18 FEBRUARY 1938, Page 20

YOU ENGLISH

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] Sin,—Mr. Hussain's lengthy attack on English people and their treatment of the stranier within their gates will doubtless evoke many replies. As an Englishman who lived more than seven times as long in India as Mr. Hussain has in England and found no difficulty in making friends among Indians, may I suggest that a little self-examination might lead him to discover the cause, at any rate, of some of the treatment he so much resents? Mr. Hussain, judging from his letter, looks upon himself as a superior and intellectual person and has no hesitation in pro- claiming it. That is an attitude of mind which is often intensely resented in England. We English like to form our own estimate of strangers and do not readily accept theirs. The same is the case in India. The Englishman who goes out as a superior person merely anxious to put everyone right is naturally and properly resented, while those who try to learn Indian ways of thought and to understand Indian manners and customs soon

find how delightfully friendly Indians can be. •

Mr. Hussain does not say with how many of the 40 million inhabitants of this island he is on intimate terms, but he con- demns us all as rude, crude and hypocritical. There are quite a number of crude, rude and hypocritical people in India. • I have met many of all three categories, but I do not for a moment suppose or believe that they are typical of Indians 'as a whole. Far from it ; they point the contrast with the Majority who are kindly, courteous and sincere. If Mr. Hussain vionld drop his antagonisms, shed his own superiority-inferiority complex, and let the genuine man, which presumably exists beneath them, have free play, I am sure he will meet with all the friendli- ness he deserves.—I am, yours faithfully,

PS.—I am sorry to see that Mr. Huizinga's witty and charming letter has been misunderstood, but then I think it was written by a Dutchman and perhaps others like Mr. Hussain do not get on well in Holland.