railway +compartment one night with an Indian gentleman of good position and +pleasant address, belonging to a sect which carries to the most extreme +lengths the respect for all forms of life, however repulsive. Had I been +a stranger to India and ignorant of these conscientious eccentricities, +I might well have objected very strongly to some of the proceedings of +my companion, who spent a good deal of his time in searching his person +and his garments for certain forms of animal life, which he carefully +deposited in a little silver box carried for this special purpose. +Nevertheless it must be admitted that there have been from time to time +cases of brutality towards natives sufficiently gross and inexcusable to +create a very deplorable impression. I have met educated Indians who, +though they have had no unpleasant experiences of the kind themselves, +prefer to avoid entering a railway carriage occupied by Europeans lest +they should expose themselves even to the chance of insulting treatment. +On the other hand, speaking from personal experience as well as from +what I have heard on unimpeachable authority, I have no hesitation in +saying that there are evil-disposed, Indians, especially of late years, +who deliberately seek to provoke disagreeable incidents by their own +misbehaviour, either in the hope of levying blackmail or in order to +make political capital by posing as the victims of English brutality. +But even when Englishmen put themselves entirely in the wrong, there is +perhaps a tendency amongst Anglo-Indians--chiefly amongst the +non-official community--to treat such cases with undue leniency, and it +is one of the curious ironies of fate that Lord Curzon, whom the +Nationalist Press has singled out for constant abuse and denunciation as +the prototype of official tyranny, was the one Viceroy who more than any +other jeopardized his popularity with his fellow countrymen in India by +insisting upon rigorous justice being done where Indians had, in his +opinion, suffered wrongs of this kind at the hands of Europeans. + +It is a lamentable fact that, amongst Indians, the greatest bitterness +with regard to the social relations between the two races often proceeds +from those who have been educated in England. There is, first of all, +the young Indian who, having mixed freely with the best type of +Englishmen and Englishwomen, finds himself on his return to India quite +out of touch with his own people, and yet has to live their life. Cases +of this kind are especially pathetic, when, having imbibed European +ideals of womanhood, he is obliged to marry some girl chosen by his +parents, with whom, however estimable she may be, he has nothing in +common. Such is the contrariety of human nature that he usually visits +his unhappiness, not on the social system which has resumed its hold +upon him, but on the civilization which has killed his belief in it. +Then there is the very mischievous type of young Indian who, having been +left to his own devices in England, and without any good introductions, +brings back to India and retails there impressions of English society, +male and female, gathered from the very undesirable surroundings into +which he has drifted in London and other large cities. It is he who is +often responsible for one of the most deplorable features in the +propaganda of the seditious Press--namely, the scandalous libels upon +the character of English domestic life, and especially upon the morality +of English womanhood--by which it is sought to undermine popular +respect for and confidence in the Englishman. But our own responsibility +must also be very great, so long as we allow the young Indian who comes +to England to drift hopelessly, without help or guidance, among the +rocks and shoals of English life. Men of our own race, and carefully +picked men, come from our oversea Dominions to study in our colleges, +and we have a special organization to look after their moral and +material welfare. For years past we have allowed young Indians to come +and go, and no responsible hand has been stretched out to save them from +the manifold temptations of an entirely alien society in which isolation +is almost bound to spell degradation and bitterness. + +Considering, however, the many inevitable causes of friction and the +inherent imperfections of human nature, whether white or coloured, one +may safely say that between Englishmen of all conditions and Indians of +all conditions there often and, indeed, generally exist pleasanter +relations than are to be found elsewhere between people of any two races +so widely removed. They are never closer than when special circumstances +help to break down the barriers. The common instincts and the common +dangers of their profession create often singularly strong ties of +regard and affection between the sepoy of all ranks and his British +officers--especially on campaign. In domestic tribulations, as well as +in public calamities, Indians, at least of the lower classes, will often +turn more readily and confidently for help to the Englishman who lives +amongst them than to their own people. I need not quote instances of the +extraordinary influence which many European missionaries have acquired +by their devoted labours amongst the poor, the sick, and the suffering, +and in former times, perhaps more than in recent times, even with +Indians of the higher classes. In ordinary circumstances we have to +recognize the existence of both sides of obstacles to anything like +intimacy. Many Indian ideas and habits are repugnant to us, but so also +are many of ours to them. Indians have their own conceptions of dignity +and propriety which our social customs frequently offend. If Englishmen +and Englishwomen in high places in India would exert their influence to +invest the social life of Europeans in the chief resorts of Anglo-Indian +society with a little more decorum and seriousness, they would probably +be doing better service to a good understanding between the two races in +social matters than by trying to break down by sheer insistence, however +well meant, the barriers which diametrically opposite forms of +civilization have placed between them. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA. + + +In the very able speech in which, on July 27, Mr. Montagu, the new +Under-Secretary of State for India, introduced the Indian Budget in the +House of Commons, one passage referred to the relations between the +Secretary of State and the Viceroy in terms which have deservedly +attracted very great attention[23]. Differences of opinion, sometimes of +an acute character, have at intervals occurred between Secretaries of +State and Viceroys as to their relative attributions. Mr. Montagu's +language, however, would seem to constitute an assertion of the powers +of the Secretary of State far in excess not only of past practice but of +any reasonable interpretation of legislative enactments on the subject. +After congratulating Lord Minto on the completion of, a "difficult +reign," Mr. Montagu said:-- + + The relations of a Viceroy to the Secretary of State are + intimate and responsible. The Act of Parliament says + "That the Secretary of State in Council shall superintend, + direct, and control all acts, operations, and concerns which in + any way relate to or concern the government or revenues of + India, and all grants of salaries, gratuities, and allowances, + and all other payments and charges whatever out of or on + the revenues of India." It will be seen how wide, how far + reaching, and how complete these powers are. Lord Morley + and his Council, working through the agency of Lord Minto, + have accomplished much.... I believe that men of + all parties will be grateful that Lord Morley remains to carry + out the policy he has initiated. + +It is to be regretted in the first place that Mr. Montagu should not +have been more careful to make his quotation accurate. For, as quoted by +him, the Act would make it obligatory upon the Secretary of State to +supervise practically every act of the Government of India, whereas the +powers of the Secretary of State, who has succeeded to the powers of the +old Board of Control of the East India Company, are discretionary +powers. The statute from which the Secretary of State actually derives +his powers is the Government of India Act, 1858, which under section 3 +declares that the Secretary of State "shall have and perform all such or +the like powers and duties in any wise relating to the government or +revenues of India and all such or the like powers over all officers +appointed or continued under this Act as might or should have been +exercised or performed" by the Company and Board of Control, and those +powers and duties are defined in the following terms in the Act of 1833 +(3 and 4 William IV., c. 85, sec. 25), which Mr. Montagu would seem to +have had in his mind, though he quoted it imperfectly: "The said Board +[of Control] shall have and be invested with full power and authority to +superintend, direct, and control all acts, operations, and concerns, +&c." The difference, as has been very properly pointed out in the +_Manchester Guardian_, no unfriendly critic of the present +Administration, is "between exercising control and the power to exercise +control, between 'shall' and 'may.' If these words of the Act were to be +abbreviated, the right abbreviation would have been 'may.' This is the +word used by Sir Courtenay Ilbert in his summary of the Secretary of +State's powers (The Government of India, p. 145);--'... the Secretary +of State may, subject to the provisions embodied in this digest, +superintend, direct, and control all acts, operations, and concerns, +&c.' This difference between 'shall' and 'may' is, of course, vital. +'Shall' implies that the Secretary of State is standing over the Viceroy +in everything he does; 'may' simply reserves to him the right of control +where he disapproves. 'Shall' imparts an agency of an inferior order; +'may' safeguards the rights of the Crown and Parliament without +impairing the dignity of the Viceregal office." + +Of greater importance, however, is the construction which Mr. Montagu +places on these statutes. There are three fundamental objections to the +doctrine of "agency" which he propounds in regard to the functions of +the Viceroy. In the first place, it ignores one of the most important +features of his office--one, indeed, to which supreme importance +attaches in a country such as India, where the sentiment of reverence +for the Sovereign is rooted in the most ancient traditions of all races +and creeds. The Viceroy is the direct and personal representative of the +King-Emperor, and in that capacity, at any rate, it would certainly be +improper to describe him as the "agent" of the Secretary of State. From +this point of view, any attempt to lower his office would tend +dangerously to weaken the prestige of the Crown, which, to put it on the +lowest grounds, is one of the greatest assets of the British _Raj_. In +the second place, Mr. Montagu ignores equally another distinctive +feature of the Viceroy's office, especially important in regard to his +relations with the Secretary of State--namely, that, in his executive as +well as in his legislative capacity, the Viceroy is not a mere +individual, but the Governor-General in Council. Mr. Montagu omitted to +quote the important section of the Act of 1833, confirmed in subsequent +enactments, which declared that:-- + + The superintendence, direction, and control of the whole + civil and military government of all the said territories and + revenues in India shall be and is hereby vested in a Governor-General + and Councillors to be styled "the Governor-General + of India in Council." + +The only title recognized by statute to the Viceroy is that of +Governor-General in Council, and how material is this conjunction of the +Governor-General with his Council is shown by the exceptional character +of the circumstances in which power is given to the Governor-General to +act on his own responsibility alone, and by the extreme rareness of the +cases in which a Governor-General has exercised that power. + +Thus, on the one hand, Mr. Montagu forgets the Crown when he talks of +the Secretary of State acting through the agency of the Viceroy; and, on +the other hand, he forgets the Governor-General in Council when he talks +of the relations between the Viceroy and the Secretary of State--whose +proper designation, moreover, is Secretary of State in Council, for, +like the Governor-General, the Secretary of State has a Council +intimately associated with him by statute in the discharge of his +constitutional functions. Though the cases in which the Secretary of +State cannot act without the concurrence of the Council of India, who +sit with him at the India Office, are limited to matters involving the +grant or appropriation of revenues, and in other matters he is not +absolutely bound to consult them and still less to accept their +recommendations, the Act of Parliament quoted by Mr. Montagu clearly +implies that, in the exercise of all the functions which it assigns to +him, he is expected to act generally in consultation and in concert with +his Council, since those functions are assigned to him specifically as +Secretary of State in Council. + +Now, as to the nature of the relations between the Governor-General in +Council and the Secretary of State in Council as above defined by +statute. The ultimate responsibility for Indian government, as Mr. +Montagu intimated, rests unquestionably with the Imperial Government +represented by the Secretary of State for India, and therefore, in the +last resort, with the people of the United Kingdom represented by +Parliament. The question is, What is in theory and practice the proper +mode of discharging this, "ultimate responsibility" for Indian +government? It is not a question which can be authoritatively answered, +but, if we may infer an answer from the spirit of legislative enactments +and from the usage that has hitherto prevailed, it may still be summed +up in the same language in which John Stuart Mill described the function +of the Home Government in the days of the old East India Company--"The +principal function of the Home Government is not to direct the details +of administration, but to scrutinize and revise the past acts of the +Indian Governments; to lay down principles and to issue general +instructions for their future guidance, and to give or refuse sanction +to great political measures which are referred home for approval." This +seems undoubtedly to be the view of the relations, inherited from the +East India Company, between the Secretary of State and the Government of +India which has been accepted and acted upon on both sides until +recently. Nor is any other view compatible with the Charter Act of 1833, +or with the Government of India Act of 1858, which, in all matters +pertinent to this issue, was based upon, and confirmed the principles of +the earlier statute. The Secretary of State exercises general guidance +and control, but, as Mill laid it down no less forcibly, "the Executive +Government of India is and must be seated in India itself." Such +relations are clearly very different from those of principal and agent +which Mr. Montagu would apparently wish to substitute for them. + +Besides the special emphasis he laid on his definition of the relations +between the Viceroy and the Secretary of State, other reasons have led +to the belief that the Under-Secretary, who spoke with a full sense of +his responsibility as the representative of the Secretary of State, was +giving calculated expression to the views of his chief. I am not going +to anticipate the duties of the historian, whose business it will be to +establish the share of initiative and responsibility that belong to Lord +Morley and Lord Minto respectively in regard to the Indian policy of +the last five years. Whilst something more than an impression generally +prevails both at home and in India that Mr. Montagu's definition does in +fact very largely apply to the relations between the present Viceroy and +the Secretary of State, and that every measure carried out in India has +originated in Whitehall, it is only fair to bear in mind that Lord +Morley has never himself put forward any such claim, nor has Lord Minto +ever admitted it. The Viceroy, on the contrary, has been at pains to +emphasize on several occasions his share, and indeed to claim for +himself the initiative, of all the principal measures carried out during +his tenure of office, and especially of the new scheme of Indian +reforms, of which the paternity is ascribed by most people to Lord +Morley. + +The Secretary of State's great personality may partly account for the +belief that he has entirely overshadowed the Viceroy, all the more in +that he has certainly overshadowed the Council of India as never before. +But if Lord Minto has reason to complain, of the prevalence of this +belief, he cannot be unaware that he too has helped to build it up by +neglecting to associate his own Council with himself as closely as even +his most masterful predecessors had hitherto been careful to do. + +Lord Minto's position has no doubt been one of very peculiar difficulty, +and no one will grudge him the warm tribute paid to him by Mr. Montagu. +Whatever the merits of the great controversy between Lord Curzon and +Lord Kitchener, the overruling of the Government of India by the Home +Government on a question of such magnitude and the circumstances in +which Lord Curzon was compelled to resign had dealt a very heavy blow to +the authority and prestige of the Viceregal office in India. Within a +few weeks of Lord Minto's arrival in India the Unionist Government who +had appointed him fell, and a Liberal Government came into power who +could not be expected to display any special consideration for their +predecessors nominee unless he showed himself to be in sympathy with +their policy. Lord Minto's friends can therefore very reasonably argue +that his chief anxiety was, quite legitimately, to avoid any kind of +friction with the new Secretary of State which might have led to the +supersession of another Viceroy so soon after the unfortunate crisis +that had ended in Lord Curzon's resignation. If this was the object that +Lord Minto had in view, his attitude has certainly been most successful, +for Lord Morley has repeatedly testified to the loyalty and cordiality +with which the Viceroy has constantly co-operated with him. That the +Secretary of State and the Viceroy have, nevertheless, not always seen +eye to eye with regard to the interference of the India Office in the +details of Indian administration appears clearly from a telegram read +out by Lord Morley himself in the House of Lords on February 23, 1909. +In the course of this telegram, which acknowledged in the most generous +terms the strong support of the Secretary of State in all dealings with +sedition, the Viceroy made the following curious admission:--"The +question of the control of Indian administration by the Secretary of +State, mixed up as it is with the old difficulties of centralization, we +may very possibly look at from different points of view." The curtain +fell upon this restrained attempt to assert what Lord Minto evidently +regarded eighteen months ago as his legitimate position, and to the +public eye it has not been raised again since then. But in India +certainly the fear is often expressed in responsible quarters that, +notwithstanding the courageous support which Lord Morley has given to +legislative measures for dealing with the worst forms of seditious +agitation, their effect has been occasionally weakened by that +interference from home in the details of Indian administration of which +Lord Minto's telegram contains the only admission known to the public. + +It is difficult to believe that Lord Minto's position would not have +been stronger had he not allowed the Governor-General in Council to +suffer such frequent eclipses. The Governor-General's Council during +Lord Minto's tenure of office may have been exceptionally weak, and +there will always be a serious element of weakness in it so long as +membership of Council is not recognized to be the crowning stage of an +Indian career. So long as it is, as at present too frequently happens, +merely a stepping-stone to a Lieutenant-Governorship, it is idle to +expect that the hope of advancement will not sometimes act as a +restraint upon the independence and sense of individual responsibility +which a seat in Council demands. In any case, the effacement of Council +during the last few years behind the Viceroy has not been calculated to +dispel the widespread impression that, both in Calcutta and in +Whitehall, there has been a tendency to substitute for the +constitutional relations between the Governor-General in Council and the +Secretary of State in Council more informal and personal relations +between Lord Minto and Lord Morley, which, however excellent, are +difficult to reconcile with the principles essential to the maintenance +of a strong Government of India. Private letters and private telegrams +are very useful helps to a mutual understanding, but they cannot safely +supplant, or encroach upon, the more formal and regular methods of +communication, officially recorded for future reference, in consultation +and concert with the Councils on either side, as by statute established. + +There is a twofold danger in any eclipse, even partial, of the +Governor-General in Council. One of the remarks I have heard most +frequently all over India, and from Indians as well as from Englishmen, +is that "there is no longer any Government of India"; and it is a remark +which, however exaggerated in form, contains a certain element of truth. +To whatever extent the Viceroy, in his relations with Whitehall, +detaches himself from his Council, to that extent the centre of +executive stability is displaced and the door is opened to that constant +interference from home in the details of Indian administration which is +all the more to be deprecated if there appear to be any suspicion of +party pressure. Lord Morley has so often and so courageously stood up +for sound principles of Indian government against the fierce attacks of +the extreme wing of his party, and he has shown, on the whole, so much +moderation and insight in his larger schemes of constructive +statesmanship, whilst Lord Minto has won for himself so much personal +regard during a very difficult period, that criticism may appear +invidious. But the tone adopted, especially during the first years of +Lord Morley's administration, in official replies to insidious +Parliamentary questions aimed at Indian administrators, the alacrity +with which they were transmitted from the India Office to Calcutta, the +acquiescence with which they were received there, and the capital made +out of them by political agitators when they were spread broadcast over +India contributed largely to undermine the principle of authority upon +which, as Lord Morley has himself admitted, Indian government must rest. +For the impression was thus created in India that there was no detail of +Indian administration upon which an appeal might not be successfully +made through Parliament to the Secretary of State over the head of the +Government of India. Now if, as Lord Morley has also admitted, +Parliamentary government is inconceivable in India, it is equally +inconceivable that Indian government can be carried on under a running +fire of malevolent or ignorant criticism from a Parliament 6,000 miles +away. That is certainly not the sort of Parliamentary control +contemplated in the legislative enactments which guarantee the "ultimate +responsibility" of the Secretary of State. + +At the same time the effacement of the Viceroy's Executive Council has +weakened that collective authority of the Government of India without +which its voice must fail to carry full weight in Whitehall. Every +experienced Anglo-Indian administrator, for instance, had been quick to +realize what were bound to be the consequences of the unbridled licence +of the extremist Press and of an openly seditious propaganda. Yet the +Government of India under Lord Minto lacked the cohesion necessary to +secure the sanction of the Secretary of State to adequate legislative +action, repugnant to party traditions at home, until we had already +begun to reap the bloody harvest of an exaggerated tolerance, and with +the Viceroy himself the views of the ruling chiefs seem to have carried +greater weight in urging action on the Secretary of State than the +opinions recorded at a much earlier date by men entitled to his +confidence and entrusted under his orders with the administration of +British India. + +Even if one could always be certain of having men of transcendent +ability at the India Office and at Government House in Calcutta, it is +impossible that they should safely dispense with the permanent +corrective to their personal judgment and temperament--not to speak of +outside pressure--which their respective Councils have been created by +law to supply. Let us take first of all the case of the Viceroy. His +position as the head of the Government of India may be likened to that +of the Prime Minister at home, and the position of the Viceroy's +Executive Council to that of the Ministers who, as heads of the +principal executive Departments, form the Cabinet over which the Prime +Minister presides. But no head of the Executive at home stands so much +in need of capable and experienced advisers as the Viceroy, who +generally goes out to India without any personal knowledge of the vast +sub-continent and the 300 million people whom he is sent out to govern +for five years with very far-reaching powers, and often without any +administrative experience, though he has to take charge of the most +complicated administrative machine in the world. Even when he has gone +out to India, his opportunities of getting to know the country and its +peoples are actually very scant. He spends more than six months of the +year at Simla, an essentially European and ultra-official hill-station +perched up in the clouds and entirely out of touch with Indian life, and +another four months he spends in Calcutta, which, again, is only +partially Indian, or, at any rate, presents but one aspect of the +many-sided life of India. It takes a month for the great public +departments to transport themselves and their archives from Calcutta to +Simla at the beginning of the hot weather, and another month in the +autumn for the pilgrimage back from the hills to Calcutta. It is only +during these two months that the Viceroy can travel about freely and +make himself acquainted with other parts of the vast Dependency +committed to his care, and, though railways have shortened distances, +rapid journeys in special trains with great ceremonial programmes at +every halting point scarcely afford the same opportunities as the more +leisurely progress of olden days, when the Governor-General's camp, as +it moved from place to place, was open to visitors from the whole +surrounding country. Moreover, the machinery of administration grows +every year more ponderous and complicated, and the Viceroy, unless he is +endowed with an almost superhuman power and quickness of work, is apt to +find himself entangled in the meshes of never-ending routine. It is in +order to supply the knowledge and experience which a Viceroy in most +cases lacks when he first goes out, and in some cases is never able to +acquire during his whole tenure of office, that his Executive Council is +so constituted, in theory and as far as possible in practice, that it +combines with administrative experience in the several Departments over +which members respectively preside such a knowledge collectively of the +whole of India that the Viceroy can rely upon expert advice and +assistance in the transaction of public business and, not least, in +applying with due regard for Indian conditions the principles of policy +laid down for his guidance by the Home Government. These were the +grounds upon which Lord Morley justified the appointment to the +Viceroy's Executive Council of an Indian member who, besides being +thoroughly qualified to take charge of the special portfolio entrusted +to him, would bring into Council a special and intimate knowledge of +native opinion and sentiment. These are the grounds upon which, by the +way, Lord Morley cannot possibly justify the appointment of Mr. Clark as +Member for Commerce and Industry, for a young subordinate official, +however brilliant, of an English public Department cannot bring into the +Viceroy's Executive Council either special or general knowledge of +Indian affairs. Such an appointment must to that extent weaken rather +than strengthen the Government of India. + +The same arguments which apply in India to the conjunction of the +Governor-General with his Council apply, _mutatis mutandis_, with +scarcely less force to the importance of the part assigned to the +Council of India as advisers of the Secretary of State at the India +Office. + +If we look at the Morley-Minto _regime_ from another point of view, it +is passing strange that the tendency to concentrate the direction of +affairs in India in the hands of the Viceroy and to subject the Viceroy +in turn to the closer and more immediate control of the Secretary of +State, whilst simultaneously diminishing _pro tanto_ the influence of +their respective Councils, should have manifested itself just at this +time, when it is Lord Morley who presides over the India Office. For no +statesman has ever proclaimed a more ardent belief in the virtues of +decentralization than Lord Morley, and Lord Morley himself is largely +responsible for legislative reforms which will not only strengthen the +hands of the provincial Governments in their dealings with the +Government of India, but will enable and, indeed, force the Government +of India to assume on many vital questions an attitude of increased +independence towards the Imperial Government. The more we are determined +to govern India in accordance with Indian ideas and with Indian +interests, the more we must rely upon a strong, intelligent, and +self-reliant Government of India. The peculiar conditions of India +exclude the possibility of Indian self-government on colonial lines, but +what we may, and probably must, look forward to at no distant date is +that, with the larger share in legislation and administration secured to +Indians by such measures as the Indian Councils Act, the Government of +India will speak with growing authority as the exponent of the best +Indian opinion within the limits compatible with the maintenance of +British rule, and that its voice will therefore ultimately carry +scarcely less weight at home in the determination of Indian policy than +the voice of our self-governing Dominions already carries in all +questions concerning their internal development. + +The future of India lies in the greatest possible decentralization in +India subject to the general, but unmeddlesome, control of the +Governor-General in Council, and in the greatest possible freedom of the +Government of India from all interference from home, except in regard to +those broad principles of policy which it must always rest with the +Imperial Government, represented by the Secretary of State in Council, +to determine. It is only in that way that, to use one of Mr. Montagu's +phrases, we can hope successfully to "yoke" to our own "democratic" +system "a Government so complex and irresponsible to the peoples which +it governs as the Government of India." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +CONCLUSIONS. + + +No Viceroy has for fifty years gone out to India at so critical a moment +as that at which Lord Hardinge of Penshurst is about to take up the +reins of government. In one respect only is he more favoured than most +of his predecessors. The Anglo-Russian agreement, of which he himself +helped to lay the foundations when he was Ambassador at St. Petersburg, +has removed the greatest of all the dangers that threatened the external +security of India and the peace of Central Asia during the greater part +of the nineteenth century. It does not, however, follow that the +Government of India can look forward with absolute confidence to +continued immunity from all external troubles. Save for the Tibetan +expedition and one or two small punitive expeditions against Pathan +tribes, there have been no military operations on the Indian frontier +since the Terai campaign was brought to a close in 1898. But signs are, +unfortunately, not wanting of a serious recrudescence of restlessness on +the North-West Frontier, where the very necessary measures taken to cut +off supplies of arms from the Persian Gulf have contributed to stimulate +the chronic turbulence of the unruly tribesmen. There is no definite +evidence at present that they are receiving direct encouragement from +Cabul, but it is at least doubtful whether the somewhat exaggerated +deference shown to the Ameer on the occasion of his visit three years +ago to India has permanently improved our relations with him, and though +he is no longer able to play off Russia and England against each other, +he has not yet brought himself to signify his adhesion to the Convention +which defined our understanding with Russia in regard to Afghan affairs. +The condition of Persia, and especially of the southern provinces, has +created a situation which cannot be indefinitely tolerated, whilst the +provocative temper displayed by the Turkish authorities under the new +_regime_ at various points on the Persian Gulf is only too well +calculated to produce unpleasant complications, however anxious we must +be to avoid them, if only in view of the feeling which any estrangement +between Mahomedan Powers and Great Britain inevitably produces amongst +Indian Moslems. The high-handed action of China in Tibet, and, indeed, +all along the north-eastern borderland of our Indian Empire, has +introduced a fresh element of potential trouble which the Government of +India cannot safely disregard, for we are bound not only to protect our +own frontiers, but also to safeguard the interests of Nepal and Bhutan, +where, as well as in Sikkim, the fate of Tibet and the flight of the +Dalai Lama have caused no slight perturbation. In Nepal especially, +which is one of the most valuable recruiting grounds of the Indian Army, +Chinese ascendency cannot be allowed to overshadow British influence. +Lord Hardinge is by profession a peacemaker, and how efficient a +peacemaker he proved himself to be at St. Petersburg during the +Russo-Japanese war will only be fully known when the historian has +access to the secret records of that critical period of Anglo-Russian +relations. But it must not be forgotten that the maintenance of peace +along such a vast and still largely unsettled borderland as that of +India may at any moment be frustrated by disturbing forces over which +the most peacefully disposed Viceroy has little or no control. + +Peace and sound finance, which is inseparable from peace, have certainly +never been more essential to India than at the present juncture. For +without them the difficulty of solving the most absorbing and urgent of +the internal problems of India will be immeasurably enhanced. There is a +lull in the storm of unrest, but after the repeated disappointments to +which official optimism has been subjected within the last few years, he +would be a sanguine prophet who would venture to assert that this lull +presages a permanent return to more normal conditions. Has the creation +of a new political machinery which gives a vastly enlarged scope to the +activities of Indian constitutional reformers, definitely rallied the +waverers and restored courage and confidence to the representatives of +sober and law-abiding opinion, or will they continue to follow the lead +of impatient visionaries clamouring, as Lord Morley once put it, for the +moon which we cannot give them? Have the forces of aggressive +disaffection been actually disarmed by the so-called measures of +"repression," or have they merely been compelled for the time being to +cover their tracks and modify their tactics, until the relaxation of +official vigilance or the play of party politics in England or some +great international crisis opens up a fresh opportunity for militant +sedition? To these momentous questions the next five years will +doubtless go far to furnish a conclusive answer, and it will be +determined in no small measure by the statesmanship, patience, and +firmness which Lord Hardinge will bring to the discharge of the +constitutional functions assigned to him as Viceroy--i.e., as the +personal representative of the King Emperor, and as Governor-General in +Council--i.e., as the head of the Government of India. + +I have attempted, however imperfectly, to trace to their sources some of +the chief currents and cross-currents of the great confused movement +which is stirring the stagnant waters of Indian life--the steady impact +of alien ideas on an ancient and obsolescent civilization; the more or +less imperfect assimilation of those ideas by the few; the dread and +resentment of them by those whose traditional ascendency they threaten; +the disintegration of old beliefs, and then again their aggressive +revival; the careless diffusion of an artificial system of education, +based none too firmly on mere intellectualism, and bereft of all moral +or religious sanction; the application of Western theories of +administration and of jurisprudence to a social formation stratified on +lines of singular rigidity; the play of modern economic forces upon +primitive conditions of industry and trade; the constant and unconscious +but inevitable friction between subject races and their alien rulers; +the reverberation of distant wars and distant racial conflicts; the +exaltation of an Oriental people in the Far East; the abasement of +Asiatics in South Africa--all these and many other conflicting +influences culminating in the inchoate revolt of a small but very active +minority which, on the one hand, frequently disguises under an appeal to +the example and sympathy of Western democracy a reversion to the old +tyranny of caste and to the worst superstitions of Hinduism, and, on the +other hand, arms, with the murderous methods of Western Anarchism, the +fervour of Eastern mysticism compounded in varying proportions of +philosophic transcendentalism and degenerate sensuousness. + +In so far as this movement is directed to the immediate subversion of +British rule, we need not exaggerate its importance, unless the British +Empire were involved in serious complications elsewhere which might +encourage the seditious elements in India to break out into open +rebellion. We are too often, in fact, inclined to underrate the strength +of the foundations upon which our rule rests. For it alone lends--and +can within any measurable time lend--substantial reality to the mere +geographical expression which India is. A few Indians may dream of a +united India under Indian rule, but the dream is as wild to-day as that +of the few European Socialists who dream of the United States of Europe. +India has never approached to political unity any more than Europe has, +except under the compulsion of a conqueror. For India and Europe are +thus far alike that they are both geographically self-contained +continents, but inhabited by a great variety of nations whose different +racial and religious affinities, whose different customs and traditions, +tend to divide them far more than any interests they may have in common +tend to unite them. We have got too much into the habit of talking about +India and the Indians as if they were one country and one people, and we +too often forget that there are far more absolutely distinct languages +spoken in India than in Europe; that there are far more profound racial +differences between the Mahratta and the Bengalee than between the +German and the Portuguese, or between the Punjabee and the Tamil than +between the Russian and the Italian; that, not to speak of other creeds, +the religious antagonism between Hindu and Mahomedan is often more +active than any that exists to-day between Protestants and Roman +Catholics, even, let us say, in Ulster; and that caste has driven into +Indian society lines of far deeper cleavage than any class distinctions +that have survived in Europe. + +We do not rule India, as is sometimes alleged, by playing off one race +or one creed against another and by accentuating and fostering these +ancient divisions, but we are able to rule because our rule alone +prevents these ancient divisions from breaking out once more into open +and sanguinary strife. British rule is the form of government that +divides Indians the least. The majority of intelligent and sober-minded +Indians who have a stake in the country welcome it and support it +because they feel it to be the only safeguard against the clash of rival +races and creeds, which would ultimately lead to the oppressive +ascendency of some one race or creed; and the great mass of the +population yield to it an inarticulate and instinctive acquiescence +because it gives them a greater measure of security, justice, and +tranquillity than their forbears ever enjoyed. + +There are only two forces that aspire to substitute themselves for +British rule, or at least to make the continuance of British rule +subservient to their own ascendency. One is the ancient and reactionary +force of Brahmanism, which, having its roots in the social and religious +system we call Hinduism, operates upon a very large section--but still +only a section--of the population who are Hindus. The other is a modern +and, in its essence, progressive force generated by Western education, +which operates to some extent over the whole area of India, but only +upon an infinitesimal fraction of the population recruited among a few +privileged castes. Its only real _nexus_ is a knowledge, often very +superficial, of the English language and of English political +institutions. Though both these forces have developed of late years a +spirit of revolt against British rule, neither of them has in itself +sufficient substance to be dangerous. The one is too old, the other too +young. But the most rebellious elements in both have effected a +temporary and unnatural alliance on the basis of an illusory +"Nationalism" which appeals to nothing in Indian history, but is +calculated and meant to appeal with dangerous force to Western sentiment +and ignorance. + +It rests with us to break up that unnatural alliance. We may not +reconcile aggressive Brahmanism to Western civilization, but we can +combat the evil influences for which it stands and which many +enlightened Brahmans have long since recognized; and we can combat them +most effectively by rallying to our side the better and more progressive +elements which, in spite of its many imperfections, Western education +and the contact with Western civilization have already produced. To that +end we must shrink from no sacrifices to improve our methods of +education. The evils for which we have to find remedies have been of +slow growth, and they can only be slowly cured. But they can be cured by +patient and sustained effort, and by carrying courageously into practice +the principle, which none of us will challenge in theory, that the +formation of character on a sound moral basis, inseparable in India from +a sound religious basis, is at least as important a part of the +educational process as the development of the intellect. + +That, however, is not all. If we are to save and to foster the better +elements, we must stamp out the worse. Do not let us be frightened by +mere words. To talk, as some do, of the Indian Press being "gagged" by +the new Press Act is absurd. It is as free to-day as it has always been +to criticize Government as fully and fearlessly, and, one may add, often +as unjustly, as party newspapers in this country are wont to criticize +the Government of the day. It is no longer free to preach revolution and +murder with the cynical audacity shown in some of the quotations I have +given various Nationalist organs. "Repression" in India, whether of the +seditious press, or of secret societies, or of unlawful meetings, means +nothing more cruel or oppressive than the application of surgery to +diseased growths which threaten to infect the whole organism--and +especially so immature and sensitive an organism as the +semi-Westernized, semi-educated section of Indian society to-day +represents. This surgical treatment will probably also have to be +patient and sustained, for here too we have to deal with evils of no +sudden growth, though some of their worst outward manifestations have +come suddenly upon us. Even if the improvement be more rapid than we +have any right to expect, do not let us throw away our surgical +instruments, but rather preserve them against any possible relapse. We +have to remember not only what we owe to ourselves, but what we owe +equally to the many well-meaning but timid Indians who look to us for +protection against the insidious forms of terrorism to which the +disaffected minority can subject them[24]. The number of our active +enemies may be few, but great is the number of our friends who are of +opinion that we are more anxious to conciliate the one sinner who may or +may not repent than to encourage the 99 just who persevere. + +We want the Western-educated Indian. We have made him, and we cannot +unmake him if we would. But we must see that he is a genuine product of +the best that Western education can give, and not merely an Indian who +can speak English and adapt his speech to English ears in order to lend +plausibility to the revival in new forms of ancient religious or social +tyrannies. We must remember also that even the best type of +Western-educated Indian only speaks at present for a minute section of +the population of India, and that, when he does not speak, as he often +naturally does, merely in the interests of the small class which he +represents, he has not yet by any means proved his title to speak for +the scores of millions of his fellow-countrymen who are still living in +the undisturbed atmosphere of the Indian Middle Ages. One of the dangers +we have to guard against is that, because the Western-educated Indian is +to the stay-at-home Englishman, and even to the Englishman whose +superficial knowledge of India is confined to brief visits to the chief +cities of India, the most, and indeed the only, articulate Indian, we +should regard him as the only or the most authoritative mouthpiece of +the needs and wishes of other classes or of the great mass of his +fellow-countrymen with whom he is often in many ways in less close touch +than the Englishman who lives in their midst. + +The weak point of the recent political reforms is that they were +intended to benefit, not wholly, but mainly, that particular class. In +so far as they may help to satisfy the legitimate aspirations of the +moderate Indian politician they deserve praise; and in that respect, as +far as one can judge at this very early stage, they are not without +promise. In effect they have also helped to give other important +interests opportunities of organization and expression. Apart from the +great Mahomedan community, whose political aspirations are largely +different from, and opposed to, those of Hinduism, there are +agricultural interests, always of supreme importance in such a country +as India, and industrial and commercial interests of growing importance +which cannot be adequately represented by the average Indian politician +who is chiefly recruited from the towns and from, professions that have +little or no knowledge of or sympathy with them. The politician, for +instance, is too often a lawyer, and he has thriven upon a system of +jurisprudence and legal procedure which we have imported into India with +the best intentions, but with results that have sometimes been simply +disastrous to a thriftless and litigious people. Hence the suspicion and +dislike entertained by large numbers of quiet, respectable Indians for +any political institutions that tend to increase the influence of the +Indian _vakeel_ and of the class he represents. Our object, therefore, +both in the education and in the political training of Indians, should +be to divert the activities of the new Western-educated classes into +economic channels which would broaden their own horizon, and to give +greater encouragement and recognition to the interests of the very large +and influential classes that hold entirely aloof from politics but look +to us for guidance and help in the development of the material resources +of the country. We have their support at present, but to retain it we +must carefully avoid creating the impression that political agitation is +the only lever that acts effectively upon Government, and that in the +relations of India and Great Britain--and especially in their fiscal and +financial relations--the exigencies of party politics at home and the +material interests of the predominant partner must invariably prevail. + +Whilst, subject to the maintenance of effective executive control, we +have extended and must continue steadily to extend the area of civil +employment for Indians in the service of the State, there would +certainly seem to be room also for affording them increased +opportunities of military employment. It is a strange anomaly that, at a +time when we have no hesitation in introducing Indians into our +Executive Councils, those who serve the King-Emperor in the Indian Army +can only rise to quite subordinate rank. A good deal has no doubt been +done to improve the quality of the native officer from the point of view +of military education, but, under present conditions, the Indian Army +does not offer a career that can attract Indians of good position, +though it is just among the landed aristocracy and gentry of India that +military traditions are combined with the strongest traditions of +loyalty. By the creation of an Imperial Cadet Corps Lord Curzon took a +step in the right direction which was warmly welcomed at the time, but +has received very little encouragement since his departure from India. +Something more than that seems to be wanted to-day. Some of the best +military opinion in India favours, I believe, an experimental scheme for +the gradual promotion of native officers, carefully selected and +trained, to field rank in a certain number of regiments which would +ultimately be entirely officered by Indians--just in the same way as a +certain number of regiments in the Egyptian Army have always been wholly +officered by Egyptians. Indeed, we need not go outside India to find +even now, in the Native States, Indian forces exclusively officered by +Indians. The effect upon the whole Native Army of some such measure as I +have indicated would be excellent; and though we could never hope to +retain India merely by the sword against the combined hostility of its +various peoples, the Native Army must always be a factor of first-rate +importance, both for the prevention and the repression of any spasmodic +outbreak of revolt. It is no secret that reiterated attempts have been +made to shake its loyalty, and in some isolated cases not altogether +without success. But the most competent authorities, whilst admitting +the need for vigilance, deprecate any serious alarm, and it is all to +the good that British officers no longer indulge in the blind optimism +which prevailed among those of the old Sepoy regiments before the +Mutiny. + +One point which Englishmen are apt to forget, and which has been rather +lost sight of In the recent political reforms, is that more than a fifth +of the population of our Indian Empire--about one third of its total +area--is under the direct administration not of the Government of India, +but of the Ruling Chiefs. They represent great traditions and great +interests, which duty and statesmanship equally forbid us to ignore. The +creation of an Imperial Council, in which they would have sat with +representatives of the Indian aristocracy of British India, was an +important feature of the original scheme of reforms proposed by the +Government of India. It was abandoned for reasons of which I am not +concerned to dispute the validity. But the idea underlying it was +unquestionably sound, and Lord Minto acted upon it when he drew the +Ruling Chiefs into consultation as to the prevention of sedition. Some +means will have to be found to embody it in a more regular and permanent +shape. If we were to attempt to introduce what are called democratic +methods into the government of British India without seeking the +adhesion and support of the feudatory Princes, we should run a grave +risk of estranging one of the most loyal and conservative forces in the +Indian Empire. The administrative autonomy of the native States is +sometimes put forward as an argument in favour of the self-government +which Indian politicians demand. It Is an argument based on complete +ignorance. With one or two exceptions, far more apparent than real, the +Native States are governed by patriarchal methods, which may be +thoroughly suited to the traditions and needs of their subjects, but are +much further removed than the methods of government in British India +from the professed aspirations of the Indian National Congress. Just as +the Ruling Chiefs rightly complained of the effect upon their own people +of the seditious literature imported into their States from British +India before we were at last induced to check the output of the +"extremist" Press, so they would be justified in resenting any grave +political changes in British India which would react dangerously upon +their own position and their relations with their own subjects. When we +talk of governing India in accordance with Indian ideas, we cannot +exclude the ideas of the very representative and influential class of +Indians to which none are better qualified to give expression than the +Ruling Chiefs. One further suggestion. The policy of annexation has long +since been abandoned, and the question to-day is whether we might not go +further and give ruling powers to a few great chiefs of approved loyalty +and high character, who possess in British India estates more populous +and important than those of many whom we have always recognized as +Ruling Chiefs. The objections to so novel a departure are, I know, +serious, and may be overwhelming--foremost among them being the +reluctance hitherto shown by the people themselves whenever, for +purposes of administrative convenience, any slight readjustment of +boundaries has been proposed that involved the transfer to a native +State of even a few villages until then under British Administration. + +The political reforms with which Lord Minto's Viceroyalty will remain +identified are only just on their trial. All that can safely be said at +present is that they are full of promise, and it would be rash to +predict whether and when it may be safe to proceed further in the +direction to which, they point. It is difficult even to say yet awhile +what share they have had, independently of the "repressive" measures +that accompanied them, in stemming at least temporarily the tide of +active sedition. Time is required to mature their fruits whether for +good or for evil. One may hope that, though they address themselves +only to the political elements of the present unrest, they will tend to +facilitate the treatment of the economic and social factors of the +Indian problem. It is these that now chiefly and most urgently claim the +attention of the British rulers of India. To rescue education from its +present unhealthy surroundings and to raise it on to a higher plane +whilst making it more practical, to promote the industrial and +commercial expansion of India so as to open up new fields for the +intellectual activity of educated Indians, to strengthen the old ties +and to create new ones that shall bind the ancient conservative as well +as the modern progressive forces of Indian society to the British _Raj_ +by an enlightened sense of self-interest are slower and more arduous +tasks and demand more patient and sustained statesmanship than any +adventures in constitutional changes. But it is only by the successful +achievement of such tasks that we can expect to retain the loyal +acquiescence of the Princes and peoples of India in the maintenance of +British rule. + +The sentiment of reverence for the Crown is widespread and deep-rooted +among all races and creeds in India[25]. It is perhaps the one tradition +common to all. It went out spontaneously to Queen Victoria, whose length +of years and widowed isolation appealed with a peculiar sense of lofty +and pathetic dignity to the imagination of her Indian peoples. It has +been materially reinforced by the pride of personal acquaintance, since +India has been twice honoured with the presence of the immediate +successor to the Throne. The late King's visit to India has not yet +faded from the memory of the older generation, and that of the present +King-Emperor and his gracious Consort is, of course, still fresh in the +recollection of all. How powerful is the hold which the majesty of the +Crown exercises upon Princes and peoples in India was very strikingly +shown by the calming effect, however temporary, which the presence of +the Prince and Princess of Wales had in Bengal four years ago, at the +very moment when political agitation in that province was developing +into almost open sedition; and it was shown once more this year by the +hush of subdued grief that passed over the whole of India at the sudden +news of King Edward's death. Only such rabid papers as Tilak's old +organ, the _Kesari_, ventured an attempt to counteract the deep +impression produced by that lamentable event, and it could only attempt +to do so, very ineffectively, by a spiteful and ignorant depreciation of +the position and personality of the Sovereign, and of the part played by +him in a Western democracy. + +In spite of the traditional prestige attaching to the Crown, we cannot, +however, reasonably look for loyalty from India in the sense in which we +look for it from our own people or from our kinsmen beyond the seas. +There can never be between Englishmen and Indians the same community of +historical traditions, of racial affinity, of social institutions, of +customs and beliefs that exists between people of our own stock +throughout the British Empire. The absence of these sentimental bonds, +which cannot be artificially forged, makes it impossible that we should +ever concede to India the rights of self-government which we have +willingly conceded to the great British communities of our own race. And +there is another and scarcely less cogent reason. The justification of +our presence in India is that it gives peace and security to all the +various races and creeds which make up one-fifth of the population of +this globe. To introduce self-government into India would necessarily be +to hand it over to the ascendency of the strongest. That we are debarred +from doing by the very terms on which we hold India, and that is what +Lord Morley must have had in his mind, when, in supporting the Indian +Councils Act last year, he specifically excluded all possibility of such +assemblies ever leading to the establishment of Parliamentary government +in India. The sooner that is made perfectly clear the better. But just +because executive self-government is inconceivable in India so long as +British rule is maintained, we must recognize the special +responsibility that consequently devolves upon us not only to do many +things for India which we do not attempt to do for our self-governing +Dominions, but, above all, not to force upon India things which we +should not dream of forcing upon them, and especially in matters in +which British material interests may appear to be closely concerned. We +must continue to govern India as the greatest of the dependencies of the +British Crown, but we must do our utmost to satisfy Indians of all +classes and castes and beliefs that we govern them as none of their race +could govern them, with an equal and absolutely impartial regard for all +law-abiding communities, with an intelligent appreciation of their +peculiar interests, and with genuine consideration for all their ideas, +so long as those ideas are compatible with the maintenance and security +of British rule. + + * * * * * + +The retirement of Lord Morley has been announced just as these last +pages are going to press. The announcement has been received with +genuine and widespread regret at home, where criticism of certain +details and aspects of his administration has never detracted from a +genuine recognition of the lofty sense of duty and broad and courageous +statesmanship which he has displayed throughout a very critical period +in the history of our Indian Empire. It will assuredly be received with +the same feeling in India by all those who have at heart the destinies +of the British _Raj_ and the interests of the countless peoples +committed to our charge. Lord Morley's tenure of office will remain for +all times memorable in Anglo-Indian annals. He has set for the Indian +ship of State a new course upon which she will be kept with increasing +confidence in the future if we keep steadily before us the wise words +which, with his own singular felicity of speech, he addressed two years +ago to the Indian Civil Service:--"We have a clouded moment before us +now. We shall get through it--but only with self-command and without any +quackery or cant, whether it be the quackery of blind violence disguised +as love of order, or the cant of unsound and misapplied sentiment, +divorced from knowledge and untouched by any cool consideration of +facts." + + + + +NOTES + +NOTE 1. + +THE NATIVE PRESS. + +Not a single Indian member of the Imperial Council made any serious +attempt to controvert the following description given by Sir Herbert +Risley of the demoralization of the native Press when he introduced the +new Press Bill on February 4, 1910:--We see the most influential and +widely-read portion of the Indian Press incessantly occupied in +rendering the Government by law established odious in the sight of the +Indian people. The Government is foreign, and therefore selfish and +tyrannical. It drains the country of its wealth; it has impoverished the +people, and brought about famine on a scale and with a frequency unknown +before; its public works, roads, railways, and canals have generated +malaria; it has introduced plague, by poisoning wells, in order to +reduce the population that has to be held in subjection it has deprived +the Indian peasant of his land; the Indian artisan of his industry, and +the Indian merchant of his trade; it has destroyed religion by its +godless system of education; it seeks to destroy caste by polluting +maliciously and of set purpose, the salt and sugar that men eat and the +cloth that they wear; it allows Indians to be ill-treated in British +Colonies; it levies heavy taxes and spends them on the army; it pays +high salaries to Englishmen, and employs Indians only in the worst paid +posts--in short, it has enslaved a whole people, who are now struggling +to be free. + +My enumeration may not be exhaustive but these are some of the +statements that are now being implanted as axioms in the minds of rising +generation of educated youths, the source from which we recruit the +great body of civil officials who administer India. If nothing more were +said, if the Press were content to-- + +"let the lie Have time on its own wings to fly" things would be bad +enough. But very much more is said. Every day the Press proclaims, +openly or by suggestion or allusion, that the only cure for the ills of +India is independence from foreign rule, independence to be won by +heroic deeds, self-sacrifice, martyrdom on the part of the young, in any +case by some form of violence. Hindu mythology, ancient and modern +history, and more especially the European literature of revolution, are +ransacked to furnish examples that justify revolt and proclaim its +inevitable success. The methods of guerilla warfare as practised in +Circassia, Spain, and South Africa; Mazzini's gospel of political +assassination; Kossuth's most violent doctrines; the doings of Russian +Nihilists; the murder of the Marquis Ito; the dialogue between Arjuna +and Krishna in the "Gita," a book that is to Hindus what the "Imitation +of Christ" is to emotional Christians--all these are pressed into the +service of inflaming impressionable minds. The last instance is perhaps +the worst. I can imagine no more wicked desecration than that the +sacrilegious hand of the Anarchist should be laid upon the Indian song +of songs, and that a masterpiece of transcendental philosophy and +religious ecstasy should be perverted to the base uses of preaching +political murder. + +The consequences of this ever-flowing stream of slander and incitement +to outrage are now upon us. What was dimly foreseen a few years ago has +actually come to pass. We are at the present moment confronted with a +murderous conspiracy, whose aim it is to subvert the Government of the +country and to make British rule impossible by establishing general +terrorism. Their organization is effective and far-reaching; their +numbers are believed to be considerable; the leaders work in secret and +are blindly obeyed by their youthful followers. The method they favour +at present is political assassination; the method of Mazzini in his +worst moods. Already they have a long score of murders or attempted +murders to their account. There were two attempts to blow up Sir Andrew +Fraser's train and one, of the type with which we are now unhappily +familiar, to shoot him on a public occasion. Two attempts were made to +murder Mr. Kingsford, one of which caused the death of two English +ladies. Inspector Nanda Lal Banerji, Babu Ashutosh Biswas, the Public +Prosecutor at Alipore, Sir William Curzon-Wyllie, Mr. Jackson, and only +the other day Deputy Supdt. Shams-ul-Alum have been shot in the most +deliberate and cold-blooded fashion. Of three informers two have been +killed, and on the third vengeance has been taken by the murder of his +brother in the sight of his mother and sisters. Mr. Allen, the +magistrate of Dacca, was shot through the lungs and narrowly escaped +with his life. Two picric acid bombs were thrown at His Excellency the +Viceroy at Ahmedabad, and only failed to explode by reason of their +faulty construction. Not long afterwards an attempt was made with a bomb +on the Deputy Commissioner of Umballa. + +These things are the natural and necessary consequence of the teachings +of certain journals. They have prepared the soil in which anarchy +flourishes; they have sown the seed and they are answerable for the +crop. This is no mere general statement; the chain of causation is +clear. Not only does the campaign of violence date from the change in +the tone of the Press, but specific outbursts of incitement have been +followed by specific outrages. + +And now, Sir, I appeal to the Council in the name of all objects that +patriotic Indians have at heart to give their cordial approval to this +Bill. It is called for in the interests of the State, of our officers +both Indian and European, and most of all of the rising generation of +young men. In this matter, indeed, the interests of the State and the +interests of the people are one and the same. If it is good for India +that British rule should continue, it is equally essential that the +relations between Government and the educated community should be +cordial and intimate, and that cannot long be the case if the organs of +that community lay themselves out to embitter those relations in every +sort of way and to create a permanent atmosphere of latent and often +open hostility. In the long run people will believe what they are told, +if they are told it often enough, and if they hear nothing on the other +side. There is plenty of work in India waiting to be done, but it will +be done, if the energies of the educated classes are wasted in incessant +abuse and suspicion of Government. As regards the officers of Government +the case is clear. At all costs they must be protected from intimidation +and worse. And it is our Indian officials who stand in most need of +protection, for they are most exposed to the danger. The detailed work +of investigation and detection necessarily falls upon them, and they are +specially vulnerable through their families. They have done most +admirable work during the troubles of the last few years, and have +displayed under most trying conditions courage and loyalty that are +beyond all praise. We are bound in honour to protect them from threats +of murder and outrage which sooner or later bring about their own +fulfilment. + +To my mind, Sir, the worst feature of the present situation is the +terrible influence that the Press exercises upon the student class. I +was talking about this about a month ago with a distinguished Indian who +is in close touch with schools and colleges in Bengal. He took a most +gloomy view of the present state of things and the prospects of the +immediate future. According to him the younger generation had got +entirely out of hand, and many of them had become criminal fanatics +uncontrollable by their parents or their masters. + +I believe. Sir, that this Bill will prove to be a wholesome and +beneficial measure of national education, that it will in course of time +prevent a number of young men from drifting into evil courses and +ruining their prospects in life, and that in passing it this Council +will earn the lasting gratitude of many thousands of Indian parents. + +NOTE 2 + +THE SUPERIORITY OF HINDU CIVILIZATION. In an "Open Letter to his +Countrymen," published at the Sri Narayan Press in Calcutta, Mr. +Arabindo Ghose has in so many words proclaimed the superiority of Hindu +to Western civilization. "We reject," he writes, "the claim of aliens to +force upon us a civilization inferior to our own or to keep us out of +our inheritance on the untenable ground of a superior fitness." + +NOTE 3 + +SEDITIOUS PLAYS. + +One of the most popular of these plays is _The Killing of Kichaka +(Kichaka-vadd)_. The author, Mr. Khadilkar, was assistant editor of the +_Kesari_ until Tilak was arrested and convicted in 1908, and he then +took over the chief editorship. The play has been acted all over the +Deccan as well as in Bombay City to houses packed with large native +audiences. The following account of it appeared in _The Times_ of +January 18 last: Founded upon the Mahabharata, _The Killing of Kichaka_ +seems at first sight a purely classical drama. It will be remembered by +Oriental students that Duryodhan, jealous of his cousin Yudhistira, +Emperor of Hastinapura and the eldest of the five Pandava brothers, +induced him to play at dice with a Court gambler called Sakuni. To him +the infatuated monarch lost his wealth, his kingdom, his own and his +brother's freedom, and lastly that of Draupadi, the wife of all the +brothers. Eventually, at the intercession of Duryodhan's father, it was +agreed that the Emperor, in full settlement of his losses, should with +his brothers and Draupadi abandon Hastinapura to Duryodhan for 13 years. +Of these 12 were to be spent in the forest and one in disguise in some +distant city. Should, however, the disguise of any be penetrated, all +would be obliged to pass a further 12 years in the forest. When the 12 +years had expired, the brothers fixed on Viratnagar, the capital of +Virata, King of the Malyas, in which to spend their year of concealment. +Yudhistira took the name of Kankbhat, a professional dicer, and Bhima +that of Ballava, a professional cook. Under their pseudonyms all five +brothers obtained posts in the King's service, while Draupadi, styling +herself a _sairandhri_ or tirewoman, entered the service of the Queen +Sudeshna. Before the year of concealment ended Kichaka, the brother of +Queen Sudeshna and commander-in-chief of the Malya forces, returned from +a visit to Duryodhan at Hastinapura. Duryodhan had given him as presents +Yudhistira's regalia and Draupadi's jewels, and Kichaka boasted that, as +Duryodhan's friend, he would one after the other kill the five Pandavas +in single combat and then wed their queen. While telling King Virata's +Court of his reception, his eye fell on Draupadi, and learning that she +was a _sairandhri_ and being struck with her beauty, he formally +requested the King Virata that she might be sent to his harem. The King +consenting, Yudhistira was faced with the dilemma of suffering his +queen's dishonour or of revealing his identity. Eventually his brother +Bhima solved the difficulty by secretly killing Kichaka. + +It is out of this story that Mr. Khadilkar has sought for the materials +of his play. It opens with the return of Kichaka to Viratnagar and his +passion for the beautiful _sairandhri_. The latter seeks in turn the +protection of the King and his queen, and of Kichaka's wife Ratnaprabha; +but Kichaka, who as commander-in-chief and on account of the number of +his followers is all-powerful in Malya, becomes daily more insistent. He +reminds the King of his past exploits, and threatens to leave his +service, taking his followers with him. Finally, Virata is driven to +make a feeble compromise. He will not himself hand over the _sairandhri_ +to Kichaka, but he will have her sent to a temple of Bairoba outside the +town, washing his hands of all responsibility as to subsequent events. +All this time the rescue of Draupadi has been repeatedly discussed +between Yudhistira and his brother Bhima. The former is all for mild +methods, feeling sure that justice will ultimately prevail. The mighty +Bhima wishes to strangle Kichaka regardless of consequences. At last +Bhima and Draupadi together extract from him a most reluctant +permission. Bhima goes secretly to the Bairoba temple, and removing from +its stand the god's idol, he takes its place. So hidden, he is present +when Draupadi, abandoned by the King's guards, is seized upon by +Kichaka. In vain Draupadi appeals to the latter for mercy. He laughs +alike at tears and menaces, and is about to carry her off in triumph +when the god Bairoba is seen to rise from his pedestal. It is Bhima. He +seizes the terrified Kichaka, hurls him to the floor, and strangles him +at Draupadi's feet. + +ITS ALLEGORICAL MEANING. + +These things are an allegory. Although his name is nowhere uttered on +the stage or mentioned in the printed play every one in the theatre +knows that Kichaka is really intended to be Lord Curzon, that Draupadi +is India, and that Yudhistira is the Moderate and Bhima the Extremist +Party. Every now and again unmistakable clues are provided. The +question, indeed, admits of no doubt, for since the play first appeared +in 1907 the whole Deccan has been blazoning forth the identity of the +characters. Once they have been recognized, the inner meaning of the +play becomes clear. A weak Government at home, represented by King +Virata, has given the Viceroy a free hand. He has made use of it to +insult and humiliate India. Of her two champions, the Moderates advocate +gentle--that is, constitutional--measures. The Extremists, out of +deference to the older party, agree, although satisfied of the +ineffectiveness of this course. Waiting until this has been +demonstrated, they adopt violent methods, and everything becomes easy. +The oppressor is disposed of without difficulty. His followers--namely, +the Anglo-Indians--are, as it is prophesied in the play and as narrated +in the Mahabharata, massacred with equal ease. And the Extremists boast +that, having freed their country, they will be able to defend it against +all invaders, thus averting the calamities which, according to Lord +Morley, would overtake India on the disappearance of the British. + +It may be said that all this is mere fooling. But no Englishman who has +seen the play acted would agree. All his life he will remember the +tense, scowling faces of the men as they watch Kichaka's outrageous +acts, the glistening eyes of the Brahmin ladies as they listen to +Draupadi's entreaties, their scorn of Yudhistira's tameness, their +admiration of Bhima's passionate protests, and the deep hum of +satisfaction which approves the slaughter of the tyrant. + +NOTE 4 + +SHIVAJI'S EXHORTATIONS. + +In the _Kesari_ just a week before the Poona murders, the following +verses were put into the mouth of Shivaji: + + "I delivered my country by establishing 'Swaraj' and saving religion. + I betook myself to the Paradise of Indra to shake off the great + exhaustion that came upon me from my labours. Why, O my beloved ones, + have you awakened me? I planted in the soil of Maharashtra virtues that + may be likened to the Kalpavriksha (one of the five trees of Indra's + Paradise that yields whatsoever may be desired); sublime policy based + on strong foundations, valour in the battlefield like that of Karma, + patriotism, genuine unselfishness, and unity, the best of all. ... Alas, + alas! all I see now is the ruin of my country. Those forts of mine to + build which I poured out money, to acquire which torrents of fiery blood + streamed forth, from which I sallied forth to victory roaring like a + lion--all those are crumbling away. What a desolation is this! + Foreigners are dragging out Lakshmi (the goddess of Good Fortune) by the + hand of persecution. Along with her Plenty has fled, and with Plenty, + Health. The wicked Akabaya (the goddess of Misfortune) stalks with + Famine at her side through the country, and relentless Death scatters + foul diseases." + + "Say, where are those splendid ones who promptly shed their blood + on the spot where my perspiration fell? They eat bread once in a day, + but not even enough of that. They toil through hard times by tightening + up their bellies. O People, how have you tolerated in the sacred places + the carrying off to prison of those holy preceptors, those religious + teachers of mine, those saintly Brahmans whom I protected--who, while + they devoted themselves to their religious practices in times of peace, + exchanged the Darbah (sacrificial grass) in their hands for weapons + which they used manfully when occasion required. The cow, the + foster-mother of babes when their mother leaves them, the mainstay of the + hard-worked peasant, the importer of strength to my people, whom I + worshipped as my mother and protected more than my life, is taken + daily to the slaughter-house and ruthlessly butchered by the + unbelievers.... How can I bear this heartrending spectacle? Have + all our leaders become like helpless figures on the chess-board? What + misfortune has overtaken the land!" + +NOTE 5 + +TILAK IN THE CIVIL COURTS. + +The Tai Maharaj case came up once more in September on the Appellate +side of the Bombay High Court on appeal against the decision of the +Lower Courts. It was contended on behalf of Tai Maharaj, the widow, that +her adoption of one Jagganath was invalid owing to the undue influence +brought to bear upon her at the time by Tilak and one of his friends and +political associates, Mr. G.S. Khaparde, who were executors under the +will of her husband, Shri Baba Maharajah. Mr. Justice Chandavarkar, in +the course of his judgment reversing the decisions of the Lower Courts, +said that on the one hand they had a young inexperienced widow, with a +right of ownership but ignorant of that right, and led to believe that +she was legally subject to the control of the executors of her husband's +will as regarded the management of the estate which she had by law +inherited from her son, prevented from going to Kolhapur even to attend +a marriage in a family of relations, and anxious to adopt a boy from +Kolhapur as far as possible. On the other hand they had two men of +influence learned in the law, taking her to an out-of-the-way place +ostensibly for the selection of a boy, and then, as it were, hustling +her there by representing that everything was within, their discretion, +and thereby forcing her to adopt their nominee. In these circumstances +they came to the conclusion that the adoption was not valid, because it +was brought about by means of undue influence exercised over Tai Maharaj +by both Tilak and Khaparde. + +Mr. Justice Chandavarkar is a Hindu Judge of the highest reputation, and +the effect of this judgment is extremely damaging to Tilak's private +reputation as a man of honour, or even of common honesty. + +NOTE 6 + +KHUDIRAM BOSE'S CONFESSION. + +A similar confession was made by Khudiram Bose, the author of the fatal +bomb outrage at Muzafferpur. When he was brought before the District +Magistrate on May 1, 1908, within twenty-four hours of the crime, he +stated: I came to Muzafferpur five or six days ago from Calcutta to kill +Mr. Kingsford. I came of my own initiative, having read in various +papers things which incited me to come to this determination. These +papers were the _Sandhya, Hitabadi, Jugantar_ and many others. They +wrote of great _Zoolum_ done to India by the English Government. Mr. +Kingsford's name was not specially mentioned, but I determined to kill +him because he put several men in gaol. Besides reading the papers I +heard the lectures of Bpin Pal, Surendranath Banerjee, Gisputty +Kabyatirtha, and others. There were lectures in Beadon-square and +College-square [in the student quarter of Calcutta], and they inspired +me to do this. There is also a Sanyasi who lectures in Beadon-square, +who is very strong. + +NOTE 7 + + +RELIGION AND POLITICS + +On this point a very important piece of evidence has been recently +produced in Court in the course of the Dacca Conspiracy trial. It is a +letter, of which the authenticity is beyond dispute, written by Mr. +Surendranath Banerjee to one of the extremist leaders, in which he +suggests means for carrying out the proposed celebration of the +"boycott" anniversary on August 7 in spite of the prohibition of public +meetings under the Seditious Meetings Act. "My suggestion," writes this +distinguished politician, who is also the head of Ripon College, one of +the most popular colleges in Calcutta, "is that you should organize a +religious ceremony on the 7th of August such as _Shakti-puja_ and +_Kali-puja_, and have _Swadeshi kalka_ or _jatra_ and _Swadeshi_ +conversation by having a sort of conference. Give a religious turn to +the movement. As for the Muhammedans, if you can get them to your side, +why not have a _wuz_ followed by _Swadeshi_ preaching? Kindly let me +know what you do. But something must be done." _Shakti_ rites and the +worship of Kali are associated with some of the most libidinous and +cruel of Hindu superstitions. The simultaneous attempt to attract +Mahomedans by grafting "_Swadeshi_ preaching" on to one of their +accustomed religious services betrays Mr. Surendranath Banerjee's +cynical indifference to any and every form of religious creed so long as +it can be exploited in the interest of his political creed. + +NOTE 8 + +THE "REMOVAL OF INFORMERS." + +Shortly after the murder of Shams-ul-Alam, the following "Appeal" was +printed and issued in Calcutta with reference to the "removal of +informers": + + HATYA NOY JAGNA. + (Not Murder but Sacrifice.) + Cash price: the head of a European or the heads of two Informers. + 50th issue Calcutta, Sunday, 6th Chaitra, 1316. + +Tempted by gold, some native devils in form of men, the disgrace of +India--the police--arrested those great men Barendra Ghose and others +who worked for the freedom of their country by sacrificing their +interests and dedicating their lives in the performance of the sacred +ceremony of _Jagna_, preparing bombs. The greatest of these devils in +human form, Ashitosh Biswas, began to pave for these heroes the way to +the gallows. Bravo, Charu! [the murderer of Biswas] all honour to your +parents. To glorify them, to show the highest degree of courage, +disregarding the paltry short span of life, you removed the figure of +that monster from the world. Not long ago, the Whites by force and +trick, filched India from the Mahomedans. That mean wretch +Shams-ul-Alam, who espoused the cause of the enemies of Alamghir +Padshah, who put a stain on the name of his forefathers for the sake of +gold--to-day you have removed that fiend from the sacred soil of India. +From Nuren Gossain to Talit Chakravarti, all turned approvers through +the machinations of that fiendish wizard Shams-ul-Alam and by his +torture. Had you not removed that ally of the monsters, could there be +any hope for India? + +Many have raised the cry that to rebel is a great sin. But what is +rebellion? Is there anything in India to rebel against? Can a Feringhee +be recognized as the King of India, whose very touch, whose mere shadow +compels Hindus to purify themselves? + +These are merely Western Robbers looting India.... Extirpate them, ye +good sons of India, wherever you find them, without mercy, and with them +their spies and secret agents. Last year 19 lakhs of men died of fever, +smallpox, cholera, plague, and other diseases in Bengal alone. Think +yourselves fortunate that you were not counted amongst those, but +remember that plague and cholera may attack you to-morrow, and is it not +better for you to die like heroes? + +When God has so ordained, think ye not that at this auspicious moment it +is the duty of every good son of India to slay these white enemies? Do +not allow yourselves to die of plague and cholera, thus polluting the +sacred soil of Mother-India. Our _Shastras_ are our guide for +discriminating between virtue and vice. Our _Shastras_ repeatedly tell +us that the killing of these white fiends and of their aiders and +abettors is equal to a great ceremonial sacrifice _(Asyamedh Jagna_.) +Come, one and all. Let us offer our sacrifice before the altar in +chorus, and pray that in this ceremony all white serpents may perish in +its flames as the vipers perished in the serpent slaying ceremony of +_Janmajob_. Keep in mind that it is not murder but _Jagna_--a +sacrificial rite. + +NOTE 9 + +BENGALEE LAWLESSNESS. + +A very striking, and at the same time sober, picture of the conditions +produced by Bengalee methods of agitation is to be found in the speech +delivered at the opening of the Provincial Legislature of Eastern Bengal +at Dacca on April 6, 1910, by Sir Lancelot Hare, the Lieutenant-Governor +appointed in succession to Sir Bampfylde Fuller. "We have had abundant +experience," he said, "in the last three years that the advocacy of the +boycott at public meetings is invariably followed by acts of tyranny and +brutality and illegal interference with the rights of a free people to +buy and sell as they, and not as a particular set of agitators, prefer. +No district officer anxious to maintain the peace of his district can +allow a recrudescence of these disturbances. I have seen it denied that +there have been such cases, but the state calendar of crime is there to +refute such an assertion; and you and I well know that the cases which +have been brought to trial bear a very small proportion to the cases +which have arisen but which the raiyats have been afraid to press home. +When we remember the enormous power of the zemindar following from the +unfortunate absence of any record of right upon which the tenant can +lean, and rely, we can well understand how a raiyat hesitates to oppose +his landlord's will. I have seen, it claimed that such advocacy of the +boycott is a constitutional right. The extraordinary fallacy of this +assertion hardly needs refuting. With a democratic Government an appeal +to the public is an appeal to the Government, as it is an appeal to the +voter who appoints the member of Parliament who appoints the Government. +Such a condition does not exist in this country, and when an agitator +who wishes to press his views on Government says that the boycott will +be preached until Government takes a particular course which Government +has decided is not for the good of the people, and has announced that it +will not adopt, such an appeal is not a constitutional act nor an appeal +to Government but an act of defence and open resistance to Government. +This Government now as always will do what it believes to be in the best +interests of the people. It will always give such regard as it can to +respectful representations, even when they come from a small minority +only of the population; but appeals to force and violence, appeals to +the mob for race hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness, do not +constitute constitutional agitation. I would say a few words on the +mischief of the boycott agitation. The boycott agitation has been the +curse of this province for the past five years, causing endless +suffering and unrest, obstructing the path of progress, exciting +ill-feeling between Government and the people, and hindering their +co-operation in the work of reconstitution and reform. The agitation has +displayed itself in many evil forms, all tending to oppression, and +lawlessness." + + +"MANY-HEADED MISCHIEF." + +It is difficult to review this many-headed mischief in a few words, but +its main features may readily be brought to mind. First there is the +economic disturbance which resulted from the enforcement of the boycott +whether by persuasion, or by intimidation or by force. This has been a +very real mischief and a very real suffering in many parts of the +country where the cultivators found themselves unable to obtain the +products to which they were accustomed at prices which they could afford +to pay. Next is to be noted the violent scenes in the bazaars, where the +sale of British goods was sought to be obstructed by organized force. +The deplorable riot at Jamalpore, with its terrible sequel, is only one +among many such scenes. A closely allied evil was the picketing of the +bazaars by students and other young men, which became an intolerable +nuisance until it was put down with a strong hand. The case at +Jhalakati, where the young boycotters practically took possession of the +bazaar, is a prominent typical instance. Then followed the numerous +cases of interference with individuals with the accompaniment of assault +and mischief and criminal restraint. The long list of crimes of this +nature that have been punished in due course would be wearisome to +repeat. No less mischievous and perhaps even more widespread and more +common have been the cases of criminal intimidation, in which notices +have been posted, or letters have been sent, threatening vendors or +purchasers individually or collectively with arson or murder or other +outrage. Wealthy zemindars and bankers, shopkeepers of all grades, and +villagers and townsfolk have alike prayed to be protected from such +interference in the lawful pursuit of their ordinary avocations; and too +often it has been impossible to afford this protection. That these +threats were not mere idle extravagance has been proved to the hilt by +the grave incidents that have actually taken place. More widespread, +more difficult to deal with, and causing even greater suffering than +these violent methods has been the social persecution which has been +exercised upon those who have failed to bow down to the orders of the +boycotters. This is one of the most serious chapters in the whole +history of the agitation, and Government has again had to deplore the +sufferings to which quiet and law-abiding persons have been subjected. +The constitution of Hindu society lends itself with great readiness to +this form of compulsion, and no weapon is more feared than social +ostracism when ruthlessly used in pursuance of a political object. +Another most grave aspect of the boycott agitation has been the constant +attempt to excite disaffection against Government by public meetings, +speeches, propagandist tours, newspapers, pamphlets, songs, flaunting +and noisy processions, and dramatic performances. Every effort has been +made to try and persuade the people that the Government is hostile, +callous, and neglectful and that boycott, and its kindred measures, are +the means by which to bring it to a better course. Some of the worst +offenders have been prosecuted under the law and have paid the penalty +of their crimes, but it is impossible by such means to counteract or +nullify the mischief that they and others have caused. + + +YOUTHS AND POLITICS. + +There remains another point which is at the present time of the most +sinister significance. The promoters of the agitation conceived the +deplorable idea that their propaganda might best be spread, and that +their designs might best be carried out by the youths of the country. +From this selection has arisen what is now the worst feature of the +situation. It is impossible to condemn too strongly the use of the +students and other youths to foster political aims. It has resulted in a +wave of excitement amongst immature and impressionable minds throughout +the affected districts. In this province in the first instance this evil +exhibited itself in the constant appearance of youths in the forefront +of political demonstration, however hostile and objectionable in +character. This phenomenon was naturally accompanied by numerous +instances of indiscipline among students which Government has repeatedly +been obliged to denounce. The effect on the minds of the most +impressionable youths, and especially among those who had a ready means +of livelihood and an available occupation, has reached a pitch which was +doubtless never contemplated by the more sober among those who initiated +this regrettable movement. Nevertheless a series of crimes in which +youths belonging to the respectable classes have been known to +participate must be regarded as directly attributable to the excitement +of political agitation. It is impossible to avoid mentioning in this +connexion the system of national schools which was to be lauded in all +three of the prohibited Conferences, and which has been encouraged in +other similar meetings that are taking place. + +During the past few years in this Province the record of these schools +is an evil one. They were established in open hostility to the State +system of education, which is the true national system, and several of +the most important were opened for the purpose of receiving boys +expelled from or punished in other schools for taking part in political +demonstrations of a most reprehensible character. Their subsequent +history has accorded with the spirit in which they were founded and +their close connexion with forms of political agitation most unhealthy +for young minds has been evinced in many a regrettable incident. + +THE OUTLOOK. + +If we review the present position we find that during the past year +there has been some subsidence of the acute stage of the malady, or +rather it has taken a different turn. The bulk of the reasonable +inhabitants have become wearied of the senseless agitation which brings +annoyance and suffering without doing them good. There is less active +boycott and the ordinary citizen has become less amenable to the leaders +of the agitation. But in spite of this, two circumstances stand +out--first, the local leaders have not in general abated one tittle of +their efforts to enforce the boycott, and where in any locality they +showed signs of resting, their chiefs are ready to urge them forward; +secondly, the perversion of our young men has reached a most alarming +stage, not merely from the point of view of the crime and the sense of +insecurity that it engenders, but also from the more general aspect of +the character and prospects of the rising generation. Many parents have +most bitter reason to lament their failure to guide, control, and +restrain their children. On the 7th August boycott celebrations occurred +at the headquarters of each district of the Dacca division, and at a +number of places in the interior. The boycott vow was everywhere renewed +and at several meetings speeches were delivered, the tendency and object +of which was to excite renewed disaffection and to stir up zeal for the +cause. The observances for the 16th October were prescribed in an order +of the chiefs published in the Calcutta papers, and the local leaders +did their best to carry out these instructions. Rakhibandan bathing, +abstinence from cooked food, and the solemn renewal of the boycott vow +were the principal features. In some places public meetings were held +and again the tone of several speakers was most reprehensible. District +conferences and other similar meetings played their usual important part +in the year's programme. In the Dacca division, Jhalakati, Faridpur, and +Pangsa were selected as the theatres of those performances. The +resolutions were varied in character, but however guarded and mild their +phraseology, the speeches advocated boycott in its most blatant form, +and sentiments were expressed tending to keep alive the most pernicious +and dangerous characteristics of the political and social situation. +Similar conferences, in which the boycott played a prominent part, and +in which ill-feeling against the Government was excited, were held in +August and September at Pabna and Dinajpur, and in the Sylhet district +in October a series of meetings took place. In a portion of the Faridpur +district, the unsettled condition of which has for some time been a +cause of anxiety, the inhabitants are mostly Namasudras. The ostensible +object of these meetings was to raise the social condition of the +people, but it appears from the accounts published in the Press that the +Anti-Partition agitation and the boycott of foreign goods were urged and +the promise of social privilege was only made as a reward or return for +promising to take the boycott vow. This condition of affairs could not +be permitted to continue indefinitely, and it became evident that sooner +or later--and the sooner the better--the mischief must be stopped and +the people of the province given the opportunity which they need and +desire to settle down to their normal life and to co-operation with the +Government for their material and moral progress. + + +NOTE 10 + +SACRIFICING "WHITE GOATS" + +The term occurs, for instance, in one of the most violent fly-sheets +issued only a few months ago from a clandestine press in India, under +the heading _Yagantar_, killing no murder:-- + +Rise up, rise up, O sons of India, arm yourselves with bombs, despatch +the white _Asuras_ to Yana's abode. Invoke the mother Kali; nerve your +arm with valour. The Mother asks for sacrificial offerings. What does +the Mother want? The cocoanut? No. A fowl or a sheep or a buffalo? No, +She wants many white _Asuras_. The Mother is thirsting after the blood +of the Feringhees who have bled her profusely. Satisfy her thirst. +Killing the Feringhee, we say, is no murder. Brother, chant this verse +while slaying the Feringhee white goat, for killing him is no murder: +With the close of a long era, the Feringhee Empire draws to an end for +behold! Kali rises in the East. + + +NOTE 11 + +HINDUS AND MAHOMEDANS IN GOVERNMENT SERVICE. + +Some statistics have been collected lately by the Moslem League with +reference to the relative numbers of Hindus and Mahomedans employed in +Government service in India. The figures are still subject to revision, +and therefore can only be given as approximately correct. Moreover, the +classification adopted does not seem to have been precisely the same in +the different provinces. But even if a considerable margin is allowed +for discrepancies which may yet have to be rectified, the figures quoted +below for several important branches of the service are instructive:-- + + EXECUTIVE OFFICERS OF THE RANK OF DEPUTY COLLECTORS, DEPUTY + MAGISTRATES, ASSISTANT COMMISSIONERS, &c. + + Hindus. Mahomedans. + ----------------------------------+----------+-------------- + Bombay .. .. .. ..| 53 | 9 + Madras .. .. .. ..| 61 | 7 + Bengal .. .. .. ..| 265 | 59 + Eastern Bengal .. .. ..| 136 | 49 + Central Provinces .. .. ..| 60 | 24 + United Provinces .. .. ..| 125 | 98 + Punjab .. .. .. ..| 74 | 68 + + + SUB-DEPUTY COLLECTORS, SUB-DEPUTY MAGISTRATES, &c. + + Hindus. Mahomedans. + ----------------------------------+----------+-------------- + Bombay .. .. .. ..| 186 | 3 + Madras .. .. .. ..| 151 | 11 + Bengal .. .. .. ..| 165 | 33 + Eastern Bengal .. .. ..| 107 | 39 + Central Provinces .. .. ..| 52 | 16 + United Provinces .. .. ..| 122 | 106 + Punjab .. .. .. ..| 142 | 90 + + + SUB-DEPUTY JUDGES AND MUNSIFFS + + Hindus. Mahomedans. + ----------------------------------+----------+-------------- + Bombay .. .. .. ..| 109 | 2 + Madras .. .. .. ..| 132 | 1 + Bengal .. .. .. ..| 195 | 17 + Eastern Bengal .. .. ..| 21 | 1 + Central Provinces .. .. ..| 117 | 6 + United Provinces .. .. ..| 111 | 35 + Punjab .. .. .. ..| 81 | 52 + + EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT. + + Hindus. Mahomedans. + ----------------------------------+----------+-------------- + Bombay .. .. .. ..| 39 | 17 + Madras .. .. .. ..| 127 | 10 + Bengal .. .. .. ..| 110 | 16 + Eastern Bengal .. .. ..| 56 | 15 + Central Provinces .. .. ..| 23 | 2 + United Provinces .. .. ..| 58 | 5 + Punjab .. .. .. ..| 53 | 6 + +NOTE 12 + +INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS SUBSIDIES TO ITS SUPPORTERS IN ENGLAND. + +The following resolutions passed by the Indian National Congress show +that considerable financial support has been regularly given by that +body towards the expenses of its London organ, _India_, and of the +British committee it co-operates with. + +MADRAS, 1898. + +"That a sum of Rs.60,000 be assigned for the expenses of the British +Committee and the cost of the Congress publication _India_, and also for +the expenses of the Joint-General Secretary's Office, and that the +several circles do contribute, as arranged, either now or hereafter in +Committee for the year 1899." + +AHMEDABAD, 1902. + +"That with a view to meet the balance required to defray the expenses of +_India_ and the British Committee a special delegation fee of Rs.10 be +paid by each delegate in addition to the usual fee now paid by him with +effect from 1902." + +MADRAS, 1903. + +"That a sum of Rs.10,500 be assigned for the expenses of the British +Committee and that the several Congress circles do contribute the amount +allotted to each." + +BOMBAY, 1904. + +"That a sum of L700 be assigned for the expenses of the British +Committee and that the several Congress circles do contribute the amount +allotted to each." + +NOTE 13 + +AN ENGLISH SOCIALIST "MANIFESTO." + +The support given to Indian Nationalists by a certain class of +politicians in England goes sometimes to such lengths that the tolerance +extended to them is open to very serious question. For instance, in a +London newspaper which calls itself "the Organ of Social Democracy," +_Justice_ there appeared on August 27 a "Manifesto" headed "The Infamies +of Liberal Rule in India," which contained, along with much +indiscriminate denunciation of British tyranny, the outrageous statement +that Savarkar, who is now undergoing trial in Bombay on grave charges, +including the abetment of murder, had been arrested in England "for an +alleged political offence, and in order that he might not have a fair +trial defended by Council, and safeguarded by public opinion in this +country, he was sent back to India, where, innocent or guilty, his +condemnation could be officially ensured." In conclusion, it was +stated:--"We, at any rate, shall take care that this little manifesto of +ours shall be distributed in the native languages throughout Hindustan, +in order that the population of that great Empire may know that there is +an active and growing party in this island which has neither part nor +lot in the outrages and crimes committed by our rulers, and that its +members heartily sympathize with the legitimate efforts of Indians of +all races, castes, and creeds to emancipate themselves finally from the +monstrous domination under which they suffer to-day." + +Many loyal Indians, and indeed the disloyal ones too, may very +reasonably ask whether it is right and just to allow language of this +kind to be used and circulated with impunity in this country when, if it +were used and circulated in India, it would at once give rise to a +criminal prosecution. + +NOTE 14 + +INDIAN STUDENTS IN ENGLAND. + +An Indian Correspondent of _The Times_ who has made a special study of +the condition of his fellow-countrymen studying in England writes that +it would be almost impossible for an Englishman who has never been in +the East to realize the enormous difference between the life to which +the student has been used and the life to which he has come. In many +instances his home is in some far off lonely village. He may have been +to some town to study in a Government or missionary school or college. +But that has not given him an insight into English life. In the +Government institution he sees little of his English teacher or +professor outside lessons or lecture hours. He never has the chance of +knowing an English lady. The student has little time for more than his +studies, so numerous are the subjects and the prescribed text-books for +Indian examinations. In the vacations the Professors go to the hills, or +sail for England, and the student goes back to his village. He has +acquired little or no knowledge of the English. He comes to England +feeling there is a gulf between the East and the West, save in the case +of a missionary interest in his soul. He is by nature extremely +sensitive. On board ship he and his brother Indians keep together. The +English passengers, fatigued after a period of hard work in a hot +climate, have no energy left for the effort of trying to draw out and +know this batch of silent Orientals. So the gulf gapes wide. If they +tarry in Marseilles or Paris there are those who are anxious and ready +to widen this gulf between the Indians and English. Then the student +arrives in London, where a man can be more lonely than anywhere in the +world. Here he has to find a dwelling. The man from a dreamy, lonely, +Eastern village, from the land of the sun has to select an abode in +London. Hotels and boarding houses and lodgings there are in abundance; +but the hotel or boarding house or lodging suitable to this man's +need--fitted to introduce him to English life, may exist, but how is he +to find it? He is not only bewildered, he is terribly home-sick. His +wish to come to England has been, gratified, but oh! for a sight of his +own people and, his simple home. He must drown this longing as best he +may. There are many ways of drowning it in London. There are many who +will assist him to forget what he had better never forget--his village +home. But after all there are some English people who will know him. He +has found lodgings, and the landlady and her family make themselves most +agreeable. He knows no other English people. He wants friendliness so +far away from home, so these and theirs become his friends. + +In London the majority of Indian students gain admission to the Inns of +Court. The new regulations, which come into force in January next, were +intended to render admission more difficult to attain; but they will +fail of their purpose, for success in the Oxford and Cambridge senior +local examinations is a qualification for admission, and these +examinations are held in various parts of India. Students will in future +avoid entering the Indian Universities, but will get private coaching, +and sit for these examinations in India, with a view to gaining +admission to one or other of the Inns. It never seems to have occurred +to the Honourable Societies of the Inns to take any steps to look after +the well-being of these numberless students, who bring hundreds of +pounds to their coffers every year. So different is their position from +that of the English student that their case merits special attention. To +look after them might be unusual, it would certainly be expedient. The +eating of a few dinners and attendance at certain lectures are no tax on +the student's time. He puts off real study to the last moment. It is so +easy to learn all the subjects just before each examination. With a few +exceptions the English and Indian students do not speak to each other. +So the Inns do not provide the Indian with society. A youth from the +East, dwelling in a London lodging, finding himself for the first time +in command of a banking account, with abundance of leisure, and no +English friends of his own standing--can he become a loyal, useful +citizen of our Empire? + +Some of them go to Oxford and Cambridge. They have heard in India, from +some Indians who were up at these Universities from ten to fifteen years +ago, how delightful the life is--how sociable the undergraduates, how +hospitable the dons. Surely then at these ancient seats of learning they +will find friendliness, and will come to know the English. They go up +only to find disappointment. The numbers have largely increased and all +sorts and conditions of men come. Colleges are reluctant to admit them. +The English undergraduate accepts any man who is good at games and ready +to enter into the University life, but leaves severely alone the man of +any nationality who has had no opportunity of learning English games, +and who is too shy and sensitive to show what he is worth. Those who are +good at games get on, the others are far from being happy. A few gain +admission to colleges, the rest are "unattached." Lodging-house +existence at Oxford or Cambridge is preferable to that in London; but it +does not assist to a knowledge of the English. Foreigners at the +Universities take the trouble to try and know the Indian, and extend to +him that friendship which the English undergraduate, through youthful +lack of thought, withholds. The Imperial instinct is lacking in the +youth of to-day; else would they realize that it is an important duty to +try and know fellow-subjects from a distant part of the Empire. There is +nothing that Orientals will not do to make the stranger to their country +feel at home. They cannot understand the reserved Occidental who leaves +the stranger to his Western country all alone. Some of the Indian +students think that the only way to bid for the English undergraduate's +acquaintance is by a lavish expenditure on wine parties; and so he +spends largely, and acquires an acquaintance, but not with the typical +Englishman. If Indian students at the old Universities are only to know +each other or foreigners, how are they to be bound by a loyal attachment +to England? At Edinburgh the gulf is wide indeed. A number of Colonial +students help to make it wider. The two sides seldom or never meet. +They just tolerate each other's presence. So the Indian student is +tempted to seek for company in circles which do not help his education +or tend to elevate him. Should such a state of things continue? + +Engineering and medical students are in better case than others. Their +work is so hard and exacting, if they do it aright, they have no time to +feel solitude. The one complaint of engineering students is that they +find it enormously difficult to gain opportunities for learning the +practical side of their work. Firms are most reluctant to admit them as +apprentices. France and Germany welcome them, and Continental firms +extend to them the aid the English firms deny. Is it always to be so? +Other nations gaining that esteem and gratitude which England should so +jealously acquire and guard. Americans, too, are winning the good will +of the Indian student both in India and abroad. They have well-equipped +schools and colleges all over India. They spare no efforts to make the +Indian student feel they are there solely for him. They are with him in +and out of school and college hours. They inspire him with their +enthusiasm. Wherever they meet him they give him a grip of the hand +which leaves him in no doubt as to their frank friendliness. Yet it is +not to America nor to any other nation that India belongs, but to +England. But there is no security in mere possession. The only safety +lies in the constant effort to hold--to hold pleasantly, gaining the +heart and head. + +Surely the fact that many influences are at work systematically striving +to estrange these students from England should rouse the English to +effort. It may not be an easy task to gain these men. It will need +patience and zeal. There must be no touch of patronage in the attempt. +Their deep-rooted belief that no real friendship can exist between the +English and the Indian has to be overcome; the much misrepresentation +which has made the Indian student misjudge the English character has to +be counteracted and set right. It must be remembered that he is a being +far away from home, excessively sensitive, situated in extremely unusual +surroundings and in most cases having lost that religious belief without +which no Oriental is really happy or able to live and be his best. He +is, in truth, not himself. Such is the student who is to be won to +attachment. The difficulty of the task should appeal to the English +nature. + +What is required is not a sudden and indiscriminate rush to seek out and +know the Indian student. That would not last and would lead to much +disappointment on both sides. The great need of the present is workers +who know both sides and who will judiciously draw them together. +Connecting links to bring the right Indians into touch with the right +English. They will need very special qualifications, these workers, if +they are to succeed. There is enough to be done to employ the full time +of exceptionally energetic men. Wonders could be worked if England only +realized her duty to these men. The Indian student would return to his +home at any rate with no feeling of bitterness. He would have his chance +of seeing the real English, and of being influenced aright. +Misconceptions would be banished. He would live in an atmosphere better +adapted to hard work. He would attain a higher standard in his studies +and examinations. He would be better fitted to be a useful citizen. +Friendliness would, at any rate, have blunted antagonistic tendencies. +And what a difference it would make to his people! The father who has +spent so much on him would no longer feel that his son has lost and not +gained by crossing the seas. The mother who, though behind the purdah, +has eagerly been watching his career, dwelling lovingly on the weekly +news, counting the days to his return, would no longer need to weep that +it is not well with her son, who has come back so different from all she +had hoped. Whole families would bless the England which had made their +member manly, upright, better for his sojourn there, fitted to earn a +living honourably, and possessed of grit to strive to do his best. And +he, the student, stirred, by memories of kindness in the West, would win +those with whom he comes in contact to a friendlier feeling for the +British race. The seditionist would find no soil here ready for his +seed. Could anything be better worth accomplishing? + + +NOTE 15 + +THE VICEROY'S EXECUTIVE COUNCIL. + + +A Mahomedan gentleman, Mr. Ali Imam, has been appointed to succeed Mr. +Sinha as Indian member of the Viceroy's Executive Council. He too is a +leading member of the Bengal Bar, and, like Mr. Sinha, will take charge +of the Legal Department. Though the selection of a Mahomedan in +succession to a Hindu cannot fail to gratify Indian Moslems, Mr. Ali +Imam's appointment should not be altogether unacceptable to the Hindus. +For when the details of the reforms' scheme were being worked out in +India, he adopted, on the subject of separate electorates for the +Mahomedan community, a line of his own which was applauded by the +Hindus, but was very much resented by the vast majority of his +co-religionists. The Government of India seemed inclined to favour his +proposals, and he proceeded to England to press them upon Lord Morley. +But the Secretary of State wisely decided that the pledges originally +given by Lord Minto to the Indian Mahomedans must be scrupulously and +fully redeemed, so as to secure to them substantial representation in +the new Councils. + + +NOTE 16 + +The first Indian Member of the Bengal Executive Council is expected to +be Mr. R.N. Mookerjee, a partner in the well-known Calcutta firm of +Messrs. Martin and Co., to whom I have referred (page 258) as "the one +brilliant exception" amongst Western-educated Bengalees, who has +achieved signal success in commerce and industry and has shown the +possibility and the advantages of intelligent and business-like +co-operation in those fields between Englishmen and Indians. + + +NOTE 17 + +THE WASTAGE IN INDIAN UNIVERSITIES. + +The most striking feature about the number of graduates at the Indian +Universities is not the magnitude of their total or any increase in it, +but the very high proportion of wastage. It takes 24,000 candidates at +Matriculation to secure 11,000 passes, it takes 7,000 candidates at the +Intermediate examination to secure 2,800 passes, and it takes 4,750 +candidates for the B.A. degree to secure 1,900 passes. + +There are 18,000 students at college in order to supply an annual output +of 1,935 graduates. This means that a very large number fall out by the +way without completing successfully their University career. The +phenomenon, peculiar to India, of candidates for employment urging as a +qualification that they have failed at a University examination (meaning +that they have passed the preceding examination and added thereto some +years of study for the next) is due to two causes, the large number of +students whom the University rejects at its examinations before it +grants the B.A. degree to the remainder, and the dearth of graduates. +_(Quinquennial Report on the Progress of Education in India for_ +1902-1907, by Mr. H.W. Orange, Director-General of Education.) + + + +NOTE 18 + +ENGLISH HISTORY IN INDIAN SCHOOLS. + + +At the opening of an Educational Conference held last April in Bombay +under the joint auspices of the Director of Public Instruction and of +the Teachers' Association, the Governor, Sir George Clarke, alluded to +some of the effects of Western education on the younger generation of +Indians:--"It is widely admitted by the thoughtful Indians that there +are signs of the weakening of parental influence, of the loss of +reverence for authority, of a decadence of manners and of growing moral +laxity. The restraining forces of ancient India have lost some of their +power; the restraining forces of the West are inoperative in India. +There has thus been a certain moral loss without any corresponding gain. +The educated European may throw off the sanctions of religion; but he +has to live in a social environment which has been built up on the basis +of Christian morality, and he cannot divest himself of the influences +which have formed his conscience. The educated or partially educated +Indian who has learned to look on life and the affairs of men from a +Western standpoint has no such environment and may find himself morally +rudderless on an ocean of doubt. The restraints of ancient philosophies, +which have unconsciously helped to shape the lives of millions in India +who had only the dimmest knowledge of them, have disappeared from his +mental horizon. There is nothing to take their place. Ancient customs, +some of them salutary and ennobling, have come to be regarded as +obsolete. No other customs of the better sort have come to take their +place, and blindly to copy the superficial customs of the West is to +ignore all that is best in western civilization." + +Commenting on his Excellency's speech, the Bombay _Examiner_, a weekly +paper very ably conducted in the interests of the Roman Catholic +missions, drew attention, in the following terms to some of the causes +of the mischief. + +(1) The study of English history in schools reveals a gradual transition +from an unlimited monarchy to a limited monarchy differing barely from a +republic, the gradual transfer of political power from kings and +aristocracy through the barons and then through the burghers and finally +to the whole people. In reality this process took almost a thousand +years, but in the schoolroom it is compressed into a term. The +gradualness of the process, the long preparation of each class of +citizens, the slow political education of the masses, all of which forms +a long historical perspective, is through the medium of the text-book +thrown upon, the screen at once as a flat picture. It may not occur +perhaps to the young mind to apply the precedent to his own country; but +as soon as he falls under the influence of the political agitator the +question, suggests itself: If the English people thus fought their way +to supremacy, why should not the Indian people do the same? Losing +sight of the perspective of history, it seems to him feasible that India +should achieve in one bound what it took nearly a thousand years for the +English people to bring about. + +(2) In studying political economy and social science he meets with such +principles as these--that the ruler is merely the delegate and +representative of the people, from whose will he derives all his power. +This power is to be exercised for the well-being of the people who have +conferred it, and according to their will in conferring it. The old idea +that all power, even that conferred through the people, is ultimately +derived from God and exercised in His Name, is of course never heard of. +The ruler is a public servant of the collective nation, and that is all. +To introduce this notion among a people whose idea of government has run +for thousands of years on the lines of absolute monarchy and hereditary +if not divine right is nothing short of revolutionary. All idea of the +sacredness of authority is at once gone. The Government is a thing to be +dictated to by the people, to be threatened and bullied and even +exterminated if it does not comply with the nation's wishes. Hence as +soon as the political agitator appears on the scene nothing seems more +plausible to the raw mind of the student than an endeavour to upset the +existing order of things. This cannot, of course, all be done at once; +but at least a beginning can be made. Let us agitate for the redress of +this or that grievance, for the increase of native appointments, and the +like; and if we do not at once get what we ask for, let us try what +bullying and intimidation can do--aspiring ultimately to substitute a +representative for a monarchical form of government, and having secured +this, wait the opportune moment for driving the foreigner into the sea. +Thus a change which, to be successful, would require the gradual +education of the people for generations, is to be forced on at once; and +"if constitutional means are not sufficient to achieve our ambition, why +not try what unconstitutional means will do?" + +NOTE 19 + +A SHAMELESS APPEAL. + +Perhaps the most audacious defence of the enlistment by Hindu +politicians of schoolboys and students in the service of a lawless +propaganda occurs in an article in the _Bengalee_ of August 2, 1906, +shamelessly appealing to the language of Christ. The _Bengalee_, which +is published in English, is Mr. Surendranath Banerjee's organ:-- + +"In all great movements boys and young men play a prominent part, the +divine message comes first to them; and they are persecuted and they +suffer for their faith. 'Suffer the little children to come unto Me,' +are the words of the divinely-inspired Founder of Christianity; and the +faith that is inseparable from childhood and youth is the faith which +has built up great creeds and has diffused them through the world. Our +boys and young men have been persecuted for their _Swadeshism_; and +their sufferings have made _Swadeshism_ strong and vigorous." + +_NOTE 20 (page_ 241). + +THE BRAHMANS AND WESTERN EDUCATION. + +The special caste grievances of Brahmans against Western education are +very frankly set forth in a speech on "The Duties of Brahmans," +delivered in Bombay at the beginning of this year to his fellow +caste-men by Rao Sahib Joshi, a distinguished and very enlightened, +member of the Yajurvidi Palshikar sept of Brahmans. Mr. Joshi, who laid +great stress upon the duty of loyalty to the British _Raj_, began by +recalling the patent conferred upon them by a British Governor of Bombay +at the beginning of the eighteenth century for the protection of their +privileges, especially in connexion with the teaching of medicine. But +their community had gradually lost ground from various causes, and +amongst those which he enumerated, he laid the chief stress upon the +diffusion of secular education. He fully recognized the benefits of +English education, but "all education being of a secular character, it +made the new generation a class of sceptics. People brought up with +English ideas, and in the atmosphere of secular education, now began to +pay less respect to their Gurus and hereditary priests. In former days +when the Guru or head priest came to one's house people used to say:--'I +bow down to the Guru; the Guru is Brahma, the Guru is Vishnu, the Guru +is Shiwa; verily the Guru is the Sublime Brahma!' This idea, this +respect the secular English education shattered to pieces, and so the +income and importance of the hereditary priests dwindled down." + + +NOTE 21 + +FEMALE EDUCATION. + +In his quinquennial review of the progress of education in India, Mr. +H.W. Orange quotes the following remarks by Mr. Sharp, Director of +Public Instruction in Eastern Bengal, on the position of female +education, adding that they describe the prevailing, if not quite +universal, state of affairs:-- + +"All efforts to promote female education have hitherto encountered +peculiar difficulties. These difficulties arise chiefly from the customs +of the people themselves. The material considerations, which have formed +a contributing factor in the spread of boys' schools, are inoperative in +the case of girls. The natural and laudable desire for education as an +end in itself, which is evinced by the upper and middle classes as +regards their sons, is no match for the conservative instincts of the +Mahomedans, the system of early marriage among the Hindus, and the rigid +seclusion of women which is a characteristic of both. These causes +prevent any but the most elementary education from being given to girls. +The lack of female teachers and the alleged unsuitability of the +curriculum, which is asserted to have been framed more with a view to +the requirements of boys than those of girls, form subsidiary reasons or +excuses against more rapid progress. To these difficulties may be added +the belief, perhaps more widely felt than expressed, that the general +education of women means a social revolution, the extent of which cannot +be foreseen. 'Indian gentlemen,' it has been well said, 'may thoroughly +allow that when the process has been completed, the nation will rise in +intelligence, in character and in all the graces of life. But they are +none the less apprehensive that while the process of education is going +on, while the lessons of emancipation are being learnt and stability has +not yet been reached, while, in short, society is slowly struggling to +adjust itself to the new conditions, the period of transition will be +marked by the loosening of social ties, the upheaval of customary ways, +and by prolonged and severe domestic embarrassment.' There is, it is +true, an advanced section of the community that is entirely out of +sympathy with this view. In abandoning child-marriage they have got rid +of the chief obstacle to female education; and it is among them, +consequently, that female education has made proportionately the +greatest progress in quantity and still more in quality. But outside +this small and well-marked class, the demand for female education is +much less active and spontaneous.... In fact the people at large +encourage or tolerate the education of their girls only up to an age and +up to a standard at which it can do little good, or, according to their +point of view, little harm." + + +NOTE 22 + +THE THEORY OF THE "DRAIN." + +The Master of Elibank, then Under-Secretary of State, included in his +Indian Budget speech on Aug. 5, 1909, a brief but effective refutation +of the "drain" theory:-- + +"If the House will allow me, I wish to digress for a moment to deal with +a charge that is constantly made, and has recently been repeated, to the +effect that there is poverty in India which is largely due to the +political and commercial drain on the country year by year, the +political, it is asserted, amounting to L30,000,000 and the commercial +to L40,000,000. These figures have been placed even higher by those who +wish to blacken the Indian Administration in order to bolster up a +malicious agitation against this country. I think it is incumbent upon +the representative of the Indian Government in this House to deal with +the statement. I may at once say that it has no foundation in fact. +(Hear, hear.) Its origin is to be found, no doubt, in the fact that +India makes annually considerable payments in England in return for +services rendered, such as the loan of British capital; but there is no +justification for describing these payments as a drain, and their amount +is only a fraction of the figures which I have just quoted. Let me deal +first with the question of amount. As the method by which India makes +her payments in England is that she exports more than she imports, all +calculations as to the amount of payments must necessarily be based on +the returns of Indian trade, which show by how much the Indian exports +exceed her imports. If the trade returns are examined for 1904, 1906, +and 1906, after making due allowance for the capital sent to India in +connexion with Government transactions, the average excess of exports +over imports, or in other words payments by India to England for +services rendered, is L23,900,000 per year during the three years that +have been mentioned. This payment is made up of, first, L21,200,000, +being the average annual amount of the Government remittance during +three years, which corresponds to the alleged political drain of +L30,000,000; and, secondly, L2,700,000, the average annual amount of +private remittances during the same period, which total has been most +carefully examined and corresponds to the alleged commercial drain of +L40,000,000. Now let us examine for a moment the nature of these two +remittances. The Government remittance is mainly for the payment of home +charges--namely, those charges in England which are normally met from +revenue. These charges, in the three years to which I have referred, +averaged L18,250,000, made up in the following manner:--Interest on +debt, L9,600,000; payments for stores, ordered and purchased in this +country, which cannot be manufactured in India, L2,500,000; pensions and +furlough pay to civil and military officers, L5,000,000; and +miscellaneous, L1,250,000. It will thus be seen that alter deducting +L5,000,000 for pensions and furlough pay, the bulk of the remittance +represents interest for railway developments and other matters with +which the interests of the peoples of India are intimately bound up. +Besides the home charges proper, certain sums were remitted to England +by the Government to defray capital charges. These bring the Government +remittances to the total of L21,200,000 already mentioned. Now let us +turn for a moment to the supposed commercial drain of L40,000,000 per +year, which, as I have endeavoured to show, is in reality L2,700,000, +being the difference during the period referred to between the private +remittances from India, representing private profits, savings, &c., sent +home to England, and the private remittances to India representing the +transmission of English capital to that country. We can therefore say +definitely that whatever India may have sent to England within the three +years, she received from England as capital a sum falling short of that +amount by L2,700,000 a year; and perhaps I might incidentally remind the +House that at the end of 1907 the capital outlay on railways alone in +India amounted to L265,000,000 sterling, the bulk of which is British +capital, but by no means represents the full amount of British capital +invested in India, which has taken its part in commercially developing +its resources and providing employment for the masses of people in that +great continent. Hon. members who have followed a recent discussion in +the pages of the _Economist_ as to whether L300,000,000 or L500,000,000 +was the amount of British capital invested in India for its commercial +and industrial development and for providing employment of the people in +that land, will agree that the sum could not be placed lower than +L350,000,000." + +NOTE 23 + + +THE SECRETARY OF STATE AND THE VICEROY. + +This issue was raised, for instance, during the Viceroyalty of Lord +Northbrook, when Lord Salisbury was Secretary of State, Mr. Bernard +Mallett's memoir of Lord Northbrook contains the following noteworthy +remarks upon the subject by Lord Cramer, who, as Major Baring, was +Private Secretary to Lord Northbrook:-- + +There can be no doubt that Lord Salisbury's idea was to conduct the +government of India to a very large extent by private correspondence +between the Secretary of State and the Viceroy. He was disposed to +neglect and, I also think, to underrate the value of the views of the +Anglo-Indian officials ... This idea inevitably tended to bring the +Viceroy into the same relation to the Secretary of State for India as +that in which an Ambassador or Minister at a foreign Court stands to the +Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs ... Lord Northbrook's general +view was the exact opposite of all this, and I am strongly convinced +that he was quite right ... He recognized the subordinate position of +the Viceroy, but he held that Parliament had conferred certain rights +not only on the Viceroy but on his Council which differentiated them in +a very notable degree from subordinate officials such as those in the +diplomatic service ... Lord Northbrook regarded the form of government +in India as a very wise combination which enabled both purely English +and Anglo-Indian experience to be brought to bear on the treatment of +Indian questions. He did not by any means always follow the Indian +official view; but he held strongly, in the first place, that to put +aside that view and not to accord to the two Councils in London and +Calcutta their full rights was unconstitutional in this sense that, +though the form might be preserved, the spirit of the Act of Parliament +regulating the government of India would be evaded. In the second place, +he held that for a Viceroy or a Secretary of State without Indian +experience to overrule those who possessed such experience was an +extremely unwise proceeding, and savoured of an undue exercise of that +autocratic power of which he himself was very unjustly accused. + + +NOTE 24 + +THE DIFFICULTIES OF LOYAL HINDUS. + +A Hindu gentleman who has taken a considerable part in the struggle +against Brahmanical disloyalty and intolerance in the Deccan has sent me +a copy of a letter addressed to the _Times of India_ in which he +explains the peculiar difficulties with which loyal Hindus find +themselves confronted:-- + +Englishmen hardly appreciate the true magnitude of the difficulties we +have to contend with in any attempt to expose sedition. All the social +forces that exist in Hindu society run counter to anti-Brahminical +movements. The influence which the Brahmins exercise on the popular mind +is still considerable. A man who is damned by the village-priest or the +Brahmin kulkarni is doomed for good. Loyalty has been rendered odious to +the ordinary mind by this as well as by many other influences. Loyalty +is flattery. This is a dictum now almost universally recognized in the +Deccan. A supporter of the Government is a "Johukum," a "hireling," or a +"traitor." The Press has of late become sufficiently powerful to make or +mar the reputation of a man so far as the native public is concerned. +Every advocate of Government measures--even of the best of them--is held +up to ridicule by the Press. This is immediately reflected in the most +exaggerated form in what we may call public opinion in the land. +Certainly very great courage is necessary in one who is called upon to +bear calumny such as this from his society and his castemen. But there +are other forces more threatening still. The rowdier section of the +people never fails to hoot the man out on every possible occasion and +even the women of his family may be subjected to indignities. The vakils +are a very powerful class in the Deccan. Many of them do not openly +dabble in politics; but you can hardly find many among them who do not +sympathize with extremist politics. The landholders, traders and +agriculturists in general are always in need of the services or, as they +think, of the favour of the legal profession whose prejudices will never +be wounded by the classes mentioned. The vakils, I may say, are to be +propitiated by every one who wishes to conduct any public movement. But +a loyal movement can never save itself from condemnation at the hands of +this powerful class. + +Although reluctantly, I must add that the lower services of the +Government are filled by men who passively help extremism. They form the +bulk of the total constituency of our public Press. That is a fact to +show their political inclinations. Even they do not hesitate to use +their little arts to worry a man known to be "anti-political" whenever +he happens to come in contact with them. An agriculturist friend of mine +who belonged to the caste to which I have the honour to belong once +came to me and asked me why I was taking a particular step connected +with the political movements in Kolhapur. The reason he gave for his +attempt to dissuade me from participation in any anti-Brahmanical +movement was that every Jain would be put to immense trouble in his +dealings with pleaders and clerks simply because another Jain (in this +instance myself) was against the leaders of their caste! Another class +which always forms a check on a pro-government man is composed of the +chiefs, sirdars, landholders, &c., who belong to the agitators' caste +and who certainly cherish admiration for the doings of the "patriots." +Many of us have to come in contact with some one or other belonging to +this class and if he be known to favour anything against the great +figures of the city-politics, his business is sure to be spoilt. + +This is in brief the doleful tale of the loyalist in the Deccan. I shall +briefly touch upon one or two things with reference to what will +strengthen the hands of the loyal citizen. The first thing is that the +Government should boldly come forward to help on the coming into +existence of a bigger class of educated men among the backward or lower +classes of the Deccan. The suspicion that they too will join hands with +the agitator must vanish once for all. The half-heartedness due to such +lurking suspicion gives a fine tool in the hands of Government's +enemies. The English people should realize the probable danger of this +and should use their vast resources to create a strong body of educated +men from the ranks of the loyal castes. H.H. the Maharaja of Kolhapur, +in his attempts to break down Brahmanical supremacy, found nothing so +useful as the bringing into being of such a class and for this he is +doing the best he can. Unless this example is followed by the +Government, there is no hope of a strong loyal party coming forth to +combat the evil work done by Extremists. The strengthening of the loyal +Press such as it exists and adding to it is another measure the +Government might wisely adopt. + + +NOTE 25 + +HINDU THEORIES OF GOVERNMENT. + +Englishmen are apt to ignore the hold which ancient Hindu traditions +concerning the rights and duties of kingship and the old Hindu theories +of government derived from the sacred books of Hinduism still have on +the Indian mind. They have been recently reviewed in an article +contributed to _The Times_ from a very scholarly pen. + +The ancient Hindu theory of government is fully disclosed in the +_Mahabharata_, the most majestic work ever produced by the human +intellect, a work, too, which is to-day as popular with Indians as when +40 centuries ago it was chanted to instruct the youth and beguile the +tedium of the princes of Hastinapura. Unlike all systems of government +known to the West, the Hindu system contains no popular element +whatever. In it we find no Witanagemote in which the nobles may advise +the monarch; still less has it any place for a _comitia centuriata_, +with its stormy masses of spearmen, to scrutinize and control the +encroachments of the Royal prerogative. In the kingdoms described In the +_Mahabharata_ the inhabitants are rigidly divided into four wholly +distinct and separate classes (_Udhyog Parva_, p. 67, Roy's +translation). First come the Brahmans whose duty it is to study, to +teach, to minister at sacrifices--receiving in return gifts from, +"known" or, as we should say, respectable persons. Then follow the +_Kshattriyas_ or the warrior class, whose whole life has to be spent in +fighting and in warlike exercises. Thirdly come the _Vaisyas_ who +acquire merit by accumulating wealth through commerce, cattle-breeding, +and agriculture. Fourthly, we have the _Sudras_, or serfs, who are bound +to obey the other three classes, but who are forbidden to study their +scriptures or partake in their sacrifices. + +High over all classes is the King. He is the living symbol of strength +and power. He is "the tiger among men," the "bull of the Bharata race," +and his form and features bear the visible impress of the Most High. The +whole arduous business of government rests on his shoulders. He cannot +appeal to his subjects to help him in carrying out good administration +nor can he leave his duties to others. For to beseech and to renounce +are both against the laws of his order (_Vana Parva_, p. 457). At the +utmost he can employ counsellors to advise him, but their numbers must +never exceed eight (_Canti Parva_, p. 275). In any case they only tender +advice when asked (_Udhyog Parva_, p. 100), and the full responsibility +of all acts rests on the King only. It is he who must keep up the +arsenals, the depots, the camps, the stables for the cavalry, the lines +for the elephants, and replenish the military storehouses with bows and +arrows. It is he who must maintain in efficient repair his six different +kinds of citadels--his water citadels, his earth citadels, his hill +citadels, his human citadels, his forest citadels, and his mud citadels +(_Canti Parva_, p. 277). It is he who must see that the capital has +abundant provisions, impassable trenches, impenetrable walls; that it +teems with elephants, cavalry horses, and war chariots. He must maintain +an efficient staff of spies to ascertain the strength of neighbouring +monarchs and do his utmost to cause dissension among their servants +(_Canti Parva_, p. 224). The War Office and the Foreign Office are alike +under his immediate headship. It is for him to conclude treaties, to +lead to battle his armies, and during peace to keep them prepared for +war (_Canti Parva_, p. 228). But the duty which comes before all others +is to protect his subjects. That, indeed, is imposed on him as a +religious duty. "For having protected his Kingdom a King becomes +sanctified and finally sports in Heaven" (_Canti Parva_, p. 68). +"Whether he does or does not do any other religious acts, if only he +protects his subjects he is thought to accomplish all religion." +(ibid., p. 193). + +In return for the proper discharge of his innumerable tasks, he is +regarded by his subjects as the incarnation of Indra. He is entitled to +a sixth share of the gross revenue of the country. Fearful penalties +attach to the infringement of his rights. "That man who even thinks of +doing an injury to the King meets with grief here and Hell hereafter" +(_Canti Parva_, p. 221). "He will be destroyed like a deer that has +taken poison." On the other hand, should the King fail to meet his +obligations--and above all, if he does not protect his subjects--he +offends grievously, "These persons should be avoided like a leaky boat +on the sea, a preceptor who does not speak, a priest who has not studied +the Scriptures, a King who does not grant protection" (_Canti Parva_, p. +176). "A King who does not protect his kingdom takes upon himself a +quarter of its sins" (_Drona Parva_, p. 625). In the last resort his +subjects will be freed from their allegiance. "If a powerful King +approaches kingdoms torn by anarchy from desire of annexing them to his +dominions the people should go forward and receive the invader with +respect." + +In a similar manner the entire civil administration must be conducted +by the King. He must see to it that wide roads, shops, and water +conduits are constructed. He must look after the streets and by-paths. +He must treat all classes impartially, and, above all, scrutinize +carefully the work of the Courts of Justice. "The penal code properly +applied by the ruler maketh the warders [i.e., Judges] adhere to their +respective duties, and leadeth to an acquisition by the ruler himself of +virtue." (_Udhyog Parva,_ p. 383). But although the subjects have the +right to expect justice they cannot expect kindness or even easy +condescension. "The heart of a King is as hard as thunder" _(Canti +Parva,_ p. 57). "Knowledge makes a man proud, but the King makes him +humble" _(Canti Parva,_ p. 223). "When the King rules with a complete +and strict reliance on the science of chastisements, the foremost of +ages called the Kirta is said to set in" (ibid., p. 228). "The King +must be skilful in smiting" (ibid., p. 174). "Fierceness and ambition +are the qualities of the King" (ibid., p. 59). "The King who is mild +is regarded as the worst of his kind, like an elephant that is reft of +fierceness" (ibid., p. 171). Indeed, failure to treat subjects with +rigour is visited with penalties as tremendous as failure to protect +them. "They forget their own position and most truly transcend it. They +disclose the secret counsels of their master; without the least anxiety +they set at nought the King's commands. They wish to sport with the King +as with a bird on a string" (ibid., p. 172). And in the end they +destroy him. "The King should always be heedful of his subjects as also +of his foes. If he becomes heedless they fall on him like vultures upon +carrion" (_Canti Parva,_ p. 289). + +Here we have commended as a pattern of administration a despotism such +as the West has never experienced. It is inquisitorial, +severe--sometimes, perhaps, wantonly cruel. But from the fearful +pitfalls that encompass weakness it is certain to be sleeplessly +vigilant and in the highest degree virile, forceful, and efficient. Now +it will be asked what bearing the doctrines of a work four thousand +years old have on the problems of the present day. But it must be +remembered, as that eminent scholar, the late Mr. Jackson, the victim of +the abominable Nasik outrage, pointed out, that Hindu civilization and +Hindu thought are at bottom the same now as in the days of Yudhisthira. + +The _Mahabharata_ is the constant companion from youth to age of every +educated Indian. Its tales have provided matter for the poetry, the +drama, and the folk-songs of all ages and of all languages. No Hindu +will live in a house facing south, as it is there that lives Yama, the +god of death. No Hindu will go to sleep without murmuring _Takshaka_ as +a preventive against snake-bite. For Takshaka rescued the snakes from +the vengeance of Janamajaya, the great-grandson of the _Mahabharata_ +hero Arjuna. The independent Indian Princes conduct their administration +exactly on the lines indicated in the _Mahabharata_, and even States as +enlightened as Baroda and Kolhapur still adhere to the Council of eight +Ministers recommended in that immortal work. Indeed, its teachings +really explain the puzzle of Indian loyalty to the British Government. +According to Western ideas, no amount of _pax Britannica_ would +compensate the conquered for foreign rule. The Poles still sigh for the +bad old days of independence and misrule, and are in no way comforted by +the efficiency of German administration. But the Indian's allegiance to +his native kings was, as the _Mahabharata_, lays down, released by their +weakness, and he readily transferred his loyalty to those who, although +foreign, had yet shown that they could govern vigorously. + + + + +INDEX + + Acts of Parliament: + Age of Consent Act (1891),42, 75. + Charter Act (1833), 307, 308, 310. + Explosive Substances Act (1908), 98. + Government of India Act (1858), 307, 310. + Indian Councils Act (1909), 10, 100, 120, 162-175. + Indian Newspapers (Incitement + to Offences) Act, (1908), 96, 98. + Press Act (1910), 15, 98-99,335-337. + Punjab Land Alienation Act (1900), 156. + Summary Justice Act (1908), 98. + Universities Act (1904), 78,2, 229. + + Administration of British India, + comparison of the total + number of Englishmen and + Indians employed in, 293. + + Aga Khan, 132, 133. + + Age of Consent Act, 1891,42, 75. + + Agriculture, the greatest of + all Indian industries, 259; + need for practical education in, 262. + + Ahmad, Sir Syed, 122, 131. + + Aitchison, Sir Charles, 213. + + Ajit Singh, proceedings against, 112. + + _Akash_, newspaper, Delhi, 21. + + Ali, Mr. Ameer, 132. + + All-India Moslem League, 131,132, 281. + + All-India Temperance Conference, 200. + + America, Indian revolutionary + organizations in, 146, 147. + + Anglo-Russian Agreement, 319. + + "Animists," 177. + + Anti Cow-killing Society, founded by Tilak in 1893, 43. + + _Anusilan Samiti_ Society, 99. + + Army, Indian, position of Indians in, 328. + + Arya Samaj, 27; founded by Swami Dayanand, 109; work + of, 110-112; seditious activity of its members, 112-114; + its scheme for restoring the Vedic system of education, 114; + Sir Louis Dane on, 115; + a powerful proselytizing agency, 116; + propaganda in the Native Army, 117; + hostile to Islam as to British rule, 117. + + _Asiatic Quarterly Review_ cited, 265. + + Atkinson, Mr. (Madras), on _ryotwari_ landlords, 260. + + Ayerst, Lieut., murder of, 48. + + Baig, Mr. M.A. Ali, 171. + + Baker, Sir Edward, 272. + + _Bande Mataram_, newspaper, 78, 149, 150, 151. + + Banerjee, Mr. Surendranath, 30, 50, 52, 79, 83, 84, 88, + 01, 224, 274, 341, 353. + + Banks, co-operative, 261-262. + + Bannerjee, Mr. W.C., President of the first Indian + National Congress, 75. + + Bar, Native, disaffection in, 100. + + Baroda, Gaekwar of, on the elevation of the depressed + castes, 181-183; + on the unrest, 193. + + Baroda, State of, 186, 187 + + _Bedari_, newspaper, Lahore, 19. + + Bekanir, State of, 190. + + Belapur Swami Club, 69. + + Bengal, before the Partition, 72-80; + compared with the Deccan, 72-73; + education in, 77, 214; + Brahmanism in, 74, 102; + the storm in, 81-105; + outrages in, 96; + deportation of nine prominent agitators, 99; + disaffection in the native Bar, 100; + comparison of the number of Hindus and Mahommedans + in Government employ, 125; + Sir Lancelot Hare on the lawlessness in, 342-345. + + Bengal, Partition of, agitation against, 50; + the signal rather than the cause of agitation, 81. + + Bengal Iron and Steel Company, 268. + + _Bengalee_, newspaper, 79, 101, 168, 353. + + Besant, Mrs. Annie, influence of, 28-29. + + _Bhagvat Gita_, 30, 79, 90, 201. + + Bhandarkar, Dr., 42. + + Bhopal, State of, 187. + + Bijapurkar, Mr., 71. + + Bilgrami, Mr. Husain, 171. + + Bir, disturbances at, 69. + + Birdwood, Sir George, 263. + + Biswas, Mr. Ashutosh, murder of, 97. + + Blavatsky, Mme., 28. + + Bobbili, Rajah of, 171. + + Bombay, comparison of the number of Hindus and Mahommedans + in Government employ, 125. + + Bombay Technical Institute, 264. + + Bose, Mr. Bhupendranath, 163, 165, 168. + + Bose, Khudiram, murderer of Mrs. and Miss Kennedy, 96, + 97, 147, 340, 341. + + Brahmanism, the system and its influences, 32-33; + the stronghold of reaction, 36; + most militant in the Deccan, 37; + part played in the unrest in the Deccan, 37-63; + in Bengal, 74, 102; + in the Punjab, 109; + in Southern India, 140-141; + one of the two forces which aspire to + substitute themselves for British rule, 324. + + Brahmans, number in India, 33; + number holding higher Government appointments in + Bombay Presidency, 39; + their grievances against Western education, 353-354. + + Brahmo Samaj, 25, 27, 75. + + Brodrick, Mr. (now Viscount Midleton), 86. + + Buck, Sir Edward, 263. + + Budget, Indian, and the new Councils, 174. + + Burdwan, Maharajah of, 162. + + Butler, Mr. Harcourt, first Minister of Education, 233, + 237, 264. + + Calcutta Presidency College, comparison of the + number of English and Indian professors, 214. + + _Calcutta Review_, 78. + + Capital, British, invested in India, 264. + + Carey, Rev. Eustace, 24, 73, 209. + + Cawnpore, proposal to establish a Technological College at, + 267. + + Central Hindu College, Benares, 28. + + Central Provinces, comparison of the number of Hindus and + Mahommedans in Government employ, 125. + + Chailley, J., _Administrative Problems of British India_, 107-108. + + Chakilians, 177. + + Chamars, 177. + + Chandavarkar, Mr. Justice (Sir N.G.), 42, 340. + + Chapekur, Damodhar, murderer of Rand and Ayerst, 48. + + Charter Act of 1833, 307, 308, 310. + + Chatterjee, Mr. A.C., 285, 260. + + Chatterton, Mr. Alfred, Director of Industries, Madras, 266. + + Chaubal, Mr. M.B., 171. + + Chitnavis, Mr., 275, 276. + + Chitpavans, most powerful and most able of the Brahmans, 37-38. + + Christian Endeavour Convention, 200. + + Civil Service, Indian, 290-301. + + Clark, Mr., Minister for Commerce and Industry, 298, 317. + + Clarke, Sir George S., 56, 57, 232, 352. + + Clubs, Anglo-Indian, exclusion of Indians from, 290. + + Cochin, State of, 186-187. + + Colvin, Sir Auckland, 263. + + Commerce and Industry, Portfolio of, 263. + + Cost of living, increase during last decade, 2; + effect on teaching profession, 224. + + Cotton, duties on, 277. + + Cotton, Sir Henry, 156. + + Council of India, 171, 317. + + Craddock, Mr. B.H., 136. + + Creagh, Sir O'Moore, 167. + + Credit societies, 261-262. + + Cromer, Lord (then Major Baring), on the relations between + the Secretary of State and the Viceroy, 356-357. + + Crown, influence of the, 331. + + Curzon, Lord, 126, 229, 231, 266, 286, 295, 303; + his Universities Bill (1904), 78; + effect of his fall on the anti-Partition campaign, 86; + on ignorance in India, 247; + on primary education, 248; + on the excess of imports over exports, 255; + on co-operative banks and credit societies, 261; + on technical education, 263; + creation of a separate portfolio of Commerce and Industry, 263; + on the ill-treatment of Indians in South Africa, 283; + tributes to his attitude on the question of the _status_ + of Indians in the Empire, 285; + controversy with Lord Kitchener, 311; + creation of Imperial Cadet Corps, 329. + + DACCA COLLEGE, 231. + + Dacca Conspiracy Trial, 341. + + _Dacca Gazette_, 18. + + Dadabhoy, Mr., 283. + + Dairies, State, in Northern India, 266. + + Dane, Sir Louis, 115. + + Das, Pulin Bahari, 99. + + Davar, Mr. Justice, 22, 55. + + David, Sir Sassoon, 163. + + Dayanand, Swami, founder of the Arya Samaj, 27, 109, 110. + + Deccan, unrest in, 37-63; compared with Bengal, 72-73. + + Deportation, of nine prominent Bengalee agitators (1908), 99; + of two agitators from the Punjab (1907), 107. + + Depressed castes, 167-134. + + Dewas, Rajah of, on the unrest, 192, 194-195. + + _Dharma_, newspaper, Calcutta, 18. + + Dhingra, murderer of Sir W. Curzon Wyllie, 21, 148. + + "Drain," the, 255, 355-356. + + Duff, Dr. Alexander, 24, 75, 209. + + Dufferin, Lord, 213. + + Durga, worship of, 18, 102. + + Dutt, Mr. Bhupendranath, 91. + + Economic Department, creation of (1886), 263. + + Economic progress of India, 254-270. + + Education:-- + _General_.--Deficiencies of the system, 2; + effect on the Bengalees, 77; + most difficult and most urgent problem in India, 207; + four important features of the system, 208; + system displays its gravest shortcomings in Bengal, 214; + greater elasticity wanted, 236; + grievances of Brahmans against Western education, 353-354. + + _History of System_: Macaulay's Minute (1835), 208-210; + Lord Hardinge's Educational Order (1844), 209; + influence of Dr. Alexander Duff, 209; + Sir Charles Wood's Educational Dispatch (1854),209-210; + Education Commission (1882-1883), 212; + Public Service Commission (1886-87), 212; + Sir Antony MacDonnell's resolution (1889), 229; + Government Resolution (March 11, 1904), 229, 263; + Conference presided over by Lord Curzon, 229-230. + + _Primary_, 246-253; number of scholars in Government + schools (1854), 210; Mr. + Gokhale's resolution for free and compulsory education, 247; + Educational Dispatch (1854), 248; + Education Commission(1882-83), 248; + Government Resolution (1904), 248; + present situation, 249; + cost of making primary education free, 249; + difficulty of finding teachers, 250; + Mr. Orange on the aims to be kept in view, 251-252. + + _Higher_: Universities Bill (1904), 78, 82, 229; + Europeans on staff of secondary schools and colleges, 215; + the Indian student, 216-221; + Dr. Garfield Williams on the Indian student, 217-219; + provision of hostels for students, 231; + question of raising fees charged for higher education, 234; + wastage in Indian Universities, 351-352. + + _Female_, 252-253; + views of Mr. Sharp, 354-355. + + _Scientific and Technical_: need of encouragement, 235; + technical education, 263-267; + proposal to establish a Technological College at Cawnpore, 267. + + _Religious_, 238-245; + the Maharajah of Jaipur on the need of religious education, 242. + + _Service_: total number of Europeans in, 221; + effect of rise in the cost of living on the teaching profession, 224; + deficiencies of the native teaching staff, 226; + pay of teachers, 226-227; + effect of Public Service Commission (1886-87) on the native side of + the service, 227; + need of more and better training colleges for teachers, 232; + teachers must be brought into touch with parents, 235-236. + + _"National" Schools, 241-242. + + _Vedic System_, 114-115. + + Education, Minister of (Mr. Harcourt Butler), 233, 237, 264. + + Elibank, Master of, on the "drain" theory, 355-356. + + Empire, _status_ of Indians in the, 284. + + Engineering Colleges, 263. + + _Evil of Continence, The_, translated into the vernacular, 28. + + _Examiner_, newspaper, Bombay, 352-353. + + Executive Councils, reforms in, 171. + + Explosive Substances Act (1908), 98. + + Famines, 3; reduction of famine areas, 260. + + Ferris, Col., conspiracy to murder (1908), 70. + + Financial and fiscal relations between India and Great + Britain, 271-279. + + Fraser, Sir Andrew, 88, 97. + + _Free Hindustan_, newspaper, Seattle, 147. + + Fuller, Sir Bampfylde, 87, 88, 255. + + Ganesh, celebrations in honour of, 30, 44. + + Ganpati celebrations, in honour of Ganesh, 30, 44. + + _Gazette of India_, 169. + + Ghose, Mr. Arabindo, 50, 52, 78, 79, 89, 90, 98, 337. + + Ghose, Mr. Barendra Kumar, 90, 91, 98. + + Ghose, Dr. Rash Behari, 75, 160. + + Ghosh, Mr. Surat Kumar, 3. + + Gladstone, Mr., attitude towards Mahommedanism, 126. + + Gokhale, Mr. G.K., 42, 53,159, 163, 165, 169, 181, + 202-206, 247, 252, 265, 280, 284, 294. + + Gosain, Norendranath, murder of, 97, 146. + + Government of India, 306-318; + respective powers of the Secretary of State and + Viceroy, 306-310; + Government of India Act (1858), 307, 310; + Charter Act (1833), 307, 308; + Sir Courtenay Ilbert's summary of the powers of the Secretary + of State, 307-308; + "Governor-General in Council," 308; + "Secretary of State in Council," 309; + ultimate responsibility with the people of + the United Kingdom represented by Parliament, 309; + John Stuart Mill on the function of the Home Government, 310; + twofold danger in any eclipse of the Governor-General + in Council, 313-314; + Council of India, 317; + need for decentralization in India, 318. + + _Government of India, The_, by Sir C. Ilbert, 307-308. + + _Gujarat_, newspaper, 17. + + Guntur, riots in, 144. + + Gupta, Birendranath, murderer of Mr. Shams-ul-Alam, 101. + + Gupta, Mr. K.G., 171. + + _Gurukuls_, in the Punjab, 114-115. + + Gwalior, Maharajah of, on the unrest, 192. + + Gwalior, State of, 186, 187, 190. + + Hardie, Mr. Keir, 20, 255. + + Hardinge, Lord, Educational Order (1844), 209. + + Hardinge, Lord (present Viceroy), 299, 319, 320, 321. + + Hare, Sir Lancelot, on the lawlessness in Bengal, 342-345. + + Hewett, Sir John, 136, 263, 267. + + _Hind Swarajya_, newspaper, 16. + + Hinduism, loftiness of its philosophic conceptions, 26; + Western allies of, 28; + theory of government, 358-360. + + Hindu revival, the, 24-36; + as consistently anti-Mahommedan as anti-British, 120-121, 133-134; + leaders allied with Radical politicians, 126-127. + + Hindus, most dangerous forms of unrest confined to, 5; + number holding Government appointments, 39, 125, 346-347; + difficulties of loyal Hindus, 357-358; + their antagonism to Mahommedans, 120-121, 133-134; + this antagonism not the creation or the result of British rule, + 124-125. + + Hindu women, influence of, 103-104. + + Hindu Punjab Conference, 200. + + Hindu Tract Society of Madras, campaign against missionaries, 28. + + _Hitabadi_, newspaper, 340. + + _Hitaishi_, newspaper, Barisal, 18. + + Hunter, Sir William, 212. + + Hyderabad, State of, 186-187. + + Ilbert, Sir Courtenay, _The Government of India_, 306. + + Imam, Mr. Ali, appointed member of Viceroy's Council, 351. + + Imperial Advisory Council, proposal to establish, 185. + + Imperial Cadet Corps, created by Lord Curzon, 329. + + Imperial Council, first session of, 162; drawbacks to, 166-167; + reporting of debates, 163-169; + can exercise no directly controlling power over Executive, 173; + Mr. Gokhale's resolution in regard to elementary education, 247; + resolution in regard to the ill-treatment of Indians in South Africa, + 280. + + India, financial and fiscal relations with Great Britain, 271; + relations with the rest of the Empire, 280. + + _India_, newspaper, 126, 347. + + _India and the Empire_, by Mr. M. de P. Webb, 278. + + "India House," Highgate, 60, 148. + + Indians, British, treatment of in South Africa, 3, 166; + _status_ of in the Empire, 287; + question urgently calls for settlement, 287. + + Indian Councils, duties of Anglo-Indian officials in, 164. + + Indian Councils Act (1909), 10, 100, 120, 162-175. + + Indian Institute of Science, 264. + + Indian newspapers (Incitement to Offences) Act (1908), 96. + + "Indian Red Flag" organization, 147. + + _Indian Sociologist_, newspaper, 112, 149. + + Indo-American Association, 147. + + Indore, State of, 187. + + Industrial Conference, 200, 267. + + Iron and steel industry in India, 268. + + Irrigation, 260. + + Iyangar, Mr. Srinivasaraghava, 142. + + Iyengar, Mr. Rangaswami, 174-175. + + Jackson, Mr., murder of, 30, 40, 48, 57-59, 67, 150. + + Jaipur, Maharajah of, on the unrest, 192; + on the need for religious education, 242, 244. + + Jaipur, State of, 187, 190. + + Japan, attitude towards Indian agitators, 148. + + _Jhang Sial_, newspaper, 21. + + Joshi, Mr. B.N., 65. + + Joshi, Rao Sahib, 354. + + Jubbulpore Engineering College, 263. + + _Justice_, newspaper, 347-348. + + _Kal_, newspaper, Poona, 17, 22, 52, 148. + + Kali, worship of, 18, 27, 102; + sacrifice of "white goats" to, 103, 345-346. + + Kanhere, Ananta Luxman, murderer of Mr. Jackson, 58, 62, 103. + + Kapurthala, State of, 188. + + _Karnatak Vaibhav_, newspaper, 22. + + Kashmir, State of, 186. + + Kayasthas, 102. + + Kelkar, Mr., on the staff of the _Kesari_, 49. + + Kennedy, Mrs. and Miss, murder of, 55, 96, 147. + + _Kesari_, newspaper, 22, 42, 48, 49, 52, 382, 337, 339. + + Khadilkar, Mr., on the staff of the _Kesari_, 49, 337. + + Khataiyas, 102. + + _Khulnavasi_, newspaper, 19. + + _Killing of Kichaka, The_, play by Mr. Khadilkar, 337-339. + + Kingsford, Mr., magistrate at Muzafferpur, 96. + + Kitchener, Lord, 273, 311. + + Kolhapur, State of, 64, 69, 186, 190. + + Kolhapur, Maharajah of, 64, 65, 66. + + Kolhapur Shivaji Club, suppressed, 69. + + Krishnavarma, Shyamji, 60, 112, 114, 149, 152. + + Kshatrya Conference, 200. + + Lahore, disturbances at (1907), 107. + + Lal, Mr. Roshan, President of the Lahore branch of the + Arya Samaj, 111-112. + + Lalcaca, Dr., murder of, 148. + + Lansdowne, Lord, 158, 172, 229. + + Legislative Councils, reforms in, 172. + + Literacy, in Southern India, 143; + in India generally, 246; + amongst Indian women, 252. + + Lyon, Mr. P.C., 165, 168. + + Lytton, Lord, 293. + + MacDonnell, Sir Antony, 261, 263. + + Mackarness, Mr., 156, 299. + + Madigas, 177. + + Madras, Bishop of, 180. + + Madras Engineering College, 263. + + _Mahabharata_, 358-360. + + Mahmudabad, Rajah of, 163. + + Mahommedan College, Aligarh, 233, 244. + + Mahommedans, not implicated in the unrest, 5; + Number holding Government appointments, 39, 125, 346-347; + everything to gain from the Partition of Bengal, 85; + difficult position of, 118-135; Hindu antagonism to, 120-121, 133-134; + representation in the Indian Councils, 127-128; + desire separate electorates, 128; + number in India, 130. + + Malaria Conference, (1909), 20. + + Malavya, Pandit Mohan, 160, 163. + + Maniktolla bomb outrage, 90, 98. + + Manu, Code of, 33. + + _Manumakkathayam_ system, in Southern India, 140-141. + + Mazhar-ul-Haq, Mr., 165. + + Mazzini, _Autobiography_ translated by Vinayak Savarkar, 146; + _Life of_, by Lajpat Rai, 146. + + Mehta, Sir Pherozeshah, 51. + + Military charges, on the Government of India, 273-274. + + Minto, Lord, 1, 90, 99, 163, 167,169, 170, 172, 138, 197, 248, 266, 306, + 311, 313, 314, 315, 329; + attempted assassination of, 62; + relations with Lord Morley, 311-312. + + _Mlenccha_, term applied by Hindus equally to Europeans and Mahommedans, + 44. + + Mohsin-ul-Mulk, Nawab, 132. + + Moneylenders, influence of, 107, 108, 261. + + Montagu, Mr. E.S., Under-Secretary of State for India, 299, 306-311, 313. + + Mookerjee, Dr. Ashutosh, 75, 214, 223, 230, 239, 245. + + Mookerjee, Mr. E.N., 351. + + Morley, Lord, 1, 15, 86, 128, 154, 172, 173, 175, 233, 271, 306, 311, + 313, 314, 316, 317, 321, 332; + constitutional reforms, 170-175; + relations with Lord Minto, 311-312; + retirement of, 333-334. + + Moslem Educational Congress, 200. + + Muchis, 177. + + Mudholkar, Mr., 267, 285. + + _Mukti con pathe_ ("Which way does salvation lie?"), reprinted from the + _Yugantar_, 95. + + Mullick, Dr., on the Indian student, 218-219. + + Mysore, State of, 143, 186. + + Nabha, State of, 186. + + Namasudras, Brahman agitation among, 102; rise of, 183. + + Naoroji, Mr. Dadabhai, 10, 51, 155. + + Nasik, murder of Mr. Jackson at, 57; a great stronghold + of Hinduism, 60. + + Natal, Indian indentured labour for, 280. + + National Congress, Indian, 154-161; + ideas of founders, 25; + subsidies to supporters in England, 347; + meetings of: Poona (1895), 159; + Benares (1905), 50, 51, 159; + Calcutta (1906), 50, 51, 159, 202; + Surat (1907), 52, 159; + Madras (1908), 160; + Lahore (1909), 160, 163, 281. + + "National" schools, 241-242. + + National Social Conference, Indian, 200. + + Native Princes, on the unrest, 190-196; + influence of, 329-330. + + Native States, 185-197; + total population of, 185; + proposal to establish an Imperial Advisory Council, 185; + no voice in questions of tariff, &c., 189; + Lord Minto on our policy towards, 188; + their action in regard to the unrest, 190. + + Natu, the brothers, allied with Tilak, 42. + + _Navasakti_, newspaper, 91. + + _New India_, newspaper, 78. + + Nicholson, Sir Frederick, 261. + + Nizam, of Hyderabad, 186-187; + on the unrest, 191-192, 194, 196. + + Northbrook, Lord, 356-357. + + Nulkar, Mr. A.K., 42. + + Official relations between Englishmen and Indians, 290-301. + + Olcott, Col., 28. + + Opium policy, 189, 272. + + Orange, Mr. H.W., 226, 251, 352, 354. + + Oxford Mission, Calcutta, 216. + + Pal, Mr. Bepin Chandra, 9, 10-14, 50, 51, 78, 89, 143-144, 160, 295. + + Palshikar, Mr., 59. + + Panchamas, 177-184, 180-181. + + Parciyas, 177. + + Parmanand, Bhai, 112. + + Parsee Conference, 200. + + Parsees, number holding higher Government appointments in + Bombay Presidency, 39. + + Patiala, Kur Sahib of, 162. + + Patiala, State of, 113, 186, 190. + + "Permanent Settlement" in Bengal, 260, 291. + + Poona College of Science, 263. + + Prarthana Samaj, 25, 27. + + _Prem_, newspaper, Firozpur, 20. + + Press, Indian, 325, 335-337. + _Akash_ (Delhi), 21. + _Bande Mataram_, 78, 149, 150, 151. + _Bedari_ (Lahore), 19. + _Bengalee_, 79, 101, 168, 353. + _Calcutta Review_, 78. + _Dacca Gazette_, 18. + _Dharma_ (Calcutta), 18. + _Examiner_ (Bombay), 352-353. + _Free Hindustan_ (Seattle), 147. + _Gazette of India_, 169. + _Gujarat_, 17. + _Hind Swarajya_, 16. + _Hitabadi_, 340. + _Hitaishi_ (Barisal), 18. + _India_, 126, 347. + _Indian Sociologist_, 112, 149. + _Jhang Sial_, 21. + _Justice_, 347-348. + _Kal_ (Poona), 17, 22, 52, 148. + _Karnatak Vaibhav_, 22. + _Kesari_, 22, 42, 48, 49, 52, 332, 337, 339. + _Khulnavasi_, 19. + _Navasakti_, 91. + _New India_, 78. + _Prem_ (Firozpur), 20. + _Rashtramat_ (Poona), 52, 57. + _Sahaik_ (Lahore), 20. + _Sandhya_, 91, 340. + _Shakti_, 17. + _Swarajiya_, 113. + _Talvar_, 149. + _Vartabaha_ (Ranjpur), 21. + _Vishvavritta_, 71. + _Yugantar_ (Calcutta), 16, 91-96, 98, 113, 295, 340. + + Press Act (1908), 96, 98. + + Press Act (1910), 15, 98-99; + Sir H. Risley's speech on its introduction, 335-337. + + _Press, History of the Indian_, by Sir. G.C. Sanial., 78. + + _Prince of Destiny, The_, by Mr. S.K. Ghosh, 3. + + Protection, Indian desire for, 274. + + Public Service Commission (1886-1887), 212, 227. + + Public Instruction, Department of, 209. + + Public Works Department, 289. + + Punjab, 106; + deportation of two prominent agitators (1907), 107; + Brahmanism in, 109; + _gurukuls_ in, 114-115; + free from outrages and dacoities, 116. + + Punjab Land Alienation Act (1900), 156. + + Raffeisen System, the, 261. + + Rai, Mr. Lala Lajput, 110, 112, 146, 275. + + Raj, Mr. Lala Dev, 201. + + Rajput Conference, 200. + + Ranade, Mahadev Govind, 36, 40, 41, 201, 257. + + Rand, Mr., murder of, 48. + + _Rashtramat_, newspaper, Poona, 52, 57. + + Ratlam, Rajah of, on the unrest, 193. + + Rawal Pindi, disturbances at (1907), 107, 112. + + Religion, the basic element of Indian life, 239-240. + + Ripon, Lord, 126, 212. + + Risley, Sir H., on the language of Bengal, 73; + on the demoralization of the Native Press, 335-337. + + Roy, Ram Mohun, 25, 75, 201. + + Rurki Engineering College, 263. + + Sabnis, Rao Bahadur, 65, 68. + + _Sahaik_, newspaper, Lahore, 20. + + Salisbury, Lord, 356. + + _Samitis_, or "national volunteers," 84. + + _Sandhya_, newspaper, 91, 340. + + Sanial, Mr. G.C., _History of the Indian Press_, 78. + + Sanyasis, 103. + + _Satyarath Prakash_, by Swami Dayanand, 109. + + Savarkar, Vinayak, 60, 146, 148, 140. + + _Science Progress_, 266. + + Secretary of State for India, powers of, 306-310; + position in regard to Viceroy, 356-357. + + Sen, Keshub Chunder, 25, 201. + + "Servants of India" society, 202-206, 294. + + Shakti worship, 18, 29, 83-84, 93. + + _Shakti_, newspaper, 17. + + Shains-ul-Alam, Mr., murder of, 97, 101, 341-342. + + Shams-ul-Huda, Maulvi Syed, 165. + + Sharp, Mr., on female education, 354-355. + + Shivaji-Maharaj, cult of, 27, 45, 84, 339-340. + + Sibpur Engineering College, 263. + + Sikh Educational Conference, 200. + + Sikhs, loyalty of, 107. + + Sinha, Mr. S.P., 128, 171. + + Social reform in India, 198-206. + + Social relations between Englishmen and Indians, 3, 288-305. + + South Africa, ill-treatment of British Indians in, 3, 281-282. + + Southern India, position in, 137-144. + + Strachey, Mr. Justice. 22. + + Student, the Indian, 216-228. + + Sudras, 178. + + Summary Justice Act (1908), 98. + + _Swadeshi_, 11, 30, 31, 83, 254-270, 275. + + _Swaraj_, 9, 10-14, 31, 254. + + _Swarajiya_, newspaper, 113. + + Tagore, Dr., 25, 36 + + Tai Maharaj case, 49, 340. + + _Talvar_, newspaper, 149. + + Tata, Mr. Jamsetjee N., 264, 277. + + Tata, Messrs., and the iron and steel industry. 268. + + Telang, Mr. K.T., 156. + + Telugu Mission, work among the Namasudras 180-181. + + Thackersey, Sir Vithalda, 271-273. + + Theosophists, influence on Hindu revival, 28. + + Tilak, Bal Gangadhar, a Chitpavan Brahman, 40; + the father of Indian unrest, 41; + initial campaign in the Deccan, 41-48; + compelled to sever his connexion with the Poona Educational Society, + 42; + denounces the Age of Consent Bill, 42; + forms the Anti Cow-killing Society, 43; + organizes Ganpati celebrations, 44; + becomes master of the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha, 44; + revives the memory of Shivaji, 45-46; + returned as member of the Bombay Legislative Councils 47; + "no-rent" campaign, 47; + imprisoned (1897), 48; + the Tai Maharaj case, 49, 340; + begins second campaign in the Deccan, 49; + associates himself with the Indian National Congress, 50; + one of the first champions of _Swadeshi_, 50; + starts movement for the creation of "national" schools, 52; + influence on the cotton operatives in Bombay, 53; + twofold appeal to Hindus, 54; + arrested (1908), 55; + riots in Bombay following his sentence, 50; + his conviction a heavy blow to the forces of unrest, 57; + the _Kesari_ and the _Kal_ on his sentence, 22; + his connexion with the Indian National Congress, 159-160. + + Tilang, Mr. Justice., 42. + + Tinnevelly, riots in, 144. + + Tiwana, Malik Umar Hyat Khan of, 163. + + Travancore, State of, 186-187. + + Tuticorin, riots in, 144. + + Udaipur, Maharana of, on the unrest, 192. + + Udaipur, State of, 186-187. + + United Provinces, comparison of the number of Hindus and + Mahommedans in Government employ, 125. + + Universities, Indian, wastage in, 351-352. + + Universities Act (1904), 78, 82, 229. + + _Vartabaha_, newspaper, Ranjpur, 21. + + _Veda Bashya Basmika_, by Swami Dayanand, 109. + + Vedic system of education, 114-115. + + Viceroy of India, powers of, 306-310; + position in regard to the Secretary of State, 356-357. + + _Vishvavritta_, newspaper. 71. + + Vivekananda, Swaini, 29, 91. + + _War of Indian Independence of 1857_, by Savarkar, 149. + + Watt, Sir George, 263. + + Webb, Mr. M. de P., 278. + + Wedderburn, Sir William, 261. + + Whitehead, Dr., Bishop of Madras, 180. + + Williams, Dr. Garfield, on the Indian Student, 317-219. + + Wilson, Sir Fleetwood, 275. + + Wood, Sir Charles, Educational Dispatch (1854), 209. + + Wyllie, Sir W. Curzon, murder of, 21, 148-149. + + Young India Association, 147. + + _Yugantar_, newspaper, Calcutta, 16, 91-96, 98, 113, 295, 340. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Indian Unrest, by Valentine Chirol + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INDIAN UNREST *** + +***** This file should be named 16444.txt or 16444.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/4/4/16444/ + +Produced by Million Book Project, Juliet Sutherland, Graeme +Mackreth and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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