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In talking of the unrest in India we are apt to forget the new conditions which have arisen there within the last twenty-five years and which have effected a great change in the sentiments of large bodies of people and considerably altered the complexion of even ordinary affairs. The facility of travel, facility in the interchange of thought through the medium of a common language among those who have passed through the mill of the Government schools, to whatever part of the country they might belong; the disappearance to a great extent of those linguistic and racial divisions which formerly kept the inhabitants of the different provinces so widely apart; the community of traditions revived and rehabilitated, if not exclusively by English hands, under English influences; the intensification, in many cases, of religious and racial antipathies, have all conduced to a solidarity among certain sections of the population and given birth among many to ambitions and aspirations of which it is difficult for most outsiders to form an adequate conception.

As yet these feelings have not affected the masses or their natural leaders, to whom the language of modern democracy imported from the West makes no appeal, and who wish to develop India on con

VOL. LXI-No. 361

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servative and indigenous lines. But no one can believe that either the one or the other can remain long untouched by the wave of nationalism which is passing over those classes who are most pervious to English influences and whose education is mostly English. The recent incidents in the Punjab, the outburst of anti-foreign feeling in other parts, are indications of the effect it can produce when sentiment and self-interest are invoked to inflame the passions and prejudices of the ignorant classes.

Remembering these facts, we cannot be surprised that, apart from any active propaganda, the feeling of discontent engendered in one province by an unpopular measure must re-act on the others. With the influences working unconsciously under the surface, not much engineering is needed to turn a local grievance into a 'national'

trouble.

The far-sighted labour under no misapprehension as to the objects which many of the more enthusiastic have in view; they recognise the limitations under which for some considerable time the political development of India must proceed; and until now they seem to have kept within bounds the fiery spirits who have made independence from British dominancy the goal of their ambition. But apparently they have lost their hold on the movement which had hitherto been leading towards reform on constitutional lines. They have practically been pushed aside, let us hope only for the moment, by a new party which regards moderation as a sign of weakness.

Nationalism of the extreme type, exclusive, resourceful, and aggressive, is content no longer with the programme of its more thoughtful leaders. Judging from all the circumstances, it is evident, as remarked the other day by a competent authority whose sympathy is well known, that 'the extremists have gained the upper hand.' They will accept no boon from aliens and will have nothing to do with foreign domination.

When even a fragmentary part of a great conservative force like Hinduism adopts the disruptive methods of the West to extend its influence and paralyse controlling agencies it becomes an important element for consideration. There is, of course, no unanimity with respect to the means to attain the desired end. A war-cry invented in one province for a special purpose has penetrated to others widely apart; watchwords and tokens have come into existence. But between passive resistance to Government measures, general boycott of the English and English-made goods, and consequent disorganisation of British administration, and heroic methods of a still more undesirable kind, there is a great gulf. Whatever the means suggested, its advocates do not seem to perceive the immediate consequences of an agitation conducted on these lines for objects, which under existing conditions can hardly be regarded as feasible or conducive to the good of the people. And one of the first-fruits

of the present excitement has been to stiffen the backs of the African colonists against making any concessions to Indian settlers.

The influence for good and for evil of the students educated abroad is naturally great among their compatriots; many of them are highly gifted, all of them are keen-witted and well-educated. They would probably be the first to recognise that, however much Swaraj may be desirable in theory, India is not ripe yet to assume charge of her own destinies, and that for some time to come the present rule is a vital necessity for her.

Quite recently a writer in one of the English dailies remarked with characteristic arrogance that 'altruism is not an Oriental virtue.' Assuming that it is a Western virtue, if the British were altruistic enough to withdraw from India to-morrow, 'bag and baggage,' as the extremists suggest in the language of Mr. Gladstone, what is the alternative? Either anarchy or another foreign domination. And no one will hesitate to acknowledge that, whatever its faults, British rule is preferable to that of the Russians, French, Germans, or even the Americans.

Would it not be better to wait for the gradual evolution of a Government conformable to the sentiments of a united people, rather than by violent methods, or by virulent language calculated to inflame the minds of the ignorant masses, try to hurry the pace and retard the progress? The last fifty years since the British Crown assumed the direct sovereignty of India have witnessed changes which nobody living in the 'sixties could have conceived as possible. Another twenty-five years of peaceful development are certain to bring still greater advance. The hour-hand of Time cannot be stopped.

At this moment, however, the nationalistic feeling is so strongly anti-English that every counsel of moderation is certain to be received with a storm of indignation. Thus it is that even men who are convinced of the impolicy of violent methods and extravagance of language as likely to hinder the cause of reform and progress are obliged to run with the current.

The apathy with which the Indian Government has so long viewed the situation is difficult to explain. No one who has watched the course of events in Bengal can fail to observe how an agitation which, taken in hand at the right moment, might have been shorn of its most mischievous features, has been allowed to gain in intensity and acquire a bitterness which it is useless to disguise. Its genesis may be involved in doubt, its tendency cannot be mistaken. Warnings there were in plenty that a movement which began in opposition to an alleged unpopular measure was degenerating into a violent antagonistic propaganda against all aliens in race and creed. But they passed unheeded. An optimistic frame of mind views with impatience tinged with contempt any suggestion or opinion that does

not emanate from approved quarters, or come through accustomed channels.

Until now the source whence the agitation started gave colour to the official belief that it was ephemeral; that treated with mild doses of sympathy the symptoms would soon disappear. There was never any real attempt to diagnose the true cause of the excitement that so suddenly to the official mind-had sprung up in Bengal. It was never understood, I venture to think, that the Partition, however strongly it may have touched the sentiments or interests of certain classes, could without other causes working at bottom have brought about that ebullition of feeling against foreign dominancy which has ever since been the prominent feature of Bengal politics.

The whole movement has been either treated with indifference or regarded as a phase of national development that deserved encouragement. It was forgotten that what was mere effervescence in Bengal, translated to provinces inhabited by more virile races, has a different significance.

In the present condition of the country and the popular frame of mind the desire to placate may easily be construed into timidity, whilst spasmodic exhibitions of vigour are likely to create the belief that they are dictated by fear. What is needed is a consistent policy based on a true understanding of the causes of the unrest.

It would be folly to advocate the repression of the legitimate impulses of a nation towards a wider expansion of its capacities; it would be equally a folly to neglect the appearance of a new force which, although owing its birth to Western influences, is at this moment peculiarly anti-Western. But it would be more than folly to allow constitutional criticism of the measures of Government, constitutional endeavours for its improvement or reform, to degenerate into seditious exhortations and incitements to revolt, which might involve number. less innocent people in ruin and misery, No Government worth the name can allow liberty to degrade into licence to be used as an engine of oppression-for landlords to coerce tenants not to buy foreign goods, for irresponsible youths to prevent by force other people from following their legitimate trades and occupations or the bent of their own tastes. It would be the encouragement of a tyranny of the worst kind-a mob tyranny likely to involve different communities in violent conflicts.

When bands of 'national volunteers' are allowed to roam about the country to terrorise over law-abiding people the only explanation of the extraordinary situation is that the administration must have been seized with a sudden paralysis. And the news telegraphed from Simla that at a conference of Hindus and Mahommedans the Hindu leaders had accorded to the Mussulman subjects of his Majesty their permission to buy and sell English goods raises a smile at the weakness which could let things come to such a pass that one

section of the people should depend for the exercise of their rights and the enjoyment of their liberty on the toleration or sanction of another. The idea at the back of some minds that if the unpopular measure which has ostensibly induced the disorders were undone things would resume their normal course confuses cause and effect, and proceeds, it is submitted, on a misapprehension of the real nature of the complaint.

How the British Government will lay the Frankenstein it has raised remains to be seen. But no friend of India can view the present situation or the immediate future without the gravest anxiety. For centuries Hindus and Mahommedans have lived side by side in peace and amity. The fact that the latter had been displaced by their Hindu compatriots in Government consideration had made little or no difference in their general relations. Occasional disturbances between the rowdy spirits on both sides on certain festivals did not mar the normal harmony. Between the better minds of the two communities there existed, as I hope it still exists and lastingly, sincere friendship based on mutual respect and recognition of worth.

It is unfortunate that after nearly two hundred years of constant intercourse the Indian and European should not have come nearer; it is still more unfortunate that in certain directions the gulf should have widened. To suppose, however, that it has any connection with the Japanese victories is ludicrous. Industrial competition in recent years, with the influx of a large body of Europeans who in the days of the Company would have been treated as 'interlopers' rather deficient in the quality of sympathy with their environment, has no doubt something to do with the present feeling. This, however, does not sufficiently explain the fact. Schopenhauer, in one of his derisive moods, has said: Every miserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud, adopts as a last resource pride in the nation to which he belongs.' I myself believe in racial pride, though it may be carried too far. The average Englishman of a certain class does not usually show in his best colours in Eastern lands, where everything around him is alien to his mind. With much natural kindliness of heart he combines an unveiled assumption of descent from a higher sphere, which, as can be imagined, is galling to races who are proud of their traditions. He makes no differentiation between class and class.

The complaint about political disability is a misunderstood phase of resentment at the stigma of racial inferiority. The general European attitude of superiority did not, however, interfere with individual cordiality. Christian missionaries were specially respected. They were the pioneers of English education among Hindu youths. It was from missionary institutions that came the men who distinguished themselves at the bar of the old Sudder Dewanny Adawlut and in the service of Government, and overflowed into the mercantile

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