FORCES OF REVOLT IN INDIA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2785, 31 July 1907, Page 77

FORCES OF REVOLT IN INDIA.

I » I THE DISAFFECTED AREA. ! ,

One of the most serious features in the agitation in Bengal is (says The Times) the growth of a quasi-military organisation known as the "National Volunteers," which has already played a conspicuous part in all the recent disturbances. Mr Henry Newman, one of the editors of the Englishman, whose intimate knowledge of the life and thought in India and acquaintance with, the people of all classes are beyond dispute, has recently been investigating the situation, and his experience adds to the force of his conclusion, embodied in letters to the Englishman and to the Times of In-dia, that the "National Volunteer" movement has resulted in an organisation "of a most subtle and dangerous kind, and should have the immediate atention of the Imperial Government." Its widespread activity is not a thing of 6uch mushroom growth as has been supposed. Some eight or ten years ago a cultured Bengali lady, Miss Ghosal, bitterly resenting the slurs cast upon Bengali physique and courage by writers from. Macaulay downwards, advocated with much energy the establishment of schools of physical culture. She interested many of her friends in the project, and schools called akharas were founded for the teaching of wrestling, leaping, sword play, and the use of the lathi —the long bamboo of the Indian peasant —as a weapon of offence and defence. More lately, the Sivaji cult, got up by extreme politicians to further their anti-British propaganda, gave an impetus to the movement. Akhffras 'grew'and ''multiplied, until there was scarcely "a village in Bengal that did not possess one. A ready nucleus for their organisation was found in the schools and colleges of Bengal. Then came the boycott agitation, and the demand for active and alert men to carry on the propaganda. The akharas naturally furnished such men, and because at first at least, they offered their services voluntarily, without any hope of reward, the term volunteers came to be applied' to them. Drill was added to the subjects taught in the akharas, and the Volunteers adopted a kind of rough uniform, comprising a yellow turban, a red shirt, and a sash round the shoulders, inscribed with the words "Bande-mataram." The general organisation was first based on what wa6 known as the Anti-Circular Society, which consisted of men banded together to defy Sir Bampfylde Fuller's Government. After Sir Bampfylde's retirement the society was replaced by two others —the Brothi Samti and the Bande Mataram Sampradaya. The first of these has a membership restricted more or less to schoolboys, and is without regular sources of income. The Sampradaya is open to all classes of Bengalis, and draws its recruits from students, ex-students, clerks, and muscular Hindus of other classes. Its members are trained in the use of the lathi, sword, spear, and swordstick. The latter weapon, locally known as the goomti, is manufactured and openly sold in Eastern Bengal. The fact that, in some districts Hindu zemindars have insisted on their tenants joining the akharas accounts for the inclusion among the Volunteers of ■'itout fellows very dissimilar in physique and bearing from the clerkly class of' Bengalis." Mr Newman states that there is a central body in Calcutta, with duly_ appointed

officers^ whose business it is to control and advise the various corps throughput the two provinces. This central body appears to be amply provided with funds. Large sums have undoubtedly been spent in conveying the Volunteers from one locality to another for particular purposes, although in some cases the Volunteers evade paying their fares, owing to - the sympathy or | cowardice of the booking clerks at railway stations and steamer landing stages. Money is also required for travelling agents, who are -moving very freely about the country, organising fresh* centres of discontent and sfdition. The Volunteers were first utilised to preach the boycott. They visited the bazaars, and told the people that the purchase of British goods increased the poverty of the country. They remonstrated j with, .those who refused to patronise Swaj deshi shops. Then, growing bolder, they threatened, and, being organised and armed with, lathis, they began to inflict their will "upon the peopfe. "In every place I have been to," writes. Mr Newman, "the story is the* same. In the local bazaar the shops .selling Manchester piece goods and foreign cigarettes .and other artioles have had to close down/because the Volunteers "entered the shops, intimidated the " shopkeepers; threatened and often beat purchasers, and in very' many cases made bonfires of the goods. Stores of Liverpool salt have been thrown, into the nearest river -.or nearest tank, or defiled in the most disgusting way. , In a few cases where those who have suffered - have --had the courage to complain, the -police have intervened, but the offenders' < ; have" either) ''escaped or been awarded ridiculously light punishments." The Volunteers are deliberately preaching wha<T is' nothing short of a revolt' a eaih'st British rule. But for' the Mohammedans J havine definitely declared themselves on the British side every European throughout Eastern Bengal would be in danger of serious molestation. " Unhappily the British officials in" the districts of Eastern Bengal are few in number, and the staffs on which they have to rely are overwhelmingly Hindu, although the province contains a majority of Mohammedans. The special correspondent of the Empire remarks that those who accuse the officials of slowness of action and of failure to foresee and prevent the riots and dacoities which are of such, frequent occurrence have either no idea of the wide' aTea of the disaffected districts and the difficulties -of transit, or. purposely ignore these considerations.- • He gives a number of samples of the day's work of British officials, and one of these may be quoted- as more indicative of the recent state of affairs in Eastern Bengal than any general description could be: — "Mr Clarke, the district magistrate of Maimansingh, was riding round on inspection on Sunday, and reached Dewanganj at nightfall, to find the place in anarchy. Two thousand dacoite were looting and firing shops. Mr Clarke, who had been out all day, went into the bazaar single-handed, for there was not a constable in the place, and with fine grit subdued the panic among the bazaar people and so secured the withdrawal of the" dacoits. Anyone who has seen him at Jamalpur 'placing' men as a precautionary measure, despatching messages to all parts of the district, giving orders to men on | the spot, reading reports, and, after a tremendous amount of desk work, ordering out his horse knows that his energy has met a great difficulty gravely and adroitly." Some instances are given in the Englishman of the ingenuity and vindictiveness with which trade in British wares, and ■particularly in Manet-ester meoe goods, is hampered. A Tipperah cloth-setler, having i regard to Mohammedan resentment of the boycott, thought he might safely indent largely on Calcutta for Manchester cloth. After taking delivery he found that | through each bale a red-hot skewer had been thrust, ruining every dhoti and sari within. The gunny-bag had been picked j open, the skewer thrust through the goods, and the bag then rewwn, so that there were no external indications of damage having been done. This wanton destruction of property could not have been perpetrated without the connivance of Bengali clerks either on the railways or on the ! river steamers. In another instance a merchant bought five bales of English cloth. Someone forged a receipt, took delivery of the bales, and threw them into the river.