[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—The remarks in Colonel K. N. Haksar's article in the Spectator of September 19th on the absence of Com- munalism in the Indian States are of much interest, and I venture to think that some attempt at an explanation of the came Of this happy state of affairs may also be not without interest at the present time. The States are for the greater part homogeneous entities as far as their popula- tion is concerned, the rulers being of the same race and religion as the majority of the ruled. The State of Jummu and Kashmir in the north and the Nizam's dominion in the south are, however, outstanding examples to the con- trary. In Kashmir the people are by far the greater part Mohammedan; while the ruling house is Hindu and the whole State is governed by Hindus for Hindu.s with little regard for the Mohammedan majority, which is made to understand that it is the under-dog indeed. The real rulers of the country are the Brahmins (known as Pundits), the Hindu religion being the dominant religion of the State. The cow being held in veneration by the Hindu, no cow or ox may be slaughtered in the State (it is not even possible to import a tin of ox-tongue), with the 'result that Mohammedans cannot offer these animals for sacrifice.
In the Nizam's dominion, on the other hand, the vast bulk of the population (eleven millions out of a total of thirteen millions) are Hindus, who are kept very much in subjection. Practically all the important appointments in the State are held by Moslems, and, where suitable Moslems cannot he found in the State itself, they are imported from British India, as in the case of Sir Akbar Hydari, who is a Bombay Moslem and a pensioned officer of the Indian Accounts Service. When the minority is able, as in the case of these two States, to impose its views so completely on the majority, what chance have the minority populations. in the other States to assert themselVes ? They are, as a rule, too Cowed to attempt to do so, and were they ever goaded into rioting they would be ruthlessly suppressed by
the armed forces of the State. In short, the Indian ruler knows his job as a ruler, and his subjects, whether Hindu or Mohammedan, respect him accordingly.
Many men who are familiar with the present-day problems of India are of the opinion that the best solution of its troubles would be to divide up the British-governed Provinces into more or 'less homogeneous entities, which should be placed under Indian rulers, the large seaport towns, such as Calcutta and Bombay, being retained under direct British rule. This step would certainly result in the disappearance of the present communal troubles, which are such a distracting feature of the administration of British India.—I am, Sir, &c., SENEX.
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