OUTRAGE IN INDIA.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 79, 27 December 1907, Page 5

OUTRAGE IN INDIA.

,: MAGISTRATE SHOT. . • HE HAD TRIED SOME "NATIONAL . VOLUNTEERS." ' SENSATION IN CALCUTTA. B1 TELEGRAPH—FBESS ' ASHOpiATION—COrTMOHT. (Rec Dec. 26, 9.38 a.m.) . ' ' . ' Calcutta, Deceniber 25. - Three young natives at Goalanda, about 120 miles north-cast of Calcutta, 'shot Mr. AHon, a Magistrate, of Dacca, a neighbouring town. His condition is critical. ( His assailants escaped. ■ Political' fanaticism is suspected as being tho causo of the crime, and it is traced to the fact that Mr. Allen recently, tried, some '' national volunteers." Tho crimo has created a sensation in Calcutta. ■ , ..'.j'„?,•.■>!? THE "VOLUNTEERS." The "National .Volunteers" are a subtle ?uasi-military organisation which, according to ndian papers, have played a conspicuous part in late disturbances. Their origin may be traced back to a time some eight or ten years ago when a cultured • Bengali lady, . Miss Giiosal, bitterly resenting the blurs cast upon Bengali physique- and courage by writers from Macaulay downwards, advocated with much onorgy the establishment of schools of physical culture. Tho schools, called nkharas, were founded for the teaching of wrestling, leaping, sword-play, and the use of'the lathi—the long bamboo of tho Indian peasant—as a weapon of offence and dofenco.. Now, .almost every 'village in Bengal has its akhura. Whon the men trained in the akharas offered their services free to help tho,-boycott, they were called "Volunteers." .The akharas taught drill, and the Volunteers adopted a kind of rough uniform, comprising a yellow turban, a red shirt, and a sash round tho Ehoulders, inscribed with the words " liande Mntaram." It is stated that there is a central body in Calcutta with duly appointed officers, whose business it is to control and advise the various corps throughout the provinces.. This central body appears , to: bo amply provided with funds. Mr. H. Newman, one of tho. editors of the "Englishman," writes that the Volunteers were first utilised "to preach • the boycott. They visited, the bazaars, ami told the people that tho purchase of British goods increased the poverty of tho country. They' remonstrated with those who refused to patronise Swadeshi shops. Then, growing bolder, they threatened, ami, beiiig organised and armed,with lathis, they began 'to inflict'their wjll upon the people. "In every plnqe . I have been to," writes Mr. 1 Newman, "the story is tho same. In',the local bazaar the shops selling Manchester piece goods and foreign 1 cigarettes . and other articles,' had to close down, because the Volunteers-entered the shops,'intimidated the shopkeepers," threatened and often boat purchasers, and in very many cases made, bonfires of the goods. Stores of Liverpool saltjiave been thrown into the nearest river or nearest tank, or denied in the most disgusting way.. In. a few cases whqre' thosa who have suffered havo had the courage to■, complain, the police have intervened, but the offenders have either escaped ox been awarded ridiculously light punishments." The Volunteers, it is contended, ure deliberately preaching what is nothing short of a revolt against British >'rulc. ■ As.' showing the natnre of a magistrate's duties in these parts of India,' a, correspondent of the "Empire" writes: " Mr. Clarke, the district-miigistrate at Maima'nsingh, was riding round-.oh inspection on Sunday, • and reached Dewanganj at^niglitfall, .to 'find tho place in anarchy. Two thousand dacbits were looting and firing shops.' Mr. .Clarke,' who had been out ajl day, went.into the bhznar single-, handed, for there lyasnot a 'constable, iu the place,/ and with fine grit subdued the' panic among the bazaar people, and so secured-the withdrawal of the dacoits." . !■ . '■'■■.'-, ■•■