Letters to the Editor
THE SITUATION IN INDIA
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sm,—The question has been asked in your columns what the British Government has done to better the position of the untouchables during 200 years of British rule. The answer given by Sir Charles Spencer may be supplemented by the testimony of an Indian witness who spoke with high authority, namely, the late Sir Shahu Chhatrapati, Maharaja of Kolha- pore, that remarkable ruling prince, whose lifelong labours and sacrifices made his name a household word among the non- Brahmin masses of Southern India.
Addressing the Nasik untouchables in April, 1920, His Highness—himself a man of high caste—told them that "the most important condition on which your social uplift depends is the stability of British Raj in India. The British nation is the source of those elevating principles of equality, liberty and fraternity from which you have been carrying on your struggle against your own countrymen. Familiarity has made us unconscious of the importance of the British power in India, but the War has set us in right mood, and we have now come to know what a vital condition the British people are in our well-being."
The " Memoirs " of the late Maharaja by A. B. Lathe, from which I have quoted, will repay study by all who wish
to understand the modern reform movements, religious, social and political, among the depressed classes and their important bearing on the present situation in India.—I am,
Previous page
