Chapter VIII: The Future

It is both difficult and risky to predict, especially concerning a country situated as India is to-day. It is always the unexpected that happens in human affairs. This is particularly true where human affairs are so complicated and complex as in India. It is perhaps easier to predict the future of America or England, than that of India. The Indian nationalists of the nineties, or even of the early days of the new century, could hardly have imagined the developments of the last fifteen years. It is true that India is rather immobile; its masses are rather inert; and perhaps of all peoples the least affected by changes in the outside world. They have been under the benumbing influence of a philosophy of life which keeps them contented even under adverse circumstances, even when they are starving and have no clothes to hide their nakedness.

_Change in Indian Life and Depth of Nationalism._ But this is only partially true of modern India. There is a great deal of exaggeration about the immobility of Indian people. There may be millions in India who are as unaffected by modern conditions of life and modern ideas as they were fifty years ago, but then there are millions who have consciously awakened. Their strength is not to be judged by the attendance at Congresses and conferences or other public meetings or demonstrations, nor by the circulation of newspapers or books. Popular demonstrations organised in honour of popular leaders, and the increase in the circulation of newspapers give indications of a great change in Indian life, but the actual change is even much greater. Read the poetry of the country or its prose, read the rough versifyings of the half-educated or even uneducated men and women (including some who are even illiterate), listen to the talk in the village park or square or other meeting places, see the games which the children of rustics and the poorest classes play, attend to the patterings of children, examine the popular songs or the music that is now in demand, then you will see how deeply nationalism has pervaded Indian life and what a strong hold it has gained in the thoughts of the people. No foreigner can realise that; only an Indian can properly understand it. Examine the vernacular press--the most sober and the most loyal papers, and underlying the expressions of deepest loyalty, you would assuredly come across genuine tears of blood, shed for the misfortune of the country, its decline, its present wretched and miserable condition. From the Indian press we hear a never-ceasing lamentation. Listen to the utterances of the most wanton chief, and the most callous millionaire, bring him out from his isolation or retirement, put him on the public platform, and you will notice a vein of nationalism in his thoughts and in his words. But if you can know what he talks in private to friends from whom he keeps no secrets, you will see and notice a great deal more. The writer has not so far met a single Indian of any class--he has met Indians of all classes and of all shades of opinions, educated, uneducated, prince and peasant, moderate and extremist, loyalist and seditionist,--who was genuinely sorry at the outbreak of this war. A number of Indians are fighting at the front. They are sincerely loyal and true to their oath of allegiance. They would leave nothing undone to win, but in their heart of hearts lurks something which in moments of reflection or when they are off duty, reminds them of the wrongs which they and their countrymen are suffering at the hands of England. Nationalism is no longer confined to the classes. It promises to become a universal cult. It is permeating the masses. Only those Indians realise it who mix with the people and do not derive their knowledge from works written by Englishmen or by other arm-chair politicians. No foreigner, however kind and sympathetic, however great his knowledge of the language of the country, can ever realise it fully. Even the dancing girls are affected by it. They will sing political or national songs if you so wish. Even the wandering minstrel with his rude, one-stringed instrument, knows the song that is likely to bring him help.

_Nationalism Fertilised by Blood of Martyrs._ No amount of repression or espionage can stop it. No amount of official terrorism and no devices, invented or followed to inculcate loyalty, can stop or check the flow of the new feeling of patriotism and nationalism which is being constantly fed by the sentences of death and transportation that the British courts are passing on beardless youths. The Government can not help it. They must punish the offender and the criminal. They must hunt up the seditionist. They would not be a government if they would do otherwise, but India is now in that stage and Indian nationalism is in that condition when repression, death sentences, and imprisonments are more beneficial to it than otherwise. The more it is repressed and suppressed, the more this spirit grows and spreads. It is a seed that is richly fertilised by the blood of martyrs. The people do not argue, they do not reason, they do not analyse; they feel that good, well-connected, healthy, beautiful boys are dying in the country’s cause and to get a redress of the country’s wrongs. When a bomb is thrown, the people genuinely condemn the bomb thrower, are sincere in their detestation, but when he is hanged or transported, they are sorry for him. Their original abhorrence changes into sympathy and then into love. They are martyrs of the national cause. They may be misguided, even mad, but they are martyrs all the same. The moralist and the legalist and the loyalist and the constitutionalist, all condemn their deeds, but the doers themselves, they adore, and their names they enshrine in their hearts.

_Wave of Indian Nationalism is on._ Such is human psychology, and such is the psychology of nations in the making. The Indian mind has entered on that phase. No amount of sweet speeches by the Viceroy or by the Lieutenant Governors or by the commissioners or deputy commissioners, no amount of honours and titles or rewards to individuals, no amount of preferment of one community as against another, no amount of canal-making or railway-developing, can change the tide that has begun to flow, or retard the sweep, much less turn it to ebb.

_Propitiation and Petty Concessions Futile._ This is the supreme fact of Indian life which every one who has anything to do with India, official or non-official, statesman or layman, politician or publicist, must recognise and face. Nations and individuals, filled with their own importance, drunk with power and resources, accustomed to mould things and forces in their own way, determined to keep what they have got, may not see things which are unpleasant to look at or to think about. But facts are facts and do not wait for their action on the pleasure of those who do not like them. Canute-like they may command the waves, but the waves will not listen to them. The wave of Indian nationalism is on and no amount of tinkering with Indian administration, or sweet phrases, or promises can check it. “We are the subjects of the same sovereign,” “citizens of the same empire,” “brothers in arms,” “comrades,” and so on,--these are kind words spoken by people who perhaps mean well. But in the light of past experience they do not carry much weight; they may befool some soft-hearted people, but they would not affect the general mind of the nation so long as they remain unaccompanied by deeds. An Executive Council for the United Provinces, a High Court for the Punjab, a High Court and a University for Behar, a Charter to the Hindu University, liberal grants to Islamic schools and colleges, may please some barristers and pleaders, but they will not satisfy the nation, so long as the Arms Act is on the statute book, so long as the Indian Councils are a farce, so long as the fiscal policy is laid down in the interests of Lancashire, and so long as hundreds and thousands of Indian boys fail to earn a decent living, while the country is being ruled and exploited by the few fortunate foreigners. Indians want to go to Canada, to South Africa, to the United States of America, because the wages to be earned in India are so low, because the life at home is so miserable, so helpless and so hard and so humiliating. Even abroad the Indian is kicked and insulted at almost every step, but then that is more easily borne than the kicks and insults of Englishmen in India.

_Internal Division no Valid Plea._ India has and can produce enough to feed her own children,[96] nay to spare, provided she were free to make her own laws, spend her own revenues, and protect her industries. Those who plead that Indians are too hopelessly divided into religions, communities, sects, castes, and languages, to be able to form a government of their own, forget that the English have been in India only for the last century and a half and that before that India governed herself. The India of to-day is in no way happier than it was before pre-British days. The India of Akbar was happier than the England of Elizabeth and even more prosperous. The India of Asoka was infinitely happier and more prosperous than the England of Alfred the Great. The India of Aurangzeb may perhaps have been miserable, but surely not more miserable than the England of Henry VIII, or the England of James I, or the Scotland of Mary, or the Ireland of Cromwell, or the France of Henry IV, or the Holland of Philip. We have the testimony of English historians and observers that subjects of the East India Company were in no way happier or more prosperous than when they were under Native rule,[97] and the subjects of Native States in India governed by Natives are on the whole in no way worse off than British subjects under the direct rule of the British.

Look at the United States, how the varied races, sects, religions, and communities have merged their differences and live under one national government; look at the number of languages spoken in the United States--in their schools and in their factories. Look at Switzerland, what a tiny little country it is! How many languages are spoken and taught in its schools and how many languages are spoken and used in its councils, and how many religions are professed by the people of the country!

The same remarks may be made about the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary, where the form of government is largely representative in spite of the diversity of races, sects and languages.

The number of religions, sects and languages in India has been grossly exaggerated. With every census the number goes up by hundreds, though the country and the people are the same.

_Illiteracy the Fault of the British and no Bar to Self-government._ Again it is sometimes said that India cannot be self-ruling because of its illiteracy. This argument does not come with good grace from the Britishers because it is they who are responsible for the appalling illiteracy of the Indian population. In Japan, where the work of education was begun late in the last century, 28 per cent. of the children of school age were at school in 1873; by 1902-1903 the percentage had risen to 90. In India, after 150 years of British rule, the percentage is 19.6. The Indian Nationalists have for a number of years been asking for compulsory universal education, but the Government would not listen. The late Mr. Gokhale’s Compulsory Elementary Education Bill was strongly opposed by the Government and thrown out. But what is even worse is that the Government would not let the people open their own schools and colleges because of the unreasonably high standard set up by the Department for their recognition as public schools.

However, universal literacy of the people is not an indispensable pre-requisite of self-rule. In Japan, where 50 years ago representative government was set up, only the _Samurai_ were literate. In India, too, the higher classes are educated to a considerable extent.

England has enjoyed parliamentary government for centuries, but universal education was only introduced in 1870.

_Internal Troubles._ As for internal troubles following the withdrawal of the British or the grant of self-government we ask, “Is there any country on the face of the earth which is free from internal troubles?” Even Great Britain is not; much less are the self-governing colonies. Yet nobody questions their right to govern themselves. Only the other day President Wilson considered the existence of internal disorder in Mexico to be no justification for the United States interfering in its affairs.

_Unfitness of Orientals for Representative Institutions._ As for the unfitness of Orientals for democratic institutions, why the ancient history of India refutes it almost conclusively. India was the home of democratic institutions long before England and France had any notion of what democracy implied. But if any further proof of the absurdity of this plea was needed that has been furnished by Japan.

_Nationalism has come to Stay._ Let England try an experiment by repealing the Arms Act and giving a parliamentary government to India and see if these considerations effectively stand in the way of progress. Be that as it may, however, one thing seems to be assured and certain, that Indian nationalism can neither be killed nor suppressed by repression, nor by minor concessions. Nationalism has come to stay and will stay. What will be the upshot is only known to the Gods. England may win or lose in the great war in which she is engaged. Indian nationalism will gain in either case. We need not consider how India will fare if England loses. She may come under Mohammedan domination, or the Germans may take possession of her; the English would be gone and then India would enter upon a new life. India does not want it. She will resist it with all her strength. But if it comes she can’t help it and Great Britain would be responsible for having brought it. In case, however, England wins, as she is likely to, the Indian nationalism will still gain. There will be a demand for political advance, for a change in the political status of the country and in its relations towards England and her colonies. From what we know of English temper, of English political machinery, of English political methods, of English ways and of English history, that demand is sure to be refused. Some minor, petty concessions may be made, but they would be disproportionate to the sacrifices of men and money that India is making in the war. They will not satisfy the country. Disaffection and discontent will grow and that is the kind of food on which nationalism thrives and prospers. So long as there are Curzons, Macdonnels, and Sydenhams in the English Parliament, Indian nationalism will not starve for want of congenial food. And we have no reason to think that these dignitaries of the British Government are likely to disappear.

_Curzons, Macdonnels, Sydenhams, responsible for Bombs and Revolvers._ These persons are directly responsible for the appearance of bombs and revolvers in Indian political life. The young men who use them are mere tools of circumstances. If any persons deserve to be hanged for the use of these destructive machines by Indian nationalists, it is they. It is a pity that while the latter are dying by tens on the scaffold, the former should be free to carry on their propaganda of racial discrimination, racial hatred, and social preferment. But the ways of Providence are inscrutable. It is perhaps some higher dispensation that is using these miserable Junkers for its own purposes. Indians have faith in Providence and they believe that what is happening is for the best. The Indians are a chivalrous people; they will not disturb England as long as she is engaged with Germany. The struggle after the war might, however, be even more bitter and more sustained.

* * * * *

A SHORT BIBLIOGRAPHY OF BOOKS IN ENGLISH

BOOKS BY ENGLISHMEN

“New Spirit in India” by H. W. Nevinson.

“The Awakening in India” by J. Ramsay MacDonald, M.P.

“India, Impressions and Suggestions” by J. Keir Hardie, M.P.

“New India” by Sir Henry Cotton (once an M.P.), late of the Indian
Civil Service.

“Allen Octavian Hume” by Sir W. Wedderburn, late of the Indian
Civil Service (once an M.P.).

“Prosperous British India” by Mr. William Digby, C.I.E.

“India and the Empire” by Mrs. Annie Besant.

“Indian Nationalism” by Edwyn Bevan.

“Bureaucratic Government” by Bernard Houghton (late of the Indian
Civil Service).

“Lord Curzon a Failure” by C. J. O’Donnell (late of the Indian
Civil Service).

“Causes of Indian Discontent” by C. J. O’Donnell (late of the
Indian Civil Service).

“The Indian Ryot” by Sir W. Wedderburn.

“The Skeleton at the Jubilee Feast” by Sir W. Wedderburn.

“Congress Green Books” (84, 85, Palace Chambers, Westminster,
London).

“The New Nationalist Movement in India,” by Dr. J. T. Sunderland.

“Indian Famines and Their Cause” by Dr. J. T. Sunderland, 423 West
120th Street, New York.

BOOKS BY INDIANS

“Poverty or Un-British Rule in India” by Dadabhai Naoroji.

“India Under Early British Rule” by R. C. Dutt, C.I.E.

“India in the Victorian Age” by R. C. Dutt, C.I.E.

“Famines and Land Assessment” by R. C. Dutt, C.I.E.

“England and India” (Indian Progress, 1785-1885) by R. C. Dutt,
C.I.E.

“The Civilization of India” by R. C. Dutt, C.I.E.

“Speeches of the Honourable Mr. G. K. Gokhale.”

“The Swadeshi, a Symposium.”

“Recent Indian Finance” by Wacha.

“The National Evolution” by A. C. Mazumdar.

“The Indian National Congress.”

“Speeches of Sir P. M. Mehta.”

“The Story of My Deportation” by Lajpat Rai.

“The Alipore [Bomb Case] Trial.”

PERIODICALS

_The Modern Review_ (monthly). Calcutta.

_The Indian Review_ (monthly). Madras.

_The Hindustan Review_ (monthly). Allahabad.

_India_ (the British Organ of the Indian National Congress,
weekly). London.

APPENDICES

I

EXTRACTS FROM SIR HENRY COTTON’S “NEW INDIA.”

_Feudatory Chiefs Powerless._ “It would perhaps be ungenerous to probe too narrowly the dependent position and consequent involuntary action of the feudatory chiefs. They are powerless to protect themselves. There is no judicial authority to which they can appeal. There is no public opinion to watch their interests. Technically independent under the suzerainty of the Empire, they are practically held in complete subjection. Their rank and honours depend on the pleasure of a British Resident at their Court, and on the secret and irresponsible mandates of a Foreign Office at Simla” (page 34).

_Gross Insults to Indians._ “That intense Anglo-Saxon spirit of self-approbation which is unpleasantly perceptible in England itself, and is so often offensive among vulgar Englishmen on the Continent, very soon becomes rampant in India.

“There are innumerable instances in which pedestrians have been abused and struck because they have not lowered their umbrellas at the sight of a sahib on the highway. There are few Indian gentlemen even of the highest rank who have not had experience of gross insults when travelling by railway, because Englishmen object to sit in the same carriage with a native” (pages 68-69).

II

SOME OPINIONS ABOUT BRITISH INDIA

_Industrial Ruin of India. Gokhale._ “When we come to this question of India’s Industrial domination by England, we come to what may be described as the most deplorable result of British rule in this country. In other matters there are things on the credit side and things on the debit side.... But when you come to the industrial field, you will find that the results have been disastrous. You find very little here on the credit side and nearly all the entries on the debit side. Now this is a serious statement to make, but I think it can be substantiated.”

_India a Mere Possession. Gokhale._ “India formed the largest part of the Empire, but was governed as a mere possession of the British people. Three features showed that it had no part or lot in the Empire. In the first place, the people were kept disarmed; it was thought to be dangerous to allow them to carry arms. Secondly, they had absolutely no voice in the government of their own country; they were expressly disqualified from holding certain high offices, and practically excluded from others. Lastly, they were not allowed a share in the privileges of the Empire in any portion outside British India, except a limited one in the United Kingdom itself.”--MR. GOKHALE.

_Masses Starved. Sir C. A. Elliott._ “I do not hesitate to say that half our agricultural population never know from year’s end to year’s end what it is to have their hunger fully satisfied.”--SIR C. A. ELLIOTT, one-time Lieut.-Governor of Bengal.

_Sir W. W. Hunter._ In 1880. “There remain forty millions of people who go through life on insufficient food.”--SIR W. W. HUNTER.

_William Digby._ In 1893. The _Pioneer_ sums up Mr. Grierson’s facts regarding the various sections of the population in Gaya: “Briefly, it is that all the persons of the labouring classes, and ten per cent. of the cultivating and artisan classes, or forty-five per cent. of the total population, are insufficiently clothed, or insufficiently fed, or both. In Gaya district this would give about a million persons without sufficient means of support. If we assume that the circumstances of Gaya are not exceptional,--and there is no reason for thinking otherwise--it follows that nearly one hundred millions of people in British India are living in extreme poverty.”

In 1901. “The poverty and suffering of the people are such as to defy description. In fact, for nearly fifteen years there has been _a continuous famine in India_ owing to high prices.”

70,000,000 _Continually Hungry People in British India. W. Digby._ “Since Sir William Hunter’s remarks were made the population has increased (or is alleged to have increased) by nearly thirty millions. Meanwhile the income of the Empire has greatly decreased during this period. Wherefore this follows: that is, if with the same income, in 1880 forty millions were insufficiently fed, the additional millions cannot have had, cannot now have, enough to eat; this, again, ensues:--

40,000,000 plus, say, 30,000,000, make 70,000,000; and _there are this number of continually hungry people in British India at the beginning of the Twentieth Century_.”--WILLIAM DIGBY, C. I. E.

_Deaths from Famine or Consequent Diseases, 1891 to 1900 alone_: estimated by a correspondent of the _Lancet_, 19,000,000.

_Total area under cultivation._ In the year 1911-12, the _total area_ under _food grains_ was over 195 _million acres_, plus 7.5, _i.e._ over 202½ _million acres_. In 1912-13, India _exported foodstuffs_ of the value of over 260 million dollars.

In 1913-14 she exported about 216 million dollars’ worth of foodstuffs.

_Famines of Money, not Food. Lord G. Hamilton._ “The recent famines are famines of money, and not of food.”--LORD G. HAMILTON, former Secretary of State.

_Causes of Famines._ 1. National industries deliberately crushed by the East India Co. cannot revive under existing conditions.

2. Annual drain of India.

3. Lack of such education as will enable people to develop their resources.

_Drain. Montgomery Martin._ “The annual drain of £3,000,000 from British India has mounted in thirty years, at 12 per cent. (the usual Indian rate) compound interest, to the enormous sum of £723,900,000 sterling.”--MONTGOMERY MARTIN. (In 1830.)

_Digby._ “During the last thirty years of the century the average drain cannot have been far short of £30,000,000 per year, or, in the thirty years, £900,000,000, not reckoning interest!”--SIR WILLIAM DIGBY.

_Enormous Foreign Tribute. Rev. J. T. Sunderland._ Rev. J. T. Sunderland in his work “The Causes of Famine in India,” like all impartial writers, has conclusively proved that neither “failure of rains” nor “over population” is the cause of famines in India. He has stated that the real cause of famine is the extreme, the abject, the awful poverty of the Indian people caused by “_Enormous Foreign Tribute_,” “British Indian Imperialism” and the destruction of Indian industries.

_Government assessment too high. Sir W. Hunter._ “The government assessment does not leave enough food to the cultivator to support himself and his family throughout the year.”--SIR WILLIAM HUNTER, K. C. S. I., in the Viceroy’s Council, 1883.

_The Ryot. Herbert Compton._ “There is no more pathetic figure in the British Empire than the Indian peasant. His masters have ever been unjust to him. He is ground until everything has been expressed, except the marrow of his bones.”--MR. HERBERT COMPTON in “Indian Life,” 1904.

Hindustan is an extensive agricultural country and the average land produces two crops a year, and in Bengal there are lands which produce thrice a year. Bengal alone produces such large crops that they are quite sufficient to provide _all the population of Hindustan for two years_.

_Indian Plunder. Adam Brooks._ Adam Brooks says, (“Laws of Civilization and Decay,” page 259-246) “Very soon after the Battle of Plassey (fought in 1757) the Bengal Plunder began to arrive in London and the effect appears to have been almost instantaneous. Probably since the world began, no investment has yielded the profit reaped from the Indian plunder. The amount of treasure wrung from the conquered people and transferred from India to English banks between Plassey and Waterloo (57 years) has been variously estimated at from $2,500,000,000 to $5,000,000,000. The methods of plunder and embezzlement, by which every Briton in India enriched himself during the earlier history of the East India Company, gradually passed away, but the drain did not pass away. The difference between that earlier day and the present is, that India’s tribute to England is obtained by “indirect methods,” under forms of law. It is estimated by Mr. Hyndman that at least $175,000,000 is drained away every year from India, without a cent’s return.”

_Swami Abhedananda._ “India pays interest on England’s debt, which in 1900 amounted to 244 millions sterling, and which annually increases. Besides this, she pays for all the officers, civil and military, and a huge standing army, pensions of officers, and even the cost of the India Building in London, as well as the salary of every menial servant of that house. For 1901-2 the total expenditure charged against revenue was $356,971,410.00, out of which $84,795,515.00 was spent in England as Home Charges, not including the pay of European officers in India, saved and remitted to England.--SWAMI ABHEDANANDA (“India and Her People”).

_Alfred Webb_ (late M.P.): “In charges for the India Office (in London); for recruiting (in Great Britain, for soldiers to serve in India); for civil and military pensions (to men now living in England, who were formerly in the Indian service); for pay and allowances on furloughs (to men on visits to England); for private remittances and consignments (for India to England); for interest on Indian debt (paid to parties in England); and for interest on railways and other works (paid to shareholders in England), there is annually drawn from India and spent in the United Kingdom, a sum calculated at from £25,000,000 to £30,000,000 (Between $125,000,000 and $150,000,000).”

“_Narrow and Shortsighted Imperial Policy._” _Sir Archibald R. Colquehoun._ “The present condition of affairs undoubtedly renders the struggle for existence a hard one, as may be realized when it is considered that a vast population of India not only from the inevitable droughts which so frequently occur, _but also from a narrow and shortsighted imperial policy which places every obstacle in the way of Industrial development and imposes heavy taxes on the struggling people_. According to various authorities, Russia’s demand upon landowners in her Central Asian possession are not so exacting as ours in India, _for the British Government insists on a fifth of the produce, making no allowance for good or bad years; while Russia is said to ask only a tenth and allow for variation of production_.” (Pages 135-6, “Russia Against India,” by SIR ARCHIBALD R. COLQUEHOUN, Gold Medalist, Royal Geographical Society.)

_Taxation. Lord Salisbury._ The British policy of bleeding Indian people. “The injury is exaggerated in the case of India where so much of the revenue is exported without a direct equivalent. As India must be bled, the lancet should be directed to the parts where the blood is congested or at least sufficient, not to those already feeble for the want of it.”--LORD SALISBURY.

III

FACTS AND FIGURES

_Plague, Deaths from._ Plague[98] deaths from 1897-1913: 7,251,257.

_Death Rate._ Death rate was: 34.28 for the year 1907-11; 32 for the year 1911, and 29.71 for the year 1912.

Rural from 41.8 to 23.5.

Urban from 47.6 to 22.7.

_Indian Finance._ The budget figures of the government of India for 1914-15 show the total estimated income for the year to be slightly over 85 millions sterling, of which more than 17 millions are given out as railway receipts and about 4½ millions for irrigation work, thus leaving the pure revenue to be about 63 millions.

_Land Tax._ The principal source of revenue is the land tax, which alone furnishes a little over 21½ millions of pounds, of which, if we deduct 9 millions shown as the “direct demand on the revenues” only 12½ millions are left for general purposes.

The military expenses alone are estimated at about 22 millions, which is even in excess of the gross total receipts from the land tax, and is more than one-third of the total revenues from all sources.

The figures for income are a little misleading, because out of a total of about 17 millions (17 millions and 33 thousand) shown as railway receipts about 13 millions (13,409,000) shown as paid for interest and other miscellaneous charges on the expenditure side, should be deducted. Similarly about 4½ millions are shown as receipts under the head of irrigation, and over 3½ millions are shown against that head as expenditure.

Among the other heads of income, excise brings slightly over 9 millions. Income tax is included under “Other Heads,” which show a total figure of slightly over 5 millions.

_Income Tax._ The income tax, which is levied on incomes other than those derived from agriculture, is only 6½d. in a pound on incomes of £133 or more, a year, and almost 5d. a pound on incomes below that figure. The minimum taxable income is £66 a year, which shows that all incomes of between 5-6 pounds a month, or between 25-30 dollars a month, are taxed. The large fortunes made by Europeans and Indians by trade, speculation, manufacture, and unearned increments of valuation, are thus easily let off. The principle burden of taxation falls on the poor _ryot_.

Income from agriculture is supposed to be taxed at the rate of 50 per cent. of the net income of the landlord, or at the rate of 20 per cent. of the gross produce of the ryot, under the ryotwari system. In some cases it exceeds these proportions and is as high as 65 per cent. (See Lord Morley’s reply to C. T. O’Donnell.)

_Customs._ Customs, which furnish the principal source of revenue in the United States and Germany, in India only yield about less than 7½ millions. The imports are charged _ad valorem_ duty of 5 per cent. with special conditions as to textiles, and “a large free list.” The textile woven goods pay a duty of 3½ per cent. and Lancashire is protected by a corresponding excise duty on textile goods produced in the country. Iron and steel pay only a nominal duty of one per cent.

The other principal source of revenue is the drink traffic, from which the government of India makes an income of about _nine millions_ sterling. How much loss in morals it inflicts thereby on the country may better be imagined. That however is another story.

TRADE FIGURES FOR 1913 to 1914

Imports (manufactured articles forming
80 per cent. of the total): £127 millions

_Treasure_: 29 millions
-------------
£156 millions

_Exports_ (chiefly raw produce and articles
of food): £163 millions

The shipping is entirely in European hands and it would be interesting to enquire how much does India pay for the shipping of its imports and exports, and how much do the foreigners make by way of insurance and other charges. The exact gain to Great Britain and other European countries from Indian trade is simply incalculable. The great bulk of the foreign trade on both sides is in the hands of foreigners.

PERSONNEL OF THE GOVERNMENT

SECRETARY OF STATE and all Under Secretaries, as well as Assistant
Under Secretaries:

_British_
COUNCIL: _British_ _Indians_ _Total_
8 2 10

All Office Establishment and Secretaries: _British_.

All salaries and other expenses paid by India.

GOVERNOR GENERAL AND COUNCIL _and staff_ (i.e., the British Indian Cabinet).

Members of the _Executive Council_: British 7; one only is an
Indian.

REVENUE AND AGRICULTURE DEPARTMENT: All Secretaries down to the
Superintendent of the Office: British. (Total strength, 7.)

FINANCE DEPARTMENT: 21; all British except that one Assistant
Secretary is an Indian, and one Superintendent is an Indian.

FOREIGN DEPARTMENT: 6; all British except that one Attaché is an
Indian.

EDUCATION DEPARTMENT: 8; one Assistant Secretary is an Indian.

LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT: 7; only one Legal Assistant an Indian.

ARMY DEPARTMENT: 10; one Office Superintendent an Indian.

PUBLIC WORKS: 15; no Indian.

COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY: 11; 3 Office Superintendents are Indians.

RAILWAY BOARD: 4, no Indian.

POST OFFICE AND TELEGRAPH DEPARTMENT: no Indian.

INDO-EUROPEAN TRADE DEPARTMENT: no Indian.

SURVEY: no Indian.

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY: 5; no Indian.

BOTANICAL DEPARTMENT: 5; no Indian.

ARCHÆOLOGICAL SURVEY: 9; one Indian.

MISCELLANEOUS APPOINTMENTS: 39; one Indian.

THE INDIAN LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL:--

Total strength 67, out of which 35, besides the Governor General
are always officials, only one of which is an Indian; of the
remaining 32, 28 are Indian members, including 3 nominated by the
Government, i.e., a total of 20 out of 67.

PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT:

All Governors, Lieutenant Governors, and Chief Commissioners of
Provinces are British.

In Provinces having Executive Councils of three or more, one is an
Indian.

Secretaries and Heads of Departments are all Britishers. Of the
large army of Under Secretaries and Assistant Secretaries, perhaps
one in each Province is an Indian.

SERVICES:

_Army_: No Indian is eligible to a commissioned rank.

_Indian Civil Service_: (on the first of April, 1913) out of a
total cadre of 1318, only 46 were Indians.

_Indian Medical Service_: Little over 5 per cent. are Indians.

_In Provincial Legislative Councils_ having very restricted powers
of legislation, the _elected_ Indians are in a minority everywhere.

FIGURES ABOUT EDUCATION AND LITERACY:

(Figures taken from the Year Book of 1914)

Area, 1,773,168 square miles.
Population, 315,132,537.
Universities in British India, 6.

Number of High Schools for males 1273
Number of High Schools for females 144

Primary schools for males 113,955
i.e., not even 1 for every 10 miles.
Primary schools for females 13,694

Literally.
Males, 106 per 1000, i.e., about 10½ per cent.
Females, only 10 per 1000, i.e., about 1 per cent.

All these figures are taken from the Indian Year Book, published by the Times of India Press, Bombay, for the years 1914 and 1915.

IV

THE FLOGGING OF POLITICAL PRISONERS

(An extract from _New India_, a paper edited by Mrs. Annie Besant.)

The tragedy of Mr. Ramcharan Lal, the ex-editor of the _Swaraj_, continues. Mr. Macleod, the city magistrate of Nagpur, has sentenced him to an additional six months of rigorous imprisonment after his sentence has expired for ‘refusing to work.’ Our readers will remember the case. This unfortunate political prisoner--whose analogues in foreign countries have been welcomed and protected on British soil--under-going a sentence of imprisonment, was so brutally flogged for refusing to do work, which he says was more than he could do, that the prison doctor admits that he would have been unable to work for four days after the flogging, and six weeks after it the skin was still discoloured and two serious scars remained. Now he has a heavy sentence of six months’ additional imprisonment. Is this British treatment of a political prisoner? Why did Britons protest against the use of the knout on political prisoners in Russia? Is there no one in the House of Commons who will ask a question on this case, and demand an enquiry into the treatment of political prisoners in India?

INDEX

A

Abul Fazal, 52

Abul Qasim, 70

Ahmad Khan (Sir Syed), 115

Akbar, 71, 72, 73, 74

Alberuni, 52

Alexander the Great, 68

Al-Hilal, 62

Asoka, 9, 11, 12, 69

Aurangzeb, 52, 73, 95

B

Ball, Charles (Indian Mutiny), 105

Bankim, Chandra, 190, 191

Bannerjea (Sir G.), 171

Bonnerjea, W. C., 133

Barendra, 194

_Bengalee_ (newspaper), 24

Besant, Annie, 50, 115

Blavatsky, 115

Burke, Edmund, 76, 77, 99

C

Chamberlain, Austen, 28

Chirol (Sir V.), 1, 29

Colvin (Sir A.), 124

Comrade, 62

Curzon (Lord), 29, 88, 89, 147, 156, 158, 159, 239, 240

D

Dalhousie, 97

D. A. V. College, 165

David, Rhys, 68

Dayal, Har, 152, 156, 195 to 199, 211

Dayanand (Saraswati), 115

Dickinson (Lowes), 5

Dufferin (Lord), 121, 122, 138, 142

E

Englishman (The), 168, 169, 182

F

Faizi, 52

Fergusson College, 164

Fuller (Sir W. B.), 177

G

Gaekwar (Baroda), 88

Gálib, 52

Ghosh, Arabinda, 152, 155, 172 to 175, 183, 205, 209, 211

Gokhale, G. K., 135, 137, 159 to 161, 181, 199, 216, 237

Gossain (Narendra), 194

Govind (Singh), 95, 102

Greece, 11

Gupta Empire, 13

Gupta, Chandra, 9, 10, 68, 69

Gupta, Samundra, 13, 14

H

Hamdard, 62

Hardinge (Lord), 121, 184

Hastings, Warren, 99

Havell, E. B., 12

Holmes (History of the Sepoy War), 104;
(History of the Indian Mutiny), 105

Hume (A. O.), 122, 124 to 127, 130, 135, 137, 140, 144

I

Ibn, Batuta, 52

Ilbert (Bill), 119

K

Kali, 189, 190

Kaye (History of the Mutiny), 103, 104, 106

Kipling, Rudyard, 1

L

Lancashire, 62, 75

Law, Bonar, 28

_Leader_ (newspaper), 27

Lincoln, Abraham, 31

Lytton, Lord, 116, 118

M

Macdonald, J. Ramsay, 181, 182

Macdonnel, Lord, 29, 239, 240

Malleson (History of the Mutiny), 103, 104, 106

Manchester, 62

Mazhar-ul-Haq, 53

Megasthenes, 69

Mill (History of Br. India), 68

Minto (Lord), 179

Mohani, Abul Hasan Hasrat, 183

Müller, Max, 1

Muslim League, 49, 52

_Muslim Gazette_, 62

N

Naoroji Dadabhai, 133, 137, 179

Nath, Ajudhia, 133

National Council of Education, 171

National Congress, Indian, 122-145

National College, 173

Nepal, 13

Nevinson, H. W., 181, 182

Noble, Miss, 1

P

Pal, B. C., 162, 183, 190

Partap, Rana, 71, 72, 73

Pillai, Chidambaran, 183

Plassey, 96

Pratt, 3

Prithvi, Raj, 70

R

Rai, Lajpat, 181, 183

Ramakrishna Mission, 215

Ranade, 115, 133

Rawlinson, 10, 11

Reay, Lord, 123

Ripon, Lord, 119 to 122

Roberts (Charles), 28

Robertson, Sir G. Scott, 29

Roy, Ram Mohan, 111

S

Samaj, Arya, 117, 215

Samaj, Brahmo, 111, 215

Savarkar, 210, 211

Seleucus, 68

Sher Shah, 52, 73

Shah Jahan, 52

Sikhs, 73, 102

Sinha, Sir S. P., 31

Smith, Vincent, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15

Sivaji, 95, 129

Surat, 148

Swadeshi, 148, 168

Swaraj, 148

Sydenham, Lord, 29, 239, 240

T

Tagore, 5

Teg, Bahadur Guru, 95, 102

Theosophical Society, 117

Tilak (Bal Ganga Dhar), 28, 133, 155, 162, 183

Tod, Colonel, 73

Tyabji, 133

V

Victoria, Queen, 13

Vidyasagar, 164

Vikramadityas, 14

Vivekananda, 115, 193

W

Wacha, 39, 41

Wedderburn (Sir W.), 122, 128, 137, 144

Wellesly, Lord, 97.

Wilson (History of India), 94

Z

_Zamindar_ (newspaper), 62

* * * * *

YOUNG INDIA

BY LAJPAT RAI

_COMMENTS ON THE FIRST EDITION_

NEW YORK EVENING POST:

“He must be indifferent or unimaginative indeed who can read unmoved the pages of this volume. They are so instinct with passion of a consuming emotion, so fired with the force of a national conviction, that it is impossible to believe they can fail to impress all to whom liberty is more than a name and country more than a mere geographical expression. Of the facts and aspirations they so vividly record, few are more competent to speak than their author, for Lajpat Rai has long been in the forefront of the Indian Nationalist movement, and has suffered as well as striven in the promotion of its cause.”

THE NEW STATESMAN (London):

“This is emphatically a book to be read by the Secretary of State for India himself, as well as by the members of the Council and the clerks in the India Office. It ought to be pondered over by every Indian civilian. It is not that it brings any new indictment against British rule in India, though much that Mr. Lajpat Rai says is very uncomfortable reading; but it reveals, alike to the Indian bureaucracy and to the British public, how unexpectedly acute and well-informed is the criticism to which our somewhat slow and stupid Administration is subjected, how completely it is out of touch with the thought of educated ‘Young India;’ how far we are from getting into sympathetic accord with the feelings and aspirations of the educated classes, Mussulman as well as Hindoo.... Those who read Mr. Lajpat Rai’s very significant volume (Will the Indian Government even allow it to enter India?) will not agree with all his statements or proposals. But they deserve to be widely read and carefully weighed. Every Briton would be the better for reading them. And they deserve an answer--not merely a reasoned refutation by the India Office of that which it thinks erroneous or perverse, but, what is much more important, a prompt reform of all that the India Office does not venture to defend.”

REEDY’S MIRROR (St. Louis):

“The book is profoundly interesting as showing what the native thinks of British rule in India. Heretofore we have seen almost wholly through Caucasian eyes--mostly the eyes, of Englishmen, members of the government bureaucracy or missionaries, who have represented England as the great benefactor of India. Through the eyes of Mr. Rai we see an entirely different India--an India under a perfect despotism, in the main a benevolent despotism, but which does not hesitate to use the mailed hand when opposed.”

THE NATION (London):

“The whole book is a definite and we believe an accurate statement of the present feeling among a rapidly increasing body of young and educated Indians who have learnt the value of political freedom and the difficulty of winning or retaining it.”

* * * * *

_WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR (IN ENGLISH)_

THE ARYA SAMAJ

An account of its origin, doctrines and activities, with a Biographical Sketch of the Founder. With an Introduction by Professor Sidney Webb, LL.B., of the London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London.) With 10 Illustrations. _Crown 8vo. pp. xxvi+305, price, $1.75 net._ Professor Sidney Webb in the Preface which he has written to this book says--“I believe that this is the first book dealing with what may possibly prove to be the most important religious movement in the whole of India.” The author, Mr. Lajpat Rai, gives a biographical account of the Swami Dayananda, who was the founder of the Arya Samaj, and died in 1883. Since then the organization which Dayananda founded has increased enormously, and numbered 243,000 members in 1911, having more than doubled since 1901.

The Arya Samaj aims at a thorough reformation of the religion of Hinduism. It advocates the abolition of the worship of Idols and desires that the Hindu religion should be restored to the pure and lofty Monotheism of the Vedas which it believes to be the sole source of religious truth. Mr. Blunt, I.C.S., in the census report for the United Province for 1911 calls it “the greatest religious movement in India of the past half century.”

_New York Times_:--It is quite impossible for any one possessed of
imagination to close this book without feeling that it has
introduced him to a movement of very great importance ... (a)
fascinating book.

_Unity_:--J. T. Sunderland, D.D. “An interesting, well written,
reliable book.”

_Journal of Religious Psychology_:--A very interesting account.

_Boston Transcript_:--Very remarkable book.

_Christian Intelligence_:--Fascinating in style and matter.

_Literary Digest_:--More interesting to Americans.

_Outlook_:--It (the Arya Samaj) deserves wide attention.

_Christian Work_:--“Carefully thought out and selected material”
framed “into well-expressed phrases.”

_London Times_:--A remarkable book.

_London Daily News_:--An indispensable book.

_London_ “_India_”:--A historic book.

Very favorable reviews given by the (London) Nation, the (London) New Statesman, the Pall Mall Gazette and other English and American papers in lengthy notices.

REFLECTIONS ON THE POLITICAL SITUATION IN INDIA

_A pamphlet, 25 cents._

To be had of the author, care of B. W. Huebsch, 225 Fifth avenue, New York.

THE STORY OF MY DEPORTATION Second Edition in Course of Preparation

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The italics everywhere in this quotation are mine.

[2] See Vincent Smith’s “Early History of India,” third edition, p. 135.

[3] “Mr. Vincent Smith is always anxious to deprive India of the credit of all her achievements in art and literature.” Indian Historical Studies by Prof. H. D. G. Rawlinson, p. 227.

[4] The italics in the above quotation are mine.

[5] See also Mr. E. B. Havell’s Ideals of Indian Art, pp. 11-12. Mr. Havell’s conclusion is: “We may see if we have eyes to see, that all India is one in spirit, however diverse in race and in creed.”

[6] First Edition, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1905.

[7] See footnote to p. 5, of his “Early History of India,” 3rd ed.

[8] A town on the Eastern Coast of India.

[9] Some of these sentences have been reduced.

[10] In 16 cases these sentences have been commuted to life-long imprisonment not out of mercy as the Viceroy has himself officially pointed out, but in consideration of the evidence.

[11] The great mutiny of 1857, of which more hereafter.

[12] Six of them have been sentenced to death, 45 to transportation for life, some to imprisonment and some have been acquitted.

[13] The italics are mine.

[14] The italics are mine.

[15] Some Reflections on the Political Situation in India, by Lajpat Rai, pp. 24-27.

[16] The ludicrous extent to which the prohibition to keep and use arms has been carried will be better illustrated by the following incident reported by the _Bengalee_ of Calcutta.

“A five year old boy of Munshi Ganj Road, Kidderpore, had a toy pistol purchased for one anna. On the 8th of August last the child was playing with it but could not explode the paper caps. A thirteen year lad showed him how to do it. The boy was at once arrested by a beat constable and marched off to the Wat Ganjthana with the fire arm. The boy was eventually sent up for trial at Alipur and the Court fined him three rupees.”

[17] Commenting on the annual report of the issue of licenses the Indian press have made similar statements. The _Punjabee_ says “while the ruffians bent on crime have been able to secure fire arms by foul means, the law abiding section of the community have for the most part continued helpless owing to the difficulties of obtaining licenses for fire arms.” See also _Bengalee_ of the 6th Oct. 1915.

[18] The italics are mine.

[19] The italics are mine.

[20] The examinations have not been discontinued but statutory provision has been made for a large proportion of the appointments formerly filled by examination to be now filled by nomination.

[21] Mr. Lowes Dickinson, an English Professor who has largely travelled in India, has practically admitted the truth of this remark. (P. 23, An Essay on the Civilisation of India, China, and Japan. See also pp. 27 and 28.)

[22] The _Pioneer_ of Allahabad, a semi-official organ of the Anglo-Indians, has in a recent issue said that “The safety of the State is and must be of far greater importance than the rights of the individuals.”

[23] The Western Coast.

[24] Heavy wooden sticks.

[25] A straw mat.

[26] The italics are mine.

[27] “The Raja (_i.e._, the king) was not above the law.” See Wilson’s note on p. 203, vol. I of Mill’s British India.

[28] See Rhys David’s “Buddhist India.”

[29] See an account of Yudhishthira’s _Rajsuya yajna_ in the Mahabharata.

[30] For an account of Chandra Gupta’s Government see Early History of India by Mr. Vincent Smith.

[31] It is true that parts of Deccan had been from time to time overrun by the Mohammedans and at least one Muslim kingdom had been founded there even before Akbar’s time, but still the general statement in the text stands good.

[32] The tribal name of the House to which Partap belonged.

[33] Names of Rajput ruling families in Akbar’s time.

[34] The history of Europe up to the 18th century is full of parallel disputes on racial and religious grounds.

[35] It is said that for a short time a small portion of Northwest India formed a province of the Empire of Darius and paid tribute to that monarch, but the government was all the same native.

[36] “The Asiatic conquerors very soon abated their ferocity, because they made the conquered country their own. They rose or fell with the rise and fall of the territory they lived in. Fathers there deposited the hopes of their posterity; the children there beheld the monuments of their fathers. Here their lot was finally cast; and it is the normal wish of all that their lot should not be cast in bad land. Poverty, sterility, and desolation are not a recreating prospect to the eye of man, and there are very few who can bear to grow old among the curses of a whole people. If their passion or avarice drove the Tartar hordes to acts of rapacity or tyranny, there was time enough, even in the short life of man, to bring round the ill effects of the abuse of power upon the power itself. If hoards were made by violence and tyranny, they were still domestic hoards, and domestic profusion, or the rapine of a more powerful and prodigal hand, restored them to the people. With many disorders and with few political checks upon power, nature had still fair play, the sources of acquisition were not dried up, and therefore the trade, the manufactures, and the commerce of the country flourished. Even avarice and usury itself operated both for the preservation and the employment of national wealth. The husbandman and manufacturer paid heavy interest, but then they augmented the fund from whence they were again to borrow. Their resources were dearly bought, but they were sure, and the general stock of the community grew by the general effect.

“But under the English Government all this order is reversed. The Tartar invasion was mischievous, but it is our protection that destroys India. It was their enmity, but it is our friendship. Our conquest there, after twenty years, is as crude as it was the first day. The natives scarcely know what it is to see the grey head of an Englishman; young men, boys almost, govern there, without society, and without sympathy with the natives. They have no more social habits with the people than if they still resided in England; nor, indeed, any species of intercourse but that which is necessary to making a sudden fortune, with a view to a remote settlement. Animated with all the avarice of age, and all the impetuosity of youth, they roll in one after another, wave after wave, and there is nothing before the eyes of the natives but an endless, hopeless prospect of new flights of birds of prey and passage, with appetites continually renewing for a food that is continually wasting. Every rupee of profit made by an Englishman is lost forever to India.” (Edmund Burke in a speech made in the House of Commons in 1783 A. D. The reflections are as good, to-day, as they were then.)

[37] The constitution of the Government of India is settled by laws made by the Parliament of Great Britain, in which India is not represented.

[38] See Sir Henry Cotton’s New India (1907), pp. 68, 69 and 70.

[39] In England this is the view of the bulk of the Indian student community. The Government, of course, repudiates that view.

[40] In this connection we may refer the reader to an excellent article published in the _New Statesman_ (London) dated April 1, 1916, called, “If the Germans conquered England.” With the alteration of England for Germany and India for England the article would make an excellent exposition of the position of the Indian Nationalist.

[41] See New India by Sir Henry Cotton, 1907, p. 34.

[42] It should be noted that the evils complained of in this chapter are the evils of the system which, in the words of John Stuart Mill, is unnatural, and the unnaturalness of which is recognised in full by many fair-minded Britishers. It was recognised so far back as 1835 by the British historian Wilson in his concluding remarks in the last chapter of his monumental History of British India.

[43] The Punjab.

[44] Sivaji was the founder of the Mahratta Empire in India.

[45] Sirhind is a small town on the road to Delhi, where the Muslim governor of the time tortured the two minor sons of Guru Govind Singh to death by placing them between two brick walls.

[46] See Kaye and Malleson, vol. II, p. 367. “In respect to the mutineers of the 55th, they were taken fighting against us, and so far deserve little mercy. But, on full reflection, I would not put them all to death. I do not think that we should be justified in the eyes of the Almighty in doing so. A hundred and twenty men are a large number to put to death. Our object is to make an example to terrify others. I think this object would be effectually gained by destroying from a quarter to a third of them. I would select all of those against whom anything bad can be shown--such as general bad character, turbulence, prominence in disaffection or in the fight, disrespectful demeanor to their officers during the few days before the 26th, and the like. If these did not make up the required number, I would then add to them the oldest soldiers. All these should be shot or blown away from the guns, as may be most expedient. The rest I would divide into patches: some to be imprisoned ten years, some seven, some five, some three.”

[47] History of Indian Mutiny, Kaye and Malleson, vol. II, p. 203. “Martial law had been proclaimed; those terrible Acts passed by the Legislative Council in May and June were in full operation; and soldiers and civilians alike were holding Bloody Assize, or slaying natives without any Assize at all, regardless of sex or age. Afterwards the thirst for blood grew stronger still. It is on the records of our British Parliament, in papers sent home by the Governor General of India in Council, that the aged, women, and children, are sacrificed, as well as those guilty of rebellion. They were not deliberately hanged, but burnt to death in their villages--perhaps now and then accidently shot. Englishmen did not hesitate to boast, or to record their boastings in writings, that they had ‘spared no one,’ and that ‘peppering away at niggers’ was very pleasant pastime, ‘enjoyed amazingly,’ It has been stated in a book patronised by high class authorities, that ‘for three months eight dead-carts daily went their rounds from sunrise to sunset to take down the corpses which hung at the cross-roads and market-places,’ and that ‘six thousand beings’ had been thus summarily disposed of and launched into eternity.”

[48] See Kaye and Malleson’s History of the Mutiny, vol. II, p. 177. “Already our military officers were hunting down the criminals of all kinds, and hanging them up with as little compunction as though they had been pariah-dogs, or jackals, or vermin of a baser kind. One contemporary writer has recorded that, on the morning of disarming parade, the first thing he saw from the Mint was a ‘row of gallowses.’ A few days afterwards the military courts or commissions were sitting daily, and sentencing old and young to be hanged with indiscriminate ferocity. On one occasion, some young boys, who, seemingly in mere sport, had flaunted rebel colours and gone about beating tom-toms, were tried and sentenced to death. One of the officers composing the court, a man unsparing before an enemy under arms, but compassionate, as all brave men are, towards the weak and the helpless, went with tears in his eyes to the commanding officer, imploring him to remit the sentence passed against these juvenile offenders, but with little effect on the side of mercy. And what was done with some show of formality either of military or of criminal law, was as nothing, I fear, weighed against what was done without any formality at all. Volunteer hanging parties went out into the districts, and amateur executioners were not wanting to the occasion. One gentleman boasted of the numbers he had finished off quite ‘in an artistic manner,’ with mango-trees for gibbets and elephants for drops, the victims of this wild justice being strung up, as though for pastime, in ‘the form of a figure of eight.’”

On mock trials see Holmes’ History of the Sepoy War, p. 124. “Officers, as they went to sit on the court martial, swore that they would hang their prisoners, guilty or innocent.... Prisoners condemned to death after a hasty trial were mocked at and tortured by ignorant privates before their execution, while educated officers looked on and approved.” “Old men who had done us no harm, and helpless women with sucking infants at their breasts felt the weight of our vengeance, no less than the vilest malefactors.” Again see History of the Siege of Delhi quoted by Savarkar in his “War of Indian Independence,” p. 111, by an officer who served there, how, on the way from Umbala to Delhi, thousands were placed before a court martial in rows after rows and condemned to be hanged or shot. In some places cow’s flesh was forced by spears and bayonets into the mouths of the condemned. (All Hindus abhor cow’s flesh and would rather die than eat it.)

See Charles Ball’s Indian Mutiny, vol. I, p. 257. “One trip I enjoyed amazingly; we got on board a steamer with a gun, while the Sikhs and the fusiliers marched up to the city. We steamed up throwing shots right and left till we got up to the bad places, when we went on the shore and peppered away with our guns, my old double-barrel bringing down several niggers. So thirsty for vengeance I was. We fired the places right and left and the flames shot up to the heavens as they spread, fanned by the breeze, showing that the day of vengeance had fallen on the treacherous villains. Every day we had expeditions to burn and destroy disaffected villages and we had taken our revenge. I have been appointed the chief of a commission for the trial of all natives charged with offences against the Government and persons. Day by day, we have strung up eight or ten men. We have the power of life in our hands and, I assure you, we spare not. A very summary trial is all that takes place. The condemned culprit is placed under a tree, with a rope around his neck, on the top of a carriage, and when it is pulled off he swings.”

* * * * *

“In the Punjab, near Ajnala, in a small island, many a Sepoy who had simply fled away from a regiment which was working under the reasonable fear of being disarmed and shot by the Government for suspicion, was hiding himself. Cooper with a loyal body of troops took them prisoner. The entire number, amounting to two hundred and eighty-two, were then conveyed by Cooper to Ajnala. Then came the question what was to be done with them. There was no means of transporting them to a place where they could be tried formally. On the other hand, if they were summarily executed, other regiments and intending rebels might take warning by their fate, and thus, further bloodshed might be prevented. For these reasons, Cooper, fully conscious as he was of the enormous responsibility which he was undertaking, resolved to put them all to death. Next morning, accordingly, he brought them out in tens and made some Sikhs shoot them. In this way, two hundred and sixteen perished. But, there still remained sixty-six others who had been confined in one of the bastions of the Tahsil. Expecting resistance, Cooper ordered the door to be opened. But not a sound issued from the room; forty-five of them were dead bodies lying on the floor. For, unknown to Cooper, the windows had been closely shut and the wretched prisoners had found in the bastion a second Black-Hole. The remaining twenty-one were shot, like their comrades. 1--8--’57. For this splendid assumption of authority, Cooper was assailed by the hysterical cries of ignorant humanitarians. But Robert Montgomery unanswerably vindicated his character by proving that he had saved the Lahore division.”--Holmes’s History of the Indian Mutiny, p. 363.

“It is related that, in the absence of tangible enemies, some of our soldiery, who turned out on this occasion, butchered a number of unoffending camp-followers, servants, and others who were huddling together in vague alarm, near the Christian church-yard. No loyalty, no fidelity, no patient good service on the part of these good people could extinguish, for a moment, the fierce hatred which possessed our white soldiers against all who wore the dusky livery of the East.”--Kaye and Malleson’s Indian Mutiny, vol. II, p. 438.

[49] It should be noted that this visit took place during the present war and the observations recorded above were penned after the “unique” outburst of loyalty on the part of the Indians in connection with the Great War.

[50] A native term equivalent for Europeans.

[51] This is a native expression signifying the highest respect of the speaker towards one whom he considers his superior. Literally it means mother and father.

[52] _I. e._, like the English.

[53] In the interests of Lancashire goods.

[54] Mr. Ilbert was the Law member of the Council of the Governor General and the bill came to be named after him.

[55] Mr. Hume was an ex-secretary-of the Government of India who had retired from service.

[56] Sir William Wedderburn is also a retired member of the Government of Bombay, India.

[57] Sir Auckland Colvin was the Lieutenant Governor of the then North Western Provinces (now the United Province of Agra and Oudh).

[58] The quotations from Hume are taken out of W. Wedderburn’s Allan Octavian Hume, the parts enclosed in parenthesis are Wedderburn’s.

[59] These compliments have been renewed of late. The Congress held at Madras in 1914 was attended by the British Governor of the Presidency.

[60] Mr. Hume’s biography by Sir William Wedderburn, p. 62.

[61] Mr. Hume’s biography by Sir W. W., p. 63.

[62] Biography, p. 63.

[63] Swadeshi means country-made, and Swaraj means self-government or self-rule.

[64] The Congress session held at Surat in December, 1907, ended in a split preceded by a disorderly meeting.

[65] Presided over by the Honourable Mr. G. K. Gokhale, a member of the Viceroy’s Council.

[66] Swadeshi means the cult of home industries, _i.e._, the use of the articles made in the country.

[67] An eminent Bengalee writer.

[68] Moreover the keynote of these organisations was association and co-operation with Government, and not independent self-assertion.

[69] These are signs of mourning in India.

[70] An eminent nobleman and landlord of Bengal.

[71] India made goods.

[72] Wholesale piece goods merchants belonging to Upper India are known in Calcutta by that name.

[73] A ruling chief in the Bombay Presidency.

[74] In my opinion there has never been any time in human history when religion and morals were successfully divorced from politics, either in Ancient India or anywhere else.

[75] Societies, Associations and Gymnasiums.

[76] A leader universally respected and loved by all classes of people throughout India. See frontispiece.

[77] See Mr. H. W. Nevinson’s New Spirit in India, p. 295; also pp. 133, 233, etc.; see also Mr. J. Ramsay Macdonald’s Awakening of India.

[78] For an account of this split see H. W. Nevinson’s New Spirit in India, Chap. XIII.

[79] A reward of one hundred thousand Rupees equal to 33,000 dollars was offered for information leading to the arrest of the culprit or culprits.

[80] Name of a religious sect. See Pratts’ India and Its Faiths, p. 13.

[81] The Spirit of Indian Nationalism, by Mr. B. C. Pal. p. 36.

[82] A great Bengalee writer of fiction who composed the well-known nationalist song, “Bande Mataram” or Hail Motherland.

[83] Or the foreign exploiters.

[84] It was in the first half of the year 1908 that the first bomb was thrown at Muzaffarpur, Behar. It was meant for a Magistrate who had been passing sentences of whipping on nationalist youths, but by mistake it struck a quite innocent person. The investigation of this case resulted in the discovery of a big conspiracy. The trial of this conspiracy is known by the name “Maniktolah Bomb Case” from the fact that the headquarters of this conspiracy were alleged to have been in the Maniktolah gardens, Calcutta. One of the conspirators Narendra Nath Gossain became an approver. After the case had been committed for trial before the Sessions Court and when the approver and the accused were both lodged in jail at Alipore, one of the leaders of the conspiracy shot the approver dead with a rifle which had been smuggled into the jail premises by their friends.

[85] A great Nationalist leader of Bengal, now dead.

[86] One of his followers in San Francisco has told me that this description of him, viz., that he does not advocate the use of the bomb or the revolver is not correct.

[87] This is illustrated in Indian official life day in and day out. It is not a rare occurrence that the British heads of the Departments get credit for what has been achieved by the genius, intelligence and labour of their Indian subordinates.

[88] Indian heroes.

[89] Non-commissioned officers of the native Indian army.

[90] Force, energy and vitality.

[91] Life of meditation and self-denial.

[92] Lord Dufferin was the Governor General of India and Sir A. Colvin was the Lieutenant Governor of what were then the Northwestern Provinces, now the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh.

[93] The organisation of the Pro-British Muslims.

[94] See the Introduction.

[95] Komagata Maru is the name of a Japanese steamer, which a number of Sikh emigrants chartered in Hong Kong in 1914 a. d. in order to take them to Canada. They were not allowed to land and were forced to return to India, under circumstances which have created a bitter anti-British feeling among the Indians all over the world.

[96] During her most dreadful famines hundreds of thousands of tons of foodstuffs were shipped out of India.

[97] See Mill’s History of British India, Vol. VI, pp. 149, 150, Vol. VII, p. 388, and p. 393, Vol. IX, pp. 207, 209. See Bishop Heber’s description of India in 1824 quoted in Mill and Wilson’s History of India, Vol. IX, p. 376. Also that of Mr. Shore in 1833.

[98] We do not mean to say that British Rule in India is responsible for the plague, but with better management of resources, i.e., better sanitation, the plague could have been prevented or eradicated sooner than has been attempted.