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diff --git a/58356-0.txt b/58356-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..312f301 --- /dev/null +++ b/58356-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6659 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 58356 *** + + + + + + + + + + + + THE + PASSING OF EMPIRE + + BY + + H. FIELDING-HALL + + AUTHOR OF "THE SOUL OF A PEOPLE" + "THE HEARTS OF MEN," ETC. + + + + "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word + that proceedeth out of the mouth of God"--that + is to say by ideas + + + + LONDON + HURST & BLACKETT, LTD. + PATERNOSTER HOUSE, E.C. + 1913 + + + + +PREFACE + +Most people when they talk of India, most books when they treat of +India, are concerned with its differences from the rest of the world. +It is the appearance and the dress of its peoples, their customs and +habits, their superstitions and religions, that are explained and +wondered at. + +That is not so here. In this book little or nothing is said of any of +these matters; they do not interest me; they are superficial, and I do +not care for surface things; they are what divide, and truth is what +unites. + +It is of the humanity which India shares with the rest of the world, +the hearts that beat always the same under whatever skin, the ideals +that can never be choked by no matter what customs or religions, that +this book is concerned with. + +India sees life through different windows than we do; but her eyes are +as our eyes, and she has the same desires as we have. She has been +nearly dead or sleeping for long, but at last she moves. She is awake +or waking. Should it not be our task, our pleasure and our pride, to +help her early steps along the path of conscious strength that leads to +a national life such as that we have been proud of? And to do so must +we not try to understand her? + +Have we ever tried? + +I do not think we have; but the time is coming when, unless we can go +hand in hand with her along her path to nationhood, she will desert us. +Her destiny is calling her; shall we keep her back? + +We cannot keep her back. "No one can be more wise than Destiny." And +if we stand in her way, who will suffer like we shall? For her sake +and for ours should we not try to understand? + +This book is an attempt at a beginning. + + + + + CONTENTS + + PREFACE + + + PART I + + THE OLD INDIA + + CHAPTER + + I. Indian Unrest + II. The People + III. The Civilian + IV. His Training + V. Criminal Law + VI. Procedure + VII. Civil Law + VIII. The Village + IX. Opium and Excise + + + PART II + + COUNSELS OF DESPAIR + + X. The Provincial Councils + XI. The Indian as Civilian + + + + PART III + + A NEW INDIA + + XII. The New Civilian + XIII. His Training + XIV. Other Services + XV. Law Reform + XVI. Courts Reform + XVII. Self-Government + XVIII. Education + XIX. Conclusion + + + + + +PART I + +THE OLD INDIA + + + +CHAPTER I + +INDIAN UNREST + +We do not hear so much of the discontent in India now as we did three +or four years ago. There are no reports of seditious meetings, +incendiary propaganda, or disloyal tendencies. The attempt upon the +Viceroy is declared to be an isolated act, springing from no general +cause; a sporadic outbreak of crime which has no importance. No +special measures have to be taken, nor special legislation passed, +though the old repressive legislation is not repealed. In the English +daily papers there is little said of India, and no news is said to be +good news. Therefore in public estimation India has fallen back from +her temporary fever into the immemorial apathy of the East. She is +content, and no one need trouble himself about her. The sedition was +but a froth upon the surface, it had no deep-lying causes; it was +temporary, local, unimportant. We need trouble ourselves no more about +it. + +There could be no greater nor more fatal mistake. + +There may have been outbursts of irritation like that over the Bengal +partition which have passed because the cause was removed; we may be +now in the trough and not upon the crest of a wave, but that is all +that can be said. The discontent has not passed, nor will it, nor can +it pass. It is deep-rooted in the very nature of things as they are +now. It is not local, nor is it confined to one or two strata of +society, nor is it directed against one or two acts of Government. It +is universal, in all provinces, in all classes, directed not against +this act or that act, but against the Government as a whole. This is +very evident to those upon the spot, has been evident for many years. +The reason more has not been said about it is the absurd notion that +talking of the discontent will tend to increase it, as if real +discontent ever arose from words, or as if it could be understood +unless it were talked about. It should also be evident to those not +upon the spot who reflect on causes and effects. For instance, could +the partition of Bengal have raised such a sudden flame had there been +peace before? People in neither the East nor the West are roused into +such sudden and fierce anger by an administrative change even if the +change is not to their tastes. For there was no real change of +government, nor substantive hardship. The hardship was sentimental +hardship at the worst, not the less a real hardship for that. + +No. There was discontent before, and the partition only fanned it into +flame. + +And that discontent is not sudden. It has grown slowly for many years. +It is not local; in one province it may be more apparent than in +another, but it is universal. It is not temporary, but increases. So +much is admitted by those who know. Yet no one thinks of diagnosing +it. They shut their eyes, they sit upon the safety-valve, they give +measures which they hope will cause relief but which cannot do so; they +merely accentuate the difficulty and emphasise the ignorance that is +behind it on both sides. How can you cure a fever unless you diagnose +the cause or causes? To administer a drug at random is not likely to +succeed, yet what are the Councils but a random drug? How can they +act? No one knows what the patient suffers from; she herself least of +all, I think. No one can truly diagnose his own illness nor prescribe +his remedy. India feels uncomfortable, and clamours for anything she +can get. The Indian Government gives her what it can, offering +profusest condolence, which is sincere; and for the rest sitting upon +her chest. + +But that will avail nothing--how can it? The fever is deep-seated, it +is remittent, it affects the whole system. It is becoming dangerous +both to the patient and her physician. For their lots are bound +together. India cannot yet do without us. She has not got the +organism to govern herself yet. She has no structure, but is an +inchoate mass of people. Did we part, India could not protect herself +against her neighbours by sea or land. She would be a prey to any +enterprising Power. Internally she would dissolve into anarchy. No +one, I think, doubts this. Some claim to doubt it--do they? + +And as to England, what would we be were India reft from us? + +Further, there is this: you cannot hold India by force alone. Force +has its place, but it cannot stand alone. We conquered and have +governed India by the consent of the people. In fact, she conquered +herself and gave herself to us. We never had to fight peoples, except +in Upper Burma, but only Governments--effete, discredited and weak. +The peoples accepted us: if not with gladness, yet they did accept. +Without that acquiescence we could have done nothing. This must be +thoroughly realised, for it is an essential truth. Anyone can see it +for himself. Given any superiority you like to assume of Englishman +over Indian, could a handful of English officials and seventy thousand +or less British troops conquer and rule three hundred-and-fifty +millions of people, living in a climate suitable to them but deadly to +us, against their will? It is impossible, incredible, absurd. There +has been always a tacit and generally an active consent. Now that +consent is disappearing. Why? And what is to be done? It must be +discovered. Therefore what I propose to do in this book is: First, to +show what our rule was at first and why it was so successful. + +To explain how these factors of success gradually disappeared, while at +the same time the people progressed. + +To show briefly the state of things to-day--how widely Government and +the people have drifted apart, and how unsuitable Government has become. + +To examine the cures proposed and indicate how useless they must be. + +Finally, to show how alone Government and the people can be brought +into harmony and the legitimate desires of both be fulfilled. + +Let us go back on history, and recount the past so that we may explain +the present. + +Some hundreds of years ago--it varies for different places--there were +in India kingdoms that were stable and strong and free. The peoples +were enterprising, active and intelligent, and a high degree of +civilisation was common throughout all classes. I don't think it is +generally realised that five or six hundred years ago India was ahead +of Europe in most matters. + +Gradually all this decayed. How and why it decayed this is not the +place to explain; there were several causes, the principal being +religion; but these systems of government all crumbled into dust. It +was not merely dynasties or ruling classes that passed, but that the +whole fabric of its civilisation became weakened and lifeless. The +organisms that held the people together dissolved, and instead of +kingdoms India became simply a mass of village communities, with no +organism above that. + +Into this more or less anarchical country came the Moguls from the +north, and established an empire. This Empire was accepted for the +same reason that ours subsequently was accepted--because the people +wanted first of all peace; and as peace could only be found under a +strong government, and the Mogul was the only strong power, they +accepted it. They had, moreover, no organisations to enable them to +resist. + +But this Mogul power had no root in the soil, not in any soil. It had +cut itself away from its base, and it could not become rooted in India. +It had, therefore, never any real vitality. The Normans in England +coalesced with the people after a time, and drew strength from them and +their institutions, but the Mogul Empire did not. + +Nevertheless, it did to a certain extent enlist the people on its side, +accept them into its organism. There was in the early Emperors no +fanaticism. "As tolerant as Akbar" almost became a proverb. Hindus +and Mussulmans worked together in harmony for the benefit of the +Empire. That is why it succeeded at all, because the line of division +was almost ignored. Then came the fanatic Aurungzebe, who by his zeal +for religion began the destruction of the Empire, which came very +quickly. And when the ruling power was weakened and began to pass, +nothing remained. It was simply a government from above. It had built +up no system; it was the head of no organism. When its rulers weakened +there was nothing to support them. A king in England might be weak or +be deposed, but the nation's life went on because the organism was not +dependent entirely on the head. Its strength came from below, not +above. + +Very rapidly the government was dissolved in all but name, became +effete, corrupt, and useless. + +Then came the East India Company and overthrew it, establishing a new +domination. This again was actively or passively accepted by the +people because they wanted peace and order, which are the first wants +of all humanity. + +This English government was still more foreign than the Mogul +domination, but it had one great advantage, it was rooted in the soil. +Not in the soil of India, of course, but in that of England. It was a +branch of the English tree of government which had its roots deep down +in English life. Therefore it had and has a strong vitality. It +established over India such peace and order as had never been known. + +To do this it had to establish a complete system of government, for +there was none of the old machinery left. + +It did this on the English fashion. I do not mean that it borrowed the +English system. At the beginning it did try this, as the Municipality +of Madras and the Permanent Settlement of Bengal show. But so +obviously was this absurd that it discontinued transplanting, and +framed a system of its own. This was, of course, adapted to the +circumstances. Like the Mogul system it was a government from above. +It hung, as it were, suspended from the Viceroy and Council. It had no +roots in the soil in India; it was not and is not indigenous in any +way. Its vitality is derived from England, transmitted through the +Secretary of State and the Viceroy. That is the way its life-blood +circulates. Were that artery cut, the whole system would die at once. +The connection severed, in a few months there would not be a vestige +left of the whole great fabric of the Indian Government. + +If you follow the current of responsibility you will see that this is +so. The lowest official in the Indian hierarchy is the Township +officer. He is in charge of, say, two or three hundred square miles of +country. To whom is he responsible--the people under him? Not in the +least. He is responsible to the Subdivisional officer, he to the +District officer, and he--either directly or through the +Commissioner--to the Local Government. The Local Governments are +responsible to the Viceroy in Council, he to the Secretary of State in +England, the Secretary to the Prime Minister, he to Parliament, and +Parliament to the constituencies. Where do the Indian people come in? +Nowhere. + +Again, take responsibility of another kind. Suppose India is +attacked--who is responsible for its safety--India? Not so. It is the +English people, who defend it with ships, with troops, with money. +India, for instance, has no credit in herself. The Indian Government +gets credit as a branch of the English Government, with English credit +behind it. If the Indian peoples pay it is because England makes them +pay, not because by the system of government there is any +responsibility to pay. + +The government of India has no existence apart from England. It is +only 'Indian' inasmuch as it governs India, not that it proceeds from +India or is composed of Indians. The truth by which it lives is that +it is purely English. + +This is most important; it must never be forgotten. The whole system +of the government of India down to the last detail is alien, is exotic. +It could not by any possibility be rooted in India. Neither the whole +nor any part could be taken over as a going concern by any +self-government India might develop. It was created by, and is adapted +to, the genius of the English in India governing from above, and to +that need only. The reader can see that for himself, and I beg that he +will try to see it, because it is an essential truth. + +Such was the principle of the English Government, one from above; and +such were the people, a heterogeneous mass of diverse races, tongues +and religions, with no organisation above that of the village. + +That the people at large accepted our government as not only the best +available government, but at the time the best conceivable government, +there is no possible doubt. Nor, as I have said, was this acceptance +merely passive. The ease with which Sepoy regiments were raised in all +parts of India shows that the people had no antipathy to our +government, but were glad to help it to restore and maintain order. +For these troops were for internal purposes, and not for foreign +service, which has always been most distasteful to them. + +But there was more than this. The more you study governments and +peoples the more clearly you see that to ensure smooth working there +must be some relationship between them. Some emotion or some sentiment +must unite the two, and so render their relative position endurable. +Laws and restrictions are irksome; are never true; are negatives, not +positives. There must be some tie between those who impose them and +those who bear them to humanise them. + +Now, there are two and only two systems of government that have ever +been even partially successful anywhere in the world--one is +self-government in such an organism as will allow the people not only +to enforce their will but to form a right judgment as to what they +should desire; the other is government by personality. + +No complete form of either system has ever existed; the nearest to the +former were the governments of Athens, Sparta, Rome in its early days, +Venice, Florence, and some other self-governing cities. Instances of +the latter are the temporary dictatorships of Rome, the rule of +Alexander, Julius Caesar, Cromwell, Napoleon for the individual form; +and the feudal system in England and the Continent for the aristocratic +form. People in difficulties will trust personalities whom they admire +and who have shown sympathy to them more than they will trust +themselves, conscious that the former are more capable of seeing truly +and of acting efficiently. + +That which makes either of these systems of government a success is an +emotion, a relationship. + +With a really self-governing people this relationship is the sense of +oneness between government and governed. However much the people may +chafe under the laws and restrictions placed upon them they can console +themselves with the idea that it is their own doing. Government is +their own, part of themselves, and to that representative of self they +can condone many things. Knowing it is their own, they realise that it +does its best for them, however hard it may seem. They pardon because +they can understand. + +With an alien rule this sentiment cannot exist, and therefore another +must take its place. That sentiment is personal feeling between the +governed and the individual officers of government. Now that in India +was very strong. For the soldiers and civilians who made India were +personalities, and all people East and West admire strong +personalities; moreover, they were sympathetic personalities who +attracted confidence as well as admiration. District officers were the +fathers of their district and stood up for their people against Law and +Government. + +The first secret of our success in India was the personality of our +officers. Other things helped--the state of the country, the +discipline of our English troops, the ability of the Home Government to +help; but it was the personality of our officers that gave us India. +Read all their records, right from Clive and Warren Hastings to +Havelock, Lawrence and Nicholson. It was their personality that won. +For personality alone can make bad laws bearable, can make mistakes +forgiven and forgotten, can lead and draw men. And remember that it +was not only the men at the top who were personalities, but all, right +away down to the lowest ranks of both services. What personality is I +do not know, but I know that it is the magic power of the world. It is +the positive where all else in government is negative. I know it gave +us India. I know that with the passing of personality there is coming +the passing of the Empire. Read this story that has been given to me: + +"An old General, who had served long in India, told me recently as +follows: He still hears from time to time from his native subordinates +in India. One of them wrote recently an account of his first meeting +with the young official lately appointed to his station. As soon as +was proper after the arrival of the official, the old Subadar went to +pay his respects. He buckled on the sword which had descended to him +from his father, took his father's medals in a packet in his hand, +arrayed himself in his best uniform and called. + +"After long delay he was introduced into the Presence, where he beheld +a very untidy youth without coat or waistcoat busily writing at a +table, surrounded by papers and stout books of reference. + +"The great, tall, shy man modestly approached the table and laid his +father's sword and his father's medals on it as a token of obeisance. + +"After a while the scribe glanced up with angry and distracted +expression, pushed all these tributes away disdainfully, and in a +bitter voice complained of interruption. + +"'Sir,' said the Subadar, 'these are the medals of my father who fought +for you. This sword has been red with the blood of my own +fellow-countrymen slain by my father in defence of your Raj, but as +they do not interest you I will take them away.'" + +So he went away. + +But why blame the young civilian? He is as his teachers made him. I +doubt not that he too once had a personality before his teachers killed +it. + +It is a common shibboleth amongst English writers on India that the +"Oriental understands only personal government," and it is exactly the +frame of mind that can invent such sayings that is the great +stumbling-block to our understanding India. For neither in this nor in +any other fundamental attitude does the East differ from the West. +Look at England under Gladstone. There was again government by +personality, and the country let him do things it would allow no one +else to do. Nowadays in England the personality has gone on both +sides, as well as self-government. + +We gave India government by personality, that is to say, a government +wherein alien laws, alien ideas, alien methods were rendered endurable +by the medium through which they reached the people. + +Therefore in the beginning, say from a hundred and fifty years ago till +fifty years ago, the government and people were well suited to each +other. In that time neither changed very greatly. Change there was, +of course, but it was slow and slight. Then from the middle of the +last century the rate of change was accelerated. Now life is change, +and without change you can have only death; therefore there is nothing +to regret in this. Had the change been in drawing more nearly together +it would have been entirely fortunate. But it was not so. They were +more nearly together in the beginning than ever since, and all progress +has been away from each other. Instead of time bringing greater +community of thought, greater mutual respect, and better understanding, +with every year that passed, it widened and deepened the gulf between +them. Instead of government becoming more suited to the people, it has +grated on them more and more; instead of its efficiency increasing with +the perfection of the machine, it has become less. In development, in +intricacy, the government of to-day is to the government of a hundred +years ago as a "Mauretania" to a "Great Eastern"; but whereas of old +the wheels went easily, now they stick and try to stop; were there not +a strong driving power behind them they would stop. + +Let us see how this has occurred. + +Yet before beginning to read this attempt to diagnose the state of the +government of India and the paralysis that has come over it, I would +ask the reader to remember this: + +This book is not a mere criticism of government and its methods, nor of +the people and their defects. I have a remedy to propose for both. It +is a remedy that I have thought over and worked at for years, and I +believe it is the only remedy possible. + +But before disclosing it I wish the reader to understand the present +state of things. If he retains the complacency which says that "all is +for the best in the best of all possible governments, it is the +people's fault entirely, visit it on them," then he will not realise +that any remedy is wanting. Even if he do admit that something is +wrong he will not know what it is, and cannot judge if that proposed be +of any use. + +Therefore I ask him to bear with the diagnosis of the earlier chapters. +He must get to know first what the constitution of the government of +India is, what made its strength in the past, and why that strength has +departed from it. Only after a true diagnosis can a true cure be +suggested. Therefore I ask him to carefully follow the line of thought +in the chapters which show in what way government now fails. He will +then see what government should be and must be--and is not. Only then +can he judge if the proposed remedies are likely to be successful, and +perhaps he will be able to amend them or to better them. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE PEOPLE + +Let us first take the people as a whole. + +I am aware in the first place that there are some who will object that +the Indian peoples are not a whole. "There is no Indian people," they +will say. "There are innumerable races, tribes, castes, diffused over +a continent. They have nothing in common, neither language nor +religion, nor habits nor ideals. You cannot talk of the people as a +whole." + +Yet they have one thing in common; they have a common humanity. +Religions, castes and races are but clothes. Beneath them lies +humanity. And humanity is always the same in essence because it is one +Soul striving towards one object, though in many different ways and in +various stages of attainment. + +I will show this by one instance. It is said, for example, that the +instinctive feeling of an Oriental towards women is different from that +of Europe; the West respects women, and the East does not do so. This +is proved to you by their habits, by polygamy, by polyandry, by, for +instance, the habit of a man walking in front and the woman behind. +These customs, you are told, disclose the Oriental attitude as +different from ours and as differing in various parts of the East. + +They do not do so. + +The instinctive feeling of men to women is the same everywhere; it is +an invariable emotion. Customs hide it, disguise it, and sometimes +almost kill it; they never alter it. + +A Burman walks in front of his wife because in the very recent past, +everywhere in Burma, and in most places even now, the advance was the +place of difficulty. There were no roads, only paths through jungle or +across the fields. There were thorny creepers to be cut back, streams +and mud puddles to be forded, cattle and buffaloes to be driven away, +snakes to be killed, and the nasty, snapping pariah dogs to be kept at +a distance. No woman could or would go in front. The man goes in +front from courtesy and carries a chopper, the woman follows with the +bundle. It is their courtesy. If this habit continues when the +necessity has passed, that is simply because a custom once established +is, East or West, hard to break. See what Yoshio Markino says about +this same custom in Japan. + +Polyandry was due to restriction of the means of subsistence, limiting +the population and so necessitating the exposure of girl children; +occasional polygamy--for it is always only occasional, exceptional--is +an imperfection of humanity, universal East or West. In the East they +try to make the best of it by acknowledging it; the West hides it and +pretends it does not exist. That is a difference of treatment, not of +fact. + +If you want to know the true instinctive feeling of men to women in the +East you will find it not in laws, customs, or religions, but in the +literature. Read their folk-tales, their love-stories, those which +warm the hearts of boys and girls, of men and women, aye even of the +old, those that rising from the heart appeal unto the heart. Their +ideals are our ideals--one woman and one man; and I think sometimes +they come nearer their realisation than we do. We pretend more, but +pretence is not reality. + +If this be true of love, the mother of all emotions, it is true of all +the others. Their circumstances being different they must find +different ways of reaching towards their ideals, but the ideals are the +same. + +Therefore all the Indian peoples have a common humanity; and more, they +have a great many circumstances in common. They are all, for instance, +mainly agricultural; they are all in a very similar stage of +evolution--the village community stage; they are all poor, they are all +natural and simple; they are all under our rule. These are more potent +influences than religion or race if they are allowed to have their sway. + +Then as to races, I do not think, for instance, that races in India are +much more mixed than in Italy. Think of the races there are all +grouped under the name Italian: there are Roman, Etruscan, Greek, +Saracen, Norman, Goth--who shall say how many more? And in Great +Britain I cannot count them. + +Therefore, because in this book I am speaking of the real humanity hid +beneath the clothes, the bonds, the chains of conventions and of +customs, of religions and belief, I can speak of the Indian peoples as +one people. Details differ enormously, but details do not ever affect +principles, only the method of their application. And creeds, faiths, +laws, and customs pass; humanity remains. + +The Indian people, then, over whom we established our government +accepted it, and helped us to establish it. They wanted peace. For +two centuries or more they had been torn with wars, with insurrections, +with internal anarchy, and with their consequences. They wanted rest, +to plough, to sow, to reap, to trade in peace. We gave them that. +They wanted Courts Criminal and Civil that were not corrupt. We gave +them honest Judges. They wanted facilities for trade--roads, posts, +and such things--which we provided. They could expand and use some of +their energies. + +But the field was a narrow one. Men are not born to sow and reap and +trade alone. They have other emotions which seek for outlet, other +energies which require a vent. Man is gregarious, and he is so made +that he cannot fully develop himself except in larger and again larger +communities. To reach his full stature in any way he must develop in +all ways. He must feel himself part of ever greater organisms, the +village first, the district and the nation--finally of humanity. + +But in India all this is impossible. Except the village there is no +community that exists even in name, and we have injured, almost +destroyed, even that. Thus an Indian has no means of growth. He +cannot be a citizen of anything at all. Half his sympathies and +abilities lie entirely fallow, therefore he cannot fully develop the +other half. A man is a complete organism, and if you keep half in +inaction you affect the other half too. A man is not a worse but a +better merchant, or lawyer, or landowner, or soldier, because he is +interested in his locality, his community, his nation. It gives him +wider views, makes him more tolerant, more humane, more wise. Man as a +unit is a poor thing, physically, morally, and intellectually. Ability +is the product of communities, of men formed into organisms, not of +individuals. Each man in himself has no duty but to himself; to own a +duty to a community he must be part of the community; to a government +he must have a place in the government; to a nation he must be part of +the nation. But in India there is no nation, no community at all, save +very weakened village communities. As far as the Indian is concerned +no larger community exists. And I have already pointed out that India +has no place in the organism of government. + +It is the slowly growing consciousness of an energy that has no outlet, +of a desire for advance in every direction, that causes the unrest. In +some ways the educated classes feel it most. Elsewhere they see men of +their class cultivating their patriotism, increasing that sense of +being and working for others, of being valuable to the world at large, +showing capacity for leading, ruling, thinking, advancing in a thousand +ways, while none of it is for them. They want to express the genius of +their races in wider forms than mere individuality, but they are not +able to do so. They want a national science and literature and law; +they cannot have it. No individual as an individual can achieve +anything. Not till he feels he is a cell in a greater and more +enduring life can he develop. But this is not for India. + +It is a piece of advice often addressed to India when she expresses her +desire for some share in her government that she should first reform +herself socially and intellectually. The status of women in zenanas +and harems, infant marriage, the sad condition of widows, the +degradation of caste, polygamy, the fanaticism of religions, are, she +is told, to be mended before she can show herself fit for +self-government in any form. Only to a free people can self-government +be safely entrusted, and she is so wrapped up in prejudice and +ignorance that she is unfit for any freedom. "Mend your divisions +first; reform yourself, and we will see what we can do." + +Such advice comes from ignorance alone. It is but another instance of +that Phariseeism that has become so common with us. It is impossible +for individuals to reform themselves, however much they may wish to do +so. For an individual to reform, his whole environment must be +reformed as well. For example, take widow remarriage. How can widows +remarry in comfort till the whole structure of Hindu convention is +changed? Not one individual nor a million individuals can break a +convention. There is a strong feeling, as we know, amongst Hindus +against this and many other conventions that stifle them, but every +effort to break these chains has failed. Why? Because to break +fetters bound upon society by religion or convention takes the combined +effort of society, and even then it is difficult. The inertia of +peoples is a deadly difficulty to overcome. + +But we have not allowed the collective instinct any opportunity of +developing. There are no nuclei; there is nothing to draw the people +together. + +Take again the differences created by races, religions, castes. It is +the interest of the priests to maintain these differences and +exaggerate them. Religions never reform themselves. What influence is +there to soften them? None that I ever heard of. + +But self-governing institutions do tend to remove them. In the village +communal life they are to a considerable extent ignored. The organism +of the village, when healthy and free, forces men to disregard +artificial barriers of this sort and meet on common ground for common +business. Solidarity comes from the sense of the necessity for +solidarity in order to get on. Its possibility is soon manifest. + +But where in India is there any influence tending towards this end? +The barriers of caste increase and grow, as naturally they must do. +There is no _rapprochement_ between Hindu and Mohammedan, but on the +contrary the gulf is widened. It must be so. And if Government makes +the fatal error of adopting the motto "_Divide et impera_," if it in +ever so slight a fashion identifies itself with one caste, race, or +religion above another, then it is near the end of all things. But to +the development of self-government the effacement of these divisions +would be necessary, and in the pursuit of an eagerly coveted ideal they +could pass and disappear. No other influence can do it. Again history +shows this clearly. It was this influence in England that rendered +Catholic emancipation possible and had brought creeds politically +together. Did we in England live still under an aristocracy as we did +a hundred years ago the divisions between Catholic and Protestant, +Churchman and Dissenter, Christian and Agnostic, would still be as +sharp as they were. These artificial barriers of creed and race give +way only under the pressure of a stream of national life. That is +beginning already to flow in India; be ours the task to help it flow in +true and widening channels so that it may become a great river, +fertilising all things. Now the main idea seems to be to dam it up, +and so cause it to flood and to destroy. + +I hope that what I say will not be misunderstood. I do not for a +moment mean that political organisms should or could be used for social +reform. That is quite impossible. Any such attempt would wreck the +organism, which, as an organism, must pursue only its legitimate ends. + +But I say, and all history is at one with me, that suitable free +institutions do cultivate and bring out the faculty for freedom, and +demonstrate that in all matters it is necessary. + +Again, consider this: the laws concerning marriage, divorce, adoption, +and inheritance, whether of Mohammedan, Hindu, or Buddhist, are +petrified. With changing circumstances, changes in these laws become +of the first necessity; yet as things are now no change is possible. +Take the ten million Buddhists in Burma. Their laws of marriage are +contained in the Dhammathats, which are derived from the laws of Menu, +and are I don't know how old. Now there is this that is good about +them: they were codified when India was free, before the night of +religious bigotry descended upon it. They are, therefore, based not +upon religious ideas, but upon custom which was based on experience. +The spirit therefore is excellent, it is common-sense; it is not the +pretension of an ideal long before the ideal is universally possible, +but a common-sense recognition of human nature as it is, and the +necessity of doing your best with it. They are the only marriage laws +in the world framed by common sense and not religion. Men and women +are free and equal. But although their base is excellent they were +framed for a very different environment from what obtains now. And +again, there are two or more codes, and they differ in details. There +is nothing the people want more than a rectification and consolidation +of their laws, with registration of marriage, the power to make wills, +and other matters. They are always expressing this necessity because +the present laws of inheritance handicap them against other races. +They cannot make wills, and the law of inheritance is so vague that +when a rich man dies litigation almost always ensues. The estate is +dissipated in law-costs and the heirs ruined. + +But who is going to draft the new laws? Not Government. Once bit +twice shy, and the Government of Madras had a try at that in Malabar. +There was urgent necessity there for some system of marriage +registration, so Government appointed a Commission which recorded +quantities of evidence, and framed a Report, on which an Act was +passed. It was supposed to be absolutely according to the wishes of +the people. I have not been in Malabar since the Act was passed, but +one friend has told me that three marriages were registered under it. +Another friend told me that this is a wild exaggeration, and that only +one marriage was registered under it, just that the people might say +they had not rejected the Act without trying it. However this may be, +the Act is a dead letter. It was bound to fail. The people find the +laws of Government already too stringent, interfering too much, and too +inhuman, even where they deal with matters outside the home. They will +never allow an alien Government a footing inside the house. They know +Government has destroyed the village; they fear it will destroy the +family. Therefore Government holds its hand. It cannot do otherwise. +For even if it could frame an Act in accordance with the wishes of the +people, that Act could not be enforced. And it cannot discover the +wishes of the people, because the people themselves don't know. The +opinion of no matter how many individuals is no true guide. Because, +to justify a new Act of inheritance, not individual opinion but joint +opinion must be known. They are not the same. Ten men as individuals +will tell you one thing; these ten men as a community would tell you a +different thing. This is a fact in psychology I shall have to refer to +again later. It is undoubted. + +Now the joint opinion of Burmese society as to the proposed change +cannot be gauged, because it does not exist. There are no Burmese +communities to evolve any common idea. Therefore the archaic laws must +remain as they are. + +Thus throughout India all progress of all sorts is barred; can you +wonder that there is unrest from this one cause alone? + +And this feeling goes down to the very lowest ranks as an unnameable, +unanalysable fever and unhappiness; you see it everywhere. + +Then there is more than this. A system of government and law that was +bearable when we were weak is unbearable when stronger. What gives you +help when young becomes a fetter as you grow. It bites into the flesh +like cords too tightly drawn, and in India instead of being loosed they +have been drawn more tightly year by year. + +It is not only that the people have grown bigger, but the bonds of +government have grown narrower. It has grown more of a machine, less +human than it was, less human year by year, until sometimes now it is +almost inhuman in its rigid formalism. The bonds cut into her flesh; +India wants to grow, to rise--but cannot. How could it be but that she +should show unrest? + +India wants to get on; we bar the way, so India feels unrest. + +Now if you will consider this unrest you will admit that it is not a +bad symptom but a good one; it is a sign of an increasing life. +Neither is it uncomplimentary to us that it should have arisen. It is +the greatest compliment our rule could have. A hundred and fifty years +ago--even, perhaps, fifty years ago--India could not have felt this. +She was exhausted, weary, wanting peace. We gave her peace, and so she +has grown strong and overcome her weariness. That is our doing. No +one else could have done that. We gave her a complete rest cure. We +said, "Keep still, and eat and drink; we will do all the thinking--the +ruling that has to be done. Do not be afraid, for we can do it well. +Have confidence. Get back your nerves and strength. We will look +after you." + +We did. How well we did it history tells. We did not spare ourselves. +I do not say we acted from any altruistic motives. I do not say we +have not made mistakes. But we did it. The task was great; the +greatest, perhaps, the world has seen. + +India is rested, and she wakes, she moves. Why are we angry? Should +we not feel proud? + +Can we not give her a hand, and say, "Rise up and try to walk. I will +hold your hand at first, till you are stronger. Then when you are +grown you shall walk free, beside me, as my daughter whom I have +brought up"? + +I see continual denunciations of the unrest in India. Why? I see +continual regrets that the past is passed--but why? Continual threats +are breathed towards India. Why? + +For myself, I hail it as the happiest omen that could be. It has +unfortunate exhibitions sometimes; that is partly our fault, I fear, +because we do not recognise that the past is gone for ever. India has +grown, and we forget. We give no outlet to these true energies that +have developed. India was our patient; now she is recovering shall we +make of her a subject, or a daughter? She must be one or other, or +leave us altogether, for the past is passed. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE CIVILIAN + +Let us now consider the Government and its ideas; that is to say, the +men and the laws by which they govern. + +First, take the _personnel_, for there is no complaint more insistent +on all sides than that the officers of to-day are not the same as those +of fifty or more years ago. They are out of touch with the people. + +It was for some time supposed by Government that this was only +partially true. That government itself, that is, the Secretariats, was +out of touch, was felt and avowed. But it was supposed that this arose +from the specialising of function. The work of secretaries had become +so difficult, so special, so different from district work, that instead +of there being interchange of officers, the secretaries usually passed +all their official lives away from actual contact with the realities of +the people. There were orders passed that in future this was not to +occur, men were to come and go, to do district work for a while, and +then secretariat work, bringing to the latter knowledge gained in the +former. + +But it was quickly seen that this had little or no result. If the +secretaries were out of touch, the district officers were hardly less +so. Government, as a whole, had separated from the people. English +and Indian were divided; nothing was gained. + +What, then, was the difference between the men of the past and those of +the present? Let us consider. + +They went out younger in those days; sixteen, seventeen, or eighteen, +were the usual ages. The usual age for Haileybury cadets was twenty. +Clive, Warren Hastings, Nicholson and John Lawrence went out at +eighteen, Henry Lawrence at seventeen, Meadows Taylor at fifteen. Many +of the administrators were soldiers first, and they too went out young. +Lord Roberts, for instance, landed in India when he was sixteen. +Addiscombe cadets joined at sixteen or seventeen. When Haileybury was +abolished the average age was raised to twenty-three or more, and at +that age it now remains. + +Thus, as the first year in India is also spent in training out there, a +man is now not far from twenty-five before he is allowed to act +independently; he used to be twenty-one or less. This is a great +difference. + +In England the age when a boy attains his majority and has full freedom +before the law is twenty-one, and in order to elucidate this question I +have tried to discover why the law of England fixed twenty-one. In +Rome a boy was legally of age as regards his person at fourteen though +he had a curator over his property till he was twenty-five. Therefore +this age of twenty-one does not come from Roman law. It seems to have +arisen from a general consensus of observation that at twenty-one the +average young man is fit to be free and should be free. There seems to +be about that age a critical mental stage of adolescence corresponding +to the physical stage at fourteen. However this may be, there seems to +be no doubt that to keep a young man in tutelage till he is twenty-four +or twenty-five is bad for him. The powers of initiative and the sense +of responsibility which mature at twenty-one atrophy thereafter if not +fully used. And no book learning can replace this. Thus nowadays +tutelage is too long continued. + +Again, education began later in those days than now, and there was less +of it. Boys ran wild far more than now, when they are cramped up in +schools and conventions at a very early age. + +Thus the men of old had individualities; they had not been +steam-rollered flat by public school and university; their boyish +enthusiasm and friendliness were still in them. They had no +prejudices, had never heard of the Oriental mind, were not convinced +beforehand that every Oriental was a liar and a thief, but were +prepared to take men as they found them. They were willing and eager +to learn. Their minds were open as yet to new impressions. They had +not been "fortified by fixed principles" to "safeguard them" against +acquiring any sympathy with Eastern peoples. Therefore they did so +understand and sympathise. + +If you will read the records of the past you will see this in a most +marked degree. Englishmen had Indian friends; how rarely do they have +such now! They knew the people's talk, their folk-lore and their +tales. They looked on them as fellow-humans. And the feeling was +reciprocated. Look, for instance, at how they kept the same servants +all their service. Nowadays there is a general howl of the badness of +Indian servants and their untrustworthiness. It was not so then. One +of the most pleasing features of that old life was the affection often +shown between masters and servants. Dickens has noted it. How much of +that do you find now? Not much. A little still there is--who should +know better than I? And if now it is so rare, where is the fault? +Good masters make good servants. And it requires so little goodness in +the master--only a little consideration, a friendly word sometimes. +They give back far more than they receive. If there are many bad +servants, who makes them bad? Their masters; those with whom they +began their service, who did not know how to treat them, how to help +them, how to keep them. At Arcot the Sepoys gave the rice to their +officers and took the conjee themselves; how many regiments would do +that now? + +I do not say that there was ever close personal intercourse between +English and Indian; there was not, and in the nature of things there +could not be. But there were mutual consideration and mutual respect. +"We have different ways and different customs; we have different skins. +But underneath it all we are both men." So they thought in the old +days. + +Thus in the old days the embryo official came out young, free from +prejudices, full of enthusiasms, ready to learn, to read, to mark, +learn, and inwardly digest all phases of Oriental life about him. Even +thirty years ago when I first went to India there were many of this +type still left. They thought it their duty, as it was their pleasure, +to study the people in order to understand what lay beneath their +customs. It must be thirty years ago that an old civilian turned on me +sharply when I made some ignorant remark about some Malabar custom and +said: "The custom has arisen out of the circumstances of life and no +peculiarity of nature in the people. All peoples are much alike in +fundamentals, and great apparent differences are but superficial, and +arise from environment." + +The absurd doctrine of the "Oriental mind" had not then arisen to be an +excuse for ignorance and want of understanding. Nowadays it is +supposed to be the mark of culture to talk of it; to the old officials +it would have been the mark of a fool; they thought it their duty to +study the people. + +But it is not so now. Young civilians come out with their minds +already closed, and, as a rule, closed they remain. The harm is done +in England before they start. Let me give instances. + +It is a custom when a young civilian joins to send him to a district +head-quarters for six months first, to learn his way about before +posting him to any specified work. One such was sent to me ten years +ago, and if I give an account of him it will do for all. For nowadays +they are all turned out of the same mill, have all the same habits of +mind and thought, and their personalities are submerged. If anything, +he of whom I speak was above the average in all ways. + +He was a very nice young fellow, with charming manners, and I greatly +liked him. + +He became an officer of great promise, and would have risen high, but +he is dead now, and therefore what I say now cannot offend anyone. +Besides, I have nothing to say that would offend. He was, I think, +twenty-three years of age, of good people, educated at a public school +and Oxford, and was as nice a boy as could be found. He had passed +high in the examinations. He was said to be clever, and as regards +assimilating paper knowledge, he was able, but his mind was an old +curiosity shop. He had fixed ideas in nearly everything. He was full +of prejudices he called principles, of "facts" that were not true. He +had learnt a great deal, he knew nothing; and worse--he did not know +how to obtain knowledge. He wanted his opinions ready-made and +absolute first, and only sought for such facts as would support those +principles. He had no notion how to make knowledge by himself. He +wanted authority before he would think. Give him "authority," and he +would disregard or deny fact in order to cling to it. I will take a +concrete instance. + +There is amongst Englishmen in Burma a superstition that the Burmese do +not and cannot work. They are "lazy." The men never work if they can +help it, and all the work that is done is done by women. How this idea +arose is an interesting study in the psychology of ignorance, but I +need not enter into that now. The idea obtains universally, and is an +acknowledged shibboleth. My young assistant was not with me many days +before he brought it up. + +"Oh," he said, "the Burman is so lazy." + +"You are sure of that?" I asked. + +He stared at me. "Why, everyone says so." + +"Everyone said four hundred years ago that the sun went round the +earth," I answered; "were they right?" + +"You don't mean to tell me," he said, "that the Burmese can work." + +"I don't mean to tell you anything," I answered. "Here are a quarter +of a million Burmese in this district. Find out the facts for +yourself." + +The necessity of having to support his theories with facts seemed to +him unreasonable. "But," he objected, "I can see they are lazy." The +Burman is lazy. That is enough said. What have facts to do with it? +He did not say this, but undoubtedly he was thinking it. However, at +last he did find what he considered a fact. + +"You remember, when we rode into that village the other day about noon, +the number of men we saw sleeping in the veranda?" + +"True," I said. + +"Does not that show it?" + +"Suppose," I said, "you had got up at four o'clock in the morning and +worked till ten, in the fields, would you not require a rest before +going out at three o'clock again?" + +"Do they do that?" he asked. + +"You can find out for yourself if they do or not," I answered. + +He looked at me doubtfully. + +"But," he objected, "it is notorious." + +"So is the fact that the standard of living in Burma is very high. How +do you reconcile the two? Laziness and comfort. The comfort is +evident and real, perhaps the laziness is only apparent." + +"A rich country," he said. + +"Is it?" I asked. "Look at the dry, bare land, of which nearly all +this district and most of Upper Burma are composed. Is it rich? You +have eyes to see. You know it is not rich; why do you say it is?" + +He shook his head almost as if I had hurt him and searched about for a +defence. + +"But Lower Burma is rich." + +"Certainly; and if you look at the export returns you will see the +enormous amount of rice it grows and exports. Is that rice the product +of laziness?" + +"But," he said at last in despair, "if this laziness of the Burman is +untrue, how did the idea become general?" + +"Ah," I answered, "that is another matter. Let us stick to one thing +at a time. We are concerned now with whether it is true or not. +Decide that first. See for yourself. Find out an ordinary man's work +and I think you will find it is sufficient. You have the opportunity +of judging, and unless you use that opportunity you have no right to an +opinion at all." + +He said no more at the time, but a few days later he returned to the +subject. A High Official had been opening a public work in Mandalay +and had made a speech. Much of the labour for the work had been +Burmese, where usually such labour is imported Indian, and he referred +with satisfaction to the fact. "I am glad to see," said the High +Official, "that the Burmese are taking to hard work." My assistant +brought this up. "Here is authority," he said. + +"Certainly," I said; "there is authority on one side; now let us look +at fact on the other; whether is it better to be a peasant-proprietor +on your own land or a day-labourer?" + +"The proprietor, of course," he said. + +"This has been a bad year in some districts. Crops have failed. You +can read that from the weekly reports in my office. Many cultivators +have had to abandon their holdings and turn to day labour. Is that +good? Are they to be congratulated on it?" + +The boy looked downcast. + +"No," he admitted. + +"Well, then," I asked, "what will they think of a Government who says +such things?" + +He reflected for some time. "But," he said at length, "when one +authority (the High Official) says one thing and another authority +(you) says the reverse, what am I to believe?" + +Then came my opportunity. "You are to believe nothing," I said. "You +have eyes, you have ears, you have common sense. They are given you to +use and see facts for yourself. The facts are all round you. You will +never do any good work if you refuse to face facts and understand them. +If you are to be worth your salt as an official you will have to work +by sight, not by faith." + +He laughed. At first he seemed puzzled; then he was pleased. He had +been educated to accept what he was told and never to question. His +mind had been stunted and the idea of exercising it again delighted +him. To judge by himself was a new idea to him entirely and he +welcomed it. He began to do so. For the first time since childhood he +was encouraged to use that which is the only thing worth +cultivating--his common sense. But even yet he could not emancipate +himself. + +Some time later a new subject came up. This time it was the +disappearance of the Burman. He is supposed to be dying out. The +Indian is "ousting" him. Before long there will be none left. My +assistant had read it in the paper and heard it almost universally, +therefore it must be true. I said nothing at the time, but that day +when I went to office I sent him the volumes of the last two Census +tables with a short note. "Will you kindly," I wrote, "make out for me: + + the Burmese population in 1891 + the same in 1901 + +district by district, and let me know where there have been decreases, +also increases, and the percentage of increase." + +The next day he came to me with an amused expression on his face and a +paper of figures in his hand. + +"I have made them all out," he said, "as you wished. Here they are." + +"Then," I said, "let us take the districts with the decreases first. +Please show me them." + +"There are none," he answered. "They all show increases." + +"Large?" I asked. + +"Yes, large," he said; "from a population of about nine million to ten +million in ten years is a good increase. The Burmese are prolific." + +"But," I remarked also, "I thought the Burman was disappearing? You +said so on authority. How is that?" + +He laughed; he had taken his lesson. + +And again, another point. I had received an order from Government +which I thought was mistaken, and I said so. He was a Government +official too, and I could say to him what I could not say to others. + +"Then you won't carry it out?" he asked, surprised. + +"I am here to carry out orders," I answered, "and of course I shall +carry it out." + +"But why then do you criticise it, if it must be carried out?" + +"Look here," I said, "before very long you will be sent to a +subdivision of my district to govern it. I shall send you many orders, +and shall expect you to carry them out." + +"Right or wrong?" + +"Right or--as you may think--wrong. You must do as I say. Without +this, government is impossible. But I do not want you to think as I +do. I want you to think for yourself. If an order appears to you +issued from a misconception on my part, you must not refuse to obey; +but I should expect you to tell me any facts that would lead me to +better knowledge. Your business is not merely to carry out orders, but +to furnish me with correct information how to better those orders. You +are not merely to be part of the district hand, but of its brain too. +I should want you to criticise every order in your mind, try to +understand it, and if you disagree with it to examine your reasons for +disagreement and see if they are good." + +"And let you know?" + +"Whenever you are certain that I am wrong, and the matter is important." + +"But would not criticism be cheek?" + +"Not if it is true and valuable. You would be doing me a valuable +service. It is what I want. How do you suppose we are ever to get on +if opinions are to be stereotyped? Thought must be free. But don't +give me opinions or 'authority.' I don't care for either. Give me +facts, and be sure of your facts." + +"I see," he said. + +"You can be quite kind about it, you know," I suggested. + +"Is that what you are to Government," he asked, "when you disagree with +them?" + +"I try to be," I said. "I put myself as far as I can in their +position, and give them what I would like to receive myself." + +Again it was quite a new idea to him that anyone should want criticism. +He had been educated to believe that any doubt of what authority said +was a sin, perhaps inevitable sometimes, but anyhow always to be +concealed; and he had been told that everyone, from the Creator down, +resented criticisms and would annihilate the critic. That anyone +should prefer knowing the truth even if it prove him wrong seemed to +him impossible. He did not like ever to admit he had been wrong. He +thought truth was absolute and fixed, whereas it is relative and always +growing. He had, unconsciously, the mind of the Pharisee in the Temple. + +Now these three instances will point out what seems to me to be wrong +in the previous training of young men sent to India, and in fact in all +training. Their minds instead of being cultivated are stifled. They +are taught to disregard fact and to accept authority in place of it. +They are not only to do what they are told, which is right; but to +think what they are told, which is wrong. And they do. They are +taught to repeat in parrot manner stock phrases and imagine they are +thinking. And this habit once acquired is difficult to get rid of. +With most it never is got rid of. You will, for instance, find these +shibboleths of the "disappearing Burman" and his "laziness" repeated by +the highest officials who have been longest in the country, all of whom +have facts in their office disproving them. And these are not the only +prejudices nor even the principal. They are innumerable and serious. +You will in consequence find that administration and even legislation +are affected by them. The whole attitude of Government to the people +it governs is vitiated in this way. There is a want of knowledge and +understanding. In place of it are fixed opinions based usually on +prejudice or on faulty observation, or on circumstances which have +changed, and they are never corrected. Young secretaries read up back +circulars, and repeat their errors indefinitely. That is "following +precedent." They will quote you complacently: + + "Freedom broadening slowly down + From precedent to precedent" + +and never see the absurdity of the lines. Freedom is the disregard of +precedent where the precedent is wrong or out of date. + +There is throughout nearly all English officials (and non-officials) in +India not only a disregard of facts about them, but a want of any real +sympathy with the people among whom they live, which is astonishing. +They often like the "natives," they often are kind to them, wish them +well, and do their best for them, but that is not sympathy. Sympathy +is understanding. It is being able to put yourself in another's place. + +I could tell many stories illustrating this want of understanding. One +will suffice. An official I knew well, an excellent fellow, +kind-hearted, humorous, and able, holding a good position then and a +high one now, with a charming wife, living amongst the Burmese and +ruling them, with Burmese servants, clerks, and peons, and continual +Burmese visitors of all classes, called his dog "Alaung." Now "Alaung" +means something very similar to "Messiah," and is a sacred word. A +parallel would be if, say, a Parsee in England called his dog "Christ." +I have seen this official's servants wince when he called out to his +dog. Yet I am sure it never struck him that there was anything out of +the way in this nomenclature. I am sure he never dreamed he would hurt +anyone's feelings by it, or he would not have done it. He certainly +intended no jeer at the religion of his subordinates. It was simply +that he wanted understanding. + +Now sympathy is inherent in all children, and is the means whereby they +acquire all the real knowledge they have. A girl being a mother to her +doll, a boy being a soldier or hunter, is exercising and training the +most valuable of all gifts--imaginative sympathy. It is the only +emotion which brings real knowledge of the world about you. Without it +you never understand anything. + +It should be incessantly cultivated and fed with real facts to enable +it to grow, and to turn what your sympathy leads you to suspect into +what knowledge confirms. In all young men nowadays it is destroyed by +their education. Their minds are fitted up with obsolete and mistaken +prejudices, which are called principles, and then the door is locked. +They all talk the same, act the same, have the same ideas in their +heads. None of them ever think over what is all about them. They do +their work by paper knowledge and paper principles; the great book of +humanity has been sealed for them. When they try to think they cannot +do so. They have lost the power their childhood had. They argue in +the most extraordinary way. They will make a statement, and if it is +disproved say, "Well, if it is not true it ought to be," and go on as +if that made it true. They will resort to prophecy, and say, "If not +true to-day it will be to-morrow," and so settle it. + +Now if brighter days are to be in store for India official or +non-official, English or native, all this must be altered. The whole +principles of education must be revised or abandoned. The less +educated a man is now the more real understanding he is likely to have. +The educated man is a mental automaton. He has sold his soul and got +in its place some maxims, with the aid of which he seeks to govern the +world. He thinks knowledge is got from books. It is not. Books are +most valuable helps, showing you new views of life, giving you new +facts, showing you how to think; but they never give you knowledge of +life. Only experience can do that. But the young man now does not +want to know what is, but what other people say. He is afraid of +himself and yearns for authority. + +This has been evident to all who have looked into the matter. Here is +what a modern writer says: + +"No English schoolboy is ever taught to speak the truth for the very +simple reason that he is never taught to desire the truth. From the +very first he is taught to be totally careless as to whether a fact is +a fact; he is taught to care only whether the 'fact' can be used on his +side when he is engaged in 'playing the game.'" + +Nothing could be more true than this. He is provided with fixed ideas, +and he will welcome any fact that supports them, while deliberately +refusing all facts which are opposed to his ideas. He thinks and +argues to prove his preconceived point, never to elicit truth +regardless of whether that truth agrees with his preconceptions or not. +In fact, he is taught not to think. The Inward Light which is in all +children has been put out. He has become a spiritual coward; he dare +not look the whole truth in the face. He thinks that patriotism +consists in supporting his country or his class through thick and thin. +It does not occur to him that the higher patriotism is to try to help +his country or his class not to go wrong, or if wrong to get right. He +would rather bolster up a mistake, shut his eyes to the fact that it is +a mistake, and go on doing it, than admit his wrong. It is better in +his eyes to be consistently wrong than by admitting mistakes and +correcting them to be inconsistent. He cannot learn. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +HIS SUBSEQUENT TRAINING + +Therefore there is a wide difference between the men as they came out +in the old days and as they come out now. Then they were young, not +very well instructed but capable of seeing, understanding, and +learning; nowadays they are so drilled and instructed that they can +deal only with books, papers, and records; life has been closed to +them; they can enforce laws, but not temper them. + +After they come out the difference of life and work is still greater. +In the old days, for instance, they picked up the language quickly and +well. The time to learn a language is when you are young--the younger +the better. We learn our own language as children. The older we grow +the harder it is, because it means not merely learning by heart a great +many words, not merely training the palate and tongue to produce +different sounds, but adopting a new attitude of mind. Nothing +definite has been discovered as to the localisation of faculties in the +brain, therefore nothing certain is known; but it has always seemed to +me and to others whom I have consulted that when you learn a new +language you are exercising and developing a new piece of brain. When +you know several languages and change from one to another you seem +definitely to change the piece of brain which actuates your tongue. +You switch off one centre and switch on to another. You will always +notice in yourself and others that there is a definite pause when the +change of language is made. Now it becomes every year more difficult +to awaken an unused part of the brain and bring it into active use, and +to begin at twenty-three is late. True, languages are taught them at +Oxford before they come out, but the result seems _nil_. You must +learn a language where it is spoken. Moreover, the way they have been +taught Latin and Greek is a hindrance, for living languages are not +learnt that way. A child, for instance, learns to talk perfectly +without ever learning grammar. I never heard that any great English +writer had a grounding in English grammar. There is no real grammar of +a living language, because it grows and changes. You can only have a +fixed grammar of a dead language. + +The fact is that correct talking is the outcome of correct thinking, +not of any mechanical rules. You must think in a language before you +can speak it well. + +But at twenty-three it is far too late for the ordinary man to learn to +think in Hindustani or Burmese or Tamil. Of course there are +occasional exceptions, but the way these languages are usually spoken +is dreadful. I could tell tales about myself as well as others, for +though I worked very hard for years I never knew Burmese well, nor yet +Canarese, nor yet Hindustani. Yet who will doubt that it is very +important, the most important acquisition, in fact, that you can make? +Without it you can never really get near the people. So that in this +way the old civilian had again a great advantage. + +Here is one story. Once upon a time there was a District Officer and +there was his district, and for some reason they did not seem to agree. +At least the district did not like its Head. It felt uneasy, and it +became restive, and at last it complained. It took up many grievances, +and amongst them was this: "There is a good deal of building wanted in +various parts, and there is timber and there are sawyers, but no +licences can be obtained. When the Head comes round on tour we ask +him, but he always refuses. So all building work is stopped." + +An Inspecting Officer went to inquire, and he began with this +complaint: "Why do you refuse them sawpit licences when on tour?" he +asked. + +"I don't," the Head replied. + +"They say you do." + +"But they never even applied; so how could I refuse?" he answered. + +"Very well," said the Inspecting Officer, "let's see the file of your +petitions received." + +A clerk brought it out, and there--written in Burmese, of course--were +many sawpit applications, and below each, written by the Head, was his +endorsement: + +"I cannot allow more guns to be issued." + +Then the machine of government was far less perfected than it is now. +There were, of course, laws and rules and there was supervision, but to +nothing like the present extent. The district officer then had a +personality. He was required to have one, for local conditions +differed more than they do now and he had far more latitude. Moreover, +the machine being less effective he depended a great deal upon his +personal influence to keep the place quiet and get things done. He +could not ask for orders because there was no telegraph, and he could +not get help quickly because there were no railways. Therefore he was +obliged to acquire a personal knowledge of people and peoples, of +individuals and castes and races, which, he thinks, is not so necessary +now. The result was that all laws and orders passed through his +personality before reaching the people, thus acquiring a humanity and +reasonableness that is now impossible. He studied his district and he +used his powers, legal and otherwise, as he found best. If he found a +law harsh--and in the last resort all laws are so--he would ameliorate +its action. Nowadays he cannot do that. In the old days he +administered, as best he could, justice; now he administers law--a very +wide difference. Thus he was forced by circumstances to acquire a +knowledge and a sympathy which are unattainable to-day; for you only +learn things by doing them. + +The old district officers were known personally by name and by +reputation all through their districts. The people looked to them for +help and understanding, and protection as much against the rigidity and +injustice of the laws as against other ills. + +But nowadays, except the Government officials and headmen, I don't +believe anyone in a district knows who the head is. At all events, it +makes practically no difference, because the application of the laws is +supervised and enforced, and the district officer must "fall into +line." If any personality has survived his schooling it must now be +killed. + +Few men, I think, learn anything except from two motives--a natural +driving desire or necessity. But a natural desire to study the people +round you is scarce, and the necessity of other days has passed away. +A district officer can now do his work quite to the satisfaction of +Government and know next to nothing of the people. In fact, sometimes +knowledge leads to remonstrance with Government, and it doesn't like +that. + +Again, there has crept into secretariats a cult of "energy" and +"efficiency," and a definition of these words, which acts disastrously +upon the district officer, both when he is under training and +subsequently. + +Now, the proper meaning of an "efficient officer" is, I take it, one +who sees the right thing to do and does it quickly and effectively; and +probably Government really has this in its mind when it uses the word. +This is what it wants; but very often what it gets is almost the +opposite, and it is as pleased with this as if it got what it expected. +In fact, it does not seem to know the difference. An example will +explain what I mean. + +There is, we will say, in a district a good deal of cattle theft going +on, and the thieves cannot be detected. Cattle graze in Burma in the +fields, and in the jungle on their outskirts; they roam about a good +deal, and it is easy enough to steal them; detection is difficult. + +But there is in Burma, as in parts of India, a provision of the Village +Regulation which is called the Track Law, and it is substantially as +follows: + + +If cattle are missing their tracks can be followed. When they pass out +of the area under the jurisdiction of the village wherein the owner +lives and enter another village lands, that village becomes +responsible. The tracker calls the headman of that village and shows +him the tracks, which he must follow up and demonstrate that they have +not stopped in his jurisdiction but gone on. In this way the tracks +can be followed till they are lost, when the village in whose land they +are lost is considered as being the village of the thief, and is +therefore responsible for the lost cattle. It can be fined, and the +owner of the lost bullock indemnified. + + +This Act is taken from a very old custom common once in most of India, +and also, I believe, in places of Europe. For several hundred years +ago, when villages were widely separated by jungle, it had some sense. + +There was then a presumption either that the stolen bullock had been +taken to that village, or that some of the villagers had seen it pass. +The thief would probably have stopped there for food or rest, as it was +a long way on. But nowadays, in most of the country, village fields +are conterminous, with little or no jungle between; there are many +roads, and except where the tracks actually go into the village gate +the presumption does not arise. Cattle are common, and the villagers +are not expert trackers. Moreover, there is a very strong premium on +dishonesty, or at least carelessness in keeping to the right tracks. +Suppose the right track lost in a wet place, or a dry bare place, why +not pick up some other? Most cattle tracks are very similar. The +owner wants his compensation. + +Yet the "energetic" officer will be expected to work this Act _à pied +de la lettre_. + +I saw a good deal of the actual working of this Act at one time, when I +was a subordinate officer. Every time a beast was lost it had to be +tracked, and the village where the tracks were lost had to pay. It +made no difference if there was any reasonable presumption against the +village, there the law was. The tracks might be lost two miles from +the actual village, simply crossing its boundary; the law was there. + +I remember one village had a bad time because it was near a frequented +road, and when the tracks got on this road they were always lost, as +the surface was hard. So the village had to pay. Yet what evidence +was there against the village? None. I had the curiosity for some +time, whenever a case wherein a village was fined was subsequently +detected, to find out what village had been fined, and see if that +village had been in any way cognisant of the theft. It never had. The +fine was purely gratuitous, was worse than useless, for it was wrong. + +Yet it is a Government rule--not, I think, actually laid down, but +understood--that whenever an offence occurs, unless the culprit is +arrested a village must be held responsible. + +I always disliked the Track Law and its subsidiary sections, not +because I have any objection to holding a village, in certain cases, +responsible for its members--I think it is a sound principle--but +because it always hit innocent people, as far as I could see. I used +it as little as I could, yet there were difficulties. I will mention a +case in point. + +There was a broker who lived not in my district but near its boundary, +and one day he rode to a village in my district to collect some debts. +He didn't collect them, and left the village in a rage, saying he would +complain to the police-station six or seven miles away that he had been +cheated. It was about four o'clock in the afternoon when he left, and +he rode off across the plain in the direction of the police-station. + +He was sighted at dusk near the river, going along a road which half a +mile farther on passed through a village, and no more was seen of him. +He never arrived at the police-station, and next morning his pony was +found roaming the plain about the village near which he had last been +seen. + +There was no sign of him or his body. + +He was a well-known man, reputed to be wealthy, and a great fuss was +made. His wife declared he must have been murdered. The magistrate of +the broker's district was indignant that "his" broker should have been +murdered in my district and I do nothing. My police could get no clue +at all, nor could I. A subordinate magistrate held a proceeding under +the Track Law against the village where the broker disappeared, and +recommended it be fined. I, however, held my hand. + +Then a body was found floating in the river some miles lower down, and +identified as the broker's body, and his wife gave it a funeral. Still +I held my hand. + +My neighbour was indignant; my Superintendent of Police was distressed +at me; my Commissioner evidently thought me slack--"no energy." The +fact is I was puzzled, and would do nothing till I saw clearly. So six +months went on. + +What would have happened eventually had nothing more come out I can't +say, but something more did come out--the broker came out. He was +recognised in Mandalay and immediately arrested--for pretending to be +alive when he was really dead, I suppose--and sent to me. I asked him +what had occurred, and he confessed that he was deeply in debt to +money-lenders and had made up this scheme to defeat them. He had left +his pony, gone down to the river, crossed in a canoe, and gone into +hiding. While he was "dead" his wife had compounded with his creditors. + +I sent him back to my neighbour with the emphatic warning that if his +broker ever came up my way again he would certainly be done for in good +earnest. The whole district had been turned upside down for him, and +he was not popular. + +Now the points that I wish all this to illustrate are these: Men at the +head-quarters of Government, out of touch with real life, read the +Track Law, think it most useful and just, and insist on its being +enforced. Officers on the spot, accustomed to accept all law as the +epitome of justice, follow the Act without thinking. The +responsibility is really on them, as Government tells them to judge +each case on its merits, but they fear that if they reported that no +case under the Track Law ever had any merits they would be written down +as "wanting in energy." As they have not been trained to think for +themselves, they do not do so. They fulfil all the requirements of the +Act, and are satisfied. Moreover, subsequently, to justify their own +action they must praise the Act. Therefore a vicious circle is +created. Government says: "District officers praise the Act, therefore +have it stringently enforced, for they know its actual value." And +district officers say: "Government declares this to be an admirable +Act, therefore I must enforce it." No one ever investigates the facts. +If a district officer have doubts, he discreetly smothers them as +babies, lest they grow. + +And this is but one instance. I mention in a later chapter a still +more striking case of this sort of action; and even many examples would +not expose its whole evil. It is the spirit that renders such things +possible that is disastrous. So are officers trained to believe that +when anything untoward happens they must do something--they must punish +somebody. The idea that if they act without full knowledge the +something they do will be wrong and the persons they punish will be +innocent is not allowed to intrude. They will, of course, always act +by law, but then, "_summum jus, summa injuria_." In the old days this +could not have happened. In the first place, Government trusted its +officers, and its trust was not misplaced; now it trusts its laws; yet +there is nothing so unintelligent, nothing so fatal as rigid +laws--except those who believe in them. In the second place, officers +with the personality and knowledge of the men of former days would have +insisted on seeing for themselves and judging for themselves. They +would have cared nothing that they might be supposed not to have +"energy." They would know they had something better than that--they +had understanding. + +The possibility of making our laws and our government generally +endurable to the people depends on the personality of the district +officer. + +Nowadays he is sent out with his personality crushed, and it gets still +more crushed out there. He becomes in time not a living soul but a +motor-engine to drive a machine. Whatever knowledge he acquires is of +the people's faults and not their virtues. When you hear an official +praised as "knowing the Indian" or "the Burman," you know that it means +that he knows his faults. He knows the criminal trying to escape, the +villager trying to evade revenue. It doesn't mean that he knows more +than this. Some do, especially among the police and the forest +officers, but then they have no influence. + +As showing the difference between the old officer and the new I make +the following extract from _A City of Sunshine_, by Alexander +Allardyce. Few books on the East have been written with a clearer +understanding. + +"Mr. Eversley, the collector, was an official of a type that has almost +passed away. He had been brought up in the strictest traditions of the +Haileybury school and had adhered all his life to the conservative +principles of the 'old civilianism.' When the 'Competition Wallah' +came in, Eversley foresaw certain ruin to the English interests in +India. 'Competition Wallahs!' he used to exclaim--'as well put the +country under a commission of schoolmasters at once. But we'll lose +the country with all this Latin and Greek; take my word for it we'll +soon lose the country.' Mr. Eversley had never been able to make a +hexameter in the whole course of his life, and there is grave reason to +doubt that he was ignorant of even the barest elements of the Greek +accidence. But he had acquired a marvellous colloquial familiarity +with the Eastern vernaculars, and he knew the habits and feelings of +the Bengalee better than any other officer in the Lower Provinces. +There was no chance of Eversley falling into such a blunder as that +which was laid to the charge of Muffington Prigge, the magistrate of +the neighbouring district of Lallkor, who once, in taking the +deposition of a witness in a criminal case, had expressed his +displeasure that evidence of such importance should be given on the +authority of a third person, and ordered the police to bring 'Fidwi' +before him. The witness gave his evidence in the third person out of +respect. Instead of saying 'I saw' he said 'Fidwi (your slave) saw.' +Muffington Prigge's judgments had been more than once spoken of with +encomiums by Mr. Justice Tremer in the Appeal side of the High Court, +but Mr. Eversley's law never came before the High Court except to be +reprobated. Lawyers complained that he did not know even the rudiments +of the Codes; but there was no magistrate in the Lower Provinces whose +decisions were received with more general satisfaction or from whose +judgments there were fewer appeals. His rough-and-ready way of +settling cases was better relished than the elaborate findings of the +Lallkor archon which were generally unintelligible to the suitors till +they had fee'd their lawyer to tell them which side had won. + +"The people knew that Eversley would do what he saw to be right, +independent of Act or Code, _and they had more confidence in his sense +of justice than in the written law_." + +What is the highest praise a Burman will give to an officer--that he is +clever, painstaking, honest, energetic, kind? No; but that he has +"auza." And what is "auza"? It is that influence and power that comes +from personality. Who has "auza" nowadays? No one, not even +Government. It has become, as Eversley expected, a Commission of +Schoolmasters. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +CRIMINAL LAW + +Let us turn now from the _personnel_ of government to its methods, from +its men to its laws, from the motive power to the machine it works, or +which more often now works government. + +The first subject that comes naturally to our view is the prevention +and suppression of crime, for in point of time that precedes all else. +When you are conquering a country, after the soldiers have partly done +their work and the civil power comes in, its first care is to create +and maintain peace. It organises a police and appoints magistrates. +Thus in point of time the Criminal Courts are the first to be organised +and criminal law to be laid down, and they are the foundation-stone on +which all else is built. And they remain always the most important of +the functions of government. If they work well, then there is a good +beginning made, but if ill, then the outlook is bad. If what should be +Courts of Justice cease in the opinion of the people to be so, then is +the very foundation-stone of your rule dissolving. The whole edifice +is undermined; it is not founded on a rock, but on something that +decays, which soon will give way and let down everything. + +Let us go back therefore to the beginning, and see how things worked +then. The laws were few, were crude, were often bad. It must be +remembered that a hundred years ago the penal laws in England were the +most savage, the most useless, the most wicked the world has ever seen. +The law in India could not therefore be expected to be very good. But +previous to our rule there was no law at all generally. And these bad +laws of ours came to the people through the medium of personalities who +were for the most part intelligent and sympathetic. Moreover, there +was nothing like the number of cases then as now. The system now +obliges all cognisable crime to be reported even if petty in its +nature. In those days very little crime was reported, it was dealt +with by the village communities and never known to the Courts. There +were few pleaders; and a trial was really what it ought to be, an +inquiry into facts by a magistrate desiring to know them. The question +of personality came in a great deal, and whatever may be alleged of the +ordinary district courts of those days, they were human, they really +tried to be Courts of Justice, they tried to understand. The people +respected them. If they did not respect the law, at all events they +respected the magistrate who tried to do his best with it. They had an +admiration for his personality which went a long way. + +Now that is all changed. + +The law has been greatly improved. It has been codified by trained +legists; Lord Macaulay and Sir James Stephen were two of them, and it +is up to the standard of European codes. But, on the other hand, it +has been made absolute. There is a reign of law now, and there is no +person in the world who does not hate law when he sees it. The +personality that softened it in the old days has been ruled out. The +High Courts supervise all work and reduce it to a dead level of +uniformity. There is even a fixed scale of punishment sometimes. On +revision, cases are rejudged on the written evidence alone. Of course, +the case cannot be altered on revision, but the magistrate can be +admonished--and he is. All humanity is eliminated. + +Therefore the Courts are despised and hated by the people, who misuse +them in every way they can. + +Let us look into this matter. + +In the first place, let me explode a common fallacy. It is frequently +said that Oriental people do not dislike crime, that they condone it, +that they have low standards in matters of current morality. Therefore +they are not anxious to have crime brought to justice as we are. They +are a bad lot, and the criminal being but a trifle worse than the +average they sympathise with him. + +All that is wicked nonsense. Standards in the East are the same as +they are elsewhere. The people dislike crime as much as we do. But +they think our laws and Courts are not calculated to reduce crime, and +they have good reason for so thinking. Moreover, they distinguish +between the sinner and his sin--we don't. There lies the difference. +Let us consider, therefore, the Courts and their relation to the people. + +I confine myself to the province of Burma which I know best, but there +is little difference between it and other provinces in these matters. +The law is uniform, the procedure uniform, and what differences exist +are due to interference of the High Courts acting within the law. In +the Indian Penal Code are laid down definitions of the various +offences; what it is that constitutes theft, or robbery, or murder. It +was drawn out by skilled and able men from the experience of all +civilised nations. It is not, of course, perfect; no code could be +that or near it, but it is good. With most of it the people have no +quarrel. A theft is the same anywhere, and so is a murder. With one +point, however, they profoundly disagree, and that is the +classification of offences. Theft, no matter how trivial, is an +offence against the State, is not compoundable, and is cognisable by +the police; whereas an assault, no matter how severe, unless it causes +grievous hurt, is the opposite. It is a purely private matter, with +which the police have no business. If the sufferer wants to prosecute +he must do so himself; pay his own expenses and engage his own pleader, +or go without. This is a difference that offends his own instinct. +Just take two cases. + +Your servant steals a little silver ornament, a few rupees you left +about; or some hungry loafer takes some fruit off your tree. You may +not forgive him, you may not overlook it. You are bound by law to tell +the police and get the offender arrested and convicted. By the petty +theft public morality has been outraged, and you must assist morality +to vindicate itself. You have no option. If you do not tell the +police, you are "compounding a felony," and may be punished. Having +told the police you will have no further trouble. They will get up the +case, look up evidence, summon the witnesses, prosecute the case, and +you will be paid for giving evidence. The thief will be sent to gaol. +But if your enemy meets you in the fields, knocks you down, rolls you +in the dust, dishonours and abases you in your own esteem and before +all who know of it, public morality is not offended. It is of no use +going to the police-station; they will not listen to you, they will not +prosecute, nor take any notice. If you desire justice you must go +yourself to Court, pay to have a petition written, pay for a stamp, get +an advocate and pay him, pay for summonses to witnesses, spend, say, +three or four pounds, and eventually your enemy may be fined five +shillings, of which you, if lucky, may get two as compensation. You +may, if you like, at any time withdraw your complaint, if, for +instance, your enemy apologises to you or compensates you. Now these +are not selected cases, exaggerated cases, nor unusual cases. They are +common, and in both cases the instincts of the people are outraged. +They are not sordid-minded. A petty theft is not to them a very +serious thing. They put a higher value on their personal dignity and +self-respect than on a trifling piece of property. To them, therefore, +all this is wrong. Theft is never a very deadly offence, and if of +small things is easily forgiven. _But they may not forgive_. If the +police hear of it, they must give evidence against the culprit--or must +lie. They lie. Who blames them? The concealment of thefts, the +refusal to report them to the police, the subsequent refusal to give +evidence, are common. Is theirs the fault? On the other hand, as it +is impossible in the Courts to get any satisfaction for an assault, the +hot-tempered Burman seeks revenge in other ways. The Court fails him, +so he takes the law into his own hands. He will waylay, will stab, +will sometimes murder. Then Government grieves over the large number +of serious-hurt cases and wonders what causes them. The wily Madrassi +or Bengali coolie gets square in a different way. The injured +complainant goes off straight to the police-station and there describes +the assault more or less correctly. This, of course, he knows will not +help him, so he adds as follows: "During the assault a rupee dropped +out of my pocket, and when A had finished battering me he picked up the +rupee and went off with it." This makes the offence "theft," which is +cognisable by the police, who go off and arrest B and lock him up. Of +course, at the trial the experienced magistrate detects the truth, +firmly disbelieves the rupee, and convicts A of an assault only. But B +is quite satisfied. Has not A been locked up for a week? + +The perspective therefore of the Indian Penal Code is wrong. It is +taken from English law, which is also wrong, that is, opposed to common +sense. How it arose I know, but this is not the place to enter into +that. + +Therefore the very definition and classification of offences are +repugnant to the people, and are themselves causes of evasion: the +Indian Penal Code itself is wrong. But that is nothing to the +wrong-headedness of the Criminal Procedure Code. + +For whereas the Penal Code only partly offends the people, the Court +procedure is wrong from top to bottom. Its very foundation principle +is wrong. + +What is its principle of a trial? Is it a means of finding out the +truth? Is it an impartial inquiry into what has happened? Not in the +least. A trial is a duel. It is the lineal descendant of the duels of +the Middle Ages. The place is changed, it is a Court and not a field; +weapons are witnesses and tongues, not swords nor spears; the parties +fight by champions, not in person, and the umpire is called a judge, +but the principle is the same. Take any criminal trial. On one side +is the Crown prosecutor, on the other the advocate of the accused. +They fight. All through the case they fight. The prosecutor calls his +witnesses, asks them only the questions the answers to which will help +his case. The other champion cross-examines, bullies, confuses them, +tries to make them contradict themselves, drags in irrelevant matter, +and tries to destroy what the other side has built. When the defence +is on, the state of affairs is reversed. Neither wants the truth, and +only the truth, and all the truth. Each plays to win, and that alone. +If either knows evidence which would help the other side he suppresses +it. The judge is almost helpless. He has to take what is given. He +sees _lacunae_ in the evidence, he cannot fill them. He can't get down +from off the bench and go out into the country finding evidence for +himself. He knows that every witness brought before him has been +tutored--not directly perhaps, but indirectly by suggestion, by +question, by influence. The case is cooked before it reaches him, and +therefore hopeless. He knows he never finds out the exact truth about +any single thing. How should he? He knows and sees that witnesses are +lying. He knows the reason, because it is a duel, and they are, on one +side or another, fighting for vengeance, fighting for liberty. He +knows that though they are a singularly truthful people outside, yet +inside, their consciences absolve them from the necessity of truth +because the Court is so constituted as not to be a place for an inquiry +into truth, but the arena of a duel. + +He sees cases bought and sold. A clever barrister or advocate will +secure an acquittal where a cheaper man would fail. That is notorious +everywhere. Otherwise how do great barristers come by their big fees? +Clients do not pay for nothing. A barrister is worthy of his hire. +The poor man loses and the rich man wins. The poor man goes to gaol, +the rich is acquitted or gets a light sentence. So it happens +everywhere. The exact truth of a case is never known. For twenty +years I was a magistrate and judge. I tried hundreds of cases and I +did my best with each. But I never once reached my own standard of +understanding. What is that standard? Not that of Courts of Appeal +who generally upheld my cases. My standard was this: Do I know enough +of the case to write a story embodying it if I wanted to? I never did. +For the standard of truth that goes to even the slightest story is very +far beyond what is required or possible in even the most carefully +heard case. + +Now this is not an edifying state of things. It is not edifying +anywhere, and I have often heard remarks about it in England from men +who happened into a court of law to hear a case. To judges, lawyers, +and barristers this view of the proceedings does not occur, because +they have been brought up to it, and therefore their minds are locked +as far as really appreciating it goes. In India and Burma it is even +less edifying. I have often heard Burmans talk of it. "Here on one +side are the police, trained men, with all the power and resource of a +great Government behind them, trying to get a conviction. They have +gone about the country, searched out evidence, tested it, summoned it, +and displayed it to its best effect in Court. On the other side is a +poor devil of a villager who has been locked up while the police were +free; who is poor, who is ignorant, who if he can afford a pleader at +all can only afford a very indifferent one. His case is not presented +at all, or is very badly presented. True, the case has to be clearly +proved or he is acquitted, but the same facts may wear very different +colours, according to whether the whole truth is known or only a half. +The magistrate does his best, but he can only act on the evidence. The +police want a conviction because otherwise their records are bad and +promotion is stopped. Do you wonder that sympathy is often with the +accused?" + +So I have often been asked; and I don't wonder. I often felt that way +myself. + +When a man first falls into an offence his immediate instinct is to +confess to somebody. That is true of all the world. In Burma at the +beginning he used to confess to the Court. He was sorry for his +offence, he wanted to make the best of it, wanted help to reform. He +wanted understanding. He thought the Court wanted to know the truth +and he would do all he could to help. But he very soon found the +uselessness of this. He got no understanding, no sympathy, only +conviction and a vindictive punishment. Naturally he reflected, and +pleaders and people who knew the Courts helped him to reflect. + +"Fight it out. At worst you can but lose and be no worse off than if +you confessed. Why tell the truth? _No one expects you to_. If you +have confessed withdraw your confession. Say you were tortured. A +trial is a fight, with the judge as umpire. Do your best. Remember +that, even if your offence be a very small one, if it is a cognisable +offence you will be ruined for life if convicted." That is the advice +he gets. Who will doubt but that, our Courts being what they are, it +is sound as a rule? So, because it is a fight he won't confess; he +plays for the big stake--acquittal; and sometimes this acts +disastrously too. I will tell a case in point--one I tried myself. + +A man was accused of maiming a bullock. It had trespassed into his +Indian-corn field, and had been found there afterwards hamstrung, and +had to be destroyed. It was proved that accused was in the field when +the bullock wandered in. It was also proved that accused's chopper was +found close to the maimed bullock, covered with blood. Accused had run +away and had only been arrested some days later. + +Now the malicious maiming of a valuable bullock is a serious offence. +Its seriousness partly depends on the value of the animal. The case +was quite clearly proved though no one actually saw the offence +committed. The defence of the accused was a futile _alibi_. He had a +pleader who arranged this. The evidence for the prosecution seemed +quite clear, and I did not see how I could avoid convicting the man of +the grave offence. Yet somehow I was not quite happy in my mind. I +believed the prosecution was substantially true, but that they had been +piling it on a good deal. So before adjourning the case till next day +to give me time to write the judgment, I said to the accused: + +"I don't believe your _alibi_. You can see for yourself it has no +sense. But maybe if you told me your side of the story it might not +look so bad for you as it does now." + +He looked at me, hesitated, looked at his pleader, then all of a sudden +he did bring the whole story out. + +And as he told it, though it did not in any way invalidate the evidence +for the prosecution, it did put the matter in quite a new light. + +In the first place, the cattle, of which the bullock was one, had been +wilfully driven into his field to annoy him and cause him loss. In the +second place, he had not deliberately cut the bullock; when he saw the +cattle coming through the six-foot-high corn towards him he had in a +passion thrown his chopper at the dimly seen moving mass of cattle. +Then he had dodged out of their way. When he found afterwards what +damage he had done he ran away in a fright. + +I found there was evidence to support what he said--for instance, he +had gone straight home and told his father before he ran away--so he +got off with a small fine. He might have got two years. But unless he +had confessed I could never have guessed that there was quite another +version of the facts. + +Now I have often suspected this state of affairs. The substance of the +prosecution is clear, but there might be extenuating circumstances. +The accused however fights it to the last and will admit nothing. On +the evidence I could but take a gloomy view; for, remember, all cases +are subject to revision by the High Court, who simply read through the +written evidence and are not able to appreciate the subtle effect of +tone and manner in witnesses, which tell more sometimes than their +words. + +I have said that the people have no respect for the Courts because they +have lost all respect for the magistrate or judge. In himself he may +be worthy of all confidence; but when on the bench he is not himself, +he is a mouthpiece of the law, or an umpire; he is not a living force. +When you lie in Court you do not deceive a human being who is doing his +best for you and others; you only try to counterbalance the injustice +of the law by a little judicious weighting of the scales. A man who +will tell you the truth as individual to individual will commit perjury +before you in Courts and think nothing of it. In fact, he lies at the +other side, and doesn't consider you at all. He does it to try to get +justice, or what he thinks is justice, in place of law, which otherwise +is all he would get. I have often been told this, and I notice the +same in England. Truth is a relationship of persons; in a Court now +the only persons are the two opponents; the judge is only a sort of +machine to weigh evidence. As man to man I have found Orientals as +truthful as Englishmen. In twenty-six years' experience I do not +remember ever having been told a deliberate lie as man to man. But in +the Courts you are not a man, you are an official, and even as an +official your hands are tied. The parties have no direct relationship +with you. Their relationship is with each other--just as in a duel or +a prize-fight the relationship is between party and party, and the +umpire is only the onlooker, who may or may not see most of the game. +In law he usually sees less because Justice is blind. I am aware that +the bandage over the eyes of Justice is supposed to render her just, +not discriminating between rich and poor; it does the reverse, of +course. And until Justice opens her eyes again to discriminate what is +put into her scales she will remain the mock she now is. + +In a previous book I have discussed the question of veracity in this +connection, and lest anyone should object that what I say is true only +of the Burmese I will add this story, which is of a well-known official +in the North-West in his younger days. + +He was inquiring into a Revenue case, and incidentally an Indian +gentleman gave him certain information. The official thought this so +important that he summoned the Indian to Court, where, much to the +Englishman's surprise, the Indian as a witness gave a totally different +story. + +They met again, however, later, and the official asked the Indian +gentleman what he meant by going back on his words like that. The +latter smiled, hesitated, and then the wisdom of experience spoke to +the altruism of ignorance in these words: "Sahib," he said, "you are +very young." + +How the Courts are generally regarded by the people can best be +illustrated by giving an account of a dramatic entertainment I +witnessed once. The Burmese are fond of the drama. They have old +dramas, and they have new dramas up to date--satires for the most part. +The play I saw was of the latter. The company was a well-known one, +which had toured almost all the province, and its most famous piece was +that I witnessed--I forget the name. + +The scene was supposed to be the office of a lawyer, barrister, or +advocate, and there was a native clerk. To him entered a would-be +litigant. The clerk listens to him for a few minutes and then asks him +if he has brought any money. The client says "No." The clerk rises in +indignation and the client is hustled out. + +He returns with a bag of money. The clerk then listens and the client +explains his case. The clerk demands if there is any evidence. The +client is puzzled and asks what evidence is required. The clerk then +tells him slowly and distinctly: you must have a man to swear to this, +another to swear to that, a third to swear to something else. + +The client remonstrates, saying he doubts if he can get so much +evidence. The clerk then tells him that if he cannot get the evidence +demanded his master will not take up his case. "But," says the client +indignantly, "it is a true case." "What does that matter?" asks the +clerk cynically. "No Court cares--or can tell if it did care--whether +your case is true or not. It can only tell if you have evidence or +not. If you can't get the evidence your case may be the truest in the +world, but that won't help you." + +The client then wants his money back, but the clerk clings to the bag +and the client is again thrown out. The play was a long one, and I can +only give a résumé of parts of it. The client goes looking for +witnesses in the village. He gets hold of one man and says: "Come and +give evidence." "But I saw nothing," says the villager. "And," says +the client indignantly, "would you let me, an old friend, lose what you +know is a right cause just because you didn't happen to see a trifle +like that? What does it matter if you didn't actually see it? It did +happen. I am not asking you to tell a lie or invent anything." + +So he gets his witnesses and takes them to the clerk. The clerk takes +down their statements. The last scene is in Court, and the client's +advocate appears to plead for him. He does so with a tongue two feet +in length. But still he loses his case, for the advocate on the other +side has a tongue three feet long. That this play was the success it +proved to be shows clearly that the audience saw nothing unnatural in +it. In fact, they relished it immensely. + +The magistrate was a stuffed figure. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +PENAL LAW + +There is a further difference in their view of crime, between +Englishmen as they are made by education and Orientals who in some ways +remain the natural man, which greatly affects the Courts, that is the +punishment due for crime. + +In England we have had the most cruel penal laws ever known. It is not +a hundred years ago that there were two hundred and twenty-three +different offences for which the capital punishment was awarded. I +wonder if people nowadays ever realise their horrors. I have an +account of how a poor little servant girl convicted of having stolen +some few clothes was dragged out half-dead with fear to a gibbet +without the village and there slowly done to death before a crowd of +people. It was no unusual thing, for theft of over five shillings was +punishable with death. The record of our Courts in England is the most +brutal and most bloody in history. They have been reformed but very +partially. There is still amongst Englishmen a vindictiveness towards +the criminal that is unknown elsewhere. Despite frequent denunciation +of the uselessness and the wickedness of vindictive punishment, the +idea continually recurs. It is not merely excused--it is even counted +as righteousness by those who maintain it. + +Now it would be impossible here to give a full analysis of the cause of +this vindictiveness. It has many causes. It is not natural, but +caused by education. But a principal one lies in our theology. A +theology that predicates a God who devotes poor mortals He made to +torture by fire for ever, simply for the fun of watching them suffer, +has elevated cruelty, uselessness, and vindictiveness into a divine +attribute. Therefore men may be excused and even praised for imitating +their God as far as in them lies. + +The East is free from any such theology. I am not an admirer of any of +the theories at the base of its religions, but, at all events, none of +them have sunk to such a depth as this. Therefore the Oriental thought +is free in this matter to discern the truth. + +And further, even the ordinary villagers are deeper psychologists than +we are. How this comes about I am not sure; by the free life of the +children I think mainly. But however it comes there is no doubt of the +fact, for it has been widely noticed. They are very quick at gauging +character, in weighing virtues and defects, at seeing in effects the +causes. Thus, all throughout the East the fatality that runs through +life has been seen; it has even passed into a saying. By fatality, of +course, is not meant that God fore-ordains all events, but that every +act has its antecedent, that it never stands alone but is the outcome +of the past. There has been endless discussion in Europe on this +question, but to the East the matter presents itself in very simple +guise. No man has the choice of when he is born, into what sort of a +physique, of what parents or country. Neither has he any control over +how he is brought up, whether educated or not. Thus he himself is to a +very great extent a creature not of his own will but of what we may +call Fate. He has, moreover, no control over his environment; he did +not make the laws, the customs, nor the religion, which surround him. +Many of his acts are done under the authority of others--parents, +teachers, masters, government; others are the inevitable result of the +environment (which he did not make) acting on his personality (which he +did not make). There is also chance--as we call it; sudden temptation +for instance. Therefore his ability to exercise freewill in act is +small, and to hold him personally responsible for all his acts is +absurd. Especially is this the case with crime. No one originally +wants to commit crime; if he fall into it, his "will" is not usually to +blame. A famine will cause a great deal of crime; the criminals did +not make the famine. An unusual strain was put on them, and they were +not able to stand the strain. Everyone is a potential criminal--given +the circumstances. It is more than probable that everyone has at one +time or another committed some offence. This is well known in the +East, for they think there a great deal more than is supposed. They +have not been educated not to think yet. I have myself discussed this +point with many Orientals, and I have found that this clear view of the +causation of crime is not unusual. Even if the matter has not been +thought out there is an instinctive differentiation between a criminal +and his crime. They, as I have said before, hate crime, but that +shrinking from the criminal so common with us is not so marked with +them. + +Thus they have long ago seen the futility of attributing crime to a +defect of the individual will; they know it is due to much deeper, +wider causes. They have also seen the very narrow limits within which +punishment avails. Therefore our punishments shock them by their +cruelty. Ordinary cattle are worth from twenty to fifty shillings a +head, and they roam about the forest on the outskirts of the fields +almost unguarded. Yet the theft of one is punishable always with two +years' rigorous imprisonment; that is to say, the man is vindictively +and uselessly punished, is turned into a confirmed criminal and ruined +for life for failing at a momentary temptation. I have known cases +where a man was sentenced to ten years' penal servitude for stealing a +few rupees--a piece of savagery that the Court sought to justify by the +fact that the man had committed several previous petty thefts. Of +course, the reason of his repeated crime was the man's inability to +earn a livelihood and exercise self-control. He should have been +taught and helped--not sent to penal servitude. So are the instincts +of the people outraged. + +I wonder how many people there are in this world who have not committed +some criminal offence; few I should think, and those not the most +useful of mankind. I have just been reading of Mark Twain's boyhood, +and how, besides "borrowing" many articles, he and his friend "hooked" +a boat, painted it red so that the owner should not recognise it, and +kept it. + +For that in England a hundred years ago he could and probably would +have been hanged if caught. In Burma to-day he _might_, after +conviction, be let off under the first offender sections, but he would +most probably be sent to a reformatory. Yet who thinks the worse of +Mark Twain for it? + +We think we have reformed our laws and made them common-sense, but we +have not. They are still wicked beyond computation. + +In _The Soul of a People_, and in I think every book since, I have +animadverted upon the uselessness and cruelty of our penal system. +When a man has committed a crime, what do we do? Find out the weakness +which led to it and cure that weakness--turn him out a whole and +healthy man again? No. We make him worse. We make a confirmed +criminal of him. Is that sense, to say nothing of humanity? A man who +has committed a theft is not past cure; a man who has been in gaol +generally is. The people see this clearly enough--that in helping to +get a man convicted they are not improving matters for themselves. The +offender will come out of gaol a more dangerous character to his +village than when he went in. For they go back to their village; they +are not thrown loose in a great city as in England. If in England an +offender on his release had to be accepted back into his community, the +uselessness of our penal system would soon come home to the public. +But we have no communities now in England, only an amorphous herd of +voters. + +All this, however, is clear enough to the East. Therefore they often +won't report their losses. They would sooner submit to the small +monetary loss than have it on their consciences that they have ruined a +man for life. And all for what? Not even to rescue what they have +lost, for the bullock is usually dead and eaten, and no compensation is +ever given. + +The quantity of reported crime in Burma is bad enough, but what would +it be if all crimes were reported? Double, I should think. I have +known innumerable cases in my own experience where no report was made +even of serious offences for this reason. One was a case of attempted +murder. + +Thus there is a great and dangerous gap between the people and the +Courts, and there is no way of bridging it. In England also there is +that gap, but it is not so wide, and there are juries who can partly +bridge it. In Burma, practically speaking, for Burmans trial by jury +does not exist. There is nothing between the accused and the rigid +injustice of the laws. The judge and the magistrate are helpless; they +must follow the law or be pulled up by the High Court. But a jury need +not give its reasons; its future does not depend on the Appellate +Court; it is independent, and therein lies its strength and its +usefulness. It is juries that put common sense into laws and Courts. + +Here is a case in point where Europeans were concerned. There was a +certain big firm, and one day it discovered that it had lost certain +sums of money--not very large. It could not find out how the loss had +occurred; the partners inquired in secret, but could find no evidence. +However, they suspected their cashier. They knew he was hard up; they +heard he had been gambling. But they had no proof. What did they do? +Amend their system of accounts and supervision to prevent loss in the +future? No. They laid a trap. They put a large sum within their +cashier's reach in such a way that it would seem he could take it--at +any rate for a short time--with safety. He took it, and they +prosecuted him. The case, I think, was clear, but to the astonishment +of the judge, the jury acquitted the cashier. They gave no reasons, of +course, in Court. They simply said "Not guilty," and there was an end; +but once out of Court they were not so silent. + +"Why did we acquit? Because the firm laid a trap. They deliberately +tempted him, knowing him to be hard up. He was not charged with taking +the first small sums, and in our belief he never took them. Probably +he took the last big sum. But why? Because they tempted him. The +firm were accessory, they were abettors of the crime. Of course we +acquitted." + +And I think the general common sense of the community was with them. +No one has a right to tempt to crime and prosecute if the crime occurs. +But had accused been a Burman he would have got seven years without a +doubt. The Englishman got justice, a Burman would have got only law. +The Burmans are not blind, do not suppose it; they see this difference +well enough. + +Nothing could demonstrate more conclusively how utterly out of touch +with the people the Courts are, how useless in preventing crime, than +the fact that every year Government in despair prosecutes, and either +holds to heavy security, or sends to gaol with hard labour for from six +months to two years (mainly two years), over two thousand persons who +are not only not convicted of any offence, but _are not accused of any +offence_. The exact number in 1910 was 2143. + +This is done under the Preventive sections of the Criminal Procedure +Code, and anything more unjust, more useless, more provocative of crime +than this misuse of the sections it is impossible to imagine. The +legitimate use of these preventive sections is simple enough. They are +to meet the case of the police hearing that a crime, say a robbery, is +being planned, and that to prevent its occurring, the would-be +criminals may be called on by a magistrate to find security to be of +good behaviour. + +But such cases are rare and the sections are misused. There are +general circulars in force obliging magistrates and police to use these +sections to their utmost. When officers are on tour they are enjoined +to demand at each village they visit if there are any idle or doubtful +characters about, and if so, to prosecute them. Pressure is brought to +bear on headmen to produce such characters, and they do +produce--everyone they have reason to dislike. + +The evidence is all hearsay. Here is a summary: + +_Question by Police_: Do you know Accused? + +_Answer by Headman_: Yes. + +_Q_. What sort of character has he? + +_Ans_. A bad character. + +_Q_. What sort of bad character? + +_Ans_. Well, when B.'s headcloth was missing last year, Accused was +supposed to have taken it. + +_Q_. You therefore consider him a thief? + +_Ans_. Yes. + + +Three such witnesses, and if Accused cannot find substantial security, +away he goes to hard labour for two years. This has gone on for the +last twenty years. In 1910 one judge has actually opened his eyes wide +enough to see that it is a way of manufacturing criminals, and the High +Court go so far as to have "misgivings." But there it ends. + +There are in Burma now probably 60,000 or more men who have been +deliberately made into criminals by Government. No wonder crime is bad. + +What is to be done? + +The Indian people have clamoured for trial by jury of their peers--that +is their fellow-countrymen--but it has always been refused. Government +does not say why--but the reason is well known--it is because it fears +that juries would invariably acquit. And that fear is probably +justified. Judging from what assessors do I should say it was fully +justified. They would acquit. But does not this very fact indicate +that the law and the people are at variance? It most emphatically does +not mean that the Orientals condone crime; it means that they think +that crime is now wrongly dealt with. There was a period in England +when juries would not convict. Why? Because they condoned crime? No, +but because the punishments were too brutal; and the law had to be +altered till their consciences were satisfied. That was the way the +old penal laws came to be amended. When juries won't convict it is +because their consciences are being outraged in some way. Has any +attempt ever been made to discover in what way our Courts in India now +outrage the people's consciences? Never to my knowledge. There has +been the fixed idea that our system is perfect, therefore blame the +people. "They must have Oriental minds which no one can understand." + +The Indian Penal Code is the principal law relating to offences and +punishments, but there are many minor laws and all are defective in the +same way--that they have been framed out of some inner consciousness, +and not out of practical knowledge. + +Take the Gambling Acts in Burma. The Burmese are a cheerful people, +and, like other cheerful human beings, they like their game of chance +sometimes. When it becomes a public nuisance, of course it must be +checked, no one doubts that; but the Gambling Acts go much farther than +that. The people have not a great variety of games, and their +principal card game is a sort of bank. It can, of course, become a big +gamble, but it can also be as innocent as penny loo. Nevertheless, it +is always illegal because there is a banker. That is the way the Act +is framed. So if five or six villagers gather in the evening for a +game at penny loo they can be raided, tried, and fined or imprisoned. +I had a Burmese subordinate magistrate once who was not only a very +"energetic" officer but a very religious officer, and he determined to +stop all this "pernicious gambling" in his township. He established a +"terror," so to speak. He had censors everywhere, and if a schoolboy +tossed another double or quits for a farthing, the law was after them. + +I could not stop him because he had the law behind him, but every month +I sent for all his gambling cases on revision, and I quashed them all. +There wasn't any Appellate Court behind me in those matters and I had a +free hand. Finally, as he wouldn't take a hint, I got my too energetic +assistant transferred to other fields of usefulness. + +It doesn't look well for Englishmen to play bridge and other games of +cards for money in their Clubs and bungalows while the Burmese are +totally debarred. It smacks of self-righteousness. A good deal of our +rule does that now, and it does not tend to make it popular. In human +affairs there are a time and a place for things, but in law there is +only the absolute. Now the absolute is wrong. And if there is one +quality above another that is detestable it is self-righteousness. Our +laws tend to self-righteousness; our judges and officials are very +liable to succumb to that tendency. It is bad for a man to have to +deal continually with the seamy side of human nature; he can only keep +his mind sweet by continual touch with the other side. But in India +and Burma the ordinary official knows nothing of the other side. He +has no dealing with the people except in an official capacity. He +knows nothing of their ordinary life, their work, or their amusements. +He does not take an interest in the staple industries of his villages, +nor in the amusements of the people. Therefore he cannot see how bad +the laws are because he judges them _a priori_ and not in relation to +their effects on the people. The Indian Penal Code he knows, the +accused and the witnesses he does not know; the Village Act he knows, +the village organism he is hopelessly ignorant of. Therefore when +Government pass and enforce laws that do more harm than good he cannot +tell them what is wrong. Naturally, he must believe nothing is wrong. + +Yet the whole Penal System of India is wrong. It is very wrong indeed. +I believe I could keep a district in greater quietness and peace if its +Criminal Courts were abolished altogether and I were allowed to use the +village organism in its proper form for preventing crime. For the +essential truth in dealing with crime, as with disease, is that it can +be prevented but can rarely be cured. However, I do not mean to say +that Criminal Courts, if they administered good laws and were +reasonably constituted, are bad things. They will in time be to crime +what hospitals are to diseases: places where the sufferer goes to have +his illness diagnosed and cured so that he come out a clean man whom +the community will be glad to welcome back. That a man who has once +been in gaol is for ever a social leper is the strongest condemnation a +system of criminal justice could receive. + +As things are now the people hate the Courts; they hate the law, all of +it. It must not be supposed that, because I have pointed out only +certain defects, all the rest is satisfactory. That is very far from +being the case. But my object is not to criticise the laws or Courts +exhaustively. I only want to dissipate the complacency that regards +them as perfect and the people alone to be blameworthy. There is no +one who more dislikes pointing out deficiencies than I do. If I could +I would never write anything but pleasant things. But that is +impossible. An imminent danger hangs over our Indian Empire, and so +our own future and its can only be secured by facing the truth. If +Indian officials on the spot would open their eyes and see things as +they are there would be no cause to write--but they will not. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE CIVIL COURTS + +We come now to the Civil Courts, wherein all suits relating to +property, to inheritance, and to money are tried. + +I have already referred to the archaic state in which, all over India, +matters of marriage and inheritance remain; no change has taken place +during our rule, nor could do so. Except in Burma, all these matters +are connected with religion, and although people when in a progressive +state will themselves not hesitate to break through fetters of religion +and custom, they will never allow a foreign Government to do so. Our +Government interferes already in a great many matters it had better +leave alone, and to lay a sacrilegious finger on domestic concerns +would cause instant antagonism. It is not our business. Is Government +thus to intrude into the very home? You can imagine the howl there +would be, and rightly. We must not touch them, and the people, +disorganised as they are, cannot touch them; so there they remain. + +In a previous book I have referred to the Burmese law that no one may +make a will, and to its effect in preventing Burmans building up a +business. Moreover, the law of inheritance is so doubtful sometimes +that when a rich Burman dies his estate usually goes into Court and, +naturally, does not come out again. This is very unsatisfactory, but +until there is some real self-government I see no help for it. On a +matter of this kind it is of no use collecting the opinions of any +number of Burmans as to what should be done, and so passing an Act. It +is a fact to which I shall have to revert later that men as individuals +will give an opinion, which if combined into an assembly with authority +to act they would greatly modify. Moreover, if our Government were +responsible, individuals would urge action, which if they themselves +were responsible they would not take. No advice that is not steadied +by a sense of responsibility is of much value. Our Government cannot +deal with such matters. Only a body representing Burmese opinion and +responsible to that opinion could do it. There is not now any prospect +of any such body. The present Councils are useless. There may be such +a body in course of time, but until there is, matters must remain as +they are. The result is discontent, naturally. + +Take another similar point. In Upper Burma a good deal of the land is +what is called ancestral land; that is to say, in private hands. Now +there was amongst the people a great pride in holding land their +ancestors held, and such land is very rarely sold. I am not quite sure +that it can be sold. Neither is it mortgaged in the usual sense. What +the owner does is to hand the land over to a mortgagee for a sum of +money. He pays no interest on the debt because the mortgagee enjoys +the land. Such a transaction is called a usufructuary mortgage. The +owner can at any time redeem the land by repaying the original loan. +In Burmese time there was no period of limitation, but our Limitation +Act has imposed a limit of sixty years. Thus a man may hand over a +piece of land to a mortgagee, go off to Lower Burma--as many have--and +at any time within sixty years he or his heirs can redeem the land for +the same sum. + +Consider what this means. I am the mortgagee of a piece of land. If I +improve it so that its value is increased the owner can come back, +borrow money to redeem it, and re-mortgage it for double the amount +next day to someone else. Therefore I certainly won't improve it. I +can't sell it. I can work it of course. I have also to defend my +title every now and then from attack. It may be that the original +mortgagor did not own the land at all. He may have simply been the +member of the family in whom the occupation was vested. The other +members can challenge my right. They do. And this sort of thing can +go on for sixty years. That is not the sort of law to encourage +progress. It encourages litigation, but that is all. The whole +country groans under it naturally. But before any relief could be +given there would have to be some consensus of opinion among the people +as to the change. Government could not do it themselves. Even if +their amendment were good it would raise a hornets' nest about their +ears. + +Thus here again is an _impasse_, and a dangerous one, typical of many. + +By our system of Civil Law and Civil Courts, of precedent and case law +we have petrified the bonds in which India lay when we arrived and made +them far more rigid than before. While by our introduction of new +ideas and of greater material progress we have rendered the old laws +more and more obsolete, we have at the same time stopped all evolution +of these laws, and killed any capacity they had for accommodating +themselves to change. Some lawyers even, enthusiastic as they are +about their own profession, have seen this danger. Here is what Sir +Henry Sumner Maine, who was Legal Member to the Government of India, +says: + +"What that law and usage"--Indian law and usage--"was, the Sudder Court +used to ascertain with what some would call most conscientious accuracy +and others the most technical narrowness. Under the hand of the Judges +of the Sudder Courts the native rules hardened and contracted a +rigidity which they never had in real native practice. Among the older +records of their proceedings may be found injunctions couched in the +technical language of English Chancery proceedings which forbid the +priests of a particular temple to injure a rival fane by painting the +face of their idol red instead of yellow, and decrees allowing the +complaint of other priests that they were injured in property and +repute because their neighbours rang a bell at a particular moment of +their services. There is in truth but little doubt that until +education began to cause the natives of India to absorb Western ideas +for themselves the influence of the English rather retarded than +hastened the mental development of the race." + +And it does so more and more, because however much they may absorb +Western ideas theoretically, they cannot express them practically owing +to our petrifaction of their law and custom. + +Again. "The methods of interpretation which the Sudder Courts borrowed +from the Supreme Courts imported from Westminster Hall put a stop to +any natural growth and improvement of Hindu law." + +That is to say we introduced new ideas, but sat on the safety-valve +lest they should produce any effect. Sir Henry Sumner Maine's book is +full of similar expressions, but I need quote no more. Those who wish +to read how a lawyer himself has admitted this failure of law will no +doubt read the book for themselves. + +And now let us go on to the other functions of the Civil Courts--money +decrees and so forth. + +I do not think that they are any more in touch with the public than the +Criminal Courts. + +To begin with, they suffer from the same defect that a trial before a +Civil Court is not an inquiry into truth, but a duel between parties. +Indeed this is even more manifest than in the Criminal Courts, for +there the magistrate does to the best of his small ability go outside +the record and try to ascertain facts for himself; in the Civil Courts +the judge never does so. He is simply and purely an umpire. Has the +plaintiff proved his case? If so, give him a decree; if not, then not. +Therefore perjury, and even forgery, are more common here than in the +Criminal Courts. + +Now let us go back to the way suits originate, and see what the cause +is. + +There are, of course, a few cases where the issue is clear from the +first. A dies. B and C both claim his inheritance. Here from the +beginning is a clear issue which can be brought into Court and fought +out. It must come into Court, because in no other way could it be +settled. But there are few such suits. In the great majority of cases +the original issue is quite a small one, but when it comes into Court +it is, by one side or the other, or both, swollen out of all +recognition. Take the following as an example. It is from a case I +heard once. + +A and B were both natives of India--Hindus--and had been partners. I +cannot remember their business beyond that they bought articles in +Upper India and imported them into Upper Burma, where they sold them. +It was a small business. One partner would go to India, buy stock, and +return with it to Burma. They would both trade in it, and when it was +nearly done one of them would go away to India again. This had gone on +for some years. They agreed together excellently and made a decent +profit. They kept all their accounts in their heads, aided by an +occasional scrap of memoranda, and made a settlement from time to time. + +Then they would begin afresh. + +At last came a disagreement. + +When A returned to Burma with a new stock, B objected to the price paid +for one item, alleging that A had been "done," and had paid too much. + +A indignantly repelled this accusation. B stood to his guns. The item +was only about five hundred rupees, and the difference was not more +than twenty or thirty rupees, but neither would give way. + +The quarrel grew. B said he would not share in the item; A said he +must, as it was a partnership transaction. B said he didn't care. A +said he would sue him in Court. B said, "Very well, sue me." So each +went off to get a pleader. + +In due time the case came into Court, but what a case! Each side had +considered that if he had got to fight he had better get all the +weapons he could, so he raked up everything he could think of. It was +a duel, you see, wherein each side fought not to settle the little +point at issue, but for victory--any kind of victory he could get. +Each side stirred up every sleeping dog of war he could find, +resuscitated and galvanised dead dogs, made up imitation dogs, and came +to battle. + +The issues finally framed covered several years' transactions, and the +evidence included forged documents and quantities of perjury. Both +sides were ruined. + +That is what comes of making a trial a duel. Each side fights for +victory, to save his _amour propre_, and to wound the enemy wherever he +can. The original cause of difference is quite lost. + +Now that case is typical of many. It is illustrative of human nature +all the world over. If you awake the fighting instinct you cannot +confine the parties to the original seat of war; they will urge the +attack wherever they are likely to win. They cannot go to the judge in +the beginning as to a friend of both parties who will inquire into the +cause of difference himself and find a reasonable settlement, because +judges are not intended to do that. Therefore parties do not go to +Court at all until they have determined to fight it out. The case does +not come to Court till matters are hopeless. + +You may say they should or could have gone to an arbitrator. Do people +anywhere in the world trust an unofficial arbitrator? There is a +provision in Upper Burma allowing reference to arbitration, but it is a +dead letter. + +The original dispute in this case was about twenty or thirty rupees, +the alleged excess paid for the goods. The suit filed was for several +thousand rupees in transactions spread over years: there was an equally +heavy counterclaim. + +The total value of the suits filed in Burma in 1910 was about +£1,380,000. I wonder what the value was of the matters first in +dispute before the cases came to Court. A fifth, I dare say, would +cover them. I notice much the same thing in England. Human nature +does not differ East or West. + +Now consider the enormous expense of all this. The value of the +subject-matter of suits filed in Burma in 1910 was, as I have said, +£1,380,000. The value of the matters really in dispute before they +came to Court was infinitely less, but Court fees and lawyers' fees had +to be paid on the full amount. Witnesses in thousands were called to +prove matters that should never have come into Court at all. + +And with what result? + +There were 70,203 suits filed and decrees given, but in 53,594 of these +satisfaction could not be obtained, and so the decree-holders had to +come to Court for warrants for execution. That is to say that in over +five suits out of seven the losing party could not or would not pay. +(It does not follow that in the other two out of the seven he did pay. +The decree-holder in a percentage of cases no doubt did not think it +worth while to go any further.) + +But in 53,594 cases he came to Court for execution. What did he get? +In half these cases he got absolutely nothing; the execution was +"wholly infructuous." In the other cases satisfaction was obtained in +full or in part. + +Thus out of £1,380,000 claimed how much was obtained? The Report does +not give figures, but the reader can judge for himself it wasn't much. +And to get even this little, what was the cost to the litigants, that +is the public? No one knows. But there are a great many lawyers of +kinds in Burma, and a good deal of money goes into their hands. + +I do not think it would be an over-estimate to say that for every pound +originally in dispute two pounds were spent in costs and only ten +shillings recovered, and to get this, think of the trouble, the worry, +the indignity, and the self-contempt involved. Besides, think of the +waste of time--to say nothing of truth. + +In the Report from which I take these figures the Judges of the High +Court point out that the Courts are yearly becoming less and less used +by the public. They can't think how this can be; but they suppose it +is due to years of prosperity. That it should be due to anything wrong +about the Courts never occurs to them. Yet perhaps the reader will see +reason to doubt if the system of Civil Justice is perfect. + +There is an Indian proverb that it is wise to go to law once, foolish +to go twice. I asked an Indian about this. + +"Why is it wise to go once?" I asked. + +"Because," he answered, "you learn a great deal, quite a great deal, +which you never forget. You learn, anyhow, not to go twice." + +"But," I objected, "suppose on a subsequent occasion money were due to +you which you couldn't get, would you sit down under the loss?" + +He looked at me and laughed. "Well," he said, "if it were a small debt +I should let it go. If I thought the man could not pay I would let it +go, big or little; but if I thought he could pay and wouldn't, I +wouldn't sue him; no, but I wouldn't put up with him either." + +"What then would you do?" + +"Well," he answered reflectively, "I think I should rob him." + +"But that might bring you into a Criminal Court," I remonstrated. + +"So it might," he replied; "but the Criminal Courts can't be worse than +the Civil; and, anyhow, it would be a change." + +As to the Insolvent side of the Civil Courts, perhaps if I say that it +is no nearer the people than any other side, enough will have been +said, and later on I shall have a story to tell of some of my +experiences, but this is not the place. + +What is gained by imprisoning a man for debt? Nothing that I ever +heard of. It is not required to deter him from being ruined again; he +probably won't get the chance, and if he did the fact of having been +sold up once is quite sufficient deterrent from wanting to be sold up +again. + +Will it deter others? People don't get ruined for the fun of the +thing. It is a dreadful thing to be sold up; in itself that is quite +enough. Then what good does imprisoning the poor devil do? It does +none. It does harm, and nothing but harm. It hurts the debtor and +prevents his recovering himself; it panders to the desire of society +and of creditors for revenge. There is an idea abroad that when +anything untoward happens somebody should be punished, and then society +will have vindicated itself. But the duty of society is to prevent +crime, not punish it, and it cannot whitewash itself in this way. It +merely condemns itself more even than it condemns him it punishes. + +Moreover, the ability of creditors to imprison debtors is misused in a +way that is almost criminal. The creditor will imprison the debtor +with the hope that the debtor's relatives and friends will subscribe to +save him and them from this disgrace. That is to say, the law allows a +creditor to put improper pressure on totally innocent people in order +to get his claims satisfied. Think of the iniquity of a law like that! + +And what are these claims? Are they just claims? They are legal +claims, but are they just? + +For the most part they are claims of money-lenders. The Courts act as +collecting agencies to the most oppressive system of money-lending that +can be imagined. Two and a half per-cent per month is not unusual. + +Government has shown its recognition of this danger by creating +Co-operative Credit Banks, which are a great boon. But it has not +thought of revising its Civil Court procedure. As in most other +matters, it recognises something wrong, but attributes it to the +people, not to the Courts and the law; therefore it does nothing. + +But at all events imprisonment for debt should be abolished. There +were eight hundred unfortunate debtors imprisoned in Burma in 1910. + +Do you wonder that the people dread and hate the Courts? + +Civil law embraces a great variety of suits besides suits for money, +and includes a great number of special laws. The harm that has been +done by fossilising Hindu, Mohammedan, and Buddhist law and custom has +been already mentioned; to enter further into these matters is +unnecessary. Once it is clearly recognised that the law and the Courts +require amendment, not in details but in fundamental principles, there +will be many better critics than I am. For although I have been +obliged to learn some law in order to do my work, I was never an apt +student of it. Humanity and justice are the only studies I really care +for. Law is mainly a denial of both. Therefore if the Government of +India and the local officials will but give up thinking that where law +and human nature disagree it is so much the worse for human nature, +they will soon find out where the present laws are wrong. But before I +close this chapter there is one further point I wish to mention, and +that is the trial of Burmese divorce suits by our Courts. Now that is +wrong, absolutely wrong, and indefensible in every way. The Courts are +not concerned with divorce. It is by Burmese custom and common sense a +purely village matter. Divorces can be given by the elders, and they +alone should be allowed to pronounce them. For they are sensible men, +and in such cases they act not as judges, but as neighbours. They will +grant no divorce till they have exhausted all means of conciliation. +They know the parties as no judge can know them; they know who is to +blame, how he or she is to blame, how the difference can be adjusted. +It is to their interest to smooth things down and prevent their getting +worse. Theoretically the breakers of marriages, they are in fact the +preservers of marriage. It is by their tact and common sense that +couples are kept together, and that only when matters become impossible +divorces are granted. + +But a judge is different. He knows nothing, cares nothing, can do +nothing but listen to the complaint and grant the divorce. It must +legally be granted at the request of either party, remember. To allow +a judge to try divorce cases is a violation of Burmese law and custom, +and is another and deep injury to the village community. How and why +it was ever allowed I don't know. I suppose no one ever thought about +it. Divorces in England are granted by Courts according to English +law, therefore in Burma divorces can be granted according to Burmese +law. I suppose that was the argument--if ever there was any argument +at all. + +In any case it is wrong. Divorces are properly granted by the elders +acting on behalf of the community, and by no one else. Therefore the +interference of the Courts should be immediately stopped. + +But apart from this, the questions of marriage and inheritance are very +difficult. No alien Government can solve them. They must await a real +Council that can deal with such matters with knowledge and +responsibility. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE VILLAGE + +But of all the errors of Indian government, none is so serious as their +destruction of the Village organism throughout India; none has had such +an effect in the past; none is likely to have such bad consequences in +the future. + +It is the Village policy of government that has created for it the most +difficulties, and which is at the bottom of the most serious unrest. +For it touches not merely a few as criminal law, but practically all +the population; it affects not only a part of the life of India, but it +has injured it in its most vital point. In the whole history of +administration there is nothing I think so demonstrative of the +ignorance of government as the Village policy. + +The foundation on which not only all government but all civilisation +rests throughout the world is the village. As this is contrary to the +usual idea that civilisation rests on the family it will be convenient +to shortly show how this is so. The village is the microcosm of the +State, because it includes within it divers trades and occupations and +races and religions and castes in one community. A family does not do +so. A family is by its nature of one blood, it is almost always of one +occupation. There are families of cultivators, merchants, priests, +lawyers, smiths, and so on. It is of one religion, of one caste, of +one habit of thought. A family is narrow and a village is broad. +Families divide; villages combine. Societies organised on the family, +or clan, or tribe principle have always failed--by the very nature of +things they must so fail. The Jews are a race, or tribe, and not a +nation. They have no civilisation of their own, but adopt that in +which they live. The Highland clans had to be broken before the +Highlands could be civilised. The caste system in India ruined its old +civilisation, and is the bar to any new civilisation. The Turkish +Empire is dead because it was based on a religious caste divided from +all others by a mutilation, and its people could never amalgamate with +others. There is a continual flow of peoples to and fro upon the +earth, and village communities absorb the new-comers and thereby +acquire new blood, and, what is far more important, new ideas, to add +to the old and leaven them. Families, classes and tribes cannot do +this. They become stereotyped, and dissolve or die. Thus the basis of +all civilisation has been the village, or in later times the town. The +decay and death of all civilisations have been preceded by the death of +the local unit. Thus imperial Rome was itself doomed to death when it +destroyed local life; and a new civilisation could not be built up till +the local communities had attained a fresh life. Florence, Genoa, +Milan, Pisa, Venice, and many others made the civilisation of the +Renaissance. So in England, a free Parliament was made up of +representatives from free cities and counties. These have been +destroyed, and the present constituencies are merely so many voters. +Policies are no longer decided in Parliament, but in secret party +conclave. Members are the nominees of that conclave, not of free local +organisms, and Parliament has become a machine to register its decrees. +So are free institutions passing away. + +There is no lesson of history more true--more certain--than this, that +the village or town is the unit of all free life and civilisation. It +contains all classes, different races, religions, castes and forms of +thought, and is therefore a real unit. + +Now these units have existed all over the world, and when civilisations +and governments have disappeared they have been built up anew from the +villages. In India the village system was the one organism that +survived the long years of anarchy and invasion, and it was in full +vigour when we conquered India. Those who care to read up the subject +can see it in Sir Henry Sumner Maine's _Indian Village Communities_. + +In Upper Burma, on its annexation in 1885, the village community was +strong and healthy; it alone survived the fall of King Thibaw's +Government. Then we deliberately destroyed it, as we had destroyed it +before all through India. + +Now this is an instructive and interesting fact, for it was destroyed +in ignorance, not by _malice prepense_. + +Throughout India--and especially in Burma--you will find Government +reiterating its conviction of the importance of preserving the village +organism, repeating the conviction of its absolute necessity, and at +the same time killing it. This is but an instance of much of the +action of Government. It means well; it does actually see the end to +be attained--it has no idea how to attain that end; but, instead, it +renders it impossible. + +If I explain what happened in Burma, the history, _mutatis mutandis_, +of what has occurred throughout India will be clear. + +In the first place, a "village" does not mean only one collection of +houses; it is a territorial unit of from one to a hundred square miles. +Originally, of course, there was in each unit one hamlet; but, as +population grew, daughter hamlets were thrown off. They still, +however, remained under the jurisdiction of the mother hamlet, and they +all together formed one village. In each village there were a Headman +and a Council of Elders. The headman was appointed or rather approved +by the Burmese Government for life or good behaviour; the council was +not recognised by law. Notwithstanding this, the council was the real +power. It was not formally elected, it had no legal standing, but it +was the real power. The headman was only its representative and not +its master; he was but _primus inter pares_. + +This headman and council ruled all village matters. They settled the +house sites, the rights of way, the marriage of boys and girls, +divorces, public manners; they put up such public works as were done, +they divided the tax amongst the inhabitants according to their means, +and were collectively responsible for the whole. There was hardly any +appeal from their decision, but the power not being localised in an +individual but in a council of all the elders, things went well. The +village was a real living organism, within which people learned to act +together, to bear and forbear; there were a local patriotism and a +local pride. Within it lay the germ of unlimited progress. + +The English Government on taking over Upper Burma recognised the +extreme value of this organisation. In Lower Burma much of our +difficulty arose from the fact that the organisation was wanting and +that between Government and the individual there was no one. So one of +the first efforts of Government in Upper Burma was to endeavour to +preserve and strengthen this local self-government. Unfortunately +every effort it made resulted in destroying it rather than +consolidating it. A wrong view was taken from the beginning. + +The council was ignored. How this happened I do not know, I can only +suppose that it arose from ignorance. The only man recognised by the +Burmese Government we replaced was the headman. They dealt directly +with him and not with the council. They did not appoint the council or +regulate it in any way. In law no council existed. Therefore, when we +took over, the law was mistaken for the fact--a common mistake, due to +seeking for knowledge in papers, and not in life--and the council was +ignored. The following seems to have been the argument: Government +appointed the headman, therefore he was an official. Government did +not appoint or recognise any council, therefore there was no council. +Anyhow, that was the decision arrived at and enforced. + +There is on record a circular of the Local Government in which the +headman of a village is described as a Government official; to be to +his village what the District Officer is to his district. That is +disastrous. A headman is not an official of the Government. His whole +value and meaning is that he is a representative of the people before +Government. He expresses the collective views of the village and +receives the orders of Government for them as a whole. He is _their_ +head, not a finger of Government. He corresponded almost exactly to +the mayor of an English town, who would be insulted if you called him a +Government official. Yet this mistaken view was taken of the village +headman, and this error has vitiated all dealings of Government with +the village organisation and its headman. He is appointed by +Government instead of being appointed by the people and approved by +Government. He is responsible to Government, not to his village--as he +ought to be--for the use or abuse of his powers. He is punished by +Government for laxity. By the Village Regulation he can be fined by +the District Officer. + +There has grown up among Europeans in the East a custom of imposing +fines. They fine their servants for breakages and innumerable other +small matters, and then complain how scarce good servants are. The +clerks in Government offices used to be subject to continual fines +until Lord Curzon stopped it. Now headmen of villages can be fined by +the District Officer; and they are fined; the proviso is no dead +letter. It is a mark of the "energetic" officer to use it. Can there +be anything more destructive? Imagine the headman, the mayor of a +community of three or four thousand people, fined five shillings for +the delay of a return, or set, like a schoolboy, to learn a code--with +the clerks. I have seen this done often. What respect for Government, +what from his own people, what self-respect, can he retain after such +treatment? + +Again, by ignoring the council and making the headman an official, +Government set up a number of petty tyrants in the villages, free from +all control but its own; consequently it has been forced to allow great +latitude of appeal. This still further destroys his authority. He is +under old custom, legalised by the Village Regulation, empowered to +punish his villagers who disobey him in certain matters. The +punishments are, of course, trivial. When approved by the council, as +in old days, they were final; but now they can be appealed against--and +are. A headman who endeavours to enforce his authority runs the risk +of being complained against and forced to attend Headquarters, to waste +days of valuable time and considerable sums of money to defend himself +for having fined a villager a shilling for not mending his fence. One +or two experiences of this sort and the headman lets things slide in +future. + +Thus interference with the village is constant and disastrous. Headmen +are bullied, fined, set to learn lessons like children, all in the name +of efficiency. And Government wonders why the village system decays. +A continual complaint of Government is that headmen are no longer the +men they used to be, that they have lost authority. The best men will +not take the appointment--and who can wonder? Here is a story in +illustration: + +There was a small village in my district, on a main road, and the +headman died. It was necessary to appoint a new one. But no one would +take the appointment. The elders were asked to nominate a man, but no +one would take the nomination. I sent the Township Officer to try to +arrange; he failed. + +Now a village cannot get along without a headman. Government is at an +end; no taxes can be collected, for instance; therefore it was +necessary a headman be appointed at once. I went to the village myself +and called the elders and gave them an order that they must nominate +someone. So next morning, after stormy meetings in the village, a man +was brought to me and introduced as the headman-elect. He was dirty, +ill-clad, and not at all the sort of man I should have cared to +appoint, nor one whom it would be supposed the villagers would care to +accept. Yet he was the only nominee. + +"What is your occupation?" I asked. + +He said he had none. + +"What tax did you pay last year?" I asked him this in order to +discover his standing, for men are rated according to their means. + +He told me that he had paid five shillings--less than a third of the +average. + +"You are willing to be headman?" I asked. + +"No," he said frankly. "But no one would take the place, and the +elders told me I must. They said they would prosecute me under the +'bad livelihood' section if I didn't. I could take my choice between +being headman or a term in prison." + +This was, of course, an extreme case, but it illustrates the position. +The headman is degraded and all administration suffers. + +It is the same in municipalities. The work is done by the District +Officer because it is easier for him to do it than to instruct and +allow others to do it. + +The people one and all hate this. The headman hates it, because though +he is given much greater power nominally than he used to have he dare +not use this power. He is isolated from his villagers, and so often +becomes an object of dislike to them. Through him orders are enforced +which are not liked by the people, and he has to bear all the brunt. +His dignity is gone. Sometimes he is murdered. + +The elders hate it. They have been ignored. They are placed under a +headman who may or may not attend to what they say. They have lost all +interest--because all power--in their village affairs. They have no +responsibility. + +The villagers hate it. A council of their own elders they could +respect and submit to; a one-man rule they detest. Their appeal to the +council on the spot (who know) has been lost; and in place of it they +have an appeal to a distant officer who, with the best will in the +world, cannot know. An appeal costs money, and even to win may be to +lose. They all want to manage their affairs; they can do it far better +than we can, and there is nothing they so much appreciate as being +allowed to do so. Here is how I learnt this: + +Some eighteen years ago I was leaving a station where I had been for a +year as subordinate officer, and had to cross the river by launch to +the steamer station on the other shore. I went down to the bank to get +the launch, but it was late. I saw it three miles away, and so sat +down under a tree to wait. + +Presently two or three elderly Burmans came and sat down near me. Then +came others, till maybe twenty elderly men were there. I recognised +two or three vaguely, but none clearly. I wondered at their being +there, and asked: + +"Are you crossing over too?" + +They shook their heads. + +"What are you here for, then?" + +They looked embarrassed, and at last one spoke. "We came to say +'Good-bye' to you." + +I stared. "But I do not know you, except that I suppose you are elders +of the town." + +"We are," they said, "and you do not know us because you have not ever +worried us in any way. When we had business together you did it +quickly and decisively; otherwise you left us alone. You did not treat +us as children. Therefore we are sorry you are going." + +I laughed. I could not help it. To come and express regret at a man's +leaving on the ground that they knew next to nothing of him and did not +want to know more seemed unusual. + +But it was true. And often, after, did I think over that "send-off" +and take the lesson to heart. + +Now what is true in Burma is true over all India. The local +circumstances of course vary. A lumbadar in the North-West, for +instance, does not quite correspond to a headman in Burma. The actual +form in which the village was organised differs from place to place +according to local needs. Even in Burma it differed a good deal. But +the differences were only of form. In all India there were +self-contained village communities within which, to a certain extent, +caste, religion, and race were subordinated to local communal feeling. + +And everywhere Government has killed it by turning the village +officials into Government officials, responsible to Government and not +to the village. + +Thus there is now absolutely no organism a man can belong to. There +are three hundred and fifty million individuals in India, and that is +all. They are divided laterally into strata by caste and religion, and +there is no influence to draw them together. All organised life is +dead. Government by means of its official--the headman--interferes +with almost every detail of life, regulating his conduct by rules drawn +up in Secretariats by men who never knew what a village was, and the +appeal is to another alien officer. + +Further, all morality and all conduct are the outcome of corporate +life, that is to say, of the village or of a larger unit. Morality is, +in fact, where it is useful and true, the knowledge of how to get along +with your fellow men and women, what conduct offends them and leads to +the injury of society, what pleases them and tends to harmony and +mutual happiness. It is not fixed, but adapts itself to changing +circumstances of the society, and it is enforced by the opinion of that +society. + +But injure the society and both manners and morals are shaken. It is a +common complaint of India to-day that the bonds of morality have +greatly slackened and that manners have almost disappeared. This is +attributed to the waning influence of religions. But, generally +speaking, religions have not waned in India--on the contrary, their +influences have increased. The people have become more and more in the +power of religious systems. Therefore the cause given is absurd and +untrue. It does not exist. Further, neither morality nor manners are +the outcome of religion. On the contrary. Religions claim them to be +so, but the claim is false. Manners and morals may be said to be the +gravity which binds individuals into a community. They make the +community and are themselves the outcome of the community. Destroy the +community and you have destroyed the source from which manners and +morals arise. + +That has been done all through India. In another book I have pointed +out how disastrously this has acted in Burma and how much the people +feel it. I do not want to repeat myself. But if those officials who +deplore the frequent cases of young girls running away with boys, of +seduction, of adultery and other offences, of immature marriages, and +other mistakes, would but realise that all these arise from the injury +we have caused to society, there might be a change. All the human +virtues, with no exception, either arise from or are increased by the +aggregation of men into communities, and it is very difficult to keep +them alive where no organic communities exist. Consider the words +humanity, civilisation, patriotism, urbanity--their derivations and +their meanings--and you will see this. + +I do not think I need say more. I have tried to set out the facts as +clearly and dispassionately as I can. I have omitted much that I might +have said. I have tried here, as throughout, to understate +difficulties rather than exaggerate them, because exaggeration defeats +its own ends. But I think if the reader will try to realise to himself +the state of affairs where no village has a say even in its simplest +affairs, and where everything is under the eye of a Government +official, where all initiative is forbidden and where the best men +stand aloof from all interest in village affairs, he will have some +idea that unrest is not unreasonable. + +The village organism was the one vital institution left to India; it +was the one germ of corporate life that could have been encouraged into +a larger growth. It has been killed. It will have to be resuscitated +before India can cease to be _India Irredenta_. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +OPIUM AND EXCISE + +I will begin what I have to say about this by telling a little story +about what happened to me when I was a Subordinate Magistrate--some +sixteen years ago now. + +A Burman was brought up before me charged with possessing opium. A +Sergeant of Police had met him at a rest-house in the jungle the day +before, and had entered into conversation. The man was sickly and told +the Sergeant that he was on his way down from the Shan States, where he +had gone to trade. But he had caught the prevalent fever, had then +lain ill and lost his money. So he was going home again to his village +about fifty miles away, where he hoped to recover his health. +Meanwhile he took a little opium for the fever, for in the Shan States +opium is not contraband. + +"Oh, you have opium?" asked the Sergeant. + +"I brought some down with me," the man said, producing it. Then the +Sergeant, as in duty bound, arrested him and brought him into Court. + +The case was quite clear. The man admitted the opium, urged that he +was ill, also that he did not know--neither of which is a defence in +law--and I passed the smallest sentence that I thought the High Court +would allow to pass without a reprimand. I fined him ten rupees or in +default ten days' imprisonment. Then I went on to other cases and +forgot about it. At four o'clock I left the bench and went to my +private room to sign papers before leaving Court. There was a pile of +them. I signed, the peon pulled away; I signed again, he pulled; and +so on till I looked up. There in the doorway stood the Sergeant. He +seemed embarrassed. He smiled an awkward smile, saluted, and then +stood doubtfully on one foot and the other. + +"Well?" I asked, surprised. "What is the matter?" + +"Nothing," he replied. + +"Then you needn't stay," I said suggestively, and went on signing. He +didn't go. He smiled again and swallowed. I signed a dozen sheets or +more and then looked up, and there he was, still smiling. + +"Well," I asked, "what is the matter? Out with it." + +"We are all poor men," he said. + +"Who are?" I asked carelessly. + +"All we police," he said. "I gave a whole rupee, but the others could +give but a penny or twopence each because they are only constables. We +could not afford more. We are poor men, your Honour." + +I stopped my signing. "Sergeant," I said, "come here. I don't know +what you're talking about. What is the matter?" + +"There is a little girl," he answered, coming up to the table. "That's +the difficulty." + +I held my head between my hands. I had no idea of what he could be +talking about. The syncopated method of beginning a conversation which +Burmese often use made my head ache. I stared, he stared. At last I +said: + +"Sergeant, I'm going home," and rose. Then it all came out. + +It was the opium smuggler. He could not pay the fine, for he was +penniless. He had no friends this side of fifty miles away, and he had +with him a little daughter aged ten years or so. This was, of course, +the first that I had heard of her, but it seems that she was just +outside when her father was being tried, and when she heard he had to +go to gaol she was in despair. They wept together. + +Therefore the Sergeant whose zeal had caused the trouble repented of +his work and took up a collection. In the police-office and among my +clerks he got five rupees. That was but half, and they did not know +where to get the rest. Then someone had a brilliant idea. "Go," he +said to the Sergeant, "ask the magistrate." "Therefore," said the +Sergeant, "I came in to your Honour." + +"For what?" + +"The other five rupees." + +I laughed. How could I help it? The audacity of the demand, that I, +the magistrate, should pay half the fine that I had myself inflicted! + +"Sergeant," I said severely, "what have you and I to do with offenders +who break the law? Are we to pay for them? What is the good of _your_ +arresting them and my fining them if we afterwards pay their fines for +them? We make a mockery of the law and ruin ourselves." + +He did not answer. + +"You see the point?" I asked. + +He did. + +"Then I am going home." + +The Sergeant saluted. "I didn't suppose your Honour has the money in +Court. Shall I come for it or will your Honour send it over?" he +replied. + +"Send what?" + +"The five rupees." + +I sent it over. + +This story, besides illustrating the kindheartedness of the people and +their quickness to see the injustice of a law and try to remedy it, +shows the difficulty Government have in this matter of opium. + +Now I do not intend to go into this very controversial subject. I have +read the evidence and the Report of the Opium Commission some years +ago, and I have my own opinion about both. That I will keep to myself. +All I have to say here is that opium in reasonable doses is a most +valuable drug--the most valuable we have. It is in fever-haunted +districts the best friend of the people. Some of the best fighting men +of the Empire take it and demand it. In its time and place it is no +more harmful than liquor, and I have no belief in putting the world +into an iron case of everlasting "Don'ts." People should be made +temperate by training and judicious restriction of opportunity, and not +made the slaves of laws. I don't believe in slavery of any kind. + +But opium can be and is abused, and there is no doubt that amongst the +Burmese generally there is a desire that its use be totally prohibited. +A general opinion like that should be respected whether it is right or +wrong. + +There comes the difficulty. Take Burma as a whole and consider it. +The vast majority of the inhabitants are Burmese, but in places in +Lower Burma there are large colonies of Hindus and Mohammedans. There +are, moreover, many Chinese traders and carpenters spread about all +over. They are accustomed to use opium, were so accustomed before they +came there, would not have come if they could not have got their +stimulant. + +Then, again, Burma is bounded on the east by the independent Shan +States, where there is a great deal of fever, where opium grows, and +the people use it. Beyond these States is China, where opium is grown +largely. Moreover, there are in Lower Burma one or two districts where +fever is very deadly and opium is used by the Burmans with the consent +of public opinion. + +Now sum up all these factors, and see how complicated the problem is. + +The Burmans generally want opium prohibited. "Very well," says +Government; "we will prohibit it for Burmans; but what about the rest +of the population? They want it; their public opinion does not forbid +it. They are immigrants, and would not have come if they had been +unable to get it. Therefore there must be opium shops for them. But +Burmans shall not be allowed to buy." + +So far so good in appearance. The Burman may not buy from the shop, +and doesn't. He buys from a friendly Chinaman, who for a little +commission buys the opium at the shop and hands it over outside. + +But this trick was discovered, and Government did its best. It +allowanced all Chinamen. They could buy so much and no more, just +enough for their own use. If they sold to Burmans they had to go +without themselves. + +That was excellent, only there were two ways round. One was for +Chinamen who did not use opium--not all do--to act as honest broker; +the other was smuggling from the Shan States. The quantity of opium +smuggled down from the Shan States cannot be estimated, nor can it be +stopped. How can you guard five hundred miles of frontier all mountain +and forest, intersected by forest paths? Opium is light, compact, +easily concealed. Government does its best, but it cannot do the +impossible. + +Therefore the Acts are widely evaded, which is always a bad thing; but +there is a worse effect than this--there is discrimination by +nationality. + +I do not think there can be anything worse than an Act that says such +and such an act is right and proper for people of one nationality but +wrong and penal for people of another. A Chinaman may walk about and +do openly what if a Burman does he goes to gaol for. What difference +is there between the natures of the two people to make such a +difference? There is none. Therefore the effect of this law, although +it be according to the general desire, is to make the Burman feel that +he is a child not to be trusted. This is a bad feeling. If opium were +totally prohibited in Upper Burma for everybody except Indian troops or +officials sent there by Government, and therefore not free to stay +away, this feeling would not arise. If local option is to have effect +it should be by areas and not races. + +The same thing applies to alcohol. An Indian coolie can go and buy +some liquor and have a drink with his friends. A Burman may not. At +least not of licit liquor. Therefore a great deal of illicit liquor is +distilled. + +Try to see how demoralising all this is. Take a town like Sagaing, my +last head-quarters, which is really only a big village, and note the +results. There is a liquor shop where European liquors, beer, and +spirits are sold, and there are several shops where native spirits are +sold. A European, or half-caste, or Hindu, or Mohammedan of the better +classes could go and buy a bottle of Bass or of Dyer's ale at the +European shop and take it home for dinner. The Burmese magistrates, +inspectors of police, and so on could not--legally. My Treasury +officer, being a Burman, was debarred; his subordinate, a native of +India, was not debarred. What happens? Well, I don't know. But I +bought a pony once from a very respectable and able Burmese Inspector +of Police, and the first morning I rode him he took me gently but +firmly to the back door of the liquor shop. That gave me an idea, but +I kept the idea to myself. I have often had ideas of this nature. + +Then take the poorer classes. Is it good for one race of people to see +another making merry with a glass while it is illegal for them to do +so? Does it not create bitterness, to say the least? Does it not +perpetuate differences that must disappear if self-government is to +succeed? + +Here, again, if laws are to succeed they must be in accordance with the +desires of the people. Only the people at large can stop smuggling. +Read the history of how English smuggling was stopped; it was because +no one could smuggle without being informed on--that is to say, public +opinion had turned against them. + +But that is not so in Burma. Were prohibition of opium or spirits by +localities where all were treated alike, you could ask the people to +help you to enforce their wish. But for opium and liquor to be sold to +some and refused to others is not a local option. No one likes it, and +no one will help to stop smuggling. That is human nature. + + +Government has been and is greatly abused for its opium and liquor +policy, but I think if facts are looked at squarely it will be seen +that the situation is very difficult. The only way out that I can see +is through local self-government. If the scheme that I sketch out at +the end of this book took form there would be local option eventually, +and people will submit to what they themselves enact, whereas they +chafe against the same thing when imposed from above. That is human +nature, and it is a very valuable trait of human nature. It is the +revolt against subjection, and the declaration that the objective of +life is to be free. The only morality of any value comes from within; +that imposed from without may improve the body, but it enervates the +soul. Now the body is temporary and the soul eternal. + + +Here I may end my criticism of the machinery of government. Not that +any of the other branches of the administration are better than those I +have written of. The land laws are, I think, worse, because they are +based on imported fixed ideas and not on any careful investigation of +facts and the underlying causes of facts. The police administration is +bad; the village administration worse than bad. But I do not want to +criticise; I want to establish my point, which is that the unrest in +India is a legitimate unrest, that it is not factitious or political, +but based on very real grievances that must grow till they are relieved. + +I have picked out these four branches of the administration: the +Criminal and Civil Courts, the Villages, and the Opium and Excise, for +specific reasons. The reason I chose the first two is because no one +ever seems to have suspected before how bad they were. Everyone has +gone on the fixed idea that because the magistrates and judges are +honest and the law up to date there can be nothing to complain of in +them. The fault must be in the people. + +Only as I write I get a letter to this effect from an officer of long +experience. He had "never seen anything wrong with the Courts." +Therefore I have set out the facts to the best of my ability. I want +the reader to see for himself. I don't want him to accept my authority +that they are bad; I don't believe in authority. I want him to think +over the facts I have laid before him and frame his own judgment. I +think that he will see that the Courts which have been declared +impregnable are very vulnerable indeed. + +The reason I chose the Village is because it is the unit of +self-government. + +The reason I chose the Opium and Excise was different. Whereas +Government has never been criticised for its Courts and its law, which +are bad, it has received unending criticism for its Opium and Excise +policy. Yet, mistakes apart, I don't see how it is much to blame. The +difficulties are inherent. They are the same in nature as those that +beset liquor legislation in England. The question has not been solved +here; far from it. In fact, it is insoluble by Act; it is only soluble +by education of the individual. The right and temperate use of alcohol +and drugs is a personal, not a State question. Therefore where +Government could have been criticised it was not, and where it did its +best in great difficulties it was abused. This will give a key to +another difficulty in India: Government receives hardly any good and +useful criticism from any side. It is abused and praised, but that +understanding criticism which is of the greatest value to individuals +and Governments is wanting. The Indians are feeling serious unrest, +and they cannot diagnose the cause--no one can diagnose himself--so +they strike out at random against Government measures and officials. +They are like a certain party in England who also are unhappy with +things as they are, and who express their dissatisfaction at, say, the +marriage laws--which were made not by man, but by Churches, whose great +supporters were and are women--by smashing the orchid house at Kew. It +reminds me of Andrew Lang's ghost. What he wanted to say was that the +drains were out of order and a danger to all the inhabitants of the +castle. But he suffered from aphasia, and the nearest he could get to +an indication of his meaning was driving round and round the castle at +midnight in a hearse and four. + +Most changes arising in societies are incoherent in the same way, but +it must not be supposed that because the expression is irrelevant there +is no real and serious cause beneath it. When an overboiling kettle +spills and scalds the cat who never did the kettle any harm, it is hard +luck on the cat, but it is not unnatural in the kettle. And it would +be dangerous therefore to stop up the spout. Later on the kettle might +explode and damage the cat's master. + +The English papers in India want to support Government, which is right; +but the best support they could give would be to point out where +Government goes wrong and help it to go right. They never do that, +because the editors live in towns and know nothing of the country. +Moreover, they too suffer from fixed ideas. + +It is the same with the criticism the Indian Government gets from +England. There are here practically only two parties. One says, "Sit +tight on the safety-valve and shoot anyone who comes near you"; and the +other says "Give government to the people." Now there is no organised +Indian people as yet to give it to. + +No Government has ever had so little help from intelligent criticism as +the Indian Government; none ever needed it more. No Government in the +world is more sincerely desirous of the good of the people it governs; +none knows so little how to secure it. + +You cannot have any work done efficiently unless there is honest and +understanding criticism. No sensible person objects to it if it is +given sincerely and fairly. But that is not so in India. Considering +how unfair most criticism of the Indian Government is, it shows great +self-restraint in the consideration it accords to it. And you can't +expect Government officials to criticise themselves. It isn't part of +their functions and it isn't fair to ask it. Their duty is to carry +out the laws and orders they receive. They have neither the time nor +the attitude of mind to be always criticising them. + +But there ought to be somebody whose function is to investigate the +working of government, and to suggest and criticise. In England it +used to be done--badly--by Parliament and the papers. Now no one does +it: everyone now only seeks "party" advantage. In China there used to +be censors whose duty it was, I am told, to watch the working of the +machine and criticise it. That would be an admirable idea if it could +be carried out. + +The Government of India should have censors. They should be well paid, +and I think their lives would have to be heavily insured. Their +reports should not be pigeon-holed, but published. + +At present this ill-informed criticism of Government has succeeded in +achieving one and is pressing another measure for the alleviation of +the unrest which can do nothing but harm. The danger is that +Government, not knowing the right thing to do and pressed to do +something, will accept these measures rather than be accused of +ignoring the unrest. + +India is lost to us--lost in spirit, and only awaiting the opportunity +to be lost in substance. How shall she be regained? + +Government have two ideas. Let us see what these are. + + + + +PART II + +COUNSELS OF DESPAIR + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE COUNCILS + +The first step that has been taken with the hope of allaying the +discontent in India has been the increase in the Councils of the +Government of India and of the Local Governments of Madras and Bombay, +with the creation of Councils in the other Provinces which did not have +them before. + +And as these Councils have been in certain quarters greatly praised as +being not only good in themselves now but as containing the germs of +great possibilities, it is necessary to consider them carefully. + +Councils were first instituted in India in 1861, were enlarged in 1892, +and again much enlarged in 1909; thus they are no new thing, and their +value is already fairly obvious. Moreover, since the enlargements of +the Act of 1909 some time has elapsed, so that I am not here +criticising institutions which have not yet had a chance of showing +what they can do. + +There are Executive Councils for the Government of India and for the +Provincial Governments of Bombay and Madras, and there are Legislative +Councils for the Government of India and for each Province. + +The whole of the law for the constitution of these Councils is +contained in the Indian Councils Acts of 1861, 1892, and 1909, and the +Rules for the nomination or election of the members are contained in +Blue Book Number Cd 6714, published in 1913. I give these references +in order that anyone who cares to go into the subject in greater detail +than I can in this chapter will be able to find all his material +readily. He will be able to see how other Councils than those I intend +to deal with here are constituted; also in what way and by what +constituencies elected members are chosen. There is a great deal that +might well be said on each of these Councils. + +But the only Councils I propose to deal with here are those of the +Government of India and of the Province of Burma. I would have liked +to include the Council of Madras but that I think the subject can be +fairly understood without this. + +The Executive Council of the Government of India consists of the +Governor-General and nine members. These form the Cabinet of India, +and, subject to the control of the Secretary of State, it has supreme +power. It includes the Commander-in-Chief and members for Finance, +Public Works, Home affairs and so on. + +The only alteration made in this Council is by declaring that one of +the members must be an Indian. So far that member has been the Law +Member, and it is somewhat difficult to see how any other post could be +filled by an Indian. You can find Indian lawyers, many, perhaps too +many of them, but where are you to find Indians with that necessary +experience that would fit them to be Finance or Home Members or +Commander-in-Chief, for instance? + +The appointment of this Indian gentleman to be Law Member has not been +followed by any striking results. Law in India is petrified, and until +the great reform takes place petrified it must remain. It does not +seem to matter very much who is head of it. When reform comes it will +not be an Indian who could undertake it. + +The Legislative Council is formed of the Executive Council and +Additional Members. Before 1909, Additional Members were few, they +were nominated and there was always a good Government majority. Since +1909 it has been constituted as follows: + + Nominated Members + 28 officials + 5 non-officials. + +Of these five non-officials one is to represent the Indian Commercial +community, one the Mohammedans of the Punjab, and one the landowners in +the Punjab. The other two nominated members may be anyone apparently. + +Then there are twenty-seven elected members; two each to represent the +four large Provincial Councils; one each for the five smaller +Provinces, one each to represent the landowners of six Provinces; five +representatives of Mohammedans in these five Provinces; one member each +to the Chambers of Commerce of Bengal and Bombay; and one extra +Mohammedan member. Thus in this assembly there are represented in a +way nine Provinces as wholes, the landowning class of some Provinces, +one religion and the trade of two cities. + +To make it clearer to the reader who has not been to India, let me put +it in this way. India is as big as Europe without Russia, and has +three hundred million inhabitants, more than Europe. Suppose Europe +were conquered and administered by Martians, and they were to establish +a Council. If they did it on similar principles to this Legislative +Council of the Government of India it would consist of: + +Two members each for Germany, France, Great Britain, and Italy, one +member each for five smaller nations, one representative each for the +landowners in Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Austria, and +Spain, five representatives of Protestants as Protestants, and one each +for the Chambers of Commerce of London and Paris. + +What would the reader think of this as a Council to make laws for all +Europe? What would he say? I think he would say many things. He +would also ask some questions. He would ask: + +Firstly, how can two members represent great countries--like England +for instance? Or one represent another great area and people like +Spain? Is it conceivably possible that one or at best two individuals +could have the necessary knowledge or impartiality to do this? + +His second question would be: How can one man represent landowners +spread over a great territory with different forms of tenure, different +crops, different climates, different nationalities? + +His third would be: Two cities are represented; where are the others? + +His fourth would be: At best, all these members can but represent, in +even ever so faint a way, their own class who elects them. Say at a +liberal estimate that they represent more or less imperfectly half a +million people; what about the two hundred and ninety-nine and a half +million who are left out? Who are to protect tenants from landlords, +the innumerable unrepresented religions from that one which is +represented, the voiceless cities from the two which have voices? In +fact, who is to protect Europe from these few privileged classes? + +That would be analogous to what is happening in India. These questions +are being asked. + +The answer to the first question is quite simple. The two members do +not represent Madras, nor does the one member represent Burma. They +represent the non-officials of the Local Council, and that is all; that +is to say, ten or fifteen individuals of much their own class and +standing. It is not likely that they have any knowledge of the country +they are to represent, except the chief town. It is quite certain that +they have never even travelled over half their country, nor speak more +than one or two of the various tongues. + +They have no knowledge of the administration anywhere, nor any +administrative ability. If a question vital to their Province arose +they would not know what to do; and if they did know they would not +dare to do it if it involved any responsibility, because they have no +backing in the country supposed to be theirs. They are totally +unknown, even by name, to nine hundred and ninety-nine out of every +thousand inhabitants. In fact, even this is an over-estimate. They +are not only without knowledge of the immense majority of "their" +people, but are antagonistic in race and religion to many of them, so +that it is only the English Government that keeps the peace. + +The answer to the second question is much the same as to the first. +Fancy one member representing the Nair landholders of Malabar, the +Poligars, the Tamils, the Telugu landholders, and many others. It is +absurd. + +There is no answer to the third question. + +The answer to the fourth is that whatever help and representation and +defence the bulk of India can obtain must be obtained from the English +official members. They alone are quite impartial; they may be +comparatively ignorant, but their ignorance is light compared to that +of the native members, for it includes a knowledge of administration +obtained by experience, which none of the latter have. It is we alone +who have raised the people economically, and have done it often enough +against the influence of class. + +Therefore the Council of the Government of India is so constituted that +whereas perhaps half a million people are represented directly or +indirectly by class and religion, the two hundred and ninety-nine and a +half million have no representation at all and must depend on the +English officials. + +This is no new discovery of mine. Here is what Lord Curzon said in the +debate in the House of Lords on this new Act: "I wonder how these +changes will in the last resort affect the great mass of the people of +India--the people who have no vote and have scarcely a voice. Remember +that to these people, who form the bulk of the population of India, +representative government and electoral institutions are nothing +whatever. I have a misgiving that this class will not fare much better +under these changes than they do now. At any rate, I see no place for +them in these enlarged Councils which are to be created, and I am under +the strong opinion that as government in India becomes more and more +Parliamentary--as will be the inevitable result--so it will become less +paternal and less beneficial to the poorer classes of the population." +It was seen that these Councils were merely by way of handing over the +India we have made to a tiny section of privileged classes whom we were +to keep in power and support with our bayonets. It was seen and +disregarded. Why? + +So much for its constitution. Every principle that experience shows +must go to the making of a successful Assembly has been scorned. The +representation, even such as it is, is by class, by race, and by +religion. No assembly where such a method of representation has been +adopted has ever been known. Wherever, even in a small degree, such +differences have existed it has paralysed all action. Take, for +instance, the French National Assembly before the Revolution. Imagine +a House of Commons with members for landowners, for the merchants of +London and Glasgow, and special members for the Catholic Irish in +England and Scotland. Even that would be far less extraordinary than +the Council of India. + +This Council has no executive powers, but it can ask questions: it can +discuss the Budget though it cannot make alterations; it can make laws +affecting all India. But all it does is subject to veto by the +Government of India--and naturally so. How could you delegate real +power to a Council which, the English officials apart, has no +representative value of any kind and no administrative experience? The +power behind the Government is the power of England--the Army, the +Navy, and the wealth of England. It is administered by British +officials, and even the native army is officered by English officers. +Is this great English organism to be used for enforcing laws passed by +such a Council as that I have described? To be at its mercy, to be its +servant? Does it enter into the possibility of things? + +The Council, the officials apart, is in reality at its very best +advisory only. It cannot be more. It has no power behind it and could +be given no responsibility. Yet without the fear of responsibility +what advice is ever well given? Irresponsible advisers! Of what value +have they ever been in the world's history? + +"But"--I have been told and have read often enough--"the Council works +well, it is a success, it has gratified the educated Indian. Why +criticise it, then?" To that I reply, "In what has its success +consisted--what has it done?" And to that I never get any answer +except that it is a success because it has done nothing. The speakers +were afraid, apparently, it might try to do something--to express, for +instance, some of the desires and needs of the people, a few of which I +have tried to explain in this book; to suggest some new policy to +Government, to show how the great and increasing unrest might be guided +into safe channels; and it has been a success because it has done none +of these things and was capable of doing none of them. It has been as +an influence _nil_. All it has done has been empty criticism. A +writer trying to praise it says: "The debates in the Imperial Council +are already not unworthy of older and more famous assemblies." If the +comparison is with the House of Commons it is not inapt. For many +years now debates there have been merely a pretence. The conclusions +are already fixed and the speakers know it. They speak to pass time, +to satisfy the electors that they are really doing something to justify +their existence, and they try to show off--or to score off someone +else. Their speeches have no value. They make no difference to the +result. And the debates in the India Council are no different. It +perhaps gives the members the illusion of power and authority to be +able to badger Government and make long speeches, but it can effect +nothing. The debates are make-believe. How should they be anything +else? The men are not to blame, but the institution. + +"But"--again say its advocates--"this is but a beginning. The Council +is but in embryo. Wait till it comes to greater maturity." + +To what greater maturity can it come? Is there in this Council any +true idea that can expand and grow? There is no idea at all. Is it +ever contemplated to make it really representative? How many members +would it take to represent three hundred millions of people? On the +British basis, not a liberal one, it would require an assembly of over +four thousand five hundred members. Is that possible? + +Is any election possible among the masses of the people? + +Is it ever possible that real executive or legislative power should be +given to an assembly when it is the English Government and the English +people who in the last resort would have to carry out those orders and +bear the brunt of their failure? + +Think over the facts carefully. Could you make a central Parliament to +govern all Europe? No. For a hundred reasons the idea is impossible. +It is equally impossible in India. It is even more impossible in India +than it would be in Europe. + +Finally it is said that this Council has satisfied the educated class +in India. + +Has it? + +And if it had could there be a greater criterion of its worthlessness +than such satisfaction? + +Let us now turn to the Burma Provincial Council. There is no Executive +Council, all executive power lies with the Lieut.-Governor. The +Legislative Council consists of seventeen members. + +One member is elected by the Chamber of Commerce, and the other sixteen +are nominated. Of these sixteen, six may be officials; two experts may +be official or non-official; the rest must be non-official; of these, +four must be Burmese, one must be Chinese, and one must be Indian. + +The Council has power to enact local legislation for Burma only. That +is to say it can pass special or local laws. It cannot, of course, +interfere with or vary the Imperial legislation, such as the Indian +Penal Codes. Its powers are small and are limited. It is, as will be +seen, representative of nothing. Except the officials, none of the +members have any administrative knowledge; none are known to the people +at large even by name. That they approved or passed any Act modifying, +say, the Burmese law of inheritance, would be no justification for it +before the people. They represent neither people nor ideas. They have +effected nothing and can effect nothing because they have no force +behind them. What have any of them ever done that the people should +repose confidence in them? + +For the rest the same criticisms apply as to the Indian Council. The +Lieut.-Governor has all the executive power and he has the power of +veto over all legislation. Naturally he must have this power. If not, +he might be forced into using British power and authority and means for +enforcing Acts that he disapproved of and were passed by men who +represented at best not one thousandth part of the country. + +Yet, as long as he has this power of veto, the Council, like the Indian +Council, becomes simply an advisory Council with no responsibility. +And, again, of what value is advice that is not steadied by the sense +of responsibility? + +And with all this talk of self-government, of an Imperial Indian +Parliament and local parliaments, of election and representation, there +is in no village in the Indian Empire any self-government at all, even +in the smallest matters. The villages are one and all under the rule +of a Government official, and every vestige of self-government has been +destroyed. India may have representatives in the India Council and a +voice, even if an impotent voice, in Imperial matters, but it may have +no representation in its Village Council, and no voice in the smallest +village concern. + +The whole base on which any self-government could rest has been +destroyed. And instead of building up from below a system of +self-government that would proceed from the people and be so founded as +to stand any shocks, it is sought to begin self-government from the +top, by suspending in the air Councils that rest on nothing, that mean +nothing, that have as much solidity and reality as kites would have. + +This, too, must have been foreseen, because it is obvious. Why, then, +was it done? + +Was there ever in any history a _reductio ad absurdum_ like these +Councils of Despair? + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE INDIAN AS CIVILIAN + +The next measure which has insistently been pressed on the Government +is that far more Indians should be admitted to the Civil Service. It +is now composed almost exclusively of Englishmen, and the conditions +are such that it is difficult for Indians to enter. This, it is +claimed, should be altered, and the Civil Service should be to a great +extent Indianised. + +Well, as I have said, the Government of India is not Indian, it is +English. It is essentially English, the more so and the more +necessarily so because it is in India. It consists of very few members +compared to the work it has to do, and it is of the highest importance +therefore that it be completely efficient. England has made herself +responsible for India, and she cannot shirk or divide this +responsibility. She cannot say: "I will by admitting a few Indians +into the service shift some of the responsibility onto them and so onto +India." That is unthinkable. The Government of India is English, and +until by revolution or devolution it disappears it must remain English. +It is the Army and Navy of England which ensure India's safety. +Therefore her first duty, not only to herself but to India, is to +enlist in her superior service such men as will govern most efficiently. + +Now to govern efficiently we must govern in our own way. There are not +for us nor any people two ways of doing a thing well; there is one way +only possible at the time--one way in which the genius of the governing +race can best express itself. That is the one we must follow, and to +ensure its success we must have in the service men who are not merely +by education, but by what is far more important, by instinct, best +fitted to carry out the ideas of government. You must have officers +who will know what to do not only when they are told, but when they are +not told, who, being one in race and feeling with the Government, will +instinctively do all in accordance with it. + +For it must never be forgotten that the government of India is a very +difficult matter, and will always be so. It is not plain-sailing, like +the Local Government of any self-governing people, or even of Russia. +The administration of India is alien. The system is alien; and though +it need not be so much out of touch with the people as it is now, alien +it must remain. As long as the government is alien the machinery must +be so. Englishmen could not work machinery they did not understand. + +Even in self-governed countries there is always a feeling against +government. Taxes are hard things to bear. This is shown in socialism +and many other ways. But in an alien-governed country like India this +discontent is much greater. Government has not only to bear the blame +for its own faults, but has to vicariously suffer for the shortcomings +of the monsoons and the inroad of plague. It is responsible, in the +people's ideas, for everything. The internal peace which is taken for +granted in most European countries cannot be so assumed in India. We +are very often within measurable distance of riot, and an unchecked +riot may quickly develop into an insurrection. The first essential, +therefore, of government is the maintenance of peace and the immediate +suppression of any symptom of unrest. + +Now the forces at the disposal of the authorities are not large. For +the whole province of Burma, as large as France and England, and with a +thousand miles of wild frontier and ten millions of people, there are +only four British and eight Indian regiments. There are, or were, +besides (I have not the latest figures) some ten thousand military +police, who are men recruited in India and officered by English +officers from Indian regiments. The Burmese police are only for civil +duty and detection. They are not for "keeping the peace" purposes. +For the whole of India there are but 70,000 British troops and 140,000 +native for a population of 350,000,000, with a difficult and turbulent +frontier. There is manifestly no margin to waste; the resources +available must be used with the utmost efficiency. There must be +direct understanding and co-operation between the military officers who +command the forces and the District Officers who supply the +information, the intelligence and the direction. Now if the District +Officer were an Indian this could not be. It is no reflection on +either the courage or the capacity of the Indian to say this, for the +quality necessary is neither of these. It is one which he does not and +cannot have, but which is essential for the proper carrying out of his +duties. It is _camaraderie_ with the other officers. + +Official relations between civil and military are always difficult. It +is impossible to lay down hard and fast rules defining their respective +responsibilities. There is a certain antagonism between the objects +each wishes to attain and the way to attain them. The civilian wishes +as far as possible to avoid bloodshed; to soothe, not irritate, nor +threaten. Fighting is the last thing he wants. The soldier, on the +other hand, wants to get at his enemy and have it over; to stir him up +if he be not already stirred up enough. He wishes action that is +short, sharp, and decisive. The civilian is long-suffering. Therefore +disagreements arise, and that these conflicts of official opinion +should be minimised, something more is necessary than that the men on +both sides be good officers. They must be friends. The rubs of +official intercourse must be effaced over the mess-table, the +card-table, the camp fire; must be forgotten in talks of home, of +mutual friends. How often has it not happened that it has been the +mutual appreciation of a poet, the remembrance of a charming woman, the +admiration of an opera, that has rendered possible that co-operation +which is the soul of work. There must be the continual consciousness +on both sides that theirs is not a temporary official relationship. +They will meet continually hereafter at other stations, at +head-quarters, at dinners, races, clubs--in the East and at home. They +must be friends all through; there must be a mutual understanding. + +Now if the civilian were an Indian gentleman all this could not occur. +That Indians are often honourable and cultured gentlemen I know; that +in essence all humanity is one I am never tired of affirming. But +there are differences of race, real differences, important differences, +differences that the Indian himself should be the last to try to +ignore. Every nation is given by nature the qualities peculiar to it +and which it is its duty to cultivate for the world's sake. To attempt +to sink your individuality in that of another is an injury not only to +yourself but to the whole world. An Indian gentleman cannot be an +Englishman. It is no use his trying. He only makes himself absurd. +He can be something quite as good if he will cultivate his own talent; +but he has not our talent. He is not an Englishman, and only an +Englishman by birth has that _camaraderie_ with other Englishmen that +is essential. Even a Frenchman or a German would not have it. +Therefore it would be impossible to place Indian civilians in places +where co-operation with military or military police-officers would be +essential. + +Further, it is not the English officers alone who create the +difficulty. It is the men--English and native. Men of fighting races +in India will not acknowledge the authority of Indians of other +nationalities, even if supported by Government. + +I will tell a story in illustration. + +I was stationed nearly twenty years ago at a district head-quarters in +Burma where there was a battalion of Military Police recruited in Upper +India. There was also a young Mohammedan civilian who had passed into +the Civil Service in London and been posted to Burma. He was an +excellent fellow in his way. + +It happened one morning that I rode down to the Battalion Commandant's +house to see him on some matter. We discussed our business, and after +it was finished the Subadar of the battalion, a great soldierly Sikh, +came in. He and the Commandant talked for a while, and when he was +leaving E. said: + +"By the by, Subadar Sahib, we are coming up this evening to the range +to do a little firing. Send up the marker and four rifles." + +"_Four_ rifles?" queried the Subadar. + +E. nodded. + +"For whom?" + +"For the four Sahibs," said E. + +The Subadar counted. "The Deputy Sahib, Huzoor (E.), Hall Sahib, and +who else?' + +"Oh," said he, "Mahommed V. Sahib," naming the Indian civilian. + +The Subadar turned away with a gesture of scorn. + +"A sahib? he?" he growled. + +Now suppose this Indian civilian had grown up into charge of a district +and had to direct or go with these men into action? What would happen? + +But it may be said that matters could be so arranged that civilians who +were Indians were not posted to troublesome or frontier districts, or +that they were given judicial and not executive appointments. They +make, it is said, good judges. Why keep them out of duties they do +well? + +But have those who advocate this ever considered what it would mean? +It would be the creation of a class within a class. The civilian who +was an Indian would be differentiated from the English civilians; he +would be ear-marked as "not for executive duties." Is that a +possibility, and if it were, would not this differentiation be worse +than entirely excluding them? The _corps d'élite_ would still remain +English and the grievance be where it is. + +Let us look facts in the face. The Civil Service of India is a +peculiarly English service; it is efficient exactly in so far as it is +English; when Indians enter it they must be inefficient more or less. +Not only are they not good for the service, but the service is not good +for them. They would be better and happier out of it, and they feel +that themselves. They have gained their ambition and regret it all +their lives. I have known several Indians who were civilians and all +were unhappy. One was very much so. This is his story. It all +happened a long time ago now, not in Burma, and I do not think any +susceptibilities can be hurt by recalling it. + +He was a Madrassi of the race and caste of Chettis, not the +money-lending Chettis, but another branch who always seek Government +service. His people were well off and he was sent to England to +school; then to Wren's to study for the Civil Service, into which he +passed high up, and after two years at Oxford he came to Madras and was +posted to a district on the west coast. He was a nice fellow, clever, +agreeable, and most people liked him. In England he had been given +access to good society, and no difference had been made between him and +his English fellow-students. He expected it would be the same in +India. He was a member of the Indian Civil Service and would be +accepted as such. + +He was not. The first thing that happened was that the Club refused to +admit him as a member. Now to the home-staying Englishman this may +seem a small matter. It is no essential in England to a man's +efficiency, or even to his happiness, that he be member of a social +club. It can make no real difference to his career. + +In India it is different. The Club in a country station is the centre +of everything. Practically every European belongs to it. He does not +go occasionally, but every day. At five o'clock, when Courts and +offices close, there is a general resort to the Club, for golf, tennis, +cards, billiards. Most clubs have a women's wing as well, so that the +whole of society is centred in the Club. It is there that matters are +arranged and informally discussed. Work is done at Court, but the +preliminaries of work are often arranged at the Club; or, if not, the +annoyances of work are there removed. You forget over a drink and a +cigar what happened between you at Court. Women, too, use their +influence at the Club, and women's influence is never negligible. The +Club is the real heart of the station's life, and if a man do not +belong to it he is outside the organism, so to speak. I am quite sure +that no senior officer would do his work if he were outside the Club, +and even a junior officer would find it difficult. + +Every effort was made to elect Chetty to the Club. The other officials +stood by him loyally, but it was no use. The unofficial Englishmen +refused to allow an Indian to be a member of the Club. Now it is no +use characterising such exclusiveness as wrong, or mischievous, or +narrow, and saying it should not exist. It does exist. It always will +exist. It is very strong, and it is based on instincts that are good +in themselves and cannot be ignored. Club life is only possible to +people of one nationality. You cannot mix in a Club. In Rangoon do +not the Germans have their own club? + +The unofficials threatened if Chetty were proposed to overwhelm him +with black-balls, and so his name had to be withdrawn. I may say I do +not think his nominal admission as a member would have made much +difference. Merely allowing a man to enter a club does not admit him +to the intimacy of the Club, and that alone counts. However, Chetty +was refused admittance at all. + +There were, of course, other troubles. An Indian who has entered the +Civil Service is really in an impossible position. Socially he belongs +to no world. He has left his own and cannot enter the other. And you +cannot divorce social life from official life. They are not two +things, but one. In the end Chetty shot himself. It was a sad end for +a man gifted and likeable. + +And although such an end was unusual, the causes which led to it are +universal. I have known several civilians who were Indians, and, as I +said before, I think they were all unhappy. They felt that fate had +put them in an impossible position. If they married their +fellow-country-women they by this act divorced themselves still further +from European society; if they married an Englishwoman they did no +better; the other Englishwomen would not receive her, and inherent +differences of civilisation rendered married life difficult. I think +that if individuals realised what their ambition would lead to they +would choose any other walk in life than to enter an alien service. +Their ideals are wrong. It is no true ideal for an Indian or Burmese +to wish to be an Englishman. Fate has allotted to him a different +field of usefulness quite as great in its way. An Indian gentleman may +be quite as true a gentleman as an English gentleman and be not in the +least like him. By blind imitation they attempt to attain virtues not +inherent in them, and they ignore other virtues which are inherent and +necessary to the world. They seek after impossibilities and so +negative the achievement of possibilities. They deny their own natures. + +It may be that this desire of Indians to enter the Civil Service has +arisen from the desire to begin local self-government--a proper +ambition. But the end cannot be attained in this way. Like all other +edifices, local self-government is built up from below. It is built on +its own foundation. You cannot begin replacing an edifice by removing +the top or middle stones and replacing them with others. +Self-government is not to be attained by gradually altering the roof. + +Therefore the claim that they would influence Government is untenable. +Government must do its work in its own way, and that is the English +way. No Indian can tell what this is. + +The further claim that it would satisfy the people is equally +untenable. To put a native of one part of India over natives of +another part of India would not please them; it would exasperate them. +And even to put an official over his own people would not please those +under him, though it might please his class. This is a well-known +fact; and if you look below the surface it is not difficult to see the +reasons. The Government is English; a native official is not English. +The people have no confidence in him for that reason. They know that +he is not in intimate touch with Government. In the innumerable acts +of official life which are not bound by rigid rules he is very likely +to be wrong. When an English official says a thing they know he speaks +with authority because his mind is one with that of Government; not so +with a native official. They know it and he knows it, and he knows +they know it. That makes matters difficult to begin with. Moreover, +they are jealous of him. When all high officials are English, natives +are all together; put a native in as an official, and to the general +native mind he is rather like a traitor. They have lost him and gained +nothing. They are not proud of him but angry with him. He is as they +are--why then should he have this power over them? It is not a power +delegated by themselves but by an alien Government. This is quite a +simple fact in psychology and shows itself everywhere. Does a +"ranker," unless under exceptional circumstances and an exceptional +personality, hold the same authority over his former equals as a class +officer does? And there the difference is slight. I am sure that no +greater cause for discontent among the people could be found than by +having Indians as civilians. + +And last but not the least, there is the domiciled European population +to be considered. What effect would it have on them if a large number +of Indians were admitted to the administration? The answer is quite +simple and was effectually given during the agitation over the Ilbert +Bill in 1885--they would not stand it. + +They are not too pleased with the present state of affairs, with the +great power that lies in one man's hand, that of the head of the +district. They chafe at it and are continually feeling and resenting +its imperfections and limitations. They only submit to it because they +see no way out of it and because he is English. Were he to be often an +Indian they would resent it and make their resentment felt. They would +lose the feeling of security they now have and they would not submit to +this; they would make government impossible. To those who doubt their +power to do this I would recommend a study of the agitation against the +Ilbert Bill, more especially in its latest stages. It is no longer +secret history that a disaster unequalled in Indian history was only +saved at the last minute by the surrender of Government. + +And the feelings which caused this are as vital now as then. It may be +taken as an axiom that whatever Government might decree, the great +British mercantile and other interests in India would refuse to allow +any appreciable transfer of authority to the hands of Indians, and in +face of their opposition it could not be done. That an Indian should +rule Indians they would not mind perhaps, but that an Indian should +rule Europeans, and that it should be to an Indian they looked for the +maintenance of peace and order and for the administration of justice, +criminal and civil, is unthinkable. The stability of the +administration is due to its being English, and any threat to that +stability would not be borne. + +Besides, to what would it lead? Suppose, by a wild stretch of the +imagination, all the Civil Service in India could be composed of +Indians, what then? That is not self-government. The orders would +still come from Downing Street, the responsibility rest with Parliament +and the English people. The Government would not and could not so be +Indianised; all that would have happened would be that a few hundred +Indian gentlemen had been imperfectly Anglicised. Is that an ideal? +Where would the three hundred and fifty million come in? No more than +they do now. But in any self-government worth the name these people +must come in; they must be the base on which the self-government is +erected. + +Government does not see its way. It must do something, and it has no +idea what to do. A wise statesmanship would hold its hand till it saw +clearly. But there is the danger that a hasty statesmanship may in +despair do something for the mere sake of saying it is not standing +still. + +There is a way out of the present trouble, but I think it can be seen +clearly enough that admitting Indians to the Civil Service is not that +way. It might, in fact, be a very serious obstacle to following the +right course. + +India is lost, and will be regained by no such measures as those +proposed. They will only deepen the gulf and accelerate the final +rupture. + + + + +PART III + +A NEW INDIA + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE NEW CIVILIAN + +India may be regained. How could that be done? + +The first point is the _personnel_ of the Indian Civil Service, which +holds all important offices in India, forms the Government, and fills +most of the places on the Indian Council at home. + +It depends, as I have said, for its success not upon the ability, but +on the personality of its members. India was achieved by personality +and successfully governed by personality. It is personality alone that +humanises rule and makes it tolerable, that stands between the people +and rigid law, and can create that sentiment which alone binds ruler +and ruled together. + +How can that necessary personality be restored to it? + +That this lack of personality does not affect only the Indian Civil +Service is a matter of notoriety. It is exactly what our generals +deplored after the Boer War--that the ordinary officer had no +personality. It is a matter of common remark nowadays how exactly +alike all the young men are, echoing sentiments that are not theirs. +It is what the Germans say of us and the Americans, who especially +admire and try to cultivate personality. We once stood before the +world as a nation of personalities. We do so no longer. + +To what is this due? Not to natural deficiency, because all children +abound in personality. It is due to what is called "education." That +too is no new discovery of mine, but a matter of common knowledge and +publicity. Read, for instance, Harold Gorst's _The Curse of +Education_. In Paine's _Life of Mark Twain_, systematic training is +called "a blight." Neither is it a new thing. The Duke of Wellington +said Waterloo was won in the playing-fields of Eton--not in the +schools, be it noted. Yet in those days education was nothing like so +rigid as it is now. Then take the notable Englishmen of the last fifty +years; how few have been University men--many not public school men. +Cobden and Bright, Chamberlain, Beaconsfield, Dickens and Kipling, +Stanley, Captain Scott, and other pioneers of Empire, Huxley and +Kelvin, all the great captains of industry. The two most prominent +members of the Government to-day are not University men. Even where +notable men were University men they did not attain their stature till +they had thrown off its bonds. Gladstone was, for instance, the hope +of the stern, unbending Tories till he had achieved his liberty, when +he could think for himself. Yet even then he only achieved political, +and never spiritual, freedom. Cecil Rhodes said that University dons +were as children in some matters; meaning, however, ignorant and not +ready to learn, which is not a child's attitude. + +Therefore the fault lies with the "education." + +What is Education? + +There are two things that go to the proper upbringing of a child, and +though they overlap in places they are distinct and even sometimes +contradictory; one is Instruction, and the other is Education. + +Reading and writing, arithmetic, and all information obtained from +books or lectures or teachers is instruction; the bringing out of the +powers of the child's own mind is education. The object of instruction +is to enable the child to better his education. In itself it has no +value. The mere acquirements of reading and writing--the mere +accumulation of book knowledge--are in themselves worthless. "The +learned fool is the biggest fool." They are only good insomuch as they +help education. + +What is education? It is the drawing out of a child's mind so that it +can see life as it is, not a mere mass of phenomena, but a consequence +of underlying causes; it is the exercising of his faculties of right +judgment to meet events as they arise; it is an ability to gauge +himself and others. Education is the cultivation of personality. It +is to the child what careful gardening is to the tree--a help to growth +so that it can develop its potentiality. The gardener helps each tree +to put forth that essential quality of its own that differentiates it +from all other trees and makes it a thing of use and beauty to the +world. It is not a reduction to a common type or the standardisation +of growth, because while the tree must harmonise with the rest of the +garden it must have an individuality of its own. + +That is education, and that alone is education. Instruction is simply +providing the necessary food for growth, or giving the necessary +weapons or implements to obtain that food. All instruction that does +not directly tend to nourish personality is worse than waste--it +occupies nerve and energy that are wanted for better things. + +This is simple enough, yet the world is full of fallacies on the +subject. Here is one from a well-known writer: "How can you draw out +of a child a love for clean collars, Greek accents, the date of +Bannockburn, or how to eat asparagus." + +Well, you can only draw out a child's love for these things by helping +him to see that the acquisition of them is a step towards a result the +child desires to reach. Now Greek accents are only useful to a child +who wishes to become a Greek tutor, and the date of Bannockburn is +useful to no one because it can always be looked up if necessary; +therefore no children have a taste for the latter, and not one in a +thousand for the former. They are not education at all, and even as +instruction they are worthless. A love of clean collars and how to eat +asparagus can be drawn out of children by simply making them realise +that unless they have their love for these things they will expose +themselves to ridicule or contempt for no good purpose. For be it +noted that until you do awaken this self-respect you will not get a +child to put on clean collars enthusiastically, or be careful about +asparagus. Instruction in such matters is useless--you must have +education. + +The man or woman properly educated will desire the right things, and +will seek the right way of attaining these things. His actions will +spring from a real living force within him. But if you teach him to do +things because he is told or because it is the custom, you injure his +personality; and as there is no driving force in a law or a custom, +which are bonds, you confine him, whereas you should free him. It is +an admission that he must not or cannot think for himself, but must +blindly follow custom. It is true that he must, not only in boyhood +but all through his life, yield obedience in act to persons, +governments, or rules; but he must not do so blindly. It is a +principal part of education to make the boy see for himself that such +subordination of act is necessary to the progress of the world, because +as individuals we can accomplish no great thing; then he will do it +willingly, knowing its necessity. But it is equally necessary that the +boy never subordinate his judgment to others, because any rule made +absolute is death to progress, and there is no authority, nor rule, nor +convention that should not be broken sometimes; and as time goes on all +must be modified, changed, and relaxed; the ideal of education being +that all authority will become unnecessary, as people will desire what +is right, and do it _proprio moto_. The truth will have made them free. + +Now seeing this difference, how much education is there in school or +college? In the classrooms there is none. All that is given in +classes is instruction, which may be useful or detrimental inasmuch as +it helps personality or not. Usually it is detrimental, because it +substitutes "authority" for insight. The child must accept something, +not because he is helped to see that it is true, but because "somebody +says so." Thus his personality is destroyed. + +The only education he gets is in the playing-fields. There he learns +to keep his temper, play the game, and co-operate, of his volition, +with others to a desired end. + +That is a valuable training, but it does not go very far. He is never +taught to see life as it is for himself. On the contrary, he is +forbidden to do so. + +And this continues now till the age of twenty-two or twenty-three, so +that by the time it is over the most receptive period of life is past. +Bacon went to the University at thirteen, and left it at sixteen as he +found it had no more to teach him. + +Further, until some thirty or forty years ago a father considered that +he owed some duty to his son--to help him, to lead him, to initiate him +into life. + +No one can do this but a father. No one can understand his son like a +father and know what it is necessary for him to learn; to no one will +the son listen, or confide in, as his father. But nowadays I notice +that fathers have abdicated. They consider their duty fulfilled if +they pay for the boy's schooling, and everything is left to the +schoolmaster. Many fathers that I know are quite stranger to their +sons. Mothers, on the contrary, strive more and more to obtain +influence over their sons and bring them up in the principles of women. +But a man must be a man or be nothing. + +There is another and very considerable difference between schools now +and the schools of sixty years ago and before. In the earlier period +the schoolmasters were rarely clergymen; now they are practically +always so; and not only that, but boys nowadays are far more under +control and influence of their masters than they were. + +Now whatever good points may be claimed for Church teaching by those +who believe in it, there will, I think, be no difficulty about the +admission that the frame of mind, the outlook on the world, of +ecclesiastics is not suitable for men who have to lead an active life. +It is, in fact, the very reverse of what a man requires whose first +duty it is to understand the world and to lead the world. For to the +ecclesiastic the world is a bad place, it has to be borne as best it +can, to be condemned not understood, and all effort is directed not to +this world but to some other. Moreover, the habit of thought of +ecclesiastics is fixed. They believe that not only is truth absolute, +but that they possess it or some of it; the very foundation-rock of +their belief is authority, and freedom of thought is disliked by them +as subversive of their tenets. Their principal qualities are those of +submission, patience and obedience, not merely in act but in thought. + +Now boys are apt to imitate their masters, and however secular a course +of education may be, if it be given by ecclesiastics the boys are +certain to be a great deal influenced by their master's outlook on +life. That accounts for much of the pessimism that is observable, for +the "unnatural mildness" of the modern young man. If you keep a boy +under ecclesiastical habits of thought till he is twenty-three, how can +he ever escape into the fresh air of free inquiry? How will he ever +love the world instead of despising it? And no good work was ever done +except by men who loved the world; and love comes from understanding, +not from aloofness. + +A boy's education should be directed from an early age towards the work +he is to perform in life. What department of the public service is now +held to be the best served? Is it not the Navy? And naval officers +are caught young and trained _ad hoc_; not a narrow professional +training, but none the less a training with an object. The present +training of Indian civilians up till twenty-three is objectless, and +therefore inefficient. That in the Army the special training is begun +much later may account for the complaints of army officers wanting +personality compared with naval officers. + +With engineers and all specialised work the training begins young. + +But the Indian civilian is ecclesiastically trained till he is +twenty-three. Then he has to learn his work. Could there be a greater +absurdity? + +What then should be done? + +In the first place he should be caught young. The work of the Indian +civilian is as important to England as that of the sailor; it is even +more specialised and difficult. He should be trained for it from +fourteen or thereabouts, not from twenty-three. + +It should be determined what special qualities are necessary for a good +Indian civilian. I think some of them are obvious enough. + + +A good physique and a liking for sport. + +Good manners and a knowledge of etiquette. + +Discipline in act. + +Freedom and courage in thought. + +Knowledge of life and humanity as they are round him. + + +Let us consider these. + +That physical fitness is the first necessity all will allow. The +climate is severe and takes a great deal out of him, especially in the +hot weather; there must be exposure in the districts; the work is hard +and difficult, and makes great demands upon the physique. Therefore +the physique must be good. + +And a medical certificate of soundness is no guarantee of this. A man +may be medically quite sound and yet so prostrated by the heat as to +find his temper and his work affected. His physique lies at the base +of all his work, and must be good. Nothing is now done to secure this; +no investigation has ever been made as to the type that endures heat +the best. Yet undoubtedly there is such a type. In that extraordinary +book, _A Modern Legionary_, it is pointed out that in Tonquin, amongst +the men of the Legion, a certain type stood the climate better than the +others. Whenever any special service had to be performed it was men of +a certain sanguine type that were chosen. Not that they were +physically stronger or braver than the others, but because even in the +greatest heat they retained a certain buoyancy of temperament which the +darker types lost. + +I have myself noticed something of the sort in Burma and India. Of +course mere personal observation of this sort proves nothing, but the +subject seems to deserve investigation. That all people do not bear +heat and cold alike is undoubted. In the Russian campaign of 1812 it +was the Italians who stood the cold best of all Napoleon's troops. + +Anyhow, the cadet should have not merely a sound physique but a buoyant +physique, and that cannot be ensured under the present system. + +Then he should be made a good sportsman; for the Indian civilian no +training is more necessary than this. I do not mean only a cricketer +or football player; neither of these games is of much use out in the +East. I mean a rider who is also fond of horses; a shot who is also +interested in birds and animals. + +There is in all sportsmen of this kind a quality which no one else has. +I cannot define it. It comes, I think, from association with people +out of his own rank in one pursuit, from having to go to them for +knowledge he has not got himself and thereby recognising their value, +from a subtle sympathy with nature as not apart from man, nor a setting +for man, but another manifestation of the same Life that is in man. +Nothing is more valuable in enabling a District Officer to keep his +mind sweet. Official work is all concerned with the faults and +shortcomings of others, wherein you are judge and they are culprits. +Official work divides; it insensibly leads you to believe that all men +are liars and robbers, and are trying to deceive you. Throw it aside, +and go out to shoot, stopping in the villages talking of sport and +village affairs, and the whole aspect of life changes. You wash off +your priggishness; you cease to imagine yourself first cousin to the +Deity; you return to your humanity, and with the first snipe you miss +to your extreme fallibility. + +Then there is ability at languages. Now although some men may develop +an excess of ability to learn languages, all people have that ability +to a certain extent when young or they could not learn their own +language. + +But it is an ability that quickly departs unless kept alive. The way +Greek and Latin are taught is a sure way to destroy any ability for +learning a language a boy may retain. Grammar should never be taught. +No child learns its own language by grammar, and, in fact, grammar only +applies to dead languages, not to living. That has to some extent +dawned on modern educators, but I see that French grammar and regular +and irregular verbs are taught to those learning French. Did Loti and +Maupassant learn French grammar? I wonder. If not, why should anyone +else? But schoolmasters are a hard lot, and there is no one who so +absolutely refuses to learn as he who makes a profession of teaching. +Why should not Hindustani be made the school language for Indian cadets? + +Then come good manners. I do not mean only good English manners--those +manners which enable you to pass in a meeting of cultivated English men +and women--but much better manners than those. They are concerned with +your conduct to your equals; but the only good manners that will be of +much use to you in the East are those deeper manners which are equal to +all occasions and can show an equal courtesy to a ploughman as to a +peer, to an old Subadar hero of a hundred fights, to a headman and to a +coolie. Some of it is, of course, convention and must be learned, like +the right thing to do when an old soldier offers you the hilt of his +sword, or a Burman lady brings you some fruit; but most of it, I think, +simply comes from a frame of mind. If you recognise that the common +humanity that binds you is eternal and that the difference of rank or +race or age is a temporary difference that will pass, I do not think +you will quite want for good manners. Orientals are particular about +manners, and they do not respect a man who has none, or who has his own +and not theirs. + +Discipline in act is, I think, enough taught now, but freedom of +thought is woefully to seek. It is banned by theology, and +ecclesiastics naturally do not teach it. + +As to knowledge of life, that can only come in the living. But it will +not come unless you find the world worth studying and your own life +worth living. If this world is bad, then it is not worth study, and if +the only object of your life here is to fit you or unfit you for life +in some spirit world, then you will not care much to fit yourself for +this world. + +Finally, it would appear too as if civilians should go out to India +much younger than they do now. Twenty-three is far too old to begin a +totally new life. For it must be remembered that life in India is a +totally new life to which men have to get accustomed. No matter how +you are trained in England, nothing will enable you to know India but +being in India. The real education cannot begin until the student +lands in the country in which he is to do his life's work. Everything +he may learn at home is preliminary only. Language, people, work have +all to be learned after arriving. However good the material provided +may be, it is, when it lands, simply so much raw material. It has to +learn everything. I do not think the age of twenty is at all too young +to begin such a training; in fact I think nineteen would be better. + +But we are now come to what should be done after arrival in India, and +that will require a new chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +TRAINING IN INDIA + +Having got the young civilian out to his province he should be +thoroughly trained before being put to work, not given six or nine +months to look round and then put to do work he cannot understand. + +If he came out to India at twenty, he could well afford eighteen months +or two years of real training. + +During the cold weather he should be with some District Officer, +accompanying him in camp, observing how he works, getting an insight +into the mechanism of Government; during the hot weather he should be +in the hills. By thus keeping him out of the great heat at the +beginning he would become slowly acclimatised. Now he is plunged +straight out from England into the Indian plains. + +As to the training he should receive, that is not very difficult to +suggest. First and foremost comes the language, of which a good +colloquial knowledge should be required. It can only be acquired by +talking to the people. A teacher is useful to explain difficulties +encountered by a pupil in trying to talk, but no teacher can teach a +language. In fact, languages cannot be taught--they can be acquired. +The ability of the ear and vocal organs to recognise and reproduce +strange sounds comes only with constant practice; and it must be +practice with the people, for educated men talk differently from +peasants in India as elsewhere. All Acts should be learned by first +clearly understanding the principles that underlie them, the object +sought to attain, and the method by which it is hoped to attain it. +That is the only way to really understand an Act or Code. The detailed +knowledge can be filled in later. In order to enable this to be done +Government would have to frame introductions to their Codes and Acts. +And such introductions would be most valuable not only to learners but +to Government itself. Suppose, for instance, an introduction were +written to the _Village Manual_ explaining exactly what the village +organism is and that the Act and Rules were intended to preserve and +strengthen this organism; it would be immediately apparent that as they +are now they really injure and destroy it. This would lead to a +complete recast of the _Manual_--a most necessary work. And so with +the other Acts and Rules. Now they are issued in a perfectly naked +state that would be almost immodest had they any real life in them. +But there is never any intention or life manifest, only dead formulæ. +Such introductions would also be most valuable in keeping an Act up to +date. A law may fairly fulfil its intention when issued, but as +circumstances change it would become obvious that the Act was out of +date. If however you don't know the intention of the Act, how are you +to judge its relevancy? + +Further, such introductions would prevent the abuse of certain +sections. Did, for instance, the Government of India intend sections +109, 110, of the Criminal Procedure Code to be used as they are in +Burma now? I doubt it. But Burma can always say: "How was I to know +the intention? There are the sections. Why shouldn't I use them as I +think fit?" + +How would the imprisonment sections of the Civil Procedure Code be +justified? What object are they supposed to attain? No one knows. It +can't be to deter a man from being ruined--that is not necessary; it +can't be to make him pay--the distraint sections are for that; it can't +be to render him a better citizen--gaols don't do that. What are they +for, then? To pander to the creditors' desire for vengeance? It can +only be that. I would like to see Government avow it. + +Then the young civilian should get an insight into the customs of the +people and learn to understand what these customs mean. Nothing is +more absurd than the way ceremonies are misinterpreted, not merely by +the casual observer, but by what is called "science." A whole theory +of "marriage by capture" has been built on ceremonies that are +symbolical, not of an absurdity like that, but of certain facts of +human nature common to all marriages in all periods all over the world. +The Nairs of Malabar have been credited with the most extraordinary +forms of polyandry on the strength of ceremonies which were adopted as +a protection to deceive the Brahmins. Human nature is, in its +essentials, always the same. If the learner is helped to look under +ceremonies he will see this. A knowledge of ceremonies has its value, +like a knowledge of clothes has; but as clothes are used for good +reasons--sometimes to hide the form, sometimes to accentuate parts of +the form--so are ceremonies. And ceremonies may and do persist long +after the human need has left them. + +Further, he should know something of the economic state of the people. +I think that a District Officer should be acquainted with the principal +industries of his district, so as to be able to give help if need be. +Generally speaking, the help he can give is protection from rash +innovations. The cultivator neither in India nor in Burma is blind to +his own interest, nor is he ignorant. He has behind him an experience +of thousands of years, which have taught him a great deal about the +capability of crops and soils. But he is quite willing to learn more, +only he must make sure first. He cannot afford to experiment. His +system will give him a living, and a change may mean starvation. He +cannot run the risk. Prove to him that a new crop will grow and will +fetch a decent price, and he is eager to cultivate it; but nothing less +than ocular proof will do. That is, of course, right. He has common +sense. + +Unfortunately, not everyone has so much sense, and there are continual +attempts being made to get him to make experiments he cannot afford. +He should be protected against these. I can remember two such +attempted booms in Upper Burma, both engineered by Government--one was +cotton, and one was coffee or tea planting. + +The cotton boom was very rigorously pressed upon us from England +because I believe someone in authority had promised to "take his coat +off" to make it succeed. But Burma is not a good cotton country, and +the long staple will not grow. Moreover, if it could be grown with +irrigation it would not pay nearly so well as rice. Therefore the +cultivator will have none of it. + +Tea and coffee planting is only suitable for capitalists, not for +peasants; and as a matter of fact coffee won't grow north of about 12° +north latitude. So these booms fizzled out, but they created a good +deal of trouble first. + +Indeed, most of my experiences were putting dampers on enthusiasts, +Government or other, who wanted something grown, and who were ready to +affirm that if it would not grow it ought to grow and must be made to +grow, and sell afterwards as well. I remember a correspondence I had +with a gentleman in Lower Burma on the subject of a fibre-producing +plant which is grown in small patches near the villages of my district +to serve as string. This gentleman heard of the plant and wrote to me +a glowing account of the future before it, strongly urging me to advise +my people--nay, to force my people--to grow it in large quantities for +export. I wrote back that if he was so interested in the matter he +should come up to my district and enter into contracts with the +villagers to grow it for him. They would, I knew, do it at a certain +price which I gave, and I offered to help him in every way. He, +however, indignantly refused. He was not a trader, and the villagers +should grow it on speculation. As it happens, I have a considerable +knowledge of fibre plants gained before I entered Government service, +and as I knew there was no certain market for this fibre I let well +alone. + +But most of all, I think a young officer should learn that it is not +only for the people's pleasure but for his own pleasure and for the +good of Government that he should encourage the amusements of the +people. Nothing will give him more influence than this, make him +better known, or cause his official work to go so easily. + +It is a continual complaint among the people now that life is so dull. +Our administration has not only taken all the adventure and +picturesqueness out of life, but it has been disastrous to sport. +Boat-racing, for instance, which used to be a great sport all along the +Irrawaddy, is now nearly dead, and amateur dancing troupes which used +to be common in the villages are nearly all defunct. I believe they +are _all_ dead. Now this is a disastrous state of things. Man wants +play as well as work, and if he can't get amusement he will do things +he shouldn't. The principal reason given for this decay is that unless +some high official will interest himself in sports and give them his +encouragement, no one will get them up. Therefore, when I was in +Sagaing I instituted a regatta in the October holidays. It was no +trouble to me. Directly I said I would like to have races there were +plenty of well-known Burmans ready to do all the work with pleasure and +enthusiasm. + +The riverside villages caught up the idea. They pulled out their old +racing canoes and did them up anew. Crews were put into training, and +for weeks all the talk was of times and spurts and the merits of this +crew and that. Sagaing didn't know itself. + +The races duly came off in the glorious full-moon week of October, when +all Courts are closed for ten days and everyone has holidays. Many +crews came, and their friends and relatives came, and their supporters +and backers, and they brought their wives and sisters with them. In +the evenings we had boat races, at night we had pagoda festivals and +dances and illuminations. + +All went well till the final great event, which was a race between our +champion boat and a boat sent over from Mandalay to challenge us. + +There was immense excitement about this because the Mandalay boat was +said to be a swagger boat; but then so was ours, a very swagger boat. +Mandalay bet on their boat. Sagaing laid their rupees on the Sagaing +boat; and the banks on both sides the mile-wide river were thronged +with spectators. Then a catastrophe occurred. Just before the race +our steersman was discovered drunk and happy upon the beach. How this +happened I don't know. Why the crew ever allowed him to be separated +from them I can't think; and his own explanation threw no clear light +on the subject. He said in self-defence that the enemy in disguise had +lured him into a toddy shop and "must have hocussed the toddy, for I +only had a couple of cups, yet see me now," and there was great +indignation. Whether in consequence of his defection or not I don't +know, but we lost. Mandalay just romped away from us, and not only +secured the prize, but was declared to have carried off a "cart-load" +of rupees won in bets. + +However, notwithstanding that disaster the meeting was a great success, +and now, after ten years, that is the principal event I remember of my +three years' administration. It stands out in my memory, and I think +that probably if the people ever remember me at all it is as the +convener of the first regatta for many years. + +There was an amusing sequel to this defeat by Mandalay. For months +afterwards whenever I had an insolvent case in my Court the debtor +attributed his failure to this race. The district was "stony broke" in +consequence, at least so the insolvents in my Court said. The +conversation would run as follows: + + +_The Judge_ (myself). Well, I have read your schedule, and you are +five hundred rupees out. How is that? Explain. + +_Debtor_. I am a honest man, your Honour, and never in debt before. + +_Myself_. No doubt. How did it happen this time? + +_Debtor_. Well, your Honour will remember that last October your +Honour got up boat races here. + +_Myself_. Certainly. + +_Debtor_. And Mandalay sent us a challenge. + +_Myself_. Well? + +_Debtor_. Naturally I believed in _our_ boat. (Note the "our"--his +and mine). I was sure it must win, and for our [his and my] credit I +wagered all I could get on it. + +_Myself_. Hum! + +_Debtor_. We lost. + +_Myself_. There was always a possibility of that. + +_Debtor_ (indignantly). Not with a fair race. But they drugged our +steersman. I call it a swindle, but I had to pay, and consequently am +now insolvent and in your Honour's hands. + + +Was there any truth in this? There was no truth, of course. These +debtors became insolvent through the action of two or three newly +arrived firms of money-lenders. That was clear enough. Possibly they +had a rupee or two on the boat race, but that would hardly affect +matters. They made this appeal to try to get at me--the man--behind +the law in which I was encased. They will do anything to achieve that. +Like all human beings they are terrified at law and want to touch +humanity, no matter what it does. They can bear from a man what they +cannot from a law. This is manifest all through one's official life. +People, for instance, will not come to see you in Court, but come to +your private house. That is to try to get at the humanity they know +you possess. That is what they want--your personality; for it will +understand; whereas a law--what can it know of anything? + +Then there are the dancing troupes for girls. What other amusements +have girls but these troupes? They love them. Many girls have told me +that it was the practising for the dances which gave a meaning and an +interest to their girlhood. It taught them what lessons could never +do--grace and elocution and style. It collected the villagers +together; it gave a village something to be proud of. There should be +such troupes in all big villages, and when the village system is +restored there will be no doubt a renaissance of these and other +amusements. + +Again, why should not there be village teams of football? The Burmans +like the game immensely, and play it well. But of course for village +play the rules would have to be greatly simplified. They are too +scientific now. It should be a game. + +Thus it seems to me a District Officer should be educated to be the +head of his district in all ways, not merely its judge or its +schoolmaster. His other work must be lightened. Much of the work he +does should not be done at all. All interference with the village +should cease. If the suggestions I have to make in a later chapter as +to self-government were adopted, the District Officer would soon feel +the relief. He now seeks for work to do. He should try to avoid work +as much as he can. "Don't interfere, except where you must," should be +his rule. Now it is the other way about. And Government should regard +him quite differently from what it does now. It should trust him, and +not law. He must work within law, but not by law. When he has +something to decide he should consider what is the right and proper +thing to do, and then see if he can legally do it. If not, he must +modify his order till it is within law. Now he looks to the law to +tell him what to do. That is bad. Laws are bonds, not guides. They +cannot give you motive force. They tell you what not to do, and that +is all. + +He should be trusted far more than he is. He should not be made to +"fall into line." He should be judged not by his acts, but by the +result of his acts, or his refusals to act, that is, by the state of +his district. He should not be transferred when it can be helped, but +be encouraged to make long stays in a district. He will do so if you +give him a free hand so that he can take a personal interest in his +work and people. The secret of success is personality. + +I think if the young men sent out were trained on these or some such +lines there would soon be a very different feeling between people and +Government from what there is now. There would be a mutual +understanding and respect which are now lacking. + +There is a further suggestion I have to make as regards District +Officers, not for their training, but for regulating their relations to +the Government above them. They should be consulted prior to all +legislation that affects their districts. + +It will, of course, be said that they are now so consulted. Drafts of +new Acts or amendments of Acts are sent round for comment and +criticism, and so District Officers are consulted. + +I don't call that consultation; even if it come within the dictionary +meaning of the word it does not come within its spirit. + +Take a concrete case: Suppose a new Village Act to be drafted and sent +round to District Officers for criticism, how can any one officer +criticise it effectively, or make useful suggestions, except by chance? +His experience is confined to one, or two, or three districts; the Act +is for the Province. He may make suggestions to suit his district; he +cannot tell if they will suit others. He has no idea why certain +provisions are included. He has no certain basis for constructive +criticism. Very often he won't criticise at all. He says: "What is +the use? It's only sent to me as a matter of form." Besides, as I +have pointed out, the opinions of a number of individuals taken one by +one differ greatly from the opinion of the same number sitting together +and discussing various points of view before framing an opinion. + +But what Government wants is the collective opinion of its District +Officers, and not many varying views. It would have far more +confidence in such an opinion, and be more careful in disregarding it. +Why should not District Officers meet once a year to discuss pending +questions, to consider new Acts, to suggest changes in old Acts? Their +proceedings would, of course, be private, and not for publication. +Officers should be encouraged to speak out. It would be a great help +to all of them, and I think it would give Government a sense of +security it has not got now. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +OTHER SERVICES + +The Indian Civil Service is the principal service in India; it +furnishes men for the executive, the magistracy, and judicature, the +revenue administration; and its members constitute not only the Local +Government, but, excepting for the Law member and one or two others, +the Council of the Government of India. Therefore it is in every way +the most important service to have in harmony with the people. It is +not, however, the only service manned by Englishmen, and it is very +necessary that the other services also should be efficient. These are +the Forest Department, the Engineer Department, and the Police. Of the +first two I have nothing to say. They are technical departments, and +although of course I have had a good deal to do with them, only a +member of their own department would have the specialist knowledge to +criticise them. I believe they are dissatisfied, but how far their +grievances can be rectified I don't know. + +With the police it is different. Though a separate department, they +work in close touch with the District Magistrate, who is, in fact, +their legal head. He must be intimately acquainted with their working, +and with his Superintendent of Police personally in order that work in +the district may go easily. + +The first requisite for a good police-officer is a knowledge of the +language. It is even more necessary for him than for the civilian. It +is an absolute essential. And in the men of my day it was an essential +that was fulfilled for the most part. Whether it will be so with the +men enlisted under the new system of competitive examination in England +is more doubtful. The men of former days entered the service younger, +and the receptivity of their minds for acquiring languages had not been +destroyed by "education." It is, I think, a pity that a competitive +examination has been made the entrance-gate to the police. Such +examinations prove nothing good in those who pass them. They may be +good men, but preparation for examination has not increased that +goodness. + +I do not believe in competitive examinations. For instance, take the +Indian Police; what qualities are required in a good Superintendent of +Police? They are ability to command, facility in two languages at +least, tact, a knowledge of human nature. What does an examination +select him for? Ability in any of these? No, but for a retentive +memory of written words such as Greek or Latin, for dry rules such as +grammar, for memory of dry and useless facts such as history as it is +taught, for mathematics. Is there any obvious connection between these +two sets of qualities? There is none whatever. Has experience shown +that ability in the first argues ability in the second? Experience +shows the reverse. + +Neither is the athletic ability for which marks are given to Rhodes +scholars any test whatever of anything but itself. Without wishing for +a moment to infer that athletic ability argues a deficiency in mental +ability, I would ask how many of the leaders the world has known were +great athletes? Nelson, or Lord Roberts, or Napoleon, for instance. +Whenever ability of muscle and of brain have occurred together it has +been incidental, not causal. Muscular ability is a good thing, but +there are better things. + +Success in competitive examinations proves one thing only--that the +candidate has a good memory for words. It very frequently follows that +he is unable to go beneath words, and that he puts his trust in words +and papers and formulæ because the habit of mind set up by examinations +tends to this. + +There is no sense in these examinations for anyone, except perhaps for +those about to be tutors of the same things. Men of action and +scholars are different in grain and the test for one usually eliminates +the other. That there are a few exceptions only demonstrates that +human nature cannot be confined within hard and fast rules. But there +can be successful generalisation. + +Competitive examinations are a fetish which Government worships because +it is afraid of taking the responsibility of appointing officers on its +own initiative. It is afraid of the charge of nepotism. But it would +not be nepotism to give the sons of its officers, Civil and Military, +first chance of appointments in the Police. It would be a graceful +recognition of the fact that when a man has spent his life in India he +has lost touch with England and cannot get his sons placed at home, +therefore he deserves consideration for them from the Government he has +served. I do not believe in heredity in such matters because there is +no evidence in its favour; but I do believe in early associations and +traditions. Now the traditions and associations of the sons of +officers who have served in India are with India. + +I believe that a much sounder way would be to appoint sons of officers +who have served in India. They have Indian traditions, and, what is +more, having as children learned the language it soon returns to them. + +I know this as a fact. Some twenty-five years ago in Upper Burma a +young police-officer was sent to the same station with me in Burma. He +came direct from India, but had been born and brought up in Burma till +he was seven, when he went to England to school. From England, at +eighteen or nineteen, he went to India--the Punjab, I think--and was +appointed to the Police there. When Upper Burma was in need of +officers he was sent to Burma on promotion. On arrival he did not +remember a word of Burmese, but it came rapidly back to him. When +sitting with me when I was talking to the Burmese he would continually +say to me, "Didn't you say so-and-so?" and "Didn't he answer +so-and-so?" Without learning it, his memory recalled the language to +him, and in a month or two he was talking it well and with a good +accent. + +There remain the Subordinate Civil Service and the Lower Grades of the +Police, all or nearly all of whom are native to the Province. + +In another book, writing on this subject, I said: "I read and hear +continually that many of our native magistrates and judges and police +are corrupt. I am told they take bribes, that they falsify cases, that +they make right into wrong. I wish to say that I have no belief in +such charges. Exceptions there may be, but that the mass of our Burman +fellow-officers are honest I have no doubt." All my experience has +tended to support that view. + +Everyone in the world requires looking after, requires check and +supervision, requires that protection between himself and harm that +only a watching eye can give, and in Burma, for the Burmese officials, +these safeguards hardly exist. + +It must be remembered that official Burma has no Press to criticise it, +no native society to give it tone, no organised community to help the +individual in the right path. He has many temptations, and a fall is +easy. + +I do not believe in the general charge that Burmese are corrupt. That +occasional cases of undue influence should occur is natural if you +consider the circumstances under which they serve. They are not, like +the English officers, independent of their surroundings in social +matters. They have, for company's sake, to associate with the +pleaders, the merchants, the headmen, and others within their charge. +Their families are with them, and they are interested in the happenings +of the town or village, and are concerned in it. They are inevitably +influenced in many ways, which we do not appreciate. They know things +which we do not. In cases that come before them they often know of +events behind the scenes which lead up to the final happening which +comes into Court. It is useless to say that they should not be +influenced by anything but the evidence on the record; they cannot help +being influenced. They have, for instance, known of A being a trouble +to his parents long before the charge which they have to try, and that +is in their minds; or they know B to be a good character, and that his +accusers are doubtful people. It has happened to me, not once but many +times, that on appeal I have read a judgment of a Burmese Subordinate +Magistrate which puzzled me, because, though not contrary to the +evidence, there has evidently been in the writer's mind something more +than the evidence. In such cases I have usually inquired personally +from the magistrate what it was he knew before passing orders on +appeal, and I have sometimes taken further evidence on that point so as +to get the record straight. It is easy to say that magistrates should +not be affected by anything but the recorded evidence, just as it is +easy to say that a magistrate should be blind. Magistrates are human +beings--fortunately. + +But, of course, the standard might be higher. This raising of the +standard can, however, only be attained by raising the standard of +independence in the people, and our rule tends to decrease this. Under +self-government it will rise. It is self-government and its consequent +publicity which have purified Courts in England. Look at Judge +Jeffreys and his time. We are not people to adopt too Pharisaic an +attitude. + +Elsewhere I have commented on the failure of the "educated" native to +make a good official, and I need not repeat myself. The education we +give is not good for them, but until a national system of education is +instituted I don't see what we can do. The subordinate service, as +long as it is subordinate, cannot attract the best men, because the +prospects are poor. + +As to the rank and file of the police I have this to say--they are +unsatisfactory, and the Police Commission did not get at the real +causes. Do Commissions ever get at real causes? Are they not merely +excuses to give "face" to Government? What is the use of examining +innumerable witnesses none of whom have probed the subject? Answers to +difficult questions are not got by asking, but by personal experience: +by a man or men capable of understanding what they see and finding out +the causes. + +Pay has something to do with the poorness of the material, but in Burma +at least it is not the principal cause. That cause is that the police +are disliked, and they are disliked because they are part of a legal +system which is disliked and disapproved of. The police are considered +almost as enemies of the people. To rehabilitate the police and get +really good men into it the whole criminal system requires amendment. +When the people like and admire the Courts they will like and will +enter the service of those Courts. Now they will do neither. A +popular Government may be a good Government; an unpopular Government +cannot possibly be so. + +Further, it is said that the Burman takes badly to discipline and will +never, therefore, make a good policeman nor soldier. + +That he takes badly to discipline is true, but what is the reason? +That he is essentially different from other people? That is absurd. +The reason of it lies in his past history, his environment and +education. + +When we took Upper Burma it was hardly an organised nation at all. It +was only a mass of villagers which acknowledged a king over all. There +was no national army--because no need for one--and no large industries. +The Burman has been a free man and he has the religion--or want of +religion--of a free man. He has never had priests to rule him, to +force on him reverence and obedience as virtues, to destroy his +individuality. Therefore he has lived free. And nowadays, although he +is lectured enough on his want of discipline, the advice is given in +the wrong way and apropos of the wrong subject. + +He ought in the opinion of his critics to be a good policeman or a good +soldier, or a good employé for the rice merchants in Rangoon, and he is +not. Therefore he is lectured on his want of discipline. "That is to +say," thinks the Burman, "I am lectured and abused in order that I may +be a more useful tool in the hands of a foreign Government, or a more +profitable servant to a foreign merchant--who will reap the benefit." + +That is what he thinks and rightly thinks, for the advice is so +prompted and so meant. + +He has yet to learn that discipline in act is necessary to enable him +to attain his own ideals, to create and maintain his own +self-government, and to establish industries that will compete with the +foreigner's. He must himself establish organisms in order to succeed. + +The Burman is afraid of discipline, partly because it is new to him, +and partly because he is afraid that by surrendering independence of +act he will surrender independence of spirit. + +This can only be got over by a true education, by making the boy see +for himself that only in union is strength, and that he must learn to +act with others, and therefore under leaders. He will see this fast +enough if it is carefully shown him when young. He will accept it also +if it is clearly demonstrated to him that obedience in act does not +infer surrender of his soul. It is the latter he is afraid of, and +wisely. Tell him that not only may he think for himself, but that he +is bound to do so, while at the same time subordinating private +opinions to a common end, and you will get discipline as much as you +like. It is a matter of common sense, and he has plenty of that. + +The mechanical obedience to masters and spiritual or material pastors +because they have been "set in authority" over us should never be +taught. They have not been set in authority. They may deserve +obedience if they are leaders in the right way, and we should +co-operate with them there by serving them towards an end good for +both. Get the boy to understand that. Then you get that willing and +intelligent obedience which is worth all the mechanical obedience in +the world. This is true in all walks of life. If you wish to read of +a startling example, read of how the Revolutionary troops of France, as +soon as they had gained a little experience, met and overthrew the +wooden and lifeless battalions of Prussia, which had been drilled to +death. + +There must be life and intelligence, and a purpose in obedience as in +all else for it to be a virtue. In itself obedience is not an end, it +is only justifiable as a means to an end. It must arise from the +exercise of will, not from its atrophy or from surrender to the will of +others. You obey because you wish to obey, not because you are forced +to do so. + +That is the true education in discipline. + +But all this can only come with local self-government, local +patriotism, and a national education. They are what make a nation. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +LAW REFORM + +When the _personnel_ of the Government of India from the bottom to the +top has been reorganised on a basis of understanding of the people, it +will begin to revise its laws, and the first will be its Penal Law, its +Criminal Courts and Procedure. + +To do this with any success it will be necessary first to study the +causation of crime, because until you know how it is caused you cannot +possibly frame any system of prevention that is likely to do less harm +than good. + +This is a subject that many men have been studying for some years past, +but very little progress has yet been made. The old shibboleths that +crime results from a desire for crime and that the only cure is savage +punishment still hold good with all Governments, though quite +discredited outside official circles. It is a most fascinating +subject, and as it is one I have worked at for many years I may be +excused for devoting a somewhat large space to it here. + +It is more than twenty-five years ago that my attention was first +attracted to the causation of crime. I was a young magistrate then, +trying my first cases; very nervous, very conscientious that I should +fulfil all the legal requirements as laid down in the Codes. It had +never occurred to me then that there was any gulf between justice and +law--I supposed that they were one, that law was only codified and +systemised justice; therefore, in fulfilling the Law I thought that I +was surely administering Justice. + +I was trying a theft case. I cannot remember now what it was that had +been stolen, but I think it was a bullock. The accused was undefended, +and I, as the custom is, questioned him about the case, not with the +view of getting him to commit himself, but in order to try to elicit +his defence, if any. He had none. He admitted the theft, described +the circumstances quite fully and frankly, and said he was guilty. I +asked him if he knew when he took the bullock from the grazing ground +that he was stealing it, and he answered "Yes." I asked him if he knew +that the punishment for cattle theft was two years' imprisonment, which +practically meant ruin for life, and he replied that he knew it would +be heavy. + +Then I asked, "Why did you do it?" + +He moved uneasily in the dock without answering, looked about him, and +seemed puzzled. + +I repeated the question. + +Evidently he was trying to remember back why he had done it, and found +it difficult. He had not considered the point before, and +introspection was new to him. "Why did I do it?" he was saying to +himself. + +"Well?" I asked. + +He looked me frankly in the face. "I don't know," he said. "I suppose +I could not help it. I did not think about it at all; something just +made me take it." + +He was convicted, of course, and I forgot the case. + +But I did not forget what he had said. It remained in my mind and +recurred to me from time to time, I did not know why. For I had always +been taught that crime was due to an evil disposition which a person +could change, only he would not, and I had as yet seen no reason to +question this view. Therefore the accused's defence appealed to no +idea that was consciously in my mind. I did not reflect upon it. I +can only suppose that, unconsciously to myself, these words reached +some instinct within me which told me that they were true. And at last +from the very importunity of their return I did begin to think about +them, and, consequently on them, of the causation of crime in general. +A curiosity awoke which has never abated, has indeed but grown, as in +some small ways I was able to satisfy it. + +What causes crime? Is it a purely individual matter? If so, why does +it follow certain lines of increase or decrease, or maintain an +average? That looks more like general results following on general +causes than the result of individual qualities. Why is it not curable? +It should have been cured centuries ago. Why does punishment usually +make the offender worse instead of better? If his crime were within +the individual's control, its punishment certainly would deter. It +does not. Any deterrent effect it may have is rarely on him who is +punished, but on the outside world, and that is but little. So much I +saw very clearly in practice, and every book I read on the subject +confirmed this. The infamous penal laws of England a hundred years ago +did not stop crime; flogging did not stop garotting, it ceased for +other causes. I began to think and to observe. + +Some three years later my attention was still more strongly drawn to +this subject. + +I was then for a short time the Governor of the biggest gaol in the +world, that in Rangoon. It was crowded with prisoners under sentence +for many different forms of crime, from murder or "dacoity"--that is +gang robbery--to petty theft. + +The numbers were abnormal, and they were so not only here, but in all +the gaols of both the Upper and Lower Provinces. The average of crime +had greatly risen. + +Why was this? + +The reason was obvious. The annexation of the Upper Province six years +before had caused a wave of unrest, not only there, but in the delta +districts as well, that found its expression in many forms of crime. +There was no doubt about the cause. But this cause was a general +cause, not individual. The individual criminals there in the gaol did +not declare the war. That was the consequence of acts by the King of +Burma and the Government of India controlled by the English Cabinet, +and was consequent on acts of the French Government. Therefore half of +these individuals had become criminals because of the disagreements of +three Governments, two of which were six thousand miles away from +Rangoon. + +There is no getting out of that. In normal times the average of +convicts would have been only half what it was. The abnormality was +not due to the convicts themselves. + +Thus if A and B and C were suffering punishment in the gaol the fault +is primarily not theirs. A special strain was set up from without +which they could not stand and they fell. + +But if this is true of half the prisoners, why not of the other half? +There was no dividing line between the two classes. Political offences +apart, you could not walk into the gaol and, dividing the convicts into +two parts, say: "The crimes of this half being due to external causes, +they must be pardoned; the crimes of the other half being due to their +own evil disposition, they must continue to suffer." There was no +demarcation. + +Therefore, general causes are occasionally the cause of crime. Here +was a long step in advance. + +Again, four years later I was on famine duty in the Upper Province, and +the same phenomenon occurred. There was an increase in certain forms +of crime. Thefts doubled. Other crimes such as cheating and +fraudulent dealings with money decreased. Here was again a general +cause. Half of those thieves would have remained honest men all their +lives, been respected by their fellow-men, and, according to religions, +have gone to heaven when they died, but for the famine. + +The causes of the famine were want of rain acting on the economic +weakness of the people reared by the inability of government. Thus, +had rain fallen as usual, had the people been able to cultivate other +resources, had government been more advanced and experienced, half +these thieves would not have been in gaol; and no one knew which half, +for thefts of food did not increase. There was, in fact, no reason +they should, as Government provided on the famine camps a subsistence +wage for everyone who came. + +On the other hand, certain individuals were saved from misappropriating +money, or cheating in mercantile transactions, because there was little +money left to misappropriate and not much business. If they lived +honestly and went to heaven, the chief cause would be the failure of +rain that year, not any superior virtue of their own. But no one knew +who these individuals were who were so luckily saved. + +But when you have acknowledged this, what is becoming of the doctrine +of individual responsibility for crime? If a man has complete +free-will to sin or not, if crime be due to innate wickedness, how does +want of rain bring this on? And where is the common sense or common +justice in punishing him for what is really due to a defective climate? +He cannot control the rain. Manifestly then, as regards at least half +of these thieves, there was no innate desire to steal, because that +could not be affected by the famine. Had they desired to be thieves +they would have been so in any case. The truth is that they did not +desire to be thieves, but when the famine increased the temptation, +and, through physical weakness, decreased their power of resistance, +they fell. They sinned--not through spiritual desire of evil, but +through physical inability to resist temptation. + +But if this is true of half, why not of the whole? There is no line of +demarcation. If true of some crime, why not of all? The doctrine of a +man's perfect free-will to sin or not to sin as he pleases is beginning +to look shaky. It will be as well to consider it. + +What is free-will? + +There is no necessity to discuss the meaning of "free"; we all know it; +there is nothing ambiguous about it; but with "will" it is different. +There are few words so incessantly misused as this word "will." +Philosophers are the worst offenders, and the general public but follow +their blind lead; yet unless you know exactly what you mean by it how +can you use it as a counter of your thought? + +What does _will_ mean? "Where there's a will there's a way"--what does +this mean? Does it mean wish? If, for instance, you are poor and +stupid, can any quantity of wish make you rich? If you are weak will +it make you strong? If you have no ear will it make you a musician? +If you are a convict can it liberate you? That is absurd. + +"Will," then means more than wish; to the desire must be added the +ability--actual or potential. That is evident, is it not? Without the +ability the wish avails nothing. + +"Will," then, has two complements, both of which are necessary to it. +Its meaning is not simple but compound; never forget this; never +suppose that merely wishing with all your power can produce "will." It +cannot unless the ability be developed to aid it. + +And now we get back from words to human nature--Is the criminal so +because he wants to be so? No, and No, and No again. No such wicked +fallacy was ever foisted upon a credulous world as this. Nobody at any +period of the world ever wished to be criminal. Everyone instinctively +hates and fears crime; everyone is honest by nature; it is inherent in +the soul. I have never met a criminal that did not hate his crime even +more than his condemners hate it. The apparent exceptions are when a +man does not consider his act a crime; he has killed because his victim +exasperated him to it; he has robbed society because society made war +on him. The offender hates his crime. + +"But he is not ashamed of it." + +Now that is true. He is not ashamed of it in the current sense. He +hates it; he fears it; but it does not fill him with a sense of sin. + +"Therefore," says the purist, "he has a hardened conscience. It is his +conscience, as I said, that is at fault." + +But the purist is wrong. He does not understand the criminal. He has +never tried to understand him as I have tried. What the criminal feels +towards his crime is what the sick man feels towards the delirium that +seizes him--what the "possessed of devils" feels towards the possession +when it comes. It terrifies him; he knows he must succumb; he fears +not the mere penalty, but the crime. But he is not ashamed, because he +knows he cannot help it. And punishment exasperates him because he has +not deserved it, and it will do him harm, not good. He wants to be +cured--not made a fit dwelling for still worse devils. And that is +what punishment does. + +The effect of punishment in deterring a criminal from repeating his +crime is small. All study of criminal facts proves this. It generally +makes him more prone to crime, not less; and all the great crimes are +committed by men who have been still further ruined in gaols. What +good effect punishment may have is mainly exercised on other than the +criminal. + +Punishment has some effect, but how much we do not yet know, because +the matter has never been investigated, and it is not on the patient. +Crime is a disease, and will you stop a fever by punishing the +patients? Whatever good gaols do lies in the fact that they isolate +the unhealthy from the healthy and so stop for a time infection, as do +hospitals with disease. But the hospitals do not discharge the patient +till he is cured; the gaol aggravates the liability to the disease and +turns out the sufferer worse than before. + +Let us go back. A man is criminal not because he wishes to be so, but +because he cannot resist the temptation. He lacks will. True, but it +is the ability he lacks, not the wish. Why does he lack ability? + +This brings us to the second theory of crime--a new one--that criminals +are born, not made. The tendency to crime is said to be inherent, to +be a reversion, to be inherited. That explains why it is generally +incurable when once contracted. + +Many books have been written on this, but one fallacy vitiates them +all. The observers have not observed the criminal in the making but +when made. They have assumed the criminal to be of a race apart, and +so founded their house upon the sand. Lombroso went so far as to lay +down certain stigmata that inferred a criminal disposition. The +stigmata have been shown to be universal, and there is no such thing as +a "criminal disposition." If there be other qualities that do +differentiate the criminal from the normal man, they are not innate. + +That those born crippled in some way frequently become criminals is no +exception; it denotes no criminal disposition. But the cripple is +handicapped in the struggle for life. He is cut off from the many +pleasures of work and play, of love and children, which his fellows +have. He is sensitive and he is jeered at and despised. Is it any +wonder that under such circumstances he becomes sometimes embittered? +A cripple is set apart from his fellow-men. There are for him but two +alternatives--to be a saint or a criminal. Love and care and training +will make him a saint; neglect too often makes him a criminal. But to +whom the blame for the latter? Not to him. + +Connected with this theory is the supposition that criminality is +hereditary. + +There are few subjects on which so much "scientific" nonsense is talked +and written as this of heredity. Not very much is known of it as +regards plants, less of animals, and almost nothing as regards +humanity. Furthermore, the experience gained in plants and animals is +useless as regards humanity. Evolution in humanity tends to greater +brain power, but all cultivation in animals and plants has tended to +destroy brain power and even adaptability. To read books on heredity +is to read a mass of suppositions and hazardous inductions where most +of the facts are negative and the exceptions are positive. There is +nothing so easy and nothing so fatal as this tendency to attribute to +heredity what is due to training, or want of training. It excuses +supineness in Governments and professions. Here is what John Stuart +Mill, a profound thinker, thought of this facile recourse to heredity +as an excuse: + +"Of all vulgar methods of escape from the effects of social and moral +influences on the mind, the most vulgar is that of attributing the +diversions of conduct and character to inherent natural differences." + +This, too, is what Buckle said: "We often hear of hereditary talents, +hereditary vices, and hereditary virtues; but whoever will critically +examine the evidence will find that there is no proof of their +existence. The way in which they are usually proved is in the highest +degree illogical; the usual course being for writers to collect +instances of some mental peculiarity found in a parent and his child, +and then to infer that the peculiarity was bequeathed. By this mode of +reasoning we might demonstrate any proposition. But this is not the +way in which the truth is discovered; and we ought to enquire not only +how many instances there are of hereditary talents, etc., but how many +instances there are of such qualities not being hereditary." + + +I have for myself, neither in life nor in books, found one single case +in which it could be confidently said that a criminal weakness was +inherited. That A, a criminal, has a son B, who also became criminal, +proves nothing. You must first prove that a similar child of different +stock would not become criminal if brought up as A's son was. You must +also prove that if you took away A's son as a child and brought him up +differently he would still show criminal weakness. But all the facts +negative this. The child even of a criminal tribe in India, if removed +from its environment, grows up like other children. Coming of criminal +ancestors has not handed down a criminal aptitude. You must not +mistake inheritance of other traits for inheritance of criminal +aptitudes. A is very quick-tempered, which he has not from a child +been trained to control. Under sudden provocation he kills a man. His +son B inherits his father's quick temper, is similarly badly brought +up, and the same thing occurs. The hasty hereditary theorist says: +"Behold the inheritance of a propensity to murder." But quick temper +is not a criminal trait; it is often an accompaniment of the kindest +disposition. It is an excess of sensitiveness. The training, physical +and mental, was in each case lacking, and a coincidence of provocation +caused a coincidence of crime. + +Let it be once clearly discerned that if a quality be hereditary it is +always hereditary, and cannot appear, except as the result of +heredity--and the absurdity of modern theories will be manifest. + +There is not--there has never been in anyone--a tendency to crime until +either gaols or criminal education creates it. No one ever wanted to +commit crime as crime. A daring boy with no outlet for his energy may +break out into violence, robbery, and later into burglary; he would not +have done so had his physical need for exercise and his spiritual need +for facing danger had another outlet. The instincts that led him into +crime were good and noble instincts which, finding no legitimate +channel, found an illegitimate channel for themselves. + +In that fine book of Mr. Holmes', entitled _London's Underworld_, is an +account of how hooligans are made. The young men are full of +energy--they want exercise, struggle, the fight of the football field +or the hockey match, and they cannot get it. They have no playground +but the streets and no outlet for their energy save hooliganism. The +pity of it! + +What, then, causes crime? + +It is never the wish for crime. It is one of two causes. Either it is +the only outlet for some natural instinct which is denied legitimate +outlet by the environment, or it is due to an inability to resist +temptation when it offers. + +How can it be prevented? + +Now this inability is physical. The wish is spiritual--the ability is +physical and depends greatly on health. With ill-health or +malnutrition in the young the first thing to give is the power of +control. The average of criminals are a stone underweight. Therefore, +crime is dependent to a great extent on health. Ill-health causes +crime; accidental mutilation causes crime; accident creates an aptitude +to crime; neglected youth and education cause crime. + +Religion does not affect crime one way or another. The greatest +criminals are often religious. Mediæval Europe was very religious and +very criminal, and there are many other instances. Honesty is inborn +in all; it is part of the "light that lighteth every man that is born +into this world"; it requires no teaching. What must be acquired is +the ability to give effect to it. Crime is a physical, not a spiritual +disease. And crime is no defect of the individual. It is a disease of +the nation--nay, of humanity--exhibited in individuals. You have gout +in your toe, but it is your whole system that is wrong. This disease +can be cured by Humanity alone. Criminals are those whom we should +pity, should prevent, should isolate, and, if possible, cure. + +Remember what John Bradford said, looking on a man going to be hanged: +"But for the grace of God there goes John Bradford." He, too, would +have been the same had he had bad training in his youth. + +We have all of us within us instincts which rightly directed result in +good, which in default of outlet we can be trained to control, but +which without outlet and without the receipt of training may result in +crime. Crime is, therefore, a defect of training and environment, not +of personality. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +COURTS REFORM + +But, pending any such great change as must come in all penal law when +the subject has been carefully studied, there are many smaller +amendments that might be made both in Civil and Revenue Courts and Law. + +The pressing need in Criminal Procedure is, I think, a change in the +treatment of an accused person when he is arrested. + +The first instinct of an offender is, as I have said, to confess, even +if an understanding person is not available to confess to. He has +offended the Law; he wants to make all amends he can by confessing to +the representative of that offended Personality. I have seen very many +first offenders and talked to them before they got into the hands of +pleaders and others, and my experience tells me that a man who has +committed his first offence is very like a man who has caught his first +attack of serious illness. He is afraid not so much of the results as +of the thing itself. Sin has caught him, and he is afraid of sin. He +wants protection and help and cure. He does not want to hide anything; +his first need is confession to some understanding ear. Many, many +such confessions have I heard in the old days. That is the result of +the first offence. + +But this tendency to truth is choked when it is ascertained that as a +result the offender will be vindictively punished and made in the end +far worse than he was at the beginning. Naturally the offender says to +himself: "I am bad now. What shall I be after two years' gaol? Better +fight it out. If I win and get acquitted, at least I shall have a +chance to reform. If convicted that chance will be taken from me for +ever. And fighting will not lose me anything. The penitent prisoner +who confesses gets no lighter punishment than if he had put the Court +to the expense of a long trial. Why therefore repent? It will do me +harm, not good." That is the case now; under reasonable laws it would +be the other way. But even yet in country places he often confesses to +the police by whom he is arrested. + +Now by Indian Law no confession to the police may be offered in +evidence. The reason of this is that the police, in their keenness to +secure a conviction, may extort a false confession by torture, and +there have been in fact enough of such cases to cause doubt and to +prevent the police being allowed to receive a confession. Therefore if +the offender wishes to confess he is taken now to a magistrate, there +his confession is recorded. Then he is sent back to police custody. +He is visited by his relatives, a pleader is engaged for him. His +folly in confessing is pointed out to him and he withdraws the +confession, alleging that he had been tortured to confess. His +confession is not only negatived, but a slur is cast on the police +which is hard to remove. Their case and evidence appear tainted, and +the accused often secures an acquittal though the Magistrate knows that +the confession was true. + +All this is very common both in Burma and India, and it is disastrous +to allow and to encourage such things, as by our procedure we do +encourage them. There should be a complete change. + +When a man is arrested some such procedure should be adopted as this: + +He should be told by the police that he is being taken direct to the +magistrate who will try the case, who will hear anything accused has to +say. He should be warned to say nothing to the police. Then he should +be taken direct to the magistrate, who should explain to him fully what +he is accused of and ask him what he has to say. + +Whatever his statement be, the magistrate should tell him that he will +himself at once investigate it and summon witnesses; meanwhile the +accused should be remitted to custody, but _not_ to police custody. +That is where all the trouble comes in and all opportunities for making +charges against the police. If there be no gaol there should be a +lock-up in charge of Indian police who are under the magistrate and are +not concerned in the guilt or otherwise of the accused. The +investigating police should only have access to accused by permission +of the magistrate. He should, however, be allowed to see his friends +and a pleader if he wish. But I am sure of this, that the first +offender would rather trust the magistrate, if he were a personality +who he knew would help him, than any pleader. + +Further, if a man confess truly, his punishment should be greatly +reduced. I do not say this should be done because he gives less +trouble, but because the frame of mind induced by a free and full +confession is a sounder frame of mind on which to begin reformation +than are defiance and negation, which are now inculcated by our system. + +The trial need not wait till the case is complete. The magistrate +could summon the police witnesses at once, and he should examine them +himself, allowing only the police to suggest questions if they wish. +Similarly, with the defence witnesses, they could be examined as they +came in and should be examined by the magistrate himself. No one but +the magistrate should be allowed to speak directly to any party to the +case. + +All cross-examination should be absolutely prohibited. If either side +have matters they wish brought out of a witness, they should tell the +magistrate and he would ask such questions as he thought fit. There is +no such curse now to justice as cross-examination by a clever pleader +or barrister. It is a sort of forensic show-off by the advocate at the +cost of the witness, and frequently at the cost of justice. For, +naturally, no one cares to be bullied by a licensed bully, and +witnesses consequently will not come to Court if they can help it. +When in Court they are bamboozled and made to contradict themselves +where they have originally spoken the truth. + +I have often been told that acute cross-examination by a clever +barrister is the greatest safeguard justice can have from false +evidence. I don't believe a word of it. A magistrate can by far fewer +and simpler questions expose false evidence better than an advocate +does, because the magistrate is intent only on his business--to find +the truth; the advocate is advertising himself, and trying to destroy +truth as well as falsehood. + +But if the magistrate did all the questioning I don't believe there +would be much false evidence. Witnesses will lie to the opposite side, +but not to an understanding Court. + +Perjury would disappear. What is its present cause? Contempt of the +Court and sympathy with either complainant or accused, which sympathy +sees no chance of justice for its object except by perjury. Because a +trial is a fight. There is not a human being East or West who would +not be ashamed to lie to a Court he knew was trying to do its best for +all--parties and public. It is because the Courts as at present +constituted do as much harm as good that perjury is rampant and +condoned. It is so in all countries, it has been so in all periods. + +Then, as soon as possible, juries should be introduced. This cannot be +done until the law, especially as regards punishment, is greatly +altered in accordance with the common sense of the people, but it is +the objective to be aimed at as soon as possible. Until the public +co-operate with the Courts in all ways you will never have a good +system of justice. Crime hurts the people far more than it hurts +Government. Don't you think the people know that? And don't you +suppose they want it prevented even more than Government does? In any +case that is the fact. They hate the Courts now because they don't +prevent or cure crime; they only make matters worse. + +The only objection I see to this proposed alteration is that it will +take more time and so cost more money. At first it may do so, but even +then what the public loses by more taxes it will more than save in +having to pay less to lawyers. How much unnecessary money is now paid +to lawyers? Enough, I am sure, to double the magistracy and then leave +a big balance. Courts should be made for the people, not for lawyers. +And in time crime would so decrease that there would be saving all +round. + + +The reform of the Civil Courts should follow somewhat the same lines. +A man should not have to wait to see a civil judge till his case is all +made out. He should be able to go to him at once and confide in him, +and the judge should send for the other party and try to make an +arrangement between them so that no suit should be filed. Not until +that has been done and not unless a judge give a certificate of its +necessity should a suit be allowed to be filed as it is now. And then +when it is filed the judge should conduct the case and not the +advocates on each side. That is the only way to stop the perjury which +increases and will increase. Magistrates and judges must cease to be +umpires of a combat, and become investigators of truth. + +As regards the laws of marriage and inheritance, no great change can be +made until there is a real representative Assembly to make these +changes, but even there something could be done. That fossilisation of +custom described by Sir Henry Sumner Maine should stop. Because a High +Court proved a hundred years ago that a certain custom existed there is +no evidence that it does or should exist now. To establish precedents +of this nature is to stop all progress of every kind; we have a vision +different from the poet's + + Of bondage slowly narrowing down + From precedent to precedent. + +Why should not fresh inquiries into custom be made from time to time, +it being understood that any Court-ruling only applied to that time and +place, and did not bind the future? Something must be done. Things +cannot go on as they are. We reproach the Indians for want of +progress, but we ourselves are the main cause of that stagnation. We +bind them and they cannot move. + + +As regards land policy there is this to be said, that fixed ideas are a +mistake. + +In Bengal there was at one time a fixed idea that all land did and must +belong to large land-owners, and so, partly out of sheer ignorance, +partly out of prejudice, a race of Zemindars was created out of the +tax-gatherers to the Mogul Empire. The result has been sad. + +Again in Burma the same idea prevailed for a while, and headmen were +encouraged to annex communal waste as their private land. This was +unfortunate. + +Then came a reaction, and all large estates were denounced as bad. +There was to be a small tenantry holding direct from Government, +forbidden to alienate their land, and all leasing of land to tenants +was forbidden. + +This I understand to be the policy still. It is a policy of fixed +ideas, and as applied to anything that has life, like land tenure, it +is unfortunate, no matter what the fixed idea be. + +If there be one truth above another that is clear in studying land +systems it is that no one permanent system is good. The cultivation of +land, like all matters, undergoes evolution and change. What is good +to-day may not be good to-morrow. The English system of large estates +cultivated by tenants did, at one time in English history, produce the +best farming in the world. English farming was held up as an example +to all countries and was so admitted by them. The system of large +estates allowed of the expenditure of capital, experiments in new +cultivations and new breeds of cattle, and variety of crops. It suited +its day well. And though its full day has passed, there will never be +a time when some large estates will not be able to justify themselves. +Even if, as apparently is the case now in England, _petite culture_ is +that best adapted to the cultivation of the day and the needs of the +people, yet there is still room for large estates. A dead uniformity +of small holdings could not but be unfortunate for any country. + +Further, although excessive alienation of land through money-lenders +may be very bad, yet stagnation in ownership may be worse. India and +Burma are progressive, and changes must take place. Cultivators will +become artisans and traders; city people will like to return to the +land. There is an ebb and flow which is good for all. Too great +rigidity of system will stop progress. A good system of land tenure is +that which is in accordance with the evolution of the people it applies +to and assists in that evolution. + +While recognising that for the bulk of the people small holdings are +best, it will not forbid larger estates; while admitting that the +alienation of land through borrowing recklessly from money-lenders is +bad, it will see that the progress of the people from purely +agricultural towards a state of industrial activity is not checked. It +takes all sorts to make a State. + +It may be good for the cultivator to hold direct from Government, but +if Government is to be the landlord it must act up to its name. It +must give compensation for improvements when a tenant has to relinquish +the land. Otherwise no tenant will improve, and the necessity for +improvement, for wells, irrigation, embankments, manuring, and so on, +is the greatest necessity of agriculture. In my own experience I have +seen that the system of State land tenure in Upper Burma does stop +improvements. + +That is the light in which the land question has to be worked out, on +broad comprehensive lines--that, while acknowledging the present, sees +also the future, which, while seeing one form of good does not deny +another. + +So, with an understanding and a sympathetic _personnel_, the +administration would be brought nearer to the people, until at length +when their capacity for self-government had developed they would be +able to take over our administrative machine little by little and work +it themselves. + +They could never do that now. If by any chance they did get possession +of the machinery at present, they would set to work to smash it till +none remained. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +SELF-GOVERNMENT + +And thus the sheltering Government of India having been reformed both +in its _personnel_ and in its laws, brought into touch and sympathy +with its people, a start would be made with self-government. + +That, of course, must begin with the village, which is the germ from +which all self-government that is of any value has always begun, and on +the health and vitality of which it must always depend. The village +organism must be restored to the state in which we found it, and from +that be helped and encouraged to grow to greater things. + +The whole of the present conception of the village as an appanage of +the headman, and the conception of the headman as an official of +Government, must be swept away and a new and true conception must be +arrived at. + +The village is a self-contained organism, and the headman is its +representative before Government and its executive head, the real power +being in the Council. Powers and responsibility reside in the village +as a whole and in no individual. The people must not be ruled, but +rule themselves. + +Now as to the exact way in which this conception should be carried out +it is impossible to say. In each Province--in distinct parts of the +same Province--the village system assumed different forms to meet +different circumstances. In Madras the village community was in many +details different from that in Burma, and in the North-West still more +so. Therefore, the particular way in which the conception should be +realised would vary greatly. And only by experience could a +satisfactory form for each Province be evolved. Neither would it be +possible even in Burma to go back to the old form exactly. Events have +marched since then, and what was satisfactory thirty or more years ago +would not be so now. The villages must not be reconstituted by copying +the past; they must be constituted anew, maintaining, however, the +spirit of the past and giving scope for evolution in the future. + +Therefore, the scheme that I am about to unfold must be taken to be +merely tentative and apply only to Burma. The principles are, I think, +right; the details must, of course, be discovered by experience. +Practice alone would show how far they realised the objective that is +to be aimed at--the constitution of a village organism on natural lines +that would govern itself without any need for interference and would be +able to grow and evolve. + +My scheme is as follows: + +In every village a Council should be constituted and the headman should +be its executive head. + +How this Council should be constituted I do not know. I think there +should be wards, each of which should have an elder, representative of +the people, but no rigid system of election should be laid down. I +have found that villages and wards can very often appoint a +representative man by general consent, which is much better than by +election. That should only occur in case of a dead-lock. The Council +should itself define the wards, and it should be allowed to co-opt +additional members. All representation by class or religion should be +prohibited. The unit is not so many people, but a section of a +village--neighbours dwelling together and whose interests are thereby +united. Appointment to the Council should be indefinite; that is to +say, an elder should remain an elder until he resigned or until the +ward turned him out. I don't think they would like continual +elections. An election is a bad means to a desired end--that of +obtaining the best representative. And in small communities the sense +is usually apparent without it. + +The headman should be chosen by the Council from among its members and +his election confirmed by Government. His appointment should be +according to the wish of the Council, that is to say, for life, unless +he resigned or the Council turned him out. He should be responsible to +the Council. The Council, as representing the village, should be +responsible to Government, and it would always be possible for the +Deputy Commissioner to bring pressure on a recalcitrant Council by +threatening to suspend the constitution and place the village under an +appointed headman for a time if they did not carry out their duties +properly. + +To this village community should be handed over certain duties, rights, +and responsibilities, much what the headman has now, the collection of +revenue, etc. All civil, criminal, and revenue cases under certain +values and of certain denominations should be handed over to them to +try; that is to say, that cognisance should be refused by our police +and our Courts, so that the parties could go to the Village Council if +they liked. There should be no appeal from the decisions of the +Council, no advocates should be allowed, and no record should be +required. All penalties imposed should be paid into the village fund. + +This fund should exist for all villages, and its nucleus should be, +say, half an anna in the rupee of the revenue collections, to which +should be added fines, special rates which the Council should be +empowered to impose for specific purposes, and other forms of revenue +which would vary from place to place. I think a percentage of the +district fund should be given to them. A rate on inhabited houses--a +rent on house sites--would be a good way of raising money. The +purposes for which the fund could be used would be water-supply, +sanitation, roads, lighting, watchmen, and so on. Simple account-books +would have to be kept, and these accounts would have to be audited once +a year. + +Model schemes for sanitation, village roads, etc., could be made out +for each village to live up to as fast as it could. + +Further, villages should have the power to carry out irrigation works +on their own initiative and under their own control. I consider this a +most important proviso, because I know many villages where this could +be done by the village, whereas it is not possible to individuals. I +also know one recent case in my district where it was done with great +success by the headman and elders. I got them a small grant, and I +often went to see how the work was getting on, but I never interfered +in any way, and the result was most satisfactory. There was at first a +difficulty about collecting the rates, because there was no legal +system under which a man who used the water could be made to pay. +However, this also settled itself. + +Irrigation works, roads, and bridges are most necessary to many +villages, but now, unless Government carry out the work, there is no +one to do it. And Government will not carry out small works. + +It is by the execution of such works that the village would prosper and +the village fund grow. Loans should be granted for these purposes by +Government, to be repaid out of the profits. + +Before our annexation all works were executed by the villages, and the +considerable irrigation works in many places are evidence of their +ability. All this initiative has now been killed. Yet it is a most +valuable asset, not only materially, but morally. + +As regards this fund, it will, I know, be objected by many people that +it will be simply an excuse for peculation. "Orientals," they say, +"cannot be honest, and the funds would be misappropriated right and +left." + +Exactly this same charge was made when the Co-operative Credit Banks +were started. Their history will sufficiently refute such an +absurdity. Orientals are just as honest as any other people, and, +given a good system, village funds will no more be stolen in India or +Burma than municipal funds are in England. + +In organising these villages there is another point to be borne in +mind. In that desperate struggle after rigid uniformity which +distinguishes the Indian Government, every separate hamlet in Burma was +put under a separate headman, and thus made a separate organism. + +Now it may be that occasionally the village was too large, and a +division was needed, but in many other cases the disintegration of +long-established units was severely felt. Several hamlets may have one +interest in common. They may be grouped round a small irrigation work, +or along a stream, or have a fishery in common, or be in other matters +of great use to each other. If run as separate organisms there is +bound to be strife, each trying for his own benefit. If allowed to +remain one organism they will be not only more peaceful, but stronger, +and better able to manage their affairs. Thus the rigid formulæ of +Government in this matter as in others should give place to common +sense. + +Further: in future, villages should be allowed to coalesce if mutual +interests attract them. Two or three villages if allowed to combine +would carry out works that one could not do. + +I see no great difficulty in Burma in thus restoring the organism of +village life. It would require mainly tact on the part of the District +Officer and ability to let alone. His tendency now is always to +interfere if he can. His rule should be never to interfere if he can +help it. When things go wrong persistently it will probably be found +that there is something amiss with the way the village is organised, +and that it requires some slight modification. If a horse can't draw a +cart it is better to see what is wrong with the horse or the cart than +try to move them both along by turning the wheels round yourself. You +won't get far that way. The more you push the more the horse will jib. +And Village Councils will be very willing horses if let alone and the +cart be not too cumbersome or the hill they have to climb too steep. +But they must be left alone. Read the history of municipal +institutions in England and note the principles. They are universal. + +Once the village communities are strong and healthy, a further step +could be made by instituting a township or sub-divisional Council, and +later a District Council. + +For these I am not prepared to offer any suggestions. It would require +a very careful study of local conditions and of the people, a wide +experience gained from the working of the resuscitated villages, to +know how these should be constituted and what powers and +responsibilities should be entrusted to them. I think a sound analogy +might be obtained from a study of English counties--not so much perhaps +as they are now, but as they were--in spirit, not in law. + +After the village organism was established, perhaps in order to its +proper establishment, a local Government Board would have to be +created. This would have to be in time entirely native to the +Province. It is, I think, essential that it should be so. What its +relations with the District Officer would be I do not know. I foresee +difficulties. It is essential for good order in the district that +there be no one between the head and the people. Nevertheless, I don't +think he could establish and work the village organism himself. I +think he would be too tempted to interfere; and, moreover, there would +have to be a certain co-ordination between the systems in various +districts. They need not be the same in detail, but the idea should be +the same. That is because eventually they must coalesce into bigger +organisms. But a District Officer with a strong personality would, I +think, be liable to impress that personality on the village, and as it +must be self-governing that might create difficulties. For as the +villages increased the District Officer would decrease. Gradually his +powers would devolve on the local organisms. There would thus be a +certain rivalry between the District Officer and the local organisms, +which, if the officer were the head of both, might result in injury to +the latter. Perhaps some such relation as exists between the Land +Records Department and the District Officer would be possible. The +Land Records has its own organisation, which works independently of the +district but in harmony with it. All this, however, is not a matter +which can be thought out. It will have to be worked out, and a correct +system can only come little by little, experience showing how +modifications should be made. I do not see any great difficulty +provided there are common sense and unity of aim on both sides. + +And from districts--when they had settled down into distinct organisms +more or less self-governing--representatives, not delegates, could be +sent to a Provincial Council. Then you would have a real Council, one +representative of the people because proceeding from the people, not +less surely because not directly. I am not sure that direct election +such as is practised in England and America, for instance, does cause +representation of the people. In England, at all events, it is not so +now. The only power the people have now is to choose between the +delegates of two or more parties. Beyond this they have no voice nor +choice. They cannot find any expression for their own wishes. Their +member may be, probably is, a man they never heard of before the +"Party" sent him to contest the seat. There is, in fact, in England +to-day no real representation of the people at all. By people, of +course, I mean the people as a whole, including all classes. But under +some such scheme as I have sketched out for Burma there would be real +representation of the people, of localities as a whole, units; local +men acquainted with the local conditions would be chosen and not +pleaders, and the locality would hold them responsible. Thus the +opinion of such a Council would represent the wishes of the people; it +could be depended on, and to it could considerable powers be delegated +permanently. It would, in fact, in time constitute a Provincial +Government in federal relations with the other Provincial Governments. +That is the only possible way that a real government can be built up. + +And it must always be remembered that the basis is the Village. On the +health of the Village all other things depend; from the healthy working +of the Village all things may proceed. It is the first but not last +word in local self-government. + +A very integral part of any self-government is Education, and to that I +come in the next chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +EDUCATION + +To the success of any form of self-government a good education is +absolutely essential; that a people should be able to exercise +self-government it is necessary that they be educated to +self-government; for this capacity no more comes by itself than ability +to build a ship or steer it when built. And as the government must be +self-government, so the education must be a national education and not +an imported one. + +I have already had something to say on this subject in former chapters +when writing of the Indian civilian, and the principles which underlie +good education are the same everywhere. A well-educated man is he in +whom his mental and physical powers have been so brought out that he +can face the ordinary vicissitudes of his life with confidence, that he +can understand them and combat them materially to the best of his +ability, and that when materially defeated he may still rise +spiritually above all defeat and discouragement. Education is +necessary to everyone--man or woman, peasant or prince, merchant or +artisan--and that man is best educated who can make the best of his +life whatever its station may be. + +Thus it will be seen that education is mainly relative. A man who +would be well educated if in one station of life would be hopelessly +ignorant if in another. I doubt if Whewell would have been considered +educated had fate suddenly made him a soldier, a political officer on a +frontier, or a cultivator. A keen eye gained by experience for market +fluctuations is better for a merchant than all the learning of all the +libraries. + +But this specialisation belongs properly to higher education. There +are certain foundation principles necessary to any success in life, to +being able to live it in whatever station with dignity and with +prosperity. What are those principles? + +I think the Indian Education Department would say that these are +reading, writing, and arithmetic--that is to say, acquirements. I +should say they are qualities of character. + +What are these qualities? + +First and foremost is belief in his own people, not his caste or his +creed, but in the people who inhabit his Province, who will eventually +make up his nationality. If the man is to do good work for his people +the boy must desire to do good work--he must have a certainty in the +unlimited possibilities of his people, that though they may be young +now they will grow to a world stature. Therefore, that it is his duty +to help them. He must be sure that this world is good--to be made +better by him and his fellows and his descendants. He has inherited +much; he must hand on more. He has no right to live unless he does his +duty to life and in life--that is to say, he must have a purpose in +life, for without a purpose life cannot be lived. + +Secondly, he must see that to the accomplishment of his purpose, which +is but part of the World's Purpose, he must cultivate two qualities, +obedience in act and freedom of thought. He must learn to obey, +because he must see for himself that only by men acting together under +authority can anything be achieved. His obedience will then be a +willing and cheerful obedience, because necessary to his own purpose. +He must obey that later he may be obeyed. He must keep his mind free, +because to admit authority in thought is to kill thought. He must see +things for himself and judge for himself, that when he is able to act +for himself he may do so on truth and not on hearsay. He must learn to +respect the opinions of others which they have founded also on +experience, while not necessarily adopting them, because he may see +things differently. + +He must learn self-knowledge to recognise what he can do and what he +can't. + +He should cultivate self-command that must not mean self-extinction. + +On a base like this all other things come naturally. + +Is there any such ideal in elementary education in India? I can safely +say that there is no such ideal. All that the Department seeks to do +is to stuff a child with reading, writing, and arithmetic, and other +learning, regardless of his character or his objective in life. + +Therefore elementary education is not popular in Burma, because it +seems to have no good purpose. + +That was true of education before we took the country. It was then +mainly, for boys, in the hands of monks, and I do not think that +education when controlled by religion has been popular anywhere in the +world. It has been accepted because there was no other means of +education available, but it was not admired. Our Government has +accepted the monastery schools, and it has also encouraged lay schools, +but neither seem to give much satisfaction. + +Now this is not the place to discuss religion of any kind, and I have +no intention of entering into such a vexed question. There are good +things in all religions--borrowed from humanity; there are doubtful +things; there are bad things. But the foundation of every religion is +a declaration that this world is evil and that we should despise it. +Now the objective of all education is to fit a boy for his life, and he +cannot be so fit if he despise life. He must love it, admire it, +desire in all ways to help it, to increase it, beautify it. His +objective must be in this life. Further, the tendency of all faiths is +to raise barriers between races and castes. But it is an essential +part of any true education that a boy understand that in striving for +the good of the community he must ignore all differences. Humanity is +one, and the God of Humanity is One, whatever faiths may say. + +Thus religions when mixed with education have a paralysing effect. I +have often heard this said in Burma. Here is a conversation I once had +at a village I knew very well. It occurred, as did most of the talks I +had with the people, just after sunset, when I had my chair set outside +my rest-house, and the people came dropping in to gossip. There were a +number of people, the headman, elders, their wives and children, and +two monks from a neighbouring monastery. They talked quite freely +because they knew that after office hours I forgot I was an official, +or even an Englishman, and just talked to them as one human being to +another. I may add that I had been inspecting the village school where +little boys and girls learned together. I had also been to a monastery +where the elder boys went. + +"Well," I said, "what is the news?" + +There was an expectant silence. Evidently there was some news; the +question was--who should tell it? + +"What is it, Headman?" I asked. + +The Headman rubbed an ankle reflectively. "The fact is," he answered, +"there is no news that would interest your Honour; only just village +doings, foolish doings." + +"Hum," I said; "that sounds to me as if a young man had been doing +something." + +Several of the men smiled--"Possibly with the assistance of a +girl"--and I glanced at some girls. They giggled, and the Headman said +briefly: + +"Maung Ka's son has run off with a girl." + +"Oh!" I said, turning to Maung Ka, whom I knew well enough--a tall, +fine-looking man, who was looking very gloomy. "It's a way boys have. +There's no harm in it." + +"Not if he can support her afterwards," said Maung Ka gruffly. + +"Can't he do that?" I asked. + +It appeared he couldn't. He had spent all his boyhood in a monastery +"learning" till his father fetched him out. Then he went to the other +extreme and levanted with a girl. "He doesn't know one end of a +bullock from the other," said the father; "he can't plough or sow; he +can't work; he has no common sense. That's what schooling does for a +boy." + +Most of the other men agreed with him, and we had a discussion on +education, in which everyone took part. + +The general opinion was that schooling should be to fit you for life. +The monks said for eternity, but the villagers--though out of respect +for the monks they said little--evidently didn't make any such +distinction. What wasn't fit for time wasn't fit for eternity. +Reading, writing, and arithmetic were good, because a boy needed these. +Beyond that they seemed to think schooling did harm. A boy learned +more from his father and the other villagers than from school. As to a +girl, "What," asked an elder indignantly, "is the use of a girl +learning to write? What will she write? Love-letters only." + +"Well," I asked, "and isn't that good--for the boy who gets them?" + +The fact is, the villagers are plain, common-sense men and women, and +what they want for their children is that they be better fitted for the +struggle of life. They do not observe that to be the case at present. +They judge by results, and the results are not good, they say. + +In fact, except as to the actual acquisition of reading, writing, and +arithmetic, which may or may not be of much use, the teaching--and +still more than the teaching, the influence--is bad. It unfits for +life, it gives wrong ideals, or it kills all ideals. + +The higher education is, I think, worse. It follows an imported +system, and in the importation all the good is left out. In England a +boy's real education comes from association with the other boys and +from his father. From them he learns whatever he does learn of +conduct, of ambition to true ends, of acting in concert, of ability to +judge for himself and stick up for himself. + +In India a wrong ideal has been conceived from the beginning. It has +been assumed, tacitly maybe, that an Englishman is the final and +completely perfected work of God and man, and that all nations should +copy him and try to become, if not a sterling Englishman, at least an +electro-plate one. + +That is disastrous. It depresses the people by depreciating their own +races and holding up an objective which is impossible, and if possible +would be wrong. + +There are in the pasts of nearly all Oriental people ideals which are +quite as good as ours, and far better fitted for them. Are these ever +taught to them? India once led the civilisation of the world; is that +past ever brought up and explained and realised for them? Never, I +think. + +Further, higher education to be of any use must be objective. You must +know what you want the boy to be. What does Government want the +products of its higher education to be? I have no idea. Has the +Government? + +Of what use are these products of the higher education in India? They +are useful but for two things, to be lawyers or pleaders, or to be +clerks. They are dealers in words, and not in facts or in humanity. + +Government accepts a certain number into its service, because the first +ideal of Government is a man who can fill up forms and returns, +speedily, accurately, and punctually. They can do that. When they +have district work to do they fail, because they have no personality, +no freedom of thought, and because the people despise them. The old +officials whom we took over from the Burmese Government, whatever their +defects, had "auza"--personality. It is a commonplace to say that the +Burmese have deteriorated. That is not true. They have as much +potentiality as before, but this potentiality is wiped out by +"education." Far from being really educated, they are merely stuffed, +and their natural abilities stifled. Moreover, they cease to be +Burmans, or Madrassis, or Bengalis, and become a sort of hybrid. This +is due to their English masters, who are obsessed with the idea that +the only way to "educate" anyone is to turn him into a plaster +Englishman. I have had some experience of these unfortunate boys who +have taken degrees. + +Personally, if I had to administer a difficult district, I should +choose my Burmese assistants from men who had never been to school, and +to satisfy Government I would engage some B.A.'s and F.A.'s to be their +clerks and fill up the forms. I should be sorry for the B.A.'s, +because I think they have as good stuff in them as the others, but +their want of education has unfitted them for work requiring "auza." + +That is really what it amounts to; the school-trained boy is not +educated, whereas the boy brought up in contact with the world is +perforce educated. The first is a hothouse plant; the second a useful +field plant. + +I am aware that current opinion puts down the failure of the educated +young Indian to his want of religion. He has been educated out of his +own faith and not accepted into any other; hence his want of character. +Of all the wild shibboleths about India and the Indians this is, I +think, the wildest. That a man is injured by being brought to see the +foolishness of caste, of infant marriage, of harems and zenanas, of all +the forms and ceremonies with which all religions are covered, seems to +me a triumph of illogic. Only the "Occidental mind" at its best could +conceive such an idea. In so far as education destroys these ideas it +does good. Wherein it harms him is by taking him apart from his +people, rendering him not desirous to help them but to disown them. He +is taught that to be an Englishman should be his ideal--that he "should +cultivate English habits of thought"--as if true thought had any +habits--so that, finally, he can't think at all. He is directed to +wrong ideals; he is rendered unhappy; he is _dépaysé_; he is useless +for any work, except being a clerk or lawyer; he has no more character +than a jelly-fish. Instead of wishing to lead his people he wishes to +identify himself with the English Government, be a civilian, and rule +his people. He should be filled with a boundless confidence in the +future of his people, and that it is his duty to help that future to be +realised. He is discouraged and rendered hopeless. Instead of being a +help he is the greatest danger his own people will have to meet when +they move forward. He is a danger to all. + +The Education Department of the Government of India is the new +Frankenstein, and the Higher Education is its monster. The students +have sunk under their "education," and in consequence they are unhappy. +Who wonders? But, in fact, an alien Power cannot introduce or work any +real system of education. It must be indigenous--something of the +soil, and not exotic. It, like self-government, must begin with small +things in the village and gradually rise. + +Like all things, if it is to live and prosper and extend it must have a +soul. And the soul of education, like the soul of life, is an emotion +tending towards a _desired_ end. The desired end of education is the +rise and progress not merely of the individual but of the nation. That +has been the soul of the progress of Japan; that must be the soul of +the progress of any people; and education will only be enthusiastically +taken up when it is seen to be a means to that end. + +Such an education cannot be given by Englishmen. Any Education +Department must be Provincial and draw its vigour from below. It must +not be a machine governed from Simla with text-books as thumbscrews and +manuals as beds of Procrustes. + +Before there can be a real Education Department it must be entirely +native of the Province, responsible to the Province for its success. +Can we create such a Department? I think we could, slowly, by handing +our village schools as much as possible to Village Councils, district +schools to District Councils, and the University to the head Provincial +Assembly when it comes into being. They will each have to think out +what result they want, and then how to attain that result. + +But all must begin with the village; within it alone is the germ cell +of all future progress. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +CONCLUSION + +There are many other subjects connected with the renaissance of India +that I should like to enter into, but I cannot do so here. This book +is already too full of matter that is never easy, and is sometimes +controversial. Such subjects are the real ideals and ideas that +underlay the religions of India, Hindu, and Mohammedan, and which gave +them life until they were hidden under priest-made ritual and killed; +the early history of India as a history of ideas and civilisations, and +not a stupid agglomeration of battles and intrigues; the absolute +necessity, as shown in all history, of representation and legislation +being by territory, and not by class, nor race, nor religion; and there +are many others. Perhaps some day I may return to these matters, or, +more happily, other writers will undertake them. They will see the +interest and pleasure to be derived from the study of humanity and +ideas, and will leave on one side the dusty frippery of ceremonies and +creeds and customs, of the details of battles and palace intrigues and +dynasties. Life lies under all these things, and they but affect it as +old clothes do a man. Meanwhile, I have done what I can to show the +causes of the trouble in India and to indicate in what way it may be +met. + +Only in some such way as that I have sketched, only by following +principles of the nature here indicated, can the Government of India be +drawn into accordance with the people. The Government must learn to +understand those many millions over whom it has acquired so great a +power, and in understanding them acquire sympathy with their desires +and needs. The people must learn to know, and recognise, and feel that +Government does understand them; that it has sympathy with them, and +will help them onward to that goal whither their Destiny is calling +them. So will both work together toward that end. + +To conquer India was great; it is the one great deed whereby we shall +live in history; but to make of India a daughter, not a subject, to +help her grow out of our care till she is strong enough to walk alone, +that will be greater still. + +No nation in the world's history has ever done a deed like that. + +To conquer India required great courage, it required ability of the +highest, it needed self-denial, self-sacrifice of the individual for +the nation. What will the freedom of India need in us? It will need +qualities higher even than these are. It will need courage, as great +as or greater even than that which we have shown before--the courage to +leave alone; it will require self-abnegation and self-sacrifice, not +for our own nation, but for India, for Humanity; it will require a +sympathy and understanding such as no nation has ever yet felt for a +foreign people. + +Can we do this? + +I do not know. Can we with whom representation except of the +wire-pullers of the party has ceased to exist, in whose schools of all +kinds and in whose universities there is no education, whose legal +system is bad beyond all expression, who have under free forms less +real freedom than most other countries, can we give to India what we +have not? I think that we shall have to take the beam out of our own +eye first. Are we prepared to do that? + +What will it need in India? It will need courage too, it will need +self-restraint not less than that which we shall have to show, the +courage to go slowly, to restrain the rising tide within the banks of +safety, to so direct it that the flood will fertilise, not destroy. + +It will need more than this. What ruined India twice, and what ruins +her now? Division. Race, caste and creed are curses when they make +one man despise or hate another. There is one God. Brahma and Allah +and Jehovah are but names for One if truly seen. His kingdom is in +neither Church nor creed nor Prophet, neither in temple nor in holy +place, but in the hearts of men--all men. If you read truly you will +see that in the beginning all religions were ideas, great streams of +hope and truth driving to one ideal. All truth which is a living truth +is One. But formulæ and castes and creeds and ceremonies and forms, +rites of all kinds, are priest-made things that kill and petrify. All +souls come here from God; not Brahmin souls nor Pongyis' souls nor +Christian souls alone, but every soul in every man that lives, they +come from God and so return. They are part with us of the eternal "I" +in which are lost all "yous" or "theys." Can the Brahmins forget their +legendary pride and prove their vaunted worth by leading India to an +equal freedom and not keeping her back by the slavery they have thrown +upon her? Can the Moslem, casting off the mould of dead tradition, +remember the Omniades, their tolerance, their wisdom, their +civilisation; what they did and, above all, what they did not do? + +Can the Buddhist believe that life is good--not evil; to be made the +most of, not feared nor shunned? to be loved and lived? + +I do not know. These things are all upon the knees of God. + +But for a real new India to arise all these things must come to pass. +She is now India Irredenta. And to be redeemed all Indians must offer +up as sacrifice, not their good things, but all those evil things they +cling to blindly--their hates and their divisions, their pride in what +they should be thoroughly ashamed of, their quarrels and +misunderstandings. There were a sacrifice that God would love. + +Will it come to pass? Who knows? We can only do our best--all of us. + + + + + PRINTED BY + WILLIAM BRENDON AND SON, LTD. + PLYMOUTH + + + + +THE WORLD SOUL + +By H. FIELDING-HALL + +_In Demy 8vo, Cloth gilt, 10s. 6d. net._ + +Second Edition + +"We should like to see this book violently challenged and reviled, that +its good influence might spread."--_Observer_. + +"The book is well written."--_Truth_. + +"'The World Soul' is a book which commands the admiration of all who +really feel themselves in sympathy with the teaching of +Christ."--_Irish Times_. + +"It is in many ways a remarkable volume and we may predict with some +confidence that a work so full of mystical idealism, yet so closely +reasoned and persuasively written, will have influence as well as +interest."--_Birmingham Post_. + +"Mr. Fielding-Hall is always well worth reading, for no Englishman has +done more to bring the light of Asia to bear upon some of the darker +corners of our Western life. Perhaps there is no ray of this Asian +light which, if it can be got to penetrate the armour of our +self-pride, would prove more healing than this spiritual doctrine of +the union of man with Nature."--_The Nation_. + + + +THE HEARTS OF MEN + +_In Large Crown 8vo, Cloth gilt, 6s. net._ + +Third Edition Revised + +"This is a book, not of one religion nor of several religions, but of +religion. Mainly, it is true, it treats of Christianity and Buddhism, +because these are the two great representative faiths, but it is not +confined to them." + +_From the Author's Preface_. + + + +RECOLLECTIONS OF AN IRISH JUDGE + +Press, Bar and Parliament + +By M. M'DONNELL BODKIN, K.C. + +WITH PORTRAITS + +_In Demy 8vo, Cloth gilt and gilt top, 16s. net._ + +The author of this book warns his readers that it "must not be taken as +anything in the nature of an autobiography." He continues to explain +that "its purpose is only to describe the interesting men whom I have +met, events I have witnessed and interesting stories I have heard +during a long and varied career at the Press, Bar and Parliament. Like +the fly on the wheel, if I did not help much in the revolution I had a +chance of seeing how it went round. I have been mixed up in many +exciting events, I have met many remarkable men. Gladstone and other +leaders of the Liberal party were familiar to me during my time in +Parliament. With Parnell I had at least one very remarkable interview. +Justin McCarthy, William O'Brien, John Dillon, T. P. O'Connor and other +Irish leaders I can count as personal friends. I had an interview with +Leo XIII. at the Vatican and with Roosevelt at the White House. I +think I may fairly claim an unique experience of the stage. All the +great actors of the present generation I have seen on the boards and +gossiped with behind the scenes. Of the Irish Judges and leaders of +the Irish Bar I have many stories to tell from hearsay or from personal +knowledge. Some slight description of the manner of life on the Irish +Press and at the Irish Bar may not be wholly without interest and +possibly a few new characters worth knowing may be introduced to the +reader. For the rest it is gossip, rather than history I have written, +giving the go-by for the most part to serious events and retailing the +humorous stories or amusing incidents that have come my way." + + + +THROUGH SIBERIA + +AN EMPIRE IN THE MAKING + +By R. L. WRIGHT and BASSETT DIGBY + +_In Demy 8vo, Cloth gilt, with 70 Illustrations; 10s. 6d. net._ + +The authors of this book crossed Siberia with only one passport between +them: they travelled by rail on the Trans-Siberian, by sledge across +the frozen steppes and through pine forests where the wolf packs are +still a menace, by boat down the ice-choked Shilka and Amur rivers to +the Manchurian border. They lived and travelled with all sorts of +people and saw the country as it really is. There is a chapter on the +colonization of Siberia by the Russian Government, which promises to be +one of the really great achievements in this world's history, while the +plague-ridden districts of Manchuria are vividly portrayed. + + + +THE AMERICAN MEDITERRANEAN + +By STEPHEN BONSALL + +Author of "The Golden Horseshoe," etc. + +_With 16 Illustrations from Photographs and 2 Maps in colours._ + +12s. 6d. _net_. + +"An interesting account with much information about the West Indies, +about 'Venezuela To-day,' the state of Mexico, and the making of the +Panama Canal. With a useful bibliography."--_Times_. + +"There is not a single page of the 481 which does not convey some point +of interest without loss of perspective, and there is a new and +admirable map."--_Westminster Gazette_. + + + +THE APOSTLE OF FREE LABOUR + + THE LIFE STORY OF + WILLIAM COLLISON + + Founder and General Secretary of the + National Free Labour Association + +Told by HIMSELF + +_In Demy 8vo, Cloth gilt, 16s. net, with Portrait & Illustrations._ + +The author says of this work that "it is written in the best interests +of Industrial Freedom, and in a Spirit of Peace and Goodwill to all who +realise that Industry is one of the highest attributes of manhood and +womanhood; and that the dignity of Labour, in its best and truest +sense, can only be attained by according to Industry the fullest and +completest freedom of thought and action, in solving for itself the +problem of its own destiny, on peaceful, just, and equitable lines as +between Employer and Employed.... + +"Remember that for 21 years I have stood up against my own class. I +have not argued with Strike-leaders, I have broken Strikes. We have +both striven to break each other's spirit, and the men who have been +ranged against me, from Burns, when he first delivered the speeches +written for him by Champion and Hyndman, to Tillett in his last shrill +moment of verbal hatred after the defeat of the Transport Workers' +Strike, who have always been sustained by the cheers of the multitude." + + + +London: HURST AND BLACKETT, LTD. + + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Passing of Empire, by H. Fielding-Hall + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 58356 *** |