6 SEPTEMBER 1924, Page 19

TWO BOOKS ON INDIA.

India : a Bird's-Eye View. By the Earl of Ronaldshay. (Constabe. 18s. ) Indian Politics. By J. T. Gwynn. (Nisbet. 12s. 6d.) THE British public is commonly accused of crass ignorance on imperial questions and especial ignorance of India, though it knows more about scattered parts of the earth than does any other nation. These two books help to disprove the charge of ignorance ; they would not have been produced were there no interested public ; once produced they throw much light on a difficult question. The two are quite different in scope, method and purpose. Lord Ronaldshay's is at once the more ambitious and the more conventional. He does not attempt to describe the whole sub-continent even in outline,

but where he has ideas or special knowledge of his own—that is in many places—he lingers and explains. He is most interesting, at least to the general reader, on the north-west frontier question, when he advocates a cautious " forward policy " (as it used to be called a generation ago), and on the

causes of Indian pessimism. His description of the Karma doctrine, and of its results in religion and politics, is admirable,

but, in fact, the whole book is interesting and sympathetic. Save at moments it eschews modern politics and concentrates on the permanent things in Indian life. Lord Ronaldshay

in effect accepts Matthew Arnold's famous lines about the

East "She bowed her head before the blast In patient desp disdain. She let the legions thunder past, Then plunged in thought again."

Mr. Gwynn tries to do something very different ; to let people in this country see what India thinks of the reforms,

of Non-Co-operation and of Mr. Gandhi. He is concerned with

the India of to-day and the next few years, not trying to push any opinions, but to display widely-chosen samples of Indian opinion as it was in 1922. When his articles appeared in the Manchester Guardian they were welcomed as about the first and the most successful attempt to explain the Indian attitude ; it is fortunate that they are now collected and placed on record. Mr. Gwynn knows India well and takes the background for granted ; here lie is an inquirer, not a teacher. He was received nearly everywhere with courtesy, he showed great skill in leading educated and illiterate to talk, and he summarizes his conversations so that one can see clearly his own and other people's views. There is little reassurance here for the Englishman, who will conclude that India is still politically sterile, and that the educated Indian does not yet face the facts of economics, religious differences and caste, but remains fundamentally opposed to most of the government machine. He will also see with something of a shock that Indian opinion is nearer abstract unanimity than is often believed ; Non-Co-operator and

Moderate divide more on expediency than on ultimate aim. Mr. Gwynn predicts a lull during which unrest will spread,

and thinks that when the first ten years of experiment are over and Dyarehy comes up for revision, it will probably be

too late to rally Indian support within the scope contemplated by the present Constitution. Whatever his views, his evidence cannot be neglected, and chief of this his study of village opinion in Bardoli, where the Non-Co-operation campaign