INDIA REVISITED : XII. LAST IMPRESSIONS

By F. YEATS-BROWN [This is the last of a series of articles on India written by Mr. Yeats-Broom exclusively for " The Spectator." They will form part of a book shortly to be published by Messrs. Victor Gollancz, Ltd., under the title of "Lancer at Large."' "ARE you awaiting a prophet, a vali, an avatar to free the country for you ? Will they perform some miracle ? Let me tell you plainly. that such a thing has never happened. Give up your old customs and the .spirit of Pathanism you show to your brothers and cousins. Come forth and face the Government. Why do you not use the gun which you use for killing your brother for killing the foreigner ? " Thus spoke the Khudai Khidmatgaran* to the youth of the Frontier in 1930. But all the time there were prophets and valis to show them a better way to freedom and prosperity. The Vali of Swat, for instance.

Had the Vali lived in British India, he would still have been a distinguished figure, but kismet gave him a kingly part to play, for he is the grandson of the great Akhund of Swat, who died in 1877. There were rival claimants to the throne, and the present Vali led a precarious childhood. Eventually, however, his relations died conveniently, or abandoned their claims. When he came to power, he quickly brought order to a country which had been rent by fifty years of faction. He built 85 forts in the valleys of Swat and Buner, and garrisoned them with 2,000 men. He raised another 8,000 men for internal security. He invited a survey party to map the country anew. He made roads, laid telephone lines, set up an electric installation at his capital of Saidu Sherif ; and a school, a hospital, a guest-house. He sent his son to be educated at Islamia College, Peshawar. In short, he took the best that Europe could give him, and used it to improve the material conditions of his country. When the Khudai Khidmatgaran approached him, he rejected with scorn their plan of so-called non- violent non-co-operation. There is nothing negative about the Vali.

In appearance, he is a tall, white-bearded, bright-eyed man of about sixty, with a fine look of health in his ruddy cheeks and erect bearing. His face, like Signor Mussolini's, has a contrast in it between the upper and lower halves, but there the similarity ends. His eyes and forehead are those of the religious leader (which he is) and the set of his jaw is that of a man who will fight for his convictions. He leads a very active life. Every Thursday he and his son, the Vali-i- Ahud, go out for a whole day on the mountains, shooting. The rest of the week is devoted to work. He moves about freely and with great rapidity amongst his people (my first meeting with him was on the road : he was in the front seat of a big touring car, accompanied by six armed men) and although he neither reads nor writes he keeps in touch with the latest developments in flying, electricity, radio, motors. He has flown all over his territory, and beyond it ; and every part of it is already linked up by telephone. What the Vali says, " goes " : there are no long official minutes in Swat.

Saidu Sherif is eighty miles north of the frontier at Malakand. A friend drove me up the smiling valley to the capital. We photographed enchanting prospects of silver river, green corn, snow-capped mountains. The people we met were gay and carefree. (Why is it that civilisation so often brings on that worried look ?) We encountered a marriage party, with banners and drummers, and two nautch-girls pirouetting in the road, so that we had to _stop the car. They danced for us and sang. One of the girls was strikingly tall and *" Servants of God."

handsome : a breastplate of Kabuli rupees covered her firm, athletic bosom, like a cuirass. She seemed Greek, a descendant of the soldiers of Alexander who passed this way, or some bacchante strayed from the far Ionian Sea. We saw travellers from the highlands, in mocassins and Gilgit caps, dear old ladies who smiled at us tooth- lessly, many slight, mysterious, veiled young ones ; and enchanting children ; and burly, jovial men with big beards, looking extremely well-nourished. . . . A party of Kohistanis, with matted hair and wild eyes, regarded us with amazement, for we were probably the first Englishmen they had ever seen. My friend, who remem- bered his Pushtu better than I, explained that we wanted to take their picture. At first they were reluctant, but their shyness vanished when we offered them a rupee. Afterwards, as we were driving off, one of them held out his brawny hand. I shall never forget his look of surprise when I waved him away, thinking that he just wanted some more backshish.

" Musafir ye ! " he said sadly, as we left. It was only several miles further on that I realised his meaning 3 " You are travellers, like ourselves ! " He had wanted to shake hands : the shame of my refusal still makes me hot.

But the incident was forgotten in the excitement of Saidu Sherif. We were met by the Vali i Ahud, who speaks, dresses, and as far as I can judge thinks like an Englishman : a reserved Englishman, who is keen on sport and diffident about discussing his tastes and abilities. It was only after I had questioned him closely that I discovered that he had himself designed the guest-house at Saidu Sherif, with its marble bathrooms, hot and cold water, electric light, and all kinds of conveniences. He is treasurer to the State, and in charge of its education. I suppose that about £40,000 a year passes through his hands, and that he looks after the future of some 30,000 boys and girls. * * * * * The voice of a mullah calls me from my bed. Dawn is rising over the Himalayas. The breeze is keen and fresh from the northern snows. Some soldiers have spread their prayer-mats on the lawn, the very smart soldiers of the Vali's bodyguard. From Malakand to Malaya men are praising Allah, the Merciful and Mighty, while away to the south the Hindus are greeting the risen sun; symbol of the Lord of All Worlds. Throughout this vast, devout country millions are calling on God, under mans names and forms ; more millions than in any other land. Surely some blessing will come in answer to all this prayer ?

Is India at the beginning of a renaissance ? Here, in the stimulating air of dawn, everything seems possible. What one man has done amongst turbulent tribes, others could do on a larger scale amongst more pacific people. For the first time within the memory of the men of these valleys they have been free to till their fields in peace, and to keep the money they earn. That is the end of the average man's desire ; not a franchise nor any high- sounding emancipation, gut freedom to pursue his avocation, and to reap what he has sown.

In these articles I have not disguised my preference for men of action over the masters of high debate. On the other hand, although I do not share the somewhat complacent view that five years of discussion and com- promise have improved the India Act of 1935, I have come to see that it was the best solution that could have been reached in existing circumstances. The rule of the Indian Civil Service, good as it,was.in the early days, is now out or totich with the people and the times. Yon cannot expect bureaucrats to leave their offices and dance down the primrose path of progress. They will have to retire into the background, where they will be much needed and appreciated by Indians engaged in the difficult art of pleasing most of the people most of the time. I do not myself believe that our British Parlia- mentary system is right for India, or for any hot, sunny climate ; but there is no immediate alternative. Ninety- nine out of every hundred Indians agree with me in their hearts, though many of them are compelled, in order to obtain votes, to pay lip-service to the elegant, if slightly antiquated doctrines of democracy. Eventually, in her own way and in her own time, India will return to the dictatorship of saints and sages.

Whether the Reforms will work in the Provinces depends largely on the result of the elections this autumn. Pandit Jawarlal Nehru has made a bold and honest statement of his belief in Communism. In any other country he would have immediately lost the support of the merchants who finance his party, but this may not happen in India, for her middle classes have a world- renouncing tendency : some of them may commit political suicide, and others will go through the motions of doing so, in the mistaken hope that the Pandit does not really mean what he says.

The situation will only become serious if Congress captures the Legislatures, proclaims civil disobedience, and (especially in the United Provinces) unites the peasants against the landlords. On the other hand, if wiser councils prevail, or wiser councillors are elected, the moderate men in the Legislatures may be able to show the value of co-operation in practice, and may be able to establish conditions of such orderly progress that the extremists will be compelled to abandon their wrecking tactics, and become a normal and useful Opposition.

That is what we must hope ; that Indians will concen- trate on the better government of India rather than on pursuing the shadow of complete Swaraj. For shadow it is. India can be a nation only through a union of all races, including the British. She is too big and polyglot to integrate fully ; moreover she has at least three religions that have been bitterly hostile to one another for centuries ; and the first effect of the Reforms has been to accentuate rather than to diminish these differences. The Frontier Province and Scinde will hardly consent to be ruled by Hindus in Delhi. The Punjab is a powder-magazine of potential trouble between Moslems and Sikhs. Every Province has its own communal difficulties. These problems have their roots in history : they have nothing to do with the British, whose troops dislike extremely the tasks which they have continually to undertake in aid of civil power.

As regards the vital question of Defence, there is a strong feeling, even among moderate-minded Indians, that the military authorities are lukewarm about a National Army ; but from what I saw at the Indian Military Academy at Dehra Dun I am convinced that this is a mistaken view. I had not space in my previous articles to describe it, but it is perhaps enough to say that my Army friends confirm the impression I gained on the spot : the I.M.A. cadets are a magnificent body of young men, equal to Sandhurst cadets in every way. But—and it is a big But—the very people who complain about the slowness of Indianisation are often those who are not sending their sons to be trained as officers.

Although all the races of India are not of equal military value, it may be granted that selected youths from every race could be trained to the use of arms, piovided that they were willing to be taught. But they do not appear to be willing. Out of the 174 cadets at present at the I.M.A. there are 69 Hindus, 54 Moslems, mostly from the Punjab, 87 Sikhs from the same Prafinee ; and Were are 7 Anglo-Indians, 4 Indian Christians, 2 Englishmen, 1 Parsi. All the Hindus come from races whose ancestors have been fighting men since the dawn of history. What is the good of blaming the Government for a state of affairs wliich Bengal, Bihar. Orissa, Assam and the Central Provinces could so easily remedy for themselves-? present these Provinces are not pulling their weight in a military sense. If and when they do, they will still be only members of a team. No one communityi it is worth repeating, can obtain eomplete control of India's des- tinies ; neither Hindus, nor Moslems, nor British ; and the British can no more be eliminated than the others.

Nor can the Indian Princes be eliminated, as the Congress politicians would like. The politicians have had little experience of government (through no fault. of their own, of course), whereas the Princes have had a great deal. Some of them are more successful than others, notably the Rulers of Hyderabad, Mysore, Travancore, Baroda and Bikaner. We in British India have nothing to teach these States as regards social reform, integrity, or justice. That is the plain truth. Their local administration is better than ours, because ours is at present largely in the hands of venal and inexperienced people, whereas theirs is still personal; and fatherly, sometimes autocratic. Local government - by democracy has been a failure almost everywhere in British India. Corruption in urban areas is appalling. In many places it has been necessary to supersede the local bodies by Government officials in order to bring some honesty and efficiency to their cities.

In these circumstances it is not surprising that the Princes are hesitating before entering a Federation based on a large extension of the suffrage to an ill-in- formed electorate. Can a system of government which has been rejected by half the world, and which is not working particularly well in the other half, be worth the risks involved in surrendering their rights and privileges ? They are asked to barter their birth right for a mess of political chicanery. They have seen the creeping paralysis of civic function which has overtaken three-quarters of the elected municipalities of British India—half of them are actually bankrupt—and they know very well the atmosphere of unreality and the growing communal tension which prevails in the Pro- vincial and Federal Legislatures : they will therefore think long and carefully before entangling themselves and their subjects in the spider's web of " progressive " policies which promiSe a great deal on paper and produce very little in practice for the poor man and the peasant.

My space is done, but I cannot exclude a word about the last Viceroyalty, for the improvement in mutual relations is alsso due in large part to the wisdom and experience 'of the late Viceroy.

Lord Willingdon combined suaviter in mode, floater in re in a manner appreciated by an old' and aristocratic civilisation ; and Lady Willingdon was an altogether exceptional Vicereine. They were both charming, courteous, capable : they had had long experience of the country : they never forgot a face or a friend. They were loved as no Viceregal pair has been in my memory, because they themselves gave their hearts to the land and its people. India can be governed only by her lovers.

Impressions are still crowding into memory and accusing me of stopping too often by the wayside, to write of small things, of details which seemed to me significant; but I take refuge in the opinion of the inimitable Kai Lung, who observed that a dish of herbs gathered with his own hands was preferable to the most sumptuous puppy-pie prepared by others for the mandarin's table.