THE SITUATION IN INDIA.
[To TEll ZDITOR Or THII "8picerwroa.1 Sr,—In an article on this subject the Spectator in its issue of July 13th makes the following remark :—" The most myeberious question in the whole movement, which puzzles, and to a certain extent dismays, the most experienced Anglo-Indians, is why it should have occurred at the present moment." I have not the smallest hesitation in saying that ninety per cent. of those Anglo-Indians who have been resident in India during the last five years, and are entitled to be considered observant, see nothing at all puzzling in the semi-climax at which the agita- tion has now arrived. The causes of this trouble are chiefly of a negative nature. It is not so much what the natives did (in the matter of seditious writings and speeches) as what the Government omitted to do. They omitted to prevent the opening preaching of sedition. Up to a certain point the policy of allowing the natives to blow off steam is permissible, but it is riding that policy to death to decline to see any difference between liberty and license. In the result the natives got quite out of band, and yet the Government did nothing. The main cause of the present trouble was the discovery by the Bengalee Press that there was practically no limit to the patience of tbe Government in their attitude towards sedition. That fact having been ascertained and proved beyond doubt by a long process of trial, the Bengalee agitator felt himself justified in proceeding to acts. The Government were asleep : why not extend the Calcutta movement to the outlying parts of the province P This was done : acts of oppression were perpe- trated in the outside districts ; it is a matter of history to what extent the peaceful Bengalee has been, and still is, oppressed by these political " hoeligans. " Thence to the Punjab, where the Bengalee pointed out what a fine oppor- tunity existed for stirring up disorder. We know the result.
In the article to which I have already referred the Spectator says :—" We do not even yet believe that in silencing the seditious Press—a proposal advocated by almost every official in India—we should touch the sources of an evil which remains still something of a mystery." Surely the Spectator ought to be influenced by the fact that when the Government half roused itself from its slumbers and deported Lajpat Rai the papers were filled with letters from native gentlemen full of congratulations on the energy shown. The sense of those letters in the aggregate may be summed up thus :—" Thanks very much for doing this thing : why have you not done it before P Don't be afraid of showing ordinary energy and common-sense." In the opinion of the average Anglo-Indian it is not only good policy, but it is the bounden duty of Government to administer the laws foi the safety of the country. We desire to give the natives the full liberty of the Press: it is contrary to the interests of the community that the Press should be allowed to transgress the bounds of liberty and develop into license. The Government has laws for dealing with the license of the Press : it ignores them: in ignoring them it ignores the safety of the community. This fact is the fons et origo mei. If I am right in my facts, I should be supported in my conclusion that the Government of India is deserving of severe censure. I should be glad to see the British Press take up a much more vigorous attitude in regard to this matter. Not only the Spectator, but the other chief organs of the Press, let the Government down very mildly, treating it as if it were the victim of ill luck ; in reality, it is the victim of its own apathy. Referring to an occasional note on the front page of the issue of the Spectator from which I have been quoting, I see it stated that Mr. Bepin Chandra Pal has quite recently made a seditious speech in Calcutta in the course of which he called the British "Feringbees." This expression, though different in signification, is equivalent in force of vituperation to the expression "dirty niggers" as applied by Europeans to natives of India in the heat of anger on very rare occasions. I need hardly add that such an epithet would not be admitted to publication in the British Press in India. The Government that allows us to take the epithet " Feringhees " lying down is no Government for India. It is bringing us into contempt, and, in the opinion of the average Anglo-Indian, into well-deserved contempt. So far as our Government in India is representative of the sense of the nation, we are despicable.—I am, Sir, &c., D. J.
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