INDIAN PROBLEMS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 19 January 1927, Page 12

INDIAN PROBLEMS.

LOBD RO’XALDSHAY LOOKS FORWARD. NO “IMITATION FUROPEANS.” “There is no subject that should tic of greater interest to tin* people of this country or more 'worthy of their attentive study than India,” said Lord Ron-aldshay in a recent lecture in London. “For India,” said his lordship, “lias been in the past the scene of one of the greatest achievements of the British, people. It is at the present time the* arena in which our administrative* ability, our character, and genius for statecraft are being tested as they have never been tested before. With the future of India is bound up the success or failure of one of the most interesting and momentous experiments that have been made —■namely, the attempt of one people not only to govern the vast population of another race ,but to bring into- harmony with its own standards and ideals oi conduct and outlook of life those of a civilisation and culture and outlook that differ from them profoundly.”

There was not an acre of land in British India over which the fine-spun web of our administration had not been cast. The land had been covered witli a network of railways, nearly 45.11miles in extent. Huge tracts of desert had been made fertile by some of the most vast irrigatXkn works in the world. The yields of the crops had been increased by scientific research. Courts of law had been established, fiom village benches up to the High Courts, and the law itself, both civil and criminal, had .been codified and accorded a place of honour in al 1 modern civilised States. Schools and universities had been establisFrsd, local ■self-government in town and country had been organised, and finally, jong strides had been taken towards the institution of a Parliamentary t-vstem in the country.

Thi-s great work of organisation was all the more remarkable in view of the immense diversity of India, both as to its physical characteristics dud its people. It would bo ditfieuli t" imagine a greater contrast than existed between the rich tropical iitxuri. unco of Bengal .and the stark aridity of Seinde on the other side of Lidia. In India they would find every phase o! eivil'waLion. from, the preli irtorie to the- modern —from the stone age to the l w<>: it• th century. To itv co turn U2O millions or Indian people into imitation Europeans, >t'-l Ins lordship, was an .idle dream. I’chimi them they had their o.vn traditions, dating baelc from many centuries. The institutions that wo had ■ct up had been fashioned on Britr~h. not Indian, models, and the cur-

nvuln of the schools, and colleges had been English. And even the language through which they had been admitted to the higher learning of the West had been English language: and the system of local solf-govern-inem con espnmlod as nearly a« possible to the system in this country. Lastly, the form of representative Government that we were now endeavouring to- set up was likewise that of the democratic- constitutions thathad had their rise in Western countries.

“Bm while these forms have had their advantages during the transitional period of the life story of the Indian continent, it does not follow,” concluded Lord Ronald shay, “that they will be permanently best suited to a- land where the conditions differ so- widely in their physical characteristics, and where the congeries of peo-

tiio differ so widely from the people* of the West. So while we strive to maintain the high .standard of integ-

rity and efficiency which we have set up in our administration in India, at the same time we must view with sympathy a gradual process of evolution which will give to the whole .social and political organisation of India a more distinctive Indian character and mode. Only in that direction, in my belief, can ihe way he paved for the permanent inclusion of a willing India in some future federation of' the British Empire.”