THE PROSPECT IN INDIA. [To THE EDITOR OF THE "
Bescrerea."3 SIR,—In all the recent deluge of speeches and fulminations en affairs in India I have not seen anywhere any clear present- ment of the real danger of the present situation; and that is— the unrest amongst the mass of common people aroused from their "pathetic contentment" only too effectually by the calamitous Mr. Montagu and his unwilling tools in India. These hundreds of millions of illiterate and ignorant people do not know anything about politics of any kind, nor do they care two straws about Home Rule or the Khalif at, or Hindu- Moslem Unity (except to spit on it), but they have implicitly believed and respected the power of the British Raj, and are now shocked beyond words, and stirred to their depths, by the sight of the British Government allowing without punishment or restriction the preaching of the most poieonoue eedition, and anti-British hatred, and open rebellion. They do not understand our superstitious worship of "free speech," and are thoroughly puzzled and disturbed. "We are ghabrowed," they say, "and don't know where we are." "Is it true that the British Raj has lost all power and authority and is abdi- cating its functions? " If this idea once gets hold, encouraged by further weakness on the part of the Government of India, there will be a real upheaval with incalculable consequences.
For all the sound and fury of the various agitators, they are just mere spume and froth on the surface of the Indian sea, any serious movement of which will dissipate them to the winds, but the British Raj has so far been the solid rock representing law and order and impartial justice amongst the warring religions and races and castes. If that rock is under- mined and fails to stand there must come chaos and stark anarchy, such as did come in the country affected by the Mutiny of 1857, when every village made war on and looted every weaker village, and each petty Rajah or Zemindar went straight for his enemy.
We have so far escaped (by the skin of our teeth) from a rising of Mohammedan fanatics, by great good luck, or some would call it the mercy of Providence. Mr. Gandhi and the Hindu seditionists did us this vital service (quite unintention- ally of course) by joining, and backing, and in fact taking possession of the Khalifat agitation, and so exposing the imposture to the true believers of 'both religions.
The Mohammedan fanatic, though he had originally little but a lukewarm sympathy with his Turkish co-religionists, and no interest at all in the Khalifat question, might easily have been
worked up to a dangerous pitch by his own Pirs and Moulvies, but when Gandhi and his Hindu seditionist friends rushed in to push him on violently from behind, and to pose as being more Muslim than the Turks themselves, it "bust the whole show " quite effectually, and we have been saved from some terrible possibilities. In vain is the snare of non-co-operation set in full view of the fowl; it excites only his indignant derision. So far, so good. But what are we to expect next November when the elections come off? What but an orgy of unbridled, poisonous, lying speeches and writings in all lan- guages, all over the country, from Peshawar to Cape Comorin, combined with rampant bribery and corruption for the purchase of votes?
All that even, if confined to the politicians and voters, might do no great harm except locally, but consider the effect on the masses, of the apparent impotence of the Government in which they have so far trusted implicitly to preserve law and order and punish disloyalty and violence. Any doubts as to the power and competence of the British Raj (and those doubts have been roused and increase daily) will bring nearer a catastrophic upheaval, probably worse than we have seen in Russia, as there are hero many more religious and racial and caste animosities than in that unhappy country. That is the real danger, and there is nothing to show that it is understood and being prepared for. Shall we always muddle through?—I am, Sir, &c., 1857.
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