The Background of India

The Problem of the North-West Frontier. 1890-1908. By and Faber. is.) The Keys of Power. By J. Abbott. (Methuen. 21s.) Ma. DAvins has had exceptional facilities for writing his survey of Indian frontier problems, both by reason of his own residence in Waziristan and Peshawar, and because he has been allowed to use secret and confidential material in pos- session of the Political Department of the Government of India. The result is an interesting book : our only criticism of it—and that indeed is comment rather than censure—is that it does not go far enough. To students of history the situation on this troubled borderland before the outbreak of the Great War is important ; but to anyone wanting to know how matters stand at present Mr. Davies can only offer background.

The background is well drawn. The Parliamentary intrigues that eddied round the conduct of the First and Second Afghan Wars, the conflicting policies of Peel and Melbourne, Disraeli and Gladstone, Kitchener and Curzon, the creation of the North-West Frontier Province by the latter, and the depredations of the hillmen who found in the Kurram as in Wales that:

" The mountain sheep were sweeter But the valley sheep were fatter, And we therefore thought it meeter To carry off the latter."

—are described in detail and with insight. Frontier policy is first dealt with from the Imperial, then from the local, and finally from the tribal and ethnic aspect. A chapter on Lord Curzon follows ; another on the Mahsud Blockade of 1900-2, followed by particularly thoughtful sections on the Afridis, Mohmunds and Afghans, with a concluding chapter on general questions of policy. Various appendices, including a bibliography and glossary, complete a volume which should be in the possession of anyone who desires to understand the Indian frontier problem ab initio.

But what of the future ? It is not fair to expect Mr. Davies to consider the widely different problem involved by the use of aeroplanes, whippet tanks, and improved communications in tribal territory, especially in Waziristan, but we may hope that he will write another book on the subject. " No man who has ever read a page of Indian history will prophesy about the frontier," he quotes Lord Curzon saying in 1904. That is true, but it is our urgent duty to foresee the probable course of events, and secure the internal peace of India, while allowing the men of the borderland—magnificent material, from which perhaps the united India of the future may receive a contribu- tion similar to that made by the Scots to the United Kingdom —to develop their own independent existence with a minimum of coercion.

Mr. Datta, in his Asiatic Asia, surveys a different and far wider field. His inquiry ranges from Moscow to Madras and from Bombay to Tokio. " The evils of Imperialism," he writes, " are so glaring, that we are apt to forget its contribution to the progress of the world, and even to

international relations." Its advantages he thus summarizes s

(1) The creation of orderly government.

(2) The establishment of welfare services.

(3) Economic development.

(4) Inter-cultural relationships.

But not for a moment does Mr. Datta consider that Impe-

rialism is the destiny that awaits the coming generation of Asiatics. He sees the Westernized culture of Japan as crumb- ling before a neo-Fascist movement which is permeating the youth of the island kingdom ; he sees Mr. Gandhi leading the Hindus back to the spinning-wheel and rural pursuits, away

from the false gods of democracy ; and he sees a similar

movement in the latest speeches of the poet-politician Mu- hamnud Iqbal, who would found a Moslem Kingdom of

Northern India to revive at Lahore the glories of Baghdad and Cordova.

Mr. Datta's chapter on Communism will cause the reader to think profoundly. The old standards are being discarded by the youth of all the East. Gone are the days when the Great Mother of the Hindus was worshipped at her shrine : the descendants of the young revolutionaries of 1908 smoke their cigarettes and listen to jazz music under a red-tinselled bust of Lenin. Atheism and materialism stalk triumphant through

Bengal. The old gods are overthrown, and the priests of the new cult are emissaries from the Oriental Colleges at Moscow and

Tashkend, who preach no nebulous and idealistic paradise, but class-war, confiscation, the dictatorship of the proletariat.

The break-up of the old civilizations of Asia is an undis-

puted fact amongst those who know, but it has as yet been little realized in the West. Mr. Datta's view ranges over Russia, China, Japan, as well as India : he points out the

signs of the times in descriptions such as this, chosen at random from his comments on modern Canton :

" One of the largest of the Buddhist temples is to-day a police training institute ; in the innermost shrine, on the pedestal of the central image of Buddha is fastened a picture of Dr. Sun Yat Sen, and covering the draped limbs of the gigantic image are the flags of the Republic."

I have never read a clearer and more fair-minded survey of present-day conditions in Asia in so short a compass, and

would recommend this book to anyone who wants the truth and does not expect epigrams or " human-interest stories " on every page—for Mr. Datta is intensely serious.

Lord Linlithgow's pamphlet, The Indian Peasant, can be read in twenty minutes, but should be considered for as many

weeks by the politicians on whom the fate of India now depends. Fortunately there are signs that the interests of the countryside, where nine-tenths of the population live, are being given their due weight against the divergent desires of the urban minority ; but anything that tends to emphasize the needs and hopes of the agriculturist is to be welcomed.

I wish I could commend Mr. Abbott's Keys of Power, for a

vast amount of knowledge and labour has gone into the com-

position of its 500 odd pages; indeed it may be said to be a kind of supplementary Golden Bough for India. But I confess I could not read these studies of Indian ritual and belief : for

that reason it would be unfair to the author to attempt to criticize them. I can only record my own reaction—sleep-