The Timaru Herald TUESDAY, APRIL 30, 1907. AN UGLY SITUATION.

Timaru Herald, Volume XC, Issue 13273, 30 April 1907, Page 4

The Timaru Herald TUESDAY, APRIL 30, 1907. AN UGLY SITUATION.

The native trouble in India lias evidently entered upon an. acu-e phase, it has been thought advisable to prepare for emergencies by the issue of ball cartridge to the volunteers. This news confirms the cablegram published yesterday on the authority- of the "Indian Daily News" to the effect that both , the Hindus and the Mohammedans were secretly .arming, and that serious trouble was threatening. Hitherto the improbability of an alliance between these two sections of the Indian population has - been the chief element 'n the safety of the small 'white community which controls the affairs of pur Indian Empire. In India a population of nearly 300 millions of Asiatics i£ managed, and their : government administered, by about 100,000 white men. Behind the handful of whites, it is true, there stands the weight of the British Empire, but. the only visible sign of the British ruler is a veneer of soldiers and Wei'e the British content to govern in India as the Dutch do in Java, their task would be easy enough. But Idokingaipon India as a trust to .be- improved, rather than as a. possession to be , exploited, they have set about the, education of-the native races, and it is this very education which has given rise to the present trouble. A simple government of Asiatics by tie white man, provided it were just and , firm, might! go on indefinitely, but the education of the Asiatics presages danger. For in consequence of the education he has b?en given, the. Hindu has developed a political consciousness, with political ambitions and political'discontent. ' He has-already travelled so far on. this path as to demand Home Rule almost in the precise terms ; in which Mr Devlin demanded self-govern-ment for Ireland from the stage of the Theatre Royal in Tirnaru. At the recent meeting of the Indian National Congress, the president took as the text. of his address the words of Sir Henry CampbellBannerinan, " Good government can never be a substitute for government by the people themselves," and he summed up the demands of India as " self-government like that of the United Kingdom or the colonies." By this means, he said, "India might once more occupy her proud position of yore among the greatest and civilised nations of the world." But as has been pointed out, India is not a nation. Rather it is an empire, of conflicting nations. Within its borders there are 200 millions 1 of Hindus and 60 millions o£ Mohammedans. If the sovereignty of the white nian were to be removed, Hindu and Mohammedan Would be at each other's throats within a year, and the Hindu knows lie would be beaten in the Hence it has not been his wish that the British rule should be withdrawn; he wants Britain to command peace in India in order that he may have the full enjoyment of it. For quite another reason, and other different circumstances, the Mohammedan also has acquiesced in the permanence of British rule. He does not desire to be governed by the Hindu, and lie is quite determined that lie never will be. Therefore he has been content that the British Government should remain, on condition that the Hindu is kept in his place. The rule of the white man has thus been tolerated, by both the great divisions of the Indian population, but it has stood on contradictory conditions, and all the time the ferment of Western education has been working in the native mind, and giving the Indians abstract ideas ""of. equality which are separated by a whole world from the actual practice of the Europeans in their relations with the subject races. The white ruler has to maintain what sei&ms like an attitude of social and political injustice. He cannot give political rights, and he will not give social equality. Yet he has voluntarily abstained from th 3 despotism which would have made his attitude logical and intelligible to the native mind. Hence the threatened upheaval of the 'old order of things which could only exist either under a system • f repression, or by virtue of an admission on the part of the Indians that they were in everv respect inferior to the white administrators. The, present situation is fraught with anxiety, but the Indian Government may be trusted to grapple with the danger.