MADRAS
“_12th Nov._
“After a good passage of about fifteen hours we sighted the
Indian coast, first the western hills, and then the low shore off
Tuticorin. We have been carrying four hundred and thirty-five
Indian labourers coming home after working in Ceylon. The captain
says they carry 15,000 every year each way. They are fat and merry,
so I judge that they thrive during their absence from home--all I
believe Hindu Tamils. On the pier we were met by twenty or thirty
Moslems, representing the local Mohammedan population of two
hundred families. They had been telegraphed to about us by Ibrahim
Didi. A Moor from Galle, Kasim Biak, did the honours, entertaining
us at breakfast with a friend, Bawa Sahib, also from Ceylon. The
native Moslems seem very poor. I asked them about their condition,
and they complained of having no school. Their Imam had work enough
to do leading the prayers five times a day, and had no leisure to
teach. They also complained of being subject to annoyance from the
Hindus, who came with drums outside their mosque, and that the
magistrate, being a Hindu, would not prevent it. They all wear a
turban here, as do the Hindu Tamils. There seemed to be no English
resident in Tuticorin at all. We only stayed two hours, and then
went on by train, accompanied by our Mohammedan friends, now
increased to about fifty.
“The country for a mile or two inland is pure sand, and very pretty
with its desert vegetation, thorn acacias and groves of dom palms.
The heavy rains had brought up beautiful bright green grass, on
which flocks of long-legged goats were led to feed. By the side
of the railroad I noticed several birds well known to me, the
turtle dove of Egypt, the kite, the hen-harrier, the bee-bird,
and the roller, also birds unknown to me, a little magpie, a
long-tailed blackbird and others--butterflies, too, in some
variety, and flowers, yellow and blue, one like the convolvulus
minor. Later, the country opened into a vast cultivated plain,
perfectly level, but with fine mountain ranges to the west, a
very light soil, but improving as we got further from the coast,
though nowhere good on this day’s journey. It is easy to understand
a drought causing general famine. The cultivation is much as in
the rest of Central Asia, lightly ploughed lands, without fences
or boundaries, scattered trees, acacias or banyans, and at great
distances villages; no sign anywhere of ‘gentlemen’s seats,’ or
of any habitation better than the poorest, herds of lean sheep or
goats, the only cattle a few buffaloes. The whole country has been
recently under water, and this year at least there ought to be
crops, but they are not yet out of the ground.
“At Kumara Puran we came to some low hills, which I think were of
red granite, and here the country was greener, with millet and
rice crops, and more trees. I noticed mulberry trees as well as
banyans, and near the station, Australian gums. Much water about
in the pools. After these hills the land improved, growing more
beautiful; but night came on, and though there was a full moon we
saw little more. About half-past seven the train came to a stop,
and we were made to get out and walk some two or three hundred
yards, as the rails had been washed away by a flood. All around the
frogs were croaking in thousands. In another place was a fine old
stone bridge broken down, with a great stoppage of bullock carts,
and we arrived about nine o’clock at Madura. I was almost dead
with fatigue. Two Mohammedans, Abd-el-Aziz Sahib and another, were
awaiting us at the station, but I could do nothing but get to bed.
“_13th Nov._--Madura is a pretty place, with palm trees and
flocks of parrots. In the early morning we watched them flying
overhead, talking as they went. At nine the Mohammedans came again,
accompanied by an _alem_ of Arab descent, a _sayyid_, who spoke
good Arabic, but with a peculiar old-fashioned accent. We had a
long talk, principally about the misfortunes of their community.
The Moslems throughout Southern India have always been a very
small minority--descendants of the former Mogul rulers of the
country--for the mass of the population never conformed to Islam.
In those days they occupied the chief posts under Government and in
the army, but these have now passed away from them to the Hindus,
who are preferred to them for Government employment because of
their better knowledge of English and better schooling. Their cry
then is for schools, that they, too, may be employed. Unlike the
Moors of Ceylon, none of them are engaged in trade, nor have they
any means of embarking in commerce. Only a few are shop-keepers.
About a dozen have lands, on which they live, and the rest work
for wages for their daily bread. Many died in the famine seven
years ago. They are decreasing in numbers and wealth, and are
overridden, they say, by the ‘_kafrs_.’ It is difficult to see
any way out of this state of things, and I doubt even if schools
would help them much. The _alem_ had heard of course of Arabi, and
also of me; and they all took great interest in the affairs of
Islam beyond the seas. But their ideas are vague. They asked us
several times if we were not relations of the Queen, and I had some
difficulty in explaining our system of government. They enquired
with great interest whether it was true that the Russian Emperor
had sent troops to Afghanistan, and their faces brightened when I
told them that, though I knew nothing of troops, I had seen in the
papers that a Russian Envoy had appeared at Kabul. I fancy they
look forward to a restoration some day of Mohammedan Government
under Russian protection as a way out of their difficulties. Here,
however, it is not easy to imagine any such event, for Hinduism is
clearly all-powerful, and the Mohammedans are few, and they are
strangers in the land.”
Madura is indeed the most interesting Hindu city in India, the
place where the ancient Brahminical religion has been least touched
by foreign conquest, Mogul, or French, or English. There is
absolutely no sign in the city of anything alien. We did not see
a European face, or a trace of Saracenic architecture. A festival
was going on and an immense crowd thronged the streets, thousands
and thousands of men dressed in white, with ochre patches on their
foreheads, and of women in their beautiful gauze drapery, and
carrying flowers. Fortunately I had never heard of Madura and its
famous temple, and it was by accident that we came upon it as we
wandered without guide through the streets. I find the following
very inadequate description of it:
“In the afternoon we drove about the town, the most interesting I
ever saw, and went over the Palace and the Temple. The Palace is
a fine thing, but is being pitilessly restored at great expense
by the Madras Government. Its proportions, however, remain, and
it may be hoped that the damp air will tone down some of the
raw plaster work quickly. We found it the home of squirrels and
parrots and other birds. The view of the Blue Mountains from its
roof is one of the loveliest imaginable. The Temple, however,
is quite another thing. It is the supreme sight of Madura, and
indeed, one might profitably travel from England and return only
to have seen this. It is not only unmatched, but is beyond all
comparison with the rest of the buildings I have seen in the East,
as far beyond them as St. Mark’s at Venice is beyond Spurgeon’s
Tabernacle. In shape it is a vast square composed of courts and
halls, and corridors, deep in shade, with open spaces where the
sun pours down. At the corners are four structures, like great
Towers of Babel, covered, or rather encrusted, with sculptured
gods, monsters, and devils, the whole enclosed with an immense
stone wall, where there are no apertures. The door by which we
entered from the street gave little idea of what was within. It
might have been the entrance to a bazaar, and its comparative
meanness enhanced the quite unexpected wonder we were about to see.
It opened on to a kind of covered way, whose roof was supported
by rows of figures carved in stone, grotesque and monstrous, but
still finely sculptured, the lower parts of them black with the
elbow polish of many generations of worshippers. This corridor was
perhaps three hundred yards in length, and at its entrance were a
number of open shops, where goods connected with the worship were
being sold--‘the buyers and sellers of the Temple’--always thronged
with worshippers grotesque as their gods, with painted foreheads,
and sometimes painted bodies.
“We passed through the crowd unquestioning and unquestioned. There
was no one to explain the meaning of anything we saw. I walked on
as in a dream, being still weak with my late fever, and because of
the hot sun outside. Presently the shut street widened, and we came
to elephants, painted, too, with gilded tusks, which might have
been statues, so quietly they stood, but for the flapping of their
ears and the swaying of their trunks. Beyond them the street once
more narrowed, and was crossed by the framework of a pair of huge
gates of brass, carved also with innumerable gods. Through this we
stepped and at last came out upon an open square tank, surrounded
with galleries, carved and painted, and surmounted with the palm
trees which grow inside the Temple, and at the extreme corner by
one of the Babylonian Towers. Here naked men were washing in the
green water, and we turned aside attracted by a distant sound of
chaunting. We were once more in the gloom, and passed through halls
and corridors of growing obscurity towards what seemed to be the
Temple itself, ‘The Holy of Holies.’ Men here were sitting in a
ring upon the floor, and there were arches of palm trees wreathed
with flowers, and we smelt the smell of incense. It was from these
the chaunting came, but no one took notice of us as we passed. Then
we came on to another open court, where there were more elephants,
and we saw one led away with brass bells upon it, ringing as it
went. Then on through other corridors and still through thousands
of sculptured gods, where worshippers were offering flowers, and so
back once more to the open street of the town. I cannot describe
it more. It is a temple, the home of a worship living still, as it
lived three thousand years ago, and still the resort of a nation of
worshippers. A temple, not a mere house of prayer, and one where
the ancient gods of wood and stone and bronze and gold are still
propitiated with offerings and adorned with wreaths of flowers. I
was thoroughly tired out with what I had seen, but perhaps for this
the better pleased.”
The same night we went on our way northwards, by train, and stopped
while it was still dark at Trichinopoly.
“_14th Nov._--We were awakened this morning in the rest house where
we had slept by a sound of martial music, military noises, ‘and
the shouting of the captains,’ or rather by the hoarse voice of
an old English general giving the word of command to two thousand
Madras Infantry on the parade ground close by. This was the first
sign of anything English since landing in India, for not so much
as a white official had been visible on the railway, and these
sounds were like the breaking of a spell, though still we came in
contact with no Englishmen. We drove after breakfast to another
celebrated temple, passing through the town and under the fort. In
the streets we met a pretty marriage procession, the bride mounted
on a pony, and covered with golden ornaments, and again, a young
married pair similarly decked out in an open carriage. The Temple
of Trichinopoly is at a considerable distance beyond the town,
as large, but less interesting than that of Madura, the roofed
portion being smaller, nor are there the same carved gods, nor the
same appearance of ancient and daily use. We saw it, too, under
less perfect circumstances, for the guides of the place had found
us out, and insisted on explaining all we did not want to know,
and making the elephants salute us, an incongruous thing. It is
hateful to be here as members of the alien ruling caste, reverenced
and feared, and secretly detested. We paid our guides and the
_mahouts_ with open hands. It was all we could do to make them
amends for our presence.
“As the day wore on, returning from the temple, we once more
found the roads alive with men and women, most of the men wearing
the Brahminical paint. There are two clearly distinct types of
countenance among the people, one with narrow retreating forehead,
thick overhanging eyebrows, and coarse features, the other refined
and handsome, with here and there a head (for all go uncovered)
which might have belonged to a Roman senator, yet distinctly not
European. These last are, I suppose, of Aryan descent, the other
of Dravidian. The common peasants here have all the appearance of
savages, so much so that one expects to see bows and arrows in
their hands. They go naked to the waist, and bareheaded, shaving
the front part of the skull, but wearing their hair long behind.
Nearly all the townsmen are painted with white dabs and streaks,
but the Brahmins have a coloured stripe down the forehead, with a
stripe of white on either side. Some of the young Brahmins are very
handsome, and in their clean white clothes, with books under their
arms, are in striking contrast with the peasantry.
“At Tanjore we saw yet another temple, with its colossal bull under
a stone canopy. It is said to be a monolith, but is painted to
imitate bronze. What interested us most was a series of portraits
of Siwaji and his descendants, once rulers of the country, in a
little shrine, the whole enclosure surrounded by a deep moat, and
fortified, but without worshippers, and all deserted. The palace
near it is still occupied by Siwaji’s descendants, dispossessed and
pensioned. They are only women now who live on in this rambling
place, shut up, sad remains of state greatly out at elbows. The
rooms are fine. In the library they showed us some interesting
Indian paintings of the last century, and an illustrated book of
Chinese tortures, which we may imagine the last Rajah consoling
himself with after his loss of power. It was a festival day, and
we saw the pomp and glory of the little court turned out, two
elephants and two camels, a dozen poor led horses, one mounted
officer and twenty soldiers, aged retainers most of these, put
into cast-off English uniforms.” The dispossessed Princes of India
always reminded me of captive wild beasts shut up in cages, lame
and diseased, and dying of their lack of moral exercise.
The last two days of our journey to Madras we were without any
native communication, as we had got beyond our recommendations from
Ceylon, and on the other hand had come in contact as yet with no
Europeans. My journal deals principally with the natural features
of the country, which had become now flat and monotonous, with
crops of rice, mostly under irrigation. I find a list of birds seen
from the train: egret, pied bittern, little bittern, snipe, pied
kingfisher, whiteheaded kite, kite, hoopoe, a variety of roller,
bee-bird, lark, parrot, hen-harrier, shrike, long-tailed blackbird,
myna, partridge, a variety of pheasant, dove, crow, sandpiper,
small cormorant, kestrel, sea-gull, magpie, robin, besides many
small birds I did not see near enough to identify. I also saw
tracks of wild boars in one place. At Chingleput hills began, and a
pretty country with large lakes and tracts of jungle, the formation
granite with red earth and boulders.
“_17th Nov._--Madras. A horrible place. We are at Lippert’s Hotel,
facing the sea, with a broad esplanade in front, down which the red
dust drives. We wrote our names down at Government House. They took
us at first by mistake to the Government Office in the Fort, where
I was invited to sign my name in a book as ‘an officer returning
from furlough, and demanding an extension of leave.’ Government
House, when we got there, was a white pillared edifice standing in
a dreary park. There was a sentry at the door, but no other living
soul, not even a footman out of livery, or a charwoman, to tell
us that ‘the family was out of town,’ but the doors were open and
a book was there. Mr. and Mrs. Grant Duff are at Guindi, another
residence seven miles off.”
We stayed a week in Madras, which was longer than I had intended,
but as soon as it became known that I had arrived I began to
receive visits from the more prominent natives, Hindus as well as
Mohammedans, which interested me.
My first visitors at Madras were a couple of Hindu gentlemen,
editors of the local newspaper, the “Hindu”; their names,
Subramania Ayer and Vira Raghava Chaya; intelligent, clear-headed
men, contrasting by no means unfavourably with men of their
profession in London. Their manners were good, and their
conversation brilliant. The matters principally discussed between
us were the heavy pressure of the Land Revenue on the Madras
peasantry, the burden of the salt tax, the abuses connected with
the Civil courts, the ruin of the cotton manufacture and industry
by the enforced free trade with England, the unreality of the
so-called “productive work,” especially as to roads, and the
conservative opposition of the covenanted Civil Service to all
reform--neither viceroys nor governors were able to oppose them.
I asked what was thought of Lord Ripon by the mass of the people.
“He is the first Viceroy,” my visitor said, “who has been known
to them by name in this Presidency. Hitherto the people have only
known the local collector, but Lord Ripon’s name is known. Indeed
he is looked upon by the ignorant, especially since the recent
agitation on the Ilbert Bill, as a new incarnation of God.” “And
Mr. Grant Duff?” I asked. “We consider him,” he said, “a failure.
He came out as Governor of Madras with great expectations, and we
find him feeble, sickly, unable to do his work himself, and wholly
in the hands of the permanent officials. The Duke of Buckingham, of
whom we expected less, did much more, and much better.”
I found this opinion of Grant Duff a very general one among the
natives. Though a clever man, he had spent all his life in the
confined atmosphere of the House of Commons, and was quite unable
to deal with a state of society so strange to him as that which
he found in India. I was constantly asked by them what line they
should take, and what hope there was for them of any kind of self
government or real reform. And I explained to them frankly what
the position of parties was in England, that the Radicals, of whom
Lord Ripon was in some degree one, would be glad enough to see
India governed for the Indians; that the Tories made no pretence of
governing India except in English interests, and by the sword; and
that between them stood the Whigs, who talked about progress, but
always left things standing as they were. My advice was that they
should press their grievances now while Lord Ripon was in power,
as there was some chance of their being listened to, avoiding
only anything like disorder, which would be a pretext with the
Home Government, which was purely Whig, to stop such few reforms
as Lord Ripon had begun. I encouraged them, however, to continue
the agitation for representative Government in the Councils, and
thought they might get it in twenty or twenty-five years time.
Their general answer was, they would be satisfied if they got it in
a hundred years.
These first visitors sent others to me, and a clever young Brahmin,
Varada Rao, constituted himself my cicerone with those who were
afraid to come to me openly. The most interesting of those he took
me to visit, though it was not timidity but advanced age which had
prevented him calling, was the old Mahratta Brahmin, Ragunath Rao,
some time minister of Holkar and brother of the still better known
Madhava Rao, a man of the highest distinction, much wit, and the
widest possible intelligence. Indeed, his conversation might have
been that of a Socrates, whom in person he much resembled, being a
little rugged man whom I found very simply clad in a shirt, a blue
head-dress, and with no shoes or stockings to his feet, but who
at his first word impressed me with a sense of his integrity and
his vast intellectual superiority. On the high politics of India
his discourse was most instructive, and, like Socrates, he had the
habit of illustrating each point of his discourse with a story
always good and often extremely amusing. He dwelt especially on the
difference there was between the old-fashioned personal rule of the
Indian Princes, with whom there was always the possibility of a
personal appeal to the head of the State, and the blank seclusion
of the English rulers, who were walled off from all knowledge of
what was going on by their ignorance of native life and their
complete severance from native society. In old times it had not
been thus. Under the East India Company, when communication with
England was rare and difficult, the English officials and even the
Governors and Governors-General were thrown to a large extent for
their society on the Indians of rank and position, whose language
they had been obliged to learn and with whom they lived on a
footing of something like equality. Now they lived wholly among
themselves, and were almost without intercourse with natives of any
class, except perhaps the lowest, whom they treated at best with
good-humoured contempt. Thus they heard nothing and knew nothing
and cared nothing for the feelings and opinions of the people,
and the abyss between the rulers and the ruled was every year
increasing.
He described with great humour the position of a modern Viceroy,
who comes to Calcutta, or rather to Simla, with the idea of
understanding the native case and doing good, and who finds himself
with a crowd of permanent English officials always surrounding
him and pulling him by the coat tail whenever he approaches what
they consider a dangerous subject. His term of years as Viceroy is
at most five. The first two are occupied in getting used to the
climate and way of life, in learning how to behave and what to say
to the native princes, in studying the history of past affairs,
and learning the official view of the larger questions he has to
deal with. The next two years, if he is an honest man and man of
energy, he begins to propound his policy, only to find that he
is everywhere defeated in detail by officials who bow to him and
pretend to agree with him, but who go away and raise obstacles
which defeat his ends, or at any rate delay them till his power to
enforce them is nearly over. Usually he swims with the official
stream, saves what money he can out of his immense salary, shoots
tigers, and amuses himself with viceregal tours and visits and
durbars to the native princes, spending half his years always
away from native India in the Himalayas, and giving balls and
entertainments to the Anglo-Indian ladies. The last year of his
term he is looked upon as already defunct and of no importance, and
he packs up his things and goes home satisfied with having done no
worse than his predecessors.
I wish I had recorded a tithe of his wonderful talk in my journal.
I heard from his friends that his plain speaking had constantly
brought him into collision with the officials, but it had ended by
their being a little afraid of him, so keenly did he understand
their weaknesses, and so bitter was his wit in exposing them. Sir
Charles Trevelyan, who is the only Governor who had left a really
good impression on the natives I came in contact with, had given
him much of his confidence, and an official position with a pretty
good salary, but his successors had done their best to suppress
him. He has, however, too high a social position to be wholly put
down, and private means which enables him so far to hold his own
against them.
We called also on Judge Muteswami Ayar, to whom I had letters from
Ramanatha, but both he and Ranganatha of the Presidency College
made excuse. Being in the Government Service, Varada Rao explained,
they had probably consulted the English officials about the
introductions I had sent them, and were advised to be ill or not
at home. (The natives in the public service are completely under
the thumb of the Government, and unless they have means of their
own dare not offend their English superiors. Their promotions, if
not their places, are at stake, and the Covenanted Civil Service
neither forgets nor forgives. A native is only admitted into the
higher ranks of employment on the understanding that he pulls with
the crew.) So the Judge, after some mysterious discussion with the
servants and goings to and fro, was discovered to be “not at home.”
The same day, 21st November, I received a visit from Mir Humayum
Jah Bahadur, the head of the Mohammedan community at Madras, a
fine old gentleman, with a courtly manner, very formal, and very
cautious of committing himself to opinions on any subject. As
member of a family descended from Tippu Sultan, famous in old days
for its diplomatic talent, he is the leader of the Mohammedan
world here, and presides over all associations and charities, and
I laid before him the school difficulties of his people at Madura.
This rather alarmed him, as he thought I wanted him to move in the
matter with the Government, and recommended me to speak about it
myself to the Governor, Grant Duff. Although he evidently intended
his visit to be one of compliment, his manner throughout was a
defensive one. Every now and then a little gleam of sunshine would
pass over his face, but only to be carefully suppressed. Later,
however, he sent a young Bengalese Mohammedan, Seyd Abd-el-Rahman,
to see me, an intelligent young lawyer of the modern type, who
had married a Eurasian, and visited Europe. His Eurasian wife had
become a Mohammedan, but still dressed as a European, her father
having been English, and we went with him to his house, where she
appeared without a veil to give us tea. We were the first English
people who had shown her any civility since her marriage.
Other visitors that afternoon were the Brahmin head master of
the Hindu middle school, and Rangiar Naidu, a Hindu Zemindar,
a landowner on a large scale. “He complained much of the ill
conditions of the peasantry, who were habitually underfed, and
especially of their sufferings from the salt tax. The land
taxation is more severe now than it ever was, amounting to one half
the gross produce. All are in debt because the Government insists
upon having its due in advance of the harvest, and in money. This
obliges the peasantry to borrow from usurers,--just as in Egypt.
He assures me the Madras ryots are not unthrifty, and if they
could they would lay by their money for an unrainy day. They do
not invest in savings banks, not trusting them, but hoard in coin
or in silver ornaments for their women. But there is no margin
now left them by the land tax. All this is precisely as in Egypt.
He promises to take us over some villages to see how things are
on Friday or Saturday at Tirupati, where we have been invited to
a Hindu festival. Rangiar Naidu is rich and independent of the
Government, which cannot interfere with his position, an hereditary
one. He says the new forest laws are very hard on the people, whose
cattle used to have free pasturage and are dying fast now owing to
the restrictions.
“_22nd Nov._--Young Varada Rao came before I was dressed this
morning to take me to call once more on Muteswami, who now
expresses a great wish to see me privately; and we were just
driving off when we met Ragunath Rao coming on foot to our
hotel. The old man was dressed with more care to-day, having a
cashmere gown on and a handsomer head-dress, but still no shoes
or stockings. He looked the distinguished and polite gentleman
he is. His conversation was even more amusing and admirable than
yesterday, and he speaks quite without reserve about the Government
and its ways. He told us that he and his cousin, who is also a very
rich man, have hereditary estates near Tanjore, and it had always
been their intention some day to retire from Government employment,
and settle down at home. They had been too long absentees, and
wished to look after their estates in quiet. But they had been
obliged to abandon their plan, owing to the little protection given
them against the impertinences of the English district officers,
and even their persecution. He gave us three or four instances of
this. One was of a friend of his, a former magistrate and most
respected official, who had retired, as he himself had intended to
retire, to spend his last days in his own town. He was a man of
independent character, and not wishing to be troubled any longer
with etiquette, neglected to pay any special court to the Resident
Collector. This brought him into official disrepute, and one day
he found himself arrested on a charge of conspiracy, a charge
absolutely unfounded, and involved in legal proceedings, which,
besides endless annoyance, cost him some thirty thousand rupees. I
asked him ‘What kind of conspiracy?’ ‘You don’t suppose,’ he said,
‘I mean a political conspiracy. We are far too frightened here for
anything like that. No, this was a vulgar charge of conspiracy to
cheat and defraud a neighbour. My friend disproved the charge,
but it has left him a broken man. He is now the humble servant of
the Government, and bows to the ground when he sees the smallest
Government officer.’ I wish I could recall all his good stories,
all his wise opinions and illustrations. There are not a dozen
men in the House of Commons who could hold their own with him in
talk.[2]
“I have been urging him to come to England, but Varada tells me
it is all a question of caste. If Ragunath would go, many of his
fellow Brahmins would follow his example, for he is leader in
Madras on questions of this sort. The difficulty is this, that
according to Brahminical teaching India is the one land of a holy
life, therefore none who lead holy lives can leave it. It is not
permitted to cross the sea. Twenty years ago it was not permitted
even to go from Madras to Calcutta by steamer. Now it is allowed,
but on condition that no meal is taken on board. All agree that
this strict caste rule must sooner or later be relaxed, but nobody
likes to be the first to break it. Talking of the arrogance of the
English officials, Seyd Abd-el-Rahman’s Eurasian wife, who is a
sensible young woman, tells us that she remembered in her home in
Bengal a collector who used to make people passing down the street
by his house take off their shoes and put down their umbrellas in
his honour.
“Our single English caller, and he was the first Englishman we
had spoken to since landing in India, was a Mr. Laffan, acting
secretary to the Government, curious to know whom among the
Mohammedans I had seen. He affected liberal ideas about India,
and said that the native members of the Legislative Council would
certainly soon be elected by popular vote. I fancy he had come to
find out what I was doing. At last, in the twilight like Nicodemus,
came the Judge, Muteswami, looking rather ashamed of himself, and
with confused explanation of why he had not seen me yesterday. He
is a tall dark Tamil, almost black, a self made man, who began
life as a servant and learnt English from his master’s children.
This may account for his timidity, for he seems a man of worth and
integrity. He explained the Ilbert Bill to me with great lucidity,
especially as to its effects upon English planters in their
relations with the natives. He said that with few exceptions the
planters were very lawless people, that hitherto they had been for
all small offences practically out of reach of the law, because the
distance to the High Courts, where alone they could be tried, was
too great for natives to resort to them. As to the contemplated
change making them amenable to the ordinary Courts, the only fear
was that the native Judges would be too lenient to them for fear of
being thought partial.”
The same night we dined at Guindi with the Governor, Mr. Grant
Duff, “a thin, sickly, querulous man” is my comment on him, “out
of temper with everything around him, yet paid ten thousand a
year by the Madras Indians for ruling them.” I find no record of
his conversation, but remember that his manner to me was somewhat
reserved and suspicious. We did not get back to Lippert’s Hotel
till midnight.
“_23rd Nov._--Our night’s rest was short, for our train started at
six forty-five. Young Varada Rao was waiting for us at the station
to say good-bye. He has sent his servant with us to Tirupati, where
we are to meet his father Rama Rao, who has gone there with other
native big-wigs and a number of Pundits to open a Sanskrit College.
We are invited to take part in the doings there, but shall be too
late for the actual ceremony, which begins at ten. Our visit to
Madras has been on the whole successful. Though we began without
much introduction, we have established capital relations with all
the leading Hindus of the place. The Mohammedans we have seen less
of. They are of little energy or importance in the Presidency.
Their social leaders are pensioned by, and so dependent on, the
Government. The rest are poor and unprogressive.”
It may here be said that we left Madras accompanied by a very
excellent servant, a native Christian named Solomon, who had been
provided for us by our friend Ragunath Rao. Solomon was a dignified
and altogether worthy old man, absolutely honest and faithful in
his service, and with but a slight knowledge of English. As he was
the only native Christian with whom we came in contact in India, I
am glad to be able to give him this high character.
“Tirupati is a very beautiful place, surrounded by high hills,
and is a celebrated resort of Brahmin pilgrims from all parts of
India. The temple, though not very large, has a splendid pagoda at
the entrance, and stands in the middle of the town, and there are
other pagodas at a distance, leading up to a sacred hill not very
far away. The ceremony was over when we arrived at the bungalow,
which had been fitted up at great expense for the expected guests.
It was very hot, and the drive from the station had been tiring, in
country bullock carts drawn by ponies, and we were glad to rest in
the shade, though we had missed the expedition to the sacred hill
which had followed the ceremony. A good luncheon had been prepared
for us, and soon after Rangiar Naidu arrived and took us over the
temple and the town. The gala preparations, he informed us, were
in honour of Mr. T., an English official who had come to represent
the Governor on the occasion. He was away with the rest on the
sacred hill, and would not be back till after dark. Rangiar Naidu
besought us not to let him, or any of those with him, know of our
intended visit to the villages, as he would certainly prevent it.
This T., he said, has a reputation of being a friend of the natives
on the ground of his knowing something of Sanskrit, and patronizing
their educational institutions, but Rangiar and all our friends
are suspicious of him;--old Ragunath Rao spoke of him yesterday
very plainly as a humbug. About nine o’clock, after great lighting
of lamps in a kiosk, the party from the hill returned, escorting
the Government officials in all state--T. a dry, stiff-looking
civilian, very much on his dignity, and surprised and rather
disgusted to find us here. It was evident that Rama Rao had not
told him how we had been invited by his son, and I let the cat
out of the bag, without intending it, by telling Rama Rao in the
official hearing that Varada had come to see us off at the station,
and Rama looked confused and began to talk of other things. It was
painful to see the fear everybody was in of this very ordinary
Englishman, but I suppose he has the power to ruin them, and that
he and his like do ruin those that cross them. With him was another
Englishman, the head of a school department, a more genial man, and
one other. A dinner for a hundred had been prepared, but no more
English had come than these three, and so we five sat down and ate
what we could of it.
“T. was not communicative, but nevertheless we made conversation
on various more or less political subjects, the school inspector,
who liked talking, helping us not a little. Afterwards I had some
conversation apart with Rama, but both he and the Pundits were too
frightened to say much so near the ‘presence.’ They, poor people,
had brought a piece of gold or silver plate to give to the great
man, an offering which he received without a word of thanks, and
had put in his carriage; only to two or three did he vouchsafe
a few words, remaining seated while they stood to listen. It is
inconceivable why these Indians should put themselves to the
trouble of entertaining at such expense and to so little profit.
The kiosk alone cost £30 they told us, and the whole entertainment
cannot have cost far short of £100, which would have better gone
in helping to endow the College. Government gives nothing, and
the thing is to be supported by the funds of the Temple, which are
large. It was amusing to see the relief which came over everybody
when the officials had left, as they did as soon as the fireworks
were over, about eleven. We, too, were not sorry. As there were no
beds, we slept on the floor, on which, also, the servants and the
poor people from outside soon after rolled themselves up--it was a
large place--very happily with Mr. T.’s cushions and carpets.
“I have forgotten to say what was to me the most interesting part
of the day’s proceedings. While waiting in the shade of a grove
that afternoon we had seen a procession come to a little shrine
with offerings close by--a beautiful pagan rite, with drums and
pipes leading the way, and behind a number of women walking with
large copper dishes on their heads filled with rice and flowers as
offerings to the god. They stopped under the grove near us, and
there lit fires and cooked their rice--a merry party sitting on
all the afternoon. Towards evening the women approached the altar,
which was an oblong table of stone supported by a dozen upright
slabs carved with curious devices. Each woman chose her slab, and
painted it with ochre, yellow and red, and then crowned it with
flowers. I asked what it signified. They told me it was Friday,
one of the fortunate days, and that the women had come to pray
for fertility. The rice, after being offered, they will eat, and
count it as a feast. It is seldom the peasants get so good a meal,
for their usual food is only a cake made of a kind of rape. Rice
is held to be too good for common fare.” This was an interesting
day spent in beautiful surroundings, and remains in my mind as one
typical of Southern India.
“_24th Nov._--In the morning Rangiar Naidu came according to
promise with two pony carts, and took us to see the villages. On
the way he explained to us the history of the Sanskrit College and
yesterday’s festivities. Some years ago the English Government, in
pursuance of its policy of non-interference with religious affairs,
gave up its inherited guardianship of the Hindu temples to native
trustees, known locally as ‘churchwardens.’ But the transfer was
made with so little care that in many instances the trustees had
been able to evade the law, and make themselves to all intents and
purposes owners of the estates. In the case of Tirupati, the income
is very large, several _lakhs_ of rupees, and has become vested in
the hands of a single man, R. S., known by his official title of
Mohunt. The abuse of trust in the Madras Presidency had become,
however, so notorious that last year an attempt was made in Council
to pass a bill in remedy of the evil. But this had been strongly
opposed by Mr. T., and so defeated, to the anger of pious Hindus
towards T., but the gratitude of the Temple wardens. It is by
these, or rather by the single Mohunt, that yesterday’s festivities
were arranged. The Sanskrit College is an act of expiation to cover
a misappropriation of the funds, since these are not for education
but for the maintenance of the Temple. As for Rama Rao, his
timidity is explained by his being a member of the Council, and so
revocable at the will of the Government after his three years term
of office. Rama Rao’s family came from Hyderabad four generations
back, where they were servants of the Nizam, but on the occasion of
a marriage they had followed the Nawab of Arcot to Madras. Their
language at home is Telegu, which is that of the Hindus of the
Deccan.”
Our visit to the villages occupied us the whole day, and was
most successful. Knowing Egypt as well as I did, I had little
difficulty in ascertaining the facts I was in search of, that is
to say, the proportion of land tax to the gross produce, the local
indebtedness, the effect of the famine of seven years before, the
oppressive incidents of the salt tax which especially affects
the cattle, and the new forest restrictions. The common food of
the ryots I found to be _raghi_, a small grain like rape, which
they make into a cake, or mix into gruel, making it palatable
with red pepper. Few of them have milk to drink, and their lack
of sufficient nourishment is plainly visible in their emaciated
appearance. Their houses, though of mud like those in Egypt,
consist of only one room each, but are kept very clean. It is part
of their religion to wash everything daily. My diary contains
several pages of details regarding the villages we examined, but
these are hardly worth reproducing here. I omit them as I do
similar village inquiries made elsewhere, reserving the results for
a separate chapter.
“Rangiar Naidu accompanied us to the railway station in the
evening, and gave me letters to friends farther on. He is a highly
educated man, was at school with Ragunath Rao, and maintains close
friendship with him. He is of the Khastriah or military caste,
which is not common in the Madras Presidency. His type of face is
distinctly Egyptian, and he might well be a village sheykh of the
Delta. He is a rich man and member of the Municipal Council of
Madras, an elective post which leaves him independent.
“_25th Nov._--By night train to Bellari, the head-quarters of the
famine district, and so of great interest. There were five hours of
daylight before arriving, and we found the country much changed
from yesterday. This part of India is a high plateau, a thousand or
fifteen hundred feet above the sea, with occasional hills of gneiss
or granite, five or six hundred feet higher. The soil is light,
and there is no irrigation, and, in spite of a rather unusually
wet season, the crops looked scanty and poor. No rice is grown,
only _raghi_ and millet, but in some parts cotton makes a fair
crop. Architecturally, there is nothing worth seeing at Bellari,
but we had letters to the leading Hindus and a rich Eurasian, and
have found our visit so profitable that we have decided to stay
on another day. First, however, we were hospitably entertained
at luncheon by the English railway superintendent, Mr. Hanna, an
intelligent man who has been twelve years in the country and likes
it. But of course we learnt nothing much from him, as the English
live in a world of their own.
“In the afternoon, however, eight or nine Hindu gentlemen came to
see us, as highly educated as those at Madras, and even more free
spoken. Among them was a Brahmin of high caste, who had broken his
rule by visiting England, and had even become a Christian there,
losing thereby his caste but not altogether his social position
at Bellari. He spoke about the absurdity of the reason commonly
given by English officials for having no social intercourse with
the natives, namely, that the laws of caste prevent it. ‘Here you
see me,’ he said. ‘A few years ago my caste laws were so strict
that I could not eat with any of these gentlemen’--turning to the
rest who sat round--‘I was obliged to throw away my meals if one
of them happened to look at me while I was eating. Yet it did not
prevent us being the best of friends. Neither, now that my caste
is gone, am I less intimate with them, although they in their
turn cannot now eat with me. Is it then necessary that men should
eat together to be friends? The Europeans receive me no better
to-day, though I could eat and drink with them all day long. The
difficulty is entirely of their making.’ He said this with as
little embarrassment as there might be in England between one who
on religious grounds only eats fish on a Friday, and others who eat
meat. The manner of the speaker, too, was so good, and with so much
conversational charm, that the refusal of the English officials
to associate with him sounded to us particularly ludicrous. These
Hindus are no wit inferior to Italians or Spaniards in their
address, and are very little darker of skin.
“The Eurasian to whom we had the letter was with them, also a
municipal councillor and clearly on excellent terms with the rest.
He assured us it was quite untrue that the mass of the Eurasians
sided with the English in their quarrel with the natives. On the
contrary, their social sympathies were with the latter, and it
was only the richer ones and those in Government employment who
affected English ways. There was no real sympathy anywhere, as the
English despised the Eurasians even more than they did the true
natives, and the Eurasians were under greater disabilities as to
the public service. He himself owns a cotton mill in partnership
with an Englishman here, but they do not mix socially together.
Our talk was principally on these matters. The Brahmin who had
been in England had been received by Bright, Fawcett, Dilke, and
other notabilities, had stayed in country houses, and been fêted
everywhere. Here the collector’s wife is too proud to call upon
his wife. They expressed themselves much disappointed with the
Gladstone Ministry, of which they had had great hopes. Lord Ripon
was the best Governor-General India had ever had, but he had
been thwarted throughout in his work, and had not been properly
supported at home; he had been able to achieve nothing. Mr. Grant
Duff had been the worst disappointment of all. He had come with a
flourish of Liberal trumpets, but had proved a mere windbag, good
at making speeches on generalities, but useless at administration.
He had left all work to the permanent officials, who had thwarted
Lord Ripon’s good intentions everywhere.
“_26th Nov._--Called on Mr. Abraham the Eurasian, and found
him full of information. The pressure of the salt tax here is
incredible, but true. In the time of the Mahrattas and the East
India Company there was a simple tax of five per cent. Salt was
allowed to be made, and the tax was on consumption. Now it is a
Government monopoly, and at the present moment the Government
manufactures its salt at the seaside at eight rupees the _garce_,
a measure of six hundredweight, and sells it at Bellari for two
hundred and eight rupees. Moreover, within the last three years, a
new law has made matters worse, for the use of earth salt has been
forbidden, and whereas before that time thirty _sears_ (the _sear_
is a measure of two lb.) could be purchased for a rupee, now the
peasant can get only eight. Rough brown salt sells here for one and
a half rupee a lb., although it is a common product of the country.
The police are empowered to enter houses night or day, and, on
their accusation of there being a measure of earth salt in it, the
owner of the house may be fined fifteen rupees, or imprisoned for
a month. Many false accusations are thus brought, and pressure put
by the police on the ryots. If the villagers send their cattle
to graze anywhere where there is natural salt on the ground, the
owner is fined or imprisoned, and the salt is thrown in heaps and
burned. The cattle are dying for want of it, and the people are
suffering seriously.
“They talked also much of the extraordinary waste of money on
public works, especially the State railways. The station here at
Bellari cost R100,000, and two others R200,000 and R400,000 a
piece. In the evening we went with Abraham to see his cotton mill,
which has been open for more than a year, and was begun before
the abolition of the cotton duty, and it shows some public spirit
that they have gone on with it notwithstanding. The manufacture
is of cotton thread, which is sold in the town to be made up by
hand weavers. He took us later to see a village where we heard
much the same stories as at Tirupati. We were told many tales of
the famine, the relief of which was so badly managed that no less
than forty persons belonging to the village, though so close to
the railway station, died of hunger. In good times a man could
live here for three half-pence a day, all included. They eat
nothing but _gholum_ and red peppers. During the famine, money was
distributed instead of grain by the Government, so that some died
with the coins in their hands. The million and a half spent in this
district of public money was, according to Abraham, almost entirely
wasted. One officer sent from the north had three thousand rupees
as his travelling allowance for only twenty-two days, and then
returned saying he could not understand the language. The Mansion
House Fund, distributed by the municipality, was better managed,
and saved many lives. Abraham insisted that it was not the want
of railroads that caused the deaths in the district. The Bellari
railroad was in full working order at the time. Neither was it over
population, for there were two million acres uncultivated. The
true reason was the severity of the taxation, and the extinction
of the larger landowners, who used to keep grain in store for bad
years. The remedy should be lighter taxation, and the maintenance
of public stores of _gholum_ and _raghi_ at all the central
stations. Corn will keep well in this dry district underground for
years, and always used to be so kept, but the land is rack-rented
now, and no provision made. The taxes lately have been gathered in
advance of the harvest. Baring, he said, was responsible for much
of this as Finance secretary.
“We dined with Sebapathy Ayar and his wife. It was he who had
become a Christian, having been converted by Dean Stanley and
Miss Carpenter about twelve years ago. The dinner was as English
as possible, and they drank wine. But she wore her Indian dress
and jewels--a nice woman. Afterwards a number of friends came
in, and we had a very pretty nautch with Telegu singers, and all
chewed Betel leaves, which, it appears, can be done in common
without injury to caste. There was one Mohammedan among them from
Bombay. The Hindus here are very courageous and outspoken. They
all discussed the advantages, or rather the lack of advantages of
British rule, without any reticence, and agreed that, while good
had been done in the past, evil was being done now. They were loud
in their praise of Ripon as an honest man, who meant well by them.
But they said that in fact he had been able to do nothing for them.
The officials had made it impossible. No real reform could be begun
till the Covenanted Service was abolished. They did not fancy the
idea which has been put forward of the Duke of Connaught succeeding
to the Viceroyalty. He was young and without experience, and would
be entirely dry-nursed by the officials. Nothing could be worse
than a Viceroy who should only be a figure-head.
“_27th Nov._--By train to Hyderabad, though not yet arrived. But
we are in the Nizam’s territory. I am surprised and pleased to
notice that ever since crossing the Krishna River, which is the
boundary, the cultivation has appeared more flourishing, less
waste land and better crops, sheep instead of goats, and farmers
riding about on horseback, a thing I have not seen since landing in
India. The land, however, is light, and must be very dry and hot
at some seasons of the year. It is a great plain with picturesque
granite rocks here and there, some of them fortified. The Hyderabad
territory is a high plateau situated about the centre of the Indian
peninsula.”