[To 711E Emma or um " Srecriacut."] Ste,—Your correspondent Mr.
B. Houghton is no doubt right in bidding us study public opinion in India on Indian subjects. But India is a big place; there are many Indies; the Punjab, for instance, is not quite as Bengal. May I quote a couple of examples: A young district officer in the Punjab writes as follows by the last mail:—
" We are all feeling suitably thrilled by the Viceroy's genial and generous speech. You will perhaps be surprised to hear that the general view [among Europeans?] appears to be that it does nut go far enough in satisfying legitimate Indian aspirations. But the danger is this. The noisy band of disloyalidts has on sedulously proclaimed that coming concessions will produce not merely a new Constitution but a new heaven and a new earth that when the people discover that they still hare to pay taxes, bribe pattraris, pay rent, Sc,, as before, they will give trouble. It is easy to make concessions to the educated few, but it is we who have to deal with the uneducated many."
The writer might have added that supervision of corrupt subordi- nates has undoubtedly grown taxer since districts hare been freely handed to the charge of indigenous administrators. That may be a passing phase. But it was expected, and the odium of it falls en the adn l i ll irtration at large.
Take now another view, as expressed by Sir Rabindranath Tegore in a lecture published in an English translation in the Cal- cutta Modern Rerieo•, a monthly magazine which should be read carefully by all who are interested in the latest developments in Bengal. It is not easy to quote brief extracts from Sir Rabin- drauath's lecture, billee, with his wonted literary skill, he mingles his political ideas with matters less tangible and practical, ethics and " mysticism " and Neo-Hinduism. But it is interesting, at a lime when 11r. Montagu is proceeding to India to investigate the means of instituting a fresh attempt nt decentralization, to find the poet saying, quite bluntly, that " we shall never let England forget that she has not crossed the seas to slice up India into fragments." Ile confesses himself an ardent Home Ruler and Separatist
In spite of all risk of error or mischance, we must have self- government. Let us stumble and struggle on our way, but for God's sake do not keep your eyes fixed on our stumblings to the neglect of our progress. This is our reply, the only true reply." He admits frankly that educated India has failed to collaborate with British administrators. But " the insults which we allowed ourselves to suffer for hundreds of years filially took shape as subjection to foreign dominion. . . . Deeply stained as we are by the repeated showers of insult and sorrow that hare been unceasingly poured on us from outside, we must to-day undergo purification. . . . Privation, pestilence and famine obtrude themselves only too patently."
What the poet and Hr. Houghton alike forget is that British rule in India owes its existence to the deplorable maladministra- tion of indigenous rulers. The poet admits that collaboration, what our French Allies call the politique d'association, is a failure. The fault, it seems, is ours. Let India have independ- ence and she will net her own house in order, with the help of the ports, railways, industries created by British enterprise and paid for by British eapital. Such arguments have often been used by Indian lecturers in America. They have not bad much effect on the very practical and bard-headed American administrators of the Philippines. Sir Rabindranath, it is true, adds that there must be ethical and doctrinal changes in Hinduism itself if India is to be governed by Hindus according to Western ideas of efficiency and purity of administration. The whole lecture deserves careful reading as a remarkable literary tour de force. It is not without those gleams of humour of which one of your reviewers spoke the other day, such as the lecturer's picture of the " old woman " who keeps Indian villagers " half asleep with her opium." Mr. Montagu might do worse, when Ile is in Calcutta, than nsk Sir Rabindranath whet he means exactly by his interest- iug and witty lecture.
To some of us it seems a pity that Constitutional changes cannot be deferred till the thousands of gallant young Indian volunteers (not conscripts) return home, who are now fighting for the Empire in Mesopotamia and elsewhere. Meld of them belong to the class who will be disappointed to find that in the matter of Constitu- tional changes, plus co change, plus c'est to menus chose, so far
as they are concerned.—I am, Sir, &e.. P. Q. R.
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