CHAPTER XXVII.

CONCLUSIONS.

No Viceroy has for fifty years gone out to India at so critical a moment

as that at which Lord Hardinge of Penshurst is about to take up the

reins of government. In one respect only is he more favoured than most

of his predecessors. The Anglo-Russian agreement, of which he himself

helped to lay the foundations when he was Ambassador at St. Petersburg,

has removed the greatest of all the dangers that threatened the external

security of India and the peace of Central Asia during the greater part

of the nineteenth century. It does not, however, follow that the

Government of India can look forward with absolute confidence to

continued immunity from all external troubles. Save for the Tibetan

expedition and one or two small punitive expeditions against Pathan

tribes, there have been no military operations on the Indian frontier

since the Terai campaign was brought to a close in 1898. But signs are,

unfortunately, not wanting of a serious recrudescence of restlessness on

the North-West Frontier, where the very necessary measures taken to cut

off supplies of arms from the Persian Gulf have contributed to stimulate

the chronic turbulence of the unruly tribesmen. There is no definite

evidence at present that they are receiving direct encouragement from

Cabul, but it is at least doubtful whether the somewhat exaggerated

deference shown to the Ameer on the occasion of his visit three years

ago to India has permanently improved our relations with him, and though

he is no longer able to play off Russia and England against each other,

he has not yet brought himself to signify his adhesion to the Convention

which defined our understanding with Russia in regard to Afghan affairs.

The condition of Persia, and especially of the southern provinces, has

created a situation which cannot be indefinitely tolerated, whilst the

provocative temper displayed by the Turkish authorities under the new

_régime_ at various points on the Persian Gulf is only too well

calculated to produce unpleasant complications, however anxious we must

be to avoid them, if only in view of the feeling which any estrangement

between Mahomedan Powers and Great Britain inevitably produces amongst

Indian Moslems. The high-handed action of China in Tibet, and, indeed,

all along the north-eastern borderland of our Indian Empire, has

introduced a fresh element of potential trouble which the Government of

India cannot safely disregard, for we are bound not only to protect our

own frontiers, but also to safeguard the interests of Nepal and Bhutan,

where, as well as in Sikkim, the fate of Tibet and the flight of the

Dalai Lama have caused no slight perturbation. In Nepal especially,

which is one of the most valuable recruiting grounds of the Indian Army,

Chinese ascendency cannot be allowed to overshadow British influence.

Lord Hardinge is by profession a peacemaker, and how efficient a

peacemaker he proved himself to be at St. Petersburg during the

Russo-Japanese war will only be fully known when the historian has

access to the secret records of that critical period of Anglo-Russian

relations. But it must not be forgotten that the maintenance of peace

along such a vast and still largely unsettled borderland as that of

India may at any moment be frustrated by disturbing forces over which

the most peacefully disposed Viceroy has little or no control.

Peace and sound finance, which is inseparable from peace, have certainly

never been more essential to India than at the present juncture. For

without them the difficulty of solving the most absorbing and urgent of

the internal problems of India will be immeasurably enhanced. There is a

lull in the storm of unrest, but after the repeated disappointments to

which official optimism has been subjected within the last few years, he

would be a sanguine prophet who would venture to assert that this lull

presages a permanent return to more normal conditions. Has the creation

of a new political machinery which gives a vastly enlarged scope to the

activities of Indian constitutional reformers, definitely rallied the

waverers and restored courage and confidence to the representatives of

sober and law-abiding opinion, or will they continue to follow the lead

of impatient visionaries clamouring, as Lord Morley once put it, for the

moon which we cannot give them? Have the forces of aggressive

disaffection been actually disarmed by the so-called measures of

"repression," or have they merely been compelled for the time being to

cover their tracks and modify their tactics, until the relaxation of

official vigilance or the play of party politics in England or some

great international crisis opens up a fresh opportunity for militant

sedition? To these momentous questions the next five years will

doubtless go far to furnish a conclusive answer, and it will be

determined in no small measure by the statesmanship, patience, and

firmness which Lord Hardinge will bring to the discharge of the

constitutional functions assigned to him as Viceroy--i.e., as the

personal representative of the King Emperor, and as Governor-General in

Council--i.e., as the head of the Government of India.

I have attempted, however imperfectly, to trace to their sources some of

the chief currents and cross-currents of the great confused movement

which is stirring the stagnant waters of Indian life--the steady impact

of alien ideas on an ancient and obsolescent civilization; the more or

less imperfect assimilation of those ideas by the few; the dread and

resentment of them by those whose traditional ascendency they threaten;

the disintegration of old beliefs, and then again their aggressive

revival; the careless diffusion of an artificial system of education,

based none too firmly on mere intellectualism, and bereft of all moral

or religious sanction; the application of Western theories of

administration and of jurisprudence to a social formation stratified on

lines of singular rigidity; the play of modern economic forces upon

primitive conditions of industry and trade; the constant and unconscious

but inevitable friction between subject races and their alien rulers;

the reverberation of distant wars and distant racial conflicts; the

exaltation of an Oriental people in the Far East; the abasement of

Asiatics in South Africa--all these and many other conflicting

influences culminating in the inchoate revolt of a small but very active

minority which, on the one hand, frequently disguises under an appeal to

the example and sympathy of Western democracy a reversion to the old

tyranny of caste and to the worst superstitions of Hinduism, and, on the

other hand, arms, with the murderous methods of Western Anarchism, the

fervour of Eastern mysticism compounded in varying proportions of

philosophic transcendentalism and degenerate sensuousness.

In so far as this movement is directed to the immediate subversion of

British rule, we need not exaggerate its importance, unless the British

Empire were involved in serious complications elsewhere which might

encourage the seditious elements in India to break out into open

rebellion. We are too often, in fact, inclined to underrate the strength

of the foundations upon which our rule rests. For it alone lends--and

can within any measurable time lend--substantial reality to the mere

geographical expression which India is. A few Indians may dream of a

united India under Indian rule, but the dream is as wild to-day as that

of the few European Socialists who dream of the United States of Europe.

India has never approached to political unity any more than Europe has,

except under the compulsion of a conqueror. For India and Europe are

thus far alike that they are both geographically self-contained

continents, but inhabited by a great variety of nations whose different

racial and religious affinities, whose different customs and traditions,

tend to divide them far more than any interests they may have in common

tend to unite them. We have got too much into the habit of talking about

India and the Indians as if they were one country and one people, and we

too often forget that there are far more absolutely distinct languages

spoken in India than in Europe; that there are far more profound racial

differences between the Mahratta and the Bengalee than between the

German and the Portuguese, or between the Punjabee and the Tamil than

between the Russian and the Italian; that, not to speak of other creeds,

the religious antagonism between Hindu and Mahomedan is often more

active than any that exists to-day between Protestants and Roman

Catholics, even, let us say, in Ulster; and that caste has driven into

Indian society lines of far deeper cleavage than any class distinctions

that have survived in Europe.

We do not rule India, as is sometimes alleged, by playing off one race

or one creed against another and by accentuating and fostering these

ancient divisions, but we are able to rule because our rule alone

prevents these ancient divisions from breaking out once more into open

and sanguinary strife. British rule is the form of government that

divides Indians the least. The majority of intelligent and sober-minded

Indians who have a stake in the country welcome it and support it

because they feel it to be the only safeguard against the clash of rival

races and creeds, which would ultimately lead to the oppressive

ascendency of some one race or creed; and the great mass of the

population yield to it an inarticulate and instinctive acquiescence

because it gives them a greater measure of security, justice, and

tranquillity than their forbears ever enjoyed.

There are only two forces that aspire to substitute themselves for

British rule, or at least to make the continuance of British rule

subservient to their own ascendency. One is the ancient and reactionary

force of Brahmanism, which, having its roots in the social and religious

system we call Hinduism, operates upon a very large section--but still

only a section--of the population who are Hindus. The other is a modern

and, in its essence, progressive force generated by Western education,

which operates to some extent over the whole area of India, but only

upon an infinitesimal fraction of the population recruited among a few

privileged castes. Its only real _nexus_ is a knowledge, often very

superficial, of the English language and of English political

institutions. Though both these forces have developed of late years a

spirit of revolt against British rule, neither of them has in itself

sufficient substance to be dangerous. The one is too old, the other too

young. But the most rebellious elements in both have effected a

temporary and unnatural alliance on the basis of an illusory

"Nationalism" which appeals to nothing in Indian history, but is

calculated and meant to appeal with dangerous force to Western sentiment

and ignorance.

It rests with us to break up that unnatural alliance. We may not

reconcile aggressive Brahmanism to Western civilization, but we can

combat the evil influences for which it stands and which many

enlightened Brahmans have long since recognized; and we can combat them

most effectively by rallying to our side the better and more progressive

elements which, in spite of its many imperfections, Western education

and the contact with Western civilization have already produced. To that

end we must shrink from no sacrifices to improve our methods of

education. The evils for which we have to find remedies have been of

slow growth, and they can only be slowly cured. But they can be cured by

patient and sustained effort, and by carrying courageously into practice

the principle, which none of us will challenge in theory, that the

formation of character on a sound moral basis, inseparable in India from

a sound religious basis, is at least as important a part of the

educational process as the development of the intellect.

That, however, is not all. If we are to save and to foster the better

elements, we must stamp out the worse. Do not let us be frightened by

mere words. To talk, as some do, of the Indian Press being "gagged" by

the new Press Act is absurd. It is as free to-day as it has always been

to criticize Government as fully and fearlessly, and, one may add, often

as unjustly, as party newspapers in this country are wont to criticize

the Government of the day. It is no longer free to preach revolution and

murder with the cynical audacity shown in some of the quotations I have

given various Nationalist organs. "Repression" in India, whether of the

seditious press, or of secret societies, or of unlawful meetings, means

nothing more cruel or oppressive than the application of surgery to

diseased growths which threaten to infect the whole organism--and

especially so immature and sensitive an organism as the

semi-Westernized, semi-educated section of Indian society to-day

represents. This surgical treatment will probably also have to be

patient and sustained, for here too we have to deal with evils of no

sudden growth, though some of their worst outward manifestations have

come suddenly upon us. Even if the improvement be more rapid than we

have any right to expect, do not let us throw away our surgical

instruments, but rather preserve them against any possible relapse. We

have to remember not only what we owe to ourselves, but what we owe

equally to the many well-meaning but timid Indians who look to us for

protection against the insidious forms of terrorism to which the

disaffected minority can subject them[24]. The number of our active

enemies may be few, but great is the number of our friends who are of

opinion that we are more anxious to conciliate the one sinner who may or

may not repent than to encourage the 99 just who persevere.

We want the Western-educated Indian. We have made him, and we cannot

unmake him if we would. But we must see that he is a genuine product of

the best that Western education can give, and not merely an Indian who

can speak English and adapt his speech to English ears in order to lend

plausibility to the revival in new forms of ancient religious or social

tyrannies. We must remember also that even the best type of

Western-educated Indian only speaks at present for a minute section of

the population of India, and that, when he does not speak, as he often

naturally does, merely in the interests of the small class which he

represents, he has not yet by any means proved his title to speak for

the scores of millions of his fellow-countrymen who are still living in

the undisturbed atmosphere of the Indian Middle Ages. One of the dangers

we have to guard against is that, because the Western-educated Indian is

to the stay-at-home Englishman, and even to the Englishman whose

superficial knowledge of India is confined to brief visits to the chief

cities of India, the most, and indeed the only, articulate Indian, we

should regard him as the only or the most authoritative mouthpiece of

the needs and wishes of other classes or of the great mass of his

fellow-countrymen with whom he is often in many ways in less close touch

than the Englishman who lives in their midst.

The weak point of the recent political reforms is that they were

intended to benefit, not wholly, but mainly, that particular class. In

so far as they may help to satisfy the legitimate aspirations of the

moderate Indian politician they deserve praise; and in that respect, as

far as one can judge at this very early stage, they are not without

promise. In effect they have also helped to give other important

interests opportunities of organization and expression. Apart from the

great Mahomedan community, whose political aspirations are largely

different from, and opposed to, those of Hinduism, there are

agricultural interests, always of supreme importance in such a country

as India, and industrial and commercial interests of growing importance

which cannot be adequately represented by the average Indian politician

who is chiefly recruited from the towns and from, professions that have

little or no knowledge of or sympathy with them. The politician, for

instance, is too often a lawyer, and he has thriven upon a system of

jurisprudence and legal procedure which we have imported into India with

the best intentions, but with results that have sometimes been simply

disastrous to a thriftless and litigious people. Hence the suspicion and

dislike entertained by large numbers of quiet, respectable Indians for

any political institutions that tend to increase the influence of the

Indian _vakeel_ and of the class he represents. Our object, therefore,

both in the education and in the political training of Indians, should

be to divert the activities of the new Western-educated classes into

economic channels which would broaden their own horizon, and to give

greater encouragement and recognition to the interests of the very large

and influential classes that hold entirely aloof from politics but look

to us for guidance and help in the development of the material resources

of the country. We have their support at present, but to retain it we

must carefully avoid creating the impression that political agitation is

the only lever that acts effectively upon Government, and that in the

relations of India and Great Britain--and especially in their fiscal and

financial relations--the exigencies of party politics at home and the

material interests of the predominant partner must invariably prevail.

Whilst, subject to the maintenance of effective executive control, we

have extended and must continue steadily to extend the area of civil

employment for Indians in the service of the State, there would

certainly seem to be room also for affording them increased

opportunities of military employment. It is a strange anomaly that, at a

time when we have no hesitation in introducing Indians into our

Executive Councils, those who serve the King-Emperor in the Indian Army

can only rise to quite subordinate rank. A good deal has no doubt been

done to improve the quality of the native officer from the point of view

of military education, but, under present conditions, the Indian Army

does not offer a career that can attract Indians of good position,

though it is just among the landed aristocracy and gentry of India that

military traditions are combined with the strongest traditions of

loyalty. By the creation of an Imperial Cadet Corps Lord Curzon took a

step in the right direction which was warmly welcomed at the time, but

has received very little encouragement since his departure from India.

Something more than that seems to be wanted to-day. Some of the best

military opinion in India favours, I believe, an experimental scheme for

the gradual promotion of native officers, carefully selected and

trained, to field rank in a certain number of regiments which would

ultimately be entirely officered by Indians--just in the same way as a

certain number of regiments in the Egyptian Army have always been wholly

officered by Egyptians. Indeed, we need not go outside India to find

even now, in the Native States, Indian forces exclusively officered by

Indians. The effect upon the whole Native Army of some such measure as I

have indicated would be excellent; and though we could never hope to

retain India merely by the sword against the combined hostility of its

various peoples, the Native Army must always be a factor of first-rate

importance, both for the prevention and the repression of any spasmodic

outbreak of revolt. It is no secret that reiterated attempts have been

made to shake its loyalty, and in some isolated cases not altogether

without success. But the most competent authorities, whilst admitting

the need for vigilance, deprecate any serious alarm, and it is all to

the good that British officers no longer indulge in the blind optimism

which prevailed among those of the old Sepoy regiments before the

Mutiny.

One point which Englishmen are apt to forget, and which has been rather

lost sight of In the recent political reforms, is that more than a fifth

of the population of our Indian Empire--about one third of its total

area--is under the direct administration not of the Government of India,

but of the Ruling Chiefs. They represent great traditions and great

interests, which duty and statesmanship equally forbid us to ignore. The

creation of an Imperial Council, in which they would have sat with

representatives of the Indian aristocracy of British India, was an

important feature of the original scheme of reforms proposed by the

Government of India. It was abandoned for reasons of which I am not

concerned to dispute the validity. But the idea underlying it was

unquestionably sound, and Lord Minto acted upon it when he drew the

Ruling Chiefs into consultation as to the prevention of sedition. Some

means will have to be found to embody it in a more regular and permanent

shape. If we were to attempt to introduce what are called democratic

methods into the government of British India without seeking the

adhesion and support of the feudatory Princes, we should run a grave

risk of estranging one of the most loyal and conservative forces in the

Indian Empire. The administrative autonomy of the native States is

sometimes put forward as an argument in favour of the self-government

which Indian politicians demand. It Is an argument based on complete

ignorance. With one or two exceptions, far more apparent than real, the

Native States are governed by patriarchal methods, which may be

thoroughly suited to the traditions and needs of their subjects, but are

much further removed than the methods of government in British India

from the professed aspirations of the Indian National Congress. Just as

the Ruling Chiefs rightly complained of the effect upon their own people

of the seditious literature imported into their States from British

India before we were at last induced to check the output of the

"extremist" Press, so they would be justified in resenting any grave

political changes in British India which would react dangerously upon

their own position and their relations with their own subjects. When we

talk of governing India in accordance with Indian ideas, we cannot

exclude the ideas of the very representative and influential class of

Indians to which none are better qualified to give expression than the

Ruling Chiefs. One further suggestion. The policy of annexation has long

since been abandoned, and the question to-day is whether we might not go

further and give ruling powers to a few great chiefs of approved loyalty

and high character, who possess in British India estates more populous

and important than those of many whom we have always recognized as

Ruling Chiefs. The objections to so novel a departure are, I know,

serious, and may be overwhelming--foremost among them being the

reluctance hitherto shown by the people themselves whenever, for

purposes of administrative convenience, any slight readjustment of

boundaries has been proposed that involved the transfer to a native

State of even a few villages until then under British Administration.

The political reforms with which Lord Minto's Viceroyalty will remain

identified are only just on their trial. All that can safely be said at

present is that they are full of promise, and it would be rash to

predict whether and when it may be safe to proceed further in the

direction to which, they point. It is difficult even to say yet awhile

what share they have had, independently of the "repressive" measures

that accompanied them, in stemming at least temporarily the tide of

active sedition. Time is required to mature their fruits whether for

good or for evil. One may hope that, though they address themselves

only to the political elements of the present unrest, they will tend to

facilitate the treatment of the economic and social factors of the

Indian problem. It is these that now chiefly and most urgently claim the

attention of the British rulers of India. To rescue education from its

present unhealthy surroundings and to raise it on to a higher plane

whilst making it more practical, to promote the industrial and

commercial expansion of India so as to open up new fields for the

intellectual activity of educated Indians, to strengthen the old ties

and to create new ones that shall bind the ancient conservative as well

as the modern progressive forces of Indian society to the British _Raj_

by an enlightened sense of self-interest are slower and more arduous

tasks and demand more patient and sustained statesmanship than any

adventures in constitutional changes. But it is only by the successful

achievement of such tasks that we can expect to retain the loyal

acquiescence of the Princes and peoples of India in the maintenance of

British rule.

The sentiment of reverence for the Crown is widespread and deep-rooted

among all races and creeds in India[25]. It is perhaps the one tradition

common to all. It went out spontaneously to Queen Victoria, whose length

of years and widowed isolation appealed with a peculiar sense of lofty

and pathetic dignity to the imagination of her Indian peoples. It has

been materially reinforced by the pride of personal acquaintance, since

India has been twice honoured with the presence of the immediate

successor to the Throne. The late King's visit to India has not yet

faded from the memory of the older generation, and that of the present

King-Emperor and his gracious Consort is, of course, still fresh in the

recollection of all. How powerful is the hold which the majesty of the

Crown exercises upon Princes and peoples in India was very strikingly

shown by the calming effect, however temporary, which the presence of

the Prince and Princess of Wales had in Bengal four years ago, at the

very moment when political agitation in that province was developing

into almost open sedition; and it was shown once more this year by the

hush of subdued grief that passed over the whole of India at the sudden

news of King Edward's death. Only such rabid papers as Tilak's old

organ, the _Kesari_, ventured an attempt to counteract the deep

impression produced by that lamentable event, and it could only attempt

to do so, very ineffectively, by a spiteful and ignorant depreciation of

the position and personality of the Sovereign, and of the part played by

him in a Western democracy.

In spite of the traditional prestige attaching to the Crown, we cannot,

however, reasonably look for loyalty from India in the sense in which we

look for it from our own people or from our kinsmen beyond the seas.

There can never be between Englishmen and Indians the same community of

historical traditions, of racial affinity, of social institutions, of

customs and beliefs that exists between people of our own stock

throughout the British Empire. The absence of these sentimental bonds,

which cannot be artificially forged, makes it impossible that we should

ever concede to India the rights of self-government which we have

willingly conceded to the great British communities of our own race. And

there is another and scarcely less cogent reason. The justification of

our presence in India is that it gives peace and security to all the

various races and creeds which make up one-fifth of the population of

this globe. To introduce self-government into India would necessarily be

to hand it over to the ascendency of the strongest. That we are debarred

from doing by the very terms on which we hold India, and that is what

Lord Morley must have had in his mind, when, in supporting the Indian

Councils Act last year, he specifically excluded all possibility of such

assemblies ever leading to the establishment of Parliamentary government

in India. The sooner that is made perfectly clear the better. But just

because executive self-government is inconceivable in India so long as

British rule is maintained, we must recognize the special

responsibility that consequently devolves upon us not only to do many

things for India which we do not attempt to do for our self-governing

Dominions, but, above all, not to force upon India things which we

should not dream of forcing upon them, and especially in matters in

which British material interests may appear to be closely concerned. We

must continue to govern India as the greatest of the dependencies of the

British Crown, but we must do our utmost to satisfy Indians of all

classes and castes and beliefs that we govern them as none of their race

could govern them, with an equal and absolutely impartial regard for all

law-abiding communities, with an intelligent appreciation of their

peculiar interests, and with genuine consideration for all their ideas,

so long as those ideas are compatible with the maintenance and security

of British rule.

* * * * *

The retirement of Lord Morley has been announced just as these last

pages are going to press. The announcement has been received with

genuine and widespread regret at home, where criticism of certain

details and aspects of his administration has never detracted from a

genuine recognition of the lofty sense of duty and broad and courageous

statesmanship which he has displayed throughout a very critical period

in the history of our Indian Empire. It will assuredly be received with

the same feeling in India by all those who have at heart the destinies

of the British _Raj_ and the interests of the countless peoples

committed to our charge. Lord Morley's tenure of office will remain for

all times memorable in Anglo-Indian annals. He has set for the Indian

ship of State a new course upon which she will be kept with increasing

confidence in the future if we keep steadily before us the wise words

which, with his own singular felicity of speech, he addressed two years

ago to the Indian Civil Service:--"We have a clouded moment before us

now. We shall get through it--but only with self-command and without any

quackery or cant, whether it be the quackery of blind violence disguised

as love of order, or the cant of unsound and misapplied sentiment,

divorced from knowledge and untouched by any cool consideration of

facts."

NOTES

NOTE 1.

THE NATIVE PRESS.

Not a single Indian member of the Imperial Council made any serious

attempt to controvert the following description given by Sir Herbert

Risley of the demoralization of the native Press when he introduced the

new Press Bill on February 4, 1910:--We see the most influential and

widely-read portion of the Indian Press incessantly occupied in

rendering the Government by law established odious in the sight of the

Indian people. The Government is foreign, and therefore selfish and

tyrannical. It drains the country of its wealth; it has impoverished the

people, and brought about famine on a scale and with a frequency unknown

before; its public works, roads, railways, and canals have generated

malaria; it has introduced plague, by poisoning wells, in order to

reduce the population that has to be held in subjection it has deprived

the Indian peasant of his land; the Indian artisan of his industry, and

the Indian merchant of his trade; it has destroyed religion by its

godless system of education; it seeks to destroy caste by polluting

maliciously and of set purpose, the salt and sugar that men eat and the

cloth that they wear; it allows Indians to be ill-treated in British

Colonies; it levies heavy taxes and spends them on the army; it pays

high salaries to Englishmen, and employs Indians only in the worst paid

posts--in short, it has enslaved a whole people, who are now struggling

to be free.

My enumeration may not be exhaustive but these are some of the

statements that are now being implanted as axioms in the minds of rising

generation of educated youths, the source from which we recruit the

great body of civil officials who administer India. If nothing more were

said, if the Press were content to--

"let the lie Have time on its own wings to fly" things would be bad

enough. But very much more is said. Every day the Press proclaims,

openly or by suggestion or allusion, that the only cure for the ills of

India is independence from foreign rule, independence to be won by

heroic deeds, self-sacrifice, martyrdom on the part of the young, in any

case by some form of violence. Hindu mythology, ancient and modern

history, and more especially the European literature of revolution, are

ransacked to furnish examples that justify revolt and proclaim its

inevitable success. The methods of guerilla warfare as practised in

Circassia, Spain, and South Africa; Mazzini's gospel of political

assassination; Kossuth's most violent doctrines; the doings of Russian

Nihilists; the murder of the Marquis Ito; the dialogue between Arjuna

and Krishna in the "Gita," a book that is to Hindus what the "Imitation

of Christ" is to emotional Christians--all these are pressed into the

service of inflaming impressionable minds. The last instance is perhaps

the worst. I can imagine no more wicked desecration than that the

sacrilegious hand of the Anarchist should be laid upon the Indian song

of songs, and that a masterpiece of transcendental philosophy and

religious ecstasy should be perverted to the base uses of preaching

political murder.

The consequences of this ever-flowing stream of slander and incitement

to outrage are now upon us. What was dimly foreseen a few years ago has

actually come to pass. We are at the present moment confronted with a

murderous conspiracy, whose aim it is to subvert the Government of the

country and to make British rule impossible by establishing general

terrorism. Their organization is effective and far-reaching; their

numbers are believed to be considerable; the leaders work in secret and

are blindly obeyed by their youthful followers. The method they favour

at present is political assassination; the method of Mazzini in his

worst moods. Already they have a long score of murders or attempted

murders to their account. There were two attempts to blow up Sir Andrew

Fraser's train and one, of the type with which we are now unhappily

familiar, to shoot him on a public occasion. Two attempts were made to

murder Mr. Kingsford, one of which caused the death of two English

ladies. Inspector Nanda Lal Banerji, Babu Ashutosh Biswas, the Public

Prosecutor at Alipore, Sir William Curzon-Wyllie, Mr. Jackson, and only

the other day Deputy Supdt. Shams-ul-Alum have been shot in the most

deliberate and cold-blooded fashion. Of three informers two have been

killed, and on the third vengeance has been taken by the murder of his

brother in the sight of his mother and sisters. Mr. Allen, the

magistrate of Dacca, was shot through the lungs and narrowly escaped

with his life. Two picric acid bombs were thrown at His Excellency the

Viceroy at Ahmedabad, and only failed to explode by reason of their

faulty construction. Not long afterwards an attempt was made with a bomb

on the Deputy Commissioner of Umballa.

These things are the natural and necessary consequence of the teachings

of certain journals. They have prepared the soil in which anarchy

flourishes; they have sown the seed and they are answerable for the

crop. This is no mere general statement; the chain of causation is

clear. Not only does the campaign of violence date from the change in

the tone of the Press, but specific outbursts of incitement have been

followed by specific outrages.

And now, Sir, I appeal to the Council in the name of all objects that

patriotic Indians have at heart to give their cordial approval to this

Bill. It is called for in the interests of the State, of our officers

both Indian and European, and most of all of the rising generation of

young men. In this matter, indeed, the interests of the State and the

interests of the people are one and the same. If it is good for India

that British rule should continue, it is equally essential that the

relations between Government and the educated community should be

cordial and intimate, and that cannot long be the case if the organs of

that community lay themselves out to embitter those relations in every

sort of way and to create a permanent atmosphere of latent and often

open hostility. In the long run people will believe what they are told,

if they are told it often enough, and if they hear nothing on the other

side. There is plenty of work in India waiting to be done, but it will

be done, if the energies of the educated classes are wasted in incessant

abuse and suspicion of Government. As regards the officers of Government

the case is clear. At all costs they must be protected from intimidation

and worse. And it is our Indian officials who stand in most need of

protection, for they are most exposed to the danger. The detailed work

of investigation and detection necessarily falls upon them, and they are

specially vulnerable through their families. They have done most

admirable work during the troubles of the last few years, and have

displayed under most trying conditions courage and loyalty that are

beyond all praise. We are bound in honour to protect them from threats

of murder and outrage which sooner or later bring about their own

fulfilment.

To my mind, Sir, the worst feature of the present situation is the

terrible influence that the Press exercises upon the student class. I

was talking about this about a month ago with a distinguished Indian who

is in close touch with schools and colleges in Bengal. He took a most

gloomy view of the present state of things and the prospects of the

immediate future. According to him the younger generation had got

entirely out of hand, and many of them had become criminal fanatics

uncontrollable by their parents or their masters.

I believe. Sir, that this Bill will prove to be a wholesome and

beneficial measure of national education, that it will in course of time

prevent a number of young men from drifting into evil courses and

ruining their prospects in life, and that in passing it this Council

will earn the lasting gratitude of many thousands of Indian parents.

NOTE 2

THE SUPERIORITY OF HINDU CIVILIZATION. In an "Open Letter to his

Countrymen," published at the Sri Narayan Press in Calcutta, Mr.

Arabindo Ghose has in so many words proclaimed the superiority of Hindu

to Western civilization. "We reject," he writes, "the claim of aliens to

force upon us a civilization inferior to our own or to keep us out of

our inheritance on the untenable ground of a superior fitness."

NOTE 3

SEDITIOUS PLAYS.

One of the most popular of these plays is _The Killing of Kichaka

(Kichaka-vadd)_. The author, Mr. Khadilkar, was assistant editor of the

_Kesari_ until Tilak was arrested and convicted in 1908, and he then

took over the chief editorship. The play has been acted all over the

Deccan as well as in Bombay City to houses packed with large native

audiences. The following account of it appeared in _The Times_ of

January 18 last: Founded upon the Mahabharata, _The Killing of Kichaka_

seems at first sight a purely classical drama. It will be remembered by

Oriental students that Duryodhan, jealous of his cousin Yudhistira,

Emperor of Hastinapura and the eldest of the five Pandava brothers,

induced him to play at dice with a Court gambler called Sakuni. To him

the infatuated monarch lost his wealth, his kingdom, his own and his

brother's freedom, and lastly that of Draupadi, the wife of all the

brothers. Eventually, at the intercession of Duryodhan's father, it was

agreed that the Emperor, in full settlement of his losses, should with

his brothers and Draupadi abandon Hastinapura to Duryodhan for 13 years.

Of these 12 were to be spent in the forest and one in disguise in some

distant city. Should, however, the disguise of any be penetrated, all

would be obliged to pass a further 12 years in the forest. When the 12

years had expired, the brothers fixed on Viratnagar, the capital of

Virata, King of the Malyas, in which to spend their year of concealment.

Yudhistira took the name of Kankbhat, a professional dicer, and Bhima

that of Ballava, a professional cook. Under their pseudonyms all five

brothers obtained posts in the King's service, while Draupadi, styling

herself a _sairandhri_ or tirewoman, entered the service of the Queen

Sudeshna. Before the year of concealment ended Kichaka, the brother of

Queen Sudeshna and commander-in-chief of the Malya forces, returned from

a visit to Duryodhan at Hastinapura. Duryodhan had given him as presents

Yudhistira's regalia and Draupadi's jewels, and Kichaka boasted that, as

Duryodhan's friend, he would one after the other kill the five Pandavas

in single combat and then wed their queen. While telling King Virata's

Court of his reception, his eye fell on Draupadi, and learning that she

was a _sairandhri_ and being struck with her beauty, he formally

requested the King Virata that she might be sent to his harem. The King

consenting, Yudhistira was faced with the dilemma of suffering his

queen's dishonour or of revealing his identity. Eventually his brother

Bhima solved the difficulty by secretly killing Kichaka.

It is out of this story that Mr. Khadilkar has sought for the materials

of his play. It opens with the return of Kichaka to Viratnagar and his

passion for the beautiful _sairandhri_. The latter seeks in turn the

protection of the King and his queen, and of Kichaka's wife Ratnaprabha;

but Kichaka, who as commander-in-chief and on account of the number of

his followers is all-powerful in Malya, becomes daily more insistent. He

reminds the King of his past exploits, and threatens to leave his

service, taking his followers with him. Finally, Virata is driven to

make a feeble compromise. He will not himself hand over the _sairandhri_

to Kichaka, but he will have her sent to a temple of Bairoba outside the

town, washing his hands of all responsibility as to subsequent events.

All this time the rescue of Draupadi has been repeatedly discussed

between Yudhistira and his brother Bhima. The former is all for mild

methods, feeling sure that justice will ultimately prevail. The mighty

Bhima wishes to strangle Kichaka regardless of consequences. At last

Bhima and Draupadi together extract from him a most reluctant

permission. Bhima goes secretly to the Bairoba temple, and removing from

its stand the god's idol, he takes its place. So hidden, he is present

when Draupadi, abandoned by the King's guards, is seized upon by

Kichaka. In vain Draupadi appeals to the latter for mercy. He laughs

alike at tears and menaces, and is about to carry her off in triumph

when the god Bairoba is seen to rise from his pedestal. It is Bhima. He

seizes the terrified Kichaka, hurls him to the floor, and strangles him

at Draupadi's feet.

ITS ALLEGORICAL MEANING.

These things are an allegory. Although his name is nowhere uttered on

the stage or mentioned in the printed play every one in the theatre

knows that Kichaka is really intended to be Lord Curzon, that Draupadi

is India, and that Yudhistira is the Moderate and Bhima the Extremist

Party. Every now and again unmistakable clues are provided. The

question, indeed, admits of no doubt, for since the play first appeared

in 1907 the whole Deccan has been blazoning forth the identity of the

characters. Once they have been recognized, the inner meaning of the

play becomes clear. A weak Government at home, represented by King

Virata, has given the Viceroy a free hand. He has made use of it to

insult and humiliate India. Of her two champions, the Moderates advocate

gentle--that is, constitutional--measures. The Extremists, out of

deference to the older party, agree, although satisfied of the

ineffectiveness of this course. Waiting until this has been

demonstrated, they adopt violent methods, and everything becomes easy.

The oppressor is disposed of without difficulty. His followers--namely,

the Anglo-Indians--are, as it is prophesied in the play and as narrated

in the Mahabharata, massacred with equal ease. And the Extremists boast

that, having freed their country, they will be able to defend it against

all invaders, thus averting the calamities which, according to Lord

Morley, would overtake India on the disappearance of the British.

It may be said that all this is mere fooling. But no Englishman who has

seen the play acted would agree. All his life he will remember the

tense, scowling faces of the men as they watch Kichaka's outrageous

acts, the glistening eyes of the Brahmin ladies as they listen to

Draupadi's entreaties, their scorn of Yudhistira's tameness, their

admiration of Bhima's passionate protests, and the deep hum of

satisfaction which approves the slaughter of the tyrant.

NOTE 4

SHIVAJI'S EXHORTATIONS.

In the _Kesari_ just a week before the Poona murders, the following

verses were put into the mouth of Shivaji:

"I delivered my country by establishing 'Swaraj' and saving religion.

I betook myself to the Paradise of Indra to shake off the great

exhaustion that came upon me from my labours. Why, O my beloved ones,

have you awakened me? I planted in the soil of Maharashtra virtues that

may be likened to the Kalpavriksha (one of the five trees of Indra's

Paradise that yields whatsoever may be desired); sublime policy based

on strong foundations, valour in the battlefield like that of Karma,

patriotism, genuine unselfishness, and unity, the best of all. ... Alas,

alas! all I see now is the ruin of my country. Those forts of mine to

build which I poured out money, to acquire which torrents of fiery blood

streamed forth, from which I sallied forth to victory roaring like a

lion--all those are crumbling away. What a desolation is this!

Foreigners are dragging out Lakshmi (the goddess of Good Fortune) by the

hand of persecution. Along with her Plenty has fled, and with Plenty,

Health. The wicked Akabaya (the goddess of Misfortune) stalks with

Famine at her side through the country, and relentless Death scatters

foul diseases."

"Say, where are those splendid ones who promptly shed their blood

on the spot where my perspiration fell? They eat bread once in a day,

but not even enough of that. They toil through hard times by tightening

up their bellies. O People, how have you tolerated in the sacred places

the carrying off to prison of those holy preceptors, those religious

teachers of mine, those saintly Brahmans whom I protected--who, while

they devoted themselves to their religious practices in times of peace,

exchanged the Darbah (sacrificial grass) in their hands for weapons

which they used manfully when occasion required. The cow, the

foster-mother of babes when their mother leaves them, the mainstay of the

hard-worked peasant, the importer of strength to my people, whom I

worshipped as my mother and protected more than my life, is taken

daily to the slaughter-house and ruthlessly butchered by the

unbelievers.... How can I bear this heartrending spectacle? Have

all our leaders become like helpless figures on the chess-board? What

misfortune has overtaken the land!"

NOTE 5

TILAK IN THE CIVIL COURTS.

The Tai Maharaj case came up once more in September on the Appellate

side of the Bombay High Court on appeal against the decision of the

Lower Courts. It was contended on behalf of Tai Maharaj, the widow, that

her adoption of one Jagganath was invalid owing to the undue influence

brought to bear upon her at the time by Tilak and one of his friends and

political associates, Mr. G.S. Khaparde, who were executors under the

will of her husband, Shri Baba Maharajah. Mr. Justice Chandavarkar, in

the course of his judgment reversing the decisions of the Lower Courts,

said that on the one hand they had a young inexperienced widow, with a

right of ownership but ignorant of that right, and led to believe that

she was legally subject to the control of the executors of her husband's

will as regarded the management of the estate which she had by law

inherited from her son, prevented from going to Kolhapur even to attend

a marriage in a family of relations, and anxious to adopt a boy from

Kolhapur as far as possible. On the other hand they had two men of

influence learned in the law, taking her to an out-of-the-way place

ostensibly for the selection of a boy, and then, as it were, hustling

her there by representing that everything was within, their discretion,

and thereby forcing her to adopt their nominee. In these circumstances

they came to the conclusion that the adoption was not valid, because it

was brought about by means of undue influence exercised over Tai Maharaj

by both Tilak and Khaparde.

Mr. Justice Chandavarkar is a Hindu Judge of the highest reputation, and

the effect of this judgment is extremely damaging to Tilak's private

reputation as a man of honour, or even of common honesty.

NOTE 6

KHUDIRAM BOSE'S CONFESSION.

A similar confession was made by Khudiram Bose, the author of the fatal

bomb outrage at Muzafferpur. When he was brought before the District

Magistrate on May 1, 1908, within twenty-four hours of the crime, he

stated: I came to Muzafferpur five or six days ago from Calcutta to kill

Mr. Kingsford. I came of my own initiative, having read in various

papers things which incited me to come to this determination. These

papers were the _Sandhya, Hitabadi, Jugantar_ and many others. They

wrote of great _Zoolum_ done to India by the English Government. Mr.

Kingsford's name was not specially mentioned, but I determined to kill

him because he put several men in gaol. Besides reading the papers I

heard the lectures of Bpin Pal, Surendranath Banerjee, Gisputty

Kabyatirtha, and others. There were lectures in Beadon-square and

College-square [in the student quarter of Calcutta], and they inspired

me to do this. There is also a Sanyasi who lectures in Beadon-square,

who is very strong.

NOTE 7

RELIGION AND POLITICS

On this point a very important piece of evidence has been recently

produced in Court in the course of the Dacca Conspiracy trial. It is a

letter, of which the authenticity is beyond dispute, written by Mr.

Surendranath Banerjee to one of the extremist leaders, in which he

suggests means for carrying out the proposed celebration of the

"boycott" anniversary on August 7 in spite of the prohibition of public

meetings under the Seditious Meetings Act. "My suggestion," writes this

distinguished politician, who is also the head of Ripon College, one of

the most popular colleges in Calcutta, "is that you should organize a

religious ceremony on the 7th of August such as _Shakti-puja_ and

_Kali-puja_, and have _Swadeshi kalka_ or _jatra_ and _Swadeshi_

conversation by having a sort of conference. Give a religious turn to

the movement. As for the Muhammedans, if you can get them to your side,

why not have a _wuz_ followed by _Swadeshi_ preaching? Kindly let me

know what you do. But something must be done." _Shakti_ rites and the

worship of Kali are associated with some of the most libidinous and

cruel of Hindu superstitions. The simultaneous attempt to attract

Mahomedans by grafting "_Swadeshi_ preaching" on to one of their

accustomed religious services betrays Mr. Surendranath Banerjee's

cynical indifference to any and every form of religious creed so long as

it can be exploited in the interest of his political creed.

NOTE 8

THE "REMOVAL OF INFORMERS."

Shortly after the murder of Shams-ul-Alam, the following "Appeal" was

printed and issued in Calcutta with reference to the "removal of

informers":

HATYA NOY JAGNA.

(Not Murder but Sacrifice.)

Cash price: the head of a European or the heads of two Informers.

50th issue Calcutta, Sunday, 6th Chaitra, 1316.

Tempted by gold, some native devils in form of men, the disgrace of

India--the police--arrested those great men Barendra Ghose and others

who worked for the freedom of their country by sacrificing their

interests and dedicating their lives in the performance of the sacred

ceremony of _Jagna_, preparing bombs. The greatest of these devils in

human form, Ashitosh Biswas, began to pave for these heroes the way to

the gallows. Bravo, Charu! [the murderer of Biswas] all honour to your

parents. To glorify them, to show the highest degree of courage,

disregarding the paltry short span of life, you removed the figure of

that monster from the world. Not long ago, the Whites by force and

trick, filched India from the Mahomedans. That mean wretch

Shams-ul-Alam, who espoused the cause of the enemies of Alamghir

Padshah, who put a stain on the name of his forefathers for the sake of

gold--to-day you have removed that fiend from the sacred soil of India.

From Nuren Gossain to Talit Chakravarti, all turned approvers through

the machinations of that fiendish wizard Shams-ul-Alam and by his

torture. Had you not removed that ally of the monsters, could there be

any hope for India?

Many have raised the cry that to rebel is a great sin. But what is

rebellion? Is there anything in India to rebel against? Can a Feringhee

be recognized as the King of India, whose very touch, whose mere shadow

compels Hindus to purify themselves?

These are merely Western Robbers looting India.... Extirpate them, ye

good sons of India, wherever you find them, without mercy, and with them

their spies and secret agents. Last year 19 lakhs of men died of fever,

smallpox, cholera, plague, and other diseases in Bengal alone. Think

yourselves fortunate that you were not counted amongst those, but

remember that plague and cholera may attack you to-morrow, and is it not

better for you to die like heroes?

When God has so ordained, think ye not that at this auspicious moment it

is the duty of every good son of India to slay these white enemies? Do

not allow yourselves to die of plague and cholera, thus polluting the

sacred soil of Mother-India. Our _Shastras_ are our guide for

discriminating between virtue and vice. Our _Shastras_ repeatedly tell

us that the killing of these white fiends and of their aiders and

abettors is equal to a great ceremonial sacrifice _(Asyamedh Jagna_.)

Come, one and all. Let us offer our sacrifice before the altar in

chorus, and pray that in this ceremony all white serpents may perish in

its flames as the vipers perished in the serpent slaying ceremony of

_Janmajob_. Keep in mind that it is not murder but _Jagna_--a

sacrificial rite.

NOTE 9

BENGALEE LAWLESSNESS.

A very striking, and at the same time sober, picture of the conditions

produced by Bengalee methods of agitation is to be found in the speech

delivered at the opening of the Provincial Legislature of Eastern Bengal

at Dacca on April 6, 1910, by Sir Lancelot Hare, the Lieutenant-Governor

appointed in succession to Sir Bampfylde Fuller. "We have had abundant

experience," he said, "in the last three years that the advocacy of the

boycott at public meetings is invariably followed by acts of tyranny and

brutality and illegal interference with the rights of a free people to

buy and sell as they, and not as a particular set of agitators, prefer.

No district officer anxious to maintain the peace of his district can

allow a recrudescence of these disturbances. I have seen it denied that

there have been such cases, but the state calendar of crime is there to

refute such an assertion; and you and I well know that the cases which

have been brought to trial bear a very small proportion to the cases

which have arisen but which the raiyats have been afraid to press home.

When we remember the enormous power of the zemindar following from the

unfortunate absence of any record of right upon which the tenant can

lean, and rely, we can well understand how a raiyat hesitates to oppose

his landlord's will. I have seen, it claimed that such advocacy of the

boycott is a constitutional right. The extraordinary fallacy of this

assertion hardly needs refuting. With a democratic Government an appeal

to the public is an appeal to the Government, as it is an appeal to the

voter who appoints the member of Parliament who appoints the Government.

Such a condition does not exist in this country, and when an agitator

who wishes to press his views on Government says that the boycott will

be preached until Government takes a particular course which Government

has decided is not for the good of the people, and has announced that it

will not adopt, such an appeal is not a constitutional act nor an appeal

to Government but an act of defence and open resistance to Government.

This Government now as always will do what it believes to be in the best

interests of the people. It will always give such regard as it can to

respectful representations, even when they come from a small minority

only of the population; but appeals to force and violence, appeals to

the mob for race hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness, do not

constitute constitutional agitation. I would say a few words on the

mischief of the boycott agitation. The boycott agitation has been the

curse of this province for the past five years, causing endless

suffering and unrest, obstructing the path of progress, exciting

ill-feeling between Government and the people, and hindering their

co-operation in the work of reconstitution and reform. The agitation has

displayed itself in many evil forms, all tending to oppression, and

lawlessness."

"MANY-HEADED MISCHIEF."

It is difficult to review this many-headed mischief in a few words, but

its main features may readily be brought to mind. First there is the

economic disturbance which resulted from the enforcement of the boycott

whether by persuasion, or by intimidation or by force. This has been a

very real mischief and a very real suffering in many parts of the

country where the cultivators found themselves unable to obtain the

products to which they were accustomed at prices which they could afford

to pay. Next is to be noted the violent scenes in the bazaars, where the

sale of British goods was sought to be obstructed by organized force.

The deplorable riot at Jamalpore, with its terrible sequel, is only one

among many such scenes. A closely allied evil was the picketing of the

bazaars by students and other young men, which became an intolerable

nuisance until it was put down with a strong hand. The case at

Jhalakati, where the young boycotters practically took possession of the

bazaar, is a prominent typical instance. Then followed the numerous

cases of interference with individuals with the accompaniment of assault

and mischief and criminal restraint. The long list of crimes of this

nature that have been punished in due course would be wearisome to

repeat. No less mischievous and perhaps even more widespread and more

common have been the cases of criminal intimidation, in which notices

have been posted, or letters have been sent, threatening vendors or

purchasers individually or collectively with arson or murder or other

outrage. Wealthy zemindars and bankers, shopkeepers of all grades, and

villagers and townsfolk have alike prayed to be protected from such

interference in the lawful pursuit of their ordinary avocations; and too

often it has been impossible to afford this protection. That these

threats were not mere idle extravagance has been proved to the hilt by

the grave incidents that have actually taken place. More widespread,

more difficult to deal with, and causing even greater suffering than

these violent methods has been the social persecution which has been

exercised upon those who have failed to bow down to the orders of the

boycotters. This is one of the most serious chapters in the whole

history of the agitation, and Government has again had to deplore the

sufferings to which quiet and law-abiding persons have been subjected.

The constitution of Hindu society lends itself with great readiness to

this form of compulsion, and no weapon is more feared than social

ostracism when ruthlessly used in pursuance of a political object.

Another most grave aspect of the boycott agitation has been the constant

attempt to excite disaffection against Government by public meetings,

speeches, propagandist tours, newspapers, pamphlets, songs, flaunting

and noisy processions, and dramatic performances. Every effort has been

made to try and persuade the people that the Government is hostile,

callous, and neglectful and that boycott, and its kindred measures, are

the means by which to bring it to a better course. Some of the worst

offenders have been prosecuted under the law and have paid the penalty

of their crimes, but it is impossible by such means to counteract or

nullify the mischief that they and others have caused.

YOUTHS AND POLITICS.

There remains another point which is at the present time of the most

sinister significance. The promoters of the agitation conceived the

deplorable idea that their propaganda might best be spread, and that

their designs might best be carried out by the youths of the country.

From this selection has arisen what is now the worst feature of the

situation. It is impossible to condemn too strongly the use of the

students and other youths to foster political aims. It has resulted in a

wave of excitement amongst immature and impressionable minds throughout

the affected districts. In this province in the first instance this evil

exhibited itself in the constant appearance of youths in the forefront

of political demonstration, however hostile and objectionable in

character. This phenomenon was naturally accompanied by numerous

instances of indiscipline among students which Government has repeatedly

been obliged to denounce. The effect on the minds of the most

impressionable youths, and especially among those who had a ready means

of livelihood and an available occupation, has reached a pitch which was

doubtless never contemplated by the more sober among those who initiated

this regrettable movement. Nevertheless a series of crimes in which

youths belonging to the respectable classes have been known to

participate must be regarded as directly attributable to the excitement

of political agitation. It is impossible to avoid mentioning in this

connexion the system of national schools which was to be lauded in all

three of the prohibited Conferences, and which has been encouraged in

other similar meetings that are taking place.

During the past few years in this Province the record of these schools

is an evil one. They were established in open hostility to the State

system of education, which is the true national system, and several of

the most important were opened for the purpose of receiving boys

expelled from or punished in other schools for taking part in political

demonstrations of a most reprehensible character. Their subsequent

history has accorded with the spirit in which they were founded and

their close connexion with forms of political agitation most unhealthy

for young minds has been evinced in many a regrettable incident.

THE OUTLOOK.

If we review the present position we find that during the past year

there has been some subsidence of the acute stage of the malady, or

rather it has taken a different turn. The bulk of the reasonable

inhabitants have become wearied of the senseless agitation which brings

annoyance and suffering without doing them good. There is less active

boycott and the ordinary citizen has become less amenable to the leaders

of the agitation. But in spite of this, two circumstances stand

out--first, the local leaders have not in general abated one tittle of

their efforts to enforce the boycott, and where in any locality they

showed signs of resting, their chiefs are ready to urge them forward;

secondly, the perversion of our young men has reached a most alarming

stage, not merely from the point of view of the crime and the sense of

insecurity that it engenders, but also from the more general aspect of

the character and prospects of the rising generation. Many parents have

most bitter reason to lament their failure to guide, control, and

restrain their children. On the 7th August boycott celebrations occurred

at the headquarters of each district of the Dacca division, and at a

number of places in the interior. The boycott vow was everywhere renewed

and at several meetings speeches were delivered, the tendency and object

of which was to excite renewed disaffection and to stir up zeal for the

cause. The observances for the 16th October were prescribed in an order

of the chiefs published in the Calcutta papers, and the local leaders

did their best to carry out these instructions. Rakhibandan bathing,

abstinence from cooked food, and the solemn renewal of the boycott vow

were the principal features. In some places public meetings were held

and again the tone of several speakers was most reprehensible. District

conferences and other similar meetings played their usual important part

in the year's programme. In the Dacca division, Jhalakati, Faridpur, and

Pangsa were selected as the theatres of those performances. The

resolutions were varied in character, but however guarded and mild their

phraseology, the speeches advocated boycott in its most blatant form,

and sentiments were expressed tending to keep alive the most pernicious

and dangerous characteristics of the political and social situation.

Similar conferences, in which the boycott played a prominent part, and

in which ill-feeling against the Government was excited, were held in

August and September at Pabna and Dinajpur, and in the Sylhet district

in October a series of meetings took place. In a portion of the Faridpur

district, the unsettled condition of which has for some time been a

cause of anxiety, the inhabitants are mostly Namasudras. The ostensible

object of these meetings was to raise the social condition of the

people, but it appears from the accounts published in the Press that the

Anti-Partition agitation and the boycott of foreign goods were urged and

the promise of social privilege was only made as a reward or return for

promising to take the boycott vow. This condition of affairs could not

be permitted to continue indefinitely, and it became evident that sooner

or later--and the sooner the better--the mischief must be stopped and

the people of the province given the opportunity which they need and

desire to settle down to their normal life and to co-operation with the

Government for their material and moral progress.

NOTE 10

SACRIFICING "WHITE GOATS"

The term occurs, for instance, in one of the most violent fly-sheets

issued only a few months ago from a clandestine press in India, under

the heading _Yagantar_, killing no murder:--

Rise up, rise up, O sons of India, arm yourselves with bombs, despatch

the white _Asuras_ to Yana's abode. Invoke the mother Kali; nerve your

arm with valour. The Mother asks for sacrificial offerings. What does

the Mother want? The cocoanut? No. A fowl or a sheep or a buffalo? No,

She wants many white _Asuras_. The Mother is thirsting after the blood

of the Feringhees who have bled her profusely. Satisfy her thirst.

Killing the Feringhee, we say, is no murder. Brother, chant this verse

while slaying the Feringhee white goat, for killing him is no murder:

With the close of a long era, the Feringhee Empire draws to an end for

behold! Kali rises in the East.

NOTE 11

HINDUS AND MAHOMEDANS IN GOVERNMENT SERVICE.

Some statistics have been collected lately by the Moslem League with

reference to the relative numbers of Hindus and Mahomedans employed in

Government service in India. The figures are still subject to revision,

and therefore can only be given as approximately correct. Moreover, the

classification adopted does not seem to have been precisely the same in

the different provinces. But even if a considerable margin is allowed

for discrepancies which may yet have to be rectified, the figures quoted

below for several important branches of the service are instructive:--

EXECUTIVE OFFICERS OF THE RANK OF DEPUTY COLLECTORS, DEPUTY

MAGISTRATES, ASSISTANT COMMISSIONERS, &c.

Hindus. Mahomedans.

----------------------------------+----------+--------------

Bombay .. .. .. ..| 53 | 9

Madras .. .. .. ..| 61 | 7

Bengal .. .. .. ..| 265 | 59

Eastern Bengal .. .. ..| 136 | 49

Central Provinces .. .. ..| 60 | 24

United Provinces .. .. ..| 125 | 98

Punjab .. .. .. ..| 74 | 68

SUB-DEPUTY COLLECTORS, SUB-DEPUTY MAGISTRATES, &c.

Hindus. Mahomedans.

----------------------------------+----------+--------------

Bombay .. .. .. ..| 186 | 3

Madras .. .. .. ..| 151 | 11

Bengal .. .. .. ..| 165 | 33

Eastern Bengal .. .. ..| 107 | 39

Central Provinces .. .. ..| 52 | 16

United Provinces .. .. ..| 122 | 106

Punjab .. .. .. ..| 142 | 90

SUB-DEPUTY JUDGES AND MUNSIFFS

Hindus. Mahomedans.

----------------------------------+----------+--------------

Bombay .. .. .. ..| 109 | 2

Madras .. .. .. ..| 132 | 1

Bengal .. .. .. ..| 195 | 17

Eastern Bengal .. .. ..| 21 | 1

Central Provinces .. .. ..| 117 | 6

United Provinces .. .. ..| 111 | 35

Punjab .. .. .. ..| 81 | 52

EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT.

Hindus. Mahomedans.

----------------------------------+----------+--------------

Bombay .. .. .. ..| 39 | 17

Madras .. .. .. ..| 127 | 10

Bengal .. .. .. ..| 110 | 16

Eastern Bengal .. .. ..| 56 | 15

Central Provinces .. .. ..| 23 | 2

United Provinces .. .. ..| 58 | 5

Punjab .. .. .. ..| 53 | 6

NOTE 12

INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS SUBSIDIES TO ITS SUPPORTERS IN ENGLAND.

The following resolutions passed by the Indian National Congress show

that considerable financial support has been regularly given by that

body towards the expenses of its London organ, _India_, and of the

British committee it co-operates with.

MADRAS, 1898.

"That a sum of Rs.60,000 be assigned for the expenses of the British

Committee and the cost of the Congress publication _India_, and also for

the expenses of the Joint-General Secretary's Office, and that the

several circles do contribute, as arranged, either now or hereafter in

Committee for the year 1899."

AHMEDABAD, 1902.

"That with a view to meet the balance required to defray the expenses of

_India_ and the British Committee a special delegation fee of Rs.10 be

paid by each delegate in addition to the usual fee now paid by him with

effect from 1902."

MADRAS, 1903.

"That a sum of Rs.10,500 be assigned for the expenses of the British

Committee and that the several Congress circles do contribute the amount

allotted to each."

BOMBAY, 1904.

"That a sum of £700 be assigned for the expenses of the British

Committee and that the several Congress circles do contribute the amount

allotted to each."

NOTE 13

AN ENGLISH SOCIALIST "MANIFESTO."

The support given to Indian Nationalists by a certain class of

politicians in England goes sometimes to such lengths that the tolerance

extended to them is open to very serious question. For instance, in a

London newspaper which calls itself "the Organ of Social Democracy,"

_Justice_ there appeared on August 27 a "Manifesto" headed "The Infamies

of Liberal Rule in India," which contained, along with much

indiscriminate denunciation of British tyranny, the outrageous statement

that Savarkar, who is now undergoing trial in Bombay on grave charges,

including the abetment of murder, had been arrested in England "for an

alleged political offence, and in order that he might not have a fair

trial defended by Council, and safeguarded by public opinion in this

country, he was sent back to India, where, innocent or guilty, his

condemnation could be officially ensured." In conclusion, it was

stated:--"We, at any rate, shall take care that this little manifesto of

ours shall be distributed in the native languages throughout Hindustan,

in order that the population of that great Empire may know that there is

an active and growing party in this island which has neither part nor

lot in the outrages and crimes committed by our rulers, and that its

members heartily sympathize with the legitimate efforts of Indians of

all races, castes, and creeds to emancipate themselves finally from the

monstrous domination under which they suffer to-day."

Many loyal Indians, and indeed the disloyal ones too, may very

reasonably ask whether it is right and just to allow language of this

kind to be used and circulated with impunity in this country when, if it

were used and circulated in India, it would at once give rise to a

criminal prosecution.

NOTE 14

INDIAN STUDENTS IN ENGLAND.

An Indian Correspondent of _The Times_ who has made a special study of

the condition of his fellow-countrymen studying in England writes that

it would be almost impossible for an Englishman who has never been in

the East to realize the enormous difference between the life to which

the student has been used and the life to which he has come. In many

instances his home is in some far off lonely village. He may have been

to some town to study in a Government or missionary school or college.

But that has not given him an insight into English life. In the

Government institution he sees little of his English teacher or

professor outside lessons or lecture hours. He never has the chance of

knowing an English lady. The student has little time for more than his

studies, so numerous are the subjects and the prescribed text-books for

Indian examinations. In the vacations the Professors go to the hills, or

sail for England, and the student goes back to his village. He has

acquired little or no knowledge of the English. He comes to England

feeling there is a gulf between the East and the West, save in the case

of a missionary interest in his soul. He is by nature extremely

sensitive. On board ship he and his brother Indians keep together. The

English passengers, fatigued after a period of hard work in a hot

climate, have no energy left for the effort of trying to draw out and

know this batch of silent Orientals. So the gulf gapes wide. If they

tarry in Marseilles or Paris there are those who are anxious and ready

to widen this gulf between the Indians and English. Then the student

arrives in London, where a man can be more lonely than anywhere in the

world. Here he has to find a dwelling. The man from a dreamy, lonely,

Eastern village, from the land of the sun has to select an abode in

London. Hotels and boarding houses and lodgings there are in abundance;

but the hotel or boarding house or lodging suitable to this man's

need--fitted to introduce him to English life, may exist, but how is he

to find it? He is not only bewildered, he is terribly home-sick. His

wish to come to England has been, gratified, but oh! for a sight of his

own people and, his simple home. He must drown this longing as best he

may. There are many ways of drowning it in London. There are many who

will assist him to forget what he had better never forget--his village

home. But after all there are some English people who will know him. He

has found lodgings, and the landlady and her family make themselves most

agreeable. He knows no other English people. He wants friendliness so

far away from home, so these and theirs become his friends.

In London the majority of Indian students gain admission to the Inns of

Court. The new regulations, which come into force in January next, were

intended to render admission more difficult to attain; but they will

fail of their purpose, for success in the Oxford and Cambridge senior

local examinations is a qualification for admission, and these

examinations are held in various parts of India. Students will in future

avoid entering the Indian Universities, but will get private coaching,

and sit for these examinations in India, with a view to gaining

admission to one or other of the Inns. It never seems to have occurred

to the Honourable Societies of the Inns to take any steps to look after

the well-being of these numberless students, who bring hundreds of

pounds to their coffers every year. So different is their position from

that of the English student that their case merits special attention. To

look after them might be unusual, it would certainly be expedient. The

eating of a few dinners and attendance at certain lectures are no tax on

the student's time. He puts off real study to the last moment. It is so

easy to learn all the subjects just before each examination. With a few

exceptions the English and Indian students do not speak to each other.

So the Inns do not provide the Indian with society. A youth from the

East, dwelling in a London lodging, finding himself for the first time

in command of a banking account, with abundance of leisure, and no

English friends of his own standing--can he become a loyal, useful

citizen of our Empire?

Some of them go to Oxford and Cambridge. They have heard in India, from

some Indians who were up at these Universities from ten to fifteen years

ago, how delightful the life is--how sociable the undergraduates, how

hospitable the dons. Surely then at these ancient seats of learning they

will find friendliness, and will come to know the English. They go up

only to find disappointment. The numbers have largely increased and all

sorts and conditions of men come. Colleges are reluctant to admit them.

The English undergraduate accepts any man who is good at games and ready

to enter into the University life, but leaves severely alone the man of

any nationality who has had no opportunity of learning English games,

and who is too shy and sensitive to show what he is worth. Those who are

good at games get on, the others are far from being happy. A few gain

admission to colleges, the rest are "unattached." Lodging-house

existence at Oxford or Cambridge is preferable to that in London; but it

does not assist to a knowledge of the English. Foreigners at the

Universities take the trouble to try and know the Indian, and extend to

him that friendship which the English undergraduate, through youthful

lack of thought, withholds. The Imperial instinct is lacking in the

youth of to-day; else would they realize that it is an important duty to

try and know fellow-subjects from a distant part of the Empire. There is

nothing that Orientals will not do to make the stranger to their country

feel at home. They cannot understand the reserved Occidental who leaves

the stranger to his Western country all alone. Some of the Indian

students think that the only way to bid for the English undergraduate's

acquaintance is by a lavish expenditure on wine parties; and so he

spends largely, and acquires an acquaintance, but not with the typical

Englishman. If Indian students at the old Universities are only to know

each other or foreigners, how are they to be bound by a loyal attachment

to England? At Edinburgh the gulf is wide indeed. A number of Colonial

students help to make it wider. The two sides seldom or never meet.

They just tolerate each other's presence. So the Indian student is

tempted to seek for company in circles which do not help his education

or tend to elevate him. Should such a state of things continue?

Engineering and medical students are in better case than others. Their

work is so hard and exacting, if they do it aright, they have no time to

feel solitude. The one complaint of engineering students is that they

find it enormously difficult to gain opportunities for learning the

practical side of their work. Firms are most reluctant to admit them as

apprentices. France and Germany welcome them, and Continental firms

extend to them the aid the English firms deny. Is it always to be so?

Other nations gaining that esteem and gratitude which England should so

jealously acquire and guard. Americans, too, are winning the good will

of the Indian student both in India and abroad. They have well-equipped

schools and colleges all over India. They spare no efforts to make the

Indian student feel they are there solely for him. They are with him in

and out of school and college hours. They inspire him with their

enthusiasm. Wherever they meet him they give him a grip of the hand

which leaves him in no doubt as to their frank friendliness. Yet it is

not to America nor to any other nation that India belongs, but to

England. But there is no security in mere possession. The only safety

lies in the constant effort to hold--to hold pleasantly, gaining the

heart and head.

Surely the fact that many influences are at work systematically striving

to estrange these students from England should rouse the English to

effort. It may not be an easy task to gain these men. It will need

patience and zeal. There must be no touch of patronage in the attempt.

Their deep-rooted belief that no real friendship can exist between the

English and the Indian has to be overcome; the much misrepresentation

which has made the Indian student misjudge the English character has to

be counteracted and set right. It must be remembered that he is a being

far away from home, excessively sensitive, situated in extremely unusual

surroundings and in most cases having lost that religious belief without

which no Oriental is really happy or able to live and be his best. He

is, in truth, not himself. Such is the student who is to be won to

attachment. The difficulty of the task should appeal to the English

nature.

What is required is not a sudden and indiscriminate rush to seek out and

know the Indian student. That would not last and would lead to much

disappointment on both sides. The great need of the present is workers

who know both sides and who will judiciously draw them together.

Connecting links to bring the right Indians into touch with the right

English. They will need very special qualifications, these workers, if

they are to succeed. There is enough to be done to employ the full time

of exceptionally energetic men. Wonders could be worked if England only

realized her duty to these men. The Indian student would return to his

home at any rate with no feeling of bitterness. He would have his chance

of seeing the real English, and of being influenced aright.

Misconceptions would be banished. He would live in an atmosphere better

adapted to hard work. He would attain a higher standard in his studies

and examinations. He would be better fitted to be a useful citizen.

Friendliness would, at any rate, have blunted antagonistic tendencies.

And what a difference it would make to his people! The father who has

spent so much on him would no longer feel that his son has lost and not

gained by crossing the seas. The mother who, though behind the purdah,

has eagerly been watching his career, dwelling lovingly on the weekly

news, counting the days to his return, would no longer need to weep that

it is not well with her son, who has come back so different from all she

had hoped. Whole families would bless the England which had made their

member manly, upright, better for his sojourn there, fitted to earn a

living honourably, and possessed of grit to strive to do his best. And

he, the student, stirred, by memories of kindness in the West, would win

those with whom he comes in contact to a friendlier feeling for the

British race. The seditionist would find no soil here ready for his

seed. Could anything be better worth accomplishing?

NOTE 15

THE VICEROY'S EXECUTIVE COUNCIL.

A Mahomedan gentleman, Mr. Ali Imam, has been appointed to succeed Mr.

Sinha as Indian member of the Viceroy's Executive Council. He too is a

leading member of the Bengal Bar, and, like Mr. Sinha, will take charge

of the Legal Department. Though the selection of a Mahomedan in

succession to a Hindu cannot fail to gratify Indian Moslems, Mr. Ali

Imam's appointment should not be altogether unacceptable to the Hindus.

For when the details of the reforms' scheme were being worked out in

India, he adopted, on the subject of separate electorates for the

Mahomedan community, a line of his own which was applauded by the

Hindus, but was very much resented by the vast majority of his

co-religionists. The Government of India seemed inclined to favour his

proposals, and he proceeded to England to press them upon Lord Morley.

But the Secretary of State wisely decided that the pledges originally

given by Lord Minto to the Indian Mahomedans must be scrupulously and

fully redeemed, so as to secure to them substantial representation in

the new Councils.

NOTE 16

The first Indian Member of the Bengal Executive Council is expected to

be Mr. R.N. Mookerjee, a partner in the well-known Calcutta firm of

Messrs. Martin and Co., to whom I have referred (page 258) as "the one

brilliant exception" amongst Western-educated Bengalees, who has

achieved signal success in commerce and industry and has shown the

possibility and the advantages of intelligent and business-like

co-operation in those fields between Englishmen and Indians.

NOTE 17

THE WASTAGE IN INDIAN UNIVERSITIES.

The most striking feature about the number of graduates at the Indian

Universities is not the magnitude of their total or any increase in it,

but the very high proportion of wastage. It takes 24,000 candidates at

Matriculation to secure 11,000 passes, it takes 7,000 candidates at the

Intermediate examination to secure 2,800 passes, and it takes 4,750

candidates for the B.A. degree to secure 1,900 passes.

There are 18,000 students at college in order to supply an annual output

of 1,935 graduates. This means that a very large number fall out by the

way without completing successfully their University career. The

phenomenon, peculiar to India, of candidates for employment urging as a

qualification that they have failed at a University examination (meaning

that they have passed the preceding examination and added thereto some

years of study for the next) is due to two causes, the large number of

students whom the University rejects at its examinations before it

grants the B.A. degree to the remainder, and the dearth of graduates.

_(Quinquennial Report on the Progress of Education in India for_

1902-1907, by Mr. H.W. Orange, Director-General of Education.)

NOTE 18

ENGLISH HISTORY IN INDIAN SCHOOLS.

At the opening of an Educational Conference held last April in Bombay

under the joint auspices of the Director of Public Instruction and of

the Teachers' Association, the Governor, Sir George Clarke, alluded to

some of the effects of Western education on the younger generation of

Indians:--"It is widely admitted by the thoughtful Indians that there

are signs of the weakening of parental influence, of the loss of

reverence for authority, of a decadence of manners and of growing moral

laxity. The restraining forces of ancient India have lost some of their

power; the restraining forces of the West are inoperative in India.

There has thus been a certain moral loss without any corresponding gain.

The educated European may throw off the sanctions of religion; but he

has to live in a social environment which has been built up on the basis

of Christian morality, and he cannot divest himself of the influences

which have formed his conscience. The educated or partially educated

Indian who has learned to look on life and the affairs of men from a

Western standpoint has no such environment and may find himself morally

rudderless on an ocean of doubt. The restraints of ancient philosophies,

which have unconsciously helped to shape the lives of millions in India

who had only the dimmest knowledge of them, have disappeared from his

mental horizon. There is nothing to take their place. Ancient customs,

some of them salutary and ennobling, have come to be regarded as

obsolete. No other customs of the better sort have come to take their

place, and blindly to copy the superficial customs of the West is to

ignore all that is best in western civilization."

Commenting on his Excellency's speech, the Bombay _Examiner_, a weekly

paper very ably conducted in the interests of the Roman Catholic

missions, drew attention, in the following terms to some of the causes

of the mischief.

(1) The study of English history in schools reveals a gradual transition

from an unlimited monarchy to a limited monarchy differing barely from a

republic, the gradual transfer of political power from kings and

aristocracy through the barons and then through the burghers and finally

to the whole people. In reality this process took almost a thousand

years, but in the schoolroom it is compressed into a term. The

gradualness of the process, the long preparation of each class of

citizens, the slow political education of the masses, all of which forms

a long historical perspective, is through the medium of the text-book

thrown upon, the screen at once as a flat picture. It may not occur

perhaps to the young mind to apply the precedent to his own country; but

as soon as he falls under the influence of the political agitator the

question, suggests itself: If the English people thus fought their way

to supremacy, why should not the Indian people do the same? Losing

sight of the perspective of history, it seems to him feasible that India

should achieve in one bound what it took nearly a thousand years for the

English people to bring about.