INDIAN HOME RULE.

Waipa Post, Volume XXI, Issue 1211, 28 February 1922, Page 2

INDIAN HOME RULE.

IS IT POSSIBLE?

AN ANGLO-INDIAN'S VIEW

An Anglo-Indian, writing to the Sydney Daily Mail, sets out his reasons why, in his opinion, home rule is impracticable, if not impossible. The new Indian policy of self-gov-ernment, with which, he say?.', the British Government is .h complete accord, consists in largely increasing the number of Indians employed -in the various administrative branchesi, granting the people gradual self-go vernment of their country, as an integral part of the Britisfti Empire. In Australia we do not see -he vast problems, and difficulties, before India. Nowhere in this world do we find in any country (except India) such a vast sub-continent broken up into an infinite number of mutually exclusive fragments. The number of castes in India isabout 2378. All the nations of Europe are of distinct tribal type, formed into a definite type; but in India there is no nation in the ordinary sense of the word. The people of India with a population numbering 319,000 —divided into 2378 castes —will never become, as the Commonwealth of Australia, one people, one destiny. The Hindus number 277,586.892, the Mohammedansi number 66,647,019, theBuddhlsts 10,721,453, the Sikhs 3,014,466. To every Mohammedan there are nearly four Hindus; and we must admit that the Hindus hold sway in India. "Why? Because their caste system keeps them in their own provinces—more than nine-tenths of the Hindus of India are in the districts in which they were born. Migration is due to the caste system, or restriction of caste.

Now, how can the various castes, numbering 2378, co-operate in the sielf government of their country? Will those various castes resist the new self government, according to their castes, their diets, their various manners in eating and drinking?

It is self-evident that a real understanding of the 2378 castes in India is only possible if the different castes, or religions, are looked, into in an entirely impartial way, and from a purely historic point of view. A Maze of Caste.

Seventy-one per cent of the actual workers in India are engaged in agricultural pursuits, only 19 per cent get employment from the preparation of material. Through the caste-sys-tem the occupation goes from father to son. Wow, may I ask, how can those various castes, which have been so closely bound up with the casteslystem, open out paths of employment to high castes and low castes alike, by deserting the former occupations of their ancestors' avocation, which would prove more remunerative to a self government? Will those collection of families, or groups of families, bearing a common name Of caste, that has been in use for hundreds of years, bearing a «pecific occupation and which are invariably prohibited from marrying outside their caste, or circle, contribute for a self-government for India. In the smaller circle of castes, where marriage is prohibited, a Brahman caste cannot marry any woman who is a Brahman; his wife must be chosen from the same division of the Brahman caste. The social status of a caste depends on the nature of the occupation of its members and their babitsi in respect of diet. Fresh castes are formed and new subcastes hold themselves away from former equals and marry into fresh castes.

The religious of India may be divided among the Hindus and the Mohammedans. The Hindu increases in India by forming fresh castes in India or fresh circles of caste; but his religion does not go further than India. The Mohammedan religion has a large population :the whole world. The Mohammedan missionaries are to be found in every quarter of the globe. In South Africa, in the Provinces of Natal, Indians number 100,918 ; in Durban, S. Africa, Indians number 17,774; in Pietermaritzburg South Africa, 7789; Austria Hungary, 600,000 Mohammedans; in Russia, 3,800,000; Balkan States, 700,000; China, 30,000,000; Russia in Asia, 14,600,000; in the Commonwealth of Australia, 3000; in Egypt, 10,200,000. In Egypt 91 per cent belong to the Mohammedan religion. A Hopeless Task. As each month passes the features of a self-government for India seem more impossible. The extreme failure of the extremists to follow up their promise? and their methods may succeed for a short time in gaining the ears of the 319,000,000 people in India who are for the most part utterly indifferent to politics. The extremists cannot hold the attention of the people of India to any particular policy. The peasant of India is easily led for a time, but the duration is short. The people of Ind/a now can siee that the extremist is "out for himself." The real agitator is completely out of the country. Educated and clever men in India are getting

tired of those agitators. A freelyelected Parliament in India is an utter impossibility. Unrestricted "Home Rule" in India is a moral impossibility. I draw my conclusions from the caste system- The present state of affairs cannot last long. How long will it take to educate 50,000,000 of a caste to any politics? How long will it take to purify them into social democracy.