INDIA AND VTR WAR.
[To vas EDITOE OF T•HE " SPECTATOZ."1
Sin,—A telegram from Poona to the Times, dated August 27th runs as follows
:- "The Indian agitator Mr. Tilak, who was sentenced to six years' transportation in 1908 for publishing seditious articles and was released last Juno, made a speech here to-day urging every one to support the Government in every way possible. The present, he raid, was not the time to press for reforms. They must sink all differences. The presence of their rulers was desirable even from the point of view of self-interest."
When Mr. Tilak was released on June 17th be was interviewed by the Juan Prakash, a Poona newspaper, and I have just been reading a Bengali translation of his remarks. Mr. Tilak, it must be remembered, has been a frank and formidable enemy of our administration in India. His newspaper, the Keshari, strove to create disaffection and rebellion. It was obviously necessary to subject him to some restraint. He was tried, convicted, and sentenced by an Indian Judge. His trans- portation was to not very distant Mandalay. In confinement he was treated with consideration and kindness. His chief complaint is that he, an active journalist and man of letters, was kept without news of the outer world for six years. He only knew of the accession of King George because some of his fellow-prisoners were released on that occasion ! His health (he was already diabetic, like so many of his class in India) suffered from inaction, but he was skilfully treated, in consultation with his family physician. He was not wholly deprived of mental occupation. He was able to study Pali (the language of the Buddhist scriptures of Burma), and French, and German. He was able to make plans for new editions of his English works on Vedic Chronology and the Calculus. He composed additions to Oita Rahasya, his collection-of Marathi poems. His object in learning German, apparently, was the hope of being able to visit Berlin, in order to consult German men of science as to his anthropological theories.
That such a man, with such a history, should now frankly be on our side is, after all, some testimony
to the character of our rule in India. It is not for nothing that Englishmen have been in Bombay since 1684. It is well for us, and for India, that our methods have not been those of the Germans in Alsace. When we have not been able to concede all that such ardent Nationalists as Mr. Tilak have demanded, it has not been from a clinging to arbitrary power or a love of domination. It was because a wider experience of world-politics than any Indian politician yet possesses showed us that the time for such con- cessions was not yet come. But if Indian politicians speak out frankly and bravely for what has become the common cause of freedom all over the world ; if Indian soldiers, armed and equipped by Indian generosity, fight side by side with our own sons on Western battlefields, there must needs follow a great change in our attitude towards Indian problems. What the change will be time will show. We have other matters in band now. But perhaps recent events may convince those of our American friends who still doubt that, if our administration has been firmly cautious, it has never resorted to brutality or terrorizing, even when in certain provinces conspiracy and assassination were rife, even when the Viceroy's life was attempted at Delhi. It is not that we claim any credit for doing our duty kindly and cheerfully. It was our interest and our policy to have the Indian people with us as far as possible. We are going to trust India freely and frankly. We are going to accept her loyally offered help. Surely the Englishmen wbo still hesitate to enlist might take the hint loyal India is about to give them. As a race, we are unemotional, unimaginative, slow to move. But the stories of British gallantry which are beginning to reach us, coupled with the tale of Indian loyalty, the fruit of two hundred years of patient British efforts, surely these will awaken the slumbering qualities which were our best justification for joining our allies in
the struggle for freedom.—I am, Sir, &c., J. D. A.
Previous page
