Chapter VII: Part 7

The number of meetings held from March 1 to May 1, 1907 was, at the lowest calculation, at least double of 28, or perhaps treble, and _most of them_ related "even ostensibly to agricultural grievances"; the number of purely political meetings could not have exceeded ten or twelve.

(2) On p. 61 the committee writes that "Chatarji's father too had ordered him home on discovering that he was staying with Hardayal in the house of Lajpat Rai." The whole of this statement is absolutely false. I am prepared to swear and to prove that Chatarji did not stay in my house even for a single night. He came there a few times with Hardayal. Hardayal was at that time living in a house he had rented for himself in the native city about one mile from my place which is in the Civil Station on the Lower Mall.

On the same page the committee has approvingly quoted a sentence from the judgment of the Sessions Judge in the Delhi Conspiracy Case. Speaking of Amir Chand, one of the accused in that case who was sentenced to death, the Sessions Judge describes him as "one who spent his life in furthering murderous schemes which he was too timid to carry out himself." Now I happen to have known this man for about 20 years before his conviction. I have no doubt that he was rightly convicted in this case but I have no doubt also that this description of him by the Sessions Judge was absolutely wrong. Up till 1910 the man had led an absolutely harmless life, helping students in their studies and otherwise rendering assistance, according to his means, to other needy people. No one ever credited him with violent views. His revolutionary career began in 1908. Before that he could not and would not have tolerated even the killing of an ant, much less that of human beings.

In governments by bureaucracies one of the standing formulas of official etiquette is never to question the findings of facts arrived at by your superiors or predecessors. This naturally leads to the perpetuation of mistakes. A wrong conclusion once accepted continues to be good for all times to come. The Rowlatt Committee has studiously acted on that formula throughout its present inquiry. They have invariably accepted the findings of executive and judicial authorities preceding them about the incidents that happened since 1907, without making any independent inquiry of their own. Hence their opinion about the original or the principal cause of the unrest of 1907 in the Punjab is not entitled to greater weight than that of the Punjab officials whose mishandling of the affairs of the province produced the unrest. One ounce of fact, however, is of greater weight in the determination of issues than even a hundred theories. The fact that the Government of India _had_ to veto the Punjab Government's Land Colonies Act in order to allay the unrest proves conclusively that the unrest was due to agrarian trouble.

The unrest of 1907 subsided after the repeal of the land legislation of 1907, but the legacy it left is still operative.

The Sikhs and the Mussulmans of the Punjab, as well as the military classes among the Hindus, the Rajputs and the Jats, are the most virile portions of the population. They have fought the battles of the Empire. In the interests of the Empire they have travelled far and wide. Yet we find that educationally, as well as economically, they have suffered most. They have the largest numbers of illiterates among them. They are the least developed and the least progressive of all the classes in the Punjab. They are heavily in debt. The Government has occasionally recognised it and has tried to satisfy them by preferential treatment in the filling of Government posts, or in the bestowal of titles or in nominating their supposed leaders to Legislative Councils. These ridiculous palliative measures, however, have failed in their objective. The classes disaffected do not get any satisfaction by these palliative measures. They need opportunities of education and economic betterment. These could not be provided without making education general and without a more equitable distribution of land among the agricultural classes and the inauguration of industries other than agriculture. This the Government never cared to do. The Sikhs and the Mussulmans naturally directed their attention to emigration.

The opportunities they found in other parts of the Empire whetted their appetites. They compared the conditions abroad with conditions at home and drew their own conclusions. Having helped in the expansion and development of the Empire they thought they were entitled to benefit therefrom. They demanded fair treatment. Instead they found the doors shut upon them. Even those that had been admitted were made to feel the humiliation of their position. Deliberate, active, concerted measures were taken to drive them away or to make life for them intolerable. Their wives and children were refused admittance and various pretexts were invented to keep them out or to drive them away. The revolutionary movement in the Punjab amounted to nothing until it was reinforced by the return of the Sikh members of the Ghadr party during the war. The Committee has failed to answer the question: Why did the Sikhs of Vancouver and California readily fall in with the schemes of Hardayal and Barkat Ullah, the alleged founders of the revolutionary party of California? These latter had nothing in common with the Sikhs. In language and religion, by habits and associations, they were poles apart from each other. Why did then Hardayal's propaganda find such a ready soil among the Sikhs of Vancouver B. C. We quote from the report:

"The doctrines which he preached and circulated had reached the
Sikhs and other Indians resident in British Columbia. At a meeting
in Vancouver in December, 1913, a poem from the Ghadr newspaper
was read, in which the Hindus were urged to expel the British from
India. The main grievance of the Vancouver Indians was the
Canadian immigration law under which every intending Asiatic
immigrant, with a few particular exceptions, has to satisfy the
Canadian authorities that he is in possession of 200 dollars and
has travelled by a _continuous_[1] journey on a through ticket
from his native country to Canada. In 1913 three Sikh delegates
visited the Punjab. They had come from America and were members of
the Ghadr party who had come to reconnoitre the position. Their
real purpose was recognised after their departure. They addressed
meetings at various towns on the subject of the grievances of
Indians in Canada and caused resolutions of protest to be passed
in which all communities joined."

Again, tracing the origin of the Budge-Budge riot, the Committee remarks:

"The central figure in the narrative is a certain Gurdit Singh, a
Sikh of the Amritsar district in the Punjab, who had emigrated
from India 15 years before, and had for some time carried on
business as a contractor in Singapore and the Malay States. There
is reason to believe that he returned to this country about 1909.
He was certainly absent from Singapore for a space; and when he
returned there, going on to Hong Kong, he interested himself in
chartering a ship for the conveyance of Punjabis to Canada.
Punjabis, and especially Sikhs, frequently seek employment in the
Far East, and have for some time been tempted by the higher wages
procurable in Canada. But their admission to that country is to
some extent impeded by the immigration laws which we have
described already.

"There were already in Canada about 4,000 Indians, chiefly
Punjabis. Some of these were revolutionists of the Hardayal
school, some were loyal, and some had migrated from the United
States on account of labour differences there. The Committee of
Enquiry, which subsequently investigated the whole affair,
considered that Gurdit Singh's action had been much influenced by
advice and encouragement received from Indian residents in Canada.
At any rate, after failing to secure a ship at Calcutta, he
chartered a Japanese vessel named the _Komagata Maru_ through a
German agent at Hong Kong. He issued tickets and took in
passengers at that post, at Shanghai, at Moji and at Yokohama. He
certainly knew what the Canadian law was, but perhaps hoped to
evade it by means of some appeal to the courts or by exercising
political pressure. It is equally certain that many of his
passengers had no clear comprehension of their prospects. The
Tribunal that subsequently tried the first batch of Lahore
conspirators held that probably Gurdit Singh's main object was to
cause an inflammatory episode, as one of the witnesses stated that
Gurdit Singh told his followers that should they be refused
admission, they would return to India to expel the British. On
April the 4th, 1914, the _Komagata Maru_ sailed from Hong Kong. On
the 23rd of May the _Komagata Maru_ arrived at Vancouver with 351
Sikhs and 21 Punjabi Muhammadans on board. The local authorities
refused to allow landing except in a very few cases, as the
immigrants had not complied with the requirements of the law.
Protests were made, and, while negotiations were proceeding, a
balance of 22,000 dollars still due for the hire of the ship was
paid by Vancouver Indians, and the charter was transferred to two
prominent malcontents.... A body of police was sent to enforce the
orders of the Canadian Government that the vessel should leave;
but with the assistance of firearms, the police were beaten off,
and it was only when a Government vessel was requisitioned with
armed force that the _Komagata Maru_ passengers, who had prevented
their Captain from weighing anchor or getting up steam, were
brought to terms. On the 23rd of July they started on their return
journey with an ample stock of provisions allowed them by the
Canadian Government. _They were by this time in a very bad temper
as many had staked all their possessions on this venture, and had
started in the full belief that the British Government would
assure and guarantee their admission to a land of plenty._ This
temper had been greatly aggravated by direct revolutionary
influences....

"During the return voyage the War broke out. On hearing at
Yokohama that his ship's company would not be allowed to land at
Hong Kong, Gurdit Singh replied that they were perfectly willing
to go to any port in India if provisions were supplied. The
British Consul at Yokohama declined to meet his demands, which
were exorbitant; but the consul at Kobe was more compliant, and
after telegraphic communication between Japan and India, the
_Komagata Maru_ started for Calcutta. At neither Hong Kong nor
Singapore were the passengers allowed to land. This added to their
annoyance, as, according to the findings of the Committee, many
had not wished to return to India at all."

The Committee found that most of the passengers were disposed to
blame the Government of India for all their misfortunes. "It is
well known," states the Report, "that the average Indian makes no
distinction between the Government of the United Kingdom, that of
Canada, and that of British India, or that of any colony. To him
these authorities are all one and the same. And this view of the
whole _Komagata Maru_ business was by no means confined to the
passengers on the ship. It inspired some Sikhs of the Punjab with
the idea that the Government was biased against them; and it
strengthened the hands of the Ghadr revolutionaries who were
urging Sikhs abroad to return to India and join the mutiny which,
they asserted, was about to begin. Numbers of emigrants listened
to such calls and hastened back to India from Canada, the United
States, the Philippines, Hong Kong and China." [The italics are
ours.]

We have given this extract to show the real cause of the growth of the revolutionary movement among the Sikhs. Let the reader omit, if he can, for a moment, all references to active revolutionary propaganda and he will find that the underlying cause of this trouble was _economic_. Why did the Sikhs want to emigrate to Canada? Why did they stake all their possessions on the venture? Why were they unwilling to return to India at all? Because the economic conditions at home were so bad and the prospects abroad so good. At home their lands were not sufficient to absorb all their energies, the income was not sufficient to keep body and soul together and, in a majority of cases, what they made from land was hardly more than sufficient to pay Land Revenue to the Government and interest to the money-lender. There was nothing to bind them to their homes except the love of home land and the domestic ties. These melted away in the presence of dire necessity. In extreme need they left their homes to make more money to be able to pay their debts, to redeem their lands, if possible to purchase more land and to make life bearable and tolerable. When they came in the open world they found insurmountable barriers between them and plenty. They had helped in making the empire; the empire had enough land for all her sons and daughters; men were urgently needed to bring land into cultivation and otherwise to develop the empire; men of other races and colours were not only welcome but were being induced to come and settle by offers of all kinds. They, and they alone, were unwelcome and barred.

Add to this the attitude and the record of the Punjab Government towards political agitation and political agitators, to use their own favorite expressions. The Punjab Government was the first to resuscitate the old Regulation III of 1818 for the purpose of scotching a legitimate agitation against an obnoxious legislative measure. A wise and sagacious Government would have dropped the legislation which it was eventually found necessary to veto to maintain peace. The deportations drove the seeds of unrest deeper. The other contributory causes may be thus summed up:

(1) The Punjab Government has been the most relentless of all local governments in India in suppressing freedom of speech and press.

(2) The Punjab Government at one time was very foolishly zealous in persecuting the Arya Samajists and in making a mountain out of a molehill about the letters found in the possession of Parmanand.

(3) The sentences which the Punjab Courts have passed in cases of seditious libel are marked by such brutality as to make them notably unique in the history of criminal administration in India.

(4) The strangulation of all open political life by direct and indirect repression led to the adoption of secret methods.

(5) The sentences passed in the Delhi Conspiracy case were much more severe than those given in Bengal in similar cases. In this case four men were hanged, two of them only because of membership in the secret conspiracy and not for actual participation in the outrage that was the subject of the charge, and two others were sentenced to seven years rigorous imprisonment each.

(6) The Budge-Budge riot and the considerable loss of life that resulted therefrom was another case of stupid management and utter incapacity to handle a delicate situation.

(7) For the Lahore Conspiracy 28 persons were hanged, and about 90 sentenced to long terms of imprisonment and transportation for life. But for the interference of Lord Hardinge the hangings would have exceeded 50. In addition some mutinous soldiers of two regiments were tried by Court Martial and a few murderous robbers and train-wreckers were dealt with by the ordinary courts. The reader may well compare this with the record of convictions relating to Bengal.

Now, we have not the slightest intention of justifying the conduct of those who conspired to overthrow the Government by force, or who committed murders, robberies or other offences in the furtherance of that design. In our judgment only madmen, ignorant of the conditions of their country, could have been guilty of such crimes. Nor are we inclined to blame the Government much for the sharp steps they took to preserve order and maintain their authority during the war. But, after all has been said, we must reiterate that the underlying causes were economic and were the direct result of Government policy.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] There never was a continuous steamer service between India and Canada.

XIV

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR REPRESSIVE LEGISLATION

The Committee has said all that it could against individual publicists, Indian public movements and the native press. They have found no fault with the Anglo-Indian press and the Government. The whole force of their judicial acumen has been applied in recommending fresh measures of repression and suppression which they have divided into two kinds:

Punitive Measures, Permanent, (_a_) Points of General Application.
The measures which we shall submit are of two kinds, viz.,
Punitive, by which term we mean measures better to secure the
conviction and punishment of offenders, and Preventive, i.e.,
measures to check the spread of conspiracy and the commission of
crime.

We may say at once that we do not expect very much from punitive
measures.[1] The conviction of offenders will never check such a
movement as that which grew up in Bengal unless all the leaders
can be convicted at the outset. Further, the real difficulties
have been the scarcity of evidence due to various causes and the
want of reliance whether justified or not, on such evidence as
there has been. The last difficulty is fundamental and cannot be
remedied. No law can direct a court to be convinced when it is
not.

Punitive Measures (Permanent).

Legislation directed better to secure the punishment of seditious
crime may take the shape either--

(_a_) of changes in the general law of evidence or procedure which
if sound would be advisable in regard to all crime, or

(_b_) changes in the substantive law of sedition or modifications
in the rules of evidence and procedure in such cases designed to
deal with the special features of that class of offence.

The recommendation under (_a_) does not amount to much and we will not mention it.

Under (_b_) they recommend:

In the first place we think that a permanent enactment on the
lines of Rule 25A under the Defence of India Act is required. That
rule provides for the punishment of persons having prohibited
documents (which may have to be defined anew) in their possession
or control with (as we read the effect of the words used) intent
to publish or circulate them....

We also recommend that the principle of section 565 of the Code of
Criminal Procedure (which provides for an order requiring
notification of residence after release in the case of persons
convicted a second time for certain offences) should be extended
to all persons convicted of offences under Chapter VI of the Penal
Code (offences against the State) whether previously convicted or
not. Such persons might be ordered to give security for a period
not exceeding two years for good behaviour so far as offences
under Chapter VI are concerned, and in default be directed to
notify their residence to Government, who should have power to
restrict their movements for the period of two years after their
release and prohibit them from addressing public meetings,--the
term "public meetings" including in its scope political subjects
as in section 4 of the Prevention of Seditious Meetings Act of
1907.

Lastly, we think that in all cases where there is a question of
seditious intent, evidence of previous conviction for seditious
crime or association (of an incriminating kind, of course) with
persons so convicted should be admissible upon written notice to
the accused with such particulars and at such a time before the
evidence is given as might be fair. What we have called seditious
crime would of course have to be accurately defined.

Now it is evident that after such legislation all liberty of speech and action becomes extinct. These recommendations will we fear directly lead to secret propaganda and secret action.

Under the head of emergency punitive measures the committee recommends:

Emergency Provisions for Trials. Coming now to the measures
themselves, we are of opinion that provision should be made for
the trial of seditious crime by Benches of three Judges without
juries or assessors and without preliminary commitment proceedings
or appeal. In short, the procedure we recommend should follow the
lines laid down in sections 5-9 inclusive of the Defence of India
Act. It should be made clear that section 512 of the Code of
Criminal Procedure (relating to the giving in evidence under
certain circumstances of depositions taken in the absence of an
absconding accused) applies to these trials, it having, we
understand, been questioned whether section 7 of the Defence of
India Act has that effect.

We think it necessary to exclude juries and assessors mainly
because of the terrorism to which they are liable. But terrorism
apart, we do not think that they can be relied upon in this class
of cases. They are too much inclined to be affected by public
discussion.

We omit the detailed discussion of these provisions in which the committee has attempted to soften the sting of these recommendations by giving their reasons and by suggesting certain safeguards against their abuse. The most startling of their recommendations are however made under the head of emergency preventive measures.

Emergency Preventive Measures. We have been forced to the
conclusion that it is necessary, in order to keep the conspiracies
already described under control in the future, to provide for the
continuance after the expiry of the Defence of India Act (though
in the contingent form explained and under important limitations)
of some of the powers which that measure introduced in a temporary
form. By those means alone has the conspiracy been paralysed for
the present and we are unable to devise any expedient operating
according to strict judicial forms which can be relied upon to
prevent its reviving to check it if it does revive, or, in the
last resort, to suppress it anew. This will involve some
infringement of the rules normally safeguarding the liberty of the
subject. We have endeavored to make that infringement as small as
we think possible consistently with the production of an effective
scheme.

Existing Temporary Powers. The powers at present temporarily
possessed by the Government are so far as material for the present
purpose to be found in rules 3-7 inclusive and 12A under the
Defence of India Act, 1915. We do not refer for the present to
the Foreigners Ordinance, 1914, or the Ingress into India
Ordinance, 1914.... Shortly stated, their effect is to give power
to require persons by executive order to remain in any area to be
specified or not to enter or remain in any such area, with
penalties for breach of such requirements. These orders may be
made and served on the person affected, whereupon they become
binding upon him, or the person may be arrested without warrant
and detained for a period not exceeding in all one month, pending
an order of restriction. There is also a power of search under
search warrant. It will be observed there is no provision for an
examination of the cases of such persons. The decision lies solely
with the Local Government. There is also the power of confinement
under Regulation III of 1818.

Again:

"Two Grades of Powers Desirable.--We now proceed to elaborate ...
the scheme we suggest.

"We think, as we have already indicated, that the powers to be
acquired should be of two grades capable of being called into
operation separately, possibly under different forms of
notification.

"The first group of powers should be of the following nature:--

"(i) to demand security with or without sureties;

"(ii) to restrict residence or to require notification of change
of residence;

"(iii) to require abstention from certain acts, such as engaging
in journalism, distributing leaflets or attending meetings;

"(iv) to require that the person should periodically report to the
police.

"The second group of powers should be--

"(i) to arrest;

"(ii) to search under warrant;

"(iii) to confine in non-penal custody.

"In Article 196 they provide "that in respect of acts committed before the Defence of India Act expires (or an earlier date if preferred) and danger apprehended by reason of such acts in the future it should be lawful to proceed against any person under any of the provisions which we have outlined without any notification. In other words, the new law is to be deemed to be operative for that purpose immediately."

Articles 198 and 199 suggest measures for restricting "Ingress into India" and also for regulating and restricting "Inter-Provincial Movements."

Need it be said that if these recommendations are accepted there will be no liberty of press or speech in India and the Reform will fail to suppress the revolutionary movement at all. Indian opinion is unanimous in condemning these recommendations as has been proved by the unanimous opposition of all sections of Indians in the Viceroy's Legislative Council to the bills that have been introduced to give effect to them.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The Government of India have been on the inclined plane of repression as a remedy of discontent, which sometimes leads to crime, for now more than twenty years. They have in the interval placed on the Statute Book the Penal and Criminal Procedure Codes, the Post Office Amendment Acts, the Official Secrets Act, the Seditious Meetings Act, the Incitement to Offences Act, the Criminal Law Amendment Act, the Press Act, the Conspiracy Act, and the Defence of India Act. Have they attained their object? The very introduction of the two new Bills ... is the eloquent answer. What is it but a confession of failure?... _Leader_, Allahabad.

XV

THE REVOLUTIONARY PARTY

Revolution is a fever brought about by the constant and reckless
disregard of the laws of health in the government of a country.

DAVID LLOYD GEORGE

"Causes and Aims of the War." Speech delivered
at Glasgow, on being presented with the freedom
of that city, June 29, 1917.

The authors of the report remark:

"There exists a small revolutionary party deluded by hatred of
British rule and desire for the elimination of the Englishman into
the belief that the path to independence or constitutional liberty
lies through anarchical crime. Now it may be that such persons
will see for themselves the wisdom of abandoning methods which are
as futile as criminal; though if they do not, the powers of the
law are or can be made sufficient for the maintenance of order.
But the existence of such people is a warning against the possible
consequences of unrestrained agitation in India. We are justified
in calling on the political leaders, in the work of education that
they will undertake, to bear carefully in mind the political
inexperience of their hearers; and to look for further progress
not to fiery agitation which may have consequences quite beyond
their grasp, but to the machinery which we devise for the
purpose. In every country there will be persons who love agitation
for agitation's sake or to whom it appeals like an intoxicant. It
is the duty of the leaders of Indian opinion to remember the
effect on people not accustomed to weighing words of fiery and
heated speeches. Where ignorance is widespread and passions are so
easily aroused, nothing is easier than for political leaders to
excite a storm; nothing harder for them than to allay it. Breaches
of the peace or crimes of violence only put back the political
clock. Above all things, when the future of India depends upon
co-operation among all races, attacks upon one race or religion or
upon another jeopardise the whole experiment. Nor can the
condemnation of extremist and revolutionary action be left only to
the official classes. We call upon all those who claim to be
leaders to condemn with us and to support us in dealing with
methods of agitation which drive schoolboys to crime and lead to
religious and agrarian disturbance. Now that His Majesty's
Government have declared their policy, reasonable men have
something which they can oppose successfully to the excitement
created by attacks on Government and by abuse of Englishmen,
coupled with glowing and inaccurate accounts of India's golden
past and appeals to race hatred in the name of religion. Many
prominent Indians dislike and fear such methods. A new opportunity
is now being offered to combat them; and we expect them to take
it. Disorder must be prejudicial to the cause of progress and
especially disorder as a political weapon."

We are in general agreement with the sentiments expressed in this extract but we will be wanting in candour if we fail to point out that, though the revolutionary movement in India is mainly political, it is partly economic and partly anarchic also. In the first two aspects it is at present the product of purely local (Indian) conditions. In the last, it is the reaction of world forces. While we are hoping that the change in the policy, now announced, will remove the political basis of it, we are not quite sure that that will ensure the extermination of the party or the total destruction of the movement. The growth of democratic political institutions in India must inevitably be followed by a movement for social democracy. The spirit of Revolution which is now fed by political inequalities will, when these are removed, find its sustenance in social inequalities. That movement may not be anti-British; perhaps it will not be, but that it will have some revolutionary element in it may be assumed. The lessons of history make it clear that the most effective way to prevent its falling into channels of violence is to have as little recourse to coercion as may be consistent with the preservation of general order and peace. The preservation of order and the unhindered exercise of private rights by all citizens is the pre-requisite condition to good government. Every government must see to it. It is their duty to use preventive as well as punitive methods. There are, however, ways of doing these things. One is the British, the American and the French way.[1] The other is what was heretofore associated with the name of the late Czar. The third is the German way. We hope the lessons of Czarism will not be lost on either party. The governments have as much to learn from it as the peoples. The best guarantee against the abnormal growth of a revolutionary movement is to adopt and follow the British methods and to avoid scrupulously and without fail any approach to the discredited Russian or Prussian methods.

The Indian soil and the Indian atmosphere are not very congenial for revolutionary ideas and revolutionary methods. The people are too docile, gentle, law-abiding and spiritually inclined to take to them readily. They are by nature and tradition neither vindictive nor revengeful. Their general spirit is opposed to all kinds of violence. They have little faith in the virtues of force. Unless they are provoked, and that too terribly, and are face to face with serious danger they do not like the use of force, even when recourse to it may be legal and morally defensible.

One of the causes of the growth of the revolutionary movement in India has been the insolence and the incivility of the European Community towards the Indian Community. The charges of cowardice so often hurled against the Bengali have played no insignificant part in the genesis of the Bengal revolutionary. The distinguished authors have put it rather mildly:

"If there are Indians who really desire to see India leave the
empire, to get rid of English officers and English commerce, we
believe that among their springs of action will be found the
bitterness of feeling that has been nurtured out of some
manifestation that the Englishman does not think the Indian an
equal. Very small seeds casually thrown may result in great
harvests of political calamity. We feel that, particularly at the
present stage of India's progress, it is the plain duty of every
Englishman and woman, official and non-official, in India to avoid
the offence and the blunder of discourtesy: and none the less is
it incumbent on the educated Indian to cultivate patience and a
more generous view of what may very likely be no more than
heedlessness or difference of custom."

We admire the dignified way in which they have addressed their advice to the educated Indian. But we hope they do not ignore that except in a few scattered instances heretofore the chief fault has lain with the ruling class. The proceedings of the Royal Commission on the Public Services of India are full of that racial swagger which the authors of this report have mildly condemned in the above extract and it is an open secret that that spirit was one of the dearly cherished articles of faith with the bureaucracy. We hope the war has effected a great change in their temper and both parties will be disposed to profit from the advice given to them in the report.

As to the duty of the educated leaders in the matter of suppressing the growth of the revolutionary movement in future, we beg to point out that all depends on how much faith the governing classes place in the professions of the popular leaders. Open public speeches and meetings appealing to racial or religious animosities have not played any important part in the development of the revolutionary spirit. It is not likely that the educated leaders will in any way consciously and voluntarily digress from the limits of reasonable criticism of Government policy, nor have they very often done so in the past. What has so far prevented the educated leaders from exercising an effective check on the growth of the revolutionary movement is their inability to associate on terms of friendship with the younger generation. This has been due partly to a false idea of dignity and partly to the fear that any association with hot-headed young men might bring discredit on them or might land them in hot water if, sometime or other, any one of their friends might do anything violent. Public speeches denouncing the revolutionary propaganda and the revolutionary activities or public condemnation of the latter in the press are good in their own way, but they are not quite effective. The revolutionist may ascribe it to fear, timidity, or hypocrisy. What is needed is that educated leaders of influence should be free to mix, socially and otherwise, with the younger generation so as to acquire an intimate knowledge of their trend of thought and bent of mind. It is in these intimate exchanges of views that they can most effectively exercise their powers of argument and persuasion and use their influence effectively. They will not succeed always, but in a good many cases they will. This cannot be done, however, unless the Executives and the Police relax their attentions toward them.

The bureaucrats' want of confidence in any Indian leader reached its limit in the attentions which the agents of the secret service bestowed on such men as the late Mr. Gokhale. It is an open secret that the secret service records have assigned a particular number to every public leader in India. Religious preachers and teachers of the type of Lala Hansraj and Lala Mûnshi Rám receive as much attention in the records as the writer of this book or Mr. B. G. Tilak or Mr. Bepin Chandra Pal. The "Servants of India" are as much the objects of solicitation on the part of the secret service men as the members of the Arya Samaj. Of course, agitators are agitators. All the great progressive souls of the world have had to agitate at one time or another in their lives. Agitation is the soul of democracy. There can be no progress in a democracy without agitation. Sir Denzil Ibbetson could pay no greater compliment to the Arya Samaj than by his remark in 1907 that, according to his information, wherever there was an Arya Samaj it was a centre of unrest. We hope the Governments are now convinced that the Arya Samaj has never been revolutionary. It is one of the most conservative, restraining forces in the social life of the country. Yet it cannot be denied that its propaganda has been and will continue to be one of the most disturbing factors in the placid waters of Indian life. The bureaucracy could not look upon it with kindness. Any attempt to persist in this kind of control or check or persecution will be fatal to the success of the appeal which Mr. Montagu and Lord Chelmsford have addressed to the public men of India in the extract given above.

In our judgment the most effective way to check the growth of the revolutionary movement is by freeing the mind of the leaders of the fear of being misunderstood if they should mix freely with the younger generation and yet fail to prevent some of them from becoming revolutionists. A revolutionary prospers on exclusiveness. Secrecy is his great ally. Cut off a young man from open, healthy influences and he will be attracted by the mystery of secrecy. Thenceforth he is doomed. After that he may be weaned only by kindness and friendliness and not by threats or persecution. Most of the youths attracted by revolutionary propaganda have proved to be quite ignorant of the real conditions of their country. No attempt has been made to instruct them in politics. They have been fed on unsound history and unsound politics. Reactionary Imperialism has harmed them more than exaggerated nationalism. They have had few opportunities of discussion with people who could look upon things in right perspective. They could not open their minds to their European teachers. In the few cases in which they did they repented. Somehow or other, the free confidential talks they had with their professors found an entry in the police records. It brought a black mark against their names, to stand and mar their careers forever. The Indian teacher and professor is afraid of discussing politics with them. So they go on unrestrained until the glamour of prospective heroism, by a deed of violence, fascinates one of them and he is led into paths of crimes of a most detestable kind. Unscrupulous advisors lead him toward falsehood, hypocrisy, treachery, treason and crime by dubious methods. One of the things they preach is that morality has nothing to do with politics. They insinuate that the violence of militarism and Imperialism can be effectively met and checked only by violence. Poor misguided souls! They enforce their advice by the diplomatic history of Europe. They forget that once a youth is led into the ways of falsehood and unscrupulousness he may as easily use it against his friends as against his enemies. If he has no scruples about killing an enemy he may have none about killing a friend. If he has no scruples about betraying the one, he may have none about betraying the other. Once a man starts toward moral degeneration, even for desirable or patriotic ends, there is no knowing whither his course might take him. The most idealistic young men starting with the highest and purest conceptions of patriotism have been known to fall into the most ignoble methods of attacking first their enemies and then their friends. When they reach that stage of moral corruption they can trust no one, can believe in the honesty of no one. Their one idea of cleverness and efficiency is to conceal their motives from everyone, to give their confidence to no one, to suspect and distrust everyone and to aspire toward the success that consists in imposing upon all.

The remedy against this lies in encouraging an open and frank discussion of politics on the part of the younger generation, with such indulgences as are due to their youth and immaturity of judgment; a systematic teaching of political history in schools and colleges; a free and open intercourse with their teachers on the clearest understanding that nothing said in discussion or in confidence will ever be used either privately or publicly against them, and an equally free and intimate intercourse with the leaders of thought and of public life in the country. These latter must be freed from the attentions of the secret service if it is intended that they should effectually coöperate in counteracting revolutionary propaganda. Besides, the younger generation must be brought up in habits of manly and open encounter with their adversaries, in a spirit of sport and fair play. Repression, suppression, and suspicion do not provide a congenial climate for the development of these habits and they should be subordinated as much as possible in the present condition of chaotic conflict between social interests and social ideals.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] By this we do not mean those that were adopted during the war.

XVI

EDUCATION

In the previous chapters we have embodied and discussed the important parts of the Report of Mr. Montagu and Lord Chelmsford. In this chapter we give a summary of what they say about education. The statements of fact made by the two distinguished statesmen are so lucid and fair that we make no apology for copying the whole article embodying the same.

"There is, however, one aspect of the general problem of political
advance which is so important as to require notice in some detail.
We have observed already that one of the greatest obstacles to
India's political development lies not only in the lack of
education among its peoples taken as a whole, but also in the
uneven distribution of educational advance. The educational policy
of Government has incurred much criticism from different points of
view. Government is charged with neglect, because after sixty
years of educational effort only 6 per cent. of the population is
literate, while under 4 per cent. of the total population is
undergoing instruction. It is charged, on the other hand, with
having given to those classes which welcomed instruction a system
which is divorced from their needs in being purely literary, in
admitting methods of unintelligent memorising and of cramming, and
in producing, far in excess of the actual demands of Indian
conditions, a body of educated young men whose training has
prepared them only for Government service or the practice of law.
The system of university education on Western lines is
represented as cutting off the students from the normal life of
the country, and the want of connection between primary education
in the vernaculars and higher education in English is regarded as
another radical defect."

The period of sixty years mentioned is evidently counted from 1858, the year in which the rule of the East India Company ceased and the Crown assumed direct responsibility for the Government of India. British rule in India however began in 1757 A.D. and the foundation of public education in India under the British might well be considered to have been laid by Warren Hastings in 1781, in which year the Calcutta Madrassa was established. For a period of almost 50 years the discussion whether the Indians should be instructed in English or not went on until it was settled in 1835 by Lord Macaulay's famous minute in favour of English and the European system. In 1824 there were 14 public institutions in Bengal imparting education on Western lines.

In the same year, i.e., in 1824, Monstuart Elphinstone formulated a similar policy for the Bombay presidency.

To the remarks made in the above quotation about the extent and kind of education imparted in India till now, the distinguished authors of the report add:

"From the economic point of view India had been handicapped by the
want of professional and technical instruction: her colleges turn
out numbers of young men qualified for Government clerkships while
the real interests of the country require, for example, doctors
and engineers in excess of the existing supply. The charge that
Government has produced a large _intelligentsia_ which cannot find
employment has much substance in it: it is one of the facts that
lie at the root of recent political difficulties. But it is only
of late years and as part of the remarkable awakening of national
self-consciousness, that the complaint has been heard that the
system has failed to train Indians for practical work in
manufactures, commerce, and the application of science to
industrial life."

After making a few general observations on the so called difficulties in the way of a general spread of education "the chief needs at present" are thus pointed out:

"Primary education, as we have seen, is already practically in the
hands of local bodies, but secondary education was deliberately
left at the outset almost entirely to private agencies. The
universities, despite their connection with Government, are
largely non-official bodies with extensive powers.[1] The main
defect of the system is probably the want of co-ordination between
primary and higher education, which in turn reacts upon the
efficiency of the secondary institutions and to a great extent
confines university colleges to the unsatisfactory function of
mere finishing schools. The universities have suffered from having
been allowed to drift into the position of institutions that are
expected not so much to educate in the true sense as to provide
the student with the means of entering an official or a
professional career. Thus a high percentage of failures seems to a
large body of Indian opinion not so much a proof of the faultiness
of the methods of teaching as an example of an almost capricious
refusal of the means of obtaining a living wage to boys who have
worked for years often at the cost of real hardship to secure an
independent livelihood. The educational wastage is everywhere
excessive; and analysis shows that it is largely due to
under-payment and want of proper training in the case of teachers.
The actual recruits for normal schools are too often ill-prepared,
and the teaching career, which in India used formerly to command
respect, does not now offer adequate inducements to men of ability
and force of character. The first need, therefore, is the
improvement of teaching. Until that is attained it is vain to
expect that the continuation of studies from the primary stage can
be made attractive. But while the improvement of primary and
middle schools is the first step to be taken, very much remains to
be done in reorganising the secondary teachers and ensuring for
the schoolmaster a career that will satisfy an intelligent man.
The improvement of ordinary secondary education is obviously a
necessary condition for the development of technical instruction
and the reform of the university system. It is clear that there is
much scope for an efficient and highly trained inspectorate in
stimulating the work of the secondary schools and in helping the
inspectorate of the primary schools maintained by the local
bodies. We believe that the best minds in India, while they feel
that the educational service has not in the past been widely
enough opened to Indians trained at British universities, value
the maintenance of a close connection with educationists from the
United Kingdom.

"This survey of educational problems will show how much room there
is for advance and improvement, and also how real the difficulties
are. The defects of the present system have often been discussed
in the legislative councils, but, as was inevitable so long as the
councils had no responsibility, without due appreciation of
financial difficulties, or serious consideration of the question
how far fresh taxation for educational improvement would be
acceptable. As we shall show, it is part of the political advance
that we contemplate that the direction of Indian education should
be increasingly transferred to Indian hands. Only so, we believe,
can the stimulus be forthcoming which will enable the necessary
money to be found. The weak points are recognised. A real desire
for improvement exists. Educational extension and reform must
inevitably play an important part in the political progress of the
country. We have already made clear our conviction that political
capacity can come only through the exercise of political
responsibility; and that mere education without opportunities must
result in serious mischief. But there is another important
element. Progress must depend on the growth of electorates and the
intelligent exercise of their powers; and men will be immensely
helped to become competent electors by acquiring such education as
will enable them to judge candidates for their votes, and of the
business done in the councils. No one would propose to prescribe
an educational qualification for the vote; but no one can deny the
practical difficulties which make a very general extension of the
franchise impossible, until literacy is far more widely spread
than is the case at present. Progress was temporarily interrupted
by uncertainty as to the distribution of financial resources which
would result from the constitutional changes; but the imminence of
these has given a new importance to the question and its
consideration has been resumed. We trust that impetus will thus be
given to a widespread movement which will be taken up and carried
forward boldly by the reformed councils."

The subject has been so fairly dealt with, the defects of the present system so frankly recognised and the need of wider dissemination of education so forcibly explained that we need add nothing.

In our judgment the circumstances and conditions under which it is proposed to transfer the direction of Indian education to Indian hands are extremely unfair. It is admitted that under the present economic conditions of the Indian people, there is little scope for further taxation. If so, there are only two ways to find money for education, (_a_) by economy in the other departments of public administration, (_b_) by loans.

The recommendation made by the Secretary of State and the Viceroy for an increase in the emoluments of the European services hardly leaves any room for (_a_). We have discussed the matter at some length in another chapter. The only other source left, then, is by incurring debt. Education is so important and so fundamental to the future progress of the country that in our judgment the ministers should feel no hesitation in having recourse to it, but the problem is so gigantic that, lacking material reduction in the cost of administration in other departments, it will be extremely difficult to meet the situation without an unreasonable increase in the public debt. Anyway, under the scheme recommended, the Government cannot divest itself of the fullest responsibility in the matter. The scheme gives no vital power to the electorates or their representatives. The authority of the Executive in the matter of appropriations remains unaffected and so long as it retains the final say in the making of the Budget, the Indian ministers cannot, handicapped by so many restrictions, be held responsible if the progress is slow.

Our views on the problem of education in India have been expressed in a separate book to which interested readers are referred.[2] We hold that it is the duty of the Government to provide free and wholesome education to every child at public cost, that education should be compulsory up to the age of 18. The policy of the English Education Act of 1918 ought to be applied to India, and if it cannot be done from current funds, loans should be raised for the purpose. It is a matter which brooks of no delay. The whole future of India depends upon it. Nay, the future of humanity as a whole is affected by it. The world cannot be safe for any kind of democracy, nor can the world make progress towards a better order without the active coöperation of three hundred and fifteen million Indians forming one-fifth of the human race. Not only is the world poorer by reason of India's inability to coöperate in the work of progress but its present educational backwardness is a serious handicap to the rest of humanity going forward.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] We do not accept this statement. The Government controls the policy of the universities to such an extent as virtually to make them official institutions.

[2] National Education in India.

XVII

THE PROBLEM

We have so far discussed the Report and such remarks as we have made have been by way of comment. In this chapter we propose to give in brief outline our own view of the problem.