INDIAN AFFAIRS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19478, 24 December 1925, Page 13

INDIAN AFFAIRS

PROBLEMS OF GOVERNMENT. . ...—--vsdifl® BETTER RELATIONS WITH BRITAIN. PROGRESS OP MISSION WORK. Dr. W. J. Porfpous, of Dunedin, who has spent the greater part of the last, IK years in India, returned to the Dominion a week ago, with his wife and family. Tn. an interview with an ‘‘Otago Daily Times” representative Dr. Porteous had a good deal of inter nst to say both about present day movements and londenries in India. and about, the progress of the Presbyterian Mission in the Punjab with which he has been associated since its inception. It is 19 years since Dr. Porteous last visited Dunedin. At that time the war was in progress, and Dr. Porteous went Home and took part, in it, first for a. year in the R.A.M.G. and then for two and a half years in the New Zealand Medical Corps. It. was in 1903 that he surveyed the whole of India, on behalf of the New Zealand Presbyterian I'hureh, with a. view tn selecting the most suitable locality fnr the establishment of a mission. On his report, an area in the east of the Punjab was chosen and the rhurch has now a sta.ff of more than a dozen missionaries there. One nf the most live topic', in India at the present time, says Dr. Porteous, is the. treatment of Indian natives by the new South African Government, I whose policy appears to be to make it i impossible for Indians to remain in I that, country. The. Nationalist rnoveI ment in India has, of course, tended to

I make the people highly sensitive to ) national slights, but as far as South .Africa, is concerned they have been well supplied with reason for complaint, and even the general press in India has been speaking very bitterly about the treatment of Indians there. Various happenings have, tended to shake the [faith of the people, in the reality of British promises regarding the. equality of all parts of the Empire given at. different Imperial Conferences. In Dr. Portcous’s opinion the. great task of Britain in India just now is somehow to restore, the confidence nf the people, in the absolute security of Britain's pledged word. On the whole matters politically in India, arc much quieter than they were. The great, leaders of recent days have lost their grip on the politics of the country. Mahatma Ghandi, for instance, whoso power was once, almost, unbounded, though still a. great moral j force, is no longer a. political leader. After his term in gaol he lost his bold on the imagination of the people as a supernatural being and he is no longer trusted by the Indian politicians. His erood of “back to the spinning wheel” was no doubt good for crowded villages where there was insufficient work to go round, but ho. insisted upon it for politicians and busy business men. This j proved In he too much of a putting | back of the clock oven for conservative * India. His great ideal was to unite the Hindus and the Mohammedans, but, there is no unify between the two and not, likely to bp. Yet until they are united it is difficult to see how India can become a. nation. There has been a. great disappearance of Indian leaders during the past 12 months or so, and the country seems to bo much in need of an outstanding personality. It is interesting Io learn that a. Hindu woman. Mrs Naidu, is at present president of the Indian National Congress, and showing distinct gifts of leadership.

Speaking of the relations between Britain and India, Dr. Porteous said that Britain was easily the best race for ruling primitive, in their childhood stage, but the trouble was that India, was now coming to the ado lescent stage, hod that, was a. different problem. That stage was accompanied by all sorts of hypersensitive condi tinons, and you could not, treat an ado lescent as you treated a. child. It, remained to be seen whether Britain could successfully solve the problem. If she could gradually hand the reins of government over to India and turn out a. self governing nation it. would be the first, time that, had ever been done in history. If Britain can only give the right lead now she. will gain back many of the extremists who are now alienated. If her statesmen can avoid doing anything foolish to play into the bonds of her enemies it seems that the non-co-operat ion movement will gradually die away. The relations between India and Britain have much improved since the war. British officials have changed their methods to some, extent anil are not so autocratic as they were. They are really trying io work out the dcw diarchy system. Twenty years ago nobody in India, know anything about politics, but everybody xyith any educa lion talks politics now. Tn Dr. Porteous’s opinion there is no doubt that the new control Legislative Assembly, which is alrgely an elected body, has done a good work. The. Indian is awakened to his own social conditions, and this Assembly has passed Rills dealing with such questions as raising the age of consent and the opium evil. It passed a. temperance bill working in the direction of prohibition, but unfortunately Britain turned it down. Educated Indians are waiting lor 1929, when the Constitution will be revised after a 10 years’ trial. They are hoping then to receive a much larger measudc of homo rule than they now posses, and the minimum they expect is complete, home rule in the provinces. One of the far reaching results of Gandhi s teaching lias l»eon a. new attitude towards the ‘‘untouchables” or outcasts of India. Ho taught that this system must be done away with and the

mins arc resisting this strongly, and there arc continually riots in all parts of India through these "untouchables” asserting themselves and going tn plan s —perhaps a. temple—where they have, never been before. The outcasts, how ever, have a. strong backing, for tho time has c<une when both Mohammedans and Hindus, realising tho. force they may become, are making a bid for their support, especially if they see them becoming Christians. The now spirit of nationalism is hin dering mission work in the East. As long as Christianity it looked on as a, foreign religion it. will do nothing in India, but, if it can be separated from its ioreign garb it will continue tn spread. It. is pot, only in politics, but. in everything that this revolt. »gain st foreign influence is taking place. They are trying to produce their own art and their own education, and in some cir cles everything foreign is looked on as bad and everything Indian is exalted. Asked about the Sadhu Sunda.r Singh, tho notable Indian mystic and evangelist, who is to visit Australia, and New Zealand next, year, Dr. Portcous said that the Sadhu had spent most of the last two summers with the Rev. T. Riddle, of the, staff of ‘the Now Zealand Punjab Mission. Air Riddle, has been assisting him in translating some of his writings into English, a. work to which he. has boon devoting much time recent ly. He liVes in the Punjab Mission dis trict. If anyone could have been spoil ed tho Sadhu would have been on his visits to the West, but. there is no sign of it. He is a mystic, who receives vis ions direct, from heaven. He has a. re markable personality, and will undoubtedly attract crowds of people if he speaks here. The, Punjab mission field of the Presbyterian Church is about, 50 miles from north to south and extends from the plains to the foothills of the Himalayas. It includes the big native State of Sirmur. The total population is well over half a million living in more, than 2000 villages. There are Sikhs living in the Kharar district, an enterprising lot of young farmers comparatively prosperous, but the people arc mostly Hindus, Mohammedans, and the ordinary low | castes. There are now 14 missionaries on tho staff. The hospital, which was I at first carried on for two years In a rented stable, has now accommodation , for 50 beds, with quarters for the, nurses and the medical staff. More than 30,000 out-patients and more than 1000 in-patients are now handled every year. East year there were 500 operations done under an anaesthetic and 1000 lessor operations. The people come from long distances to the hospital, and there is scarcely a village in the whole area that has not sent a patient at one time or other. A very interesting development from the hospital has been the child welfare and maternity work, which Nurse Arnold was largely instrumental in starting. Native midwives in the past have been the dirtiest of people, whom even the natives would not care to admit into their houses save at, the birth of a child. These conditions have been re-

| fleeted in the terrible infant mortality lof about 300 per 1000 in the first year. At the first the mission hardly expected to make much progress with these midwives, but within a few mouths practically every one of them was coming for instruction. They receive a rupee for reporting births, and a nurse goes with them to attend nearly every case. Practically the whole of the maternity work in Jagadhri, which has a population of 15,000, is therefore in the hands of the mission. From the medical point of view there is no more important work that can bo done in the whole of India. The most encouraging part of the missionary work has been the. coming forward of low caste people to receive instruction and baptism. Last January the mission conducted a combined medical and evangelistic camping tour among the villages. The whole of one village came forward desiring baptism, and the movement spread to other vil lages. Eventually after a period of instruction, over 200 received baptism, and there were, another 200 seeking instruction. This is partly a social movement. The people are realising that their social condition as Christians is better than ns out-castes, but it gives the mission a. great opportunity, and it moans that someone ought to be found to organise, industrial work. In education work the mission has at, Kharar a high school for all classes under the Rev. W. AL Ryburn, who has about 300 boys in his charge and a staff of 18 toaehcrs. There, is keen competition from Hindu schools which receive Government grants and to have to maintain a. certain standard of efficiency. The mission has three schools for nonChristian girls which also have to face keen competition from other schools. Aliss Salmond when her health broke down was devoting her time to finding out the best type of education to meet ♦ho needs of the Christian children. There, are now fully 2000 native members and adherents of the church established by the mission, and the work is growing and increasing rapidly. More workers are urgently needed, and per haps most of all an ordained man. Fold cars have proved exceedingly useful in the work of the mission, and hnv ? multiplied greatly the work that Dr. For teous, Mr Riddle, and Air Ryburn liavo been able to do. These cars can go almost anywhere like tanks independent of roads.

During the last few months there had been more sickness on the staff of the mission than in all its previous history. Miss Salmond has just been invalided home to hospital seriously ill; the Rid dies and the Grays have each had a child very ill, and .Mr Riddlo himself had to undergo an operation. Dr. and Airs Portoous have a family of six young children, and for health reasons and educational reasons they are retiring from the work of the mission. “India,” says Dr. Porteoux, “is no country for bringing up children in.”