CAUSES OF UNREST IN INDIA.

Dunstan Times, Issue 2479, 3 May 1909, Page 8

CAUSES OF UNREST IN INDIA.

(By the Rev. J. W. Burton, in the Sydney Morning Herald.)

It is certain that the "unrest" moveaent in India can have no true and ade,uate interpretation apart from the wider iwakening of the East. It is really part if a -very much greater whole. Ghina, lapan, and India are linked together, not aerely by geographical consideratione, cut by a' spirit and temperament that are ■f the Orient; and, therefore, unexplain,ble and incommunicable to the Occident. Che Eastern Question already looms largey upon the political sky. To the thoughtul man it is already the problem of the vorld, and grows more complex and mdfitent as the months go by. The West las had to struggle long for its place tmong the nations; but an even uternex jontelt awaits her, should she be ambitious mduch to retain her position. *or -n his twentieth century the Eastern peoples ir o waking from their long, long, sleep, m d commencing to realise themselves. Power is silently but none the less surely noving towards the sunrise, whence it ■aine The Western nations mourn a declining birth rate, a growing tanousaess, an alarming flaccidity. }i history JC a science and no mere magic shadow, .hese things spell out death. The Orienal peoples, on the contrary, breed with i fecundity that is positively appalling, live with a frugality that seems to us but starvation, and toil with a doggednc*s that knows no respite. They have lain fallow for centuries, and now that fresh seeds have fallen into their life they are bursting with growth. The change has been brought about by causes that are at their root psychological. The story of the new movement is° really a romance in personality—the individual has been born. Formerly, and right into the dreamy past, man was merely a cell in some more fullyorganised life. His caste, his tribe Ins family was the organism, and he lived or died, was well or ill, along with it. But now the cell has developed personality A man-chhu is born into the world, and the glad mother, the East, sings therefor. He must explain the universe now in terms, not of the family, the caste, the tribe, but in powers of himself, thus there is revolt against ancient custom and anarchy over old-fashioned sanctions. And what else could wo expect Have not we Western nations, in our lovo of power and greed of gain, hastened this result? The East is alkaline—a most to bitterness; the West is acid almost to burning. When acid is dropped into *n alkaline solution we must expect, by all known laws of chemistry, ehervescence. Nor must we be surprised, when the Up subsides, to find crystallising out certain definite salts. The new thoughts and ideas which have been forced upon the Eastern nations are antipathetic to all their innate conceptions and foreign tc all their sacred usages. Think of It! Foreign commerce has come and disar ranged the more primitive methods d trade; industry, with roaring looms ant smoking stacks, has crushed indigenous manufacture—manufacture that was in" to its etymological meaning; strange Go vernments, tinged with red democracy have elbowed out the native rulers of ai artistocratic and patriarchal type; younj men in our universities have learned ti jubber in an alien tongue, to prate r.j foreign philosophies, and to harangue con cerning mysterious sciences ; ideas of so cial life have been perturbed and almos shattered by the introduction of new form; and ideals; the unquestioned right of tin father has been challenged, and the sa credness of domestic life invaded ; while perhaps, most important of all, the sane tions of religion have been questioned and new forms of faith, though mayh manifestly superior, have made men fo the time being sceptical and often frank ly infidel. And all this is still goinj on. It is a time pregnant with both hop and danger. The. old sanctions are toi rapidly breaking down and the new form of conduct are too slowly forming. > lt i a time demanding sympathy on the par of tlie West, humility on the part of th .Last, and patience above all. Unfortunately for us, John Bull is no particularly sympathetic. He is some times rough and often becomes boorish hj his treatment of other races. Nor is th East overcome with a sense of humility It is essentially vain, rather than proud It is sensitive to slight and dangerou to offend. It has little of the savagery o the British Lion, scarcely the brutalit; of the West, but it has all the cunninj and litheness of the serpent—and its bite The bite is usually poisonous—it is wel to remember. Most men worth talking to in Indi; ascribe the first outburst of "unrest" t< Japanese success in iho conflict with Rue sia. The spirit had been in the peoplprior to this, but it scarcely found voice When the Japanese waved a triumphan sword over prostrate Russia, then Indi; found tongue, and said', "See what a: Asiatic nation can do when pitted agains one of the most dreaded Powers of Eu rope. Are we less than the Japanese tha we should suffer under the heavy yok of our conquerors? Are we to remaii mere cattle that plough the field and ea only the straw? Let us arise, and swee] these Feringhees into the sea, whene they came. Let India, too, be free." At present, unfortunately, the imprac ticable, bookish, euphemistic babu is ii power He is really one of the prim curses of India—the most obnoxious per son in the country—saving, of course, tb English prig. He is really a monstrosit; —a minotaur. It helps matters not U say that we ourselves have called into be ing this Frankenstein creature. He ha fastened upon Government appointments and such is his power that he almost rule the rulers. Nearly all the intercourse be tween the subject and constituted autho rity has as its medium this brow-bcatin; bully or fawning sycophant—as self-in terest requires him to be. He really be lieves himself to be the natural ruler o India, because he can ape the* tongue an< mimic the manners of those above him Like Abou Hussan, he is the victim c a great delusion. He has been put to slee in the Caliph's bed of English education and he has awoke to imagine himself . Herbert Spencer, W. E. Gladstone, am Keir Handle rolled into one. The rea problem, for some years in India, is th unbabuing of the babu. This, then, it seems to the writer, i the primary and most radical cause c "unrest" in India—the sudden and violen shaking of the East by the all-too-vigor ou West. The awakening should have bee gradual, peaceful, natural. India is noi rubbing its eyes and blinking at a ligh much too bright for it. It scarcely know what to make of the new world. It wil learn, as we all learn—by pain, disappoint ment, and long experience. Another cause, though neither primar; nor radical, cannot be left unnoticed. I is summed up in the phrase, "the hauteu of the English." This, in native lips is the constant cry. Though it is mucl over-cried, the fact, nevertheless, remaine that we have a quality or habit of min< that is peculiarly offensive to other Taces It is, perhaps, only where we rule ove native peoples that we even faintly realis what a boor John Bull can be, and hov veneerish is our culture. Though a mai may not lower himself so as to make thi national characteristic vocal in coarse lan guage and vile epithet, yet it manifest itself in a certain aloofness and wan of sympathy. One has only to travel ii India to feel how brutal an Englishman may be to those who by the wheel o chance are for the moment under him. J coolie takes hold of the wrong package A white man promptly knock him down: the coolies saiaam6 profoundly, and cringe in fear. An Indian gentleman is in i first or second! class railway carriage. Hi has paid his full audi proper fare. ■'!

couple of Europeans wish to enter. There : is room for eight persons; but the Eurasian -guard calls out to the inoffensive brown man, "Come out of that, you pig; this is the Angrezi Log's carriage." He , meekly gets up and finds quarters elsewhere! In one of the hotels there is an illuminating notice, "Visitors are requested not to kick the servants!" An American • doctor, a man of keen insight and of scientific instinct, and one who has seen much of India, said to me, "The whole unrest trouble has its origin in the differences of temperament between East and West. British rule is alien. The attitude of the Englishman is coarse and arrogant. He is boorish. The native is more refined and cultured naturally. I could give innumerable examples of brutality, were that necessary. The native is not allowed' independence in any direction whatever. There is no chance to be a man under British ruie. He must cringe, fawn, and kowtow. The Indian is naturally an affectionate man, and thus he will be ruled. You may touch an American in his pocket, an Englishman in his pride; but you touch an Indian in his heart." This criticism contains much truth, and yet, side by side with it ought to be placed the statement of another American, a man no less able to judge. He said, "England rules* India through her aloofness. I know of no other race that could manage India. We Americans could not do it, the German, the French, the Russian are equally impossible." An Englishman, as Emerson said, is an island himself, safe, tranquil, incommunicable," and it is by virtue of Ins power of aloofness that he is able to impress the imagina-J?bn of the Indian, lo be one with him would be to lose caste. And caste, as it has always done, rules One must be chary of quoting native opinion, as it is manifestly so biassed and usually so diplomatic. But this extract from a conversation will serve as a sample o % f scores. The native was a, lawyer. His Drown hand-bag proclaimed it to the world, for on it was written "G. Dull, M.A., 8.L." He was a strange-looking little man, screwed up in the corner of a railway carriage, eyes black and staring out of his head, nervous, almost frightened, gaze, shiny black suit, soiled linen, brown cap, ill-fitting spectacles, shrunken limbs—a mere scrannel of a man. His staccato, metronomic style of speech is incapable of reproduction, but there is the gist:— , , "The radical cause of unrest is lack ot sympathy between the ruler and the ruled. There is nothing else. Economic problems, political questions, religious differences matter not. The Indian is a warmhearted man. He loves sympathy. He can be ruled utterly by love. The ruling race has no tact, especially in email things. We are thankful for the great irrigation schemes, for hospitals, tor railwavs, telegraphs, and all the etcetera of civilisation; but these do not touch our heart, The English do not come near to us. They seem as if they have no affection. Yet they are not destitute of that quality. When one Englishman meets another he claps him on the back and says, 'Well, old chappie, how are your' He would never do that to an Indian. Ail we ask is to be treated not as machines or as cattle, but as humans. The Indian is much more intellectual than the European —more classical in spirit—but his outstanding characteristic is not intellectuality, but affection. Only when England learns this truth will she rule India." It is maintained that the military have the worst name in this respect, and that nowadays the officer does not get close to his men as he did when a command in India meant practically a life's work. Nor does the civil servant, through multiplicity of offices, come to 6uch a knowledge of the language and first-hand acquaintance with his people as did the men of 30 years ago. So England loses touch and sympathy with native life. In this connection the "European-re-i turned" native exercises a curious in- - fluence. In England he was taken at , whatsoever value he placed upon himself, i and accorded the social position he de- . sired. It was naturally not below par. ■ For the ordinary everyday Indian has a habit of developing into a rajah on for- - eign soil. He was there received into the best homes, made much of by rosy-faced, . pearly-teethed young ladies; ho found i himself the interesting centre in an admiring drawing-room, and quite an authority uoon mahatmas. The exotic flavor of ; the wine went to his head. He really be- ' lieved himself, by the hypnotic suggestion • of his flatterers, a great man destined ■ transform India. He comes back to tne land of his birth—to the native quarter. No drawing-rooms receive him now; the club refuses him admission. An English - lady would die rather than allow him to i take her to dinner. Those who have read Mason's "Broken Road" will understand i his feelings. He grows bitter. He despises the simpering faces that beguiled , lum. He is filled with a passionate hatred , of everything English. Thus he ferments " unreßt."

Among the important irritating causes that produce disaffection in India stands prominently the "Fool at Home” especially the variety with M.P. after his name. He knows little of Indian life, and what he knows is probably all out of focus; he asks ridiculous questions in the House, and would have India governed as Canada or Australia is—on democratic lines He and the babu are full-brothers, and the same law that so summarily deals with the seditionist in India ought to seize him. For he is a source of great danger. He makes a pyrotechnic display to the gallery at home, and doubtless counts himself a wonderful fellow ; but some of the sparks of his cheap fireworks fly over to India, where they fall into dry gunpowder. His statements and questions are quoted, with suppressions and additions, in the vernacular press, and the natives are told that it is only a few hard-hearted Englishmen in India who want to lord it over them; the great English sahibs at home want the Indians (which means the babus) to rule for themselves. But the fool is an integral part of politics, and we must scarcely hope for relief from him in our time. Then Western competition has broken the back of several industries, and caused an economic unrest. The Swadeshi movement is the natural reflex of this, and is one that deserves every encouragement. It is politically and economically a sound method' of curing a disorder. One is glad to see that the Government is encouraging Swadoshism, and, in process of time, the waters of trad'e will find their true level. The question of taxation is a very knotty one, and ought to be reserved for experts. Certain it is that the conditions under British rule are infinitely better than under the native despots; hut the question may still he asked, “Have we reached a basis of fairness yet?” Most observers, however, consider that the incidence of taxation has but little to do with disaffection and discontent.

The partition of Bengal! One scarcely dares to touch so gunpowdery a subject! This has been the heto noire of the Bengal babu, and he has hectored the world into believing that it is one of the prime causes of unrest in India. But, to tell the truth, it is merely a local question, and touches nearly only one class—the Calcutta vakil. Hinc ilae lachrymae! In fact, the rest of India is undisguisedly joyful that Calcutta babudom has received this shock.- Concerning the merits of the case, expert opinion seems to be that it was necessary in the interests of effective administration. Calcutta was congested. The Law courts could not get through their work—lienee the need for division. Eastern Bengal was far off, andl Assam also had important interests. So Lord Curzon decided' to split the province, add Assam, and make a new centre of Dacca. But the vested interests of the vakil tribe were in Calcutta-. There they were entrenched, and almost impregnable. This

meant a weakening of their powers —so they went, tear in eye, to the country. With a phonographic repetition, as tinny as it was hollow, they asserted that the great Bengali nation was being cut in twain, and that soon, the British would rob them of their name and priceless heritage. Other causes there are that have stimulated disaffection. The trouble in Natal, the never-ending friction between Hindus and Mohammedans, the reported cruelties to coolies in British Crown colonies, and the apparent increase of the cost of living, have all their place in the great ferment; but they are all secondary and accidental, and have little real relation to the greatest movement modern times have seen—the awakening of the East.