India
Salute to India. By J. Z. Hodge. (S. C. M. Press. 6s.) Introduction to India is an amazing little book, and it is quite an indispensable compendium for anyone, aoldier or civilian, visiting India for the first time. Almost every aspect of life in modern India is briefly but clearly touched upon, and handy pen- and-ink sketches enable the traveller to recognise the various Indian races. The illustrations are admirable. Perhaps the best part of the book is the Classified Information at the end, which deals with almost every conceivable topic, from Bevin Boys to Yogi, and tells you exactly how to act when lost in the jungle, bitten by a snake of invited to an Indian dinner-party. A short vocabulary of common Hindustani phrases would be a welcome addition.
Salute to India, by a veteran missionary who has spent over forty years in the countr is described as a tribute to the Indian people and a plea to Englishmen to approach the Indian problem with forbearance and understanding. The author thinks that at the root of the present deadlock is a tragedy of mutual misunderstanding. Eastern and Western minds move on different planes, and while the British are genuinely doubtful about India's capacity for self- government, Indians are deeply suspicious about the genuineness of 26. our intentions. His solution would be a magnanimous gesture snail as was made to South Africa when Campbell-Bannerman was-Prime Minister. Congress leaders should be unconditionally released, and negotiations resumed at the point where Sir Stafford Cripps was obliged to break them off. Dr. Hodge gives a good account of Protestant missions in India, especially of the wonderful results achieved on 'the medical side, but he might have said more of the pioneer work of the Serampore Mission, which, in defiance of the East India Company, gave India her first printing-press and had I far-reaching influence outside Christian circles. The writer empha- sises that Indian Christians are as strongly nationalist as their Hindu and Moslem- compatriots, and look forward to an Indian Church, emancipated from Western leading-strings. One of the most interest- ing chapters in the book is the account of the co-operative common- wealth founded by Sir Daniel Hamilton in the salt-sodden and tiger-infested jungles of Gosaba. The colony, once inhabited by A handful of wood-cutters, now has a population df i6,000, and 22,000 acres of waving grain. In view of the widespread rural poverty of India, it is impossible to avoid wondering why the Gosaba experiment has not been many times repeated on an even larger
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