INDIAN UNREST.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 71, 26 March 1910, Page 4

INDIAN UNREST.

"The articulate ciasses" of India, according to a writer in the February Contemporary Review, have, since, the birth of the National Congress in 1885, "stood for the first time upon a common platform, moved by one common impulse — the impulse of a new patriotism, inspired by one lofty ideal — the ideal of a strong, united, and serf-go-verning India." "It was a mere intuition, no doubt," he adds— "a vague and dim perception more than a definite and clear conception. But it was, nevertheless, a new and maddening inspiration, under whose inluence people commenced to dream divine dreams." Some of these dreams have evidently taken possession of the writer of "The Forces Behind the Unrest in India," from whom we have quoted, who signs himself Bipin Chandra Pal, and whose long article is one of the most interesting contributions in the Review. A Bengali of the modern type, who has realised the error of medieval Hinduism in seeking its ideal "in the abstractions of philosophy and in a negation of the practical contents of life," and is prepared to find the ideal of eternal truth "not in the abstract, but in the concrete—not in a negation of the social life, but in its idealisation and fulfilment," he appears to write throughout assuming that in this respect he represents the attitude of the millions of his fellow-countrymen. While this assumption is not likely to be accepted by a critical reader, the article is none the le6s valuable as lopiesenting the personal vi«-*s and conclusions of a thoughtful and educated native, who ctu

express himself in lucid and idiomatic English. The problem of to-day, he contends, is the direct rewrit of British administration in India for the past two centuries, and he traces five causesEnglish education; British laws and methods of administration ; increased facilities of intercommunication; the vernacular press; and foreign travel. These combined have brought about a new desire for freedom and national greatness in the higher classes; the breakdown, of old ideas of social order in the masses; and a general disillusionment regarding the physical and moral superiority of the rulers. All these points are developed in order and at too great length to be followed here in any detail. He finds the first expression of the new spirit of freedom, aroused by the study of English literature, in the sect of the Brahmo Samaj, whose watchword was the wholly heretical doctrine of personal freedom, denying the authority of priests or scriptures to determine matters of faith, and repudiating the claims of caste and custom to regulate domestic and social relations. Its practical influence in the relaxation of social discipline -was far more widespread than its limited numbers would imply ; and the revolt against authority, born in English schools and colleges, was supplemented by the administration of the courts, which broke up the prim- j itive feudal methods, placing the powerful landlord and the most revered mullah or priest on the same level as the despised peasants over whom they had once exercised unquestioned judicial authority. At the present time, there is, quite naturally, a genera] demand on the part of the lower castes for social recognition, side by side with a demand on the part of the superior castes for enlargement of their castestatus and protection of their old priv-' ileges. The influence of the vernacular press in Bengal is not to be measured by its circulation of forty or fifty thousand. Villagers do not ask for the latest news or enquire the date- of the papers which paes from hand to hand, and are read evening after evening by the village schoolmaster or storekeeper to eager groups of illiterate neighbours. Not only political events, but the social scandals of Europe and America, are thus discussed far and wide. Contact with Europeans by travelled natives — the retinue of princes whose tastes lie in seeking out the vices of our civilisation, and the lascar seamen in low resorts in the neighbourhood of the docks — has led to an altogether erroneous notion of the national character, which has tended "to destroy the halo that at I one time surrounded the British name in India." And there are influences in j another direction to which the writer ! attaches great importance, though the j average Briton will regard them as infinitesimal — the revival of Sanskrit learning and consequent increased appreciation of Indian culture and character ; the study of Buddhism in England and America ; the search after occult Indian lore by the theosophical societies ; and lastly, the direct missioning of English-speaking people by the Vedanta and other native cults. What the writer has clearly brought out — whether he misreads the signs or not — is, that behind this unrest there lie the great shaping forces of humanity all unseen by those who are swept onward by the current. British administration has been inconsistent, and has made many blunders. The very movements which it welcomed in the humble beginnings as signs of healthy progress have in their advanced stages been viewed with apprehension and discouraged. The late Lord Dufferin, on the "saiety valve'" principle which has worked well in Britain, though the wisdom of his action was questioned by experienced administrators, encouraged the National Congress which Chandra Pal and other Brahmins now regard as an effective agent in the coming destruction of the British authority. The abandonment of school-books in which ware included the histories of Cromwell and Washington, and the substitution ill State schools of stories from Indian sacred books inculcating filial duty and respect for social and sacerdotal authority, is significant, but the change is made too late — the leaven is at work. How far, we wonder, will the Briton of to-day be inclined to accept the patronising paragraph with which the author closes, whereio he tells us that European civilisation is exhausted, and India's debt to England in having received from her the stimulus of rejuvenescence will be repaid by the overthrow of the national ideals, to be replaced by a modified Vedanta which "will recreate human culture and civilisation in the coming ages." Whatever | the issue may be in the future, it is ! as well to remember that no Hindu can ', speak for India. In the same issue of the Contemporary, Mr. E. A. Foord, no mean authority, writes, in his article "East and West" ■. — "A nation j India is not, nor ever will be. A with- ! J drawal of British rule would mean an i immediate relapse into the anarchy of | the eighteenth century."