INDIA.

Otago Witness, Issue 3430, 9 December 1919, Page 73

INDIA.

TO THE EDITOH.

Slß, I apologise to Miss Mackay for not • having- read tho articles that she refers to—- " Two Aryan Women,"—but from the "Daylight" papers no one would suspect that she credited Mrs Besant with impulsiveness and credulity. So much being granted, what becomes of Mrs Besant's position -as an autnonty. Mo matter what good work she may have done, her name carries no weight; and her statements on any subject at all require careful investigation. Granting also her exceptional power of influencing the the same precaution is necessary in the ctftre of all who. may be associated with or influenced by her. I hardly think it is consistent of Miss Mackay to blame «me for neglecting the " perspective" when it is so conspicuously absent from the rest of her own letter;.. From the way in which she writes of "army hawks buying or stealing- Indian girls" one might suppose that the British army had been guilty of corrupting the niorfcls of India. But the .army is about two-thirds Indian, and it seems just" as* possible that the authorities have been corrupted by' Indian customs. Referring again to missionary Jones. I find that, except- among the few, and unless of very recent years, Indian morals appear to be a minus quantity. In a land where "lofty faith, deep piety, and supreme devotion to the gods are combined with -every vice and sin in the human catalogue, and where the ostentatiously religious are publicly immoral," one can wonder at nothing, otherwise one might be surprised to. find that, "when Lord Dalhousie was considering an act for the suppression of pbscenity. he was compelled by Hindu sentiment to exempt all temples, and religious emblems from the operation' of the act. It is an evil that is entrenched behind the religion of the land, is symbolised and fostered by. its emblems and ceremonies, and 'tasies,' or women dedicated to the Hindu gods and temple worship, constitute the public characters of the land. Many thousands of these are dedicated in infancy by their mothers as thankofferingai to the gods for blessings received. An effort has been made in Bombay to mitigate this evil by making the dedication a legal offence, but it only applies to girls or tender years." The limitation apparently would be in deference to public feeling. When an evil is discovered it is quite natural to wish to hang but some people are not particular who it is. Let us now try to get ,the perspective of the other case. It looks bad, I admit, and .the hours do appoar to be too long, but -we are left' quite m the dark on three important points —the amount of the manufacturers' profits, the cost of living, and whether conditions are stationary, retrograding, or improving. These things are never considered by some people, but others like to know them before forming an opinion. On the first point, I regret 'that I haye no information. On the second, G. W. Steevens, in 1899, told us that "a native could live easily on two' rupees a -week." and he was v writing of Bombay .dockers. Sir A.. Fraser tells of an Indian returning from overseas with something over 500 rupees, enough to keep him and his family in comfort tor five years— < two rupees a week; but possibly the rupee may then have been at 2s. J. P. Jones writes: "A few years ago I carefully investigated the economic condition of the most prosperous and largest village congregation of the Madura Mission, finding that five rupees was thp average monthly income of each family, and we have congregations whose income is less than this." At 'Miis time the Joint Family System prevailed, under which three generations lived together and had all things in common, so, possibly, it took more than one to earn the five rupees, and now a single member can earn two and a-half times as much in the same time. Granting plenty of room for further improvement, may we not bo thankful for -what has been gained, and look forward hopefully to further progress in thefuture. There are more people working for the good of India than those who rave* about it in the press and on the platform. When" reading of Mrs Besant's "impassioned ■ addresses" my thoughts revert to J.V J« Bell's delightful sketch, "Oh, Oliristina.,'' and to a little, scene where Christina, with the wisdom and- assurance of youth, tenders the sage advice, "Keep your hair on, auntie, ' and in replv to an indignant remonstrance offers the obvious alternative, "Weel, talc' it aff then." W*en called on, as we all fraguently" are, to make thd choice, there are those who always inclino to. the former' course; for my own part I prefer the latter, as being generally productive of more good and less evil.; —I am, etc., H. W. Wyndham, December 1, 1919. P.S.—I have to apologise for a mistake in my last letter. In quoting from.' the Rev. J. P. Jones on the causes of poverty I gave the number of goldsmiths as one million and a-haif; it should have a million ; but the "comparison with the number of blacksmiths is still correct. I 'will add just another line to beg Miss Mackay to read Mr Massey's statement on indentured labour in Samoa, apparently Bhe has not seen it, or only in abbreviated form. She will find it in full in the Southland Times, November 22, 1919. p. 8 of the daily edition.—H.W.