3 JULY 1897, Page 13

THE UNREST IN INDIA.

WE ventured last week to express our belief, opposition to to that of many experts, that the shower of misfortunes which had recently fallen upon India would to a certain extent diminish the "loyalty" of her- people, by which we mean their quiet acquiescence in their- rulers' decrees. They would not, we said, accuse the Government of causing famine, plague, or earthquake—they are not such fools—but they would consider that the good: fortune of the Empress had departed from her, and that she was out of favour with the higher powers, and would therefore feel a certain access of contempt for her ad- ministration. The news of the week seems to confirm that view in a rather startling way. The people appear to be quarrelling with the Government about its sanitary- measures in a way which testifies to dangerous irritation.. It has been occasionally necessary to remove native ladieek smitten with plague to special hospitals, and of course it in useless to disinfect infected houses unless the disinfection is extended to the female apartments. These measures u2 protection for the people have, we doubt not, been con- siderately carried out ; but in view of the bitterness they create it has sometimes been necessary to permit the sanitary officer to be attended by a guard. There may or may not have been sufficient care in choosing soldiers for this delicate work—we fear Europeans have been employed in Poona—and though we think it unlikely, resist- ance may have been put down somewhat too roughly ; but it is at all events certain that the cry of " zoolum " (oppression) has been raised, and that the Hindoo enemies of the white rulers have accused them of deliberately violating the sanctity of the zenasia. In Poona, in par- ticular, the centre of the old Mahratta Power, where the Brahmins are fanatical and the population is fierce, this .charge has been scattered broadcast in newspapers, in leaflets distributed like our own old "broadsides," and in the speeches which are eternally being delivered in the temples and bazaars. The results were seen at first in the murder of Lieutenant Ayerst, mistaken for a sanitary officer, and the attempted murder of Mr. Rand, the head of the local Plague Department, and then in a much more serious phenomenon. The great city, as appears from a speech delivered by the Magistrate in charge to its native magnates, has tacitly conspired to screen the criminals. Thousands probably know at whose instigation these deeds were committed, and by whom the detective selected to inquire into them was thrown half dead into a ravine, but no one will say a word, and the police either are, or affect to be, wholly without clues. There is a conspiracy of silence which involves half the popu- lation. It is even believed that the city expected the murders, and worst sign of all, that General Nairne's native escort closed sharply round his carriage to protect him as he. drove to the Governor's house. They knew, if that story is true, that murder was in the air. All this means that Poona is in the temper of revolt, that the two civilisations are in collision, and that for the moment the awe in which the people usually hold the Sircar has been overcome by rage.

So far as would appear from the leaflets, it is the Hindoo community which is on fire in Poona, but there is evidence that the infection has spread to the Mahom- medans also. It is known that the great wave of Mussul- man reaction which has recently been spreading through Western Asia has extended to India, and that Mahom- medan agitators, among whom may be some paid agents, are preaching revolt, and these also appear to have fixed on the sanitary laws as means of exciting anti-Christian feeling. It has been necessary in some places to cleanse mosques, which are occasionally centres of infection, the work has been done amidst wild scenes of protest, and in Chitpore, an industrial suburb of Calcutta, it has been resisted by force. The Mussulmans have risen with their clubs, the police have been attacked and defeated, and it has been necessary not only to call out the military, but to allow the police patrols to fire upon the mobs. The mills of Chitpore appear to have been attacked, and two engineers at least have been seriously injured in defending their companies' property. As the people of the district are quite unwarlike, and remained quiet during the worst scenes of the Mutiny, this occurrence is an ominous one, for it points to a deeply seated popular excitement, created by the sanitary laws, with which it may prove most difficult to deal. Whether in Poona or Calcutta, the Government can put down military resistance without difficulty, the European garrison being just five times as strong as it was in 1857, but a popular uprising is more difficult to manage. Nothing but force will quell one, and the reluctance to fire upon a Eity mob armed only with clubs and hatchets, and seeking, out of pure bewilderment, it hardly knows what, is always great, and usually most commendable. In Bengal, if the armed and organised police remain faithful, any quantity of mere rioting among the populace can be repressed; but if they share, as is possible, though happily not probable, the discontent of the people, the situation may speedily become, not indeed dangerous, but most distressing. We might have disturbances develop. ing into sanguinary riots among sixty millions of hitherto quiet subjects.

The Government of Bombay appears to have acted in Poona with much judgment. They have carefully ex- plained their motives to the highest citizens, have demanded their aid, and not getting it at once, have increased the police force at the cost of 415,000 a year to the city, which will be levied as an extra cess upon the richer inhabitants. That is a strong hint to be quiet and assist the authorities, and one which will be felt ; and of course, if they are required, much stronger steps will be authorised by the Legislature, and any disturbed cities placed by a new law under a state of siege. It would be cruel kindness to the people to allow disorder to increase until it developed into civil war, or to give the roughs an opportunity of plunder, which, once commenced, could only be arrested by considerable slaughter. We do not see either why, if a state of siege is proclaimed, all print.. ing without a license from the Magistrate should not be temporarily suspended. The " educated " class in India need a lesson occasionally to teach them that they must not pander to race-hatred, and in times of excitement must control their words as other citizens have to control their actions. But we would deprecate earnestly the European eagerness to make of popular discontent an excuse for abolishing the freedom of the Press. The native journalists are always sarcastic, often violent, and sometimes almost criminal in the malignity of their misstatements, but they do not create the popular discontent. They only give voice to it, and in the absence of newspapers it would find other and more dangerous methods of expression. We cannot sup- press freedom of speech in India, we cannot seize all native letters, and we cannot effectually restrain the Moollahs, the Fakeers, and the Brahmins who preach to crowds of worshippers in mosque and temple. Under these circumstances it is foolish to prohibit a single method of disseminating treason, and that the only one which enables us to know in good time that treason is being disseminated. We have not the least intention in saying this of repeating the commonplaces about the rights of the Press. India can only be governed, in our judgment, by a wise and just despotism, and we should have no scruple whatever during a mutiny or under a state of siege in arresting an editor who instigated crime, trying him by Court-Martial, and on conviction of his intent, shooting him on the spot. But there is no wisdom and no justice in suppressing dis- cussion throughout a conquered empire, or in depriving whole populations of their easiest means of exposing what they think to be grievances. Grant that their language is abusive, and what does that matter ? Let them abuse until they have learned, as the English Press has, that it is much better to remonstrate and to argue. That India needs a different libel law, under which a libel shall be tried like a charge of assault, and punished in the same way by a month's imprisonment, we have always admitted, but that is no reason why fifty nations should be prohibited from telling their rulers that they do not like their ways, simply because the form of the telling is occasionally seditious. Put down military resistance by the sword, place disturbed cities under the state of siege, fine dis- turbed districts till their inhabitants find that quiescence pays them best, but let the people utter their cry, even if it is an offensive one. The present cry is one that is utterly unreasonable, but the people in their ignorance do not think so ; and which is better, that their rage should be expressed by hooting in print, or by a descent into the streets ? Does anybody in his senses balieve that an Indian shot his wife rather than allow her to be carried to a hospital because an editor told him that such carriage was oppressive ? The man was maddened by the act— foolishly maddened, as we all think—not by the com- ments which similar acts had produced.