SURENDRA NATH BANERJI.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14109, 10 July 1909, Page 1 (Supplement)

SURENDRA NATH BANERJI.

AND SOME OTHER POLITICIANS.

BY FRANK MORTON.

Thinking back along the dismal processions of politicians I have known, Surendra Nath Banerji stands out. I don't know why, unless that he is in London at the Press Conference just now, making sounding speeches. He always did make sounding speeches. He had attained to a remarkable dexterity in saying small things, as it were, largely. Voluminous, you know, but vague; sometimes vapid.. He only rose above the average of politicians by virtue of the fact that he spoke admirable English, putting in the semi-colons and the points de suspension with an ease quite masterly. He was a member of the Legislative Oouncii*of Bengal; and I was a colt in Calcutta, making much more money than was good for me. In common with the other colts, I had learned that all Babus were necessarily creatures meet for contempt. Your colt learns that in three months, and spends the rest of his life trying to forget it. Surondra Nath-Baner-ji; had been a schoolmaster, and was the best public speaker I ever knew attached to that remarkable profession. The art of public speaking, you will have noticed, consists not in what you say, but in how you say it. Banerji made remarkably brilliant speeches, but I do not remember that I ever heard him say anything. In his talk there was much sugar and some fire but the sugar was not digestible, and the fire was artificial—a fire of contrivance. He loved long, kinky words. '.'lncontrovertible" was a favourite, I remember; and I never know any other man get such a moving roll and cadence into incomparable." He often spoke for an hour at a. time, while the reporters rested, and the European members drowsed uncomfortably in their seats. He was the sort of firebrand that starts with a splutter and ends in a fizzle. He wandered interminably

down flowery roads that led nowhere. He was wonderfully melodious and entirely negligible. He would be a patriot, but only succeeded in appearing a posing person. Now he is a journalist, and the editor of that native newspaper that is, perhaps, the most respectable in India. I can imagine him in London yonder, in the frock coat he entirely fails" to fit, although it fital him so well. He is the sort of Babu who will never bring trouble to any Government or to himself. He likes to ha- 1 . > his

bread buttered on both sides and I don't think he really cares very much -who butters it. You will remember the excellent Babu types that Mr. Anstey (I think it was) once introduced to readers of Punch. That was Surendra Nath Banerji. Only Banerji always spoke better English. The politician is one, but politicians differ. You must not think ot politicians in. India <ae creatures closely resembling lin their outer marks the politicians of New Zealand. In India thought runs in different grooves, to different ends. The Babus are more- virtuous than -we are, and more vicious; more honourable and less honest; •less greedy and more selfish. The Babu is marvellously adroit, but he has less sense of humour than a cow. In him you find developed to an amazing degree the sad futility of foolish pride, the sour malevolence of mediocrity. You may admire a Babu immensely, but you couldn't loa j him in a thousand years. He. can learn anything,, to no purpose. Occasionally very wise, he remains always the silliest midderling- under the sun. Ho" symptomifccs the 'lamentable weakness* that stands like a lion' in the path that leads _to Indian nationhood. There is no Indian nation. I doubt if there ever will or could be, t The Bengalis are at the back of and at tlie heart of this -present seditious movement, in India. Their inordinate vanity goes to ; such lengths that it is beginning to make them believe in themselves. Like the foolish children that they are, they will have to be soundly whipped before they can be brought tj> behave better. Teaching is good, and kindness is upon occasion better; but the Bengalis need discipline. It is nonsense, in any case, to talk of Bengalis as though they were Europeans, and as though European methods must succeed with them. A great majority of Asiatics—Bengalis, Madrasie, Parseee, Jews, others— certain things in common. They are all adroit, but few of them present the quality of greatness even in the germ. Once an Asiatic, always an Asiatic. I mentioned the Jews just now. They have been subjected to European influences for an age. They have suffered the splendid discipline of persecution and contumely. They have married with Europeans; they have become effective imitators of the tricks and idiosyncrasies of half the people of Europe. But they have remained Asiatics. Our thoughts are not their thoughts, nor our ways their ways. Between an Englishman and a Frenchman or a German the difference is chiefly a difi ference of locality and of habit, and to some extent a difference of prejudice. But between an Englishman and a Jew the difference is a gulf unfathomable and unbridgl e d—a difference of race. So it is with the } Bengalis, and the other races of India. i Friendliness is possible and easy; friendship is impossible. There can be no friendship without intimacy; and no intimacy without comprehension. Trust and confidence can only exist on a common basis of principle. Between European and Asiatic no such basis can be said to exist. ' For theso reasons and for others, I believe that the British Government of India has been, and ■ is in t the main and essentially, a good and wise government. There is no Indian people; but there are many Indian peoples. Between these peoples there is often great antagonism, deeprooted in ancient prejudice. The idea of their uniting to govern themselves is a preposterous idea.' They never could' unite, and if they could they wouldn't. _ The present agitation is virtually an agitation to put powers of government into the hands of the Bengalis. As to this weapon of murder that the agitators are using, there can be no two opinions. It is an abominable and ignoble weapon. No wrong was ever truly righted by the shedding of innocent blood. , But it is the weapon that ill-balanced agitators have used from time immemorial, and there is no cause for surprise in the fact that Bengali agitators are adopting it. When you can't fight, you can at least make your grievance conspicuous Ly stabbing some fellow in the back. Bengalis can't fight. They are physical cowards, pretty well every man jack of them. But they can pull a trigger treacherously, and they can hurl a bomb. They are learning. Mr. K.'.- Hardie merits censure and chastisement because he has talked the sort of talk that leads ill-balanced Bengalis to assassinate men of white blood % In that degree, and to that extent, Hardie and the men behind him are traitors, not merely to their nations, but to their race. And I hasten to admit that r an perfects certain that Mr. Surendra Nath Banerji does not like the weapon of assassination. He is a very cultivated and comfortable olive-complexioned gentleman; and all this illegal shedding of blood is a vastly uncomfortable business. Mr. Banerji sits respectably on a, fence between, the King and his seditious subjects, and Ml'. Banerji impartially flings plums of oratory to this side and to that. He would like to toe a tribune of the people; but he has no people; he has merely the Bengali horde and the world 'in general. • ' Thinking back, I can see myself again, a voung unlicked colt in the Bengal Council Chamber. The day is hot, and in that place of dignitv the shade is .grateful and deep. But there is a prevailing odour of hot leather and old bones. Ihe air is full of suffocating motes. Several livery civilians snort impatiently in their sleep. And in the foreground, the Hon. Surendra Nath Banerji, a lithe, brown figure, .ill ago" with restless motion, is talking, talking?" restless motion, is talking, talking/ talking. He says that something is dacoptroYeitiblo.