Letters to the Editor INDIA [To the Editor of the
SPECTATOR.]
Sia,—A great deal of nonsense is written about the numerous races and languages of India as indicating an absence of nationhood in its inhabitants, but it is not too much to say, as the Evening Standard recently did, that "the truth is that India is becoming a subject, about which the truth may not be told." The fact is that Hindustan is the home of 216 millions of people, for the most part of one race, who hold one religion with an intense faith, the most numerous, wealthy and educated nationality in Asia, standing high above the Japanese in all these respects. There are, it is true, some 70 millions of Mussulmans, but much more than half of them live in Eastern Bengal and are an uneducated and humble peasant community with a Hindu aristocracy, which recently assured Lord Irwin of "their united, whole- hearted support" in a letter addressed to the Viceroy by Maharaja Sir P. K. Tagore on behalf of ninety Hindu noblemen. There are, it is urged, some three or four languages spoken by the peoples who make up the vast Hindu majority, but that has never affected the solidarity of Hinduism and never will. How many tongues do Christians speak ?
A very unwise policy is being pressed on the India Office by powerful newspaper magnates and ex-Governors, whose one idea of administration is an autocracy based on military force. Its chief designs at present are to set the Mussulrnans against the Hindus and to rouse the so-called Untouchables to an assault on their masters. This is not a very civilized policy, and clearly contemplates something very like civil war for the aggrandizement of the British Raj. In times like these it is necessary to call a spade a spade. I do not believe that either of these great groups of the Indian population will be pleased by an invitation to join in an anti-Hindu campaign. It is a significant fact that a fortnight ago the great Mussulman festival of the Bakrid, which so frequently in the past was accompanied by sectarian rioting, passed over, from end to end of India, without a word or act of religious bigotry. Mr. Gandhi's successor in the salt war was Mr. Abbas Tyabji, a Mussulman judge of some distinction.
At the present time the Hindus are in a savage mood, and it seems unquestionably necessary and just to fall back on the rifle to maintain order and protect life, but in the long run it will be imperative to seek Hindu good will or the great Indian trade, which is the backbone of British com- merce, will melt away. We must remember the words of Warren Hastings that the Hindus "are gentle, benevolent and more susceptible to gratitude for kindness done them than any people on the face of the earth." In August, 1908, Dr. Lefroy, the English Bishop of Lahore, protested against "the language in the public Press which is wounding and alienating" the Indian peoples. To me it is deplorable that books like Sir Reginald Craddock's Dilemma in India and Miss Mayo's Mother India should drive the men and women of India to the verge and past the verge of passionate despair. There was once in India a great Irish Viceroy, known as Clemency Canning. India may yet thank God that England has sent her a far-seeing Prophet of Peace in Lord Irwin.
A great deal that is written about the Untouchables is silly exaggeration. Many of them hold high places in the Administration, at the Bar and in the colleges. The present hideous phase of public life in India will pass away on the condition that we do not call to our aid the old tyranny of the Moghul or, like the Communist, try to rouse the servants of the uppet castes against their masters. Those who are acquainted with Sanscrit literature must know that the line of separation between the Brahmin and the so-called Untouchable is one of race similar to what still exists in the ,United States, where men of British race refuse to recognize the Negro as his equal. The black castes of India, almost all Negritic in origin, stand in exactly the same relation to the white Caucasian Brahmin and the white Aryan Rajput. Far from being anti-Hindu, the Untouchables, or humbler castes, are almost to a man fervent supporters of Gandhi and formed the bulk of the rioters at Sholapur, Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta.—I am, Sir, &c., C. J. O'D.
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