THE FUTURE
It is both difficult and risky to predict, especially concerning a
country situated as India is to-day. It is always the unexpected that
happens in human affairs. This is particularly true where human affairs
are so complicated and complex as in India. It is perhaps easier to
predict the future of America or England, than that of India. The Indian
nationalists of the nineties, or even of the early days of the new
century, could hardly have imagined the developments of the last fifteen
years. It is true that India is rather immobile; its masses are rather
inert; and perhaps of all peoples the least affected by changes in the
outside world. They have been under the benumbing influence of a
philosophy of life which keeps them contented even under adverse
circumstances, even when they are starving and have no clothes to hide
their nakedness.
_Change in Indian Life and Depth of Nationalism._ But this is only
partially true of modern India. There is a great deal of exaggeration
about the immobility of Indian people. There may be millions in India
who are as unaffected by modern conditions of life and modern ideas as
they were fifty years ago, but then there are millions who have
consciously awakened. Their strength is not to be judged by the
attendance at Congresses and conferences or other public meetings or
demonstrations, nor by the circulation of newspapers or books. Popular
demonstrations organised in honour of popular leaders, and the increase
in the circulation of newspapers give indications of a great change in
Indian life, but the actual change is even much greater. Read the poetry
of the country or its prose, read the rough versifyings of the
half-educated or even uneducated men and women (including some who are
even illiterate), listen to the talk in the village park or square or
other meeting places, see the games which the children of rustics and
the poorest classes play, attend to the patterings of children, examine
the popular songs or the music that is now in demand, then you will see
how deeply nationalism has pervaded Indian life and what a strong hold
it has gained in the thoughts of the people. No foreigner can realise
that; only an Indian can properly understand it. Examine the vernacular
press--the most sober and the most loyal papers, and underlying the
expressions of deepest loyalty, you would assuredly come across genuine
tears of blood, shed for the misfortune of the country, its decline, its
present wretched and miserable condition. From the Indian press we hear
a never-ceasing lamentation. Listen to the utterances of the most wanton
chief, and the most callous millionaire, bring him out from his
isolation or retirement, put him on the public platform, and you will
notice a vein of nationalism in his thoughts and in his words. But if
you can know what he talks in private to friends from whom he keeps no
secrets, you will see and notice a great deal more. The writer has not
so far met a single Indian of any class--he has met Indians of all
classes and of all shades of opinions, educated, uneducated, prince and
peasant, moderate and extremist, loyalist and seditionist,--who was
genuinely sorry at the outbreak of this war. A number of Indians are
fighting at the front. They are sincerely loyal and true to their oath
of allegiance. They would leave nothing undone to win, but in their
heart of hearts lurks something which in moments of reflection or when
they are off duty, reminds them of the wrongs which they and their
countrymen are suffering at the hands of England. Nationalism is no
longer confined to the classes. It promises to become a universal cult.
It is permeating the masses. Only those Indians realise it who mix with
the people and do not derive their knowledge from works written by
Englishmen or by other arm-chair politicians. No foreigner, however kind
and sympathetic, however great his knowledge of the language of the
country, can ever realise it fully. Even the dancing girls are affected
by it. They will sing political or national songs if you so wish. Even
the wandering minstrel with his rude, one-stringed instrument, knows the
song that is likely to bring him help.
_Nationalism Fertilised by Blood of Martyrs._ No amount of repression or
espionage can stop it. No amount of official terrorism and no devices,
invented or followed to inculcate loyalty, can stop or check the flow
of the new feeling of patriotism and nationalism which is being
constantly fed by the sentences of death and transportation that the
British courts are passing on beardless youths. The Government can not
help it. They must punish the offender and the criminal. They must hunt
up the seditionist. They would not be a government if they would do
otherwise, but India is now in that stage and Indian nationalism is in
that condition when repression, death sentences, and imprisonments are
more beneficial to it than otherwise. The more it is repressed and
suppressed, the more this spirit grows and spreads. It is a seed that is
richly fertilised by the blood of martyrs. The people do not argue, they
do not reason, they do not analyse; they feel that good, well-connected,
healthy, beautiful boys are dying in the country’s cause and to get a
redress of the country’s wrongs. When a bomb is thrown, the people
genuinely condemn the bomb thrower, are sincere in their detestation,
but when he is hanged or transported, they are sorry for him. Their
original abhorrence changes into sympathy and then into love. They are
martyrs of the national cause. They may be misguided, even mad, but they
are martyrs all the same. The moralist and the legalist and the loyalist
and the constitutionalist, all condemn their deeds, but the doers
themselves, they adore, and their names they enshrine in their hearts.
_Wave of Indian Nationalism is on._ Such is human psychology, and such
is the psychology of nations in the making. The Indian mind has entered
on that phase. No amount of sweet speeches by the Viceroy or by the
Lieutenant Governors or by the commissioners or deputy commissioners, no
amount of honours and titles or rewards to individuals, no amount of
preferment of one community as against another, no amount of
canal-making or railway-developing, can change the tide that has begun
to flow, or retard the sweep, much less turn it to ebb.
_Propitiation and Petty Concessions Futile._ This is the supreme fact of
Indian life which every one who has anything to do with India, official
or non-official, statesman or layman, politician or publicist, must
recognise and face. Nations and individuals, filled with their own
importance, drunk with power and resources, accustomed to mould things
and forces in their own way, determined to keep what they have got, may
not see things which are unpleasant to look at or to think about. But
facts are facts and do not wait for their action on the pleasure of
those who do not like them. Canute-like they may command the waves, but
the waves will not listen to them. The wave of Indian nationalism is on
and no amount of tinkering with Indian administration, or sweet phrases,
or promises can check it. “We are the subjects of the same sovereign,”
“citizens of the same empire,” “brothers in arms,” “comrades,” and so
on,--these are kind words spoken by people who perhaps mean well. But in
the light of past experience they do not carry much weight; they may
befool some soft-hearted people, but they would not affect the general
mind of the nation so long as they remain unaccompanied by deeds. An
Executive Council for the United Provinces, a High Court for the Punjab,
a High Court and a University for Behar, a Charter to the Hindu
University, liberal grants to Islamic schools and colleges, may please
some barristers and pleaders, but they will not satisfy the nation, so
long as the Arms Act is on the statute book, so long as the Indian
Councils are a farce, so long as the fiscal policy is laid down in the
interests of Lancashire, and so long as hundreds and thousands of Indian
boys fail to earn a decent living, while the country is being ruled and
exploited by the few fortunate foreigners. Indians want to go to Canada,
to South Africa, to the United States of America, because the wages to
be earned in India are so low, because the life at home is so miserable,
so helpless and so hard and so humiliating. Even abroad the Indian is
kicked and insulted at almost every step, but then that is more easily
borne than the kicks and insults of Englishmen in India.
_Internal Division no Valid Plea._ India has and can produce enough to
feed her own children,[96] nay to spare, provided she were free to make
her own laws, spend her own revenues, and protect her industries. Those
who plead that Indians are too hopelessly divided into religions,
communities, sects, castes, and languages, to be able to form a
government of their own, forget that the English have been in India only
for the last century and a half and that before that India governed
herself. The India of to-day is in no way happier than it was before
pre-British days. The India of Akbar was happier than the England of
Elizabeth and even more prosperous. The India of Asoka was infinitely
happier and more prosperous than the England of Alfred the Great. The
India of Aurangzeb may perhaps have been miserable, but surely not more
miserable than the England of Henry VIII, or the England of James I, or
the Scotland of Mary, or the Ireland of Cromwell, or the France of Henry
IV, or the Holland of Philip. We have the testimony of English
historians and observers that subjects of the East India Company were in
no way happier or more prosperous than when they were under Native
rule,[97] and the subjects of Native States in India governed by Natives
are on the whole in no way worse off than British subjects under the
direct rule of the British.
Look at the United States, how the varied races, sects, religions, and
communities have merged their differences and live under one national
government; look at the number of languages spoken in the United
States--in their schools and in their factories. Look at Switzerland,
what a tiny little country it is! How many languages are spoken and
taught in its schools and how many languages are spoken and used in its
councils, and how many religions are professed by the people of the
country!
The same remarks may be made about the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary,
where the form of government is largely representative in spite of the
diversity of races, sects and languages.
The number of religions, sects and languages in India has been grossly
exaggerated. With every census the number goes up by hundreds, though
the country and the people are the same.
_Illiteracy the Fault of the British and no Bar to Self-government._
Again it is sometimes said that India cannot be self-ruling because of
its illiteracy. This argument does not come with good grace from the
Britishers because it is they who are responsible for the appalling
illiteracy of the Indian population. In Japan, where the work of
education was begun late in the last century, 28 per cent. of the
children of school age were at school in 1873; by 1902-1903 the
percentage had risen to 90. In India, after 150 years of British rule,
the percentage is 19.6. The Indian Nationalists have for a number of
years been asking for compulsory universal education, but the Government
would not listen. The late Mr. Gokhale’s Compulsory Elementary Education
Bill was strongly opposed by the Government and thrown out. But what is
even worse is that the Government would not let the people open their
own schools and colleges because of the unreasonably high standard set
up by the Department for their recognition as public schools.
However, universal literacy of the people is not an indispensable
pre-requisite of self-rule. In Japan, where 50 years ago representative
government was set up, only the _Samurai_ were literate. In India, too,
the higher classes are educated to a considerable extent.
England has enjoyed parliamentary government for centuries, but
universal education was only introduced in 1870.
_Internal Troubles._ As for internal troubles following the withdrawal
of the British or the grant of self-government we ask, “Is there any
country on the face of the earth which is free from internal troubles?”
Even Great Britain is not; much less are the self-governing colonies.
Yet nobody questions their right to govern themselves. Only the other
day President Wilson considered the existence of internal disorder in
Mexico to be no justification for the United States interfering in its
affairs.
_Unfitness of Orientals for Representative Institutions._ As for the
unfitness of Orientals for democratic institutions, why the ancient
history of India refutes it almost conclusively. India was the home of
democratic institutions long before England and France had any notion of
what democracy implied. But if any further proof of the absurdity of
this plea was needed that has been furnished by Japan.
_Nationalism has come to Stay._ Let England try an experiment by
repealing the Arms Act and giving a parliamentary government to India
and see if these considerations effectively stand in the way of
progress. Be that as it may, however, one thing seems to be assured and
certain, that Indian nationalism can neither be killed nor suppressed
by repression, nor by minor concessions. Nationalism has come to stay
and will stay. What will be the upshot is only known to the Gods.
England may win or lose in the great war in which she is engaged. Indian
nationalism will gain in either case. We need not consider how India
will fare if England loses. She may come under Mohammedan domination, or
the Germans may take possession of her; the English would be gone and
then India would enter upon a new life. India does not want it. She will
resist it with all her strength. But if it comes she can’t help it and
Great Britain would be responsible for having brought it. In case,
however, England wins, as she is likely to, the Indian nationalism will
still gain. There will be a demand for political advance, for a change
in the political status of the country and in its relations towards
England and her colonies. From what we know of English temper, of
English political machinery, of English political methods, of English
ways and of English history, that demand is sure to be refused. Some
minor, petty concessions may be made, but they would be disproportionate
to the sacrifices of men and money that India is making in the war. They
will not satisfy the country. Disaffection and discontent will grow and
that is the kind of food on which nationalism thrives and prospers. So
long as there are Curzons, Macdonnels, and Sydenhams in the English
Parliament, Indian nationalism will not starve for want of congenial
food. And we have no reason to think that these dignitaries of the
British Government are likely to disappear.
_Curzons, Macdonnels, Sydenhams, responsible for Bombs and Revolvers._
These persons are directly responsible for the appearance of bombs and
revolvers in Indian political life. The young men who use them are mere
tools of circumstances. If any persons deserve to be hanged for the use
of these destructive machines by Indian nationalists, it is they. It is
a pity that while the latter are dying by tens on the scaffold, the
former should be free to carry on their propaganda of racial
discrimination, racial hatred, and social preferment. But the ways of
Providence are inscrutable. It is perhaps some higher dispensation that
is using these miserable Junkers for its own purposes. Indians have
faith in Providence and they believe that what is happening is for the
best. The Indians are a chivalrous people; they will not disturb England
as long as she is engaged with Germany. The struggle after the war
might, however, be even more bitter and more sustained.
* * * * *
A SHORT BIBLIOGRAPHY OF BOOKS IN ENGLISH
BOOKS BY ENGLISHMEN
“New Spirit in India” by H. W. Nevinson.
“The Awakening in India” by J. Ramsay MacDonald, M.P.
“India, Impressions and Suggestions” by J. Keir Hardie, M.P.
“New India” by Sir Henry Cotton (once an M.P.), late of the Indian
Civil Service.
“Allen Octavian Hume” by Sir W. Wedderburn, late of the Indian
Civil Service (once an M.P.).
“Prosperous British India” by Mr. William Digby, C.I.E.
“India and the Empire” by Mrs. Annie Besant.
“Indian Nationalism” by Edwyn Bevan.
“Bureaucratic Government” by Bernard Houghton (late of the Indian
Civil Service).
“Lord Curzon a Failure” by C. J. O’Donnell (late of the Indian
Civil Service).
“Causes of Indian Discontent” by C. J. O’Donnell (late of the
Indian Civil Service).
“The Indian Ryot” by Sir W. Wedderburn.
“The Skeleton at the Jubilee Feast” by Sir W. Wedderburn.
“Congress Green Books” (84, 85, Palace Chambers, Westminster,
London).
“The New Nationalist Movement in India,” by Dr. J. T. Sunderland.
“Indian Famines and Their Cause” by Dr. J. T. Sunderland, 423 West
120th Street, New York.
BOOKS BY INDIANS
“Poverty or Un-British Rule in India” by Dadabhai Naoroji.
“India Under Early British Rule” by R. C. Dutt, C.I.E.
“India in the Victorian Age” by R. C. Dutt, C.I.E.
“Famines and Land Assessment” by R. C. Dutt, C.I.E.
“England and India” (Indian Progress, 1785-1885) by R. C. Dutt,
C.I.E.
“The Civilization of India” by R. C. Dutt, C.I.E.
“Speeches of the Honourable Mr. G. K. Gokhale.”
“The Swadeshi, a Symposium.”
“Recent Indian Finance” by Wacha.
“The National Evolution” by A. C. Mazumdar.
“The Indian National Congress.”
“Speeches of Sir P. M. Mehta.”
“The Story of My Deportation” by Lajpat Rai.
“The Alipore [Bomb Case] Trial.”
PERIODICALS
_The Modern Review_ (monthly). Calcutta.
_The Indian Review_ (monthly). Madras.
_The Hindustan Review_ (monthly). Allahabad.
_India_ (the British Organ of the Indian National Congress,
weekly). London.
APPENDICES
I
EXTRACTS FROM SIR HENRY COTTON’S “NEW INDIA.”
_Feudatory Chiefs Powerless._ “It would perhaps be ungenerous to probe
too narrowly the dependent position and consequent involuntary action of
the feudatory chiefs. They are powerless to protect themselves. There is
no judicial authority to which they can appeal. There is no public
opinion to watch their interests. Technically independent under the
suzerainty of the Empire, they are practically held in complete
subjection. Their rank and honours depend on the pleasure of a British
Resident at their Court, and on the secret and irresponsible mandates of
a Foreign Office at Simla” (page 34).
_Gross Insults to Indians._ “That intense Anglo-Saxon spirit of
self-approbation which is unpleasantly perceptible in England itself,
and is so often offensive among vulgar Englishmen on the Continent, very
soon becomes rampant in India.
“There are innumerable instances in which pedestrians have been abused
and struck because they have not lowered their umbrellas at the sight of
a sahib on the highway. There are few Indian gentlemen even of the
highest rank who have not had experience of gross insults when
travelling by railway, because Englishmen object to sit in the same
carriage with a native” (pages 68-69).
II
SOME OPINIONS ABOUT BRITISH INDIA
_Industrial Ruin of India. Gokhale._ “When we come to this question of
India’s Industrial domination by England, we come to what may be
described as the most deplorable result of British rule in this country.
In other matters there are things on the credit side and things on the
debit side.... But when you come to the industrial field, you will find
that the results have been disastrous. You find very little here on the
credit side and nearly all the entries on the debit side. Now this is a
serious statement to make, but I think it can be substantiated.”
_India a Mere Possession. Gokhale._ “India formed the largest part of
the Empire, but was governed as a mere possession of the British people.
Three features showed that it had no part or lot in the Empire. In the
first place, the people were kept disarmed; it was thought to be
dangerous to allow them to carry arms. Secondly, they had absolutely no
voice in the government of their own country; they were expressly
disqualified from holding certain high offices, and practically excluded
from others. Lastly, they were not allowed a share in the privileges of
the Empire in any portion outside British India, except a limited one in
the United Kingdom itself.”--MR. GOKHALE.
_Masses Starved. Sir C. A. Elliott._ “I do not hesitate to say that half
our agricultural population never know from year’s end to year’s end
what it is to have their hunger fully satisfied.”--SIR C. A. ELLIOTT,
one-time Lieut.-Governor of Bengal.
_Sir W. W. Hunter._ In 1880. “There remain forty millions of people who
go through life on insufficient food.”--SIR W. W. HUNTER.
_William Digby._ In 1893. The _Pioneer_ sums up Mr. Grierson’s facts
regarding the various sections of the population in Gaya: “Briefly, it
is that all the persons of the labouring classes, and ten per cent. of
the cultivating and artisan classes, or forty-five per cent. of the
total population, are insufficiently clothed, or insufficiently fed, or
both. In Gaya district this would give about a million persons without
sufficient means of support. If we assume that the circumstances of Gaya
are not exceptional,--and there is no reason for thinking otherwise--it
follows that nearly one hundred millions of people in British India are
living in extreme poverty.”
In 1901. “The poverty and suffering of the people are such as to defy
description. In fact, for nearly fifteen years there has been _a
continuous famine in India_ owing to high prices.”
70,000,000 _Continually Hungry People in British India. W. Digby._
“Since Sir William Hunter’s remarks were made the population has
increased (or is alleged to have increased) by nearly thirty millions.
Meanwhile the income of the Empire has greatly decreased during this
period. Wherefore this follows: that is, if with the same income, in
1880 forty millions were insufficiently fed, the additional millions
cannot have had, cannot now have, enough to eat; this, again, ensues:--
40,000,000 plus, say, 30,000,000, make 70,000,000; and _there are this
number of continually hungry people in British India at the beginning of
the Twentieth Century_.”--WILLIAM DIGBY, C. I. E.
_Deaths from Famine or Consequent Diseases, 1891 to 1900 alone_:
estimated by a correspondent of the _Lancet_, 19,000,000.
_Total area under cultivation._ In the year 1911-12, the _total area_
under _food grains_ was over 195 _million acres_, plus 7.5, _i.e._ over
202½ _million acres_. In 1912-13, India _exported foodstuffs_ of the
value of over 260 million dollars.
In 1913-14 she exported about 216 million dollars’ worth of foodstuffs.
_Famines of Money, not Food. Lord G. Hamilton._ “The recent famines are
famines of money, and not of food.”--LORD G. HAMILTON, former Secretary
of State.
_Causes of Famines._ 1. National industries deliberately crushed by the
East India Co. cannot revive under existing conditions.
2. Annual drain of India.
3. Lack of such education as will enable people to develop their
resources.
_Drain. Montgomery Martin._ “The annual drain of £3,000,000 from British
India has mounted in thirty years, at 12 per cent. (the usual Indian
rate) compound interest, to the enormous sum of £723,900,000
sterling.”--MONTGOMERY MARTIN. (In 1830.)
_Digby._ “During the last thirty years of the century the average drain
cannot have been far short of £30,000,000 per year, or, in the thirty
years, £900,000,000, not reckoning interest!”--SIR WILLIAM DIGBY.
_Enormous Foreign Tribute. Rev. J. T. Sunderland._ Rev. J. T. Sunderland
in his work “The Causes of Famine in India,” like all impartial writers,
has conclusively proved that neither “failure of rains” nor “over
population” is the cause of famines in India. He has stated that the
real cause of famine is the extreme, the abject, the awful poverty of
the Indian people caused by “_Enormous Foreign Tribute_,” “British
Indian Imperialism” and the destruction of Indian industries.
_Government assessment too high. Sir W. Hunter._ “The government
assessment does not leave enough food to the cultivator to support
himself and his family throughout the year.”--SIR WILLIAM HUNTER, K. C.
S. I., in the Viceroy’s Council, 1883.
_The Ryot. Herbert Compton._ “There is no more pathetic figure in the
British Empire than the Indian peasant. His masters have ever been
unjust to him. He is ground until everything has been expressed, except
the marrow of his bones.”--MR. HERBERT COMPTON in “Indian Life,” 1904.
Hindustan is an extensive agricultural country and the average land
produces two crops a year, and in Bengal there are lands which produce
thrice a year. Bengal alone produces such large crops that they are
quite sufficient to provide _all the population of Hindustan for two
years_.
_Indian Plunder. Adam Brooks._ Adam Brooks says, (“Laws of Civilization
and Decay,” page 259-246) “Very soon after the Battle of Plassey (fought
in 1757) the Bengal Plunder began to arrive in London and the effect
appears to have been almost instantaneous. Probably since the world
began, no investment has yielded the profit reaped from the Indian
plunder. The amount of treasure wrung from the conquered people and
transferred from India to English banks between Plassey and Waterloo (57
years) has been variously estimated at from $2,500,000,000 to
$5,000,000,000. The methods of plunder and embezzlement, by which every
Briton in India enriched himself during the earlier history of the East
India Company, gradually passed away, but the drain did not pass away.
The difference between that earlier day and the present is, that India’s
tribute to England is obtained by “indirect methods,” under forms of
law. It is estimated by Mr. Hyndman that at least $175,000,000 is
drained away every year from India, without a cent’s return.”
_Swami Abhedananda._ “India pays interest on England’s debt, which in
1900 amounted to 244 millions sterling, and which annually increases.
Besides this, she pays for all the officers, civil and military, and a
huge standing army, pensions of officers, and even the cost of the India
Building in London, as well as the salary of every menial servant of
that house. For 1901-2 the total expenditure charged against revenue was
$356,971,410.00, out of which $84,795,515.00 was spent in England as
Home Charges, not including the pay of European officers in India, saved
and remitted to England.--SWAMI ABHEDANANDA (“India and Her People”).
_Alfred Webb_ (late M.P.): “In charges for the India Office (in
London); for recruiting (in Great Britain, for soldiers to serve in
India); for civil and military pensions (to men now living in England,
who were formerly in the Indian service); for pay and allowances on
furloughs (to men on visits to England); for private remittances and
consignments (for India to England); for interest on Indian debt (paid
to parties in England); and for interest on railways and other works
(paid to shareholders in England), there is annually drawn from India
and spent in the United Kingdom, a sum calculated at from £25,000,000 to
£30,000,000 (Between $125,000,000 and $150,000,000).”
“_Narrow and Shortsighted Imperial Policy._” _Sir Archibald R.
Colquehoun._ “The present condition of affairs undoubtedly renders the
struggle for existence a hard one, as may be realized when it is
considered that a vast population of India not only from the inevitable
droughts which so frequently occur, _but also from a narrow and
shortsighted imperial policy which places every obstacle in the way of
Industrial development and imposes heavy taxes on the struggling
people_. According to various authorities, Russia’s demand upon
landowners in her Central Asian possession are not so exacting as ours
in India, _for the British Government insists on a fifth of the produce,
making no allowance for good or bad years; while Russia is said to ask
only a tenth and allow for variation of production_.” (Pages 135-6,
“Russia Against India,” by SIR ARCHIBALD R. COLQUEHOUN, Gold Medalist,
Royal Geographical Society.)
_Taxation. Lord Salisbury._ The British policy of bleeding Indian
people. “The injury is exaggerated in the case of India where so much of
the revenue is exported without a direct equivalent. As India must be
bled, the lancet should be directed to the parts where the blood is
congested or at least sufficient, not to those already feeble for the
want of it.”--LORD SALISBURY.
III
FACTS AND FIGURES
_Plague, Deaths from._ Plague[98] deaths from 1897-1913: 7,251,257.
_Death Rate._ Death rate was: 34.28 for the year 1907-11; 32 for the
year 1911, and 29.71 for the year 1912.
Rural from 41.8 to 23.5.
Urban from 47.6 to 22.7.
_Indian Finance._ The budget figures of the government of India for
1914-15 show the total estimated income for the year to be slightly over
85 millions sterling, of which more than 17 millions are given out as
railway receipts and about 4½ millions for irrigation work, thus leaving
the pure revenue to be about 63 millions.
_Land Tax._ The principal source of revenue is the land tax, which alone
furnishes a little over 21½ millions of pounds, of which, if we deduct 9
millions shown as the “direct demand on the revenues” only 12½ millions
are left for general purposes.
The military expenses alone are estimated at about 22 millions, which is
even in excess of the gross total receipts from the land tax, and is
more than one-third of the total revenues from all sources.
The figures for income are a little misleading, because out of a total
of about 17 millions (17 millions and 33 thousand) shown as railway
receipts about 13 millions (13,409,000) shown as paid for interest and
other miscellaneous charges on the expenditure side, should be deducted.
Similarly about 4½ millions are shown as receipts under the head of
irrigation, and over 3½ millions are shown against that head as
expenditure.
Among the other heads of income, excise brings slightly over 9
millions. Income tax is included under “Other Heads,” which show a total
figure of slightly over 5 millions.
_Income Tax._ The income tax, which is levied on incomes other than
those derived from agriculture, is only 6½d. in a pound on incomes of
£133 or more, a year, and almost 5d. a pound on incomes below that
figure. The minimum taxable income is £66 a year, which shows that all
incomes of between 5-6 pounds a month, or between 25-30 dollars a month,
are taxed. The large fortunes made by Europeans and Indians by trade,
speculation, manufacture, and unearned increments of valuation, are thus
easily let off. The principle burden of taxation falls on the poor
_ryot_.
Income from agriculture is supposed to be taxed at the rate of 50 per
cent. of the net income of the landlord, or at the rate of 20 per cent.
of the gross produce of the ryot, under the ryotwari system. In some
cases it exceeds these proportions and is as high as 65 per cent. (See
Lord Morley’s reply to C. T. O’Donnell.)
_Customs._ Customs, which furnish the principal source of revenue in the
United States and Germany, in India only yield about less than 7½
millions. The imports are charged _ad valorem_ duty of 5 per cent. with
special conditions as to textiles, and “a large free list.” The textile
woven goods pay a duty of 3½ per cent. and Lancashire is protected by a
corresponding excise duty on textile goods produced in the country. Iron
and steel pay only a nominal duty of one per cent.
The other principal source of revenue is the drink traffic, from which
the government of India makes an income of about _nine millions_
sterling. How much loss in morals it inflicts thereby on the country may
better be imagined. That however is another story.
TRADE FIGURES FOR 1913 to 1914
Imports (manufactured articles forming
80 per cent. of the total): £127 millions
_Treasure_: 29 millions
-------------
£156 millions
_Exports_ (chiefly raw produce and articles
of food): £163 millions
The shipping is entirely in European hands and it would be interesting
to enquire how much does India pay for the shipping of its imports and
exports, and how much do the foreigners make by way of insurance and
other charges. The exact gain to Great Britain and other European
countries from Indian trade is simply incalculable. The great bulk of
the foreign trade on both sides is in the hands of foreigners.
PERSONNEL OF THE GOVERNMENT
SECRETARY OF STATE and all Under Secretaries, as well as Assistant
Under Secretaries:
_British_
COUNCIL: _British_ _Indians_ _Total_
8 2 10
All Office Establishment and Secretaries: _British_.
All salaries and other expenses paid by India.
GOVERNOR GENERAL AND COUNCIL _and staff_ (i.e., the British Indian
Cabinet).
Members of the _Executive Council_: British 7; one only is an
Indian.
REVENUE AND AGRICULTURE DEPARTMENT: All Secretaries down to the
Superintendent of the Office: British. (Total strength, 7.)
FINANCE DEPARTMENT: 21; all British except that one Assistant
Secretary is an Indian, and one Superintendent is an Indian.
FOREIGN DEPARTMENT: 6; all British except that one Attaché is an
Indian.
EDUCATION DEPARTMENT: 8; one Assistant Secretary is an Indian.
LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT: 7; only one Legal Assistant an Indian.
ARMY DEPARTMENT: 10; one Office Superintendent an Indian.
PUBLIC WORKS: 15; no Indian.
COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY: 11; 3 Office Superintendents are Indians.
RAILWAY BOARD: 4, no Indian.
POST OFFICE AND TELEGRAPH DEPARTMENT: no Indian.
INDO-EUROPEAN TRADE DEPARTMENT: no Indian.
SURVEY: no Indian.
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY: 5; no Indian.
BOTANICAL DEPARTMENT: 5; no Indian.
ARCHÆOLOGICAL SURVEY: 9; one Indian.
MISCELLANEOUS APPOINTMENTS: 39; one Indian.
THE INDIAN LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL:--
Total strength 67, out of which 35, besides the Governor General
are always officials, only one of which is an Indian; of the
remaining 32, 28 are Indian members, including 3 nominated by the
Government, i.e., a total of 20 out of 67.
PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT:
All Governors, Lieutenant Governors, and Chief Commissioners of
Provinces are British.
In Provinces having Executive Councils of three or more, one is an
Indian.
Secretaries and Heads of Departments are all Britishers. Of the
large army of Under Secretaries and Assistant Secretaries, perhaps
one in each Province is an Indian.
SERVICES:
_Army_: No Indian is eligible to a commissioned rank.
_Indian Civil Service_: (on the first of April, 1913) out of a
total cadre of 1318, only 46 were Indians.
_Indian Medical Service_: Little over 5 per cent. are Indians.
_In Provincial Legislative Councils_ having very restricted powers
of legislation, the _elected_ Indians are in a minority everywhere.
FIGURES ABOUT EDUCATION AND LITERACY:
(Figures taken from the Year Book of 1914)
Area, 1,773,168 square miles.
Population, 315,132,537.
Universities in British India, 6.
Number of High Schools for males 1273
Number of High Schools for females 144
Primary schools for males 113,955
i.e., not even 1 for every 10 miles.
Primary schools for females 13,694
Literally.
Males, 106 per 1000, i.e., about 10½ per cent.
Females, only 10 per 1000, i.e., about 1 per cent.
All these figures are taken from the Indian Year Book, published by the
Times of India Press, Bombay, for the years 1914 and 1915.
IV
THE FLOGGING OF POLITICAL PRISONERS
(An extract from _New India_, a paper edited by Mrs. Annie Besant.)
The tragedy of Mr. Ramcharan Lal, the ex-editor of the _Swaraj_,
continues. Mr. Macleod, the city magistrate of Nagpur, has sentenced him
to an additional six months of rigorous imprisonment after his sentence
has expired for ‘refusing to work.’ Our readers will remember the case.
This unfortunate political prisoner--whose analogues in foreign
countries have been welcomed and protected on British soil--under-going
a sentence of imprisonment, was so brutally flogged for refusing to do
work, which he says was more than he could do, that the prison doctor
admits that he would have been unable to work for four days after the
flogging, and six weeks after it the skin was still discoloured and two
serious scars remained. Now he has a heavy sentence of six months’
additional imprisonment. Is this British treatment of a political
prisoner? Why did Britons protest against the use of the knout on
political prisoners in Russia? Is there no one in the House of Commons
who will ask a question on this case, and demand an enquiry into the
treatment of political prisoners in India?
INDEX
A
Abul Fazal, 52
Abul Qasim, 70
Ahmad Khan (Sir Syed), 115
Akbar, 71, 72, 73, 74
Alberuni, 52
Alexander the Great, 68
Al-Hilal, 62
Asoka, 9, 11, 12, 69
Aurangzeb, 52, 73, 95
B
Ball, Charles (Indian Mutiny), 105
Bankim, Chandra, 190, 191
Bannerjea (Sir G.), 171
Bonnerjea, W. C., 133
Barendra, 194
_Bengalee_ (newspaper), 24
Besant, Annie, 50, 115
Blavatsky, 115
Burke, Edmund, 76, 77, 99
C
Chamberlain, Austen, 28
Chirol (Sir V.), 1, 29
Colvin (Sir A.), 124
Comrade, 62
Curzon (Lord), 29, 88, 89, 147, 156, 158, 159, 239, 240
D
Dalhousie, 97
D. A. V. College, 165
David, Rhys, 68
Dayal, Har, 152, 156, 195 to 199, 211
Dayanand (Saraswati), 115
Dickinson (Lowes), 5
Dufferin (Lord), 121, 122, 138, 142
E
Englishman (The), 168, 169, 182
F
Faizi, 52
Fergusson College, 164
Fuller (Sir W. B.), 177
G
Gaekwar (Baroda), 88
Gálib, 52
Ghosh, Arabinda, 152, 155, 172 to 175, 183, 205, 209, 211
Gokhale, G. K., 135, 137, 159 to 161, 181, 199, 216, 237
Gossain (Narendra), 194
Govind (Singh), 95, 102
Greece, 11
Gupta Empire, 13
Gupta, Chandra, 9, 10, 68, 69
Gupta, Samundra, 13, 14
H
Hamdard, 62
Hardinge (Lord), 121, 184
Hastings, Warren, 99
Havell, E. B., 12
Holmes (History of the Sepoy War), 104;
(History of the Indian Mutiny), 105
Hume (A. O.), 122, 124 to 127, 130, 135, 137, 140, 144
I
Ibn, Batuta, 52
Ilbert (Bill), 119
K
Kali, 189, 190
Kaye (History of the Mutiny), 103, 104, 106
Kipling, Rudyard, 1
L
Lancashire, 62, 75
Law, Bonar, 28
_Leader_ (newspaper), 27
Lincoln, Abraham, 31
Lytton, Lord, 116, 118
M
Macdonald, J. Ramsay, 181, 182
Macdonnel, Lord, 29, 239, 240
Malleson (History of the Mutiny), 103, 104, 106
Manchester, 62
Mazhar-ul-Haq, 53
Megasthenes, 69
Mill (History of Br. India), 68
Minto (Lord), 179
Mohani, Abul Hasan Hasrat, 183
Müller, Max, 1
Muslim League, 49, 52
_Muslim Gazette_, 62
N
Naoroji Dadabhai, 133, 137, 179
Nath, Ajudhia, 133
National Council of Education, 171
National Congress, Indian, 122-145
National College, 173
Nepal, 13
Nevinson, H. W., 181, 182
Noble, Miss, 1
P
Pal, B. C., 162, 183, 190
Partap, Rana, 71, 72, 73
Pillai, Chidambaran, 183
Plassey, 96
Pratt, 3
Prithvi, Raj, 70
R
Rai, Lajpat, 181, 183
Ramakrishna Mission, 215
Ranade, 115, 133
Rawlinson, 10, 11
Reay, Lord, 123
Ripon, Lord, 119 to 122
Roberts (Charles), 28
Robertson, Sir G. Scott, 29
Roy, Ram Mohan, 111
S
Samaj, Arya, 117, 215
Samaj, Brahmo, 111, 215
Savarkar, 210, 211
Seleucus, 68
Sher Shah, 52, 73
Shah Jahan, 52
Sikhs, 73, 102
Sinha, Sir S. P., 31
Smith, Vincent, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15
Sivaji, 95, 129
Surat, 148
Swadeshi, 148, 168
Swaraj, 148
Sydenham, Lord, 29, 239, 240
T
Tagore, 5
Teg, Bahadur Guru, 95, 102
Theosophical Society, 117
Tilak (Bal Ganga Dhar), 28, 133, 155, 162, 183
Tod, Colonel, 73
Tyabji, 133
V
Victoria, Queen, 13
Vidyasagar, 164
Vikramadityas, 14
Vivekananda, 115, 193
W
Wacha, 39, 41
Wedderburn (Sir W.), 122, 128, 137, 144
Wellesly, Lord, 97.
Wilson (History of India), 94
Z
_Zamindar_ (newspaper), 62
* * * * *
YOUNG INDIA
BY LAJPAT RAI
_COMMENTS ON THE FIRST EDITION_
NEW YORK EVENING POST:
“He must be indifferent or unimaginative indeed who can read unmoved the
pages of this volume. They are so instinct with passion of a consuming
emotion, so fired with the force of a national conviction, that it is
impossible to believe they can fail to impress all to whom liberty is
more than a name and country more than a mere geographical expression.
Of the facts and aspirations they so vividly record, few are more
competent to speak than their author, for Lajpat Rai has long been in
the forefront of the Indian Nationalist movement, and has suffered as
well as striven in the promotion of its cause.”
THE NEW STATESMAN (London):
“This is emphatically a book to be read by the Secretary of State for
India himself, as well as by the members of the Council and the clerks
in the India Office. It ought to be pondered over by every Indian
civilian. It is not that it brings any new indictment against British
rule in India, though much that Mr. Lajpat Rai says is very
uncomfortable reading; but it reveals, alike to the Indian bureaucracy
and to the British public, how unexpectedly acute and well-informed is
the criticism to which our somewhat slow and stupid Administration is
subjected, how completely it is out of touch with the thought of
educated ‘Young India;’ how far we are from getting into sympathetic
accord with the feelings and aspirations of the educated classes,
Mussulman as well as Hindoo.... Those who read Mr. Lajpat Rai’s very
significant volume (Will the Indian Government even allow it to enter
India?) will not agree with all his statements or proposals. But they
deserve to be widely read and carefully weighed. Every Briton would be
the better for reading them. And they deserve an answer--not merely a
reasoned refutation by the India Office of that which it thinks
erroneous or perverse, but, what is much more important, a prompt reform
of all that the India Office does not venture to defend.”
REEDY’S MIRROR (St. Louis):
“The book is profoundly interesting as showing what the native thinks of
British rule in India. Heretofore we have seen almost wholly through
Caucasian eyes--mostly the eyes, of Englishmen, members of the
government bureaucracy or missionaries, who have represented England as
the great benefactor of India. Through the eyes of Mr. Rai we see an
entirely different India--an India under a perfect despotism, in the
main a benevolent despotism, but which does not hesitate to use the
mailed hand when opposed.”
THE NATION (London):
“The whole book is a definite and we believe an accurate statement of
the present feeling among a rapidly increasing body of young and
educated Indians who have learnt the value of political freedom and the
difficulty of winning or retaining it.”
* * * * *
_WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR (IN ENGLISH)_
THE ARYA SAMAJ
An account of its origin, doctrines and activities, with a Biographical
Sketch of the Founder. With an Introduction by Professor Sidney Webb,
LL.B., of the London School of Economics and Political Science
(University of London.) With 10 Illustrations. _Crown 8vo. pp. xxvi+305,
price, $1.75 net._ Professor Sidney Webb in the Preface which he has
written to this book says--“I believe that this is the first book
dealing with what may possibly prove to be the most important religious
movement in the whole of India.” The author, Mr. Lajpat Rai, gives a
biographical account of the Swami Dayananda, who was the founder of the
Arya Samaj, and died in 1883. Since then the organization which
Dayananda founded has increased enormously, and numbered 243,000 members
in 1911, having more than doubled since 1901.
The Arya Samaj aims at a thorough reformation of the religion of
Hinduism. It advocates the abolition of the worship of Idols and desires
that the Hindu religion should be restored to the pure and lofty
Monotheism of the Vedas which it believes to be the sole source of
religious truth. Mr. Blunt, I.C.S., in the census report for the United
Province for 1911 calls it “the greatest religious movement in India of
the past half century.”
_New York Times_:--It is quite impossible for any one possessed of
imagination to close this book without feeling that it has
introduced him to a movement of very great importance ... (a)
fascinating book.
_Unity_:--J. T. Sunderland, D.D. “An interesting, well written,
reliable book.”
_Journal of Religious Psychology_:--A very interesting account.
_Boston Transcript_:--Very remarkable book.
_Christian Intelligence_:--Fascinating in style and matter.
_Literary Digest_:--More interesting to Americans.
_Outlook_:--It (the Arya Samaj) deserves wide attention.
_Christian Work_:--“Carefully thought out and selected material”
framed “into well-expressed phrases.”
_London Times_:--A remarkable book.
_London Daily News_:--An indispensable book.
_London_ “_India_”:--A historic book.
Very favorable reviews given by the (London) Nation, the (London) New
Statesman, the Pall Mall Gazette and other English and American papers
in lengthy notices.
REFLECTIONS ON THE POLITICAL SITUATION IN INDIA
_A pamphlet, 25 cents._
To be had of the author, care of B. W. Huebsch, 225 Fifth avenue, New
York.
THE STORY OF MY DEPORTATION
Second Edition in Course of Preparation
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The italics everywhere in this quotation are mine.
[2] See Vincent Smith’s “Early History of India,” third edition, p.
135.
[3] “Mr. Vincent Smith is always anxious to deprive India of the
credit of all her achievements in art and literature.” Indian
Historical Studies by Prof. H. D. G. Rawlinson, p. 227.
[4] The italics in the above quotation are mine.
[5] See also Mr. E. B. Havell’s Ideals of Indian Art, pp. 11-12. Mr.
Havell’s conclusion is: “We may see if we have eyes to see, that all
India is one in spirit, however diverse in race and in creed.”
[6] First Edition, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1905.
[7] See footnote to p. 5, of his “Early History of India,” 3rd ed.
[8] A town on the Eastern Coast of India.
[9] Some of these sentences have been reduced.
[10] In 16 cases these sentences have been commuted to life-long
imprisonment not out of mercy as the Viceroy has himself officially
pointed out, but in consideration of the evidence.
[11] The great mutiny of 1857, of which more hereafter.
[12] Six of them have been sentenced to death, 45 to transportation
for life, some to imprisonment and some have been acquitted.
[13] The italics are mine.
[14] The italics are mine.
[15] Some Reflections on the Political Situation in India, by Lajpat
Rai, pp. 24-27.
[16] The ludicrous extent to which the prohibition to keep and use
arms has been carried will be better illustrated by the following
incident reported by the _Bengalee_ of Calcutta.
“A five year old boy of Munshi Ganj Road, Kidderpore, had a toy pistol
purchased for one anna. On the 8th of August last the child was
playing with it but could not explode the paper caps. A thirteen year
lad showed him how to do it. The boy was at once arrested by a beat
constable and marched off to the Wat Ganjthana with the fire arm. The
boy was eventually sent up for trial at Alipur and the Court fined him
three rupees.”
[17] Commenting on the annual report of the issue of licenses the
Indian press have made similar statements. The _Punjabee_ says “while
the ruffians bent on crime have been able to secure fire arms by foul
means, the law abiding section of the community have for the most part
continued helpless owing to the difficulties of obtaining licenses for
fire arms.” See also _Bengalee_ of the 6th Oct. 1915.
[18] The italics are mine.
[19] The italics are mine.
[20] The examinations have not been discontinued but statutory
provision has been made for a large proportion of the appointments
formerly filled by examination to be now filled by nomination.
[21] Mr. Lowes Dickinson, an English Professor who has largely
travelled in India, has practically admitted the truth of this remark.
(P. 23, An Essay on the Civilisation of India, China, and Japan. See
also pp. 27 and 28.)
[22] The _Pioneer_ of Allahabad, a semi-official organ of the
Anglo-Indians, has in a recent issue said that “The safety of the
State is and must be of far greater importance than the rights of the
individuals.”
[23] The Western Coast.
[24] Heavy wooden sticks.
[25] A straw mat.
[26] The italics are mine.
[27] “The Raja (_i.e._, the king) was not above the law.” See Wilson’s
note on p. 203, vol. I of Mill’s British India.
[28] See Rhys David’s “Buddhist India.”
[29] See an account of Yudhishthira’s _Rajsuya yajna_ in the
Mahabharata.
[30] For an account of Chandra Gupta’s Government see Early History of
India by Mr. Vincent Smith.
[31] It is true that parts of Deccan had been from time to time
overrun by the Mohammedans and at least one Muslim kingdom had
been founded there even before Akbar’s time, but still the general
statement in the text stands good.
[32] The tribal name of the House to which Partap belonged.
[33] Names of Rajput ruling families in Akbar’s time.
[34] The history of Europe up to the 18th century is full of parallel
disputes on racial and religious grounds.
[35] It is said that for a short time a small portion of Northwest
India formed a province of the Empire of Darius and paid tribute to
that monarch, but the government was all the same native.
[36] “The Asiatic conquerors very soon abated their ferocity, because
they made the conquered country their own. They rose or fell with the
rise and fall of the territory they lived in. Fathers there deposited
the hopes of their posterity; the children there beheld the monuments
of their fathers. Here their lot was finally cast; and it is the
normal wish of all that their lot should not be cast in bad land.
Poverty, sterility, and desolation are not a recreating prospect to
the eye of man, and there are very few who can bear to grow old among
the curses of a whole people. If their passion or avarice drove the
Tartar hordes to acts of rapacity or tyranny, there was time enough,
even in the short life of man, to bring round the ill effects of the
abuse of power upon the power itself. If hoards were made by violence
and tyranny, they were still domestic hoards, and domestic profusion,
or the rapine of a more powerful and prodigal hand, restored them to
the people. With many disorders and with few political checks upon
power, nature had still fair play, the sources of acquisition were
not dried up, and therefore the trade, the manufactures, and the
commerce of the country flourished. Even avarice and usury itself
operated both for the preservation and the employment of national
wealth. The husbandman and manufacturer paid heavy interest, but then
they augmented the fund from whence they were again to borrow. Their
resources were dearly bought, but they were sure, and the general
stock of the community grew by the general effect.
“But under the English Government all this order is reversed. The
Tartar invasion was mischievous, but it is our protection that
destroys India. It was their enmity, but it is our friendship. Our
conquest there, after twenty years, is as crude as it was the first
day. The natives scarcely know what it is to see the grey head of an
Englishman; young men, boys almost, govern there, without society, and
without sympathy with the natives. They have no more social habits
with the people than if they still resided in England; nor, indeed,
any species of intercourse but that which is necessary to making a
sudden fortune, with a view to a remote settlement. Animated with all
the avarice of age, and all the impetuosity of youth, they roll in
one after another, wave after wave, and there is nothing before the
eyes of the natives but an endless, hopeless prospect of new flights
of birds of prey and passage, with appetites continually renewing for
a food that is continually wasting. Every rupee of profit made by an
Englishman is lost forever to India.” (Edmund Burke in a speech made
in the House of Commons in 1783 A. D. The reflections
are as good, to-day, as they were then.)
[37] The constitution of the Government of India is settled by laws
made by the Parliament of Great Britain, in which India is not
represented.
[38] See Sir Henry Cotton’s New India (1907), pp. 68, 69 and 70.
[39] In England this is the view of the bulk of the Indian student
community. The Government, of course, repudiates that view.
[40] In this connection we may refer the reader to an excellent
article published in the _New Statesman_ (London) dated April 1, 1916,
called, “If the Germans conquered England.” With the alteration of
England for Germany and India for England the article would make an
excellent exposition of the position of the Indian Nationalist.
[41] See New India by Sir Henry Cotton, 1907, p. 34.
[42] It should be noted that the evils complained of in this chapter
are the evils of the system which, in the words of John Stuart Mill,
is unnatural, and the unnaturalness of which is recognised in full by
many fair-minded Britishers. It was recognised so far back as 1835 by
the British historian Wilson in his concluding remarks in the last
chapter of his monumental History of British India.
[43] The Punjab.
[44] Sivaji was the founder of the Mahratta Empire in India.
[45] Sirhind is a small town on the road to Delhi, where the Muslim
governor of the time tortured the two minor sons of Guru Govind Singh
to death by placing them between two brick walls.
[46] See Kaye and Malleson, vol. II, p. 367. “In respect to the
mutineers of the 55th, they were taken fighting against us, and so
far deserve little mercy. But, on full reflection, I would not put
them all to death. I do not think that we should be justified in the
eyes of the Almighty in doing so. A hundred and twenty men are a large
number to put to death. Our object is to make an example to terrify
others. I think this object would be effectually gained by destroying
from a quarter to a third of them. I would select all of those against
whom anything bad can be shown--such as general bad character,
turbulence, prominence in disaffection or in the fight, disrespectful
demeanor to their officers during the few days before the 26th, and
the like. If these did not make up the required number, I would then
add to them the oldest soldiers. All these should be shot or blown
away from the guns, as may be most expedient. The rest I would divide
into patches: some to be imprisoned ten years, some seven, some five,
some three.”
[47] History of Indian Mutiny, Kaye and Malleson, vol. II, p. 203.
“Martial law had been proclaimed; those terrible Acts passed by
the Legislative Council in May and June were in full operation;
and soldiers and civilians alike were holding Bloody Assize, or
slaying natives without any Assize at all, regardless of sex or age.
Afterwards the thirst for blood grew stronger still. It is on the
records of our British Parliament, in papers sent home by the Governor
General of India in Council, that the aged, women, and children,
are sacrificed, as well as those guilty of rebellion. They were not
deliberately hanged, but burnt to death in their villages--perhaps now
and then accidently shot. Englishmen did not hesitate to boast, or to
record their boastings in writings, that they had ‘spared no one,’ and
that ‘peppering away at niggers’ was very pleasant pastime, ‘enjoyed
amazingly,’ It has been stated in a book patronised by high class
authorities, that ‘for three months eight dead-carts daily went their
rounds from sunrise to sunset to take down the corpses which hung at
the cross-roads and market-places,’ and that ‘six thousand beings’ had
been thus summarily disposed of and launched into eternity.”
[48] See Kaye and Malleson’s History of the Mutiny, vol. II, p. 177.
“Already our military officers were hunting down the criminals of
all kinds, and hanging them up with as little compunction as though
they had been pariah-dogs, or jackals, or vermin of a baser kind. One
contemporary writer has recorded that, on the morning of disarming
parade, the first thing he saw from the Mint was a ‘row of gallowses.’
A few days afterwards the military courts or commissions were sitting
daily, and sentencing old and young to be hanged with indiscriminate
ferocity. On one occasion, some young boys, who, seemingly in mere
sport, had flaunted rebel colours and gone about beating tom-toms,
were tried and sentenced to death. One of the officers composing the
court, a man unsparing before an enemy under arms, but compassionate,
as all brave men are, towards the weak and the helpless, went with
tears in his eyes to the commanding officer, imploring him to remit
the sentence passed against these juvenile offenders, but with little
effect on the side of mercy. And what was done with some show of
formality either of military or of criminal law, was as nothing, I
fear, weighed against what was done without any formality at all.
Volunteer hanging parties went out into the districts, and amateur
executioners were not wanting to the occasion. One gentleman boasted
of the numbers he had finished off quite ‘in an artistic manner,’ with
mango-trees for gibbets and elephants for drops, the victims of this
wild justice being strung up, as though for pastime, in ‘the form of a
figure of eight.’”
On mock trials see Holmes’ History of the Sepoy War, p. 124.
“Officers, as they went to sit on the court martial, swore that they
would hang their prisoners, guilty or innocent.... Prisoners condemned
to death after a hasty trial were mocked at and tortured by ignorant
privates before their execution, while educated officers looked on and
approved.” “Old men who had done us no harm, and helpless women with
sucking infants at their breasts felt the weight of our vengeance, no
less than the vilest malefactors.” Again see History of the Siege of
Delhi quoted by Savarkar in his “War of Indian Independence,” p. 111,
by an officer who served there, how, on the way from Umbala to Delhi,
thousands were placed before a court martial in rows after rows and
condemned to be hanged or shot. In some places cow’s flesh was forced
by spears and bayonets into the mouths of the condemned. (All Hindus
abhor cow’s flesh and would rather die than eat it.)
See Charles Ball’s Indian Mutiny, vol. I, p. 257. “One trip I enjoyed
amazingly; we got on board a steamer with a gun, while the Sikhs and
the fusiliers marched up to the city. We steamed up throwing shots
right and left till we got up to the bad places, when we went on the
shore and peppered away with our guns, my old double-barrel bringing
down several niggers. So thirsty for vengeance I was. We fired the
places right and left and the flames shot up to the heavens as they
spread, fanned by the breeze, showing that the day of vengeance had
fallen on the treacherous villains. Every day we had expeditions to
burn and destroy disaffected villages and we had taken our revenge.
I have been appointed the chief of a commission for the trial of all
natives charged with offences against the Government and persons. Day
by day, we have strung up eight or ten men. We have the power of life
in our hands and, I assure you, we spare not. A very summary trial is
all that takes place. The condemned culprit is placed under a tree,
with a rope around his neck, on the top of a carriage, and when it is
pulled off he swings.”
* * * * *
“In the Punjab, near Ajnala, in a small island, many a Sepoy who
had simply fled away from a regiment which was working under the
reasonable fear of being disarmed and shot by the Government for
suspicion, was hiding himself. Cooper with a loyal body of troops
took them prisoner. The entire number, amounting to two hundred
and eighty-two, were then conveyed by Cooper to Ajnala. Then came
the question what was to be done with them. There was no means of
transporting them to a place where they could be tried formally. On
the other hand, if they were summarily executed, other regiments
and intending rebels might take warning by their fate, and thus,
further bloodshed might be prevented. For these reasons, Cooper,
fully conscious as he was of the enormous responsibility which he
was undertaking, resolved to put them all to death. Next morning,
accordingly, he brought them out in tens and made some Sikhs shoot
them. In this way, two hundred and sixteen perished. But, there still
remained sixty-six others who had been confined in one of the bastions
of the Tahsil. Expecting resistance, Cooper ordered the door to be
opened. But not a sound issued from the room; forty-five of them were
dead bodies lying on the floor. For, unknown to Cooper, the windows
had been closely shut and the wretched prisoners had found in the
bastion a second Black-Hole. The remaining twenty-one were shot, like
their comrades. 1--8--’57. For this splendid assumption of authority,
Cooper was assailed by the hysterical cries of ignorant humanitarians.
But Robert Montgomery unanswerably vindicated his character by proving
that he had saved the Lahore division.”--Holmes’s History of the
Indian Mutiny, p. 363.
“It is related that, in the absence of tangible enemies, some of our
soldiery, who turned out on this occasion, butchered a number of
unoffending camp-followers, servants, and others who were huddling
together in vague alarm, near the Christian church-yard. No loyalty,
no fidelity, no patient good service on the part of these good people
could extinguish, for a moment, the fierce hatred which possessed
our white soldiers against all who wore the dusky livery of the
East.”--Kaye and Malleson’s Indian Mutiny, vol. II, p. 438.
[49] It should be noted that this visit took place during the present
war and the observations recorded above were penned after the “unique”
outburst of loyalty on the part of the Indians in connection with the
Great War.
[50] A native term equivalent for Europeans.
[51] This is a native expression signifying the highest respect of the
speaker towards one whom he considers his superior. Literally it means
mother and father.
[52] _I. e._, like the English.
[53] In the interests of Lancashire goods.
[54] Mr. Ilbert was the Law member of the Council of the Governor
General and the bill came to be named after him.
[55] Mr. Hume was an ex-secretary-of the Government of India who had
retired from service.
[56] Sir William Wedderburn is also a retired member of the Government
of Bombay, India.
[57] Sir Auckland Colvin was the Lieutenant Governor of the then North
Western Provinces (now the United Province of Agra and Oudh).
[58] The quotations from Hume are taken out of W. Wedderburn’s Allan
Octavian Hume, the parts enclosed in parenthesis are Wedderburn’s.
[59] These compliments have been renewed of late. The Congress held at
Madras in 1914 was attended by the British Governor of the Presidency.
[60] Mr. Hume’s biography by Sir William Wedderburn, p. 62.
[61] Mr. Hume’s biography by Sir W. W., p. 63.
[62] Biography, p. 63.
[63] Swadeshi means country-made, and Swaraj means self-government or
self-rule.
[64] The Congress session held at Surat in December, 1907, ended in a
split preceded by a disorderly meeting.
[65] Presided over by the Honourable Mr. G. K. Gokhale, a member of
the Viceroy’s Council.
[66] Swadeshi means the cult of home industries, _i.e._, the use of
the articles made in the country.
[67] An eminent Bengalee writer.
[68] Moreover the keynote of these organisations was association and
co-operation with Government, and not independent self-assertion.
[69] These are signs of mourning in India.
[70] An eminent nobleman and landlord of Bengal.
[71] India made goods.
[72] Wholesale piece goods merchants belonging to Upper India are
known in Calcutta by that name.
[73] A ruling chief in the Bombay Presidency.
[74] In my opinion there has never been any time in human history when
religion and morals were successfully divorced from politics, either
in Ancient India or anywhere else.
[75] Societies, Associations and Gymnasiums.
[76] A leader universally respected and loved by all classes of people
throughout India. See frontispiece.
[77] See Mr. H. W. Nevinson’s New Spirit in India, p. 295; also pp.
133, 233, etc.; see also Mr. J. Ramsay Macdonald’s Awakening of India.
[78] For an account of this split see H. W. Nevinson’s New Spirit in
India, Chap. XIII.
[79] A reward of one hundred thousand Rupees equal to 33,000 dollars
was offered for information leading to the arrest of the culprit or
culprits.
[80] Name of a religious sect. See Pratts’ India and Its Faiths, p. 13.
[81] The Spirit of Indian Nationalism, by Mr. B. C. Pal. p. 36.
[82] A great Bengalee writer of fiction who composed the well-known
nationalist song, “Bande Mataram” or Hail Motherland.
[83] Or the foreign exploiters.
[84] It was in the first half of the year 1908 that the first bomb
was thrown at Muzaffarpur, Behar. It was meant for a Magistrate who
had been passing sentences of whipping on nationalist youths, but by
mistake it struck a quite innocent person. The investigation of this
case resulted in the discovery of a big conspiracy. The trial of this
conspiracy is known by the name “Maniktolah Bomb Case” from the fact
that the headquarters of this conspiracy were alleged to have been in
the Maniktolah gardens, Calcutta. One of the conspirators Narendra
Nath Gossain became an approver. After the case had been committed
for trial before the Sessions Court and when the approver and the
accused were both lodged in jail at Alipore, one of the leaders of the
conspiracy shot the approver dead with a rifle which had been smuggled
into the jail premises by their friends.
[85] A great Nationalist leader of Bengal, now dead.
[86] One of his followers in San Francisco has told me that this
description of him, viz., that he does not advocate the use of the
bomb or the revolver is not correct.
[87] This is illustrated in Indian official life day in and day out.
It is not a rare occurrence that the British heads of the Departments
get credit for what has been achieved by the genius, intelligence and
labour of their Indian subordinates.
[88] Indian heroes.
[89] Non-commissioned officers of the native Indian army.
[90] Force, energy and vitality.
[91] Life of meditation and self-denial.
[92] Lord Dufferin was the Governor General of India and Sir A.
Colvin was the Lieutenant Governor of what were then the Northwestern
Provinces, now the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh.
[93] The organisation of the Pro-British Muslims.
[94] See the Introduction.
[95] Komagata Maru is the name of a Japanese steamer, which a number
of Sikh emigrants chartered in Hong Kong in 1914 a. d. in order to
take them to Canada. They were not allowed to land and were forced
to return to India, under circumstances which have created a bitter
anti-British feeling among the Indians all over the world.
[96] During her most dreadful famines hundreds of thousands of tons of
foodstuffs were shipped out of India.
[97] See Mill’s History of British India, Vol. VI, pp. 149, 150, Vol.
VII, p. 388, and p. 393, Vol. IX, pp. 207, 209. See Bishop Heber’s
description of India in 1824 quoted in Mill and Wilson’s History of
India, Vol. IX, p. 376. Also that of Mr. Shore in 1833.
[98] We do not mean to say that British Rule in India is responsible
for the plague, but with better management of resources, i.e., better
sanitation, the plague could have been prevented or eradicated sooner
than has been attempted.