BRITISH ANNEXATION IN INDIA.
Dv whatever cause incited, the disorders in India call upon the Government to pursue one course which is simple, uniform, and obvious,—it is to overrule the anomalies which leave several tribes in a state half-conquered or semi-independent; to render the tenure of the Indian Government uniform throughout ; to consolidate and annex. The very life of our Indian Government is its success— its undisputed success; but in these anomalous tenures of native tribes, whose real independence is gone while they retain tan- talizing titles, we keep reservoirs for questioning the sovereignty that we exercise. The murder of Mr. Conolly, the Collector of Mala- bar, is in all probability due to the melodramatic specialty which retained for the Naira an independence just sufficient to keep them in a state of latent but chronic mutiny. A regiment in the Northern brigade of the Nizam's cavalry has mutinied against Brigadier Colin Mackenzie, because he had interfered with their religions observances. Now what have we to do with " the Dv whatever cause incited, the disorders in India call upon the Government to pursue one course which is simple, uniform, and obvious,—it is to overrule the anomalies which leave several tribes in a state half-conquered or semi-independent; to render the tenure of the Indian Government uniform throughout ; to consolidate and annex. The very life of our Indian Government is its success— its undisputed success; but in these anomalous tenures of native tribes, whose real independence is gone while they retain tan- talizing titles, we keep reservoirs for questioning the sovereignty that we exercise. The murder of Mr. Conolly, the Collector of Mala- bar, is in all probability due to the melodramatic specialty which retained for the Naira an independence just sufficient to keep them in a state of latent but chronic mutiny. A regiment in the Northern brigade of the Nizam's cavalry has mutinied against Brigadier Colin Mackenzie, because he had interfered with their religions observances. Now what have we to do with " the
Nizam " ? Why does that nominal lieutenant of a power that no longer exists himself remain ?
There may have been policy or impolicy in the interference of Colonel Mackenzie, but it is unquestionable that a careful consi- deration for the religious observances of the natives leads their British superiors into refinements and disqualifications of the most embarrassing kinds, and experience does not justify the belief that the natives are grateful for the consideration, or rendered more orderly by being left under their original influences. In the Ben- gal army, it has, we believe, been the custom to preserve a consi- deration for caste, and the results are frequently inconvenient. In the Bombay army, the castes are mixed ; the fantastic incapa- cities of the natives, their difficulty in overcoming imaginary pol- lution, are disregarded; and the effect is a smoother observance of military order, without that discontent that might have been expected.
Indeed, this military experience is confirmed by the whole ten- dency of India at the present moment. The most influential na- tives are looking to their promotion by identifying themselves with European rank, European connexions ; they are adopting to a great extent European customs. The natives of Bengal and Madras, the chiefs of Poonah as well as the Parsees of Bombay, have adopted our plan of petitioning. In fact, the continuance of any separate law for the Mussulmans when it comes in conflict with European law, perpetually raises the question who is master: and although the European rulers of the country can reassert and maintain their title, the reassertion entails the necessity of conflict, renews bad blood, and keeps alive vindictive resentment as well as contumacious hope.
The sufferance is only rendered more unreasonable by admitting the respectable motives which actuated the natives. It was im- possible to read without sympathy the account of the secret Durbar at Lucknow, when two hundred Ameers and Surdars entered into a compact to subscribe and expend 1,500,000 rupees a year in bribery and agitation to prevent the an- nexing of their territory. It is an imposing picture that of the aged Cassim, ninety-five years old, presiding over the assembly with a dignity to which his fine person lent artistic effect—his Irani fea- tures looking as if chiselled from marble, his long beard sweeping the floor as he was borne off fainting after the exertion of a two- hours speech. Cassim must have been a great man, with the blood of a fine race in him, and the strength of a virtuous life. He was moved by the most patriotic emotions. " The Nazarenes," he said, " love gold, we love our wild independence more." To fight against the Company, he admitted, was "like resisting Mou- kir and Nakir." It was useless, he allowed, for the natives to fight " this ever great and ever young lion." So he advised that they should " hire the choice hunters of his native forests, who, if they could not kill would draw him away." This was a speech pregnant with instruction for us English : it tells us the point at which indi- vidual resistance, even of the most heroic kind, surceases. It shows us that the natives count upon obstructing us by corrupting our servants. "If the firman of annexation should overtake us," said Cassim, " let us meekly bow to the behests of the Sircar." It clear, on the evidence of Cassim, that the firman of annexation would not only be effectual for itself, but it would put an end to this expenditure of 150,0001. sterling for the purposes of corrup- tion, supersede agitation, and rescue the natives from that per- plexing state in which they hardly know which law they belong to—the old, that claims their fidelity, or the new, that demands their allegiance.
The outbreak of disorders in so many parts of India—we have four or five reported in the news of this week, to say nothing of standing conflicts on the river Rangoon—calls for the execution of active measures to prevent an extension of the mischief. There is no ill-timed disclosure, no imagination, in presuming that the agents of the enemy may be at work : the agents of Russia often act by proxy ; and if there be not, as there have been in times not long since, actual Russians mingling with the discontented or ob- serving the positions of the British, no doubt there aro natives who are promised support and subsidies from our foe, for hope is a coin often current amongst semi-barbarous tribes. Every mea- sure of annexation and consolidation, therefore, is justified by the immediate circumstances as well as by its merits at all times.
We know well the cry that would be raised in other countries against the English who protest against annexation in the West and practise it in the East. The reproach ought to teach us mo- desty. The principle of the American Union is not to annex a state peopled by foreigners, but only to admit into the confederation citizens of the same race who desire the connexion. We annex none but foreigners. In theory our rule is the greater violation of principle. But we look from theory to practice, or rather from partial dogma to a larger theory. We take India as it stands. There can be no question as to the balance of mischief which would ensue to mankind, and to India herself, by the defeat of her na- tives, or of her conquerors. The natives are freest, most in the way of improvement, most intelligent, nearest to an adoption of
complete civilization, where they are completely under British con- trol. We have just noticed the capacity they show for entering
positively and bodily into our institutions. Their only chance of
self-government lies through the purgatory of European govern- ment ; and they do see daylight. Everything which tends to ex-
pedite a complete Europeanization of India brings the day of self- government and freedom nearer, and immediately extends the positive good government, prosperity, and happiness of all races.
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