BOMBAY
“_14th Feb._
“Arrived at Bombay at 11 o’clock. I see the ‘Bombay Gazette’ has
published the Patna letter, and there is important news from Egypt.
Sinkat has fallen to the Mahdi, and Mr. Gladstone has ordered 4,000
English troops to the Red Sea. Next we shall hear that Khartoum has
fallen and Gordon has been killed, and then there will be a regular
Soudan expedition on the scale of the Abyssinian one. I shall
protest against the employment of Indian troops.”
We spent the next few days mostly in the Arab stables with
Abd-el-Rahman, Eid el Temini, and other dealers from Nejd,
arranging for the taking of horses to England for the intended Arab
race at Newmarket. It resulted in our taking back four with us to
England.
“_18th Feb._--No letter has come from the Nizam, so I am writing
again to get one. They are really the most aggravating people to
deal with. A vote of censure is expected in England, and if the
Ministry go out of office Lord Ripon will follow, and there will be
an end of the university and everything else. Gordon has arrived at
Khartoum, and has issued a proclamation announcing the slave trade
to be henceforth free. This is in accordance with a conversation
I had with him last year, for I remember well his admitting that,
in spite of all, he had done more harm than good by his crusade
against the traffic. The only point indeed we differed on was as to
the necessity of retaining Khartoum for Egypt. I have always been
for limiting Egypt to its old frontier at Assouan, and abolishing
slavery in Lower Egypt, and encouraging its abolition elsewhere.
But the Anti-Slave Trade Association does not want slavery
abolished any more than a huntsman wants to abolish foxes. Their
livelihood depends too entirely on it.
“We spent the afternoon at the stables with Abd-el-Rahman Minni and
Eid el Temini, and arranged with the latter that he should go with
us next winter to Nejd, starting from Jerusalem and travelling by
Kheybar to Aneyzeh. He is himself of the Harb Tribe, but he knows
them all, and we could go to the Ateybeh, who are now in high
feather, having beaten Ibn Rashid and the Shammar several times.
The son of Saoud has joined, and is living with them, declaring
that he will not go back to Riad until Ibn Rashid is destroyed. He
is on good terms now with his uncle Abdallah, but remains with the
Bedouins. Abd-el-Rahman will give us letters to them all, and he
says there would be no danger or difficulty in going to Riad. They
would all be delighted to see us. So, therefore, let it be. We need
to see the desert again, and we need to visit Medina.
“_19th Feb._--Had luncheon at Parel with the Governor, Sir James
Fergusson, whom I remember in old days. He is a good fellow of
the old Tory type, believing that all is for the best in the best
of possible worlds, and firmly convinced that the Anglo-Indian
administration is worked perfectly by high-minded and disinterested
men, having the welfare of the natives at heart. He himself
undoubtedly has, but I cannot think he knows all that happens
under his Government. Talking of the Mahdi, he quoted his own head
_chuprassi_ as having told him that the man in Africa could not be
he. He admitted, however, that the forest conservancy had been a
great evil, and was making the hillmen very angry. The ryots on all
other points were highly delighted at our rule. He would not hear
of any danger of a revolution, because seven years ago a Mahratta
Brahmin had been discovered trying to excite rebellion, and in his
diary had been found complaints of the people being as dull as
stones to his preaching. The assessment everywhere in Bombay was
low, the people everywhere but in the hills and at Poonah were well
affected, and he thought a war with the Mahdi would be popular.
This is possibly true to some extent in the city of Bombay, because
war would bring wealth in the shape of contracts and employment.
I told him frankly my views, and he was at pains to convince me
that they were wrong. He has asked us to stay with him a few days
in Government House before we go. To the races later, where we
found Mohammed Ali Rogay and Ali Bey the Turkish Consul. They will
dine with us to-morrow. Mr. Gladstone states in Parliament that he
disbelieves Gordon’s having proclaimed free slave trade.
“_20th Feb._--Wrote letters all the morning and then went to call
on Prince Agha Khan, where I met a Persian Mulvi of repute, and
had a long talk about the Mahdi. This reverend gentleman would
not hear of his being the real Mahdi, who, of course, ought to be
a Shiah, but they seemed to think him better than English rule
in Egypt. I could not get the Prince to give a decided opinion
one way or the other. His father was head of a sect in Persia,
and was driven out with some thousands of his followers, and they
settled at Bombay, where he was considered to the day of his death
a saintly personage. His son inherits something of his position,
and is visited by many devotees from Persia, but he is inclined
to worldly interests, and thinks a great deal about horse racing.
He showed me his stud, and I am glad to say has agreed to send his
best horse Kuchkolla to Newmarket for the Arab race.
“Mohammed Ali Rogay and Ali Bey came to dine with us. We discussed
the condition of Turkey, the Sultan, and the prospect in Egypt. Ali
Bey is of opinion that the fortune of Islam is bound up with the
maintenance of the Ottoman Empire, but he would see a new system
introduced into the administration, for the Mohammedan population
was dying out. ‘There are no young men in the villages,’ he said,
‘none but old ones left.’ I could not, however, get anything more
definite out of him than a suggestion that the personal power of
the Sultan should be curtailed, and the Government intrusted to a
Council, that the official language should be Arabic instead of
Turkish, and that the revenue collected in the provinces should be
spent in the provinces.
“_22nd Feb._--Gordon’s proclamation in favour of the slave trade
has been fully confirmed, and Gladstone’s later denial seems only
to have been a dodge in view of the Vote of Censure, which has been
thrown out by a majority of eighty-one. On the whole I am glad of
it, as, though the poetical justice would have been admirable, we
should lose our game altogether just now with the Tories, as they
would certainly annex Egypt and invade the Soudan.
“I went to call on Malabari, and afterwards to the stables, where
I had a long conversation with Abd-el-Rahman, partly about the
condition of the inhabitants of Bombay, but principally about
horses. We talked of Rogay, who, Abd-el-Rahman says, makes two
mistakes. He is a disciple of Seyd Ahmed (he told me so himself
the other day), and he mixes himself up with politics. This,
Abd-el-Rahman deplores. But they are friends, and he says he is
a good-hearted man. Abd-el-Rahman is a vice-chairman or something
of the Anjuman i Islam, and will attend the meeting which is
now put off till Friday. His heart, however, is in horses, as
becomes an Arab and a horse dealer, and we soon got back to them.
Abd-el-Rahman tells me the Nejd horses take longer to get into
condition when they come over poor than the Anazeh horses. He says
three quarters of the racing Arabs are bay, which is certainly the
case at present, as The Doctor is the only first-class gray horse
now running. Among the ponies this is not so much so.
“_23rd Feb._--Yesterday evening I received the letter promised me
by Salar Jung, which has been wandering about, having been first
sent to Kalbarga. It is most satisfactory. The Nizam signifies in
it his readiness to see the university founded at Hyderabad, he
records the Viceroy’s approval, and he invites me to return to
Hyderabad to complete the work.[13] This ‘crowns the edifice.’ I am
now only anxious to get home.
“Ghulam Mohammed Munshi called. He has spent twenty years, he tells
me, trying to get up a Mohammedan school at Bombay, and has at last
succeeded. He seems a good old man, though apparently a follower of
Seyd Ahmed. He was the first organizer, too, of the Anjuman i Islam
here, and was sent to see me by Abd-el-Latif, who had telegraphed
to him. He gave me some particulars about the Bombay Mohammedans.
Agha Khan has 30,000 followers who count as Shiahs, but they are
hardly Mohammedans, as they neither pray nor read the Koran nor
fast. They are called Khojas, and the sect began not in Persia, but
in Kutch, being originally poor; they are now rich and prosperous
traders and shopkeepers. The late Agha Khan kept them very
strictly, forbidding them to attend the public schools. The rest of
the community are Sunnis. The original Mohammedans of Bombay are
called Kokhnis. They are Shafites, as they were converted by the
Arabs, and are shopkeepers. The rest are descended from northern
immigrants, and are mostly Hanafites. He tells me the Mulvis are
very much averse to education, but they are all coming to the
Anjuman meeting on Friday, when there will be about five hundred
persons present.
“Dined at Mr. Gonne’s, where I had some talk with Sir William
Wedderburn, a very superior man indeed. We discussed the
agricultural question, and agreed, I think, on every point,
except that he seems to hope for more good from Lord Ripon’s
local self-government scheme than I do. He said: ‘The village is
the unit. What we want is to have one village, only one village,
really examined, and the fact ascertained that it does not pay the
cost of its cultivation.’ Agriculture in India does not suffice to
keep the people alive. In old days it was an accessory only; now
it is their sole resource. Formerly they were weavers, mechanics,
carriers, as well as farmers, and now these trades are stopped, and
they cannot live on the land. He agreed with me about the necessity
of a permanent settlement everywhere. He said: ‘The assessment is
not merely a land tax, nor merely a rent. It is more than both of
these. It is a poll tax, and a tax on labour, for it takes more
than the whole agricultural profit, the excess being levied on
wages received for other than agricultural work done.’ This is a
good description of the facts. I told him what Gordon had said to
me about the hopelessness of expecting anything being done for
the Indian people until they had made a revolution; perhaps if
the Government went bankrupt it would do as well. But he said it
was incredible how long governments could go on after they were
practically insolvent. We are to have another talk to-morrow.
“_24th Feb., Sunday._--A visit from Sir Jamsetji Jijibhoy who
called to invite us to see the Towers of Silence with him. He is
a young man of great simplicity and apparent honesty, who seems
to do his duty in public matters, but rather to avoid politics.
There is, however, nothing more absurd than to suppose that
the Parsis are not on the native side of the quarrel with the
Anglo-Indians. Their position was well explained later by the
editor of the ‘Rast,’ Kaikhosna Norrosji Kabraji, with whom I had
a very long conversation. He said that the Parsis came originally
from Persia, twelve centuries and more ago, having been driven
out by the Moslems. The Hindus had received them, but on certain
conditions. They were to abstain from cow’s flesh especially, and
to use certain Hindu forms in their marriage ceremonies. They were
persecuted constantly, and repressed, and were in danger of dying
out when the English came to Bombay. For this reason they have
always supported the English raj, and would support any Imperial
Government which should succeed the English. They had become very
prosperous and wealthy, and education had brought them a wish
to take part in public affairs. They were now with the Hindus
in the struggle going on for Home Rule, though they had no wish
to weaken the connection with England, which was all to their
advantage. I asked him about their priests, and he told me they
were very ignorant, that their ritual was in Zend, which few of
them understood. It was a language closely allied to Sanskrit,
a good Sanskrit scholar being able to read Zend, but few knew
either. The richer Parsis, however, had taken full advantage of
public education, though they complained, like the Mohammedans,
of a lack of religious instruction. He did not think education in
England a good thing for Parsis, though he had sent his son there
to read for the Civil Service Examination. He only knew one Parsi
who had returned improved from England. That was one of the Wadia
family. Most were spoilt by it. One had ended by marrying his aunt.
Others had stayed in England altogether. He had been instrumental
in getting up the ‘God save the Queen’ movement with Canon Harford,
having translated it into Gujerati. I explained to him the Egyptian
and Soudan situations, and he has already begun to write in his
journal against sending Indian troops. I also explained the
political situation in England, and promised to see his son and
give him good advice.
“Ali Hamid Bey also called, and we are to dine with him on Friday,
before the Anjuman meeting. I like the young man.
“At 4 o’clock Sir William Wedderburn called, and we had a long
talk. He considers that the chief reforms to be looked to are: 1.
To have a fixed sum allotted for the Civil List, so as to make the
multiplication of offices impossible. At present, sons and nephews
and cousins of Members of Council are stuck into the uncovenanted
Civil Service _ad libitum_. They get posts of two or three hundred
rupees a month, and cannot live on it, and so do their work badly.
It is just two and three hundred rupee places that would form the
prizes of the native Civil Service. Sir William thinks the English
civilians should be few and well paid. They are now multiplied
needlessly. 2. To do away with the Indian Council in London.
They are now made a Court of Appeal, but they are all members of
the old covenanted clique, and so are incapable of unprejudiced
decision. 3. He is in favour of a permanent settlement everywhere
at one-sixteenth of the net produce. 4. He would have an option of
paying in kind or in money. 5. He would have agricultural banks.
“He described the state of things at the end of Lytton’s reign
as bordering on revolution. Armed bands were beginning to go
about, having the sympathy of the people. They were put down with
great difficulty. In the Bombay Presidency, Sir Richard Temple
contributed much to this state of things. Lytton’s policy of show
corrupted them all, and Temple exaggerated it. Temple was a man
without principles, good or bad, and his idea of getting on was to
head every cry popular with the Anglo-Indians. Thus, during the
famine, when the cry was ‘Save life at any cost,’ he had immense
heaps of grain collected conspicuously in every station, much of
which rotted and was lost, and he issued a minute to the effect
that two pounds of grain should be the daily ration. Then came a
reaction. It was found that the country was being ruined by this
wholesale distribution, and he issued another minute that one pound
was a quite sufficient ration, the truth being that one and a half
was about the reasonable portion. He was answerable, too, for the
severity of the forest laws. Because it was a popular cry that
timber should be preserved, he issued a minute confiscating whole
districts to this purpose.
“Dined at Sir Frank Souter’s. Abd-el-Rahman and Kamr ed Din
Tyabji and a couple of Parsis were there, Sir Frank having what
is considered here great sympathy with the natives. But it seemed
to me that without intending it, he was insulting them in nearly
every word he said, although he is evidently a most kind-hearted
man. These mixed native and Anglo-Indian parties are colourless
things, and the conversation is all unreal, neither side speaking
its real thoughts. I suppose, if the truth had been told, it would
have been something of this sort. _Souter_: ‘You are welcome to
my house and honoured guests, because I am an English gentleman,
and I think it right that natives should be civilly treated. But
I know that you are still half savages, and hope you will take no
liberties.’ _The native guests_: ‘We come to dine with you because
it is a good thing to stand well with those in power. But you
grow rather brutal after your sixth glass of champagne.’ It is
astonishing the amount of liquor consumed here in India.
“_25th Feb._--Malabari called, and I had a long talk with him about
my plans and ideas, and he has promised to help them on all he can.
He is going to get up a small meeting of Hindus and Parsis, but I
told him I would sooner not make a speech for fear of saying too
much. We lunched with Mr. L., a typical Anglo-Indian, at the Yacht
Club,--a tall, dry man, Judge of the High Court, who has carried
on through life the recollection that he was a sixth form boy at
Eton, and in the cricket eleven. He would like to see Afghanistan
annexed, and himself sent to administer justice there. With him
General H., who, just as Sir James Fergusson quoted his chuprassi,
quoted his native troopers as authorities for the contempt with
which the Mahdi was regarded by Mohammedans in India.
“To the stables, where we spent a pleasant hour talking and making
arrangements with Eid el Temini about visiting Nejd next winter.
We decided it would be best to start from Bussora and Koweit,
and we agreed to meet him there about the 1st of December. Dined
at Dr. Blane’s, and sat between Lady S. and Miss T. The former
complained of the shabby way the Anglo-Indian officials were
treated by Government, and thought it hard India should not be
governed entirely for their benefit. They all hated India so much
that they ought to be handsomely treated for being obliged to live
there. What would India do without them, and what would England do
without India? How could England ever have conquered Afghanistan
without Indian troops? How could she have conquered Egypt? This is
a sincere woman. Miss T. is a serious person. She would see the
agricultural condition of the Indian ryot raised by inducing him to
plant fruit trees and keep market gardens. She has been four months
in India, but has not yet gone beyond Bombay.
“_26th Feb._--The Diwan of Kolapur, a Mahratta Brahmin, called.
He confirmed Sir William Wedderburn’s estimate of Sir Richard
Temple, but added that he was the best informed of any Governor
they had had. It was not from ignorance that he erred, but because
he only looked to his own advancement. I asked him about the land
revenue of Kolapur, and he said it was about twenty per cent. of
the gross produce, the same as in Bombay, but the districts varied.
The Bombay Deccan was very poor land, not so good as Kolapur, and
there might be some districts as highly assessed as one-third. I
asked him if he thought Indian finance in a satisfactory state.
He said the agricultural revenue will diminish, because the land
is becoming impoverished, but they may make up in other ways by
opium and salt taxes. The salt tax was much complained of, both
on the sea coast, where it interfered with the fishing industry,
and inland, where the cattle were suffering from want of it. He
could not explain why, in Northern India, they should not give salt
to their cattle, but supposed they were able to give them better
food. He was on the Famine Commission and spoke very highly of Sir
James Caird, though he said that from want of time he had not been
able to understand certain questions, and so had made mistakes.
He seemed to think that Wedderburn was too kind to the ryots, and
doubted the success of his bank scheme, at any rate financially. He
had, of course, a very high opinion of him, both as an honest man,
and as one who knew. He likes Fergusson, but says he knows nothing
that is going on. Wrote multitudinous letters, among others to Amir
Ali and Abd-el-Latif, exhorting them each to unite with the other
over this university scheme. But I hardly expect they will.
“The photographs have come representing us with Lord Ripon and
the Nizam and Grant Duff, me standing next to Cordery, behind the
Viceroy’s chair. There is humour in this; and I shall send copies
to my various friends in token of the university scheme having
succeeded. It will give them courage. After all, Ragunath Rao could
never get to see Lord Ripon, and he writes rather comically about
it. We are staying with Fergusson at Parel.
“_27th Feb._--There is an article in the ‘Bombay Gazette’ this
morning about the university, well and courteously written, and
which I am told is probably by a Mr. West of the High School.
It is, of course, against it, but will attract attention, which
is what we most want, and cannot by any possibility do harm. At
breakfast I told Sir James Fergusson that I was going to a meeting
of Hindus and Parsis, and asked him for a carriage to go in. He
told me very frankly he did not like my going from his house,
though when I explained that it was not a public meeting, and that
it would be held at the house of Kashinath Telang, an honourable
member of his own council, he agreed to send me. But he spoke to me
very strongly and very earnestly about the danger of my exciting
the native mind by appearing to sympathize with their grievances.
He could not understand how, as an Englishman, I could reconcile
it with my conscience to do this. The Government of India was a
despotism of a paternal and beneficent character, which was day
and night working for the people’s good, and any agitation would
only impede its efforts. There were, of course, ambitious natives
who had their own ends to serve by making out a case against the
Government, but he could assure me their tales were lies. He knew,
of his personal experience, that the Government officials were
entirely anxious to do what was right, that the people looked up to
them as their protectors from injustice, and that he believed there
was no better Government in the world, or one more respected. He
asked me what subjects I proposed to discuss with them, and hoped
I should eschew politics, and he spoke so earnestly and well that
I had not the heart to say how precisely his good faith proved
all the native argument. No one can doubt Sir James’s loyalty.
But who are his eyes and hands and ears? His chuprassi, who tells
him that the Mohammedans despise the Mahdi; Sir Frank Souter, who
tells him, on his experience as a police officer and a friend of
the natives, to trust no native’s word; Mr. L., who would like to
extend his High Court jurisdiction to Afghanistan, and the old
Commander-in-Chief. I said, however, that I could not promise not
to talk about politics, but I would say nothing inflammatory,
and I felt quite certain that no sympathy I could show them or
suggestions that I could offer, would make them more dissatisfied,
or make them any clearer-headed about a remedy than they were
already. He asked me what they complained of, and I instanced the
absence of any real Court of Appeal for grievances. At this he
broke out and protested that nothing could be less true, that every
day appeals were made to him, and the decisions of lower officials
reversed by their superiors or himself. All were anxious to do
justice to the poor, sometimes only too anxious. Only the other day
he had had to censure an officer for making too strong a complaint
as to the oppression of the people. He had written that the people
were being ruined by the Government. There was no want of sympathy
for them anywhere. I said: ‘Yet you censured him.’ He said: ‘Yes,
because he spoke too strongly.’ I like Sir James, because he is
quite honest and plainspoken. But were not the Austrian officials
in Lombardy equally sure that their Government was the best in the
world, and did not Lombardy rise and cast them out? Ignorance is a
greater danger than ill-will.
“To the meeting. I confined my questions almost entirely to
agriculture and finance. The general opinion of the meeting about
local finance was that its condition was not satisfactory, that
the assessments were far too high, and that the resettlement every
thirty years was a bar to capital being invested in the land. ‘In
the old days,’ one speaker said, ‘we used to look on the land as
our best investment; now we avoid it. If a permanent settlement
were introduced we should again invest in land, just as they do
now in Bengal.’ (This in answer to the question, what would be the
result of a permanent settlement?) ‘The land would thus fall into
the hands of capitalists, but the whole policy of the Government
had been to discourage middlemen, because it looked on them as
drones who kept a portion of the honey from coming to the proper
hands, its own. This was a natural law of economy which legislation
could not interfere with without harm.’ The meeting was unanimously
in favour of a permanent settlement as the only solution of the
agricultural difficulty, and as, by itself, a sufficient remedy. I
asked about the assessment, and it was agreed, after some argument,
that about one-third of the gross produce was a fair calculation
for Bombay. One half of the net produce was the pretension of the
Government officers. Gujerat was the most fertile district, but the
assessment was high. Wells were taxed, and so the sinking of new
ones discouraged. A landowner of Gujerat, Yavinhal, told me his
assessment had been raised on account of the possibility of making
a well. I mentioned Sir James Fergusson’s assurance that there was
no wrong in India without a remedy, and asked if it was so. This
caused general laughter; and Rao Shankar, the Oriental translator
to the Government and a man in whom Sir James Fergusson has the
greatest confidence, went so far as to say that he had never known
the instance of an appeal from assessment having been favourably
met. They were all against the salt tax, and one man mentioned
the condition of the population of the Koucan, south of Bombay,
as suffering most from leprosy. They could no longer cure their
fish against the monsoon when fishing was impossible. The district
between the Ghauts and the sea was very poor, so poor that the
villagers only existed by coming in for mill labour, part of the
year, to Bombay. The cultivation there did not pay its expenses.
“I asked them, since taxes must be raised, how they would raise
them. They said: ‘By import duties. We should all like these, as
they would affect only the rich.’ I asked them about the income
tax, and here there was a difference of opinion, Telang being in
favour of it, but others said it was only a little better than the
license tax, and Mr. Ferdunji, C. I. E., a leader among the Parsis,
denounced them both alike. It is evident that this tax is unpopular
in India, but the license tax seems to combine its disadvantages
as an inquisitorial tax, without raising sufficient money. The
highest rate paid by any man, however wealthy, in Bombay, is only
two hundred rupees, so it is a tax on the middle classes only,
not on the rich. Those who have an income of five hundred rupees
are exempted. They were all very much amused at Sir James’s fear
of my influencing their minds, and it is plain they have no great
idea of his intelligence, though they hold him honest. Yet these
are the pick of the native community, Members of Council, of the
Corporation, and officials of all sorts. Who then are the people
Sir James gets his ideas from? Who are the satisfied natives? I
have not met a single one since I came to India. We did not touch
directly on any political subject.
“At dinner, at Mohammed Ali Rogay’s, we had a great discussion
about the Mahdi, to whom all wish success. There were several men
of the old school with whom I talked Arabic, and we talked also
about the Turkish Empire and the new university.
“_28th Feb._--A long talk with Sir James after breakfast.
He admitted more than in our previous conversation. Thus he
acknowledged the evil of the salt tax, and all the evil of the
forest tax, though he said the latter was being remedied. The way
the evil had been done was this. In 1878 a law had been passed
in Calcutta ordering the enclosure of lands, and that they should
be marked out within the year. With the ‘usual dilatoriness’ of
the administration, this was put off till the last month, when
arbitrary lines were drawn, with an explanation that these would
be rectified later. Execution, however, was begun, and hundreds of
families were turned out of their holdings without consideration,
but things were now being remedied (after six years!). I asked
what became of the people, and Sir James said ‘Some emigrated,
some disappeared.’ Compensation, he said, was given ‘wherever
titles existed,’ but these were people who had been encouraged to
cultivate bits of the hill. The wrong was nearly redressed now.
“Sat at dinner next to Mr. West. He is a clever man, much wrapped
up in his own conceit, and very intolerant. He is Vice-Chancellor
of the university here, and attacked my ideas about founding a
Mohammedan university. The Mohammedans were incapable of reform,
being fatalists and fanatics; they had burnt the library of
Alexandria; their creed could not adapt itself to circumstances.
What would a Mohammedan community do at Rome under a Papal
Government? How could they get on without mosques? At Kalbarga they
would only encourage each other in ignorance and fanaticism, and
the end of it would be that they would bring the Nizam’s Government
to grief.
“_29th Feb._--Rode with Fergusson on a Turcoman horse, which had
belonged to Shere Ali. He is very frank and amiable now he has
spoken his conservative mind, and on many points we agree, for
instance, on the necessity of import duties, and the reduction
of the salt tax, and I think he is not altogether averse to a
permanent settlement, though he will not hear of there being
now any over assessment, or of officers having any interest in
raising assessments. Only the other day the supreme Government had
lowered some newly-made assessments twenty per cent. But this cuts
both ways, as it seems to show that they were too high. We also
agreed that it would be well to get the native states to disarm.
I thought they would consent, but he was sure they would not, and
was surprised to hear me say that in Hyderabad they would not much
mind it. He is a good fellow, and, I am sure, does his best as a
kindly despot and liberal landlord. But he is in the hands of his
officials.
“I wrote a quantity of letters, while Anne went out looking
after things. Then we called on Mrs. Malabari and arranged with
Malabari that I should correspond with him, and he would help on
the university scheme all he could in his paper. Then to dinner
at Hamid Bey’s,--Rogay, Bedr-ed-Din Tyabji, and others, also
guests--and after it to a meeting of the Anjuman i Islam, about
five hundred persons present. They presented me with an address,
and I made a long speech expounding my ideas. We did not touch on
politics. There was a beautiful sight in the heavens to-night,
the crescent moon with the evening star exactly over it and quite
close, like the Mohammedan device. This should mean a victory for
the Mahdi either at Suakin, where they talk of an imminent battle,
or perhaps the fall of Khartoum. I never saw a moon and star like
this before.
“_1st March._--We left India to-day, being exactly the anniversary
of our leaving Egypt two years ago, and we are going home with
something of the same vague hopes and fears. We have only taken
our tickets to Suez, but I do not mean to land there, as it would
only give them a triumph to have me arrested, and I can strike them
a severer blow by moderation.
“As we were leaving Government House, Professor Monier Williams and
his wife arrived. I had some talk with him about the things that
interest me, and he invited me to come and stay with him at Oxford,
and give a lecture on Mohammedan education. This I promised to do.
“And so we leave India, well satisfied with what we have done, but
not a little glad now it is over.”
FOOTNOTE:
[13] See Appendix.