India Nd the Empir - Forgotten Books

INDIA

ND THE EMPIRA LECTURE AND VARIOUS PAPERS

ON INDIAN GRIEVANCES

ANNIE BESANT

LONDONTHEOSOPHICAL PUBLISH ING S OCIETY

161 NEW BOND STREET, w .

19 14

PREFACE

THE ignorance of the English public as tothings relating to India, and the indifferenceof the House of Commons— as shown by theempty benches when Indian questions arebefore it—are grave dangers to the Empire.India is asking for self-government, such asis enj oyed by the Colonies, and she earnestlydesires to have her place within the circle ofthe Empire, under the aegis of the Crown .

Western education has inspired Westernideals of representation and self-government

,

and responsible Englishmen have declaredthat England desired to give to India theliberties enj oyed by her own people, so soonas India wa s ready to possess and utilisethem . India has grown to love these idealsand. to aspire after self- control ; she does notseek to break her link with England

,but

she desires so to transform it that it may be3

INDIA AND THE EMPIRE

a tie honourable to both and prized by both .

She cannot remain the only nation in theEmpire which is held in dependence

,while

she sees younger and less civilised pe oplesenj oying national autonomy.

I feel convinced that if the British publicunderstood the reasonableness and theurgency of India’s plea for j ustice

,her

demand would be heard and granted .

Britain is indifferent because ignorant . The

following papers have appeared during thelast few weeks, and some interest, at least,has been aroused . They are now publishedseparately, in the hope

‘ of reaching freshreaders

,and of arousing further interest.

A brief explanation as to The Time s correspondence i s needed . My original letterappeared on May 29, 1914, and was

followed on May 30 by the leader, re

printed here by the courteous permission ofthe Editor. There was no need to reply tothis

,as it evaded the main points , and its

suggestion of my ignorance of well-knownIndian conditions was merely foolish . Buton June 8, Miss Cornelia S orabj i, a Parsiby birth and a Christian by belief, rushed

4

PREFACE

into the field,and made various misstate

ments as to ancient Indian ideals, calculatedto mislead the public. The Time s fartherprinted a contradiction from the Institutionof Civil Engineers of one of my statements .I waited to se e if any other comments wouldbe made, and, a s none appeared

,I sent a

reply on June 14. I received a note thatthe Editor hoped to print it ; I waited aweek

,and then wrote asking that my letter

might be returned , as I had kept no copy,not thinking it possible that a paper of thestanding of The Times would not print areply to misstatements it had inserted .

Again I had note of the Editor’s continuinghope , and a proof of the letter. Anotherweek is drawing to its close, and I am leavingto-night for India, so I print here my replyto Miss S orabj i : it may have appearedbefore this booklet sees the light. Le laLajpat Rai , a Hindu, wrote exposing MissS orabj i

’

s ignorance of Hinduism , but hisletter was refused insertion . Miss Sorabj iwrites as though Indian traditions and

ideals were dear to her,but she does not

share them , having been born a Parsi and5


having embraced Christianity ; her arguments should only be taken at their fa cevalue, not as having the weight belongingto a member of the faith she misrepresents .Her ignorance of Hinduism is quite e xcus

able under the circumstances , and is indeednatural. But the public would imaginefrom her letter that she wa s a Hindu .

The papers are printed in the order oftheir publication , except that The Times

correspondence is all printed consecutively.

I am very grateful to the Editors of TheChristian Commonwea lth, The Na tion

, The

Da ily Chronicle , and The Da ily JVews fortheir friendly help in laying facts beforethe public. My gratitude is also due to theEditor of The Time s for the insertion of myfirst letter. I wish he had been fair enoughto print my reply before all public interesthad died out ; and ' pressure on space ” ishardly a satisfactory reason for a fortnight’sdelay

,where so much that appears is of no

immediate importance , and is of limitedinterest. The exigencies of party politicsnow outweigh the old j ournal istic fairness

,

and facts which do not suit the favourite6

PREFACE

party are too often suppressed. Our dailynewspapers neither lead nor express publicOpinion , nor care much for public interest.They rather try to suppress all that isagainst the party which they represent, andto exaggerate all that they think will helpit. It seems a pity.

LONDON,j une 26th, 1914.

CONTENTS

A PLEA FOR IND IA .

IND IA AND AUSTRALIA

INDIA AND THE EMP IRE

THE PRoBLEM or IND IA

THE VO ICE or THE EAST

MRS BESANT AND IND IA


PRESENT ‘

DAY PROBLEMS

CoLoUR BAR IN THE DOMIN IONS

EAST AND WEST

LAJ PAT RAI AND BRITISH CITI' ENSH IP

THE IND IAN PRoBLEM

INDIA, A BUTTRESS OR A PERIL ?

INDIA’S PLEA FOR JUSTICE


A PLEA FOR IND IA

THE INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESSDEPUTATION

'The Christian Commonwea lth,May 13, 1914)

IN the present crash,

and turmoil of homepolitics the visit of the Indian NationalCongress Deputation to England runs achance of being overlooked ; yet the welfareand content of India is a matter of no lessimportance to the Empire than the pacification of the militant unrest in Ireland, anddistance blinds the self- centred home population to the growing al ienation from GreatBritain of her huge ' dependency .

”The

British public has never yet se t itself to facethe Indian problem ; it thinks vaguely ofIndia as a half- civilised country, benevolentlyruled for its own good by ' the best Civil

11


Service in the world,” and when it hears of

unrest and discontent it piously w onders atthe ingratitude returned for the blessingsbestowed upon it. It knows nothing of thegrea t and ancient civilisation which existedere A the ns

‘rose and Rome wa s founded ; it

knows not that Greek philosophers soughtwisdom from India, and that the literaturewhich still dominates Europe drew largelyfrom Indian thought ; i t knows not that thetrade and commerce of India spread westwards to Asia Minor and to Egypt, that hermanufactures were e agerly sought for byRoman patricians

,that in the Middle Ages

Venice and Holland grew wealthy by theimport of her products , that Europeantravellers in the days of the Stuarts wrote inamazement of her art and of the wealth andluxury abounding on every side, and thateven in the middle of the eighteenth centuryPhillimore wrote that ' the droppings ofher soil fed distant regions.” The bettereducated have a vague idea of the moremodern part of her literature, of the dramasof Kalidasa, of the poems of Tulsidas andKabir,

'

of the philosophical writings of12

A PLEA FOR INDIA

Shankaracharya, Ramanuja, and Madhoa , of

the inspiring ethics of Nanak and Tukaram ;

but even they do not realise that Indianliterature does not belong only to reallyancient times, but rolls down in an unbrokenstream to the eighteenth century, and is ofunparalleled beauty and richness Whatdoes the English democracy know of thegreat modern Indian kingdoms, of thestrength and magnificence of the MughalEmpire, the splendid achievements of theMaratha power ? Arrogant Englishmenspeak of the want of initiative and of powerof organisation in Indians, forgetting alltheir modern triumphs as well a s their ancientglory

,and calmly ignoring the record even

of the last fifty years, with the great primemi nisters of Indian States— States which

,in

many respects,are advancing more rapidly

than British India. People speak of thePax Britannica, but forget that when theEast India Company came to India it camebecause it was attracted by the extraordinarywealth and prosperity of the country

,and

that the existence of such wealth proved thata stable and secure civilisation existed

,despite

13


the wars of rival chiefs . Banks,credi t ,

wealthy merchants spoke eloquently of thestate of civili sation then existing

,and of the

initiative and power of organisation of theIndians who lived under it. The unrestrainedexport of her foodstuffs, due to the railways,caused far more numerous and more widelyspread famines than did the occasionaldestruction of crops by war in a restrictedlocality. The prevalence of malaria, largelydue to the swamps created by emba nkments

,

which prevent the old free course of waterinto the rivers, and the ravages of plague

,

which is now practica lly establishe d all overIndia—these things are a heavy offset to thePax Britannica . And the broad fact remai nsthat India wa s rich and is poor.It is clear

,however, that with the growth

of the West the old civili sations of the Eastcould not have remained unmodified, andIndia

,like other nations, would, in any case,

have been obliged to pass into a new conditionof things . Many of u s believe that, in thewider issues

,the coming of British rule into

India will prove ultimately to be for thegood of both nations and of the world at

14

A PLEA FOR INDIA

large. English education forced the ablestof the Indian people to imbibe the modernspirit, and a new love of liberty began to stirin their hearts and to inspire their minds.They eagerly drank the milk of the newspirit at England’s breast, and there was amoment when

,had England grasped the

opportunity, the gratitude of India wouldhave enshrined her in India’s heart. Indialooked to England as the mother of freeinstitutions

,and, new to these Western

methods,would have gladly learned them

at her hands . The National Congress wasfounded

,India’s first effort to imitate the

representative system , and to lay before theRuling Power, by the voice of her repre

sentative s, her needs, her troubles, and herhopes . It is idle to say that the Congress /does not represent India ; every such bodyrepresents first a section of the more advancedof the nation as the burgesses of Edward I .were the first representatives of the Commonalty of England ; popular institutions mustgrow ; they cannot spring full -armed as

M inerva from the head of Jove. The

National Congress is India articulate and15


self-conscious, and the little regard paid toit in England, the la ck of sympathy, nay,the utter blindness shown to the extraordinary initiative and power of organisationproved during the twenty- eight years of theli fe of this National Parliament— the onlystrength of which lies in the voluntaryobedience and the self-disciplined co-operation of the educated class—all this hasembittered the India that erst believed

,but

now di sbelieves , in England’s love of liberty.

How can she believe in it in face of theArms Act, the Press Act, the house sea rchings

,the espionage, the autocracy, the frus

tration of her dearest hopes , the treatmentof her noblest a s inferiors , the utter disregardof the promises made in 1858 ? WhenEngland sees outrages in any other countryShe primly says that the Government oughtto redress the grievances which cause them

,

and not crush out the symptoms and punishfree expression , and she opens her arms tothe political refugees . When she meetsthem in her own dominions she forgets heradvice to others, falls back on the verym e thods

'

she condemns, sees sedition in every16

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i ng communities . She asks no more thanthis ; she wi ll be sa tisfi e d with nothing bss.

It is treason to the Empire to conceal thisfact, and to cry Peace, peace ,

” when thereis no peace. India is willing that thechange from foreign autocracy to self-government shall come gradually

,but i t must come

steadily ; the aim must be recognised andthe progress towards it must be perceptible.The Deputation has come to lay before

English statesmen certain definite matters ,and the requests it brings are— like all theCongress proposals— eminently reasonableand moderate .On July 31, 1913, Lord Crewe announced

the reconstruction of the India Council , andinvited criticism and suggestions . Indiasends them . She wants no India Council atall, but, recognising that England will notgive up the anachronism

,she proffers a

proposal for its improvement, basing herrequests on the statements made by MrDisraeli and Lord Stanley in the Commons,and Lord Derby in the Lords, when theIndia Bill was before Parliament in 1858 .

The then Government stated, through Lord18

A PLEA FOR INDIA

Stanley, ' We are willing to introduce theelective pri nciple,

” but they found themselvesestopped by two difficulties, the disturbedstate of the country after the Sepoy insurre ction , and the impossibility of finding ' afitting and satisfactory constituency. Boththese difficulties have disappeared ; there isno disturbance in India of a serious nature,the whole country is enthusiastically loyal tothe Crown , and the constituency is providedby the Minto-Morley reforms.

The new difficulty is that while educatedIndia has been moving steadily forward inthe love of l iberty and the use of repre

se nta tive institutions, England ha s been as

steadily retrogressing from al l her old traditions, and that which Tories were anxious togive in 1858 is denied by Radicals in 1914 .

The practice of autocracy has corrupted themother of free institutions, and the Deputation comes to ask England to close thewidening gulf by returning to the positionof 1858, where India has stood, waiting

pa tie ntly , for six-and-fiftyye ars. TheDeputa

tion proposes that one- third of the councilShall be elected by non-official India, and

19


that, of the remaining two-thirds, half shallbe nominated from men of capacity andmerit, unconnected with Indian administration

,and the second half nominated from

Anglo-Indian officials , who have served fornot less than ten years and have not beenout of India for more than two. Surely noproposal could be more moderate ; two- thirdsof the council are to be nominated, so thatthe elected members are in a continualminority . But Congress feels that whereIndia’s case is good, the non - officia l third ofmen of light and leading will be with her.She asks al so that the council may beadvisory, not legislative, so that the re sponsibility of the Secretary of State to Parliament shall be complete . W ill a so- calledLiberal Government dare to refuse thismodest prayer ?The De putation asks also for the longdiscussed separation of executive and judicialfunctions, so that suitors , lawyers, andwitnesses may not have to travel afte r thecollector, intent on revenue business , at heavycost of time and money, and often find themselves before a tired magistrate, who writes

20

A PLEA FOR INDIA

on other business while counsel are pleading,and disposes of cases by intuition rather thanby evidence. If British justice ” in countrydistricts is no longer to be sneered at, thisreform must be granted .

Two other matters of vital moment are tobe pressed— the repeal of the Pre ss Act, or,if that be refused, the introduction into theAct of an amendment making rea l thei llusory prote ction of the High Courts—i .e .

carrying out the pledge given by theGovernment, on the faith of which IndianCouncillors voted for the Bill. Th e frictioncaused by the foolish action of ill-advisedmagistrates i s dangerous

,and is growing

worse and worse ; a common peril is weldingHindus and Mahomedans together—and forthis we may be thankful ; but the resistanceengendered is angry, bitter, and dangerous,and over this lovers of the Empire cannotrejoice . Moreover, the Act is very unfairlyadministered. Papers conducted by Englishmen are al lowed to insult Indians to anyextent, and the magistracy, Nelson- like, turnson them only its blind eye . But it isArgus-eyed towards Indian papers

,and the

21


Mahome dan public is seething with ind ignation over the late treatment of its j ournals .The second question is the position ofIndians outside India. This cannot beevaded, for on the answer to it the safetyof the Empire depe nds. South Africathanks to Lord Hardinge and to the agita tioncarried on by Indians on behalf of theircountrymen— is probably settled for themoment. It has done its work .

‘ It haswelded together all classes and the twosexes in public patriotic agitation . Indianwomen have held meetings, made speeches,collected funds— a h unexampled uprising ofIndian womanhood of the profoundest significance and moment for the future. All distinctions of caste have equally been flungaside

,and all united in a common protest.

Lord Hardinge, with a statesman’s insight

,

saw the approaching danger, and, likeRichard II. , put himself at the head of thesurging crowds ere they broke into tumult.Th e lesson of what India united can do willnever be forgotten , and will be utilised inthe future . The question remains : WillGreat Britain remain idle while the Colonies

22

A PLEA FOR INDIA

wreck the Empire, and while the UnitedStates justify the exclusion of Indians bytheir example ? What have Indians donethat they alone, of all the nations of theworld, should be pent within their own land,into which every foreigner may tramp um

checked ? All may have their will of India,may swarm over her soil,‘exploit her resources,and insult her people with the assertion oftheir fancied superiority. Indians alone areto find every door shut in their faces abroad ,while the highest posts in their own landare also closed

' against them . CannotEngland se e the intolerable position intowhich she i s allowing the whole Indiannation to be forced ? There are threehundred millions of people in India ; education is spreading ; communications areopen ; the people read and understand whatis passing all over the world . They are stillpatient and forbearing

,but they are growing

more bitter and estranged every month.

The situation is becoming maddening, andit cannot last. A whole nation cannot beheld for ever in thrall and confined withinits own borders

,forbidden expansion with

23

INDIA AND THE EMP IRE

out while denied freedom within . Indiasends to England a deputation of worthy

,

sober-j udging, reliable, quiet men . Theseare no wild extremists , no mad theoris ts ;the y are patriots ; lovers of liberty, loyalsubj e cts of the Crown , would-be citizens ofthe Empire . They ask for the primaryrights of educated human beings , freedomto take part in the government of their owncountry, freedom to travel, as others travel ,within the Empire, freedom to earn theirbread by the labour of their own brains andtheir own hands . They plead for a nationof three hundred millions, whichwould loveEngland and defend her Empire, if fairlytre ated. Will England treat their ple awith denial or contempt ?

ANNIE BESANT.

24



fluence and teaching. Mystery environs us ,and mysticism has ever appealed to thehuman mind ; Mrs Besant, as the highpriestess of Theosophy

,appeared to many

as a torch -bea rer, guiding them along un

trodden or little-known paths . And in themore practical affairs of l ife her influenceand teaching were perhaps even more potent.Her mission to Australia in 1895 has had

an abiding effect—an effect which becamemore marked after her visit in 1908. The

work of the Society of which she is the headis growing.

' It i s spreading,”she said to me ; not

very rapidly,but, I think, in a very solid

way. We a re not as strong in the OverseaDominions as we are in the Mother Country,in America, and in India. In Australia wehave only 22 lodges and a little over 1200active members . But they a re active . InNew ' ealand we have 22 lodges and 820members . Those are the figu res for lastyear. The work grows steadily there, anda great deal is being done by sending booksto all the public libraries and to theschools .

6

INDIA AND AUSTRALIA

One phase of our work is particularlyInteresting and encouraging. I refer to achi ldren’s society, cal led The Golden Chain,which has a membership of between nine andten thousand in Au stralia alone. The rulesare very simple. The children are expectedto make a little promise every morning thatthey w ill be kind to all living creatures, thatthey will try to speak only good and gentlewords

,and think good and gentle thoughts.

The Society has been taken up a good dea lin the schools, and the membership

,I am

glad to say, is growing very, very qu ickly.

' I am hoping to revisit Australia— not

this year, but the year after next,” said Mrs

Besant in reply to my inquiry. Next yearI must go to America to attend the PhiloSophical Congress at ’Frisco.”

In discussing public opinion in Indiathat is, the opinion of the educated Indiansthemselves— in regard to Australia’s policyof excluding all coloured races , even thoughthey may be subj ects of the British Crownand citizens of the Empire, Mrs Besantobserved

' They express themselves very strongly


in regard to Australia’s attitude. Theywish, indeed, to have Australians excludedfrom India unless Indians are admitted to

Australia. They wish , too, to impose probibitory duties upon Australi an products.People here do not real ise how radicallyIndia has changed, even within the last tenor fifteen years . Education is spreading ; thepeople know what is passing in the world ;there is a growing national feeling ; andwhen they find all the Colonies excludingthem they are fired by a desire to passretaliatory laws .I believe in the Empire, exclaimed Mrs

Besant, her face lighting with enthusiasm,

' and it is the best kindness to the Empireto speak out and let people know the truth .

Some people think that by voicing it thedanger is increased. I don’t ; I think it isdiminished . The Indians are a patient andforbearing race, but their patience and forbearance are being taxed beyond endurance .

Three hundred millions of people cannot beheld for ever in thrall, confined Within the irown gates , forbidden expansion without anddenied freedom within. A rude and sudden

28

INDIA AND AUSTRALIA

awakening must come if Great Britain andthe Empire persist in ignoring India’s j ustclaims for freedom and equality. They areloyal at present, but existing conditions arestraining their loyalty to breaking point.”

29

IND IA AND THE EMPIRE

PROBLEMS FOR STATESMEN

MRS BESANT’S VIEW OF NATIVEGRIEVANCES

'The Time s, Friday, May 29, 1914)

To the Ed itor of The Tz’me s.

S IR,—Outside the domestic problems ofUlster and the women’s war, Great Britainis fac ed with two problems in the Eastwhich will tax to the utmost her politicalsagacity, and it is not too much to say thather success or failure in building a worldEmpire will depend on the fashion of theirsolution .

The first is that of Indian emigration, andthe right of Indians to travel freely throughout the Empire and to settle in it wherethey will . This chiefly affects the labouringclasses of the vast Indian population , seeking

30


an outlet for subsistence abroad, Since manyof the home industries have ce ase d to be lifesupporting ; to some extent their difficultiesin gaining a livelihood in India may bediminished by the demand for labour in te a ,coffee

,and other plantations, where wages

tend to ri se in consequence of the scarcityof coolies , and by the improvement of villagelife by the spread of co-operation and therevival of weaving and other handicrafts .These remedial tendencies are

,however,

inevitably slow in their action, and the areaover which they must spread for effectiveusefulness is so huge that, whi le they maySlightly lessen they cannot obviate thenecessity for emigration in search of livelihood . The educated class is touched bythe question of the emigration of the labour'ing population mainly through sentimentthe feelings of kinship with those imm edi

ately affected, of indignation against unfairtreatment meted out to fellow- countrymen

,

of race-pride smarting under the imputationof inferiority . The late agitation in Indiaover the South African troubles— that hadrisen to danger-point when Lord Hardinge

’

s

31


statesman-l ike sympathy saved the situationby associating the Government with thepopular feeling—j oined all classes togetherfor the first time in a national protest, andmade India feel her strength as a unitedpeople its pra ctical success in gaining a largemeasure of relief is hailed as a sign thatIndian public opinion is no longer voicelessand impotent

,and that Indian feeling can

be effectively aroused in defence of Indianinterests . To the educated class this que stionof emigration is onlv part of the largerproblem— the position of Indians in theEmpire as inferiors or as equals ; and it isthis second question which is greatly themore important

,although the emigration

matter may seem to be more immediatelypressing.

THE IDEAL or LIBERTY

Since the famous educational minute ofLord Ma caulay, England has steadily heldup before the eyes of the youths receivingEnglish education in Government schoolsand colleges the ideals of English liberty,English constitutional government, English

32



on the will of the people,

” find that whatEngland treasures for herself she refuses tothem . And they find, with still grea te rpain , that England, face to face with politicalcrimes , adopts all the methods she has

hitherto blamed in others—repression offree speech , prohibition of public meetings ,securities from the Press forfeited by thearbitrary will of the Executive

,house

searchings by the police, deportation withouttrial

,dete ntion in prison without trial

,

proclamation of districts entailing thenecessity of obtaining permission for anypublic meeting, police espionage, etc. ,Russian methods used by free England, andthe forfeiture of the freedom of all law-abiding people because a few desperadoe s havecommitted crimes. No one who does notlive as a friend among Indians can knowthe deep resentment felt by them againstsuch methods employed by a country theyloved and admired. The suspicion of theirloyalty shown by Government has bred sus

picion in them ,and there is a widening gulf

between the officials and the educated class .The growing sense of self-respect, of

34


patriotism , and of public spirit, fostered byEnglish education and by contact withEnglishmen, will no longer accept benevolentpatronage with gratitude ; Indians demandto be treated as equals, and not as a subj ectrace ” ; they refuse to regard colour a s adisqualification for any office in a colourednation

,and demand that 'ueen Victoria

’sproclamation of 1858—India’sMagna Charta ,

as they fondly call it— shall no longer remaina dead letter. The best men are standingout of Government service because theywill not tolerate supersession by Englishmen inferior to themselves, merely on theground of colour, and because they willnot subj ect themselves to arrogance anddiscourtesy. They say frankly that thebest men no longer come out to India

,

whether as judges, civilians, or professors ,and that fifth-rate Englishmen should notbe preferred to first-rate Indians . Theyclaim at least equality in Governmentservice

,and some say that where qua lifica

tions are equal the Indian should be preferred in his own country to the foreigner.Government service will be increasingly

35


manned by an inferior class of Indians unlessconditions are altered and colour ceases tobe regarded as a mark of inferiority.

I leave aside here questions of socialdifficulties : the exclusion of Indians fromclubs

,the insults often offered to them if

they travel first- class on railways , the refusalto admit them to railway bedrooms at night,the readiness to strike men of the lowerclasses and even sometimes of the higher

,

the light punishments inflicted where a blowor a kick causes death, the keeping of Indiangentlemen waiting in verandahs sometimesfor hours when they visit officia ls—a wholelong list of social affronts which cause nuending bitterness . The Indians say thatsocial equality will only come with politicalequali ty, and I believe they are right.

POL ITICAL DEMANDS

Their political demands are easily formu

lated. The National Congress and theMuslim League both demand self-government—self-government within the Empire .They demand that the representation grantedby the Minto-Morley reforms shall be ma de

36


effective, by not outnumbering the repre

se nta tive s on the Supreme and ProvincialLegislatures with official members ; therepresentatives are in a pe rpetual minority,and can only criticise

,they cannot legislate.

Gradually, all members of such bodi esshould be elected, and the Governmentshould be responsible to the Le gislature.The Press Act must be abolished, andPress criticism must not be regarded assedition . The sweeping clauses of the Actcan catch legitimate criticism within the ne tof sedition, and every Indian editor livesunder the sword of Damocles . The promiseof protection by the revision of the HighCourt has proved to be a delusion , andamendment at least should be granted ifabolition be refused .

Indian candidates for the Services shouldbe placed on an equality with English onesby the establishment of simultaneous e xam inations ; a t

' present the Imperial Services,which give higher social position and higherpay—the Civil Service, the Medical, theEducational, the Ba r, the Engineering—canonly be entered by residence in England .

37


When the youths come over to Englandthey find difficulties placed in their way ; theUniversities of Oxford and Cambridge restri ctadmission, the medical colleges are doing thesame, the Bar has raised the conditions ofadmission

,the Institute of Engineers de

mands higher qualifications from the Indianthan from the English students.The separation of the executive and

judicial functions of the magistrates isneeded for the fair administration ofj ustice ; counsel, witnesses , litigants have tofollow an inconsiderate magistrate who fixesa place twenty miles away for a hearing, tosui t his convenience for other work . The nu

fairness is admitted,but no remedy is found.

Representation on the India Council isasked for

,and this will probably be granted,

though to a lesser degree than is asked .

Now that there i s talk of federating theEmpire, this question of India becomespressing. Great Brita in, Ire land , the Coloniesare spoken of as federated countries ; Indiais always left out . If she is Shut out of theEmpire

,a s a self-governing country, will she

be to blame if she refuses to remain in it as

38


a dependency ? If her sons are shut out ofthe Colonies

,will she be to blame if she shuts

out all colonials ? If the white man lords itover the Asiatic outside Asia, shall not theAsiatic be at least his own master withinAsia ? The educated Indian is a highlycultured, courteous, noble-hearted , patrioticgentleman ; is he always to be shut out fromthe best in his own country ? Is he never tobe free among free men ? Is he never to beestimated by his character, his brain, andhis heart

,but always by the colour of his

Skin ? There is no finer class in the Empirethan that composed of the educated Indians .They offer an intelligent loyalty

,the loyalty

of citizens and of free men . Ill will i t befor the Empire if it rej ects their love anddisregards their loyalty. For India is

awakened into national self- consciousness ,and her tie with Great Britain can only bepreserved by her freedom . Free, she will bethe buttress of the Empire subj ect

,she will

be a pe rpetual menace to its stability.- I

am,etc. ,

ANNIE BESANT.

LONDON, May 28.

39

THE PROBLEM OF IND IA

'The Times, May 30 , 1914)

THE letter from Mrs Besant which wepublished yesterday draws attention in avery fair-minded way to certain spaciousproblems affecting the future of British ru lein India, but it is materially weakened byan imperfect understanding of Indian conditions . Mrs Besant, for example, has clearlypaid very little attention to the questionof Indian emigration . She assumes, a s somany people assume, that India is alreadyover-populated , and that such incidents asthe shipload of Indians now clamouring foradmission to British Columbia are due tothe fact that India is overcrowded This isnot the case, and the fact has a very closeconnection with the Canadian problem nowattracting worldwide attention . The tru this that no region in Asia has at present

40



of Canada is that certain sections of theIndian population have become infected withthe get-rich-quick craze which is working so much harm throughout both Northand South America. An enterprising and

lucky peasant from the Punjab makes a fewthousa nd dollars in British Columbia. In

stantly he writes to all his friends andrelations to come and do likewise. We canconceive no land and no climate where thepeople of the Punjab are less likely to becomeuseful colonists , descending from generationto generation

,than British Columbia. No

desire for the vindication of the rights ofIndians a s subj ects of the Empire, but ratherthat desperate acquis itiveness which is alwaysat the bottom of the motives of the Sikh, isthe true explanation of the appearance ofthe steamer Komag a ta Mam at Vancouver.In other respects , Mrs Besant’s letter failsto face examination. Even her facts willnot bear the test of scrutiny. It is not true,as She suggests , that the Provincial Le gislature s in India contain a maj ority of officialrepresentatives. The unofficial members preponderate, and even in the Imperial Le gis

42

THE PROBLEM OF INDIA

lative Council the late Lord Minto waswilling to relinquish the official maj orityuntil he was overruled— in our opinioncorrectly— by Lord Morley. When Mrs

Besant complains that some Indian litigantshave to j ourney twenty miles to get theircases heard she makes the cause she pleadsridiculous. Rural litigants will always haveto make j ourneys , unless the house of everyman is converted into a Court of Appeal .We are convinced , after careful inquiry, thatIndians suffer no definite disabilities in thisrespect which are not shared by their fellowsubj ects In England, and we think it wouldbe kinder to India to make litigation moredifficult instead of easier. We are, further,unable to associate ourselves with Mrs

Besant’s criticism of the Press Acts in India.

No one who has intimate knowledge of theIndian vernacular Press can doubt that inIndia the privileges enj oyed by conductorsof newspapers have been in some instancesvery greatly abused in the last decade. To

assess the extent of the damage which hasbeen wrought it is necessary to sit, not ina college at Benares, but with the village

43


schoolmaster beneath the banyan tree whichfurnishes a common resting-place at eventide.There is no restriction inflicted nowadaysupon the Indian Press which would not sitlightly

’

and imperceptibly upon any editorin England. The English editor knows thebounds beyond which he should not transgress ; the Indian editor has no tradition ofrestraint.We have not the slightest desire to evade

the larger issues raise d byMrs Besant , whoselong and sympathetic association with thepeople of India is now recognised by themand by us . Although she does not explicitlysay so, her letter touches upon the wholeimmense question of the grounds for thepresence of the British in India. Thatquestion is likely to become one of thedominant issues of the twentieth century,and it is certain in course of time to touchvery nearly the most central interests of theBritish Empire. Our reply to it is verysimple. We do not admit that the Britishsovereignty over India implies

,for example,

the unrestricted right of the people of Indi ato flood Western Ca nada with their over

44

THE PROBLEM OF INDIA

spill . We do not accept Mrs Besant’s apparent contention that Indians can claimadmission to any English clubs, becauseclubs are founded upon a basis with whichMrs Besant, like many women , is still imperfectly familiar. The railway questionwill settle i tself, and incidents of the naturewhich Mrs Besant indicates grow rarer everyyear. They could still be paralleled bymany episodes which suggest that such verysmall restrictions as continue to obtain are

not unwarranted . Th e fundamental chara cte ristic of British rule in India, whichMrs Be sant seems to question, is this . Aftercenturies of internal strife

,which inflicted

untold hardship upon the peasantry,British

rule has brought to India peace and pros

pe rity . We recommend any inquirer whohas doubts upon this point to read therecords of the Deccan under the Peishwas .The advent of internal peace, and of aprosperity such as the predecessors of thepresent generation of Indian peasantry neverknew, has brought with it a demand forself-government without such restrictions asstill obtain . Th e wonder is , not that such

45


a demand exists,but that it is not more

insistent. The answer to all pleas of thek ind advanced by Mrs Besant is that Indiahas in recent years received a substantialenlargement of her share of government,and that the process cannot be a cceleratedwithout risk of a set-back . So long as theBritish Empire endures

,Great Brita in must

and will bear the burden of responsibilitywhich she has undertaken towards IndiaIt is well for India that she should do so ;

but we agree with Mrs Besant that theBritish control should be carefully exercisedand not unduly obtruded.

46

THE VOICE OF THE EAST

AN INDIAN LADY ON INDIANAFFAIRS

'The Times, June 3, 1914)

To the Ed itor of The Tz'mes.

S IR, -Your leading article in The Times ofMay 30 has answered Mrs Besant very com

ple te ly upon the emigration question , andon one or two other points. But her greatgift of oratorical language is so misleadingthat no one acquainted with facts

,and

belonging to India, and living and workingin India, is entitled to keep silence if thereis even one further word which can be saidto minimise the inflammatory nature of herstatements.

Mrs Besant talks of the events of the lastfew years as a rude shock to the belief thatEngland loved liberty, and that when she

47


saw political unrest she endeavoured to see kits causes and to remove them .

” And she

then proceeds to abuse the Government ofIndia for doing the very thing which shewould have see med to desire—viz . , for see king by its Press Act to control the misrepresentations, the distortions of truth, theincitations to anarchy which are undeniablythe successful aims of one section of thevernacular Press in Indi a. That is, Mrs

Besant is blaming the Government for' seeking and endeavouring to remove ” avery potent and insidious ca use of unrestin India.And as for the ' events of the last fewyears

,

” political liberty has surely nevermoved with quicker strides in any Empire .Indeed

,there are those who fear tha t the

large and rapid share given to Indi ans oflate years in representative government inIndia may prove our own undoing ; and tha tit is possible to put not too narrow but tooliberal an interpretation on the word liberty—when you are speaking and acting ' inEnglish

,

” in a country where the masses stillspeak and love the vernacular

48



West ” ; by boasting of a dead past, andmaking it the basis of claim to a presentwhich that which was best and greatest inthat past would never have sanctioned. The

struggle to get rich, the desire to play thegame of politics as played in England .

Could the old Rishis, whose aim was to feelafter God, and who even renounced kingdomsto go out into the forest and me ditate ifhaply so, in silence and aloofness , they mightfind Him—could they have sanctioned Mrs

Besant’s plea for an unrestrained vernacularPress in all its violence and inaccuracy andincita tion to rebellion ? Could they havesanctioned any part ofMrs Besant’s politicalprogramme ? And yet

,if Mrs Besant has

any claim to a hearing at all, it Would benot about politics or the present conditionof India, but about the meditations in theforest of these same Rishis .Equal privilege of service for India inwhat is considered the highest grades of thatservice ha s long been open to us—althoughmany Indians have counted the cost 'loss ofcaste and family and orthodox Indian socialprivilege) too great to pay for the liberty

50


of visiting England and becoming a memberof the Civil Service. What the discontentedIndian now claims , and Mrs Besant for him ,

i s really not equality but special privilege.He does not say, ' G ive me this because Ihave the same qualifications as an Englishman,

” but G ive me this because you mustmake allowances for me in not having thesame qualifications .” And he forgets thatwe do not make allowances for our equals

,

but for our inferiors .Th e Indian had his traditions and idealstoo, but he has forsaken them by the veryact which has put him in competition withEnglishmen in the struggle for place andpower and wealth and temporal aggrandisement.H e forgets this and the English studentsof half-digested translations of the Easternspirit forget this also. The whole vocabularyofmodern Indian demand iswrong—s uffragistmethods of a ggression and intimidationgrounded ou

' Eastern claims to be thestudents of quiet and of the renunciationo f the temporal ' Should we not recognisesuch a sequence as impossible ?

51


AN INDIAN IDEAL

I dream of an Empire into which everynation shall bring its own special glory andhonour ; and I would se e Indians nursing thegrowing-pains of the transitional period ofour history in silence and obscurity untilthat which the West has taught us hashelped us to make the best use of our ownnational gifts and inspirations for theprivilege of service.Mrs Besant talks of social difficulties , andmeans apparently social intercourse withEnglish folk. But there are far wider sociali ssues than that at stake, and we need nocharter from England to solve them . Ourquestions of custom , disastrous to healthand to morals ; our problems of the domesticfire and water — each Indian heart knowsits own bitterness and difficulties about these .Then there are social problems betweenIndian and Indian . Mrs Besant refers toan age -old incident in a railway carriagebetween an Englishman and an India n. Ithas often been quoted. But I have anentirely Indian railway-carriage scene to

52


put beside that. And here it is. Time,present day ; scene, Howrah railway platform, Calcutta. Punjab mail j ust about toleave. A Hindustani 'old fashion) in loincloth is sitting in a first- class carriage, hishookah beside him . An ' England- returne d”

Be ngali comes up dressed in English clothes,

pink shirt, patent leather shoes, bowlerincluded ; he finds that a berth in theHindustani’s carriage is the only one available ou a crowded train . He is furious

,and

demands that the Hindustani should goelsewhere. The Hindustani says no word

,

simply holds out a first- class ticket which hehas untied from a knot in his waist- cloth .

The Bengali sends for the guard, anddemands that the Hindustani shou ld beremoved. The man is still holding out histicket in silence.The guard examines it. Sorry, sir ; youhave not reserved the entire carriage ; theother gentleman has a ticket. Time up, sir ;train j ust off,

” and he blows his whistle.The educated Indian’s obj ection to theHindustani is probably identica l with theEnglishman’s objection in the oft-quoted

53


story. He fears that the manners andcustoms of his travelling companion may notbe the same as his own.Would Mrs Besant not do more service toIndia in pointing out this s imple fact 'andits like in kindred misunderstandings) thanin talking of rancour and bitterness, andquoting worn-out tales of the discourtesy ofindividuals —Yours faithfully,

CORNELIA SORABJ I .

LONDON, j une .

54


THE 'UALIFICATIONS OF ENGINEERS

'The Times, June 5 , 1914)

To th e Editor of The Tz'mes

S IR,—The attention of this institution has

been drawn to a letter addressed to you byMrs Annie Besant in your issue of May 30

,

in which it is stated that ' the Instituteof Engineers demands higher qualificationsfrom the Indian than from the Englishstudents .”

Th e grounds for the statement are not,

given ; and if, as i s probable, the Institution ofCivil Engineers is referred to, I am authorisedto say that it is a matter of concern to theinstitution to observe such a suggestion ofunequal treatment of those who seek the recognition it accords to professional engineering qualifications .

55


The qualifications for membership of thisinstitution apply uniformly to all candidatesfor election into it ; and, in view of theimportance of that situation to the engineering profession , I trust you will permit me tocorrect the statement above referred to .

— I

am,sir, yours faithfully,

J. H . T. TUDSBERY,

S ecre ta ry to the Institution

of Cz'

w’

l E ng ine e rs.

GREAT GEORGE STREET,WESTMINSTER , S .W.

, j am 3 .

56



abuses . It is used against Indian,and not

against English editors, however abusive thelatter may be, and however much they stirup hatred against the Indians . It is un

necessary, for incitements‘ to murder and

rebellion are punishable by ordinary law.

The Indians are no more able to discoverthe authors or abettors of crime than arethe police ; the anarchists are the worstenemies of India, and Indians are at onewith the Government in the wish to represscrime. I champion no causes and methodswith which I disagreed when I was askingfinancial help from Government for herHindu college in Benares .” I have opposedfrom the beginning, and oppose now, allpolitical crimes and methods of conspiracy,and am denounced by Krishnavarma and hisfriends for this reason . I have never at anytime asked for any financial help fromGovernment for the Hindu College atBenares, but have relied entirely on voluntarysupport . Not one rupee has ever beenasked for from Government nor given by itto the Hindu College.The Hindu Rishis were particularly active

58

MRS BESANT AND INDIA

people in worldly affairs ; they visited the

courts of kings,questioned the rulers on

all matters of government , on the wages ofartisans

,the seed supply of agriculturists,

the support of the widows and orphans ofsoldiers . Has Miss Sorabj i studied the f long

speech of Bhishma on the duties of monarchsand of subj ects 9 Has she read the DharmaShastras, the Mahabharata , the Ramayana,which all bristle with worldly affairs ? Doesshe remember the obj ects of human life aslaid down by the Rishis—the pursuit of' duty, desire, and wealth

”? Has she read

the prayers they taught the people, forriches, prosperity, power, progeny, victoryover their enemies ? The Rishis were lawmakers , councillors of kings, statesmen ,active interveners in public and nationalconcerns. Life, by their rules, was dividedinto four periods— studentship , householder,retirement from public life, asceticism .

During the household period a worldly lifewas commanded, power, rank , and wealthwere to be sought . Men went to the forestand meditated, ' renouncing kingdoms, onlyafter they had enj oyed to the full the

59

'I

'

'


struggle for wealth and the activity ofpolitical life. They do so still . To re

nounce after full experience is the Hinduidea l . Miss Sorabj i would have Indiansrenounce without experience . Moreover

,i t

must be remembered that all great Indianliterature belongs to the time of India’sfreedom

,and that the revival of her literary

power has come with the spirit of nationality.

It is the Indian’s ' traditions and ideals ”

which have given birth to the new spirit,

and if it throws him into competition withEnglishmen , it is the Englishmen who haveintruded into India and challenged thecompetition . To a sk the people of a countryto practise renunciation in order that theforeigner may enj oy, unchallenged, wealthand power therein seems a little audacious .The Indian asks for no special privilege, hecomplains of the special privileges enj oyedby aliens to his detriment. He does ask forequality, and is resolute to obtain it.I have

,unfortunately, though travelling

constantly on Indian railways , never seen aman in a loin -cloth in a first- class carriage,nor a Bengali in a bowler hat . I have seen,

60

MRS BESANT AND INDIA

and heard of from sufferers, very manyinsults to well-dressed Indian travellers.I did not allude to any one age-old incident,

” but to repeated insults known to everytraveller and occurring every yea r. Whenthe ' discourtesy of individual s ” ceases , wewill cease to complain of it—not before . Fore ach new case rankles in the Indian mind.

The difference of qualifications I alludedto for admission to the Institution of CivilEngineers was that the matriculation examination of any English university or ofsome colonial universities exempts from thestudentship examination

,whereas a student

must have pa ssed the degree examination ofthe Indian universities for a similar exemption . Also Rule A of Part 2, Rules ofExamination

,allowing a student of the

institution to present himself at the e nd ofa year for the Associate examination

, is

stated in The S ta tus of Indian S tudents in

the United Kingdom, pp . 11 and 12, not tobe applied to Indian students

,who must

work for two or two and a half years beforepresenting themselves .

ANNIE BESANT.

PRESENT-DAY PROBLEMS


By ANNIE BESANT

'The Na tion, May 30, 1914)

Ir is a remarkable comment on the curiousindifference of England to her greatdependency ” that

,in all the discussions

now rife on the question of the Federationof the Empire, India is quietly left on oneside. There is no deliberate intention to doinj ustice ; there is merely a vast ignorance.There is a general vague idea that Indi a is aconquered country

,

” that she ' is held bythe sword,

” that she is more or less barbarous,and does not count when Imperial questionsare to the front. People read, in articles onCensus Reports in the daily Press, remarkson the hill- tribes and other savages who stillremain ensconced in some of the recesses of

62


her vast exte nt,

’

and think, more or less casually, that these are ' Indians .”

‘

Obviously,these need not be considered when mattersof self-governing nations are being di scussed.

Her people are natives ,” coloured ,

” andthe words call up pictures of Hottentotsand Ka ffirs

,and others of that ilk. So the

British nation blunders along after its wont,and is risking the loss of the noblest opportunity a people have ever had of buildinga world-Empire so mighty that it couldimpose peace on the world, and is tendi ngsteadily towards a war of ' white ” andcoloured,

” in which Asia, indignant at longexploitation and inj ustice, shall be pittedagainst Europe and America. It must notbe forgotten that Japan

’

s increasing population is beginning to press against herboundaries , and that Australia, with hersparsely settled lands

,her ludicrously small

five millions of white rapidly tendingtowards yellow— men , and her unguardedthousands of miles of coast

,offers a most

tempting opportunity for colonisation,

armed if necessary ; only the JapaneseAlliance with England and the floating

63


Union Jack over Australia defend thatAsiatic country against invasion . Asiaticcountries traditionally look to India as theland whence they have derived much oftheir civilisation , and already there arewhispers in the Far East of what of good tothe Asiatic world might happen if Indiashould remember that she belongs to theEast, not to the West. In the face of allthis, with incredible and suicidal recklessness

,the Colonies are treating the Indians

a s an inferior race, and are shutting themout— where the y do not take them a s in

denture d , i .e . a s slave labour,—and Britainremains supine and Shows herself unable toprotect British subj ects , while the UnitedStates j auntily remark that as Britain allowsthem to be shut out of her Colonies, Shecannot complain if the American Republicfollows suit.Now

,India does not desire to shatter he r

allegiance to the Crown , but she passionatelydesires the removal of the laws which crampand fetter her : she demands self-government within the Empire, and she is resoluteto win it. She is gradually developing a

64



doors closed against them by China, andthe ' open door ” became a war- cry. Nowcolonists claim to keep their doors shutagainst British citizens. Will not GreatBritain consider what Indians ought to do ?If they are to be shut in within the limits ofIndia

,and to be denied the ord inary human

right to travel freely in other lands, maythey not fairly claim at least to have theirown land to themselves, and to shut allwhite men out of it ? Is it surprising thata murmur is making itself heard to shutout all Colonials ? The resentment which isspreading is not the vocal resentment of themuch maligned ' educated clas s ” ; it is adumb resentment, spreading among themasses of the peasa ntry, whose kith and kinit is who are refused an outlet for theirindustry. It will be ill for the Empire whenthis peasantry, feeling the ever - growinggrievance of their exclusion from the rightto win their bread, turn to their naturalleaders, their educated fellow- countrymen,and cry to them for help . The Indianmasses are neither loyal nor disloyal ; theyare indifferent to Governments, which, to

66


them,from time immemorial , exist only to

plunder them of their hard-won earnings.The only intelligent loyalty to the BritishGovernment in India is that of the educatedclasses ; they desire self - government, butself-government within the Empire ; Englandhas taught them to love liberty, to admirefree institutions, and they look to Englandto carry out in India all that she elsewheredeclares is essential to national and individual self-respect. Their faith in herprofessions is shaken, but is not yet destroyed ; they are still willing to be guidedin their building—up of free institutions bythe expe rience of the English, but theydemand that the building shall proceed .

How is this educated class being treated ?There is the Press Act , to which theirconsent wa s gained by a promise that theHigh Court would redress any wrong— a

promise shown to be illusory. This Act isadministered harshly against Hindus andMahom e dans, but is a dead letter whenEnglish-edited papers stir up hatred againstIndians.They have long asked for the separation

67


of executive and j udicial functions,for the

union of the two causes frequent inj usticeand Spreads disbelief in ' British j ustice .”

A ' Collector 'magistrate), tire d out withrevenue work , listens impatiently to counsel,hurries his decisions, pays no attention toevidence, suddenly fixes a place of trialperhaps twenty miles away at his next camp

,

increasing the expenses of the litigants,

putting lawyers, witnesses , and principa lsto most serious inconvenience

,sometimes

making the hearing impossible. Despite allurging

,nothing is done, and the people

despair of j ustice.They a sk for representation on the IndiaCouncil, a modest third of the members tobe elected by themselves: Will the prayerbe granted ? They complain that the everincreasing cost of higher education is be coming prohibitory, and urge that the EducationDepartments should not, under pretence ofefficiency, crush out schools which are at leastbetter than nothing ; but the Juggernautcar goes on re le ntle sslv.

They ask that they shall not be barredout by colour only from posts in their own

68


land ; that regulations Shall not be madewhich force their sons to qualify in England,and ye t shut against them the colleges andother institutions where the qualifica tions areto be gained. They ask to be treated aspolitical equals

,and not a s inferiors, in all

branches of the Service. Government willfind difficulty in staffing its Services withany but inferior men if the present r'gime

continues, for the better type of youngermen will not submit either to rudeness or tobenevolent patronage. They feel themselvesto be the equals of the white men , and se e

no reason why the white should treat themas inferiors.They ask that in all the Services young

Englishmen , j ust imported, shall not be putover the head of Indians who are efficientlyperforming their work . For example, ayoung man is brought over from England as ;

professor, and placed over Indian assistantprofessors of far greater knowledge than hecan claim . They resent their exclusion fromclubs and the social treatment they receive,and they rightly feel that this will continueuntil political freedom is gained

,and all

69


posts in the Services are thrown open tothem on the same terms as to Englishmen .

There is nothing in all this which borderson sedition

,which deservedly causes suspicion

and distrust. Nothing is more dangerous,more disloyal to the Empire, than the floutingof this splendid class of patriotic men, andthe constant misrepresentation of their aimsand conduct. For the sake of England, asmuch as for the sake of India, their cc

operation and advice should be sought andwelcomed ; for the stability of British rulein India depends on them .

70

COLOUR BAR IN THEDOMINIONS

By ANNIE BE SANT

'Da ily Chronicle , June 3, 1914)

THE British Empire, growing into solidarityof feeling and endeavour, i s seriously menace din a way that no other nation

,seeking for

Empire, has to face . The majority of its

people are coloured, the minority white.But the white claims not only to rule in whitecountries, but also to appropriate all thehighest posts in the coloured countries , ex

propria ting their own inhabitants, howeverhighly civilised, however well educated,however capable the latter may be. It isthe white man’s burden ” to manage andimprove them—after his own ideas. The

Indians, at least, say among themselves thatthey find the white man himself a very serious

71


burden on their coloured shoulders,and

think that the burden is beginning to begreater than the benefit.

ANTI-INDIAN PREJ UDICE

While the white man claims to intrudehimself and his goods into every colouredcountry

,the coloured men are forbidden by

him to enter the countries which he choosesto dub white, after he has taken them fromcoloured men of a savage type

,Australian ,

Red American Indian,Ka ffir

,etc . The

savages are wiped out sooner or later, forthey cannot effectively res ist ; but the hugeIndian peninsula is peopled by highly civilisedraces—leaving apart the aborigines remainingas hill tribes and the like—races of Aryandescent. The white countries ” Shut theseIndians out, and make various laws to effecttheir purposes ; British Columbia says Indiansmay not land unle ss they come direct fromIndia, and there is no direct line by whichthey can come.Australia has a language test, adopted

with Mr Joseph Chamberlain’s approva l,which enables the authorities to offer Russian

72



The conditions in India which lead toemigration may be readily understood .

Economic conditions have supplied the fieldwhich emigration agents have ti lled

,and with

fair promises they have induced Indians toleave their own country to labour abroad ;higher wages are promised than planters willgive

,and the factory life offe red by manu

facture rs in large towns has no attraction forthe agriculturists who for many generationshave lived by tilling the soil. The conditionsunder which India flourished in the pasthave largely changed since the esta blishmentof British rule

,and life is no longer supported

so easily as in past days .

IND IA’S PAST INDUSTR IES

It must not be forgotten that India in thepas t was a great trading country, exportingthe goods produced by her flourishing handicrafts

, a s well as various valuable naturalproducts. Her weaving indus tries were amine of wealth ; her silks, muslins, shawls ,carpets

,woven fabrics of every kind, were

eagerly sought for ; h e r workers in metals,her carvers in wood and stone, were renowned

74

COLOUR BAR IN THE DOMINIONS

all over the civilised world . As Phillimoresaid in the eighteenth century, she was sowe althy that the droppings of her soil feddistant regions .”

Now her handicrafts have decayed ; herweavers and dyers are disappearing into theagricultural class under the pressure ofpower machinery, Indian and foreign ; hermetal workers and artifice rs are starved outby cheap , vulgar, foreign-made goods, withwhich the country is flooded ; railways carryaway her food-stuffs ; their embankments turnfertile land into malarial swamps . Villagelife is impoverished, and the peasants, a t

tracted by the promises of emigration agentsseeking cheap labour, leave their homes andbecome indentured labourers, exported toSouth Africa, the Fij i Islands, etc. Frugal,industrious,tempe ra te ,they sa ve a little mone y,

and become traders, when‘ free from their

indentures . Then the white colonists takealarm ; they want their labour as cooliesthey dread their competition as traders .Next, by exceptional laws , they try to getrid of them in this character : to keep themcoolies, to deport them , or to tax them

75


crushingly anything to prevent theirsuccess .The Indian Government has forbidden theexport of indentured labourers to Natal

,but

has nottouche d volunta ry em igra tion . Apartfrom agents’ promises

,many emigrate

,allured

by news of the success of relatives and friendsin foreign lands, and their influx is arousingkeen antagonism among white settlers alreadyin possession, as in British Columbia now.

Australia fears that, unless it excludes, thePacific may become an Asiatic lake,

” and itis said that the battle for the world’s Empirewill be fought out on the Pacific. If that beso, a far-sighted statesmanship would conciliate Indian feeling, so that theof India may not learn to look to Japanwith hope as they turn from Britain in despair.Australia may yet have to plead to Indiafor protection against invasion, and she mayyet cry to those for defence whom now she

excludes from her sparsely populated lands .

THE R IGHT OF FORCE

What is the right in the white skin , Indiais now asking, to take the lands of coloured

76


people,and to exclude others from the lands

which the white s then claim as their own ?The right of force But that is a dangerousclaim in India, where of colouredpeople face some thousands of whites . The

right of brains ? But Indians meet the English in England, and prove themselves to beequal with the whites, though examined ina tongue which is not theirs

,sometimes even

to be the superiors of the pick of Englishuniversities ; coloured skins do not proveinferior brains, and some say that much ofthe trouble arises from the fear that colouredmen may prove to be as good as white onesin every walk of life.This question is arousing India as awhole

,and that for the first time . Indians

passionately assert their equality as a race,

and deny that the colour of a skin should bea political and social disqualification . Individual superiority they are quick to re

cognise and to honour, but they resent agoverning caste founded on colour. Localtroubles in India Britain has faced before

,

but here a whole coloured nation is massingitself against white injus tice ; Britain cannot

77


play off one party against another, for allparties are one on this question . The

peasantry are roused against the colourbar, and the women are on fire. It is notthe educate d class alone which here is concerne d, as in political questions ; i t is a wholenation which is on its feet, demanding for itsmen or women the elementary human rightto move freely at their will .In the Middle Ages peasants were serfs,bound to the soil ; but never yet has thereexisted a whole nation of serfs, fettered tothe ground on which it lives . If the Coloniestry to create this unheard-of condition , theywill goad India into a determination to forcethe question of self-government, so that she

may defend herself against such aggression .

They are pushing to the front the perilousproblem of coloured versus white all theworld over, a veritable Armageddon ofnations .Great Britain has more to lose than anyother nation by an arousing of the colouredpeoples against the white, and it is this whichthe Colonies are precipita ting with an incredible recklessness . ' This question of the

78


treatment of Indians in South Africa , saidLord Ampthill

,

' is a test of our fitness tobe an imperial people, the test of the fitnessof democracy to deal with external affairs .”

British Columbia and Australia are raisingthe same question , and seem to be intent onproving that they are not fit to be part ofan Empire in which the coloured outnumberthe white .

79

EAST AND WEST

THE COLOUR BAR IN INDIA ITSELF

'Da ily News and L ea der, June 5 , 1914)

To the Ed itor

S IR, -Among the many causes which areworking to widen the gulf between Indianand British sentiment, one of the mostimmediately dangerous is the antagonismwhich arises from difference of colour.The uprising of the Sepoys in the middleof the last century was pra ctica lly a localrebellion , and British rule was sa ved bythe ral lying round it of chiefs and troopswho regarded it as useful to the country.

Now the alienation is becoming general andthe resentment national . Britain has everheld her Indian possessions with the assentof large numbers of the Indian chiefs andpeoples . As the Moslem Empire was made

80



for the invaders,successively Greek, Moslem ,

Christian , all turbulent crowds 'seethinground their quiet ashramas , coming andgoing, impermanent. We may leave thisclass on one side

,as taking no part either

for or against Government. Only on somereligious question would they have powerto rouse the people to frenzy] .1

THE REAL DANGER

The real immediate danger lies in thegrowing exasperation of the English-educatedclass against the political and social inferiority of which colour is the mark, the resentment aroused by the treatment accorded tothem by an aggressive alien race, intrudinginto a civilised country and treating its

people as inferiors on the mere ground ofthe colour of their skins. This sense of theskin -born superiority of the white man showsi tself in abusive epithets and blows inflictedon the natives

,mostly, though not entirely,

1 I am not sure i f the se are the e xact words le ft out,but the y are the se nse of them . I am unable to remembe re i the r the words or th e se nse of the omitte d passage s inthe first and second paragraphs.

82

EAST AND WEST

by the rougher section of the white people,and by the light punishments inflicted forassaults on Indians, often ending in death.

I have seen an Englishwoman come into afirst- clas s waiting- room at a railway-station ,and strike a coolie with an umbrella becausehe did not put down he r luggage in theexact spot pointed out by her unintelligibleHindi . I have seen Englishmen kick cooliesfor a S imilar reason .

Indian gentlemen are so often insulted ifthey travel first- class that they often preferto travel second.

' All niggers here '” saida young civilian , putting his head into arailway carriage in which I was travellingat night with some Indian friends, my ownface being turned away from the door. Noniggers wanted here,

” said a civilian toanother friend of mine, who wa s entering afirst-class carriage . Eurasians are employedas ticket-collectors and sta tion -masters

,and

they Show gross incivility to Indian travellers,

while cringing to white . Stop that row,

”

sa id an Englishman to an Indian sufferingfrom a bad cough, or I

’

ll throw you out ofthe carriage .” The Indian drew a pocket

83


knife—he was too weak to resist otherwiseand the Englishman subsided.

In many Indian stations bedrooms areprovided to accommodate travellers for thenight. An Englishman and an Indian weretravelling together ; they arrived at a Stationin the evening, and the Englishman aske dfor admission to a bedroom for himself andhis friend.

' You can go in , sir,”was the

answer, but the native cannot .” ' Butthere are only two beds

,and if I do not

obj ect , why should not my friend come withme ? ” ' Against the rules , sir.

” Appeal tothe station-master was useless .

THE WIDENING GULF

At stations where plague passports areissued, all Indians are turned out on theplatform , though in the middle of the night,while the clerks go to the compartments inwhich there are white travellers . Everywhere these distinctions are made, and Indiangentlemen

,in their own country, are obliged

to submit to degrading distinctions, and tocOntinual insults from ill-bred Englishmen .

The result is a growing exasperation , e spe ci84

EAST AND WEST

ally among the younger men, a haughtycourtesy in necessary official relations withEnglishmen

,and a bitter hatred hidden

within the heart. The insults are re

membered , the story of them constantlyrepeated

,and the gulf grows wider.

Even the more highly placed Indiansare not exempt from violence. Lately, inMadras, an Indian nobleman , fearing tomiss his train, drove his car swiftly past anEnglishman’s. The Englishman followedhim to the station, insulted him ,

struck himand kicked him so seriously that the Indianwas lifted helpless into the train ; hesummoned the Englishman , and a paltryfine was infl icted . The ex-Sheriff of Bombaywas assaulted as he approached a ladies’

carriage to speak to his wife ; he summonedhis assailant ; and the man apologised andwas let off. Such cases are innumerable.Sentences of whipping for trivial thefts areconstantly inflicted on coolies ; and in onecase recently, where a little tobacco wa s

stolen by a railway coolie, he was sentencedto be flogged by a magistrate, and floggedin the magistrate’s oflice by the magistrate

85


himself, according to the testimony of severalrespectable Indians . The magistrate was

se verely reprimanded,” but remains on the

Bench . A coolie, struck by hismaste r,d ied ; afine was inflicted, as

' there was only oneblow, and it was not meant to kill.

” Youcan kill an Indian for 25 rupees,

” one hearsIndians say, but if an Indian strikes asahib I have lived among Indiansas a friend for twenty years , heard theircomments , noted the growi ng resentment,and wonder—how it wi ll end. For the Indianis no longer passive, no longer submissive.His self- respect is constantly outraged, andhe does not forget.Th e political colour ba r is, of course , moreimportant than th e social insults , but thatwill be gradually removed , and India ispatient where reforms are being introduced .

The social stings madden proud and se nsitivemen

,and the exasperation they cause is an

immediate danger, and people in Englandhear little or nothing of them . On the oneside

,there is an arrogant class , growing more

and more angry as it watches the risingspirit of the Indians, a ' subj ect race ” ; on

86

EAST AND WEST

the other side, an increasing, but mostlyconcealed, hatred, which is gagged by thePress Act and smoulders unexpressed . Asignificant phrase is often heard : ' Wemust our boys to box.

”

ANNIE BESANT.

87

'We add the f ollowing important le tter

f rom Lei la Lajpa t Ra i ]

LAJPAT RAI AND BRITISHCITI' ENSH IP

A GREATER MEASURE OF SELFGOVERNMENT

'The Da ily News and Le ader,

June 10, 1914)

To the Ed itorS IR,—I wonder if Englishmen at home realisethe full significance of the attempt of theHindus aboard the Kamag a ta Ma ra to enterWestern Columbia in exercise of their rightsof British citizenship .

The first thing to note in connection therewith is '

Lthat these Hindus are Sikhs, thedescendants

,compatriots , and co -religionists

of those who saved H is Majesty’s EasternEmpire in the time of England’s grea testperil in India, viz. in 1857.

88



E'UAL RIGHTS

The fact is that the British Governmentin India is on the horns of a dilemma. Theywant the Indians to believe that they arethe equal subj ects of the King, but when theformer claim their rights as such, they behaveas if they have neither the power nor thedesire to secure the same for them . Perhapsit is not so much the fault of the Governmentin India as of those statesmen who have toreconcile their professions and principles ofLiberalism with their policy of subj ection.

There is no half-way house between democracy and despotism . So long as India isgoverned from Whitehall and is not freeto retaliate, the difficulty with whi ch theGovernment is face to face in Canada willnot be removed . The desire, the ambition,and the necessity of claiming the rights ofBritish citizenship is no longer confinedto educate d Indians, but is permeatingthrough the uneducated classes and eventhe masses .The unlimited competition of the foreignerin the trade and service markets of India

90

LAJPAT RAI

leaves them no other choice. The Indianlabourer ha s so far been exploited for thebenefit of the British Colonies under themost degrading and humiliating conditions.It ha s,

‘

howe ve r, done him one good : it hasbrought him the consciousness of his valueas a worker. But j ust when he awakes tothis consciousness he finds that there is noroom for him in the world. At home hiswages are despicable, and he can hardly livea decent life on those wages . Even theGovernment sweats him ; when permanentlyemployed in Government offices his wagesordinarily range from 2s. a week to 43. or5s . a week . When skilled and educated

,he

finds that most of the good place s are he ldby the foreigner. Every riff- raft' of aEuropea n, not to speak of British Colonials ,has free admittance into India, and a largenumber of German , Italian , French , andAmerican mechanics and engineers findemployment in Government establishmentsand industrial concerns , While a great manyskilled Indians

,some of them educated in the

best technical institutions in India, England,and America, remain unemployed, or have to

91


be contented with very i nferior positions .He thus suffers doubly. H is country isopen to the competition of the whole world

,

while he is debarred from admittance eveninto parts of the British dominions . Is it awonder that he has begun to complain thatif he had a Government of his own at hisback, the world would not treat him thus ?He feels helpless and friendless .

POWER or E' CLUSION

To my mind, the remedy lies in giving agreater measure of self-government to India

,

with full powers of excluding foreign labourto the same extent and in the same way as

the other parts of his Maj esty’s dominionsdo . Short of this, nothing is likely to availmuch

,and the trouble may cont inue to grow

and embarrass both the Government andthe Indian patriot, as it is no less embarrassing to the latter than to the former. Itdi sturbs the Indian nation-builder in hiswork

,and puts an unspeakable strain on his

loyalty and on his patriotism . It reduceshi s influence with the younger generationof his countrymen, and disables him from

92

LAJPAT RAI

enforcing discipline and self-restraint inpublic life.The spectacle of 400 Sikhs taking tohunger-strike in British Canadian waters isfraught with serious consequences, and islikely to have the most disastrous effect onSikh loyalty. The telegrams from Canadashow that some of them have already comm enced talking bitterly. The retired Sikhsoldiers already settled in Canada are alsosuffering under certain disabilities, the mostimportant of ’which is imposed by the so

ca lled Continuation-j ourney Clause, whicheffectually debars their wives and childrenfrom entering Canada.

It is time, I think, for British statesmento apply their minds seriously to the solutionof the problem

,or else the trouble may grow

in gravity, and then it will be futile to blamethe poor agitator ” for the consequencesthereof.

LAJPAT RAI .

f am e 7.

93

THE INDIAN PROBLEM

LETTER FROM MR LAJPAT RAI

'The Christian Commonwea lth, J une I 7, 1914)

'The Times having refused insertion tothe following letter

,we are asked to publish

it, and gladly do so. ]

S ra , - I wonder if you would extend to methe hospita lity of your columns for a fewobservations on the letter of Miss CorneliaSorabj i that appeared in The Times ofJune 3. I do not propose to deal with hercriticism of Mrs Annie Besant’s letter,because that eminent lady is more thansuffi ciently strong and able to look afterherself. What I am chiefly concerned withis Miss Sorabj is attack on educated Indi ans,bas ed on her misreading of the HinduRishis. I wish she had not dragged thepoor Rishis into the discussion, because to

94

THE INDIAN PROBLEM

me she does not appear to have read themhappily

,if at all. Her letter lea ves an

impression that politics were quite outsidethe sphere of the old Rishis, and thepresent political struggle is opposed to theirteachings,

’ and that if the Indians were tofollow the old Rishis they would retire tothe forests and engage themselves in meditations

,etc. She sneers at ' the struggle for

place, and power, and wealth and tempora laggrandisement,

”and holds that the Indian

has forsaken his ' traditions and ideals ” bythe very act which ha s put him in competition with Englishmen for these things .Now, firstly, Miss Sorabj i forgets that itis not the Indian who has put himself incompetition with the Englishman in India ,but it is the latter who has done so. The

struggle is not of the seeking of the Indian ,and to blame him for it is , to say the least,adding insult to inj ury. If Miss Sorabj i isright in saying that the Indian has forsakenhis trad itions and ideals by this act , thenthe responsibility of forcing him to do so andof creating circumstances which led him toit is not his. Secondly, Miss S orabj i is not

95


right in her reading of the Hindu Shastrasin thinking that the struggle for place

,and

power, and wealth, and temporal aggrandisement ” i s opposed to the teachings of theHindu Rishis. H as Miss S orabj i never readBhishma

’

s celebrated discourse on politics,

or Chanak’s aphorisms ? Has she neverhea rd of Vidura ? Again , then, what are theDharma Sutras , and how does she explainthe numerous prayers in the Vedas forpower

,for wealth

,for progeny

,and for

victory ? In fact, the chief glory of theancient Rishis consisted in their having socomprehensively dealt with all the problemsof life and death and the questions thatarise out of them The whole body ofDharma Sutras and Smritis deals withpolitics . The Rishis concerned themselveswith the affairs of the world quite as much,if not more than with the life hereafter.Are we to understand that they were unconcerned with the troubles, misfortunes , andmiseries of life

,and took no notice of what

happened to men,women

,and children

around them,and did not care as to who

regulated and controlled and guided the lives96



I am not a follower of Mrs Besant,nor

have I always agreed with her in her viewson politics or religion , but I must say that tome she seems to have a better right to spea kof Indian wants and aspirations, by themere fact that by the nature of her workshe has come in the past , and da ily comes ,into contact with a larger number of Indianmen

,women, and children than Miss Sorabj i

could have ever done. Mrs Besant maybe right or wrong in her views on Indianpol itics, but anyone with a grain of commonsense in him or her can find out that theIndian problem would not be any nearersolution if approached in the spirit of MissS orabj i

’

s letter.The fact that Miss Sorabj l was compelledout of a sense of duty to her Motherland towrite this letter to The Time s, proves thather ideal of seeing ' Indians nursing thegrowing-pains of the transitional pe riod oftheir history in silence and obscurity ” is

impracticable and unnatural . The world istoo human to allow that, and I hope, sir, youwill agree with me in this .I cannot finish this letter without record

98

THE INDIAN PROBLEM

ing an emphatic denial of Miss Sorabj l’

s

assertion that in his political demands theeducated Indian does not claim equality, but .

special consideration or ' allowances,

” touse Miss Sorabj i

’

s expression . The Indianwants nothing but j ustice . In fact , for sometime to come he might be contented withsomething less than equality.

—Yours truly,LAJPAT RAI .

99

IND IA,A BUTTRESSA PERIL ?

MRS BESANT’S CRITICISMSBRITISH RULE

'The Da ily Chronicle of June 12 was theonly London paper that gave anything thatcould be called a report of the above lecture,although the great 'ueen

’

s Hall was filled,and the audience was enthusiastic. The

Manche ster Gua rdian gave a fairly goodreport . We append that of The Chronicle .]

A LARGE audience assembled last night at

'ueen’s Hall, to hear Mrs Besant on the

grievances of India. Lord Brassey occupiedthe chair.Mrs Besant said one heard little of thedifficulties and troubles of the people ofIndia

,unless, like herself, one had lived years

in the country, and were in close touch with100



much admired in India as we are apt tosuppose.Indians are driven out of S outh Africa,Australia, New ' ealand, British Columbia,but they must not also be shut out of postsin their own country. India must governherself ; she be gins to realise her strength .

England must live up to her old traditionsand share her birthright with 300 ,000 ,000Indians, for the price of Indian loyalty isthe gift of freedom .

102

IND IA’

S PLEA FOR JUSTICE

SHALL INDIA BE A BUTTRESS ORA MENACE TO THE EMPI RE ?

'A Lecture delivered on June 11in 'ueen

’s Hall, London)

E ARL BRASSEY, who presided, said : In takingthe chair this evening, I desire briefly toexplain my position . I am here to ask foran attentive hearing for the address whichMrs Besant is about to deliver on thedifficul t question of unrest in India. MrsBesant has spent many years in that country.

She has lived in close relation with educatedIndians . She is acquainted with their viewsand their aspirations. It is well that weshould know what they are, and resolve, inso far as it may be possible, to meet them .

As you will doubtless hear from Mrs -Besant ,the demands are many. There are grievanceswhich it may be possible at an early date to

103


remove. Take, for example, the demand forfurther rewards forgood service under Government. To do what is required, changes ofan organic character would be necessary, andthese could only be gradually carried out.We may look for opportunities in connectionwith the great work of education . Thereare grievances keenly felt in India with whichit is not possible for the Imperial Governmentdirectly to deal . There is bitter complaintthat emigrants from India are not freely adm itted into the self-governing dominions ofthe Empire. W e have long since surrenderedcontrol of the loca l affairs in those vast and d istant countries . We may represent our views ;we cannot enforce them . And now, having recently

—though not for the first time—visitedIndia, it is my duty to bear te stimony tothe earnest desire of those filling positions ofthe highest responsibility to promote by allpossible means the well -being and the happiness of the people committed to their charge.The

'

Vice roy , at the head of the Government,my near relative who fills the post ofGovernorof Bombay, the officials at the hea d of thevarious branches of administration

,are all in

104



tions beaten back, nothing of the desire tofind in England a friend and a helper, adesire too often failing in its results

,largely

by mutual misunderstanding. Unless youtake the trouble to have Indian pa pe rs sentto you, you cannot come closely into touchwith the thoughts

,the lives of the people

themselves . And if I venture to put beforeyou this evening what I have called India’sPlea for Justice ,

” it is because for more thantwenty years I have found my home, myfriends, my dearest work, in the service ofIndia

,the mighty Motherland of the Aryan

peoples, and amongst her children I havefound

,and find, many of my dearest and

most trusted friends .

Now, in India to-day, as in the whole ofAsia

,changes are going on so rapidly that

it is well-nigh impossible to keep in directcontact with them , unless

’ your atte ntion isconsta ntly directed in order to se e and tracethem one by one . If a man goe s back therefive or ten years after he has left, he findsthe whole atmosphere changed. Especiallyis this change found among the youngergeneration , those who are j ust finishing their

106


college career, those who are just enteringupon manhood’s life, from about perhaps theage of eighteen to the age of five-and-thirty.

You will find concentrated in those a verylarge part of the forward movement of India .

The elder men have struggled against apathy,against inertia, and have constantly foundtheir most splendid e fforts failing againstthe mass of dead-weight impossible to overcome. One day Mr Gokhale, that greatestof Indian leaders , who is laying a shatteredhealth on the altar of the country that heloves, speaking of the work of the eldersin India, used one, I think of the mostsplendid ofphrases ' Others, he said, ' hereafter shall have the happiness of servingIndia by their successes ; we have the honourof serving India by our failures . It is tothe hero who serves by failures

,to the elders

of India, to the founders of the Congressmovement, to the men who in the midst ofdarkness have never despaired of the light

,

that all the younger ones should look withadmiration and with reverence ; for theyounger will reap what these men have sown

,

and by the difficulties and the sufferings they107


have conquered, the redemption of Indiashall be wrought out.But in the younger men , remember, you

se e the men with whom you will have todeal in the coming morrows of India, full ofenthusiasm , full of passion, having learnedfrom their study of English history many alesson of liberty and ordered freedom , hOpingto find in England one who will encourageall their most ardent aspirations

,willing to

be guided by England if she will lead themalong the road of freedom . As one of themsaid to me but a few months ago : ' Weadmire the English ; we would love them ifthey would let us do so .

” But there lies thedifficulty. The love they would give is cond itioned by England’s treatment of them ,

and their love of England is less than theirlove of liberty—a s

,indeed, it ought to be ,

for only those who are lovers of liberty canbe relied upon for character and for work.Now the educated class, a s it is called , inIndia is,of course, a minority, a small minorityof the Indian nation . Generally in Indiawe say the English - educated class, becausethere is a vast educated class in India, you

108



or Portuguese, or Frenchman , or Englishman ,it is always the demand for the tax ; thatis a ll they know of the Government. Sometimes people talk about the loyalty of theIndian ma sses . Le t me te ll you, there is nosuch thing in the Indian masses as a loyaltyyou can rely upon ; they are ignorant,remember ; they are not trained to understand any question outside the interests ofthe village . In the village they are shrewd,capable, able to j udge . India is essentiallya self-governing country, but the unit ofgovernment is the village, not the State ; andit is in the village self—government will haveto be founded, by the restoration of thevillage councils which from time immemorialhave had the welfare and the prosperity ofthe village in their hands . But, meanwhile,until education spreads, until self-governmentis begun in the villages where all the peopleunderstand the questions far better thananyone else, until then you must rely foryour Empire in India on the loyalty of theeducated classes . They may be smal l innumber, but they make the public opinionof India. To them the masses will look

,not

110

INDIA’S - PLEA FOR JUSTICE

to the English people, when questions arisethat touch them to the heart. And if youwant to realise that, you have to understandthat for the first time a large pa rt of thepopulation is beginning to be moved bysomething outside itself, by the question ofemigration

,by questions of settlement in

foreign lands, where sons have gone out andsent back news to father and mother. Therethe awakening of the population is beginning.

But as they awake they look to their ownpeople, they look to their own lead ers , andfor the first time, by that question of SouthAfrica, w hich is only part of the greatproblems that have to be solved, the massesof India have been moved by a questionaffecting the outer world, and they havefollowed the lead of the educated classes andhave made their voice heard in their support.Those educated classes are almost alwaysspoken ill of in this country ; they aresaid to be disloyal ; they are said to beseditious ; they are said to be the dangerous people for whom you want PressActs, for whom you want deportation , forwhom you want the many methods of

111'


despotism that are disgracing the name offree England throughout India to -day. Butthey are your only hope in India ; on themdepends the stability of British rule ; ontheir agreement and their sympathy yourEmpire must be based . And if you cannotwin them—and they are so easy to win ; i fyou cannot hold them— and they are so

willing to be held if only you will be j ust ;i f you cannot win them by the j ustice andby the be ne fice nce of your rule, then I ask

you who call yourselves free men in yourown countrv—have you any right to holdthem unless you hold them by love, byservice

,and by understanding ? Their

loyalty is the only intelligent loyalty in thecountry ; win them , and you win everything ;but you must win them by fair treatment,and not in any other way . And you arealienating them to -day a s they have neverbeen alienated from England since firstEngland herself took over the rule of Ind ia.Think for a moment of that great Proclamation of the dead but reverenced 'ueen ,when

,after the war of 1858, the Imperial

Crown took authority and responsibility in112



freedom is not within his reach, and hefinds himself unfairly repressed by measuresunj ust and cruel . That righteous discontentwill only be entire ly removed when Indiapossesses self-government wi thin the Empire,and of that you need not have any doubt.They are willing to go slowly, but they must

go ; they are willing to grow into it wiselyand carefully, but you must let them g row.

And there are some things that you oughtto abolish without any further delay. Now

,

the first ‘

of these— for I am going to speakto you quite frankly— is the Press Act of1910 . That Act was passed in a momentof panic, and it bears all the marks of itsevil parenthood . Moreover, it was passed,you must remembe r, with the assent of allthe Indian members of the Imperial Legisla ture except two . Lately Mr Sure ndanathBanerj i proposed certain amendments in thePress Act. The Government would notgrant them, and every Indian unofficialmembe r except two voted for the amendments and against the Act that thre e yearsbefore they had voted for. Now, why was

it ? Why so strange a change ? Because,114


when they voted for it, they believed that theGovernment was obliged to ask for it, facinga pressing danger

,and because they were

assured by the law member, Mr Sinha, thatno real inj ustice could happen, because therewas an appeal to the High Court againstany possible unfairness by the Executive,and the law would defend them if anyinjustice were done.Now that has proved to be absolutely anillusion. A case was brought lately beforethe High Court

,and the High Court of

Calcutta 'the most independent of all theHigh Courts of India and the one mosttrusted by the Indian people) declared itselfpowerless to redress the wrong, declared thatthere was no redress to be given by the lawwhere the Executive had struck a pamphletor a paper, and pointed out that it wasimpossible for them to interfere, and thatwhat the unfortunate defendant had to dowas a thing practically impossible to do ;to show, not that the words that he usedcould not be brought under the sweepingclause of ' causing disaffection and dis

content,” but that by no possibility of con ~

115


struction of metaphor, or of image, wa s itpossible that the words should arouse anyfeeling of anger.1 Now, that is clearly animpossible thing, and the res ult of thatdecision of the High Court has been toj oin all the educated Indians together in ademand either for sweeping amendment orrepeal—which is what they ought to have .Think for a moment what the Press Actmeans . Since it was passed in 1910 therehave been more than 800 prosecutions underit, of which more than 200 a re prosecutionsof newspapers ? You might expect that all

1 It is not e nough for the app licant to show that thewords of th e pamph le t a re not l ik e ly to bring into hatre dor contempt any class or se c tion of his Maje sty’s subje ctsin Bri tish India , or that the y have not a te ndency in factto bring abou t that re sult . But h e must go furthe r, andshow that i t is impossible for them to have that tende ncy,e ithe r dire ct ly or indire c tly , and wh e th e r by way of

infe rence , sugge stion, allusion, m e taphor, or implication.

”

—S ir Lawre nce Je nk ins, J. The H igh Court he ld thatth e forfe i ture was i lle ga l, but that i t had no powe r tore dre ss th e wrong .

9 80 7 case s, of wh ich 237 we re newspape rs. The Hon.

Mr Bhupe ndranath Basu de clared that 'th e law is a

source of gre at pe ril, that is, against the spiri t of th eBritish Consti tution, that i t is de rogatory to the se lfre spe ct of a nation—of a pe ople , if you will , which is fastd e ve loping its se lf-consciousne ss .

”

116



man’s toe he is apt to cry out and to saythat you are hurting him but in India youexpect to tread on the toes of all the people

,

and yet that they shall not emit a single cryof pain . And there lies the difficulty. The

safety of the Government l ies in knowingwha t hurts the people . If you prevent themexpressing their view of the things that hurtthem , you will inevitably have hatred andsedition instead of ope n and honourableprotest.Now every newspape r lies under the fea rof the P mss Act. Personally I have neverbeen asked for security, but then I am in awhite body, and that makes a wonderfuldifference in India. But I live in dreadwell

,I won’t say dread, because it is not in

my line, but in expectation—of being calledupon to furnish it, because I know if whatI print in The Commonwe a l were printed insome of the journals edited by some of myIndian friends, they would very soon findtheir security not only asked for but forfeited ,and probably their Press forfeited too . Weare all in danger of that, we Indian j ournalists, excepting if they be Anglo-Indians .

118

INDIA’S PLEA FOR J USTICE

They are quite safe. Never yet, under anykind of provocation and abuse of educatedIndians, of stirring uphatred of them in theminds of others, never yet has one of thosepapers been prosecuted . They are safe.Now, how does it work ? Suppose a newman comes into your printing cflice

manager ; you must at once go and reportit to the magistrate, and he may like to putsecurity on you because of your new manager.

If you want to move your printing press fromone place to another, you must go arid askpermission of the magistrate. Lately a smal lreligious paper 1 that had existed for sometime at a town called Wai , in the BombayPresidency, wanted, for the convenience ofprinting

,to move the press from Wai into

Bombay ; when , according to the Press Act,the owner went to ask permission to moveit, 1000 rupe es was demanded from him assecurity, not because the same man is notgoing to print it, the same people going toissue it, but merely because they wanted to

1 The Dharma,de vote d to re ligious, ph i losoph ical , and

soc ial top ics. The High Court could not inte rfe re,as

the magistrate was e ntit led to e xe rcise his discre tion.

”

119


move the press . That killed the paper ; hehad not got the thousand rupees .Take another case, that of a Mussulman .

A Christian missionary in the Punjab hadmad e a very violent atta ck upon the Mussul

man religion. The Mussulman had no re

dress,because that is allowed to the goose

which is not allowed to the gander, and veryfoolishly this Mussulman gentleman wrotean answer in his newspaper. The resultwas that at once the Executive came downupon him and forfeited his security. Hepleaded he had only answered when his

religion wa s attacked, but he did not realisethat one man might attack but the otherman must not reply.

1

And I might go on and give you dozens,

scores,of cases like that. The field is so

wide I can only point to one or two casesunder each head to show you that I am notexaggerating, and then pass on .

Now take one point that is interesting inregard to this . It was a paper edited by a

1 The of Amritsar. The Mussulman’swritings injure d the re ligious susce ptibi li tie s of

Christians .

” But what of those of the Mussulman ?120



you, during the three years more than twohundred papers have come under this

,as

well as five hundred other cases in whichprosecutions under the Press Act have takenplace . Realise what that means of irritation

,

of anger, of a feeling of unfair suppression ofthought, and then you will know one reasonfor the growing unrest The shutting outof fair criticism and the constant dread ofbeing involved in prosecution inj ures thePress, and makes it less outspoken and lesshonest than it ought to be. A free Government should learn from a free Press , andnot be afraid that the people should speakout that which they desire to have .Then remember that that is not the onlyform of autocratic interference with theliberty of the subj ect that you have. An

other thing that has been done fairly oftenis deportation and imprisonment Withouttrial . I assure you I am not tell ing you ofwhat goes on in Russia ; I am telling youof what goes on in India. You remember,when nine me n were deported from SouthAfrica

,what a fuss you made over it here .

And yet those men were deported in the122


midst of a danger of civil war. But withus, harmless men like my friend Lajpa t Rai ,who is here, are deported or imprisonedwithout trial . He was seized and deported ;they could not try him , because there was noevidence ; all that he had said was in print,and I read it and am willing to read everyword of it in any country in the world. Butthere is no proof wanted if you are notbrought to trial ; there is no defence wantedif you are put in gaol and kept there as

long as the Government likes to keep you.

And a number of my friends in Calcutta,honourable gentlemen , who never desiredresistance to the British Government , w eresuddenly seized , arrested in their homes,ca rried away, and thrown into gaol withouttrial and without evidence. And even theirwi ves for weeks were not allowed to knowwhat had happened to them . They werelost to their families. These are the things,remember

,that are going on in India, and

are making people so bitter and so resentful .And we ask for the abolition of that oldstatute by which men can be deported orimprisoned without trial and without any

123


evidence being given against them ; for ifyou have no evidence to convict

,vou have

no right to put the penalty of imprisonmentor exile on any one .

There i s another old Act I should like tose e abolished, though I am not sure whethermy Indian friends will quite back me up inthat. I think the Arms Act ought to go .

The Arms Act at present works in rather acurious way. The honest people do not beararms ; the thieves do . And so the thieves

-dacoits, a s we call them in India—are ableto break into people’s houses, beat them ,

sometimes murder them , and they find nodifficulty in getting arms in spite of theArms Act ; so the mischievous people getthem , but the honest people, who try toobey the law

,are left helpless against arme d

aggression . Now the right to carry arms isthe sign of a free man, and it is an insulttha t they are not allowed to carry them .

They do not want to go about, as men doin America ,

with a revolver in the hip -pocket,always ready to shoot. I don’t know of anyof my Indian friends who want to show off

in that way ; but if you cannot trust the124



want to put to you one or two other pointswhich you will at once recognise mean veryunfair pressure upon Indian educationists .We have there the Deccan EducationalSociety which has done wonders for education,and contains some of the most learned andbest educated Indians in the whole country.

Dr Bhandarkar I may' m e ntion as one of

them . All the ' m embe rs of that society wereca lled upon to pledge themselves, not onlythat they would not oppose the Government

,

which was an unnecessary impertinence , butthat not one of them would criticise anyaction of the Government. Surely that wasgoing rather far. At least, a man mightbe allowed to criticise, i f he might not beallowed to do anything else. And that kindof pressure is put upon all our school teachers,schoolmasters, professors, and principals,except, of course, where they wear a whiteskin ; and then things are very different, asyou will see in my next case.There were three lecturers appointed inCalcutta University

,one of whom was very

hard-working in the Turkish Red CrossSociety, and collected a large amount of

126


money to send to his cc - religionists to helpthem in the late war in the Ba lkans . Theytook interest in politics, but no one pretendedto say that they were seditious, revolutionary,or anyth ing else ; in fact, until now theMussulman ha s been the pet child of theGovernment, and always held up to thosewicked Hindus as showing how loyalIndian can be . But now they say that theGovernment will not confirm the appointment of those three lecturers , be cause weought to have a pure atmosphere of studyin the University, and we should not introduce any political fee ling at all . And thenthe principal of a Punj abi college wrote anovel called S ri Ram , Revolutionist, and heput his hero into the well—known Gurukulaof Hardwar, an admirable school belongingto the Arya Samaj , and there he said thathe was trained in sedition . He is stillprincipal of the college

,and '

the pureatmosphere of study and learning is allowedto rema in under his care

,while the unfor

tunate professors were turned out,though

they had written no novels untrue andlibe llous, they had made no speeches attack

127


ing the Government nor slandering anyone.Can you wonder if people put the two thingstogether and say, ' Why should the authorof S ri Ram,

” who is an Englishman,remain

a principal, while these three Indian gentlemen are turned out from the places theUniversity gave them because they sym

pa thised with their co - religionists in otherlands ? Why that was done we have neverbeen able to find out, but a curious Nemesiscame almost immediately on the Chancellorof the University— the Viceroy

,who in most

things is sympathetic with Indians— fromthe Vice -Chancellor

,an Indian , who was

very indignant at the way the professorshad been treated . He had, under his dutyto confer the degree of Doctor of Law on avery eminent Ru ssian

,1 who had been turned

out of his professorship at Moscow becausehis views were not identical with those ofthe Russian Government, who then cameto England and received a post at OxfordUniversity in England, and then went toIndia on a visit The Calcutta Universitybestowed a sign of honour upon the Russian

1 Profe ssor Uinagradoff .128



is open to any Indian unless he comes overhere for his education Th e Imperial Servicemust always have England as the door intoit for English and Indian alike. Howevereducated a man may be, howeve r bri llianthis degrees, however splendid his qualifications, unless he has come over here to oneof your univers ities he is obliged to remainin the Provincial Service , with smaller payand di fferent social position. And the

Educa tional Service is not the only onewhere that difficulty is found. In a momentI will mention the others to which the dooris only open on English soil .Pass from that to the treatment of students .

This is a thing that raises ve ry, very bitterfeelings in India. You will truly say it isthe fault of individuals, but it has largelybeen endorsed by the Education Department.For instance, there were two or three littleboys walking along the road who shoutedout to an Inspector, ' Sahib, salaam , salaamThe Inspector got very angry ; the tone wasnot nice Why, when I go through a villagethey often shout out to me, and I always pat

Mr S tark , Ac ting Inspe ctor, Burdwan.

130

INDIA ’S PLEA FOR JUSTICE

their h eads . The children do not mean anyharm . But the Inspector was very angry andtook their names

,and one of them , a little

lad of' thirteen,was sentenced to be flogged

and not only to be flogged publicly beforeall the others

,but, in addition to that, when

the father appealed to the Department, theboy’s name was ordered to be sent out withthe record of his flogging to every school inBengal . That is the sort of thing that causesbitterness . It is these cruelties that stir upanger. The father took the boy away beforehe was flogged, but that did not make thefe eling any the less bitter.In another ca se some children

,accustomed

to pick flowers anywhere for a festival in oneof the temples

,went into a garden be longing

to a police inspector. They ran away whenhe came out, but he sent the police afterthem , and they were arrested. One or twowere caught and flogged, one of them in thepresence of himself and his wife , and another

'a little boy of twelve years) was bound overto be of good behaviour for a year and tokeep the peace ' I know you do not hear ofthese things in England, but these are the

131


things that make so much bitterness andanger. And that tendency to brutality

,and

to the use of force, i s one of the things thatyou have to think over in deal ing with thisquestion of discontent.Then remembe r that criminals , pe ttycriminals, grown men , are flogged - for smallthefts in Ind ia. A man the other day stolean ounce or two of tobacco from a train ;he was a railway coolie ; and he was

sentenced to be flogged 1 and taken intothe magistrate s oflice , and several Indiangentlemen stated that the magistrate, aMr Sykes, administered the flogging himself.A question was asked in the LegislativeCouncil, but their testimony was thrownaway and Mr Sykes' word accepted that hehad not himself flogged the man . It wasclear that the flogging took place in themagistrate s office, and in his presence, without a doctor being present. At the inquiryit came out that the same magistrate hadgiven four or five sentences of flogging onyounger crim inals, and had inflicted the1 Twenty -five stripe s. H e cam e out limping and

shrie k ing with pain.

132



strong rebuke to the judge . But, remember,that if that man had not been rich , he wouldhave been hanged before the Privy Counci lhad reversed his sentence. The questionwas raised over here in Parliament

,I believe

,

but not pressed so far as it ought to havebeen .

The whole Indian criminal law needs tobe revised and the se punishments of floggingswept away. It is bad enough when usedfor crimes of violence ; it

‘is abominable whend for petty thefts . And yet if you look

at the re cords of whippings of full -grownIndians

,you will se e how numerous they are.

There was another man in the UnitedProvinces 1 who was condemned, stripped ofhis decorations, imprisoned , and after hecame out of prison—having appealed andbeen refused a stay, —after having served thewhole of his sentence, the Privy Councilreversed the whole thing. But the man hadserved the sentence ; he was outcasted by x it ;

his life was ruined . All because it is notthe habit in an Indian court to give stay ofexecution .

1 Mr Chandhuri Nasar Ali Khan,an Oudh Talukdar.

134


I nearly went to gaol myself because ofnot being able to get stay of execution

,

though given permission to appeal on a' substantial ground of law and if it hadnot been possible to telegraph to the PrivyCouncil, who at once granted stay, I mighthave been sent to gaol for not obeying anorder which the Privy Council, on the hearing, declared I could not obey withoutbringing myself into conflict with Englishlaw, and tha t for an order which, it said, nocourt ought ever to have issued .

You cannot wonder under these circumstances that British justice is not as muchadmired in India as you are inclined to thinkit is admired

,for I know that it is one

subj ect of /grea t self-congratulation over here .There is no difficulty about British j usticeover there, you have sometimes said . Butevery Indian reformer agrees in asking forthe separation of the administrative andj udicial functions . Understand that it meansthis : the magistrate

,or collector, collects

revenue, and he goes round to village aftervillage gathering in the revenue ; and thatis all right . But when he is tired out with

135


collecting revenue, he has also to do theproper jud icial duties of a magistrate , andto try suits in that particular place. I haveheard Indian lawyers give an account oftheir own experiences under this system .

One of them said that whi le he wa s pleadinga case before a magistrate

,the magistrate

was making up his accounts and did notlisten . In another case, in the middle ofthe case, the magistrate went on to the nextvillage, twenty miles off, to collect revenue,and the villagers, witnesses, and lawyers ‘ha d

all to go trailing off for twenty miles in orderthat the case might be finished .

It is quite true that when you ge t twoIndians against each other an Englishmanwill often give an impartial decision betweenthem . But the main difficulty arises whenthe quarrel is between English people andIndians

,and no j ustice is done in those cases

- quite apart from this particular grievanceof having to follow a peripatetic

‘

magistrateabout, or to ple ad before a magistrate whodoes not listen to you while you are talking,and sometimes has even written his j udgmentbefore he ha s heard the counsel for the

136



small fine of 25 rupees because he onlystruck one blow and did not mean to kill.Pre sumably not, but he did kill , and the sumof 25 rupees 'about £31, is not a very bigprice for kicking your servant and killing him .

He had an enlarged spleen —a reason fornot striking, not a reason for a small fine.These things are happening constantly inIndia. It is not as though they were rare.They are not. Men of all ranks in Indiaare thus insulted . I have known a noblemanflogged with a riding-whip because he didnot take off his hat to an Englishman hedid not know a well-known Sikh , whohappened to be a very small man and

,proud

as he wa s, was not able to strike back again .

These things are all remembered ; theypas s from mouth to mouth , and all make anincreasing bitterness. Those are points a lsothat you want to understand when you aredealing with what is called Indian unrestand disaffection .

1

1 I had not time to de a l wi th the re tria l of acqui tte dpe rsons—a monstrosity . During the ye ars 190 1- 10 the rewe re 284 of the se , and in 2 5 case s the men conce rne dwe re hanged .

138


Then take the disadvantage that Indianshave in education—popular, not universityat all . Mr Gokhale brought in a Bill foruniversal education

,which was thrown out

,

as the cost was too much . That is largelytrue ; but Japan has been educating herpeople, and in forty years, beginning withgross ill iteracy

,Japan has so educated her

boys and girls that the standard of literacythere is now higher than it is in Americaone of the best educated countries in theworld. Can you wonder that, talking overthat one day, an Indian gentleman said tome : We should be able , to do the same ifwe had no alien government ” ? Englandwould do well to attend to that matter, andremember that people are beginning tocompare the results of English governmentin India and Japanese government in Japan .

Take another question— representation onthe Indian Council, one of the messagesbrought over by the Congress delegates thisyear. What have they asked for ? Theyhave asked for three men to be elected bythe Legislatures on the India Council outof nine. And in the Bill brought in two

139


are suggested,not elected , as was asked for,

but to be selected from a panel elected bythe non -official members . Now, rememberthat ' non-official members ” includes menwho are appointed by the Government ; theyare not all elected. That is where peoplejuggle with words . Non -official people whoare not elected are more servile to the

Government than their own officials ; andif you make up a panel of forty non-officia lmembers, and on that put a number of theseappointees of the Government , and then askthe Secretary of State to choose, don

’t youthink he will choose his own appointedpeople and make the whole election a farceand not a real ity ? It is no use to try thatsort of trick with one of the cleverest peoplesin the world. They se e through a pretendedliberty, and only despise th e people whogive it. One ’s only hope is that when theBill comes to the Commons the Lords willhave already amended it, and made it a re algift to India of some representation on herown Council by her own men

,sent there by

her own people.And now we come to what is pe rhaps one

140



quite willing to take the labour, because itenabled them to lead very comfortable lives .England partly went to war in SouthA frica because of the bad treatment of theAfrican -born people and of the Indians .And then she gave self-government to th epeople that she had conquered, and lets thestate of the coloured people be worse thanit ever was before Now when the indenturehad come to an end in South Africa

,they

said : How can we get rid of these peoplebecause they dare to trade. And the Indianis a clever trader, and he does not drink,and he lives much more simply, and theresult wa s that he began to undersell thewhite man . That is where the difficultycomes in . So they said : We will put a taxon them , unless they will re - indenture themselves. That was the beginning of the £ 3tax. A great many of these men only earn£ 12 a year altogether, and if a man pays £ 3tax for himself, and £ 3 for his wife, there isnot very much left out of the £ 12 a yearto live upon . And so they said they wouldnot pay. You can hardly blame them forit. Then they had to go away. Now some

142

INDIA‘S PLEA FOR JUSTICE

of those men had built up little businesses,had children born in the country. Theyhave had forced sales ; all their little earnings have gone, and they are sent back,poor again , to India. So things went onand on—you know the story very well, andit is changed now. But why the change ?Be ca use of the agitation in India. Becausewhen Mr Gokhale called upon the Indianpe ople they answered to his call. He askedfor money, and they poured out more thanhe asked for. He asked for meetings, andthey held meetings all over the country.

The women came out and held meetings,a thing they have never done before

,for, in

this , Indian marriage was struck at, and thewife was turned into a mistress, and thatrouse d the Indian women, and they came outto speak, and to give, and to ag itate. And

so dangerous did that become, so strong thefeeling, so universal the prote st, that theVice roy, like a statesman, put himself at thehead of the agitation and so prevented itfrom becoming a riot. Oh , I know some ofyou blamed him over here ; but you werenot in India to se e the bitterness tha t had

143


be en aroused ; and he saved India then fromrioting by putting himself at the head ofthat agitation.

But Indi a has learned her lesson fromtha t. She has gained most of that whichshe asked for, and she has learned for thefirst time that when she speaks in publ icmeetings for the sake of her exiled children

,

others will have to listen to her ; and she

will never forget her lesson , which has weldedall the classes together and has made a nationfeel its strength for the first time;But it is not only in South AfricaAustralia, New ' ealand, Columbia, Vancouver— everywhere the same question isarising. Now take Australia . You maystate the difficulty, if you like. It is a fairdifficulty which is being put by the colonists ,who say : Indians can live where we starve ;Indians will take lower wages than we canlive upon ; we cannot come down to live as

they l ive,therefore we won’t let them into

the country . It is an economic questionupon which your colonists are feeling sostrongly to-day, and it is fair to recognisethat

,for it i s a question very difficult for

144



unless an Indian can pass a language test heis not to be allowed to go in ; and they mayse t the test in any language they like, modernGreek, Russian, Polish, Roumanian . The

Indians are very clever in languages, but itis hopeless for them to try to pass such atest. That te st was made at Mr JosephChamberlain’s suggestion , for he said itwould make them less angry than if you saidplainly a coloured man must not come in .

It seems to me more hateful because of itshypocrisy. And so the learned doctor

,who

certainly would not have upse t the labourmarket, was told he could not go in andtake up a fruit farm or other farm there.And so he remains discontented, and thewhole thing spreads . Now what do youreally propose to do with these complaints ?You shut Indians out from the higher postsin their own country and only open the doorto those over here of which I spoke . Notonly in the Indian Civil Service

,but in the

Indian Medical Servi ce, the EducationalService, the Engineering Service, all thehighe st posts are monopolised either bywhite men or by Indians who come over

146

INDIA’S PLEA FOR JUSTIGE

here. And when they come over theynot welcome. When they come overfind the two great Universities shut thedoors upon them . Two Indians a year maybe admitted in any Oxford college — notmust be

,but may be. But there are

hundreds of them who want to come. Whatright have you to say they shall not servein their own country unless they are educatedhere

,and then to make their lives a misery

to them when they come by your contempt ?That is the question you have to face Yougo to these people, who are as highly civilisedas yourselves, as highly educated in theeducated classes as yourselves, man for manevery whit as good as you are

,and you say :

We are going to monopolise all the bestplaces ; all the best posts are ours, all themost highly paid, and we will open a littlecrack of a door by which one or two of youmay creep in if you come over to Englandto get educated and try very hard ; but wewill make things so disagreeable for youwhen you come that you will wish you hadnot come and will want to go back . I ask

how far these things are to go ? How long147


do you think you can claim the right torule India when you shut her children outof her own government, and shut them nowout of every other country as well over whichyour Union Ja ck is flying ? Lord Meathcame down to Madras a little while ago andaddressed the students , and he praised theUnion Jack and told them how proud theyought to be of it. Afterwards the studentscalled on me to speak, and I said : ' MyLord Meath

,when you get back to the

House of Lords, if you will ask members tomake the Union Jack the protection of everyIndian who is under it, then they will beproud of it ; but so long as it cannot protectthe Indian in the Colonies, don

’t think theIndian in India is going to be very, veryproud of it floating above his head.

” Idon’t know whether Lord Meath will doanything of that sort ; I don’t much supposehe will. But the question has to be solved .

Suppose the Colonies say : We wi ll not letthem in, you cannot make them . The

Empire in that is only a name. You knowyou cannot force on your self-governingColonies an unrestricted immigration from

148



them out of other countries f lndia must beable to defend herself, if you cannot defendher. If that is what you want

,you will get

it. There must be some place for thecoloured man in this world. A white skinis not everything. Where is the divine rightof the white skin to go into other men’scountries and to say that the coloured manshall not enter into the white country ? Itis a disgrace to rai se this question of thecolour of skin as a barrier among thecitizens of this so- called British Empire .You cannot do it for long. India is beginning to understand her own strength she isbeginning to realise that you cannot alwayskeep her as a slave ; for to tie a man to thesoil on which he was born is to make him aserf, as he was in the Middle Ages, when noman might go outside his own parish lesthe should become a rogue and a vagabond .

You would make the nation dishonouredthat was civilise d and mighty when yourancestors were wandering naked about yourforests . These Ind ians that you scoff at andderide—they are civilised with a civilisationthat goes back for thousa nds upon thousands

150


and thousands of years . When they werefree, they made the greatest literature thatthe world has ever known ; and it is withthe revival of the spirit of nationality thattheir intellectual greatness will once moreshow itself in works of originality and ofpower. With the loss of freedom they havegone down in their intellectual work ; withthe regaining of freedom they will rise tothe mighty point that they occupied before .Even now they show their ability, and theyare pleading with you for freedom . Theyare not demanding it roughly, a s I amdemanding it here ; for I, a white, am speaking to you white men and women , and havethe right to make you understand what youare doing to these our coloured friends onthe other side of the world . They do notspeak as brutal ly as I am speaking to you

,

but they feel . Oh, they would love you ifyou would let them ; they ask you to givethem their freedom , to let them be free menin a free country. Your Crown will bemore secure. They know that England andIndia together are far stronger than Englandand India can ever be separately

,and the

151


possibility of an Empire for Great Britainrests on the co-operation of India.

And so I ’

ple ad with you, who are Englishmen and women . England was the motherof fre edom , and these little islands of yourshave grown into the centre of a world-wideEmpire because of your love of liberty, yourdeclaration that no slave could live

/

on

who gave shelter to Maz zini when all thetyrants in Europe would have seized him ;you

,who crowded your London stree ts to

welcome Garibaldi , who freed Italy fromthe tyrants that oppressed her : you, whohave been the sanctuary of the oppressed ofevery people— why, you gave shelter toStepniak the Terrorist from Russia ; yougave shelter to Kropotkin , the exile and therebel. And now you , in your own country,deny the right of other men to seek forfreedom

,when you have welcomed every

exile for freedom , and have spread over themyour protecting sword and shield. No

political exile was ever given up by England ;no political crime was held by her to be

152


W ORKS ON INDIA

AND H INDU IS MBy ANNIE BESANT

Ind ia.

Vol. IV. of ' Essays 69° Addre sse s .

32 8 pp. Cloth . 8vo . ne t.

CONTENTS

Ind ia’s Mission among Nations.

The Aryan Type .India , he r Pa s t and he r Fu ture.East e rn Castes and Wes te rn Classes .Eas t and Wes t .The Means of Ind ia’s Regeneration.

The Place of Poli tics in the Life of a Nation.

England and Ind ia.

The Ind ian Nat ion .

Ind ia’s Awakening.

Religion and Patrio tism in Ind ia.

The Education of H indu You th.

The Education of Indian Girls .

W a k e Up, Ind ia

APle a for Socia l Re form,be ing L e ctu re s

d e live re d in Madras in 19 13. Pp. 30 3.

Half cloth and boards . Price ne t.

CONTENTSForeign Travel.Child Marriage and its R e sults .OurDuty to the Depressed Classes .Ind ian Indus tries as re lated to Self-Government

'Appendice s on Exports, We aving, Politica l andMoral Effe cts. )

Mass Educa t ion.

Educa tion of Ind ian Girls .The Colour Bar in England , the Colonies,

India.The Passing of the Caste S ystem.

H ints on the S tudy of the

Bhagava d Gita

Four Le cture s de live re d at Madras in 190 5

Pp. 131 . Cloth . 2/ ne t .

The W isdom of the Upanishads

Four Le c ture s de live re d at Adyar in 190 6

Pp. 1 15. Cloth. 2/ ne t .

The Bha gava d GitaTranslate d by AN N IE BESANT

Pp. 180 . W rappe rs, 6d . ne t . Clo th,

le a the r gilt, 2/ ne t .

An

Introduction to Yog aFour Lecture s de live re d at B e nare s

,190 7

CONTENTSThe Nature ofYoga.

S chools of Though t .Yoga as S cience.Yoga as Prac tic e .

Pp. 135. Cloth . 2/ ne t .

The Commonw e a l

c/f We e/ab, 701m m'of M tiona l Ref orm

Edite d by ANNIE BESANT

Single copie s 3d.

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