PS ^71 
 
PS 
 
DS 479 
 
 INDIAN PROBLEMS 
 
 Copy 1 
 
 FOR 
 
 ENGLISH CONSIDERATION 
 
 A LETTER 
 
 TO THE COUNCIL OF 
 
 '^ht Rational liberal Jffberation, 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM DIGBY, CLE., 
 
 HONORARY MEMBER OF THE COBDEN CLUB ; HONORARY SECRETARY OF THE INDIAN 
 FAMINE RELIEF FUND, 1877-78; AUTHOR OP "THE FAMINE CAMPAIGN IN SOUTHERN 
 INDIA, 1876-78;" "FORTY YEARS IN A CROWN COLONY;" EDITOR OF THE "WESTERN 
 
 DAILY MERCURY, ' ETC. 
 
 Published for the National Liberal Federation. 
 
 i88i. 
 

 PLYMOUTH t 
 liATIMER AND SON, FRANKFOKT PRINTING WORKS. 
 
 \ t?^6C( 
 
TO THE COUNCIL OF THE NATIONAL LIBERAL 
 
 FEDERATION. 
 
 Gentlemen,^ 
 
 In the pages of this Letter it is my object to bring ^ijetter** 
 before you — and, through you, the EngHsh pubHc — a few facts 
 with reference to the people of India and their country, with 
 the hope that your organisation may become helpful in bring- 
 ing about those reforms which shall make it possible for our 
 Indian fellow-subjects to work out their own advancement 
 with well-grounded confidence and certainty. Lord North- 
 brook, speaking at Birmingham some time ago, remarked, wards indii 
 ' There is one simple test which we may safely apply to all 
 Indian questions. Let us never forget that it is our duty 
 to govern India, not for our own profit and advantage, but for 
 the benefit of the natives of India.' We, as a nation, are not 
 now acting upon that principle. We err, through ignorance 
 rather than from ill-intent. I know of no organisation so well 
 able to properly instruct and guide the English people in 
 rightly understanding and wisely assisting the inhabitants 
 of India, in the way of free government, than that which you 
 direct. It goes without saying that, in advanced Liberals, the Indian Reform 
 Indian people find their best friends. Practically, all that ^ ^^''^ ^^^^y- 
 has been done in the Commons' House of ParHament for 
 India has been done by men whom the Federation delights to 
 honour — by, for example — such a man as John Bright, whose 
 efforts to uplift India are approved by the Party of which he 
 is a trusted leader. On the other hand, such means as would 
 infuse native life and vigour into the currents of Indian national 
 and local administration have been opposed by Conservatives, 
 
of whom the late Lord Lytton was a typical instance That 
 
 noble Lord, when in the House of Commons, deprecated the 
 
 Indian Govern- Consideration of Indian questions by that assembly, for this 
 
 t™EngUshFree- reasou : Our doings in India, he said, were often of so 
 
 ^™' doubtful a nature that English freedom would be corrupted 
 
 by too-familiar acquaintance with the course of proceedings in 
 
 the empire.* It is, therefore, in accordance with the fitness 
 
 of things that my attempt to direct the attention of my 
 
 countrymen to the condition of our fellow-subjects in India 
 
 should be made through the National Liberal Federation. 
 
 India a larger In India, Great Britain possesses a larger Ireland. The 
 
 proportion is as two hundred and fifty to five : India has 
 two hundred and fifty millions of inhabitants ; Ireland a little 
 over five millions. Probably before the present century has 
 passed away the British people will find themselves face to face 
 in India with difficulties like those which, in connection with 
 Ireland, have caused much trouble and concern during the 
 past fifty years, culminating in the block of legislation which 
 marked the Session of the House of Commons in 1881, when 
 ' — unfortunate, but necessary, combination — the twin efforts 
 of coercion and amelioration were being carried out. The 
 state of things which, economically, has worked great woe in 
 Ireland exists in a larger degree in India : far more mischief is 
 thereby worked than the people of this country have any con- 
 ception of. This is patent to an unprejudiced observer ; it is 
 ofsciai utter- pl^hi and Unmistakable even to official apologists. If the Indian 
 ^"dlfectTof^^^ official lives who might be expected to prophesy smooth things 
 British Rule, ^f ji^^ia's futurc, Mr. W. W. Hunter, CLE., LL.D., of the 
 Bengal Civil Service, the compiler of the Imperial Gazetteer of 
 India, and author of a number of valuable works on the Empire, 
 is that official. In the pages of his books is to be found the 
 
 '^ The occasion when this remark was made was the debate in the House of Commons, 
 on the transference of India from "John Company" to the Crown. Lord (then Sir E. 
 Bulwer) Lytton said : — "For my own part, I own to a wholesome dread of hon. gentle- 
 men cramming themselves with blue books, and coming down to the House with an elaborate 
 speech about Kajahs and Nawabs, conceived in accordance with the respective interests of 
 Party ; sometimes, as the case may be, to defend some more than ordinary act of duplicity 
 by which we had annexed a kingdom, or, on the other hand, to declaim against some 
 nieasure which might be necessary to the stern necessities of oriental rule, but painful to 
 the feelii)gs of an English popular assembly." Injustice . . . painful to the feelings 
 of Enghshmen I 
 
Indian Oflfioials 
 
 strongest possible condemnation of our rule. As I shall show 
 later on, Mr. Hunter, who is regarded as holding a brief for the 
 British Administration, and who is recognised as a most able 
 advocate, is constrained, by the force of the facts with which 
 he has to deal, to make most damaging statements respecting 
 the present condition, and future prospects, of India. 
 
 To those who desire that such reforms shall be carried out 
 in India as will tend to remove, at least, the grosser evils of our 
 rule, the testimony of such an authority is of the utmost value. 
 It has become an article of belief in some influential quarters 
 that Indian officials cannot err ; when, therefore, we find in cannot err. 
 their statement of the case for India ample justification for 
 action, the course is greatly cleared. The time has arrived 
 when the actual facts regarding our Administration should be 
 known. It is a matter of no small importance that the people 
 of India are opening their eyes to the condition of things at 
 present existing. More than that, without any particular ill- 
 will to the British authority, they are threatening stormy 
 ■weather in the near future. Year by year we are educating, 
 to the highest English standard, hundreds of thousands of 
 Indian youths. A fair percentage of these prove exceptionally Indian Educa- 
 
 .. ^ . tion : probable 
 
 well-fitted to take part in ihe affairs of their country. They are effects. 
 a cquainted with the history of their own land, as well as that of 
 other nations, and have sufficient courage to enable them to say 
 those things which they believe to be just, and, in a constitu- 
 tional manner, to struggle for the attainment of what they 
 consider to be their rights. They do not find, from the point of 
 view of the son of the soil, their country all that could be desired, 
 and they are not prepared contentedly to acquiesce in the 
 continuance of the present state of things. To them, as they 
 regard India, Pope's well-known line is emphatically untrue : 
 they do not believe, 
 
 " Whatever is, is best." 
 
 What the leaders of the Land League have been in Le^^^eS^f^tte 
 Irel md, the men we are now educating will be in India, unless f^t^e. 
 the occasion for agitation is removed. The supremely wise 
 course for adoption in regard to India is always to anticipate 
 
agitation, and, by easy steps, to lead the people into the enjoy- 
 ment of the larger liberty which, almost unconsciously to 
 themselves, they are yearning for, and which, assuredly, their 
 country needs. 
 
 Sufferings of the Over and above the bad condition of India, from the 
 
 people. i-ii'i •> •• 1 
 
 philosopher's and economists position, are the ever-present 
 and terrible sufferings which the people have, year by year, to 
 endure. There is nothing in Ireland — notwithstanding 
 Colonel (' Chinese ') Gordon's statement that he had seen 
 as great misery in the cabins of Connemara as anywhere in 
 Asia or Africa — to compare with the want and distress in 
 which millions of Indians live from the days of their infancy 
 to the time when the funeral pyre is lighted over their 
 remains, or their bodies are laid in shallow graves. Although 
 the Indians are a patient and long-suffering race, there is a 
 limit even to their patience. When the agitation, which 
 threatens, really comes, it will be largely fed by the sore 
 suffering and misery of these half-starved multitudes. 
 
 La'imii?^^^^** Nothing that is still unaccomplished can be more certain 
 
 than that — unless a radical change in administration happens — 
 there is great trouble ahead for the English rulers of India. 
 Common prudence would, therefore, demand that we should 
 take such steps as it may be in our power to take to remove 
 the occasions for disaffection, and to ease the inevitable 
 strain. But higher reasons than those of mere prudence may, 
 and should, guide us. We have, of our own motion and 
 unasked, assumed the responsibility of governing the peoples 
 of India, and must so acquit ourselves that the maximum of 
 good attainable, and not the minimum of accidental 
 advantage, when our own ends have been served, shall be the 
 resultant. It is my belief — a belief born of intimate friend- 
 ship with many Indians of all classes in their own country — 
 How trouble ^^^^ much of the evil which now impends may be averted, if 
 
 may be averted. Englishmen and Indians can be brought to know one another 
 better, and to understand each other's position to a fuller 
 extent than they now do. It is with the hope of doing some- 
 
thing towards bringing about, in however humble a measure, 
 such an understanding, that this Letter is written, and that the 
 attention of the National Liberal Federation is directed 
 towards some of the more important features of Indian 
 political and social life. Even the most busy of English 
 statesmen and English men of business can, if they will, 
 devote some attention to Indian affairs. Proof of this is to interest Ln"ndia^ 
 be found in the interest which Mr. Bright, for many years, 
 has shown in India. There have, in recent times, been few 
 busier men in the United Kingdom than the right hon. 
 gentleman. Yet he has been able to thoroughly acquaint 
 himself with India and its real needs. This was indicated 
 twenty-three years ago, in the speeches which he delivered in 
 the House of Commons in 1858 and 1859, when the Indian 
 Bills of those years were under discussion. Those speeches 
 revealed so complete a mastery of the essentials of Indian 
 politics, that, in so far as Indian reform progresses towards a 
 satisfactory basis, it will be found that it does so on the lines 
 laid down by Mr. Bright when our Eastern Empire passed 
 under the direct dominion of the Crown. 
 
 I venture to hope that the presentation of facts in this Good points in 
 Letter, and the observations which are founded thereupon, will s 
 
 lead those who are not insensible to the responsibilities we \ 
 
 bear towards India to realise that our fellow-subjects in the 
 East are like-minded with ourselves in all that constitutes 
 good citizenship and law-abidingness. This should lead to i 
 
 the opinion that the same principles of procedure which have i 
 
 brought prosperity and contentment to us — though those ] 
 
 principles may be varied in their mode of working — will 
 ensure like prosperity and contentment to Indians also. If, 
 in any degree, the middle wall of partition which prevents 
 the one race understanding the other were broken down, or 
 if a breach only were made in it, much would be achieved 
 that would serve to prevent calamities in the future that other- 1 
 
 wise must occur. England and India are linked together : it I 
 
 is, above all things, desirable there should be a good under- 
 standing between their respective inhabitants. ; 
 
I.-THE PEOPLE OF INDIA AS THEY ARE. 
 
 Point of view 
 
 in 
 
 Indians. 
 
 estfmaS ^H ^ ^^^^^^^1^^ the character of a people, very much 
 
 depends upon the point of view from which they 
 are regarded. For example, in the month of June 
 last, a disturbance, in which certain American 
 runners were hustled, occurred on the running grounds at 
 Aston, a few miles from Birmingham. Immediately, the cry 
 was raised in certain metropolitan Conservative papers, * See, 
 these are the people who send Mr. Bright and Mr. 
 Chamberlain to Parliament ! This is Democracy ! These be 
 your gods, oh ! Radical Englishmen !' Arguing from the con- 
 duct of a few roughs, who may or may not have belonged to 
 Birmingham, the writers in the papers referred to, because 
 they disHke the political proclivities of the great midland town, 
 stigmatized the whole population as ruffians. They described 
 the Birmingham people generally in terms applicable only to 
 a few individuals 'of the baser sort,' whose identity with 
 Birmingham was not proved. The same principle is too often 
 acted upon in descriptions of the character of the inhabitants 
 of India. You question two men who have lived in the country 
 Contradictory ^^''''^ its peoples. One declares them to be ' niggers,'— the 
 
 descriptions, woudcr will be if he does not say * damned niggers,' utterly 
 
 untrustworthy, and very low in the scale of civilization, in fact, 
 altogether beneath the notice of an Englishman. The other, 
 on the contrary, will declare that Indian folk are very com- 
 mendable folk indeed ; that he has found true and hearty 
 friends among them ; that he believes them, if fairly treated, 
 capable of filling an important place among the peoples of the 
 world. The one observer looks for defects, and finds defects, 
 which, no doubt, exist in some degree, but he sees defects only ; 
 the other is not blind to defects, but he is more anxious to see 
 good qualities than bad, and, as a necessary consequence, good 
 qualities are displayed towards him. 
 
An incident at 
 
 I am glad to be able to testify that my experience of ^Personal testi. 
 Indians has been of the latter kind. I found the Indians with 
 whom I came into contact during my residence in the East — 
 and I had peculiar opportunities, from a combination of circum- 
 stances, arising out of my famine reHef and journalistic duties, 
 of knowing intimately many of all ranks and conditions— men 
 whom it was a pleasure to know, men with whom it was a 
 privilege to work. If I could but make them known to 
 Enghshmen in any degree as they really are, I should be 
 very glad, for I am satisfied my countrymen would then see 
 that the people of India were worthy of any trouble which 
 their fellow-subjects in Great Britain might take on their be- 
 half If I do not succeed in persuading some to take a great 
 deal of trouble on behalf of our Indian friends, then this Letter 
 will have been written in vain : the object I have in view will 
 fail in its accomplishment. When, a hundred years ago, the 
 fort of Arcot, in Southern India, was besieged by the '^^■'^^^• 
 French, English and Madras troops were shut up together. 
 Provisions ran short ; famine stared the garrison in the face. 
 At length, when the worst came to the worst, and scarcely any 
 food remained, the Madras Sepoys begged that their European 
 comrades would eat the rice provided for the daily meal, while 
 they would be content with the water in which it was boiled. 
 The Sepoys urged that Englishmen, in an unaccustomed 
 climate, needed more sustenance than did they who were ' to 
 the climate born,' and were better able to bear tropical priva- 
 tion. The story is typical. It is not an isolated or accidental 
 incident. An Indian, whatever his caste, or creed, or 
 nationality, delights to manifest respect towards Europeans, 
 when the latter prove themselves worthy of regard. Surely 
 English electors can spare a little time for effort on behalf of 
 such a people as this, and are ready to attempt those reforms 
 which shall lead the people of India to a better and more 
 self-respecting position than they now occupy. 
 
 I know that the ordinary European in India looks upon Ordinary ideas 
 the natives he has to do with, or of whom he hears now and " 
 again, as exceptionally stupid. But I also remember that 
 
lO 
 
 Cardinal Newman has remarked, in his own incomparable 
 manner, that mankind generally has described the lion as a 
 pusillanimous beast. Possibly, the lion might say that man 
 was cowardly if it were able to describe some of the bipeds 
 with whom it had dealings, how, through fear of a lion, they 
 ran to places of safely, where they could be secure from its 
 strength and courage. The second day after I landed 
 in Ceylon, the gentleman with whom I was staying said, of 
 the people generally, * If it is possible to do a thing wrongly, 
 they will do it. Nov/, mark that coolie ! You will find that he 
 puts your box with its front to the wall.' Sure enough, the 
 coolie did so. If I had been a passing visitor to the East, 
 as, for instance, Mr. Anthony Trollope was to Ceylon 
 a few years ago, I might have gone away with notions as 
 erroneous respecting the people as he did regarding the 
 island generally — erroneous observations which, by a system 
 of co-operative journalism, were circulated over the greater 
 part of the United Kingdom. 
 
 Population. There are over two hundred and fifty millions of people 
 
 in India. Ninety per cent, are engaged in agricultural 
 operations, either as small landowners — to be exact, as tenants 
 with fixity of tenure, and occupancy rights in the soil they 
 cultivate, — or as labourers. Their condition is so wretched 
 that it has been declared by one who is at present occupying 
 a high administrative position in India that at least half of 
 those engaged in agriculture do not know what it is, from 
 year's end to year's end, to have their appetite thoroughly 
 satisfied. The most favourable present-day picture of India, 
 viz., that by Dr. Hunter, in his pamphlet, ' England's Work 
 in India,' and in his Gazetteer, reveals the terrible fact that 
 
 Forty mUlions FORTY MILLIONS OF PEOPLE ARE INSUFFICIENTLY FED,* 
 
 ungrypeop e ^^^^ ^^^ j^ ^ State of contiuual scmi- Starvation. In ten years, 
 as Mr. Caird, C.B., has pointed out, the forty miUions will 
 
 * «<■ 
 
 "England's Work in India," by W. W. Hunter, C.I.E., LL.D., p. 80. " 
 The remaining fifth, or forty millions, go through life on insufficient food." 
 
II ! 
 
 have become sixty millions — (the land is becoming ex- | 
 hausted, inferior soils are coming into cultivation). In a 
 
 word, nearly twice as many people as there exist of all ' 
 
 classes in the United Kingdom are daily starving in India: i 
 Will Englishmen, can Englishmen, contemplate such a 
 
 condition of things without making heroic efforts to render its \ 
 
 continuance impossible ? I 
 That the pressure upon the population of India must of density of 
 
 r r ir f ^ population ' 
 
 necessity be great will be apparent when the density of ' 
 
 population per square mile is considered. In British India \ 
 
 there are 211 persons to the square mile. It will be readily :• 
 
 seen that, in a country which has practically no manufactures — j 
 
 (there were manufactories In India once, but in that land, j 
 
 as in Ireland, we, in our beneficence, have killed native i 
 
 manufacturing enterprise) — the struggle for life must be most i 
 severe. It was discovered, by the Famine Commissioners in 
 
 1879, that, in a portion of Bengal, allowing for women | 
 
 and children, a population of twenty-four millions were j 
 
 struggling to live upon fifteen millions of acres, or a Httle i 
 
 more than half-an-acre each. j 
 . To continue the comparison with England : Forty-two chi^fl?^^|gricui- i 
 per cent., or nearly half the British population, live in towns *'^^^- 
 of twenty thousand inhabitants and upwards. In India only 
 
 one-twentieth of the population reside In towns. Trustworthy ! 
 
 authority says, * Whenever the numbers of a people exceed ; 
 
 one to the acre, or 640 to the square mile, except in suburban ; 
 
 districts, or in irrigated tracts, the struggle for existence i 
 
 becomes hard. At half-an-acre a-plece the struggle is very \ 
 hard. In such districts a good harvest yields just sufficient 
 food for the people ; and thousands of lives depend each 
 
 autumn on a few inches, more or less, of rainfall. The i 
 
 ... .' 
 
 Government may. by great efforts, feed the starving in time | 
 
 of actual famine ; but it cannot stop the yearly work of 
 
 disease and death among a steadily underfed people! * 
 
 * Imperial Gazetteer of India CTrubner & Co., London), vol. iv., p. 163. 
 
 \ 
 
12 
 
 petpie.''"''^'*^®'^ ' A STEADILY UNDERFED PEOPLE !' This IS one of the 
 
 facts I wish my fellow-countrymen could apprehend : I 
 am confident they would not, if they realised the truth, be 
 content to let things run their course without an attempt at 
 amelioration. There should be no mistaking the full meaning 
 of the expressions I have quoted. On official estimates, — 
 which always err on the favourable side, which always 
 minimise (unconsciously, no doubt) such facts as I am 
 dealing with, — one person in every six in India is in a condition 
 of gradual starvation^ and this through no fault of his own. 
 In addition, consider also this farther fact, viz., that; during 
 Millions ^^c past twenty years, nearly half-a-million persons per 
 starved to death g^^num, on an average, have died in India from absolute want 
 of food. The particulars are as follow : — 
 
 Deaths. 
 Famine in Upper India, 1861 ... ... ... ... ... 500,000 
 
 ,, Orissa, Behar, and N. Madras, 1866 1,500,000 
 
 „ Rajputana and Central India, 1869 ... ... 400,000 
 
 „ Southern India and Bombay, 1876-1877 ... 5,500,000 
 „ North-West Provinces, 1877 750,000 
 
 8,650,000 
 
 Again, I would remark that these are the official state- 
 ments, and that they err from under-, rather than from over-, 
 statement. 
 
 steadTfy ^^grow- Another important feature of the existing state of affairs 
 
 irgpoor. .^ India, brought about under our rule, if not actually as the 
 
 result of the course of government we adopt, deserves special 
 prominence. The people are, year by year, steadily growing 
 poorer, and the possibility of earning a livelihood is becoming 
 increasingly hard. In the large towns and near the railways, 
 new occupations have sprung into existence which find 
 employment for thousands, but even here the increase of 
 wages has not kept pace with the increase in the price of 
 food, and life is a perpetual struggle. Proof of the foregoing 
 statements may be given. 
 
13 
 
 In the Madras Presidency, which certainly is not the 
 least efficiently administered part of India, our rule is harder 
 to the people than was the native rule, and is steadily growing 
 worse. In special returns prepared by the Madras Board 
 of Revenue for the Famine Commission, certain details are 
 given respecting the price of food which are pregnant with 
 matter for grave concern. It would seem that since 1814, 
 taking in each case the averasre of five years from that date, increasing 
 
 ^ fc. / » cost of foo(J, 
 
 and comparing the first quinquennial period with the last, 
 
 viz., 1 8 14- 1 8 19 with 1870- 1874, the cost of second-sort rice 
 
 has doubled, save and except in the irrigated districts. That 
 
 is, ivhile in England the process of the law has had the 
 
 effect of redncing the price of the staple article of food^ 
 
 and making it cheap and plentiful for every one^ the exactly 
 
 opposite principle has prevailed in India. This statement is as 
 
 true of the ' dry-grain ' food — i.e.^ millet, and the like, as of 
 
 the 'wet' — i.e., rice. Ragi — a species of dry grain — during 
 
 the period mentioned, has doubled in price, the number of 
 
 seers per rupee being, in some cases, 52*6 in 1819-1823, against 
 
 3 5 "4 in 1 870- 1 874 ; while the fluctuations have been from 65 '5 
 
 in i8i4to i6-o in 1866, and much less than sixteen in the 
 
 famine years of 1876 and 1877. Again, testing this by an 
 
 English standard, it is as though the 4-lb. loaf in England compared with 
 
 ° ' ^ fcD -i- fc> English prices. 
 
 had gone up from sixpence to two shillings on exceptional 
 occasions, and had permanently increased to one shilling, 
 without corresponding advantages to the purchaser in the 
 way of larger means of earning money. Indeed, when the 
 prices have been at their highest range, the opportunities for 
 earning money have been the fewest. Cumboo and Cholum, 
 * dry ' grains largely used by the people, show the same 
 change to a steadily-increasing and permanently-increased 
 price, with the difference, as regards Cholum, that the five 
 years from i86[ to 1865 were the worst in the returns before 
 me as I write. The returns for the period from 1875 to 1880 
 are available; they show that period to have been the most 
 severe for a century. Old people among the Indians 
 say that food is dearer now than it was in their younger 
 
14 
 
 Old times^ good (jg^yg^ Unfortunately, the remark does not partake of that 
 untrustworthy optimism of most old people — that the good 
 times were the old times ; official records support the former 
 contention. It is true that, as regards the labourer, high 
 prices do not affect him so much as they would do if he were 
 always paid in money. But, as is well remarked by a writer 
 in the official document upon which these observations are 
 based, * When prices are high as the result of failure of crop, 
 and the employer himself becomes embarrassed, the position 
 even of the permanent agricultural servant becomes critical. 
 Having been unable to save anything to stand him in stead in 
 time of need, and there being no demand for service 
 elsewhere, he is thrown entirely on private or public charity 
 for means of subsistence.' In the Madras Presidency alone, 
 reckoning those dependent upon a labourer as being a wife 
 and only one child — saying nothing of aged parents unable to 
 work, who are tended with an affection truly admirable- 
 there are eight millions of persons in this unfortunate 
 condition. As all Hindus marry, and as the average 
 number in a family is four, it will be seen that the above 
 estimate of the extent of suffering in the landless and 
 insufficiently-fed class is extremely moderate. 
 Buying power From almost every part of the Empire the same story 
 
 not increasing. ^,Qj^gg^ ^^^ j|. jg ^^^ uccessary that I should burden these 
 
 pages with more details of this character. The cost of food 
 to the common people has risen greatly ; wages have not 
 increased in the same proportion. Life, I repeat, is yearly 
 growing harder to our unfortunate fellow-subjects : the 
 horizon of hope is contracting ; their misery is increasing. 
 
 Rice not the It may be mentioned, partly by way of clearing up a 
 
 on y 00 . misconception which largely prevails in this country, that the 
 food of the people of India is not, as is generally supposed, 
 exclusively rice. An idea to the contrary is current, chiefly 
 perhaps, because irrigation works are frequently recommended 
 as a panacea against famine. Upon that point — i.e., the 
 value of irrigation works as one out of a number of means to 
 
IS 
 
 be used as a preventive of famine^ — I shall have something to 
 say later on. Meanwhile, I may remark that the rice-eating 
 population of India is only one-third of the whole. 
 Examining by Presidencies and Provinces, it will appear that 
 in Madras, where — next to British Burma — the largest ^p^^^^^* .^?'^ 
 
 ' ^ ^ wneat or millet. 
 
 quantity of rice is grown, the area under this ' wet crop ' is 
 33 per cent, of the whole acreage cultivated ; in Bombay, the 
 area is lo per cent. ; in Sind, 17 per cent ; in the Central 
 Provinces, 34 per cent. ; and in the Panjab, 5 per cent. In 
 none of the Native States is rice grown to any large extent. 
 The general food of those people is wheat or millets, known 
 generally as ragi, cholum, or jowari. 
 
 What is the character of the people whose means of The character 
 
 ^ -^ of the people. 
 
 existence are so precarious, who suffer so severely .? There law abiding and 
 
 ^ ^ contented. 
 
 are not more law-abiding, contented, and, on the whole, 
 lovable races under the wide sway of the Queen than the 
 people of India. These good qualities, however, are not 
 developed from the comfort of their surroundings, but exist in 
 spite of misery which might be expected to render goodness 
 impossible. Their worldly possessions are of the slightest 
 value. Their poverty is so acute that English people can 
 scarcely realise it. Save that, in the agricultural districts, Miserable 
 there is no over-crowding — the kindly climate making it ^^^^' 
 possible to sleep in the open air — no Dorsetshire or Devonshire 
 labourer's dwelling can be compared with the wretchedness of 
 the Indian labourer's 'home.' Further, in England the 
 dilapidated and miserable cottages are the exception ; in 
 India, for many millions, they are the rule. Save and except 
 in towns, where civilisation has created the need, and where 
 trade supplies the means for gratifying it, Indian homes have 
 few evidences of what we regard as comfort. Even in regard 
 to those whose incomes raise them above want, tiled houses 
 are rarely seen, and masonry walls are still more rare. Mud 
 walls, the same inside as outside, and thatched roofs, 
 are the rule. The rooms have no ceiling, the walls 
 no sort of ornament or decoration, and the floor is 
 
i6 
 
 of simple earth, beaten hard. There is nothing of what 
 is commonly called furniture. There are no chairs, or tables, 
 or couches, or beds ; the people, for the most part, sleep on 
 the earthen floor, with only a mat or a small cotton carpet 
 beneath them. As I have said, the foregoing description 
 applies to ryots, who may be called well-to-do. Of the 
 jngsmostiy^pIS Jabourcrs, who are to be counted by millions, a very much 
 in food. worse story has to be told. Practically,. all their earnings go 
 
 for food, or are paid in food ; the wretched hut in which the 
 labourer lives can scarcely be valued at all. Says one who 
 came very closely into contact with the people during an 
 epidemic of cholera : — ' It was then I first really learned the 
 poverty of the agricultural classes. Sometimes I had four or 
 five patients in the same house ; and not a spare rag in the 
 house more than the inmates had on their persons, and not 
 more than a few days' food.' 
 
 Modes of re- The povcrtv of the Indians, and the fact that a little 
 
 lief in famine. ^ ^ ' 
 
 money goes a very long way among them, were shown in a 
 marked manner in the vast amount of good accomplished 
 through the fund of nearly ;^8oo,ooo, contributed by England 
 and the colonies during 1877 and 1878, for the famine- 
 stricken of that period, who were not reached by the means 
 provided by the Government. From that sum nearly nine-and- 
 Food, a-half-millions of meals were provided ; or partial sustenance for 
 a week at a time was granted during the severest period of 
 the distress, by the gift of eight annas (one shilling) to 
 applicants whose need had been tested. More than one 
 hundred and forty-four thousand houses were repaired or 
 Rebuilding rebuilt at an average cost of six shillins^s each. It is matter for 
 
 Houses. *^ ° ^ 
 
 gratification that so much could be done with the money ; but, 
 on the other hand, it is a distressing thought that the value of 
 an ordinary dwelling should be considerably less than one 
 pound sterling. Yet another form of charity disbursed from 
 the fund in question was that which, literally, set up in 
 business men who had been completely ruined. Nearly half- 
 \S!^^ ^^"'' a-million of cultivators received assistance, in the shape of 
 
17 
 
 seed for sowing, the pay of hiring bullocks to plough the land, 
 
 and for like operations ; all this was done at a cost of less than 
 
 ten shillings each individual, taking the average. In a similar 
 
 way, poor artizans were started afresh. A few shillings for ^-^l^^^ting Arti- 
 
 the purchase of yarn or other materials for weaving, or the 
 
 redemption of a loom which had been pawned when food was 
 
 dearest and most scarce, sufficed to raise a weaver from beggary 
 
 to a decent position in life. A quarter of a million people of 
 
 this class were helped at an average of four shillings each. 
 
 Probably, by these statements. Englishmen will be able to 
 
 gather some idea of the utter poverty of the Indian people. 
 
 It is true that the necessities of their position are not so great 
 
 as those of corresponding classes in this country ; but when 
 
 full allowance is made on that score, the condition of things 
 
 remaining is terrible. 
 
 The patience of the men and women with whom we have wonderM 
 
 . 1 ' -I r 1 T-\ • 1- .,, .^, patience of the 
 
 to do IS wonderful. Durmg ordmary periods there is far less people, 
 crime among them than among people similarly situated in 
 any European country. But it is in times of sore distress, 
 when food is five times above its normal price, and not easy to 
 get then, that their patience is truly sublime. Take their 
 conduct during the awful times of 1876 and 1877 : They saw 
 their crops perish before their eyes, and did not consider that 
 they must wreak vengeance upon their rulers, or in any way 
 disturb the public peace ; they were starving, but not one in a 
 hundred thousand resorted to robbery ; it was the exception, 
 not the rule, to hear of grain-carts being looted. On the 
 beach, at Madras, a few hungry folk might be seen making 
 holes in the bags of rice as they were being carted, and 
 gathering the grains which fell. On the whole, however, the 
 terrible affliction was borne with exemplary conduct The 
 district judge at Trichinopoly (Mr. E. Forster Webster), 
 speaking of people whose sense of self-respect would not 
 allow them to attend a Government relief camp, said, ' The 
 closer you look into matters, and the better you know the 
 people, the more you see how fearfully widely spread is the 
 present distress, borne by the poor creatures in dumb 
 
 B 
 
i8 
 
 resignation to fate, and with scarcely a murmur/ Had they 
 not been thus patient, had they proved as restless as the 
 English people would have been, were they situated in like 
 circumstances, the possibility of maintaining our supremacy 
 in Southern India and in Bombay would, in all probability, 
 have been decided against us. 
 
 Kindliness . -.,.,.. - _.- 
 
 towards each Agfam. as to their kindliness towards one another. The 
 
 other. . 
 
 famine gave wonderful proof of the depth and sincerity of this 
 quality. We saw it in our own homes, in the privations our 
 servants endured, that they might be able to help their 
 friends who had no work ; we met with nu merous instances in 
 our offices, where the employes visibly grew thinner and more 
 woe-begone day by day, the higher wages given by employers 
 going to support relatives in greater need than those by whom 
 increased pay was received. One native member of the 
 Central Famine Committee said to me one day, * I have thirty- 
 five people depending upon me for daily food.' It was a com- 
 mon experience in our ReUef Camps and in our Day 
 Nurseries to note that the people did not struggle with one 
 another as to who should be first served ; it seemed as if the 
 rule was, the greater the need of the individual the greater 
 the goodness and the patience displayed. ' Mothers, aunts, 
 grandmothers, or neighbours,' said one diligent worker in the 
 cause of relief, who had medical oversight of a Day Nursery, 
 'will bring children to be fed, and, though in want themselves, 
 never express, by word or sign, a desire to share in the help 
 they know is meant only for young children. Big boys will 
 bring little boys, and, though lank and hungry, and casting 
 longing eyes on food, are only intent on seeing that their 
 charges get their allotted ration. For six weeks past a little 
 girl of ten or eleven has been bringing up two sickly children 
 twice a day, nursing them with the tenderest care, and never 
 asking bite or sup on her own account. She showed no signs 
 of starvation until the last few days, when I noticed that she 
 was beginning to go down, and I have asked the lady of the 
 Nursery to bring her on the list of those to whom one good 
 
19 
 
 meal a day may mean the salvation of life.' The gratitude, 
 too, for the help rendered and the sympathy shown, was of a 
 most marked character. 
 
 As regards personal conduct, oreneral abstinence, and the Habits and 
 
 ,.,,., .r general conduct 
 
 like, the Indian people of the lower classes are, if not all that very good. Few 
 
 ^ -^ ^ drunkards. 
 
 could be desired, at least far better than those in other countries. 
 They do not consume intoxicating drinks, save, perhaps, at 
 the annual religious festival, and even then sparingly. In 
 the * glad riot ' of the one holiday in the year their conduct is 
 orderly, if tested by a Western standard, and their 
 abstemiousness beyond all praise. Their substance, such as 
 it is, is not wasted in riotous living. Nor do they encourage 
 the sale of intoxicants. When Village Communities, having 
 authority within their jurisdiction to impose fines and 
 sentence to imprisonment, were revived in one portion of our 
 rule in the East, and the villagers were summoned to make 
 bye-laws for the guidance of affairs, they passed regulations 
 which forbad the sale of liquor, or ganja, or opium, while 
 they prohibited bullock-hackery racing on the high road. * 
 Local Option has, with them, the effect which Sir Wilfrid 
 Lawson and the United Kingdom Alliance believe it will 
 have in Great Britain and Ireland, when Parliament has 
 sanctioned its adoption. It is a sad fact, however, that the 
 
 * Among the rules of these Village Communities are some which may be quoted. Their 
 good sense will doubtless astonish some whose ideas of orientals are gathered from wrong 
 notions which have been too long current t—e.fjr., "7. At the request, by petition, of the 
 parents or guardians of twenty-five or more children for the establishment of a school, a 
 school shall be established, which is to be built at the expense of all the villagers Avithin 
 two miles of the proposed school : provided, always, that a schoolmaster is provided 
 Avithout charge to the villagers [i.e.. at the cost of the Government]. The repair and 
 upkeep of the school-house or room shall be provided for by the levy of a moderate fee from 
 the pupils attending the school, or by labour given gratuitously by the parents or 
 guardians of such children. Any parent who does not send his children to either the village 
 school or any other place of education shall he considered as totally unfit for holding any 
 offi.ce under Government, or of being a member of a Gansabhawa " (Village Council). 
 
 "Boys from six to fifteen years old, and girls from six to twelve years old, shall be sent 
 to school by their parents or guardians, except Avhen prevented by sickness or other 
 material cause ; and the parents or guardians infringing this rule shall be subject to a fine 
 not exceeding one rupee." 
 
 "13. No cart-racing shall be permitted upon any public road, and no vehicle shall be 
 driven thereon without a light at night." 
 
 "14. Gambling and cock-fighting are prohibited. Every headman is requested to 
 prosecute offenders against this rule before the Village Tribunal, as also aU disorderly 
 persons and vagrants, also persons using obscene and abusive language." 
 
 Another rule prohibits pawning articles " without notice previously given to the 
 village headman."— (From " A Hume Kule Experiment in Ceylon," by Wm. Digby, 
 Fortnightly Review, August, 1875.) 
 
20 
 
 good sense of the Indian people, in regard to intoxicants, is 
 being overborne by considerations of revenue, and that, for the 
 sake of the money obtained from the issue of licenses, grog- 
 shops are encouraged. The Rev. T. Evans, Baptist 
 Missionary at Monghyr, Bengal, finds the state of affairs in 
 that district becoming so bad, through the multiplication of 
 licensed drinking-houses, that he has, twice within the past 
 twelve months, addressed the Viceroy on the subject. 
 Character of *A very happy- natured, contented race, as a whole, are 
 
 ^ ^^^^ ' our village husbandmen,' says Mr. Allan Hume, C.B., Secretary 
 of the now defunct Revenue, Agricultural, and Commerce 
 Department in India, ' and they have their little amusements 
 and festivals, and when harvests are good, pretty much all that, 
 with their simple habits, they need. The picture is not all 
 black, or how could we, or anyone, hold the country ? But 
 withal, their lives are very hard and toilsome, and through it, 
 all too many are pressed with debt. Good crops ease the pain 
 a little, and the village merry-making brings a temporary 
 forgetfulness, but f/ie sore is always therey and, except in very 
 good seasons , multitudes, for months in every year, cannot get 
 sufficient food for themselves and their families. They are not 
 starving, but they are hungry ; they get less than they want, 
 and than they ought to have.' 
 
 These are the people, forty millions of whom, says Dr. 
 Hunter, speaking with exceptional knowledge and authority, 
 go all their lives without enough food to eat. For their 
 government and well-being English electors are responsi- 
 ble. These are the people whose position ought to be improved, 
 and may be improved if Englishmen and Englishwomen care 
 to take a little trouble on their account. 
 
 Hi^herciasses As for the higher classes, what is their character, what 
 
 their disposition t Are they worthy of fellowship with 
 Englishmen } Are they deserving of a little self-sacrificing 
 effort on our part, that 'ample space and verge enough' shall 
 be provided, in which they may grow to a proper mental, 
 moral, and political standard.'' The reader shall judge. Sir 
 
21 
 
 Richard Temple, whose experience of the Indian people has oif^thei^^gSd 
 been very wide and varied, in his work on * India in 1880,' ^^*^*^^^' 
 recently published, says ; * But with an English- 
 man who lives and labours in the country, the wider his 
 acquaintance with the natives, and the deeper his insight, the 
 greater is his liking for them. He who has the best and 
 longest acquaintance with the natives esteems them most. 
 He who has the best data for an opinion regard- 
 ing them, and the firmest ground on which to found his belief, 
 will have the most hopeful faith in their mental and moral 
 
 progress Many of their virtues are of a type or 
 
 mould different from the Anglo-Saxon, but the domestic 
 qualities shine with a quiet unobtrusive light, which deserves 
 the admiring gaze of even the most civilized nations. . . . 
 There is, in their disposition, a cheerful and courageous patience 
 nurtured in the midst of national tribulations, a willingness to 
 submit the unruly will to the dictates of a venerated law, and 
 a reliance on an Almighty Power as the Refuge of the Weak, 
 and the Helper of the Helpless, which are akin to the best forms 
 of religion.' Herein, we know that Sir Richard testifieth truly. 
 The Indian people, as a whole, are all he describes them to 
 be, and more besides. 
 
 In business life, to take another class in the social scale, -^^^^^^^ "* 
 the average Indian is as much worthy of commendation, 
 esteem, and trust, as is the agriculturist, with whom we have 
 tarried. All the qualities which lead to success in mercantile 
 affairs in this country are exhibited by the Indian merchant 
 and trader. In the Madras Presidency, many Collectors 
 testify specially to the energy of the Mahommedan traders, 
 and with regard to the Hindu commercial castes, Dr. Cornish, 
 the Compiler of the Census Tables, remarks: — *They have 
 not the whole field to themselves ; for many Mahommedans 
 and Hindus of other castes are now competing with them ; 
 but they hold their own, as communities possessing capital, 
 gifted with the spirit of enterprise, and free from the vice of 
 personal extravagance, must always do.* * No merchants in 
 
22 
 
 che world are more shrewd than those of India/ said Mr. J. B. 
 Norton, in 1854, in a letter to Lord Sherbrooke, when (as 
 Robert Lowe) he was Joint Secretary of the Board of Control 
 of the East India Company. In the more pleasing aspects of 
 character the business man is not wanting. The garden of an 
 ^° Indian merchant, which I visited, with its owner, shortly before 
 I left India, was as much a matter of pride to him as a tulip 
 bed was wont to be to a Dutch merchant, or as his greenhouses 
 are to the average Englishman of to-day. When an Indian 
 merchant has made money he does not hoard it. On the 
 contrary, he freely parts with it ; he is anxious to disburse it 
 in charity. The gentleman whose liking for flowers I have 
 mentioned, during more than twelve months of the Madras 
 famine fed sixteen hundred people daily in his own compound. 
 When the distress was overpast he said to me, * I have been 
 very prosperous in business, and am anxious to build a lying-in 
 ward at the Monegar Choultry Hospital ; my aged mother, 
 too, IS anxious I should do this before she dies.' The ward 
 was built at considerable cost and, I believe, has since been 
 adequately endowed. My friend is not exceptional in the 
 exhibition of the good qualities I have mentioned. This would 
 be more often seen by Anglo-Indians if, while they are in 
 India, they would take the trouble to understand those with 
 whom they come into contact, and be at some pains to call 
 forth the best side of the character of those in whose land 
 Englishmen are mere birds of passage, sojourners for a time. 
 The mercantile and trading class is active and energetic in 
 public affairs. Its members contest seats for the Municipal 
 Councils, and are earnest and devoted in committee work, 
 whether in the transaction of their own caste affairs, or in 
 educational or philanthropic effort. There are all the essentials 
 of a good citizen in each individual of the mercantile and 
 trading section of the Indian population. 
 
 Professional 
 men. 
 
 Ascending yet a step higher, we come to the professional 
 men. These, as scholastic professors, barristers, lawyers, and 
 Government servants, are in no degree behind their country- 
 
23 \ 
 
 men in other ranks of life in exhibiting aspects of character 
 of a praiseworthy kind. Perhaps, I cannot better describe this 
 section of the Indian race than by a brief sketch of one Indian 
 gentleman, whom I knew intimately, and esteemed most 
 highly. He was a Tamil of high caste, and spent, I believe, 
 four years as a student in the Presidency College, Madras. 
 Partly through the example of, and contact with, a relative 
 who had been to Europe more than once, my friend adopted 
 a semi-European dress, and very well it became him too. He 
 was, when in the college, a lad of good natural abilities, but 
 apparently not susceptible to cram, or mere learning by rote ; 
 at least, he did not take a degree at the University. When I 
 first knew him he had left college a few years, and had been 
 sworn as an Advocate of the Supreme Court. I knew nothing 
 then about the rival systems of education in the various Presi- 
 dencies, but I was induced to form a high opinion of the 
 teaching in Madras from the good effects of it which I saw in 
 my friend R. The result of this scholastic training had been 
 to develop in him a keen desire to extend the horizon of his 
 knowledge after he had left the College. He kept up his 
 reading in the leading philosophic and scientific works of the 
 day, and no man — Englishman or Indian — in the library to 
 which he belonged was more choice in the selection of books, 
 or read them more diligently or intelligently. This v/as seen 
 when, after writing a work on ' The Philosophy of Law,' he 
 appended a list of the authors he had consulted, after the 
 manner Henry Buckle made fashionable : my Tamil friend's 
 list was no contemptible one, even when mentioned in the 
 same sentence as Buckle's. Politically he was as active as he 
 was diligent intellectually. I had only known him a few 
 weeks, when I had occasion to attend a town's meeting regard- 
 ing sanitation, and found that he was a speaker to one of the 
 Resolutions : right well and appropriately did he deal with 
 the topic entrusted to him, speaking fluently from notes, and 
 in good colloquial English, In larger political matters he was 
 greatly interested, when the lead was given him ; for, as he 
 often confessed, he did not feel confidence enough in himself 
 
24 
 
 to initiate reforms, but he did feel that he could second 
 anybody else's efforts very vigorously. And, as I happen to 
 be aware, he did so with his purse as well as with his tongue 
 and his pen ; all who know the people of India will agree that 
 the test is a sure one in the East as in the West, that a man's 
 real interest in a cause may be tried by his willingness to give 
 pecuniary assistance to it. This test R. stood admirably. He 
 was also * diligent in business,' taking up law-reporting in 
 addition to his other duties ; he has published several volumes 
 of reports, volumes which have received the encomiums of the 
 Judges in the Court in which he practises. To the objection 
 which might be urged that my friend was all that I described 
 him to be intellectually, but, morally and spiritually, what is 
 he ? my reply is ready. Though not a professing Christian, 
 R. is as good a man as, or better than, a great many 
 Christians so-called ! Religious topics were, for a time, 
 avoided by both of us, but when men become intimate friends, 
 the barrier of reserve on the chief of all subjects must soon be 
 broken down. It was broken down so far as we were 
 concerned. I found my friend was not a Christian, but just 
 as certainly he was not an Atheist. He believed in God, 
 holding that the Deity whom Christians adored and the Deity 
 on which the super-structure of Hinduism has been reared 
 were in essence the same. He once quoted against me a 
 passage in the Epistle to the Romans, I think, where the 
 writer says that God has in every land those who trust in, and 
 fear. Him, and who, presumably, will be saved. The inspira- 
 tion of the Scriptures, and the incarnation of Jesus Christ, 
 were things he could not bring himself to believe in, whilst also 
 he could not confess to having experienced that deep and 
 lasting yearning after a greater than one's self (which most 
 men who pass through deep waters experience), in whose 
 wisdom confidence might be reposed. Still, he admitted that 
 might come in time. He was not self-conscious or conceited, 
 and he possessed what are, in Christian parlance, called ' the 
 graces of the Spirit,' for he was sober, not given to frivolous 
 or malicious conversation, ready to think the best of every- 
 
25 
 
 body, and yet, withal, courageous in the maintenance of his 
 convictions, proof of the latter quality being given on many 
 occasions when the necessity for a stone-wall stand arose. 
 
 That man, my friend R., is the product of English ^g^'^^^^iyc^fl; 
 education in India ; I think the product is one of which we generally good, 
 have no reason to be ashamed. The gentleman whose 
 character I have faintly outlined is now the nominated 
 representative of his race in a Legislative Council. But for 
 the fear that I should weary the readers of this Letter, I 
 should like, from the seven volumes of Legislative Council 
 Debates which are by my side as I write, to give many 
 illustrations of the capacity and ability of the educated 
 oriental for counsel and debate. Lord Northbrook,* some- 
 time Viceroy of India, now First Lord of the Admiralty, ^^^^^^ '^"J^g^J; 
 however, shall supply a few facts. His lordship, stating "^^^y- 
 that, in his position as Viceroy, he only came into contact 
 with the educated natives, gave his opinion respecting them. 
 Among them was the late Rajah Romanath Tagore, a 
 member of the Legislative Council of the Viceroy, who often 
 gave the Government most valuable assistance ; and the late 
 Dwarkanath Mitra, who was for six years a Judge of the 
 High Court of Calcutta. ' We, in England,' said Lord 
 Northbrook, * sometimes forget that the manner in which 
 Indian questions are treated in Parliament and in the Press 
 here is thoroughly understood by the educated natives of 
 India. This attention to English politics is not confined to 
 the educated natives of British territories. At the Native 
 Courts the articles of our English newspapers are habitually 
 translated and read. Dr. Bellew's travels and Sir Henry 
 Rawlinson's essays were studied at the Court of the Amir of 
 Kabul. Moreover, there are newspapers published in India — 
 notably, the Hindoo Patriot of Calcutta — written in English, 
 exclusively by natives, which hold their own well with the 
 Anglo-Indian journals.' Englishmen can judge for them- 
 selves whether, with men of the kind above described, 
 
 * Speech delivered in the Town Hall, Birmingham, in 1879. 
 
26 
 
 increasing in numbers year by year, we shall not have to 
 re-cast our relations with India. Scope must be found for 
 their trained energies and for their legitimate ambition, or 
 they will, in a manner that may be unpleasant to us, find 
 scope for themselves. 
 
 india,n states- There now remains one other class of Indians whom I 
 
 men. 
 
 wish specially to mention. A knowledge of them, and an 
 acquaintance with their work, cannot fail to deepen the 
 respect which the English people should cherish for their 
 fellow-subjects in India. I refer to the statesmen who, in 
 peculiar positions, and with many restraints, have given 
 evidence of the possession of wonderful faculties and 
 marvellous ability. Sir Salar Jung has regenerated the 
 Nizam's Dominions ; Sir Madhava Rao has changed decay 
 and chaos in Travancore to prosperity and order, and in 
 Baroda has done equally good work, amid difficulties that 
 were stupendous ; Sir Dinkur Rao ; Mr. Raghunath Rao, 
 Minister to the Maharajah Holkar ; and many others who 
 might be named, have displayed the administrative ability of 
 the Indian in no common degree. The capacity of this 
 group of statesmen, taken singly, may be gauged by a brief 
 recital of what Sir Salar Jung has done in the Deccan — first, 
 for the country whose affairs he has administered in time of 
 plenty and in time of famine ; and, second, in the prudence 
 and patience he has shown in the face of difficulties 
 innumerable, and of insults wellnigh unbearable. Sir Salar 
 Jung's career has been that of a great Reformer, great in the 
 sense in which Englishmen are apt to regard the work of 
 Mr. Gladstone during the late session of Parliament (1881) as 
 great, viz., in masterly and masterful dealing with compli- 
 cated land questions which strike at the root of the well-being 
 of Society. 
 Sir Salar Jung Thls is not the olacc in which to — nor is it necessary for 
 
 as a Land Re- ^ 
 
 former. ^^q purposcs of this Letter that I should — take a survey 
 
 of all Sir Salar Jung's good work as a Reformer. It will 
 suffice if I show what he has done in relation to Land 
 
27 
 
 Reform, chiefly because that is the great rock ahead in 
 Indian administration. That is the feature respecting which, 
 from the time of Lord Cornwallis's gigantic blunder in 
 creating landlords (in the English sense of the term) and in 
 making a permanent settlement, we, as rulers, have been most 
 helpless and most unsuccessful ; and also, because, from the 
 intricacies of the subject, from the local knowledge required, 
 certitude and satisfaction on this important matter will only 
 be obtained by, and through, Indian statesmen. Sir Salar 
 Jung assumed charge of the government of his Highness the 
 Nizam's Dominions in 1853. As soon as he had made 
 himself master of the facts, he took in hand the improvement 
 of the land revenue. He found abuses in plenty existing, ing abolished. 
 Revenue farmers stood between the Governm^ent and the 
 peasantry, and became extortioners of the worst class. They 
 invented pretexts for levying taxes which were illegal, and 
 ground down the peasantry almost to powder. The Prime 
 Minister of the Nizam grappled with this evil and conquered 
 it. A measure of his far-sightedness and courage may be 
 gathered when I state that, twenty years after revenue 
 farming had been abolished in the Native State he adminis- 
 tered, that infamous system flourished in the colony of Ceylon, 
 which is ruled from Downing-street, and for ivhose righteous 
 government the English people are directly responsible. 
 Fortunately, a change for the better in some slight degree has 
 been brought about in Ceylon by the adoption of such 
 means as this Letter is intended to call forth., viz., constitu- 
 tional agitation through the British Parliament. 
 
 The difficulties in the way of Sir Salar Jung were 
 stupendous, but he overcame them. Probably, dry details 
 respecting the Sarbastedari system, the Zemindari system, or 
 the Ryotwari principle, are unnecessary. It may suffice if I 
 state that, after the most careful investigation, the Minister 
 decided not to follow Lord Cornwallis's bad example, and 
 create a new class of landlords, though the advantage to an ^^g^^ jn ti^^ 
 Administration of such a class was not overlooked. The ontenanS"^^"^ 
 decision which Sir Salar came to was in favour of direct 
 
28 
 
 communication between the Government and the tenants, the 
 latter obtaining rights in the soil they cultivated, rig'nts at the 
 mention of which many Members of the British House of 
 Commons would stand aghast, and the contemplation of which 
 would drive Mr. Henry Chaplin to frenzy. In the direction 
 towards which land legislation in Ireland is tending. Sir Salar 
 Jung laboured, with the result that the prosperity of the 
 inhabitants of the Deccan is vastly increased, the State 
 revenues are enormously larger, exactions and impositions are 
 reduced to a minimum, and ^ degree of general contentment 
 marks his Highness's Dominions, which is not to be found in 
 the larger portion of the British-ruled territory by which 
 those Dominions are surrounded. There is no honour in the 
 keeping of the British Crown too great for the man who 
 performed this task — (if the next Garter that falls vacant were 
 sent to Hyderabad, a right step would be taken) ; but, 
 instead of receiving honour, because Sir Salar Jung, through 
 too-great devotion to his country, is out of favour with the 
 Calcutta Foreign Office, he has been subjected to contumely 
 and insult of a petty and discreditable kind. The story of 
 his treatment, however, cannot find a place here. 
 
 Abolition of Sir Salar Jung's third reform in connection with the land 
 payment in kind ^^g the aboHtion of paymcnt-in-kiud. This is a system 
 vicious in many ways, and objectionable both to the State 
 and to the cultivator. Exact knowledge by the State of the 
 area of the land or of the producibility of the soil is not, 
 under payment-in-kind, a pre-requisite, and is not possessed : 
 all that the State cares about is the quantity of grain 
 produced, of which it claims its portion. Sir Salar Jung's 
 description of the evils of the old mode, contained in a State 
 paper which he furnished to the Famine Commissioners in 
 1879, is complete in showing the necessity for doing away 
 with that system. The adaptability of native officials to 
 administrative work of a high order was proved by the 
 thorough manner in which a change so great as this and 
 so difficult was simultaneously and peacefully introduced 
 
29 
 
 throughout the territory affected. Well-considered rules and 
 energetic effort speedily overcame the obstacles which, at 
 first sight, appeared insurmountable. 
 
 These facts, described in barest form, from a wealth of 
 material available, will serve to show the capacity of the 
 Indian mind, and indicate the excellent material which is 
 ready for English thoughtfulness to take in hand, and shape 
 for higher and better things than the mere * hewing of wood 
 and drawing of water ' in which all but a very small portion 
 of that material is now employed. A wider field, larger op- 
 portunities, are imperatively needed for the educated and able 
 men of India. 
 
II.— THE COUNTRY AS IT IS. 
 
 Effect upon a Sb f^m N an ideal world the holding of one country in 
 
 conquered peo- «^.>.>« i .«sa8 o ^ 
 
 pie of being held ^^ W^ subjectlon bv another would not be possible. 
 
 m subjection. ^^ kJt^ 
 
 Nor, when that period comes, *by good men 
 prayed for long,' when the average of goodness and 
 intelligence the world over becomes higher, will such over- 
 rule and subjection continue. Let the intentions of 
 conquerors be never so humane, the necessities of the position 
 which they occupy render it inevitable that — often without 
 knowing it, more often without meaning it — they shall be 
 guilty of oppression, they shall exhibit the vices of arrogance 
 and greed. Everything will be made to give way to the 
 necessities, or supposed necessities, of the superior race, let 
 the cost be what it may. On the other hand, the conquered 
 people, 'inferiority' being 'the badge of all their tribe,' will 
 display the vice of insincerity and, maybe, of prevarication, 
 will become mere echoes of the opinions, or fancied opinions, 
 of the over-ruling race, and, for want of scope and influence, 
 be unable to find full play for their abilities, or employment 
 for their experience. The most melancholy feature of the 
 whole matter is that, by so acting, they rivet the chains of 
 subjection more firmly upon themselves. ' 'Tis true, 'tis pity ; 
 pity 'tis, 'tis true.' Such is the state of things we have 
 brought about in India. If, nevertheless, it is possible for one 
 to give such a favourable account of the Indian people as 
 appears in the foregoing pages, evidence is furnished of the 
 Self-praise of great possibilities of the race, if placed under more favourable 
 
 Tndian admini- . . ttt • i • i /. 
 
 stration. circumstanccs. We praise ourselves in season, and out of 
 
 season, for what we have done in India, and for the way in 
 which we have done it ; we depreciate our Indian fellow- 
 subjects in equal ratio. But, as we are judging our own work, 
 and as our estimate of the Indians is the estimate of an 
 
3r 
 
 over-lording class, our praise of ourselves and our depreciation 
 of others must be accepted with caution. We have been in 
 India many years. We have failed to efovern the country as Failure to 
 
 ^ ^ ^ •' properly govern 
 
 it ought to be governed, not so much from want of good i^^^ii^- 
 intentions as from deficiency of knowledge, and, what is far 
 worse, we are rendering it impossible for the people ever to 
 rule themselves. What we, because of our shallow informa- 
 tion, have not succeeded in doing ourselves, we will not admit 
 to be possible of accomplishment by those who possess the 
 knowledge and experience which we lack. It may be denied 
 that our rule in India has been a practical failure. To such 
 deniers there is a three-fold answer. That answer is wholly 
 made up of facts furnished by those who are responsible for 
 what is described. It cannot truthfully be asserted that our 
 rule has been a success, when, 
 
 I. — Forty millions of people are in a chronic state of Forty mimons 
 
 -^ ^ -^ -> starving. 
 
 starvation. 
 
 II. — Durinsc the past twenty years over nine millions of ^^}^^ muiions 
 
 o -t -^ -^ -^ died from want 
 
 people have died from want of food. of food. 
 
 III. — In twenty years, i.e., during the period betweeji 1858 of^^®u{i^"™t?® 
 and 1879, I'^'i'dia has been under the dii'-ect rule of Great Britain, 
 we have trebled the public debt, raising it front between fifty and 
 sixty millions to between one hundred and forty and 07ie hu7idred 
 and fifty milliojis. 
 
 So far as the mass of the inhabitants are concerned, wm-se'ttian^^ 
 all this time — as I have already shown, and shall show in 0? cILmity!"^^ 
 fresh detail — life has been made increasingly hard to them : 
 their struggle for existence has become fiercer, their life far less 
 worth living. It has happened that precisely in accord with 
 the prevalence of the more complete English mode of rule 
 (save and except, under Lord Northbrook, in Behar, in 1874) 
 in time of calamity, the suffering of the people has been 
 greatest : where native administration has had sway the con- 
 ditions have been easier and better for the sufferers. This „ ,. „ , . 
 
 Native aamm- 
 
 was strikingly manifested during the famine of i^yG-i^jy. j^Se'^'times. 
 Mysore and the Nizam's Dominions are both Naiive States. 
 The first-named State, at that time, was under the special con- 
 
32 
 
 Comparison 
 favourable to 
 native admini> 
 stration. 
 
 Indian 
 perience 
 
 not 
 
 sufficiently 
 availed oU 
 
 trol of the Government of India, and was administered by a 
 strong force of English officials. To say nothing of the 
 money-loss involved in crop-failure, the destruction in other 
 respects was frightful ; one fourth of the population was swept 
 away. In the latter State, where an able Indian statesman 
 holds the reins of power, the distress was grappled with in a 
 masterly manner in the earlier stages of the calamity, and the 
 death-rate was only slightly above the average. The Nizam's 
 Dominions had practically recovered from the famine within 
 a year or two of the height of the distress. It will take Mysore 
 a generation, or may be a century, to completely recover itself. 
 Comparison between Sir Salar Jung's districts, and those in the 
 Madras and Bombay Presidencies, again under British control, 
 exhibits the same features as would a comparison between the 
 two Native States. In the Nizam's Dominions you have the 
 English system of administration thoroughly grasped by an 
 Indian statesman, modified so much as might be necessary to 
 meet existing circumstances, and carried out by Indian agency. 
 The result is far superior to what can be accomplished where 
 English ideas are carried out by English officials, who are aliens 
 and foreigners — who do not thoroughly understand either 
 country or people, and, what is worse, in too many instances, 
 do not care to try to understand them. Herein lies the radi- 
 cal defect of our present arrangements in India, and until a 
 change is made, neither will India be so well-ruled as it ought 
 to be, nor will justice be done to the country, and its in- 
 habitants. 
 
 India is in a worse condition than it would have been had 
 our countrymen relied less upon their own theories, and trusted 
 more to the experience stored in native minds, which 
 experience was available to them, had they cared to seek it. 
 The fact need hardly be stated — it is so patent — that Indians, 
 while not unmindful of certain benefits which have accrued to 
 their country from British supremacy (indeed, the leaders of 
 Indian opinion are always ready to pay the sincerest homage to 
 such good as has been accomplished), would be reluctant to 
 admit that our rule, on the whole, has been all that could be 
 
Justice Cun- 
 ingham' 
 missions. 
 
 33 
 
 desired, or has made for the lasting good of the land. But, 
 because their attitude towards us must be hostile, it does not 
 at all follow that their opinions are valueless. On the con- 
 trary. And, it is noteworthy, the worst the Indians say about 
 their country, and its decadence in some respects, is more than 
 borne out by independent observers. For instance, the memo- 
 randum prepared and published by Mr. J. Caird, C.B., after his 
 visit to India in connection with the Famine Commission is 
 a serious indictment of the manner m which the country is ad- 
 ministered. Special apologists, such as Mr. Justice Cunning- 
 ham, of the High Court of Justice, Calcutta, and others, against 
 their will and in spite of their denials, are compelled to support 
 the views of outside observers. Mr. Cunninp;ham has recently ningham's ad- 
 produced a work, ' British India and its Rulers.' Like Sir 
 Richard Temple's 'India in 1880,' it is intended as a glorifica- 
 tion of our rule. Yet the Judge is compelled to state that the 
 old native manufactures have died out, or have been super- 
 seded by European fabrics. He also admits that famines have 
 occurred with great regularity, and with terrible effect. Since 
 the beginning of this century there have been eleven great 
 famines, which have affected large provinces. Some part of 
 India suffers from famine two years in every nine ; a famine of 
 some sort or other may be expected every eleven or twelve 
 years ; and a great famine — such as that which devastated 
 Madras in id>'j6-id>'j'/y or Bengal in 1774 — may come twice in 
 a century. * 
 
 The Prime Minister of the Maharajah Holkar, in a Man opinion 
 
 •' ' on increase of 
 
 Memorandum on Famines in India, does not hesitate to famines, 
 assert that in his opinion, and in the opinion of those who, 
 like him, have special and full knowledge, great decadence 
 has accompanied our administration. ' In the fourteenth cen- 
 tury,' says Mr. Raghunath Rao, ' there was only one famine in 
 India. In the fifteenth century it was the same. In the 
 seventeenth century there were two famines. In the 
 
 ■* The Saturday Review is constrained to say of Mr. Justice Cunningham's optimism, 
 " With all these averages and uncertainties, it seems idle to dilate on tne happiness " of i 
 
 Indian proprietorship. 
 
34 
 
 eighteenth there were eight famines. In seventy-seven years 
 of the nineteenth centuiy, there were more than twelve 
 famines ; I am told there have been eighteen famines.' 
 There may be unintentional exaggeration here, as local 
 severe scarcities, in the present century, are probably counted 
 as famines ; in past centuries they would, most likely, have 
 passed away unrecorded. The very able and exhaustive 
 report on the Famine in the Nizam's Dominions, prepared by 
 Maulvi Mahdi AH, Revenue Secretary at Hyderabad, however, 
 gives evidence which goes entirely to support the position 
 taken by the Maharajah Holkar's Minister. 
 
 Taxation. As regards taxation, Dr. Hunter, speaking from the 
 
 superficial view which it is scarcely pardonable in one with 
 so much information at his command, to take, asserts that the 
 taxation of to-day is very light and easily borne. Those who 
 carry the burden speak of it in a different manner. Absolute 
 contradiction of Dr. Hunter's statement is to be found in the 
 fact that the Government of India are at their wits' end to im- 
 onerous ra- P^^^ ^^ additional tax, and in the further fact that special 
 ture of Taxation legislative measures have been passed again and again in 
 relief of the taxpayers.* The continual grinding condition of 
 
 * An Indian newspaper which, for its readiness to do for the Government of India what 
 Balaam, the prophet, would not do for King Balak, viz., prophesy smooth things, simply 
 because smooth prophecies are wanted, has become a bye-word in India — I mean the Pioneer 
 — writing in 1877 of agrarian discontent in Bombay, was compelled to say, "Worried by the 
 revenue survey for heavily-enhanced public payments, enslaved by his private creditor, 
 dragged into Court only to have imposed upon him the intolerable burden of fresh decrees, 
 without even the resource of flight, which was open to his fore-fathers before the kindred 
 scourge of Holkar, the Deccan ryot accepted, for the third of a century, with characteristic 
 patience and silence, the yoke of British mis-government. For thirty years, as we now learn 
 from the papers published, he had been at once the scandal and anxiety of his masters. 
 Report upon report had been written upon him ; shelf upon shelf in the public offices 
 groaned under the story of his wrongs. If any one doubts the naked accuracy of these 
 words, let him dip into the pages of Appendix A (papers on the indebtedness of the 
 agricultural classes in Bombay). A more damning indictment was never recorded against a 
 civilised Government. From 1844 to 1874, successive Administrations have been appealed to, 
 have been warned, or have been urged. Each, in its turn, has replied — as the present will 
 doubtless answer to the late Committee's importunities — with a suave sigh of non possumus. 
 The hospitalities of Dapoore or Ganeshkhind (the palaces of the Bombay Governor) have for 
 thirty years been lavished in graceful and generous profusion ; while the ryot, who paid for 
 them, "laid hard by in enforced and ruinous idleness, a debtor in the Poona gaol ; or ate at 
 their gates, in the field of which the fruits had once been his own, the bitter bread of 
 slavery." Commenting upon this passage, Mr. C. H. O Donnell, B.C.S., in his pamphlet, 
 " The Ruin of an Indian Province," says : — " It is true that this seems the language of 
 exaggeration ; yet, after making every allowance for the influence of a just indignation, it is 
 impossible to assert that the history of this century presents many more fearful pictures of 
 maladministration by a European nation than does this paragTaph from one of the most 
 Conservative journals in the Empire." "So," continues the newspaper, "the survey officers 
 Xof the land revenue) came and went, adding each his thousands and tens of thousands to the 
 
35 
 
 poverty suffered by the ryot, and his utter helplessness in the 
 hands of the money-lender, also contradict the optimistic 
 remarks of officials. Let us see, however, what representative 
 native opinion says on this point. Mr. Raghunath Rao 
 writes :— ' In the good old days one-sixth of the net produce potte?'®''* ™' 
 was the share of the Sovereign/ The Ayeen Akbarry 
 remarks : — ' In former times the monarchs of Hindoostan 
 exacted the sixth of the produce of the lands ; in the Turkish 
 Empire the husbandman paid the fifth, in Taran the sixth, 
 and in Iran, the tenth.' Noorshurvan, King of Persia, fixed it 
 at a third. Akbar settled his land-tax at one-third of the 
 medium produce. His unworthy successors raised it to one- 
 half. Now, in practice, it is considerably higher than ojie-half. 
 About the late famine in the Bombay Presidency, the 
 opinion of the natives may be learnt from the following:— Native opinion 
 'While the harvests were not good, the assessment on land f^„,i^e?™^^^ 
 was heavily enhanced. The peasantry were thus impoverished 
 in two ways. In the first place, the out-turn of their crops 
 was not favourable, and in the second, they were called upon 
 to pay an enhanced land revenue demand. The famine of 
 1876 found the agricultural classes in this condition, and they 
 
 public assessments. Marwaris (money-lenders) swarmed up, in ever-increasing flights, from 
 the far north-west, and settled down on the devoted acres. Honourable Justices visited 
 India, to carry off after a while to their homes, also, some trifle from the ryot's hands, 
 leaving him in exchange their precedents and their rulings ; leaving also, in a thousand 
 desolate hornesteads, a monument, to those who sought it, of the wisdom of the system 
 over which (always, of coarse, at the ryot's expeuse) it had been their pleasure to preside. 
 Decrees of the Courts flew like arrow-flights into the thickest of the population, striking 
 down the tallest and the most notable. Stupidity, blindness, indifference, greed — inability, 
 in a word, in all its thousand forms -settled down, like the fabled harpies, on the ryot's bread, 
 and bore off ivith them all that he subsisted upon. Then, at last, in spite of his marvellous 
 forbearance, Jacques Bonhomme could stand it no longer. Long-suffering in every land, 
 the patience in India of the misera contribuens plebs is especially proverbial. Conversely, 
 in IiKlia of all other countries, are agi'icultural movements dangerous." Mr. O'Donnell, in 
 comment, says, " It may well be wonderingly asked. Can it be possible that the highly- 
 civilised Government of England in the nineteenth century can have reduced a great Indian 
 province to that worst extremity of peasant misery which has made the great French social 
 war of the fourteenth centu-y a bye-word for criminal maladministration? Truly and 
 piteously did Sir George Wingate, a distinguished Bombay ofl&cer, exclaim : ' What must 
 be the state of things which can compel cultivators, proverbially patient and long-suffering, 
 accustomed to more or less of ill-usage and injustice at all times, to redress their wrongs by 
 murder, and in defiance of an ignominious death to themselves ? How must their sense of 
 justice have been violated ? How must they have been bereft of all hope of redress from law 
 or Government before their patient and peaceful natures could be roused to the point of 
 desperation required for such a deed ? ' " " It is difficult," adds the Pioneer, " to read these 
 sentences without something like a curse on the system of laisser alter which drove the 
 Kumbi from his fields to his only effective form of argument ; without something like fiery 
 anger at the Government which has replied, once and for all. to his pleading, by thrusting 
 him into a gaol." 
 
1 
 
 36 
 
 could ill stand its pressure. The inevitable consequence has 
 been widespread distress and considerable loss of human 
 life.' 
 Unjust deal- In a foot-notc, I have given a citation from Mr. 
 
 mgswi y s. Q'j^Qj^j^gll'g pamphlet of the wrong done to Bombay ryots. 
 I may take over here some evidence which he supplies of the 
 condition of the people in a Bengal province, viz., that of 
 Behar, in which the famine of 1874 occurred. The 
 Englishman newspaper, the oldest and most respected daily 
 paper in Calcutta, records facts highly discreditable in regard 
 Running away to Behar. 'The absconding^ of ryots,' it writes, 'has become 
 
 from British . i- i , , 
 
 rule. SO notorious that the police have been employed to register 
 
 their flight. During the year 1874-1875, in spite of splendid 
 harvests, over five thousand families have sought refuge from 
 English injustice in the jungles of the Nepaulese Terai. It is 
 calculated that these five thousand households, thus 
 abandoned, represent a total number of emigrants not less 
 than twenty thousand.' These statements, says Mr. 
 O'Donnell, far from being contradicted, were confirmed 
 beyond question in every particular. A judicial officer of tried 
 ability was deputed to inquire into the disorder, assisted by 
 the chief magistrate of the Durbhunga district. ' Quite 
 apart,' he wrote, * from the failure of crop, in travelling there ' 
 
 Depopulation. the Durbhunga property — ' one had a feeling sometimes of 
 
 desolateness, from the fewness of the people to be met on the 
 road, or to be seen on the maidans (plains). The villages 
 were few. We were so much struck with the scantiness of 
 population that, in the absence of people enough to ask about 
 it, we began speculating to ourselves as to the cause why old 
 fields should have been abandoned, why good wastes should 
 
 not have been reclaimed I have further to submit 
 
 that the anxiety among the population of these estates, as I 
 understood their feelings, was about impending ruin, rather 
 than impending starvation. It is true, they talked of famine 
 and death ; but this was, for the most part, but a prelude to 
 Invariable tale the invariable tale of oppression and rack-renting. I watched 
 oppression. ^^^^ Carefully— their expression, their demeanour, the 
 
37 
 
 subjects up to which they led the conversation — and the 
 above was the conclusion I came to.' Mr. O'Donnell, in his 
 pamphlet, proceeds to give, from official records, facts which 
 prove that the illegal exactions, rack-renting, and other mis- 
 doings, for which the authorities were responsible, did more 
 to bring about and accentuate the sufferings caused by the 
 famine of 1874 than all the mischances of chmate, drought, 
 or inundation. 
 
 The soil of the country, too, is proving less productive 
 year by year, thereby adding to the aggravations of the ductlve.^^^ ^^°' 
 situation. While the present state of things continues, while 
 we deny to the people that share in their own government 
 which would stimulate them to earnestness of effort, and to 
 fertility of resource — because their interest in the prosperity 
 of their own country, brought about by themselves, would be 
 greater — little change can be hoped for. There is nothing, 
 save the blighting influence of the stranger, to prevent the ^ Blighting m. 
 Indian soil from becoming very fertile. Japan and China stranger. 
 are equally ancient in the scale of nations with India. The 
 Japanese and the Chinese maintain the fertility of their soil. Japanese and 
 The influences which are potent with them would be likewise ti^|ood.^*^^^ 
 potent with the people of India if only they were assisted to 
 help themselves, put in the way of self-advancement, and 
 then largely left to their own devices. 
 
 If, under our care, Indian agriculture has proved increas- ^ Jn^^^^n ^nu- 
 ingly less productive, that is not the only ill done to India ^y British, 
 which can be laid to our charge. We have killed the manu- 
 factures of the country : even Mr. Justice Cunningham admits 
 this. At one time the looms of India must have given much 
 occupation to weavers. The needs of two hundred millions of 
 people, at least, were met therefrom. Now, save and except 
 in Madras, Bombay, and one or two other towns, where cotton- 
 mills have been established by Indian mercantile energy, the 
 occupation of weaving has become comparatively scarce, and 
 almost worthless. I will not weary the reader with statistics 
 on the point : they are at hand for the curious who may desire 
 
38 
 
 them. As an example of the harm which has been wrought, 
 Mr. Mahdi Ali's answer to a question put to him by the Famine 
 Commission in 1878 will suffice. ' In the Nizam's Dominions/ 
 he said, ' the manufacturing classes have broken down in the 
 tiS^Deccanf^"^ Same Way as they have done in other parts of India. The 
 famous brocades of Aurungabad, the silk stuffs turned out by 
 the looms at Paitan, the filigree work of Bidar, the carpets of 
 Warrangal, and the cotton stuffs of Nander, all these manu- 
 factures are on the wane, and these industries are fast dying 
 out of the country.' It is w^e of the English race who have 
 killed these industries. Upon us lies the serious responsibility 
 of repairing the mischief we have done, and — let the efforts 
 needed be never so toilsome — to take care that we leave, or — if 
 some object to the expression of such a contingency— that we 
 are careful to govern India better than we found it governed. 
 
 Finances. It is unnecessary that much should be said in this Letter 
 
 respecting the Finances of India. No one at all acquainted 
 with public affairs can be unaware of the grave position of the 
 financial administration of the Empire. A few general remarks, 
 however, may not be without value. Taking the figures of the 
 past forty years, it appears that only in eleven years has 
 the income sufficed to meet the expenditure and leave a 
 
 Frequent and surplus ; in twcnty-nine years there have been deficits. For 
 
 heavy deficits. r i 111 r • 1 
 
 one year oi solvency there have been two oi msolvency. 
 Sometimes, as in i860, the deficit for the year has reached 
 nearly fifteen millions, or as in 1861, over twelve millions, 
 while the surplus at its highest {1866) has been only two-and- 
 three-quarters of a million. The net deficit on the whole 
 period under review was ^^76, 908,484. Since 1840 the public 
 of^ubf Tbt^ ^^^^ ^^^ more than quadrupled : the interest paid upon it 
 since 1840, viz., ;^ 148,323,967, is ;^2,488,527 more than the 
 amount of the debt in 1879 — the sum total then being 
 i^i45, 835,440. Other totals of importance show that, in the 
 thirty-eight years under review, ^^687,27 5,726 were derived as 
 taxation from Land, and ^^227,097,608 from the tax on 
 Opium. 
 
39 
 
 stoppage pos- 
 sible without 
 
 The Opium traffic, the continuance of which is a sore burden ^p^^^ ^^affio. 
 upon the conscience of Great Britain, in 1840 yielded only- 
 three-quarters of a million. The year after it doubled in 
 value. Now it amounts to nearly ten millions : the net 
 receipts to the Treasury are between six and seven millions ; 
 the remainder is swallowed up in establishments and the 
 like. After our war with China, to compel that country to 
 take Indian Opium, the traffic greatly increased. The reader 
 will see that the crime which we have committed — for, in the 
 Court of Righteousness, if not in the Law Courts of the 
 Empire, we are held to have done iniquitously — is entirely 
 committed within the memory of living men, and has — ignor- 
 antly or otherwise— been fostered by the existing generation 
 of Englishmen. A striking act of political justice would be 
 performed if the generation which witnessed the portentous 
 up-growth of the traffic, which allowed the growth to go on 
 unchecked, were to prove the generation which got rid of it 
 altogether. Stoppage of the traffic is possible, without 
 causing bankruptcy. A separate pamphlet, however, would i>ankruptcy. 
 be needed to show this ; that pamphlet must await the course 
 of events. 
 
 In this connection an" incident must not be over- cwnese oppo- 
 looked which gives present and very pressing importance to the 
 opium question. Chinese diplomacy is of an unusually patient 
 and utterly tireless kind. Once let the ruling mind of China 
 beset upon the accomplishment of an object, and, 'without 
 haste, without rest,' that object will be accomplished. The 
 recent conflict with Russia in connection with the Kuldja 
 Treaty affi^rds proof that the Chinese diplomatic grip is like 
 the tooth-hold of an English bull-dog in battle : once fixed, then 
 death or victory. The remarkable letter from his Excellency 
 Li Hung Chang, to the Rev. F. Storrs Turner, Secretary of the 
 Anti-Opium Society, followed up as it has been by the des- 
 patch of an unaccredited Envoy to Calcutta, to make enquiries 
 in India, shows that China has determined to be rid of the 
 Indian Opium traffic. At their own convenience, the Chinese 
 authorities will press the matter for settlement, in a manner 
 
40 
 
 unpleasant for India. Whether a Radical or Tory Govern- 
 ment were in power in Great Britain when that time arrived, it 
 is certain that the awakened conscience of the nation would 
 not permit another war of iniquity with the Celestials for the 
 maintenance of a portion of the Indian revenue. Whether we 
 like it or not, we shall one day be compelled to readjust our 
 Indian finances so as to make both sides of the account balance 
 without the contribution now forced from the Chinese. It is 
 obvious that enlightened statesmanship should be directed 
 towards bringing about the inevitable change at a time which 
 would be convenient to Great Britain, and to India, and not 
 be forced to take this action whenever it might suit China 
 to make the demand. 
 
 Salt taxation. ^^ taxes upon Salt— from 1840 to 1879— ;^ 15 7, 120,787 
 
 were contributed by the Indian people. On the subject of the 
 salt tax, and its collection, I may repeat a portion of a con- 
 versation I had, while residing in India, with an English Civil 
 Servant of the Madras Presidency. 'You refer to the Salt 
 Tax,' said this official. ' Well, for my part, I consider the law 
 with reference to it is most iniquitous. I have recently been 
 
 magistrate in the taluk of , and almost every day had to try 
 
 a number of frauds on the salt revenue, as they are termed. It 
 distressed me exceedingly to pass sentences upon the poor 
 wretches brought before me, but my duty was to administer 
 the law, and I took care to do it as humanely as possible. 
 Here is an instance of the way in which the law works. A case 
 came before me in which a labourer had shifted his place of 
 residence, and had made himself a new mud hut. When he 
 came to occupy his hut, he found the earth-floor strongly 
 impregnated with saline particles ; he scraped up some of the 
 dirt, separated the parts as well as he could, and put the " salt " 
 he had collected outside to dry. This was observed by a revenue 
 collector; the man was proceeded against, was imprisoned, 
 and was condemned to receive some lashes, but the last part 
 
 Mr. Caird on >-. i • i • -nt r 
 
 onerous Salt of the Sentence was remitted.' Mr. Caird, m his * Notes of 
 
 duties. 
 
 an Indian Journey,' mentions a visit he made to a place in 
 
41 
 
 Bengal, where he asked the price of salt, and found the tax 
 upon it amounted to nine-tenths of the price. That is, in 
 buying five-pennyworth of salt, one half-penny represents the 
 value of the condiment, and fourpence-halfpenny the tax upon 
 it. 
 
 The onerous character of the taxation we have imposed onerous char- 
 upon India may be judged, if we note the increase of the one tfonf ° ^^^ 
 item of revenue derivable from salt. The period we have 
 under review is that already mentioned, viz., from 1840 to 1879, 
 both years inclusive. During that time the population, allow- 
 ing for checks by famine and by other calamities — (in one 
 night, in the delta of the Megra river in Bengal, nearly one 
 hundred thousand people were drowned by a cyclonic wave 
 sweeping across the low level country) — the increase cannot have 
 been more than, at the outside, twenty per cent. As a matter 
 of fact, it has been less, but we will accept that estimate. While, 
 however, the increase of population has been only twenty per 
 cent, or less, t/ie increase ifi the receipts of the taxatio7t on salt Enormous in- 
 has been nearly three hundred per cent. That is, salt is now several Jeveaue!" ^^* 
 times dearer, owing entirely to higher taxation, than it was in 
 1840! Yet Englishmen are told, by official apologists, that 
 we have made life easier and better for our Indian fellow-sub- 
 jects, that all the advantages of our rule — and they, it is said, 
 are legion — have been for the people. Rather, it seems that 
 while the native rulers whipped the people with whips we have 
 scourged them with scorpions. About eight years ago, Mr. J. 
 H. Keene, of the Bengal Civil Service, Judge at Agra, wrote a 
 poem which appeared in all the Indian papers. In that 
 poem, apostrophizing English supremacy, Mr. Keene asked, — 
 
 ' What has your civilization done for the people here ? 
 Has it made them prosper ?— or poorer ?— think you, year by year ? 
 Skulking in rotten cabins, like foul and famished ghosts ; 
 While you live at Simla concocting statistics and well-paid posts ; 
 Standing like trees between the soil and the beams of God, 
 Furnishing each clod-hopper with one supporting clod ? 
 This is not your ideal ? Well, and what is it then ? 
 
 Flatulent Bengal students aping the manners of men ? ^ 
 
 People that hate you like poison, praising you up to the skiea, 
 Greeks of the lower Empire building a throne on lies ? ' 
 
42 
 
 Crushing When, side by side with the increased cost of salt, an 
 
 weight of ad* "^ ' 
 
 ministration, absolute necessity of healthy life, we put the greater cost of 
 food-grains of all kinds (see ante, p. 13), some idea may be 
 formed of the terribly crushing weight of English administration 
 upon the inhabitants of India. It would be tedious here to 
 follow out the several acts of our statesmen which have led to 
 so discreditable an issue. A glance at the revenue returns 
 confirms the opinion formed on the spot in India, as to the 
 unsatisfactory nature of our rule. After seeing with one's own 
 eyes what is to be seen, the conclusion cannot be avoided that 
 nearly the whole course of present trouble arises from the fearful 
 and unnecessary expense of our way of doing things in a country 
 which we won by craft and by the sword, and which we are 
 only able to keep by deeds of oppression and by resources 
 wrung from the vitals of the people. It is time to put an end 
 to this state of things, or — if things have progressed so far 
 that an end is not possible, except at the cost of more effort 
 than even a resolute people like the British would be prepared 
 to undertake — that there was such an immediate grappling with 
 the subject as shall, at least, procure amelioration. Now that 
 India is virtually ruled by the House of Commons, every 
 Englishman is guilty of serious dereliction of duty who does 
 not strive, so far as in him lies, first, to understand the country 
 and the people, and, then, steadily and unweariedly, to use 
 every means in his power to bring relief to the suffering and 
 oppressed. 
 
III._WHAT ENGLISHMEN CAN DO FOR INDIA. 
 
 FEEL satisfied no really earnest Liberal, whose ^ sentiments of 
 
 •^ ^ ' Liberals regard- 
 
 reason for existence as a Liberal is that he may ^^s i^dia. 
 right wrongs and redress grievances, can read the 
 foregoing pages without experiencing a desire to 
 know in what way he can exercise his influence on behalf of 
 fellow-subjects who seem so greatly to need help of some 
 kind or other. Since my return from India, scarcely any- 
 thing in the conduct of my countrymen has struck me more 
 than their pathetic wish to uplift India, their strenuous desire 
 to do something for the Indian people, if only they knew how 
 to act, if they could only learn what there is for them to do. i 
 
 The first requisite is to understand the people to whom we Firstrequisite. ' 
 desire to give our friendliest help. Before everything else the Right under- 
 Englishman's mind must be cleared of cant about the 
 inferiority of the Indian and his excessively wicked character. ' 
 
 I trust the earlier pages of this Letter will be useful in j 
 
 helping some, at least, of my countrymen to believe better | 
 
 things, to form a higher estimate, of the Queen's lieges in I 
 
 India than they have hitherto been accustomed to do, not j 
 
 from want of will, I am quite sure, but from want of i 
 
 knowledge, or from their being the victims of prejudice. The • J 
 
 view of the Indian people, which I have given, is not the I 
 
 fashionable one : I know it is the true one so far as my own j 
 
 personal observation is concerned, and so far as I have been I 
 
 able to test experience in others. I also know that it is only j 
 
 in the adoption by British electors of such a view as I have ; 
 
 indicated, and by action appropriate taken thereupon, the i, 
 
 regeneration of India may come. Then it may come, whence 
 alone it can come, viz., from the sons of the soil. Only by 
 remedial effect of this kind it is possible for us to cleanse out 
 
44 
 
 souls, in however slight a degree, of the wrong we have done in 
 the past. The way before us, to a better state of things, may 
 be long, the difficulties in the path leonine : nevertheless there 
 lies our duty. I am persuaded, if my fellow-countrymen 
 could but appreciate things as they are in India, sooner or 
 later, and sooner rather than later, the right course would be 
 taken. 
 
 The misconceptions which have to be cleared from our 
 minds before we can hope to understand the needs of India 
 do not apply to individuals merely : they affect the whole 
 range of efforts commonly current relating to the country. 
 Englishmen, as a rule, are not made acquainted with India as 
 it is. Their conceptions generally are formed upon 
 impressions gained from official utterances, the prevailing 
 Roseate utter- tone of which is always roseate. That is, to the hasty glance. 
 
 ances on India. 11- 
 
 It is only by close research, and reading between the lines, 
 that official documents, in many instances, are found to 
 contain most damaging statements regarding our rule. On 
 the face of things, all is smooth and satisfactory : the balance 
 sheet for the year seems satisfactory. It is only afterwards 
 that the accounts are found to be eight millions wrong, that 
 this sum had actually been spent, when the accounts are made 
 up, and no record of the expenditure appeared. Not wishing 
 for a moment to impute to anyone a conscious desire 
 to mislead, I cannot refrain from saying that a more complete 
 misunderstanding is not possible than is contained in the 
 ideas which maybe formed upon the statements of those who, 
 from the official standpoint, address the English pubHc on 
 Indian affairs. Dr. Hunter, the Editor of the Imperial Gazetteer 
 of India, during his residence in Britain, has delivered lectures 
 in Birmingham and elsewhere, on what England has done for 
 India. In those lectures there is probably not a single assertion 
 which, in itself, is not absolutely accurate, yet the whole 
 Misleading in- effect of the dcHverance is sadly misleading. India, as it is 
 formation. ^nown to those who have lived in the country, is hardly 
 recognizable in Dr. Hunter's graphic descriptions. Still, even 
 he, with all his predilections towards magnifying the good 
 
45 
 
 and minimizing the bad of English rule, is unable to prevent Dr. Hunter 
 the hideous truth in much of its painful nakedness occasion- 
 ally becoming visible. The awful fact which I have put in the 
 forefront in this Letter, viz., that forty millions of people are 
 being continually on the verge of starvation, comes out, in Dr. 
 Hunter's addresses, with reluctance, and as if against his will. 
 Another example of the kind, but more glaringly unfair, is to 
 be found in the handsome volume on ' India in 1880,' by Sir 
 Richard Temple. Here, again, the facts cited, with one 
 or two minor exceptions, cannot be gainsaid, but the 
 total effect is inevitably to create a false impression. The 
 'India' of Sir Richard Temple is steeped in rose-colour, and sir Richard 
 
 ^ ^ ^ ' Temple. 
 
 is redolent with sweet perfumes. It is as correct a description 
 of India in its varied moods as would be the exhibition of a 
 picture — say, one of Sir Richard's own painting, which, in 
 Indian galleries, have brought him no little praise — 
 depicting the bewitching beauty of the morning dawn or 
 evening twilight under tropical skies, which should be de- 
 clared to be thoroughly satisfactory of all the moods, fierce 
 noon-tide heat, terrible drought, awful cyclone, which the 
 climate of India exhibits. Even the ghastly horrors of famine, 
 and the maintenance of starving labourers on one pound 
 weight of grain per day, in Sir Richard Temple's hands, 
 become pleasant to the eye and endurable to the mind. 
 India, although it has provided both fame and fortune to Sir 
 Richard Temple and Dr. Hunter, ought not to be entrusted 
 to them for exhibition — that is, if satisfaction is to be given 
 either to Indians or to Britons, or, what is of greater 
 importance, if violence is not to be done to truth. 
 
 The effect of such misleading presentations of Indian ieSg\nforma'- 
 afifairs is to cause English public men to go sadly astray ^^°^' 
 when, animated by the best intentions, they want to under- 
 stand India. Nothing has more absolutely shown the 
 necessity for accurate information than an article published 
 some time ago in the Nineteenth Century^ written by a 
 scientific and popular Baronet, Member of Parliament for a 
 learned constituency, whose general information is, as a rule, 
 
46 
 
 of a most precise and definite character. The Anglo-Indian 
 Reformer sighs as he reads the Baronet's mistakes, and feels 
 that if such a man goes wrong there is little hope of the 
 average politician being right. So long as the statements of 
 those whose interest it is to say peace where there is no 
 peace (though they may not recognise the fact, and speak and 
 write in good faith) are relied upon, correct ideas of India are 
 impossible. The contention of the writer in the Review was 
 
 England ^'^^^ ^"^^^ ^^^ "° ^^^^^ ^^ Complaint against Great Britain, 
 draining India, as she was not made to contribute anything to this country. 
 In a direct form, it is true, no tribute is paid ; indirectly, how- 
 ever, England is draining India, not simply of its surplus, but 
 actually of its very life-blood. Shortly before the close of the 
 last session of Parliament, the Marquis of Hartington, 
 Secretary of State for India, in answer to a question, admitted 
 that nearly three millions sterling per annum are paid from 
 the revenues of India to persons not resident in that country, 
 as pensions and furlough pay.* The people of India, who 
 possess full knowledge of the facts, do not agree with the 
 honourable Baronet that England makes no profit out of her 
 Indian connection. The Hon. Kristo Das Pal, Bahadur, 
 CLE., in a speech which he made at a public meeting in 
 Calcutta, puts matters in a light very different from that 
 which shines, as through a glass darkly, from the pages of the 
 Military ex- "^"^^^'^ Rcvicw. The writer in the Review said, * So far as 
 penditure. military expenditure is concerned, the greatest care is taken 
 that India should pay nothing beyond what is necessary for 
 the troops actually on duty there. It is amusing, if so serious 
 a subject can be amusing, to see how energetically the India 
 Ofiice resists any application made by the War Office for 
 any charge beyond what the Indian authorities regard as 
 absolutely necessary.' So much for theory. Now for facts. 
 Said Mr. Kristo Das Pal, 'The War Office declares that a 
 certain sum is needed ; that sum must be paid. The India 
 
 , *Lord Hartington's reply, furnished to him by the India Office, contained a seri on <» 
 
47 
 
 Office and the Government of India could not interfere in the 
 matter. England supph'es the troops, and India is bound to 
 pay whatever the conscience of the War Office demands. 
 Then, it had been said that the principle on which the 
 military charges were apportioned between England and 
 India was one of joint partnership. Now, could a joint 
 partnership exist between a giant and a dwarf.'* England English and 
 was rich ; India was poor. England governed herself through ship unequaL^^" 
 her House of Representatives ; India was scarcely able to 
 send forth her voice across a distance of ten thousand miles. 
 Here and there, indeed, there were a few Englishmen — dis- 
 interested, philanthropic, warm-hearted Englishmen — who took 
 an interest in the affairs of this country, but that was all. 
 And yet they were told that the adjustment of military 
 expenditure was conducted on the principle of joint partner- 
 ship. If they examined the practical working of this joint 
 partnership, what would they find ? That on no less than 
 seven occasions troops were borrowed from India— first, for 
 the China expedition; next, for the Crimean war; thirdly, india made to 
 for the Persian expedition ; fourthly, for the second China l^it' ^"^^^^ 
 expedition ; fifthly, for the first New Zealand expedition ; 
 sixthly, for the second New Zealand expedition ; and, 
 seventhly, for the Abyssinian war. All these were Imperial 
 undertakings, but India had to furnish the troops with their 
 pay and allowances. England, in fact, borrowed, and India 
 paid. On the other hand, reinforcements were sent from 
 England to India for the Sutlej campaign of 1846, the Panjab 
 campaign of 1849, ^^^ for the mutiny campaign of 1857. • 
 How did India meet her liabilities in these cases ^ She had 
 to pay every fraction of the pay of the troops from the 
 moment they left England.' This is but one of a host 
 of instances I might cite, save for the fear of becoming weari- 
 some. It may be easily imagined how depressing such 
 mistakes as those exposed above are to Indian Reformers, who 
 desire that Englishmen should be correctly informed on the 
 affairs of our great Indian Empire ; and who desire that the 
 
taluk 
 
 48 
 
 medium through which those affairs are regarded should be 
 colourless, 
 na^^at'fauif^^ English newspapers can go hopelessly wrong in regard to 
 
 Indian facts, as well as English statesmen. During the period 
 of the last Madras Famine, a weekly metropolitan journal, 
 whose voice, on all political matters Indian, is always heard on 
 the right side, made some unfortunate blunders when dealing 
 with irrigation. In an article written on the failure of the 
 monsoon rains, and the means which should be adopted to 
 minimise the evil, the writer gravely proposed to meet the 
 dearth of water by sinking an artesian well in each taluk, 
 AweUineach adding that this 'would reduce the losses of a famine year, at 
 
 Inlr 
 
 least by one-half, by rendering it possible to keep the animals 
 alive.' Now, when it is remembered that the average size of 
 a taluk in the Madras Presidency is seven hundred square 
 miles, it will be pretty clear that the cattle at the outskirts will 
 liave to travel far for their morning and evening draught, to 
 say nothing of the miraculous nature of the well intended to 
 support so large an area. Probably, when taluk was written, 
 village was meant. But in the same article appeared the 
 following passage : — ' We believe that the native form of irri- 
 gaMing\7riga- gatiou, the formation of vast tanks, lakes, and reservoirs of 
 water, the method which made Tanjore a garden, could be pur- 
 sued to a much greater extent, without inordinate expense.' 
 The writer ignores the Cauvery delta, and attributes the 
 fertility of Tanjore to lakes, tanks, and reservoirs, the fact 
 being that there is not, in the whole delta, a single tank, lake, or 
 reservoir used for irrigation. There are, of course, small tanks 
 in abundance used for bathing or drinking, or for cattle, but 
 irrigation tanks there are none. There is a portion of the district, 
 outside the limits of the delta, in which there may possibly be 
 some irrigation tanks, but that region depends for its water 
 Supply on local rains, and is no better off in a deficient monsoon 
 than the surrounding famine districts. It is the delta alone that 
 deserves the name of a garden. It is constantly assumed by 
 English writers that what has been done in Tanjore might be 
 repeated in every district of the Presidency. But this 
 
 tion 
 
49 
 
 supposition proceeds on complete ignorance of the climatic 
 conditions of the country. The monsoon never fails altogether 
 on the West Coast, and rivers that take their rise there may „ irrigation 
 
 liniited by natu- 
 
 always be depended upon. There are, of course, differences rai causes. 
 from year to year, but a few inches below the average make 
 little difference where the normal quantity is so large. The 
 minimum rainfall on the West Coast seldom approaches what 
 can be called a failure of the monsoon. The crops in Tanjore 
 scarcely ever fail, because the water supply comes largely 
 from the West Coast. Similar conditions to those that have 
 created the fertility of Tanjore are found, to some extent, in 
 the deltas of the Kistna and the Godavari rivers, but they are 
 not found anywhere else in the Madras Presidency on a large 
 scale. It ought not to be possible for mistakes of the character 
 I have just mentioned to be made. 
 
 The end which I, for one, have in view, viz., that the people English help 
 
 r T -I' 1 • 1 1 '1 1 • • ■ r essential to In- 
 
 01 India may obtain a large share in the administration of dian reform, 
 their own country, can be attained if only a determination 
 that it shall is come to by Englishmen. India is now con- 
 trolled by the House of Commons. Whatever the House 
 decides is done, no matter how disagreeable the decision may 
 be to particular individuals, who would fain resist the will 
 of the British people. To the remark which may be made, 
 that to grant political power to the Indian people is to begin 
 their regeneration at the wrong end, that we must wait 
 for many years, and educate and train them still farther 
 before we do anything of the kind suggested, the answer is 
 easy. Our own country, and all the other countries on the 
 globe which possess freedom, have shown that it is precisely National ad- 
 
 . , . - vancement de 
 
 in the same proportion as the mass of the population have some pendent upon 
 
 popular free- 
 share in the government of their country that great evils are dom. 
 
 removed, that great advances are made. It was only a/Ur 
 
 the Reform Bill of 1832, and the people properly so-called 
 
 exercised influence on the Legislature, that the progress we 
 
 are now so proud of was possible. P'reedom of trade, the 
 
 repeal of the Navigation Laws, National Education, Land 
 
 Law Reform in Ireland, have all followed from the broadening 
 
 D 
 
50 
 
 bf the base of power. Results of a like character would become 
 apparent in India, if, with cautious wisdom, a similar course 
 were pursued. Indeed, it is only as the scope for the exhibition 
 of enterprise is provided for a nation that the enterprise can 
 be displayed. Sir Thomas Munro, probably, the best Presi-; 
 on^^india^'Sd-^ ^^^^y Govemor India has known, more than fifty years ago, 
 vance. Uttered wise words, which ought now to be acted upon : ' There 
 
 can be no hope,' he wrote, ' of any great zeal for improvement 
 when the highest acquirements can lead to nothing beyond 
 some petty office, and can confer neither wealth nor honour. 
 While the prospects of the natives are so bounded, every pro- 
 ject for bettering their character must fail, and no such pro- 
 jects can have the smallest chances of success, unless some of 
 these objects are placed within their reach, for the sake of 
 which men are urged to exertion in other countries. This 
 work of improvement, in whatever way it may be accepted, 
 must be very slow, but it will be in proportion to the degree 
 of confidence we repose in them, and to the share which we 
 give them in the administration of public affairs.' Such slight 
 changes as have been made since Sir Thomas Munro's time 
 predictions" jus- ^^^^ morc than justified his predictions. India has within her 
 tified. borders, — the careers of such men as Sir Salar Jung, Sir 
 
 Madhava Rao, Sir Dinkur Rao, Mr. Seshiah Sastri, the Hon. 
 Kristo Das Pal, and a host of others, bearing testimony in 
 what they have done, — sons capable of meeting the grave 
 financial and social perils of the Empire, if only it be made 
 possible for them to work their way to the front. 
 
 In India itself scarcely anything can be done in this 
 forward action direction. It is not easy, in a free country, to understand the 
 obstacles to resolute forward action in India. A significant 
 instance of what I mean occurred between four and five years 
 ago. Because certain private gentlemen, impressed with a 
 sense of the awful condition of the famine-stricken people 
 around them, held a public meeting, and appealed to England 
 for assistance, and did not, before so acting, obtain the consent 
 of the Government of India, then in dignified seclusion at 
 Simla, strenuous attempts were made to discredit their appeal. 
 
51 
 
 Only the resoluteness of the Relief Committee— resoluteness dew^^lhe 
 amounting almost to defiance of the Viceroy's authority — pro- ^'^^^"^^y- 
 cured a reversal of the Governmental action. This reversal 
 was signified by the transmission from the Viceroy, in the 
 name of the Governor of Madras, to the Lord Mayor of 
 London, of a telegram, stating that a misunderstanding pre- 
 vailed : his Excellency, it was stated, really blessed the move- 
 ment he was supposed to have banned= As a matter of fact | 
 his Excellency did bless the fund, for he gave ten thousand 
 rupees to it and took a lively interest in the expenditure. But 
 if the first ideas at Simla had prevailed, no fund would have 
 been possible. In Calcutta, the Chief Justice of Bengal con- I 
 vened a meeting to collect subscriptions to send to Madras : ^ 
 pressure from Simla was applied there as it had been applied in 
 Madras. Unfortunately, it was successful in Bengal, and for a 
 time the founts of benevolence in Calcutta were partially dried 
 up at a touch from the viceregal hand. This, which is a sample 
 of what too often goes on in India when public opinion 
 shows signs of movement, will serve to enforce what I have 
 already said many times, viz., that effort on behalf of Indian 
 reform which is to be of any service must proceed from the 
 outside ; afterwards, local energy may be developed. 
 
 What, it appears to me, can be done, without any loss of .Possible ac- 
 time, is this : The National Liberal Federation might ^^ °° ^^ ' 
 inscribe ' Justice for India ' on its banner, and appoint a Select com- 
 Select Committee, whose duty it should be — ation. 
 
 I. — To watch the course of events in India and in „ r>uties of a 
 
 . . Select Commit 
 
 England relating in any way to India ; *ee. 
 
 2. — To enter into communication with all known 
 Indian Reformers and Reform Associations in 
 this country and in the Empire, with a view of 
 concentrating English and Indian opinion upon 
 useful projects ; 
 
 3. — When occasion arises, the Executive Committee 
 should be summoned, a statement of the cir- 
 cumstances necessitating the call made, and the 
 advisability of communicating with all the 
 branches of the Federation considered ; and 
 
52 
 
 4- — If it be decided that it would be well to move in 
 
 relation to the particular matter under notice, 
 
 then a draft resolution should be sent to all the 
 
 branches, accompanied by a collection of facts, 
 
 specially prepared, for discussion : the resolution 
 
 passed thereupon to be forwarded to Parliament 
 
 or to the Secretary of State for India, accordingly 
 
 as Parliament was or was not sitting at the time. 
 
 Instructed By the adoption of some such means as these, a body of 
 
 f"rmed^opii5on. instructed and well-informed public opinion could be brought 
 
 to bear at any moment that seemed desirable in the interests 
 
 of the Empire. A double good would be effected. Our 
 
 countrymen, in an attempt to help their fellow-subjects in 
 
 India, would acquire a knowledge of that portion of the 
 
 British Dominions which would be of the greatest benefit to 
 
 them. Such an organization in this country would, 
 
 through the recognised Associations in India — for example, 
 
 the British Indian Association at Calcutta, the Sarvajanik 
 
 Sabha in Poona, and others — be the means of throwing a flood 
 
 of light upon matters now obscure. This is a duty which, I 
 
 cannot but suppose, the members of the Federation will be 
 
 proud to be instrumental in doing. 
 
 Breadlines of There are broad lines of action which may be decided 
 
 upon at once, without waiting for special organization or for 
 
 definite information from or about India. Mr. Bright's 
 
 speech at the Mansion House, London, early in August, has 
 
 made it quite clear that the Government will spend a portion 
 
 of the recess in considering the means which should be taken 
 
 Business ar- ■, -r r ^ r • 
 
 rangements in to rcHeve the Housc of Commous from its present congested 
 
 Parliament. t • • • i r r • i 
 
 condition. It is impossible, of course, for anyone not in the 
 secrets of the Cabinet to say what means will be adapted to 
 this end. But it is conceivable that the idea of Grand 
 Grand Com- Committees for the discussion and arrangement of special 
 departments of business will be considered. Upon that 
 point, no doubt, the Federation, in its autumnal campaign, 
 will have much to urge, in the way of suggestions, upon the 
 Government. What I would beg is, that one of the points 
 
i 
 
 I 
 
 53 i 
 
 1 
 t 
 
 specially taken up should be this, — that an Indian Committee, parilanSSy \ 
 consisting either wholly of Members of the House of ^''™"''"®®- 
 Commons, or partly of Commons and partly of Peers, should 
 be constituted : to them all proceedings relating to India, of 
 whatever kind, should be submitted. Mr. Robert Knight, " 
 
 whose knowledge of the Empire is very great, in a proposals. * 
 Memorandum on India, which he has recently written, 
 suggests that the Secretary of State for India should be a 
 permanent official, and that a Committee of Members of the 
 Houses of Peers and Commons six in number, should be 
 associated with the Indian Secretary. For many reasons I 
 think such a Committee would be too small ; I do not see, 
 either, why members of the hereditary branch of the Legisla- 
 ture should be equal in number with the elected representa- 
 tives of the country. What is wanted, above all things, in 
 such a Committee is the fresh and healthy political feeling 
 derivable only from the constituencies. Mr. Knight also urges Permanent 
 the appointment of a Permanent Committee, which, again, I gesTed!"^^ ^"^ 
 think a mistake. Let the members be eligible for re-election, 
 but do not let them be irremovable. However, these are 
 mere matters of detail. The great thing is the principle of 
 having all Indian affairs brought prominently and regularly 
 before this country.* Towards securing such an object, the 
 Association I am addressing could exercise most powerful 
 influence. 
 
 *In his Memorandum, Mr, Knight makes the following remarks, concerniDg a Perma- 
 nent Committee : — It might be wise to appoint a Permanent Parliamentary Committee, to 
 which all proceedings whatever of the India Office were submitted without reserve. Were 
 such a Committee chosen from the few men in the two Houses who really know India, and 
 were the proceedings of the India Office regularly submitted to their inspection, they would 
 constitute an efficient " audit " of Indian affairs. They should have power to call for the 
 most confidential, the most secret, documents ; and it would be their duty to bring before 
 Parliament, and openly oppose therein, proceedings which they did not approve. They 
 should have no power to do more than "report " to Parliament, and to lay bare before it 
 the true character of our proceedings, that the nation might not be deceived and misled, as 
 it now is, at all points concerning India. Such a Committee would be the "eye 'of 
 Parhament over all that was being done by the Indian Government. In the course of a very 
 few years, the members who had been on this Permanent Committee would know all that it 
 is essential for Parliament to know concerning the details of our administration. The 
 occasions would not be numerous when they would find it necessary to "report" at all; 
 while their support of the Secretary for India in Parliament itself would be a guarantee of 
 the propriety and wisdom of his proceedings, as the Committee should, of course, be 
 selected without regard to Party. 
 
 And this great change in the character of the Secretaryship should be attended by a 
 change of equal moment m the Indian Council. As now constituted, that Council is power- 
 less for any good purpose. It has degenerated into a sort of outwork for defending the 
 existing order of things in India, and for arresting all reform in our rule of that country. 
 While the Council as now constituted is maintained, it will simply obstruct evei-y reform 
 that does uo^ recommend itself to the conyentional views and prejudices of its civilian 
 
54 
 
 Legislative 
 Councils in In- 
 dia. 
 
 Defects in ex- 
 isting Councils. 
 
 Governor pre- 
 siding, checks 
 free speech. 
 
 Powers pos- 
 sessed by Coun- 
 cillors. 
 
 No control 
 over political, 
 financial, or 
 other matters. 
 
 In relation to the Legislative Councils which exist in 
 India, a great work has to be done which, I feel convinced, 
 the Federation could accomplish. Some people, who know 
 that India is ruled despotically, may be surprised to learn 
 that there are Legislative Councils in the Empire. The 
 Councils, however, are merely rudimentary institutions. No 
 regular session is arranged for. The members are called 
 together when the Governor-General, Governor, or Lieutenant- 
 Governor thinks well to summon them. Each Presidency 
 and Province has its Council. It consists generally of from 
 twelve to fifteen members. Government officials forming a 
 large majority. The ruler of the Empire, Presidency, or 
 Province, presides over the Council, and by virtue of the 
 power he possesses, and the influence he exerts, practically 
 prevents even such plain-spoken observations as the rules 
 would permit. The non-official members are selected by the 
 Governor, one for each race in the Presidency or Province. 
 The duties of the members are strictly confined to a con- 
 sideration of new laws ; these laws are submitted by the 
 Government. The non-official members have no power of 
 initiation. They are not allowed to ask any questions— 
 either political, financial, social, or of any kind whatsoever. 
 The Presidency or Provincial Budget is never so much as 
 mentioned in the Council. A more anomalous position than 
 that of these Councillors can scarcely be conceived : the 
 
 members It should be done away with. It has become something very unpleasantly like 
 Td^vice for incSsing the retiring allowances of men who have all their lives drawn 
 fmmlnse allowaSs^n India and "amassed fortunes in that country, and to whom it 
 iBtenselv pleasant to have their pension of £1,000 a year augmented by another £1,200 at 
 "he fost of the people of India, upon the pretext that they are earning this extra allowance 
 by sti?l devotingSnselves to the' service of that country. The English official members of 
 SeCouncU are allowed no such right, but draw only their Council allowances. .Is it too 
 much to eiptct that men who, upon the strength of their twenty-five years' service inlnma, 
 S-e hi lecelprof very handsome pensions from its people, should on their retirement become 
 riAioVJiw^cfuncIffor Her Majesty's Secretary of State? ,];^St\o%Ta'^?fat^Etlo'^ 
 selfish in our every arrangement concerning India. It is thought to be a great iionour lor 
 HefLTesty to appoint the most distinguished of our public men at home to her Privy 
 Coundf without pay of any kind for the service required of them Why should it be 
 nSssary to pay Her Slaiesty's Council of India, already handsomely provided for by the 
 itate, an St^saYary of-£l,200ayearsimp^^ 
 
 an hour or two a week upon the conduct of its affairs?" Let the becretaiy ot tetate be 
 nermanent aTd let the Indian Council be an honorary body composed of retired Indians of 
 S daises 'wlthf reputation for ability and high character, whether they ai^ official or 
 non official ^ny dis iguished Indian judge, lawyer, or merchant should be eligible 
 thereto Native gentiemSn and native princes might also be invited to sojourn m 1-r.gxaud 
 bv^Tesero-S compliment of askii.g them to come here to advise Her Majesty what she 
 must do fo^lS to rule it wislly and well. The Council of India should be a kind of 
 SyCoVndlwMch Her Majesty's sLretary of State could summon to ad^^^^ with hm m 
 emergencies which must arise in a rule so strange as that of the Indian Empire. 
 
on a ,s 
 
 55 
 
 amount of good they are able to effect is of the most in- co?ndiT^?ho il 
 
 appreciable kind. If English attention were directed first J^equisito. | 
 
 towards a reform of these institutions, a beginning would be |j 
 
 made which would constitute all other changes and develop- 1 
 
 ments possible : without reform of these Councils nine-tenths of | 
 
 any exertion put forth would be wasted. About four-and-a-half | 
 
 years ago, while editing a daily newspaper in Madras, I 
 
 strongly advocated the establishment of Representative 
 
 Assemblies, sketching in outline such a Chamber as that 
 
 Presidency is, not merely fit for, but urgently needs to quicken 
 
 the rich but stagnant mental life of the Madrasses of all j 
 
 classes and creeds. And, what is true of Madras is true also 
 
 of Bengal and other parts of the Empire. Less than ten 
 
 years ago, when speaking at Dacca, Sir George Campbell, be^f^LP.?on^^ 
 
 M.P., then Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, said that he g^S^mo??.''"^ 
 
 looked forward to a time when a Bengali House of Commons 
 
 would be created. The chief points of the scheme I put 
 
 forward, while in India, were as follow : — 
 
 I. — The creation of a Presidency Assembly, in which a Presidency 
 
 1 ^ , _> • /^ -1 TT T-' Assembly : its 
 
 the members of the Executive Council, ri.E. constitution. 
 the Governor excepted, should have seats ex 
 officio ; also the Advocate General. In this 
 ♦ Assembly, in addition, should sit {a) twenty 
 
 Collectors (chief administrators of districts larger 
 than many English counties) ; {b) six European, 
 Eurasian and Native nominated members ; and 
 {c) twelve European, Eurasian, and Native 
 elected members. Qualification for a vote 
 might be found in the jury lists, proved owner- 
 ship of landed property, or payment of the 
 profession tax. (An Assembly so constituted 
 would leave the Government what, under exist- 
 ing circumstances, they should have, viz., a clear 
 majority on any matter which might arouse 
 much discussion and occasion great interest, or 
 in relation to a measure which they felt the 
 interests of the country demanded should be 
 
56 
 
 Financial con- 
 trol. 
 
 Right of queS' 
 tioning. 
 
 Introduction 
 of Bills. 
 
 Burl fret to be 
 annually presen- 
 ted. 
 
 Fixed time of 
 
 meeting. 
 
 Governor- 
 General's Veto. 
 
 Subsidiary 
 States be re- 
 presented. 
 
 Suggestions 
 approven by — 
 
 (1) Anglo-In- 
 dians. 
 
 (2) Natives. 
 
 carried, even though the majority of the As- 
 sembly thought otherwise.) 
 2. — To such an Assembly Financial control should 
 be given to this extent, viz., with the exception of 
 Fixed Establishments, which should be discussed 
 only with the consent of the Secretary of State 
 first asked for and obtained, every vote of money 
 should be open to scrutiny and question ; and 
 (if permission had previously been given to 
 Government Members to vote as they thought 
 fit), on a majority being recorded against any 
 particular vote, it could not be passed. 
 3. — Non-official members to have the right to put 
 questions to Government on their general jx)licy, 
 or on a public matter. 
 4. — Non-official members to have the right to intro- 
 
 troduce Bills not dealing with public funds. 
 
 5. — The Budget to be annually presented, and 
 
 debated upon. No money to be spent until the 
 
 same had been voted, Fixed Establishments 
 
 excepted. 
 
 6.— The Assembly to meet at certain fixed periods of 
 
 the year. 
 7. — The Governor-General to have the power to veto 
 any Bill or Money Vote, subject to appeal to the 
 Secretary of State for India, or the Home 
 Government. 
 8. — Under certain defined arrangements, subsidiary 
 States, such as Travancore, Cochin, &c., to be per- 
 mitted to send representatives to the Assembly. 
 There was not a class in the community which did not 
 hail these suggestions with heartiness. English merchants, 
 true to their national character, were strongly in favour of some 
 such change as was indicated. To men, nurtured in the free 
 air of England, life in the despotically-ruled cities of India, is 
 like breathing in a partially exhausted air-receiver. The intelli- 
 gent Hindus and Mussalmans of Madras, seeing the increased 
 
57 i 
 
 it 
 
 importance and power such an Assembly would give to their \ 
 
 national existence, and recognizing the scope it would afford J 
 
 for individual usefulness, gave the suggestions their hearty j 
 
 approval. Even Members of the Civil Service approved it. ^g^^^'^ ^^'■' | 
 
 One of the Executive Councillors declared that Southern (4) Executive '| 
 
 11 1 J Councillors. ; 
 
 India was quite ripe for such an Assembly, and that untold ^ 
 
 good would follow from its establishment. Nevertheless, the | 
 
 agitation I sought to initiate, came to nothing. It made a slight ^^^^^^^^^ |i 
 ripple on the surface of everyday talk, and then passed why. 
 away. Nor do I wonder that such was the case, although I 
 deeply regretted at the time the apathy exhibited, and the 
 many obstacles in the way of attracting attention to the 
 matter. Afterwards the famine of i Syy diverted all attention 
 from schemes of reform for a time. I see now more 
 forcibly than I did then the utter futility of agitation in 
 India alone ; unless there be simultaneous agitation to the 
 same end in England no good can be done. Previously, in 
 Ceylon, when condemning the food-taxes and revenue- 
 farming system in that island, I found that until I had 
 enlisted the help of the Cobden Club, and the services in 
 Parliament of Mr. T. B. Potter, M.P. for Rochdale, I was 
 nearly helpless. With these aids the task of attracting 
 attention to serious evils became comparatively easy of accom- 
 plishment. 
 
 In advocating the reform of the Legislative Councils of counSfRelorm 
 India, Englishmen would be on perfectly safe ground. By no ^^®- 
 possibility could the charge of want of information, if 
 brought by Interested opponents, be honestly employed 
 against the Federation. But, what is of far greater importance, 
 the establishment of such Assemblies would lead the way to, 
 and prepare the people for, that change in the administration 
 of India which must come some day ; until it does come little 
 hope for real Indian rule can be cherished. 
 
 The remark I have iust made has no relation to the Mr.Bright's 
 
 •' proposals in 
 
 giving up of India, but to the proposal made by Mr. Bright, issi. 
 in 1858, when the India Bill was under consideration in the 
 House of Commons, viz., that the country should be divided 
 
ss 
 
 Presidenciet'' ^^^0 five or SIX Presidencies or Provinces, each under a 
 separate Governor, who should be in direct communication 
 with the Secretary of State. In each Presidency there should 
 be an Assembly. It has been Mr. Bright's good fortune, as 
 a statesman, to find that most of the advance posts he occupied 
 by virtue of his prescient mind at the beginning of his political 
 career have formed camping grounds for the main army of pro- 
 gress. His proposal with regard to India will, I believe, yet 
 rank with his fulfilled prophecies on such subjects as Free 
 Trade, Parliamentary Reform, Abolition of Church Rates, 
 Land Law Reform, and other matters. All that I have seen 
 of India, all that I have learned of its peoples and their needs, 
 all that I have thought upon urgent changes, compel me to 
 ide%fac§cSie^^^ conclusion that to work for Mr. Bright's ideal is to work 
 and necessary, {q^ ^ reform not merely practicable but highly necessary ; 
 and also, practically, to bring the Empire within a measurable 
 distance of thoroughly good and stable Government, wherein 
 the scandal of forty millions of people remaining in a state 
 of semi-starvation year after year shall be impossible. We 
 cannot hinder that condition of things by our action, as we 
 have proved : the people of India may prevent it by their own 
 efforts. 
 
 The passages from Mr. Bright's speech of June 24, 1858, 
 to which I have referred, may be cited at length. They meet, in 
 a satisfactory v/ay, the initial objections which would be urged 
 by those opposed to such reforms on their re-presentation. 
 Mr. Bright said : — 
 Presidencies, ' I would proposc that wc should havc Presidencies, and 
 
 not an Empire. i. t- • t r t 
 
 not an Empire. If I were a mmister, which the House will 
 admit is a bold figure of speech, and if the House were to 
 agree with me, which is also an essential point, I would 
 Five Presi- P^^P^^^ ^^ ^^ve, at least, five Presidencies in India, and I 
 d^em^ies : equal would havc the Governments of those Presidencies perfectly 
 equal in rank and in salary. The capitals of those Presi- 
 dencies would probably be Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, Agra, 
 and , Lahore. I will take the Presidency of Madras as an 
 illustration. Madras has a population of some 20,000,000. 
 
59 
 
 We all know its position on the map, and that it has the , 
 advantage of being more compact, geographically speaking, I 
 than the other Presidencies. It has a Governor and a Council. i 
 I would give to it a Governor and a Council still, but would ' 
 confine all their duties to the Presidency of Madras, and I / ; 
 would treat it just as if Madras was the only portion of India dency seif-con- j 
 connected with this country. I would have its finance, its * * i 
 taxation, its justice, and its police departments, as well as its ; 
 public works and military departments, precisely the same as ^ 
 if it were a State having no connection with any other part of 
 India, and recognized only as a dependency of this country. 
 I would propose that the Government of every Presidency cSrlfond with 
 should correspond with the Secretary for India in England,* gfat?®*^^^ °^ I 
 and that there should be telegraphic communications between ; 
 the officQ of the noble Lord (Lord Stanley) and every Presi- 
 dency over which he presides. I shall, no doubt, be told that j 
 there are insuperable difficulties in the way of such an arrange- ! 
 ment, and I shall be sure to hear of the military difficulty. cuUy conSdemi j 
 Now, I do not profess to be an authority on military affairs, \ 
 but I know that military men often make great mistakes. I * 
 would have the army divided, each Presidency having its own i 
 army, just as now, care being taken to have them kept distinct ; 
 and I see no danger of any confusion or misunderstanding, j 
 when an emergency arose, in having them all brought together j 
 to carry out the views of the Government. \ 
 ' Now, suppose the Governor-General gave the Presi- separlte *?resi- i 
 dencies established, the Governors equal in rank and dignity, ^'^^^^' \ 
 and their Councils constituted in the manner I have indicated, 
 is it not reasonable to suppose that the delay which has i 
 hitherto been one of the greatest curses of your Indian Govern- delays avoided j 
 ment would be almost altogether avoided .'' Instead of a i 
 Governor-General living in Calcutta or at Simla, never I 
 
 "^ Direct correspondence with the Secretary of State is a privilege which the Presidency , 
 
 of Madras retains as a survival of old times. Good use of this privilege was made in 1878 by j 
 
 the (then) Governor of Madras, who, when compelled by the Government of India to adopt ; 
 
 Sir Richard Temple's 1-lb. starvation allowance for famine labourers, appealed to England, ! 
 and procured permission to set aside superior orders. The wisdom of Mr. Bright's sug- 
 gestion was then strikingly manifested. Many thousands of lives Avere saved by the direct 
 appeal to England.— W. D. 
 
6o 
 
 travelling over the whole of the country, and knowing very little 
 
 about it, and that little only through other official eyes, is it not 
 
 Goyernmentai i*easonable to suppose that the action of the Government would 
 
 action more be more direct in all its duties, and in every department of its 
 
 service, than has been the case under the system which has 
 
 existed until now ? Your administration of the law, marked 
 
 Lawadmieistra- by SO much disgracc, could never have lasted so long; as it has 
 
 tion improved, j •/• ^ 
 
 done, if the Governors of your Presidencies had been indepen- 
 dent Governors. So with regard to matters of police, education, 
 Presidencies public- works, and everything that can stimulate industry, and 
 
 rivals m good •' ^ J ^ 
 
 works. SO With regard to your system of taxation. You would have 
 
 in every Presidency a constant rivalry for good. The Governor 
 . of Madras, when his term of office expired, would be delighted 
 to show that the people of that Presidency were contented, 
 that the whole Presidency was advancing in civilization, that 
 roads and all manner of useful public works were extending 
 that industry was becoming more and more a habit of the 
 people, and that the exports and imports were constantly 
 increasing. The Governors of Bombay and the rest of the 
 Presidencies would be animated by the same spirit, and so you 
 would have all over India, as I have said, a rivalry for good ; 
 you would have placed a check in that malignant spirit of 
 Incidental ad- ambition whlch has worked so much evil, you would have no 
 
 vantages. . . . 
 
 Governor so great that you could not control him ; none who 
 might make war when he pleased ; war and annexation would 
 be greatly checked, if not entirely prevented ; and I do, in my 
 conscience, believe you would have laid the foundation for a 
 better and more permanent form of Government for India 
 than has ever obtained since it came under the rule of Eng- 
 land.' * 
 Mr. Bright's To the eye of an observer, unacquainted, by residence in 
 
 Ideas practical. _,. -ti i .. r ^ T»/rT~.«i> 
 
 India, with the actual necessities of that country, Mr. Bright s 
 remarks must carry conviction. I have only to add that to 
 one who knows India they seem to meet the situation with 
 perfect nicety. I will not go into particulars, showing the 
 
 * Speeches by the Right Hon. John Bright, M.P. Edited by J. Thorold Rogers, M.P. 
 Vol. i., pp. 50-53. (Macmillan & Co., London, 1869.) Second Edition. 
 
6i 
 
 differences between the various portions of the Empire which EmphtrendS^ 
 render it advisable that each Presidency should have its own ^^ange needful, 
 almost independent administration. Such particulars can be 
 furnished in due time, should, as I hope will be the case, they 
 be wanted. It is as unfair to the respective peoples of India 
 that they should be ruled by a centralized and distant authority, ^^^^^^^.^^^ 
 as it would be for France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, with Europe. 
 Portugal, Holland, Denmark, and Belgium, to become vassals 
 of one monarch, and that monarch an Asiatic, compelHng the 
 adoption of Asiatic methods of rule. 
 
 Not the least conspicuous nr.erit in Mr. Bright's proposal Political self- 
 is that it would teach the Indian people poHtical self-reliance. 
 In scores of ways which no one can forecast, as no one can 
 positively set forth the possible developments of the future, by 
 granting them a measure of self-government the utmost con- 
 ceivable service would be done for our Indian fellow-subjects. ^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^ 
 I can imagine no grander, no more noble, work for the National ?4i^S"t'\e"Fe(i- 
 Liberal Federation than that it should make Justice for ^^^jjl^^^^^y ''^«- 
 India one of its leading objects. Such a task as I have, in 
 outline, indicated in the foregoing pages must some day be 
 performed by one Association or another in this country if 
 Englishmen are to show themselves worthy of their position 
 and mindful of their duty to their fellow-subjects in the East. 
 It is a task which, under the terrible peril of an awful harvest if 
 neglected, must not be avoided. Our responsibilities in 
 India are of our own seeking. I-et us, as Englishmen, see to 
 it that no desire for ease, no aversion to the trouble of 
 familiarising ourselves with unfamiliar facts, no sneers from 
 parties interested in maintaining the present system, turn us 
 aside from at least attempting to do our duty. 
 
 No time could be more propitious for action than the ^maent^time 
 present, i.e., regarding the affairs of both England and India on 
 the whole. India is receiving at the hands of Mr. Gladstone's 
 Government a measure of justice and consideration to which 
 it has not been accustomed. After nearly two hundred years 
 of a precisely opposite policy, Mr. Gladstone has inaugurated a 
 new policy in making arrangements for this country to bear a 
 
62 
 
 portion of the cost of the recent Afghan wars. The people of 
 England fully approve of what has been done, and are 
 animated with the most friendly sentiments towards their 
 fellow-subjects in the East. The occasion for forward action 
 is ripe : the question is, Are we ready ? 
 
 Wm. DIGBY. 
 
 COROMANDEL, FORD PARK, MllTLEY, 
 
 Plymouth; October, 1881. 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 INCE this Letter was written, and while the pasres important 
 
 ' ^ ^ Minute by 
 
 are passing through the Press, information has Government of 
 been received from India of the issue of an im- 
 portant Minute by the Government. Only an 
 outline of the document has yet reached this country, but 
 enough has been published to give great force to the 
 suggestions which I have made. On the line of Mr. Bright's 
 proposals considerable progress has from time to time been 
 made ; a further step has just been taken. It now 
 rem.ains for English electoral opinion, exerted through the 
 House of Commons, to take care that with the partial 
 decentralization of finance shall proceed thoroucfh decentrali- . Decenf.raUza- 
 
 ■^ ° , tion of Finance. 
 
 zation in other respects. The Governor-General in Council 
 hopes that the extension of the scheme for the decentrali- 
 zation of the finances will develop local self-governmont. goyernmenf^' 
 To this end the Provincial Governments are instructed to 
 make a careful scrutiny of their accounts, with a view of 
 ascertaining what items of receipt and charge can be trans- 
 ferred from the provincial to the local heads for administration 
 by a committee comprising non- official and, wherever possible, indiAn Govern- 
 elected members, and also what measures are necessary for Sectedmlmbers 
 the purposes of introducing more local self-government, 
 equalizing local and municipal taxation throughout the 
 Empire, checking severe or unsuitable imposts, and favouring 
 forms most accordant with the popular opinion or sentiment, wm of the 
 Then follow details regarding the treatment of the principal tameS.^^^'^^^ 
 heads of the receipts and charges, the general result being 
 that nearly three-fifths of the revenue and about one-fourth of 
 the expenditure of British India will be provincialized. 
 
 The Gazette of India^ in giving details of this policy, says ado^tSf''^^^^ 
 tliat in the first place it is proposed to apply to the whole of 
 
64 
 
 ^Mnoipieadop- India the principle upon which the most recent settlement — 
 namely, that with Burmah in 1879 — was framed. That 
 principle is that, instead of giving to the local Governments a 
 fixed sum to make good any excess In the provincial expendi- 
 ture over the provincial receipts, a certain proportion of the 
 Imperial revenue of each province should be devoted to this 
 object. Certain heads of the revenue will be reserved as 
 Imperial, others divided between Imperial and provincial, 
 and the rest made wholly provincial. The balance of the 
 transfers being against the provinces will be rectified by 
 assigning to each province a fixed percentage on its land 
 revenue. In Bengal this will amount to 38 per cent. ; in 
 Madras, 26 per cent. ; in Bombay, 50 per cent. ; in the North- 
 West Provinces, 22 per cent. ; in the Panjab, 43 per cent. ; 
 in the Central Provinces, 48 per cent. ; in Assam, 49 per 
 cent. ; and in Burmah, 33 per cent. It is hoped that the 
 result of this system will be to give to the Provincial Govern- 
 ments a direct Interest in the most important item of the 
 Imperial revenue raised within their own province. Here, 
 again, one of the principles laid down by Mr. Bright is made 
 of service by the Indian Government of to-day. Where so 
 much has been granted more may be obtained. 
 
 Increased re- Following the abovc, is 3 proposal which is of the 
 
 ^^Proviniiai^ highest importance. More responsibility is to be thrown 
 
 ovemmen . ^^^^ ^^iQ Provincial Governments than they now possess. It 
 would be cruel to the Indian people to grant this additional 
 responsibility to the Provincial authorities, and allow it to be 
 held in the alien hands which have not done wisely 
 and well with the power they already possess. It is intended 
 by the Viceroy's Minute to modify the existing arrangements 
 Financial between the Imperial and Provincial Governments regarding 
 the resources granted in the event of fiscal misfortune, such as 
 a heavy loss on the Opium revenue, or a national disaster, 
 such as a war or a severe famine. It is declared, on the one 
 hand, that the local Governments must look for no special aid 
 except in case of severe famine, and then only within certain 
 limits ; and, on the other hand, that the Imperial Government 
 
 Antonomy. 
 
65 , 
 
 will make no demand on them except in case of a disaster so I 
 
 abnormal as to exhaust the Imperial reserves and necessitate ^ 
 
 the suspension of the entire machinery of public improvement. Provinces toi 
 
 A-j-iii- A. -I ' . * ,. meet their own' 
 
 Ala wni oe given to the provmces m a severe famme only if calamities. 
 the current provincial income during the period of the distress 
 has been exhausted, and if the accumulated savings of the 
 past years, in excess of the ordinary working balance, have 
 been drawn upon to the extent of two-thirds of the total 
 amount. The margin of the provincial income over the 
 expenditure in normal years will be made Hable for the 
 completion of the relief works begun during the famine, or 
 will be chargeable to the extent of one-fourth for the payment 
 of the interest on the Imperial loans contracted to meet the 
 cost cf the famine. The Imperial Government expresses the 
 hope that if a sufficient surplus accrues at the close of the 
 current financial year it may be able to restore to the 
 Provincial Governments the contributions, aggregating sixty- 
 seven lakhs {£6yo,ooo), made by them for the Afghan war, 
 on the receipt of satisfactory assurances that these amounts 
 will be devoted to productive public works. I am indebted 
 for the summary of this important Minute to T/te Times' 
 Indian telegram of October loth. 
 
 When I began my Letter, nothing beyond the con- of^JSSrtS 
 spicuous act of justice which Mr. Gladstone has performed ^"^^ ^'*'''°- 
 in respect to the Afghan war expenditure justified me in em- 
 ploying the present time for urging the importance of Indian 
 affairs upon my countrymen. But, before my pleadings have 
 an opportunity of meeting the eyes of those to whom they are 
 addressed, the most appropriate of all occasions for forward 
 and vigorous action in this country has revealed itself. 
 While, on the one hand, there is no time to be 
 lost, on the other there is sufficient time to concert means, 
 and upon those means to take action in next session of 
 Parliament. All that is done in the Viceroy's Minute which Minut?'"°reco..i- 
 is summarised above, is recommendatory. No actual step °^®"*^**°^ °"^y- 
 has been taken. The Provincial Governments are merely 
 instructed to ' make enquiry.' Now, to carry out thoroughly 
 
 E 
 
66 
 
 the spirit of the new proposals, and make them what 
 
 Mr. Bright suggested in his '58 speeches, and also to make 
 
 EngHah assis- them really effective for good, English effort is needed. It 
 
 tanoe needed. •' o » o 
 
 would be too much to expect from human nature — at least, 
 from Anglo-Indian official human nature, which is sensitive 
 to criticism to an abnormal degree — that the Provincial 
 Governments of India will report favourably of a proposal 
 which will place their every act under scrutiny, and render 
 every officer in their employ amenable to public criticism, and, 
 it may be, to rebuke not merely in the newspaper Press, but 
 in a partially-elective Assembly also. If Lord Ripon's Minute 
 is to do any good, it must be supplemented by earnest action 
 in Great Britain, and by special efforts in the House of Com- 
 mons, which is now the controlling power in Indian affairs. 
 When officials in the position of the Viceroy of India and 
 his Council go so far as to admit that the people of India 
 have the right to a voice in the administration of nearly 
 three-fifths of the revenue, and about one-fourth of the ex- 
 penditure, of their country, it is clear that the need for reform is 
 very pressing. None in this country know better than the 
 members of the National Liberal Federation how slow heads 
 of departments and permanent officials, save in very excep- 
 tional instances, are to confess that things could possibly be 
 better than they are at any given moment. Outside agitation 
 is always needed in Great Britain to initiate reform, and to 
 make beneficial change possible. The same thing is true, in 
 a hundred-fold degree, as regards India, of any real and sub- 
 stantial reform. But, as I have shown in the preceding pages, 
 agitation there is practically unknown, and is not to be too 
 readily encouraged. More may be done by judicious and 
 amply-instructed effort in England than possibly could be 
 done in India. 
 
 I venture to hope that, at this crisis, when an unexpected 
 tendency towards Liberalising the institutions of India is 
 exhibited by the Indian Government, English aid will not be 
 wanting. If properly dealt with, the Minute issued at Calcutta 
 on the 8th October may be found to constitute a new Charter 
 
67 
 
 of the liberties of the people of India. Hitherto the political 
 organizations of this country have existed for purposes almost, 
 if not entirely, p ersonal to the inhabitants of Great Britain. 
 If it should prove that the National Liberal Federation is 
 prepared to enter upon duties involving not a little self- 
 sacrifice, bringing no reward to the workers therein save the 
 consciousness of the right course having been attempted, but 
 having as their ultimate result the benefiting of the hundreds 
 of millions of the people of India, it will be made clear that the 
 sense of public duty in the present day has been lifted to a 
 higher level than usual, and that the standard of EngHsh politi- 
 cal character is nobler than it has hitherto been. Should my 
 anticipations prove correct, the new Minute on Indian 
 Financial Decentralization will, through English effort have 
 issues undreamt of by the Council of Notables who sent it 
 forth.— W. D. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ^ 
 
 020 731 959 4 
 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 020 731 959 4 
 
 Hollinger Corp. 
 
 pHas