The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. MONDAY, AUGUST 29, 1921. THE INDIAN RISING.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 205, 29 August 1921, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

MONDAY, AUGUST 29, 1921. THE INDIAN RISING.

■ for the cause that lacks assistance. For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that mc can do.

The messages about the rising in Southern India will have set some people consulting the map. It is curious how the northern part of the country usually monopolises news from' India. Bombay, Bengal, the Punjaub, and the frontier are tbe sources of nearly all the Press messages that reach -the outside world. There political interest is greatest, military concentration largest, and life generally fuller and more active and more turbulent than in the South. The peninsula south of Bombay rarely figures 'in our cable news. Mr. Kipling has described the city of Madras as "a withered beldame,'' "brooding on ancient fame." Jn the days of Ciive England heard more proportionately about the Madras region than it does to-day. Now comes the news of a rising on the Malabar Coast that seems to be more serious than anything of the kind for a good many years, with the ' possible exception of the Punjaub trouble that gave rise to the much-debated Amritzar "massacre." The scene of the trouble is the southwestern coast of the peninsula, where the territory of the Madras Presidency, after curving round the native State of Mysore, runs north in a strip to meet Bombay. Calicut, the chief town of this coastal territory, and apparently the centre of the rising, has a population of about 80,000, and the distinction of being the first Indian port visited by Europeans. The whole of the Madras Presidency has a population of over i forty millions, mainly Hindus. The rising, however, is the work mainly of a fanatical Mohammedan community, the Moplahs, a low caste people who claim descent froni Arab immigrants, and are described as the most enterprising folk on the Malabar coast. They number about a million, so that although they are only a fraction of the population, there arc quite enough of them to anise a good deal of trouble. The seriousness of the rising will depend on its immediate origin, the extent to which it has -been organised, and the possibility of Hindu participation. We maytake it that it has its ultimate source in tho unrest that has been such a feature of Indian affairs since tho war. The ferment of nationality and religion has worked strongly in India during the last three years. Hindus have been excited by the agitation for self-govern-ment, the wave of nationalism that has passed over Europe, the prominence given to "self-determination"' by the victors in the war, and the religiousnational non-co-operative movement of Ghandi. Moslems have -been stirred by the defeat of Turkey, the breaking up of the Turkish Empire, and the effect of these events on the Khalifate. Previously the British had been able to count on the loyalty of tho Moslem population of India, and it has always been one o£ the tasks of the British administration to keep the peace between the Moslem and Hindu religions, which on occasions are apt to clash with serious results. We do not know to what extent the movement to unite Hindus and Mohammedans against the British ha 3 succeeded in the South. It is reported that the rebels in the present rising have attacked Hindus, which if true shows that the old religious differences, which affect the lives of Indians to an extent difficult for Europeans to realise, remain. It is these differences, together with questions of caste, and the political ignorance and inexperience of tbe masses, that make it impossible for Britain to grant India complete selfgovernment now or at any calculable time, though self-government is the ultimate goal. In the outrages that accompany it the rising bears a close resemblance to the trouble in the Punjaub in 1919. Then Amritzar was in the hands of the moh, and Europeans were' murdered. The Punjaub, however, is a much more dangerous field for an outbreak like this than is tbe Malabar Coast, and once tho authorities recover from their initial surprise and disadvantage they should not have a great deal of trouble in suppressing the rising, provided it does not spread. At Bangalore, in the neighbouring State of Mysore, is the largest military cantonment in Southern India. But the suppression of the rebellion is not the only problem- the authorities have to face. They will also have to decide how far they must go iv putting down the reckless agitation that no doubt has helped to cause this trouble. For some time the policy has been to give agitators a great deal of license, partly because such license has been regarded as a safety valve, partly because it is considered to be more in keeping witli the recent grant of an extension of self-government than a policy of suppression, and partly because there arc agitators who deliberately seek martyrdom for the sake of the cause. It is significant that Mr. Montagu, the Secretary for India, who has been the leading spirit in this extension, and has stood for a policy of wide toleration towards agitation, is now reported to have decided to take action against some of the most prominent agitators. A Government's . first duty is to keep order, and incite- ' ment to crime and rebellion does not J properly come under the category of | freedom of speech. ' 1 J 1