THE BRITISH EMPIRE.

Otago Witness, Volume 25, Issue 2321, 25 August 1898, Page 44

THE BRITISH EMPIRE.

BY THE RIGHT HON. SIR CHARLES

W. DILKE, .Bart., M.P. Author of " Greater Britain," &c.

II.— INDIA.

When we come to deal with the Empire in detail, that kingdom within a kingdom — British India— first demands attention. The

Queen reigns in the United Kingdom as Queen of England, of Scotland, and of Irelandthree crowns which she unites with her original or older crown of Normandy represented by the Channel Islands. In the rest of the Empire, outside of the United Kingdom and of India, she reigns as "of the United Kingdom Queen . . . Empress of India." In India she reigns as Empress by statute, and has obtained in her lifetime a separate Crown which more than represents the nominal power of the Moguls at the height of their Imperial fame. From the point of view of modes of Government it is not easy to classify the countries within the dominions of the Queen. India is a statutory monarchy, locally autocratic, under legislative securities imposed ,bj the act of a non-Indian Parliament. But in practice the powers of the Indian statutory Legislature, which is a non-elective fcody, afe controlled by the Secretary of State (who is himself the creature" of our Cabinet system), and in the last resort by the House of Commons. The great selfgoverning colonies enjoy Home Rule, with local Cabinets. The Crown colonies, such as the West Indian Islands, Ceylon, and Mauritius, have various forms of government, all of them under the control of the Colonial Secretary, and, therefore, also, in the last resort, of the Home Parliament. But Fiji, which is one of them, is included .within the Federal Council of Australasia, — at present a dormant institution, though it had for a time a fairly useful existence. Some Crown Colonies in South Africa are indirectly connected with the self-governing colony of the Cape of Good Hope, through the fact that the Governor of the Cape is ■.also High Commissioner for them, and can hardly dissociate his acts with regard to them from the policy which he pursues under the advice of the Cape Ministers responsible to the Cape Parliament. The •Protectorates, Spheres of Influence under Chartered Companies, and other Spheres of Influence are also not easily reckoned as a whole in any group, because some of them are indirectly connected with the self-govern-Sng Cape Colony, some of them under the Foreign Office, and some of them under the J(sovernment of India. Aden, often supposed to be a Crown Colony, is in fact, by statute, a portion of the Indian Presidency of Bombay. Several protectorates in the neighbourhood, including British Somaliland, are under Aden. One island among the British possessions, Ascension, defies all classification, for it is under the Admiralty, and is practically counted as a ship. Cyprus, though under the Colonial Office, is nominally a portion of the Turkish Empire, of which the '"' integrity " was preserved by a lease. The Crown Colony of Hongkong had for a while on the neighbouring mainland a lea.se from China — now ended by absorption, and the curious doctrine of lease recently, in the case of Germany and Russia, supposed by some persons to have been novel — wa? also recognised in the case of Quetta and of the Bolan Pass, and is still recognised, not only in the cases I have named and others, but in the recent treaty with China with regard to territory on the frontier of Burma.

In all this strange catalogue I have placed India first. However extraordinary may be the progress, however marvellous the future either of Australasia or of Canada, India ought always to be first in our minds when we are thinking of Greater Britain. Not only are her sacrifices for the Empire, as well as the numbers of her population, overwhelmingly the greatest, but, while the great self-governing colonies can take good care of themselves, and cannot be greatly harmed or benefited by anything we may say or do, the contrary is the case with India. India is virtually ruled by the electorate of the United Kingdom, and will continue to be so — the parliamentary system being inapplicable, even in the opinion of the most advanced Radicals, to such a congeries of peoples, so different among themselves, in their stages of civilisation, so separated by lingual and racial divisions, so hostile to one another in their creeds. The glory which we may reap from the good government of India is the greatest that we can hope for, and our responsibility towards her people is the highest that we can recognise.

Since the last annual official statement Jrcith regard to India, which is that for the

year 1895-6, distributed to the House of Commons in August (1897) unusually late, India has been visited by heavy calamities in the shape not only of war, pestilence, and famine, but in the additional form of a destructive earthquake. The war upon the north-west frontier — the most serious which British India has ever had to face — is now over, the famine has again been conquered, but the plague is still raging in some parts of India, and causing not only much loss of life, but also much disturbance of trade. The reassuring statements made, in connection with the Budget, by the Indian Minister of Finance, will not 'bear, perhaps, very close examination, as India borrows even in time of peace. But, nevertheless, the condition of India is less alarming than might be expected under the circumstances of the case.

It is finance which lies at the base of every difficulty connected with our Indian Empire. India to a stay-at-home Englishman appears to have a large army. When we consider the numbers of her population, she has one of the smallest armies in the world. Among her native troops the number of white officers is confessedly too small. The use of the army in serious war is impossible unless a certain number of white soldiers are combined with the native force. But such is the costliness of white troops to India upon our present military system, which was adopted against the wish of the Government of India, and which is a system not thoroughly suited to her needs, that it has been found impossible to increase the white army in India since the increase which was effected by Lord Randolph Churchill. A nominal addition to the Indian army has been made by encouraging the native States to set up what are called Imperial Service Troops. It would perhaps have been better to have gradually put down the armies of the native States, which are rather a source of danger than of strength, and to have accompanied the gradual suppression by an increased measure of self-government in maters less important. The feudatory States of India differ greatly among themselves. One, the State of Mysore, possesses representative institutions and a kind of Parliament. Some of them are autocracies of a mediaeval type. The diversity which exists among them, and the comparative popularity of their rule, in spite in some cases of misgovernment, go to confirm the view that our own Government is too inelastic, too much inclined to treat all parts of India as if they were practically one country, although any unity which exists in India is the mere creature of our rule. There is no matter connected with the government of India which is more interesting than this one of the diversity of the native States, of the uniformity of our rule, and of the popularity of most of the native States as evinced by the choice of residence by those who, living in the neighbourhood of the borders, can adopt their rule or ours at will. Few men, except members of the Indian Civil Service, whose interest or whose class feeling is against a change, have the knowledge which enables them to discuss this question and throw light upon it, but it is an interesting fact that two distinguished members of the Indian Civil Service who have written upon the matter in recent years, have both admitted that there is an immense deal to be said in favour of native States. My own opinion has always been that, provided we keep the defence of India in our hands, and keep a general control of her taxation for defence purposes, and to prevent the growth of customs barriers, there is on the whole more to be said for encouraging what may be called native States of very varying types than for encouraging the growth of centralisation under our direct rule. Since the mutiny, the Queen's proclamation, and the taking over of the government from the East India Company, things have virtually remained in statu quo as regards these largest questions. We have continued to centralise a little, adopting for the whole of India, for example, an excellent code of laws, and we have introduced a representative element in a slight degree to Provincial Councils, and created municipalities. On the other hand, we have stereotyped the existing native States of 1858 with little change. The countries which, like the Punjab, had after their annexation been treated as distinct and governed on a more rough and ready system than the rest of India, have gradually and perhaps mistakenly been brought under the general system. Now there is one terrible drawback to direct British rule in India, which is admitted by fair-minded members of the Civil Service and even by the Government. The finance of India, just as it does not allow us to keep up a sufficient number of white officers to meet the strain of war, also docs not permit the existence in India of a sufficient number of civilian administrators to really govern the country as magistrates, as tax collectors, and as ordinary rulers. The judicial and administrative functions are confused, and they are exercised in districts which are far

too vast for individual supervision. The Government comes home to the rural cultivator — and it must be remembered that the

overwhelming majority of the people of India are unlearned, quiet villagers of a too submissive oriental type — in the form of the native .policeman, employed for financial reasons at low wage. The Government have often themselves pointed out that, in Asia— where perjury is a deeply rooted institution, — the getting up of all cases by such a police is full of possibilities of abuse, of which the grave scandals which occur from time to time reveal the fringe. This disastrous condition of affairs is unfortunately inseparable from our direct rule under existing conditions of finance : and I confess that the remedy appears to me to be to content ourselves with looking after the ! general taxation, the defence, and the main lines of communication, and leaving the congeries <>f countries,— Tsome g f reat, and some ye- -mail, of which India is composed, — in a large degree in internal matters to rule themselves. Of course any change j in this direction could be but gradual — experimental, indeed, at first ; and it may be said that such an experiment has already been made and has succeeded, where, as for instance in the case of Mysore, we have handed back to native rule countries which i during long minorities had been in our j charge and to some extent subject to our , system. I One tremendous difficulty is alleged as standing in the way of any such change as that which I recommend. It lies in the fierce religious feuds, especially between Mohammedan and Hindoo, which prevail in some parts of the country. Great towns, however, where they chiefly rage, would not be left without some garrison. Parts of the country peculiarly subject to such feuds would have to be excepted or to be watched, ! aal the paramount Power would always, ' with her "command of the railway system and her garrisons at strategic points, have troops to be sent into a disturbed district as

, they are sent now. 1 The most experienced civilians are con- ; scious of the enormous differences between .' district and district of India. In a large pait i of the country our Government fails to receive the firm' support of what is best among the natives, on account of its inability to give sufficient weight to the hereditary and th-3 aristocratic principle, while in other parts, as it has been said, "our weakness id that our Government is unable to be sufficiently friendly to some established system of Statereligion." The Ameer of Afghanistan is not to our western eyes an enlightened ruler, &ut, strange though it may seem to us, the Ameer of Afghanistan is, on the whole, perhaps a more popular ruler than an impartiil but somewhat cold British Commissioner of the most modern type. While the greater part of India looks with most affection, as well as awe, to a Government which strikes its imagination, and of which the proceedings are intelligible to the people, because of the high birth of the ruler and of his recognised position, there are other parts, such as the Presidency towns, in which we have to deal with an educated democracy trained in British ideas, often possessing a considerable mastery of our tongue, and which is fairly represented by the proceedings of the National Congress. This much-abused body does not ask for Parliamentary Government

for India, and its leading members would be coiitent if, in some portions of the country, I municipalities were more free to run without j leading strings than is altogether acceptable jto our civilians. If we were able to thor- ! oughly develop our own system, excellent as '. a system provided its expense would allow it ; to be so worked that its intention should be j carried into effect, there would be no more to jbs said. There can be no better government j desired for an Oriental world such as India, \ inhabited br a vast number of races of many 1 tongues and of fiercely conflicting religions, ' than a perfectly impartial, strong, just, humane government, such as that conceived and in part administered in practice by the i bs3b men that we have sent to India. There | can be no greater glory to a country than to j have produced such men, and the life record <\>f some of our Indian statesmen will in every ; respect bear comparison with that of any j rulers that the world has shown. Unfortunj ately, however, financial considerations inter- ' fere, aud the government, of which these ad- ! mirable statesmen are the head, is, as we I lur>e seen above, brought to the door of the ) cottage of the cultivator by the native police- ! man. j Even as regards the best side of our rule, j its impartiality is not, perhaps, so popular as | the partiality of the native ruler. A great j Indian civilian himself has said, "Every pari tiality of a chief, whether it be founded on j class feeling or political instinct, or religion, J is likely to endear him" at all events to some ! classes of his subjects. Whatever may be the ■ case in the Presidency towns, when we i "hold in India that men and women, Brahj rnSns pnd Sweepers .... are equal j before the law, are equal indeed for any purI pose? whatsoever, we approach a line on i which our acts may easily become, in the ! eyes of the native community, either posij tively shocking oi positively absurd. The \ theory of equality cuts right across the gram i of a society where the most familiar fact, the one thing that more than any other af- • fect< all daily life and social intercourse, is j the separation of all men into castes and tribes." "Against the danger of enacting ! rules of law unsuited to Indian societies be- | cause they are suited to societies more ad- ! vanced the existence of native States is a valj uable safeguard." "Many States haveadop- ! ted some of our laws or the general spirit of 1 them. For purposes of Indian legislation it would be an exceedingly useful thing to iv- ' quire which of our laws the principal native \ States have of their own motion adopted and ; wbh what modifications the laws adopted j are enforced." "Where native States have voluntarily adopted methods founded on our j fataditions, we may feel our position greatly strengthened by the convergence of view. If ! no unnecessary pressure be exercised, native States spontaneously tend to become admirable fields for administrative experiment, to , which, in our passion for uniformity, we I have, in British territory, too little re- ' course." \ From the point of view of the picturcsqiie ' alone, the existence of the native States is in this colourle&s modern world not to be neg-

lected. Elsewhere all is becoming dull and uniform. In India we have still surviving, 1 in. a thriving and modern life, thoroughly

consistent with our rale, and often with real loyalty to the Empress-Queen, communities which in their political institutions recall Italy of the middle ages, which in . their religious institutions take us back to the early ages of the historical world, and \ which in variety of costume, and pomp of j display, exceed anything which has been : witnessed in other parts of the world by j those who have lived in more romantic j days.

To the traveller India may be commended as, in spite of the dreariness of large parts of its landscape, on the whole, the home of the finest sights and of the most perfect natural pictures tint the woild can show. A May Day review in St. Petersburg does not exceed in military lustre a cavalry camp of India; while the scenery both of southern and Central India, and, in the cold weather, of those portions of the north which are within sight of the Himalaya Range, is not to be met with within the vast dominions of the Emperor of all the Russias. The architecture of the Taj — first of all the buildings of the world in beauty — of the pearl mosque of Agra, and of the pearl mosque of Delhi, of the walls of Agra, and some of the palaces of Central India, stands before any of the architecture of the world in charm. Now Hut China is being, as it is called, "opened to the world," and now that Japan has destroyed, not her scenery, but everything else that was picturesque, in her rage for modernity, India becomes more and more the one country of the world in which the traveller can find those -varied delights, natural and artificial too. which formerly he was able to look for in the Middle Kingdom and in the laa:l of the Rising Sun.

Charles W. Dilke.