HOW SHALL WE GOVERN INDI& ?
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—In your issue of July 10th in the article " How Shall We Govern India ? " you have sounded an admirable note of warning to the British Government to avoid showing " favouritistn " to any of the Indian races and peoples. You justly observe that "favouritism spells ruin in an Empire like that of India just as it does in a school." Is not your admission, however just, a little belated ? For years past the British Government has thrown practically the whole administration of the country into the hands of one community ; nine-tenths of the subordinate Judiciary and Magistracy are held by members of that com- munity. An overwhelming proportion of the clerical staff of every grade in all the great Departments of State belong to it; a member of that community sits on the supreme Executive Council, another is Vice-Chancellor of the Calcutta University (not the first of his people); others bold the high posts of Judicial Commissioners of Oude and the Central Provinces, of Government Advocate, &c. ; all the best prizes, honours, and preferments are in their hands. The last Honours List gave signal proof of how the balance is held in Indian administration ;. one community was specially singled out for recognition of merit. As history has a strange way of repeating itself, perhaps you will point the moral for
who want to go down to posterity as . the creators of a new era in India.--I am, Sir, &c., S. Z. A.
Previous page
