Manawatu Evening Standard. FRIDAY, JUNE 12, 1925. INDIA’S HISTORY AND ROMANCE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 162, 12 June 1925, Page 4

Manawatu Evening Standard. FRIDAY, JUNE 12, 1925. INDIA’S HISTORY AND ROMANCE.

Theue is, according to a writer in the American Review of Reviews, who speaks witli inside knowledge, “no greater mystery and romance in history than the growth and existence of the British Empire in Jndiu. Jt is,” lie says, “extremely difficult even for the majority of Englishmen, including tlioso who have followed intelligently throughout their lives the conduct of public affairs, to realise how great that mystery and romance is. Even the most salient facts about India and its peoples are dimly apprehended in their full implication.” India is certainly a wonderful country. It contains within its boundaries one-filth of the world’s population, and, while it is “little more than half the size of the United States, it supports a population three times as laVge. in many of its most densely cultivated areas the incidence of a purely agricultural population approaches 1000 to the square mile. It is as large as the whole of Europe west of the Vistula, and has as many separate languages as Western Europe, and contains culture and points of view as far apart as those which separate a Qerman from a Frenchman, or from an Italian. It has races of fighting men as well developed, as brave and as much animated by inspiring traditions as the heirs of any Western chivalry; it has highly developed, indigenous systems of commerce and banking; it has ancient cities which yield to none in beauty and interest; it is the home of great religions, and is profoundly affecting to-day the religious thought of the world, it "lias a civilised history extending into the remotest pust, a past when Europe was the home of scattered savage tribes. Yet this great country has, until the advent of the English, been the continual scene of internal dissension and of foreign conquest, and, with all its ancient civilisation, lias never developed any progressive idea of stable or popular government. For 150 years it has now enjoyed peace and progress such as it never experienced before, and during this period it has submitted to be governed by a mere handful of Englishmen, for the actual governors ot the country have never numbered more than some 1500 trained administrators, who have been helped by a similar sprinkling of technical expevts. The whole system has been expanded and upheld by a minute garrison of some 05,000 white men and the total European element in the midst of the teeming millions of brown India, has never been more than a most trifling percentage of the indigenous popula tion. Tlie very class of Indians whose sole occupation under the caste system is that of fighting, would outnumber the men whoso presence represents what is meant by the British Empire many times over.” That may be regarded as a very fair summary of the position in India to-day although, unfortunately, .disruptive influences are at work which, were they successful, would largely, if not wholly, undo the work of the last 150 years which has brought peace instead ol strife, and welded together, under the one Government, Hindus, Maliornmedans, Buddhists, . Parsees, Sikhs, Jains, Animists, Christians and Jews. The wonder of this is all the greater in that, apart from the ten or eleven principal languages spoken, over twenty other languages are used, while out of the 300,000,000 people living in that vast sub-continent, little more than 300,000 speak or understand the English language used by. thoir rulers, who have ,co-operated with the natives to bring about stable government. The system adopted

naturally involves the employment of Indians, often with only a solitary’ Englishman at the head of affairs in an area of, in some eases, over 1000 square miles, with a population of over a million, all orders being executed by Indians and Indians alone. When a summons to attend a Court is issued, its service is entirely dependent upon native agencies. The story is told of an ex-member .of the Indian Civil Service who, after 35 years of official life, said that “he never signed an order without a feeling of amazement of what would happen if the native agency to which it was entrusted struck work.” In such a contingency, he said, “the British Empire in India would collapse like a pack of cards.” But it hasn’t, because the Government has been supported by the willing co-op-eration of the people of India themselves.