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A HISTORY OF THE INDIAN 
 NATIONALIST MOVEMENT 
 
A HISTORY OF THE 
 
 INDIAN NATIONALIST 
 
 MOVEMENT 
 
 BY SIR VERNEY LOVETT, K.G.S.I. 
 
 (LATB OF THE INDIAN OIVIL SERVICE) 
 
 LONDON 
 JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W. 
 
A,.-^<^s^& 
 
 Ae^ 'RiawsgHwawyJsa 
 
PEEFACE 
 
 I LEFT India in April, 1919, and in tlie following October 
 completed tMrty-five years of service passed in direct 
 contact with Indians of all classes. I have enjoyed 
 considerable facilities for observing from close quarters 
 various phases of the Indian Nationalist movement. 
 
 In this book I have tried to trace its history and to 
 summarise political conditions in India as they were 
 when I left the country. My object has been to render 
 some slight assistance toward a clear understanding 
 of the difficult problems which India offers, and will 
 continue to offer, to the British people. 
 
 Throughout I have felt the extreme difficulty of 
 appraising and setting forth fairly the ideals and mental 
 processes of men not, of my own race. I have, there- 
 fore, aimed at explaining these, as far as possible, in 
 the words of Indian Nationalists themselves. My book 
 may be held to contain an excessive number of quota- 
 tions ; but the quantity of these is due to my anxiety 
 to throw as accurate a light as possible on causes, 
 motives, and events. 
 
 Another object has been present to my mind. British 
 rule in India has been, and is constantly slandered 
 and vilified in India, in England, and in other countries. 
 I have taken care to show what has been said of its 
 character and. policy by prominent founders and leaders 
 of Indian Nationalism. 
 
 My story is one of my own time, and ends with the 
 day of my departure from India. My last chapter was 
 written before publication of the amended Government 
 
 »?? 
 
X PREFACE 
 
 of India Bill, which has since become law. I have 
 endeavoured to write what I believe to be the truth 
 in a fair and considerate spirit. 
 
 I wish to acknowledge my obligations to a large 
 variety of authorities, to the published reports of the 
 Indian National Congress, from 1885 to the present 
 time, to the newspapers Indm, The Times of India, the 
 Pioneer, the Leader, and other Indian journals, to the 
 writings of the late Sic Alfred Lyall, to Mr. Vincent 
 Smith's Early History of India, to the Life of Saiyid 
 Ahmad Khan, G.S.I., by Colonel Graham, to the Speeches 
 of Lord Curzon of Kedleston edited by Sir Thomas 
 Ealeigh, to Lord Morley's Recollections and Indian 
 Speeches, to' the Speeches of the late Mr. Gokhale, to 
 Papers on Indian Social Reform, edited, by Mr. C. Y. 
 Chintamani, to Mr. William Archer's India and the 
 Future, to the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms Report, to 
 various reports published by the Government of India, 
 and to other sources of inJEormation too numerous to 
 detail. 
 
 Lastly, I would express the hope that the importance 
 and interest of the subject, especially at the present 
 time, may lead my readers to forgive the shortcomings 
 of the book ; and I would express my gratitude to the 
 people of the United Provinces, and to my brother 
 officers of the Indian Civil Service, with whom I have 
 passed many happy years. 
 
 H. V. L. 
 
 December 31st, 1919, 
 
CONTENTS 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 mTRODUOTORY 
 
 Purpose of this book — Indian politics before British rule — Formation of 
 the present ideals of British rule — Snglish education the origin of Indian 
 politics — British India whea Government iindertook education. Hindu- 
 ism — Reception of Western education by different classes — Causes of 
 the Mutiny — Effect of its failure on the Muhammadans— The 
 Queen's Proclamation and the Councils Act of 1861 — Progress 
 toward new problems — District administration and the agricultural 
 masses — Thought among the English-educated classes — Vernacular 
 newspapers — Proclamation of Queen Victoria as Empress of India — 
 The Ilbert Bill controversy and Lord Bipon — Beginnings of a Hindu 
 nationalist movement ....... pp. 1-30 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 POLITICAL MOVEMENTS — FIRST STAGE 
 
 The year 1885. General conditions — Decision of advanced Indians 
 to hold a Congress — The first Indian National Congress — The second 
 
 Congress — Abstention of Muhammadans from the Congress movement 
 largely due to the influence of Sir Saiyid Ahmad— Further history of the 
 Congress movement — Social Conferences — The attitude of Government 
 toward the Congress — Dissatisfaction of the Congress party with the 
 Councils Act of 1892 — First signs of a Hindu revolutionary movement — 
 Mr. Bal Gangadhar Tilak— The Rand Murders— The Congress and the 
 Plague. The tone of the Press— The death of Queen Victoria. The Delhi 
 Durbar of 1903 — Lord Curzon's educational reforms — The Partition 
 agitation — Lord Curzon'p administration . . . pp. 31-60 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 POLrriCAL MOVEMENTS — SECOND STAGE 
 
 The Congress of 1905 — Progress of the tmti-Partition agitation — Vive- 
 (kananda's teaching — Increasing trouble in Bengal — The Congress of 1906 
 
xu CONTENTS 
 
 — Evolution of the Congress into Moderates and Extremists — The begin- 
 nings of a revolutionary movement — Their significance and extent 
 Origin of the Muslim League — The King's Proclamation of 1908 and 
 the Morley-Minto Reforms — Beception accorded to them — Progress of 
 Extremism. Mr. Gokhale's firm stand — The influence of the Ruling 
 Chiefs— The Press Act — Lord Morley and Lord Minto— The Congress of 
 1910— The visit of Their Majesties — The Durbar changes— A subsequent 
 development — The Public Services Commission — Further history of the 
 Muslim League — Continuance of revolutionary crime — Politics before 
 the outbreak of the war pp. 61-95 
 
 CHAPTEE IV 
 
 POLITICS PROM THE OUTBREAK OF THE WAR TO THE 
 
 END OP 1916 
 
 The first months of the war— The death of Mr. Gokhale— The 1915 
 sessions of the Congress and Muslim League — Mrs. Besant — Review of 
 the war period 1914-15 — Lord Hardinge's departure and farewell advice 
 — Effects in India of the action of the Grand Sharif of Mecca — Revolu- 
 tionary effort in Bengal — The Home Rule agitation — The Reforms Memor- 
 andum of October 1916 — Trend of poUtics toward the close of the year 
 — The December political meetings — The Congress of 1916 — The Muslim 
 League meetings of 1916 — General remarks on these meetings 
 
 pp. 96-124 
 
 CHAPTEE V 
 
 THE DECLARATION OP AUGUST 20tH, 1917 
 
 The condition of India at this time — The appointment of an Industrial 
 Comnxission — The abolition of indentured emigration — Announcements 
 by the Viceroy at the 1917 February Sessions of the Imperial Legislative 
 Council — The Defence Force Bill — India's financial contribution to the 
 war funds of the Home Government. The raising of the cotton import 
 duties — Concluding speech by the Viceroy — The Press Act deputation — 
 Educated Indian response to the Defence Force Bill — Continuance of the 
 Home Rule campaign. Internment of Mrs. Besant — Consequences of 
 this measure — Return of the Indian delegates to the Imperial War Con- 
 ference — Memorable announcements by the Secretary of State for India 
 — Opening of the September Sessions of the Imperial Legislative Council — 
 The Arrah riots pp_ 125-150 
 
 CHAPTEE VI 
 
 THE REFORMS REPORT 
 
 The visit of the Secretary of State — The Delhi War Conference 
 
 Subsequent political events- Mr, Gandhi — Publication of the Reforma 
 
CONTEFTS xiii 
 
 Report— The Reforms Proposals— Manifestos of the Bengal Moderates 
 and European Association — Publication of the Report of the Sedition 
 Committee — General conditions at this time — Further Nationalist 
 activities — Sessions of the Legislative Coimcil — Riots in Calcutta— The 
 Conference of Moderates — The poUtical meetings of December 1918 — 
 Results of these meetings. , . . . . . pp. 151-185 
 
 CHAPTEB VII 
 
 THE SEDITION BILLS AND THE " PASSIVE RESISTANCE " 
 
 RIOTS 
 
 Origin of the Sedition Bills — Findings of the Sedition Committee — 
 Corroborative testimony — Proposals of the committee — Commencement 
 of legislation — Widespread opposition — The BiUs in Councils — A debate 
 in the Bengal Council — Concession^ made by the Grovernment of India 
 — 5fc,,.£[^dhi_mterv^je3 — Final debates — Beginnings of trouble — Delhi 
 — Ahmedabad, Bombay, and Calcutta — The Punjab— Mr. Gandhi's 
 repentance — Mrs. Besant's pronouncement^- Extent and nature of the 
 disturbances — Who helped tis 7 — The attitude of the Moderates generally. 
 
 pp. 186-222 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 A SUMMARY OP EXISTING CONDITIONS 
 
 Importance of a clear understanding of conditions — British attitude to 
 Indian progress briefly considered — Economic grievances of the political 
 classes — The drain — NationaUsm and raciahsm — The mischief of Ex- 
 tremism — Racial suspicion — The landlords — The masses and the depressed 
 classes — The soldiers — Other interests — The reason for the declaration 
 of August 20th, 1917 — The position of the Civil Service and PoUce — 
 What of the future ? pp. 223-257 
 
 APPENDICES 
 
 APP, PAOa 
 
 I. PoLiTiOAii TJunry m Eably India 259 
 
 II. The "AnandaMath" 260 
 
 III. The Khamfat 262 
 
 IV. EXTEAOTS FBOM A REPLY BY HiS EXCELLENCY LOBD CHELMS- 
 
 roBD TO A Deputation wrom the Pbess Defence 
 Association . . . . . . . . 264 
 
 V. Sm Michael O'Dwyeb on the Danoeb of the Home 
 
 Rxnas Peopaoanda ts the Pjjnjab . . . .271 
 
siv CONTENTS 
 
 ATP. PAQH 
 
 VI. Dadabhai Naoboji 275 
 
 VII. The Befobms Sohemh t Speech by Sib Haeooubt Btttlbb, 
 
 LlBUTENANT-GOVEBNOB, UNITED PbOVINOBS, ON JlTLY 
 
 15th, 1918 277 
 
 Vin. Speeches at the Delhi Wab Conebbenoe, APEm 1918, by _ 
 H.H. the Mahabaja or Ulwab and the Late Mb. 
 W. A. Ibonsidb 281 
 
A HISTORY OF THE INDIAN 
 NATIONALIST MOVEMENT 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 INTRODUOTORT 
 
 " An accurate knowledge of the conditions of the past is necessary for a 
 right understanding of the problems of the present." 
 
 Some time ago, in the well-known book J'accuse, I read 
 the following passage : 
 
 " National movements in fact cannot be suppressed. 
 The practical politician must deal with them as facts ; 
 and if he hopes to conduct them in the desired direction, 
 he must endeavour, as far as possible, to satisfy their 
 demands, which rest on community of race, of language, 
 and often of religion — demands which are thus healthy 
 and justifiable. Therein lies the skill of the English, 
 and the true basis of their colonial greatness." 
 
 These words, written by a German, and inspired by 
 observation of stirring incidents in the recent War, are 
 a well-deserved tribute to the success of the colonial 
 policy of Great Britain. Her Indian policy has been 
 declared to be based on the same principles, but must be 
 adapted to far more complex circumstances; for in 
 this great continent, or collection of countries, diverse 
 in soil and physical characteristics, she has to deal 
 with, not community, but numerous varieties of race, 
 language, and religion. Yet she must recognise that 
 
2 INTROBUCTOR"^ 
 
 " although Indians are broken up into diversities of 
 race and language, they are, as a whole, not less dis- 
 tinctly marked off from the rest of Asia by certain 
 material and moral characteristics than their country 
 is by the mountains and the sea. The component parts 
 of that great country hang together morally and poli- 
 tically. There is no more room for two irreconcilable 
 systems of government than there is in Persia, China, or 
 Asiatic Turkey." ' 
 
 The British Government has decided to accede to 
 the demand of Indian Nationalists that India shall 
 tread the paths that lead to parliamentary government. 
 This decision calls for, and will call for the solution of 
 very difficult questions. We shall explore these to 
 small purpose imless we make some study of the past, 
 unless we observe the course of events which introduced 
 democratic politics into the most rigidly conservative 
 country in the world. The formal introduction took 
 place thirty-four years ago ; but the India of 1885 was, 
 like the India of to-day, heir to a former time. 
 
 In view of perversions of Indian history which have 
 lately become too common, it will be convenient to 
 describe briefly the nature of the political inheritance 
 to which Britain succeeded. The Moghal Empire, the 
 product of a great Muhammadan invasion from Central 
 Asia, had previously swept away all indigenous politi- 
 cal institutions and shattered all semblance of Hindu 
 nationality except in the States of Eajputana. When, 
 after two centuries, that Empire itself fell gradually 
 into decay, Sikhs, Jats, Afghans, Marathas disputed 
 and fought over its territories. The Marathas were 
 showing signs of consolidating their acquisitions when 
 British intervention turned the scale ; but history does 
 not show that their Government represented any pan- 
 
 » Sir Alfred LyaU, 
 
INDIA BEFORE BRITISH RULE S 
 
 Hindu nationality. In its later days it was described 
 by Sir Tbomas Munro, a high, contemporary authority, 
 as " one of the most destructive that ever existed in 
 India." He went on : " Their work was chiefly desola- 
 tion. They did not seek their revenue in the improve- 
 ment of the country, but in the exaction of the 
 established chavt^ from their neighbours and in pre- 
 datory incursions to levy more." 
 
 Province after province fell to the East India Com- 
 pany because the Moghal Empire could no longer 
 withstand the attacks of its enemies, and in each the 
 company's servants found no stable or organised poli- 
 ticar institutions. Everywhere the strongest ruled, or 
 tried to rule, by pmely despotic methods. Everywhere 
 the lives and property of the people were at the arbitrary 
 disposal of, their rulers. Everywhere armies, or hosts 
 of marauders, marched frequently over the country, 
 supplied their wants by plunder and left ruin in their 
 train. Sir Alfred Lyall writes, in Asiatic Studies : 
 
 " The character and consequences of the events which, 
 preceded British supremacy in India have, perhaps, 
 been seldom adequately estimated. There intervened 
 a period of political anarchy greater and more wide- 
 spread than India had experienced for centuries. It 
 was a mere tearing and rending of the prostrate carcass, 
 a free fight with little definite aim or purpose beyond 
 plunder or annexation of land revenue." 
 
 Let those who are prone to undervalue the advan- 
 tages of British government remember the miseries 
 which it brought to an end. 
 
 Endeavouring, to achieve peace and security, first for 
 their commerce and then for tbeir territories, constantly 
 seeking for a permanent frontier, the East India Com- 
 pany as constantly lost it in receding vistas, until at 
 
 1 Impost. 
 2 
 
4 INTRODUCTOEY 
 
 last they found themselves supreme over the whole of 
 India south-east of the Punjab. Such rapid extension 
 would have been impracticable had not their rule been 
 generally welcome for reasons explained by Abbe 
 Dubois, a French missionary who worked in Southern 
 India early in the last century : 
 
 "Nevertheless," he wrote, "the justice and pru- 
 dence which the present rulers display in endeavouring 
 to make these people less unhappy than they have been 
 hitherto ; the anxiety they manifest in increasing their 
 material comfort ; above all, the inviolable respect 
 which they constantly show for the customs and re- 
 ligious belief of the country ; and, lastly, the protection 
 they afford to the weak as well as to the strong, to the 
 Brahman, to the Pariah, to the Christian, to the 
 Muhammadan ; all these have contributed more to the 
 consolidation of their power than even their victories 
 and conquests." 
 
 But now other considerations began to claim the at- 
 tention of thinking men. Perhaps the most note- 
 worthy utterances on the subject were those of Sir 
 Thomas Munro, who, arriving in India in 1780 as a 
 military cadet at the age of nineteen, died as Governor 
 of Madras in 1827. Not only did he consider 
 
 " how we can raise the character and material condi- 
 tion of our people, how by better organisation we can 
 root out needless misery of mind and body, bow we 
 can improve the health and intelligence, stimulate the 
 sense of duty and fellowship, the e£B.ciency and patri- 
 otism of the whole community ; " but, going further, 
 he struck an altogether new note. " The strength of 
 the British Government enables it to put down every 
 rebellion, to repel every foreign invasion, and to give 
 to its subjects a degree of protection which those of 
 no Native Power enjoy. Its laws and institutions also 
 
FORMATION OF PRESENT IDEALS 5 
 
 afiord them a security from domestic oppression un- 
 known in Native States; but these advantages are 
 dearly bought. They are purchased by the sacrifice of 
 independence, of national character, and of whatever 
 renders a people respectable. The natives of British 
 provinces may, without- fear, pursue their different 
 occupations as traders or husbandmen and enjoy the 
 fruits of their labour's in tranquillity ; but none of them 
 can look forward to any share in the civil or military 
 government of their country. It is from men who 
 either hold or are eligible for public life that nations 
 take theii character ; where no such men exist, there 
 can be no energy in any other class of the community. 
 No elevation of character can be expected among men 
 who in the military line cannot attain to any rank 
 above that of a subadar, where they are as much below 
 an ensign as an ensign is below the commander-in- 
 chief, and who in the civil line can hope for nothing 
 beyond some petty judicial or revenue office in which 
 they may by corrupt means make up for their slender 
 salary." 
 
 On another occasion he wrote : 
 
 " Our great error in this country, during a long 
 course of years, has been too much precipitation in 
 attempting to better the condition of the people with 
 hardly any knowledge of the means by which it was to 
 be accomplished, and indeed without seeming to think 
 that any other than good intentions were necessary. 
 It is a dangerous system of government to be constantly 
 urged by the desire of settling everything permanently ; 
 to do everything in a hurry and in consequence wrong, 
 and in our zeal for permanency to put the remedy out 
 of our reach. The ruling vice of our Goverimient is 
 innovation; and its innovation has been so little 
 guided by a knowledge of the people, that though 
 made after what was thought by us to be mature dis- 
 cussion, it must appear to them as little better than 
 the result of mere caprice." 
 
6 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 Munro overlooked an important condition of the 
 future, as I shall subsequently show; but he was 
 regarded as an official of exceptional ability, and his 
 ideas were to some extent shared by other prominent 
 men of his day. Thus it was that broad and liberal 
 principles guided the statesmen who were responsible 
 for that important Acb of Parliament — ^the Government 
 of India Bill of 1833— which asserted the sovereignty 
 of the Crown over the Company's territories, and de- 
 clared that these were held in trust for His Majesty. 
 It formulated definitely the principles of British rule. 
 It declared that no person by reason of his birth, creed, 
 or colour should be disqualified from holding any office 
 in the East India Company's service. It also forbade 
 the Company to engage in any kind of trade, thus 
 terminating the association of Government with profit- 
 making, and it converted the Governor-General of Fort 
 William in Bengal into the " Governor-General of India 
 in Council." There were to be four ordinary members 
 of Council, three servants of the^ Company, and the 
 fourth a legal member appointed with the approbation 
 of the Crown, but only entitled to sit and vote at meet- 
 ings convened for legislative purposes. The first legal 
 member was the great Macaulay. Great Britain thus 
 declared her determination that her Empire in India 
 should rest on freedom and fair opportunity, and tock 
 a further important step in the process of transforming 
 the East India Company from what was originally a 
 purely mercantile association into a special agency 
 for the government of a great dependency. The 
 Directors of the Company endeavoured to give effect 
 to this generous policy by a despatch dated December 
 10th, 1834. Natives of India were to be admitted 
 to places of trust as freely and extensively as a regard 
 for the due discharge of the functions attached to such 
 
ENGLISH EDUCATION 7 
 
 places would permit. Fitness was henceforward to be 
 the criterion of eligibility. And in order that the 
 natives of India might become fit, and able to compete 
 with a fair chance of success, every design tending to 
 their improvement was to be promoted, " whether by 
 conferring on them the advantages of education or by 
 difEusing on them the treasures of science, knowledge, 
 and moral culture." At the same time the Governor- 
 General was to remember that 
 
 " it is not by holding out incentives to official ambition, 
 but by repressing crime, by seciiring and guarding 
 property, by ensuring to industry the fruits of its 
 labour, by protecting men in the undisturbed enjoyment 
 of their rights and in the unfettered exercise of their 
 faculties, that governments best minister to the public 
 wealth and happiness."'* 
 
 Democratic political ideals in India owe their origin 
 largely to the decision of Lord William Bentinck, then 
 Governor-General, who in pursuance of the " liberal 
 and comprehensive policy " laid down by the despatch 
 from which I have quoted, announced, on March 7th, 
 1835, that " the great object of the British Government 
 ought to be the promotion of European literature and 
 science among the natives of India." Up to that time 
 the pioneers of Western jeducation had been mainly 
 Christian mis^onaries, but now the advancement of 
 such teaching was declared to be a part of State policy. 
 As has often been told, this announcement was largely 
 influenced by Macaulay, and closed a controversy in 
 which the question at issue was whether the instruction 
 to be subsidised by public money should be English or 
 Oriental ; whether the language, the philosophies, and 
 science of the West or the East should be encouraged 
 by the State. The settlement arrived at was in prin- 
 
8 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 ciple right, for it was clearly the duty of the British 
 Government to attempt the intellectual enlightenment 
 of India on Western lines ; but in carrying out this 
 settlement the Government made one mistake percep- 
 tible to after-experience— it promoted literature far 
 above science; it also necessarily offended conserva- 
 tive conamunities with sensitive prejudices, the Brah- 
 mans, who were depositaries of orthodox Hindu 
 tradition, and the higher classes of Muhammadans, 
 who were attached to theic own books and philosophy. 
 Nevertheless, for the first time in India, State-aided 
 instruction was established on a firm foundation. In 
 the words of the last Census of India Report " the 
 country had been for centuries in an unsettled condi- 
 tion, and the common people were sunk in deepest 
 ignorance. Under the caste system, the learned pro- 
 fessions were the monopoly of a few castes, and in the 
 law books the imparting of knowledge to Sudras (low 
 castes) was forbidden." But now a new system was 
 introduced. English and vernacular education were 
 opened to all, although years elapsed before the former 
 penetrated beyond an extremely limited number of 
 persons belonging to the already lettered classes. In 
 1854 the directors of the East India Company in a 
 memorable despatch accepted the systematic promo- 
 tion of general education as one of the duties of the 
 State, and emphatically declared their desire for the 
 diffusion of European knowledge in India. Shortly 
 afterwards a University was established at Calcutta 
 which devoted its entire energies to literary and theo- 
 retical instruction. 
 
 It must be remembered that in 1835 neither the 
 Punjab nor Oudh belonged to Great Britain, also that 
 throughout the whole of British India communications 
 were still primitive and adverse to a rapid spread of 
 
HINDUISM 9 
 
 the new learning. Hindus formed and form the great 
 majority of the population. Their higher castes repre- 
 sent, generally, the early Aryan invaders. Their lower 
 castes are the descendants of the original inhabitants 
 of the country, who lost their independence by the 
 imposition of the caste system. Sir R. G. Bhandarkar, 
 late Vice-Chancellor of the Bombay University, tells 
 us that each Aryan tribe that invaded India in the 
 remote past had a king of its own, and a family »r 
 families of priests. 
 
 " There were among them," he says, " three social 
 grades. To the first belonged priests, who composed 
 Brahmans, i.e., songs or hymns to the gods, knew how to 
 worship them, and were called Brahmans. The second 
 grade was occupied by those who acquired political 
 eminence and fought battles, and were called Rajans. All 
 the other Aryas were referred to the third grade, and were 
 distinguished by the name of Visas, or people, generally. 
 These three classes formed one community, and such 
 of the aborigines as had yielded to the Aryas were 
 tacked on to it as a fourth grade under the name of 
 Dasas, slaves, or servants." 
 
 As the Aryans spread eastward over the vast con- 
 tinent of India, subjugating or pushing back the earlier 
 inhabitants, they developed the religious and social 
 system known as Hinduism, which is founded on the 
 original Aryan beliefs, but has adopted certain additional 
 doctrines which are generally accepted among Hindus and 
 are likely to influence the future materially, if less pro- 
 foundly than they have influenced the past. That 
 here and there they have been modified or largely 
 rejected by particular sects or classes does not alter 
 the fact that they are the basis of the working creed 
 of the great majority of Hindus, and form the mental 
 window;s through which these many millions look out 
 
10 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 upon the tMngs of life. The first of these doctrines is 
 that the cleavages between the four main castes were 
 divinely ordained, that these castes alone are within 
 the pale of Hinduism ; and that outside that pale are 
 barbarians or outcastes, descendants of the aborigines 
 who never intermingled with theJ.owest caste of Hindus. 
 The second doctrine is that every soul passes through 
 a variety of bodies. At each birth the caste or oufc- 
 castrng of the body is determined by the deeds of the 
 soul in its previous body. This doctrine is named 
 " karma," or action. In effect it implies, and is 
 understood to imply, that persons who are so fortunate 
 as to be born Brahmans have won their position by 
 merit and spirituality ; that members of the lowest 
 caste and outcastes are paying a just penalty for 
 transgressions in a previous existence, and must be 
 content to accept this unpleasant fact. To this belief 
 was added another, that the high castes, and notably 
 the Brahmans, must be most careful to preserve their 
 spirituality .^nd position ; that for this reason they 
 must, as far as possible, avoid contact with lower castes. 
 As the centuries rolled on, the original four castes 
 expanded into many sub-castes ; but although the law 
 and the scriptures were by no means always observed, 
 and modifications of caste practices resulted from 
 migrations and changes of occupation, the basic prin- 
 ciples of " karma " and caste-organisation hardened. 
 Even the outcastes largely accepted, them, together 
 with vague varieties of Hindu theology, and are at the 
 present day classed as Hindus in census returns. And 
 thus it is that, in spite of the political disintegration 
 which prevailed in India at the time of the Muhamma- 
 dan inroads from central Asia, there was a Hindu 
 social and religious system combining external 
 unity with internal cleavages. This system remained 
 
HINDUISM 11 
 
 intact during the period of Muhammadan domination, 
 although the temptations of a militant religion, which 
 taught that all true believers were equal before God, 
 proved irresistible with many Hindus of the lower 
 castes. It was, indeed, not until the establishment of 
 British rule and the introduction of English education, 
 often imparted by Christian European missionaries, 
 that the rooted ideas engendered by the ^ caste system 
 and the pessimism implanted among the lowest castes 
 by the doctrine of " karma " weakened in the slightest 
 degree; and even now these ideas, although partially 
 dissolving among the English-educated, are very strong 
 among the generality of Hindus, and necessarily imply 
 rigid social distinctions, assuring Brahman supremacy 
 and supporting it by the teaching that the presence of 
 Brahmans is indispensable for the religious family cere- 
 monies to which orthodox Hindus attach supreme 
 value. Caste -distinctions are now enforced by strict 
 rules and penalties, even though such rules and penal- 
 ties are here and there lapsing into disuse. Brahman 
 ascendancy has been largely temporal as well as spirit- 
 ual. Brahmans were the councillors of early Hindu 
 monarchs, and have often been the ministers of Muham- 
 madan rulers. Neither foreign conquest nor domestic 
 dissensions have materially impaired a religious and 
 social position which is buttressed by the sanction of 
 ages. Such a supremacy has necessarily developed an 
 intense pride of place, and has produced restrictions 
 and exclusions of the most arbitrary kind. 
 
 British rule had followed closely on the fall of Muham- 
 madan sovereignty, and had inherited the autocratic 
 system of administration which the Muslim conquerors 
 from Central Asia had themselves received from earlier 
 rulers of India. No other system had ever been known 
 in the comitry from time immemoiiaL Ii? the gradual 
 
12 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 dissolution of their own empire, many Muhammadans 
 freely assisted in establishing British authority. Not 
 only did they enlist in the army of the East India 
 Company, but, in the years which immediately preceded 
 the Mutiny, they considerably outnumbered Hindus in 
 the best oflSces which could be held by Indians under 
 the British Government. The majority of their upper 
 classes, however — adventurers by descent and soldiers 
 by tradition — clung to their own history and litera- 
 ture, and turned their faces away from the new learn- 
 ing, failing to realise , that, in course of time, under 
 Western rule, Western education must necessarily 
 become the channel to office and power. The Parsis, 
 on the other hand, descendants from Persian exiles 
 who settled in India some centuries ago and form a 
 strong commercial section in Bombay, and the Hindu 
 clerical and trading castes, as well as those families of 
 Brahmans who, by tradition, inclined to Government 
 employ, quickly availed themselves of opening oppor- 
 tunities, espedally in the capital province of Bengal and 
 in the seaports of Bombay and Madras. The Rajputs 
 or Thakurs, the great Hindu fighting caste, at first held 
 entirely aloof from English education. Their ambi- 
 tions were military or territorial. They lived in the 
 interior of Upper India, and were slightly represented 
 elsewhere. 
 
 The India of the East India Company's days 
 ended with^the Mutiny. Lord Roberts has pointed 
 out that this was a military revolt, but that the 
 revolt would not have taken place had there not been 
 considerable discontent through that part of the country 
 from which the Hindustani sepoy chiefly ca,me, and 
 had not powerful persons borne the British a grudge. 
 He states that the discontent was largely due to the 
 antagonism of the Brahmans to our innovations and 
 
CAUSES OF THE MUTINY 13 
 
 to Western edudation, wMcli was sapping their influ- 
 ence. He points out that we had spread among the 
 ruling chiefs uncertainty and discontent ; that we had 
 recently annexed Oudh and Jhansi, and had informed 
 the titular King of Delhi that on his death his title 
 would cease and his court would be removed from the 
 Imperial city. 
 
 It is also important to notice tha:^ for various reasons, 
 the more sensitive Hindu and Muhammadan classes 
 had conceived the idea that their religions were losing 
 their exclusive privileges and were being steadily 
 undermined. The proclamations issued from Delhi 
 and Lucknow appealed to the multitude with the cry 
 of religion in peril. 
 
 The arena of the Mutiny was the United Provinces 
 of Agra and Oudh, which then included Delhi, and a 
 large part of Central India. There was little fighting 
 anywhere else, and no popular trouble in Bengal proper, 
 although there was some fighting in Bihar. Unlike 
 the Punjab, neither Agra nor Oudh had been disarmed. 
 In the Agra Province there were very few British troops, 
 and those few either were drawn ofi to the siege of 
 Delhi or were themselves for the first four or five 
 months hopelessly beleaguered. At Agra itself the 
 Lieutenant-Governor was, until after the faU of Delhi, 
 supported against 42,000 rebel soldiers by one com- 
 pany's regiment of 655 effectives and one battery of six 
 guns maimed by Indian drivers. It was indeed for- 
 tunate for our cause that in this province, which con- 
 tains so much that is most national and most sacred 
 in Hindu eyes, and has moreover been the centre of 
 Muslim empire, the rebellion, although animated largely 
 by racial and religious sentiment, was not a great 
 patriotic or religious combination. Here is a con- 
 temporary description of ordinary district occurrences 
 
14 INTEODUCTORY 
 
 away from the great centres of population : " The 
 villages and towns generally side with some neighboiir- 
 ing potentate, or more generally they side with no one 
 at all. They are delighted at being relieved from aU 
 government whatsoever, and instantly set to work 
 fighting among themselves. Every man of enterprise 
 and a little influence collects his clan, and plunders all 
 the weaker villages round him," 
 
 In Oudh, recently annexed, and the chief recruiting- 
 ground of the old sepoy army, the landed aristocracy, 
 who are now our good friends the talukdars, were boil- 
 ing with rage and discontent. In our recent settlement 
 of the land revenue we had inclined to the principle of 
 pushing them aside as grasping middlemen devoid of 
 right or title, and, when the sepoys mutinied, most of 
 the talukdars naturally joined them. In the whole 
 province we had not 1,000 British soldiers, but those 
 whom we had, assisted by some loyal Indian troops, 
 gave a remarkably good account of themselves. The 
 rebellion in Oudh was more national than in Agra, 
 but here, too, the fighters were generally more con- 
 cerned to make as much as they could out of unusual 
 opportunities for licence and plunder than to oppose 
 a persistent and determined front to the enemy. 
 
 Later on I shall have occasion to quote the remarks 
 of a loyal and competent Indian observer on the events 
 of the Mutiny. But what struck the late Sir Alfred 
 LyaU, at that time a young civilian in the Agra Pro- 
 vince, was the fierce hatred borne to us by the Muham- 
 madans, and he put the whole rebellion down to them. 
 This was an off-hand expression of opinion. But more 
 weight attaches to his later Adews, expressed many 
 year^ after his early adventures, that after the Mutiny 
 the British turned on the Muhammadans as their real 
 enemies " so that the failure of the revolt was much 
 
THE QUEEN'S PROCLAMATION 15 
 
 more disastrous to them than to the Hindus, They 
 lost almost all their remaining prestige of traditionary- 
 superiority over the Hindus; they forfeited for the 
 time the confidence of their foreign rulers ; and it is 
 from this period that must be dated the loss of their 
 numerical majority in the higher subordinate ranks of 
 the ciAdl and military services." 
 
 When the revolt had been suppressed, the Crown 
 took over the government of India from the East India 
 Company. Queen Victoria's Proclamation of Novem- 
 ber 1st, 1858, which is frequently referred to by 
 educated Indians as the Magna Charta of their liberties, 
 declared that the rights, dignity, and honour of Indian 
 ruling princes were to be preserved as Her Majesty's 
 own, and that, so far as might be, all Her Majesty's 
 subjects, of whatever race and creed, were to be freely 
 and impartially admitted to offices in the public ser- 
 vice, the duties of which they might be qualified by 
 their education, ability, and integrity duly to discharge. 
 The peaceful industry of India was to be stimulated ; 
 works of public utility and improvement were to be 
 promoted ; and the Government was to be admin- 
 istered for the benefit of all Her Majesty's subjects 
 resident in India. "In their prosperity wiU be our 
 !l fe strength, in their contentment omi security, and in 
 their gratitude om: great reward." Three years later, 
 an important step was taken in the first association of 
 Indians with the Government for legislative purposes. 
 By the Councils Act of 1861 the Governor-General's 
 Executive Council was to consist of five members, three 
 of whom had been in the Indian service of the Crown 
 for ten years at least. The Commander-in-Chief was 
 to be an extraordinary member ; and for the pvurpose 
 of inaking laws and regulations the Governor-General 
 could nominate to his Council not less than six or more 
 
16 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 than twelve persons, not less than half of whom must 
 be non-officials. 
 
 The Governors of Bombay and Madras, who were 
 ajso assisted by Executive Councils, could similarly ,, 
 nominate a few persons to aid in legislation, not less 
 than half of whom must be non-officials. 
 
 The Governor-General in Council could, with the 
 approval of the Home Government, extend to the 
 Lieutenant-Governors of Bengal, the !North-Western 
 Provinces,^ and the Punjab, who ruled without Execu- 
 tive Councils, the power to convoke small Legislative 
 Councils and to appoint persons thereto, not less than 
 one-third of whom would be non-officials. 
 
 Prominent Indians were to be associated hence- 
 forward with the Government in legislation. The 
 association was to be extremely limited, but marked the 
 beginning of a more liberal policy. 
 
 At this time about two-thirds of the country was 
 under direct British administration. The rest was, 
 and is now, ruled by its hereditary chiefs, all owing 
 allegiance to the British Crown. The area imder British 
 administration now consists of seven provinces, each 
 under a Governor or Lieutenant-Governor, and seven 
 under Chief Commissioners. Four of the major pro- 
 vinces exceed the United Kingdom in area, and two 
 exceed it in population. 
 
 All classes of the population were now led into the 
 ways of, peace, and the whole edifice settled down. 
 Starting badly as usual in the recent conflict, the British 
 had vindicated their supremacy, and now rapidly re-^ 
 established peace and order throughout the coimtry. 
 Means of correspondence and communication rapidly 
 improved; British capital poured in; railways and 
 commerce developed; schools and colleges grew and 
 
 ' Now the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh. ' 
 
PROGRESS TOWARD NEW PROBLEMS 17 
 
 multiplied, until at last tlie Muhammadans yielded to 
 the general impulse and began to enter the English 
 educational arena. The India of to-day gradually came 
 into being. It was, in an important respect, a different 
 country feom that foreseen by Sir Thomas Munro. It 
 involved more complex interests. He had not antici- 
 pated the part which European capital would play in 
 the development of an India no longer " standing before 
 her captors like some beautiful stranger," but traversed 
 by railways, served by steanaships, and brought into 
 the bustling consolidation of the modern world. So 
 blind was his augury of this side of the future that he 
 defended the monopoly of the East India Company on 
 the ground that it was doubtful whether or not trade 
 with India could be greatly increased. 
 
 " No nation," he wrote, " will take from another 
 what it can furnish cheaper and better itself. In India 
 almost every article which the inhabitants require is 
 made cheaper and better than in Europe. . . . Their 
 simple mode of living renders all our furniture and 
 ornaments for the decoration of the house and table 
 utterly unserviceable to the Hindus." He saw no 
 prospect of any considerable number of Europeans 
 being able to make a livelihood in the country. " The 
 trading disposition of the natives induces me to think 
 it impossible that any European trader can long re- 
 main in the interior of India, and that they must all 
 sooner or later be driven to the coast."" 
 
 Those were easy days for the rulers of India, for 
 their superior efl&ciency was taken for granted, and 
 opposition was scarce and insignificant. The ruling 
 chiefs were less apprehensive and more contented than 
 they had ever been before, and their content was re- 
 flected in our own territories. These were administered 
 
18 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 by British officers/ assisted by a host of improving 
 Indian subordinates. The officers themselves for the 
 most part did their work, as it came, with zeal and 
 energy, liking the people and holding generally that, 
 in the words of a distinguished lieutenant-governOT, 
 " Good administration was like good digestion. It did 
 its work and you heard no more about it." And indeed 
 to the simple and docile masses of In<iia, who desire 
 only strong and sympathetic protection, good adminis- 
 tration must always be the best of blessings. 
 
 Mainly peasants living in mud-built huts and culti- 
 vating small holdings, at times absorbed in pilgrimages 
 or religious observances, they are generally preoccupied 
 
 1 " The easiest way of understanding the organisation of a province 
 is to think of it as composed of districts, which in all provinces, except 
 Madras, are combined, in groups of usually from four to six, into divi- 
 sions, under a commissioner. The average size of a district is 4,430 
 square miles, or three-fourths the size of Yorkshire. Many are much 
 bigger. Mymensingh district holds more human souls than Switzerland, 
 Vizagapatam district, both ia area and population, exceeds Denmark. 
 In the United Provinces, where districts are small and the population 
 dense, each collector is, on the average, in charge of an area as large as 
 Norfolk and of a population as large as that of New Zealand. The com- 
 missioner of the Tirhut division looks after far more people than the 
 Government of Canada. 
 
 " The district, wMch is a collector's charge, is the unit of administra- 
 tion, but it is cut up into sub-divisions under assistants or deputy collec- 
 tors, and these again into revenue collecting areas of smaller size. The 
 provincial Government's general authority thus descends through the 
 divisional oommissionra^in a direct chain to the district officer. The dis- 
 trict officer has a dial capacity ; as collector he is head of the revenue 
 organisation, and as magistrate he exercises general supervision over 
 the inferior courts and, in particular, directs the police work. In areas 
 where there is no permanent revenue settlement, he can at any time be 
 in touch, through his revenue subordinates, with every inch of his terri- 
 tory. This organisation in the first place serve" its peculiar purpose of 
 collecting the revenue and of keeping the peace. But, because it is so 
 close-knit, so weU-estabUshed, and so thoroughly understood by the 
 people, it simultaneously discharges easily and efficiently an immense 
 number of other duties." — Montagu-Chelmsford Report, paragraphe 122-3. 
 
l)iSTRICT ADMINISTRATION 19 
 
 with the prospects of the weather, the humours of their 
 moneylenders and landlords, frequent litigation with 
 these powerful persons or with other neighbours, and 
 perhaps the exactions of some petty subordinate official. 
 As was truly said in the Montagu-Chelmsford Report : 
 "the physical facts of India, the blazing sun, the 
 enervating rains, have coloured their mental outlook " ; 
 and it is difficult to suppose that the day will ever come 
 when these facts mil cease largely to dominate their 
 lives. Ignorant and credulous, industrious and .frugal, 
 but, in spite of frequent inroads of epidemics, breeding 
 to the very margin of subsistence, they form with 
 their landlords 90 per cent, of the population, and 
 have always contributed by far the larger share of 
 Indian revenues. The greatest natural asset of India 
 is and must be its soil. It is, too, from those agricul- 
 tural castes which are martial by tradition that the 
 Army has always drawn its recruits. The importance 
 in the body politic of the people who live on and 
 by the land has been often overshadowed in these 
 latter days, but things were not so formerly. It was 
 to them and their affairs, to the ascertainment and 
 codifying of their rights and tenures, to the adjustment 
 and readjustment of their relations with their land- 
 lords and with Government, it was to the protection 
 of their interests, to the settlement of their feuds, that 
 some of our most famous administrators, men who are 
 remembered in their provinces as the salt and, justifica- 
 tion of British rule, devoted years of unremitting 
 energy. British administration could never have pros- 
 pered as it did, had they not done so. It is with the 
 rural masses that district officers are stiU mostly con- 
 cerned. In this untroubled period the rights of the 
 people of India and the rights of their rulers agreed 
 together in a silence that was seldom broken, and the 
 3 
 
20 INTRObUCTORf 
 
 foundations of comprehensive revenue and tenancy 
 legislation, wHcli had been well and truly laid by the 
 East India Company, were examined, improved, and 
 consolidated. Things worked on laborious but broad 
 and simple lines in the interior of the country. 
 
 But at the great seaports, with which the majority of 
 English officials were seldom in personal contact, among 
 those middle or professional classes which had originally 
 embraced English education, thought was beginning to 
 enter fresh channels and new problems were coming 
 into dim outline. With some members of these the 
 Hindu ideas of the unimportance of life, as a mere link 
 in a chain of existences, of the desirability of rigid 
 adherence to caste and family customs, as well as 
 the ancient belief that the course of the four ages of 
 the world was a continuous process of deterioration, 
 were rapidly weakening. They were yielding to the 
 allurements of a world of greater material comfort and 
 of growing interest. Western education, English his- 
 tory, English literature, the works of Milton, Burke, 
 Macaulay, were inspiring ideas of liberty, nationaUty, 
 self-government. From England were returning Indian 
 visitors with accounts of unusual consideration 
 conceded there. These and a commencing contact 
 with the British democracy were producing the idea 
 that Anglo-Indian social and political exclusiveness 
 was humiliating and unjustifiable. Things should be 
 changed ; power and high place should cease to be 
 a preserve from which educated Indians were mainly 
 shut out. In 1859 the late Sir Alfred Lyall, then a 
 young civil officer, had written from the seclusion of 
 an up-country district : 
 
 " I am always thinking of the probable future of our 
 Empire, and trying to conceive it possible to civilise 
 and convert an enormous nation by establishing schools 
 
THOUGHT OI' ENGLISH-EDUCATED CLASSES 21 
 
 and missionary societies. Also having civilised them 
 and taught them the advantage of liberty and the use 
 of European sciences, how are we to keep them under 
 us and persuade them that it is for their good that we 
 hold all the high offices of Grovernment ? " 
 
 The time was nearing when questions of this kind 
 would call for answer. It is true that Act XXXIII of 
 1870, while laying down the principle that "it is one 
 of our first duties toward the people of India to guard 
 the safety of our dominion," had provided for more 
 extended employment of Indians in the imcovenanted 
 civil service, and for promotion therefrom to the 
 covenanted service " according to tried ability." But 
 such promotions were rare and merely whetted rising 
 ambitions. Education was expanding not only 
 Indian capacities, but Indian desires. What if, after 
 all, life could offer a more exciting prospect ? After 
 some preliminary indications of discontent, the position 
 became more fully disclosed. It contained a sinister 
 element. 
 
 The Mutiny had shown the ease with which the 
 British could establish their supremacy, but had be- 
 queathed a legacy of bitter memories to persons on 
 both sides. Fear had, for some years, stifled expression 
 of these ; but, as time went on, a section of the Indian 
 Press beigan to display malignant hostility to the exist- 
 ing state of things. 
 
 The tendency of some vernacular newspapers, especi- 
 ally in Calcutta, to excite popular feeling against the 
 British Government had for some time attracted atten- 
 tion. In 1873, Sir George Campbell, then Lieutenant- 
 Governor of Bengal, and subsequently for many years a 
 Liberal member of the House of Commons, had ex- 
 pressed the opinion that special legislation was required ; 
 and in 1878 an Act was passed by Lord Lytton's Legis- 
 
22 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 lative Council for the better control of the vernacular 
 press. 
 
 The following extracts from the speech of the Legal 
 Member of the Government, who introduced the bill, 
 explains clearly the mischief which was brewing : 
 
 " But there is a large and increasing class of native 
 newspapers which would seem to exist only for the 
 sake of spreading seditious principles, of bringing the 
 Government and its European officers into contempt, 
 and of exciting antagonism between the governing race 
 and the people of the country. This desraription of 
 writing is not of very recent growth, but there has been 
 a marked increase in it of late, and especially during 
 the last three or four years. During the past twelve 
 months it has been worse than ever, the writers gaining 
 in boldness as they find that their writings are allowed 
 to pass unpunished. Their principal topics are the 
 injustice and tyranny of the British Government, its 
 utter want of consideration towards its native subjects, 
 and the insolence and pride of Englishmen in India, 
 both official and non-official. There is no crime how- 
 ever heinous, and no meanness however vile, which 
 according to these writers is not habitually practised 
 by their English rulers." 
 
 The Honourable Member then proceeded to illustrate 
 his argument with examples, and continued : 
 
 " The extracts which I have read, are specimens, 
 extracted haphazard from a great number, of the 
 manner in wMch the British Government and the Eng- 
 lish race are habitually aspersed and held up to the 
 contempt and hatred of the people of India. Of late, 
 however, a further step has been taken, and a begin- 
 ning has been made in the direction of inciting the 
 people to upset the British Raj by denunciations, 
 sometimes open and sometimes covert, of the alleged 
 weakness and timidity of the English and their in- 
 ability to maintain their present position in India." 
 
QUEEN VICTORIA AS EMPRESS OF INDIA 23 
 
 The bill became Act IX of 1878. But it was de- 
 notmced in England by Mr. Gladstone, who was then 
 in opposition, and after his return to office it was 
 repealed in 1882 by Lord Ripon's Grovernment, who 
 considered that circumstances no longer justified its 
 existence. The evil which had brought it into being 
 forthwith revived. Close on the repeal of the Vernacular 
 Press Act followed the Ilbert Bill controversy. But 
 before describing this melancholy episode, we must 
 turn back a few years to incidents of wide and healthful 
 importance in India's political history. 
 
 She had recently been brought into touch with the 
 Royal Family of England through the visit of the late 
 King Edward, then Prince of Wales, and on January 
 1st, 1877, a strong and abiding tie was forged when 
 Her Majesty Queen Victoria, in recognition of the 
 transfer of Government made in 1858, was at Delhi 
 proclaimed Empress of India. As in 1858, so in 1877 
 there was a real and Uving personal note in Her Majesty's 
 message which evoked warm response. 
 
 " We Victoria by the Grace of God, of the United 
 Kingdom, Queen, Empress of India, send through our 
 Viceroy to aU our Officers, Civil and Military, and to aU 
 Princes, Chiefs and Peoples now at Delhi assembled, 
 our Royal and Imperial greeting, and assure them of 
 the deep interest and earnest a£Eection with which we 
 regard the pe6ple of our Indian Empire. We witnessed 
 with heartfelt satisfaction the reception which they 
 have accorded to our beloved son, and have been 
 touched by the evidence of their loyalty and attach- 
 ment to our House and throne. We trust that the 
 present occasion may tend to unite in bonds of yet 
 closer affection ourselves and our subjects; that from 
 the highest to the humblest all may feel that under our 
 rule the great principles of liberty, equity, and justice 
 are seciured to them ; and that to promote their happi- 
 
24 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 ness, to add to their prosperity, and advance their 
 welfare, are the ever present aims and objects of our 
 Empire." 
 
 The response of the Ruling Chiefs expressed a senti- 
 ment which has never since varied.^ It was voiced by 
 His Highness the Maharaja Scindia after the delivery 
 of the Viceroy's address : 
 
 " Shah-in-shah Padishah, may God bless you ! The 
 princes of India bless you, and pray that your sover- 
 eignty and power may remain stedfast for ever." 
 
 The Maharaja of Kashmir said that in the shadow 
 of Her Majesty's gracious Empire would be his chief 
 protection. 
 
 The speech of the Viceroy at the State banquet 
 contained a great undertaking : 
 
 " There is one thing above all others that this British 
 Empire in India does mean. It means this. It means 
 that all its subjects shall live at peace with one an- 
 other; that every one of them shall be free to grow 
 rich in his own way, provided his way be not a criminal 
 way; that every one of them shall be free to hold 
 and follow his own religious belief without assailing 
 the religious beliefs of other people, and to live un- 
 molested by his neighbour. At first sight, that may 
 seem a very plain and simple polity, and very easy 
 to be applied. But, when you come to apply it to an 
 empire multitudinous in its traditions, as well as in its 
 inhabitants, almost infinite in the variety of races 
 which populate it and of creeds which have shaped 
 their character, you find that it involves administrative 
 problems unsolved by Caesar, unsolved by Charlemagne, 
 unsolved by Akbar. It seems a very simple thing to 
 say that we shall keep the peace of the empire ; but if 
 we are to keep the peace of it, we must have laws to 
 
 * See Appendix VIII. 
 
ILBERT BILL CONTROVERSY 25 
 
 settle quaxrels whicli would otherwise disturb its peace ; 
 and if we are to have such laws, we must frame them 
 into a system at once comprehensive and intelligible. 
 Again, if we are to enforce any such system of law, we 
 must have judges to administer it, and police to carry 
 out the orders of the judges, and then we must have 
 troops to protect the judges, the police, the people and 
 all concerned. Well then, when you come to introduce 
 this elaborate system of administration into a vast 
 continent . . . you find that the work in which you 
 are engaged is nothing less than this, that you are 
 modifying, unavoidably modifying — ^not harshly, not 
 suddenly, but slowly, gently and with sympathy, but 
 still modifying — the whole collective social life and 
 character of the population of the Empire. . . . But 
 our proclamation of the Imperial title implies some- 
 thing more. It implies that henceforth the honour 
 of the British Crown, and consequently the power of 
 the British Empire, are committed to the continued 
 maintenance and defence of this Empire. . . . For my 
 own part, I hope and believe that the impressive 
 demonstration of an Imperial power, conscious of its 
 duties, but also confident in its rights which it was our 
 privilege to witness this morning, will be a significant 
 and sufficient intimation that Her Majesty . . . will 
 not relinquish under any difiiculty the task in which 
 she is engaged as regards this Empire ; that she will 
 not abandon to any enemy the great inheritance she 
 holds in trust for her descendants." 
 
 1 return to a less cheerful page in Indian politics. 
 The question at issue in the Ilbert BUI controversy 
 was originally raised by a note forwarded to the Bengal 
 Ptovincial Government by a Bengali Hindu civilian 
 serving in his own province. He represented the 
 anomalous position in which the Indian members of 
 the Civil Service were placed under the provisions of 
 the Code of Criminal Procedure, which limited the 
 jurisdiction to be exercised over European British sub- 
 
26 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 jecta outside Calcutta to judicial officers who were 
 themselves European Britisli subjects. 
 
 The note was forwarded to the Grovernment of India 
 with the views of the Government of Bengal ; and the 
 Govermnent of India published proposals the effect of 
 which would have been " to settle the question of juris- 
 diction over European British subjects in such a way 
 as to remove from the Code at once and immediately 
 every judicial qualification which is based merely on 
 race distinctions." The proposals met with fierce Euro- 
 pean opposition. They were considered to imperil the 
 liberties of British non-officials. After being under 
 consideration for over a year, they were finally largely 
 withdrawn. " Nothing could be more lamentable," it 
 has truly been said, " than the animosities of race that 
 the whole controversy aroused." There can be no 
 doubt that it was a serious catastoophe, especially in 
 Bengal, exciting keen racial feeling on both sides, and 
 impressing many educated Indians with the idea that 
 in British India they must, unless a reorganisation of 
 relations could be contrived, for ever occupy a hopelessly 
 subject position. Lord Ripon, then Viceroy, was, they 
 knew, on their side in these contentions, and he further 
 gratified their aspirations by exerting himself to extend 
 and advance local self-government through increasing 
 the powers and functions of the municipal boards and 
 local cess committees instituted in the sixties. His 
 aim was by such methods to forward general political 
 education. 
 
 He left India at the end of 1884 amid such acclama- 
 tions from the educated classes as had been accorded 
 to no preceding Governor-General, and has ever since 
 been regaxded by those classes as their great champion 
 and patron. 
 
 And before closing this introductory chapter, I must 
 
HINDU NATIONALIST MOVEMENT 27 
 
 mention another movement, hardly noticed in those 
 days, which, was, later on, to take no small part in 
 moulding the aspirations of the English-educated 
 classes. 
 
 " India," it has been said, " is not only a land of 
 romance, art, and beauty. It is, in religion, earth's 
 central shrine." The face of the country is covered 
 with places of worship.' India, as Sir Alfred Lyall has 
 said, contains three great historic religions and has 
 given birth to a fourth. Yet Western rationalism 
 was turning the minds of some Indians away from 
 religion, when a Hindu ascetic, Swami Dayanand, 
 began to preach return from idols to the faith of the 
 early Aryans, of a reputed golden age when the land 
 prospered and was blessed, before the foreigner came. 
 He founded the now large and growing sect of the 
 Arya Samaj, and familiarised many Hindus with the 
 conception of a far-away great and independent Hindu 
 India, since degraded, by corrupt religious teaching 
 and foreign intrusion. His efforts were assisted by the 
 Theosophists, Colonel Olcott, an American, Madame 
 Blavatsky, a Eussian, and their followers, who, in 1878, 
 called themselves the Theosophical Society of the Arya 
 Samaj, but subsequently separated from the disciples 
 of Dayanand as too sectarian for their taste. Never- 
 theless Madame Blavatsky, a lady who believed herself 
 to have been' Hindu in a previous incarnation, and 
 those with her, continued to proclaim the greatness of 
 the Hindu religion and the present degeneration of 
 India from the era of ancient Aryan grandeur. 
 
 The idea of an ancient unified independent Hindu 
 
 * " Buildings devoted to religious worship are extremely numerous 
 in India. There are few villages or hamlets which have not at least one. 
 It is even a generally received opinion that no place should be inhabited 
 where there is no temple, for otherwise the inhabitants would run grave 
 risks of misfortune." — Abb^ Dttbois. 
 
28 INTEODUCTORY 
 
 Empire owed its origin to the fact that once in the 
 third century B.C., and again in the fourth century A.D., 
 the greater part of India had been governed by Hindu 
 emperors. Each period produced a great ruler; but 
 information regarding these empires is scanty. They 
 were strong and prosperous, but neither lasted long. 
 They were fugitive intervals in ages of disintegration.' 
 
 In Europe, at this time, Professor Max MiiUer's edi- 
 tion of the Rig Veda, the knowledge of the law, had 
 introduced a new period in Sanskrit scholarship, and 
 had preached to all the beauties of Indo-Axyan litera- 
 ture, the flights of India's native philosophy, the devo- 
 tion of its ancient faith. 
 
 And so, about the time when English-educated 
 Hindus were impelled by particular circumstances to 
 impatience of British domination, and Hindu youths 
 were reading in schools and colleges of British love of 
 Britain, of British struggles to be free, certain Hindus 
 and Europeans were assuring all who listened that 
 India too had a glorious past and a religion supreme 
 and elevating. It was not surprising that in some 
 minds the conception of an India famous and pros- 
 perous long ago, before the foreigner came, began to 
 obliterate thoughts of the subsequent centuries of in- 
 glorious discord before the first Muhammadan invasion 
 from Central Asia and of the India much later stiU, 
 rescued, as the greatest of Hindu politicians has ad- 
 mitted, from chaos and oppression by British rule.' 
 Later on we shall see how among certain classes of 
 Hindus peculiar circumstances developed this concep- 
 
 * See Appendix I. 
 
 ^ " The blessings of peace, the establishment of law and order, the 
 introduction of Western education, and the freedom of speech and the 
 appreciation of liberal institutions that have followed in its wake — all 
 these are things that stand to the credit of your rule." — Speech by Mr, 
 Ookhde on November 5ifh, 1905. 
 
HINDU NATIONALIST MOVEMENT 29 
 
 tion into a genuine enthusiasm ; but, Colonel Olcott 
 asserts that even in the early 'eighties the new idea was 
 able to awake no ordinary sympathy among emotional 
 English-educated audiences. Of a lecture on the past, 
 present, and future of India, delivered at Amritsar in 
 October 1881, his diaries, published long afterwards, 
 record : 
 
 " People who imagine the Hindus to be devoid of 
 
 Eatriotic feeling should have seen the effect on my 
 uge audience as I depicted the greatness of ancient 
 and the fallen state of modern India. Murmurs of 
 pleasure or sighs of pain broke from them ; at one 
 moment they would be cheering and vehemently ap- 
 plauding, the next keeping silent while the tears were 
 streaming from their eyes." 
 
 Behind feelings of this kind was the racial resentment 
 which had already manifested itself in the press, and 
 had been intensified by the Ilbert Bill controversy. 
 Altogether it is clear that when Lord Ripon was suc- 
 ceeded in the Viceroyalty by Lord Dufferin, various 
 influences were working to produce Some kind of up- 
 heaval among certain Hindus who, with English educa- 
 tion, were learning to feel after English political ideals. 
 They were few in number. They were coldly regarded 
 by the aristocracy, by the territorial and martial 
 classes, by the.Muhammadans. They stood apart from 
 the masses. They were peaceable people, and their 
 ambitions were peaceable. In the path of these am- 
 bitions stood a social system opposed to democratic 
 ideals, and buttressed by the influence of a powerful 
 hierarchy on rigid caste organisations. 
 
 " We have been subject," said a learned Hindu pro- 
 fessor,' in a lecture delivered before the close of the 
 
 1 Sir R. G. Bhandarkar. 
 
30 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 last century, " to a three-fold tyranny ; political 
 tyranny, priestly tyranny, and a social tyranny or the 
 tyranny of caste. Crushed down by this, no man has 
 dared to stand and assert himself. Even religious re- 
 formers have shunned the legitimate consequences of 
 their doctrines to avoid coming into conflict vsdth the 
 established order of things. ... At present, however, 
 though we live under a foreign government, we enjoy a 
 freedom of thought and action, such as we never en- 
 joyed before under our own Hindu princes. But have 
 we shown a capacity to shake ourselves free from 
 priestly and social tyraimy> ? I am afraid, not much." 
 
 The path to wider political freedom was to prove by 
 no means difficult to tread. The path to religious and 
 social emancipation was far steeper and less attractive. 
 It has not yet been trodden with determined purpose 
 by the great majority of Hindus. 
 
 ' The President of the 1917 Indian National Social Cionference empha- 
 sised the necessity of " extending the right hand of fellowship to the 
 backward classes," promoting the education of women, and raising the 
 age of Hindu marriage. These he considered the main social objeotivea. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 POLITIOAL MOVEMENTS — FIRST STAGE 
 
 The year 1885 saw the formal inauguration of modern 
 Indian politics. Lord DufEerin had just succeeded 
 Lord Ripon, and it will be useful to summarise general 
 conditions. 
 
 I have already shown how the country was admin- 
 istered. In every district were some beginnings of 
 popular control in the shape of Lord Ripon's municipal 
 and district Boards, but higher up nothing of this 
 nature existed. No Indian was member of any Im- 
 perial or Provincial Executive Council, and the few 
 Indians who sat on Legislative Councils were nominated 
 or selected by Government. A very few Indians, for 
 the most part Hindus, were Judges of High Courts. 
 The number of Indians in the Covenanted Civil Service 
 was infinitesimal. It was open to those who could 
 afford the effort to compete for the Service in England, 
 but few availed themselves of this opportunity and 
 fewer obtained admission. Indians were hardly, if at 
 all, represented on the higher grades of the Indian 
 Medical Service, and almost all the leaders of the Bax 
 were Europeans. The dominant influence too in Anglo- 
 Vernacular schools and colleges was English, although 
 a change was impending in Bengal in consequence of 
 the recommendations of the Education Commission of 
 1882-3. 
 
 British excluaiveness was far stronger than it has 
 
 31 
 
32 POLITICAL MOVEMENTS— FIRST STAGE 
 
 since become ; but the subordinate services were chiefly 
 manned by Indians ; and it must be remembered that 
 the English-educated were far less numerous than 
 they are now. Since the Viceroyalty of Lord Dujfferin, 
 " schools have more than doubled ; higher education 
 has increased threefold; printing presses and news- 
 papers have multiplied ; and the production of books in 
 English has increased by 200 per cent." ' The Ei^lidi- 
 educated, too, were then, as now, mainly Hindus of the 
 peaceful castes. Among them the fighting races — the 
 Sikhs, the Gurkhas, the Rajputs, the Pathans — ^were 
 hardly represented at all. The Brahmans indeed have 
 contributed valuable soldiers to the Indian Army, and 
 had, in considerable measure, availed themselves of 
 English education ; but the English-educated Brahmans 
 did not, as a rule, belong to the martial families. Nor 
 did advanced Indians count among their ranks many 
 members of the territorial aristocracy. Their recruits 
 were almost entirely drawn from castes clerical, pro- 
 fessional, or mercantile by tradition. Thus it is easy 
 to understand why, in spite of the liberal wording of 
 Queen Victoria,'s Proclamation of 1858, the Govern- 
 ment of a highly conservative country, inhabited by 
 various intermingledraces hitherto ruled by the strongest, 
 hesitated to call to its highest places Indians who owed 
 their status solely to their literary accomplishments. 
 For centuries before British rule the history of India 
 had been a history of conquests from Central Asia, each 
 conquest enduring until the invaders from the hills 
 and uplands had largely merged in the industrious and 
 less vigorous people of the plains. From the day of 
 Plassey, the British had been constantly opposed by 
 armed States or levies, and within the twelve years 
 before the Proclamation had been engaged in desperate 
 
 ' Montagu-Chelmsford Report, paragraph 141. 
 
GENERAL CONDITIONS 33 
 
 Waxs with the Sikhs and with their own Indian Army. 
 The strongest had always prevailed. 
 
 The English-educated section of Indians did not 
 represent any of these late adversaries. That it would 
 one day become a power in the land, a power of an 
 altogether new kind, was vaguely recognised ; but that 
 day was relegated by general opinion to a far-distant 
 future. Inadequate count was taken of the trend of 
 politics in Grreat Britain herself, and of the slowly grow- 
 ing interest of a small section of the British democracy 
 in Indian affairs ; and no one foresaw the extraordinary 
 progress and triumphs of Japan or the stimulus which 
 these were to impart to Indian aspirations. 
 
 By one observer, indeed, the signijicance of the 
 
 enthusiastic demonstrations which had accompanied 
 
 Lord Ripon's departure was noted. In a leading 
 
 English newspaper appeared an article " If it be real, 
 
 what does it mean? " The author was the late Sic 
 
 Auckland Colvin, a Civil Servant of wide practical 
 
 experience. In eloquent language, he warned his 
 
 cduntrymen to " search for the spirit of the time to 
 
 which the present days are bringing us, to recognise 
 
 that the rapid development of railways was facilitating 
 
 the interchange of ideas among Indians, the beat of the 
 
 engine was breaking down barriers which the voices of 
 
 many missionaries had failed to remove; that the 
 
 Indian miad was marching on, eager to do what it, for 
 
 its own part, had to do." But, just as now, even the 
 
 •most ambitious section of Indian Progressives has been 
 
 compelled to recognise the perils from Central Asia to 
 
 which India, unsheltered by British protection, would 
 
 certainly be exposed, so in 1885 disputes with Russia 
 
 about the Afghaii frontier caused all classes in India 
 
 to realise their dependence on the stability of British 
 
 rule. " The danger," wrote the late Sir Alfred Lyall, 
 
34 POLITICAL MOVEMENTS— FIRST STAGE 
 
 then Lieutenant-Governor of the North- West Pro- 
 vinces, " has made the Indian people very loyal ; they 
 axe in great dread of some widespread political revolu- 
 tion if we get an upset,. and they are aU afraid of each 
 --other. In short, we represent peace and a firm govern- 
 ment, whereas anything else leads to unfathomable con- 
 fusion." 
 
 In March, 1885, some Indians of the new school of 
 thought, seeking for a remedy for the then existing state 
 of things, decided to hold a Congress of delegates of 
 their own persuasion from aU parts of British India. 
 This resolution appears to have been largely inspired 
 by the late Mr. Allan Octavian Hume, whom his fol- 
 lowers have always called " the Father of the Congress." 
 Mr. Hume was the son of Joseph Hume, a well-known 
 Liberal. From 1849 to 1882 he had been a member of 
 the Covenanted Civil Service. He had been decorated 
 for good work in the Mutiny, and had retired from a 
 Secretaryship to the Government of India. Since re- 
 tirement he had lived at Simla, largely devoting his 
 energies to propagating among educated Indians the 
 precepts of English Radicalism. In a published corre- 
 spondence of a later date, which once attracted con- 
 siderable attention, but has long been generally for- 
 gotten, he justified his propaganda by alleging that 
 the Pax Britannica had failed to solve the economic 
 problem ; that the peasantry were ravaged by fanune 
 and despair ; that Government was out of touch with 
 the people ; that there was no safety for the masses 
 till the administration was gradually leavened by a 
 representative Indian element. He considered it " of 
 paramount importance to find an overt and caastitu- 
 tional channel for discharge of the increasing ferment 
 which had resulted from Western ideas and education." 
 
 The prospectus of the new movement stated that 
 
FIRST INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS 35 
 
 the direct objects of the Conference would be — (a) to 
 enable 'the most earnest labourers in the cause of 
 national progress to become personally known to each 
 other ; (6) to discuss and decide upon the political 
 operations to be undertaken during the ensuing year. 
 The prospectus further announced : " Indirectly this 
 Conference will form the germ of a Native Parliament, 
 and if properly conducted will constitute in a few years 
 an unanswera,ble reply to the assertidnjbhat India is 
 stni wholly unfit for any form of representative insti- 
 tution." In pursuance of these instructions the first 
 Congress met in Bombay on December 28th, 29th, 
 and 30th, 1885. It was attended by seventy-two dele- 
 gates, mostly lawyers, schoolmasters, or newspaper 
 editors, collected, sometimes after considerable effort, 
 from various cities or large towns, and by a few Indian 
 Government servants as friendly lookers-on. Only two 
 of the delegates present were Muhammadans, and 
 these were Bombay attorneys. Mr. W. Boner jee, then 
 Standing Counsel to Government in Calcutta, was 
 elected president. He proclaimed that one of the 
 objects of the Association was, " the eradication, by 
 direct friendly personal intercourse, of all possible race, 
 creed, or provincial prejudices amongst all lovers of 
 our country, and the fuller development and consolida- 
 tion of those sentiments of national unity that had 
 their origin in ovCr beloved Lord Ripon's memorable 
 reign." Britain had given them order, railways, " above 
 all, the inestimable benefit of Wjestern education. But 
 the more progress a people mlade in education and 
 material prosperity, the greater would be their insight 
 into political matters and tie keener their desire for 
 political advancement." He thought that their desire 
 to be governed according to the ideas of government 
 prevalent in Europe was in no way incompatible with 
 4 
 
36 POLITICAL MOVEMENTS— FIRST STAGE 
 
 their thorough loyalty to the British Government. All 
 that they desired was that the basis of government 
 should be widened, and that the people should have their 
 natural and legitimate share therein. 
 
 The first speaker to the first resolution, Mr. Sub- 
 ramania Aiyar,' of Madras, said : 
 
 " By a merciful dispensation of Providence, India, 
 which was for centuries the victim of external aggres- 
 sion and plunder, of internal civil wars and general 
 confusion, has been brought under the dominion of the 
 great British Power. I need not teU you how that 
 event introduced a great change in the destiny of her 
 people, how the inestimable good that has flowed from 
 it has been appreciated by them. The rule of Great 
 Britain has, on the whole, been better in its results 
 and direction than any former rule. Without descant- 
 ing at length upon the benefits of that rule, I can sum- 
 marise them in one remarkable fact that for the first 
 time in the history of the Indian populations there is 
 to be beheld the phenomenon of national unity among 
 them, of a sense of national existence." 
 
 Various resolutions were passed, one demanding the 
 expansion of the supreme and Provincial Legislative 
 Councils by the admission of a considerable nimiber of 
 members elected by such organised bodies as municipal 
 and district boards. Thus enlarged, these Councils 
 were to have a voice to interpellate the Executive on all 
 points of administration. 
 
 ^ Lately famous as the author of a letter to President Wilson, which 
 contained the following passage : 
 
 " Permit me to add that you and the other leaders have been kept 
 in ignorance of the full measure of misrule and oppression in India. 
 Officials of an alien nation, speaking a foreign tongue, force their will 
 upon us ; they grant themselves exorbitant salaries and large allow- 
 ances ; they refuse us education ; they sap us of our wealth ; they impose 
 crushing taxes without our consent ; they cast thousands of our people 
 into prisons for uttering patriotic sentiments — ^prisons so filthy that often 
 the inmates die from loathsome diseases." 
 
TBS! SECOlS^iD CONGRESS til 
 
 It was also recommended that a Standing Committee 
 of the House of Commons should be constituted to 
 receive and consider any formal protests that might be 
 recorded by majorities of the new Legislative Councils 
 against the exercise by the Executive Government of 
 the power, which would be vested in it, of overruling 
 the decisions of any such majorities. 
 
 Another resolution recommended simultaneous exami- 
 nations in India and England for admission into the 
 IndianCivil Service. -There had been some idea of discuss- 
 ing social reform, but only two addresses were delivered 
 on the subject, the main objective being political. 
 
 The next Congress met at Calcutta on December 
 27th, 28th, 29th, and 30th, 1886. ^ It was claimed for 
 this Congress that it marked " a total change of char- 
 acter. Everybody wanted to come of his own accord." 
 It was admitted that in 1885 " people had to be pressed 
 and entreated to come." 
 
 The Conference was attended by 440 delegates, elected 
 either at public meetings or by societies and associa- 
 tions. Two hundred and thirty of these came from 
 Bengal. The old aristocracy were entirely absent. 
 The shopkeeping classes were represented by one 
 member. This deficiency was ascribed by the author 
 of the introductory article to the record of proceedings, 
 to the fact that these classes, ignorant and immersed 
 in their own concerns, cared for no change in a form of 
 government which both prevented others from robbing 
 them and " by its system of civil jurisprudence " afforded 
 them ample opportunities for enriching themselves. 
 The cultivating classes were " inadequately represented." 
 This was because " though a great number realise that 
 the times are out of joint, they have not learnt to 
 rise from particular instances to generalisations, and 
 they neither understand clearly what is wrong, nor have 
 
38 POLITICAL MOVEMENTS— FIRST STAGE 
 
 they as a class any clear or definite ideas as to what 
 could or ought to be done to lighten somewhat their 
 lot in life." There were thirty-three Muhanunadan 
 delegates. This was ascribed partly to the " present 
 lack of higher education among our Muhammadan 
 brethren," and partly to the fact that three prominent 
 Calcutta Muhammadans had publicly declared against 
 the Congress, preferring " a policy of confidence in the 
 Government." By far the greater majority of the dele- 
 gates came from Bengal. The Punjab sent only seven- 
 teen and the Central Provinces eight. Mr. Dadabhai 
 Naoroji, a Parsi, and well known as the first Indiaa who 
 has sat in the British Parliament, ^was elected Presi- 
 dent. The resolutions closely resembled those of the 
 previous year. One asked for the authorisation of a 
 system of volunteering for Indians which would enable 
 them to support Government in any crisis. Another 
 related to " the increasing poverty of vast nunibers of 
 the population of India." 
 
 The president remarked on the blessings of British 
 rule, in the stable foundation of which the Congress 
 was another stone. 
 
 " Let us speak out," he said, " like men, and pro- 
 claim that we are loyal to the backbone ; that we 
 understand the benefits English ride has conferred on 
 us ; the education that has been given to us ; the new 
 light which has been poured on us, turning us from 
 darkness into light, and teaching us the new lesson 
 that kings are made for the people, not peoples for 
 their kings ; and this lesson we have learned amid the 
 darkness of Asiatic despotism only by the light of free 
 English civilisation," ' 
 
 • These words may be compared with some sentences from a recent 
 speech by Mr. B. G. Tilak, reported in the Leader issue of October 
 10th, 1917. 
 
 " They knew on what principle the bureaucracy governed India for 
 
SIR SAIYID AHMAD 39 
 
 The virtual abstention of Muhammadans from the 
 Congress movement was largely due to the influence of 
 Sic Saiyid Ahmad, and it is worth while to turn aside 
 from the main course of my narrative in order to give 
 some account of this great man. 
 
 Sir Saiyid Ahmad was born at Delhi in the year 
 1817, audi belonged to a family of considerable note 
 at the court of the Moghal Emperors. In the year 
 1837 he obtained a clerical post in the British service. 
 Twenty years later he had risen to the position of a 
 Subordinate Judge, and when the Mutiny broke out at 
 Bijnor in these provinces, he gave noble proofs of loyalty. 
 "No language that I could use," said a Lieutenant- 
 Governor in subsequently referring to Saiyid Ahmad's 
 Mutiny services, " would be worthy of the devotion 
 which he showed." 
 
 In 1858 Saiyid Ahmad wrote in his own vernacular 
 an account of the causes of the revolt which was long 
 afterwards translated and published in English. His 
 appreciation of British rule in India was by no means 
 wholesale, and his criticisms deserve our careful con- 
 sideration even now. It is remarkable that he attri- 
 buted the outbreak largely to the absence of all Indians 
 from the Supreme Legislative Council. 
 
 " The evils," he wrote, " which resulted from the 
 non-admission of natives into the Legislative Council 
 were various. Government could never k^iow the in- 
 advisability of the laws and regulations which it passed. 
 It could never hear the voice of the people on such a 
 subject. The people had no means of protesting agaiiist 
 what they might feel to be a foolish measure, or of 
 
 ;the last 100 years. They were a self-governing nation before. They 
 
 ' knew how to organise an army, they knew how to dispense justice, they^ 
 
 had laws, regulations, etc. All those had been swept away, and now, 
 
 the bureaucracy said that they knew nothing about them. Who was 
 
 responsible for that 7 Not the Indians,'' 
 
40 POLITICAL MOVEMENTS— FIRST STAGE 
 
 giving public expression to their wishes. But the 
 greatest mischief lay in this, that the people misunder- 
 stood the views and intentions of Government. They 
 misapprehended every act, and whatever law was 
 passed was misconstrued by men who had no share in 
 the framing of it and hence no means of judging of its 
 spirit. ... I wish to say that the views of Grovernment 
 were misconstrued by the people, and that this mis- 
 construction hurried on the rebellion. Had there been 
 a native of Hindustan in the Legislative Council, the 
 people would never have fallen into such errors. . . . 
 There was no real communication between the governors 
 and the governed, no living together or near one an- 
 other as has always been the custom of the Muham- 
 madans in countries which they subjected to their rule. 
 Government and its officials have never adopted this 
 course, without which no real knowledge of the people 
 can be gained." Fmrther on he asserted : " Now, in 
 the first years of the British rule in India, the people 
 were heartily in favour of it. This good feeling the 
 Government has now forfeited, and the natives very 
 generally say that they are treated with contempt. A 
 native gentleman is, in the eyes of any petty official, as 
 much lower than that official as that same official esteems 
 himself lower than a duke. The opinion of many of 
 these officials is that no native can be a gentleman. . . . 
 There are many English officials who are well-known 
 for their kindness and friendly feeling toward the 
 natives, and these are in consequence much beloved by 
 them, are, to use a native expression, as the sun and 
 moon to them, and are pointed out as types of the 
 old race of officials." 
 
 After the Mutiny Saiyid Ahmad exerted himself 
 strenuously to make peace between the Government 
 and his co-religionists and to reform the Muharomadan 
 educational system. Although his boyhood had known 
 no other, he was convinced that the ordinary Muham- 
 mAdan education was inadequate and out of date* 
 
SIR SAIYID AHMAD 41 
 
 " Cure the root," lie said, " and the tree will flourish." 
 He did all he could to " cure the root," and, at the age 
 of fifty-two, travelled to England to enter his son at 
 Cambridge University, and to see what measures were 
 desirable for the establishment of a Muhammadan 
 Anglo-Oriental OoUege in Upper India. This he finally 
 accomplished, and the famous College at Aligarh is his 
 abiding monument. While affording religious instruc- 
 tion to Muhammadans alone, it admits scholars of all 
 faiths; and the whole attitude of its great founder, 
 who frequently and strongly championed the tenets of 
 Islam, was invariably tolerant and liberal. He rejoiced 
 in the spread and growth of English education in India, 
 believing that enlightenment meant loyalty to Britain. 
 His spirit is reflected in the- address presented to Lord 
 Eipon in 1884 by the Aligarh College Committee, which 
 contains the following passage : 
 
 " The time has happily passed when the Muham- 
 madans of India looked upon their condition as hope- 
 less, when they regarded the past with feelings of 
 mournful sorrow. Their hopes are now inclined to the 
 promise of the future ; their hearts, full of loyalty to 
 the rule of the Queen-Empress, aspire to finding dis- 
 tinction and prominence among the various races of 
 the vast Empire over which Her Majesty holds sway. 
 It is to help the realisation of these aspirations that 
 this College has been founded ; and we fervently hope 
 that among the results which may flow from our system 
 of education, not the least important will be the pro- 
 motion of friendly feelings of social intercourse and 
 interchange of amenities of life between the English 
 cormnunity in India and the Muhammadan popula- 
 tion." 
 
 In spite of his strong liberal sympathies. Sir Saiyid 
 Ahmad would have nothing to do iwith the Congress, 
 and advised his co-religionists to follow his example. 
 
42 POLITICAL MOVEMENTS— FIEST STAGE 
 
 Although he had his enemies and detractors, his in- 
 fluence was enormous, and it determined the attitude 
 of the great majority of his people. Some years ago 
 one of his co-religionists attributed this attitude to 
 three causes : 
 (a) the violence of many publications distributed 
 broadcast before the launching of the Congress ; 
 (&) the excessive blandishments of the Congress 
 
 leaders ; 
 (c) the advocacy by the Congress of elective prin- 
 ciples, and open competition, with no regard 
 for minorities. 
 1 now return to the Congress movement. In Decem- 
 ber 1888, Lord Dufferin was succeeded in the Vice- 
 royalty by Lord Lansdowne. At a farewell dinner in 
 Calcutta he had referred to the Congress party as a 
 " microscopic minority," but he was far too astute a 
 statesman not to be impressed by the movement, and 
 confidentially sent home proposals for liberalising the 
 LegislatiY,e Councils, " which," he wrote to the Secre- 
 tary of State, " is all that the reasonable leaders even 
 of the most advanced section of Young India dream of." 
 ^* He was, however, dealing with wider ambitions. There 
 was a strong demand for more genei:al and higher em- 
 ployment in the Public Services, a belief that in this re- 
 spect the educated classes were dwarfed and stunted. 
 He had indeed appointed a Commission of inquiry 
 into this matter, but its recommendations were received 
 some time after his departure, and by no means pleased 
 the advanced party. 
 
 The Congress of 1888 was attended by 1,248 delegates. 
 Great efforts had been made by the leaders to stultify 
 Lord Dufferin's estimate: of their importaij'ce. ^Six 
 Europeans attended, and the president was Mt. George 
 Yule, a prominent Calcutta merchant, who complained 
 
FURTHER HISTORY OF CONGRESS MOVEMENT 43 
 
 that the Britisli non-official class was disfranchised in 
 India, and had no more voice than Indians in the 
 government of the country. Complaint was made by 
 various speakers of the official attitude as needlessly 
 unfriendly. The resolutions passed were on lines 
 already described. Among other things, they recom- 
 mended abolition of the distinctions created by the 
 Arms Act, military colleges for natives of India, and 
 an inquiry into the industrial condition of the country. 
 At the sixth Congress, held at Calcutta in 1890, and 
 attended by 702 delegates, including 156 Muham- 
 madans, the Chairman of the Reception Committee 
 welcomed the delegates in the following words : 
 
 " It is perfectly correct that the ignorant classes 
 whom we seek to represent are still unable in many 
 provinces to take an active interest in the many social 
 and administrative problems which are now engaging 
 the attention of the educated classes ; but history 
 teaches us that in all countries and in all ages it is the 
 thinking who lead the unthinking, and we are bound 
 to think for ourselves and others who are still too 
 ignorant to exercise that important function." 
 
 A speaker relied on some words of Mr. Gladstone to 
 the effect that a man would be deemed mad who de- 
 nounced the system of popular representation. Two 
 other speakers alleged the existence of a political faith 
 common to Hindus and Muhammadans. A note in 
 the introduction to the printed account of the Congress 
 proceedings observed, in regard to the alleged antagon- 
 ism between the two communities : " We would like 
 very much to know whether Great Britain herself is 
 not divided into two sections, one of which is bifterly 
 hostile to the other and desirous of opposing it on all 
 occasions." The tone of the concluding passages^ of 
 the same introduction was more antagonistic to British 
 
44 POLITICAL MOVEMENTS— FIRST STAGE 
 
 rule than any previous official Congress utterance. 
 Acknowledgment was made during the meetings of the 
 kind reception in England of certain delegates. The 
 Congress was supplemented by a Social Conference. 
 
 National Social Conferences had begun in 1887, but 
 languished later. At the social conference of 1895 the 
 following message from the Congress President-elect 
 was read to the meeting. " The raison d'etre for ex- 
 cluding social questions from our deliberations is that 
 if we were to take up such questions, it might lead to 
 serious differences, ultimately culminating in a schism, 
 and it is a matter of the first importance to prevent a 
 split." Mr. Justice Ranade, an ardent social reformOT, 
 held different views. At the Bombay social conference 
 held at Satara in 1900, he said, in his inaugural address : 
 
 " I know that there are those among us who see no 
 advantage in holding local or national gatherings of this 
 sort for the consideration of social topics. There are 
 others who think that though such gatherings have 
 their uses, they should not be joined together in place 
 and time with the political meeting, as they only serve 
 to detract the attention of the workers and lead to no 
 practical results. It may be of use to attempt a brief 
 reply to both objections. As regards the first difficulty, 
 it seems to me to arise from a confusion of ideas which 
 is prejudicial to the right appreciation of our duties, 
 both in the political and in the social sphere. ... As 
 I understand it, this distinction between the two spheres 
 of our activities is based on a radical mistake. . . . 
 Politics are not merely petitioning and memorialising 
 for gifts and favours. Gifts and favours are of no 
 value unless we have deserved the concessions by our 
 own elevation and our own struggles. " You shall live 
 by the sweat of your brow " is not the curse pronounced 
 on man, but the very conditions of his existence and 
 growth. Whether in the political, or social or religious 
 
GOVEENMENT ATTITUDE TOWARDS CONGRESS 46 
 
 or commercial, or manufacturing or sesthetical spheres, 
 in literature, in science, in art, in war, in peace, it is tlie 
 individual and collective man who has to develop his 
 poAs^s by his own exertions in conquering the diffi- 
 culties in his way. If he is down for the time, he has 
 to gCT up with the whole of his strength, physical, 
 moral, and intellectual ; and you may as well suppose 
 that he can develop one of those elements of strength 
 and neglect the others, as try to separate the light from 
 the heat of the sun or the beauty and fragrance from 
 the rose. You cannot have a good social system when 
 you find yourself low in the scale of political rights, 
 nor can you be fit to exercise political rights and privi- 
 leges unless your social system is based on reason and 
 justice." 
 
 These were wise words ; but the obstacles to social 
 reform were partly religious, and Indian social re- 
 formers have seldom been able to carry their cause 
 far beyond conferences and resolutions. It suffered 
 severely from the death of Ranade, who was a man of 
 genuine courage and character. 
 
 A question which arose in connection with the 1890 
 Cpngress elicited the following reply from the Viceroy's 
 Private Secretary : 
 
 " The Grovernment of India recognise that the Con- 
 gress movement is regarded as representing what would 
 in Europe be called the advanced Liberal party, as 
 distinguished from the great body of Conservative 
 opinion which exists side by side with it. They desire 
 themselves to maintain an attitude of neutrality in 
 their relations with both parties, so long as these act 
 strictly within their constitutional functions." 
 
 In 1892 a new Councils Act was passed. Its pro- 
 visions had been outlined by Lord DufEerin before 
 his departure.' It enlarged the Legislative Councils, 
 
 1 See paragraphs 60-69 of the Montagu-Chelmsford Report. 
 
46 POLITICAL MOVEMENTS— FIRST STAGE 
 
 conferring on local boards and corporations the right 
 of recommending persons for appointment thereto, sub- 
 ject to the approval of the recommendations by Govern- 
 ment. It safeguarded the authority of Grovernment by 
 leaving it a majority on each Council and by restrict- 
 ing the right of debate and of asking questions ; but it 
 decidedly extended the application of the principle, first 
 admitted in 1858, of associating prominent non-officials 
 in legislation. The Congress of 1892 was dissatisfied, 
 and further expressed disappointment with the orders 
 passed on the report of the Public Services Commission 
 appointed by Lord Dufferin. About this time, the 
 Congress Committee, which had been established in 
 London,- and consisted mainly of English Radicals, 
 started the periodical Ivdia for the promotion of Con- 
 gress propaganda. 
 
 I have now traced in some detail the early history 
 of the Congress movement, allowing its leaders to speak 
 for themselves. I now propose to review briefly the 
 period from 1892 to 1897. 
 
 The proceedings of the annual meetings during this 
 period were similar in character to those which I have 
 ahready described. As English educated Indians multi- 
 plied, adherents of the Congress increased not only in 
 the big cities, but also in the smaller centres, the great 
 majority comii:^ from the classes which had initiated 
 the movement. The tone of the Indian press toward 
 the British Government and British officials did not 
 improve ; and although the politicians did not seriously 
 attempt to advance their main position, largely, no 
 doubt, because the period in Britain was one of decided 
 conservative ascendency, they developed a practice of 
 sending delegates to allege before British audiences the 
 poverty of India, the exclusive and selfish character of 
 the Admiuistraton, the need of popular government. 
 
SIGNS OB' A REVOLtJTIONARY MOXTJMENT 47 
 
 It would, however, be a mistake to suppose tliat all the 
 party really meant as much as this. Many were pros- 
 perous under the existing order of things, were on 
 friendly terms with European officials, and were per- 
 fectly well aware that strong and effective British con- 
 trol was essential for the welfare of the country. And 
 many were capable of bringing Western political ideas 
 into practical relation with the peculiar conditions of 
 India, but were perhaps inclined to keep their least 
 popular opinions to themselves. 
 
 Muhammadans continued to hold aloof from the 
 movement ; but in 1894 appeared more vigorous mani- 
 festations of Hindu impatience with existing conditions. 
 
 In 1893, riots had occiurred in the city of Bombay, 
 between Hindus and Muhammadans; and, subsequently, 
 in order to stimulate Hindu enthusiasm, persons who 
 wished to widen the breach between the two com- 
 munities started public festivals in honour of Ganpati, 
 the elephant-headed god of wisdom and success. It 
 was arranged that images of Ganpati should be attended 
 by melas, or groups of young men trained in fencing 
 with sticks and physical exercises, that verses should 
 be sung and leaflets distributed in the streets of Poona, 
 the capital of the Deccan and the second city in the 
 Bombay Presidency. These were to stimulate hatred 
 of Muhammadans and of the British Government, of 
 foreigners generally. 
 
 A movement, too, was inaugurated for the repair of 
 the tomb of the famous Maratha Hindu hero, Sivaji, who, 
 more than two centuries before, had successfully revolted 
 against Muhammadan domination. Sivaji had killed 
 Afzal Khan, a Muslim general, at a conference between 
 two armies. Festivals were held in his honour, and 
 the memory of his exploits was revived by enthusiasts 
 in such verses as these : 
 
48 POLITICAL MOVEMiSNTS— FIRST STAGl 
 
 " Merely reciting Sivaji's story like a lord does not 
 secure independence; it is necessary to be prompt in 
 engaging in desperate enterprises like Sivaji and Baji ; 
 knowing, you good people should take up swords and 
 sMelds at all events now ; we shall cut ofi countless 
 heads of enemies. Listen ! We shall risk our lives on 
 the battle-field in a national war ; we shall shed upon 
 the earth the life-blood of the enemies who destroy our 
 religion; we shall die only, while you will hear the 
 story like women." 
 
 Sivaji had established a Maratha kingdom, but his 
 dynasty had been supplanted by a dynasty of Chit- 
 pavan Brahmans (Brahmans purified by the funeral 
 pyre) who had reigned at Poona with the title of 
 Peishwa. The last Peishwa had quarrelled with and 
 had been overthrown by the British. Chitpavans had 
 prospered under British rule. They had shown remark- 
 able ability, and were prominent at the Bar, in educa- 
 tion, and in the public services ; but some had never 
 ceased to regret the fallen glories of the Peishwas. 
 Ranade's Rise of the Maratha Empire recalled the his- 
 tory of the Maratha country in which their ancestors 
 had played a prominent part. In a book entitled 
 Sources of Marathi History, it was confidently alleged 
 that the state of the Deccan under the Chitpavan Peish- 
 was was far superior to its condition under British rule. 
 
 In the year 1880, a Chitpavan Brahman named Bal 
 Gangadhar Tilak, who had, a few years before, gradu- 
 ated with honours in the Bombay University, started 
 two papers, one of which was destined to attain a very 
 wide circulation. This was the Kesari (the " Lion "). 
 It was in Marathi, and was supplemented by an English 
 weekly The Maratha. Later, Mr. Tilak distinguished 
 himself in educational work, joined the Congress, and 
 became secretary of the Standing Committee for the 
 
MR. BAL GAI^GADSAR TILAK 49 
 
 Deccan. He was a vigorous critic of government mea- 
 sures, and strongly opposed tlie Age of Consent Bill, 
 whiclL had been devised in order to mitigate the crjang 
 evils of Hindu child-marriage. His political attitude, 
 his learning in the Hindu scriptures, his ability as a 
 journalist, his readiness to assist his poorer countrymen 
 in trouble, all contributed to win for him remarkable 
 influence. 
 
 Famine had resulted from shortage of rain in 1896, 
 and the plague had arrived at Bombay and spread to 
 Poona. Famine and plague caused widespread distress ; 
 and, according to invariable custom in times of calamity, 
 the masses were inclined to blame their rulers. In order 
 to arrest the spread of plague, the Bombay Government 
 adopted measures which seemed to promise success, but 
 were repugnant to the customs of the people and inter- 
 fered with their home-life. Persons suffering from the 
 disease were separated from persons not attacked; 
 house-to-house visitations were resorted to; and in 
 Poona it was for some time considered necessary to 
 employ British soldiers on search parties. Popular 
 feeling was keenly stirred, and on ^ May 4th, 1897, 
 Mr. Tilak, who had at first to some extent co-operated 
 with Mr. Rand, the Plague Commissioner, published an 
 article charging the British soldiers employed on plague 
 duty with every sort of excess, and imputing not merely 
 to subordinate officials, but to the whole Government 
 itself deliberate direction to oppress the people. He 
 described Mr. Rand as tyrannical, and stated that the 
 Government was practising oppression. It was useless 
 to petition the Supreme Government, as from it the 
 orders for oppression had emanated. On the 15th of 
 
 ' The statements in this and the following pages are founded on the 
 judge's charge to the jury in the case Queen-Eni»ress versus B. G. TUak, 
 1897. 
 
50 POLITICAL MOVEMENTS— FIKST STAGE 
 
 the following month he published two further articles 
 in his paper. The first was a poem—" Sivaji's Utter- 
 ances " — and represented Sivaji waking from a long 
 dream and deploring the present-day state of affairs 
 in what had once been his kingdom. By annihilating 
 the wicked he had lightened the great weight of the 
 globe. He had delivered the country by establishing 
 Swarajya (one's own kingdom). Now foreigners were 
 taking away the wealth of the country ; plenty and 
 health had fled ; famine and epidemic disease stalked 
 through the land. Brahmans were imprisoned. The 
 cow was daily slaughtered. White men escaped justice 
 by urging meaningless pleas. Women were dragged 
 out of railway carriages. Sivaji had protected the 
 English when they were traders, and it was for them to 
 show their gratitude by making his subjects happy. 
 
 The second article gave an account of lectures deli- 
 vered by two professors on the murder of Afzal Khan 
 by Sivaji. They argued that Sivaji was above the 
 moral code. " Every Hindu, every Maratha," said 
 one of the lecturers, " must rejoice at this Sivaji cele- 
 bration. We are all striving to regain our lt>st inde- 
 pendence." The other professor observed : " The 
 people who took part in the French Revolution denied 
 that they had Committed murders, and maintained that 
 they were only removing thorns from their path. Why 
 should not the same principle (argument) be applied to 
 Maharashtra ? " Finally came a discourse from Mr. 
 Tilak, who said, after remarking that great men are 
 above the common principles of morality, " Did Sivaji 
 commit a sin in killing Afzal Khan or not ? " The 
 answer to this question can be found in the Mahabharat^ 
 
 ^ The Mahabharat is the famous Hindu epic. It contains the Bhagwat- 
 Oita, or Lord's Song, recited by Krishna, an incarnation of the Preserver 
 of the world, before the great battle of Kurukshetra. 
 
THE RAND MURDERS 51 
 
 itself. Shrimat Krishna's advice in the gita is to kill 
 even our own teachers and our kinsmen. No bkme 
 attaches to any person if he is doing deeds without 
 being actuated by a desire to reap the fruits of his 
 deeds. Shri Sivaji did nothing with a view to fill the 
 small void of his own stomach. With benevolent in- 
 tentions he murdered Afzal Khan for the good of others. 
 If thieves enter our house and we have not sufficient 
 strength to drive them out, we should, without hesita- 
 tion, shut them up and burn them alive. God has not 
 conferred on Mlenchas (foreigners or barbarians) the 
 grant inscribed on copper-plate of the kingdom of 
 Hindustan. 
 
 " Po not circumscribe yomr vision like a frog in a 
 well. Get out of the Penal Code, enter into the ex- 
 tremely high atmosphere of thsBhagwat-Gita, and then 
 consider the actions of great men." 
 
 A week after these articles appeared, and on the 
 day of the celebration of the Diamond Jubilee of Queen 
 Victoria, Mr. Rand and another British officer were 
 assassinated at Poona by two Chitpavan Brahman 
 brothers, Damodar and Balkrishna Chapekar, who were 
 subsequently tried and executed. The former said in 
 a confession, subsequently retracted, but believed by 
 the court that tried him to be genuine, that " as the 
 operations for the suppression of the-plague were begin- 
 ning to cause annoyance to the people and great oppres- 
 sion was caused by the soldiers, they had determined 
 to avenge these acts and to kill the chief man in charge 
 of the plague operations." The Chapekars had founded 
 an association for physical and military training which 
 they called the " Society for the removal of obstacles 
 to the Hindu religion." Two of the associates mur- 
 dered two brothers who had been rewarded by Govern-. 
 5 
 
52 POLITICAL MOVEMENTS— FIRST STAGE 
 
 ment for information which led to the axrest and con- 
 viction of Damodar Chapekax. They were themselves 
 arrested, convicted, and executed. 
 
 Mr. Tilak was prosecuted for exciting disaffection to 
 Government by means of the Kesari articles of Juae 
 15th, was convicted, and was sentenced to eighteen 
 months' rigorous imprisonment, but six months of his 
 sentence were subsequently remitted. For a space he 
 disappeared from the ranks of the Congress politicians ; 
 but the Kesari continued to issue during his imprison- 
 ment, and on his release attained a very iwide circulation. 
 Its financial success attracted keen emulation. Its 
 tone was caught by journalists in other provinces. 
 
 The criticisms of the Congress probably counted both 
 in the appointment of a Commission ^which was to 
 advise police reforms, and in the improvements in the 
 revenue system initiated and carried through by Lord 
 Curzon. On the other hand, although the Plague 
 afforded the leaders of the movement an unique oppor- 
 tunity of standing forward and assisting Government 
 to counteract the prejudiced hostility of their more 
 ignorant countrymen to remediary measures, they took 
 small advantage of this opportunity. And throughout 
 the whole of this period the tone of the majority of 
 Indian-owned newspapers became more and more 
 hpstUe to the form of British rule established by law. 
 With monotonous regularity their readers were regaled 
 with diatribes against the constitution and poHcy of 
 the British Government. India was being drained of 
 her resources ; India was being plundered and oppressed 
 by aliens. This was the constant burden of a con- 
 stantly repeated song, varied now and then, when the 
 occasion demanded caution, by conventional phrases 
 about the blessings of British rule. Grave stress was 
 laid on the unfortunate fact that in 1894 the Govern- 
 
■ THE DELHI DmBAR 0^ 1903 53 
 
 ment of India had been compelled by the Secretary of 
 State to reduce the duty on Lancashire woven cotton 
 goods from 5 to 3J per cent. , and to impose a counter- 
 vailing excise duty of 3J per cent, on woven cotton 
 fabrics manufactured in Indian mills. And over and 
 over again were the doctrines preached that the pea- 
 santry ' were crushed by the land revenue demand, 
 and that the country was exploited by foreign capital. 
 I shall refer more fully to the latter accusation later on. 
 
 The death of Queen Victoria profoundly affected 
 public sentiment, for her messages to India on great 
 occasions had taught Indians to regard her as their own 
 Sovereign. At the time of the 1903 Durblir, which 
 celebrated the accession of King Edward, the political 
 barometer seemed steady. 
 
 The ceremonies were splendid ; the speech of the 
 Viceroy, Lord Gwazon, disclosed no presentiment of the 
 difl&culties and trials which were to come with an early 
 morrow. 
 
 " Princes and people," he said, " if we turn our 
 eyes for a moment to the future, a great development 
 appears with little doubt to lie before this country. 
 There is no Indian problem, be it of population, or 
 education, or labour, or subsistence, which it is not 
 within the power of statesmanship to solve. The solu- 
 tion of many is even now proceeding before our eyes. 
 If the combined Armies of Great Britain and India 
 can secure combined peace upon our borders ; if unity 
 prevails within them, between princes and people, be- 
 tween European and Indian, and between rxxlers and 
 ruled, and if the seasons fail not in their bounty, then 
 nothing can arrest the march of progress, the India of 
 the future will, under Providence, not be an India 
 of diminishing plenty, of empty prospect, or of justifi- 
 able discontent; but one of expanding industry, of 
 
 ^ The end of tbe last century -Kas marked by bad agricultural seasons 
 and the rapid spread of plague with disastrous economic consequences. 
 
54 POLITICAL MOVEMENTS— iPlRST STAGE 
 
 awakened faculties, of increasing prosperity, and of more 
 widely distributed comfort and wealtli. I have faith 
 in the conscience and the purpose of my own country, 
 and I believe in the almost illimitable capacities of this. 
 But under no conditions can this futmre be realised 
 than the imchallenged supremacy of the paramount 
 power, and under no controlling authority is this cap- 
 able of being maintained than that of the British 
 Crown." 
 
 Yet, in fact, this Durbar marked the end of the com- 
 paratively restful and imtroubled era which had lasted 
 for forty years. It was an era of successful and unchal- 
 lenged government, of increasing and widening educa- 
 tion, of growing commerce, of an improving land 
 revenue system, of all-round progress. Yet, among the 
 still scanty Western educated classes, discontent slum- 
 bered lightly under a surface that was usually smooth. 
 Peculiar economic conditions were producing an in- 
 creasing niimber of youths for whom life seemed hard 
 and difficult, in spite of English education ; the ideas 
 and customs of ages had been shaken ; political gather- 
 ings were beginning to surpass fairs and caste-meetings 
 in social interest. There was a desire for change, an 
 impatience of the present, a growing doctrine that the 
 old times were better than the new. In one part of 
 India this doctrine had been openly preached ; and 
 there and elsewhere advantage was taken of famines, of 
 plague, of poverty, of lack of occupation, of the chequered 
 incidents of the Boer War, to depreciate British effi- 
 ciency and British rule. Already, in Bombay, the 
 circulation of such ideas had received a special stimulus 
 from peculiar circumstances, and murder had resulted. 
 Coming years were to prove that if an edge could be 
 given to such latent discontent, the Poona incidents 
 would not stand alone. But the ruling princes, the 
 
LORD CURZON'S EDUCATIONAL REFORMS 55 
 
 territorial 9,nd rural classes, the military castes, the 
 masses, were tranquil and unchanged ; the outside of 
 affairs was calm; and Lord Curzon proceeded with 
 characteristic determination and enthusiasm to grapple 
 with the great problem of Indian education. 
 
 The results of the orders passed on the reports of 
 the Indian Education and Public Services Commis- 
 sions appointed by Lords Ripon and Dufferin had 
 been in some measure disastrous to secondary educa- 
 tion, especially in Bengal, where an excessive devolu- 
 tion of control to non-official agency had resulted in a 
 serious lowering of standards. The Calcutta Univer- 
 sity Syndicate, which presided over English education 
 in that province, and regulated the standards of the 
 examinations which lay before the thronging candidates 
 for Government service, had exercised little control over 
 secondary schools, leaving them largely to local com- 
 mittees. These committees consisted mainly of men 
 of small ideas, who thought only of providing sufficient 
 teaching to meet examination requirements. Moral 
 influences and training of character they comparatively 
 disregarded ; and, cutting down the cost of buildings, 
 and salaries of schoolmasters, to the lowest possible 
 levels, they provided the cheapest instruction that they 
 could contrive.' Vainly did the Government empha- 
 
 1 The following passages from a speech by the Hindu head master of a 
 high school in a prominent city of the United Provinces show clearly the 
 pitfalls which beset popular education in India : 
 
 " This school owes its expansion more to the Government and the 
 Government officials than to the general public, unless fees are regarded 
 as a public contribution. 
 
 " I make these remarks not because we fail to acknowledge the help 
 received from the public, but to emphasise the fact that the cause of the 
 education of our nation's children occupies only a secondary place in 
 the minds of the rich men and other people. We have yet to realise 
 the full responsibility of educating our children. Many parents seem to 
 feel absolved from all responsibility after sending their children to school. 
 
56 POLITICAL MOVEMENTS— FIRST STAGE 
 
 sise its view that it was " of little use to spend money 
 on schools where the teachers were either inefficient or 
 unable to maintain discipline or a healthy moral tone." 
 No serious attempt was made to alter things, and 
 grave abuses became increasingly apparent throughout 
 the whole Indian school and university system. Lord 
 Curzon determined to insist on thorough reforms. He 
 threw all his energies into the task, appealing earnestly 
 for non-official co-operation, and emphasising the im- 
 portance of the interests at stake. The education 
 which is the necessary preliminary to aU professional 
 and industrial work was obviously a great national 
 
 without inquiring whether the school concerned is a recognised institu- 
 tion or not. In this place there have sprung up a number of schools 
 from which the sanctity that should be attached to an educational insti- 
 tution is entirely absent, and of which money-making seems to be the 
 primary aim. The gullible parents are ready to pay exorbitant fees, and 
 those also ia advance for many months, when they are promised that 
 their boys would be put up three or four classes above the one for which 
 they were reaUy fit. It must be acknowledged that this state of afiairs 
 calls for the necessity of opening more schools of an approved type. But 
 I have to complain even against the parent whose sons read in a recog- 
 nised school, for he, too, is alive to his responsibility only when a seat 
 has to be secured for them — not an easy endeavour in these days — of 
 perhaps when they fail to obtain promotion. Only lately I had an occa- 
 sion to address a circular letter to the guardians of such students as failed 
 in two subjects at the first periodical examination, with a view to con- 
 ferring with them regarding the progress of their wards, but not more 
 than two per cent, cared to respond. 
 
 " When such is the apathy of the parents, the indifference at home 
 must be great indeed. Far be it from me to attribute want of affection 
 to the parents for their children, but this afiection is more ia evidence 
 when you see the little one at school patronising the sweetmeat vendor 
 than in properly regulating their life at home. The teacher hopes that 
 his work would be supplemented with adequate supervision at home, 
 but the parents expect that a few hours at school should make their 
 sons paragons of all virtues. To my mind one of the problems of educa- 
 tion in India is to make the home of the child in proper unison with his 
 school. If this were done, many social, educational, and, I dare say, 
 even political difficulties could be solved, and our boys would not be 
 exposed to dangers, as unfortunately they are now." 
 
PARTITION AGITATION IN BENGAL 57 
 
 concern ; it was " the key to employment, the con- 
 dition of all national advance and prosperity, and the 
 sole stepping-stone for every class of the community to 
 higher things." It was a social and political, even more 
 than an intellectual demand. 
 
 The Congress leaders, however, mainly because they 
 suspected that Lord Curzon's secret intention was to 
 check the growing numbers of the restless English- 
 educated classes, strenuously opposed the Viceroy, and 
 succeeded in impressing their ideas on the minds of 
 many persons incapable of appreciating the realities of 
 the situation. In spite of their opposition, Lord 
 Curzon passed a Universities Act of considerable im- 
 portance ; but he left India suddenly, his work came 
 to an abrupt termination, and drastic improvement 
 in secondary education has hung fire in Bengal from that 
 day to this. The Viceroy's ef[orts had, however, pro- 
 duced restlessness and resentment among the literate 
 classes, and these feelings were widened and deepened 
 by the Partition agitation. 
 
 No one has ever seriously denied that the old province 
 of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa was, by reason of its magni- 
 tude, an impossible and, because impossible, a sadly 
 neglected charge. 
 
 The Supreme Government had been slow to realise 
 that times had altered since 1785, when Warren Hast- 
 ings, reviewing his eventful administration, wrote that 
 the submissive character of the people of this province, 
 the fewness of their wants, " the abundant sources of 
 subsistence and of trafficable wealth which may be 
 drawn from the natural productions, and from the 
 manufactures, both of established usage and of new 
 institutions, left little to the duty of the magistrate ; in 
 effect nothing but attention, protection, and forbear- 
 ance." No soldiers of the Indian Army had been drawn 
 
58 POLITICAL MOVEMENTS— FIEST STAGE 
 
 from Bengal, and Bengalis had taken no share in the 
 rebellion of 1857. But as prosperity and population 
 increased, as English education spread, administration 
 became more complex, and the character of the edu- 
 cated classes stifEened and altered. The charge of 
 78,000,000 of people, including the inhabitants of the 
 largest and most Europeanised city in the East, was 
 far too onerous for one provincial administration ; and, 
 after considerable deliberation and consultation, Lord 
 Curzon decided to divide the old province and Assam 
 into the new provinces of Western Bengal, Bihar and 
 Orissa, and Eastern Bengal and Assam. 
 
 Administratively, this was the best arrangement. It 
 afforded most promise of opening up and developing 
 the rich, difl&cult, and populous water districts of 
 Eastern Bengal. But it split Bengal proper into two, 
 and gave Muhammadans a decided majority in the 
 Eastern Province. It was, therefore, strongly opposed 
 by the Congress leaders at Calcutta, the centre of 
 Hindu legal, educational, and political activities. They 
 proclaimed that a foreign government wished to insult 
 and efface Bengali nationality. When the partition 
 was carried out, they enlisted ardent support from 
 sympathisers all over India, proclaimed a boycott of 
 European goods, to be effected by the aid of students 
 and schoolboys, and organised a violent agitation on a 
 widespread and elaborate scale. Many of them were 
 moved by a new kind of sentiment. The achievements 
 of Japan had profoundly affected Indian political 
 thought. Their plans took time to develop, and were 
 largely suspended during the visit of the Prince and 
 Princess of Wales, which passed off successfully in 
 the cold season of 1905-6. Before the Congress of 
 1905 met at Benares, Lord Curzon had lefb India, and 
 the Unionist Ministry in England had been followed 
 
LORD CURZON'S ADMINISTRATION 59 
 
 by the representatives of a mammoth. Liberal majority. 
 Lord Minto had succeeded to the Viceroyalty, and Mr. 
 John Morley had been appointed Becretary of State for 
 India. 
 
 The events which closed the administration of the 
 departing Viceroy were destined to influence profoundly 
 the subsequent course of affairs. No viceroy has ever 
 played a part larger than the part played by Lord 
 Curzon. His influence on all branches of administra- 
 tion was vigorous and beneficial ; he placed the arrange- 
 ments for the security of the North- West frontier on 
 a stable footing ; he set an example of industry and 
 devotion which was finely expressed in his memorable 
 parting words.' 
 
 But we can see now that his bold and confident 
 nature led him to underrate the combination between 
 the opposition to the Partition of Bengal and the new 
 spirit which had arisen in India. The loosening of 
 control which was certain to follow on his departure ; 
 the number and bitterness of his enemies ; their eager- 
 ness and the anxiety of those who resented British rule 
 to seize any opportimity of misinterpreting all govern- 
 ment measures ; the plastic material which lay ready 
 
 1 " Oh that to every Englishman in this country, as he ends his work, 
 might truthfully be applied the phrase : ' Thou hast loved righteousness 
 and hated iniquity.' No man has, I believe, ever served India faith- 
 fully of whom that could not be said. Perhaps there are few of us who 
 make anything but a poor approximation to that ideal ; but let it be 
 lur ideal all the same. To fight for the right, to abhor the imperfect, 
 he unjust, to swerve neither to the right hand nor to the left. . . . Never 
 let your enthusiasm be soured, or your courage grOw dim, but to re- 
 member that the Almighty has placed His hand on the greatest of His 
 ploughs in whose furrow the nations of the future are germinating and 
 taking shape, to drive the blade a little forward in your time — that is 
 enough, that is the Englishman's justification in India. It is good 
 enough for his justification while he is here, for his epitaph whenjhe 
 is gone." 
 
60 POLITICAL MOVEMENTS— FIRST STAGE 
 
 to their hands ; all these were factors of so far undis- 
 covered potency. But, when accounts are balanced, 
 posterity will say, with Lord Morley : 
 
 " You never wiU send to India a Viceroy his superior, 
 if, indeed, his equal, in force of mind, in passionate and 
 devoted interest in all that concerns the well-being of 
 India, with an imagination fired by the grandeur of the 
 political problem that India presents. You never sent 
 a man with more of all these attributes than when you 
 sent Lord Curzon." 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 POLITICAL MOVEMENTS — SECOND STAGE 
 
 The Twenty-first Congress, held at Benares in Decem- 
 ber 1905, was attended by 756 delegates, of wbom 
 718 were Hindus, 17 were Muhaminadans, and 14 were 
 Sikhs. The tone of the introductory note to the printed 
 record of proceedings is notably aggressive. India 
 was declared to be " distracted, discontented, despon- 
 dent, the victim of many misfortunes, political and 
 others " ; the " cup of national indignation had been 
 fiUed to overflowing by the Partition designed to break 
 down the political power and influence of the educated 
 opinion of Bengal." The rise of Japan had, however, 
 it was said, produced a great moral impression, and a 
 new epoch had begun in the work of political regenera- 
 tion and emancipation not only for Bengal, but for all 
 India., The service of the motherland would become 
 " as great and overmastering a passion as in Japan." 
 
 The late Mr. Gokhale, a Chitpavan ' Brahman of 
 great intellectual power, was elected President. He 
 justified the boycott of European goods which had 
 been proclaimed by the leaders of the anti-Partition 
 agitation in Bengal, and declared that the time was 
 sensibly nearer when the bureaucratic monopoly of 
 power could be successfully assailed. /He asked for a 
 proportion of one-'half elected megtnbers in all the Coun- 
 cils, for an extension of Council privileges, and for the 
 
 1 Chitpavan Brahmans. (See page 48.) 
 61 
 
62 POLITICAL MOVEMENTS— SECOND STAGE 
 
 appointment of three Indians to the Council of the 
 Secretary of State. He considered that the time was 
 auspicious for these demands. Mr. John Morley was at 
 the India Ofl&ce,^and " our heart hopes and yettremble 
 as it has never yet hoped and trembled before." 
 
 Bitter complaint was made of the treatment of Indians 
 in the British colonies — a grievance of some standing 
 even then — and of the recent educational policy of Lord 
 Curzon's Government. The " pluck and heroism " of 
 the young Bengali anti-Partitionists were commended. 
 They were termed " pillars of the popular movement." 
 Reference was made to the rising sun of Japan. 
 
 In the new province of Eastern Bengal things grew 
 worse during 1906. As purely sentimental appeals 
 were inefiectual to excite sufficient popular sympathy, 
 the leaders of the anti-Partition movement, searchiag 
 for a national hero, endeavoured to import from Bom- 
 bay the cult of Sivaji, and appealed to the religion of 
 the multitude by placing their efiorts under the patron- 
 age of Kali, the goddess of strength and destruction. 
 Another device to which they resorted was borrowed 
 from Europe. Years before a Bengali named Bankim 
 Chandra had written a novel ' based on incursions by 
 some bands of Sanyasis,' fanatical Hindu banditti, who 
 in the year 1772, after a severe famine, had descended 
 on Bengal, their ranks swollen by a crowd of starving 
 peasants, and had obtained temporary successes against 
 some Government levies under British officers. The 
 novel contained a song which was adopted as a Mar- 
 seillaise by the anti-Partitionists, and has since become 
 famous as " Bande Mataram " — ^Hail, Motherland ! 
 Its sentiment is expressed in the following lines : 
 
 ^ The Ananda Math. See Appendix II. 
 
 2 Sanyasi means renounoer, i.e. renounoer of the world and even of 
 caste. The ordinary Sanyasi is simply an ascetic. 
 
PROGRESS OF ANTI-PARTITION AGITATION 63 
 
 *' We have no mother," sings the leader of the Sanyasis. 
 
 " We have no father, no brother, no wife, no child, 
 
 no hearth, no home. We acknowledge nothing 
 
 save the motherland. 
 My Motherland I sing ; Thou art my head, 
 
 Thou art my heart. 
 My life and soul art Thou, my soul, my worship, and 
 
 my art. 
 Before Thy feet I bow." 
 
 From the context in the novel it seems that the 
 Sanyasi's appeal was rather to his mother's land, the 
 land of Mother Kali, than to his motherland. 
 
 " Bande Mataram " and other effusions of a more 
 militant character were eagerly taken up by the masses 
 of Hindu youths who thronged the numerous schools 
 and colleges in Bengal under needy discontented 
 teachers. Indeed it was to enlist these facile recruits 
 that the Calcutta leaders addressed their main efforts. 
 " Swadeshi," or indigenous, industrial enterprises were 
 hastily started ; a boycott of foreign goods was pro- 
 claimed as the best and most effective weapon of retalia- 
 tion for the Partition, and arrangements were made to 
 carry but this boycott by persuasion, forcible if neces- 
 sary, through the agency of schoolboys and students. 
 The whole agitation was Hindu, and was strongly re- 
 sented by the Muhammadans, who form the majority in 
 Eastern Bengal, and had derived substantial and obvious 
 advantages from the new arrangements. But the 
 latter controlled no newspapers of importance, and had 
 few orators to voice their wishes. Their leaders were 
 few, their press was insignificant, and they lacked 
 the previous stimulus which had prepared the Hindu 
 youth of educated Bengal for a passionate agita- 
 tion. 
 
 In 1902 had died the Bengali enthusiast, Swami 
 
64 POLITICAL MOVEMENTS— SECOND STAGE 
 
 Vivekananda, whose words inculcating nationalism and 
 religion had sunk deep into the minds of many of the 
 educated classes, and not long ago might be seen printed 
 as texts on the walls of the rooms of students in Bengal. 
 His real name was Norendro Nath Datta, and he had 
 graduated in the Calcutta -University, but, subse- 
 quently , became an ascetic. He had visited the Chicago 
 Congress of religions as a missionary of Hinduism. 
 Returning, he preached and lectured in various parts 
 of India, acquiring a number of eager followers. The 
 nature of his teaching., may best be illustrated by 
 quotations from a lecture on " The Work before us," 
 delivered in Madras : 
 
 " With all my love for India, and with all my patri- 
 otism and veneration for the ancients, I cannot but 
 think that we have to learn many things from the 
 world. We must be always ready to sit at the feet of 
 all to learn great lessons ; for, mark you, every one can 
 teach us great lessons. ... At the same time we must 
 not forget that we have also to teach a great lesson to 
 the world. We cannot do without the world outside 
 India ; it was our foolishness that we thought we could, 
 and we have paid the penalty by about a thousand 
 years of slavery. That we did not go out to compare 
 things with other nations, did not mark the worHngs 
 that have been aU around us, has been the one great 
 cause of this degradation of the Indian mind. AU 
 such foolish ideas that Indians must not go out of 
 India are childish ; they must be knocked on the head ; 
 the more you go out and travel among the nations of 
 the world, the better for you and for your country. If 
 you had done that for hundreds of years past, you 
 would not be here to-day at the feet of every country 
 that wants to rule India. The first manifest effect of 
 life is expansion. You must expand if you want to 
 liv'e. The moment you have ceased to expand, death 
 is upon you, danger is ahead. I went to America and 
 
VTVEKANANDA'S TEACHING 65 
 
 Europe, to which yon so kindly allude ; I had to go 
 because that is the first sign of the revival of national 
 life — expansion. . . . Those of you who think that the 
 Hindus have been always confined within the four walls 
 of their country through all ages are entirely mistaken ; 
 they have not studied the whole books; they have 
 not studied the history of the race aright. ... I am 
 an imaginative man, and my idea is the conquest of the 
 whole world by the Hindu race. There have been 
 great conquering races in the world. We also have 
 been great conquerors. The story of our conquest has 
 been described by the great Emperor of India, Asoka, 
 as the conquest of religion and spirituality. ,Once 
 more the world must be conquered by India. . . . Let 
 foreigners come and flood the land with their armies, 
 never mind. Up, India, and conquer the world with 
 your spirituality ! Aye, as has been declared on this 
 soU, first love must conquer hatred ; hatred cannot 
 conquer itself. Materialism and all its miseries can 
 never be conquered by materialism. Armies, when they 
 attempt to conquer armies, only multiply and make 
 brutes of humanity. Spirituality must conquer the 
 West. Slowly they are finding it out that what they 
 want is spirituality to preserve them as nations." 
 
 Force and bitterness were added to ideas inspired 
 by such teaching, when it was possible to represent an 
 administrative measure as designed to thwart national 
 expansion, when nxunbers of publications were alleg- 
 ing that the British Were cunning oppressors. 
 
 As in Bengal the Hindu political leaders wanted the 
 boycott, while the Muhammadans did not, relations 
 between the two communities rapidly deteriorated, 
 and attempts to enforce disuse or destruction of Euro- 
 pean goods led to blows and riots. Hindu agitation 
 steadily intensified in bitterness. The first Lieutenant- 
 Governor of the new eastern province. Sir Bamfylde 
 Fuller, endeavoured to stem the current, but was not 
 
\ 
 
 66 POLITICAL MOVEMENTS— SECOND STAGE 
 
 supported by the Supreme Government in certain action 
 which he considered essential, and resigned office. His 
 resignation increased an impression, akeady current, 
 that the Government feared to use effective pre- 
 ventives. The Indian army then took no recruits from 
 Bengal, and the villages contain no sobering element 
 of pensioned soldiers who are acquainted with the 
 realities of British power. Tew of the village people 
 outside Calcutta had seen British troops, and some in 
 the remote water-logged under-administered districts 
 of the eastern province were encouraged by the lawless- 
 ness of the agitators and the forbearance of Govern- 
 ment to believe that the days of British rule were 
 drawing to an end. Boycott and picketing frequently 
 ended in disturbances in which schoolboys and teachers 
 were prominent. 
 
 The Congress of 19061 again justified the boycott, 
 end requested annulment of the Partition. It also 
 formulated a new demand which was intended to, and 
 did, unite for a time those Indian politicians who 
 aspired to a far larger share in the Government and 
 other more violent spirits who were beginning to yisuahse 
 an end of British rule. The demand was that the 
 system of government obtaining in the self-governing 
 British colonies should be extended to India. As pre- 
 liminaries, such reforms as simultaneous examinations 
 for the Civil Service and considerably enlarged Legis- 
 lative Councils should be iromediatdy instituted. In 
 the presidential address of Mr. Dadabhai Naoroji, after 
 an appeal to the Muhammadans for co-operation, 
 occurred the following words : " Once self-government 
 is attained, there will be prosperity enough for all, but 
 not tin then." He thought that union therefore of aU 
 the people for their emancipation was an absolute neces- 
 sity. 
 
THE CONGRESS OF 1906 67 
 
 " Agitation," he considered, " is the life and soul of 
 the whole political, social, and industrial history of 
 England. The life of England is all agitation. . . . 
 Agitation is the civilised peaceful weapon of moral force, 
 and infinitely preferable to brute physical force, when 
 possible. Agitate, agitate over the whole length and 
 breadth of India, peacefully of course, if we mean really 
 to get justice from John Bull. Satisfy him that we 
 are in earnest. The Bengalis, I am glad, have learnt 
 the lesson and led the march. . . . Agitate means in- 
 form. Inform the Indian people what their rights are, 
 and why and how they should obtain them." 
 
 Mr. Naoroji ignored the important fact that agitation 
 in homogeneous England does not mean the exacerbation 
 of cdour- feeling, of racial jealousy and hatred. In India 
 it is generally carried on by methods which mean this. 
 
 As a matter of fact, however, those leaders of the 
 Congress movement who had not become intoxicated 
 with excitement and racial animosity, had before this 
 meeting begun to see that things were going too far. It 
 is probable too that some at least were becoming aware 
 that behind all the whirlwind of passion ih Bengal, 
 behind the schools and colleges which were developing 
 into seed-beds of sedition, behind the pamphlets and^ 
 newspapers which were disseminating hatred and bitter- \ 
 ness far and wide, the groamd was being prepared for 
 even more serious doings by fanatics inflamed with; 
 the purpose of gradually organising a bloody revolt.; 
 This the Goveroaient was slow to realise. The move- 
 ment was persistently misunderstood by its friends 
 in England. It had not touched the fighting races 
 or the fighting castes, and the main grievance was 
 sentiraental. Few anticipated that it would lead to 
 actual bloodshed.' Fewer dreamt that it would bring 
 
 ^ A loyal Bengali gentleman once told the author that he waa so 
 amazed by the first outrages that he refused to credit them. 
 6 
 
68 POLITICAL MOVEMENTS— SECOND STAGE 
 
 forth an unending series of violent crimes, or that, in 
 a country where sons closely adhere to the occupations 
 of their fathers, the sons of clerks, lawyers, and school- 
 masters wouldy under the influence of racial sentiment 
 and vague ideaflsm, abjure the^mbitions of their class 
 and drill with da^ers and pistols ; and indeed it is 
 certain that had mompf thei^ young men and boys ever 
 known firm discipline aMintelligent supervision, in and 
 out of study hours, theyVould not have fallen so easy 
 a prey to the plots of >miscnipulous revolutionaries. 
 
 The mixture of id^s which\ppealed to such victims 
 is illustrated by a /^nf ession whS^h the author has read. 
 It stated that yflie promptings ttei which the young 
 revolutionary Jiad succumbed were arrived from his- 
 tories of India and the rise of other nations, newspaper 
 tales of HMreatment of Indians by Europeans, stories 
 of secret/' societies in magazines like the Strand, " ac- 
 counts ^f the present better condition of other coun- 
 tries." He had later begun to doubt the veracity of 
 these accounts. Finally, he joined because the boycott 
 agitation afforded a " grand opportunity." 
 
 But although the reasonable members of the Con- 
 gress of 1906, who had acquired the title of " Moder- 
 ates," wished to call a halt, they did not as yet separate 
 from their more intemperate and thorough-going col- 
 leagues who, pushing recklessly on, were becoming 
 known as Extremists. In March 1907 the Viceroy 
 (Lord Minto) publicly announced that he had sent 
 home a despatch to the Secretary of State proposing 
 administrative reforms on a liberal basis. About the 
 same time serious disturbances occurred in the Punjab. 
 In that province ' Arya Samajists are numerous, and the 
 large cities contain many Bengali immigrants. Disturb- 
 ances took place ; attempts were made to tamper with 
 
 ' See page 27. 
 
EVOLUTION OF THE CONGRESS 69 
 
 Sikh and Jat regiments, and two leading Arya Samajists 
 were deported. In tke two Bengals things were grow- 
 ing worse. The provinces at large were peaceful, but 
 Revolutionaries were increasing and were preparing to 
 improve on Extremist doctrines. Societies composed 
 mainly of youths belonging to respectable and educated 
 families were studying the use of pistols and explosives. 
 Publications were industriously circulated which, as 
 there is conclusive evidence to show, enormously ex- 
 cited Hindu opinion. The most famous of these was 
 the Yugantar [New Era) newspaper, which from 1906 
 to July 1907, when its first editor went to prison, poured 
 forth passages exhibiting, as a judge afterwards said, 
 " a burning hatred of the British race." This paper 
 was not finally suppressed till 1908. The mischief 
 caused by it and its kind is incalculable. 
 
 In December the Congress met at Surat. Nagpur 
 in the Central Provinces, midway between Bengal and 
 Bombay, had been selected as the meeting-place, but 
 arrangements were altered, as the reception committee 
 was broken up by a gang of Extremists. The pen was 
 seized from the hands of the chairman, and the Moder- 
 ates were pushed out of a hall and assailed with stones 
 and mud. At Surat again the Extremists tried to 
 impose their will by force on those who differed from 
 them, and the Congress ended in riotous scenes. The 
 chief Moderates on this memorable occasion were Mr. 
 Gokhale and Mr. Sujrendra Nath Banerjee. The Ex- 
 tremist leaders were Mr. Tilak and Mr, Arabindo Ghose. 
 "Bombay and Bengal led on each side. The Extremists 
 were either " academic " or " physical force," argu- 
 mentative or practical. The latter identified them- 
 selves with the revolutionary societies which were form- 
 ing in Bengal and Bombay, and in the former Presidency 
 had already committed several outrages. 
 
70 POLITICAL MOVEMENTS— SECOND STAGE 
 
 On May 3rd, 1908, two English ladies were 
 assassinated at MuzafEarpur in Biliar hj a Bengali 
 bomb-thrower, who intended his missile for a British 
 magistrate ; and after this horrible event the arrest of a 
 number of young men in a garden in Maniktollah, a 
 suburb of Calcutta, and their subsequent trial ended in 
 the conviction of nineteen out of thirty-six accused, and 
 in the disclosure of an elaborate conspiracy for secur- 
 ing the liberation of India through the " easily aroused 
 and misdirected ardour (Jf~yeatii." It was proved that 
 the convicts had, for over two years, launched on the 
 public a highly inflammatory propaganda; they had 
 collected arms and ammunition ; they had studied 
 bombs. The following words of the Sessions Judge 
 show how the licence of the Press had assisted their 
 purpose : 
 
 " There can be no doubt that the majority of the 
 witnesses . . . are in sympathy with the accused. I 
 do not say with their motives, but with their objects ; 
 and it is only natural that they should be. Their 
 natural desire for independence was not likely to be 
 weakened by the constant vilification in season and out 
 of season of Government measures, not only by the 
 Yellow Press, but by papers which claim to be respect- 
 able." 
 
 The Maniktollah conspirators were for the most part 
 men of good education. Their leader, Barindra, was 
 born in England. His faith was apparently this. He 
 considered that Hindu manhood was stunted, and 
 Hindu religion and mysticism were losing vitality imder 
 foreign rule. To strive without scruple or intermis- 
 sion for the expulsion of the foreigners was therefore a 
 duty which sanctified any means whereby the object 
 might be achieved. It could be achieved eventually 
 
BEGINNING OF REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT 71 
 
 by sedulous difiusion of revolutionary propaganda,' .by 
 wimiing over the Indian troops, by sapping tbe con- 
 fidence of the people in their foreign rulers, and by a 
 widespread concentration of determined effort. The 
 struggle might be long, but was worth undertaking. 
 
 Such were the original leaders and organisers of the 
 Bengal revolutionary movement ; but many of- their 
 followers were more ordinary men, and some were 
 students and schoolboys, whose initiation had come 
 through the picketing which accompanied the boycott 
 movement. Aided by inflammatory newspapers, the 
 conspirators enormously impressed the youth of Bengal 
 and some sections of the people of Calcutta. The cruel 
 and inhuman nature of successive crimes was ignored 
 in admiration for criminals who had shown that Ben- 
 galis could foUow plots into action, could risk their lives 
 for a cause. A single instance of this perverted hero- 
 worship may^ be quoted. One of the conspirators, a 
 graduate of the Dupleix College, Chandernagore, named 
 Kanai Lai Datt, was executed for the murder of an 
 associate who had turned informer. His body was 
 handed over to his relatives and was cremated. The 
 obsequies were accompanied by such fervid and sen- 
 sational scenes that not long afterwards a Bengali youth 
 falsely confessed to the murder of a police sub-inspector 
 because he desired to have a funeral like Kanai's. 
 
 While in Bengal the MamktoUah conspirators were 
 being brought to account, in Bombay Mr. Tilak pub- 
 lished articles in the Kesari to the effect that the 
 Muzaffarpui murders were the result of oppression and 
 of the refusal of swaraj (self-government). The lan- 
 guage and spirit of these articles resulted in his prose- 
 cution for attempting to bring the British Government 
 
 1 The literature of the movement is fuUy described in the published 
 report of the Sedition Committee. 
 
72 POLITICAL MOVEMENTS— SECOND STAGE 
 
 into hatred and contempt, and for endeavouring to 
 provoke enmity and hatred between different classes 
 of His Majesty's subjects. He was convicted and 
 sentenced to six years' imprisonment.' His admirers 
 instigated rioting for several days in Bombay, and at- 
 tempted to hold a separate congress in Nagpur, but 
 were prohibited from doing so by the Central Provinces 
 Government. They showed their displeasure by assault- 
 ing solitary Europeans, and breaking the windows of a 
 flourishing Indian factory because the factory hands 
 would not join their disorderly demonstrations. 
 
 The newspaper, India, the organ of the British 
 committee of the Congress, thus commented on the 
 split of 1907 : 
 
 " If the young men are throwing in their lot with 
 Mr. Tilak, and have ceased to believe in the promised 
 of Englishmen, Englishmen have only themselves to 
 thank for it. When Mr. Morley came into o£&ce two 
 years ago, he had the ball at his feet. The party of 
 Extremists existed, it is true, but it had neither mun- 
 bers nor influence. A policy of concession and con- 
 ciliation was needed to disarm them. It was deUberately 
 ignored." 
 
 These words, however, do not truly describe the 
 situation. Lord Morley's policy was a pohcy of con- 
 cession and conciliation. Reforms had been incubat- 
 ing for some time, and the attitude of the Indian and 
 Home Governments toward the Partition agitation and 
 its accompaniments had been remarkably forbearing 
 under exceptional provocation. It is possible that pre- 
 ventive and remedial measures would have been less 
 tardy had not the depth and violence of the movement 
 been only gradually and imperfectly appreciated by the 
 
 1 See paragraph 8, Chapter I — ^Report of the (Rowlatt) Sedition Com- 
 mittee, 
 
ORIGIN OF THE MUSLIM LEAGUE 73 
 
 highest authorities. The agitators and their disciples 
 belonged to the peaceable castes ; and even persons who 
 were well acquainted with Bengal failed to realise the 
 strength of three influences : the triumph of Japan over 
 Russia ; the new nationalism and the carefully instilled 
 racial hatred, as well as the effect of all these factors 
 on the uncritical and altruistic spirit of youth. Such 
 currents were favoured by a growing economic pressure 
 to which I will later recur. They were driven on by 
 calumnies sown broadcast of the most subtle and un- 
 scrupulous kind. 
 
 The history of revolutionary conspiracy in Bengal 
 and India has recently been investigated by a special 
 Committee, whose report will be noticed fully in a later 
 chapter. It shows that from 1907 until now political 
 crimes, murders, bomb-outrages, robberies, have been 
 committed in Bengal, and that secret revolutionary 
 societies have attracted an unfailing flow of recruits. 
 The poisonous contagion has now and then spread to 
 other provinces and gathered force from other currents, 
 but has borne most fruit in Bengal. Its genesis and 
 progress are detailed in the Sedition Committee's Re- 
 port. 
 
 Before proceeding further with the history of Hindu 
 political movements, it is necessary to give some ac- 
 count of the origin of the Muslim League. 
 
 Sir Saiyid Ahmad had died in 1898, shortly after 
 rendering a last valuable service to the British Govern- 
 ment. In order to combat pan-Islamic sentiment 
 excited by the Greco-Turkish War, he contributed 
 articles to the Aligarh Institute Gazette, denying the 
 pretensions of Sultan Abdul Hamid to the Khalifat 
 {i.e. the temporal and spiritual succession to the Prophet 
 Muhammad),' and preaching loyalty to the British 
 
 1 See Appendix III. 
 
74 POLITICAL MOVEMENTS— SECOND STAGE 
 
 rulers of India even if they were " compelled to pursue 
 an unfriendly policy toward Turkey." A great leader 
 had passed from Muhammadan India and left no suc- 
 cessor. Times, too, were changed, and new problems 
 had arisen. The Muhammadans had become uneasy 
 as to the place which they would occupy in the reforms 
 which were under discussion in 1906 ; and on October 
 1st of that year their principal leaders, headed by 
 His Highness the Agha Khan, presented an address to 
 the Viceroy gratefully acknowledging the peace, seciuity, 
 and liberty of person and worship conferred by the 
 British Grovernment, and emphasising the fact that one 
 of the most important characteristics of British rule 
 was the deference paid to the views and wishes of aU 
 races and religions. The object of the deputation was 
 to present the claims of 62,000,000 of Muhammadans 
 to a fair share in any modified system of representation 
 that might be contemplated, the share to be com- 
 mensurate with their numbers and political importance. 
 Representative institutions of the European type were 
 new to Indians, and, in the absence of the greatest 
 caution, dangerous to their national interests. The 
 deputation deprecated a system of individual enfran- 
 chisement, and complained of the monopoly of o£&cial 
 influence by one class, pointing out that no Muham- 
 madan Judge sat in any Supreme Court. Continuing, 
 the address urged the need of a Muhammadan univer- 
 sity, and insisted on the importance of local boards 
 and municipalities as the basis of aU local self-govern- 
 ment. 
 The Viceroy replied that : 
 
 " although British ideas must prevail, they must not 
 carry with them an impracticable insistence on the 
 acceptance of political methods. . . . You justly claim 
 that your position should be estimated not merdy on 
 
FOUNDATION OF THE MUSLIM LEAGUE 75 
 
 your nuinerical strength, but in respect of the political 
 importance of your community and the service it has 
 rendered to the Empire. I am in accordance with 
 you." 
 
 Thus originated the concession to minorities of com- 
 munal representation. The Muslim League then came 
 gradually into widespread existence. Meetings were 
 held at Dacca in 1906 at the invitation of the late 
 Nawab Salim-ullah Khan, who was making a strong 
 stand for law and order in Eastern Bengal, and at 
 Karachi in 1907 under Sir Adamjee Peerbhoy. The 
 resolutions passed related to adequate Muslim repre- 
 sentation in the new Councils, to Muslim places in the 
 public service, and to Muslim loyalty. In March 1908 
 a meeting was held at Aligarh undgr the presidency of 
 the Agha Khan. A branch had been started in London 
 imder the Honourable Mr. Amir Ali. The principles of 
 the promoters of the League were thus expounded in a 
 letter addressed by the Agha Khan to a meeting of the 
 Deccan branch. He wrote that amid much that was 
 good in India, they saw a growing indiscipline and con- 
 tempt for authority, a striving after change without 
 perceiving whither change would lead, and the setting 
 up pf false and impracticable constitutional ideas. No 
 man who loved his country as the Indian Muslims did 
 could stand idly by and see India drifting irrevocably 
 to disastCT. Prosperity and contentment could only be 
 reached by processes of development and evolution 
 working on natural lines. These processes required the 
 existence of a strong, just, and stable Grovernment, a 
 Government securing justice and equal opportunity to 
 all, minorities as well as majorities. It was the duty 
 of all patriots to strengthen British control under which 
 had been effected the amazing progress of a century. 
 
 The Muhammadan representations came none too 
 
76 POLITICAL MOVEMENTS— SECOND STAGE 
 
 soon, for, on November 2nd, 1908, the fiftieth 
 anniversary df Queen Victoria's Proclamation, King 
 Edward VII issued a second Proclamation to the Princes 
 and people of India. It claimed that " the incorpora- 
 tion of many strangely diversified commxmities and of 
 some 300,000,000 of the human race, under British 
 guidance and control, has proceeded steadfastly and 
 without pause : that difficulties such as attend all 
 human rule had been faced by servants of the British 
 Crown with toil and courage and patience, with deep 
 counsel and a resolution that has never faltered nor 
 shaken." It undertook to repress anarchy and to take 
 continuously steps towards obliterating distinctions of 
 race as the test for access to posts of public authority. 
 It announced that the time had come to " prudently 
 extend the principle of representative institutions." It 
 foreshadowed reforms in " politic satisfaction " of the 
 claims of important classes " representing ideas that 
 have been fostered and encouraged by British rule." 
 
 These reforms were announced by Lord Morley on 
 the 17th of the following month. They had been under 
 consideration for two years, and every effort had been 
 made to gauge the trend of public opinion and to con- 
 sult all interests concerned. The reforms were on a 
 large and generous scale. The Legislative Councils 
 were greatly enlarged. The Provincial Councils were 
 given non-official majorities. So far the nearest ap- 
 proach to the election of non-official members had been 
 nominations by Government upon the recormnenda- 
 tions of majorities of the voters on certain public bodies. 
 Now Parliament was asked, " in a very definite way, 
 to introduce election working alongside of nomination 
 with a view to the due representation of the different 
 classes of the community." Any member was to be 
 allowed to divide his Legislative Council on financial 
 
THE MORLEY-MINTO REFORMS 77 
 
 questions, and all such Councils were to be invested 
 with power to discuss matters of public and general 
 importance and to pass recommendations or resolutions 
 to the Executive Government. The Government would 
 deal with such resolutions as they thought fit ; but 
 the concession was one of great importance, and has 
 materially influenced the course of political events. 
 Further, the Executive Councils of the Supreme and 
 Subordinate Governments were to receive Indian mem- 
 bers. Lord Morley had already appointed two Indians, j 
 one Hindu and one Muhammadan, to the Council of the | 
 Secretary of State. His reforms were, with slights, 
 variations, accepted by both Houses. In explaining 
 them, he took pains to disclaim all intention of in- 
 augurating a system of parliamentary government in 
 India. Such a system he apparently considered un- 
 suited to Indian conditions, and for this reason, while 
 conceding non-oflS.cial majorities in the Provincial 
 Legislative Councils, he retained the official majority 
 in the Imperial Council. He explained this distinction 
 in the following words : 
 
 " But in the Imperial Council we consider an official 
 majority essential. It may be said that this is a most 
 flagrant logical inconsistency. So it would be on one 
 condition. If I were attemptiag to set up a parlia- 
 mentary system in India, or if it could be said that 
 this chapter of reforms led directly or indirectly to the 
 establishment of a parliamentary system in India, I, 
 for one, would have nothing at all to do with it. I do 
 not beUeve — ^it is not of very great consequence what 
 I believe, because the fulfilment of my vaticinations 
 could not come off very soon — ^in spite of the attempts 
 in Oriental Countries at this moment, interesting at- 
 tempts to which we all wish well, to set up some sort 
 of parliamentary system — it is no ambition of mine 
 at all events to have any share in beginning that opera- 
 
78 POLITICAL MOVEMENTS— SECOND STAGE 
 
 tion in India. If my existence, eitlier officially or 
 corporeally, were to be prolonged twenty times longer 
 than either of them is likely to be, a parliamentary 
 system in India is not at aU the goal to which I would 
 for one moment aspire." ' 
 
 It is, however, not sm^prising that the reforms were 
 regarded by Indian politicians as a decided step toward 
 parliamentary government, for it is difficidt to reconcile 
 Lord Morley's words with his establishment of non- 
 official majorities in the provincial Legislative Councils, 
 or with his poHcy of prudently extending " the principle 
 of representative institutions." Lord Curzon, in the 
 House of Lords on February 23rd, 1909, criticised 
 the new measure in the following terms : 
 
 " I wonder how these changes wiU, in the last resort, 
 affect the great mass of the people of India, the people 
 who have no vote and have scarcely a voice. Remem- 
 ber that to these people, representative government 
 and electoral institutions are nothing whatever. The 
 good government that appeals to thfem is the govern- 
 ment which protects them from the rapacious money- 
 lender and landlord, from the local vakH, and aU the 
 other sharks in human disguise who prey upon these 
 imfortunate people. I have a misgiving that this 
 class will not fare much better under these changes 
 than they do now. At any rate I see no place for them 
 in these enlarged Councils which are to be created, and 
 I am under the strong opinion that as government in 
 India becomes more and more parliamentary — as will 
 be the inevitable result — so it will become less paternal 
 and less beneficent to the poorer classes of the popula- 
 tion." 
 
 The reception accorded to these changes by the 
 Congress, now void of Extremists, was enthusiastic. 
 
 1 The difflcvilties of forming parliamentary electorates in India are 
 clearly set forth in paragraph 263 of the Montagu-Chelmsford Report. 
 
RECEPTION ACCOUDED TO THEM 79 
 
 A Bengali deputation to the Viceroy presented an 
 address containing the following passage : " It is a step 
 worthy of the noble traditions of the Government which 
 has given us liberty of thought and of speech, high 
 education, and local self-government." The. late Mr. 
 Gokhale, the leader of the Moderates, whose outlook had 
 altered since December 1906, spoke of " the generous 
 and fair nature " of the reforms, and urged that they 
 should be gratefully accepted. Co-operation with 
 Government must take the place of mere criticism of 
 Government. The attitvde of constant antagonism must 
 he abandoned. Hindus, Muhammadans, and Parsis were 
 mostly a dreamy race, and the Hindus were especially 
 so. 
 
 " I admit," he said, " the importance of dreams in 
 shaping our aspirations ; but in practical matters we 
 have to be practical men and remember two things. 
 Life is not like writing on a clean slate. We have to 
 take the words existing on the slate and add other 
 words so as to make complete sentences and produce a 
 harmonious meaning. Seedsd^, whatever you may 
 ask for is not the same thing i^^hat which you will get, 
 or win be qualified to, in prac^e, maintain if you get." 
 
 The Muhammadans, however^ 'asked for representa- 
 tion in excess of their numericarsliength, and arrange- 
 ments were made to meet their wishes in accordance 
 with the undertaking given by Lbrd Minto and subse- 
 quen,tly endorsed by Lord Morley in the House of 
 Lords on February 23rd, 1909. 
 
 For this and other reasons the regulations which 
 were framed in India to carry into effect the intentions 
 of the British Parliament failed in some measure to 
 give complete satisfaction to advanced Hindus. Still, 
 on the whole, reasonable Progressives were satisfied ; 
 and the Conservative classes, whose interests had been 
 
80 POLITICAL MO^rEMENTS— SECOND STAGE 
 
 carefully considered in th.e regulations, were pleased 
 with the stir and novelty of the new order of things. 
 
 The partition of Bengal, however, was still denounced 
 by the Bengali Moderate leaders : and on the stream 
 of anarchic crime the reforms produced no effect. 
 The police had been strengthened in Bengal, and 
 remediary measures had been adopted; but it was 
 plain to all that the seeds so long and widely sown 
 among the youth of the country by deliberate propa- 
 ganda and poisonous newspapers was still bearing 
 abundant fruit. At Poona, on July 8th, 1909, Mr. 
 Gokhale again urged loyal acquiescence in British rule 
 for two reasons : 
 
 " One that, considering the difficulties of the position, 
 Britain had done very weU in India, the other that 
 there was no alternative to British rule and could be 
 none for a long time. . . . They could proceed in two 
 directions : first toward an obliteration of distinctions, 
 on the grounds of race, between individual Indians and 
 individual Englishmen, and second by way of advance 
 toward the form of government enjoyed in other parts 
 of the Empire. The latter was an ideal for which the 
 Indian people had to qimlify themselves, for the whole 
 question turned on character and capacity, and they must 
 realise that their main difficulties lay with themselves." 
 
 Again at Bombay, on October 9th of the same 
 year, in addressing the Students' Brotherhood, he 
 strongly denounced the active participation of students 
 in politics, and the tactics and objects of the Extremists, 
 in the following memorable terms : 
 
 " The active participation of students in political 
 agitation really tends to lower the dignity and the re- 
 sponsible character of public life and impair its true 
 effectiveness. It ' also fills the students themselves 
 with unhealthy excitement, often evoking in them a 
 
MR. GOKHALE'S FIRM STAND 81 
 
 bitter p&rtisan spirit whicli cannot fail to interfere with 
 their studies and prove injurious to their intellectual 
 and moral growth. ... I venture to think that a stage 
 has been reached in our affairs when it is necessary for 
 us to face resolutely our responsibilities in this matter. 
 Every one knows that during the past few years a new 
 school of political thought has arisen in the country, 
 and that it has exercised a powerful fascination over 
 the minds of young men more or less in all parts of 
 India. A considerable part of what it has preached 
 could not but find ready acceptance on every hand, 
 that love of country shoiild be a ruling principle of our 
 lives ; that we should rejoice in making sacrifices for 
 her sake ; that we should rely, wherever we could, on 
 our own exertions . . . side by side with this undoubtedly 
 valuable work, the new party gave to the country a 
 great deal of what could only be regarded as unsound 
 political teaching. That teaching was in the first in- 
 stance directed to the destruction of the very founda- 
 tions of the old public life of the country. But, once 
 started, it could not be confined to that object, and in 
 course of time it came to be applied generally. Its 
 chief error lies in ignoring all historical considerations 
 and tracing our political troubles to the existence of a 
 foreign Government in the country. Our old pubhc life 
 was based on frank and loyal acceptance of British 
 rule, due to a recognition of the fact that it alone could 
 secure to the country the peace and order which were 
 necessary for slowly evolving a nation out of the hetero- 
 geneous elements of which India was composed, and 
 for ensuring to it a steady advance in different direc- 
 tions. The new teaching condemns all faith in the 
 British Government as childish and aU hope of real 
 progress under it as vain. . . . Our general lack of 
 political judgment is also responsible for the large 
 measure of acceptance which it (' the new teaching ') 
 received. Not many of us care to think for ourselves 
 in political matters, or, for the matter of that, in any 
 public matters. Ready-made opinions are as con- 
 
82" f»OLITrCAL MOVEMENTS— SECOND STAGE 
 
 venient as ready-made clothes and not so noticeable. 
 ... I tliink those of our public men wbo realise tbe 
 barm which the new teaching has done, have not so far 
 done their duty by the student community of this 
 country. ... I feel that it is now incumbent on us to 
 speak out freely. As I have said, the self-reliance 
 which is part of the new propaganda cannot but be 
 acceptable to all. It is in regard to the attitude to- 
 ward the ^overimient which the prograname advocates 
 that the need for a protest and a warning arises. . . . 
 When one talks to young men of independence in a 
 country like this, only two ideas are likely to present 
 themselves clearly before their minds. One is how to 
 get rid of the foreigner, and the other is how soon to 
 get rid of him. All else must appear to them as con- 
 paratively of minor importance. . . . We have to re- 
 -cognise that British rule, in spite of its inevitable draw- 
 backs as a foreign rule, has been on the whole a great 
 instrument of progress for our people. Its continuance 
 means the continuance of that feace and order which it 
 alone can maintain in our country, and with which our 
 best interests, among them, those of our growing nation- 
 ality, are bound up. . . . Our rulers stand pledged to 
 extend to us equality of treatment with themselves.- 
 This equality is to be sought in two fields : equality for 
 individual Indians with individual Englishmen, and 
 equality in regard to the form of government which 
 EngUshmen enjoy in other parts of the Empire. The 
 attainment of full equality with Englishmen, if ever it 
 is accomplished, is bound to be a slow and weary afiair. 
 But one thing is clear. It is both our right and our 
 duty to press along this road, and further, good faith 
 requires that we should not think of taking any other. 
 Of the twofold equality we have to seek with English- 
 men, the first, though difficult of attainment, is not so 
 difficult as the second. For it is possible to find in 
 this country a fair number of Indians who in character 
 and capacity could hold their own against individual 
 Englislunen. But the attainment of a democratic form 
 
Mil. GOKHALE'S FIRM STAND 83 
 
 of self-government such as obtains in other parts of 
 the Empire must depend upQn the average strength 
 in character and capacity Of our people taken as a 
 whole, for it is on our average strength that the weight 
 of the edifice of self-government will have to rest. 
 And here it mast be regretfully admitted that our 
 average strength to-day is far below the British average. 
 The most important work before us, therefore, is to 
 endeavour to raise this average. There is work enough 
 for the most enthusiastic lover of his country. In fact 
 on every side, whichever way we turn, only one sight 
 meets the eye — that of work to be done — and only one 
 cry is heard — ^that there are but few faithful workers. 
 The elevation of the depressed classes, who have to be 
 brought up to the level of the rest of our people, \mi- 
 versal elementary education, co-operation, improve- 
 ment of the economic condition of the peasantry, higher 
 education of women, spread of industrial and technical 
 education and building up the industrial strength of 
 the country, promotion of closer relations between the 
 different communities — ^these are some of the tasks 
 which lie in front of us, and each needs a whole army 
 of devoted missionaries." 
 
 ? Unfortunately, however, revolutionary teaching and 
 revolutionary crime had passed beyond the stage at 
 which any words of Mr. Gokhale's could avaU to arrest 
 them. The m.asses were unaffected ; but violent crime, 
 
 frequently unpunished, and racial hatred, widely 
 preached, were producing their natural influence on many 
 members of the rising generation of the better educated. 
 As a couilterpoise, Mr. Grokhale had founded the " Ser- 
 vants of India" society, the objects of which were 
 " to train national missionaries for the Service of India 
 and to promote by all constitutional means the true 
 interest of the Indian people." The members of the 
 society were bound to accept the British connection, 
 and to recognise that self-goverimient within the Empire 
 7 
 
84 POLITICAL MOVEMENTS— SECOND STAGE 
 
 and a higher life for their countrymen constituted an 
 end which could not be attained without years of 
 patient effort and building up in the country a higher 
 type of character and capacity than was then generally 
 available. 
 
 So ominous was the outlook at this time, that the 
 Viceroy took the unusual step of communicating direct 
 with the Ruling Chiefs on the subject of the active 
 unrest prevalent in various parts of India, and invited 
 an exchange of opinions " with a view to mutual co- 
 operation against a common danger." The replies 
 which he received were both sympathetic and sugges- 
 tive, the majority strongly recommending the necessity 
 of checking the licence of the Indian press, to which 
 they attributed the responsibility for the widening of 
 the gulf between the rulers and the ruled. The 
 Eevolutionaries had themselves addressed a menacing 
 pamphlet to the Chiefs. The letters of the latter con- 
 tributed toward the passing of that long-needed and 
 long-deferred measure, the Indian Press Act, by the 
 newly constituted Imperial Legislative Coimcil in Feb- 
 ruary 1910. The Act imposes no censorship ; it prac- 
 tically substitutes forfeiture of security for criminal 
 prosecution, and while conceding a certain amount to 
 executive discretion, it tempers that discretion by mak- 
 ing orders of forfeiture appealable to a High Court. 
 
 The loyal attitude of the Chiefs was subsequently 
 intensified by the impressions left by the royal visit, 
 and has been of great assistance to the British Govern- 
 ment. Lord Morley had commented in Parliament on 
 the importance of " these powerful princes " as stand- 
 ing forces in India, but had not accepted a proposal 
 of Lord Minto's Government for the institution of an 
 advisory Council of Ruling Chiefs and territorial mag- 
 nates. It is of course arguable that Ruling Chiefs can 
 
LORD MORLEY AND LORD MINTO 85 
 
 have nothing to do with affairs in British India, yet 
 these affairs may most seriously affect their position in 
 their States. 
 
 The firm loyalty of the Princes, the personal popu- 
 larity of the Viceroy, the Reforms and the altered 
 attitude of the purified Congress party, the long-needed 
 jk Press Act, the breaking up and bringing to trial of two 
 "notorious gangs of revolutionary conspirators in Cal- 
 cutta and Dacca — all combined to make the last year of 
 Lord Minto's rule comparatively peaceful. Soon after 
 his departure Lord Morley left the India Office. They 
 had passed through critical times. They were jointly 
 responsible for measures which temporarily satisfied 
 sober political opinion, and, but for the waF-, would 
 probably have worked sufficiently well for a consider- 
 able period. But in coping with the revolutionary 
 movement, they were slow to realise the virulence of 
 the propaganda and the rapidity with which it was 
 spreading among the schools and colleges of Bengal, 
 fostered by bad conditions and ill-paid seditious teaphers, 
 " proclaiming to beguiled youth that outrage was the 
 evidence of patriotism and its reward a martyr's crown." ' 
 The wide extent of the mischief was at first discredited, 
 and the whole conspiracy obtained a long start. 
 
 No Secretary of State ever devoted more anxious 
 or thorough attention to India than did Lord Morley. 
 The distinction of his speeches and writings did much 
 to invest Indian affairs with interest for the ordinary 
 British citizen. But it is evident from them and from 
 his EecoUections that he was frequently perplexed by 
 conflict between measures advised from India and his 
 own predilections combined with the ideas of many of 
 his political supporters. It may be said roughly that 
 throughout the period of calm that followed the Mutiny 
 
 1 Speech by Lord Minto in 19C8. 
 
86 POLITICAL MOVEMENTS— SECOND STAGE 
 
 up to the last year of Lord Curzon's regime the British 
 principle of governing India had been " Trust the man 
 on the spot." Lord Curzon, during his visit to England 
 at the end of his first term of office, in a public speech 
 laid stress on the importance of this principle. Until 
 then he had no cause to complain of its non-observance. 
 But the reason and manner of his resignation, and the 
 troubles which followed on the partition of Bengal, 
 damaged it severely. It is plain from Lord Morley's 
 writings that he thought that these troubles were 
 largely due to mismanagement by the men on the 
 spot, and that the Viceroy was liable to be too greatly 
 impressed by the atmosphere in which he worked. As 
 a matter of fact, however, both the men on the spot 
 and the Secretary of State were confronted by a novel 
 and complex state of things. The effect of the Russo- 
 Japanese War on Indian political thought, the sudden 
 gathering in of the harvest of years of Western educa- 
 tion and increasing contact with an increasingly demo- 
 cratic England, combined with narrowing employment, 
 ill-managed schools, and virulent racial propaganda, 
 to produce in Bengal an unprecedented ferment which 
 affected the rest of India. The bad schools and starved 
 schoolmasters of Bengal were the fruits of official and 
 non-official miscalculations. They resulted from the 
 adoption of recomjnendations made by an Educational 
 Commission appointed in the early 'eighties. The whole 
 movement, which developed so rapidly, was handled 
 by those in daily contact with it in a spirit of 
 .patient courage. The British officials in India were 
 in the trenches. They had to bear the brunt of 
 the attack. They dealt with it as best they could, 
 and reported what they saw. No doubt, being near, 
 they saw through a glass darkly. It was no part of 
 their duty to join in depreciation of or yield to attacks 
 
THE CONGRESS OF 1910 87 
 
 on tlie Government which they endeavoured faithfully to 
 serve, nor were they responsible for the strategy that 
 directed their efforts. On the other hand they were 
 not concerned with considerations other than those 
 which were suggested by the difficidt conditions which 
 confronted them. In the course of my narrative I am 
 endeavouring to make some of these conditions apparent. 
 Lord Minto was a gallant, chivalrous gentleman, of 
 the stamp which his own countrymen and Indians alike 
 admire. He was succeeded by Lord Hardinge of 
 Penshurst, who held oflB.ce for five and a half eventful 
 years. Shortly after his arrival came the Congress of 
 December 1910, presided over by Sir William Wedder- 
 burn. This meeting demanded that certain salutary 
 repressive A,cts be removed from the Statute book, and 
 protested strongly against the treatment of Indians in 
 British colonies, but concluded without excitement. 
 Three leading Muhammadans of a new school, which was 
 to become prominent later, attended. For the first time 
 an address of welcome was presented to a Viceroy. He 
 was asked to show clemency to all purely political 
 offenders. The academic Extremists were entreated to 
 return to the Congress fold. The partition of Bengal 
 was denounced by a Bengali. The President proposed 
 a conference of Hindus and Muhammadans, in order to 
 effect a raffrochement on the burning question of 
 special or communal representation on religious grounds, 
 combined with the corollary question of weighting 
 for Muslim minorities. But the conference never met, 
 though delegates were appointed, because a prominent 
 Hindu politician moved a resolution in the Imperial 
 Legislative Council requesting the abolition of all 
 separate representation of Muhammadans or councils 
 and local boards. Ho was opposed by Mr. Gokhale 
 and by the Home Member of the Government of India, 
 
88 POLITICAL MOVEMENTS— SECOND STAGE 
 
 who said that tlie fullest and clearest pledges had been 
 given to the Muhammadans " that they should have 
 separate representation." 
 
 The year 1911 was marked by some degree of trouble 
 in Bengal ; but everywhere else things were quiet, and 
 people generally! waited expectantly for the royal visit, 
 which achieved jbriUiant success, bringing the gracious 
 and sympath^te personalities of Their Majesties as 
 Sovereigns of mdia closely home to all classes, striking 
 a keynote of chivalry and loyalty that has reverberated 
 in many hearts throughout the troubles of the past four 
 years. No one who witnessed i^gmthusiasm displtj^ed 
 by that great gathering could douM that Great Britein 
 has no reason to be ashamed of her record in India. 
 
 The partition of Bengal was altered in a manner that 
 gratified Congress sjentiment, but annoyed the Muham- 
 madans, especially those of the six-year-old Eastern 
 Bengal and Assam province, and seriously disturbed 
 Indian belief in tie ability of the British Government 
 to adhfere to a declared resolution.^ The Capital was 
 remdved from Calcutta to Delhi. In the despatch from 
 the Government of India to the- Secretary of State 
 proposing these changes for sanction, occurred a passage 
 which advocated a policy of provincial decentralisation 
 and widening self-government, " until India would at 
 last consist of a' number of adminisftations autonomous 
 in all provincial matters, with the Government of India 
 above them all, possessing power to interfere in cases of 
 misgovernment, but ordinarily restricting their func- 
 tions to matters of Imperial concern." 
 
 When the papers were published, this passage was 
 interpreted by advanced Indians as clearly foreshadow- 
 ing self-government on colonial lines. This idea, how- 
 
 1 Lord Morley, while disapproving of the partition, regarded it as a 
 " settled fact." 
 
THE DURBAR CHARGES 89 
 
 ever, was expressly disclaimed in Parliament by Lord 
 Crewe, then Secretary of State, on June 24tli, 1912, 
 in the following words : 
 
 " There is a certain section in India which looks 
 forward to a measure of self-government approaching 
 that which has been granted in the Dbminions. I see 
 no future for India on these lines. The experiment of 
 extending a measure of self-government practically 
 free from parliamentary '^control to a race which is not 
 our own, even though that race enjoys the services of 
 the best men belonging to our race, is one which cannot 
 be trifed. It is my duty as Secretary of State to repudi- 
 ate the idea that the despatch implies anything of the 
 kind as the hope or goal 6i the policy of Government. 
 - "At the same time I think it is the duty of the 
 nation, and of the Groverimient for the time being of 
 the nation, to encourage in every possible way the 
 desire of the inhabitg|,nts of India to take a further share 
 in the management of their country." 
 
 Again, he said, on June 29th, 1912 : 
 
 " There is nothing whatever in the teachings of 
 history, so far as I Imow them, or in the present con- 
 dition of the world which makes such a dream " (as 
 complete self-government within the British Empire) 
 " even remotely probable. ... Is it conceivable that 
 at any time an Indian Empire could exist, on the lines, 
 say, of Australia ^.tid New Zealand, with no British 
 of&cials, and no tie of creed and blood which takes the 
 place of these material bonds ? ... To me that is a 
 world as imaginary as any Atlantis or any that was 
 ever thought of by the ingenious brain of any imagina- 
 tive writer. ... I venture to think that it is only 
 those who think less of service and more of distinction 
 who would lose heart if they braced themselves to set 
 aside this vision altogether and to settle down to closer 
 co-operation with the Western race, to which they can 
 teach much, and from which they can learn much, in 
 
90 POLITICAL MOVEMENTS— SECOND STAGE 
 
 co-operation for the moral and material bettering of 
 tte country to which they are so deeply attached and 
 of which we are so proud to be governors." 
 
 In spite of this advice the Congress leaders preferred 
 to adhere to their original interpretation of the meaning 
 of the disputed passage, and continued to profess self- 
 government on colonial lines as their goal, striving to 
 accelerate advance by unremitting pressure, sometimes 
 emplopng analogies which are apt to deceive if applied 
 to cases which are not really parallel. 
 
 The year 1912 was further marked by the appoint- 
 ment of a Royal Commission to report on the constitu- 
 tion and conditions of the Public Services, with the 
 main object of investigating the possibilities of admitting 
 Indians in larger numbers to the higher grades. The 
 report of this body was only published in January 1917. 
 Publication had been delayed by the war. Political ex- 
 pectations had greatly risen, and proposals which were, 
 in fact, liberal, were denounced as grossly inadequate. 
 
 In the meantime a change had been gradually com- 
 ing over the spirit and aims of the Muslim League. 
 The war between Italy and Tiirkey, events in Persia, 
 and, above all, the Balkan war, created considerable 
 sympathy with Turkey and resentment at the appar- 
 ently passive attitude of the British Government. 
 The sympathy of Indian Muhammadans, especially the 
 Sunnis, with Turkey was prominent as long ago as the 
 time of the Crimean war, and is referred to in the pri- 
 vate correspondence of Lord Dalhousie, recently pub- 
 lished. It had strengthened with time and improved 
 communications. Above all, it had groAvn with a pan- 
 Islamic propaganda, which, originally inculcating reli- 
 gious and political reform, and preached in Turkey 
 and Egypt by Shaikh Jamal-ud-din el Afghani, an 
 
FURTHER HISTORY OF MUSLIM LEAGUE 91 
 
 Afghan educated in Bokhara, had been subsequently- 
 converted, first by Sultan Abd-ul-Hamid and afterwards 
 by the Young Turks, into an appeal to the Faithful to 
 rally round the Ottoman Khalifat.' 
 
 Many Muhammadan politicians disliked our agree- 
 ment with Eussia, and contrasted British inaction 
 during the Balkan war with her championship of Turkey 
 in former days. They saw that while Japan was prov- 
 ing the ability of an Asiatic power to make herself 
 respected, the few remaining Muslim powers, Morocco, 
 Persia, and Turkey, were sinking lower into depths of 
 submission or calamity. And, tmining their eyes on 
 their own country, they beheld in Lord Morley's Ke- 
 forms and the alteration of the partition of Bengal what 
 they regarded as conclusive triumphs for the policy of 
 agitation piirsued by the Congress. While these im- 
 pressions were working on their minds, Congress news- 
 papers were profuse in expressions of sympathy over 
 the misfortunes of Turkey. All these things, working 
 together, produced a remarkable effect. In 1908 the 
 President of the All-India Muhammadan Conference, 
 Mr., now Sir, Saiyid Ali Imam, had declared that the 
 Muslim League and the Congress differed fundamentally. 
 
 " Has not," he said, " this ideal of self-government 
 created impatience, because of its impracticability, 
 carrying idealism off its feet and creating extremism ? 
 Let the Congress announce that in practical politics 
 loyalty to the British adininistration is loyalty to India, 
 and that reform in the existing administration is pos- 
 sible only with the maintenance of British control. . . . 
 As long as the leaders of the Indian National Congress 
 will not give us a workable policy like the one indicated 
 above, so long the All-India Muslim League has a 
 sacred duty to perform. That duty is to save the 
 
 1 See Appendix III, 
 
92 POLITICAL MOVEMENTS— SECOND STAGE 
 
 community it represents from the political error of 
 joining in an organisation tliat in the main, as Lord 
 Morley says, cries for the moon." 
 
 Even in January 1910 the Muslim League, under 
 the presidency of the Agha Khan, had expressed grati- 
 tude for the consideration showed to the Muhammadans 
 in the Reform arrangements ; but a remarkable change 
 was imminent. In August 1912 the majority of lead- 
 ing Muhammadans were unable to come to terms with 
 Government in regard to the conditions under which a 
 Muhammadan university should be established at 
 Aligarh. Later on in the year Indian Muslims de- 
 spatched a medical Red Crescent Mission to Turkey. 
 In January 1913 the council of the Muslim League 
 decided to recommend a new constitution to their 
 association. The objects were henceforth to be — " the 
 promotion among Indians of loyalty to the British 
 Crown, the protection of the rights of Muhammadans 
 and, without detriment to the foregoing objects, the attain- 
 ment of the system of self-government suitable to India." 
 These recommendations were accepted by the associa- 
 tion at Lucknow on March 22nd, 1913. There it 
 was said that if Sir Edward Grey remained arbiter of 
 Britain's foreign policy, the Muslim status in Asia would 
 be swallowed up by Russia. The adoption of suitable 
 self-government as an ideal was adopted, after a heated 
 discussion, by a large majority. Influential Mussulmans 
 present regarded the proposal as a departure from the 
 fixed policy of the Muhammadans and destructive to 
 their interests as a minority in India. Others thought 
 the aim proposed not high enough, and desired identity 
 with that expressed by the Congress. The Agha Khan 
 was not present at the meetings. But afterwards he 
 commented to the London branch of the League on 
 
CONTINUANCE OP REVOLUTIONARY CRIME 93 
 
 the resolutions passed. If, he said, self-government for 
 India meant, as he took it to mean, an ideal involving 
 many decades of effort toward self-improvement, social 
 reform, educational diffusion, and complete amity 
 between the various communities, the ideal must com- 
 mend itself to thoughtful approval. But if it meant 
 a mere hasty impulse to jump at the apple when only 
 the blossoming stage was over, then the day that wit- 
 nessed the formulation of the ideal would be a very 
 unfortunate one in the annals of their country. 
 
 Not long afterwards he resigned the presidency of 
 the League. The change in the ideals of that body 
 was confirmed at the sessions of December 1913, and 
 was eulogised by the Congress meeting of the same 
 month. 
 
 The qualification " self-government of a kind suited 
 to India " appears to mean self-government in which 
 Muhammadans will have a share proportioned to 
 what they consider to be their political rather than 
 their numerical importance. As we shall see later, 
 an attempt has recently been made to define this 
 share. 
 
 In the year 1912, revolutionary stores, arms, and 
 documents were discovered in Eastern Bengal ; a bomb 
 outrage was attempted in Western Bengal; and, in 
 December, as Lord Hardinge was making his state 
 entry into the new capital, a bomb was thrown which 
 woimded him very seriously and killed one of his 
 attendants. The perpetrator of the outrage was not 
 discovered, although there is little doubt that he was 
 one of an association of Hindu revolutionaries who were 
 brought to justice for a subsequent murder. 
 
 Revolutionary effort intensified in Bengal diming 
 1913, and afterwards up to the outbreak of the war. 
 It established a terrorism which largely prevented 
 
94 POLITICAL MOVEMENTS— SECOND STAGE 
 
 witnesses from coming forward to testify to the crimes 
 that were committed. In other provinces things went 
 smoothly, and the business of the new Legislative 
 Councils progressed with satisfactory harmony. The 
 Viceroy had earned remarkable popularity by his firm 
 and courageous bearing under the outrage which so 
 nearly killed him, as well as by his outspoken sympathy 
 with the cause of Indians in South Africa. Thus the 
 outbreak of the Great War found India generally tran- 
 quil. Advanced poUticians — ^Hindus and Mussulmans 
 — ^mainly lawyers and journalists, were drawing near a 
 common platform, and seeking vaguely for representative 
 government on colonial lines. With some this goal was 
 merely a nominal article of faith, but with others it was 
 a genuine objective. On the whole, however, they were 
 satisfied with the recent reforms. But behind them 
 was a small section of revolutionaries, who, sometimes 
 encouraged from abroad, were asserting their presence 
 by intermittent manifestations of subterranean activities 
 of the most sinister kind. Apart entirely from political 
 contentions stood the great majority, the masses of 
 conservative and indifferent opinion, the main body of 
 the territorial aristocracy, the landlords, the militaiy 
 castes, the cultivators, the ordinary trading population. 
 Apart also, though not inattentive, was the European 
 mercantile and non-official community. The ranks of 
 the Nationalists, though slender, were drawn from the 
 better educated and more systematically organised in- 
 telligence of the country. They dominated the Indian 
 Press. They had started and spread the idea of a 
 united self-governing India. In the process their views 
 and policy had become increasingly biased by racial 
 feeling, by a lessening faith in British efficiency, and 
 by a growing belief that India, unfettered by foreign 
 ascendancy, could rival the success of Japan. The 
 
POLITICS BEFORE OUTBREAK OF THE WAR 95 
 
 notable differences between conditions in India and 
 those in Japan tbey seldom regarded. For some years 
 their extreme wing had been discredited. Its leaders 
 had temporarily vanished. Its most ardent followers 
 had been absorbed by revolutionary associations. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 POLITICS FROM THE OUTBREAK OF THE WAR TO THE 
 END OF 1916 
 
 In August 1914, Lord Hardinge of PensLurst tad been 
 Viceroy for three years and nine montlis. He had 
 achieved remarkable popularity. The country was 
 exceedingly quiet, the sole disturbing features being the 
 frequency of revolutionary crimes in Bengal. The 
 Legislative Councils were working well; the Euling 
 Chiefs, the commercial, military, and territorial classes, 
 were loyal and contented ; relations with Afghanistan 
 and the frontier tribes were good. India was ready to 
 meet the storm which burst so suddenly, and she met 
 it well. The circumstances of the beginning of the 
 great struggle, the cause in which Britain was to fight, 
 touched the warm Indian imagination. Conservative 
 and advanced classes alike rejoiced in the despatch of 
 Indian troops to the Front. The energetic loyalty of 
 the Ruling Chiefs set a splendid example to the whole 
 country. Politicians followed the initiative of one of 
 their leaders, who moved in the Imperial Council that 
 India should be allowed to share in the financial burdens 
 which the war must entaU. They responded to the Vice- 
 roy's appeal for suspension of domestic controversy. 
 
 The position of the Muhammadans soon became ex- 
 ceedingly difficult. To appreciate it properly we must 
 remember what religion is to ordinary Indian Muslims, 
 the depth of their innate fanaticism, and the regard in 
 
 96 
 
THE ICIEST MONTHS OF THE WAR 97 
 
 which, at times encoviraged by us, they have been 
 accustomed to hold the Sultan of Turkey. It is certain, 
 moreover, that pro- Turkish influences were actively at 
 work. When we consider all these things, we must 
 heartily appreciate the general loyalty which Muslims 
 showed to the British Crown. That pan-Islamism 
 should be silent in such circumstances, that it should 
 not cause trouble here and there, was hardly to be 
 anticipated. But, on the whole, Indian Muham- 
 madans have deserved well of the British Government. 
 Their path was smoothed by the declaration, which 
 immediately followed the entry of Turkey into the war, 
 that the Holy Places of Arabia and sacred shrines of 
 Mesopotamia would be immune from attack by Britain 
 and her allies, so long as Indian pilgrims remained un- 
 molested. And the loyal manifesto simultaneously ^,. 
 published by the premiear Ruling Chief, himself a Suniii;,,,;;, ^ i 
 Muhammadan,^ exercised a calming influence. 
 
 In the early days of the war there were signs of a 
 willingness on the part of the Press to abandon the 
 time-honoured practice of incessant carping at the 
 Indian Civil Service, but these signs were evanescent. 
 A zealous desire was shown by some Moderates for 
 accommodation with the academic Extremists, and was 
 necessarily accompanied by reluctance to recognise the 
 reality and dangers of the revolutionary movement. 
 As regards, .however, the main issue — the war — the 
 heart of the Congress remained sound, both for senti- 
 mental and for selfish reasons. The eyes of intelligent 
 /Indians were sufficiently open to see that the enemies 
 of England were their enemies. 
 
 Revolutionary activity, however, continued in pal- 
 pable evidence in spite of repressive measures. Con- 
 spiracies at Delhi, Lahore, and elsewhere came to light, 
 
 *. Sunni Muhammadans. See Appendix IV. 
 
98 POLITICS FROM 1914 TO END OP l9l6 
 
 and efforts were made by plotters to undermine the 
 loyalty of Indian troops. The theft of a large quantity 
 of Mauser pistols and ammunition through the treachery 
 of the clerk of a Calcutta firm of gun makers, the 
 return from America and Canada of large bodies of 
 Sikh emigrants, the combination between some of the 
 more dangerous of these and Bengali plotters, and 
 the danger of a bloody outbreak which was only nar- 
 rowly averted in February 1915, are aU set forth in the 
 recently published report of the Sedition Committee. 
 The same report traces the malignant efforts of Ger- 
 many to stir up trouble in India. The Grovernment 
 was compelled to have recourse to a special Defence 
 Act for the better security of the country, and Sir 
 Michael O'Dwyer, Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab, 
 controlled a most difficult situation with remarkable 
 energy and success. Fortunate indeed it was for aU 
 that the administration of this province was fuUy equal 
 to a most serious emergency, for to this circumstance, 
 to the general loyalty of the people, and to the unweary- 
 ing labours of the much-abused Criminal Investigation 
 Department, it was due that nowhere in India were the 
 revolutionaries able to effect anything beyond occasional 
 murders or robberies. In Calcutta and Bengal they 
 committed a number of outrages; but their plots to 
 bring about paralysis of authority, widespread terrorism 
 and murder, and finally general rebellion, completely 
 failed. 
 
 IThe Defence Act was, in the words of the Montagu- 
 Chelmsford Eeport : 
 
 " inevitably a drastic measure ; it gave to the Governor- 
 Generp,! in Council wide rule-making powers with a 
 view to securing the public safety and defence of the 
 country, and also provided for the creation of special 
 tribunals for the quicker trial of certain classes of cases 
 
THE DEATH OE MR. GOKHALE 99 
 
 in specially disturbed tracts. It was comparable to 
 a similar Act passed in tbe United Kingdom also as a 
 war measure. The Bill was naturally ratber a severe 
 trial to tbe Indian elected members ; as loyal citizens 
 tbey supported its principle ; but tbey made no secret 
 of their aversion to particular provisions, and moved 
 many amendments, against which Government used 
 its official majority without hesitation, as they would 
 have destroyed the efficacy of the Bill. The Act was 
 immediately appUed in the Punjab, and later elsewhere 
 as circumstances demanded." 
 
 Early in the year 1915 Mr. Grokhale died : and there 
 can be no doubt that his death was a serious loss to 
 Indian politics. He had shown himself able to adjust 
 idealism to circumstances, and bold enough to preach 
 common sense. At the same time, up to the day of his 
 death, he maintained his widespread influence. His 
 place remained empty. 
 
 1915 was a difficult year ; but, as far as India gener- 
 ally was concerned, the victory of law and order in its 
 earlier months was decisive. The Congress and Muslim 
 League met in December at Bombay. The Honourable 
 Mr. Sinha,' President of the Congress Sessions, spoke 
 with " a feeling of profound pride " that India had not 
 fallen behind other portions of the British Empire, but 
 had stood shoulder to shoulder with them in the hour 
 of her sorest atrial. . . . Princes and people alike had 
 vied with one another to prove to the great British 
 nation their gratitude for peace and blessings of civilisa- 
 tion secured to them under its segis for the last hundred 
 and fifty years and more. He said that a reasoned 
 ideal of the future was required ; an ideal which would 
 satisfy the ambitions of the rising generation and 
 arrest anarchism ; an ideal which would at the same 
 
 , 1 Now Lord Sinha, K.C. 
 
 8 
 
100 POLITICS FROM 1914 TO END OF 1916 
 
 time meet with British approval. This ideal was the 
 establishment of democracy pure and simple — " govern- 
 ment of the people by the people." The British 
 Government was the best government India had had 
 for ages. But good government could not be a substi- 
 tute for self-government. Every British official in 
 India must consider himself a trustee " bound to make 
 over his charges to the rightful owners the moment the 
 latter attain to years of discretion." At present India 
 was not fit for self-government. Free from England, 
 and without a real power of resistance, she would be 
 immediately in the thick of another struggle of nations. 
 But when Indians had advanced under the guidance 
 and protection of England so far as to be able not 
 only to manage their oavh domestic affairs, but to 
 secure internal peace and to prevent external aggression, 
 it would be the interest and duty of England to concede 
 the " fullest autonomy " to India. What this expres- 
 sion, " fullest autonomy," means, it was unnecessary 
 to say. He found it difficult to believe that Indian 
 patriotism would not be reconciled to the ideal of 
 Englishmen and Indians united as feUow-citizens of a 
 common empire. For the attainment of this ideal 
 patience was requisite. Indians must continue to press 
 for admission in larger and larger numbers to the public 
 service and for the progressive nationalisation of the 
 government of the country. Their labours must con- 
 tinue till " really free " institutions are estabhshed for 
 the whole of India by gradual evolution and cautious 
 progress. 
 
 He concluded with the following exhortation : 
 
 " I believe in the doctrine of self-help as much as, 
 probably more than, any of you here. I ask, there- 
 fore, that, not content with these oratorical feasts for 
 
1915 SESSIONS OF THE MUSLIM LEAGUE 101 
 
 three days in the year, we should have a continuous 
 programme of work — work not political in the sense of 
 public meetings, but work in the sense of trying to uplift 
 the low and weak . . . remedying the evils that there 
 are in our daily lives — ^ignorance, poverty, and disease. 
 It is the people whom we want to be capable of self- 
 government, not merely Indians like ourselves, but the 
 people in the villages, who toil with the sweat of their 
 brow. . . . You have got to work day and night, 
 patiently and strenuously, if you desire to achieve th.e 
 object which, you profess — ^government of the people, 
 for tbe people, and by the people." 
 
 A committee was appointed to consider a Home Rule 
 scheme propounded by Mrs. Annie Besant, the chief 
 of the Theosophists, and before the meetings broke up 
 some modifications were made in the rules which were 
 designed to, facilitate the return of Mr. THak and his 
 party to the Congress fold. Mr. Tilak had been released 
 from prison in 1914, had disclaimed all hostility to the 
 British Government, and had repudiated the acts of 
 violence that had been eonunitted by the revolution- 
 aries. 
 
 The speech of the president of the Muslim League 
 emphasised the need for " self-government suitable to 
 the needs and requirements of the country under the 
 segis of the British Crown," and concluded with the 
 following sentences : 
 
 " It is a sore point with us that the Grovernment of 
 our Caliph should be at war with the Government of 
 our King-Emperor. We should all have been pleased 
 to see our brethren in the Faith fighting side by side 
 with the soldiers of the British Empire. Whatever 
 view one may take of the poUcy adopted by Islamic 
 countries in the present war, Indian Muslims never 
 desired, nor ever can desire, hostility between the 
 British and Islamic Governments. That hostility should 
 
102 POLITICS FROM 1914 TO END OF 1916 
 
 have come about is th.e greatest misfortune that could 
 possibly have befallen Muslims. I have no desire to 
 enter into details, but a vast majority of my co-religion- 
 ists, and, for the matter of that, numerous Englishmen 
 too, attribute it to the past foreign policy of Great 
 Britain, and to the failure of British diplomacy. How- 
 ever that may be, it is the cherished desire of the 
 followers of Islam that when peace comes — and pray 
 God that it may come soon — ^Muslim countries should 
 be dealt with in such a w&y that their dignity will not 
 be compromised in the future." 
 
 The League decided to consider Mrs. Besant's Home 
 Rule project; and as during the following year this 
 lady assumed a remarkable lead in Indian politics, it is 
 necessary to review briefly her antecedents. 
 
 Mrs. Besant's story up to the year 1890 is related 
 in a published autobiography. Wife of an English 
 clergyman, when quite young, she started independently 
 as a keen radical and atheist pamphleteer and speaker. 
 For years she worked with the late Charles Bradlaugh, 
 and gradually gravitated to socialism. From this cause 
 she was diverted by theosophy, which she learnt from 
 Madame Blavatsky, a Russian, with whom she lived 
 for some time. After that lady's death she went to 
 India, in 1893, in order to work for the Theosophical 
 Society. Mr. Hume, the " Father of the Congress," 
 had been one of the pioneers of theosophy in India, and 
 all Mrs. Besant's antecedents impelled her to sympathise 
 with revivalist Hindu religion and politics. Her elo- 
 quence, energy, and ability made her a valuable 
 adherent, but at first she devoted herself to education. 
 It was due to her that the Central Hindu College was 
 opened in July 1898, in a small house in Benares City, 
 with only a few boys ; it was she who induced the 
 Maharaja of Benares to give this struggling institution 
 
REVIEW OF THE WAR PERIOD 1914-15 103 
 
 a fine piece of land and spacious buildings ; it was het 
 energy and capacity for organisation that, surmounting 
 one difficulty after another, brought the College to a 
 position which enabled it to become the nucleus of a 
 new university. But, before this final success, Mrs. 
 Besant had become involved in a strange controversy 
 which occupied considerable public attentioh. She 
 resigned the presidency of the College, but retained the 
 headship of the Theosophical Society. She turned to 
 active participation in poUtics, started two newspapers, 
 and proposed to both the Congress and the Muslim 
 League the initiation of a Home Rule League. The 
 project did not at first find favour with many members 
 of either association ; and all that she could obtain was 
 undertakings that it should be taken into consideration. 
 
 Things had gone well during the period from August 
 1914 to December 1915. Revolutionary effort had 
 been checked and largely suppressed. General politics 
 had maintained a high level. Relations between the 
 various communities had been good. The seasons had 
 been kind and the harvests bountiful. Indian soldiers 
 belonging to the martial castes had done good service 
 at the various 'fronts. But in Europe the prospect was 
 gloomy, and in Asia the Mesopotamian Expeditionary 
 Force, after winning considerable success, had been 
 compelled to retreat, and was besieged at Kut-el-Amara 
 by a superior Turkish force. It is noteworthy that 
 neither the siege nor its disastrous termination pro- 
 duced any visible effect in India. 
 
 Early in the year 1916 Lord Hardinge left India 
 after an eventful and arduous Viceroyalty. His fare- 
 well advice to Indian Nationalists was to remember 
 that the development of self-governing institutions had 
 been achieved not by sudden strokes of statesman^ip, 
 but by a process of steady and p9.tient evolution which 
 
104 POLITICS FROM 1914 TO END OF 1916 
 
 had gradually united and raised all classes of the com- 
 munity. 
 
 Tlie year, however, was marked by the inception 
 and rapid growth of a political agitation which was 
 inspired by a call for more precipitate progress. Before, 
 however, describing it, I wiU glance at a minor matter 
 which disturbed Muhammadan sentiment. 
 
 In June it became known in India that the Grand- 
 Sharif of Mecca had revolted from the authority of the 
 Sultan of Turkey. The Grand Sharif is chief of the 
 Arabs of the Hedjaz, and belongs to the tribe of the 
 Koreish from which the Prophet himself sprang. For 
 a considerable period the Sultans and Sharifs had acted 
 in harmony, the Sharifs acknowledging the Khalifat 
 of the Sultans in return for general protection and 
 heavy subsidies. In times more remote, however, the 
 [furkish Sultans had not claimed to be Khalifas, and 
 the Hedjaz had not owned their sway. The title of 
 the original Arab Khalifs, who had disappeared, was 
 first assumed by the Sultan of Turkey in 1575. 
 
 The reasons for the Sharif's rebellion were stated in 
 a proclamation which he subsequently issued, to have 
 been the proceedings of the Turkish Committee of 
 Union and Progress, their departure from the principles 
 of the Koran, their contumelious treatment of the 
 Sultan, their bloody and inhuman outrages on 
 Muslims. 
 
 It was natural that the British Government should 
 sympathise with the Sharif, It had become known 
 that the Turks and Germans proposed to make the 
 Hedjaz and Yamen coasts the basis of attacks on 
 British vessels and commerce. The Allies had of course 
 undertaken to respect the safety and sanctity of the 
 Holy Places'^of Islam in Arabia ; but these were now in 
 
 ^ See Appendix lEL 
 
INDIA AND THE SHARIF OF MECCA 105 
 
 jeopardy from other sources, and the Hedjaz was in 
 peril of Turco-Grerman military occupation. 
 
 The revolt of the Sharif, however, was keenly re- 
 gretted by some prominent members of the MusUm 
 Indian League. It seemed likely to lead to the dese- 
 cration of the Holy Places of the Hedjaz, and they 
 resented a telegram which had appeared in a news- 
 paper to the eifect that the Calcutta Mussulmans ap- 
 proved of the rebellion. They believed that the Sharif 
 had acted with British encouragement and were un- 
 aware of the grave underlying military considerations. 
 They considered the Sharif totally incapable of main- 
 taining independent sovereignty over the ark and shrine 
 of Islam. They convened a public meeting which, on 
 June 27th, passed a resolution condemning the 
 " Arab rebels headed by the Sharif of Mecca and their 
 sympathisers as enemies of Islam." Another resolution 
 repudiated " the suggestion conveyed in a Calcutta 
 telegram that any class of Indian Mussulmans could be 
 delighted with the reported Arab rebellion or covild 
 view with any feeling other than alarm and disgust the 
 consequences likely to follow therefrom." 
 
 All possible publicity was given to these resolutions ; 
 but it was explained to the persons aggrieved that 
 agitation of this kind in such circumstances was work- 
 ing on behalf of the King's enemies and must cease. 
 They readily acquiesced. The movement was mainly 
 con^ned to the educated and politically advanced 
 Muhammadans. It was not taken up by the religious 
 leaders, and therefore did not spread among the masses 
 of the people. It is probable, however, that these 
 would have been impressed had not preventive action 
 been prompt. 
 
 In this year in Bengal increasing murders and / 
 robberies, committed for the purpose of extracting 
 
106 POLITICS FROM 1914 TO END OF 1916 
 
 money to be used in financing revolutionary effort, com- 
 pelled the Government to order a considerable number 
 of internments under the Defence of India Act, with the 
 result that at last anarchical crime received a decisive 
 check. ^ 
 
 We now come to important political events con- 
 nected with the Home Rule movement which had 
 originated in two assumptions (a) that there is already 
 such a bond between the politicians and the peoples of 
 India as that which unites the Irish Home Rule leaders 
 with the majority of their feUow-coimtrymen ; (6) 
 that the scales between creeds and castes in India wiU 
 adjust themselves peacefully if the British Government 
 will only leave them alone. The agitation cannot be 
 clearly understood unless it be described not as an 
 isolated movement, but in connection with certain 
 other events of the year. It is possible that its pro- 
 moters were influenced by the course of events in Ireland. 
 
 On April 22nd, 23rd, and 24th the All-India Con- 
 gress Committee met at Allahabad, and at private 
 meetings passed certain resolutions which were tenta- 
 tive and were to be discussed in consultation with the 
 committee of the Muslim League. These meetings 
 were presided over by a Congress ex-President, and 
 were attended by an ex-President of the Muslim League, 
 by Mrs. Besant, and by other less prominent persons. 
 After the meetings Mrs. Besant, working from the 
 headquarters of the Theosophical Society at Adyar in 
 Madras, with the openly professed object of awakening 
 the country, busily pushed Home Rule propaganda on 
 the platform by orations, and in the Press by two 
 newspapers and many pamphlets. The spirit of her 
 harangues is apparent from the following quotations : 
 
 " I quite realise that when people are asleep, and 
 
THE HOME RULE MOYEMENT 107 
 
 especially if they are rather heavy, they do not like the 
 tomtom that goes on all the night through, beating and 
 beating and never stopping. I am an Indian tomtom, 
 waking up all the sleepers so that they may wake and 
 work for their Motherland. That is my task. And 
 they are waking on every side, and the young ones, 
 even more than the old ones, are waking to the possi- 
 bilities that lie before them. You must remember what 
 India was : you must realise that three thousand years 
 before the time of Christ, India was great in her com- 
 merce, great in her trade. 
 
 " Is India different from any other country, that 
 she also may not be proud of her wars, her invasions, 
 her conquests, and her defeats, for India has assimi- 
 lated everyvconqueror and has made them contribute to 
 the greatness of herself. I know that the English have 
 not been assimilated, but 2,000 or 3,000 years hence 
 they may be. They have been here but a day or two, 
 only for a poor 150 years. What is that in the 5,000 
 years recognised by European history of Indian great- 
 ness, Indian wealth, and Indian culture ? You have 
 no need to be ashamed of India's past, no need to be 
 ashamed of being born an Indian. There is no living ; 
 country in the world with such a past, no country that \ 
 can look forward to such a future. For the value of 
 the past is that it shows you how to buUd for the 
 future ; the value of the past for you to-day when you i 
 are breathing what Mr. Grokhale called an atmosphere ; 
 of inferiority ; the value of the past is to remind you ; 
 of what you were ; the value of the past is to awaken | 
 self-respect; the value of the past is to make that 
 feeling of national pride, without which no nation can 
 be, and no national greatness can accrue. So I point; 
 to your past, and that is what makes our antagonists! 
 more angry." 
 
 Other of her newspaper utterances were considered 
 by the Madras Government to be provt)cative of racial 
 
108 POLITICS FROM 1914 TO END OF 1916 
 
 feeling, and finally she was called on to give pecuniaiy 
 security under the Press Act for the better conduct of 
 her publications. She soon forfeited the security and, 
 depositing the larger sum required of her for renewed 
 journalism, appealed to the High Court against the 
 order of forfeiture. Her appeal was dismissed, but in 
 the meantime Mr. Tilak had raised his standard. 
 
 In May and June he delivered speeches at Belgaum 
 and Ahmednagar in favour of Home Rule which were 
 considered by the Bombay Government to be likely to 
 bring British rule into hatred and contempt. Sub- 
 stantial security for good behaviour for a period of 
 one year was demanded from him by a District Magis- 
 trate, but the- order was subsequently cancelled by the 
 Bombay High Court, on the ground that the general 
 tenor of the speeches, which were delivered in ver- 
 nacular, was not such as to justify the prosecution. 
 The following passages from one speech are illustrative 
 of Mr. Tilak's style : 
 
 " When the people in the nation become educated 
 and begin to know how they should manage their affairs, 
 it is quite natural for them that they themselves should 
 manage the affairs which are managed for them by 
 others. But the amusing thing in this history of 
 politics is that the above law about twenty-one years 
 has no existence in politics. Though we may perhaps 
 somehow imagine a law enjoining that when you have 
 educated a nation for a hundred years you should give 
 its administration into its hands, it is not possible to 
 enforce it. The people themselves must get this 
 effected. They have a right (to do so). Hence there 
 must be some such arrangement here. Formerly there 
 was some such arrangement to a little extent. Such an 
 arrangement does not exist now. And herein lies the 
 root of all these our demands, the grievances which we 
 have, the want which we feel (and) the inconvenience 
 
THE HOME RULE MOVEMENT 109 
 
 whicli we notice in the administration. And the 
 remedy whicli is proposed after making inquiries about 
 that root in the above manner is called Home Eule. 
 Its name is ' Swarajya.' To put it briefly, the demand 
 that the management of our (afiairs) should be in our 
 hands is the demand for Swarajya. 
 
 " Formerly there were oui kingdoms in this country. 
 There were administrators. The proof of this is that 
 before the advent of the English Government in this 
 country there was at least some order ; there was no 
 disorder everywhere. One man did not kill another. 
 Since there existed such order, how are we to say that 
 the people are not fit (for powers) ? At the present 
 time, science has made progress ; knowledge has in- 
 creased ; (and) experience has accumulated in one place. 
 Hence we must have more liberty than before, and ^e 
 must have become fitter. (But) on the contrary (it ia 
 said) we are not fit. Whatever might have been the 
 case in former times, this allegation is utterly false. 
 Better say, (it) is not to be given. {Cheers.) What I 
 say is, don't apply the words ' not fit ' (to us). At 
 least we shall know that this is not really to be given. 
 We shall get it. But why do we not get iti It is 
 indirectly said that we are not fit. It is to teach you 
 that we have come here. This is adniitted. But how 
 long will you teach us ? {Laughter.) For one genera- 
 tion, tVo generations, or three generations ? Is there 
 any end to this ? Or must we, just like this, work 
 imder you like slaves till the end ? {Cheers.) Set some 
 limit. You come to teach us, WTien we appoint a 
 teacher at home for a boy, we ask him within how many 
 days he would teach him, whether in ten, twenty, or 
 twenty-five years." 
 
 Mr. Tilak went on to say that the object of saying 
 tliat Indians were not fit to carry on the adminis- 
 tration was to keep them always in slavery. It must 
 be noted that such harangues are generally delivered 
 
110 POLITICS FROM 1914 TO END OF 1916 
 
 to town audiences largely composed of lawyets, educa- 
 tionists, and students. A notable feature of this campaign 
 was to attract and enlist the young. Tlie bitter lessons 
 taught by action in Bengal on these lines some years 
 before were disregarded. 
 
 The Home Eule propaganda appealed in a marked 
 manner to students and schoolboys. Mrs. Besant 
 formally established her League on September 3rd, 
 1916. The issue of her paper, New India, dated 
 October lltb, gave her prospectus. It asserted 
 that fifty branches had been established in the 
 principal provinces of India (excepting the Punjab) ; 
 that her papers and pamphlets were being translated 
 into the vernacldars ; that the membership was be- 
 tween 2,000 and 3,000 ; that " Home Rule Day "— 
 September 14th — ^was enthusiastically celebrated by 
 a number 1 of branches, as .well as by a great meeting 
 held at Madras in the Gokhale Hall of the Young 
 Men's Indian Association — an organisation founded by 
 Mrs. Besant. It stated that the members of the League 
 mostly belonged to Madras and Bombay. 
 
 Political excitement intensified among the Eii^ish- 
 educated classes ; and under the Defence of India Act 
 Mrs. Besant was formally forbidden to enter the Bom- 
 bay Presidency. Later on she was also prohibited 
 from visiting the Central Provinces. She did not, 
 however, relax her activities. Their general object was 
 to spread the doctrine that British rule in India, as 
 then established, was injurious to liberty, and that a 
 strong and effective demand for Home Bule must be 
 organised without delay.' 
 
 1 On behalf of the Secretary of State for India it was asserted in the 
 House of Commons, on July 2dth, 1917, that " the action taken 
 against Mrs. Besant was due to her activities, such as misrepresenting the 
 acts and intentions of Government, and was not due to the ideals ph)- 
 f eased in their justifloation," 
 
REFORMS MEMORANDUM OP OCTOBER 1916 111 
 
 Bdfore proceeding further with the history of the 
 Home Eule League, I must state that, in October 1916, 
 nineteen elected. Indian members of the Imperial 
 Legislative Council submitted a memorandum of pro- 
 posed reforms to the Supreme Government. The 
 memorandum noted that " the people of India have 
 good reason to be grateful to England for the great 
 progress in her material resources and the widening of 
 her intellectual and political outlook and for the steady, 
 if slow, advances in her national life commencing with 
 the Charter Act of India of 1833." It affirmed the 
 " very limited character " of the Indian element intro- 
 duced into the administration by the Reforms of 1909. 
 It stated that the Legislative Councils were mere 
 advisory bodies " without any power of effective control 
 over the Grovermnent Imperial or Provincial." It 
 stated that the people of India were placed " under 
 great and galling disabilities from which the other 
 members of the British Empire were exempt." These 
 disabilities had reduced them to a state of " utter help- 
 lessness." It referred to such grievances as the Arms 
 Act and the system of indentured emigration • into 
 certain British Colonies. Jt asserted that the loyalty 
 of the coxmtry during the war entitled India to a posi- 
 tion of comiadeship, not subordination, to " Govern- 
 ment that is acceptable to the people because responsible 
 to them." rt suggested specific reforms on Congress 
 lines, a,nd practically declared for parliamentary govern- 
 ment in India. 
 
 It is useful to note one argumeiit which was at this 
 time advanced by the more enthusiastic Indian poli- 
 ticians with considerable effect on their countrymen. 
 They pointed to the prospect of federation of the. British 
 Empire after the war, and deduced the consequent pro- 
 
 '- Indentured emigration has now been abolished. 
 
112 POLITICS FROM 1914 TO END OF 1916 
 
 bability that unless India strongly asserted herself, she 
 would become the subject not only of Great, but of 
 Greater Britain, of the Colonies " with their declared 
 superiority of white races and their unblushing poUcies 
 of Government against aU coloured races." But the 
 inclusion of representatives of India in the Imperial 
 War Conference largely exploded this alarm. 
 
 Except in the case of the Muhammadan aberration 
 already described, the attitude of Indian politicians 
 toward the enemies of Britain remained solid through- 
 out 1916. But their attitude toward the system of 
 British government established in India became in- 
 creasingly restless under the strenuous and persistent 
 influence of the Home Rule propaganda. Mrs. Besant 
 stood for the president's chair at the December Con- 
 gress which was to take place in Lucknow and received 
 a considerable number of votes, but was defeated by 
 Mr. Ambika Charan Mazumdar, an ex-schoolmaster 
 from Eastern Bengal, a pleader, and a veteran Congress- 
 man. So electric became the political atmosphere, that 
 the Goverimient of the United Provinces addressed a 
 letter to the president and secretary of the Congress 
 Reception Committee calling their attention to the 
 undesirable nature of gpeeches which had recently been 
 made in other parts of India, and calling on them to 
 do their best to prevent anything of the kind occurring 
 in Lucknow. They were plainly warned that if the 
 law were transgressed, necessary action would be 
 taken. The letter was of course resented, but probably 
 it strengthened the hands of the soberer politicians 
 and contributed toward the peace and quietness which 
 characterised the subsequent Congress proceedings. 
 
 In November representatives of the Congress and the 
 Muslim Le3,gue had met in Calcutta and had decided 
 to accept the Home Rule programme. As to special 
 
THE DECEMBER POLITICAL MEETINGS 113 
 
 Miihammadan electorates they could not tLen agree, 
 and tlie question was postponed for further considera- 
 tion at Lucknow. 
 
 An important political event of tlie year was tke 
 announcement, on August 7tli, of the intended ex- 
 periment of raising a double-company of Bengalis for 
 military service. The aimouncement was received with 
 enthusiasm by all loyal gentlemen in Bengal. The 
 double-company afterwards developed into a regiment. 
 
 The last week of December wQl be for ever memor- 
 able in the history of Indian politics, for then it was 1/ 
 that the Congress Moderates and academic Extremists 
 proclaimed their reunion, and the principal leaders of 
 the Congress and the Muslim League, finally composing 
 their principal difierences, alike declared for Home Eule. 
 The proceedings of both bodies were orderly, and the 
 resolutions and speeches had been carefully considered. 
 
 The Chairman of the Congress Reception Committee, 
 a Lucknow pleader, announced that leaders of both 
 bodies had formulated a scheme of reforms to be pressed 
 upon the attention of the British Parliament and 
 people after the conclusion of the war, in the name of 
 United India, " in order that we may have a controlling 
 voice in the direction of our internal affairs." Indian 
 patriotism was the greatest guarantee of India's loyalty, 
 for the realisation of her most cherished hopes depended 
 upon the continuance of British rule. 
 
 The President, Mr. Mazumdar, in a very long address 
 stigmatised the Morley reforms, for which so much 
 gratitude had been expressed in 1909, as " mere moon- 
 shine," and, in a brief historical review, stated that 
 the East India Company, " after a hundred years of 
 misrule," had been at last overthrown by a military 
 rising which transferred the government of the coimtry 
 from the Company to the Crown. 
 
114 POLITICS PROM 1914 TO EKD OF 1916 
 
 " It was tMs Government," he said, " whicli, actuated 
 by its benevolent intentions, introduced by slow degrees 
 various reforms and changes which gradually broadened 
 and liberalised the administration, and restored peace 
 and order throughout the country. In its gradual 
 development it introduced, though in a limited form, 
 self-government in the local concerns of the people, 
 admitted the children of the soil to a limited extent 
 into the administration of the country, and reformed 
 the Councils by introducing an appreciable element of 
 representation in them. It has annihilated time and 
 space by the construction of railways and the establish- 
 ment of telegraphic communication. It has established 
 a form of administration which in its integrity and 
 purity could well vie with that of any other civilised 
 country in the world, while the security of life and 
 property which it conferred was, until lately, a boon of 
 which any people may be justly proud." 
 
 In his qualification Mr. Mazumdar evidently referred 
 to measures adopted under the Defence of India Act,^ 
 and especially to internments of persons considered by 
 Government, on carefully tested evidence, to belong to 
 revolutionary criminal gangs. In fact, however, had 
 he and his friends ever organised a serious and concen- 
 trated non-official campaign against the propaganda 
 which breeds revolutionary crime, no internments would 
 have been required. 
 
 He went on to complain that now the Administra- 
 tion had resolved itself into a barren and sterile bureau- 
 cracy which was " despotism condensed and crystal- 
 lised." * But, he argued, this despotism had, in fact, 
 worked up to its own subversion for " from the Queen's 
 
 ^ See page 98. 
 
 * This is a curiously misleading statement. The administiation is 
 subject not only to vigilant criticism and supervision, but to elaborate 
 systems of laws and regulations. 
 
THE CONGRESS OF 1916 115 
 
 Proclamation of 1858 down to Lord Morley's Reforms 
 of 1909, the British Parliament had not taken a single 
 step which was not calculated finally to overthrow this 
 despotic form of government. The education given to 
 the people, the system of local self-government intro- 
 duced, and the elective principle recognised in thq 
 higher Councils of the Empire, had all tended to under- 
 mine the old system of government." He animadverted 
 on the educational policy initiated by Lord Curzon's 
 Universities Act, and condemned the working of the 
 Defence Act. The sovereign remedy for all evils was 
 Representative Government alias Home Rule alias 
 Swaraj. Self-government should come after the war 
 because it must pass through a preparatory process. It 
 is through failure that success is achieved in practical 
 politics. As regards the masses, the Congress had 
 always pleaded for their amelioration, and would there 
 not always he the paramount authority of Government to 
 correct abuses and remedy injustice wherever committed ? 
 The recommendations of the Indian Public Services 
 Commission would be of no consequence, for a bureau- 
 cratic administration could in no xjircumstances be 
 liberalised. Anarchism had its roots deep in economic 
 aad political conditions. It was due to mismle, and 
 could only be removed by conciliation. Repression was 
 useless.' 
 
 1 It is instructive to consider Mr. Mazumdar's words in the light of 
 the state of afiairs revealed by the Governor of Bengal in a speech at 
 Dacca on July 25th, 1917 : 
 
 " Last year Lord Carmichael spoke to you very frankly upon the ques- 
 tion of revolutionary crimes committed by men whose object is the over- 
 throwing of the existing Government in this country. He gave you 
 figures of outrages which had, he believed, been committed with revo- 
 lutionary ends in view from 1907 up to that time. He told you that no 
 less than 39 murders and over 100 dacoities had been committed — a, 
 sufSciently melancholy tale for any Governor to have to tell, and I regret 
 to say that this gruesome catalogue has been added to even during the 
 9 
 
116 POLITICS FEOM 1914 TO END OF 1916 
 
 India must have a place in the coming Federal 
 Council of the Empire. Their demands would be — (I 
 enumerate the most important) : 
 
 " (1) India must cease to be a dependency and be 
 raised to the status of a self-governing State as an equal 
 partner with equal rights and responsibilities as an 
 independent unit of the Empire. 
 
 " (2) In any scheme of readjustment after the war, 
 India should have a fair representation in the Federal 
 Council like the Colonies of the Empire. 
 
 " (3) India must be governed from Delhi and Simla, 
 and not from Whitehall or Downing Street. The 
 Council of the Secretary of State should be either 
 abolished or its constitution so modified as to admit of 
 substantial Indian representation on it. Of the two 
 Under-Secretaries of State for India, one should be an 
 Indian, and the salary of the Secretary of State should 
 be placed on the British estimates, as in the case of the 
 Secretary for the Colonies. The Secretary of State for 
 India should, however, have no more powers over the 
 Government of India than those exercised by the Secre- 
 tary for the Colonies in the case of the Dominions. 
 India must have complete autonomy, financial, legis- 
 lative, as well as administrative. 
 
 " (4) The Government of India is the most vital 
 point in the proposed reforms. It is the fountain-head 
 of all the local administrations, and unless we can ensure 
 
 short period of my own rule. . . . Widespread and carefully organised 
 though the conspiracy was there shown to be, the experience of its rami- 
 fications and the knowledge of its methods which have been gained during 
 the year that has elapsed have shown that it is even more widespread 
 and carefully organised than was known at that time. The second thing 
 that I would commend to your thoughtful consideration is that without 
 the powers conferred upon Government by the Defence of India Act of 
 1915, it would have been impossible for Government to have obtained 
 control of the movement and to have given to the pec^le of Bengal the 
 comparative im m unity from serious revolutionary outrages which they 
 have recently enjoyed." 
 The Report of the Sedition Committee amply confirms these words. 
 
THE CONGRESS OF 1916 117 
 
 its progressive character, any effective reform of the 
 Local Governments would be impossible. Thus the 
 Services must be completely separated from the State, 
 and no member of any Service should be a member of 
 the Government. The knowledge and experience of 
 competent members of a Service may be utilised in the 
 departments, but they should not be allowed to be 
 members of the Executive Council or the Cabinet of 
 the Government itself. 
 
 " (5) The Executive Government must vest in a 
 Governor-General and ministers, half of whom should 
 be Indians elected by the Imperial Legislative Council 
 and members of that body. 
 
 " (6) The annual budget should be introduced into 
 the Legislative Council as a money biU, and, except 
 the military estimates, the entire budget should be 
 subject to the vote of the Council. 
 
 " (7) The Provincial Governments should be per- 
 fectly autonomous, each province developing and enjoy- 
 ing its own resources, subject only to a contribution 
 toward tlie maintenance of the supreme Government. 
 
 " (8) A Provincial Administration should be vested, 
 as in the case of the supreme Government, in a Gover- 
 nor with a cabinet not less than one-half of whom 
 should be Indians elected by the non-official elected 
 Indian members of its Legislative Council. 
 
 " (9) India should have a national militia to which 
 all the races should be eligible under proper safe- 
 guards ; aU should be allowed to volunteer for service 
 under such conditions as may be found necessary for 
 the maintenance of efficiency and discipline. The com- 
 missioned ranks of the army should be thrown open to 
 His Majesty's Indian subjects. 
 
 "(10) All local bodies should have elected chair- 
 men of their own." 
 
 Mr. Mazundar would agree to no indefinite post- 
 ponement of satisfaction of his demands. He con- 
 cluded with a special appeal to the young among 
 his audience. They were to take their place in the 
 
118 POLITICS FROM 1914 TO END OP 1916 
 
 bloodless revolution which was going on. " Widespread 
 unrest would inevitably follow light-hearted treatment 
 of the solemn pledges and assurances on which the 
 people had built their hopes." 
 
 There is a discussion of the main principles of this 
 scheme in Chapter VII of the Montagu-Chelmsford 
 Report. 
 
 In the course of his address the President had alluded 
 to the " sufferings " of Mr. Tilak and Mrs. Besant, and 
 these two persons supported a resolution moved by Mr. 
 Surendra Nath Banerjee requesting that His Majesty 
 the King-Emperor might be pleased soon " to issue a 
 proclamation announcing that it is the aim and inten- 
 tion of British policy to confer self-government on India 
 at an early date." The Congress should also demand 
 that a definite step should be taken toward self-govern- 
 ment by granting the reforms enumerated by Mr. 
 Mazumdar. 
 
 Mr. Banerjee had been the leader of the Moderates 
 in the Surat Congress. His speech was remarkable in 
 striking an entirely separate note. The ancestors of 
 the Hindus, he said, had been the spiritual teachers of 
 mankind. Their mission had been arrested. Its re- 
 tardation must be removed so that they might be able 
 to rescue mankind from the gross materialism and per- 
 verse moral culture which had heaped the battle-fields 
 of Europe with hecatombs of dead. But they must be 
 fully equipped before they could fulfil their high com- 
 mission. The indispensable equipment was self-govern- 
 ment. Their work was not political, but moral and 
 religious. Therefore they were invincible. They were 
 now within measurable distance of victory. The pro- 
 mised land was in sight. 
 
 Mr. Tilak, who had met with a rapturous reception, 
 both at the railway station and on arrival in the Con- 
 
THE CONGRESS OF 1916 119 
 
 gress pandal, said that the ovation which he had re- 
 ceived was obviously intended for the principles for 
 which he had been fighting. They were embodied in 
 the resolution moved by Mr. Banerjee. Mrs. Besant 
 spoke of the intolerable condition of things under 
 which Indians were living. Parliament would pass an 
 Act granting freedom. India's belief rested on Eng- 
 land and not on the bureaucracy. 
 
 The resolution was carried, and the President an- 
 nounced that a copy thereof would be sent to His 
 Majesty the King-Emperor. 
 
 I have summarised the prominent proceedings at this 
 most important Congress. It will be seen that they 
 constituted a remarkable leap forward from the posi- 
 tion taken up by Mr. Sinha in the previous year, and a 
 remarkable triumph for Mr. Tilak and Mrs. Besant. 
 They did more. They showed that absolute political 
 independence had become the professed ideal of Moder- 
 ate and Extreme politicians alike, and that Goverimient 
 was confronted with a more definite situation than any 
 that had hitherto presented itself in this connection. 
 There was a note in the proceedings which implied 
 that if the Extremists had adopted the ideal of the 
 Moderates, they were leading the latter, so far as 
 the Congress was concerned, into the very paths against 
 which Mr. Gokhale warned his countrymen in 1909 — 
 the paths trodden by the new school of political thought 
 to which he alluded. On December 20th, 1907, 
 Lord Morley had written to Lord Minto — " The news 
 has just come in that the Congress so far from being 
 flat, has gone to pieces, which is the exact opposite of 
 flat no doubt. For it means, I suppose, the victory of 
 Extremist over Moderate, going no further at this stage 
 than the breaking up of the Congress, but pointing to 
 a future stage in which the Congress will have become 
 
120 POLITICS FROM 1914 TO END OF 1916 
 
 an Extremist organisation." This future stage had 
 arrived, but later it led, and was bound to lead, to a 
 renewed split. 
 
 The Congress agreed to call on Mrs. Besant's Home 
 Exile League for co-operation ; and after long private 
 discussion Congress and Muslim Leaguers reached an 
 agreement as to proportions of political representation 
 on the Legislative Councils of the future. The agree- 
 ment was supplemented by the condition that if in 
 any province two-thirds of either community did not 
 want a Bill or a measure, that Bill or measure should be 
 dropped by both communities. They could not agree 
 as to proportions on local bodies. The Hindu Sabha, 
 or general assembly, which met in the same week, for 
 the purpose of dealing with religious, communal, and 
 social questions, and was largely attended, protested 
 strongly against any Hindu weakening on this subject. 
 
 The chairman of the Reception Committee of the 
 Muslim League, a Lucknow barrister, enlarged on the 
 determination of Indians to devote themselves to and 
 support the British Imperial cause until it should be 
 triumphantly vindicated on the field of battle. The 
 Muslim League must co-operate with other communities 
 for the attainment of self-government or Home Bule, 
 and the minority must and would be safeguarded. Tie 
 speaker need not undertake a detailed review of the 
 administrative sins and shortcomings " which, like the 
 poor, have always been with us." He referred to the 
 Press Act, the Defence Act, and certain internments. 
 
 The address of the president, Mr. Muhammad Ali 
 Jinnah, a Bombay barrister, was, in spite of some rapid 
 skating over thin ice, one of the ablest speeches deli- 
 vered during these days of oratory. He said that the 
 Muhammadan gaze was, like the Hindu gaze, fixed 
 upon the future. The decisions which they then 
 
THE MUSLIM LEAGUE MEETINGS OF 1916 121 
 
 arrived at would go forth with all the force and weight 
 that coidd legitimately be claimed by the chosen 
 leaders of 70,000,000 of Indian Muhammadans. He 
 commented in moving terms on the war and on the 
 issues at stake therein. He remarked on the necessity 
 for reconstruction after the war and on the difficulties 
 of the Indian problem. 
 
 " There is," he said, " first the great fact of the 
 British rule in India with its Western character and 
 standards of administration, which, while retaining 
 absolute power of initiative, direction, and decision, 
 has maintained for many decades unbroken peace and 
 order" in the land, administered even-handed justice, 
 brought the Indian mind, through a widespread system 
 of Western education, into contact with the thoughts 
 and ideals of the West, and thus led to the birth of a 
 great and living movement for the intellectual and 
 moral regeneration of the people. . . . Secondly, there 
 is the fact of the existence of a powerful, unifying 
 process — the most vital and interesting result of Wes- 
 tern education in the country — which is creating, out 
 of the diverse mass of race and creed, a new India fast 
 growing to unity of thought, purpose, and outlook, 
 responsive to new appeals of territorial patriotism and 
 nationality, stirring with new energy and aspiration, 
 and becoming daily more purposeful and eager to 
 recover its birthright to direct its own afiaics and 
 govern itself. To put it briefly, we have a powerful 
 and efficient bureaucracy of British officers responsible 
 only to the British Parliament, governing, with methods 
 known as benevolent despotism, a people that have 
 grown fully conscious of their destiny and are peace- 
 fully struggling for political freedom. This is the 
 Indian problem in a nutshell. The task of British 
 statesmanship is to find a prompt, peaceful, and endur- 
 ing solution of this problem." 
 
 He described the internal situation in the following 
 terms : 
 
122 POLITICS FROM 1914 TO END OF 1916 
 
 " We liave a vast continent inhabited by 315 millions 
 of people sprung from various racial stocks, inheriting 
 various cultures, and professing a variety of religious 
 creeds. This stupendous human group, thrown together 
 imder one physical and political environment, is still 
 in various stages of intellectual and moral growth. 
 All this means a great diversity of outlook, purpose, 
 and endeavour." Indian Nationalists were not afraid 
 of frankly admitting that difficulties beset their path, 
 but these difficulties were " already vanishing before the 
 forces which are developing in the new spirit." 
 
 Indians, he concluded, were determined to prove 
 their fitness for self-government. The Hindu-MusUm 
 rapprochement was the sign of the birth of an United 
 India. The scheme of reforms promulgated by the 
 Congress must be adopted, and a BiU must be intro- 
 duced into the British Parliament to give effect to it. 
 He entirely identffied the Muhammadan political objec- 
 tives with those of the Hindus, and he urged that no 
 decisions should be arrived at by supreme authority 
 without the publication of proposals in India for pubUc 
 criticism and opinions. He briefly asked that Muham- 
 madans might be allowed to choose their own Caliph. 
 He thanked Govermnent for the assurance that the 
 Holy Places of Islam would receive special consideration. 
 He concluded by applying the recent utterances of the 
 Prime Minister regarding Ireland to the Indian situation. 
 Muhammadans must work and trust in God, so that they 
 might leave to their children theheritage of freedom. 
 
 The resolutions adopted by the League closely corre- 
 sponded to those passed by the Congress. It is re- 
 markable that Mr. Bipin Chandra Pal, a weU-known 
 Bengali Hindu agitator, was asked to speak on the 
 subject of the Defence Act, and was received with enthu- 
 siasm. He remarked that there were no anarchists in 
 
GENERAL REMARKS ON THESE MEETINGS 123 
 
 Bengal. There were revolutionary patriots. Revolu- 
 tionary patriotism would never have been born if there 
 had been no attempt to stifle evolutionary patriotism. 
 
 It is important to notice that in spite of the ambi- 
 tious character of some of the resolutions passed at the 
 Congress and Muslim League meetings, the behaviour 
 of the audiences was generally unexceptionable. The 
 Lieutenant-Governor was present for a brief period on 
 one day of each session and was well received. The 
 proceedings were characterised by orderliness, good 
 humour, and absence of unpleasant demonstrations. 
 The League audiences were far smaller than those of the 
 Congress, and consisted partly of persons who seemed 
 hardly to comprehend all the speeches or subjects 
 referred to by the various speakers. In fact, Mr. 
 Jinnah's representation of himself and his friends as the 
 chosen leaders of 70,000,000of Mussulmans was decidedly 
 misleading. They had been elected by a small fraction 
 of the 70,000,000. The sessions had been preceded by 
 a regular split among tihe Muhammadans of the Punjab, 
 and by signs of a split among those of the United Pro- 
 vinces. But the Lucknow Leaguers worked the 
 machine and the finances. They were solid for union 
 with the Congress and carried the meetings, but their 
 action was disapproved by many of their co-religionists, 
 who consider that, whatever politicians may agree 
 upon, the Hindu and Muhammadan masses will, for 
 years to come, need an unbiased arbiter ; for in the 
 ordinary life of the ordinary Hindu or Muhammadan, 
 religion and religious susceptibility still play as 
 vigorous a part as they played years ago.' 
 
 Special efforts had been previously made by the 
 
 ^ The great bone of contention is cow-sacrifice by Muhammadans on 
 the occasion of the Bakr-Id festival. This is abhorrent to Hindus, who 
 are taught by their religion to hold the cow sacred. 
 
124 POLITICS FROM 1914 TO END OP 1916 
 
 politicians to enlist tlie S3anpathy and help of the 
 students. These efforts naturally obtained a wide 
 success, and the behaviour of all the "volunteers" 
 enlisted was excellent. Many Indian ladies attended 
 the Congress meetings. A noteworthy outcome of the 
 week was the declared determination of Indian Nationa- 
 lists to push their demands for self-government by 
 introducing a Bill into the Imperial Parliament. There 
 can be no doubt that favoured by the sense of self- 
 esteem produced by the loyal and gallant conduct of 
 Indian soldiers in the war, the general effect of these 
 meetings was to extend the influence of nationalism in 
 the country. 
 
 On his return journey to Bombay Mr. Tilak lectured 
 at Cawnpore to a large mass meeting on Home Rule, and 
 met with a remarkably enthusiastic reception ascribed 
 by one of his principal hearers to " the sacrifices that 
 he had made." 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE DECLAKATION OP AUGUST 20tH, 1917 
 
 While the politicians had been concentrating their 
 energies on the attainment of constitutional changes, 
 and Mrs. Besant had been declaiming against the " in- 
 tolerable condition of things in which Indians lived," 
 the country had been profoundly calm. Although for 
 more than two years the Great War had distracted the 
 world; although in other counties bloodshed and 
 misery, oppression and civil dissension had reigned 
 supreme ; India, the ancient battle-ground of Asia, had, 
 in spite of the intermittent and malignant efforts of 
 desperate revolutionaries, throughout remained free 
 from any sort of serious disturbance. The masses had 
 followed their customary callings with their customary 
 placid contentment ; the aristocracy had lived their 
 usual sheltered lives ; the lawyers had pocketed their 
 fees ; journalism had thriven ; trade, commerce and 
 business had suffered only from such disturbance as 
 was inevitable during a great world-strain. Markets 
 had at first been affected, but had improved ; industrial 
 activities were expanding. The seasons had been good, 
 and the rural population was prosperous. 
 
 Only from the martial classes, and especially from 
 the martial classes of the Punjab, was the war exacting 
 sacrifices of severity. The provision of recruits, labour, 
 supplies, railway material, munitions, was adding to 
 the ordinarily heavy tasks of the Government of India, 
 
 125 
 
126 DECLARATION OF AUGUST 20TH, 1917 
 
 but tad not prevented it from taking thought for the 
 removal of Indian grievances and the promotion of 
 Indian prosperity. And among grave preoccupations, 
 it had been seeking means for the practical solution of 
 the difficult 'problems presented by the much-desired 
 furtherance of Indian industrial enterprise. 
 
 Since the beginning of this century a popular demand 
 had grown up and increased in India for the develop- 
 ment of industries and for vigorous action by the State 
 to produce this development. The demand is an ex- 
 pression of political, social, and economic needs. For 
 many reasons greater industrial activity is desirable. 
 Young men of the English-educated classes are increas- 
 ingly crowding into the traditional professions of their 
 order, government service, law, medicine, and teaching. 
 Commercial openings are comparatively few, for com- 
 mercial enterprise on a considerable scale has hitherto 
 been rare among Indians. Economically greater 
 national wealth is desirable, not only for itself, but as a 
 condition necessary for the development of national Ufe. 
 
 India was and is mainly an agricultural country. 
 Only 9 '5 per cent, of her population are found in towns 
 as against the 78 '1 per cent, of England and 'Wales in 
 pre-war days. Agriculture is her great industry, though 
 it is yielding a far smaller return than it should and, 
 with more skiU and applied knowledge, would yield. 
 But India had once, and has still to a shrunken extent, 
 her own minor industries. In rural India, before the 
 days of the steamship and the railway, the village was 
 more or less self-sufficing. It grew its own food and 
 supplied its own simple wants, its agricultural imple- 
 ments and household utensils ; and beyond the village 
 in a few larger centres of trade, situated on important 
 land routes, navigable rivers or the coast, a market 
 existed for rarer and costlier articles which largely 
 
APPOINTMENT OF INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION 127 
 
 found their way to foreign countries. Traders and 
 artisans clustered round the courts of Indian princes ; 
 rich silks, jewellery, articles of wood, ivory and metal, 
 were manufactured, sometimes of exquisite workman- 
 ship. Communications were difficult, however, and 
 industries of this nature were mainly confined to the 
 manufacture of commodities the /<5p5ptlines& of which 
 was sufficient to counterbalance ^jlfefpense and risk 
 of carriage to a distance. The liweution of steam 
 power wrought a complete revolution in this simple 
 economy. The opening of the Suez Canal and the 
 extension of communications by rail and sea encour- 
 aged the import of foreign machine-made goods, while 
 it stimulated the cultivation of raw materials for ex- 
 port. The market for the products of the Indian artisan 
 declined. The nature of his calling was modified. 
 
 In the application of machinery to industrial develop- 
 ment, India has begun to follow Europe, but tardily. 
 Europeans introduced and have iprlfctically monopolised 
 the jute manufacturing industry of Calcutta. The first 
 cotton mill in India was set up by a- Parsi ; and in the 
 cotton spinning and weaving induswV in the Bombay 
 Presidency Indians have always occuwted a prominent 
 place. There was no systematic in'^fcgation, how- 
 ever, of the problems peculiar to Indiaj^niji there was 
 no attempt on the part of Government OT^he people to 
 make India economically self-supporting. The general 
 policy was to procure from abroad what could be 
 obtained thence more cheaply and to accept the situation. 
 
 As already remarked, however, Indians have been 
 prominent as mill-owners in Bombay, and there it was 
 that the late Mr. Justice Ranade, the social refonner, in 
 a paper read in 1893 before an Industrial Conference at 
 Poona, observed that some of his countrymen were re- 
 cognising the importance of adopting modern methods 
 
128 DECLARATION OF AUGUST 20TH, 1917 
 
 of manufacture and the necessity of reviving and 
 encouraging indigenous industries. His expectations 
 of progress were over-sanguine. Early in the present 
 century, however, the demand for " Swadeshi " or 
 indigenous industries, which started in Bengal in associa- 
 tion with Bengali politics, was considerably intensified 
 by observation of the economic progress of Japan. A 
 number of factory enterprises were undertaken, especi- 
 ally in Bengal, mostly on a small scale, but being devoid 
 of business knowledge or direction, as well as of sub- 
 stantial pecuniary support, these generally failed. For 
 some time the Government stood aside from the efEort, 
 content to trust to technical education and the example 
 of British industries, but rapidly it grew obvious that 
 India possessed materials for a large and varied in- 
 dustrial output, and that to call forth these materials 
 would be a great and beneficent work for which far 
 more capital and enterprise were urgently needed. 
 Money, competent managers of labour, expert guidance, 
 were all essential. It became equally plain that imless 
 a strong lead were taken by Government, these would 
 not be found, even though the possibility of the large- 
 scale enterprise in India had been estabUshed by some 
 jute and cotton miUs as well as by th&Tata Iron Works, 
 " a veritable steel city with trans- Atlantic complete- 
 ness of equipment," which has sprung up within the 
 present century.' Progressive Indians frankly ex- 
 pected material State assistance toward commercial and 
 industrial progress. 
 
 With the outbreak of the war the political and 
 economic importance of raising India from the position 
 of a mere exporter of raw produce was soon emphasised. 
 
 » " The really great and typical advance of industry in India has been 
 the Tata Iron and Steel Company." Evidence of Sir John Hewett before 
 the Parliamentary Committee. 
 
APPOINTMENT OF INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION 129 
 
 The success of practical demonstration following on 
 investigation had been previously evidenced in the 
 case of agriculture. It was obvious that this process 
 might be extended to industries. The question of 
 industrial improvement was raised in the Imperial 
 Legislative Council Sessions of 1915, and it was decided 
 that a Commission should be appointed to consider how 
 it could be effected. Some Indian members were 
 anxious for measures of tariff protection, but these were 
 specifically excluded from the terms of reference, al- 
 though tariff protection is one of the main objectives 
 of Indian Nationalists. A strong British and Indian 
 Commission was constituted under the presidency of 
 Sir Thomas Holland, K.C.I.E., who had been Director 
 of the Indian Geological Survey, and after retirement 
 from office had taken up work as Professor in the Uni- 
 versity of Manchester and as a consulting geologist. 
 
 The proceedings of the Commission were^ followed 
 with considerable interest. Eecognising their lack of 
 technical knowledge and of instruction in the business 
 side of industry, as wdl as the difficulty of raising funds, 
 the advocates of indigenous enterprise asked for an 
 extreme measure of Government help in regard to 
 both technical education and the grant of special 
 facilities to particular industries. They also requested 
 financial assistance by way of subscription of shares or 
 guarantees. The leading business men made practical 
 suggestions regarding individual difficulties, and a great 
 dear of information of all kinds was obtained. There 
 were, however, some complaints that the Commission 
 was a device on the part of Government for postponing 
 the grant of solid assistance to Indian industries, or 
 Jor providing openings for British capital, and very 
 strong exception was taken to the exclusion of tariff 
 questions from the terms of refereme. 
 
130 DECLARATION OF AUGUST 20TH, 1917 
 
 One important result early accrued from the in- 
 vestigations of tliis Commission. A Munitions Board 
 was constituted, imder the presidency of Sir Thomas 
 Holland, which worked toward co-ordinating Govern- 
 ment demands for all war supplies, except food and 
 forage, as well as assisting manufacturers to deal with 
 these demands. Organisation had been needed both 
 among Indian industrialists and among the consuming 
 departments of Government with reference to war 
 conditions. There had been considerable lack of 
 knowledge among manufacturers as to the present and 
 probable requirements of Government; and supplies 
 had been purchased, both by public departments 
 and by private firms, from the United Kingdom and 
 elsewhere which could with more contrivance have 
 been provided in the country. All these shortcomings 
 were vigorously combated, and Government indents 
 began to pass through the hands of the Munitions 
 Board, who, with the help of local controllers in all 
 provinces, obtained information as to the possibilities 
 of manufacture, passed on to industrialists information 
 regarding Government demands, and assisted them, so 
 far as possible, in meeting requirements which could be 
 dealt with by some modification of the existing 
 machinery or process. It was hoped that by the con- 
 clusion of peace this Board would have created a 
 Government Stores department, and have itself de- 
 veloped into an industrial department which would 
 ensure the placing in India of the largest possible 
 number of Government and private orders for manu- 
 factured articles while, by affording information and 
 advice, it would assist manufacturers to meet those orders. 
 
 The Report of the Commission was published late in 
 the year 1918, is now under the consideration of 
 the Secretary of State, and should lay the foundation of 
 
ABOLITION OF INDENTURED EMIGRATION 131 
 
 an advance in Indian industries which may greatly 
 extend the field of employment for the Indian profes- 
 sional classes. 
 
 The Government had also been examining another 
 question much debated by politicians, the possibility of 
 substituting a less objectionable scheme for the system 
 of indentured emigration of Indian labourers to certain 
 British Crown-Colonies. There had long been some 
 confusion in the political mind between abuses arising 
 from this system and the exclusion of free Indians from 
 the self-governing Dominions. In fact no Crown- 
 Colony has ever imported Indian indentured labour and 
 simultaneously restricted free Indian immigration, and 
 no self-governing Dominion except Natal has ever im- 
 ported * indentured Indian labour. Export of such 
 labour to Natal was stopped some years ago by the 
 Government of India j as they were dissatisfied with the 
 treatment of free Indians by Natal colonists. In de- 
 claiming against the export of indentured labour to 
 Crown-Colonies, Indian Nationalists have been influenced 
 partly by the exclusion of free Indian immigrants 
 from self-governing Dominions. Lord Hardinge had 
 said that the then existing export arrangements must 
 be maintained untU the new conditions under which 
 labour should be permitted to proceed to the Colonies 
 had been worked out in conjunction with the Colonial 
 Of&ce and the Colonies concerned. But some poli- 
 ticians were pressing for early solution, and their repre- 
 sentations were being considered by the Government 
 of India in a sympathetic spirit. A temporary solution 
 was found during the February sessions of the Imperial 
 Legislative Council. 
 
 These sessions require careful notice, for they were 
 of exceptional interest and importance. They com- 
 menced, in fact, a period which has not yet concluded, 
 10 
 
132 DECLARATION OF AUGUST 20TH, 1917 
 
 a period of strenuous efforts by tlie Government of 
 India to pacify political excitement. These attempts 
 have met with considerable disapppintment. The 
 arbitrament now lies with the Imperial Parliament. 
 
 The sessions were opened by His Excellency Lord 
 Chelmsford, who announced that the Report of the 
 Royal Commission on Public Services, appointed in 
 1912, which had just been published, would be carefully 
 considered. The major questions, among which the 
 increased employment of Indians in the higher branches 
 of the services was one of the most important, would 
 not be prejudiced or delayed by lesser problems. He 
 also announced that the expediency of broadening the 
 basis of government and the demand of Indians to 
 play a greater share in the conduct of public afiaics 
 were receiving attention. - Progress must be on well- 
 considered and ciccunaspect lines. Subject to these 
 considerations, sympathetic response would be made 
 to the existing spirit of progress. The Grovernment of 
 India had addressed a despatch to the Secretary of State 
 on this subject in the previous autumn. The Viceroy 
 had noted that the reforms proposed in the Memorandum 
 of the nineteen members had received endorsement by 
 resolutions passed by the National Congress. His 
 Majesty's Government were at present entirely occupied 
 on matters connected with the war, and would not be 
 able to give speedy attention to the despatch. 
 
 A further opportunity of service had been offered to 
 India by the announcement of an Indian War Loan 
 which would soon be launched. His Excellency referred 
 to the devoted and loyal assistance given by the Ruling 
 Chiefs towards the prosecution of the war, to the flow 
 of contributions, and offers of service from their States. 
 He concluded by announcing the impending organisa- 
 tion of an Indian Defence Force, which would include 
 
INDIA'S CONTRIBUTION TO WAR FUNDS 133 
 
 Indians, and the representation of India by three 
 selected members at the coming special War Conference 
 in London. These announcements were received with 
 enthusiasm. 
 
 On February 21st, the Commander-in-Chief intro- 
 duced the Defence Force Bill, Its provisions included 
 voluntary enrolment for Indians of the non-martial 
 and political classes. They were welcomed by Indian 
 members of the Council. 
 
 The Finance Member, Sir William Meyer, announced 
 on March 1st that, in pursuance of two resolutions 
 moved by Indian non-official members and carried in 
 the Council on September 8th, 1914, and February 
 24th, 1915, the Government of India had informed 
 the Home Government of their willingness to borrow 
 the largest sum that could be raised as a War Loan, to 
 make a special contribution of £100,000,000 to the war, 
 and to put forward proposals for increasing Indian re- 
 sources in order to meet the consequent recurring 
 liabilities. Sir William Meyer pointed out that this 
 contribution amounted to nearly double the total Im- 
 perial revenue as it stood before the war. He announced 
 that one method of meeting the contribution would be 
 the raising of the import on cotton fabrics from 3J to 
 7 J per cent., the general Indian tariff rate. But the 
 cotton excise duty would remain 3J per cent. A 
 grievance of twenty years' standing,' which had virtually 
 meant protection in favour of Lancashire, was thus 
 removed, and the removal was not effected without a 
 strong and bitter protest from the Lancashire cotton 
 trade. But the action of the Government of India was 
 powerfully upheld by the then Secretary of State, Mr. 
 Austen Chamberlain, both in replying to a deputation 
 and in the House of Commons. It was finally agreed 
 
 * See page 53, 
 
134 DECLARATION OF AUGUST 20TH, 1917 
 
 there that the arrangement should stand, but should be 
 subject to the review of the fiscal system of the whole 
 Empire which would follow the war. Some passages 
 from Mr. Chamberlain's reply to the Lancashire deputa- 
 tion show how much depended and depends on a just 
 settlement of this and similar questions. " Do not 
 underrate the strength of Indian feeling on this ques- 
 tion. You said : ' If indeed it was necessary to 
 raise the Customs duty, why did not you also raise the 
 excise ' ? Well, you have been satisfied for twenty 
 years with the arrangements made by the late Lord 
 Wolverhampton, and afterwards modified by Lord 
 George Hamilton. For all those twenty years the 
 settlement which you have found satisfactory has been 
 an open sore in India. It is twenty years ago that 
 Lord Lansdowne used words which were quoted in the 
 debates of those times by Six Henry Fowler, and I ven- 
 ture to read them to you to-day, for, if they were true 
 twenty years ago, they are of tenfold greater force and 
 truth to-day. He said : ' There has never been a 
 moment when it was more necessary to counteract the 
 impression that our financial policy in India is dictated 
 by selfish considerations. It is a gross libel to say, 
 and I hope this is true to-day, that either of the great 
 political parties of this country will for the sake of 
 passing advantage deny to the people of India the fair 
 play which they expect.' " 
 
 Sir WilUam Meyer's words regarding the raising of 
 the cotton import duties were welcomed with warm 
 enthusiasm, and his announcement of the £100,000,000 
 loan was received with a single questioning murmur. 
 
 In a speech which wound up the Sessions His Excel- 
 lency the Viceroy invited non-official members to 
 co-operate with the Government of India in organised 
 efforts to stimulate industrial a^d agricultural develop- 
 
RAISING OF COTTON IMPORT DUTIES 135 
 
 ment, reminding them of the unlimited possibilities of 
 usefulness in these directions, and impressing on them 
 the importance of securing a maximum response to the 
 War Loan. He recommended the new Defence Force 
 measures. He referred to the imposition of the extra 
 duty on cotton goods, reminding them that the Home 
 Government had decided that this would be considered 
 afresh when the fiscal arrangements of the Empire were 
 reviewed as a whole after the war, but stating that 
 what had passed in England should inspire confidence 
 that when that review took place, Indian interests would 
 be stoutly defended. 
 
 His Excellency further reminded the Council that, 
 as a consequence of a recent communique, indentured 
 emigration to Fiji and the West Indies, the only 
 colonies for which the system had survived up to the 
 war, was now at an end, and would probably not recom- 
 mence. Free labour emigration to Ceylon and Malaya 
 must be restricted by war exigencies. He announced 
 that a Commission which had been appointed to in- 
 quire into the educational problems presented by the 
 Calcutta University would meet in the following 
 November, He concluded by reading a message of 
 gratitude from the Premier of the United Kingdom for 
 India's financial contribution to the war. Thus closed 
 a pleasant and harmonious session. 
 
 The policy of the Government had been markedly 
 conciliatory and the barometer seemed set fair. But 
 the proceedings of the Imperial Legislative Council 
 generally reflect the least turbid political moods. There 
 are always persons busy outside whose unceasing object 
 is to prevent the confidence and co-operation for which 
 His Excellency had so earnestly appealed. On March 
 5th he had received a deputation which asked for 
 repeal of the Press Act, and his reply to this body ex- 
 
136 DECLARATION OF AUGUST 20TH, 1917 
 
 poses so clearly tlie slanders and misrepresentations 
 with which his Grovemment was wrestling, that I give 
 its prominent passages in a separate appendix." Un- 
 fortunately the appeal with which it concluded fell on 
 ears slow to hear. 
 
 Dissatisfaction was expressed with the conditions for 
 recruitment of Indians under the Defence Force Bill ; 
 and for some time very few took advantage of the new 
 opportimities ofiered. It had been announced that 
 6,000 were required. Within the first two months after 
 the passing of the Bill only 300 were enrolled. Then 
 a further appeal was issued by Government acknow- 
 ledging that the conditions were open in some respects 
 to criticism, stating that the question of Commissions 
 was under consideration, and promising sympathetic 
 treatment to all who should come forward. The condi- 
 tions were to some extent altered, and the period 
 originally fixed for enrolment was extended. The later 
 response to this call on the part of the educated com- 
 munity was disappointing. 
 
 In the meantime the Home Ride campaign, which 
 had been approved by the Congress and Muslim League, 
 continued under the leadership of Mrs. Besant. The 
 arguments which she employed in pleading her cause 
 were published in her paper New India. Their nature 
 win be apparent further on. Their influence upon the 
 political public and Press was assisted by various 
 speeches and lectures. 
 
 In June a communique was issued by the Govern- 
 ment of Madras stating that, in the exercise of the 
 powers given him under the Defence of India rules, the 
 Governor in Council directed the service of orders on 
 this lady and her two principal lieutenants, prohibiting 
 them from attending or taking part in any meeting, or 
 
 * See Appendix IV, 
 
INTERNMENT OP MRS. BESANT 137 
 
 from delivering any lecture, from making any speech, 
 and from publishing or procuring the publication of 
 any writing or speech composed by them, placing their 
 correspondence under censorship, and directing that 
 after the expiry of a brief prescribed period, they should 
 take up their residence in one of various specified 
 healthy localities, ceasing to reside at and near the 
 city of Madras. 
 
 Mrs. Besant took leave of her public in a letter to 
 the Press, describing herself as having been " drafted 
 into the modern equivalent for the Middle Ages oi/6- 
 lietle." Her real crime was that she had awakened in 
 India national self-respect. 
 
 " Indian labour is wanted "^for the foreign firms, j 
 Indian capital is being drained away by the War Loan, i 
 which is to bring no freedom to India, if the autocracy 1 
 has its way. Indian taxation to pay the interest on \ 
 the War Loan will be crushing. When that comes, 
 India will realise why-I have striven for Home Rule 
 after the war. Only by that can she be saved from 
 ruin, from becoming a nation of coolies for the enrich- 
 ment of others." 
 
 It is possible — and I have heard it asserted— that the 
 internment of Mrs. Besant would not have awakened 
 the excitement which it did awaken among her friends 
 and followers had it not followed on speeches by the 
 provincial heads of the Punjab and Madras which had 
 been directed towards allaying the excitement and 
 moderating the expectations caused by the Home Rde 
 propaganda. These speeches ^ were construed as herald- 
 ing a course of repression, and it was represented that 
 Mrs. Besant's internment was the first step on that 
 road. 
 
 1 See Appendix V for an extract from the speech by Sir Michael O'Dwyer. 
 
138 DECLAEATION OF AUGUST 20TH, 1917 
 
 A non-of&cial member of the Imperial Legislative 
 Coimcil announced in a Press interview : — " I take it 
 she (Mrs. Besant) wiU be allowed to go on with her 
 work. If she is exposed to suffering in that cause, 
 thousands of Indians who have not been able to see 
 eye to eye with her in all things will think it their duty 
 to stand by her and to follow her." The same note 
 was struck by many newspaper articles. An appeal 
 was made to the Government of India to procure a 
 reversal of the Madras orders ; and when this failed, 
 a wide agitation followed among the political classes 
 both in the Madras Presidency and elsewhere. " Passive 
 resistance " even was proposed and discussed. And 
 while the sentiment was sincere among those who 
 genuinely shared Mrs. Besant's creed and were aware 
 of her considerable gifts of money to Hiadu interests, 
 it is probable that numbers of persons attended meet- 
 ings on the subject who knew and cared little or no- 
 thing about Mrs. Besant and her proceedings. The 
 issue of the Non-Brahman newspaper of Madras, dated 
 July 15th, thus described some methods employed : 
 
 " We can also assure the Government that Home 
 Eule emissaries go about convening meetings and send- 
 ing telegrams and cablegrams all round. It is this 
 false nature of the agitation that detracts from its value. 
 . . . But the newspaper accounts exaggerate, and 
 there is the inevitable leading article." 
 
 And yet what were the facts ? To what work had 
 Mrs. Besant devoted her energies at a time when the 
 Government by law established had particularly ap- 
 pealed for loyal assistance from all classes ? 
 
 What spirit had she expected to call forth from im- 
 pressionable young India when she published the 
 following passages referring to Indian revolutionaries ? 
 
INTERNMENT OP MRS. BESANT 139 
 
 "Desperate they broke away from all control of 
 their elders, began to conspire, and numbers of them 
 have conspired ever since. Some have been hanged; 
 some were sent to the living death of the Andaman 
 Islands ; some were imprisoned here. Now the students 
 watch with amazement the Premier of Great Britain 
 rejoicing over the results of the similar action of young 
 Russian men and women who conspired and blew up 
 trains and assassinated a Tsar, and who are now ap- 
 plauded as martyrs, and the still living of whom are 
 being brought back in triumj)h to the Russia whose 
 freedom they have made possible. The names which 
 were execrated are held sacred and sufferings are 
 crowned with triumph." ' 
 
 And again, when she published her article, " The 
 Great Betrayal," ' in the New India issue of May 
 2nd, 1917, was her action calculated to promote loyal 
 
 ^ Extract from the issue of New India, dated May 23rd, 1917. 
 
 ' " That vote (at the Imperial War Conference) compels India to re- 
 main a plantation, that which the East India Compaq made her, des- 
 troying her indigenous manufactures to that end, the manufactures 
 which had created her enormous wealth, the wealth which lured the 
 Western nations to her shores. . . . The policy which reduced the Indian 
 masses to poverty and brought about the Bebellion of 1857, consisted 
 of keeping India as a reservoir of raw materials, . . . The Imperial Con- 
 ference nOw proposes to continue the process, but to deprive India of the 
 small advantage she possesses of selling her raw materials in the open 
 European market, and thus obtaining a price fixed by the need of com- 
 peting nations. She is to sell her cotton within the Empire at a price 
 fixed to suit the colourless purchasers of England and the Dominions, 
 fixed in a market controlled by them, fixed to give them the largest profit 
 and reduce her to the lowest point. , , . She will be paid the lowest price 
 which her necessities compel her to accept, and will become the wage- 
 labourer, the wage-slave of the Empire. , . . Such is the great betrayal 
 of India by the Government of India nominees, But they have made 
 one thing clear. Unless the coming of Home Bule be hastened, so that 
 India is freed before the great battle for Imperial preference is fought out, 
 India will be ruined. The trio of Govermnent delegates, in concert with 
 the Secretary of State for India, have voted away all hope of India's 
 industrial regeneration," 
 
140 DECLARATION OF AUGUST 20TH, 1917 
 
 support of the State in an hour of great need 1 What 
 had been the limitations imposed on her? She had 
 been asked to take her choice of several healthy places 
 of residence, to desist from political activities, and to 
 submit to restrictions on her correspondence. It is 
 difficult to see how she was wronged by the action of 
 the Madras Government. 
 
 The internment of Mrs. Besant had i)een shortly 
 preceded by the return from the Imperial War Con- 
 ference in England of the delegates selected by the 
 Government of India, His Highness the Maharaja of 
 Bikaner, Sir James Meston, Lieutenant-Governor of 
 the United Provinces, and Sir Satyendra Sinha, mem- 
 ber of the Bengal Executive Council. For the first 
 time a ruling prince and an Indian member of Coimcil 
 had " shared in the innermost deliberations of the 
 Empire." 
 
 The meaning and results of the occasion were ex- 
 plained by Sir James Meston in an eloquent speech to 
 his provincial legislative Council, which concluded with 
 an appeal for political patience and an assurance that 
 those who were directing the affairs of India were not 
 hostile, but favoiKable to her advance toward greater 
 freedom in her national life. 
 
 Agitation, however, continued among the Home Rule 
 Leaguers, and meetings were held in various towns. 
 On August 2nd, however, a new direction was given 
 to political meditations by two memorable pronounce- 
 ments made by the Secretary of State for India. The 
 first was to the following effect : 
 
 " The policy of His Majesty's Government, with 
 
 \' which the Government of India are in complete accord, 
 
 ; is that of the increasing associatirai of Indians in every 
 
 branch of the administration and the gradual develop- 
 
ANNOUNCEMENTS BY SECRETARY OF STATE 141 
 
 ment of self-governing institutions with a view to the 
 progressive realisation of responsible government in 
 India as an integral part of the British Empire. They 
 have decided that substantial steps in this direction 
 should be taken as soon as possible, and that it is of 
 the highest importance as a preliminary to considering 
 what these steps should be that there should be a free 
 and informal exchange of opinion between those in 
 authority at home and in India. His Majesty's Govern- 
 ment have accordingly decided, with His Majesty's 
 approval, that I should accept the Viceroy's invitation 
 to proceed to India to discuss these matters with the 
 Viceroy and the Grovernment of India, to consider with 
 the Viceroy the views of local governments, and to 
 receive with him the suggestions of representative 
 bodies and others. 
 
 " I would add that progress in this policy can only 
 be achieved by successive stages. The British Govern- 
 ment and the Government of India, on whom the 
 responsibility Ues for the welfare and advancement of 
 the Indian peoples, must be judges of the time and 
 measure of each advance, and they must be guided by 
 the co-operation received from those upon whom new 
 opportunities of service will thus be conferred and by 
 the extent to which it is found that confidence can be 
 reposed in their sense of responsibility. 
 
 " Ample opportunity will be afforded for public 
 discussion of the proposals which wiU be submitted in 
 due course to Parliament." 
 
 The second ran as foUows : 
 
 " The Secretary of State for India has announced in 
 the House of Commons the decision of His Majesty's ^ 
 Government to remove the bar which has hitherto 
 precluded, the admission of Indians to commissioned 
 rank in His Majesty's Army, and steps are accordingly 
 being taken respecting the grant of commissions to nine 
 Indian officers belonging to Native Indian Land Forces 
 
142 DECLARATION OF AUGUST 20TH, 1917 
 
 who have served in the field in the present war and 
 whom the Government of India recommended for this 
 honour in recognition of their services. Their names 
 will be notified in the London Gazette, and in the same 
 gazette they wiU be posted to the Indian Army. 
 
 " The Secretary of State and the Government of 
 India are discussing the general conditions under which 
 Indians should in future be eligible for commissions, 
 In due course the Army Council will be consulted with 
 a view to the introduction of a carefully considered 
 scheme to provide for the selection of candidat^es and 
 for training them in important duties which wiU de- 
 volve upon them." ' 
 
 It is remarkable that these announcements had 
 been shortly preceded by the death of Mr. Dadabhai 
 Naoroji/ the veteran Indian politician, who had sat in 
 the British Parliament and had done as much as any 
 other man to achieve the result which had been at last 
 obtained. The ideal so often put forward by the Con- 
 gress had been accepted as practicable, and steps would 
 be taken to secure its achievement. 
 
 The September Sessions of the Imperial Legislative 
 Council opened with a speech by His Excellency Lord 
 Chelmsford, which carefully reviewed the work accom- 
 plished by his Government, including a remarkable 
 record of war activities and the efiorts already made 
 to meet political objectives. The Viceroy concluded 
 with an earnest appeal to leading politicians for co- 
 operation. The speech had been preceded by the 
 announcement made by the Home Member of Council 
 that the Government of India were prepared to recom- 
 mend to the Madras Government the removal of restric- 
 tions placed on Mrs. Besant and her coadjutors, if the 
 
 ' On June 21st, 1918, the results of this consultation were announced. 
 2 See Appendix VI. 
 
THE IMPERIAL LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 143 
 
 Government of India were satisfied that these persons 
 would abstain from unconstitutional and violent 
 methods of political agitation during the remainder of 
 the war. In taking this course the Government of 
 India were actuated by the confident hope that the 
 recent announcement of His Majesty's Government 
 and the approaching visit of Mr. Montagu would have 
 such a tranquiUising effect on. the political situation as 
 to ensure a calm and dispassionate consideration of the 
 difficult problems which were to be investigated during 
 his stay in this country. The Government of India 
 were prepared, subject to the same conditions, to take 
 the same course in regard to other persons upon whom 
 restrictions had been placed under those rules merely 
 by reason of their violent methods of political agitation. 
 
 Both speech and announcement were well received 
 by the political public, but before Mr. Montagu's arrival 
 notable events occurred which sharply impressed on all 
 concerned that there is another and a far larger public 
 always present in India. Its needs may be elemental, 
 but can at times become loudly clamorous. 
 
 It is, after all, the India which pays by far the larger 
 share of taxes. It is also an India with which we 
 may hazard too much. 
 
 Persons who observe the generally dodle and law- 
 abiding habits of the masses in India, are slow to realise 
 that these same people can be worked up to an extra- 
 ordinary pitch of fanatical fury, and that if captured by 
 insidious appeals, especially appeals made in the name 
 of religion, they are prone to act with unreasoning and 
 brutal violence. Intensely credulous, they are also, if 
 astutely approached, when they have reason to believe 
 that the Government dare no longer restrain them, 
 extremely excitable. The close of the year 1917 was 
 marked by a rude reminder of the possibilities which 
 
144 DECLARATION OF AUGUST 20TH, 1917 
 
 this circumstance involves. A situation arose, and was 
 later to arise even more abruptly in another part of 
 India, for which, the only immediate remedy was force 
 applied in time by strong and resolute authority un- 
 biased by any sectional influence. The story of the 
 Arrah riots should be clearly understood by those who 
 wish to form an idea of the emergencies for which 
 Government in India must always be prepared. 
 
 The area in which these disturbances occurred is the 
 flat tract of the Patna division of Bihar which lies 
 north of the Kaimur Hills, south of the Ganges and 
 adjoining the eastern districts of the United Provinces. 
 The western portion of this tract belongs to the Shaha- 
 bad district, and the eastern portion belongs to the 
 Patna and Gaya districts ; Arrah is the headquarters 
 town of the Shahabad district. 
 
 The tract is for the most part a stiff clay country 
 covered with rice-fields and poorly endowed with means 
 of communication. It is interspersed with a network 
 of ditches, drains, and village channels. Rapid move- 
 ment is impossible to persons unversed in local geo- 
 graphy. 
 
 The inhabitants are mainly Hindus, but there is also 
 a considerable Muhammadan population. The Hindu 
 landed proprietors there are extremely conservative, 
 jealous of any agrarian measures or legislation that seem 
 likely to lessen their powers over their tenants, and 
 deeply imbued with the old Hindu reverence for the cow 
 and aversion to all who sacrifice or slaughter that useful 
 animal. In Shahabad alone of Bihar districts was there 
 any indigenous rising during the Mutiny. Long after 
 1857, Kuar Singh, a Rajput landlord of Jagdispui in 
 Shahabad, waged war against the British Government 
 in the very country which is the subject of the following 
 narrative and in the eastern districts of the United 
 
THE ARRAH RIOTS 145 
 
 Provinces. His exploits are well-remembered in Staha- 
 bad, and his family is present there. 
 
 During the early nineties serious opposition was 
 ofiered to cow-killing in the Patna division, and cul- 
 minated in riots which spread into the Benares and 
 Gorakhpur divisions of the United Provinces. The 
 people of these parts in races and character largely re- 
 semble their Bihar neighbours. The Bakr-Id Muham- 
 madap festival of 1893, which was as usual celebrated 
 by sacrifices of goats and cows, was signalised by the 
 collection of mobs of Hindus organised with the inten- 
 tion of forcibly putting an end to cow-killing. In some , 
 but not in all, cases considerable provocation had been 
 given by Muhammadans, and there can be no doubt 
 that the riots which occurred resulted from a roughly 
 organised Hindu movement. One of its manifestations 
 was attacks on cattle which had been purchased in 
 Bihar for Army Commissariat purposes. This violent 
 agitation was repressed by the Government^ and has 
 since subsided in the United Provinces, but in Bihar 
 it again became prominent in 1911, when various dis- 
 turbances occurred in the Monghyr and Patna districts. 
 In the latter disorderly mobs of low caste Hindus col- 
 lected and prevented cow-sacrifices at various places. 
 Similar distvirbanc^^ccurred in 1912. Some of the 
 riots were organised nfy Hindus of the higher castes. 
 Strong police forces were quartered in the more dis- 
 turbed areas, but in 1915 precautions were relaxed, with 
 the result that on the Bakr-Id day a large armed Hindu 
 mob appeared at a village named Kanchanpur, and 
 deckred their intention of forcibly preventing cow- 
 sacrifice. The local authorities could only prevail on 
 this force to disperse by persuading the Muhammadans 
 of the village to sell their cows to the Hindus and to 
 abandon their sacrifices. Emboldened by success, the 
 
146 DECLARATION OF AUGUST 20TH, 1917 
 
 mob on the following day plundered another village. 
 Their successM defiance of law and order led to further 
 outrages in the following year. Meetings were held at 
 which riots were carefully organised, and although a 
 large force of military police had been drafted into the 
 Patna district before the Bakr-Id of 1916, an armed 
 mob of about 5,000 Hindus, arrayed in rude formation, 
 attacked the military police at Kanchanpur who were 
 protecting the resident Muhammadans after the con- 
 clusion of the saci;ifices. The police were compelled to 
 open fire, and several rioters were killed or wotmded. 
 
 A more serious riot occurred in another police circle. 
 Eight thousand Hindus collected from forty villages 
 and, besieging the village of Jadupur, which was held by 
 police, seized cows intended for sacrifice and dispersed. 
 In a few cases, too, Commissariat cattle were rescued. 
 About 150 of the rioters were convicted and punished, 
 but Hindu and Muhammadan feelings were deeply 
 stirred throughout Bihar. Hindus had become familiar 
 with organised attacks, which had achieved considerable 
 success. They had seen reason to think that if they 
 could terrorise Muhammadans and force them to desist 
 from sacrificing cows, the Government would not inter- 
 vene, provided that the public peace remained un- 
 broken. 
 
 In 1917 careful precautions were taken, but no in- 
 formation was received which pointed to the likelihpod 
 of disturbances in Shahabad, where there had been no 
 anti-cow-kniing riot for nearly a quarter of a century. 
 Yet this district was to witness an outbreak beside 
 which all the previous disturbances which we have men- 
 tioned were insignificant trifles. Each of these con- 
 sisted of a single riot at a single village, and on the con- 
 clusion of the trouble the rioters dispersed to their 
 homes. But the Shahabad or Arrah riots of 1917, 
 
THE ARRAH RIOTS 147 
 
 many of which were equal in magnitude to any of the 
 Patna riots, broke out simultaneously over the greater 
 part of the district, and " to find any parallel to the 
 state of turmoil and disorder that ensued, it is necessary 
 to go back over a period of sixty years to the days of 
 the great Mutiny." ' 
 
 The first outbreak was at Ibrahimpur, a village near 
 Piru, a large bazar and a station on the light railway, 
 twenty-five miles south of Arrah. Information had 
 been received by the District officials at Arrah on Sep- 
 tember 22nd of a Bakr-Id dispute, but this seemed 
 to terminate in a compromise arranged between the 
 parties by the good offices of the Muhammadan sub- 
 divisional officer and a local Hindu barrister land- 
 owner, the Muhammadans agreeing to sacrifice goats as 
 well as cows, and the Hindus undertaking to provide the 
 goats and make certain other concessions. In defiance 
 of this compromise, on the morning of the 28th, a large 
 mob of Hindus attacked Ibrahimpur and two neigh- 
 bouring villages where cow-sacrifice had till then been 
 performed without dispute. They drove ofi cattle and 
 goats belonging to Muhammadans and plundered houses. 
 As the Hindus had thus grossly violated the terms of 
 the compromise, the authorities allowed the Muham- 
 madans of Ibrahimpur to perform the cow-sacrifices 
 which they had originally consented to forgo, and 
 the Hindus of the village acquiesced in the justice of 
 this decision. The sacrifices were thus performed on 
 the 29th, but in private, and with precautions to avoid 
 wanton ofience to Hindu feeling. 
 
 On the morning of the 30th Ibrahimpur was at- 
 tacked by a large Hindu mob, and houses were plun- 
 dered before this mob was driven off by armed police, 
 
 * Resolution of the Government of Bihar and Orissa, dated June 
 13th, 1918. 
 11 
 
148 DECLARATION OF AUGUST 20TH, 1917 
 
 who were on several occasions compelled to fire. On 
 the same day extra police arrived under the Commis- 
 sioner and the Deputy Inspector-General. Quiet was 
 obtained for the time, but the air was fuU of alarming 
 rumours, and the Muhammadans were in a state of 
 terror. Two days later rioting began , throughout a 
 large tract of about forty miles square which passed 
 into the hands of Hindu mobs. These attacked and 
 plundered every Muhanmiadan house or village which 
 they could reach. It was necessary to seek aid from 
 the military, and British and Indian cavalry, in con- 
 junction with British infantry, were pushed out in 
 bodies to protect the affected villages. For some time 
 riots continued, and Arrah itself was threatened with 
 attack. In most cases the Muhanmaadans fled as the 
 mobs approached, but in two villages, though hopelessly 
 outnumbered, they offered a fierce resistance, beating 
 off repeated attacks before they were finally over- 
 powered. By October 7th 129 villages had been 
 plundered in Shahabad, and it was only when troops 
 had arrived in sufficient strength, and had established 
 thirteen posts throughout the disturbed area which 
 were connected by cavalry and motor-car patrols along 
 the main roads, that the rioting ceased. Even then the 
 coimtry remained for some time in a state of ferment. 
 The disturbances, too, spread to Gaya, where between 
 October 8th and 13th over thirty villages were plun- 
 dered. 
 
 During the days of mob-ascendancy, those Muham- 
 madans who could not reach secure shelter were exposed 
 to sufferings which it is imnecessary to detail here. 
 They are set forth in the judgments of the Commis- 
 sioners who tried the cases arising from the attacks on 
 various villages. ■ 
 
 Six days elapsed before the local officers were able 
 
fHE ARRAH RIOTS 14& 
 
 to get complete control of the situation. The police 
 forces at their disposal were entirely inadequate, and 
 the military forces within easy reach consisted only of 
 one weak garrison. Troops from more distant places 
 were only obtained with delay and in detachments. 
 The wide area and indifferent communications of the 
 tra-ct concerned made it difficult to move the soldiers. 
 But the rioters, on the other hand, moved freely about 
 over narrow embankments between the waterlogged 
 fields, and generally melted away on the approach of 
 the troops, only to collect again at a safe distance and 
 loot fresh villages. They took good care to disperse at 
 once whenever the military appeared, and thus avoided 
 being fired at. 
 
 All the time the Muhammadans of Patna and Gaya 
 were in a condition little short of panic ; and there can 
 be no doubt that further continuance of the riots would 
 have set the whole of Bihar ablaze and seriously affected 
 the eastern districts of the United Provinces. 
 
 The disturbances had been organised with great care 
 and skill. The religious dispute in Ibrahimpur, which 
 was subsequently adduced as their cause, had been 
 amicably settled, and nowhere had the Muhammadans 
 offered any provocation. Numerous snowball letters 
 inciting Hindus to loot certain villages on fixed dates 
 came to light, and in many cases there was evidence 
 that bands of rioters were operating on a definite plan. 
 They had evidently been, instructed as to the lengths 
 to which they were to go. Murder was not committed 
 except in overcoming resistance. Damage to Govern- 
 rq.ent property was avoided except in a few cases where 
 the telegraph wires were cut so as to hamper the trans- 
 mission of intelUgence. Although the area concerned 
 contains many post offices, canal headquarters, and 
 other places where Government money was kept, these 
 
160 DECLARATION OS* AUGUST 20TH, 1917 
 
 were left untouched. The object of the organisers 
 appears to have been to convince the authorities that 
 the movement was purely religious and anti-Muham- 
 madan. According to a statement made by a con- 
 victed rioter, their plans were carefully elaborated. 
 Their following was assured by the welding potency of 
 the call to protect the cows, which appeals most strongly 
 to all Hindus, and especially to those of the higher 
 castes. The rioters apparently believed that they could 
 deal such a blow at the Muhammadans as to finally 
 end cow-sacrifice. They had been captured by war- 
 unrest, and had imbibed the idea that the moment 
 was opportune because British rule had sunk into 
 weakness and decline, A perusal of some of the snow- 
 ball leaflets shows that assurance was given therein of 
 German and Bengali succour. The rioters of Piru 
 attacked with cries of " British rule is gone," and at 
 first believed that no troops were available to suppress 
 them. When the troops arrived, it was rumoured that 
 they had no ammunition or had been forbidden to fire. 
 The brutalities practised on the unfortunate victims 
 of these riots were the theme of indignation meetings 
 in many mosques in northern India, and collections 
 were made in aid of the sufferers wherever there were 
 Muhammadans. The organisers of many meetings 
 came from classes which from indifference and fear of 
 controversy had hitherto remaiaed silent in politics. 
 They expressed a deep and widespread sentiment. 
 Relations between the two great communities were 
 tense and uneasy throughout the concurrent Ram 
 LQa and Muharram festivals in many districts of the 
 neighbouring United Provinces. Serious disturbances 
 occurred at three well-known places. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE REFORMS REPORT 
 
 The object of Mr. Montagu's visit was to determine, 
 on the spot and in consultation with the Viceroy, what 
 steps should be taken in the direction of establishing 
 in India government responsible to the peoples of the 
 various provinces. The London Cabinet recognised that 
 such establishment must be gradual, that progress to- 
 wards it could be satisfactorily effected only by stages ; 
 but they considered 4;hat no time should be lost in 
 making substantial steps toward the goal. What these 
 substantial steps should be was the problem; but it 
 was desired that a considerable advance should be made 
 on the Minto-Morley Reforms which had been in opera- 
 tion for eight years only. 
 
 Mr. Montagu and his party arrived in India late in 
 the year 1917, and after preliminary conferences with 
 the Government of India and heads of provinces at 
 Delhi, they toured to Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay. 
 They were accompanied by the Viceroy and the Home 
 Member of His Excellency's Executive Council, and 
 everywhere consulted leading non-officials and officials. 
 On the oonclusion of the tour, further con&ultations 
 were held, and it was not until near the end of April 
 that the Secretary of State and his party returned to 
 England. 
 
 The tour attracted universal attention. The Euro- 
 pean non-officials and other communities had appointed 
 
 151 
 
152 THE REFORMS REPORT 
 
 representative councils to draw up petitions for the 
 protection of their interests. Addresses were presented 
 by numerous associations ; the landlords, the depressed 
 classes, the Deccan Ryots, the Indian Christians, and 
 many other sections of an enormous population claimed 
 earnestly that in the new era that was dawning their 
 peculiar interests might be duly safeguarded and not 
 left to the unfettered arbitration of any numerical 
 majority. 
 
 The Congress and the Muslim League urged the adop- 
 tion of a constitution which would embody the pro- 
 visions framed at their meetings of 1916. In Decem- 
 ber both bodies assembled at Calcutta. Mrs. Besant 
 presided over the Congress, which was described by a 
 leading Indian paper as " the Congress of Mrs. Besant 
 and Mr. Tilak, of Mrs. Besant more than Mr. Tilak." 
 
 The attendance was large ; but the Moderates were 
 becoming surfeited with the dominant political powers, 
 and the Muhammadans were establishing dissenting 
 Muslim associations. 
 
 The' British reverses in France arrested the attention 
 of the country ; and in April the Viceroy, at the in- 
 stance of the Prime Minister of the United kingdom, 
 summoned the ruling chiefs and the leading non-official 
 representatives of British India to a conference at 
 Delhi. The object was to arrange that aU possible assis- 
 tance, in the shape of men, money, and supplies, should 
 be given to the cause of the Allies at an horo* of supreme 
 need. 
 
 Sub-committees were appointed to devise ways and 
 means, and speeches were delivered which breathed a 
 spirit of energetic loyalty to the British Crown. Oppor- 
 tunity, however, was taken by the Honourable Mr. 
 Khaparde, a member of the Imperial Legislative Council 
 and of the Home Eule League, to bring forward a 
 
THE DELHI WAR CONFERENCE 153 
 
 resolution recommending to the British Government 
 immediate introduction into Parliament of a. BiU 
 " meeting the demands of the people to establish re- 
 sponsible government in India within a reasonable and 
 specified period." The Conference was also to advise 
 the immediate removal of all racial distinctions. 
 
 This resolution was disallowed by the Viceroy as 
 foreign to the purpose of the Conference. 
 
 Among various eloquent utterances on a great occa- 
 sion, those of His Highness the Maharaja of Ulwar and 
 of the late Mr. Ironside, the representative of the Cal- 
 cutta Chamber of Commerce, were particularly memor- 
 able.' 
 
 Conferences were also held at provincial centres. A 
 great impulse was given to war-efiorts of all kinds, 
 especially to recruiting, which made remarkable pro- 
 gress in the United Provinces and the Punjab ; but 
 simultaneously it became increasingly clear that some 
 elements of Indian society were bent on turning the 
 difficulties of the hour to political advantage. On 
 June 10th, at the Bombay Provincial War Con- 
 ference, the Governor, H.E. Lord WiUingdon declared 
 that certain gentlemen, many of whom were connected 
 with the Home Rule League, had not only not given the 
 help to Government which it was fairly entitled to 
 expect from them in such critical times, but had even 
 endeavoured, to increase its difficulties and embarrass- 
 ment wherever and whenever they could. 
 
 His Excellency refused to allow Mr. B. G. Tilak and 
 another Home Rule leadeij^^^ffer observations which 
 he characterised as political, although these gentlemen 
 asserted that they and their League were loyal to the 
 King-Emperor. Three of their sympathisers left the 
 hall. The Conference, however, passed, with acclama- 
 
 1 See Appendix VIII (a) and (h). 
 
154 THE REFORMS REPORT 
 
 tion, a resolution authorising tlie Governor to convey 
 to His Majesty an assurance of the determination of 
 the Bombay Presidency to continue to do her duty to 
 her utmost capacity in the great crisis through which 
 the Empire was passing. 
 
 On June 16th Home Rule day was celebrated at 
 Madras. That date was selected as it was the anni- 
 versary of the internment of Mrs. Besant and her lieu- 
 tenants. The meeting was presided over by Sir 
 Subramania Aiyar, who had once been a judge of the 
 Madras High Court, but had later earned fame as the 
 author of a letter to President Wilson which described 
 India as a subject-nation held in chains, forbidden by 
 aUen rulers to express publicly her desire for the ideals 
 proclaimed in the President's famous war message.* 
 The meeting was addressed by the chairman, who advo- 
 cated " passive resistance " as a constitutional method 
 of enforcing the claim for Home Rule. Agitation, he 
 said, was not enough. What was required was a pro- 
 mise of Home Rule at a definite period. Mrs. Besant, 
 who was present, protested against the " insult " 
 levelled against members of the Home Rule League by 
 the Governor of Bombay, and stated that the share of 
 India in the Empire was the giving of men and money. 
 How could Indians be asked to fight for a liberty in 
 which they would not share ? Life without liberty was 
 a poor and contemptible thing. 
 
 All these proceedings were repugnant to reasonable 
 politicians who were disposed to do their best as 
 loyal citizens, but found themselves frequently pushed 
 aside. Passages in newspapers from time to time ex- 
 pressed their sentiments. These are best illustrated by 
 a quotation : 
 
 " In nearly all parts of India where political life is 
 
 1 See page 36. 
 
SUBSEQUENT POLITICAL EVENTS 155 
 
 earnest, certain persons have of late been preaching a 
 crusade against the older leaders. The younger Con- 
 gressmen have been made to believe that, if only they 
 crippled these and laid them on the shelf, the principal 
 obstacle in the way of India's progress would be re- 
 moved. We do not grudge the new leaders their suc- 
 cess. Far be it from us to do so. But it is much to be 
 wished that their success was attained by methods 
 which left the young heart pure and tender and chival- 
 rous, and which did not rob it of the rare jewel of ancient 
 Indian culture, the quality of reverence. The reno- 
 vated polity of the future cannot lose it except at its 
 peril." — Servant of India. 
 
 A stronger protest appeared in the Times of India 
 from Mr. N. Tilak, a cousin of Mr. B. G. Tilak and an 
 ex-member of the Home Eule League, who wrote as 
 f oUows : 
 
 " One characteristic difference between the two 
 parties of Indian politicians, the Extremists and the 
 Moderates, is that while the former have little faith in 
 the sincerity of Government, the very fact of Govern- 
 ment sincerity is the great hope of the latter. ' With 
 what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged, and with 
 what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you 
 again.' The cardinal fact in the whole situation is that 
 the Home Eule Leaguers have not yet realised their 
 country's vital relation to the war. They are blind to 
 the all-important fact that the time has already come 
 to prepare seriously for the defence of their own country. 
 Consequently they are under the delusion that what- 
 ever is done by the Indian people to help the cause of 
 the Allies is done by way of obliging the British Govern- 
 ment. The question with them is thus whether their 
 countrymen should oblige Government or should re- 
 ceive in advance the price of the service they render for 
 Government. To yield to so utter and so grave a mis- 
 understanding of the whole situation would be the 
 
156 THE REFORMS REPORT 
 
 greatest possible danger to India in this critical tour. 
 In expressing his opinion of the Home Rulers I think 
 His Excellency the Governor meant this and nothing 
 more." 
 
 " We here in India are not sufficiently aware of the 
 gravity of the situation, a complete knowledge of which 
 would surely be enough to make us lay aside all petty 
 considerations, bury deep all differences, and place our- 
 selves and our resources at the disposal of our defenders 
 without the least reserve and absolutely unconditionally. 
 If the worst fears are realised with the Home Rulers 
 having done nothing save raise their party cry, it will 
 then not be Government so much as we, the Home 
 Rulers' feUow-citizens, who wiU pronounce them to be 
 India's worst enemies. The changed times give us a 
 very clear message, wldch is that we should forget 
 every self-centred problem and, summing up all the 
 powers we possess, stand by our Government loyally 
 and heroically. Times like these are simply putting us 
 to the test, whether we are really fit for Home Rule, 
 and, if we are fit, then to what extent. This great ques- 
 tion of our fitness will be decided not by our own 
 opinions, still less by our party creeds, but by the 
 opinion of those British people who are determined to 
 fight for victory till their last drop of blood is spilt and 
 by the whole civilised world, whicb has become Britain's 
 comrade in this war for justice, equity, and liberty. To 
 secure the good opinion of liberty-loving Britain and 
 the world we must rise above the turmoil of political 
 agitation which at present rules our hearts." 
 
 Mr. Tilak added that he did not wish to be understood 
 to mean that India did not look for any form of self- 
 government. What was certain, however, was that the 
 vast bulk of the Indian people did not want the Home 
 Rule proposed by the Extremists. 
 
 " It is indeed," he said, " an extremely difiicult hour 
 
MR. GANDHI 157 
 
 for tjiose high-souled Brahmans, who, abhorring the 
 course proposed by the Extremists in politics, are 
 genuinely loyal to their country and their king. As 
 for the non-Brahmans, they have only one idea, one 
 purpose, one goal, and that is the safety, permanence, 
 and continuity of British rule in India." 
 
 Jhe intemperate political tendencies of the hour were 
 further rebuked by a person who has since become 
 conspicuous in a less happy connection. His ante- 
 cedents had been remarkable. 
 
 MoJiandas Karamchand Gandhi is now an elderly 
 man, and belongs to the Hindu Vaishya or merchant 
 caste. He is a native of Guzerat, in the presidency of 
 Bombay, and has been called to the English Bar . Return- 
 ing to India, he began to practise in the Bombay High 
 Court, and was retained by a firm of his native town 
 Purbandar to conduct a lawsuit in Natal.] 
 
 While in South Africa ' his sympathies were stirred by 
 the disabilities suffered by his countrymen there, both 
 indentured labourers and others. 
 
 He initiated strong protests, and in 1896 visited 
 India, but returned to South Africa and assisted to 
 organise Indian ambulances during the Boer War. 
 Afterwards he enrolled himseU as an advocate of the 
 Supreme Court of Pretoria, arranging also for the pur- 
 chase of a press and the starting of a newspaper. In 
 1906 the Government of the Transvaal enacted a law 
 which required all Asiatics to register by means of 
 thumb-impressions. The object was to prevent un- 
 lawful immigration. This law was stubbornly opposed 
 by Mr. Gandhi and his followers on the ground that it 
 degraded them. They combated its operation by 
 
 1 I have taken the incidents of Mr. Gandhi's South African career 
 from tJie only source available to me, a book called Heroes of the How, 
 published by Ganesh & Go. of Madras, 
 
158 THE REFORMS REPORT 
 
 passive resistance, refusing to register ; and Mr. Gandhi 
 himself underwent two short terms of imprisonment. 
 The struggle, which lasted some time, excited the 
 keen sympathy of educated India ; and when in March 
 1912 Mr. Grokhale moved in the Imperial Legislative 
 Council for the abolition of indentured emigration to 
 Natal, the resolution was accepted by Government. 
 After the accomplishment of the Union of South Africa, 
 the British Cabinet, at the instance of the Government 
 of India, endeavoured to procure repeal of the regis- 
 tration law ; but repeal, when it came, was followed by 
 the passing of an Immigration Act which was repug- 
 nant to Mr. Gandhi and his followers. At their invita- 
 tion, and with the approval of the Home Government, 
 Mr. Gokhale visited South Africa, but agitation con- 
 tinued for the removal of certain disabilities. 
 
 Another big effort of passive resistance and a strike 
 of Indian labourers in the coal mines of Natal excited 
 renewed sympathy in India, which was expressed by 
 the Viceroy, Lord Hardinge, in a public speech. A 
 Conmiission of Enquiry was appointed, and resulted in 
 the removal of an obnoxious tax and other grievances. 
 
 Mr. Gandhi returned to India with a considerable 
 reputation, and began to interest himself in. afEairs there. 
 He first interfered in disputes between the indigo 
 planters of Bihar and their tenants, championing the 
 cause of the latter, and serving on the Commission ap- 
 pointed by Government to investigate their complaints. 
 He then took up the case of the revenue-payers of 
 the Kaira district of Bombay, who complained that 
 the Government demand was too rigorous in view of 
 scarcity. 
 
 His history gave him a unique position among the 
 political classes, and latterly he had acquired a reputa- 
 tion among some persons of humbler position. To all 
 
PUBLICATION OF THE REFORMS REPORT 159 
 
 he preached the doctrine- that satya griha (insistence on 
 truth, popularly translated as passive resistance) would 
 conquer all difficulties. He was invited to and attended 
 the Delhi War Conference. There he spoke briefly in 
 favour of the loyal resolution moved by the Gaekwar 
 of Baroda. 
 
 Now also, appealing to the Kaira people in whose 
 affairs he had recently shown interest, he uiged them 
 to qualify themselves for Home Rule by helping the 
 Empire. Again, at a Home Rule meeting convened in 
 Bombay in order to protest against Lord Willingdon's 
 speech of June 10th, he advised unconditional co- 
 operation with Government on the part of educated 
 India as more likely than anything else to bring Home 
 Rule in sight. 
 
 The above criticisms and appeals did not affect the 
 Extremist attitude; and when, on July 8th, the 
 Reforms Report was published, the scheme which it 
 proposed was promptly condemned by Extremist poli- 
 ticians and newspapers as inadequate and disappointing. 
 The Moderates, however, welcomed this scheme, al- 
 though they proposed to ask for some alterations ; and 
 as the Extremists persisted in their attitude of disdain, 
 the ]!|Ioderate leaders decided not to attend the special 
 Congress arranged for discussion of the proposals, and 
 resolved to call a subsequent conference of their own. 
 Before, however, proceeding further with this narrative, 
 it is desirable to give some account of the Reforms 
 proposals. The Report was in two parts, the first 
 headed " the material," and the second headed " the 
 proposals." 
 
 The first part was a fine exposition of the situation ; 
 but interest, as was natural, mainly settled on the 
 second part. 
 
 The most important proposal was the provision for 
 
160 THE REFORMS REPORT 
 
 the major provinces of India (excluding Burma) of 
 dyarcMes or govermnents consisting of two wings, the 
 first composed of a governor and two executive coim- 
 cillors, an Indian and a British official, appointed by 
 the Crown, the second composed of a minister or minis- 
 ters nominated by the Governor from among the elected 
 members of the provincial Legislative Coimcil and 
 holding office for the term of the council concerned. 
 
 The Governor and Executive Councillors were to hold 
 charge of the major or essential departments. These 
 would be called " reserved." 
 
 The minister or ministers would take charge of other 
 departments. These would be termed " transferred." 
 The Government, thus constituted, would deliberate 
 generally as a whole, but the Governor would have 
 power to summon either wing for separate deliberation. 
 
 Decisions on the reserved subjects, and supplies for 
 them in the provincial budget, would rest with the 
 Governor and his Executive Council ; decisions on and 
 supplies for the transferred subjects would rest with 
 the Governor and the ministers. The Governor was 
 not to be in a position to refuse assent at discretion to 
 the proposals of ministers. He was to be guided by 
 an instrument of instructions issued to him on appoint- 
 ment by the Secretary of State in Council^ or by the 
 Secretary of State should the Council of the Secretary 
 of State fail to survive reform. The Governor was, 
 however, to advise his ministers, and could refuse assent 
 to their decisions " when the consequences of acquies- 
 cence wotdd clearly be serious." 
 
 Distinction between " reserved " and " transferred " 
 departments would be drawn by a committee which 
 would be appointed for inquiry into and report on this 
 difficult question. The guiding principle should be 
 " to include in the transferred list those departments 
 
THE REFORMS PROPOSALS 161 
 
 which afford most opportunity for local knowledge 
 and social service, those in which Indians have shown 
 themselves to be keenly interested, those in which mis- 
 takes that occur, though serious, would not be irremedi- 
 able, and those which stand most in need of develop- 
 ment." 
 
 Provincial legislatures would be greatly enlarged and 
 would contain substantial elected majorities. Election 
 was to be on as broad a basis as possible, for the authors 
 of the scheme did not intend that the result of their 
 labours should be to " transfer powers from a bureau- 
 cracy to an oligarchy." The franchise and the com- 
 position of the various Legislative Councils would be 
 determined by regulations to be framed on the advice 
 of a committee to be hereafter specially appointed. 
 
 The provincial Governor was to be able to certify 
 that a bill dealing with a reserved subject was essential 
 for the peace or tranquilhty of the province or for dis- 
 charge of his responsibility for reserved subjects. The 
 bill would then be referred to a Grand Committee of the 
 Legislative Council, of which the Governor might 
 nominate a bare majority. The bill as passed by the 
 Grand Committee might again be discussed by the 
 Legislative Council, but could neither be rejected nor 
 amended except on the motion of a member of the 
 Executive Council. 
 
 All provincial legislation would require the assent of 
 the Governor and Governor-General, and would be sub- 
 ject to disallowance by His Majesty. The Governor 
 could reserve provincial laws for the toyal assent. 
 
 The annual budget woiild be laid before the Legisla- 
 tive Council. If the Council refused to accept the 
 proposals for reserved subjects, the Governor^in-Council 
 would have power to restore the whole, or any part, on 
 the Governo]:'s certifying that, for reasons to be stated, 
 
162 THE REFORMS REPORT 
 
 Buch restoration was essential either to the peace or 
 tranqiiillity of the province or any part thereof, or to 
 the discharge of his responsibility for reserved subjects. 
 Except in so far as he exercised this power, the budget 
 would be framed so as to give effect to resolutions of 
 the Legislative Council. Standing committees of the 
 Legislative Council were to be attached to all depart- 
 ments. Resolutions of the Council (except on the 
 budget) would only have effect as recommendations. 
 
 Thus the system would imply arrangements by which 
 one half of the provincial Government had independent 
 charge of " reserved " subjects, the land revenue, the 
 police, law and order, etc. Its policy in administering 
 these departments would be ultimately one of which 
 the British Parliament had approved. The other half 
 of the Government would be in independent charge of 
 "transferred" subjects, local self-government, medical 
 and sanitary work, vernacular education, etc, its 
 policy in regard to which would be one dictated by the 
 provincial Legislative Coimcil. Association was, of 
 course, desirable between the two halves of the Govern- 
 ment in so far as this was practicable without obscuring 
 the responsibility of each half for taking its own deci- 
 sions and for abiding by the consequences. The 
 Governor, the Public Services, a conmaon Treasury and 
 Audit, would be the links between the two halves of 
 these provincial Governments. 
 
 The entire field of provincial administration would 
 be marked off from that of the Government of India 
 which would preserve indisputable authority on matters 
 adjudged by it to be essential for the discharge of its 
 responsibilities for peace, order, and good governmeait. 
 As the popular element of the provincial Government 
 acquired experience, transferr-ed subjects would be 
 added to and reserved subjects would be transferred 
 
THE REFORMS PROPOSALS 163 
 
 until no reserved subjects remained, the need for an 
 official element in the Government vp,nished, and the 
 goal of complete responsible government was attained. 
 Such transfers would be admissible at intervals of five 
 years, when they might be considered on application 
 from a provincial Government or provincial Legislative 
 Council. 
 
 In the Government of India there was to be no 
 dyarchy,but the Indian element in the t^'iceroy's Execu- 
 tive Council was to be increased. 
 
 The Legislative Council was to be replaced by a 
 Legislative Assembly and a Council of State. The 
 former would consist of about 100 members, and would 
 be the popular body. The latter would consist of fifty 
 members, exclusive of the Viceroy, who would be Presi- 
 dent with power to nominate a Vice-President. Not 
 more than twenty-five members of this Council would 
 be officials, but twenty-nine would be nominees of the 
 President. The President of the Legislative Assembly 
 would be nominated by the Viceroy. The Council of 
 State would act as a second chamber. It would be 
 possible on emergency to pass a bill through the Council 
 of State in the first instance, merely reporting it to the 
 Legislative Assembly. Ordinarily, bills would go first 
 to the latter body. If passed, they would go on to the 
 Council of State. If amended there, they would be 
 laid before a joint session of both houses, unless the 
 Governor-General in Council was prepared to certify 
 that the amendments were essential to the interests of 
 peace, order, and good government, including sound 
 financial administration, in which case the Assembly 
 would not have power to reject or modify such amend- 
 ments. Resolutions of either the Council of State 
 or Legislative Assembly would only have effect as 
 recomjuendations. A council of Ruling Princes was 
 12 
 
164 THE REFORMS REPORT 
 
 to be established, and would be able to deliberate 
 with the Council of State on matters of common 
 interest. 
 
 Racial bars that still existed in regulations for the 
 public services were to be abolished. In addition to 
 recruitment in England where such existed, a system 
 of appointment in India to all the public services was 
 to be established. Percentages of recruitment in India, 
 with definite ratios of increase, were to be fixed for all 
 the services. 
 
 In the Indian Civil Service the percentage would be 
 33 per cent, of the superior posts, increasing annually 
 by IJ per cent, ixntil the position was reviewed by a 
 Commission appointed by Parliament. Such a Com- 
 mission would be appointed ten years after the first 
 meetings of the new legislative bodies in order to ex- 
 amine the constitutional position both in the Govern- 
 ment of India and in the Provinces. Similar Commis- 
 sions would be subsequerdiy appo^ted at intervals of 
 not more than ten years. 
 
 The authors of the report expressed the view that 
 " so far in the future as any man can foresee, a strong 
 element of Europeans would be required in the public 
 services." The continued presence of the British officer 
 was vital, if the Indian people were to be made self- 
 governing. 
 
 The authors very strolngly condemned communal 
 electorates as a very serious hindrance to the develop- 
 ment of the self-governing principle. They would con- 
 cede them, however, to the Muhammadans in provinces 
 where the latter are in a minority, and to the Sikhs. 
 In the case of the Muhammadans, they felt themselves 
 bound by previous pledges. The Sikhs are everywhere 
 in a minority, but supply a very valuable element in 
 the Army, 
 
THE REFORMS PROPOSALS 165 
 
 The following principles underlie the main proposals 
 above detailed : 
 
 (ff) Indians must be educated and stirred into becom- 
 ing a nation. 
 
 The present ideal of a small cla?s must be generally 
 adopted. It should be lifted up and held in front of 
 all classes, races, and languages. It should draw all. 
 The masses, who from the earliest ages had been absorbed 
 entirely in their private affairs, arid accepted ruler after 
 ruler provided that he was strong enough to govern 
 and protect them, must be educated into taking a share 
 in a system of parliamentary government. The address 
 to the Viceroy and the Secretary of State from the 
 Deccan Ryots had described the sole purposes of 
 ordinary persons of the tenant class to be " commerce, 
 agriculture, menial service, and so on." If we add to 
 these purposes attendance on religious fairs and occasional 
 litigation, the description is complete. The authors 
 of the Reforms scheme decided that contentment with 
 such a limited horizon was pathetic, and must be dis- 
 turbed in order that nationhood within the Empire 
 might be achieved. 
 
 (6) The required goal must be achieved by pre- 
 arranged measured stages. Every five years proposals 
 would be admissible for the transfer of some Government 
 department to the direction of a minister. Every ten 
 years a Commission from England would see how 
 things were going, and, if they were satisfactory, would 
 presumably recommend a further advance. 
 
 The proposalfor five years' transfer was abandoned 
 subsequently. I'he whole idea that it is a promising 
 arrangement to transfer departments of government 
 in India to popular control by measured stages was 
 entirely novel. 
 
 (c) From the very first, Government responsible to 
 
166 THE REFORMS REPORT 
 
 the various legislatures would be conceded to a defin- 
 itely marked extent. The object was to give the elec- 
 torates which would now be created and their leaders 
 a genuine sense of responsibility. To secure this, the 
 responsibility would be clear-cut and unmistakable. 
 
 The adoption of the first two principles clearly in- 
 volved the undertaking of a very difficult and critical 
 enterprise, the results of which cannot be foreseen. The 
 last objective is obviously desirable, provided that it 
 can be attained without damaging the ability of the 
 British Government to secure order, progress and 
 content in India. The Report did not notice the 
 obstacle which the nature of the Hindu religions and 
 social system offers to the establishment of democratic 
 government. Nationalists talk as if this obstacle did 
 not exist. But it does exist in a very solid form, al- 
 though it is a delicate matter for discussion in a pub- 
 lished Government Report. The marked ascendancy 
 which it confers on the Brahman is the reason for the 
 strong desire of non-Brahmans in Madras for separate 
 communal representation. Theirs is by no means the 
 only community that craves this privilege. In fact, it 
 may be said that if the scheme of reform insists on 
 representative government without some degree of 
 communal representation, it will in actual working be 
 far from agreeable to large bodies of the population of 
 India. Whatever may be the case in 'the future, at 
 present the great majority are accustomed to regard 
 themselves as members of such and such a community, 
 sect, or faith, and if they are to learn to think differ- 
 ently, they should not be hurried. Widely diffused 
 education and not abrupt intervention is the real 
 remedy. 
 
 The authors invited reasoned criticism, official and 
 non-official. The proposals would be examined by the 
 
MANIFESTO OF THE BENGAL MODERATES 167 
 
 Local Govermnents, who had not seen them in their 
 matured form. This examination ended in a con- 
 demnation of dyarchy by the large majority of Local 
 Governments. Five heads of provinces proposed an 
 alternative plan for unified government with an oflScia] 
 majority of a Governor and two Executive Councillors 
 (one an Indian) against two ministers. The ministers 
 Would not exercise the separate clear-cut responsibility 
 in certain departments contemplated by dyarchy, but 
 would exercise a joint responsibility in all departments. 
 Reasoned criticism of the Montagu-Chelmsford pro- 
 posals took time to mature. But two noteworthy mani- 
 festos appeared with little delay. The first was a 
 pronouncement issued by the Bengal Moderates, the 
 text of which contained the following passages : 
 
 " Till a few days ago it looked as though the two 
 schools of political thought in the country might yet 
 come together in compromise, and that a united Con- 
 gress could consider and pronounce a verdict on the 
 official proposals of reform. The cry of total rejection 
 with which they were greeted in some quarters on 
 publication weakened somewhat after a few weeks were 
 over, and a general disposition to consider details and 
 offer specific criticisms manifested itself. Unfortu- 
 nately, however, it has become apparent from writings 
 in certain organs of the " hbme rule " press, manifestos 
 issued here and there by that party, and the proceedings 
 of the conferences held in various provinces within the 
 last few weeks, that their attitude is stiU hostile. Dis- 
 appointment and dissatisfaction are the notes invari- 
 ably struck ; the ideals that responsible government 
 should be introduced at the very start and widened by 
 successive stages, embodied in the Imperial Cabinet's 
 declaration of August last, are unheeded if not expressly 
 set aside ; and the modifications demanded amount to 
 a practical rejection of the official scheme in funda^ 
 mentals. We are constrained to say, therefore, that 
 
168 THE REFORMS REPORT 
 
 tte Extremist attitude is still one of rejection tliougli 
 thinly disguised. To make good this criticism, it is 
 necessary to examine at some length the manifesto 
 signed by Mrs. Besant and several other persons in 
 different parts of the country and the resolutions passed 
 by the recent Madras special provincial conference. 
 To those who have watched how the Home Rule Leagues 
 and their branches have captured the various Provincial 
 Congress Committees in the country and the All-India 
 Congress Committee, there is now little reason to doubt 
 that the Special Congress to be held in Bombay wiU 
 repeat, with perhaps a few alterations, the resolutions 
 of the Madras conference. 
 
 • ••••• 
 
 " The speeches of the Chairman of the Reception Com- 
 mittee, and of the President of the special session of 
 the Madras 'Provincial Conference, held early this month, 
 clearly indicate the spirit in which the reform scheme is 
 looked upon by the Extremist Party. Mrs. Besant has 
 chosen to characterise the scheme as ' leading to a line 
 beyond which its authors cannot go — a perpetual slavery 
 which can only be broken by a revolution.' Mr. Vijay-. 
 raghava Chariar described the scheme from the cimi 
 of the Conference as ' a monster fondling of Round 
 Table politicians,' and the attempt to secure support for 
 such a contrivance as 'simply ludicrous, if not dis- 
 ingenuous.' 
 
 " Now there is good reason to believe that Moderate 
 views are held by much larger numbers than generally 
 appear on the surface. But the very nature of their 
 views disposes them as a class to be more acquiescent 
 and less demonstrative than the others. If a referen- 
 dum could be taken on the subject of the official scheme 
 of reforms, not only among those who habitually give 
 vocal expression to their political thoughts, but among 
 all in the country who may be brought to form intelli- 
 gent opinions on the issues involved, it is not improb- 
 able that the majority would be found to be on oui 
 
MANIFESTO OF EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION 169 
 
 side. However that be, owing to the activity, as has 
 already been mentioned, of the Home Rule Leagues 
 and their branches, it is certain that in all Congress 
 organisations we have been reduced to a minority." 
 
 Eor all these reasons they decided not to attend the 
 special Congress to be held in order to discuss the 
 Reforms. 
 
 The second notable manifesto was a statement issued 
 by the Secretary of the European Association on behalf 
 of his Council. 
 
 " Until," he wrote, " it can be roughly ascertained 
 what proportion the potential electors bear to the whole 
 population, on what classes of subjects the electorate 
 is tolerably qualified by education and the sense of the 
 public good to pronounce, and in what spirit the elec- 
 torate may be expected to deal (a) with special Euro- 
 pean interests in India and (6) with those of classes too 
 backward to share in the franchise — until all this can 
 be ascertained with some approach to accuracy, it is 
 impossible to say dogmatically what powers can be 
 entrusted to the representatives of the electorate. Th« 
 eminent authors of the report, however, have left the 
 whole question of an electorate to be settled by a com- 
 mittee to be appointed hereafter. In these circum- 
 stances the Council of the European Association must 
 express itself with some reserve on the essentials of the 
 scheme. 
 
 " The Council has been struck in perusing the report 
 by the failure of Mr. Montagu and Lord Chelmsford to 
 realise the importance of the European non-official 
 community in India. In many passages of the report 
 it is tacitly assumed that the European oflScial and the 
 Indian non-official are the only parties to any political 
 settlement, and when the report does expressly refer to 
 the European non-official community, as in paragraph 
 
170 THE REFORMS REPORT 
 
 344, it is mainly to ofEer some respectable platitudes for 
 consideration. 
 
 " The Council of the European Association is em- 
 phatically of opinion that European non-officials are 
 entitled to substantial representation as a community 
 in the Provincial and Imperial Legislatures in addition 
 to the representation already given through Chambers 
 of Commerce, Trades Associations and Planters' Associa- 
 tions. Eepresentatives of those specialised bodies 
 naturally cannot receive any general political mandate 
 from their constituents, and that is a strong reason for 
 according an adequate measure of communal represen- 
 tation to Europeans. But there is a further reason 
 in the fact that so long as representation is merely 
 through a Chamber of Commerce and sectional bodies, 
 a considerable mmiber of Eiiropeans engaged in the 
 legal, medical, journalistic, and other professions, or resi- 
 dent where specialised bodies do not exist, are denied 
 all representation. 
 
 " The hostility of the report towards communal repre- 
 sentation for Indians, other than Muhammadans, and 
 in the Punjab Sikhs, appears to the Council to be with- 
 out justification. Nationhood can never be achieved by 
 placing minorities or a backward majority under the 
 heel of a clique excessively intolerant in social relations 
 and avid of political power. And even if it were other- 
 wise, the problematic future blessing of nationhood 
 would not compensate the Indian masses for their suffer- 
 ing during lie transitional period. Immense differ- 
 ences exist between various sections of the population 
 in race, religion, culture, tradition, and vocational bent, 
 and practical recognition of these differences is a con- 
 dition of success in any political development. To 
 initiate representative Government by means which 
 deny representation to many classes of the population 
 is inconsistent. Communal representation may not be 
 equally necessary in all provinces, and it may not be 
 permanently needed, but at any rate in the early years 
 of the experiment it is essential. For if minorities 
 
REPORT OF THE SEDITION COMMITTEE 171 
 
 and backward classes are thrown back on nomin- 
 ated representation, how are they ever to acquire 
 the capacity for the use of the franchise which 
 the authors of the report desire to evoke ? . . . 
 European opinion and sober Indian opinion may 
 be prepared to support a marked increase in Indian 
 control over policy if the execution of policy remains 
 largely or very largely in British hands. On the other 
 hand, European opinion and sober Indian opinion may 
 be willing to support a rapid increase in the Indian 
 element in the public services if the inspiration of the 
 policy remains mainly British. But to effect these 
 changes simultaneously, to alter hastily the racial com- 
 position of the public services, and to do this as if each 
 of the changes could be rightly decided upon without 
 reference to the other, is not statesmanship." 
 
 Shortly after the publication of the Reforms Scheme, 
 a report of a different nature was published in India. 
 
 At the instance of the Government of Bengal, who 
 were much concerned at the difficulties encoimtered in 
 coping with revolutionary crime in their province, the 
 Government of India, with the authority of the Secre- 
 tary of State, had appointed a committee of five : 
 
 " To investigate and report on the nature and extent 
 of the criminal conspiracies connected with the revo- 
 lutionary movement in India ; 
 
 " To examine and consider the difficulties that had 
 arisen in dealing with such conspiracies, and to advise 
 as to the legislation, if any, necessary to enable Govern- 
 ment to deal effectively with them." 
 
 The Presideni of the Committee was the Honourable 
 Mr. Justice Rowlatt of the King's Bench ; the members 
 were the Honourable Sir Basil Scott, Chief Justice Of 
 Bombay ; the Honourable Mr. Justice Kurnaraswarni 
 
172 THE REFORMS REPORT 
 
 Sastri of the Madras High Court ; the Honourable Mr. 
 P. C. Mitter, Pleader of the Calcutta High Court and 
 Member of the Bengal Legislative Council ; and the 
 author of this book.^ 
 
 The Committee sat in Calcutta and at Lahore, and 
 examined a number of witnesses, official and non-official, 
 as well as a great variety of records of trials and other 
 documents. In April they had submitted a unanimous 
 report to the Government of India, which gave a fuU 
 account of the origin and growth of revolutionary con- 
 spiracy in India, tracing the ramifications of the move- 
 ment and the interconnection of its varying phases in 
 difEerent provinces. The Committee also submitted 
 recommendations regarding the legislative measures 
 required for coping with the difficulties encountered in 
 dealing with the movement. Publication of the Eeport 
 was announced on July 19th. As was to be expected, the 
 book was hailed with showers of abuse by the Extremist 
 Press. The Moderates generally reserved comment. 
 
 The country at large was in no way disturbed by all 
 these political events. The people generally were 
 interested in the abnormal delay of the rains and in 
 rising prices. So far the war period had been marked 
 by good harvests ; but in 1918 the monsoon broke down 
 disastrously. The high prices, first of salt and after- 
 wards of cloth and oil, caused considerable hardship as 
 the months advanced ; and for one of the people who 
 in the least understood the Reforms proposals, there 
 were many thousands who, as the rains persisted in 
 holding off, looked anxiously for Government measures 
 to enable them to buy salt, oil, and cloth at prices 
 within their means. 
 
 The days of civil officers were occupied by heavy 
 routine duties and extra war work. Eecruiting for the 
 
 ^ We were all entirely unknown to each other. 
 
GENERAL CONDITIONS AT THIS TIME 173 
 
 Army and for labour corps,' collection of supplies 
 and comforts for troops, all progressed with, zeal and 
 rapidity. Attention, too, was riveted on the battle- 
 fields of France. Now and then officers who had taken 
 part in the great struggle returned to speak of its vicissi- 
 tudes. A letter published in August by the Pioneer news- 
 paper gave the impression which affairs in that month, 
 before the definite failure of the monsoon, conveyed 
 to one of these observers. 
 
 EUKOPE AND INDIA— A CONTKAST 
 
 [by one who has beturned from the front] 
 
 " From the darkness and gloom of the West, over the 
 whole of which the realities of war and the shadows 
 which all real things cast around them are much in 
 evidence, it is like life from death to arrive in this won- 
 derful, peaceful, well-fed happy country of India, where 
 the war appears to have made so little appreciable im- 
 pression and, where it is possible even in these days, 
 when the fate of the nations of the world is trembling 
 in the balance, to discuss politics as though political 
 discussions and academic wranglings were the panacea 
 for all the ills that man is heir to. 
 
 " What a favoured country this is ! Contrast its 
 condition with Europe to-day. The whole of Belgium, 
 except a tiny piece at the south-west corner, is in the 
 hands of the Germans, who have wantonly destroyed 
 the beautiful towns and glorious buildinjgs which had 
 been handed down to us as a priceless heritage from the 
 past, and which can never again be constructed, for the 
 master minds and hands of the periods which produced 
 these heirlooms of the world have gone, producing in 
 turn hard commercial master rainds which, though 
 
 ' Even before September 1917 India had sent about twenty labour 
 corps to Mesopotamia and twenty-five to France. Also she had de- 
 spatched overseas about 60,000 artizans, labourers, and specialists of 
 various kinds and 20,000 menials and followers. Many more were sent 
 later. 
 
174 THE REFORMS REPORT 
 
 capable of doing many things for tte amenities of man- 
 kind, cannot build as those built of yore, for the soul of 
 man has, in some mysterious manner, changed, and 
 building for love, to the glory of God, and for the edify- 
 ing of humanity, is not the outstanding feature of the 
 period in which we are playing our part. 
 
 " In Europe food and the very necessaries of life are 
 rationed, as the supply of many commodities is not 
 equal to the demand — a condition of things brought 
 about by the removal of men from productive employ-' 
 ment and using them for the destruction of the enemy 
 of civilisation, who, like the Huns of AttUa from whom 
 they are descended, are carrying out the order of the 
 German Emperor addressed to them in the same words 
 as he spoke to his soldiers when sending them to China 
 to quell the Boxer rising, ' Kill and destroy. Spare not. 
 Leave the women and children only their eyes to 
 cry with.' 
 
 " Compare the conditions described with those we 
 find around us here — ^work is proceeding very much as 
 usual. Certain commodities are expensive, but, being 
 not necessary in every case for the sustenance of life, 
 need not be purchased. Food is plentiful, and, though 
 not as cheap as it was before the war, is within the 
 reach of all, and can be procured without food tickets, 
 which it is necessary for every one to have in Europe. 
 Productive employment is seen on every hand. Works 
 of utility are being constructed, though not of the same 
 magnitude as during the piping times of peace, and on 
 every hand there is evidence of that sense of security 
 and order which the Britisher, with his slow but sure 
 methods, ensures for all, and which results in producing 
 the greatest good for the greatest number." 
 
 Great issues were at stake in Europe and Asia ; but 
 while the Empire was fighting for its life, the more 
 advanced Nationalists remained absorbed in their own 
 pursuits. The resources of the famous Buckingham 
 
FURTHER NATIONALIST ACTIVITIES 175 
 
 and, Carnatic Mills at Madras had been placed at the 
 disposal of Government for assistance in the provision 
 of essential war material. A statement published by- 
 Messrs. Binny & Co., the secretaries and treasurers of 
 these mills, attributes the labour unrest which charac- 
 terised the year 1918 to the unfortunate political 
 situation in Southern India and to the anti-European 
 sentiments propounded by certain politicians. It 
 quotes four relevant passages from the paper New 
 India tn support of this contention. It states that 
 a Labour Union had. been started with representatives 
 whose primary object was politics. This Union 
 met more or less continuously throughout 1918. At 
 its meetings the workmen were told that they were 
 treated worse than beasts of burden. At one meeting, 
 held on April 29th, they were informed that a 
 variety of Madras leaders would explain to them the 
 various political, social, and economic questions which 
 touched them nearly. The report of the directors for 
 the half-year?ending December 31st, 1918, contains the 
 following account of the results of these meetings : 
 
 " Both mills were entirely closed for twenty working 
 days in all during the half-year. It was noteworthy 
 that the mills singled out for attack were mills under 
 European management, engaged in work of military 
 importance. The directors trusted that the methods 
 employed in Madras might not be followed or allowed 
 in other parts of India. If political changes were to 
 be sought for in this manner, the development of the 
 resources of the country by manufacturers would be 
 seriously retarded, as the investment of capital, European 
 or Indian, would be prejudicial. The artificial fostering 
 of race hatred might have disastrous results for Indian 
 industries. From this it is not a long step to class 
 hatred and to conditions of anarchy." 
 
 At the end of August special meetings of the Congress 
 
176 THE EEFORMS REPORT 
 
 and Muslim League, while admitting the Montagu- 
 Chelmsford Scheme to be an advance on present con- 
 ditions, declared it, as a whole, disappointing and un- 
 satisfactory. They stated in efEect that they would 
 reject the scheme unless it embodied certain other 
 demands which they specified. The Moderate leaders 
 did not attend the Congress. 
 
 Early in September the Imperial Legislative Council 
 assembled at Simla. On the 6th of the month the 
 Honourable Mr. Surendranath Banerjee, leader of the 
 Moderates, moved the following resolution : 
 
 " This Council, while thanking His Excellency the 
 Viceroy and the Secretary of State for India for the 
 Reform proposals, and recognising them as a genuine 
 effort and a definite advance towards the progressive 
 realisation of responsible government in India, recom- 
 mends to the Governor-General in Council that a Com- 
 mittee consisting of all the non-official members of this 
 Council be appointed to consider the Reforms Report 
 and make recommendations to the Government of 
 India." 
 
 The mover expressed strong approval of the Reforms 
 proposals, criticising only those which related to the 
 Government of India and the absence of dyarchy there. 
 He concluded by inviting his countrymen to grasp with 
 alacrity and enthusiasm the hand of fellowship and 
 friendship held out to them, and " in co-operation with 
 British statesmen to move forward to the accomplish- 
 ment of those high destinies which, under the Providence 
 of God, are reserved for our people." 
 
 The resolution was warmly supported by other mem- 
 bers. Among British non-officials, however, the represen- 
 tative of the Bombay Chamber of Commerce said that 
 he was not yet in possession of the considered opinion 
 of his constituency; and the representative of the 
 
SESSIONS OF THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 177 
 
 Calcutta Chamber of Commerce, the late Mr. W. A. 
 Ironside, complained that the proposals practically 
 igiiored the European non-official community. 
 
 A very few Indian non-officials expressed either 
 limited satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the pro- 
 posals; but only two finally opposed the resolution. 
 The proposed committee sat and submitted recom- 
 mendations which showed that the dissatisfied members 
 had exercised no small influence over its deliberations. 
 As, however, the author of this book took part in these 
 memorable sessions, he can say from personal observa- 
 tion that the attitude of non-official members generally 
 was one of friendly cordiality and offered promise of a 
 brighter future. An additional war contribution of 
 £45,000,000 was offered to His Majesty's Government, 
 and even a debate on the Press Act produced no bitter- 
 ness, while a resolution by a non-official member recom- 
 mending that consideration and disposal of the Report 
 of the Sedition Committee be kept in abeyance, and 
 that a thorough inquiry into the work of the Criminal 
 Investigation Department be undertaken by a mixed 
 committee of officials and non-officials, was rejected by 
 46 to 2 votes. 
 
 In view of the very different debates of the following 
 sessions on the same subject, it is interesting to note 
 that of the six non-official members who spoke in addi- 
 tion to the mover, all condemned the proposal that 
 consideration of the report should be kept in abeyance, 
 one saying that this proposal was inopportune in view 
 of attempts made in England to use the Report as an 
 antidote to the intended Reforms. He added that not 
 only was the proposal inopportune, but that it was 
 calculated to injure the successful passage of the Re- 
 forms Bill through Parliament. One member, subse- 
 quently a bitter opponent of the resulting legislation, 
 
178 THE REFORMS REPORT 
 
 strongly commended the Report; and wMle three 
 specially reserved opinion upon the legislative pro- 
 posals, only one condemned them. The debate passed 
 off with entire good humour and general harmony. 
 
 On September 9th and 10th, while the Council 
 was sitting, serious riots with loss of life occurred in 
 Calcutta. 
 
 For some time that section of the Muhammadan com- 
 munity of Calcutta which manifests an interest in 
 public affairs had been agitated by the course of events 
 outside their province, particularly by the war and its 
 effects upon their co-religionists in Turkey and Asia. 
 Their feelings had been worked up by newspaper effu- 
 sions, and had previously been deeply stirred by the 
 Arrah riots. Latterly the lower classes of all cities had 
 suffered from high prices. 
 
 At the end of July an unwisely worded article had 
 appeared in a paper relating to the presence of certain 
 African Muhammadans in Paris. Originally published 
 in England, it was reproduced in Calcutta without 
 mischievous intention. It was misinterpreted, and an 
 incorrect translation of an expression which appealed 
 in some vernacular newspapers gave rise to an impres- 
 sion among many Muhammadans that insult to the 
 tomb of the Prophet was intended. Violent and in- 
 flamjnatory language was used at various meetings held 
 during August, and more than one speaker called upon 
 the followers of Islam to avenge this insult to their 
 faith. Towards the end of the month a leaflet was 
 widely distributed which called upon Muhammadans 
 in highly provocative language to attend a mass meet- 
 ing to be held for the protection of Islam on September 
 8th, 9th, and 10th. Reference was made therein 
 to religious insults, and it was urged that it was neces- 
 sary to take steps to prevent attacks and accursed 
 
RIOTS IN CALCUTTA 1T9 
 
 occurrences. It was stated that Muslim religious 
 leaders would attend from all parts of India, 
 
 The Local Government could have no doubt that 
 harangues would be delivered at the proposed meeting 
 which, in the existing state of public feeling, would 
 lead to a grave breach of the peace. The promoters of 
 the meeting were, therefore, amicably requested to 
 abandon it ; and on their refusal, followed by the circula- 
 tion of a second leaflet which was couched in still more 
 inflammatory language and contained provocative re- 
 ferences to the Arrah riots, Government decided to pro- 
 hibit the mass meeting. The religious leaders who had 
 arrived from other parts of India were directed to 
 return to their homes ; but before they went a few of the 
 more influential were invited to see the Governor, who 
 explained the situation to them. They endeavoured 
 to persuade the reception conmiittee to abandon the 
 meeting. Efforts were, however, made to induce re- 
 consideration of the Government's decision, and a 
 crowd set out to march on Government House. The 
 police were stoned and finally compelled to fire. The 
 European Deputy Commissioner of Police was stabbed 
 in the neck, and some cloth shops were looted. The 
 Indian Defence Force was called out, and picketed the 
 city on the night of the 9th. About midday on the 
 10th a larger mob assembled and began to plunder 
 shops. A small military detachment in the vicinity 
 -was constrained td fire. The agitators called miU-hands 
 to assist them, and the operatives of three large mills 
 refused to do their work. A foreman, too, was brutally 
 attacked and badly injured. Then a mob of about 
 2,000 persons endeavoured to force their way into Cal- 
 cutta, A large number carried formidable clubs, and 
 were led by fanatics shouting and dancing, their bodies 
 smeared with mud. Further firing was necessary to 
 12 
 
18a THE REFORMS REPORT 
 
 prevent this mob from forcing their way into the city. 
 The riots then subsided, but further sporadic firing took 
 place. 
 
 A further reminder of the fanatical fury that can 
 blaze out suddenly in India for slight material reason 
 was given on September 18th by a religious riot at 
 the village of Katarpur in the Saharampur district of 
 the United Provinces. There thirty" Muhammadans 
 were killed, sixteen were injured, and a number of 
 houses were burnt down by Hindus determined to 
 prevent cow-sacrifi.ce. 
 
 The murders were brutal and xmprovoked. The 
 rioters were led and instigated by Hindus of the better 
 classes. One hundred and seventy-five Hindus were 
 convicted after a long and patient trial by a tribunal of 
 high authority ; eight were sentenced to death, 135 
 to transportation for life, and two to seven years' 
 rigorous imprisonment. The judges strongly anim- 
 adverted on the nervous weakness of the Hindu sub- 
 divisional magistrate.' 
 
 Criticisms of the Eeforms Scheme accumulated. The 
 more important are contained in a parliamentary blue 
 book lately published. On November 1st the 
 Moderates held a separate conference at Bombay. The 
 President condemned the perverse attitude of the Ex- 
 tremist leaders, but considered that the prx)posals 
 relating to the Government of India should be more 
 advanced. If the whole of what was recommended 
 was not given, if the proposals in the Report were in 
 any way " whittled down," there would be grave 
 public discontent " followed by agitation, the magni- 
 tude of which it would be difficult to exaggerate." 
 
 It was resolved that dyarchy should extend to the 
 
 • Withm my own experience another Hindu magistrate onoe behaved 
 admirably in a similar but less grave situation. 
 
THE CONFERENCE OF MODERATES 181 
 
 Central Government, although the Viceroy had par- 
 ticularly stated at the September Sessions oi the Legis- 
 lative Council that neither he nor the Government of 
 India was prepared to go beyond the proposals con- 
 tained in the Report. The Conference was attended 
 by about 500 delegates, a figure far smaller than either 
 the average Congress audience or the recent special 
 Congress audience. It is probable that the attendance 
 was materially affected by widespread influenza; but 
 it consisted only of invited visitors, as fears had 
 been entertained of possible wreckers. There is no 
 doubt that the Moderate leaders were in a difficult 
 position, and were encountering bitter opposition from 
 antagonists far more able to catch the ear of the stu- 
 dents, journalists, and junior members of the Bar who so 
 often sway political audiences in India. They were, how- 
 ever, aware that in fact they represented many educated 
 Indians of means and position, who feared and shrank 
 from the strife of politics and abuse of newspapers. 
 Had, indeed, such persons seized the opportunity and 
 come forward in any number to steady the course of 
 politics at this critical time, the record of the next few 
 months would have been different. But they stood 
 aside. 
 
 Unfortunately the monsoon failed badly ; and in 
 October and November the country was visited by a 
 severe influenza epidemic which caused widespread 
 suffering. The conclusion, however, of the Armistice 
 and the triumph of the AlUed cause were welcomed 
 throughout the country. The Maharaja of Bikanir and 
 Sir Satyendra Sinha' were deputed to Englaud to repre- 
 sent India at the Peace Conference. 
 
 Political excitement subsided for a brief space, but 
 broke out again at the usual December meetings. 
 
 ' Now Lord Sinha. 
 
182 THE REFORMS REPORT 
 
 Fervid orations were delivered at these gatheriijgs. 
 The principle of self-determination must be applied to 
 India. Political prisoners and internees must be re- 
 leased. Repressive legislation was not the remedy for 
 revolutionary crime. The Press Act must be repealed. 
 The declaration of August 20th, 1917, was cautious 
 and cold. The Montagu-Chelmsford proposals fell far 
 short of the Congress-League Scheme. There must be 
 fiscal freedom for India. The principal resolution 
 passed at the Congress expressed the view that, so far 
 as the provinces were concerned, full responsible govern- 
 ment should be at once granted. Mr. Sastri, the only 
 Moderate politician of importance present, moved an 
 amendment proposing a fifteen years' time limit for the 
 grant of full provincial autonomy. He was supported 
 by Mrs. Besant, but the amendment was lost. Another 
 resolution passed was to the effect that non-official 
 Europeans should not be allowed to form separate elec- 
 torates on the ground that they represent the mining 
 or the tea industries. If they were allowed such repre- 
 sentation, it should be merely in accordance with their 
 numerical proportion to the population of their pro- 
 vince. 
 
 A third resolution decided that the final authority 
 in aU internal affairs should be the supreme Legislative 
 Assembly as voicing the will of the Indian nation. 
 
 A fourth resolution nominated Mr. Bal Gangadhar 
 Tilak, Mr. Gandhi, and Saiyid Hassam Imam, late 
 President of the Bombay Special Congress, as the repre- 
 sentatives of India at the Peace Conference. 
 
 Another resolution condemned the proposals of the 
 Sedition Committee, stating that if these were accepted, 
 they " would interfere with the fundamental rights of 
 the Indian people." This resolution was moved by Mr. 
 Bipin Chandra Pal, who, in his own reported words, had 
 
THE POLITICAL MEETINGS OF DECEMBER 1918 183 
 
 " earned high distinction" in the pages of the Committee's 
 Report. The resolution was carried imanimously. 
 
 In a closing address the President appealed for Hindu- 
 Muslim unity. 
 
 The Congress had included some " tenant-delegates." 
 The proceedings generally were characterised by a corre- 
 spondent of a leading Moderate journal as " enthusiasm 
 run riot." He added : 
 
 " One looked in vain for sobriety, restraint, and good 
 sense ; there was a notable tendency toward rabid 
 extremism. . . . There was a tendency towards im- 
 patient idealism rather than practical statesmanship, 
 towards indulgence in catch-phrases rather than sound 
 thinking dispassionately done. And the worst of it 
 was that it was not merely the rank and file which suf- 
 fered from these defects; the leaders showed these 
 weaknesses in an even greater degree." 
 
 The President of the Muslim League reminded British 
 statesmen that it was politically imsound to indulge in 
 heavy drafts on the loyalty of a subject people. India 
 had retrograded in material prosperity imder British 
 rple. The British administration had not promoted or 
 widened the sources of national wealth in India, and 
 all the available wealth had been actually drained out 
 of the coimtry by the system of administration. Self- 
 government was necessary. He referred to the Cal- 
 cutta riots and the cases of certain Muhammadan in- 
 ternees, two of whom have since been, by order of the 
 Government of India, committed to jail for endeavour- 
 ing to induce Muhammadans to assist the Amir of 
 Afghanistan in the recent hostilities. After asserting 
 Muhammadan loyalty to the British Crown, subject to 
 fidelity to the dictates of their faith, the President, Mr. 
 Fazl-ul-Haq, concluded in the following words : 
 
184 THE REFORMS REPORT 
 
 " I will not, tkerefore, be surprised if they take this 
 opportunity finally to dispose of Turkey and her pro- 
 blems in Europe, and herein lies food for the amplest 
 reflection. As the years roll on, the position of the 
 Mussulmans in India becomes more and more critical, 
 and demands our most anxious thought and care. In 
 my humble opinion we should invoke divine help and 
 guidance in all sincerity and meekness of heart ; above 
 all, we should renounce any lurking spirit of strife and 
 quarrel with other communities, and seek their help and 
 assistance in our troubles and difficulties. There are 
 some Mussulmans who think that intolerance of non- 
 Muslims is a point of bravery, and that a contrary feeling 
 betokens cowardice. I have even come across Muslims 
 who take a particular pleasure in assuming a militant 
 attitude towards non-Muslims, as if devotion to Islam 
 demands that we should always be on the warpath 
 irrespective of consequences. All this is not merely 
 morally .reprehensible, but politically a grievous blunder. 
 We are daily drifting towards a position when we shall 
 have to tackle one of the most obstinate and powerful 
 bureaucracies known in history. We shall then need 
 all our strength, and also the help and co-operation of 
 our non-Muslim brethren. Experience has shown that 
 we can have this help and co-operation for the mere 
 asking. Shall we be wise and strengthen our arms by 
 an alliance with our brethren, or shall we be foolish and 
 weaken whatever strength we possess by internecine 
 quarrel and strife ? We have to decide with the future 
 of our commimity in the palm of our hands, and, please 
 God, let us decide wisely."' 
 
 Kesolutions were passed regarding the desirability 
 of maintaining the control of the Sultan of Turkey as 
 the true Khalifa over the Holy Places, deprecating the 
 Katarpur riots, supporting self-determination, and other 
 
 * Another passage in Mr. Fazl-ul-Haq's speech referred to " the hurling 
 of the hordes of Christendom against the bulwarks which the heroes of 
 Islam had raised for the protection of their faith.'" 
 
RESULTS OP THESE MEETINGS 185 
 
 matters. In determining the political relations of tlie 
 Empire for tlie future, resolute attempts must be made 
 to effect complete reconciliation and lasting accord 
 between the Empire and Muslim States, based on terms 
 of equity and justice. 
 
 The All-India Home Rule League also met, with Mrs. 
 Besant in the chair. Their rules were amended. Their 
 object would be to support and strengthen the Congress, 
 and to carry on a continuous educative propaganda 
 on the necessity of Home Rule for India. 
 
 It was so evident, however, that both the Congress 
 and the Muslim League had been captured by the most 
 headstrong sections of each body, that Mrs. Besdnt 
 thought it advisable to point out in her newspaper 
 that India depended on England for her safety, writing 
 that " apart from ideals and sentiments, this is the 
 plain brutal truth, and no amount of shouting can alter 
 it." For this reason stages toward responsible govern- 
 ment were necessary, not that India was unfit " in all 
 home matters " for immediate self-government. 
 
 There can be no doubt that among the younger mem- 
 bers of the political classes in towns, some of the speeches 
 and resolutions of these December meetings did infinite 
 harm, inflaming still further racial animosity and in- 
 ordinate expectations, preparing the way for serious 
 trouble sooner or later. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE SEDITION BILLS AND THE " PASSIVE KESISTANCE " 
 
 RIOTS 
 
 On May 22nd, 1919, the Secretary of State for India 
 told the House of Commons tliat one of the causes of 
 the recent troubles in India, which had resulted in the 
 loss of nine European and 400 Indian Uves, was the 
 Sedition Act, which had caused widespread — ^he would 
 almost say universal — opposition. He added that he 
 was convinced that as passed, as now on the Statute 
 Book, the Act was necessary, ought to have been passed, 
 and could not have been avoided. 
 
 It is obvious that the Act in question, and the objects 
 which it was meant to serve, call for clear explanation. 
 I have already referred to the Report of the Sedition 
 (Rowlatt) Committee, and have shown that in Septem- 
 ber 1918 the Imperial Legislative CouncU saw no cause 
 whatever for postponing consideration thereof. The 
 Council then did not expect that before it again as- 
 sembled the war would have been decided. The con- 
 clusion of the Armistice impressed on the Government 
 of India the desirability of eariy action to supply by 
 legislation a measure which would take the place of the 
 Defence of India Act, when, six months after the con- 
 clusion of peace, that Act would become inoperative. 
 This conviction was mainly due to the needs of the 
 province of Bengal. 
 
 The findings of the Sedition Committee were that in 
 
 i86 
 
FINDINGS OF THE SEDITION COMMITTEE 187 
 
 all the main provinces of India within recent years, 
 bands of conspirators, energetic and ingenious, although 
 few in number, had caused discord or committed crime 
 with the object of preparing the way for the overthrow 
 by force of British rule. Sometimes revolutionary plots 
 had been isolated, and sometimes they had been inter- 
 connected. In Bombay the conspiracies had been 
 purely Brahman. In Bengal the conspirators were 
 young men belonging to the educated middle classes. 
 They had committed a long series of murders and rob- 
 beries, which had only ceased when a considerable num- 
 ber of suspects were interned under the Defence of 
 India Act. Theic propaganda had produced a number 
 of murders and robberies in their own province, and had 
 penetrated to Bihar and Orissa, the United Provinces 
 and Madras, where it failed to take root, but led to 
 sporadic crime or disorder. In the Punjab returned 
 emigrants and others had attempted to bring about a 
 bloody rebellion in the critical month of February 1915. 
 There, again, the situation was only retrieved by em- 
 ployment of the Defence of India Act. The fact was 
 that the ordinary statute law was unable to cope with 
 conspiracies rich in ramifications, extending over enor- 
 mous tracts of country largely devoid of roads and 
 railways, among peoples crowded, ignorant and credu- 
 lous. 
 
 The Bengal conspirators, although a small fraction 
 of the enormous population of that province, spared no 
 pains to attract educated youths to their ranks from 
 schools and colleges. In this they were remarkably 
 successful. They organised and conducted for years a 
 campaign of revolutionary propaganda, of burglary and 
 robbery committed with the object of extracting money 
 for the purchase of firearms and the financing of mur- 
 derous enterprises which were to prove stepping-stones 
 
188 SEDITION BILLS AND PASSIVE RESISTANCE 
 
 to a violent upheaval. Gradually they established a 
 terrorism which made evidence of their doings exceed- 
 ingly hard to obtain. All the time they were working 
 mainly in the small towns and villages of a vast water- 
 country, largely destitute of good communications, or 
 in a big capital city and its suburbs, under cover first 
 of all of the Partition agitation and then of a constant 
 current of newspaper hostility to Government. The 
 following extracts from the Report show the nature of 
 their crimes and the frequent impunity with which 
 those crimes were committed. The first is from the 
 narrative of the year 1915 : 
 
 " It remains to mention three murders which occurred 
 in Eastern Bengal this year. On March 3rd, Babu 
 Sarat Kumar Basu, the head master of the ZUla School 
 at Comilla, was shot dead while walking with his ser- 
 vant. The servant was wounded in the stomach. A 
 Muhammadan who pursued the murderers received two 
 shots in the chest, and a woman was accidentally struck 
 by a bullet from one of the pistols. Five empty Mauser 
 pistol cartridges were found upon the scene. The head 
 master's servant eventually died. The victim of this 
 murder had come into antagonism with political parties 
 in Bengal in 1908, and shortly before his murder had 
 had occasion to report to the district magistrate about 
 two students concerned in the distribution of seditious 
 pamphlets. None but political reasons can be assigned 
 for this murder." 
 
 The Report goes on to meiition the murder of a poUce 
 ofl&cer who was shot with his child by four or five 
 youths armed with Mauser pistols. The next illustra- 
 tion belongs to the record of two years later : 
 
 " Another dacoity in 1917 remains to be specially 
 mentioned. It was committed in a goldsmith's shop 
 at No. 32, Armenian Street, Bura Bazar, Calcutta, at 
 
CORROBORATIVE TESTIMONY 189 
 
 about 9 p.m. on May 7th. Two yoimg Bengalis 
 entered the shop and asked to see jewellery. Then four 
 young Bengalis entered the shop and began firing 
 wildly with pistols. Two brothers of the owner, who 
 were in the shop, fell mortaUy wounded. There were 
 also in the shop an assistant and a servant, who were 
 both wounded, two women, one of whom escaped and 
 the other hid under a bench, and a Muhammadan who 
 escaped. The dacoits decamped with jewellery to the 
 value of Rs. 5,459, and some of them drove away in a 
 taxi-cab that they had in waiting." 
 
 In neither of these cases was a single conviction ob- 
 tained. There were many such cases. 
 
 The panic which the Revolutionaries managed to 
 inspire in the minds of members bbth of the educated 
 and uneducated classes is well exemplified by unim- 
 peachable testimony entirely independent of the Com- 
 mittee's report. On December 11th, (^ 1916, Lord 
 Carmichael, then Governor of Bengal, said in a speech : 
 
 " Only a few days ago I spoke to one of you, one 
 who has influence, one who has eloquence, and who 
 knows how to use both, and who, I believe, hates the 
 crimes as much as I do ; he told me that if he were to 
 go, as he would like to go, to certain places in Bengal, 
 and were to denounce the crimes publicly as he would 
 like to denounce them, he would do it at the risk of 
 his life ; and I told him that this is not a risk which 
 he ought lightly to undertake, and is certainly not a 
 risk which I ought to ask him to undertake." 
 
 In a farewell speech the same Governor remarked in 
 the same conneption : 
 
 " The Defence of India Act is what has helped us. I 
 am only saying what I believe to be absolutely true 
 when I say that the Defence of India Act has helped to 
 defend the young educated men of Bengal as nothing 
 
190 SEDITION BILLS AND PASSIVE RESISTANCE 
 
 else has defended ttem — not their own fathers, not their 
 teachers, for they were ignorant, not their associates, 
 nor they themselves, for they were blind to the danger." 
 
 Mr. Justice Beachcroft and Sir N. G. Chandravarkar 
 stated as follows in their Report referred to later on and 
 completed some time after the publication of the 
 Report of the Sedition Committee : 
 
 " The records before us conclusively prove that the 
 revolutionary organisations are secret conspiracies which 
 have spread into different parts of the province, entered 
 homes, schools, and colleges, and have reduced their 
 secrecy of operations almost to scientific methods. They 
 have pledged their members to the closest secrecy of 
 their movements on pain of instant death by murder 
 in the event of disclosure ; that is one of their rules, 
 and every attempt has been made to give effect to it. 
 Before the Defence of India Act was brought into force, 
 the fair trial of a person accused of revolutionary crime 
 had been rendered practically impossible by the mur- 
 ders of approvers, witnesses, police oflicers and law- 
 abiding citizens suspected by revolutionaries of having 
 given information to, or otherwise assisted, the police 
 in the detection of revolutionary crime. A situation 
 of terrorism was created, the current of truth and 
 justice was disturbed, so as to prevent a fair^ open, and 
 impartial trial in the ordinary criminal courts, with the 
 result that approvers and witnesses would not come 
 forward to give evidence openly lest they should be 
 assassinated." 
 
 The Committee took pains to present the facts for 
 each province in clear narrative form. They carefully 
 described the nature of the evidence on which their 
 findings were based, and they were rewarded by the 
 result. Their conclusions of fact withstood unshaken 
 all the storms of abuse and controversy by which the 
 report was subsequently assailed. 
 
PROPOSALS OF THE COMMITTEE 191 
 
 They had been requested to advise as to the legis- 
 lation, if any, necessary to enable Government to deal 
 effectively with such conspiracies when the Defence of 
 India Act ceased to operate. In compliance with this 
 request, they prepared two concluding chapters. The 
 first recited the difficulties that had arisen in dealing 
 with revolutionary conspiracies. It showed how the 
 ordinary machinery of the law had failed to cope suffi- 
 ciently with revolutionary crimes in Bengal. Legal 
 evidence as to the authorship of particular crimes, the 
 ownership of arms and other matters bearing on the 
 identity of robbers and murderers, had again and again 
 been unobtainable owing to the size and character of 
 the country, the ignorance and timidity[of the people, 
 the comparative paucity of the police, the length of the 
 trials which were habitually spun out by the cross- 
 examination of witnesses upon every conceivable matter 
 with a minuteness unknown in England. Moreover, a 
 widespread and extraordinary terrorism dominated 
 many of these unfortunate persons. Of this terrorism 
 the Committee gave striking ex:amples. They ajlso 
 pointed out that not until 1908 had the Government of 
 India attempted to strengthen the law in order to 
 enable it to meet the difficulties that had arisen in 
 dealing with revolutionary crime. Conspiracy had 
 then enjoyed two years' start. As the measures of 1908 
 were found inadequate, the Press Act of 1910 was 
 passed. In the intervening two years, newspapers had 
 continued to vilify British rule, and pamphlets of a 
 fanatical and bloodthirsty character had been circu- 
 lated. Thus it was that a soil was prepared on which 
 anarchy flourished and criminal organisations were able 
 to enlist a constant supply of desperate youths. 
 
 The last chapter of the report advised certain mea- 
 sures of legislation. The Committee pointed out that 
 
192 SEDITION BILLS AND PASSIVE RESISTANCE 
 
 their instructions were applicable to tlie state of circum- 
 stances in which the difficulties referred to had been 
 encountered. These difficulties had been for the pre- 
 sent circumvented by special temporary legislation, the 
 Defence of India Act and certain ordinances, but when 
 these lapsed on the conclusion of the war, the old 
 obstacles might or might not revive. 
 
 ^ " We do not think," ran the report, " that it is for 
 us to speculate nicely on these matters. We must, of 
 course, keep in view that the present war will have 
 come to an end, but we cannot say with what result 
 or with what ulterior consequential effects or possi- 
 bilities of consequential effects upon the situation. On 
 the other hand, the persons interned under the Defence 
 of India Act will be due for release, and the terms of 
 imprisonment of many dangerous convicts will be 
 coming to an end. Further, there wiU, especially in 
 the Punjab, be a large number of disbanded soldfiers, 
 among whom it may be possible to stir up discontent. 
 Nevertheless, if we thought it clear that the measures 
 taken against the revolutionary movement under the 
 Defence of India Act had so broken it that the possi- 
 bility of the conspiracies being revived could be safely 
 disregarded, we should say so. That is not our view, 
 and it is on this footing that we report." 
 
 The Connruttee pointed out that before the war, in 
 1911, special preventive legislation had been considered 
 advisable, and that in 1914 it had been recognised that 
 the forces of law and order, working through the 
 ordinary channels, could not cope with the situation in 
 Bengal. They showed that the whole history of the 
 endeavours of the Government to deal with revolutionary 
 crime was a history of extreme unwillingness to recog- 
 nise the potency of the terrorism exercised by the 
 revolutionaries, and of reluctance to deprive any man 
 of his liberty without an open and regular trial. EveH 
 
PROPOSALS OF THE COMMITTEE 193 
 
 the powers conferred by the old Regulation III of 1818, 
 which enabled deportations or detentions of persons 
 as state prisoners, were hardly ever resorted to. In 
 fact, it was only when Government was forced by a 
 developing and extending anarchical organisation from 
 position to position that early in 1914 it contemplated 
 a substantial number of internments. Even then no 
 action was taken until the war broke out and, by 
 adducing other considerations and greatly encouraging 
 revolutionary crime, compelled prompt and effective 
 remedy in the shape of the Defence of India Act. 
 
 Thus it was the suggestions which the Committee put 
 forward contained hardly an idea which had not, in 
 one coimection or another, been the subject of critical 
 discussion, although they did not reproduce as an 
 assembled whole any scheme previously submitted. 
 
 The Committee proposed punitive and preventive 
 measures,' the former in order better to secure the con- 
 viction and punishment of offenders, the latter to 
 check the spread of conspiracy and the conmiission of 
 revolutionary crime. They expected far more from 
 the latter than from the former. Among the former 
 were a few suggested amendments of the substantive 
 existing law. These were to be permanent changes. 
 Emergency measures, both punitive and preventive, 
 were also proposed. The Committee pointed out that 
 as the powers which they suggested must be ready for 
 use at short notice, they should be on the statute-book 
 in advance. This fact, too, was calculated to have 
 some moral effect, as those who meditated renewal of 
 an anarchical movement would thus know what they 
 would have to encoimter. To postpone legislation till 
 
 * The proposals have been frequently criticised, under the apparent 
 impression that to suggest political concessions lay within the province 
 of the Committee, 
 
194 SEDITION BILLS AND PASSIVE RESISTANCE 
 
 the danger was instant, was to risk a recurrence of 
 the futile discussions as to possibilities of action 
 which marked a period of years before the war. 
 Emergency measures, that is, measures to be applied 
 upon a notification by the Governor- General in 
 Council declaring the existence of a state of afEairs 
 justifying such application, should therefore be framed 
 and enacted. These powers would be both pimitive 
 and preventive, the latter to be of two degrees 
 of stringency, as it was desirable that mild measures 
 should, if possible, be taken first. 
 
 The notifications would be capable of application to 
 particular provinces or to smaller areas. The principal 
 measmres reconmaended were provisions (a) for the 
 trial of seditious crime by three judges of the highest 
 grade and status, without juries or assessors who were 
 liable to be afiected by public discussion or deliberate 
 terrorism; (b) for investing a provincial government, 
 on emergency, with powers of internment similar to 
 those which could be applied under the Defence of India 
 Act, but modified by checks in the shape of local in- 
 vestigating and visiting committees. 
 
 Internments should be either a mere restriction of 
 movements or a complete temporary deprivation of 
 liberty, as the revolutionaries varied widely in charac- 
 ter, some merely requiring to be kept from evil associa- 
 tions and others being irreconcilable desperadoes. 
 
 Emergency powers would only be used upon a noti- 
 ficatioij by the Governor-General in Council declaring 
 that a state of afiairs justified such a course of action, 
 except in the cases of revolutionaries involved in crimes 
 committed before the expiration of the Defence of 
 India Act and of desperate characters whose automatic 
 release on that occasion could not be contemplated. 
 Finally the Committee invited attention to the proof 
 
COMMENCEMENT OP LEGISLATION 195 
 
 in their narrative that there were bodies outside India 
 conspiring to promote seditious violence in that country. 
 During the war armed insurrection had been fplotted * 
 between these bodies and revolutionaries in India, with 
 the encouragement of the enemies of the Empire. 
 Although it was impossible to forecast post-war condi- 
 tions either within or outside India, a situation should 
 be contemplated in which, while India was peaceful, 
 cons||rators from abroad might enter the country to 
 prorate disorder. Provision was needed for such a 
 contingency and to prevent revolutionary crime, when 
 once established anew in any province, spreading to 
 others and necessitating an extended proclamation of 
 emergency measures. The Committee considered 
 whether the Act enabling the employment of the 
 emergency measures above described should be per- 
 manent or temporary. They decided that this was a 
 question of policy upon which they would express no 
 opinion. 
 
 In January 1919 the Government of India announced 
 their intention of proceeding with the legislation recom- 
 mended by the Sedition Committee on the opening of 
 the February sessions of the Imperial Legislative 
 Council. Thfey published two draft BiUs to be per- 
 manent in operation which embodied the Committee's 
 recommendations. One Bill included the alterations 
 proposed in the permanent law. The other, which was 
 by far the more important, detailed the emergency 
 legislation. It should be noted that in the interval 
 between the publication of the Report and the close of 
 the year 1918, the Government of Bengal had published 
 a report received from a committee of two, Mr. Justice 
 Beachcroft, a Calcutta High Court Judge of established 
 reputation, and Sir Narain Chandra varkar, an ex-High 
 Court Judge of Bombay, well-known in progressive 
 
196 SEDITION BILLS AND PASSIVE RESISTANCE 
 
 Indian circles. This committee had been appointed 
 to examine and report on the cases of 806 detenus (100 
 State prisoners dealt with under Regulation III of 1818, 
 702 internees restrained under the Defence of India 
 Act, and four persons confined under the Indian Ingress 
 Ordinance). The Committee reported on August 31st 
 to the following efiecf: 
 
 " Our study and examination of the cases have im- 
 pressed us with the correctness of the conclusion arrived 
 at in their Report by the Sedition Committee 1918, 
 presided over by Mr. Justice Rowlatt, as to the alliance 
 and interconnection of all the groups, formed into one 
 revolutionary movement with one common object, viz., 
 the overthrow of His Majesty's Government in India 
 by force. All the individual cases stand so closely 
 interconnected as parts of one whole that they form, 
 both as to the personnel and acts of crime, one con- 
 tinuous movement of revolution which must be re- 
 garded as living and prolonged in aU its parts until 
 the movement is completely extinguished." 
 
 The Committee recommended the release of six only 
 of all the a^ove enumerated detenus. 
 
 The publication of the new Bills in January was the 
 signal for widespread and intensified Extremist con- 
 demnation of the Rowlatt Report and its proposals. 
 The Moderate leaders, too, declared against the pro- 
 posals. Even Sir Narain Chandravarkar announced 
 that no legislation of the kind intended was required, 
 as revolutionary effort would probably become extinct 
 on the enactment of the forthcoming constitutional 
 Reforms. 
 
 Before and after the Imperial Legislative Council met, 
 speakers at public meetings and newspaper editors 
 endeavoured to persuade the country that in announc- 
 ing these Bills Government was endeavouring to erect 
 
WI»ESPREA» tPPtSITIfN 197 
 
 a monstrous engine of tyranny and oppression. At 
 Madras, the chairman of a meeting said that legislation 
 had been proposed which gravely imperilled the ele- 
 mentary rights of every British citizen, and this at a 
 time when Indians had given special proofs of their 
 loyalty. Another speaker said that this legislation was 
 an attempt to invent crimes. A third speaker accused 
 Government of wishing to arm itself with a precautionary 
 measure which would enable it to deal with the agita- 
 tion which would follow on the passing of an unsatis- 
 fying measure of Reforms. Should, however, the 
 Reforms be unsatisfying, a worse mutiny than 1857 
 would result. 
 
 At a Home Rule League meeting in Bombay an 
 orator said that the provisions of the proposed Bills 
 were designed to filch away liberties. Determined steps 
 must be taken to prevent the Bills from becoming law. 
 At a mass meeting in Calcutta the President said that 
 against the British Crown there was no revolutionary 
 party, but discontent was bitter against the bureau- 
 cracy. The Bills made it unsafe even to think freely. 
 They took away all right to personal liberty. Another 
 orator compared the proceedings of the Government to 
 the action of Nadir Shah (who sacked Delhi and mas- 
 sacred its inhabitants). He was at any rate honest, 
 but the Government was not even honest in its tyranny. 
 A Calcutta newspaper accused the Government of being 
 blinded by zid (enmity), of driving the people mad 
 " without rhyme or reason." 
 
 In Lahore the f rst act of a tragic drama was a pro- 
 test meeting held on February 4th by the " Indian 
 Association," at which speeches were made by persons 
 who were two months later to be called to account as 
 leaders of open sedition and violence. One orator in- 
 formed two Punjab non-official members of the Im- 
 
198 SEDITION BILLS AND PASSIVE RESISTANCE 
 
 peria] Legislative Council that if they supported the 
 Rowlatt Bills they would be regarded as enemies of 
 their country and India would know the reason why. 
 Gross travesties of the Bills were circulated among the 
 ignorant and credulous lower orders in various large 
 cities. It was only later that the Government of India 
 appreciated the degree of mischief that had been thus 
 accomplished. 
 
 The Imperial Legislative Council commenced sitting 
 at Delhi on February 6th. 
 
 In his opening speech the Viceroy explained the 
 necessity for proceeding with the Bills, as the 
 
 very important powers which had enabled the public 
 peace and order to be preserved during the war would 
 shortly cease to operate and must be replaced by 
 adequate substitutes. The sudden release from re- 
 straint and control of the forces of anarchy could not 
 be contemplated. The reaction against all authority 
 which had manifested itself in many parts of the civilised 
 world was unlikely to leave India entirely untouched, 
 and the powers of evil were still abroad. 
 
 He was sure that special measures were necessary not 
 to the maintenance of His Majesty's Government in 
 India, but to the safety of the Uves and property of its 
 citizens. He therefore recommended the two Bills " to 
 the very earnest and careful consideration of Council." 
 
 Sir WiUiam Vincent, the Home Member, introduced 
 the second and more important of the Bills, that which 
 related to the conferment of emergency powers. He 
 pointed out that the Bill was aimed at seditious crime, 
 and not in any sense at political movements properly 
 so called. It was not nearly as wide as the Defence of 
 India Act, and could be used against none but seditious 
 activities. He explained the provisions of the Bill. 
 It had not been undertaken without anxious considera- 
 
THE BILLS IN COUNCIL 199 
 
 tion. Government had no desire to restrict liberty of 
 person further than they were forced to by a sense of 
 duty. He moved that the Bill be referred to a Select 
 Committee, and stated that the Government would be 
 perfectly open to consider such modifications as would 
 not render the machinery ineffective for dealing with 
 the evil which they sought to combat. 
 
 Two amendments were moved. The movers asked 
 that the Bill should not be referred to a Select Com- 
 mittee at this stage, but postponed for consideration by 
 the new councils which would come into existence 
 after the passing of the coming Reforms Bill. They 
 made it clear, however, that their objections were to 
 the Bills themselves. These, if persisted in, would 
 produce a tremendous agitation. 
 
 The amendments were supported by all the Indian 
 non-official members. It was said that the Bill if 
 passed into law would produce " untold misery," that 
 it was " abhorrent and shocking," that it was " opposed 
 to the fundamental principles of law and justice." 
 When Government undertook a repressive measure of 
 this kind, the innocent were not safe. It was possible 
 to pay too high a price for the extinction of wickedness. 
 Peace in administration, valuable as it is, might be 
 sought in wrong ways. It was desirable to offer satis- 
 fying methods of political emancipation. These would' 
 cure the general atmosphere that feeds anarchy. The 
 anarchist would then naturally die, even if untouched 
 by the long arm of the law. The non-official members 
 of the Council had consented to such repressive mea- 
 sures as the Press Act and Defence of India Act, but 
 would not accept this Bill. No measure of the kind 
 could be supported unless after the Reforms had come 
 into effect it were found that revolutionary conspirators 
 were still at work. 
 
200 SEDITION BILLS AND PASSIVE RESISTANCE 
 
 The Bill was supported by several official members, 
 wbo pointed out that the real issue was, should the 
 Govermnent take adequate measures for protecting its 
 subjects and loyal servants from bloodthirsty and 
 seditious crime. Dangers were clearly visible which 
 were not lessened by the triumph of Bolshevism in 
 Russia, even though such triumph might be partial and 
 temporary. The leaders of the revolutionary move- 
 ment had not vanished from the earth. It was clear, 
 from a recent debate in the Bengal Legislative Council, 
 that they not only existed, but would renew operations 
 when opportunity ofEered. Their designs had been 
 furthered all along by the absence of determined per- 
 sistent non-official opposition to their propaganda of 
 racial hatred. Indian parents had a right to expect 
 that the State would take efiEective steps to prevent the 
 depravation and ruin of their sons. It was incumbent 
 on Government to do its best to guard the lives and 
 homes of its loyal servants. The facts were admitted 
 by honourable members, and the case was not one for 
 application of the principle, " Wait (helplessly) and 
 see ! " The Government would indeed wait, but it 
 would wait armed and ready. There had been gross 
 exaggeration of the possible effects of the Bill. Con- 
 sideration of it could not be postponed, as a law must 
 be ready to take the place of the Defence of India Act. 
 In regard to the argument that the Bill poorly rewarded 
 India's war efiort, the Home Member pointed out that 
 this war efiort would have been impossible had not 
 order been preserved. The Revolutionaries, against 
 whom the Bill was directed, so far from helping in the 
 war, had conspired with the King's enemies and done 
 their best to ruin the Allied cause. 
 
 Both amendments were lost, although supported by 
 the votes of all the Indian non-official members. And 
 
DEBATE IN BENGAL LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 201 
 
 before going further, it is desirable to explain briefly 
 the reference to a recent debate in the Bengal Legis- 
 lative Council. On January 21st, 1919, a private 
 member of that body had moved that the Council 
 should recommend to the Governor in Council the im- 
 mediate release of all internees. During the debate 
 the Honourable Sir Henry Wheeler said, on the part of 
 the Grovernnaent : 
 
 " We have, unfortunately, the best reasons for going 
 on with whatever checks have been imposed by the 
 measures taken under the Defence Act. Men are still 
 abroad who were known to be leaders in the revo- 
 lutionary movement ; they are stiU actively engaged in 
 enlisting boys for their own ends and endeavouring to 
 foment trouble ; and simply because sedition has been 
 checked for the moment, we should not be justified in 
 assuming that it does not exist." 
 
 The resolution was lost. 
 
 The Gfovernment undertook to make the Act a tem- 
 porary instead of a permanent measure, in the hope 
 that the Reforms proposals might do something to 
 remove the danger now experienced from anarchical 
 conspiracies. The Act would operate for three years 
 only. In order to make it more apparent that the 
 application thereof would be strictly confined to the 
 activities of revolutionary and anarchical conspirators, 
 they called the measure a BiU " to cope with anarchical 
 and revolutionary crime." Lastly, they promised to 
 consider any other modifications which non-official 
 members might wish to put forward in so far as they 
 could do this without rendering the Bill ineffective for 
 the purpose for which it was designed. The promise 
 was strictly fulfilled. The Bill went through most 
 careful and considerate examination in Select Committee, 
 and returned to Council modified in every reasonably 
 
202 SEDITION BILLS AND PASSIVE RESISTANCE 
 
 possible particular. But while the action of the Govern- 
 ment was eminently conciliatory, the non-official Indian 
 members remained obdurate. 
 
 Outside the Council, Extremist leaders and journalists 
 spared no pains to incite bitter agitation. They were 
 joined, unfortunately, by Mr. Gandhi, who sent to the 
 Press a pledge signed by numerous persons of his way 
 of thinking, declaring that if the Sedition Bills became 
 law they would " civilly refuse to obey these laws and 
 such other laws as a committee to be hereafter ap- 
 pointed might think fit." They further affirmed that 
 in this struggle they would " faithfully follow the truth 
 and refrain from violence to life, person, or property." 
 This, however, was going too far for the Moderates. 
 It was pointed out at once in a leading Moderate paper 
 that the principle involved in the pledge was extremely 
 dangerous and might lead anywhere, and on March 
 15th the Moderate leaders at Delhi issued a mani- 
 festo expressing disapproval of passive resistance. They 
 did not, however, alter their own attitude toward the 
 Bill, and the Extremist agitation continued. 
 
 We must return to the Legislative Council. 
 
 The Home Member had decided to republish the 
 minor Bill, which was to be a piece of permanent legis- 
 lation, and, thus to postpone consideration thereof. 
 Debates on the main (Emergency) BiU recommenced 
 on March 12th and concluded on March 18th. 
 Numerous amendments were moved ; numerous 
 speeches were made; and finally the Bill was passed 
 after keen debates. Again there were prophecies, 
 almost minatory, of agitation, and the measure was 
 opposed by all the Indian non-official members. Before 
 proceeding further it wiQ be usefiil to notice two under- 
 lying ideas which inspired many of theic arguments. 
 The first was that in proposing to curtail personal 
 
FINAL DEBATES 203 
 
 liberty and intern without trial, the British Govern- 
 ment was trying to do in India what it would not try 
 to do in England. The second was that the police and 
 the Executive could not be trusted safely with the 
 powers committed to them by the Bill. In answer to 
 the first, it was pointed out that England is a small 
 country, endowed with excellent communications, and 
 inhabited by a homogeneous community which differs 
 widely from the great masses speaking diverse lan- 
 guages, for the most part extremely credulous and 
 simple, who dwell together in the vast continent of 
 India. It would be impossible for any gangs of con- 
 spirators to organise and keep going in Great Britain 
 an elusive, potent, and enduring system of robbery 
 and terrorism of the sort which had been so successful 
 in Bengal and had attempted operations in other pro- 
 . vinces. But if anything of the kind were attempted 
 ^n Britain, and if the ordinary law were inefficacious 
 because witnesses were terrorised and policemen were 
 Jshot, it was certain that remedies woidd be applied as 
 [drastic as, and probably more drastic than, the Bill 
 [before the Council. Moreover, different as conditions 
 f are in England and India, the greatest reluctance had 
 all along been shown by Secretaries of State and the 
 Government of India to the undertaking of this kind of 
 legislation. It was only under compelling necessity 
 that the Bill had been devised. 
 
 As to the second argument, the fact remained that 
 when in the preceding year the cases of 800 persons, 
 interned or detained as State prisoners in Bengal, wesre 
 investigated by the judges of the highest calibre, only 
 six were recommended for release. Under the provi- 
 sions of the Bill non-officials would be members of the 
 investigating committees in all cases of internment. It 
 was thus obvious that particular precautions had been 
 
204 SEDITION BILLS AND PASSIVE RESISTANCE 
 
 taken to prevent any mistakes whatever in future. The 
 Beachcroft-Chandravarkar Report bore remarkable 
 testimony to the cautious work of the police in revo- 
 lutionary cases. Revolutionary crime was, the Report 
 explained, collective and continuous in its operation. 
 The risk of exposure of dishonest police work was 
 greater in revolutionary than in ordinary crime. And 
 as regards the powers proposed for provincial govern- 
 ments and their executive subordinates, it was certain 
 that these powers, which could only be exercised after 
 a special notification issued by the Supreme Government 
 itself, would only be applied for with the greatest 
 reluctance, and would be used with extreme caution 
 under a fire of bitterly hostile criticism. 
 
 In winding up the debate, the Home Member expressed 
 an earnest hope that the passive resistance movement 
 would not materialise. For Government to yield to 
 such a movement would be to abdicate its authority. 
 Sir William Vincent thanked the Moderate leaders for 
 the manifesto which they had issued condemning Mr. 
 Gandhi's declaration. He concluded : 
 
 " My Lord, I have now very nearly done. I have 
 only a word or two to add. The conscience of the 
 Government in the matter of this legislation is quite 
 clear. We are acting from a deep-rooted conviction 
 that we are doing what is right. We have proposed 
 the law to meet what we know to be a terrible danger. 
 We have provided numerous safeguards in it so as, so 
 far as is possible, to prevent any injustice occurring 
 under it. We think that many members of this CouncU 
 know in their heart of hearts what this danger is, and 
 how formidable it is to peaceable residents in parts of 
 the Province.^ My only regret is that I have failed to 
 convince more Honourable members of the necessity for 
 this law, and this is a matter of greater regret because 
 
 * Sic according to the official report of the Debate. 
 
BEGINNINGS OF TROUBLE 205 
 
 I feel it may be partly owing to some fault or deficiency 
 in my presentment of the case." 
 
 As the Sedition Committee's Report showed, the 
 atmosphere which swelled the ranks of the Bengal 
 revolutionaries and facilitated their operations was 
 largely created by newspapers and literature which 
 constantly argued that British rule was tyrannical and 
 ruinous. The astute authors of the revolutionary paper 
 Yvgantar had, thirteen years before, perceived that, 
 in their own words, to give force to their movement, 
 " the nature of the oppressor must be painted in bright 
 colours and placed before the common people " ; and 
 constantly the leaders of the party of violence have 
 devoted close attention to drawing what support and 
 assistance they could, not only from their own publica- 
 tions, but from the contents of ordinary newspapers. 
 A well-known revolutionary pamphlet shows how the 
 " foreign department " of a big revolutionary associa- 
 tion insisted on the importance of a regular study of the 
 newspapers as essential for a recruit's training. 
 
 There can be no doubt whatever that the bitter dia- 
 tribes against the Sedition Bills, both in and outside 
 the Imperial Legislative CouncU, supported by the 
 false versions of their scope and meaning which were 
 spread abroad, presented a remarkable opportunity to 
 the enemies of the British Government. The following 
 passage from the judgment of the Court,' which subse- 
 quently tried the Lahore rioters, gives a clear picture 
 of the manner in which the opportunity was used. 
 
 " There may perhaps have been some few persons 
 who believed that the Eowlatt Bills, if enacted, were 
 liable to abuse, and doubtless a good many more were 
 roused to opposition by the speeches in the Imperial 
 
 ' The Court was one established after martial law had been enacted. 
 It was a court of three, the senior a Chief Court judge, 
 
206 SEDITION BILLS AND PASSIVE RESISTANCE 
 
 Council and the campaign in the press, but the bulk of 
 the city population do not read newspapers and would 
 have remained in complete ignorance, not merely of 
 the objections to the Bills, but even of their existence, 
 unless other steps had been taken to educate them. . . , 
 But even of the educated few, hardly any one appears 
 to have read or considered the Bills for himself, and 
 it was not the business of any one to combat all or any 
 of the lies and misrepresentations which were in circu- 
 lation. It is true that at one meeting Gokal Chand 
 did give reasons of a legal and technical kind for his 
 objections to the first of the two BiUs, but the class of 
 persons who attended the Lahore meetings did not go 
 there to hear .legal arguments and did not carry them 
 away. What they learnt generally was that in spite 
 of the opposition of the whole of India, and in par- 
 ticular of a saint named Gandhi, who, they were taught 
 to believe, was the Rishi of the Hindus and the WaU of 
 the Muhammadans, an alien government was trying to 
 pass, and did pass an exceedingly harsh law which 
 threatened the liberties of the humblest individuals; 
 and that unless all classes and reUgions united against 
 the Government, there was no hope of averting the 
 imminent peril. This teaching was enforced with all 
 the arts of demagogues, who were unsparing in their 
 abuse of a government which, they said, was meting 
 out tyranny in return for loyalty and sacrifice. ... It 
 was commonly believed that all and sundry, though 
 innocent of aU crime, would be arrested at the will of 
 the police and condemned without trial ; that all 
 assemblies of more than three or four people would be 
 prohibited ; and that in some mysterious way even 
 the women and children would be made to suffer." 
 
 While preparations were thus sedulously made for 
 certain trouble, Mr. Gandhi, at the head of his com- 
 mittee of disciples, proclaimed a general closing of shops 
 and suspension of business activity for March 30th. 
 Subsequently he altered the day to April 6th; but 
 
DELHI 207 
 
 on the former date occurred the first of a succession of 
 tragedies more grievous in their nature and results than 
 any that had befallen India since the days of the Mutiny. 
 
 An unfortunate consequence of the transfer of the 
 headquarters of the Imperial Government from Calcutta 
 to Delhi has been that the Viceroy aild his Councillors, 
 Executive and Legislative, have left a big, cosmopolitan 
 and partly Europeanised city, where even if one section 
 of inhabitants becomes disaffected and gives trouble, 
 it is balanced and countered by other sections, to dwell 
 among a comparatively small, ignorant, and backward 
 population of little variety, easily impressed by fiction 
 and exaggeration. The people of Delhi had been atten- 
 tive to the recent controversial debates, and from subse- 
 quent occurrences it would seem that care was taken 
 to intensify the impressions which they had received. 
 
 The Legislative CouncU had broken up, and the heads 
 of the Government of India had left Delhi, when on 
 the morning of March 30th the shops of the city 
 were closed as a protest aigainst the passage of the 
 Sedition Bill. Some shopkeepers who opened were in- 
 duced to close again, and crowds in the streets exerted 
 themselves to persuade drivers of cars to take their 
 vehicles home, leaving passengers to walk. About 
 1.30 p.m. a crowd assembled outside the railway station, 
 and some members thereof entered and attempted to 
 prevent the railway contractor who was supplying food 
 to third-class passengers from carrying out his duties. 
 He was told that he must recognise the hartal (stoppage 
 of business). On refusing, he was assaulted. Two of 
 his assailants were arrested, and the mob invaded the 
 station in order to rescue them. The building was 
 cleared by the police and some troops. A small party 
 of British infantry was requisitioned from the Fort. 
 The mob, were driven off, throwing stones and bricks, 
 
208 SEDITION BILLS AND PASSIVE EESISTANCE 
 
 but could not be dispersed ; and finally the additional 
 District Magistrate and Superintendent of Police, who 
 were in charge of the police and military, considered that 
 the further postponement of sterner measures would 
 only lead to serious bloodshed. Two rounds of aromuni- 
 tion were fired and two rioters fell. Then the crowd 
 broke ; but, later on, heavy stoning of the police and of a 
 small party of British infantry necessitated further firing. 
 It was announced that eight men had been killed and 
 twelve or thirteen were being treated for wounds at the 
 civil hospital. Three days later a poster was discovered 
 in the city inciting to murder. For some days shops 
 were closed. Railway trafiic, too, was obstructed. 
 
 These incidents were the prelude to disturbances in 
 other cities of India ; Mr. Gandhi had endeavoured to 
 visit Delhi, but had been arrested and sent back to 
 Bombay. He had been directed to remain in his own 
 Presidency. The news of his arrest occasioned violent 
 disturbances among the mill-hands at Ahmedabad, with 
 whom his influence was particularly strong. A mob 
 of these people set fire to and burnt Government offices, 
 cut telegraph-wires, assaulted Europeans, beating a 
 police-sergeant so severely that he died. In the neigh- 
 Jaourhood a trainful of troops was derailed. At the 
 town of Viramgaum an Indian Government official 
 was burnt with kerosine oil. In Bombay itself Mr. 
 Gandhi's Committee had advised that for the time 
 being the laws regarding prohibited literature and 
 registration , of newspapers might be civilly dis- 
 obeyed. Forbidden literature was sold, but no riots 
 occurred. In Calcutta riots resulted in loss of life 
 and injury to police officials. There, however, all was 
 speedily over, and no disturbance occurred anywhere 
 else in Bengal, .the province which was the main cause 
 of the anti-sedition legislation, but for which there 
 
THE PUNJAB 209 
 
 would have been no such law-making. But by far the 
 most widespread and tragic occurrences took place in 
 the Punjab, These incidents are about to form the 
 subject of report by a special committee/ and I shall 
 confine my narrative to some salient facts. The 
 measures taken to suppress particular outbreaks are 
 under investigations. 
 
 Of the population of the Punjab, 55 per cent, is 
 Muhammadan, 33 per cent, is Hindu, and 11 per cent, 
 is Sikh. The most martial section is the Sikh, which, 
 during the war, with less than one-hundredth ' of the 
 population, supplied about one-sixth of the fighting 
 forces of the Indian Empire. 
 
 The Eeport of the Sedition Comtaittee shows how, 
 in the year 190T, certain agitators belonging to the 
 educated classes endeavoured to stir up trouble in the 
 Punjab. In that year the Lieutenant-Grovernor re- 
 ported to the Government of India that in certain towns 
 an active anti-English propaganda was being openly 
 and sedulously preached. His report ran : " In 
 Lahore, the capital of the province, the propaganda is 
 virulent, and has resulted in a more or less general state 
 of serious unrest." He held that some of the leaders 
 looked to driving the British out of the country, or, at 
 any rate, from power, either by force or by the passive 
 resistance of the people as a whole, and that the method 
 by which they had set themselves to bring the Govern- 
 ment machine to a standstill was by endeavouring to 
 stir up intense racial hatred. 
 
 In 1907 these men effected little ; but the snake was 
 merely scotched, and in 1909 a stream of seditious 
 
 ' So are the occurrences at Delhi and Ahmedabad. 
 
 ' This was the proportion in September 1917. Afterwards special 
 efforts were made with marked success to stimulate recruiting in the 
 United Provinces, and the Punjab proportions may have altered. 
 
310 SEDITION BILLS AND PASSIVE RESISTANCE 
 
 literature issuing from Lahore necessitated preventive 
 measures. A bomb-outrage was contrived in 1913, 
 and in the same year a Lahore Miihammadan journalist 
 published disloyal and inflammatory articles regarding 
 a religious riot at Cawnpore. Early in 1914 the Turkish 
 Consul-General came to Lahore to present to the prin- 
 cipal mosque a carpet sent by order of the Sultan as a 
 token of gratitude for subscriptions sent to the Turkish 
 Red Crescent funds. He was followed a fortnight later 
 by two Turkish doctors of the Red Crescent Society. 
 
 Early in the war some Sikh returned emigrants from 
 America committed a number of outrages, and, together 
 with a Hindu belonging to the Bombay Presidency and 
 a notorious Bengali revolutionary, planned simultaneous 
 risings in various cities of the Punjab and other pro- 
 vinces. Amritsar and Lahore were successively the 
 headquarters of this conspiracy, which would have 
 brought untold calamity on India in February 1915 
 had it not been discovered and frustrated by the vigi- 
 lance and energy of the Punjab authorities. The 
 Sedition Committee Report tells how the plot was 
 baffled, and how a state of incipient lawlessness and 
 anarchy, which might well have caused irreparable 
 damage to Great Britain, in a most critical hour, was 
 terminated by the resolute and courageous adminis- 
 tration of the Lieutenant-Governor, Sir Michael O'Dwyer. 
 Since 1915 all had been quiet in the Punjab. The con- 
 tributions of the Province to the fighting forces of the 
 Empire had been remarkable, and the Provincial 
 Government had felt itself strong enough to release a 
 number of interned suspects. The Sedition Committee, 
 however, note that they had received sound " admoni- 
 tion " from the following words of a Sikh official witness 
 who appeared before them : " There are thousands of 
 persona who have returned to India with revolutionary 
 
THE PtlNJAB 211 
 
 ideas/ and only those against whom we had definite 
 information were interned or restricted. The majority- 
 have perfect liberty." 
 
 With many of the inhabitants of the Punjab the in- 
 terval between thought and action is short. If cap- 
 tured by inflammatory harangues, they promptly give 
 trouble. Unfortunately, too, in March 1919 they were 
 suffering from bad hatvests. Prices were very high, 
 and the towns were full of economic discontent. Among 
 the fanatical Muhammadan I lower orders rumours 
 were current that unjust treatment had been meted 
 out to Turkey. The opportunity was favourable for 
 the enemies of the Government for another reason. It 
 was widely believed that the war had left Great Britain 
 weak and exhausted. Two leaders in one of the sub- 
 sequent riots cried aloud that the British Rdj was ex- 
 tinct, and other evidence attests the currency of ideas of 
 this kind. The following passages from an April letter 
 to the Press, written by a loyal Muhammadan gentle- 
 man, explains the use to which the occasion was put : 
 
 " It has been with feelings of the acutest pain and 
 distress that I have been persistently hearing and re- 
 ceiving reports from almost unknowing and illiterate 
 shopkeepers and neighbours, that Government has 
 recently passed a Bill, under which powers have been 
 given to the police to arrest any four persons talking 
 or standing together in the bazar or before a shop, and 
 that, therefore, the people are being asked by the so- 
 called knowing leaders to practise hartal as a mark of 
 protest against this kind of legislation. The laws 
 referred t6 in these absolutely unfounded reports and 
 black lies, that are being so sedulously spread, are 
 obviously tiie Eowlatt Bills recently enacted as laws. 
 No educated man, howsoever politically minded, will, 
 for a moment, contend that the Rowlatt Bills ?ire legis- 
 
 1 See Appendijc V, 
 15 
 
212 SEDITION BILLS AND PASSIVE RESISTANCE 
 
 lation of this kind, empowering the police to raid any 
 house inhabited by foux or five persons or to arrest 
 any four or five persons assembled together in the 
 bazar or in the ' baithaks/ Who, then, is responsible 
 for wholly false and mischievous misrepresentations of 
 this kind, and why are these being so freely and reck- 
 lessly made 1 The answer to the latter question is 
 plain. Mr. Gandhi has unfortunately passed a message 
 for the closing of all shops and the suspension of all 
 business activity on Sunday, the 6th instant. The 
 politically minded folk, who by an ironic stroke of evil 
 fortune arrogate to themselves the right of being the 
 mouthpiece of this loyal and contented, but, in the 
 language of these people, this Extremist province, feel 
 that a demonstration on Mr. Gandhi's lines must take 
 place on the date appointed, else their reputed influ- 
 ence with the people outside will suffer. So they decide 
 to have a hartal in the province on the date fixed, and, 
 in order to bring this about, inflame the unknowing and 
 illiterate by spreading mischievous reports of this kind. 
 But themselves they lurk behind, and dare not come 
 in the open. How many among these politically 
 minded persons in this province have taken Mr. Gandhi's 
 vow, and if they have not, probably so because Mr. 
 Gandhi's propaganda is the absurdest ever launched in 
 the history of political freedom, then why are they 
 misleading the ignorant shopkeeper and tonga-plyer by 
 all kinds of false, and unfounded misrepresentations, 
 and at their expense bringing about a false and spurious 
 demonstration ? If the political workers in the Punjab 
 believe that the Eowlatt Bills are nothing in the shape 
 of what they are being represented to the ignorant 
 public, and I have no doubt that no man in his senses 
 will have the courage or unfairness to say otherwise, then 
 do they not owe it a duty to their province and their 
 conscience to publicly contradict these mischievous 
 rumours, which are being spread in the interest of Mr. 
 Gandhi's agitation ? 
 "So much to the political workers of this province. I 
 
THE PUNJAB 213 
 
 have k word also to say to those who,possessed of material 
 stakes in the peace and orderly progress of this country^ 
 have as much a right to politicai opinions as any set 
 df fictitious workers. Why are they sitting with their 
 hands folded, passive observers of a scene which should 
 wake them to a sense of their duty ? Passive resist- 
 ance, let th^re be no misunderstanding, is active 
 resistance, and they must condemn it with as much 
 violence as they would condemn an open revolution. I 
 would, therefore, appeal to all public associations in . 
 this province to address themselves immediately to the 
 task which is their supreme duty at this hour, and un- 
 hesitatingly condemn this direct challenge to British 
 laws, wMch spell the veriest justice and the freedom 
 which results from their obedience." . . . 
 
 On April 6th, the date fixed by Mr. Gandhi, there 
 was a complete suspension of business in Lahore.' A 
 procession had been forbidden, but a crowd collected 
 and threatened to become unmanageable. An adver- 
 tised meeting was held, and was addressed by various 
 speakers. The authorities were carefully watching the 
 situation, and no disturbance occurred. Business was 
 resumed on the 7th. On the 9th the aimual Edm 
 Naumi (Hindu religious) procession was held. Speeches 
 were made advocating Hindu and Muhammadan unity. 
 On the afternoon of the 10th news arrived of disturb- 
 ances in the city of Amritsar and of murders of Euro- 
 peans. The arrest of Mr. Gandhi had also been an- 
 nounced. A fresh suspension of business was started. 
 Shops were shut, often by no means willingly. Leaflets 
 and posters had prepared the way, and crowds insisted 
 on a general closure. In the evening a large mob tried 
 to invade the Eixropean quarter, wrecked the telegraph 
 office, and was only dispersed by firing. On the morn- 
 
 '■ I have carefully consulted the judgments of the Courts that tried the 
 Lahore and Amritsar rioters, 
 
^14 SfeDITfON BILLS AMD PASSlVJJ RfiSISTAi^CS 
 
 ing of the 11th a mass meeting of Hindus and Mnham- 
 madans was held in a famous mosque. This was an 
 imprecedented oceuirence, and provoked very strong 
 subsequent Muhammadan censure. On breaking up, 
 the meeting degenerated into a disorderly and mis- 
 chievous rabble. A crowd marched through the streets 
 shouting, among other cries, that the King was dfead, 
 and destroying pictures of their Majesties. On the 
 12th it was necessary to disperse another riotous crowd 
 by firing. The shops remained closed, and were not 
 opened until the city was placed under martial law. 
 
 The disturbances at Amritsar had been still more 
 serious. Two leading lawyer agitators had been de- 
 ported on the morning of the 10th by order of the 
 Local Government. This led to an immediate suspen- 
 sion of business. A mob collected and attempted to 
 enter the civil lines, where they at once attacked the 
 telegraph office. It was necessary to fire before they 
 could be turned back. Sections then went to the rail- 
 way goods shed and murdered a European guaid. In 
 the city they burnt and plundered the National Bank, 
 murdering the British agents in charge thereof. They 
 sacked another bank, murdered the agent, bujtnt the 
 town hall and the Indian Christian Church, attacked 
 buildings, and violently assaulted other Europeans, 
 including two ladies. But for the action of some loyal 
 Indians they would have done more. They destroyed 
 telegraph wires and tore up railway lines. Some 
 degree of order was restored; but the country roimd 
 was greatly disturbed, and on the 13th, in Amritsar, 
 a prohibited meeting was attended by a large crowd. 
 This was dispersed by rifle fire with heavy casualties,' 
 At Kasur, in the neighbourhood, on the 12th, a mob, 
 worked up by speeches delivered on that and the 
 
 ^ Tbia was the Jalliauwala Bagh affair now tvb jitdice. 
 
THE PUNJAB 215 
 
 previous day, invaded and wrecked the railway- 
 station, attacked an incoming train, murdered two 
 warrant officers, assaulted and injured two other mili- 
 tary officers and two corporals, assaulted a European 
 railway official and his wife, all passengers in the 
 train, burnt the post office and a judicial court, 
 and were finally dispersed by fire from the police. 
 The Court that tried the accused men found that of 
 them, two had shown mercy to the railway official, 
 to his wife and children, but that the safety of these 
 persons was due to the intervention of an Indian 
 gentleman, Mr. Khair-ud-Din, examiner of accounts. 
 
 Martial law was declared in Lahore and Amritsar 
 on the 15th. But disorder had spread to other towns 
 and to villages adjoining towns. Wires were cut ; 
 railway lines were breached ; two churches were biirnt ; 
 Government property was attacked ; Europeans were 
 assaulted. By the 17th martial law was in working order 
 in four districts. Afterwards it was extended to a wider 
 area. By degrees order was re-established. From April 
 10th to the 17th railways and telegraph systems had been 
 subjected to repeated and organised attacks. Isolated 
 railway strikes had been engineered ; two passenger 
 troop-trains were derailed, in one case with loss of life. 
 
 During the disturbances a number of railway stations 
 were attacked and either destroyed or damaged. 
 
 Mr. Gandhi from Bombay regretted that when he 
 embarked upon a mass movement he underrated " the 
 forces of evil." He was, however, convinced that 
 Satyagraha (insistence on truth, alias passive resist- 
 ance) had nothing to do with the violence of the mob. 
 Nevertheless, he advised his Satyagrahi followers tem- 
 porarily to suspend civil disobedience and to assist the 
 Government in restoring order,' In his opinion " there 
 
 * Mr, Gandhi alao personally assisted in restoring order at Ahmedabad, 
 
216 SEDITION BILLS AND PASSIVE RESISTANCE 
 
 were clever men behind tlie lawless deeds, and they 
 showed concerted action." Mr. Gandhi, however, 
 possesses plenty of intelligence himself, and can hardly 
 have failed to notice either the rapid exacerbation of 
 racial feeling which followed on his propaganda or the 
 probability of results such as those actually achieved. 
 But, after so much tragedy, even in May he contem- 
 plated a resumption of civil disobedience in July, and 
 has since been reported to advocate this remedy for the 
 Khalifat question. 
 
 Mrs. Besant, who was shocked by recent develop- 
 ments, and had vigorously opposed Mr. Gandhi's action, 
 declared that the Rowlatt Act had been largely changed 
 by the Legislative Council. There was nothing in it 
 that a good citizen could object to.^ She had combated 
 the passive resistance movement on the ground that it 
 would lead to a general disregard of law and conse- 
 quently to riots and bloodshed. She admitted the 
 existence of revolutionary movements in certain parts 
 of the country, and considered it the duty of all leaders 
 to assist the Government in putting down violence. 
 These utterances gave great offence to many of her 
 former followers. 
 
 A glance at the map of India wUl show that no pro- 
 vince but the Punjab was seriously afiected by these 
 disturbances, although there were riots in a very few 
 cities of other provinces. By far the gravest of these 
 
 1 It would appear that subsequently, after arriving in England, Mrs. 
 Besant forgot this declaration. In a pamphlet headed " The Case for 
 India," published in London by the Home Rule for India League, she 
 thus referred to the Rowlatt legislation, " The Rowlatt Act, nominally 
 aimed at Revolutionaries, may be put into force on the mere opinion of 
 the Governor-General in CounoU that any movement has a tendency in 
 a revolutionary direction, and we know, by the administration of the 
 Defence of India Act, how the most legitimatb political movement can 
 be thus suspected. Once in force in any district, the liberty of every 
 individual in it lies at the mercy of tik^ Local government," 
 
EXTENT OP THE DISTURBANCES 217 
 
 riots was that at Alimedabad. There were many meet- 
 ings of protest against the Sedition Bill in towns 
 tliroughout India, for fantastic ideas of its provisions 
 were everywhere circulated. But the greater part of 
 these meetings dissolved harmlessly enough. They 
 were convened by persons who had no wish to instigate 
 violence. 
 
 The Punjab disturbances closely resembled in char- 
 acter the violent outbreak at Ahmedabad, but were 
 much more extensive and determined. How far this 
 circumstance was due to careful and deliberate prepara- 
 tion will be determined by the Disorders Committee. 
 Newspapers have denounced Bolshevist intrigue as the 
 malignant inspiration* But I have shown clearly that 
 we need not go so far to find at least some seeds of the 
 terrible calamity that overtook a province with so fine 
 a war record. A mass of inflammable material had 
 accumulated, and we shall know later what actually 
 produced the ponflagration. 
 
 Although the area of the riots covers a very small 
 place on the map of India, this conflagration was of 
 the gravest nature, and, had it not been speedily arrested, 
 would have spread with incalculable results. It would 
 seem that only the prompt proclamation of martial law 
 saved a rapidly developing situation of extreme moment.^ 
 Even as things were, the outbreaks, encouraged in- 
 vasion from Afghanistan and involved incidents of the 
 deepest tragedy. Their eventual consequences are not 
 yet apparent. 
 
 The riotous mobs were, so far as present information 
 goes, mainly composed of low-class and disorderly ele- 
 
 * Three farewell addresses presented to Sir Michael O'Dwyer at Lahore 
 on May 12th by deputations from the Hindus, Sikhs, and Muhammadans 
 of the Punjab, bore grateful testimony to his admioistration, Eac^ 
 i^Uuded B|)ecially to these disturbance^^, 
 
218 SEDITION BILLS AND PASSIVE RESISTANCE 
 
 ments from cities and from villages adjacent to lines of 
 railway. There was also some admixture of students. 
 All liad been worked on and excited by political 
 agitators. It is important to see who stood by the 
 British whole-heartedly in this hour of need. 
 
 For solid assistance the Punjab Government was 
 indebted to its own ruling chiefs and to the Indian 
 Army and police, all of whom maintained the reputation 
 for steadfast loyalty which they had borne throughout 
 the war. 
 
 The landholders, too, generally stood by the autho- 
 rities, A strong manifesto was issued by their asso- 
 ciation bitterly condemning the passive resistance 
 movement, and exhorting all members of the community 
 to assist Government to restore order. So far it 
 appears that only a few Sikhs joined the rioters. The 
 attitude of the Sikh community generally was loyal. 
 In the words of Sir Michael O'Dwyer, " Sikh gentlemen, 
 Sikh soldiers, and Sikh peasants, at the risk of their 
 lives, saved European ladies who had been attacked, 
 conducted to places of safety others who had been in 
 danger, and rescued wounded British soldiers from the 
 roused fury of the mob." Other Indians, too, acted in 
 a similar manner. 
 
 The Moderate politicians at Lahore did aU they could 
 to assist Government after the disturbances had broken 
 out, but had not endeavoured to counteract the scan- 
 dalous lies that had long been previously circulated 
 regarding the purport and provisions of the Sedition Act. 
 
 In view of its material bearing on the lamentable 
 course of events, the attitude of the Moderate leaders 
 generally, from September 1918 to May 1919, in 
 regard to the Sedition legislation and the subsequent 
 riots, calls for a brief review. 
 
 It may clearly be inferred that when the report of the 
 
THE ATTITUDE OF THE MODERATES 219 
 
 Sedition Committee first came before the Imperial 
 Legislative CouncU in September 1918, tbe non-official 
 members as a body were prepared to accept it as a con- 
 vincing exposition of facts, and to consider its recom- 
 mendations in a fair and reasonable spirit. They had 
 no idea then that for the Government to act on those 
 recommendations would mean ingratitude for Indian 
 participation in the war. It had not then occurred to 
 them that to take effective means to suppress a noxious 
 and dangerous form of crime practised by a very small 
 section of the population could spell failure to recognise 
 the loyal and gallant services of many thousands and 
 the attitude of the country at large. This imagined 
 connection was a subsequent, most unhappy, inspira- 
 tion, born of outside pressure and newspaper dia- 
 tribes. After the September debate the Government 
 had reason to suppose that immediate legislative action 
 was desirable on every ground. And even when they 
 produced their Bills and met with unanimous opposi- 
 tion, they might well hope that, by all concessions 
 possible, short of practical surrender, they would be 
 able to secure the support of the Moderate section of 
 the Opposition. They spared no pains to accomplish 
 this. Surrender they could not. They were face to 
 face with indefeasible obligations. Had they abjured 
 these, they would have run away from their duty to 
 protect the rising generation of educated Indians from 
 ruinous influences and to safeguard the lives and pro- 
 perty of innocent persons and loyal public servants. 
 They would have abandoned the future of India to 
 intimidation by the most violent and unscrupulous 
 section of political opinion. 
 
 It is impossible to suppose that the leaders of the 
 Moderates on the Legislative Council did not clearly 
 perceive t^is- They were well ^war^ of realities in 
 
220 SEDITION BILLS AND PASSIVE RESISTANCE 
 
 Bengal, and of the absolute need of the help which it lay 
 in their power to give to a Government which had by 
 initiation of, and perseverance in an advanced Reforms 
 Scheme established a peculiar claim on their co-opera- 
 tion. They knew that so far from not caring to enlist 
 political support in their contest with revolutionary 
 conspiracy, Lord Chelmsford and his advisers had all 
 along, from the very commencement of that contest, 
 been at elaborate pains to ensure it. Two high-caste 
 Hindus, one a Congress man, had been appointed to 
 the Sedition Committee itself, a committee of only five 
 members. That conamittee's Report had conclusively 
 demonstrated what, indeed, was perfectly well known 
 already, that desperate diseases require effectual 
 preventives, as well as " satisfying methods of political 
 emancipation." There can, in short, be no doubt that 
 the Moderate leaders were imder no delusion. Nor 
 were they blinded by racial passion. What did they 
 dol 
 
 They promptly repudiated Mr. Gandhi's movement, 
 but in other matters remained generally passive. 
 They did nothing to counteract the false impressions 
 that were spreading abroad of the purport and contents 
 of the Sedition BiU. If they spoke of it, they denounced 
 it. When the riots began, they blamed the rioters, but 
 devoted their main energies to censuring the measures 
 of suppression adopted by the Government. Martial 
 law should be abrogated ; the Sedition Act must be 
 repealed ; a policy of surrender must be at once 
 adopted. From January onwards they yielded to a 
 rising tide and failed to act in a manner which would 
 have inspired confidence in their ability to take a 
 courageous line in that difficult future to which 
 India is committed.* It is certain that unless they 
 can take and keep such a line, they wiU never bring 
 
THE ATTITUDE OF THE MODERATES 221 
 
 into active politics ttat large class of well-disposed, 
 educated, silent opinion wMch. was alluded to in the 
 Bengal manifesto quoted in my last chapter and 
 should count for so much.' Only a persevering decided 
 lead for good or bad wiU ever win the day in Indian 
 politics. One Moderate, however, had, before the 
 Delhi Sessions, spoken out boldly regarding the preven- 
 tion of revolutionary crime. At the January debate of 
 the Bengal Legislative Council, already alluded to, Mr, 
 P. C. Mitter, an ex-member of the Sedition Committee 
 itself, had said : 
 
 " These murders and dacoities took place, and they 
 have ceased as soon as vigorous action was taken under 
 the Defence of India Act. I am not here to deal with 
 the question whether any change of the Defence of 
 India Act is necessary or not, because the particular 
 proposition before the House is whether these persons 
 ought to be released or not. If the ordinary laws of 
 the country are not sufficient in dealing with crimes 
 like this, and if the extraordinary powers under the 
 Defence of India Act really stamped out the crimes 
 which were a disgrace to society — crimes which every 
 patriotic Indian ought to feel sorry for— and if the 
 operations of the Defence of India Act have to a great 
 extent stamped out these crimes, then how can any 
 responsible pubUc man suggest to nullify the results 
 of such action, and to let society go back to that state 
 of anarchy in which it was before such vigorous actions 
 were taken ? I entirely endorse the view put forward 
 by the honourable mover that we have a responsibility 
 to our people and to ourselves. I only hope that that 
 responsibility wiU enable us to see that it is our duty 
 to protect innocent people from being shot down, and 
 to see that the man, who by the fruits of his industry 
 has made some money, is not ruthlessly pillaged. It 
 is not a question of amnesty or mercy, but it is a ques- 
 
 1 gee pa^e 168, 
 
222 SEDITION BILLS AND PASSIVE RESISTANCE 
 
 tion of the necessities of society, and if necessities of 
 society require that certain persons, who are nothing 
 better than a cancer to the body politic, should be 
 treated in a particular way, it is necessary in the in- 
 terest of the body politic to treat them in that way. 
 I do hope, My Lord, that if we are to realise our re- 
 sponsibilities, if the Eeform Scheme is to be a reality 
 for the future well-being of our country, I do hope 
 that gentlemen of the position of the honourable mover 
 will try and come up to that standard of responsibility 
 for which I am pleading." 
 
 Had the Moderate leaders on the Imperial Legislative 
 Council acted in the spirit of these stirring words, there 
 would have been no colourable pretext for the allega- 
 tion that the Bills were humiliating to the loyal citizens 
 of India. Neither the Bolshevist nor the Afghan 
 invader could have pretended that India was united in 
 opposition to a BiU passed for the prevention of revo- 
 lutionary crime. The Government would have received 
 the support which it had a right to expect from aU well^ 
 disposed sections of Indians, and the only persons who 
 would have felt aggrieved would have been those men 
 who for years have steadily laboured to sow the seeds 
 which sooner or later were sure to bring forth a crop 
 such as that which was reaped in April 1919. 
 
tJHAPTEB Vllt 
 
 A SUMMARY OP EXISTIKG CONDITIONS 
 
 BeitAin is pledged to establish, a democratic system of ] 
 govermnent over two- thirds of India, the most con- 
 servative country in the world. These two-thirds pos- 
 sess a population composed of various races following 
 various religions and speaking various languages. The i 
 great majority of these people, whose numbers are equal 
 to two and a half times the population of the United ; 
 States, are extremely ignorant and entirely unused to \ 
 any form of political ambition. They are engrossed in 
 their private and caste afiairs. Britain does not mean 
 to restore British India to the descendants of the chiefs 
 and kings whom she succeeded. Nor does any class of 
 Indians ask for such a restoration. She does not pur- 
 pose to set up parliaments which will merely represent 
 the literary and pacific, the present political classes. 
 Such parliaments would crumble to pieces as soon as 
 they ceased to receive constant British support. Her 
 aim is to hand over eventually the direction of domestic 
 affairs in British India to parliaments springing from, 
 and effectually representative of, all classes. If this 
 goal be eventually reached, if India gradually develops 
 into a loyal, prosperous, well-governed, and self-govern- 
 ing country witWn the circle of the British Empire, 
 a great service will have been rendered to hiimanity. 
 But many and great difficulties lie in the way, and if 
 these are to be successfully encountered, stock should 
 
 S23 
 
224 A SUMMARY OF EXISTING COKDlTlONS 
 
 be taken of tlie actual conditions under which the first 
 stage of the journey is to be attempted. These will 
 best be appreciated, if we trace briefly the course of 
 Indian political progress on Western lines, and the 
 attitude of the British Government toward such pro- 
 gress. 
 
 There is ample proof that the gradual extension oi 
 British rule in India was welcomed by the majority of 
 the population. Especially was it welcomed by the 
 masses, by the agriculturists, who found themselves 
 assured of reaping the fruits of their laboiirs, shielded 
 from plunder and violence, and protected from arbi- 
 trary exactions ; by the low castes and outcastes, who 
 found themselves equal to Brahmans even, in the eye 
 of the law, and often the objects of charitable or mis- 
 sionary effort. It is, indeed, through the influence of 
 the spirit of British rule that these people have learnt 
 to respect themselves as they never respected them- 
 selves before. British rule was also acceptable to the 
 majority of the very classes who now so frequently 
 expatiate on its defects. Indeed, these classes, with 
 the .exception of the strong Brahman element which 
 they contain, own their own present prominence to 
 British rule. They wotdd lose it at once if Britain 
 withdrew from the country. 
 
 The Mutiny was a rebellion of discontented soldiery 
 encouraged by the representatives of some fallen 
 dynasties. Many of the East India Company's regi- 
 ments became persuaded that we had ceased to pay 
 regard to Indian religions, customs, and ideas ; they 
 thought that our pow6r was illusory or had declined. 
 So they rose and were followed by those elements in 
 the ordinary population which are always ready to 
 take advantage of internal commotion. The villages 
 generally fought among themselves. The population 
 
BRITISH ATTITUDE TO INDIAN PROGEESS 225 
 
 of Oudh, recently annexed and in the centre of Hin- 
 dustan, followed the lead of its large landholders, whom 
 we had foolishly endeavoured to displace summarily 
 in pursuit of the idea that they were grasping middle- 
 men. We profited by the lessons of the Mutiny. We 
 did not alter our system of government, for that had 
 not been called in question. But we discarded some of 
 our maxims. We no longer annexed ruling states on 
 account of misgovernment or the failure of heirs by 
 blood of the reigning house. We respected the titles 
 of de facto landlords. We reassured all Indians of our 
 intention to interfere in no way with their religions, 
 and we strengthened the British Army in India. For 
 the first time we associated Indians with us in legisla- 
 tion. These were men of rank and few in number, for 
 the people of India had always considered that there 
 should be a well-defined governing class and a governed 
 class. With them religious prestige, valour in arms, 
 pride of birth, were the things that mattered. 
 
 It may seem that we were late in seeking such associa- 
 tion ; but before we blame our fathers, to whom both 
 India and ourselves owe so much, let us remember that 
 when, aided by Indians, they built up an empire out of 
 confusion, the country had, as was frankly stated by 
 an Indian professor at the Industrial Conierence of 1909, 
 " ever been foreign to democratic and representative 
 institutions such as tEose dominant in Western coim- 
 tries." We may note, too, that until the time of the 
 Mutiny the British were constantly busy with wars 
 waged for the protection of their territories or their 
 allies, with organisation and construction, with im- 
 proving the communications of a vast continent, with 
 arranging and classifying land tenures, with introduc- 
 ing that education which, in the words of Dadabhai 
 Naoroji was " to pour a new light on the people of 
 
226 A SUMMARY OF IXlSTma COiTOITIONg 
 
 India," with framing a system of just and intelligible 
 laws, with maintaining and enforcing order. When we 
 see how troubled and anxious were the years of the 
 Governor-Generals from Warren Hastings to Lord 
 Canning, we rather marvel at what was achieved "than 
 are surprised that the achievements were accompanied 
 by omissions and mistakes. If British rule in those 
 years was autocratic, it attracted the good wiU of the 
 great majority of its subjects, was organised on the 
 immemorial pattern of Asia,' was carefully controlled 
 by laws, and in the interests of peace, security, and 
 unity, was the only form of government practicable 
 in the India of that time. 
 
 After the Mutiny, reconstruction and improvement 
 
 for years absorbed the energies of British administrators. 
 
 A new India, developed by British capital, enriched 
 
 by British commerce, and fostered by British educa- 
 
 'tion, gradually took shape; and in that new India 
 
 the paramount position of the British seemed at first 
 
 perfectly natural. It was this position that secured 
 
 I the greater happiness of by far the greater number. 
 
 I All the classes of Indians whose sole objects in 
 
 life are commerce, agriculture, labour, or other ordinary 
 
 material pursuits, were contented. Their attitude of 
 
 mind is shown by the introductory article to the record 
 
 of the proceedings of the second Congress summarised 
 
 in my Chapter II.' They cared for no change in a form 
 
 of government which prevented others from robbing 
 
 them and " by its system of civil jurisprudence " 
 
 aflEorded them opportimities of enriching themselves. 
 
 They did not understand that anything was wrong, nor 
 
 did they know what could be done to improve their 
 
 prospects. It may be said of all these classes, which 
 
 form the large majority of the people of India, that 
 
 ^ See Appendix VII. » See pages 37-8, 
 
BRITISH ATTITUDE TO INDIAN PROGRESS 227 
 
 although they had few representatives on legislative 
 councils, they were informally consulted by Government 
 officers regarding any law-making which was likely to 
 affect their interests, that in these officers they found 
 impartial arbiters and friendly advisers. 
 
 But there was a very small, though growing, minority } 
 with wider ambitions. Certain sects of Brahmans had 
 lost their ascendancy in things political, and longed to 
 recover it. The clerical and professional classes in 
 towns found that prices were rising, that all but suc- 
 cessful lawyers or Government servants of distinction 
 must content themselves with moderate prospects and 
 moderate incomes. They read Western newspapers ; 
 and watched the strife of British politics and events in 
 the rest of the world outside India. Sometimes they \ 
 sent their sons to England. Sometimes they were 
 assured that behind them in the early years, before the 
 foreigner came, lay the golden age of India. British 
 rule seemed uninteresting, and the memories of pre- 
 vious oppression had grown faint. The courts of the 
 old rulers, with aU their defects, had offered frequent 
 spectacles, unexpected chances, and sometimes remark- 
 able preferment. An ambitious man might push or 
 intrigue himself into a post of power and thus provide 
 for all those relatives who hang so heavily on many an 
 Indian householder. There were no codes or regula- 
 tions; there were no British ideas of inflexible im- 
 partiality ; there was no colour-bar. 
 
 To such discontents were added ideas imported from 
 British politics, as well as a certain racial resentment. 
 Altogether a more interesting outlook was desired; 
 and when the Congress movement started, it soon met 
 with warm support. Gradually the annual December 
 oratorical festivals took the place of fairs and caste- 
 gatherings, as the relaxations of many of the English- 
 16 
 
228 A SUMMARY OF EXISTING CONDITIONS 
 
 educated classes. Tte leaders at those festivals spoke 
 in louder and bolder tones. The only Indian journalists 
 belonged to their fraternity. 
 
 I have endeavoured to show in this narrative why 
 the British Grovernment was cautious in responding to 
 a demand for a parliamentary system from so small a 
 fraction of the general population. The ambition for a 
 larger share in the executive administration was imder- 
 stood more easily. From time to time efforts were made 
 to meet it. But the reduction of the small British 
 official element in a vast continent which not long 
 before had been the scene of a violent struggle could 
 not be lightly contemplated, for even now, unless this 
 element be substantially maintained, Indian executive 
 and judicial officers wiU often, in times of political or 
 fanatical unrest, find themselves in positions where 
 social and religious pressure will make it difficult for 
 them to do their duty. They are subject to attacks 
 by which British officers cannot be reached. Moreover, 
 it must be frankly said that without an effective staff 
 of British officers the intentions and policy of the 
 British Government will be liable to serious miscon- 
 struction. 
 
 The public services, however, have been and are 
 being gradually Indianised. Constitutional reforms, 
 too, in the direction of associating a popular element 
 with the Government, were instituted in April 1892. 
 For long these seemed sufficient; but social forces 
 were shifting. The leadership of the great landed 
 proprietors, so strong in 1885, was steadily declining. 
 They were becoming impoverished by constant litiga- 
 tion. They persistently neglected to educate their 
 sons properly, and clung desperately to the ways of 
 their fathers, relying on the shelter and protection of 
 the British Government. 
 
BRITISH ATTITUDE TO INDIAN PROGRESS 229 
 
 The clerical and professional classes, on the other 
 hand, were steadily progressing in influence. Popular 
 voting in a limited measure had come with district and 
 municipal boards ; newspapers were increasing ; popular 
 oratory was beginning. Indian lawyers were growing 
 in numbers. Many were unable to find sufficient em- 
 ployment. The restlessness of these classes was en- 
 hanced by the impractical character of much of their 
 education, by the maxims which they drew from English 
 history and literature, by some measure of religious 
 and social unrest, and by a scarcity of commercial and 
 industrial openings. This restlessness gradually in- 
 creased, until it was fanned into a flame by a violent 
 political agitation and developed a revolutionary ele- 
 ment. It was largely met for a time by the Morley- 
 Minto reforms. But the events attendant on a world- 
 wide war, and nationalism widely preached, have taken 
 political ambitions in tow, and have lately dragged 
 them along at an unprecedented pace. 
 
 It may be said of both Moderates and Extremists 
 that they greatly underrate certain considerations which 
 the British Government must face even in these days 
 of widely preached " self-determination," and even if, 
 in the words of Mr. Lloyd George, " the world is rush- 
 ing along at a giddy pace, covering the track of cen- 
 turies in a year." It is certain that the educational 
 and social conditions of the great body of the Indian 
 peoples have not largely advanced since the year 1908, 
 when those reforms were announced which were so 
 gratefully received and did in fact open the way to a 
 speedier prominence of the political classes than had 
 till then been contemplated by their most sanguine 
 leaders. Hindu society is still divided into castes and 
 sub-castes, to- a great extent rigidly separated from 
 each other by customs, occupations, and social status. 
 
230 A SUMMARY OF EXISTING CONDITIONS 
 
 With very few exceptions they neither intermarry 
 nor can eat together. There are still in India many 
 millions of wholly ignorant cultivators and labourers 
 who carry on most of the work of the country. India 
 is still " a vast continent inhabited by 315,000,000 of 
 people sprung from various racial stocks, professing a 
 variety of religious creeds, in various stages of intel- 
 lectual and moral growth." ' In short, however rapid 
 may have been the recent progress of Indian political 
 ambitions, disaster must come should Britain refuse to 
 look at Indian political problems from the plane of 
 reason. They cannot be decided merely by reference 
 to abstract principles. 
 
 As regards British attitude toward Indian progress 
 in the past, testimony is available in the speeches of the 
 Presidents of the memorable political meetings of 1916. 
 
 " There is," said Mr. Jinnah on the part of the Muslim 
 League, " first the great fact of the British rule in 
 India with its Western character and standards of 
 administration, whichj while retaining absolute power 
 of initiative, direction, and decision, has maintained for 
 many decades unbroken peace and order in the land, 
 administered even-handed justice, brought the Indian 
 mind, through a widespread system of Western educa- 
 tion, into contact with the thoughts and ideals of the 
 West, and thus led to the birth of a great and living 
 movement for the intellectual and moral regeneration 
 of the people." 
 
 Mr. Mazumdar for the Congress carried the story on. 
 
 " It was this government," he said, referring to the 
 Government of the Crown after the Mutiny, " which, 
 actuated by its benevolent intentions, introduced, by 
 slow degrees, various reforms and changes which 
 gradually broadened and liberalised the administration, 
 and restored peace and order throughout the country. 
 
 ' See page 122. 
 
BRITISH ATTITUDE TO INDIAN PROGRESS 231 
 
 In its gradual development it introduced, thougli in a 
 limited form, self-government in the local concerns of 
 the people, admitted the children of the soil to a limited 
 extent into the administration of the country, and 
 reformed the Councils by introducing an appreciable 
 element of representation in them. It has annihilated 
 time and space by the construction of railways and the 
 establishment of telegraphic communication. It has 
 established a form of administration which in its 
 integrity and purity could well vie with that of any 
 other civilised country in the world, while the security 
 of life and property which it conferred was, until lately, 
 a boon of which any people may be justly proud." 
 
 It is obvious from the quotations contained in Chap- 
 ter IV that these two gentlemen said other things of a 
 less appreciative kind ; but what can be more signifi- 
 cant than such clear admissions ? That Britain has 
 been cautious in responding to Indian aspirations for 
 progress on Western democratic lines may at once be 
 admitted. She had good reason to be. That she has 
 been wilfuUy obscurantist and ungenerous may be 
 promptly denied. And if now she hesitates, uncertain 
 as to how best to legislate for radical changes, she does 
 so because the warning conveyed by the adage " Marry 
 in haste and repent at leisure " applies with peculiar 
 force to law-making which will profoundly affect the 
 whole future of both countries. 
 
 The present system, the system of administration 
 responsible only to the parliament of Great Britain, has 
 carried India through the Great War so successfully as 
 to vindicate itself effectually from many of the re- 
 proaches frequently levelled against it.. It does not, 
 however, satisfy the aspirations of the Indian Nationa- 
 list ; and as he generally belongs to the middle or pro- 
 fessional classes, it is useful to note that his grievance 
 against it is often economic. His standard of living is 
 
232 A SUMMARY OF EXISTING CONDITIONS 
 
 rising, but tlie cost of living is rising too. He thinks 
 that he is impoverished, and that his country is drained 
 by foreign rule. His reasoning is based on the follow- 
 ing facts : 
 
 The number of English-educated men is too numerous 
 for the public services and the legal profession. Al- 
 though the services are increasingly manned by Indians, 
 they can never provide for the number who crave 
 admission. The Bar is overcrowded, and while ofEer- 
 ing large fortunes to some, yields to many a bare 
 pittance. Other possible callings are the medical and 
 scholastic. There is a widespread need of good docjiors 
 and of efl5cient enthusiastic teachers. But of these the 
 quantity is limited. Physicians of the old school largely 
 retain their patients, and the Indian medical graduate 
 has no idea of working up a rural practice. School- 
 masters of the ordinary kind are over-plentiful, poorly 
 paid, and frequently discontented with a prof ession which 
 they only adopted as a last resource. Industrial enter- 
 prise is, so far, scarce in the interior of India, and many 
 youths have received an education which disinclines 
 them for business and commercial callii^. AH marry 
 young, whatever may be their prospects. Hindus are 
 compelled to do this by rehgious obligations. AH read 
 in the newspapers that foreign rule is the cause of their 
 difficulties and their poverty. They are told that it 
 causes severer famines, although no statement can be 
 remoter from fact ; that it is responsible for epidemics, 
 although these spring from the cUmate and the in- 
 sanitary habits of the people.' Too often their own 
 
 1 The meteorological authorities infoim us that within the past 250 
 years no change can have occurred in the climate of India. Failures of 
 the monsoon were as great before as since fifty years ago, and must in- 
 evitably have produced famines far more desolating than those which 
 have occurred since the introduction and extension of railways, and 
 since the whole science of famine relief has been developed by the British, 
 
ECONOMIC GRIEVANCES 233 
 
 narrow circumstances dispose them to accept these re- 
 iterated assertions. There can be no doubt that the 
 spread of revolutionary ideas in Bengal schools and 
 colleges is partly attributable to the miserable salaries 
 of many of the teachers in these institutions. The 
 views of such men are coloured by grinding poverty and 
 deleterious literature. Sometimes they take to jour- 
 nalism and eke out a scanty living by diffusing the ideas 
 which they have imbibed. 
 
 The legal and learned professions contain many 
 members who are poor and feel acutely any rise of 
 prices.' Outside these callings are many middle-class 
 youths who have received English education, often at 
 considerable cost and sacrifice to their parents, but 
 are unable to obtain university degrees or similar hall- 
 marks. They have to look outside law for a liveUhood, 
 and cannot obtain well-paid educational posts. The 
 bent of their training has unfitted them for agriculture, 
 the great business of the country, even if they come 
 of an agricultural stock. They are unwilling to accept 
 salaries which content relatives who have not learnt 
 EngUsh at all. Industrial employers expect them to 
 begin at the bottom of the ladder. This they are often 
 extremely reluctant to do. But they too have married 
 young, and are constrained by necessity. Sometimes 
 they find their way into newspaper offices. Sometimes 
 they obtain iU-paid clerkships. Generally they take 
 what they can get, often persuaded that were it not 
 for alien rule they would be better off. 
 
 The British Government has again and again endeavoured to combat 
 epidemics and the causes of epidemics. Few executive officers of long 
 district experience have failed to take part in prolonged combats with 
 plague or cholera. 
 
 1 The author some years ago visited a school in Bengal where a teacher 
 of long service and proved efficiency could only afford cooked food once 
 a day. Similar privation was common. 
 
234 A SUMMAEY OF EXISTING CONDITIONS 
 
 The difficulties of the professional middle classes 
 have been enhanced by a great rise of prices accom- 
 panied by a growing preference for European comforts 
 and methods of living. If things are ever to be other- 
 wise, if all these young men are ever to know kinder 
 fortunes, prudential considerations must be allowed a 
 voice in their matrimonial arrangements, their educa- 
 tion must broaden and improve,' and their prospects 
 of industrial employment must expand. No such 
 expansion, however, can be anticipated until Indian 
 money grows far more venturesome. It seldom finances 
 industrial enterprises which are not conducted by 
 Europeans. It often remains persistently in barren 
 seclusion. 
 
 Within the past four years no less than 1,200,000,000 
 of rupees have been drawn from the Indian mints. Sir 
 James Meston, the Finance member of the Grovernment, 
 remarked in March 1919 that, unless this continuing 
 panic were checked and the hoarded coin were restored 
 to circulation, the whole basis of Indian currency and 
 exchange policy would be reconsidered. It is the shy- 
 ness of Indian capital, especially in regard to Indian 
 enterprise, that leaves so many inlets for the foreign 
 money and foreign enterprise often lamented by news- 
 papers and politicians on the ground that the profits 
 therefrom leave the country. But the young men of 
 India are seldom told this. On the contrary, they hear 
 such complaints as the following : 
 
 Some years ago an enlightened gentleman of Bom- 
 bay, while franldy admitting that India owes her rail- 
 ways and thereby her new nationalism to English 
 capital, went on to grumble, because so much of that 
 capital was extracting petroleum from Burma, coal 
 
 ^ The Tecommendatious of the Calcutta University Committee have 
 prepared the vray for radical reform. 
 
THE DRAIN 235 
 
 from Bengal, and gold from Mysore. The profits of 
 this enterprise, he explained, went away from India, 
 and Indian interests would best be served if the gold 
 and petroleum were left underground to await the 
 indigenous enterprise which would come with progres- 
 sive regeneration. Lord Curzon thus referred to mur- 
 murs of this kind : 
 
 " When I hear the employment of British capital in 
 India deplored, I feel tempted to ask where without it 
 would have been Calcutta ? Where would have been 
 Bombay ? Where would have been our railways, our 
 shipping, our river navigation, our immense and pros- 
 perous trade ? And why should a different argument 
 be appUed to India from any other country in the 
 world ? When Great Britain poured her wealth into 
 South America and China, I never heard those countries 
 complain that they were being ruined. No one pities 
 Egypt when a foreign nation resuscitates her trade and 
 dams the Nile." 
 
 In fact, India " has benefited enormously by her 
 commercial development in British hands."* But far| 
 more remains to be achieved. India has a great reserve 
 of strength in her large command of raw material, but 
 Europe has now far less capital to spare. If Indian 
 capital be not forthcoming in larger measure, India will 
 not develop industrially as she should, and substantial 
 expansion of employment for her educated youth cannot 
 be anticipated. Incidentally we may note how neces- 
 sary it is that reasonable calm should prevail in pohtics 
 if Indian capital is to require less coaxing forth aild 
 outside money is to be attracted at a cheap rate of 
 interest. As regards the competition of British with 
 Indian capital we may quote the remarks of an acute 
 critic : ' 
 
 "Is it true that the resources of the country are 
 
 1 Montagu-Chdmsford Report. ^ Mr. William Archer. 
 
236 A SUMMAEY OF EXISTING CONDITIONS 
 
 being exploited, or nearly so, by Eiiropeans ? When 
 one has seen the palaces of merchants and manufacturers 
 round Bombay and Ahmedabad, and the Calcutta 
 mansions of the landlords enriched by the permanent 
 settlement of Bengal, one has a little difficulty in com- 
 passionating these ' hewers of wood and drawers of 
 water.' Almost aU of the 200 to 250 cotton mills 
 (mostly in the Bombay Presidency) have been built by 
 Indian capital, and if the sixty to seventy jute mills in 
 Bengal are mainly in European hands, that is certainly 
 not because Bengalis have no money to embark in such 
 enterprises. It is true that coal mines, tea plantations, 
 and gold mines are, for the most part, owned by Euro- 
 peans ; but Indian capital and enterprise are largely 
 employed in the production of silk, paper, timber, flour, 
 in oil pressing, and in carpet weaving. It is not the 
 fact that European enterprise has elbowed Indian 
 enterprise aside ; it may rather be said to have flowed 
 in where the lack of Indian enterprise (far more than 
 the lack of Indian capital) left gaps for it to fiU ; and 
 it is the fact that Indians are year by year securing a 
 larger share of the import and export trade of the 
 coim.try." 
 
 To discuss the whole subject of the alleged drain 
 would be beyond the scope of this chapter. I have 
 shown why India has required the foreign capital for 
 which she has had such excellent value. Another 
 grievance often reiterated is the amount of the sums 
 sent out of the country in pensions and private remit- 
 tances to England. For these India has had her 
 return in the work of British officials who have not 
 spared themselves in her service. Were it not for the 
 labour of these men, for the protection which the pre- 
 sence of the British in India has afforded to the country, 
 the foreign capitalist would not have lent his money 
 at the rate which he has accepted, nor would the local 
 financier have done as much as he has done. 
 
NATIONALISM 237 
 
 Tte Indian student hears much of the loss which 
 India has sustained from the commercial policy of the 
 East India Company and from the competition of the 
 organised and scientific processes of British industry. 
 He is seldom aware of the efiorts which the Indian 
 Government has made or is making to help agricultural 
 development by a system of co-operative banks and 
 credit societies, to stimulate and broaden education, 
 to encourage industrial development. If he hears of 
 such endeavours at all, he is frequently informed that 
 they have been undertaken for some selfish purpose. 
 Let us hope that with action on the report of the recent 
 Industrial Commission a clearer understanding will come 
 and a better era will begin. It has been justly said by 
 His Excellency Lord Chelmsford that " no reforms will 
 achieve their purpose unless they have their counter- 
 part in the industrial sphere. A great industrial 
 advance, reacting strongly on social and educational 
 conditions, is a condition precedent to the development 
 of healthy political life in this country." 
 
 But '■ man does not live by bread alone," and the 'i 
 rise and spread of Indian national sentiment is one of 
 the most remarkable phenomena of our time. Nourished i, 
 originally by the Congress movement, sometimes ex-, 
 pressing itself in bursts of racial feeling, it took definite ; 
 shape in 1905. But we can see its earlier influence in 
 such passages as the following from the diary of 
 Mr. Eomesh Chandra Dutt, once a member of the 
 Civil Service and afterwards a Congress leader. 
 Describing a night spent at the North Cape with other 
 tourists, during an expedition to Norway and Sweden 
 in 1886, he wrote: 
 
 " I will not conceal the pain and humiUation which 
 I felt in my inmost soul as I stood on that memorable 
 night among representatives of the free and advancing 
 
238 A SUMMABY OF EXISTING CONDITIONS 
 
 nations of the earth rejoicing in their national great- 
 ness. Champagne was drunk on the top of the hill, 
 and Germans and Frenchmen, Englishmen and Ameri- 
 cans, pressed us to share their hospitality. I accepted 
 their dfEer with thanks on my lips, but I felt within me 
 that I had no place among them." 
 
 It is easy to conceive how the victories of Japan 
 over what used to be one of the proudest European 
 nations must have intensified such feelings. 
 
 Since 1905 nationalism has gradually expanded, 
 generally blending in some measure with racial feeling. 
 The Morley-Minto Coimcils operated to weaken social 
 barriers and stimulate co-operation, but have been 
 powerless to arrest or even check nationalist ten- 
 dencies ; and away from the Council-rooms, in the 
 cities and towns, among the English-educated classes, 
 these are now, partly through the influence of the Press, 
 partly from the general unsettlement of the times, and 
 partly as a result of increasingly frequent " constitu- 
 tional agitations," far stronger and more combative 
 than they were in 1908. It is only natural that Indian 
 agitators should seek to better the instruction which 
 they often receive from British politics, but unfortun- 
 ately agitations in India, however legally flawless, are 
 generally sustained by methods which sharply exacer- 
 bate racial feeling and have already led more than once 
 to lamentable disorders. Almost always it may be 
 said of such movements that even if they attain some 
 immediate object, they leave a widened breach between 
 peoples who have great need of each other, and that 
 they produce a train of unforeseen and undesired con- 
 sequences. This is perfectly well known in India ; and 
 the effect of some bitter lessons of the past may be 
 seen in the prompt repudiation by the Moderates of 
 Mr. Gandhi's passive resistance movement. But, un- 
 
NATIONALISM 239 
 
 fortunately, of late years, for various reasons, the idea 
 has found growing favour that, if an agitation be 
 sufficiently loud and menacing, it will achieve success. 
 The disastrous results of the agitation over the Sedi- 
 tion Bill, and the manner in which that movement was 
 used for criminal purposes by the enemies of the State, 
 may induce a greater reluctance to light fires which 
 can by no means be extinguished at will. 
 
 We have our own defects and national peculiarities. 
 Much of the resentment of the Indian political classes 
 is social, and lies deep in the colour-line which has been 
 drawn with rigour in some British colonies and is still 
 drawn in India, at times unavoidably. India was a 
 land of caste and social cleavages, of a severity un- 
 known in Western countries, long before the British 
 ever saw it. It is still a land of such divisions, and 
 would remain one if the British left it. It is true that 
 educated Indians have had some reason to complain of 
 social barriers, and avoidable incidents occur from time 
 to time which breed bad feeling.' But the existing wall 
 of reserve has been buttressed largely by the extreme 
 sensitiveness and racial dislike often cherished by 
 Nationalists themselves. Only recently a very able 
 Indian {)olitician frankly admitted this, stating that 
 some Nationalists desired that no Indian of prominence 
 should be associated with Europeans even in social 
 matters, and "mixing up wish mth reality, indulge in 
 day-dreams from which perhaps the European might be 
 absent." He reminded his audience that in the India 
 of the future the European would be present as well 
 as the Indian. If all pohticians would regard prospects 
 in this sensible light, and if they would fashion their 
 ideas accordingly, they would find plenty of response 
 from the British side. And we ourselves, at this crisis 
 
 1 The Presa can do much tp improve relations. 
 
I 
 
 240 A SUMMARY OF EXISTING CONDITIONS 
 
 of the world's history, cannot wonder either at the 
 sensibility of the political classes or at their natural 
 appetite for posts and power. It is easy to see why, 
 although they have been sheltered by a strong Im- 
 perial system from a world-wide storm, they meditate 
 little on the benefits of such protection and much on 
 the least agreeable of its accompaniments. It lis com- 
 \ preheinsible that, in their own words, they want to be 
 \ in their own country " what other people are in theirs," 
 that they think that they would hold their heads higher 
 in the world under a national government of their own. 
 These are ideas which in themselves appeal to English- 
 men whether resident in India or elsewhere. Both sides 
 must approach the questions raised thereby from a 
 practical point of view. Such approach would be far 
 easier if more Indian Nationalists showed a disposition 
 to allow for existing facts, for the hard-earned position 
 of Britain in India, for tiie heavy and compelling 
 responsibilities which that position entails. " Britain," 
 said the Maharaja of Ulwar, at the Delhi War Con- 
 ference, '* has wished India well, and has guided her 
 destinies for 160 years." This is a true saying. The 
 guidance has been through Britain's sons in India, who, 
 aided by Indians, have established and maintained 
 order, have dealt with obstacles, have taken risks, have 
 worked indefatigably for progress. Necessity has 
 trained them to consider what is really practicable, in 
 the interests of all communities. If their point of view 
 were better understood, we would hear less of the 
 doctrine that, unlike Britons at home, who are amiable 
 philanthropists, Britons in India are specious oppressors. 
 This doctrine is ever the result of Extremism, the 
 origin of which was, as I have shown, clearly described 
 by Mr. Gokhale. Its history, its vicissitudes, its 
 acldevements have been traced in these pages. At this 
 
EXTREMISM 241 
 
 moment it pursues constitutional methods, as these 
 promise more fruitful results. Moreover, it has of late 
 years attracted many adherents who have no taste for 
 any but declamatory tactics. It includes, however, 
 some men whose plans the future will disclose. For the 
 present they wear the label " loyalty to the Crown, btit 
 impatience of bureaucratic government. " Loyalty to the 
 Crown is indeed a potent and valuable factor in India, 
 but, professed by such persons as these, is simply a mask. 
 Their aim is to reduce British rule to impotence as 
 soon as possible by any methods that seem to promise 
 success. The Sedition Bill legislation and its sequel 
 afEorded a notable opportunity to sober politicians of 
 isolating such people. The opportunity was lost. 
 
 Mr. Jinnah, addressing the Muslim League in Decem- 
 ber 1916, quoted a passage from the speech of the 
 Prime Minister on the Irish situation, and remarked 
 that every word thereof applied almost literally to 
 conditions in India. Mr. Lloyd jGeorge had said that 
 in attempting to settle the Irish dijficulty he had felt 
 all the time that he was moving " in an atmosphere of 
 nervous suspicion and distrust, pervasive, universal, of 
 everything and everybody. ... It was a quagmire of 
 distrust which clogged the footsteps of progress. That 
 was the real enemy of Ireland." 
 
 Mr. Jinnah's audience understood him to mean that 
 advanced Indians are the victims of undeserved sus- 
 picion. It is true that the restrictions on military ser- 
 vice, recruiting for which had till then been confined 
 to the martial castes and classes, have encouraged this 
 belief ; and persons prominent in politics, have, since 
 the inception of a revolutionary movement, sometimes 
 been watched by the police in a foolish and obtrusive 
 fashion. This was sure to happen when the latter were 
 faced with grave outbursts of political crime. But 
 
242 A StJMMARY O'F EXISTING CONDITIONS 
 
 trust is, after all, a plant of spontaneous growth. The 
 British Government wishes to trust every section of 
 Indians, and, not least, the section which, unless peace- 
 ful progress be definitely and violently arrested, must 
 in time leaven many others. Should it be compelled 
 to distrust particular leaders of this section, such dis- 
 trust must be in the highest degree xmwelcome, and 
 can easily be removed by those concerned. 
 
 In any case, however, there remains another sus- 
 picion, and that is an Indian suspicion. It is the idea, 
 often fostered by the Press, that the policy of the 
 Government, even when definitely progressive, is, in 
 fact, dictated by racial exclusiveness, by needless and 
 selfish caution. Racialism among Indians derives much 
 of its strength from this suspicion which has wrought 
 considerable mischief. It has obstructed a much- 
 needed reform of secondary education with the theory 
 that the real design is to limit the numbers of the rest- 
 less English-educated. It has hindered measures of 
 supreme importance to the public welfare, and has 
 thereby advertised the necessity of retaining safeguards 
 against such hindrances. For the latter reason Pro- 
 gressives might be expected to work for its removal, 
 but hitherto there have been few signs of the approach 
 of so bright a dawn. In September 1918 there was 
 an indication of a change of view. There had been 
 similar indications when the Morley-Minto Reforms 
 were announced. Those had passed. This, too, 
 passed. It yielded to the idea that there is a royal road 
 to democratic government in India which is blocked 
 by inconsiderate selfishnesst 
 
 And yet it has often been seen that when members of 
 the political classes meet British officials with open 
 minds, either because there is no antagonism of views 
 or because politics are not in question at all, things go 
 
THE Landlords 243 
 
 well eiiough. Indians, too, of these classes who enter 
 Government service work contentedly, and tave often 
 shown a fine spirit of loyalty in difficult circumstances. 
 So far, indeed, is it from being the case, that there is 
 an immovable barrier between them and the British 
 officers with whom or under whom they serve, that 
 intercourse is generally pleasant and sometimes ripens 
 into warm, regard. May these circumstances be har- 
 bingers of better things to come! We might be sure 
 that they would be were it not for the preaching of 
 racial hate. 
 
 We have discussed the economic condition of the 
 political classes, and the influence on these classes of 
 nationalism and racialism. We must now turn to the 
 landlords, a far more numerous class which contributes 
 very largely to the revenues of the country. The future 
 depends, in no small measure, on the degree to which 
 the landlords will adapt their ideas to the requirements 
 of the new era. Their influence in a great agricultural 
 country must always be powerful. In parts of India 
 the influence of the proprietors of large estates has 
 weakened for reasons indicated on a former page. 
 But where, as in the United Provinces and the Punjab, 
 there are quantities of yeomen farmers living on the 
 land in close touch with, and often belonging to the 
 same caste as, their tenants, the influence of landlords 
 is still very strong indeed. A quotation from a speech 
 by Sir Michael O'Dwyer shows clearly its value during 
 the recent war. In the Imperial Legislative Council 
 he said : 
 
 "Take one cardinal feature of the Punjab. We 
 have no great territorial aristocracy like other provinces, 
 but we have what is perhaps even more valuable. We 
 have over most of the province a large class of landed 
 gentry or prosperous yeomen living on the land, in close 
 
 17 
 
244 A SUMMARY OF EXISTING CONDITIONS 
 
 touch with the rural masses of whom they are usually 
 the recognised leaders, and an invaluable support to 
 the administration. Over aU the province we have 
 that splendid body of stalwart peasant proprietors, 
 Muhammandas, Hindus, Sikhs, whose energy and 
 enterprise, guided by a government in which they have 
 never lost confidence, have built up the prosperity of 
 the Punjab, and whose loyalty and sturdy vaJour 
 have built up the fabric of the Indian Army. These 
 are the two classes to which the Punjab Government 
 has looked, and never looked in vain, in times of stress 
 and difficulty ; those are the two classes to which we 
 owe almost exclusively the magnificent contributions 
 which the province is now making in men and materials. 
 In recognising the services of the province during the 
 war, it is only just and reasonable that those classes 
 should receive first consideration," 
 
 The Government of the United Provinces, too, has 
 mainly to thank the landlords for the success of its war- 
 efEorts. 
 
 In Bengal only are the territorial proprietors materi- 
 ally interwoven with the professional or literary classes, 
 and there they manifest more interest in politics than 
 they do in other provinces. But in landlords generally, 
 conservative and cautious instincts are naturally domi- 
 nant. Their attitude toward the recent disturbances 
 was very apprehensive, as was shown in an eminent 
 degree by a circular appeal by 300 landlords of Bengal 
 issued in May 1919.^ 
 
 There are, of course, in aU provinces among the 
 territorial aristocracy, men who sit on the Legidative 
 Councils and interest themselves in politics, but these are 
 by no means as fluent in speech as the lawyer-members, 
 and have so far played a part there which corresponds 
 in a smaU degree with the real power of the order to 
 
 * Addressed to their tenants. 
 
THE LANDLORDS 245 
 
 which they belong. It can never be the interest of the 
 landlords to desire weak government, even if it be 
 national government, and they do not desire it. They 
 are well aware of their stake in the country, and know 
 that, in the words of a letter written last April by the 
 Maharaja of Darbhanga to two large land-holding 
 associations, their " very existence depends " on the 
 protection of property and the maintenance of law 
 and order which they " have been enjoying and con- 
 tinue to enjoy under the British Goverxmaent." For 
 this reason the Maharaja went on to urge the associa- 
 tions to exert themselves to the utniost "in quieting 
 down the unrest which stalks through the land, and 
 render the utmost possible assistance to the State in 
 preventing disorder and removing root and branch the 
 causes which have brought into existence this dreadful 
 state of things," 
 
 It is true that some of the more important landlords 
 are attracted by the vision of a self-governing India 
 in the future, and others find it convenient to swim 
 with the Nationalists. But in practice landlords, as a 
 class, have never wished that the British Government 
 should cease to be able to protect and arbitrate. They 
 desire this less than ever now. Politics are to their 
 minds a game which can pass into somewhat bitter 
 earnest. They are conscious of being inadequately 
 prepared for it. Their attention has hitherto been 
 directed far more to their tenants, to litigation, and 
 their private concerns than to anything else. The 
 adjustment of their relations with the former has often 
 been a matter of no ordinary complexity, for disputes 
 regarding the landed tenures of India require careful 
 study and impartial arbitration. Experience shows that 
 for such arbitration they prefer British revenue oflS.cers. 
 The landlords, although very numerous, are the 
 
246 A SUMMARY OF EXISTING CONDITIONS 
 
 minority of the rural population. The majority 
 consists of peasant proprietors, under-proprietors, and 
 tenants of various grades. 
 
 The cultivators generally are so far untouched by 
 the Nationalist propaganda. Some have been ap- 
 proached by persons who tell them that they are ex- 
 ploited and impoverished ; ^ their com is, to their 
 injury, exported from the country ; their money is 
 drained away in salaries spent by foreigners in Europe ; 
 their condition can be bettered only by Home Rule. 
 So far, such appeals have effected little more than a 
 promise of unrest in odd places and a delegation of 
 tenants to the last Congress, the history of which would 
 probably be instructive. As was stated by Lord 
 Curzon in 1909, what the agricultural masses require 
 of a government is, that it shall worry them for money 
 as little as possible ; shall assist them generously in 
 times of famine, floods, or other calamities ; shaU settle 
 their disputes without fear or favour ; shall protect 
 them from the exactions of the worst kinds of landlords, 
 money-lenders, or legal practitioners. At present they 
 value British administration because its main effort is 
 to supply these requirements. If untouched by in- 
 sidious suggestions, they confide in its integrity, its 
 freedom from susceptibility to intrigue or secret influ- 
 ence. Of many individual British civil administrators 
 they have kindly recollections. Never was the de- 
 meanour of the country people of the Author's own 
 provinces more conspicuously friendly toward British 
 officers on tour than it was in the early months of the 
 war, when some hearts were failing for fear of the future. 
 Nor is it easy to think that the enthusiasm manifested 
 by the masses on the occasion of the visit of their 
 
 1 The recent report of the FoodstufPs Commissioner and Mr. Dalton's 
 report of 1910 on the rise of prices in India testify strongly to the contrary. 
 
THE MASSES 247 
 
 Majesties the King and Queen, sprang from those who 
 were dissatisfied with their Grovernment or unaware of 
 the goodwill andhonest purpose of HisMajesty's servants. 
 These people, who when let alone are contented, 
 friendly, and industrious, but when captured by those 
 who wilfully or recklessly pour jars of paraffin upon 
 their ignorance and credulity, can break out into 
 fanatical fury, are to be trained to co-operate in affairs 
 in order that they may take their part in the democratic 
 India of the future. Let us not forget that they have 
 been correctly described in the Reforms Report as 
 " illiterate peasants whose mental outlook has been 
 coloured by the physical facts of India, the blazing sun, 
 the enervating rains." We stand on the threshold of 
 a new era, but cannot anticipate that such physical 
 facts will alter or that they will cease to operate on the 
 minds of these many millions. It remains to be seen 
 how far they will avail themselves of the political 
 education which they are to undergo. If this political 
 education implies the continuous and self-sacrificing 
 effort on the part of the educated classes which was 
 preached by Mr. Gokhale in 1909 and by Lord Sinha 
 in 1915 ; if Indian Nationalism is so genuine and health- 
 ful a creed as to be able to inspire living patient service 
 of a true and noble kind, all will be well and the co- 
 operation of British officers is amply assured. But it 
 may be said, both of the cultivators, and of the labourers 
 and lower orders in and near towns who have been 
 lately so seriously affected by Extremist agitation, 
 that if incidents of this education are to be persuasion 
 of tenants to withhold rent at discretion, of peasant- 
 proprietors to withhold revenue, of mill-hands and 
 labourers to beware of British employers, of all to culti- 
 vate racial hatred and distrust j if the minds of the 
 ignorant masses are to be warped, as the minds of the 
 
248 A SUMMARY OF EXISTING CONDITIONS 
 
 better-educated youth of the country have to a con- 
 siderable extent already been warped in what are called 
 political interests ; then, indeed, the last state wiU be 
 worse than the first, and incalculable mischief is in 
 prospect. Such mischief can only be averted by deter- 
 mined co-operation between the sober elements of 
 Indian society and the oflScers of Government, streng- 
 thened, should occasion demand, by convincing proof 
 that Britain wiU not abandon to hostile disorder the 
 Empire built up by British and Indian valour and effort. 
 It appears that where the low castes or depressed 
 classes are articulate, where they have organised asso- 
 ciations, as in Madras and Bombay, they view coming 
 constitutional changes with apprehension. From ad- 
 dresses lately presented to the Viceroy and Secretary 
 of State, it appears that they fear what they anticipate 
 would mean a regime of class legislation and repression, 
 and consider that British rule alone, in the present 
 circimastances of India, can hold the scales even between 
 creeds and castes. Yet in the Joint Congress and 
 Muslim League address to the Viceroy and Secretary 
 of State presented at Delhi on November 26th, 1917, 
 it was claimed that these associations had made many 
 representations in favour of the amelioration of the 
 condition of the masses and had " pressed for the re- 
 moval of all disabilities and distinctions based on racial 
 and religious grounds." As far as representations and 
 resolutions go, this claim is well founded, and behind 
 these representations and resolutions lies a genuine 
 sentiment. There is testimony to this in the eagerness 
 with which opportunities for social service are some- 
 times seized by youths of the political classes, and in 
 the existence of associations for the purpose of philan- 
 thropic work among the lower orders. The forerunners 
 in such paths were the Christian missionaries. But a 
 
THE DEPRESSED CLASSES 249 
 
 great deal more than resolutions or sentiment, or the 
 societies that, amid the gravest obstacles, cultivate the 
 advancement of social reform, will be required before 
 material impression can be made on the usages of 
 centuries. Not only are about 50,000,000 of Hindus 
 treated as untouchable by the higher castes of their 
 own faith, but in parts of Southern India they are even 
 regarded as unapproachable. They are not allowed 
 to enter the temples or use the village wells. Before 
 British rule they were serfs. Now, though legally free, 
 they are outcastes in a sense hardly appreciable in a 
 Western country. Thus it is that in addresses to the 
 Viceroy and Secretary of State they have expressed 
 the strongest distrust of the Home Rule Leaguers ; and 
 thus it is that the President of the Indian National 
 social conference held at Calcutta, less than two years 
 ago, reminded his audience that while " gorgeous visions 
 of a United India " were fiUing the political imagina- 
 tion, " loud protests of indignation were being raised 
 by classes and communities amongst us which we can 
 no longer ignore." 
 
 The authors of the Reforms Report desire that both 
 the agricultural masses and the depressed classes may 
 ultimately learn the lesson of self-protection. Special 
 assistance is to be given to them if under the new regime 
 they fail to " share in the general progress." Such 
 assistance will be certainly needed, although the Honour- 
 able Mr. Surendra Nath Banerjee has informed the 
 Parliamentary Joint Committee that the influence of caste 
 was on the wane, and that the Brahmans themselves, 
 as well as the educated classes, desired its disappear- 
 ance. Since the large majority of Hindus of the higher 
 castes, and particularly of Brahmans, consider the caste 
 system to be, as it undoubtedly is, the very foimdaticn 
 of the Hindu I religious and social edifice, Mr. Banerjee 
 
250 A SUMMARY OF EXISTING CONDITIONS 
 
 must indeed have been transported by tlie atmosphere 
 of democratic England before he embarked on so 
 venturous an assertion.^ Even Hindus who have 
 received education in English, much as they may chafe 
 under the rules and restrictions which caste imposes, 
 widely as they may sometimes vSax those rules and 
 restrictions, would, if the caste-system really were on 
 the verge of dissolution, inquire very anxiously indeed 
 what could possibly take its place and what would 
 become of Hinduism after its disappearance. 
 
 To the elements out of which, diversified as they are 
 by varieties of caste, language, and religion, the self- 
 governing India of the future is to be evolved, must 
 be added mmibers of gallant Indians who have been 
 fighting in the Empire's cause. Theiy belong to the 
 agricultural and landholding classes, to the forces of 
 conservatism. But since the commencement of the 
 war they have been far more in contact with Western 
 countries and Western ideas than ever before. It is 
 not known how far they are attracted by the idea of 
 government composed of indigenous parliaments. They 
 have no previous experience or tradition of anything 
 of the kind. But one lesson of recent years they have 
 probably grasped. As was said by an Indian member 
 of the Imperial Legislative Council : 
 
 "From the time when the memory of man runneth 
 not to the contrary, India has attracted the cupidity of 
 powerful rulers and states ; from time immemorial her 
 eternal mountains have witnessed the march of invad- 
 ing hordes, and her mighty rivers have flowed past the 
 battle-fields of contending armies. The peace and 
 prosperity of the country have been interrupted by 
 long periods of rapine and plunder ; and the soil of 
 In£a has seen the rise of great and powerful empires." 
 
 ^ Further examined, Mr, Banerjee said that he referred to the educated 
 Brahmans of Bengal, 
 
OTHER INTERESTS 251 
 
 There is little in the state of Asia or the world which 
 gives assurance that things are now calm and peaceful ; 
 that the nations are satisfied with what they have got, 
 or that the future of India will henceforth be a matter 
 of interest merely to India and Great Britain. Never 
 was it more certain that, in the words of the Presi- 
 dent of the 1915 Congress, " free from England, and 
 without a real power of resistance, India would be 
 immediately in the thick of another struggle of 
 nations." » 
 
 We have considered the position of the Ruling Chiefs, 
 and noted their devotion to the Throne and the generous 
 loyalty of their response to the Empire's needs. We are 
 given to understand by a few of the more prominent 
 Hindu princes that they are in sympathy with the 
 prospect of an increasingly democratic India. The future 
 will show how far such an India will affect politics in 
 their states. 
 
 We must remember the non-official representatives 
 of Britain in India, and particularly those to whom 
 India's commercial progress is mainly due. It is 
 obvious that no constitutional settlement should be 
 made which fails to give due weight and security to 
 their interests. 
 
 We have, too, the indigenous Anglo-Indians, the 
 Eurasians, the Indian Christians and other communities 
 who stand somewhat apart from the general masses of 
 the population. Hindu-Muhammadan relations at 
 their best and at their worst have been illustrated by 
 events of various kinds described in previous pages. 
 Ordinarily they are placid. 
 
 We have seen that the demand for a parliamentary 
 
 ^ The traditional relations between Indian soldiers and their British 
 oflScers are more easily understood from Younghusband's Story of the 
 Guides than from any other book I know, 
 
252 A SUMMARY OF EXISTING CONDITIONS 
 
 system came from a small section of India's many 
 peoples, a section which pursues nationalist ideals and 
 considers that British rule obstructs the realisation of 
 these ideals. Partly for this reason the Nationalists 
 are frequently moved by a racialism which has, in its 
 extreme phase, produced a string of revolutionary con- 
 spiracies. Nationalist ambitions have been sharpened 
 by economic pressure and by the present world-ten- 
 dency to regard parliamentary government as the 
 hall-mark of a civilised state. From the latter point 
 of view, and because there is in true nationalism a source 
 of uplifting inspiration, these ambitions must neces- 
 sarily appeal to many thinking Indians outside active 
 politics, but of these some are uneasy and by no means 
 appreciate the uncertainty of the future. We cannot 
 doubt, however, that unless they lead to recognised 
 calamity, nationalist ideals will in years to come appeal 
 to a constantly widening circle. Even now they domi- 
 nate the Press, and have largely penetrated schools and 
 colleges. The British Cabinet has responded to these 
 aspirations in a definite and unmistakable manner. 
 
 Minimising difficulties which recently seemed in- 
 superable to two Liberal Secretaries of State, they issued 
 the declaration of August 20th, 1917, and proclaimed 
 a policy of not only increasing association of Indians 
 with every branch of the administration, but also 
 progressive realisation of responsible government in 
 India as an integral part of the British Empire. Pro^ 
 gress is to be by stages ; and the Viceroy and Secretary 
 of State, in framing their proposals for carrying out 
 the declared policy, have aimed at including in the 
 very first stage by means of dyarchy, a measure of 
 separate clear-cut ministerial responsibility. We have 
 seen that the majority of local governments considered 
 that dyarchy is unlikely to work without geveye frictioa, 
 
THE CIVIL SERVICE AND POLICE 253 
 
 and have framed alternative proposals. The choice 
 between the two sets of proposals will shortly be made 
 by Parliament.' 
 
 In order to fulfil the purpose of the Declaration, the 
 authors of the Reforms Report propose to disturb the 
 present usually placid contentment of the masses 
 because such disturbance will be " for India's highest 
 good." It is certainly a consequence of the terms of 
 the Declaration, but implies facilities for politicians 
 which, unless employed with loyal discretion, will do 
 India much harm and make administration extremely 
 difficult. Often they will be honourably and discreetly 
 used ; but when they are not, the brunt of any conse- 
 quent troubles will fall on the Executive servants 
 of the Crown, and more especially on the Civil 
 Service and Police. 
 
 It is these services who supply the commissioners, 
 district officers, and -superintendents who, themselves 
 a mere handful, are responsible for the maintenance 
 of peace and, order among millions. 
 
 Generally a district officer has no troops whatever 
 to support him, but merely a force of civil police under 
 a British superintendent. His charge consists of a 
 population of all castes and creeds, nujnbering from 
 about 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 or 3,000,000. He has not 
 only to keep the peace, but to collect the revenue, to 
 combat epidemics, to foster education, and to do all he 
 can for Ms people in every possible way. His friend 
 and adviser is the commissioner, a senior officer who 
 is responsible to Government for the charges of several 
 district officers. The district officer is assisted by 
 Indian deputy magistrates and sometimes by a Euro- 
 pean Joint Magistrate. He exercises a general super- 
 vision over the work of the police, which is carried on 
 1 This waa written before recent Parlianientaiy legislation. 
 
254 A SUMMAHY OF EXISTING CONDITIONS 
 
 under the control of the superintendent. He presides 
 over a very large Indian subordinate stafE. Some 
 district officers are Indians, and many more will be 
 Indians in future. 
 
 It may be said of district and police officers that as 
 things are, their responsibilities are heavy and their 
 days are fully occupied. They often pass through 
 anxious experiences, and, in order to carry out their 
 duties, need to be regarded as representatives not of 
 a moribvind, but of an active and vigorous power. Yet 
 it is certain that in the future they wiU have at times 
 to contend with the impression that power is departing 
 from the British Raj, for that is how impending changes 
 and a gradually shrinking British official element must 
 appear and will often be represented to the Indian 
 masses. Only if responsibility changes the political 
 spirit will executive officers receive much help from 
 it in difficulties. Nationalists have hitherto regarded 
 them as generally hostile to reform. The truth is that 
 they have to deal with not only the political, but all 
 classes and creeds, and wish to be able effectively to 
 discharge their responsibilities. If they are inclined to 
 linger in the old tents, it is because before leaving those 
 tents they would like reasonable assurance that the 
 new encampment will not develop into a troubled scene 
 where the same results will be expected from their work, 
 but the atmosphere around it will gradually deteriorate. 
 
 The Police have again and again been assailed by 
 politicians because of the action which they have been 
 compelled to take in dealing with and thwarting revo- 
 lutionary crime. The English-educated classes have 
 always been reluctant to acknowledge that the game 
 of revolutionary politics must necessarily be perilous 
 and rough for the players and their associates, that 
 practised in India among vast masses of people who 
 
WHAT OF THE FUTURE 1 255 
 
 inhabit great tracts of country sparsely policed, it 
 necessitates stringent and effective remedies wMcli may 
 inconvenience other tlian guilty persons. Nor have the 
 Nationalists hitherto been [able to see that as they so 
 much dislike such repressive measures, it is desirable 
 that they should themselves take determined steps to 
 put an end to the revolutionary propaganda which has 
 produced occasion for them. It is certainly no gratifi- 
 cation to the Police or to any officers of Grovernment to 
 devote energies for which there is ample employment 
 in other directions to the disagreeable and thankless 
 task of fighting anarchical conspiracy. 
 
 British civil officers generally have good reason to 
 be well aware of the enormous value of educated non- 
 official co-operation, and their hearts warm to those 
 from whom they receive it. They are proud that their 
 mission is a mission of liberty and progress : and their 
 sympathies would naturally incline towards Indians 
 who, reading English history and literature, are attracted 
 by the ideas of nationality and freedom which they 
 draw from those inspiring pages. But there are other 
 sources of inspiration; and when such ideas operate 
 through a medium of sensitive and suspicious racialism, 
 they produce something widely different from that 
 co-operation which is essential for progress, and when 
 forthcoming, slights all difference of colour, inspiring 
 a mutual goodwill which makes all things possible. 
 
 The Extremists wish to push forward recklessly,! 
 regardless of obstacles or consequence, of sectarian and | 
 social divisions, of the dangers of racial conflict, of the ' 
 ignorance of the great majority of the population, of 
 the responsibility of Britain for the good government ; 
 of India. They mean to press their views by the pro- ! 
 motion of incessant agitation. The Moderates see the j 
 danger of precipitate changes, and know that progress 
 
256 A SUMMARY OP EXISTING CONDITIONS 
 
 worth having can only come through co-operation with 
 Government and its officers. Their position is difficult, 
 but they can establish it by trusting the strength 
 which will be theirs with courageous resolution. 
 Neither party allows sufficiently for the natural obstacles 
 in the path of democratic progress in India or for 
 British responsibilities to every class and race. Neither 
 party seems to grasp adequately the difficulties of the 
 coming years of transition, difficulties inevitable in any 
 I case, and augmented by the troubled state of the world. 
 These difficulties are, however, understood by many 
 thinking Indians and by the Services. In their opinion, 
 whatever be the scheme of reforms. Government must 
 preserve full weight and power for years yet. Without 
 Britain, India would directly be torn by invasion ; and, 
 in the absence of a trained electorate that can protect 
 itself and be said to represent sufficiently the educated 
 intelligence of aU classes of His Majesty's subjects, 
 Britain cannot abdicate her responsibilities for India's 
 domestic afiairs. 
 
 It is not surprising in such times as these that the 
 doctrines of Western democracy have carried the 
 ambitions of Indian Nationalists on to adventurous 
 lengths. As some declare for a future of perpetual 
 agitation, we may note that premature Home Rule 
 would mean an unhappy attempt at government 
 by particular castes and classes. Genuine Indian 
 progressives would, without that British support 
 which has done so much to assist them all these 
 years, be liable to succumb to the reactionary sectar- 
 ian and social influences which they are even now 
 reluctant to combat seriously. Clouds of coniusion 
 would gather rapidly; British interests and credit 
 would suffer irretrievable damage; and the vision of 
 a brilliant happy India, raised by the endeavours of 
 
WHAT OF THE FUTUEE ? 257 
 
 all classes of lier sons to a worthy place within the 
 circle of the British Empire, would prove a delusive 
 dream. > 
 
 Thus it is that to many who have eaten the salt of 
 India, who wish India well and desire to see her 
 prosper and progress, it seemsi that a vital issue of the 
 present is, Will the constitutional changes in prospect 
 be such as adequately to maintain British supremacy, 
 so long as that alone can carry on the work of the 
 past and guarantee the well-being of the people whom 
 we have known as the friendly companions of the best 
 years of our lives ? 
 
 Since this book went to the Press the revised Govern- 
 ment of India Bill has become law. The King-Emperor 
 has appealed to his people and to his servants in India 
 for perseverance and mutual forbearance in treading 
 the difficult path now definitely marked out. At 
 present some circumstances are working for much 
 bitterness. But we may trust that this bitterness 
 will pass ; that the danger which threatens India from 
 Central Asia will, as always hitherto, promote domestic 
 concord ; that His Majesty's appeal will stimulate 
 active perception of the public good. Never has the 
 message been clearer that the interests of Britain and 
 India are essentially the same. 
 
 THE END 
 
APPENDICES 
 
 APPENDIX I 
 
 POLITICAL UNITY IN EARLY INDIA ^ 
 
 Twice in the centuries before the Muhammadan conquests 
 the political unity of all India was nearly accomplished ; 
 first in the third centmy b.c. by Asoka, and again in the 
 fourth century a,d. by Samodragupta. Both these em- 
 perors had their capitals in Northern India, in the Gangetic 
 plain. 
 
 " Harsha was the last native monarch prior to the 
 Muhammadan conquest who held the position of paramount 
 power in the north. His death loosened the bonds which 
 restrained the disruptive forces always ready to operate 
 in India, and allowed them to produce their normal results 
 — a medley of petty States, with ever-varying boundaries, 
 and engaged in internecine war. Such was India when 
 first disclosed to European observation in the fourth cen- 
 tiu-y B.C., and such it has always been, except during the 
 comparatively brief periods in which a rigorous central 
 government has compelled the mutually repellent mole- 
 cules of the body politic to check their gyrations and submit 
 to the grasp of a superior controlling force," — Vincent 
 Smith's " Early History of India." 
 
 ^ See page 28, 
 
 18 269 
 
APPENDIX II 
 
 THE ANANDA MATH ' 
 
 The methods of the sanyasis in the famous novel of Bankim 
 Chandra, The Ananda Math (Monastery of Joy), vaguely 
 foreshadow the political robberies of the Revolutionaries 
 of present times. 
 
 The sanyasi rebels against the rule of the Muhammadan 
 Nawab Nazim of Bengal, which was supported by the East 
 India Company, are described by Bankim Chandra as 
 seizing pubUc money by violence when they can and using 
 it to finance their warfare. They are victorious against 
 Mussulman sepoys, even though led by Englishmen. They 
 bring Muslim rule to a close. Among the concluding pas- 
 sages of the book are the following : 
 
 " Satyananda," said the physician, " grieve not ! In 
 your delusion you have won your victories with the pro- 
 ceeds of robbery. A vice never leads to good consequences, 
 and you may never expect to save your coimtry by sinful 
 procedure. Really what may happen now will be for the 
 best. There is no hope of a revival of the true Faith if 
 the English be not our rulers. The true Faith does not 
 consist in the worship of 330,000,000 deities ; that is only 
 a base worship of the masses. Under its influence the 
 true Faith, which mlecchas (barbarians) call Hinduism, has 
 disappeared. The true Hinduism is based on knowledge 
 and not on action " (To revive true religion, objective 
 knowledge must be disseminated. It must first be im- 
 ported.) " The EngUsh are great in objective sciences, and 
 they are apt teachers. Therefore the English shall be 
 made our sovereign. Imbued with a knowledge of objec- 
 tive sciences by English education, our people will be able 
 * See page 62, 
 260 
 
APPENDIX II 261 
 
 to comprehend Bubjeotive truths. Then there would be 
 no obstacle to the spread of the true Faith ; it will shine 
 forth of itself. Till that is so, tiU the Hindus are great 
 again in knowledge, virtue, and power, till then the English 
 rule wiU remain unaltered. The people will be happy 
 under them, and foUow their own religion without hindrance. 
 . . . Where is the enemy now 1 There is none. The 
 English are a friendly power ; and no one, in truth, has 
 the power to come off victorious in a fight with the English." 
 
APPENDIX III 
 
 THE KHALIFAT' 
 
 MuHAMMADAiifS in India are rather sharply divided into 
 Shias and Sunnis. According to Shias, the Prophet, who 
 belonged to the Koreish tribe of Arabs, on his death-bed 
 recognised his son-in-law Ali as his spiritual and temporal 
 successor (Khalif). He was, however, in fact succeeded by 
 Abu Bakr, another of his companions, whom he had deputed 
 to take his place at the daUy prayers. Abu Bakr was 
 succeeded by Omar, and Omar by Othman. Both Omar 
 and Othman belonged to the band of Muhammad's com- 
 panions. Then Ali came in, and was murdered after a 
 short lease of power. He left two sons, Hassan and Husain, 
 grandsons of the Prophet. Hassan abdicated, and was 
 succeeded by Muawiya, the representative of another tribe 
 of Arabs. He was followed by Yezid ; and Husain, re- 
 belling against Yezid, was killed on the fatal field of Karbala. 
 
 The sad end of a grandson of the Prophet shook Islam 
 to its depths, and is now yearly commemorated in the 
 Muharram. It also apparently originated the Shia doctrine 
 that AU should have succeeded his father-in-law, and that 
 therefore Abu Bakr, Omar, and Othman were not true 
 Khalifs. But this doctrine was opposed by the Sunnis, 
 the Muslims who hold by the sunnas or precedents. These 
 basing their creed on the general allegiance of the Faithful, 
 recognise the Khalifats of Abu Bakr, Omar, and Othman 
 as well as the Khalifat of Ali. 
 
 The last of the djmasties of Arabian Khalifs came to an 
 end in 1258 a.d. But about three centuries later the title 
 was assumed by the Sultans of Turkey, as protectors of 
 1 See page 73, 
 262 
 
APPENDIX III 263 
 
 the Holy Places and the most powerful Muhammadan 
 sovereigns in the world, although without pretensions of 
 consanguinity to Muhammad. These claims have not 
 been admitted by the Shias, but have been largely acknow- 
 ledged by the Sunnis. The Shias are strong in Persia, but 
 comparatively weak in India. The kings of Oudh were 
 Shias. The Moghul Emperors were Sunnis. Both Shias 
 and Sunnis intensely revere the Holy Places of Arabia, 
 Mecca, Medina, and Karbala, and regard it as essential 
 that these shoidd be in Muslim hands. 
 
APPENDIX IV 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM A REPLY BY HIS EXCELLENCY 
 LORD CHELMSFORD TO THE PRESS DEFENCE 
 ASSOCIATION ' 
 
 Gentlemen, — ^I think you will admit that it is unusual for 
 a Viceroy to receive a deputation of this nature, but when 
 you sought permission to wait on me, I put aside precedent 
 because I thought it well to meet you face to face to hear 
 your representations and to give you a clear and frank 
 answer to those representations. I presume at the time 
 of making your request you weighed the fact that the 
 Empire is in the throes of a life-and-death struggle, and that 
 such a time is hardly the moment at which to raise even 
 such an important matter as this. But you must not take 
 my ready consent to receive you to mean that I considered 
 the moment you had chosen opportune. I put aside, 
 however, this consideration, though it has meant that 
 precious time has had to be devoted to a matter which 
 might well have awaited a more convenient season. I shall 
 not dwell further on this point. I merely mentioii it 
 because I want to show that in a matter like this I am 
 always ready to meet those who feel they have a grievance 
 to advance. 
 
 Let me make one more preliminary observation. You 
 are here as representatives of the Press, to complain of 
 certain legislation which embodies the attitude of the 
 Government of India towards certain aspects of joiunalism. 
 The function of the Press informing public opinion holds 
 within its compass the possibilities of an ideal as high and 
 noble as any that can be imagined. You have each and 
 ^ See page 136. 
 264 
 
APPENDIX IV 265 
 
 all of you the right to be proud of the profession to which 
 you belong, and I find it a little embarrassing to discuss 
 with you, however dispassionately, matters which may be 
 taken to reflect upon the methods in which journalism is, 
 or may be, or has been, conducted in India. You have 
 yourselves placed me in that position, and I only ask you, 
 if you find yourselves in disagreement with what I say, to 
 acquit me of any discourtesy, and to realise that I am 
 dealing with the question in the abstract, and not in any 
 sense whatever are my remarks to be taken as having any 
 personal apphcation. 
 
 A Free Press 
 
 You have rightly abstained from addressing to me any 
 elaborate argument in defence of the principle of a free 
 Press. It is a principle that commands the instinctive ad- 
 herence of every Englishman. I am an EngUshman, and 
 I can assure you that my education, my training, my 
 inherited instincts, all bias me in this matter, and the bias 
 is not aglainst your case, but in favour of it. Anything in 
 the nature of muzzling the Press strikes right across the 
 grain of my whole being. - 
 
 If, therefore, I find that so broad-minded an Englishman 
 as Lord Minto found it necessary to pass an Act such as 
 that of which you complain, that so staunch an apostle 
 of liberty as Lord Morley approved of it as Secretary of 
 State, and that my predecessor saw no reason to relax 
 the restrictions it imposes, I venture to think that there 
 must be a better case than you are disposed to admit in 
 favour of this much-abused Press Act. 
 
 The Operation op the Act 
 
 Turning to the second portion of your paragraph 5, your 
 arguments would lead one to suppose that this Act had 
 been worked by the Local Governments with great harsh- 
 ness and indiscretion, and I have had a careful search made 
 of the records of the Government of India, but I cannot 
 
266 APPENDIX IV 
 
 find that a single case of that character has been brought 
 to our notice, and, on the other hand, the Government of 
 India were careful from the first to issue instructions enjoin- 
 ing leniency and discrimination. In no single case has an 
 appeal to a High Court against the Local Government's 
 orders succeeded, and in the majority of oases the Court 
 has definitely branded the articles complained of as object- 
 tionable. 
 
 Perhaps it will make the case a little clearer if we look at 
 the statistics of the operation of this Act since 1910. Take 
 newspapers first : 143 have been warned once, and thirty 
 thrice or oftener. Only three have had their first security 
 forfeited, and not one its second. As regards Presses : fifty- 
 five have been warned once, nine twice, and five thrice or 
 oftener. Thirteen have had their first security forfeited; 
 only one its second. I cannot agree with you that this 
 evidences iUiberal action on the part of the executive 
 authority, and in this period, if your argument holds good, 
 we should siurely expect to find a steady diminution in the 
 number of presses, newspapers, and periodicals. But what 
 are the facts ? The presses have increased from 2,736 in 
 1909-10 to 3,237 in 1915-16 ; newspapers from 726 to 857, 
 and the periodicals from 829 to 2,927. And these figures 
 do not support the theory that a journalist's career is as 
 perilous as you suggest. 
 
 Present Conditions 
 
 In paragraph 13 you claim that the Press is now honest 
 and law-abiding, and that aU necessity for restriction has 
 disappeared. Is that not rather arguing in a circle ? Be- 
 cause a river has been embanked and thus prevented from 
 flooding the surrounding country, do the engineers say : 
 " This river is now safe, and we wiU not trouble to maintain 
 the embankment " ? I do not think you can urge that 
 because floods have been controlled the posaibihty of their 
 recurrence has disappeared. The history of the Press in 
 
APPENDIX IV 267 
 
 India is against your theory. In 1878 a growing section 
 of the Indian Press was expressing covert or open hostility 
 to Government. The passing of the Act of that year exer- 
 cised a restraining influence, but when it was removed there 
 was a recrudescence of malevolent hostiUty. From 1884 
 to 1898 a section of the Press steadily grew more scurrilous, 
 more maUgnant, more seditious, until the penal law had 
 to be strengthened, in 1898, but even that was not sufficient. 
 Misrepresentation and vilification of Government, and even 
 overt sedition, went steadily on until the Newspapers 
 (Excitement to Violence) Act was passed in 1908, and it 
 was only when that proved inadequate that the Press Act 
 of 1910, now under discussion, really checked the flood 
 that was spreading over the land. Do hot think I am 
 framing an indictment against the Press of India as a whole 
 or against journalism as it is now conducted. I am only 
 recounting the facts that led up to the debates in the 
 Legislative Council on the Act of 1910. Those debates 
 did not touch the case of the many well-conducted and 
 responsible papers then any more than I am doing now ; 
 but that the danger then was great and serious I do not 
 think that you dispute, and if you say the danger has 
 passed away I cannot agree with you ; for so long as there 
 are papers in India, as there stiU are, that in pursuit of 
 their own ends think it right to magnify the ills from which 
 she suffers ; to- harp upon plague, famine, malaria, and 
 poverty, and ascribe them aU to the curse of an aUen Govern- 
 ment ; so long as there are papers that play on the weak- 
 nesses of impressionable boys and encourage that lack of 
 discipline and of respect for all authority that has done 
 so much to swell the ranks of secret revolution; so long 
 as it is considered legitimate to stir up hatred and con- 
 tempt in order to foster discontent, — I feel that any relaxa- 
 tion of the existing law would be followed, as surely as night 
 follows day, by a gradual increase of virulence, until we 
 should come back to the conditions that prevailed before 
 the passing of the Act. 
 
268 APPENDIX IV 
 
 Examples Qttotbd 
 
 There will be some that will hold up their hands in horror 
 at the suggestion that such things as I have indicated are 
 still to be found in the Press, but here is an extract that I 
 should like to read to you : " The meaning of Imperialism 
 is that a powerftil nation thinks that it is justified in depriv- 
 ing a weaker people of their liberty, and retaioiag that 
 people under their rule in perpetual slavery on the plea of 
 civilising them and bettering their lot." Here is another : 
 *' If the Indian rulers had given effect to the terms of the 
 Royal Proclamation of 1858, India would not have been 
 converted into a land of permanent famine and pestilence 
 and its children into a race of effeminate weaklings." 
 What is this but to exaggerate the ills of India and to 
 ascribe them all to Government ? Listen to this ; it is 
 part of a long article : " The same feeling of pity possesses 
 the populace when they stand face to face with political 
 crimes committed by youthful and misguided idealists. 
 They know that these young men come fully prepared for 
 sacrificing their own lives in the discharge of the work 
 entrusted to them. The gallows have absolutely no terrors 
 for them. To send them to the gallows would not hinder, 
 but, on the contrary, very materially help their criminal 
 propaganda. This has been the universal experience of 
 history in these matters. Those who are already in sym- 
 pathy with this criminal propaganda will not be cowed 
 down by their chastisement, but will rather look upon their 
 punishment as martyrdom, and draw fresh inspiration from 
 it for carrying on their work. Everybody except the official 
 machinist and the purblind pubUcist understands all this." 
 
 Now, hear, not what I think about it, but what a High 
 Court Judge has to say about this article : " This seems 
 to me most pernicious writing, and writing which must tend 
 to encourage political assassination by removing public 
 detestation of such crimes. New India is presumably read 
 by numbers of excitable young men animated (and not 
 uimaturally) by the same ideal which the writer ascribes 
 
APPENDIX IV 269 
 
 to the assassins, but which it is impossible for any right- 
 minded person to connect with their crimes. Such young 
 men are practically told that the assassins are pursuing 
 the same ideal as themselves with singular cpiu-age and 
 disregard of seU, and that such criminals should not be 
 punished, but convinced of the folly of their ways. The 
 article presents the assassins to such young men, and to 
 the pubKo generally, in a far more favourable light than 
 any ordinary person would have viewed them in, and, 
 although it may not amount to incitement, it certainly 
 seems to me to give encouragement to the commission of 
 crimes which undoubtedly faU within section 4(1)." 
 
 I do not wish to detain you, but I must still give you a 
 few more extracts. A poet writes ; 
 
 " How long win the blood of the innocent people be shed, 
 and how long wiU we writhe in agony ? " 
 
 He prays God to release Indians from this miserable 
 condition. He complains that they have lost their wealth, 
 honour, and all good qualities. He inquires what can be 
 worse than their present condition. Another poet says : 
 
 " When will the oppressions of the wicked cease in India ; 
 when will the enemies of Indians be crushed, and how 
 long will this cruel oppression of the weak continue ? " 
 
 Yet another : 
 
 " Slavery has deprived Indians of wealth, honour, and 
 freedom, and has reduced them to destitution and starva- 
 tion. What further harm is it going to cause to India 1 
 Will it drain their very blood ? It has paralysed their 
 limbs and muzzled their mouths. Why is it so mercilessly 
 pursuing them ? God gave equal liberty to all. Why 
 then should accursed slavery be oppressing Indians ? " 
 
 And here is one more : 
 
 " The arrest is legal, doubtless, but it is truly unlawful. 
 The breaking of the sacred law of justice which holds society 
 
270 APPENDIX IV 
 
 together when injustice is perpetrated, when crimes are 
 committed legally, when innocence is no protection and 
 harmless men are treated as criminals, then we live in a 
 condition of anarchy no matter what legal sanction may 
 cover the wrong-doer. Civilisation does not protect us. 
 We should be better off in a state of savagery ; for then 
 we should be on our guard. We should carry arms and 
 protect ourselves. We are helpless. We pay taxes to be 
 wronged." 
 
 STiBBrNG UP Hatred and Contempt 
 
 What are these but stirring up hatred and contempt ? 
 Do you come before me to-day as journalists to say that 
 you do not regret that such sentiments should have ap- 
 peared in the public Press ? Do you suggest that language 
 like this can have no iU-effect, and that you are prepared 
 to see such things said every day through the length and 
 breadth of India ? Are these, I would ask you, the writ- 
 ings of persons whose loyalty and good intentions and 
 honesty of purpose are imquestioned, but who have un- 
 wittingly fallen into a trap which the Act has laid for them ? 
 Can I judge the tree except by its fruit ? These are not 
 extracts from the old files of 1910 ; they are cuttings 
 from newspapers of 1916. If the terrors of the Act to which 
 you have so freely adverted are not sufficient to prevent 
 the publication of such stuff as this, wiU you tell me what 
 would happen if the Act were repealed ? Can you blame 
 me if, with such publications before me — and I am afraid 
 I could find you more in the same strain — I refuse to assent 
 to your assurance that the Press of India has purged itself, 
 and that the time has come to accord to it once again the 
 freedom which should be its pride no less than its privilege ?■ 
 
APPENDIX V 
 
 SIR MICHAEL O'DWYER ON THE DANGER OF 
 THE HOME . RULE PROPAGANDA IN THE 
 PUNJAB • 
 
 That brings me to the question of the Home Rule proga- 
 ganda. 
 
 Honourable Members will remember that some two 
 months ago my Government passed orders forbidding two 
 gentlemen who were prominently identified with that 
 propaganda from entering the province. I took that 
 action not because I desire to stifle or repress any reason- 
 able poUtical discussion, but because I was, and am, con- 
 vinced that an agitation for Home Rule in this province on 
 the lines advocated by the leaders of the movement, and 
 as it would be interpreted by those to whom it would be 
 addressed, would stir up the dying embers of the revo- 
 lutionary fires which we have almost succeeded in 
 extinguishing, and set parts of the province in a blaze 
 once more. I desire to make the attitude of Government 
 in this matter quite clear. Government, while opposed to 
 any sudden or catastrophic constitutional change, recog- 
 nises that among a large section of the comnjunity there 
 is a growing desire, and a natural desire, for an increased 
 measure of seK-gdvernment. 
 
 His Excellency the Viceroy, in the Imperial Council on 
 February 7th, formally stated that the " expediency of 
 broadening the basis of government, and the demand of 
 Indians to play a greater part in the conduct of affairs in 
 this country, are not matters which have escaped our atten- 
 1 See pagea 137, 211. 
 271 
 
272 APPENDIX V 
 
 tion." He added that proposals had been submitted to 
 the Home Government, and asked the Council to remember 
 that the consideration of certain constitutional questions 
 affecting a portion of the Empire might have to yield place 
 for a time to the more urgent task of so prosecutmg the 
 war as to ensure the preservation of the Empire. 
 
 But, gentlemen, the increasing measure of self-government 
 by steady and orderly change for which this country will 
 fit itself as education spreads, as causes of distinion dimin- 
 ish, and as large numbers of the vast population gain 
 political experience, is something very far from tEe sudden 
 upheaval, and the startling transfer of political authority 
 into ignorant and inexperienced hands, which the prota^ 
 gonists of Home Rule contemplated in their extravagant 
 demands. Such changes would be as revolutionary in their 
 character, and, I believe, as subversive of the existing 
 constitution, as those which the " Ghadr " emissaries 
 endeavoured to bring about. Indeed, it is not without 
 significance to find that the watchword of the thousands 
 who participated in the dacoities of the South-west Punjab 
 two years ago, and of many of the men who fomented the 
 " Ghadr " Conspiracy on the Pacific coast, was swaraj, or 
 Home Rule, and that the hundreds of emigrants who re- 
 turned to the Punjab to spread rebellion in the province 
 by fire and sword, claimed that their object was to establish 
 Home Rule. It may be urged that this was the crude 
 interpretation of a legitimate and constitutional ideal by 
 ignorant men. That may be so ; but what we have to 
 consider is not the ideal in the mind of the political philo- 
 sopher in his arm-chair or the journalist at his desk, but 
 the ideal conveyed to the average man, and we have had 
 positive proof, based on judicial findings, of several experi- 
 enced tribunals, that of the thousands of Punjabis to 
 whom the aivaraj, or Home Rule, doctrine was preached in 
 America, some hundreds at least set themselves as early as 
 possible to realise that ideal by the sword, the pistol, and 
 the bomb.* Take even a more convincing case. 
 1 See pages 98, 187, 
 
APPENDIX V 27» 
 
 The so-called " Dr." Mathra Singh, who recently suffered 
 the extreme penalty of the law, was one of the most active 
 and dangerous of the revolutionary leaders. He was the 
 expert bomb-maker ; he was also a man widely travelled 
 and of superior education, very different from the ignorant 
 dupes whom he enmeshed in the conspiracy. Yet this 
 man, though his hands were steeped in crime, asserted to 
 the last that he was merely acting as an advocate of Home 
 Rule. We have to judge men not by their words, but by 
 their acts ; we have to judge movements not by the ideals 
 that perhaps inspire their leaders, but by the results they 
 have produced, or are likely to produce, on the community. 
 Applying those tests, can any reasonable man say that 
 the Home Rule propaganda is one which could be preached 
 in the Punjab to-day without serious danger to the public 
 peace and to the stability of the Government ? 
 
 One more remark before I leave this subject. 
 
 The case of Home Rule for Ireland is often cited as an 
 argimient in their favom* by those who advocate Home 
 Ride for India. At the risk of entering into the thorny 
 field of Irish politics, I may say there is no analogy between 
 the two cases. 
 
 The Home Rule movement in Ireland aimed at the 
 restoration of the status — a separate legislatture and a 
 separate executive, though with limited powers — which Ire- 
 land had enjoyed for centuries down to the Union of 1800. 
 The great majority of the Irish people supported the move- 
 ment, and many of those who wished weU to Ireland, even if 
 they did not count on any material advantages from Home 
 Rule, were inclined to favoiur the scheme on sentimental 
 and historical grounds, and looked forward to the time 
 when the softening of racial and religious asperities would 
 enable all classes to combine for the restoration and the 
 successful working of the system of self-government, which 
 in one form or another Ireland had for centuries enjoyed. 
 That was a lofty and a generous ideal. Unfortunately, the 
 nearer it came to realisation, the greater became the prac- 
 tical difficulties ; the old feuda and factions were revived 
 
274 APPENDIX V 
 
 with increasing bitterness and threatened civil war. A year 
 ago one section of the supporters of Irish srvaraj (the Sinn 
 Fein, or Swadeshists), following in the footsteps of our Pun- 
 jabi Swarajists, allied themselves with the king's enemies 
 and brought about an abortive rebellion. That was speedily 
 suppressed, but it has left a fatal legacy of distrust and 
 ill-feeling which all good Irishmen, whatever their creed 
 or politics, deplore ; for it has prevented Ireland from 
 bearing the full share in the defence of the Empire. Well, 
 gentlemen, the conclusion I would ask you to draw is 
 this. If the Home Rule movement, after a hundred years 
 of agitation, has so far produced no better results among 
 a people fairly enlightened and homogeneous, in a country 
 no larger or more populous than a single division in the 
 Punjab, what result can we expect from it in this vast 
 continent, with its infinite variety of races, creeds, and 
 traditions, and its appalling inequalities in social and 
 political development ? What results would we expect 
 from it even in our own province ? In the matter of Home 
 Rule, I fear the case of Ireland, in so far as it is analogous 
 at all, conveys to us a lesson and a warning. 
 
APPENDIX VI 
 
 DADABHAI NAOROJI 
 
 Dadabhai Naoeoji was a Parsi, bom in Bombay in 1825. 
 He came of a family of priests. He was a promising scholar 
 of the Elphinstone College in that city. On reaching man- 
 hood, he at first devoted himself to educational work, and 
 it is said that it was to his initiative that Bombay owed 
 her first school for girls. In 1855 he proceeded to England 
 as representative of Messrs. Cama and Co., and began to 
 occupy himself largely in journalism and in bringing before 
 the public advanced Indian views regarding political and 
 economic questions. Subsequently he returned to India, 
 and was appointed Diwan of the Baroda State. Resigning 
 this post later, he served as a member of the Bombay 
 Corporation, from 1881 to 1885, and rendered excellent 
 service to that body. He was appointed an additional 
 member of the Imperial Legislative Council, and was one 
 of the promoters of, and partakers in, the First Indian 
 National Congress. 
 
 In 1886 he left for England, determined to enter Parliar 
 ment, and stood for Holborn. He was unsuccessful, and, 
 returning to India, became President of the second Con- 
 gress.^ In 1887 he returned to England, and after some 
 years was elected Member of Parliament for Central Fins- 
 bury. His election was hailed with much enthusiasm in 
 India. 
 
 He retained his seat for three years, and, in 1893, induced 
 Mr. Herbert Paul to move a resolution proposing that ex- 
 aminations for the Indian Civil Service should be held 
 
 ' See page 38, 
 19 275 
 
276 APPENDIX VI 
 
 simultaneously in India and England. He also, with the 
 assistance of Sir WiUiam Wedderbum and the late Mr. 
 W. S. Caiae, organised an Indian Parliamentary Committee. 
 In 1895 he was appointed to the Royal Commission on 
 Indian Expenditure, and did laborious service on that 
 body. In 1893 he presided over the ninth Congress ses- 
 sions, and received great ovations. In 1895 he lost his seat 
 in ParUament, and afterwards devoted himself mainly to 
 Congress propaganda. He was elected President of the 
 memorable Congress of 1906,' but was unable to be present. 
 His address was read out in that assemblage. He died at 
 the ripe age of ninety-two, much respected. 
 
 * See page 66. 
 
APPENDIX VII 
 
 THE REFORMS SCHEME : SPEECH BY SIR HAR- 
 COURT BUTLER, LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR, 
 UNITED PROVINCES, ON JULY 15TH, 1918' 
 
 I NEED not say more about man-power or war loan, but I 
 have a few more words to say to you. I propose in the 
 course of my present tour to deal in a spirit of hopefulness 
 and, I trust, of helpfulness with some of the problems 
 which have arisen out of this war. This afternoon I shaU 
 speak to you about the scheme of reforms which has just 
 been published. It is early yet to appreciate fully the 
 reception of that scheme. Some are favourable to it, 
 a few seem hostile, many are reserving their opinion. You 
 wiQ not expect me to offer any opinion on the scheme itself. 
 What I want to do is this. I want to impress upon you the 
 enormous difficulties which beset this question of reforms. 
 It is enormously difficult to graft the ideas of Western 
 democracy on to an ancient social system of which a pro- 
 minent feature is the institution of caste.* It is enormously 
 difficult to harmonise the aspirations of a modern indus- 
 trial Empire with the aspirations of an essentially spiritual 
 and conservative land like India. It is enormously diffi- 
 cult again to devise a scheme which will suit the diverse 
 masses of languages, opinions, creeds, and rehgious differ- 
 ences which go to make up India. But no difficulties have 
 deterred or stayed His Majesty's Government and the 
 Government of India. They have declared in the most 
 luiequivocal terms that there must be a real step forward 
 in the direction of responsible government. The Secretary 
 of State and the .Viceroy have sought and heard opinions 
 throughout the length and breadth of the land from repre- 
 
 1 See page 226. '^ See page 166 
 277 
 
278 APPENDIX VII 
 
 sentatives of every class. They are in possession of an 
 amount of information which no one else in India has. 
 Whatever may be thought of their definite proposals, it 
 must be admitted that never before has any inquiry been 
 conducted with such anxious care to ascertain the wishes 
 of the diversified and heterogeneous peoples of India. It 
 is the duty of every man in this province who takes interest 
 In pubUc affairs to give this scheme the fairest possible 
 ^consideration, and I beUeve that they will do so. They 
 may want some details altered, they may want this or that 
 proposal modified, but they will, I believe, lay their heads 
 "together in a spirit of constructive statesmanship, and see 
 through co-operation and compromise some adequate solu- 
 tion of the problem. I regard it as absolutely essential 
 that we should work together, because it this scheme faUs 
 or is rejected, we shall have to face a situation which will 
 be difficult and delicate and might deteriorate. But I 
 3ieed not dwell upon this contingency, especially in this 
 province. If you believe, as I think you must believe, 
 that the Secretary of State and the Viceroy have made an 
 «amest and honest and, may I add ? a very able endeavour 
 to deal with this difficult problem, then I beg you to go 
 out and meet them half way, to put aside any preconceived 
 •ideas, to throw off catchwords and phrases, to stick closely 
 "to things and not to words, and to concentrate your thoughts 
 on the future well-being of India. We have seen how 
 precarious and perilous has been the course of reforms in 
 China, in Persia, in Turkey, and now in Russia. May I 
 <3[Uote to you the saying of an able Chinese statesman ? 
 '" To speak in a parable ; a new form of government is like 
 an infant, whose food must be regulated with circumspec- 
 ition if one desires it to thrive. If in our zeal for the infant's 
 growth we give it several days' nourishment at once, there 
 is small hope of its ever attaining manhood." 
 
 THREE CARDINAL CONDITIONS 
 
 It seems to me that there are three cardinal conditions of 
 ixealthy reform. The first is, that any reform must be a 
 
APPENDIX VII 279 
 
 real reform, and must not be put out of shiape and substance 
 by too many safeguards, checks, and counter-checks. This- 
 is a canon of moral strategy. Reform must not be afraid 
 of itself. The second condition is that any scheme of re- 
 forms in India must bear some relation to the reforms o£ 
 the last fifty years. You have been told that the Minto- 
 Morley reforms were doomed to faUure and have failed. 
 With aU respect to those who hold this view, I must say 
 that this is not my experience as vice-president of the 
 Imperial Legislative Council, as Lieutenant-Governor of 
 Burma, and as Lieutenant-Governor of the United Pro- 
 vinces. In my experience, and this was the expressed 
 opinion of Lord Hardinge, the Minto-Morley reforms have 
 been successful. They have been a valuable training to 
 Indian pohticians, and have prepared them for another 
 forward move. The executive government has been far 
 more influenced by the discussions in Council than is popu- 
 larly imagined, and the debates have been maintained at 
 a really high level. Occasionally time has been wasted, 
 occasionally feeling has run high. Of what assembly can- 
 not this be said ? I was led to believe that in our Legis- 
 lative Comicil I should find a spirit of opposition and 
 hostihty to Government. 1 have found, on the contrary, 
 a responsive and reasonable spirit. Indeed, I go so far, 
 gentlemen, as to say that it is the very success of the Minto- 
 Morley reforms that makes me most hopeful in regard to 
 the future course of reform. The third condition is that 
 any scheme of reform that can hope to reach maturity 
 must fit in with the general administrative system of the 
 country. It is often not realised how exceedingly ancient 
 and powerful that administrative system is. The British 
 found it in being in India. Its roots go down to the time 
 of Asoka. Remember that in the Eastern Roman Empire 
 a system of scientific and bureaucratic organisation, ani- 
 mated by ideas very different from ours, kept back the tide 
 of invasion from Europe for many hundred years. Only 
 when you disturb an administrative system can you realise 
 how far its tentacles have spread. I know there are some 
 
280 APPENDIX VII 
 
 who think that all evils will come to an end if only demo- 
 cracy is substituted for bureaucracy. I ask them to think 
 what things they mean when they use these terms. Ex- 
 cept in the smallest communities such as the city states, 
 democracy never has meant and never can mean direct 
 government by the people or an electorate. Every modem 
 democracy is dependent even in times of peace for its suc- 
 cessful working on the services of a body of trained ad- 
 ministrators ; and the need for such services tends to 
 become greater rather than less with the growth, extent, 
 and complexity of the state's activities. In France, in 
 America, and in England this truth is more and more 
 reaUsed and acted on. 
 
 Not least important is the spirit which animates and in- 
 forms discussion. No reform can be achieved without some 
 rise in political temperature. That rise may be greater 
 now owing to the prolonged strain of the war. Let us see 
 things clearly and quietly. Let us approach the scheme of 
 reform with a desire to make the best of it. I can assure 
 you that this Government will assist you in all reasonable 
 endeavours to secure political, industrial, and educational 
 progress ; I have already instituted a reform which I believe 
 to be far-reaching and beneficial. I refer to the reconsti- 
 tution of the Finance Committee of the Legislative Council. 
 They now meet monthly, and the more important schemes 
 of provincial expenditure are referred to them for advice, 
 and great importance is attached to their advice. This 
 reform may be swallowed up in larger schemes, but it is 
 an important and encouraging commencement. I entreat 
 you, with all my heart I do entreat, to keep up hope. You 
 have a proverb — " Dunya omed par qaim " — The world 
 rests on hope. Be svu'e of this that a great responsibiUty 
 rests on anyone now who is in a position to influence 
 opinion, whether on a large or small scale, to create and 
 develop an atmosphere of large progressive hope. You 
 will not find the officials of thfe province unready to meet 
 you haK-way. Let us work together. Faith and action 
 and the future are ours. 
 
APPENDIX VIII 
 
 (a) AND (b) 
 
 SPEECHES AT THE DELHI WAR CONFERENCE/ 
 APRIL 1918, BY H.H. THE MAHARAJA OF ULWAR 
 AND THE HONOURABLE MR. W. A. IRONSIDE 
 
 (A) 
 
 Britain and India : Speech by His Highness the 
 Maharaja of Ulwae at the Delhi War 
 Conference 
 
 Speaking at the War Conference at Delhi held in April 
 1918, in support of the resolution endorsing the recom- 
 mendations of the sub-committees and recommending them 
 to the early consideration and adoption by the Government / 
 of India and His Majesty's Government, His Highness the 
 Maharaja of Ulwar said : 
 
 " On An occasion so solemn and unique in the destiny of 
 the Empire as the present, I rise to speak under a deep 
 sense of responsibility. We have eagerly responded to the 
 trumpet-call of the Empire at the present moment by 
 assembling here, not because it is a bare duty, but because 
 it is a privilege to assist in her hour of need the great coun- 
 try who has wished India well and has guided her destinies 
 for 160 years. What is real friendship ? What are the 
 bonds of partnership ? With the words of the gracious 
 message of the Emperor of India ringing in our ears, with 
 the Prime Minister's appeal fresh in our minds, is it likely, 
 I ask, that the heart of India can lie dormant at this time ? 
 Is it possible to conceive that India is going to let this 
 opportunity go by to prove, as she has proved in the past, 
 that, according to her power and circumstances, she is true 
 
 ^ See page 152 
 281 
 
282 APPENDIX VIII 
 
 to herself, and so is determined to be true to the Empire of 
 which she forms an iategral part. 
 
 " It was truly put once by one of Your Excellency's pre- 
 decessors when talking to India ; he said, ' You caimot do 
 ■without us. We should be impotent without you.' If 
 this is so, and it is so, then let this sacred union be a conse- 
 cration at the altar of divine love for the advance of both 
 countries to the highest purpose of life. India is proud 
 of her connection with the country whose love of justice 
 and liberty is now being practically tested on the anvil of 
 the battle-field, and every blow is adding lustre and glory 
 before the world to the steel foundations on which her 
 structure is built. With such a country our destinies are 
 bound, and with her we rise, with her we fall. 
 
 " Our Fatherland, Hke any other country in the world, 
 has her domestic needs. She requires many adjustments 
 of her present conditions. She aspires, and legitimately 
 so, to strengthen, if possible, her position within the Empire, 
 so that she may no longer go forth before the world with 
 bent head. India is now eager to raise her head on an 
 equahty with her sister dominions, but Your Excellency 
 and your Government know her wants, and you are aware 
 of her urgent needs. If I hke to think that for the present 
 my country reposes these sacred charges in the trust of 
 the British people, it is because we have a more urgent 
 duty to fulfil. Trust begets trust, and we know if we can, 
 with the mercy of Providence, succeed in doing what the 
 occasion demands us to do for Old England, on whom we 
 repose our confidence, she will not be slow to respond 
 to our needs. The responsibihty at this moment is om"s, 
 and when there is a silver lining to the clouds, the responsi- 
 bihty will be hers. For the present India is enthusiastically 
 bent on sharing the glories in the common cause of the 
 Empire which is being fought out on the battle-fields. 
 In this vast gathering which readily assembled at Your 
 Excellency's invitation, I see no British India or Native 
 States before me to-day. It is one India, a united India 
 with a singleness of mind and purpose. Two busy days 
 have been spent by the members of this Conference in 
 devising the best means for the adoption of urgent measures 
 to meet the situation arising out of the crisis through 
 which the Empire is passing at the present time. There 
 are certain remedies which I may mention, particularly 
 
APPENDIX VIII 283 
 
 such as the free granting of the King's commissions to 
 Indians, the raising of the pay of tlie Indian soldiers ; the 
 establishing of institutions in India as military training 
 colleges for its sons, which have to be dealt with in the 
 resolutions, and which, if appHed in a generous spirit of 
 trust, are calculated to produce instant results in accelerat- 
 ing recruiting. 
 
 " In cordially supporting the resolutions which cover 
 these and other points, I would join earnestly in commend- 
 ing it for the early consideration of, and adoption by, the 
 Government of India and His Majesty's Government. 
 
 " Before concluding I will say only a few more words. 
 In this haU we hold the fair name and fame of India in 
 our hands. Here we come to resolve to perform what we 
 ought, and hence we go to perform without fail what we 
 resolve. Our countr3niien have their eyes fixed on us. The 
 people win ask, ' What have you given ? ' and ' What 
 have you asked for ? ' The "Snswers can be summed up 
 in one word — ' trust.' I may not be a British Indian, but 
 I am an Indian, and as such I say that, in this supreme 
 hour of the need of the Empire, for the fair name of our 
 mother-coxintry this is the opportunity to close our ranks 
 and to prove to the world that we can respond to trust 
 and confidence in a manner which can become the envy 
 of others. Then when sunshine comes again, and the 
 clouds of war disappear, we shall have reason to look back 
 upon a past on which we can await the verdict of history 
 with legitimate pride and confidence. In the dutiful 
 message which goes in reply to the message from the Throne 
 we all combine in emphasising once again our assurances 
 of loyalty and attachment to the person of His Majesty, 
 and we send with it our prayers for victory." 
 
 (B) 
 
 Speech by the late Mr. W. A. Ironside, Representa- 
 tive OF THE CaLCXJTTA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AT 
 
 THE Delhi War Conference, in the part of the 
 EuROPEAJsr Commercial Community 
 
 After the flow of eloquence to which we have listened, I 
 feel. Sir, that any endeavour of mine adequately to express,^ 
 
284 APPENDIX VIII 
 
 on behalf of the great community I have the honour to 
 represent, an outward and visible sign of our desires and 
 hopes, of our determination and our faith, must sound at 
 least weak and ineffective but none the less genuine. Few 
 of us have knowledge or experience in oratory and rhetoric, 
 and we are not students of dialectics, but I am sincere in 
 every word that I utter. We are proud in the claim that 
 we are men and women of British birth, not merely, as 
 some would say, strangers in a strange land. We are as 
 much part and parcel of the Empire as though we hved 
 in London or any other little corner of His Majesty's 
 dominions. Every man and woman. Sir, places himself or 
 herself unreservedly at your disposal ; and order us, teU us 
 what you require of us, what you want us to do, and there 
 will, I assure you, be no faint-heairted response. Take of 
 our man-power, take of our resources. We wish to range 
 ourselves on equal terms with our people from the other 
 parts of the Empire. 
 
 I am not going to descend to poHtics, but would hke to 
 take this great opportunity to assure my Indian neighbours 
 and fellow citizens that the future welfare of India and 
 her people, when the present great adventure has been 
 finished and final victory attained, wUl be by frank and 
 honest endeavoiu", in co-operation with them, our first 
 concern. The men of my community in iacreasing num- 
 bers view India's necessities through different glasses, and 
 are ready, when their hands are free of this sterner work, 
 to take a hand in making her future. 
 
 Your Excellency, no words are necessary to spur us to 
 greater effort. The heroic examples of our men and women 
 are surely enough to those of us who are left. Our dearest 
 and our best have died that England should live. 
 The men of the Vindictive and her escort vessels last week 
 left behind for us to follow an example for aU time. They 
 gave all for their country. So, sxu-ely, this is no time to 
 place restrictions on our duty. The road to conquest must 
 mean greater trials and sacrifices, but we will endure imtil 
 the end, fortified by a great and abiding faith in justice and 
 
APPENDIX VIII 285 
 
 right and in the God of our fathers to bring us to final 
 victory. 
 
 In my poor way, Sir, I have given you a message from 
 the people of my community and race. You will not find 
 us wanting to act our part and justify ourselves as true 
 citizens of His Majesty. 
 
 :V, 
 
 Printed iy Eaaett, Watim A Vinef, Li., London and Aytnittry, aivland.