INDIA REVISITED: V. DAYA.LBAGH : AN INDIAN UTOPIA

This is the Oh of a series of articles which ..11r. Yeats-Brown has been specially commissioned by "The Spectator" to write on contemporary India. The sixth, which will appear next week under the title "Awk- ward Problems in Calcutta," deals with some of the difficulties peculiar to the administration of Bengal.] THE ivory-workers of Benares, the silver-smiths of Madras, the Pathans of the Kohat Pass who make modern high-velocity rifles with the most primitive equipment, and the nuisons of Delhi, who have just completed (for an AmeriCan millionaire) a Moghul bathroom of marble screens and inlaid flowers of cornelian and lapis-lazuli as beautiful as any of the work of Shahjehan's time, all bear Witness to the fact that India has not lost her ancient manual skill. But although she has clever craftsmen, she has few leader's to command them, and few industrial organisers. (The Tatas are an exception, and Parsis.) One leader she has, however; who is not only a man of great practical ability, but the head of a religion : he has made it his business to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, without yielding an inch or an atom of the things that are God's. .

Sahibji Maharaj Sir Anand Sarup seems to me a pioneer whose like the world has not yet seen. Ford has his followers, Stalin his : the Mormons have prosperous communities; and so had the Doukhobors in .Canada.

have visited these experiments in social progress in Detroit, Moscow, Salt Lake City and Nelson (B.C.).

None of them, to my mind, is so original and interesting as the Dayalbagh Colony, near Agra; nor so •big with possibilities for the future.

The founder of the faith of the Radhasoamis (as the colonists call themselves) was one Soamiji Maharaj,' who was born in Agra in 1818. Ile was a rich man, well- versed in the classical languages Of Persian, Arabic, and Sanskrit. He delivered his message and founded his new conummity in 1861, in his forty-lifth year ; and died_ in 1878. Since then, there have been four other leaders, the last being the present Saluibji Maharaj, who was elected in 1913. (He was knighted this year.) Radhasoamis are not eager to discuss their beliefs with outsiders, for they distrust faith without works, and strangers are not generally admitted to their services. However; I had the' privilege of attending their morning' meditation, and also spent several hours with Sir Anand Sarup, so I believe that this account of their faith, though necessarily over-simplitied, is accurate in essentials. Their chief tenets are (a) belief in One God, the fountain- head of all spirit and matter, (b) the Continuity of life after death, (c) the unity of the God-essence with the spiritual entity in man. • They are forbidden to engage in useless pursuits, "such asattending fairs and festivals, and participating in political agitation." There are no caste distinctions in the community or its workshops.

Until 1913, when Sahibji Maharaj Attend Sarup was elected as the leader of the main body of Radhasoamis, the movement was a comparatively obscure Vaishna sect of Hinduism. Very soon, however, he marked it with the impress of his strong personality. He discouraged abstract speculation. God meant us to make this world a garden: Godnicant us to use machines in the great design of living. Dayalbagh must have trees, llowem factories. - How well he has achieved his purpose can readily' be understood by anyone who visits a dissident sect . of Radhasoamis which exists in the neighbourhood. (There are several such bodies in India, all of negligible influence and numbers.. The one I visited was in Dayalbagh itself.) Here are some two or perhaps three hundred followers of the original Soamiji Maharaj, living in the proximity of the founder's tomb. Work is in progress on the tomb, but it is all at sixes and sevens. Sir Anand Sarup offered a considerable sum of money for the _embellishment of the shrine-. (NeVertheless; he does not believe in shrines himself. " When I die," he says, " I want my ashes to be scattered ! '") But the gift was refused. These people remain poor, disorganised, slipshod, suspicious,: Outside their enclave, on the contrary, grass grows, water flows, roads are swept, houses are bright with paint and new distemper.

From small beginnings, Dayalbagh ,has developed into a garden city of four square Miles in extent, housing 3,500 community members, and employing another 2,000 workers' in its forty-two industries. The exports Of its farms and factories have doubled themselves in:the last seven years, and tiow.aMount to £60,000. There i not a town in India where its products are not known, and hardly a town where there are hot some members of the faith. The total number of Radhasoamis is over 150,000, grouped in ,250 branches.

Perhaps the most striking of the Dayalbagh institutions is the model dairy, which covers 420 acres, and whose land, buildings and equipment cost 130,000. Important, experiments are in progress here, with FrieSian; and mixed breeds of cattle. The dairy not only supplies the Colony with good milk and butter and fresh vegetables, but is a standing witness to the success of modern farming methods in India, for after smite initial difficulties it is now showing a handsome profit.

The Colony has also spent large sums on the education of its youth. Encouraged by Sir Harcourt Butler (" a prince among supporters," Sir Anand calls him) an Institute was built and endowed at a cost of £40,000 which now maintains 385 students on its rolls. It is residential, and emphasis is laid on character-building and athletics. Scouting is encouraged : there are seven Packs, three Troops, three Rover Corps. A Technical College, erected at a cost of £8,000, gives courses in electrical and motor engineering, and in the manufacture of leather goods. The Women's College, started five years ago, is also a flourishing institution with seventeen mistresses. The Model Industries, on which 160,000 have been spent, turns out goods to the value of £37,000 a year : it has -depots in seven cities, and 90 agencies. Amongst its products art motors, dynamos; electric fans, stoVes, clocks, heaters, etc. ; gramophones, laboratory balances and weights ; biology Models and surgical instruments; fatintainpens ; knives ; nibs ; inks ; buttons; toys ; • ivcielleh: goods; socks, hose, vests; shoes, and all kinds of leather goods. This list might be greatly. extended; Sir Anand tells me that he is thinking of taking up the manufacture of cheap radio sets as soon as his workshops have breathing-space.

All this has been achieved in twenty-three years. All departments are managed by Indians. There are no Europeans in Dayalbagh except Miss Clive, the Principal of the Women's College.

After I had walked round the farms and factories, had seen the new canal, and had talked to some of the students in one of the four hostels, Sir Anand.Sarup received me in a cool; uncluttered house, like the mind of its master. lie is tall and slight, with brown, bright eyes that can by turns look shrewd and quizzical, or rapt, and focussed in Infinity.

"I began as a telegraph clerk," he told. me. "But even before Dayalbagh existed I had a vision of it, and what it was to become. When the call came I was prepared. The details of the buildings existed already in my imagination. When such details cease to leap into my mind's eye, my work will be finished. But we believe that a leader will always be found for our community, since we seek God's guidance in everything." • "What is your view of India twenty years hence ? " I asked.

"The mantle of a prophet is good to look at, but not to wear," he answered, turning my question with a laugh. "At present we are only at the beginning of things. I am a great believer in rural reconstruction, and am trying to develop it along sound lines in neighbouring villages. The peasant must have better cows. Cattle that are economic to keep. That should be the first move in the campaign. We must stop the appalling waste which goes on in Indian agriculture.

I was tempted to ask : " If you were a dictator ? . . . " but refrained, for I felt that Sir Anand prefers facts to hypotheses. However, I knew that he did not believe in the natural equality of man, for he had alluded in a recent address at Agra University to the "revolt against the soul-killing teaching of democracy," and to "a world-wide demand and search for men of a superior type, for' peaks and pinnacles.' " With this speech in mind, I questioned him on the subject of-Mr. Gandhi.

" I admire the Mahatma for his saintly life," he replied, "but I am afraid his ideas are out of date. His cult of the spinning-wheel, for instance, would condemn India to perpetual slavery. The way for us to be free is to put an end to our senseless quarrels over trifles, and to conic into line with the advanced countries of the world. That doesn't -mean that I want to copy the West in everything. Far from it. There is a danger in over-industrialisation. especially if the ties of religion are weakened. I never want to see Dayalbagh grow in size beyond a community of about ten thousand persons. But there is plenty of root and plenty of need for such communities all over India."

" Then you don't believe in the political approach to India's problems ? "

" I think it was part of the Divine Plan that the English should have come to stir us from our lethargy. But now that mission is almost accomplished. In the days to come Divine Grace will be needed by England if India is to remain a willing partner in the Empire. Grudging concessions arc no good. You could take a big step forward now, and gain India's goodwill."

" There is little enough goodwill in the world at large, Sahibji Maharaj ! If necessity arose, would you fight for the Empire ? "

" That depends on circumstances. I would, if God told me to do so. There are times when non-violence is impossible, as Lord Krislma explained to Arjuna in the most famous of our scriptures. So I would behave according to the guidance I received ; fighting like a bull-dog, or staying as still as a mouse ! "

That last phrase was typical : here is a quick, witty, clever man, with genius for business management, but, above all, an intense desire to do right : a good man, if I ever saw one.

[By a slip of the pen Mr. Yeats-Brown wrote in his last article "forty lakhs a year (£80,000)," instead of £800,000.]