THE BENGALI BABU.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1289, 12 November 1896, Page 9

THE BENGALI BABU.

A correspondent, who has evidently ' been behind the scenes, calls our atten- : tion to the way in which the Secretariats and Offices of the Government of India* are day by day becoming more of a close preserve for the Bengali Babu. The active energy of the Babus, he says, is always busy in making up their nefarious conspiracy to overpower and oppress the newcomerß of other castes who hardly represent even a microscopic minority. His description of the process by which the unwelcome outsider, if he should get a footing in an office, is shouldered out of it by the combination of the Bengali clerka may be instructive to those who are not familiar with the interior working of a Government office. The ways in which it is possiole to throw obstacles and stumbling-blocks in the path of the neophyte are numerous. But this apparently is the favourite method. '* The Moslem being quite a stranger to office routine (like every new man) naturally stands in need of help, loses his composure and stands a r, ady victim through a desire to become acquainted with some one. The cunning Babu then with forctd flowing exuberance of outward sympathy willingly responds to the call for help and in this way gains a full confidence in a day or two. Now the fish-eating basilisk prowls about for opportunity at the wicket gate of virtue like a seal on the banks of a fishery. He knowingly dictates to him (Moslem) to do a thing in the wrong way, and when done the Babu without his knowledge sneaks quietly into the Superintendent's room with the thing wrongly done. • Ah, Sahib,' he says, •he is like a Nabob ; neither does he care to work nor does he care to come to me for instruction.' In a few days the new man is declared unfit and the Babu makes a jubilee over his success like a 4 ghazi' over a European victim." On the other part when the new hand is a Babu, our correspondent describes how the other Babus will do his work for him, leaving 'him only things to copy. Should the Superintendent make any inquiry about his progress the answer will be " Fusht rate, sir." But if in spite of everything he should be detected in some fault, then the senior Babu will plead for him with, the Superintendent. "Sir, sir, you are his maßter, sir 1 You are his father and mother, sir! You are his Queen Victoria ! Kindly forgive him, sir! God will bless you, sir ! " It is not only in the interior of the office, however, that

Bengali clannishness exerts itself to repel the intruder ; the same spirit obstructs the portals, apparently, for men of other race. "Whenever any Mahomedan goes to a Babu and inquires if there is a vacancy he replies with his wrinkly forehead that the office is rather contem-

plating a reduction of certain permanent hands. And in the meantime the crafty Babu is trying his utmost to get in bis nephew, or his son in-law, or his grandchild, or in default of these some candidate who will satisfy his Mammonic propensities." In short it is the conclusion of our worthy informant that " the present system of recruiting junior clerks for Government offices is so -disadvantageous to non-Hindus that it hardly leaves any bright avenue to walk through ; the pictures of their difficulties are so great, as is seen every day, that only the brush of the X rays can give a true colouring for the public to appreciate." One may smile at the writer's metaphors ; but if there were any rays that would reveal the true goings on in the inside of a Government office, it would probably be found that there was a good deal of truth, as well as of human nature, in this representation. — Pioneer (Allahabad).