Evening Post. TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 1919. RACE, SECT, AND EASTERN NATIONALISM

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 93, 22 April 1919, Page 6

Evening Post. TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 1919. RACE, SECT, AND EASTERN NATIONALISM

A remarkable feature of the Egyptian and Indian riots is the reported fraternisation, on the ono hand, of Mohammedans and Copts, and, on the other hand, of Mohammedans and Hindus. In Calcutta, according to tho Press Bureau, "Mohammedans and Manvaris (Malirattas, 'a Hindu raco) fraternised," and Hindus were admitted to tho mosques." Again, in Egypt, " Coptic priests (Christians) participated in frenzied demonstrations, proving, that tho disturbances are national, not religious." The author of this latter statement, the Cairo correspondent of the Sunday Express, adds that " all religious differences have been forgotten." In face of this, it is surprising to hear from London that the Egyptian Nationalists '■' are seeking to found a Mohammedan Empire with a Khalif stationed in Cairo." The existence of .a nonreligious movement aiming at the creation of a religious State is a self-contra-dictory proposition that seem 3to be tinexplainable, except on tho basis that tho Christian Copts may be willing to make a political use of the MohammedSh faith. According to some writers, they did so as long ago as 627 A.D., when the religious feuds of the Egyptian Christians facilitated the conquest of Egypt by the Mohammedan Arabs. But, whether the Copts did of did not assist the invader, which is a controverted point, they paid a heavy price for the overlordship of Islam, whose oppression did not cease till 1811. Their own unfortunate history, therefore, would hardly aeem to counsel the Copts to make political alliance with the Mohammedans, even to the point of re-creating a Mohammedan Empire.. Nevertheless the cabled statement, if not probable, is not impossible. And in any case, taken in conjunction with the reported fraternisation of Mohammedan and Hindu in Calcutta, it is of deep interest. ■ ' It hardly needs a prophet to discern that if Nationalism in India is stronger than religion and caste, Nationalism will ultimately prevail; and.the same remark applies to Egypt. * But the assumption is a tremendous one to arrive at; it is a negation of all history down to the present day. Caste, as has been frequently pointed out, is incompatible with democracy, and with the Western social system. And no one has hitherto doubted that if Britain left India,to the care of Hindu, of Mohammedan,. and of the indigenous population generally, ordered government would soon disappear in the chaos of religions and racial strife. Egypt is a less complicated proposition, but even there it would be an astonishing thing to find the conflicting currents of race and cross-currents of religion subdued and disciplined to a united Nationalism. Probably the collaboration of Coptic priests with Mohammedan rioters is a local phenomenon attributable to social grievances that only temporarily have secured the upper hand. " The ouk breaks," says one of the Cairo messages, " were sometimes anti-British, but mostly were against the Armenians and the Greeks." This statement possibly explains a good deal. After the Mohammedan persecution of the Coptic minority ceased, the Copts were left in a socially superior position in the Egyptian community. Their better education gave them supremacy in trades and professions, a supremacy which was not challenged until the modernisation of Egypt, under European influence, modified the old conditions of Mohammedan' rule. According to one authority:

In trades and professions, so Jong as the Copts had no foreign competition to contend against, they maintained their supremacy over the rest of the population. They filled Government offices; in towns and, villages they monopolised trades and professions requiring ca-ro and skill. They were the accountants, the architects, the goldsmiths, the carpenters, the land-sur-veyors, the bone-setters, etc. . But, with tho extension of railways and agricultural roads and tho increased facilities of communication and prosperity, there has been a great influx of Italian, Greek, Armenian, and other Levantine workn»en, who, with their better tools, are undoubtedly superior to tho Copts, and have proved most formidable rivals. Furthermore, the importation of cheap European wares of every desoription ia slowly killing all native industry.

Thus there are social-economic factors at work that the cabled reports have overlooked.

Economic rivalry of Christian Copt with Christian Armenian and Greek may explain C&ptic participation with Mohammedans in Egyptian riots, but that is by no means equivalent to Coptic support of a Mohammedan Empire. To what extent industrial and economic grievances have grouped the rival religions behind the political banner of Nationalism it is hard to say, for the cablegrams, beyond mere opinions, give little clue. But if religious differences are yielding substantial ground to political agitation, then the Nationalist movement in Egypt and India assumes a new importance; and such a development would have a profound effect on British policy in the Orient.