EAST AND WEST TRAVELLING
Indian railway travellers. English rudeness; instances of
this. Seeing off the Collector; his exclusiveness. The
"white man's ship." Courtesy of Indians. The European and
Eurasian compartment.
It is when travelling by train that East and West are most liable to
tread on each other's toes. Formerly first and second-class carriages
were used almost exclusively by Europeans. Of late years the number of
Indians travelling in these classes has greatly increased. This is
partly because at one time all passengers were subject to medical
inspection, in order to see whether they were suffering from plague or
not, but those who were not travelling third-class got many exemptions
in the process. Also the well-to-do Indian has gradually got into the
habit of travelling second-class in order to escape the mixed crowd of
the Indian third-class, where he may find himself compelled to sit
next a low-caste man whose touch may defile him.
On the other hand, they often meet with a great deal of rudeness from
certain English people, who resent the intrusion of a "native" into
their carriage. Even some men who ought to know better are guilty in
this respect. But it should also be remembered that men of very little
education or refinement come out to India for the sake of the higher
pay and position which they can secure in a variety of spheres. Some
men of this stamp are apt to give themselves great airs, and they
think to show their importance by their rudeness to the people of the
country.
I once saw a man of this type in a railway carriage shove an Indian to
one side with considerable violence, and take his seat. The Indian was
a refined gentleman, much his superior both by birth and education,
and speaking English excellently. He was reading a volume of Mark
Twain for his recreation in the train. Although a good deal disturbed
by the rudeness which he had received, he did not lose his temper, but
remonstrated in emphatic but courteous language.
"'I say, guard, there is a native in this compartment; he must go
somewhere else.' That is the kind of speech which hurts our feelings,"
said an Indian gentleman to me, who was my companion in the train for
two nights and a day. "And yet," he said, "that is the sort of thing I
am frequently subjected to, because I have to travel a good deal. Is
it to be wondered at if we don't feel much love towards Englishmen,
when they treat us in this way?"
I saw a Scotch doctor, engaged on plague inspection duty at a railway
station, kick with savage violence a porter who accidently got in his
way on the platform.
If you see a little crowd of bowing, smiling, well-dressed Indians at a
station, gathered round a young Englishman in a sun tope, who is talking
to them affably, and trying not to look embarrassed by the garland of
flowers which they have put round his neck, you may know that it is
probably the Collector, or Commissioner, of the district, who is being
seen off by some of his constituents. The one or two attendants in blue
coats and red turbans, and sashes with large brass plates upon them,
waiting in the background, are the messengers, with which all Government
officials are liberally supplied. The Collector is the practical ruler
of the locality over which he is set to preside, and situations are
constantly arising which demand a great deal of tact and wise judgment.
That Collectors frequently win, not only the respect, but also the
confidence and regard of the people over whom they have been set, is an
instance of the capacity of the young Englishman, who is in earnest, to
rise up to his responsibilities.
Nevertheless he remains an Englishman for all that. A Collector whom I
knew, having had his usual "send off," travelled in the next carriage
to myself. At a roadside station a Hindu judge made for the
first-class carriage in which the Collector had established himself.
Although he had been exceedingly courteous to the Indian gentry who
had seen him off, he bitterly resented the intrusion of the Hindu
judge. The latter was not to be rebuffed, and was determined to
exercise his right to travel in a carriage in which there was plenty
of room. The Collector accordingly called his servant, indignantly
gathered up his belongings, and, having first come to the window of my
carriage to tell me of his troubles, took refuge in some other part of
the train.
"Well, this is a pretty state of things, when you find a native in a
cabin!" said a young military officer to me, when he saw an Indian go
into the adjoining cabin on board ship. "If he has paid for his berth,
he has a right to it," I said; "besides, he is not in your cabin."
"Well I did think that a P. & O. was a white man's ship," replied the
young officer with great bitterness.
"No doubt you missionaries have learnt to get over the prejudice,"
said a delightful young army captain to me on board the same ship,
"and I suppose it is very wrong of me; but I positively _hate_ a black
man."
Though there are certain drawbacks connected with some native
passengers, they are much more courteous than the average Englishman
is, even to his own countrymen. The stranger, who at some wayside
station, intrudes into a carriage already sufficiently full, does not
expect to be welcomed. At night the large clerical sun hat meets with
a specially cold reception from the Englishman, who peeps out at the
intruder from beneath his blankets. But the Indian traveller will
assure you that there is plenty of room. He will cheerfully help you
with your luggage, clearing away his own belongings in order to make
space for yours; and on one occasion an Indian insisted on my taking
his berth, while he himself sat up on a corner of a seat for the rest
of the night.
However good the intentions of kindly Englishmen may be when
travelling, it is almost impossible to avoid the appearance of
acquiescing in arrangements which are trying to the Indian. On most
lines there are third-class compartments reserved for Europeans and
Eurasians. The arrangement is not merely to protect the Englishman
from the intrusion of native fellow-passengers. The Hindu is at least
equally unwilling to have the white man as an intruder in his own part
of the train, and it is generally understood that just as the native
must not trespass into the European compartments, so on his part the
Englishman should keep out of the carriages allotted to Indians.
Not being able to find the usual European compartment on a certain
train, I asked the young Eurasian ticket-collector whereabouts it was.
"There is not one on the train," he said, "but I will soon make one."
And going to one of the native compartments, already fairly filled
with people, he said rudely and roughly: "Here, I say, you have all
got to clear out of that." The Eurasian is inclined to imitate what he
thinks to be correct English style, by talking in a blustering way to
those whom he contemptuously styles "natives." The Indians, slowly
and unwillingly, but silently, transferred themselves and their many
belongings to another carriage, and then they saw three members of the
ruling race take their places in a carriage seated for twenty-eight.