BOOKS OF THE MOMENT
EASTERN CIVILIZATIONS
Jahangir's India. The Remoustrantie of Francisco Pelsaert, . translated from the Dutch by W. H. Moreland and P. Oeyl. (Heifer and Bons. Cambridge. 8s. 6d.) - - THE War gave us cause to doubt whether Western civilization was heading straight for the goal of human well-
being, and it-became the fashion to seek all we desired in the civilizations of the East: Some of our prospectors published glowing accounts of the rich veins of gold they had happened upon. But our people are not without experience of foreign gold mines, and there arose a demand for less biassed evidence of the quality of Eastern civilizations. Because they help to meet this demand the two books before us have an interest not only for the specialist but for the general reader.
• While the Stuarts reigned in England the civilization of Mahommedan India attained its highest development under the Mogul Emperors. Mr. Moreland's scholarly labours have been directed towards giving us an understanding of the economic life of India . in . that period.. He has now supple- mented the picture given us in his India at the Death of .41thar and From Akbar to Auratipb by the translation of a brief but illuminating document, The Remonstrantie of Francisco Pelsaert. Francisco Pelsaert, of Antwerp, spent the years 1620-1627 at Agra as a factor of the Dutch East India Com- pany. He was a man of ability, and in this report to his superiors on the trade of India he devotes special chapters to describing the administration of the country, the manner of life of its inhabitants and their religion. His evidence is very damaging to the case for Eastern civilizations. Most of the worst features which observers see in the India of to-day were visible to Pelsaert in an aggravated form. He speaks of " the utter subjection and poverty of the common people, poverty so miserable that the life of the people can be depicted only as the house of stark want and the dwelling place of bitter woe." " For the workman there are two scourges. The first, low wages ; the second, the oppression of the Governor, the nobles, the Dewan and the rest of the King's officers. If any.
of these want a workman, the man is not asked if he is willing to come, but is seized and well beaten if he should dare to raise any objection, and in the evening paid half his wages or nothing at all." " A job which one man would do in Holland here passes through four men's hands before it is finished." " Peons, or servants, are exceedingly numerous, for everyone keeps as many as his position or circumstances permit."
" Every servant confines himself strictly to his own duties, and it is like life on the Portuguese ships where the chief boatswain, if he saw the foremast fall overboard, would not disgrace himself by_ going on to the forecastle to save it."
" For this slack and lazy service the wages are paid by the Moguls only after large deductions, for most great lords reckon forty days to the month, while wages are often left several months in arrears." " The servants are arrogant, oppressing the poor and sinning on the strength of their masters' great- ness." " They. steal whatever they can. If they buy only a piceworth of food they take their commission." As to the shopkeepers, "if the King's nobles require any of their goods, they must sr.:141 for very little, less than half price." • In the palaces of the great lords dwells all the wealth there is, wealth wrung from the slikeit of the poor." The hereditary principle is not allowed free play. " Immediately on the death of al
great lord who has enjoyed the Kings jaghir, the King'g officers are ready on the spot. and make an inventory of his
entire estate. The King takes back the whole estate absoi lutely for himself,_ except where the deceased has done good service, when the women and children are given enough to live on • but no more." Advancements and degradations are sudden, depending on the King's caprice. The result is " nothing is permanent ; ,yea, even the noble buildings, tanks and palaces which are in or near every city one cannot con- template without distress because of their ruined state. For in this they are. to be despised above all the laziest nations of the world because they build them with so many hundred
thousands, yet keep them in repair only so long as the owner lives. Once the builder is dead no one will care for the build- ing ; the son will neglect. his father's work. ,Everyone tries as far as possible to create new building,s of his own." Francisco Pelsaert clearly held that there was more room for human virtue and human happiness in Antwerp than in the city where the Taj Mahal was shortly to he built; But it was Mahommedan India that Peisaert saw. Was IIindu India better? Mr. Monahan, in his. Early History of Bengal (or rather of the Lower Ganges), takes us right hack to the Maurya Empire, which arose after Alexander's invasion. lie lays before us the extant evidence from which we can form a picture of the civilization of that day. There are the inserip- thins of Atoka, the accounts of the Greek ambassadors and sailors who visited India, and- lastly the Indian rival of Machi- avelli's Prince, the Arthaeistra, reputed to be the work. of the Brahman minister of the founder of the Maurya Empire. Atoka's edicts throw more light on the mind of the Emperor than on the condition of his subjects. The Greek evidence is more picturesque, but untrustworthy, since it reaches .u:; only at second hand, so that we are not in a position to estimate the credibility of the witness or to allow for his idiosyncrasy. But the ArthaM- stra is a document of extraordinary value and interest. The civilization described is that of a small Hindu kingdom of the third or fourth century B.C. It appears on the whole more attractive than that of the Mogul Empire. Wealth seems to have been more widely distributed and the producers were apparently less depressed. Consequently custom, law and public opinion seem to have had more power to cheek the caprice of the King and his servants. But, truth to tell, even if the Hindu State was superior to the Mahommedan, it need hardly excite Europe's envy. State interference with the economic life of the country was pushed to great lengths, and the methods employed gave room for great abuse and were calculated to excite the maximum of irritation. The chief instruments of government were the spy and the agent provocateur. And after all, even in the days of D.O.R...4., our statesmen never openly advocated so questionable an expedient as this. " A man of straw under a guise which inspires confidence may make a claim on a dis- loyal person for recovery of a deposit. Then-an assassin may be employed to murder the claimant at night when he is lying at the King's enemy's door, and the enemies of the King may be accused of murdering the man and deprived of their property." It is explained that such measures are only_ to be adopted against seditious and wicked persons. Still, one feels the man of straw has a grievance. But Indian life had always had and still has another aspect. The Greek evidence makes it clear, as Mr. Monahan points out, that in respect of gentle- ness, honesty, simplicity and truthfulness the Indian subject compared favourably with the Greek of the third century nc., and even under the Mogul Empire the unsympathetic Pelsaert saw something which touched his Dutch heart. " The woman went with music and songs to the Governor to obtain his permission. The Governor urged many sound arguinents to show that what she proposed to do was a sin, and because. she was a handsome young woman of about 18 years of age, he pressed her strongly to dissuade her, and even offered her 500 rupees yearly as long as she should live. But she answered with resolute .firmness that her motive was not poverty, but love of her husband, and even if she could have all the King's treasures in this world they would be of no use to her, for she meant to live with her husband. So the Governor, since Governors are not allowed by the King's orders to refuse these requests, gave his consent. Then Oro hurried off with a light step till she reached the place where was a small but built of wood, roofed with straw and decorated with flowers. 7 here she. took off all her jewels and distributed them among her friends, and also her clothes, keeping only an undergarment. Then she took a handful of rice and distributed it to the bystanders ; this being done she embraced her friends and said her last farewells ; took her baby, which was only a year old,' kissed it and handed it to her nearest friends ; then ran to the but where her dead husband lay, kissed him and embraced him eagerly. Then she took the fire and applied the brand, and the friends piled wood before the door ; everyone shouted out, ' Rain ! Ram ! ' till they supposed she was dead. When the burning was over everyone took a little of the ash of the bones, which they regard as sacred and preserve. Surely this is as great a love as the women of our country heir to their husbands, for the deed was done not under compulsion, but out of sheer love.".
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