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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/39874-8.txt b/39874-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6f6f0d7 --- /dev/null +++ b/39874-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1510 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of An Open Letter to the Right Honorable David +Lloyd George, by Lajpat Rai + +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/license + + +Title: An Open Letter to the Right Honorable David Lloyd George + Prime Minister of Great Britain + +Author: Lajpat Rai + +Release Date: June 1, 2012 [EBook #39874] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN OPEN LETTER TO THE RIGHT *** + + + + +Produced by spend, Ernest Schaal, and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + + + _OTHER BOOKS BY LAJPAT RAI_ + + YOUNG INDIA + + _An Interpretation and a History of the + Nationalist Movement from Within_ + + Price $1.50 net + + + ENGLAND'S DEBT TO INDIA + + _A Historical Narrative of Britain's + Fiscal Policy in India_ + + Price $2.00 net + + + THE ARYA SAMAJ + + _An Account of its Origins, + Doctrines and Activities_ + + Price $1.75 net + + + OBTAINABLE FROM ALL BOOKSELLERS + + + + + AN OPEN LETTER + + TO + + THE RIGHT HONORABLE + DAVID LLOYD GEORGE + PRIME MINISTER OF GREAT BRITAIN + + + BY + LAJPAT RAI + + [Illustration] + + + NEW YORK + B. W. HUEBSCH + MCMXVII + + + + + Copyright, 1917, by Lajpat Rai + Printed in the United States of America + + + + + AN OPEN LETTER + TO + THE RIGHT HONORABLE + DAVID LLOYD GEORGE + _Prime Minister of Great Britain_ + + + + + AN OPEN LETTER + TO + THE RIGHT HONORABLE + DAVID LLOYD GEORGE + _Prime Minister of Great Britain_ + + +Sir: I am an Indian who has, by the fear of your Government in India +been forced to seek refuge in the United States, at least for the period +of the war. In 1907, when Lord Minto's Government decided to put into +operation an obsolete Regulation of the East India Company (III of 1818) +against me, in order to put me out of the way, for a while, without even +the form of a trial, Lord Morley, the then Secretary of State for India, +defending his action, gave me the highest testimonial as far as my +private character was concerned. You must have heard that speech though +it would be presumptuous to imagine that you remember it. + + + MY CREDENTIALS + +Even my worst enemies have not been able to point out anything in my +life which would give any one even the shadow of a reason to say that, +in my private life, I have not been as good and honorable a person as +any British politician or diplomat or proconsul, is or has been or can +be. My record as a wage-earner is as clean and as honorable as that of +the best of Britishers engaged in governing India. + +Mr. H. W. Nevinson, than whom a more truthful and honorable publicist is +not known in British life, has said in his work, "The New Spirit in +India," that once when he told a high Anglo-Indian official that I was a +good man held in great esteem by my countrymen, the latter remarked, +that because I had a high character in private life, I was the more +dangerous as an agitator. + +I am reciting all this as evidence of my credentials to speak on +behalf of my countrymen. Just now I am a mere exile. For the present, +I cannot think of returning to India, unless in course of time I begin +to feel that by running the risk of being hanged or imprisoned, I +should be doing a greater service to my country, than by remaining +outside. I am now in the fifty-third year of my life, out of which +more than thirty-four were spent in the limelight of public gaze. I am a +man of family with children and grandchildren and have had my share, +however small, of the good things of the world. Political freedom for +India has been a passion to me ever since I was a boy. However hard the +life of an exile or a convict may be, I am prepared to risk everything +in the cause of my country. + +In the language of that prince of political exiles, Joseph Mazzini, the +word "exile," is perhaps the most cursed in the dictionary of man. It +dries up the springs of affection; it deprives its victims of the sweet +babblings and lispings of his little ones with whom every man of age +loves to beguile the evening of his days; it closes the avenues of all +comfort that are associated with that sweet word home; it shuts the +doors of heaven and makes life a continued agony, hanging on the slender +thread of such pity and hospitality as one may receive from the generous +and kind-hearted foreigner. + + + INDIA COMPARED WITH GREAT BRITAIN + +How can I ask you who have perhaps never left your country except for +some pleasant trips on the Continent, to put yourself in my position, if +possible, for a moment only, and imagine how I long to kiss the soil, +with which are mixed the bones of my mother and other forbears; how I +miss the loving embrace of my beloved father, the sweet, expectant, +imploring eyes of my widowed daughter, the devoted look of my wife and +the kindly affectionate hand-shake of good and devoted friends. Nor can +you realize how an Indian loves his country. How can you, of dark, +sombre, fog ridden and misty climes, who are born of a chill atmosphere, +of treacherously changing weather, who count hours of sunshine and +months of darkness and fog and rain and snow and sleet, enter into the +feelings of one whose country is a perpetual sunshine, and where +universal light reigns--a country where weather is neither treacherous +nor continually and rapidly changing, where beautiful dawns, starry +nights, moonlit fields, resplendent waters, snow-clad hills and joyous +rivers constantly and unremittingly fill one's mind with the sublimity, +grandeur and beauty of nature; where one needs no stimulants to make him +feel lighter and happier. An Indian needs no alcohol to forget his +troubles. He has only to go to the Himalaya, or to the banks of Ganga, +Brahmputra, Sindh or their numerous tributaries by which the land is +blessed and fertilized. Oh, no! It is impossible for you to understand +how passionately an Indian loves his country. He would rather starve in +India than be a ruler of men in a foreign climate. For him, India is the +land of Gods--the _Deva Bhúmí_ of his forefathers. It is the land of +knowledge, of faith, of beatitude--the _Gnan Bhúmí_, the _Dharma Bhúmí_ +and the _Punni-Bhúmí_ of the ancient Aryas. It is the land of the Vedas +and of the heroes--the _Veda Bhúmí_ and the _Vir Bhúmí_ of his +ancestors. Yes, to him, it is the land of lands, the only place where he +wishes to live, and more so, where he wishes to die. For a Hindu to die +anywhere but in India, is as if he had been damned to hell. He shudders +at the idea. To him, it is unthinkable. You may call it foolish, +unpractical, sentimental and unprogressive; but there it is--a mighty +fact of life into which no foreigner can penetrate. + +Every Englishman loves his country, its darkness, its fog, its sleet and +rain nothwithstanding. Who does not love his country and who does not +say: + + Home, kindred, friends and country--these + Are ties with which we never part; + From clime to clime, o'er land and seas, + We bear them in our heart; + But, oh! 'tis hard to feel resigned, + When they must all be left behind! + + --J. MONTGOMERY. + +If then, an Indian decides to be an exile, voluntarily and maybe for +life, he only does so either under a grave sense of duty or of danger. +The duty lies in speaking _the truth_ about political conditions in +India and the danger in being effectively prevented from doing so if he +remains there. No Indian can speak the _whole truth_ while in India. The +criminal laws of your Government--your Penal and Criminal Codes, +Seditious Meetings and Conspiracy Acts, and Press Laws, your tribunals +presided over by your own people unaided by jurors--effectively gag his +mouth. + +All honor to those who, though they cannot speak the whole truth, yet +keep the fire burning in India and do as much as considerations of +policy and expediency permit. If they do not speak the _whole truth_, +they have at least the consolation of being at home, in the heart of +their family and surrounded by their dear ones. For a political exile, +however, there is nothing else to do, unless he has to carry on a fight +for his living also, in which case he will divide his time between the +two, that of earning bread and crying for justice for his country. +Happily I have been comparatively free from much anxiety about the +first. The only justification for my condition of exile, then, is that I +continue to speak the truth about conditions in India and draw the +attention of the world to them. + +But an additional reason has just been furnished to me by the morning +papers of March 15, 1917. It is said that your agents in India have +decided to raise a war loan of $500,000,000, equivalent to 1,500,000,000 +Rupees of Indian money, and also, to make the floating of the loan easy, +your Government has agreed to increase the duty on cotton imports by 4% +_ad valorem_. This war loan, it is added, would be a "_free gift_" of +India to Great Britain! A free gift of $500,000,000 by starving, +poverty-stricken India, to rich, wealthy, mighty Great Britain! Could +anything be more astounding, more absurd and more tyrannical. The news +has stunned me. I know that David Lloyd George, the British war-lord of +1917, is not the same person who was the radical Chancellor of Exchequer +in the Liberal Government from 1908 to 1914, and who did magnificent +service to the British workingman by reducing his burdens and +alleviating his condition. I have been told that the said David Lloyd +George is dead and you, sir, are an entirely different person. The Lloyd +George of 1914 could not possibly have done the thing which you, sir, in +alliance with Curzons and Milners have just accomplished. The newspapers +say you are the same person; only you have changed. If so, the change is +not of opinion but of personality. Evidently the soul of the original +David Lloyd George has left the body to make room for an altogether +different soul. We Indians believe in the possibility of such a +metamorphosis taking place even in the lifetime of the same body! The +best part of the joke, however, in connection with the £100,000,000 +transaction lies in the fact that you call it _a gift by India_--_a gift +indeed_. A gift like those given by Belgium to Germany. Is it not so, +Mr. George? You are a shrewd person, very well educated, clever in +diplomacy, well versed in tricks of speech and a master in statecraft; +but even you ought to know that this trick will not deceive any one--not +even the Indians who have been so often deceived by your predecessors in +business. By way of adding insult to injury, you profess to do "_an act +of justice_" to India by consenting to an increase of 4% on the duty +leviable on imports of cotton goods. You say it is necessary for the +success of the war loan of $500,000,000; but do you think that the +Indians are so devoid of knowledge of the ordinary rules of arithmetic +as not to understand what this "hitting below the belt" means to them? +Your additional duty would but bring only $5,000,000 or $6,000,000 to +the Indian exchequer, if the imports of cotton do not undergo a +decrease. Your Government in India estimates it at £1,000,000 sterling. +The interest at 5-1/2% amounts to $27,500,000. Your Government in India +estimates an annual charge of £6,000,000 sterling. Where is the balance +to come from except from the famished Indian _ryot_? Is that how you +show your love for democracy, for the people at large, for the +workingman? Your representatives in India and outside, are proclaiming +to the world that India is the most lightly taxed country in the world, +withholding the fact that the average income of an Indian is only £2 a +year, of which he pays 7 shillings toward taxes. That was before the new +taxes were imposed. + +Your publicists circulate another lie, viz., that India pays no tribute, +while they know that from 20 to 40 millions sterling are remitted to +England every year, out of which only a portion represents interest on +loans made to India for the building of railways which your countrymen +have used in developing their trade, and the remainder is the profit you +make out of India. Then you cite the figures of trade in support of your +theory that India is prosperous under British rule, but you forget that +that trade benefits your country more than it benefits India, if at all. +We send you food and raw materials at cheapest prices, making ourselves +liable to "famines." You pay us in articles of luxury, of flimsy value, +at the highest prices. The balance of trade is always in your favor. We +toil and sweat, and your countrymen enjoy the profit. All the paying +industries, railways, tea, jute, half of the cotton industry, etc., are +in the hands of your countrymen. Theirs are the insurance companies, +banks, railways and ships that profit by their trade. The railway rates +discriminate against native industries and internal trade. Your +countrymen get the plum-pudding, while our people cannot have even two +meals of the coarsest food every day. When there is famine, millions +die. Of late, your "scientific" methods of famine relief have succeeded +in controlling mortality figures in famine days. The method by which you +do this is genuinely scientific. Most of the deaths are charged to +epidemics and disease; no one notices, however, that the havoc caused by +disease is due to lack of nourishment and consequent low vitality. +God-fearing Englishmen have cried themselves hoarse over the situation. +The misery of the Indian masses has been pictured by their powerful pens +in pathetic and soul-stirring words, but you and your colleagues still +continue to ignore what they have said. New methods are every day being +invented to exploit us. New departments with fat salaries for Englishmen +are being multiplied. The public debt is being piled up. While hundreds +of millions are spent on railways, nothing has been done to develop +local industries. The country is suffering from lack of capital (cash +and credit). (See Sir D. M. Hamilton's article in the _Calcutta Review_ +for July, 1916.) Every honest inquirer who makes inquiries on the spot +and does not depend on the reports of your officials, finds and reports +that the condition of the masses is the most pitiable (see the article +by Mr. Manohar Lal in the _Allahabad Economic Journal_ for April, 1916, +and also the paper by Mr. Patro, of Madras, read in a meeting presided +over by the Governor of Madras). For the latest British testimony on the +point, see an article on Indian Industrial Development by Mr. Moreland, +C.S.I., C.I.E., in the _Quarterly Review_ for April, 1917, in the course +of which he remarks: "It is a matter of common knowledge that the +standard of life in India is undesirably low; that while the masses of +the people are provided with the bare necessities of life of a bare +existence [Are they?--L. R.] they are in far too many cases badly housed +and badly clothed, badly doctored and badly taught, often overworked and +often underfed; and that the present income, even if it were equitably +distributed, would not suffice to provide the population with even the +most indispensable elements of a reasonable life." + +A careful study of the Reports on Prices and Wages discloses that the +real living wage in the case of the vast bulk of agricultural laborers +has considerably diminished, and this in spite of the absurd conclusion +of the Prices Commission appointed by your Government a few years ago. +No one knows better than you, Mr. David Lloyd George, that big buildings +in cities, mostly owned by foreign capitalists exploiting the country; +big trade carried on by foreign exporters and importers; railway mileage +and receipts of Government revenue do not mean prosperity. Even the +importation of treasure secured by capitalists in payment for exports +does not indicate better conditions of the masses. If the masses are so +prosperous, as your officers say, why cannot you tax the people for +purposes of education and sanitation? Why is the death rate so high +(over 30 per thousand)? Why can't you force the local bodies to spend +money on education and sanitation? Why do your finance ministers say +that there is no room for further taxes? Most of your agents in India +know the real condition of the people but they have to conceal it from +the British public as well as the world, as that enables them and their +kin to continue in the enjoyment of that power which means so much to +them. + +In reply, you might well ask, why then is India loyal? Why do the people +put up with all this? Why don't they rebel? Because they have been +emasculated, and emasculated so completely, that they are absolutely +helpless against your organized brigandage. They are weak, ignorant and +incompetent. Sixty-four years ago they were not so helpless. But now +they are completely demoralized and penniless. Your system has ground +them into dust. They cannot even protect themselves from wild beasts. +You have completely disarmed them. No Indian can possess a firearm +except under a license from your magistrates, which is only rarely +granted. You have completely hypnotized them by your professions of +disinterested liberalism and altruism. The truth has, after all, dawned +on them that you are the worst harpies they ever have had and if they +could they would overthrow you without a scruple. You know that you are +safe in their helplessness. When the war came they deluded themselves +with the hope that in your hour of need you might accord them a better +treatment, but by this time they have found their mistake and have +concluded that, just as a lion may die of sheer exhaustion when attacked +by an enemy rather than willingly loosen his grip on his prey so long as +there is breath in his body, so a nation holding another in subjection +might endanger her own existence without loosening her grip on her +victim. + +When the war broke out in August, 1914, I, with other Indian publicists, +thought that however badly you had treated us in the past we had nothing +to gain by German victory and the best thing, under the circumstances, +was for us to stand by you and establish our claim to better treatment. +The Princes and people of India therefore stood by you. You and your +colleagues have been singing their praises and extolling their loyalty, +but nothing has been done so far to give them even the elementary +political rights of a free people. Verily, we have had a deluge of fine +words but not an iota of deeds. On the other hand, you have imposed +fresh burdens on us. While doing an "act of justice" about the cotton +duties you have committed a wrong which wipes away the little good that +might otherwise have been expected to accrue therefrom. Your courts and +officers in India have taken away what little freedom the people enjoyed +before. In cases of alleged sedition the sentences inflicted have been +quite on a par with the doings of the Romanoffs in Russia. This time +even women have felt your steel. + +You knew as well as anyone else does, how the German government has been +trying to win the good will of the Indians. It cannot be denied that the +temptation was alluring. If, then, we have withstood it, it was not +because we were in love with your Government in India, but on different +grounds. Personally, I do not believe that any liberty is worth having +which we cannot win ourselves, because liberty won by the aid of another +places us at the mercy of that other. European diplomacy is so crooked +that it is futile to place faith in the promises of any of them. + +I would esteem German friendship as much as British or American or that +of the Japanese or the Chinese; I would gratefully accept any help +anybody would render in educating and fitting our young men for the +coming task, but I would not do anything that would cause useless +bloodshed in India. I am not afraid of blood. Blood will have to be shed +if we are to gain our freedom. I am not afraid of failures and defeats. +Failures and defeats are sometimes the necessary steps to victory. I do +not believe in peace at any price; nor pacificism at any cost. I do not +believe that "they also serve who only stand and wait." I am for a manly +assertion of our rights, even though blood may have to be spilled in +asserting or defending them; yet I would consider it highly improper to +encourage bloodshed where there is not a ghost of a chance of success. +That, in my eyes, is sheer lunacy and I have never made a secret of it. +So I protested against my people attempting to stir up revolt in India, +under the instigation of a foreign government. It was due to my horror +of useless bloodshed. I have no doubt that _agents provocateur_ played +an important part in instigating those whom your courts have found +guilty and sent to the gallows. I believe that the men who have been +sacrificed should have lived and worked for the movement for which they +have died. So that, in a nutshell, gives you my attitude towards foreign +help. Remember, please, sir, that I do not presume to pronounce any +judgment on those who think differently and have acted in the light of +their consciences. I simply state my opinion and my attitude. + +This time the movement has failed. It was bound to fail. But the +experience which the Indians engaged in the cause have gained is not +lost. Next time, and who knows, the chance may come at no distant date, +they will profit by the experience thus gained. The world is not in love +with you, sir. There are a dozen peoples in the world who will be glad +to see your downfall and help in bringing it about. They will not +support the Indian Nationalist and the Indian Revolutionist openly, but +they will encourage him in every way they can, without bringing about +diplomatic complications. So the Indian will not be altogether +friendless when the next opportunity to strike comes. By that time the +country also will be better prepared to do something more definite and +more spectacular. + +Under the circumstances, the question that I wish to put to you is: +"Would you do nothing to avert it?" It is in your power to act if you +will. The Indians are very easily satisfied. They abhor bloodshed. They +do not like revolution. They will gladly remain in the Empire, if +permitted to do so on terms of self-respect and honor. Their needs are +few. Their life is simple. They care more for spiritual values than for +worldly goods. They envy nobody's property. They have no ambition to +start on a career of exploitation. All they want is to be let to live +and think as they will. At present they are let _to exist_, but not to +live. More than 100 million are insufficiently fed. At least 60 millions +do not get two meals a day. More than 80% of the boys receive no +schooling, and more than 90% of the girls. They work and toil and sweat +primarily in the interests of the British capitalist and secondarily in +the interests of his Indian colleague. The latter only gets the leavings +of the former. The ships, the railways, the leading banking houses, the +big insurance offices, the tea plantations, one-half of the cotton +mills, about all the woollen mills, most of the paper mills, all jute +mills are owned by the former; a few by the latter. The profits of +agriculture are divided between your Government and the big landlords. +The pressure on land has reduced the size of the ryots' holdings, while +the number of mouths requiring food and the number of bodies requiring +clothing has increased. + +Your Government encourages drinking, speculating and gambling in a way +never before conceived. If you have any pity in your heart, sir; if you +are a good father and a good husband, I would beseech you to devote but +an hour's time to the wages tables printed by your Government in their +Report on Prices and Wages (1915). I give a few samples below: + +In the district of Patna (Behar), the monthly wage of an able-bodied +agricultural laborer in the year 1907 was only R5.62 (say R6) equal to +8s. or $2. In 1873 it was from R3 to R4. Imagine the laborer having a +family of four and then conceive how he manages to live on this wage. In +Fyzabad (Oude) the monthly wage of an able-bodied agricultural laborer +was only R4 (5s. 4d. or $1.33) in 1905, the same as it was in 1873. In +1906 it is given as ranging from R1.87 to R4 a month. From 1873 to 1906 +it was never more than R4 a month. + +In Cawnpore (U. P.) it was R3.75 in 1873; R3 in 1892; less than 4 in +1896; from 3.44 to R5 in 1898 and from R3.69 to 7 in 1903; at which +figure it practically stayed up to 1906, the last year for which figures +are given in the report. + +In Meerut (U. P.) it was R4.33 in 1906 as against R4.5 in 1873. + +In Belgaun (Madras) it was R6.25 in 1912. + +In Jubbulpore (C. P.) it was R5 in 1908. + +In Raipur (C. P.) it was R5 in 1908. + +In Bellary (Madras) it was R4.75 in 1907. + +In Salem (Madras) it has never exceeded R3.67 since 1873. + +The Government postal runners who carry mails at a trotting pace for +several miles a day, often making two trips in 24 hours, are paid the +following salaries in the different provinces of your Indian Empire: + + Bengal 1913, R7.75 a month, $2.58 + Behar and Orissa " 6.33 " 2.10 + United Provinces " 6.25 " 2.08 + Panjab and N.W.F " 7.75 " 2.58 + Bombay " 7.5 " 2.35 + Central Provinces " 7. " 2.33 + Madras " 7.11 " 2.40 + (The equivalents in dollars are approximate.) + +Postmen who are supposed to be literate, received from R10 to R16 a +month (_i. e._, from $3.33 to $5.33 a month) in the different provinces +in 1913. + +The scale of wages allowed to unskilled labor in the railway yards of +Mirzapore and Cawnpore (U. P.) is given between R5 to R6 per month +(_i. e._, less than $2.00). These are figures of 1914. + +In the canal foundry and workshop at Roorkee (U. P.) the daily wage in +1916 was only 4 annas a day (_i. e._, 8 cents). + +In the Cawnpore saddlery establishment, the bullock drivers, the +sweepers and the _Bhishties_ received only R5 and R6 a month (_i. e._, +less than 8s. or $2.00); the lascars from R6 to R7 (_i. e._, $2.00 to +$2.33). + +In the woolen mills in Northern India unskilled labor was paid at R8.12 +(_i. e._, less than $3.00) a month in 1914. These are the rates allowed +in big cities. For other big cities the rates may, in some cases, be +somewhat better, but in small rural towns and villages, they are +considerably less. + +Does the Indian laborer, considering his standard of life, the size of +his family and the requirements of decency, get a living wage? I am sure +that a humane inquirer, not so much interested in the good name of the +Government as in truth, will have no hesitation in answering the +question in the negative. Any increase in wages has to be divided over +the average strength of a family, which will show how disproportionate +the increase in wages is to the increase in prices. In a family of five +with one or two earning hands the increase in wages is two-fold at the +most. While the increase in the cost of living by the increase in prices +is five-fold. Your Official Report writers always ignore this important +consideration. As for the housing conditions in which Indian workmen +live, let me present to you the following testimony from a recent issue +of the _Times of India_, Bombay (quoted in the London _Times_, June, +1917): + + "It is no unusual sight to find fifteen or twenty persons, of + both sexes, lying huddled on the floor of a single room in a + stifling atmosphere and a vile stench. A single small window or + an open door gives the only ventilation. Furniture there is + none, beyond a few brass pots and some pegs. The sanitary + arrangements are unspeakable. Every noise and smell that occurs + in the neighborhood penetrates the crazy walls and floor and + disturbs the sleepers. The chawls are often so rickety that it + is a miracle that they do not collapse under their own weight. + They seem to be kept up like a house of cards, by the support of + their scarcely less rickety neighbors." + +As for the Indian laborer getting any education or any leisure for art +or for the pursuit of taste, that is out of the question. The condition +of the small farmer or _ryot_ is even worse. Sir, if you are ever +inclined to study the actual conditions of life in India, do not rely +upon the "conclusions" of your officers as embodied in reports. Study +the facts, given in the reports, but disregard the conclusions. If you +seek the aid of an Indian Nationalist he may show you how the reports +are drawn up, and how dates and figures have been selected to suit +conclusions. Having been a lawyer most of your life you are well aware +of the magical properties of special pleading. In the hands of a +skillful apologist, the figures can be made to mean anything. Better +still, if you want to have a glimpse of conditions of life in India, +depute an honest man of the type of Mr. Nevinson to go to Indian +villages unaccompanied by officials, and see the things for himself; or +to the slums in towns. The slums of Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, Lahore, +Delhi, Cawnpore, Lucknow, Benares, will throw the slums of London and +New York far back into the shade. The latter are verily a paradise as +compared with the former. As to the villages, the less said the better. + +The point is in fact conceded by all fair-minded English publicists. + +The _Manchester Guardian_, only the other day, discussing the recent +increase in the cotton duties, questioned "the wisdom and justice" of +this £100,000,000 exaction from India and admitted that "the loss it +represents to an extremely poor population like that of India is very +much greater than the gain to England." Even the _Morning Post_, that +representative of Jingo Imperialism, recognizes the extreme poverty of +the masses of India. I will not quote the _Nation_ as you do not like +that journal. The moneyed classes of India, the Rajas and Maharajas, the +bankers and mill owners, the industrial corporations that will fill this +loan could not find a more profitable investment. They get 100 per cent. +stock for 95 and besides get from 5 to 5-1/2 per cent. interest, in some +cases free of income tax for thirty years to come. Upon whom will the +burden of interest fall? Neither on the lender nor on the borrower, but +mainly on the ryot and the laborer. Do you know, sir, that the average +price of salt (wholesale) in Lahore, Punjab, had risen from R1-9-7 a +maund in 1912-13 to R2-7-3 in 1916-17? But that in retail sale "the +average price of salt per maund (82 lbs.) had risen from R1-14-0 to +R5-0-0" (_Tribune_, Lahore, March, 1917). The fresh taxation imposed +since the war, which by this loan-cum-gift transaction of 100 million +sterling threatens to become permanent, has raised the prices of the +necessaries of life to an abnormal extent. The wages remain virtually +the same. Your Government which employs large numbers of laboring men in +railways, canals, and otherwise have not considered it necessary to +raise the wages of the workingmen. Will the private employer do +otherwise? I know from personal knowledge how frightfully the poor +Indian clerk is sweated in the offices of your Government in India on a +mere pittance. Can't you feel for the millions of those little ones +whose already scanty, insufficient food is still further reduced by the +fresh taxes imposed by your Government to find means to pay the war +budget and this permanent addition of £6,000,000 a year to their burden? +Don't you know, sir, that in India there are millions of widows (much +more than in any other country) who have to support their little ones by +their own toil and that every penny of additional taxation hits them +hard. The hardships and privations imposed in Europe by the war are +nothing as compared with what the Indian masses have been putting up +with, for the last fifty years or so. The fiscal policy of your +Government has ruined Indian industry. You know it as well as anyone +else. Did you notice the letter of Mr. G. W. Forrest in the London +_Times_ of March 14, 1917, wherein he admitted that "the tale of +England's dealing with Indian industry was one of littleness and +injustice," and that "by positive prohibition and heavy duties the +Indian textile trade in England was destroyed and our own trade was +fostered." You and your colleagues have used grandiloquent rhetoric in +your defense of the increase in the cotton duties in India and over your +concern for India and Indian industries, but you are mistaken if you +think that anyone in India is likely to be taken in by your hypocritical +professions. Pardon me, sir, I mean no insult when I say "hypocritical +professions." The practice is a part of a modern statesman's job. He has +to create a certain atmosphere before he can make his people believe +that what he does is the only correct thing to do. + +Your cotton duties, sir, afford no relief to the Indian poor. It would +not have hurt me much, if you had forced or induced the Rajas and the +Maharajas, the bankers and the capitalists to contribute even more than +100 million pounds to the war expenses, as it is they who have grown +fat, if anyone in India has, under the British regime, but to force the +Indian ryot and the Indian wage earner to do it and to continue to pay +for it for years to come out of his scanty daily rations is the climax +of cruelty. Then the unkindest cut of all is that it should come from +you, whom we had associated with feelings of kindness, and pity, for the +poor and the workmen. + +Your Government has called it a free and spontaneous gift of the people +of India! If the members of your cabinet, if the Secretary of State for +India, if the Governor General of India and his ministers of the +Executive Council, are the people of India, then truly you are right and +we wrong. If they are not the people of India, as they are not, then it +is a gift by yourself to yourself, of other peoples' money. Again, the +statement that the measure was unanimously approved of by the Indian +members of the council is a _diplomatic lie_. You know that the matter +was settled between your Cabinet as represented by the Secretary of +State for India and the Viceroy's Executive Council (which includes only +one Indian member nominated by you), before it was announced in the +Legislative Council. You know also, sir, and if you don't, you ought to, +that the Indian Legislative Council has no power under the law to make +any changes in the budget. The budget is entirely beyond their purview. +The members can only extol it or criticise it. They can propose +resolutions disapproving of some of its provisions which can amount to +nothing more than pious wishes even if passed. But the official majority +in the Council guarantees the defeat of any hostile resolutions by +non-official members. Re this loan-cum-gift transaction, the +non-official members of the Legislative Council put a seal on their +mouths because they thought it was useless to incur the risk of being +called disloyal for a matter which was reported to them as a _fait +accompli_ and which they could not in any way change or modify; yet two +of them did raise a sort of feeble protest. + + + IT IS NOT A GIFT BY THE PEOPLE OF INDIA + +The press comments on it, however subdued and timid and halting, leave +no doubt about the real mind of India in the matter. The truth has been +pointed out by the _Manchester Guardian_ and the _Nation_. (Beg your +pardon, sir, for mentioning the _Nation_ again). The former, in its +issue of March 15, remarked: "It is we, who govern India and not the +Indian people. The initiative in all financial proposals necessarily +comes from the government we appoint in India, and these cannot reach +the light of public discussion in the Legislative Council or elsewhere +until they have received the sanction of the Secretary of State for +India here. For Mr. Chamberlain to throw off upon Indian people the +responsibility for originating and devising the 100 million contribution +is as unconvincing a rhetorical exercise as the House of Commons has +witnessed for many a long day. The responsibility from the first to the +last is his and that of the Indian Government. We have said more than +once, and we repeat it that in our opinion a wise statesmanship would +both find better uses in India for India's millions and employ India +more advantageously for the common cause by using more of her manhood +and less of her money," I will not quote the _Nation_, sir, which is on +this point as explicit, if not more, as the _Manchester Guardian_. + +Now, sir, you know that India has been very eager to fight for the +Empire. She has supplied you with about 350,000 troops in this war, +paying for their services and equipment herself. But 350,000 do not +represent even a fraction of her man power, the whole of which she was +prepared to throw in this struggle. While Australia and Canada and +Ireland have either rejected conscription or are shirking, India has +been clamoring for it. You can no longer say that you could not utilize +India's manhood because of the prejudice of color. That shibboleth has +been shattered by this war and, we hope, for good. The colored people of +Asia and Africa are fighting in numbers alongside of the best European +troops. Poor people! They believe they are fighting to make the world +"safe for democracy!" You cannot say that Indians are lacking in +fighting qualities, because the existence of them in a high degree they +have proved conclusively in face of difficulties, by no means light and +contemptible. That the Indian soldier can hold his own in Europe, even +better than the European soldier in Southern Asia, has been established +beyond the shadow of a doubt by the experiences of this war. Why, then, +won't you use India's manhood and relieve her of this financial exaction +which she can ill afford to meet, without suffering egregiously? + + + INDIA'S TEEMING MILLIONS WANT FOOD AND + KNOWLEDGE OF THREE R'S + +The question for India's teeming millions is not "how to live well" but +how to live at all. There is no question of comforts for them. What they +want, and do not get, is sufficient and nourishing food and a knowledge +of the three R's. Your Government is unable to give them the first, and +persists in refusing to give them the second; yet when an Indian +publicist loses patience and says "slavery has deprived Indians of +wealth, honors and freedom, and has reduced them to destitution and +starvation," your Viceroy in India cites it as an instance of depraved +journalism and a justification for the gagging of the press. He +complains that "there are papers in India which magnify the ills from +which she suffers" and "which harp upon plague, famine, malaria and +poverty" and "ascribe them all to the curse of an alien government." May +I ask, sir, if it is not a fact that millions in India die of famine, +plague, and malaria? Is it not a fact that the curses and the appalling +effects of them, are directly or indirectly traceable to poverty? Many +countries on the face of the earth do not grow food sufficient for +themselves while India does. Why then should India alone suffer from +famines when her food supply, once in a while, falls short of the +ordinary year of agricultural "prosperity?" If even during famine years +India can supply food to other nations by exports of wheat and other +grains, why can't she keep that food at home and feed her own hungry +children? Why should plague have stayed in India so long? Why should +malaria exact such a heavy annual toll there? The reason is obvious. +Because of the ignorance and poverty of the people. + +Let us assume that India has not grown poorer under British rule, though +there is abundant evidence to the contrary, that the masses have become +poorer and are becoming poorer every day; let us also assume that in the +matter of education India was worse off under native rule--_i. e._, +before the introduction of the British rule--a period of history when no +other part of the world was any the better. Is it not a matter of shame, +that after 150 years of British rule, when most of the other national +governments in other parts of the world have reduced their illiteracy +almost to zero point, India should still have more than 90% of its +population illiterate. Is it not a matter of shame, that of all the +grain producing countries of the world India alone should be so +miserably situated as to be unable to supply sufficient and nourishing +food to her sons and daughters. Don't you think, sir, that the Indians +have reason to feel sore when they see that the food grown by them is +denied to them; that it is almost snatched from their mouths; that +others should eat the food which is grown by them, that even in the best +of years millions of them must be contented with only one meal a day, +and that of the coarsest grain. + +Do you remember, Mr. Lloyd George, how bitter you felt against the +capitalist, when you yourself in your boyhood, felt the pinch of want? +Have you forgotten all that you said in the Lime-house speech? I repeat +that the sufferings of the British laborer and workingmen, the trials of +the British poor are nothing compared with those of the Indian ryot and +the Indian workingmen and the Indian clerks in your employ in that +country. Yet you have no feeling to spare for them, and those that have, +you and your Government brand as malcontents and seditionists. Don't you +think, sir, that the Indian ryot and the Indian poor are being crushed +under the weight of two capitalisms superimposed upon each other--one +foreign and the other indigenous? When we ask for freedom to manage our +own affairs you say we are not fit to do so. But what can we do to +ourselves which will be worse than what you have done us? If left free, +we might bring to book the indigenous capitalists whom, in the interests +of your own capitalists, you have been supporting and fattening. But +even if we fail to do so, we shall at any rate have upon us the burden +of only a single weight. Your colleagues say that in refusing +self-government to India they are actuated by devotion to India; that +they do not want to hand over the millions of India to the tender +mercies of a small minority of educated and wealthy men in whose hands +the government will inevitably drift. Supposing it does, it will be easy +for the masses to keep the minority in check. They can revolt and rebel, +but under your Government the bureaucracy is all powerful. The truth is, +sir, that the condition of these very millions, in whose interests, you +say, you are reluctant to give power to the educated and the wealthy +few, is a standing condemnation of your government there. The educated +minority and the wealthy few are fairly well off under your regime. It +is the ignorant ryot and the millions of workingmen and women who +suffer. In the words of one of your distinguished writers (W. Lily), +they do not live but just exist. + +Recently the _Times_ said that the British were "the trustees of the +welfare of India's millions." Who are these millions for whom you are +trustees? Are they those homeless, educationless millions who get only +one meal a day or are they those who have benefitted from your schools +and are wealthy? If the former, you have failed in your trust. If the +latter, they are quite fit to manage their own affairs. It was only the +other day that Mr. Austen Chamberlain was reported to have said +(_Times_, London, March 30) at a luncheon given to him and the India's +so-called representatives at the Imperial conference (one of whom was a +Lieutenant Governor interested in extending India's sphere of +subjection) that "India will not remain and ought not to remain content +to be a hewer of wood and a drawer of water for the rest of the Empire." +Noble words these, full of hope and encouragement. But what a sad and a +crushing acknowledgment of the present helpless condition of India. It +is a truthful statement for which the Indians ought to be grateful to +Mr. Chamberlain. At the present moment India is a mere "hewer of wood +and a drawer of water" for the rest of the Empire. Against that her sons +protest, and will continue to protest, as long as the wrongs of the +country are not redressed, your press act, your sedition laws, jails and +prisons notwithstanding. + +The position, Mr. Lloyd George, is pathetic. When we ask for more outlay +on education, you say, no, the condition of the finances will not permit +of that. When we point out the way to find finances, you say, "no, +further taxes are impossible and retrenchment in public expenditure in +other departments undesirable." When we say, "give us the management and +we will do it," you say, "no you are unfit." The result is that you will +neither educate the masses yourself nor will you let us educate them. +Yet you hold their ignorance a valid ground for refusing us our right to +manage our own affairs. When, however, you want money for Imperial +purposes you raise loans, impose taxes, and reduce public expenditure on +education and public works. You have done this not only now, for the +purposes of this bloody war, but you have done so in the past in +building railways for your merchants and to fight your wars in Africa, +in China, in Afghanistan, in fact, all over the old world. It is true +the present is a trying time for you and you may have a pretence of +justification in this crisis in your Imperial life. But so long as you +refuse the conscription of wealth in your home islands, what right have +you to impose this conscription of India's money resources? You have not +forced the dominions to make monetary contributions. In fact you have +advanced them over £140,000,000 from your own funds. You have not so far +called upon the British capitalists to pay even a fraction of their +wealth. You have simply taxed their excessive profits. Why should you +have made an exception in the case of India? India is the poorest part +of the Empire. Yet it is she who has been selected for this exceptional +treatment. She had already made lavish gifts of money and provisions and +equipment. Her gifts were in entire disproportion to her means. Compared +with your dominions' resources and their money sacrifices India's +contribution stood higher than those of the former. Yet you selected +India for this compulsory money contribution because India is the only +part of the Empire which you could thus treat. India is the only part of +the Empire which has been forced to give $500,000,000 as a _free gift_. +Even the fabulously rich United States which have made huge war profits +from you and your other allies have not thought of a national gift. Yet +imperial sophistry represented by your imperial publicists and +officials, represents that Great Britain exacts no tribute from India +and makes no profit out of her connection with India and that she rules +India simply out of philanthropic and humanitarian motives. + + + WASTE + +One would have thought that under the pressure of the war, your +Government in India would make an honest and earnest effort to reduce +expenditure on public services, at least under heads mainly ornamental +or which only afford luxuries to your agents in India; but on the other +hand, what is the actual situation? A perusal of the proceedings of the +Imperial Legislative Council and also of the Provincial Councils shows +that all efforts made by the non-official members to obtain additional +money for education and sanitation by the reduction of expenditure on +luxuries, were opposed by your Government, and were consequently +defeated. All efforts to reduce expenditure on comforts were of course +resisted by those who enjoyed them, and it is they whose votes count in +the Indian Councils. For example, it was proposed that the huge +expenditure incurred by the different Government Departments, Imperial +and Provincial, in moving to the Hills for seven months of the year, +should be reduced, at least partially. Many persons competent to express +an opinion on the subject, among them Lord Carmichael, the retiring +Governor of Bengal, have placed it on record that this "exodus to the +hills" was not necessary, and was in fact prejudicial to the interests +of good government; yet the Government opposed the motion of the +non-official member and he was forced to withdraw it. A similar motion +to curtail the expenditure on the ornamentation of the residence of the +Lieutenant Governor of the United Provinces was also opposed and met a +similar fate. The huge allowances made to the heads of the different +governments in India for kitchen expenses, for dispensing hospitality, +and for traveling in royal style have not been reduced by a penny. The +Punjab Government has provided in its current budget a large amount of +money for providing palatial residences for its officers in summer +resorts, and has sanctioned large pensions, from father to son, for a +few of their Indian supporters. These men are mostly wealthy men. They +did nothing more than help you in your suppressive and exploiting +policy. Your Government naturally rewards them. Is it not bribery. If an +expert financier were to examine into these items, which can only pass +unchallenged in a country wherein the people have no voice in the +raising of the taxes and in spending them, it would be found that great +savings could be effected and the money thus made available used for +other urgent needs of the people. The fact is that the Indian ryot who +pays for all these extravagances has no voice to check the vagaries of +those who spend his money for their own comforts. I have not mentioned +the lavish scale on which special traveling allowances are granted to +high officials in India. It is a matter of common knowledge that these +officials do not spend as much as they draw under this head. Yet it is +actually proposed that the salaries and the allowances for the European +members of the Indian services be substantially raised. _Verily, +taxation without representation_ is a crime of the worst possible kind. + + + DEMOCRACY + +Mr. Lloyd George, you and your colleagues in the Government of Great +Britain, say that in fighting the Germans you are fighting the battle of +Democracy, to make the world safe from autocracy and militarism, that +you are fighting for rights of small nations, and for the domination of +right over might. The United States has joined the war for the same +reason. I have seen numerous recruiting posters exhibited in New York +City exhorting young Americans to enlist in the army "to make the world +safe" for Democracy. I have not the slightest doubt of the sincerity of +the American professions because their international record is so far +clean. Vide their record in Cuba and the Philippines. Can we say the +same for Great Britain? I am afraid not, so long at least, as you +continue to deny self-government to India, the second of the two biggest +democracies of the world. Here is a nation of 315 million human beings +(or say several nations, if you wish, as your publicists are so fond of +repeating _ad nauseam_ that India is not a nation) whom you are +governing by the force of might, without their consent, and on +absolutely despotic lines; whom you deny freedom of speech, freedom of +association and freedom of education; whom you tax without their consent +and then spend those taxes outside of their country, and in providing +luxuries to your representatives in India or in bribing such Indians as +uphold you in your possessions. I have no doubt that you are sincere in +your denunciation of German militarism. For myself I have no use for +Czars and Kaisers, Emperors and Sultans, and I dare say that you, too, +have none. Thus I am in full sympathy with your efforts to exterminate +the race of Kaisers. So far you are right. But an Indian cannot help +smiling rather cynically when he hears you saying that you are waging +the war to make the world safe for democracy. Your conduct in India and +in Egypt, and in Persia belies your protestations. + + + AS TO SMALL NATIONS + +In defending your conduct you urge that India is not a nation. Very +well, sir, divide India into small nations and give them self-government +separately. You will admit that there are parts of India which are +homogenous, entitled to be called small nations in the sense in which +Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark, and Holland are. The bulk of the +population follow the same religion, speak the same language and belong +to the same race. Remember, please, that I do not admit that India is +not a nation or that the sameness of language, religion and race is +necessary for a political national existence. Switzerland, Canada, the +United States, South Africa, Russia, and Austria-Hungary have demolished +that theory. + +The apologists of the present system of Government in India say that the +Indian people are not sufficiently educated in the principles and +practice of politics and that their ignorance and illiteracy make it +necessary for the British to continue to rule them from without, until +they are fit to establish and maintain a democratic form of government. +I have already made some remarks about illiteracy and shown that the +responsibility for it rests on your shoulders. If you, sir, are to be +the sole judge of the educational requirements of the Indian people, +their progress is bound to hang on your convenience. No one in +possession is anxious to be dispossessed and if the time and method of +his dispossession is to be determined by himself, then woe to the +dispossessed! But, sir, you forget that literacy is not education. The +Indian masses have a background of centuries of culture which places +them in the matter of intelligence and character, in a better position +than even the literate millions of European and American countries. And +after all, it is intelligence and culture that count most in the fixing +of final values. + +As for their training in political life, how are they to get it, if you +make it a penal offence for their leaders to tell them that the present +system of Government is unnatural, harmful, and a hindrance to progress? +The masses cannot grasp principles unless one illustrates these +principles by their application to the affairs of every day life. Your +Government and your courts say that an agitation for home rule is legal +and permissible, but any criticism that is likely to create +dissatisfaction is illegal and deserves to be suppressed high-handedly. +You know from experience, sir, that the masses require to be led. No +government is willing to make changes unless compelled from below. That +is as true of democratic America as of monarchical England. Much more +must it be so in the case of countries under foreign yoke. To carry the +people with them, the leaders must expose the existing evils and stress +the necessity and urgency of sweeping changes in political conditions. +The moment they proceed to do so with any degree of effectiveness, they +are charged with an attempt to create disaffection and convicted of +sedition. Do you honestly believe that any people on the face of the +earth can make any progress in political education when they are ruled +by a Press Act which stops criticism and discussion in the following +terms: + + SECTION OF THE INDIAN PRESS ACT OF 1910 + + Whenever it appears to the Local Government that any printing + press in respect of which any security has been deposited as + required by Section 3 is used for the purpose of printing or + publishing any newspaper, book, or other document containing any + words, signs or visible representations which are likely to have + a tendency directly, or indirectly, whether by inference, + suggestion, allusion, metaphor, implication or otherwise: + + (a) To incite to murder or to any offense under the Explosives + Substances Act of 1908, or to any act of violence or + + (b) To seduce any officer, soldier, or sailor in the Army or + Navy of His Majesty from his allegiance or his duty or + + (c) To bring into hatred or contempt His Majesty or the + Government established by the law in British India, or the + Administration of Justice in British India or any native Prince + or Chief under the suzeranity of His Majesty or any class or + section of His Majesty's subjects in British India or to excite + disaffection towards His Majesty or the said Government or any + such Prince or Chief or + + (d) To put any person in fear or to cause any annoyance to him + and thereby induce him to deliver to any person any property or + valuable security, or to do any act which he is not legally + bound to do or to omit any act which he is legally entitled to + do or + + (e) To encourage or incite any person to interfere with the + administration of the law or with the maintenance of law and + order or + + (f) To convey any threat of injury to a public servant, or to + any person in whom the public servant is believed to be + interested, with a view to inducing that person to do any act or + to forbear to do any act connected with the exercise of his + public functions the Local Government may, by notice in writing + to the keeper of such printing press, stating or describing the + words, signs or visible representations which in its opinion are + of the nature described above, declare the security deposited in + respect of such Press and all copies of such newspaper, book, or + other document wherever found to be forfeited to His Majesty. + + EXPLANATION I: In clause c the expression disaffection includes + disloyalty and all feelings of enmity. + + EXPLANATION II: Comments expressing the disapproval of the + measures of the Government of any such native Prince or Chief as + aforesaid with a view to obtain their alteration by lawful means + or of the administration or other action of the Government or + any such native Prince or Chief or of the administration of + Justice in British India without exciting or attempting to + excite hatred, contempt, or disaffection, do not come under the + scope of clause c. + +Can any people make headway in the art of self-government who are +governed by a foreign bureaucracy aided by an army of Indian Czars +regulating the very minutest details of their life? You know that this +over government of India is a direct result of your rule. Before you +came the Indian village was a self-governed unit. (See statements of +Monroe, Elphinstone, Metcalfe, and Lawrence.) Even now the people in the +Native States are in this respect better off than the people of British +India. The Education Minister of your Cabinet, Mr. H. A. L. Fisher has, +after a visit to India, placed it on record that "the inhabitants of a +well governed Native State are, on the whole, happier and more contented +than the inhabitants of British India. They are more lightly taxed; the +pace of the administration is less urgent and exacting. They feel that +they do things for themselves instead of having everything done by a +cold and alien benevolence." Yet if an Indian leader were to point this +out and ask the Indian masses to improve their lot by demanding and +winning for themselves the right to manage their own affairs, and by +driving out those influences that stand in their way, he would be +persecuted and imprisoned or transported. + +The first axiom for political progress is that the people should +throw away their attitude of submission to oppression, tyranny, +high-handedness, and conditions of slavery whether imposed by a national +or a foreign Government. They have a right to revolt if they have the +means to do so successfully. But in any case, they have a right to +discuss, agitate and organize for changes. This they cannot do unless +they have a free press, a free platform, and the right of free +association. In India the first is denied by the Press Act, the second +by the comprehensive sections of the Penal Code, and the third by the +so-called "Seditious Meetings Act." What little was left has been done +away with under the extensive powers taken and exercised by the +Executive under the plea of war exigency by the "Defense of India Act." +While every other part of the Empire, including the "Mother Country" is +discussing political and economic changes of an extremely radical +character, such as the establishment of a more effective Imperial +Parliament and Preferential Tariffs after the war, not to speak of +constructive programmes for education, and industrial rejuvenation, the +Indian leaders are "officially" advised to be mum, and any effort to +rouse the country to a consciousness of its rights and duties is +characterized as perverted, ill-timed, and inconsistent with loyalty. + +The advocates of "Home Rule" are being openly hampered in their +propaganda. Papers advocating home rule have been persecuted, and +leaders have been prohibited from entering provincial areas. But what is +worse is that the Criminal Investigation Department have been instructed +to take down the names of all those who have enlisted in the cause, +either as active or passive workers. A deputation of representatives of +the press that waited on the Viceroy to lay their grievances before him +has been lectured on the impropriety of thus raising the question at +this juncture and has otherwise been treated with shocking discourtesy. + +In conclusion, let me ask you, sir, to notice the coercive methods by +which the War Loan is being raised in India. Poor underpaid subordinate +officials are being forced to purchase Government stock. They will +surely purchase the stock and win the good-will of their officers, but +just as surely they will squeeze the cost out of the people. That will +be strictly in accord with the standards of loyalty set up by your +officials! + +Mr. David Lloyd George, I have addressed this letter to you, because at +this moment you seem to be the only British statesman possessed of +imagination. Exercise your imagination, sir, a little and save India for +the Empire; win the gratitude and blessings of a fifth of the human +race--of a people who were one of the first pioneers of civilization in +the world, who laid the foundations of culture, which you profess to be +so very anxious to save. Remember that the Indians were rich, +prosperous, free, self-governing, civilized and great, both in peace and +war, when not only Britain but even "Greece and Rome were nursing the +tenants of the wilderness." The Indians have lost their freedom because +they oppressed the people under them and as surely as night follows day, +the British will lose all that makes them great to-day, if they continue +to oppress and exploit the subject races within their Empire. The world +cannot be safe for democracy unless India is self-governed. Nor can +there be any lasting peace in the world, so long as India and China are +not strong enough to protect themselves. + +Pardon me, sir, if I have disturbed you at such a critical moment; +though it is folly to presume that you could be disturbed in the +slightest degree by such a letter. I have written it out of a sense of +duty as sacred as that which inspires you in your herculean task; and if +you are inclined to think harshly of me for this letter, just try to put +yourself in my position and decide what then would be your point of +view. + + LAJPAT RAI. +New York City, June 13, 1917. + + + + + Transcriber Notes: + +Passages in italics were indicated by _underscores_. + +Small caps were replaced with ALL CAPS. + +Throughout the dialogues, there were words used to mimic accents of +the speakers. Those words were retained as-is. + +Errors in punctuations and inconsistent hyphenation were not corrected +unless otherwise noted. + +Page 11, "Deva Bhúmi" was replaced with "Deva Bhúmí". + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of An Open Letter to the Right Honorable +David Lloyd George, by Lajpat Rai + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN OPEN LETTER TO THE RIGHT *** + +***** This file should be named 39874-8.txt or 39874-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/8/7/39874/ + +Produced by spend, Ernest Schaal, and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + +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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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/license + + +Title: An Open Letter to the Right Honorable David Lloyd George + Prime Minister of Great Britain + +Author: Lajpat Rai + +Release Date: June 1, 2012 [EBook #39874] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN OPEN LETTER TO THE RIGHT *** + + + + +Produced by spend, Ernest Schaal, and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 477px;"> +<img class="border" src="images/front_cover.jpg" width="477" height="700" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<hr class="hr2" /> + +<p class="center"><i>OTHER BOOKS BY LAJPAT RAI</i></p> + +<p class="center">YOUNG INDIA</p> + +<p class="center"><i>An Interpretation and a History of the +Nationalist Movement from Within</i></p> + +<p class="center">Price $1.50 net</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="center">ENGLAND'S DEBT TO INDIA</p> + +<p class="center"><i>A Historical Narrative of Britain's +Fiscal Policy in India</i></p> + +<p class="center">Price $2.00 net</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="center">THE ARYA SAMAJ</p> + +<p class="center"><i>An Account of its Origins, +Doctrines and Activities</i></p> + +<p class="center">Price $1.75 net</p> + +<p class="center">OBTAINABLE FROM ALL BOOKSELLERS</p> + +<hr class="hr2" /> + +<p class="center">AN OPEN LETTER</p> + +<p class="center">TO</p> + +<p class="cnobmargin">THE RIGHT HONORABLE</p> +<p class="cnomargins">DAVID LLOYD GEORGE</p> +<p class="cnotmargin">PRIME MINISTER OF GREAT BRITAIN</p> + +<p class="cnobmargin">BY</p> +<p class="cnotmargin">LAJPAT RAI</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 251px;"> +<img src="images/i_002.jpg" width="251" height="300" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="cnobmargin">NEW YORK</p> +<p class="cnomargins">B. W. HUEBSCH</p> +<p class="cnotmargin">MCMXVII</p> + +<hr class="hr2" /> + +<p class="cnobmargin">Copyright, 1917, by Lajpat Rai</p> +<p class="cnotmargin">Printed in the United States of America</p> + +<hr class="hr2" /> + +<p class="center">AN OPEN LETTER</p> + +<p class="center">TO</p> + +<p class="cnobmargin">THE RIGHT HONORABLE</p> +<p class="cnomargins">DAVID LLOYD GEORGE</p> +<p class="cnotmargin">PRIME MINISTER OF GREAT BRITAIN</p> + +<hr class="hr2" /> + +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page7" id="page7"></a>[pg 7]</span></p> + +<p class="cnobmargin">AN OPEN LETTER</p> +<p class="cnomargins">TO</p> +<p class="cnomargins">THE RIGHT HONORABLE</p> +<p class="cnomargins">DAVID LLOYD GEORGE</p> +<p class="cnotmargin"><i>Prime Minister of Great Britain</i></p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="indent">Sir: I am an Indian who has, by the fear of +your Government in India been forced to seek +refuge in the United States, at least for the +period of the war. In 1907, when Lord Minto's +Government decided to put into operation an +obsolete Regulation of the East India Company +(III of 1818) against me, in order to put me +out of the way, for a while, without even the +form of a trial, Lord Morley, the then Secretary +of State for India, defending his action, gave +me the highest testimonial as far as my private +character was concerned. You must have heard +that speech though it would be presumptuous to +imagine that you remember it.</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page8" id="page8"></a>[pg 8]</span> +MY CREDENTIALS</p> + +<p class="indent">Even my worst enemies have not been able to +point out anything in my life which would give +any one even the shadow of a reason to say that, +in my private life, I have not been as good and +honorable a person as any British politician or +diplomat or proconsul, is or has been or can be. +My record as a wage-earner is as clean and as +honorable as that of the best of Britishers engaged +in governing India.</p> + +<p class="indent">Mr. H. W. Nevinson, than whom a more truthful +and honorable publicist is not known in +British life, has said in his work, "The New +Spirit in India," that once when he told a high +Anglo-Indian official that I was a good man +held in great esteem by my countrymen, the +latter remarked, that because I had a high character +in private life, I was the more dangerous +as an agitator.</p> + +<p class="indent">I am reciting all this as evidence of my +credentials to speak on behalf of my countrymen. +Just now I am a mere exile. For the +present, I cannot think of returning to India, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page9" id="page9"></a>[pg 9]</span> +unless in course of time I begin to feel that by +running the risk of being hanged or imprisoned, +I should be doing a greater service to my country, +than by remaining outside. I am now in +the fifty-third year of my life, out of which +more than thirty-four were spent in the limelight +of public gaze. I am a man of family +with children and grandchildren and have had +my share, however small, of the good things of +the world. Political freedom for India has been +a passion to me ever since I was a boy. However +hard the life of an exile or a convict may be, +I am prepared to risk everything in the cause +of my country.</p> + +<p class="indent">In the language of that prince of political +exiles, Joseph Mazzini, the word "exile," is perhaps +the most cursed in the dictionary of man. +It dries up the springs of affection; it deprives +its victims of the sweet babblings and lispings +of his little ones with whom every man of age +loves to beguile the evening of his days; it +closes the avenues of all comfort that are associated +with that sweet word home; it shuts the +doors of heaven and makes life a continued +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page10" id="page10"></a>[pg 10]</span> +agony, hanging on the slender thread of such +pity and hospitality as one may receive from +the generous and kind-hearted foreigner.</p> + +<p class="center">INDIA COMPARED WITH GREAT BRITAIN</p> + +<p class="indent">How can I ask you who have perhaps never +left your country except for some pleasant trips +on the Continent, to put yourself in my position, +if possible, for a moment only, and imagine how +I long to kiss the soil, with which are mixed the +bones of my mother and other forbears; how I +miss the loving embrace of my beloved father, +the sweet, expectant, imploring eyes of my +widowed daughter, the devoted look of my wife +and the kindly affectionate hand-shake of good +and devoted friends. Nor can you realize how +an Indian loves his country. How can you, of +dark, sombre, fog ridden and misty climes, who +are born of a chill atmosphere, of treacherously +changing weather, who count hours of sunshine +and months of darkness and fog and rain and +snow and sleet, enter into the feelings of one +whose country is a perpetual sunshine, and where +universal light reigns—a country where weather +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page11" id="page11"></a>[pg 11]</span> +is neither treacherous nor continually and rapidly +changing, where beautiful dawns, starry nights, +moonlit fields, resplendent waters, snow-clad hills +and joyous rivers constantly and unremittingly +fill one's mind with the sublimity, grandeur and +beauty of nature; where one needs no stimulants +to make him feel lighter and happier. An +Indian needs no alcohol to forget his troubles. +He has only to go to the Himalaya, or to the +banks of Ganga, Brahmputra, Sindh or their +numerous tributaries by which the land is blessed +and fertilized. Oh, no! It is impossible for you +to understand how passionately an Indian loves +his country. He would rather starve in India +than be a ruler of men in a foreign climate. For +him, India is the land of Gods—the <i>Deva Bhúmí</i> +of his forefathers. It is the land of knowledge, +of faith, of beatitude—the <i>Gnan Bhúmí</i>, the +<i>Dharma Bhúmí</i> and the <i>Punni-Bhúmí</i> of the +ancient Aryas. It is the land of the Vedas and +of the heroes—the <i>Veda Bhúmí</i> and the <i>Vir +Bhúmí</i> of his ancestors. Yes, to him, it is the +land of lands, the only place where he wishes to +live, and more so, where he wishes to die. For +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page12" id="page12"></a>[pg 12]</span> +a Hindu to die anywhere but in India, is as if +he had been damned to hell. He shudders at +the idea. To him, it is unthinkable. You may +call it foolish, unpractical, sentimental and unprogressive; +but there it is—a mighty fact of +life into which no foreigner can penetrate.</p> + +<p class="indent">Every Englishman loves his country, its darkness, +its fog, its sleet and rain nothwithstanding. +Who does not love his country and who does not +say:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Home, kindred, friends and country—these</span> +<span class="i2">Are ties with which we never part;</span> +<span class="i0">From clime to clime, o'er land and seas,</span> +<span class="i2">We bear them in our heart;</span> +<span class="i0">But, oh! 'tis hard to feel resigned,</span> +<span class="i0">When they must all be left behind!</span> +</div> +</div> +<p class="center">—<span class="smcap">J. Montgomery</span>.</p> + +<p class="indent">If then, an Indian decides to be an exile, voluntarily +and maybe for life, he only does so +either under a grave sense of duty or of danger. +The duty lies in speaking <i>the truth</i> about political +conditions in India and the danger in being +effectively prevented from doing so if he remains +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page13" id="page13"></a>[pg 13]</span> +there. No Indian can speak the <i>whole truth</i> +while in India. The criminal laws of your Government—your +Penal and Criminal Codes, +Seditious Meetings and Conspiracy Acts, and +Press Laws, your tribunals presided over by +your own people unaided by jurors—effectively +gag his mouth.</p> + +<p class="indent">All honor to those who, though they cannot +speak the whole truth, yet keep the fire burning +in India and do as much as considerations of +policy and expediency permit. If they do not +speak the <i>whole truth</i>, they have at least the +consolation of being at home, in the heart of +their family and surrounded by their dear ones. +For a political exile, however, there is nothing +else to do, unless he has to carry on a fight for +his living also, in which case he will divide his +time between the two, that of earning bread and +crying for justice for his country. Happily I +have been comparatively free from much anxiety +about the first. The only justification for my +condition of exile, then, is that I continue to +speak the truth about conditions in India and +draw the attention of the world to them.</p> + +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page14" id="page14"></a>[pg 14]</span> +But an additional reason has just been furnished +to me by the morning papers of March 15, +1917. It is said that your agents in India have +decided to raise a war loan of $500,000,000, +equivalent to 1,500,000,000 Rupees of Indian +money, and also, to make the floating of the loan +easy, your Government has agreed to increase the +duty on cotton imports by 4% <i>ad valorem</i>. This +war loan, it is added, would be a "<i>free gift</i>" of +India to Great Britain! A free gift of $500,000,000 +by starving, poverty-stricken India, to +rich, wealthy, mighty Great Britain! Could anything +be more astounding, more absurd and more +tyrannical. The news has stunned me. I know +that David Lloyd George, the British war-lord +of 1917, is not the same person who was the +radical Chancellor of Exchequer in the Liberal +Government from 1908 to 1914, and who did +magnificent service to the British workingman +by reducing his burdens and alleviating his condition. +I have been told that the said David +Lloyd George is dead and you, sir, are an entirely +different person. The Lloyd George of 1914 +could not possibly have done the thing which you, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page15" id="page15"></a>[pg 15]</span> +sir, in alliance with Curzons and Milners have +just accomplished. The newspapers say you are +the same person; only you have changed. If so, +the change is not of opinion but of personality. +Evidently the soul of the original David Lloyd +George has left the body to make room for an +altogether different soul. We Indians believe +in the possibility of such a metamorphosis taking +place even in the lifetime of the same body! +The best part of the joke, however, in connection +with the £100,000,000 transaction lies in the fact +that you call it <i>a gift by India</i>—<i>a gift indeed</i>. +A gift like those given by Belgium to Germany. +Is it not so, Mr. George? You are a shrewd +person, very well educated, clever in diplomacy, +well versed in tricks of speech and a master in +statecraft; but even you ought to know that this +trick will not deceive any one—not even the +Indians who have been so often deceived by +your predecessors in business. By way of adding +insult to injury, you profess to do "<i>an act of justice</i>" +to India by consenting to an increase of 4% +on the duty leviable on imports of cotton goods. +You say it is necessary for the success of the war +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page16" id="page16"></a>[pg 16]</span> +loan of $500,000,000; but do you think that the +Indians are so devoid of knowledge of the ordinary +rules of arithmetic as not to understand +what this "hitting below the belt" means to them? +Your additional duty would but bring only +$5,000,000 or $6,000,000 to the Indian exchequer, +if the imports of cotton do not undergo +a decrease. Your Government in India estimates +it at £1,000,000 sterling. The interest at +5-1/2% amounts to $27,500,000. Your Government +in India estimates an annual charge of £6,000,000 +sterling. Where is the balance to come +from except from the famished Indian <i>ryot</i>? Is +that how you show your love for democracy, for +the people at large, for the workingman? Your +representatives in India and outside, are proclaiming +to the world that India is the most +lightly taxed country in the world, withholding +the fact that the average income of an Indian is +only £2 a year, of which he pays 7 shillings +toward taxes. That was before the new taxes +were imposed.</p> + +<p class="indent">Your publicists circulate another lie, viz., that +India pays no tribute, while they know that from +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page17" id="page17"></a>[pg 17]</span> +20 to 40 millions sterling are remitted to England +every year, out of which only a portion +represents interest on loans made to India for +the building of railways which your countrymen +have used in developing their trade, and the remainder +is the profit you make out of India. +Then you cite the figures of trade in support of +your theory that India is prosperous under +British rule, but you forget that that trade benefits +your country more than it benefits India, if +at all. We send you food and raw materials at +cheapest prices, making ourselves liable to +"famines." You pay us in articles of luxury, +of flimsy value, at the highest prices. The +balance of trade is always in your favor. We +toil and sweat, and your countrymen enjoy the +profit. All the paying industries, railways, tea, +jute, half of the cotton industry, etc., are in the +hands of your countrymen. Theirs are the insurance +companies, banks, railways and ships +that profit by their trade. The railway rates +discriminate against native industries and internal +trade. Your countrymen get the plum-pudding, +while our people cannot have even two +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page18" id="page18"></a>[pg 18]</span> +meals of the coarsest food every day. When +there is famine, millions die. Of late, your +"scientific" methods of famine relief have succeeded +in controlling mortality figures in famine +days. The method by which you do this is +genuinely scientific. Most of the deaths are +charged to epidemics and disease; no one notices, +however, that the havoc caused by disease is due +to lack of nourishment and consequent low +vitality. God-fearing Englishmen have cried +themselves hoarse over the situation. The misery +of the Indian masses has been pictured by their +powerful pens in pathetic and soul-stirring words, +but you and your colleagues still continue to +ignore what they have said. New methods are +every day being invented to exploit us. New +departments with fat salaries for Englishmen are +being multiplied. The public debt is being piled +up. While hundreds of millions are spent on +railways, nothing has been done to develop local +industries. The country is suffering from lack +of capital (cash and credit). (See Sir D. M. +Hamilton's article in the <i>Calcutta Review</i> for +July, 1916.) Every honest inquirer who makes +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page19" id="page19"></a>[pg 19]</span> +inquiries on the spot and does not depend on +the reports of your officials, finds and reports +that the condition of the masses is the most pitiable +(see the article by Mr. Manohar Lal in the +<i>Allahabad Economic Journal</i> for April, 1916, +and also the paper by Mr. Patro, of Madras, +read in a meeting presided over by the Governor +of Madras). For the latest British testimony on +the point, see an article on Indian Industrial +Development by Mr. Moreland, C.S.I., C.I.E., in +the <i>Quarterly Review</i> for April, 1917, in the +course of which he remarks: "It is a matter of +common knowledge that the standard of life in +India is undesirably low; that while the masses of +the people are provided with the bare necessities +of life of a bare existence [Are they?—L. R.] +they are in far too many cases badly housed and +badly clothed, badly doctored and badly taught, +often overworked and often underfed; and that +the present income, even if it were equitably distributed, +would not suffice to provide the population +with even the most indispensable elements +of a reasonable life."</p> + +<p class="indent">A careful study of the Reports on Prices +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page20" id="page20"></a>[pg 20]</span> +and Wages discloses that the real living wage in +the case of the vast bulk of agricultural laborers +has considerably diminished, and this in spite of +the absurd conclusion of the Prices Commission +appointed by your Government a few years ago. +No one knows better than you, Mr. David Lloyd +George, that big buildings in cities, mostly owned +by foreign capitalists exploiting the country; big +trade carried on by foreign exporters and importers; +railway mileage and receipts of Government +revenue do not mean prosperity. Even the +importation of treasure secured by capitalists in +payment for exports does not indicate better conditions +of the masses. If the masses are so +prosperous, as your officers say, why cannot you +tax the people for purposes of education and +sanitation? Why is the death rate so high (over +30 per thousand)? Why can't you force the +local bodies to spend money on education and +sanitation? Why do your finance ministers say +that there is no room for further taxes? Most +of your agents in India know the real condition +of the people but they have to conceal it from +the British public as well as the world, as that +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page21" id="page21"></a>[pg 21]</span> +enables them and their kin to continue in the +enjoyment of that power which means so much +to them.</p> + +<p class="indent">In reply, you might well ask, why then is +India loyal? Why do the people put up with +all this? Why don't they rebel? Because they +have been emasculated, and emasculated so completely, +that they are absolutely helpless against +your organized brigandage. They are weak, +ignorant and incompetent. Sixty-four years ago +they were not so helpless. But now they are +completely demoralized and penniless. Your +system has ground them into dust. They cannot +even protect themselves from wild beasts. You +have completely disarmed them. No Indian can +possess a firearm except under a license from +your magistrates, which is only rarely granted. +You have completely hypnotized them by your +professions of disinterested liberalism and altruism. +The truth has, after all, dawned on them +that you are the worst harpies they ever have +had and if they could they would overthrow you +without a scruple. You know that you are safe +in their helplessness. When the war came they +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page22" id="page22"></a>[pg 22]</span> +deluded themselves with the hope that in your +hour of need you might accord them a better +treatment, but by this time they have found their +mistake and have concluded that, just as a lion +may die of sheer exhaustion when attacked by +an enemy rather than willingly loosen his grip +on his prey so long as there is breath in his body, +so a nation holding another in subjection might +endanger her own existence without loosening +her grip on her victim.</p> + +<p class="indent">When the war broke out in August, 1914, +I, with other Indian publicists, thought that however +badly you had treated us in the past we had +nothing to gain by German victory and the best +thing, under the circumstances, was for us to +stand by you and establish our claim to better +treatment. The Princes and people of India +therefore stood by you. You and your colleagues +have been singing their praises and extolling their +loyalty, but nothing has been done so far to give +them even the elementary political rights of a +free people. Verily, we have had a deluge of +fine words but not an iota of deeds. On the +other hand, you have imposed fresh burdens on +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page23" id="page23"></a>[pg 23]</span> +us. While doing an "act of justice" about the +cotton duties you have committed a wrong which +wipes away the little good that might otherwise +have been expected to accrue therefrom. Your +courts and officers in India have taken away +what little freedom the people enjoyed before. +In cases of alleged sedition the sentences inflicted +have been quite on a par with the doings of the +Romanoffs in Russia. This time even women +have felt your steel.</p> + +<p class="indent">You knew as well as anyone else does, how the +German government has been trying to win the +good will of the Indians. It cannot be denied +that the temptation was alluring. If, then, we +have withstood it, it was not because we were in +love with your Government in India, but on +different grounds. Personally, I do not believe +that any liberty is worth having which we cannot +win ourselves, because liberty won by the +aid of another places us at the mercy of that +other. European diplomacy is so crooked that +it is futile to place faith in the promises of any +of them.</p> + +<p class="indent">I would esteem German friendship as much as +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page24" id="page24"></a>[pg 24]</span> +British or American or that of the Japanese or +the Chinese; I would gratefully accept any help +anybody would render in educating and fitting +our young men for the coming task, but I would +not do anything that would cause useless bloodshed +in India. I am not afraid of blood. Blood +will have to be shed if we are to gain our freedom. +I am not afraid of failures and defeats. +Failures and defeats are sometimes the necessary +steps to victory. I do not believe in peace at any +price; nor pacificism at any cost. I do not believe +that "they also serve who only stand and wait." +I am for a manly assertion of our rights, even +though blood may have to be spilled in asserting +or defending them; yet I would consider it highly +improper to encourage bloodshed where there is +not a ghost of a chance of success. That, in my +eyes, is sheer lunacy and I have never made a +secret of it. So I protested against my people +attempting to stir up revolt in India, under the +instigation of a foreign government. It was due +to my horror of useless bloodshed. I have no +doubt that <i>agents provocateur</i> played an important +part in instigating those whom your +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page25" id="page25"></a>[pg 25]</span> +courts have found guilty and sent to the gallows. +I believe that the men who have been sacrificed +should have lived and worked for the movement +for which they have died. So that, in a nutshell, +gives you my attitude towards foreign help. +Remember, please, sir, that I do not presume to +pronounce any judgment on those who think +differently and have acted in the light of their +consciences. I simply state my opinion and my +attitude.</p> + +<p class="indent">This time the movement has failed. It was +bound to fail. But the experience which the +Indians engaged in the cause have gained is not +lost. Next time, and who knows, the chance may +come at no distant date, they will profit by the +experience thus gained. The world is not in +love with you, sir. There are a dozen peoples +in the world who will be glad to see your downfall +and help in bringing it about. They will +not support the Indian Nationalist and the +Indian Revolutionist openly, but they will encourage +him in every way they can, without +bringing about diplomatic complications. So the +Indian will not be altogether friendless when +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page26" id="page26"></a>[pg 26]</span> +the next opportunity to strike comes. By that +time the country also will be better prepared to +do something more definite and more spectacular.</p> + +<p class="indent">Under the circumstances, the question that I +wish to put to you is: "Would you do nothing +to avert it?" It is in your power to act if you +will. The Indians are very easily satisfied. They +abhor bloodshed. They do not like revolution. +They will gladly remain in the Empire, if permitted +to do so on terms of self-respect and honor. +Their needs are few. Their life is simple. They +care more for spiritual values than for worldly +goods. They envy nobody's property. They have +no ambition to start on a career of exploitation. +All they want is to be let to live and think as +they will. At present they are let <i>to exist</i>, but +not to live. More than 100 million are insufficiently +fed. At least 60 millions do not get +two meals a day. More than 80% of the boys +receive no schooling, and more than 90% of the +girls. They work and toil and sweat primarily +in the interests of the British capitalist and +secondarily in the interests of his Indian colleague. +The latter only gets the leavings of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page27" id="page27"></a>[pg 27]</span> +former. The ships, the railways, the leading +banking houses, the big insurance offices, the tea +plantations, one-half of the cotton mills, about +all the woollen mills, most of the paper mills, all +jute mills are owned by the former; a few by +the latter. The profits of agriculture are divided +between your Government and the big landlords. +The pressure on land has reduced the size of the +ryots' holdings, while the number of mouths +requiring food and the number of bodies requiring +clothing has increased.</p> + +<p class="indent">Your Government encourages drinking, speculating +and gambling in a way never before +conceived. If you have any pity in your heart, +sir; if you are a good father and a good husband, +I would beseech you to devote but an hour's +time to the wages tables printed by your Government +in their Report on Prices and Wages +(1915). I give a few samples below:</p> + +<p class="indent">In the district of Patna (Behar), the monthly +wage of an able-bodied agricultural laborer in +the year 1907 was only R5.62 (say R6) equal to +8s. or $2. In 1873 it was from R3 to R4. Imagine +the laborer having a family of four and then +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page28" id="page28"></a>[pg 28]</span> +conceive how he manages to live on this wage. +In Fyzabad (Oude) the monthly wage of an +able-bodied agricultural laborer was only R4 +(5s. 4d. or $1.33) in 1905, the same as it was +in 1873. In 1906 it is given as ranging from +R1.87 to R4 a month. From 1873 to 1906 it +was never more than R4 a month.</p> + +<p class="indent">In Cawnpore (U. P.) it was R3.75 in 1873; +R3 in 1892; less than 4 in 1896; from 3.44 to +R5 in 1898 and from R3.69 to 7 in 1903; at +which figure it practically stayed up to 1906, +the last year for which figures are given in the +report.</p> + +<p class="indent">In Meerut (U. P.) it was R4.33 in 1906 as +against R4.5 in 1873.</p> + +<p class="indent">In Belgaun (Madras) it was R6.25 in 1912.</p> + +<p class="indent">In Jubbulpore (C. P.) it was R5 in 1908.</p> + +<p class="indent">In Raipur (C. P.) it was R5 in 1908.</p> + +<p class="indent">In Bellary (Madras) it was R4.75 in 1907.</p> + +<p class="indent">In Salem (Madras) it has never exceeded +R3.67 since 1873.</p> + +<p class="indent">The Government postal runners who carry +mails at a trotting pace for several miles a day, +often making two trips in 24 hours, are paid the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page29" id="page29"></a>[pg 29]</span> +following salaries in the different provinces of +your Indian Empire:</p> + +<blockquote> +<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" width="100%" summary="wages"> +<tr> +<td>Bengal</td> +<td>1913,</td> +<td>R7.75</td> +<td>a month,</td> +<td>$2.58</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Behar and Orissa</td> +<td>"</td> +<td>6.33</td> +<td>"</td> +<td>2.10</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>United Provinces</td> +<td>"</td> +<td>6.25</td> +<td>"</td> +<td>2.08</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Panjab and N.W.F</td> +<td>"</td> +<td>7.75</td> +<td>"</td> +<td>2.58</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Bombay</td> +<td>"</td> +<td>7.5</td> +<td>"</td> +<td>2.35</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Central Provinces</td> +<td>"</td> +<td>7.</td> +<td>"</td> +<td>2.33</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Madras</td> +<td>"</td> +<td>7.11</td> +<td>"</td> +<td>2.40</td> +</tr> +</table> +</blockquote> + +<p class="center">(The equivalents in dollars are approximate.)</p> + +<p class="indent">Postmen who are supposed to be literate, received +from R10 to R16 a month (<i>i. e.</i>, from +$3.33 to $5.33 a month) in the different provinces +in 1913.</p> + +<p class="indent">The scale of wages allowed to unskilled labor +in the railway yards of Mirzapore and Cawnpore +(U. P.) is given between R5 to R6 per month +(<i>i. e.</i>, less than $2.00). These are figures of +1914.</p> + +<p class="indent">In the canal foundry and workshop at Roorkee +(U. P.) the daily wage in 1916 was only 4 +annas a day (<i>i. e.</i>, 8 cents).</p> + +<p class="indent">In the Cawnpore saddlery establishment, the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page30" id="page30"></a>[pg 30]</span> +bullock drivers, the sweepers and the <i>Bhishties</i> +received only R5 and R6 a month (<i>i. e.</i>, less than +8s. or $2.00); the lascars from R6 to R7 (<i>i. e.</i>, +$2.00 to $2.33).</p> + +<p class="indent">In the woolen mills in Northern India unskilled +labor was paid at R8.12 (<i>i. e.</i>, less than +$3.00) a month in 1914. These are the rates +allowed in big cities. For other big cities the +rates may, in some cases, be somewhat better, +but in small rural towns and villages, they are +considerably less.</p> + +<p class="indent">Does the Indian laborer, considering his standard +of life, the size of his family and the requirements +of decency, get a living wage? I am +sure that a humane inquirer, not so much interested +in the good name of the Government +as in truth, will have no hesitation in answering +the question in the negative. Any increase in +wages has to be divided over the average strength +of a family, which will show how disproportionate +the increase in wages is to the increase in +prices. In a family of five with one or two +earning hands the increase in wages is two-fold +at the most. While the increase in the cost of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page31" id="page31"></a>[pg 31]</span> +living by the increase in prices is five-fold. Your +Official Report writers always ignore this important +consideration. As for the housing conditions +in which Indian workmen live, let me present to +you the following testimony from a recent issue +of the <i>Times of India</i>, Bombay (quoted in the +London <i>Times</i>, June, 1917):</p> + +<blockquote> +<p class="indent">"It is no unusual sight to find fifteen or twenty +persons, of both sexes, lying huddled on the floor +of a single room in a stifling atmosphere and a +vile stench. A single small window or an open +door gives the only ventilation. Furniture there +is none, beyond a few brass pots and some pegs. +The sanitary arrangements are unspeakable. +Every noise and smell that occurs in the neighborhood +penetrates the crazy walls and floor and +disturbs the sleepers. The chawls are often so +rickety that it is a miracle that they do not collapse +under their own weight. They seem to +be kept up like a house of cards, by the support +of their scarcely less rickety neighbors."</p> +</blockquote> + +<p class="indent">As for the Indian laborer getting any education +or any leisure for art or for the pursuit of +taste, that is out of the question. The condition +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page32" id="page32"></a>[pg 32]</span> +of the small farmer or <i>ryot</i> is even worse. Sir, +if you are ever inclined to study the actual conditions +of life in India, do not rely upon the +"conclusions" of your officers as embodied in +reports. Study the facts, given in the reports, +but disregard the conclusions. If you seek +the aid of an Indian Nationalist he may show +you how the reports are drawn up, and how +dates and figures have been selected to suit +conclusions. Having been a lawyer most of +your life you are well aware of the magical +properties of special pleading. In the hands of +a skillful apologist, the figures can be made to +mean anything. Better still, if you want to have +a glimpse of conditions of life in India, depute +an honest man of the type of Mr. Nevinson to +go to Indian villages unaccompanied by officials, +and see the things for himself; or to the slums +in towns. The slums of Calcutta, Bombay, +Madras, Lahore, Delhi, Cawnpore, Lucknow, +Benares, will throw the slums of London and +New York far back into the shade. The latter +are verily a paradise as compared with the former. +As to the villages, the less said the better.</p> + +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page33" id="page33"></a>[pg 33]</span> +The point is in fact conceded by all fair-minded +English publicists.</p> + +<p class="indent">The <i>Manchester Guardian</i>, only the other day, +discussing the recent increase in the cotton +duties, questioned "the wisdom and justice" of +this £100,000,000 exaction from India and admitted +that "the loss it represents to an extremely +poor population like that of India is very much +greater than the gain to England." Even the +<i>Morning Post</i>, that representative of Jingo Imperialism, +recognizes the extreme poverty of the +masses of India. I will not quote the <i>Nation</i> as +you do not like that journal. The moneyed +classes of India, the Rajas and Maharajas, the +bankers and mill owners, the industrial corporations +that will fill this loan could not find a more +profitable investment. They get 100 per cent. +stock for 95 and besides get from 5 to 5-1/2 per +cent. interest, in some cases free of income tax +for thirty years to come. Upon whom will the +burden of interest fall? Neither on the lender +nor on the borrower, but mainly on the ryot and +the laborer. Do you know, sir, that the average +price of salt (wholesale) in Lahore, Punjab, had +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page34" id="page34"></a>[pg 34]</span> +risen from R1-9-7 a maund in 1912-13 to R2-7-3 +in 1916-17? But that in retail sale "the average +price of salt per maund (82 lbs.) had risen from +R1-14-0 to R5-0-0" (<i>Tribune</i>, Lahore, March, +1917). The fresh taxation imposed since the +war, which by this loan-cum-gift transaction of +100 million sterling threatens to become permanent, +has raised the prices of the necessaries +of life to an abnormal extent. The wages remain +virtually the same. Your Government which employs +large numbers of laboring men in railways, +canals, and otherwise have not considered it +necessary to raise the wages of the workingmen. +Will the private employer do otherwise? I know +from personal knowledge how frightfully the +poor Indian clerk is sweated in the offices of your +Government in India on a mere pittance. Can't +you feel for the millions of those little ones +whose already scanty, insufficient food is still +further reduced by the fresh taxes imposed by +your Government to find means to pay the war +budget and this permanent addition of £6,000,000 +a year to their burden? Don't you know, sir, +that in India there are millions of widows (much +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page35" id="page35"></a>[pg 35]</span> +more than in any other country) who have to +support their little ones by their own toil and +that every penny of additional taxation hits them +hard. The hardships and privations imposed in +Europe by the war are nothing as compared with +what the Indian masses have been putting up +with, for the last fifty years or so. The fiscal +policy of your Government has ruined Indian +industry. You know it as well as anyone else. +Did you notice the letter of Mr. G. W. Forrest +in the London <i>Times</i> of March 14, 1917, wherein +he admitted that "the tale of England's dealing +with Indian industry was one of littleness +and injustice," and that "by positive prohibition +and heavy duties the Indian textile trade in +England was destroyed and our own trade was +fostered." You and your colleagues have used +grandiloquent rhetoric in your defense of the +increase in the cotton duties in India and over +your concern for India and Indian industries, +but you are mistaken if you think that anyone +in India is likely to be taken in by your hypocritical +professions. Pardon me, sir, I mean +no insult when I say "hypocritical professions." +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page36" id="page36"></a>[pg 36]</span> +The practice is a part of a modern statesman's +job. He has to create a certain atmosphere before +he can make his people believe that what he +does is the only correct thing to do.</p> + +<p class="indent">Your cotton duties, sir, afford no relief to the +Indian poor. It would not have hurt me much, +if you had forced or induced the Rajas and the +Maharajas, the bankers and the capitalists to +contribute even more than 100 million pounds to +the war expenses, as it is they who have grown +fat, if anyone in India has, under the British +regime, but to force the Indian ryot and the +Indian wage earner to do it and to continue to +pay for it for years to come out of his scanty +daily rations is the climax of cruelty. Then the +unkindest cut of all is that it should come from +you, whom we had associated with feelings of +kindness, and pity, for the poor and the workmen.</p> + +<p class="indent">Your Government has called it a free and +spontaneous gift of the people of India! If the +members of your cabinet, if the Secretary of +State for India, if the Governor General of +India and his ministers of the Executive Council, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page37" id="page37"></a>[pg 37]</span> +are the people of India, then truly you are right +and we wrong. If they are not the people of +India, as they are not, then it is a gift by yourself +to yourself, of other peoples' money. Again, +the statement that the measure was unanimously +approved of by the Indian members of the council +is a <i>diplomatic lie</i>. You know that the matter +was settled between your Cabinet as represented +by the Secretary of State for India and the +Viceroy's Executive Council (which includes +only one Indian member nominated by you), +before it was announced in the Legislative +Council. You know also, sir, and if you don't, +you ought to, that the Indian Legislative Council +has no power under the law to make any changes +in the budget. The budget is entirely beyond +their purview. The members can only extol it +or criticise it. They can propose resolutions disapproving +of some of its provisions which can +amount to nothing more than pious wishes even +if passed. But the official majority in the Council +guarantees the defeat of any hostile resolutions +by non-official members. Re this loan-cum-gift +transaction, the non-official members of the Legislative +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page38" id="page38"></a>[pg 38]</span> +Council put a seal on their mouths because +they thought it was useless to incur the risk of +being called disloyal for a matter which was reported +to them as a <i>fait accompli</i> and which they +could not in any way change or modify; yet two +of them did raise a sort of feeble protest.</p> + +<p class="center">IT IS NOT A GIFT BY THE PEOPLE OF INDIA</p> + +<p class="indent">The press comments on it, however subdued +and timid and halting, leave no doubt about the +real mind of India in the matter. The truth has +been pointed out by the <i>Manchester Guardian</i> +and the <i>Nation</i>. (Beg your pardon, sir, for +mentioning the <i>Nation</i> again). The former, in +its issue of March 15, remarked: "It is we, who +govern India and not the Indian people. The +initiative in all financial proposals necessarily +comes from the government we appoint in India, +and these cannot reach the light of public discussion +in the Legislative Council or elsewhere +until they have received the sanction of the +Secretary of State for India here. For Mr. +Chamberlain to throw off upon Indian people +the responsibility for originating and devising +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page39" id="page39"></a>[pg 39]</span> +the 100 million contribution is as unconvincing +a rhetorical exercise as the House of Commons +has witnessed for many a long day. The responsibility +from the first to the last is his and +that of the Indian Government. We have said +more than once, and we repeat it that in our +opinion a wise statesmanship would both find +better uses in India for India's millions and employ +India more advantageously for the common +cause by using more of her manhood and less of +her money," I will not quote the <i>Nation</i>, sir, +which is on this point as explicit, if not more, +as the <i>Manchester Guardian</i>.</p> + +<p class="indent">Now, sir, you know that India has been very +eager to fight for the Empire. She has supplied +you with about 350,000 troops in this war, paying +for their services and equipment herself. +But 350,000 do not represent even a fraction of +her man power, the whole of which she was prepared +to throw in this struggle. While Australia +and Canada and Ireland have either rejected conscription +or are shirking, India has been clamoring +for it. You can no longer say that you +could not utilize India's manhood because of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page40" id="page40"></a>[pg 40]</span> +prejudice of color. That shibboleth has been +shattered by this war and, we hope, for good. +The colored people of Asia and Africa are fighting +in numbers alongside of the best European +troops. Poor people! They believe they are +fighting to make the world "safe for democracy!" +You cannot say that Indians are lacking in fighting +qualities, because the existence of them in a +high degree they have proved conclusively in +face of difficulties, by no means light and contemptible. +That the Indian soldier can hold +his own in Europe, even better than the European +soldier in Southern Asia, has been established +beyond the shadow of a doubt by the +experiences of this war. Why, then, won't you +use India's manhood and relieve her of this +financial exaction which she can ill afford to +meet, without suffering egregiously?</p> + +<p class="center">INDIA'S TEEMING MILLIONS WANT FOOD AND<br /> +KNOWLEDGE OF THREE R'S</p> + +<p class="indent">The question for India's teeming millions is +not "how to live well" but how to live at all. +There is no question of comforts for them. What +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page41" id="page41"></a>[pg 41]</span> +they want, and do not get, is sufficient and +nourishing food and a knowledge of the three +R's. Your Government is unable to give them +the first, and persists in refusing to give them +the second; yet when an Indian publicist loses +patience and says "slavery has deprived Indians +of wealth, honors and freedom, and has reduced +them to destitution and starvation," your Viceroy +in India cites it as an instance of depraved +journalism and a justification for the gagging +of the press. He complains that "there are papers +in India which magnify the ills from which she +suffers" and "which harp upon plague, famine, +malaria and poverty" and "ascribe them all to the +curse of an alien government." May I ask, sir, +if it is not a fact that millions in India die of +famine, plague, and malaria? Is it not a fact +that the curses and the appalling effects of them, +are directly or indirectly traceable to poverty? +Many countries on the face of the earth do not +grow food sufficient for themselves while India +does. Why then should India alone suffer from +famines when her food supply, once in a while, +falls short of the ordinary year of agricultural +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page42" id="page42"></a>[pg 42]</span> +"prosperity?" If even during famine years +India can supply food to other nations by exports +of wheat and other grains, why can't she keep +that food at home and feed her own hungry +children? Why should plague have stayed in +India so long? Why should malaria exact such +a heavy annual toll there? The reason is obvious. +Because of the ignorance and poverty of +the people.</p> + +<p class="indent">Let us assume that India has not grown poorer +under British rule, though there is abundant +evidence to the contrary, that the masses have +become poorer and are becoming poorer every +day; let us also assume that in the matter of +education India was worse off under native rule—<i>i. e.</i>, +before the introduction of the British rule—a +period of history when no other part of the +world was any the better. Is it not a matter of +shame, that after 150 years of British rule, when +most of the other national governments in other +parts of the world have reduced their illiteracy +almost to zero point, India should still have more +than 90% of its population illiterate. Is it not a +matter of shame, that of all the grain producing +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page43" id="page43"></a>[pg 43]</span> +countries of the world India alone should be so +miserably situated as to be unable to supply sufficient +and nourishing food to her sons and +daughters. Don't you think, sir, that the Indians +have reason to feel sore when they see that the +food grown by them is denied to them; that it +is almost snatched from their mouths; that others +should eat the food which is grown by them, that +even in the best of years millions of them must +be contented with only one meal a day, and that +of the coarsest grain.</p> + +<p class="indent">Do you remember, Mr. Lloyd George, how +bitter you felt against the capitalist, when you +yourself in your boyhood, felt the pinch of want? +Have you forgotten all that you said in the Lime-house +speech? I repeat that the sufferings of +the British laborer and workingmen, the trials +of the British poor are nothing compared with +those of the Indian ryot and the Indian workingmen +and the Indian clerks in your employ in +that country. Yet you have no feeling to spare +for them, and those that have, you and your +Government brand as malcontents and seditionists. +Don't you think, sir, that the Indian ryot +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page44" id="page44"></a>[pg 44]</span> +and the Indian poor are being crushed under the +weight of two capitalisms superimposed upon +each other—one foreign and the other indigenous? +When we ask for freedom to manage +our own affairs you say we are not fit to do so. +But what can we do to ourselves which will be +worse than what you have done us? If left free, +we might bring to book the indigenous capitalists +whom, in the interests of your own capitalists, +you have been supporting and fattening. But +even if we fail to do so, we shall at any rate +have upon us the burden of only a single weight. +Your colleagues say that in refusing self-government +to India they are actuated by devotion +to India; that they do not want to hand over the +millions of India to the tender mercies of a small +minority of educated and wealthy men in whose +hands the government will inevitably drift. Supposing +it does, it will be easy for the masses to +keep the minority in check. They can revolt and +rebel, but under your Government the bureaucracy +is all powerful. The truth is, sir, that the condition +of these very millions, in whose interests, +you say, you are reluctant to give power to the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page45" id="page45"></a>[pg 45]</span> +educated and the wealthy few, is a standing condemnation +of your government there. The +educated minority and the wealthy few are fairly +well off under your regime. It is the ignorant +ryot and the millions of workingmen and women +who suffer. In the words of one of your distinguished +writers (W. Lily), they do not live +but just exist.</p> + +<p class="indent">Recently the <i>Times</i> said that the British were +"the trustees of the welfare of India's millions." +Who are these millions for whom you are trustees? +Are they those homeless, educationless +millions who get only one meal a day or are they +those who have benefitted from your schools and +are wealthy? If the former, you have failed in +your trust. If the latter, they are quite fit to +manage their own affairs. It was only the other +day that Mr. Austen Chamberlain was reported +to have said (<i>Times</i>, London, March 30) at a +luncheon given to him and the India's so-called +representatives at the Imperial conference (one +of whom was a Lieutenant Governor interested +in extending India's sphere of subjection) that +"India will not remain and ought not to remain +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page46" id="page46"></a>[pg 46]</span> +content to be a hewer of wood and a drawer of +water for the rest of the Empire." Noble words +these, full of hope and encouragement. But +what a sad and a crushing acknowledgment of +the present helpless condition of India. It is a +truthful statement for which the Indians ought +to be grateful to Mr. Chamberlain. At the +present moment India is a mere "hewer of wood +and a drawer of water" for the rest of the Empire. +Against that her sons protest, and will +continue to protest, as long as the wrongs of the +country are not redressed, your press act, your +sedition laws, jails and prisons notwithstanding.</p> + +<p class="indent">The position, Mr. Lloyd George, is pathetic. +When we ask for more outlay on education, you +say, no, the condition of the finances will not permit +of that. When we point out the way to find +finances, you say, "no, further taxes are impossible +and retrenchment in public expenditure in +other departments undesirable." When we say, +"give us the management and we will do it," you +say, "no you are unfit." The result is that you +will neither educate the masses yourself nor will +you let us educate them. Yet you hold their +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page47" id="page47"></a>[pg 47]</span> +ignorance a valid ground for refusing us our right +to manage our own affairs. When, however, you +want money for Imperial purposes you raise loans, +impose taxes, and reduce public expenditure on +education and public works. You have done this +not only now, for the purposes of this bloody +war, but you have done so in the past in building +railways for your merchants and to fight your +wars in Africa, in China, in Afghanistan, in fact, +all over the old world. It is true the present is +a trying time for you and you may have a pretence +of justification in this crisis in your Imperial +life. But so long as you refuse the conscription +of wealth in your home islands, what +right have you to impose this conscription of +India's money resources? You have not forced +the dominions to make monetary contributions. +In fact you have advanced them over £140,000,000 +from your own funds. You have not so far +called upon the British capitalists to pay even a +fraction of their wealth. You have simply taxed +their excessive profits. Why should you have +made an exception in the case of India? India +is the poorest part of the Empire. Yet it is she +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page48" id="page48"></a>[pg 48]</span> +who has been selected for this exceptional treatment. +She had already made lavish gifts of +money and provisions and equipment. Her gifts +were in entire disproportion to her means. Compared +with your dominions' resources and their +money sacrifices India's contribution stood higher +than those of the former. Yet you selected India +for this compulsory money contribution because +India is the only part of the Empire which you +could thus treat. India is the only part of the +Empire which has been forced to give $500,000,000 +as a <i>free gift</i>. Even the fabulously rich +United States which have made huge war profits +from you and your other allies have not thought +of a national gift. Yet imperial sophistry represented +by your imperial publicists and officials, +represents that Great Britain exacts no tribute +from India and makes no profit out of her connection +with India and that she rules India simply +out of philanthropic and humanitarian motives.</p> + +<p class="center">WASTE</p> + +<p class="indent">One would have thought that under the pressure +of the war, your Government in India would +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page49" id="page49"></a>[pg 49]</span> +make an honest and earnest effort to reduce expenditure +on public services, at least under heads +mainly ornamental or which only afford luxuries +to your agents in India; but on the other hand, +what is the actual situation? A perusal of the +proceedings of the Imperial Legislative Council +and also of the Provincial Councils shows that +all efforts made by the non-official members to +obtain additional money for education and sanitation +by the reduction of expenditure on luxuries, +were opposed by your Government, and were +consequently defeated. All efforts to reduce +expenditure on comforts were of course resisted +by those who enjoyed them, and it is they whose +votes count in the Indian Councils. For example, +it was proposed that the huge expenditure incurred +by the different Government Departments, +Imperial and Provincial, in moving to the Hills +for seven months of the year, should be reduced, +at least partially. Many persons competent to +express an opinion on the subject, among them +Lord Carmichael, the retiring Governor of Bengal, +have placed it on record that this "exodus to +the hills" was not necessary, and was in fact +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page50" id="page50"></a>[pg 50]</span> +prejudicial to the interests of good government; +yet the Government opposed the motion of the +non-official member and he was forced to withdraw +it. A similar motion to curtail the expenditure +on the ornamentation of the residence +of the Lieutenant Governor of the United Provinces +was also opposed and met a similar fate. +The huge allowances made to the heads of the +different governments in India for kitchen expenses, +for dispensing hospitality, and for traveling +in royal style have not been reduced by a +penny. The Punjab Government has provided +in its current budget a large amount of money +for providing palatial residences for its officers +in summer resorts, and has sanctioned large pensions, +from father to son, for a few of their +Indian supporters. These men are mostly +wealthy men. They did nothing more than +help you in your suppressive and exploiting +policy. Your Government naturally rewards +them. Is it not bribery. If an expert financier +were to examine into these items, which can +only pass unchallenged in a country wherein +the people have no voice in the raising of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page51" id="page51"></a>[pg 51]</span> +taxes and in spending them, it would be found +that great savings could be effected and the +money thus made available used for other urgent +needs of the people. The fact is that the Indian +ryot who pays for all these extravagances has +no voice to check the vagaries of those who +spend his money for their own comforts. I have +not mentioned the lavish scale on which special +traveling allowances are granted to high officials +in India. It is a matter of common knowledge +that these officials do not spend as much as they +draw under this head. Yet it is actually proposed +that the salaries and the allowances for +the European members of the Indian services be +substantially raised. <i>Verily, taxation without +representation</i> is a crime of the worst possible +kind.</p> + +<p class="center">DEMOCRACY</p> + +<p class="indent">Mr. Lloyd George, you and your colleagues in +the Government of Great Britain, say that in +fighting the Germans you are fighting the battle +of Democracy, to make the world safe from +autocracy and militarism, that you are fighting +for rights of small nations, and for the domination +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page52" id="page52"></a>[pg 52]</span> +of right over might. The United States +has joined the war for the same reason. I have +seen numerous recruiting posters exhibited in +New York City exhorting young Americans to +enlist in the army "to make the world safe" for +Democracy. I have not the slightest doubt of +the sincerity of the American professions because +their international record is so far clean. Vide +their record in Cuba and the Philippines. Can +we say the same for Great Britain? I am afraid +not, so long at least, as you continue to deny +self-government to India, the second of the two +biggest democracies of the world. Here is a +nation of 315 million human beings (or say +several nations, if you wish, as your publicists +are so fond of repeating <i>ad nauseam</i> that India +is not a nation) whom you are governing by the +force of might, without their consent, and on +absolutely despotic lines; whom you deny freedom +of speech, freedom of association and freedom +of education; whom you tax without their consent +and then spend those taxes outside of their +country, and in providing luxuries to your representatives +in India or in bribing such Indians as +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page53" id="page53"></a>[pg 53]</span> +uphold you in your possessions. I have no doubt +that you are sincere in your denunciation of +German militarism. For myself I have no use +for Czars and Kaisers, Emperors and Sultans, +and I dare say that you, too, have none. Thus +I am in full sympathy with your efforts to exterminate +the race of Kaisers. So far you are +right. But an Indian cannot help smiling rather +cynically when he hears you saying that you are +waging the war to make the world safe for +democracy. Your conduct in India and in Egypt, +and in Persia belies your protestations.</p> + +<p class="center">AS TO SMALL NATIONS</p> + +<p class="indent">In defending your conduct you urge that India +is not a nation. Very well, sir, divide India into +small nations and give them self-government +separately. You will admit that there are parts +of India which are homogenous, entitled to +be called small nations in the sense in which +Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark, and Holland +are. The bulk of the population follow the same +religion, speak the same language and belong to +the same race. Remember, please, that I do not +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page54" id="page54"></a>[pg 54]</span> +admit that India is not a nation or that the sameness +of language, religion and race is necessary +for a political national existence. Switzerland, +Canada, the United States, South Africa, Russia, +and Austria-Hungary have demolished that +theory.</p> + +<p class="indent">The apologists of the present system of Government +in India say that the Indian people are +not sufficiently educated in the principles and +practice of politics and that their ignorance and +illiteracy make it necessary for the British to +continue to rule them from without, until they +are fit to establish and maintain a democratic +form of government. I have already made some +remarks about illiteracy and shown that the responsibility +for it rests on your shoulders. If you, +sir, are to be the sole judge of the educational +requirements of the Indian people, their progress +is bound to hang on your convenience. No one +in possession is anxious to be dispossessed and +if the time and method of his dispossession is to +be determined by himself, then woe to the dispossessed! +But, sir, you forget that literacy is +not education. The Indian masses have a background +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page55" id="page55"></a>[pg 55]</span> +of centuries of culture which places them +in the matter of intelligence and character, in a +better position than even the literate millions of +European and American countries. And after +all, it is intelligence and culture that count most +in the fixing of final values.</p> + +<p class="indent">As for their training in political life, how are +they to get it, if you make it a penal offence for +their leaders to tell them that the present system +of Government is unnatural, harmful, and a +hindrance to progress? The masses cannot +grasp principles unless one illustrates these principles +by their application to the affairs of every +day life. Your Government and your courts say +that an agitation for home rule is legal and permissible, +but any criticism that is likely to create +dissatisfaction is illegal and deserves to be suppressed +high-handedly. You know from experience, +sir, that the masses require to be led. +No government is willing to make changes unless +compelled from below. That is as true of +democratic America as of monarchical England. +Much more must it be so in the case of countries +under foreign yoke. To carry the people with +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page56" id="page56"></a>[pg 56]</span> +them, the leaders must expose the existing evils +and stress the necessity and urgency of sweeping +changes in political conditions. The moment +they proceed to do so with any degree of effectiveness, +they are charged with an attempt to +create disaffection and convicted of sedition. Do +you honestly believe that any people on the face +of the earth can make any progress in political +education when they are ruled by a Press Act +which stops criticism and discussion in the following +terms:</p> + +<blockquote> +<p class="center"> +SECTION OF THE INDIAN PRESS ACT OF 1910</p> + +<p class="indent">Whenever it appears to the Local Government that +any printing press in respect of which any security +has been deposited as required by Section 3 is used +for the purpose of printing or publishing any newspaper, +book, or other document containing any words, +signs or visible representations which are likely to +have a tendency directly, or indirectly, whether by +inference, suggestion, allusion, metaphor, implication +or otherwise:</p> + +<p class="indent">(a) To incite to murder or to any offense under the +Explosives Substances Act of 1908, or to any act of +violence or</p> + +<p class="indent">(b) To seduce any officer, soldier, or sailor in the +Army or Navy of His Majesty from his allegiance or +his duty or</p> + +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page57" id="page57"></a>[pg 57]</span></p> + +<p class="indent"> +(c) To bring into hatred or contempt His Majesty +or the Government established by the law in British +India, or the Administration of Justice in British India +or any native Prince or Chief under the suzeranity of +His Majesty or any class or section of His Majesty's +subjects in British India or to excite disaffection +towards His Majesty or the said Government or any +such Prince or Chief or</p> + +<p class="indent">(d) To put any person in fear or to cause any annoyance +to him and thereby induce him to deliver to +any person any property or valuable security, or to +do any act which he is not legally bound to do or to +omit any act which he is legally entitled to do or</p> + +<p class="indent">(e) To encourage or incite any person to interfere +with the administration of the law or with the maintenance +of law and order or</p> + +<p class="indent">(f) To convey any threat of injury to a public +servant, or to any person in whom the public servant +is believed to be interested, with a view to inducing that +person to do any act or to forbear to do any act connected +with the exercise of his public functions the +Local Government may, by notice in writing to the +keeper of such printing press, stating or describing the +words, signs or visible representations which in its +opinion are of the nature described above, declare the +security deposited in respect of such Press and all +copies of such newspaper, book, or other document +wherever found to be forfeited to His Majesty.</p> + +<p class="indent"><span class="smcap">Explanation I</span>: In clause c the expression disaffection +includes disloyalty and all feelings of enmity.</p> + +<p class="indent"><span class="smcap">Explanation II</span>: Comments expressing the disapproval +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page58" id="page58"></a>[pg 58]</span> +of the measures of the Government of any such +native Prince or Chief as aforesaid with a view to +obtain their alteration by lawful means or of the administration +or other action of the Government or any +such native Prince or Chief or of the administration +of Justice in British India without exciting or attempting +to excite hatred, contempt, or disaffection, do not +come under the scope of clause c.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p class="indent">Can any people make headway in the art of +self-government who are governed by a foreign +bureaucracy aided by an army of Indian Czars +regulating the very minutest details of their life? +You know that this over government of India +is a direct result of your rule. Before you came +the Indian village was a self-governed unit. +(See statements of Monroe, Elphinstone, Metcalfe, +and Lawrence.) Even now the people in +the Native States are in this respect better off +than the people of British India. The Education +Minister of your Cabinet, Mr. H. A. L. Fisher +has, after a visit to India, placed it on record +that "the inhabitants of a well governed Native +State are, on the whole, happier and more contented +than the inhabitants of British India. +They are more lightly taxed; the pace of the +administration is less urgent and exacting. They +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page59" id="page59"></a>[pg 59]</span> +feel that they do things for themselves instead +of having everything done by a cold and alien +benevolence." Yet if an Indian leader were to +point this out and ask the Indian masses to improve +their lot by demanding and winning for +themselves the right to manage their own affairs, +and by driving out those influences that stand in +their way, he would be persecuted and imprisoned +or transported.</p> + +<p class="indent">The first axiom for political progress is that +the people should throw away their attitude of +submission to oppression, tyranny, high-handedness, +and conditions of slavery whether imposed +by a national or a foreign Government. They +have a right to revolt if they have the means to +do so successfully. But in any case, they have +a right to discuss, agitate and organize for +changes. This they cannot do unless they have a +free press, a free platform, and the right of free +association. In India the first is denied by the +Press Act, the second by the comprehensive sections +of the Penal Code, and the third by the so-called +"Seditious Meetings Act." What little was +left has been done away with under the extensive +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page60" id="page60"></a>[pg 60]</span> +powers taken and exercised by the Executive +under the plea of war exigency by the "Defense +of India Act." While every other part of the +Empire, including the "Mother Country" is discussing +political and economic changes of an +extremely radical character, such as the establishment +of a more effective Imperial Parliament +and Preferential Tariffs after the war, not to +speak of constructive programmes for education, +and industrial rejuvenation, the Indian leaders are +"officially" advised to be mum, and any effort to +rouse the country to a consciousness of its rights +and duties is characterized as perverted, ill-timed, +and inconsistent with loyalty.</p> + +<p class="indent">The advocates of "Home Rule" are being +openly hampered in their propaganda. Papers +advocating home rule have been persecuted, and +leaders have been prohibited from entering provincial +areas. But what is worse is that the +Criminal Investigation Department have been instructed +to take down the names of all those who +have enlisted in the cause, either as active or +passive workers. A deputation of representatives +of the press that waited on the Viceroy to lay +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page61" id="page61"></a>[pg 61]</span> +their grievances before him has been lectured on +the impropriety of thus raising the question at +this juncture and has otherwise been treated with +shocking discourtesy.</p> + +<p class="indent">In conclusion, let me ask you, sir, to notice the +coercive methods by which the War Loan is +being raised in India. Poor underpaid subordinate +officials are being forced to purchase Government +stock. They will surely purchase the stock +and win the good-will of their officers, but just +as surely they will squeeze the cost out of the +people. That will be strictly in accord with the +standards of loyalty set up by your officials!</p> + +<p class="indent">Mr. David Lloyd George, I have addressed +this letter to you, because at this moment you +seem to be the only British statesman possessed +of imagination. Exercise your imagination, sir, +a little and save India for the Empire; win the +gratitude and blessings of a fifth of the human +race—of a people who were one of the first +pioneers of civilization in the world, who laid +the foundations of culture, which you profess to +be so very anxious to save. Remember that the +Indians were rich, prosperous, free, self-governing, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page62" id="page62"></a>[pg 62]</span> +civilized and great, both in peace and war, +when not only Britain but even "Greece and +Rome were nursing the tenants of the wilderness." +The Indians have lost their freedom +because they oppressed the people under them +and as surely as night follows day, the British +will lose all that makes them great to-day, if +they continue to oppress and exploit the subject +races within their Empire. The world cannot +be safe for democracy unless India is self-governed. +Nor can there be any lasting peace in the +world, so long as India and China are not strong +enough to protect themselves.</p> + +<p class="indent">Pardon me, sir, if I have disturbed you at +such a critical moment; though it is folly to presume +that you could be disturbed in the slightest +degree by such a letter. I have written it out +of a sense of duty as sacred as that which inspires +you in your herculean task; and if you +are inclined to think harshly of me for this letter, +just try to put yourself in my position and decide +what then would be your point of view.</p> + +<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Lajpat Rai</span>.</p> + +<p>New York City, June 13, 1917.</p> + +<hr class="hr2" /> + +<div class="tnote"> +<h2>Transcriber Notes:</h2> + +<p class="indent">Passages in italics were indicated by _underscores_.</p> + +<p class="indent">Small caps were replaced with ALL CAPS.</p> + +<p class="indent">Throughout the dialogues, there were words used to mimic accents of +the speakers. Those words were retained as-is.</p> + +<p class="indent">Errors in punctuations and inconsistent hyphenation were not corrected +unless otherwise noted.</p> + +<p class="indent">Page 11, "Deva Bhúmi" was replaced with "Deva Bhúmí".</p> + +</div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of An Open Letter to the Right Honorable +David Lloyd George, by Lajpat Rai + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN OPEN LETTER TO THE RIGHT *** + +***** This file should be named 39874-h.htm or 39874-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/8/7/39874/ + +Produced by spend, Ernest Schaal, and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + +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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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/license + + +Title: An Open Letter to the Right Honorable David Lloyd George + Prime Minister of Great Britain + +Author: Lajpat Rai + +Release Date: June 1, 2012 [EBook #39874] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN OPEN LETTER TO THE RIGHT *** + + + + +Produced by spend, Ernest Schaal, and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + + + _OTHER BOOKS BY LAJPAT RAI_ + + YOUNG INDIA + + _An Interpretation and a History of the + Nationalist Movement from Within_ + + Price $1.50 net + + + ENGLAND'S DEBT TO INDIA + + _A Historical Narrative of Britain's + Fiscal Policy in India_ + + Price $2.00 net + + + THE ARYA SAMAJ + + _An Account of its Origins, + Doctrines and Activities_ + + Price $1.75 net + + + OBTAINABLE FROM ALL BOOKSELLERS + + + + + AN OPEN LETTER + + TO + + THE RIGHT HONORABLE + DAVID LLOYD GEORGE + PRIME MINISTER OF GREAT BRITAIN + + + BY + LAJPAT RAI + + [Illustration] + + + NEW YORK + B. W. HUEBSCH + MCMXVII + + + + + Copyright, 1917, by Lajpat Rai + Printed in the United States of America + + + + + AN OPEN LETTER + TO + THE RIGHT HONORABLE + DAVID LLOYD GEORGE + _Prime Minister of Great Britain_ + + + + + AN OPEN LETTER + TO + THE RIGHT HONORABLE + DAVID LLOYD GEORGE + _Prime Minister of Great Britain_ + + +Sir: I am an Indian who has, by the fear of your Government in India +been forced to seek refuge in the United States, at least for the period +of the war. In 1907, when Lord Minto's Government decided to put into +operation an obsolete Regulation of the East India Company (III of 1818) +against me, in order to put me out of the way, for a while, without even +the form of a trial, Lord Morley, the then Secretary of State for India, +defending his action, gave me the highest testimonial as far as my +private character was concerned. You must have heard that speech though +it would be presumptuous to imagine that you remember it. + + + MY CREDENTIALS + +Even my worst enemies have not been able to point out anything in my +life which would give any one even the shadow of a reason to say that, +in my private life, I have not been as good and honorable a person as +any British politician or diplomat or proconsul, is or has been or can +be. My record as a wage-earner is as clean and as honorable as that of +the best of Britishers engaged in governing India. + +Mr. H. W. Nevinson, than whom a more truthful and honorable publicist is +not known in British life, has said in his work, "The New Spirit in +India," that once when he told a high Anglo-Indian official that I was a +good man held in great esteem by my countrymen, the latter remarked, +that because I had a high character in private life, I was the more +dangerous as an agitator. + +I am reciting all this as evidence of my credentials to speak on +behalf of my countrymen. Just now I am a mere exile. For the present, +I cannot think of returning to India, unless in course of time I begin +to feel that by running the risk of being hanged or imprisoned, I +should be doing a greater service to my country, than by remaining +outside. I am now in the fifty-third year of my life, out of which +more than thirty-four were spent in the limelight of public gaze. I am a +man of family with children and grandchildren and have had my share, +however small, of the good things of the world. Political freedom for +India has been a passion to me ever since I was a boy. However hard the +life of an exile or a convict may be, I am prepared to risk everything +in the cause of my country. + +In the language of that prince of political exiles, Joseph Mazzini, the +word "exile," is perhaps the most cursed in the dictionary of man. It +dries up the springs of affection; it deprives its victims of the sweet +babblings and lispings of his little ones with whom every man of age +loves to beguile the evening of his days; it closes the avenues of all +comfort that are associated with that sweet word home; it shuts the +doors of heaven and makes life a continued agony, hanging on the slender +thread of such pity and hospitality as one may receive from the generous +and kind-hearted foreigner. + + + INDIA COMPARED WITH GREAT BRITAIN + +How can I ask you who have perhaps never left your country except for +some pleasant trips on the Continent, to put yourself in my position, if +possible, for a moment only, and imagine how I long to kiss the soil, +with which are mixed the bones of my mother and other forbears; how I +miss the loving embrace of my beloved father, the sweet, expectant, +imploring eyes of my widowed daughter, the devoted look of my wife and +the kindly affectionate hand-shake of good and devoted friends. Nor can +you realize how an Indian loves his country. How can you, of dark, +sombre, fog ridden and misty climes, who are born of a chill atmosphere, +of treacherously changing weather, who count hours of sunshine and +months of darkness and fog and rain and snow and sleet, enter into the +feelings of one whose country is a perpetual sunshine, and where +universal light reigns--a country where weather is neither treacherous +nor continually and rapidly changing, where beautiful dawns, starry +nights, moonlit fields, resplendent waters, snow-clad hills and joyous +rivers constantly and unremittingly fill one's mind with the sublimity, +grandeur and beauty of nature; where one needs no stimulants to make him +feel lighter and happier. An Indian needs no alcohol to forget his +troubles. He has only to go to the Himalaya, or to the banks of Ganga, +Brahmputra, Sindh or their numerous tributaries by which the land is +blessed and fertilized. Oh, no! It is impossible for you to understand +how passionately an Indian loves his country. He would rather starve in +India than be a ruler of men in a foreign climate. For him, India is the +land of Gods--the _Deva Bhumi_ of his forefathers. It is the land of +knowledge, of faith, of beatitude--the _Gnan Bhumi_, the _Dharma Bhumi_ +and the _Punni-Bhumi_ of the ancient Aryas. It is the land of the Vedas +and of the heroes--the _Veda Bhumi_ and the _Vir Bhumi_ of his +ancestors. Yes, to him, it is the land of lands, the only place where he +wishes to live, and more so, where he wishes to die. For a Hindu to die +anywhere but in India, is as if he had been damned to hell. He shudders +at the idea. To him, it is unthinkable. You may call it foolish, +unpractical, sentimental and unprogressive; but there it is--a mighty +fact of life into which no foreigner can penetrate. + +Every Englishman loves his country, its darkness, its fog, its sleet and +rain nothwithstanding. Who does not love his country and who does not +say: + + Home, kindred, friends and country--these + Are ties with which we never part; + From clime to clime, o'er land and seas, + We bear them in our heart; + But, oh! 'tis hard to feel resigned, + When they must all be left behind! + + --J. MONTGOMERY. + +If then, an Indian decides to be an exile, voluntarily and maybe for +life, he only does so either under a grave sense of duty or of danger. +The duty lies in speaking _the truth_ about political conditions in +India and the danger in being effectively prevented from doing so if he +remains there. No Indian can speak the _whole truth_ while in India. The +criminal laws of your Government--your Penal and Criminal Codes, +Seditious Meetings and Conspiracy Acts, and Press Laws, your tribunals +presided over by your own people unaided by jurors--effectively gag his +mouth. + +All honor to those who, though they cannot speak the whole truth, yet +keep the fire burning in India and do as much as considerations of +policy and expediency permit. If they do not speak the _whole truth_, +they have at least the consolation of being at home, in the heart of +their family and surrounded by their dear ones. For a political exile, +however, there is nothing else to do, unless he has to carry on a fight +for his living also, in which case he will divide his time between the +two, that of earning bread and crying for justice for his country. +Happily I have been comparatively free from much anxiety about the +first. The only justification for my condition of exile, then, is that I +continue to speak the truth about conditions in India and draw the +attention of the world to them. + +But an additional reason has just been furnished to me by the morning +papers of March 15, 1917. It is said that your agents in India have +decided to raise a war loan of $500,000,000, equivalent to 1,500,000,000 +Rupees of Indian money, and also, to make the floating of the loan easy, +your Government has agreed to increase the duty on cotton imports by 4% +_ad valorem_. This war loan, it is added, would be a "_free gift_" of +India to Great Britain! A free gift of $500,000,000 by starving, +poverty-stricken India, to rich, wealthy, mighty Great Britain! Could +anything be more astounding, more absurd and more tyrannical. The news +has stunned me. I know that David Lloyd George, the British war-lord of +1917, is not the same person who was the radical Chancellor of Exchequer +in the Liberal Government from 1908 to 1914, and who did magnificent +service to the British workingman by reducing his burdens and +alleviating his condition. I have been told that the said David Lloyd +George is dead and you, sir, are an entirely different person. The Lloyd +George of 1914 could not possibly have done the thing which you, sir, in +alliance with Curzons and Milners have just accomplished. The newspapers +say you are the same person; only you have changed. If so, the change is +not of opinion but of personality. Evidently the soul of the original +David Lloyd George has left the body to make room for an altogether +different soul. We Indians believe in the possibility of such a +metamorphosis taking place even in the lifetime of the same body! The +best part of the joke, however, in connection with the L100,000,000 +transaction lies in the fact that you call it _a gift by India_--_a gift +indeed_. A gift like those given by Belgium to Germany. Is it not so, +Mr. George? You are a shrewd person, very well educated, clever in +diplomacy, well versed in tricks of speech and a master in statecraft; +but even you ought to know that this trick will not deceive any one--not +even the Indians who have been so often deceived by your predecessors in +business. By way of adding insult to injury, you profess to do "_an act +of justice_" to India by consenting to an increase of 4% on the duty +leviable on imports of cotton goods. You say it is necessary for the +success of the war loan of $500,000,000; but do you think that the +Indians are so devoid of knowledge of the ordinary rules of arithmetic +as not to understand what this "hitting below the belt" means to them? +Your additional duty would but bring only $5,000,000 or $6,000,000 to +the Indian exchequer, if the imports of cotton do not undergo a +decrease. Your Government in India estimates it at L1,000,000 sterling. +The interest at 5-1/2% amounts to $27,500,000. Your Government in India +estimates an annual charge of L6,000,000 sterling. Where is the balance +to come from except from the famished Indian _ryot_? Is that how you +show your love for democracy, for the people at large, for the +workingman? Your representatives in India and outside, are proclaiming +to the world that India is the most lightly taxed country in the world, +withholding the fact that the average income of an Indian is only L2 a +year, of which he pays 7 shillings toward taxes. That was before the new +taxes were imposed. + +Your publicists circulate another lie, viz., that India pays no tribute, +while they know that from 20 to 40 millions sterling are remitted to +England every year, out of which only a portion represents interest on +loans made to India for the building of railways which your countrymen +have used in developing their trade, and the remainder is the profit you +make out of India. Then you cite the figures of trade in support of your +theory that India is prosperous under British rule, but you forget that +that trade benefits your country more than it benefits India, if at all. +We send you food and raw materials at cheapest prices, making ourselves +liable to "famines." You pay us in articles of luxury, of flimsy value, +at the highest prices. The balance of trade is always in your favor. We +toil and sweat, and your countrymen enjoy the profit. All the paying +industries, railways, tea, jute, half of the cotton industry, etc., are +in the hands of your countrymen. Theirs are the insurance companies, +banks, railways and ships that profit by their trade. The railway rates +discriminate against native industries and internal trade. Your +countrymen get the plum-pudding, while our people cannot have even two +meals of the coarsest food every day. When there is famine, millions +die. Of late, your "scientific" methods of famine relief have succeeded +in controlling mortality figures in famine days. The method by which you +do this is genuinely scientific. Most of the deaths are charged to +epidemics and disease; no one notices, however, that the havoc caused by +disease is due to lack of nourishment and consequent low vitality. +God-fearing Englishmen have cried themselves hoarse over the situation. +The misery of the Indian masses has been pictured by their powerful pens +in pathetic and soul-stirring words, but you and your colleagues still +continue to ignore what they have said. New methods are every day being +invented to exploit us. New departments with fat salaries for Englishmen +are being multiplied. The public debt is being piled up. While hundreds +of millions are spent on railways, nothing has been done to develop +local industries. The country is suffering from lack of capital (cash +and credit). (See Sir D. M. Hamilton's article in the _Calcutta Review_ +for July, 1916.) Every honest inquirer who makes inquiries on the spot +and does not depend on the reports of your officials, finds and reports +that the condition of the masses is the most pitiable (see the article +by Mr. Manohar Lal in the _Allahabad Economic Journal_ for April, 1916, +and also the paper by Mr. Patro, of Madras, read in a meeting presided +over by the Governor of Madras). For the latest British testimony on the +point, see an article on Indian Industrial Development by Mr. Moreland, +C.S.I., C.I.E., in the _Quarterly Review_ for April, 1917, in the course +of which he remarks: "It is a matter of common knowledge that the +standard of life in India is undesirably low; that while the masses of +the people are provided with the bare necessities of life of a bare +existence [Are they?--L. R.] they are in far too many cases badly housed +and badly clothed, badly doctored and badly taught, often overworked and +often underfed; and that the present income, even if it were equitably +distributed, would not suffice to provide the population with even the +most indispensable elements of a reasonable life." + +A careful study of the Reports on Prices and Wages discloses that the +real living wage in the case of the vast bulk of agricultural laborers +has considerably diminished, and this in spite of the absurd conclusion +of the Prices Commission appointed by your Government a few years ago. +No one knows better than you, Mr. David Lloyd George, that big buildings +in cities, mostly owned by foreign capitalists exploiting the country; +big trade carried on by foreign exporters and importers; railway mileage +and receipts of Government revenue do not mean prosperity. Even the +importation of treasure secured by capitalists in payment for exports +does not indicate better conditions of the masses. If the masses are so +prosperous, as your officers say, why cannot you tax the people for +purposes of education and sanitation? Why is the death rate so high +(over 30 per thousand)? Why can't you force the local bodies to spend +money on education and sanitation? Why do your finance ministers say +that there is no room for further taxes? Most of your agents in India +know the real condition of the people but they have to conceal it from +the British public as well as the world, as that enables them and their +kin to continue in the enjoyment of that power which means so much to +them. + +In reply, you might well ask, why then is India loyal? Why do the people +put up with all this? Why don't they rebel? Because they have been +emasculated, and emasculated so completely, that they are absolutely +helpless against your organized brigandage. They are weak, ignorant and +incompetent. Sixty-four years ago they were not so helpless. But now +they are completely demoralized and penniless. Your system has ground +them into dust. They cannot even protect themselves from wild beasts. +You have completely disarmed them. No Indian can possess a firearm +except under a license from your magistrates, which is only rarely +granted. You have completely hypnotized them by your professions of +disinterested liberalism and altruism. The truth has, after all, dawned +on them that you are the worst harpies they ever have had and if they +could they would overthrow you without a scruple. You know that you are +safe in their helplessness. When the war came they deluded themselves +with the hope that in your hour of need you might accord them a better +treatment, but by this time they have found their mistake and have +concluded that, just as a lion may die of sheer exhaustion when attacked +by an enemy rather than willingly loosen his grip on his prey so long as +there is breath in his body, so a nation holding another in subjection +might endanger her own existence without loosening her grip on her +victim. + +When the war broke out in August, 1914, I, with other Indian publicists, +thought that however badly you had treated us in the past we had nothing +to gain by German victory and the best thing, under the circumstances, +was for us to stand by you and establish our claim to better treatment. +The Princes and people of India therefore stood by you. You and your +colleagues have been singing their praises and extolling their loyalty, +but nothing has been done so far to give them even the elementary +political rights of a free people. Verily, we have had a deluge of fine +words but not an iota of deeds. On the other hand, you have imposed +fresh burdens on us. While doing an "act of justice" about the cotton +duties you have committed a wrong which wipes away the little good that +might otherwise have been expected to accrue therefrom. Your courts and +officers in India have taken away what little freedom the people enjoyed +before. In cases of alleged sedition the sentences inflicted have been +quite on a par with the doings of the Romanoffs in Russia. This time +even women have felt your steel. + +You knew as well as anyone else does, how the German government has been +trying to win the good will of the Indians. It cannot be denied that the +temptation was alluring. If, then, we have withstood it, it was not +because we were in love with your Government in India, but on different +grounds. Personally, I do not believe that any liberty is worth having +which we cannot win ourselves, because liberty won by the aid of another +places us at the mercy of that other. European diplomacy is so crooked +that it is futile to place faith in the promises of any of them. + +I would esteem German friendship as much as British or American or that +of the Japanese or the Chinese; I would gratefully accept any help +anybody would render in educating and fitting our young men for the +coming task, but I would not do anything that would cause useless +bloodshed in India. I am not afraid of blood. Blood will have to be shed +if we are to gain our freedom. I am not afraid of failures and defeats. +Failures and defeats are sometimes the necessary steps to victory. I do +not believe in peace at any price; nor pacificism at any cost. I do not +believe that "they also serve who only stand and wait." I am for a manly +assertion of our rights, even though blood may have to be spilled in +asserting or defending them; yet I would consider it highly improper to +encourage bloodshed where there is not a ghost of a chance of success. +That, in my eyes, is sheer lunacy and I have never made a secret of it. +So I protested against my people attempting to stir up revolt in India, +under the instigation of a foreign government. It was due to my horror +of useless bloodshed. I have no doubt that _agents provocateur_ played +an important part in instigating those whom your courts have found +guilty and sent to the gallows. I believe that the men who have been +sacrificed should have lived and worked for the movement for which they +have died. So that, in a nutshell, gives you my attitude towards foreign +help. Remember, please, sir, that I do not presume to pronounce any +judgment on those who think differently and have acted in the light of +their consciences. I simply state my opinion and my attitude. + +This time the movement has failed. It was bound to fail. But the +experience which the Indians engaged in the cause have gained is not +lost. Next time, and who knows, the chance may come at no distant date, +they will profit by the experience thus gained. The world is not in love +with you, sir. There are a dozen peoples in the world who will be glad +to see your downfall and help in bringing it about. They will not +support the Indian Nationalist and the Indian Revolutionist openly, but +they will encourage him in every way they can, without bringing about +diplomatic complications. So the Indian will not be altogether +friendless when the next opportunity to strike comes. By that time the +country also will be better prepared to do something more definite and +more spectacular. + +Under the circumstances, the question that I wish to put to you is: +"Would you do nothing to avert it?" It is in your power to act if you +will. The Indians are very easily satisfied. They abhor bloodshed. They +do not like revolution. They will gladly remain in the Empire, if +permitted to do so on terms of self-respect and honor. Their needs are +few. Their life is simple. They care more for spiritual values than for +worldly goods. They envy nobody's property. They have no ambition to +start on a career of exploitation. All they want is to be let to live +and think as they will. At present they are let _to exist_, but not to +live. More than 100 million are insufficiently fed. At least 60 millions +do not get two meals a day. More than 80% of the boys receive no +schooling, and more than 90% of the girls. They work and toil and sweat +primarily in the interests of the British capitalist and secondarily in +the interests of his Indian colleague. The latter only gets the leavings +of the former. The ships, the railways, the leading banking houses, the +big insurance offices, the tea plantations, one-half of the cotton +mills, about all the woollen mills, most of the paper mills, all jute +mills are owned by the former; a few by the latter. The profits of +agriculture are divided between your Government and the big landlords. +The pressure on land has reduced the size of the ryots' holdings, while +the number of mouths requiring food and the number of bodies requiring +clothing has increased. + +Your Government encourages drinking, speculating and gambling in a way +never before conceived. If you have any pity in your heart, sir; if you +are a good father and a good husband, I would beseech you to devote but +an hour's time to the wages tables printed by your Government in their +Report on Prices and Wages (1915). I give a few samples below: + +In the district of Patna (Behar), the monthly wage of an able-bodied +agricultural laborer in the year 1907 was only R5.62 (say R6) equal to +8s. or $2. In 1873 it was from R3 to R4. Imagine the laborer having a +family of four and then conceive how he manages to live on this wage. In +Fyzabad (Oude) the monthly wage of an able-bodied agricultural laborer +was only R4 (5s. 4d. or $1.33) in 1905, the same as it was in 1873. In +1906 it is given as ranging from R1.87 to R4 a month. From 1873 to 1906 +it was never more than R4 a month. + +In Cawnpore (U. P.) it was R3.75 in 1873; R3 in 1892; less than 4 in +1896; from 3.44 to R5 in 1898 and from R3.69 to 7 in 1903; at which +figure it practically stayed up to 1906, the last year for which figures +are given in the report. + +In Meerut (U. P.) it was R4.33 in 1906 as against R4.5 in 1873. + +In Belgaun (Madras) it was R6.25 in 1912. + +In Jubbulpore (C. P.) it was R5 in 1908. + +In Raipur (C. P.) it was R5 in 1908. + +In Bellary (Madras) it was R4.75 in 1907. + +In Salem (Madras) it has never exceeded R3.67 since 1873. + +The Government postal runners who carry mails at a trotting pace for +several miles a day, often making two trips in 24 hours, are paid the +following salaries in the different provinces of your Indian Empire: + + Bengal 1913, R7.75 a month, $2.58 + Behar and Orissa " 6.33 " 2.10 + United Provinces " 6.25 " 2.08 + Panjab and N.W.F " 7.75 " 2.58 + Bombay " 7.5 " 2.35 + Central Provinces " 7. " 2.33 + Madras " 7.11 " 2.40 + (The equivalents in dollars are approximate.) + +Postmen who are supposed to be literate, received from R10 to R16 a +month (_i. e._, from $3.33 to $5.33 a month) in the different provinces +in 1913. + +The scale of wages allowed to unskilled labor in the railway yards of +Mirzapore and Cawnpore (U. P.) is given between R5 to R6 per month +(_i. e._, less than $2.00). These are figures of 1914. + +In the canal foundry and workshop at Roorkee (U. P.) the daily wage in +1916 was only 4 annas a day (_i. e._, 8 cents). + +In the Cawnpore saddlery establishment, the bullock drivers, the +sweepers and the _Bhishties_ received only R5 and R6 a month (_i. e._, +less than 8s. or $2.00); the lascars from R6 to R7 (_i. e._, $2.00 to +$2.33). + +In the woolen mills in Northern India unskilled labor was paid at R8.12 +(_i. e._, less than $3.00) a month in 1914. These are the rates allowed +in big cities. For other big cities the rates may, in some cases, be +somewhat better, but in small rural towns and villages, they are +considerably less. + +Does the Indian laborer, considering his standard of life, the size of +his family and the requirements of decency, get a living wage? I am sure +that a humane inquirer, not so much interested in the good name of the +Government as in truth, will have no hesitation in answering the +question in the negative. Any increase in wages has to be divided over +the average strength of a family, which will show how disproportionate +the increase in wages is to the increase in prices. In a family of five +with one or two earning hands the increase in wages is two-fold at the +most. While the increase in the cost of living by the increase in prices +is five-fold. Your Official Report writers always ignore this important +consideration. As for the housing conditions in which Indian workmen +live, let me present to you the following testimony from a recent issue +of the _Times of India_, Bombay (quoted in the London _Times_, June, +1917): + + "It is no unusual sight to find fifteen or twenty persons, of + both sexes, lying huddled on the floor of a single room in a + stifling atmosphere and a vile stench. A single small window or + an open door gives the only ventilation. Furniture there is + none, beyond a few brass pots and some pegs. The sanitary + arrangements are unspeakable. Every noise and smell that occurs + in the neighborhood penetrates the crazy walls and floor and + disturbs the sleepers. The chawls are often so rickety that it + is a miracle that they do not collapse under their own weight. + They seem to be kept up like a house of cards, by the support of + their scarcely less rickety neighbors." + +As for the Indian laborer getting any education or any leisure for art +or for the pursuit of taste, that is out of the question. The condition +of the small farmer or _ryot_ is even worse. Sir, if you are ever +inclined to study the actual conditions of life in India, do not rely +upon the "conclusions" of your officers as embodied in reports. Study +the facts, given in the reports, but disregard the conclusions. If you +seek the aid of an Indian Nationalist he may show you how the reports +are drawn up, and how dates and figures have been selected to suit +conclusions. Having been a lawyer most of your life you are well aware +of the magical properties of special pleading. In the hands of a +skillful apologist, the figures can be made to mean anything. Better +still, if you want to have a glimpse of conditions of life in India, +depute an honest man of the type of Mr. Nevinson to go to Indian +villages unaccompanied by officials, and see the things for himself; or +to the slums in towns. The slums of Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, Lahore, +Delhi, Cawnpore, Lucknow, Benares, will throw the slums of London and +New York far back into the shade. The latter are verily a paradise as +compared with the former. As to the villages, the less said the better. + +The point is in fact conceded by all fair-minded English publicists. + +The _Manchester Guardian_, only the other day, discussing the recent +increase in the cotton duties, questioned "the wisdom and justice" of +this L100,000,000 exaction from India and admitted that "the loss it +represents to an extremely poor population like that of India is very +much greater than the gain to England." Even the _Morning Post_, that +representative of Jingo Imperialism, recognizes the extreme poverty of +the masses of India. I will not quote the _Nation_ as you do not like +that journal. The moneyed classes of India, the Rajas and Maharajas, the +bankers and mill owners, the industrial corporations that will fill this +loan could not find a more profitable investment. They get 100 per cent. +stock for 95 and besides get from 5 to 5-1/2 per cent. interest, in some +cases free of income tax for thirty years to come. Upon whom will the +burden of interest fall? Neither on the lender nor on the borrower, but +mainly on the ryot and the laborer. Do you know, sir, that the average +price of salt (wholesale) in Lahore, Punjab, had risen from R1-9-7 a +maund in 1912-13 to R2-7-3 in 1916-17? But that in retail sale "the +average price of salt per maund (82 lbs.) had risen from R1-14-0 to +R5-0-0" (_Tribune_, Lahore, March, 1917). The fresh taxation imposed +since the war, which by this loan-cum-gift transaction of 100 million +sterling threatens to become permanent, has raised the prices of the +necessaries of life to an abnormal extent. The wages remain virtually +the same. Your Government which employs large numbers of laboring men in +railways, canals, and otherwise have not considered it necessary to +raise the wages of the workingmen. Will the private employer do +otherwise? I know from personal knowledge how frightfully the poor +Indian clerk is sweated in the offices of your Government in India on a +mere pittance. Can't you feel for the millions of those little ones +whose already scanty, insufficient food is still further reduced by the +fresh taxes imposed by your Government to find means to pay the war +budget and this permanent addition of L6,000,000 a year to their burden? +Don't you know, sir, that in India there are millions of widows (much +more than in any other country) who have to support their little ones by +their own toil and that every penny of additional taxation hits them +hard. The hardships and privations imposed in Europe by the war are +nothing as compared with what the Indian masses have been putting up +with, for the last fifty years or so. The fiscal policy of your +Government has ruined Indian industry. You know it as well as anyone +else. Did you notice the letter of Mr. G. W. Forrest in the London +_Times_ of March 14, 1917, wherein he admitted that "the tale of +England's dealing with Indian industry was one of littleness and +injustice," and that "by positive prohibition and heavy duties the +Indian textile trade in England was destroyed and our own trade was +fostered." You and your colleagues have used grandiloquent rhetoric in +your defense of the increase in the cotton duties in India and over your +concern for India and Indian industries, but you are mistaken if you +think that anyone in India is likely to be taken in by your hypocritical +professions. Pardon me, sir, I mean no insult when I say "hypocritical +professions." The practice is a part of a modern statesman's job. He has +to create a certain atmosphere before he can make his people believe +that what he does is the only correct thing to do. + +Your cotton duties, sir, afford no relief to the Indian poor. It would +not have hurt me much, if you had forced or induced the Rajas and the +Maharajas, the bankers and the capitalists to contribute even more than +100 million pounds to the war expenses, as it is they who have grown +fat, if anyone in India has, under the British regime, but to force the +Indian ryot and the Indian wage earner to do it and to continue to pay +for it for years to come out of his scanty daily rations is the climax +of cruelty. Then the unkindest cut of all is that it should come from +you, whom we had associated with feelings of kindness, and pity, for the +poor and the workmen. + +Your Government has called it a free and spontaneous gift of the people +of India! If the members of your cabinet, if the Secretary of State for +India, if the Governor General of India and his ministers of the +Executive Council, are the people of India, then truly you are right and +we wrong. If they are not the people of India, as they are not, then it +is a gift by yourself to yourself, of other peoples' money. Again, the +statement that the measure was unanimously approved of by the Indian +members of the council is a _diplomatic lie_. You know that the matter +was settled between your Cabinet as represented by the Secretary of +State for India and the Viceroy's Executive Council (which includes only +one Indian member nominated by you), before it was announced in the +Legislative Council. You know also, sir, and if you don't, you ought to, +that the Indian Legislative Council has no power under the law to make +any changes in the budget. The budget is entirely beyond their purview. +The members can only extol it or criticise it. They can propose +resolutions disapproving of some of its provisions which can amount to +nothing more than pious wishes even if passed. But the official majority +in the Council guarantees the defeat of any hostile resolutions by +non-official members. Re this loan-cum-gift transaction, the +non-official members of the Legislative Council put a seal on their +mouths because they thought it was useless to incur the risk of being +called disloyal for a matter which was reported to them as a _fait +accompli_ and which they could not in any way change or modify; yet two +of them did raise a sort of feeble protest. + + + IT IS NOT A GIFT BY THE PEOPLE OF INDIA + +The press comments on it, however subdued and timid and halting, leave +no doubt about the real mind of India in the matter. The truth has been +pointed out by the _Manchester Guardian_ and the _Nation_. (Beg your +pardon, sir, for mentioning the _Nation_ again). The former, in its +issue of March 15, remarked: "It is we, who govern India and not the +Indian people. The initiative in all financial proposals necessarily +comes from the government we appoint in India, and these cannot reach +the light of public discussion in the Legislative Council or elsewhere +until they have received the sanction of the Secretary of State for +India here. For Mr. Chamberlain to throw off upon Indian people the +responsibility for originating and devising the 100 million contribution +is as unconvincing a rhetorical exercise as the House of Commons has +witnessed for many a long day. The responsibility from the first to the +last is his and that of the Indian Government. We have said more than +once, and we repeat it that in our opinion a wise statesmanship would +both find better uses in India for India's millions and employ India +more advantageously for the common cause by using more of her manhood +and less of her money," I will not quote the _Nation_, sir, which is on +this point as explicit, if not more, as the _Manchester Guardian_. + +Now, sir, you know that India has been very eager to fight for the +Empire. She has supplied you with about 350,000 troops in this war, +paying for their services and equipment herself. But 350,000 do not +represent even a fraction of her man power, the whole of which she was +prepared to throw in this struggle. While Australia and Canada and +Ireland have either rejected conscription or are shirking, India has +been clamoring for it. You can no longer say that you could not utilize +India's manhood because of the prejudice of color. That shibboleth has +been shattered by this war and, we hope, for good. The colored people of +Asia and Africa are fighting in numbers alongside of the best European +troops. Poor people! They believe they are fighting to make the world +"safe for democracy!" You cannot say that Indians are lacking in +fighting qualities, because the existence of them in a high degree they +have proved conclusively in face of difficulties, by no means light and +contemptible. That the Indian soldier can hold his own in Europe, even +better than the European soldier in Southern Asia, has been established +beyond the shadow of a doubt by the experiences of this war. Why, then, +won't you use India's manhood and relieve her of this financial exaction +which she can ill afford to meet, without suffering egregiously? + + + INDIA'S TEEMING MILLIONS WANT FOOD AND + KNOWLEDGE OF THREE R'S + +The question for India's teeming millions is not "how to live well" but +how to live at all. There is no question of comforts for them. What they +want, and do not get, is sufficient and nourishing food and a knowledge +of the three R's. Your Government is unable to give them the first, and +persists in refusing to give them the second; yet when an Indian +publicist loses patience and says "slavery has deprived Indians of +wealth, honors and freedom, and has reduced them to destitution and +starvation," your Viceroy in India cites it as an instance of depraved +journalism and a justification for the gagging of the press. He +complains that "there are papers in India which magnify the ills from +which she suffers" and "which harp upon plague, famine, malaria and +poverty" and "ascribe them all to the curse of an alien government." May +I ask, sir, if it is not a fact that millions in India die of famine, +plague, and malaria? Is it not a fact that the curses and the appalling +effects of them, are directly or indirectly traceable to poverty? Many +countries on the face of the earth do not grow food sufficient for +themselves while India does. Why then should India alone suffer from +famines when her food supply, once in a while, falls short of the +ordinary year of agricultural "prosperity?" If even during famine years +India can supply food to other nations by exports of wheat and other +grains, why can't she keep that food at home and feed her own hungry +children? Why should plague have stayed in India so long? Why should +malaria exact such a heavy annual toll there? The reason is obvious. +Because of the ignorance and poverty of the people. + +Let us assume that India has not grown poorer under British rule, though +there is abundant evidence to the contrary, that the masses have become +poorer and are becoming poorer every day; let us also assume that in the +matter of education India was worse off under native rule--_i. e._, +before the introduction of the British rule--a period of history when no +other part of the world was any the better. Is it not a matter of shame, +that after 150 years of British rule, when most of the other national +governments in other parts of the world have reduced their illiteracy +almost to zero point, India should still have more than 90% of its +population illiterate. Is it not a matter of shame, that of all the +grain producing countries of the world India alone should be so +miserably situated as to be unable to supply sufficient and nourishing +food to her sons and daughters. Don't you think, sir, that the Indians +have reason to feel sore when they see that the food grown by them is +denied to them; that it is almost snatched from their mouths; that +others should eat the food which is grown by them, that even in the best +of years millions of them must be contented with only one meal a day, +and that of the coarsest grain. + +Do you remember, Mr. Lloyd George, how bitter you felt against the +capitalist, when you yourself in your boyhood, felt the pinch of want? +Have you forgotten all that you said in the Lime-house speech? I repeat +that the sufferings of the British laborer and workingmen, the trials of +the British poor are nothing compared with those of the Indian ryot and +the Indian workingmen and the Indian clerks in your employ in that +country. Yet you have no feeling to spare for them, and those that have, +you and your Government brand as malcontents and seditionists. Don't you +think, sir, that the Indian ryot and the Indian poor are being crushed +under the weight of two capitalisms superimposed upon each other--one +foreign and the other indigenous? When we ask for freedom to manage our +own affairs you say we are not fit to do so. But what can we do to +ourselves which will be worse than what you have done us? If left free, +we might bring to book the indigenous capitalists whom, in the interests +of your own capitalists, you have been supporting and fattening. But +even if we fail to do so, we shall at any rate have upon us the burden +of only a single weight. Your colleagues say that in refusing +self-government to India they are actuated by devotion to India; that +they do not want to hand over the millions of India to the tender +mercies of a small minority of educated and wealthy men in whose hands +the government will inevitably drift. Supposing it does, it will be easy +for the masses to keep the minority in check. They can revolt and rebel, +but under your Government the bureaucracy is all powerful. The truth is, +sir, that the condition of these very millions, in whose interests, you +say, you are reluctant to give power to the educated and the wealthy +few, is a standing condemnation of your government there. The educated +minority and the wealthy few are fairly well off under your regime. It +is the ignorant ryot and the millions of workingmen and women who +suffer. In the words of one of your distinguished writers (W. Lily), +they do not live but just exist. + +Recently the _Times_ said that the British were "the trustees of the +welfare of India's millions." Who are these millions for whom you are +trustees? Are they those homeless, educationless millions who get only +one meal a day or are they those who have benefitted from your schools +and are wealthy? If the former, you have failed in your trust. If the +latter, they are quite fit to manage their own affairs. It was only the +other day that Mr. Austen Chamberlain was reported to have said +(_Times_, London, March 30) at a luncheon given to him and the India's +so-called representatives at the Imperial conference (one of whom was a +Lieutenant Governor interested in extending India's sphere of +subjection) that "India will not remain and ought not to remain content +to be a hewer of wood and a drawer of water for the rest of the Empire." +Noble words these, full of hope and encouragement. But what a sad and a +crushing acknowledgment of the present helpless condition of India. It +is a truthful statement for which the Indians ought to be grateful to +Mr. Chamberlain. At the present moment India is a mere "hewer of wood +and a drawer of water" for the rest of the Empire. Against that her sons +protest, and will continue to protest, as long as the wrongs of the +country are not redressed, your press act, your sedition laws, jails and +prisons notwithstanding. + +The position, Mr. Lloyd George, is pathetic. When we ask for more outlay +on education, you say, no, the condition of the finances will not permit +of that. When we point out the way to find finances, you say, "no, +further taxes are impossible and retrenchment in public expenditure in +other departments undesirable." When we say, "give us the management and +we will do it," you say, "no you are unfit." The result is that you will +neither educate the masses yourself nor will you let us educate them. +Yet you hold their ignorance a valid ground for refusing us our right to +manage our own affairs. When, however, you want money for Imperial +purposes you raise loans, impose taxes, and reduce public expenditure on +education and public works. You have done this not only now, for the +purposes of this bloody war, but you have done so in the past in +building railways for your merchants and to fight your wars in Africa, +in China, in Afghanistan, in fact, all over the old world. It is true +the present is a trying time for you and you may have a pretence of +justification in this crisis in your Imperial life. But so long as you +refuse the conscription of wealth in your home islands, what right have +you to impose this conscription of India's money resources? You have not +forced the dominions to make monetary contributions. In fact you have +advanced them over L140,000,000 from your own funds. You have not so far +called upon the British capitalists to pay even a fraction of their +wealth. You have simply taxed their excessive profits. Why should you +have made an exception in the case of India? India is the poorest part +of the Empire. Yet it is she who has been selected for this exceptional +treatment. She had already made lavish gifts of money and provisions and +equipment. Her gifts were in entire disproportion to her means. Compared +with your dominions' resources and their money sacrifices India's +contribution stood higher than those of the former. Yet you selected +India for this compulsory money contribution because India is the only +part of the Empire which you could thus treat. India is the only part of +the Empire which has been forced to give $500,000,000 as a _free gift_. +Even the fabulously rich United States which have made huge war profits +from you and your other allies have not thought of a national gift. Yet +imperial sophistry represented by your imperial publicists and +officials, represents that Great Britain exacts no tribute from India +and makes no profit out of her connection with India and that she rules +India simply out of philanthropic and humanitarian motives. + + + WASTE + +One would have thought that under the pressure of the war, your +Government in India would make an honest and earnest effort to reduce +expenditure on public services, at least under heads mainly ornamental +or which only afford luxuries to your agents in India; but on the other +hand, what is the actual situation? A perusal of the proceedings of the +Imperial Legislative Council and also of the Provincial Councils shows +that all efforts made by the non-official members to obtain additional +money for education and sanitation by the reduction of expenditure on +luxuries, were opposed by your Government, and were consequently +defeated. All efforts to reduce expenditure on comforts were of course +resisted by those who enjoyed them, and it is they whose votes count in +the Indian Councils. For example, it was proposed that the huge +expenditure incurred by the different Government Departments, Imperial +and Provincial, in moving to the Hills for seven months of the year, +should be reduced, at least partially. Many persons competent to express +an opinion on the subject, among them Lord Carmichael, the retiring +Governor of Bengal, have placed it on record that this "exodus to the +hills" was not necessary, and was in fact prejudicial to the interests +of good government; yet the Government opposed the motion of the +non-official member and he was forced to withdraw it. A similar motion +to curtail the expenditure on the ornamentation of the residence of the +Lieutenant Governor of the United Provinces was also opposed and met a +similar fate. The huge allowances made to the heads of the different +governments in India for kitchen expenses, for dispensing hospitality, +and for traveling in royal style have not been reduced by a penny. The +Punjab Government has provided in its current budget a large amount of +money for providing palatial residences for its officers in summer +resorts, and has sanctioned large pensions, from father to son, for a +few of their Indian supporters. These men are mostly wealthy men. They +did nothing more than help you in your suppressive and exploiting +policy. Your Government naturally rewards them. Is it not bribery. If an +expert financier were to examine into these items, which can only pass +unchallenged in a country wherein the people have no voice in the +raising of the taxes and in spending them, it would be found that great +savings could be effected and the money thus made available used for +other urgent needs of the people. The fact is that the Indian ryot who +pays for all these extravagances has no voice to check the vagaries of +those who spend his money for their own comforts. I have not mentioned +the lavish scale on which special traveling allowances are granted to +high officials in India. It is a matter of common knowledge that these +officials do not spend as much as they draw under this head. Yet it is +actually proposed that the salaries and the allowances for the European +members of the Indian services be substantially raised. _Verily, +taxation without representation_ is a crime of the worst possible kind. + + + DEMOCRACY + +Mr. Lloyd George, you and your colleagues in the Government of Great +Britain, say that in fighting the Germans you are fighting the battle of +Democracy, to make the world safe from autocracy and militarism, that +you are fighting for rights of small nations, and for the domination of +right over might. The United States has joined the war for the same +reason. I have seen numerous recruiting posters exhibited in New York +City exhorting young Americans to enlist in the army "to make the world +safe" for Democracy. I have not the slightest doubt of the sincerity of +the American professions because their international record is so far +clean. Vide their record in Cuba and the Philippines. Can we say the +same for Great Britain? I am afraid not, so long at least, as you +continue to deny self-government to India, the second of the two biggest +democracies of the world. Here is a nation of 315 million human beings +(or say several nations, if you wish, as your publicists are so fond of +repeating _ad nauseam_ that India is not a nation) whom you are +governing by the force of might, without their consent, and on +absolutely despotic lines; whom you deny freedom of speech, freedom of +association and freedom of education; whom you tax without their consent +and then spend those taxes outside of their country, and in providing +luxuries to your representatives in India or in bribing such Indians as +uphold you in your possessions. I have no doubt that you are sincere in +your denunciation of German militarism. For myself I have no use for +Czars and Kaisers, Emperors and Sultans, and I dare say that you, too, +have none. Thus I am in full sympathy with your efforts to exterminate +the race of Kaisers. So far you are right. But an Indian cannot help +smiling rather cynically when he hears you saying that you are waging +the war to make the world safe for democracy. Your conduct in India and +in Egypt, and in Persia belies your protestations. + + + AS TO SMALL NATIONS + +In defending your conduct you urge that India is not a nation. Very +well, sir, divide India into small nations and give them self-government +separately. You will admit that there are parts of India which are +homogenous, entitled to be called small nations in the sense in which +Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark, and Holland are. The bulk of the +population follow the same religion, speak the same language and belong +to the same race. Remember, please, that I do not admit that India is +not a nation or that the sameness of language, religion and race is +necessary for a political national existence. Switzerland, Canada, the +United States, South Africa, Russia, and Austria-Hungary have demolished +that theory. + +The apologists of the present system of Government in India say that the +Indian people are not sufficiently educated in the principles and +practice of politics and that their ignorance and illiteracy make it +necessary for the British to continue to rule them from without, until +they are fit to establish and maintain a democratic form of government. +I have already made some remarks about illiteracy and shown that the +responsibility for it rests on your shoulders. If you, sir, are to be +the sole judge of the educational requirements of the Indian people, +their progress is bound to hang on your convenience. No one in +possession is anxious to be dispossessed and if the time and method of +his dispossession is to be determined by himself, then woe to the +dispossessed! But, sir, you forget that literacy is not education. The +Indian masses have a background of centuries of culture which places +them in the matter of intelligence and character, in a better position +than even the literate millions of European and American countries. And +after all, it is intelligence and culture that count most in the fixing +of final values. + +As for their training in political life, how are they to get it, if you +make it a penal offence for their leaders to tell them that the present +system of Government is unnatural, harmful, and a hindrance to progress? +The masses cannot grasp principles unless one illustrates these +principles by their application to the affairs of every day life. Your +Government and your courts say that an agitation for home rule is legal +and permissible, but any criticism that is likely to create +dissatisfaction is illegal and deserves to be suppressed high-handedly. +You know from experience, sir, that the masses require to be led. No +government is willing to make changes unless compelled from below. That +is as true of democratic America as of monarchical England. Much more +must it be so in the case of countries under foreign yoke. To carry the +people with them, the leaders must expose the existing evils and stress +the necessity and urgency of sweeping changes in political conditions. +The moment they proceed to do so with any degree of effectiveness, they +are charged with an attempt to create disaffection and convicted of +sedition. Do you honestly believe that any people on the face of the +earth can make any progress in political education when they are ruled +by a Press Act which stops criticism and discussion in the following +terms: + + SECTION OF THE INDIAN PRESS ACT OF 1910 + + Whenever it appears to the Local Government that any printing + press in respect of which any security has been deposited as + required by Section 3 is used for the purpose of printing or + publishing any newspaper, book, or other document containing any + words, signs or visible representations which are likely to have + a tendency directly, or indirectly, whether by inference, + suggestion, allusion, metaphor, implication or otherwise: + + (a) To incite to murder or to any offense under the Explosives + Substances Act of 1908, or to any act of violence or + + (b) To seduce any officer, soldier, or sailor in the Army or + Navy of His Majesty from his allegiance or his duty or + + (c) To bring into hatred or contempt His Majesty or the + Government established by the law in British India, or the + Administration of Justice in British India or any native Prince + or Chief under the suzeranity of His Majesty or any class or + section of His Majesty's subjects in British India or to excite + disaffection towards His Majesty or the said Government or any + such Prince or Chief or + + (d) To put any person in fear or to cause any annoyance to him + and thereby induce him to deliver to any person any property or + valuable security, or to do any act which he is not legally + bound to do or to omit any act which he is legally entitled to + do or + + (e) To encourage or incite any person to interfere with the + administration of the law or with the maintenance of law and + order or + + (f) To convey any threat of injury to a public servant, or to + any person in whom the public servant is believed to be + interested, with a view to inducing that person to do any act or + to forbear to do any act connected with the exercise of his + public functions the Local Government may, by notice in writing + to the keeper of such printing press, stating or describing the + words, signs or visible representations which in its opinion are + of the nature described above, declare the security deposited in + respect of such Press and all copies of such newspaper, book, or + other document wherever found to be forfeited to His Majesty. + + EXPLANATION I: In clause c the expression disaffection includes + disloyalty and all feelings of enmity. + + EXPLANATION II: Comments expressing the disapproval of the + measures of the Government of any such native Prince or Chief as + aforesaid with a view to obtain their alteration by lawful means + or of the administration or other action of the Government or + any such native Prince or Chief or of the administration of + Justice in British India without exciting or attempting to + excite hatred, contempt, or disaffection, do not come under the + scope of clause c. + +Can any people make headway in the art of self-government who are +governed by a foreign bureaucracy aided by an army of Indian Czars +regulating the very minutest details of their life? You know that this +over government of India is a direct result of your rule. Before you +came the Indian village was a self-governed unit. (See statements of +Monroe, Elphinstone, Metcalfe, and Lawrence.) Even now the people in the +Native States are in this respect better off than the people of British +India. The Education Minister of your Cabinet, Mr. H. A. L. Fisher has, +after a visit to India, placed it on record that "the inhabitants of a +well governed Native State are, on the whole, happier and more contented +than the inhabitants of British India. They are more lightly taxed; the +pace of the administration is less urgent and exacting. They feel that +they do things for themselves instead of having everything done by a +cold and alien benevolence." Yet if an Indian leader were to point this +out and ask the Indian masses to improve their lot by demanding and +winning for themselves the right to manage their own affairs, and by +driving out those influences that stand in their way, he would be +persecuted and imprisoned or transported. + +The first axiom for political progress is that the people should +throw away their attitude of submission to oppression, tyranny, +high-handedness, and conditions of slavery whether imposed by a national +or a foreign Government. They have a right to revolt if they have the +means to do so successfully. But in any case, they have a right to +discuss, agitate and organize for changes. This they cannot do unless +they have a free press, a free platform, and the right of free +association. In India the first is denied by the Press Act, the second +by the comprehensive sections of the Penal Code, and the third by the +so-called "Seditious Meetings Act." What little was left has been done +away with under the extensive powers taken and exercised by the +Executive under the plea of war exigency by the "Defense of India Act." +While every other part of the Empire, including the "Mother Country" is +discussing political and economic changes of an extremely radical +character, such as the establishment of a more effective Imperial +Parliament and Preferential Tariffs after the war, not to speak of +constructive programmes for education, and industrial rejuvenation, the +Indian leaders are "officially" advised to be mum, and any effort to +rouse the country to a consciousness of its rights and duties is +characterized as perverted, ill-timed, and inconsistent with loyalty. + +The advocates of "Home Rule" are being openly hampered in their +propaganda. Papers advocating home rule have been persecuted, and +leaders have been prohibited from entering provincial areas. But what is +worse is that the Criminal Investigation Department have been instructed +to take down the names of all those who have enlisted in the cause, +either as active or passive workers. A deputation of representatives of +the press that waited on the Viceroy to lay their grievances before him +has been lectured on the impropriety of thus raising the question at +this juncture and has otherwise been treated with shocking discourtesy. + +In conclusion, let me ask you, sir, to notice the coercive methods by +which the War Loan is being raised in India. Poor underpaid subordinate +officials are being forced to purchase Government stock. They will +surely purchase the stock and win the good-will of their officers, but +just as surely they will squeeze the cost out of the people. That will +be strictly in accord with the standards of loyalty set up by your +officials! + +Mr. David Lloyd George, I have addressed this letter to you, because at +this moment you seem to be the only British statesman possessed of +imagination. Exercise your imagination, sir, a little and save India for +the Empire; win the gratitude and blessings of a fifth of the human +race--of a people who were one of the first pioneers of civilization in +the world, who laid the foundations of culture, which you profess to be +so very anxious to save. Remember that the Indians were rich, +prosperous, free, self-governing, civilized and great, both in peace and +war, when not only Britain but even "Greece and Rome were nursing the +tenants of the wilderness." The Indians have lost their freedom because +they oppressed the people under them and as surely as night follows day, +the British will lose all that makes them great to-day, if they continue +to oppress and exploit the subject races within their Empire. The world +cannot be safe for democracy unless India is self-governed. Nor can +there be any lasting peace in the world, so long as India and China are +not strong enough to protect themselves. + +Pardon me, sir, if I have disturbed you at such a critical moment; +though it is folly to presume that you could be disturbed in the +slightest degree by such a letter. I have written it out of a sense of +duty as sacred as that which inspires you in your herculean task; and if +you are inclined to think harshly of me for this letter, just try to put +yourself in my position and decide what then would be your point of +view. + + LAJPAT RAI. +New York City, June 13, 1917. + + + + + Transcriber Notes: + +Passages in italics were indicated by _underscores_. + +Small caps were replaced with ALL CAPS. + +Throughout the dialogues, there were words used to mimic accents of +the speakers. Those words were retained as-is. + +Errors in punctuations and inconsistent hyphenation were not corrected +unless otherwise noted. + +Page 11, "Deva Bhumi" was replaced with "Deva Bhumi". + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of An Open Letter to the Right Honorable +David Lloyd George, by Lajpat Rai + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN OPEN LETTER TO THE RIGHT *** + +***** This file should be named 39874.txt or 39874.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/8/7/39874/ + +Produced by spend, Ernest Schaal, and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + +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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