DISAFFECTED INDIA.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 234, 26 June 1908, Page 6

DISAFFECTED INDIA.

The gravity of ,tho situation in India is apparent'from the cablegram from Calcutta published yesterday, in which it was reported that the Governor- ;of. Bombay, Sir George Sydenham Clarke, addressing the legislative Council at Poona, that, it was-impossible for the Government to sit with folded arms when it was confronted by "a deliberate organisation for indiscriminate murder."' His Excellency alludes, of course, to the manifestations .of the revolutionary spirit' pervading certain parts, of India, notably the Province of Bengal, where bomb outrages have resulted in the. deaths of several Europeans. Our readers will be familiar, with the disaster at Mazaffarpur, and the more recent outrage in connection with the mail train at Barrackpuiv There can bo no doubt whatever that thore is " deliberate organisation" at the 'back of those detestable and inhuman expressions of ' Bengali disaffection, or that the insurrectionary movement is ) producing its pernicious effects far beyond the confines of Bengal, although it is in that province that the worst outbreaks of lawlessness have taken place. Commenting on this disquieting state of affairs, the Spectator of May 9 refers to the Calcutta outrages as "the policy of assassination.": AVhile emphasising its cowardice and inhuman cruelty, the Spectator minimises the importance of it as a mere revolutionary demonstration, but it points out its significance as an indicator of the political temper of the people.

It indicates, says the Spectator, the deep dislike felt by the population for its white rulers —" a readiness to approve a .revolution if only it can bo effected /without an insurrection, or a widclv-sprcad resort, to armed force." The meaning of this is explained by the assertion that the disaffected are the educated natives, who have assimilated tho idea, once'prevalent in Italy, and now prevalent in Russia, that an irresistible .Government may bo paralysed by terrorising its individual agents. The outrages, and tho existence, of a secret society, whose object is revolution, and the storing away in concealment of explosives, are .all symptoms of what : may prove to be a serious diseaso in the body politic. It will not, adds the Spectator, " prevent the government of ;Bengal, but it will prevent its' government in tho lenient and rather: careless way which has hitherto been prevalent, and which has been constantly pleaded as proof that tho majority of our Bengali subjects either approve the British Government, or are indifferent to its existence." Time was when; tho Bengalis recognised that self-government was impossible, because if the British withdrew from Bengal, they would bo the prey of either Sikhs or Mahrattas, more warlike races than themselves, to whoso rule that of the foreigner was preferable. But education has caused this view of things to disappear; tho educated Bengali now deems himself as competent to givcrn as-any-one else, and looks upon himself as. a man wronged by foreign oppressors, who cannot be driven out. He seeks vengeance, then, and it may be incidentally the oversetting of tho existing system by the punishment of its agents.

Coming to the difficult quostion of a practical remedy for this state of things, the articlc referred to dcprecates harsh measures, such as the penalties of treason, restriction of education, and the censorship of the Press, as there is doubt of their utility. On the other hand,, it is urged that the 'police should bo improved, and that . it is the duty, of the .Government to put down

criinc, political as well as civil, by regular law and fair trials, ancl to leave the people, within certain limits, which it is very difficult to define, at liberty to make their protests in public and through unccnsorcd print. "If there were no other reason for this coursc, there would remain this final one —the conscience ofthe governing class, which, as they arc always aware that a justification is required for their position, must bo kept clcan, and cannot be kept clcan if the bureaucracy is ordered to be tyrannical." The spread of the idea— fop all India is watching Bengal—that we were governing as a hostile caste, or even as a caste first of all intent upon protecting itself, might induce all India to resist, and resist by methods far more effectual than any form of war, such as a steady and silent boyootting of the governing race, which that race could neither put down, nor defy, nor compromise with in any way now to bo discerned. Before this could be brought about, howover, there must be unison, sympathy, and co-opera-tion among the races, and there is no sign of this at present. Such a danger is thus, so far, theoretical. The argument for leniency in preference to a policy of repression composed of acts of " tyranny," is a strong one, but the situation is too grave to admit of experiment.