INDIA'S HOPE
LEFT TO RIGHT: A. O, BROWN, A. W. PAUL, k. CORNISH,
THE AUTHOR, J. A. Bo UR DILLON.
RECRUITS FOR THE BENGAL CIVIL SERVICE, 1870.
INDIA'S HOPE
By
FRANCIS HENRY SKRINE, F.R.Hisx.S-,
Indian Civil Service (Retired)
LONDQH *
W. THACKER &r CO,, 2 CREED LANE, .0.4
CALCUTTA and SIMLA? THACKER SPINK <ST CO*
1929
MADIJ.. AND PRXJSTtKD IN GRKAT BRITAIN BY
THE GARDEN CITY MUSSSTWD.,, -WBTOH WORTH, BERTS'
PREFACE
foEows, too, that the realisation of ** India's
Hope " for a prosperous future depends on
co-operation between all who love her, irre-
spective of their birth and creed. In my con-
cluding chapters I have endeavoured to dispel
the prejudice and rebut the calumny which
now render that ideal impossible of attain-
ment.
FRANCIS H. SKRINE.
147 Victoria Street, London, S.W.i.
1928.
*** The substance of this book has appeared in the
Calcutta Review for June, August atid October, 3:928.
I DEDICATE THIS VINDICATION OF THE BENGALI
CHARACTER TO SIR R. N. MOOKERJEB
PREFACE
THIS little book is mainly a defence of the
educated Bengalis, who are styled " Bhadra-
16k " in their vernacular speech and <e Babus "
in Anglo-Indian parlance. It has, however, a
wider application. There is a remarkable
identity of racial character and culture in
the Intelligentsia throughout India ; the
Kayasthas of Bihar, the Maratha Brahmins
of the Madras Presidency and the Parsis of
Bombay closely resemble the Bengali Babus,
and like them have been the target for many
a poisoned shaft. Moreover, the great Aryan
family includes no " superior/" no " inferior "
races. Civilisation is largely a question of
physical environment, and the most advanced
race has not cast the slough left by past stages
of social growth. Conversely, I have used the
adjective " English " to denote the British
element in the population of our far-flung
Empire* My initial chapters are necessarily
based on personal experience. I wished to
contrast the political status of Indians in the
past and at the present day, in view of show-
ing the vast improvement which half a cen-
tury has brought. The English have put forth
vii
PREFACE
their utmost efforts to make the Self-denying
Ordinance of 1919 a reality ; and they may
legitimately expect an equal degree of loyalty
in their Indian partners.
Many tremendous problems await solu-
tion ; but the increasing pressure of popula-
tion is the crux of India's economic situation.
This burning question is dealt with in a re-
cently published Appendix to the Report of
the Royal Commission on Agriculture. Irri-
gation and modern science have decupled the
production of food, but every improvement
is " sooner or later neutralised by an increase
of population/* A final catastrophe is, indeed,
adumbrated in the Commissioner's query :
Whether ultimately the standard of living will break
under the stress of population, or whether some
conscious check will be imposed for maintaining
intact the standard of living ?
Nature, ** red of tooth and claw/* redresses
the balance by means of war, pestilence and
famine* All these have been eliminated in
British India, but the ** conscious effort "
which strives to adjust numbers to resources
is still to seek. The inference is that the
appalling poverty of the masses in every pro-
vince arises from their lack of foresight, and
not from the fs exploitation " charged by
extremists against the British regime* It
viii
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PACK
CALCUTTA MEMORIES i
CHAPTER II
RURAL BENGAL IN THE 'SEVENTIES - 16
CHAPTER III
THE EXPANSION OF ENGLAND - - 28
CHAPTER IV
THE BENGALI INTELLIGENTSIA - - 37
CHAPTER V
SOME DETRACTORS, LORD MACAULAY
AND Miss KATHERINE MAYO - - 48
APPENDIX
THE AUTHOR AND HIS PANTHER,
1877 ...... 56
XI
ILLUSTRATIONS
RECRUITS FOR THE BENGAL CIVIL SERVICE,
1870 - Frontispiece
THE AUTHOR AND HIS PANTHER, 1877 56
Xlll
CHAPTER I
CALCUTTA MEMORIES
Voyage to Calcutta in 1870 ; Lisbon, Gibraltar, Malta, and
Alexandria ; Cleopatra's Needle ; by rail to Suez ; the
old s.s. Candia; rats!; Galle and Madras; the River
HughH a disappointment ; arrival at Garden Reach : a
dethroned Sovereign's diversions ; reception by the
Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal ; first impressions of
Calcutta ; luxuries of the Gorgeous East ; the Tudor Ice
Company ; Palanquins and Ticca Garis ; the European
quarter ; some Chauringhi mansions ; Lord Macaulay ;
an exceptional Anglo-Indian family ; dramatic reap-
pearance of Mr. Pattle's corpse ; the Maidan ; splendid
sailing-ships in the Hughli ; the fate of an old Arab
captain ; Calcutta carriage folk ; its northern streets,
a suggestive odour ; possible return to jungle,
ONE of the few privileges of old age lies in the
fact that a man who has reached life's even-
ing can find relief from its inevitable miseries
by looking down a long vista of past events,
My recollections of Calcutta's external aspect
in 1870 are extremely vivid, and I am fain
to believe that many will be interested in the
impressions which it left on the mind of a
British lad. Prior to the Mutiny of 1857,
India was a close preserve for nominees of the
East India Company and a limited mercantile
class* That cataclysm lifted a corner of the
INDIA S HOPE
veil ; but thirteen years later India was still
unknown to the English public. The voyage
thither was expensive, and tourist agencies
confined their operations to Europe. Thanks
to railways, turbine steamers, motor-cars and
aeroplanes the world has shrunk to compara-
tively small dimensions ; but these devices
have robbed foreign travel of the glamour
"which clung to it in the Victorian era.
The Call of the East was keenly felt by
eight young civilians who left Southampton
for Alexandria on August 4th, 1870, in a P.
and O. paddle-steamer of 1,800 tons. The
Bay of Biscay did not belie its sinister reputa-
tion, and -we were all prostrated by sea-sick-
ness until our storm-tossed vessel anchored in
the Tagus, to deliver mails for Portugal ; rail-
way communications having been interrupted
by the Franco-Prussian war. On regaining
our sea-legs we gazed with awe on the frowning
Rock of Gibraltar, honeycombed with bat-
teries which were even then obsolete. Malta
was our next port of call ; and there, for the
first time, passengers were allowed to set foot
on shore. So my companions and I chartered
carriages for a trip across the island to Verdala
Palace, the Governor's summer retreat, which
seemed an oasis of verdure set in a wilderness
of stones and stunted olive-trees. We were
CALCUTTA MEMORIES
glad to leave our crowded ship at Alexandria,
which contained nothing of interest except an
Egyptian obelisk known as " Cleopatra's
Needle/* It now adorns the Thames Embank-
ment, but then lay on the Mediterranean
shore, half buried in sand. The Suez Canal
had recently been inaugurated by the Empress
of the French, but was not ready to receive
traffic. It behoved us, therefore, to cross the
Desert by rail ; and my only recollection of
the journey relates to an infamous meal of
goat's flesh and tepid beer which was served
at the junction for Cairo.
At Suez the P. and O. steamer Candia lay
ready to convey us to Calcutta* I must
describe that vessel in some detail, if only to
illustrate the revolution in naval architecture
which has taken place. She was an iron screw-
steamer of z,ooo tons, and had been launched
in 1845. Her plates were enormously thick ;
and I was not surprised to learn in after years
that the Candia was sailing between England
and Australia, after the removal of her engines*
The change was not so radical as it would
seem ; for the stout old Candia was schooner-
rigged, and hoisted sail in a fair wind. Her
build did not differ materially from that of
Elizabethan craft. The stern was topped by a
lofty poop, with a range of hen-coops on either
INDIA'S HOPE
side* Beneath this superstructure lay the
saloon. Being situated at an extremity of the
ship, it was very lively in bad weather ; and
our meals were often interrupted by sounds of
woe issuing from the adjacent cabins. For-
ward of the saloon there revolved a huge
-wooden wheel armed with steel cogs which
operated others on the screw-shaft. The
" Multiplying Wheel/' as it was termed, pre-
vented the screw from " racing " when the
vessel pitched, but the loss of power involved
led to its supersession by a more effectual
device. A dread of fire, inherited from the
days of wooden ships, relegated smokers to a
tent rigged up on deck. Here they were sup-
plied with live charcoal by a Bengali lad who
came in answer to shouts of " Chokra! " The
commissariat on board the Candia was lavish
if somewhat coarse. One " saw one's dinner "
in the days of Queen Victoria, i.e., every
course appeared on the table at the same time.
A conspicuous feature was great joints of beef
and mutton which the ship's butcher produced
from animals awaiting their destiny in pens.
Port, sherry and strong beer were included in
the bill of fare, and passengers could procure
a *' peg " (always of brandy) by merely sign-
ing a chit. Although the Candia was anything
but a floating hotel we accepted the discom-
CALCUTTA MEMORIES
forts of life at sea as inevitable. The rigid
discipline of to-day was unknown, and officers
mingled freely with passengers. Concerts and
amateur theatricals kept people busy, and
the younger folk indulged in bolster-fights
after dark. The Candia swarmed with cock-
roaches, and rats sometimes visited the
saloon, though they generally kept to the
second-class quarters, an inferno in the ship's
bowels, inhabited by poor Europeans and
Eurasians. As far as I recollect no Indians
were included in the passenger-list.
Apropos of rats, our friendly Purser told me a story
illustrating their communal habits. During a previous
voyage he was awakened in the dead of night by a quarter-
master, who informed him that the rats were having high
jinks below. The pair crept barefooted into the hold,
where they heard a warbling as of the song of many small
birds. The space that lay between the cargo and the bulk-
head above was lit by a swinging lantern* When the in-
truders* eyesight had accommodated itself to its feeble
light, they saw several hundred rats ranged in a ring. In
the central space a huge specimen sat up, casting agonised
glances on every side* Suddenly, the chatter ceased ; the
whole crowd fell upon the culprit and devoured him*
Galle was in those days the port of call for
Ceylon. Our ship deftly threaded the rocks
in its tortuous harbour, and passengers were
allowed to land for a drive, I shall never for-
get the gorgeous tropical vegetation which
delighted our eyes after a month's confine-
ment. Madras was our next halting-place.
The pier which now renders it accessible in
INDIA S HOPB
most weathers had no existence, and com-
munications with the shore were maintained
by a fleet of clumsy Masula boats. The pros-
pect of being drenched in the surf kept most
of us on board. Here we parted with the
brightest member of our band. He was a
Londoner of infinite humour, who subse-
quently blew his brains out in the despair
engendered by life in a remote station.
We arrived at the Sandheads on the thirty-
fourth day from Southampton, and the Candia
hove to for a pilot. He came on board from
the Pilot brig ; a haughty personage wearing
white kid gloves, who superseded our Captain
during the perilous voyage up the HughlL
That famous river disappointed us greatly ;
its low banks, fringed with jungle, seemed but
a sorry approach to the gorgeous East ; nor
did the yarns told by seasoned passengers, of
tiger-haunted Sagar Island and the danger
of capsizing on the treacherous " James and
Mary ^ Sands " tend to raise our drooping
spirits. They revived when the Candia steamed
slowly past a line of mansions embowered in
lofty trees. Garden Reach had once been the
choicest residential suburb of Calcutta ; but
grandees deserted it when four of the largest
houses were allotted to the ex- King of Oudh
and his retainers. Here the dethroned sover-
CALCUTTA MEMORIES
eign used to employ Ms ample leisure In com-
posing Urdu verse and watching the graceful
flight of a flock of pigeons. Here, too, the P*
and O. depot was situated, and our long
journey ended when the Candia made fast to
the wharf. We shook hands warmly with her
officers, none of whom did I ever see again, and
our fellow-passengers were too busy to think
of bidding us farewell. Such as had relatives
or friends in waiting were whisked away in
carriages to enjoy Calcutta's boundless hos-
pitality ; the less fortunate, myself included,
drove to the Great Eastern Hotel, which was
then dubbed " Wilson's/' after its enterprising
founder.
On the morrow, my colleagues and I gath-
ered at a dilapidated house in northern
Chauringhi which did duty for a Home Office,
in order to learn the stations to which we were
posted as Assistant Magistrate-Collectors.
Then we trooped to Belvedere, with a view
of paying our respects to the Ldeutenant-
Governor, Sir William Grey, who gave us a
formal reception.
The present generation must find some diffi-
culty in imagining Calcutta without Docks,
pure water, scientific drainage, motor-cars,
autobuses, tram-lines, electricity, and the
other conveniences which render life in the
INDIA'S HOPE
tropics more than tolerable. Bishop Heber
wrote, in his delightful Diary of a Residence
in India : <( People talk of the luxuries of the
East, but the only luxuries I am aware of are
cold air and cold water when one can get
them." Half a century later things "were but
little better in this respect. The ministrations
of a sleepy punkah-coolie were far less efficient
than an electric fan, and the supply of ice was
precarious. In the good Bishop's time wealthy
Europeans cooled their claret with ice skim-
med from shallow pans set out at night during
the cold weather. In the 'twenties, however,
an enterprising American made his fortune by
cutting huge blocks from the frozen surface of
a lake near Boston and exporting them to
Calcutta, where they were stored in a massive
edifice in Hare Street . As the precious commo-
dity arrived per sailing ship, stocks were apt
to run short at the hottest season. In such
case every subscriber received a notice that
ice would be supplied only to hospitals. In
the 'sixties of last century a method was dis-
covered of manufacturing ice cheaply by
machinery, and several plants for that pur-
pose arrived in Calcutta. Each was bought
up and sent back by the powerful Tudor Ice
Company ; but its monopoly could not be
8
CALCUTTA MEMORIES
sustained, and the Small Cause Court now
stands on the site of the Calcutta Ice House.
My last morning in Calcutta was spent in a
tour of inspection, for which purpose I had to
choose between a " palki " and a " ticca gari/*
The former, each with its quartet of Uriya
bearers, abounded in the purlieus of Govern-
ment House ; they were cheap, but slow.
Ticca garis, alias licensed cabs, were ranged in
three categories. Those of the first class were
conspicuous by their absence, and rumour
had it that the term was applied to funeral
carriages. The second-class ticca was less
stoutly constructed, but cleaner than the
London four-wheeled cab of that epoch.
Ticcas belonging to the third class were ram-
shackle contraptions drawn by half-starved
ponies whose eyes betrayed their unutterable
anguish. Hailing a second-class ticca I man-
aged to make the ** Coachwan " understand
that I wished to be driven about the streets
for a couple of hours*
Calcutta was called the " City of Palaces **
owing to the long line of stuccoed mansions
which faced the Maidan. Bishop Heber said
that the general effect reminded him of St.
Petersburg, but I saw a closer likeness between
Chauringhi and London's Park Lane* Many
a house in that famous thoroughfare has
INDIA'S HOPE
associations which should be snatched from
oblivion. The Bengal Club house, for instance,
has replaced one occupied in the "thirties by
Thomas Babington Macaulay, who accepted
the appointment of Legal Member of Council
with the avowed object of saving money. An
old Anglo-Indian with whom I foregathered
in the Candia remembered him perfectly, and
told me that the great man was noted for his
parsimony. He narrated other happenings in
Macaulay's brief Indian career, which led me
to doubt the justice of the virulent attack on
Bengalis which I had read in his essay on
Warren Hastings. Long after my retirement
from the Indian Civil Service I met an
elderly Colonel named Macaulay, whose
days were spent in playing golf. After
telling me that he was the historian's nephew,
he said :
A couple of years before Uncle Tom's death he sum-
moned me to his chambers in Piccadilly, and addressed
me as follows : "I have asked you to come here, my boy,
in order to tell you some facts bearing on your future
career. I am soon to become a Peer of the Healm, and
Her Majesty the Queen has been pleased to give me per-
mission to insert the name of a blood-relative in the
remainder. You are ray brother's only son, and have
primd facie a right to carry on my title. But my Indian
savings have been sunk in an annuity ; I shall not leave
you anything to speak of and, as far as I can judge, you
are not likely to earn an income sufficient to support a
Peerage. So instead of being a prospective Member of
the House of Lords, you shall have a cadetship in the
Indian army/*
JO
CALCUTTA MEMORIES
Ten years after Lord Macaulay's departure
another house in Chauringhi was tenanted by
the Pattle family. Its head, the senior member
of the Board of Revenue, was a morose old per-
son who lay under the imputation of having
killed his man in a duel. Mrs. Pattle, however,
was brilliantly clever, and her bevy of beauti-
ful daughters brought every gilded youth to
her house. There were many sore hearts in
Calcutta when news arrived that two of the
sirens had become Peeresses. The ladies of
this family must have been exceptionally
endowed, for the Governor-General, Lord
Dalhousie, used to say that " mankind con-
sisted of men, women and Patties/' A tragedy
attended their departure from India. Old Mr.
Pattle he had come out as a writer during
the eighteenth century was gathered to his
fathers. In pursuance of his death-bed in-
junctions, Mrs. Pattle had his body embalmed,
and sailed for England with the coffin safely
stored in the ship's hold. On the third day
from the Sandheads a dead calm was en-
countered, and a poisonous odour pervaded
the decks. It soon became evident that the
embalmer had scamped his ghastly work, and
the offending coffin was committed to the deep
with hurried funereal rites. Next morning,
however, the Indiamaii still lay " like a
ii
INDIA S HOPE
painted ship upon a painted ocean/* and Mr*
Pattle's coffin was seen floating serenely close
to the stern windows! His widow never
recovered from the shock caused by his
reappearance.
Although I had been taught to consider
London the finest city in the world, I was
forced to admit that Hyde Park could show
nothing comparable with Fort William, Gov-
ernment House, the tropical foliage of the
Eden Gardens, or the forest of masts which
fringed the majestic HughlL No other port
in the world could boast of such splendid
specimens of nautical architecture ; the
display was unique and will never recur.
There they lay, tier upon tier, ranging from
the Liverpool three-master of as many thou-
sand tons down to the graceful opium-clipper
gauging a third of that burden. The '* country
ships ** which traded with the Persian Gulf
and Burma were even more interesting. That
many of them had ploughed the main as
Indiaman was evidenced by their lofty sides
and their spacious portholes from which
cannon had once protruded. They carried
lascar crews, and were often commanded by
an Arab, who was styled " Nacoda/* One of
these ancient craft, re-named Futteh Islam,
was wrecked at the head of the Bay of Bengal.
CALCUTTA MEMORIES
Her crew, however, came ashore In their
boats, and as soon as weather permitted they
set to work salving the timber with which the
Futteh Islam had been laden, operations being
directed by the Nacoda. Teak is heavier than
sea-water, and the pile on which he stood was
set in motion by the rising tide. He lost Ms
balance, and both legs were pinned between
two enormous beams. The crew launched
boats in the hope of extricating their captain,
but all their efforts were in vain. Despite the
agony caused by his crushed limbs, the plucky
old man shouted instructions regarding the
disposal of his property. Inch by inch rose
the remorseless tide ; wave after wave swept
over his head and set his long white beard
afloat. When they emerged, he continued
gasping out injunctions until his voice was
stilled for ever.
In the mid- Victorian era a procession of
perfectly appointed carriages used to parade in
London in Hyde Park every fine afternoon be-
tween May and July. The Calcutta Maidan
offered a similar spectacle, but herein the
resemblance between the two cities was super-
ficial. The Viceroy's carriage, with its escort of
red-coated lancers, and those of three or four
Indian millionaires, might possibly have
passed muster in Hyde Park ; but few indeed
13
INDIA'S HOPE
of the other vehicles which thronged the Red
Road would bear a close inspection. In fact
every Calcutta mem-sahib of 1870 made a
point of lolling in a carriage and pair between
4 and 6 p.m. Her vanity often meant short
commons at home, and its tangible results
were decidedly unimpressive.
After exhausting the European quarter, I
drove through Northern Calcutta, where half
a million Indians lived and moved and had
their being. There my nostrils were assailed
by the smell of tobacco smoke, burnt cow-
dung, rancid ghi, fish being cooked with oil, and
outlandish spices. Many years later I encoun-
tered the self-same odour in the bazars of
Bokhara. At once a vision arose of crowded
streets sweltering under a tropical sun; of
flimsy shops exhibiting piles of sticky sweet-
meats and Manchester piece-goods ; of women
poising earthen pots on their graceful heads ;
of half-naked coolies staggering under their
burdens ; of creaking bullock-carts and ticca
garis crammed with Babus clad in spotless
white, I cannot but think the close connec-
tion between the olfactory nerves and the
memory-cells might be utilised in educating
children.
Calcutta left a deep and lasting impression
on my mind. Young people seldom look be-
CALCUTTA MEMORIES
yond external things ; I gave no thought to
the tragedies that must have been enacted in
its sumptuous mansions, or to the vice, misery
and disease which cling to every great city.
But, remembering Macaulay's New Zealander,
who would perchance survey the ruins of St.
Paul's Cathedral from a broken arch of
London Bridge, I closed my eyes and fancied
Calcutta sinking back into the swamps of the
Gangetic Delta, and the Ochterlony Column
emerging from a wide expanse of jungle.
Verily
Earth bulldeth on earth castles and towers,
Earth saith unto earth, <c All shall be ours/*
CHAPTER II
RURAL BENGAL IN THE 'SEVENTIES
Townsmen and country folk ; Ditchers and Mofussilites ;
Tlie English monopoly of superior appointments resented
by Indians ; Origin of the Congress movement ; Cove-
nanted Civilians ; Haileybury Men and Competition-
Wallahs ; the Uncovenanted Services ; Infamous roads ;
William the Kunkeror ; the Civil Station a watertight
compartment ; the Bund and Swimming Bath ; a
practical joke that failed ; Amusements ; English ladies ;
Planters; Indigo riots of 1863 ; Causes of their ruin;
Life in a Sub-division ; Celebration of Queen Victoria's
Birthday ; Fairs ; Theatricals ; Bihar Famine of 1874 ;
" Sweet Pea " ; a Leper Camp ; inordinate cost of
famine relief ; Inundations and embankments ; a dream
materialises,
MAN is essentially a gregarious creature ; he
finds the fullest scope for his faculties in close
association with his fellows. The City States
of Hellas were formed by a process which the
Greeks styled Syncecism, " adding house to
house/' No love has ever been lost between
townsmen and country folk. The ancient
Romans called dwellers outside their walls
Pagani (from Pagus, a village) ; and the early
Christians used " pagan " as a synonym for
heathen because the new religion made rela-
tively slow progress among dull-witted rustics.
Calcutta exemplifies the movement which con-
16
RURAL BENGAL IN THE 'SEVENTIES
verts a group of villages into a city ; its
nucleus was three hamlets on the eastern bank
of the Hughli. In 1742 the Council ordered a
trench to be cut on the Settlement's vulner-
able side, in order to protect it against the
Maratha hordes which were raiding Bengal.
The " Maratha Ditch " was never completed,
but fifty years ago its course could still be
traced in parts of Circular Road. There is a
flavour of contempt in the sobriquet " Dit-
cher/' which clings to citizens of Calcutta, and
they retaliate by referring to provincial Bengal
as the " Mofussil " (a corruption of the Arabic
Mfsal, denoting the interior of a country as
distinguished from the seat of its government,
Sadr, vulgarly <e Sudder JJ ). In November,
1870, 1 became a "Mofussilite/' on being trans-
ferred to the headquarters of a district on the
northern bank of the Padma, which is the
main stream of the Ganges, although it lacks
the sanctity attaching to the Hughli, a minor
branch of the mighty river.
Fifty-seven years ago, all superior appoint-
ments were reserved by Act of Parliament for
British subjects who had stood highest in a
competitive examination held annually in
London. After being trained for an Indian
career, they were called on to enter into a
" Covenant " with the Secretary of State,
17
INDIA'S HOPE
which forbade them to engage in private trade.
Very few Indians could afford the cost of the
journey to England, and in 1871 only one had
gained a footing in the Covenanted Civil
Service. His fellow-countrymen who stood
outside its jealously-guarded pale could reach
no higher posts than those of Deputy-Magis-
trate or Subordinate Judge. But Indians
performed the routine duties in every office
with marked efficiency, and rumour had it
that a humble clerk was " the power behind
the throne " occupied by many a highly-
civilised civilian. It was only natural that
educated Indians should view the European
monopoly of office with displeasure. Their feel-
ings were timidly voiced by the vernacular
press, and found vent at meetings of the
Dharma Sabhas, or Religious Assemblies,
which were held in every large town. Thirteen
years later the simmering discontent was
brought to a head by the then Lieutenant-
Governor's ill-judged attempt to limit the
right of trial by jury. It gave birth to the
Congress movement, to which Indians stand
indebted for every political privilege they now
enjoy.
I found Bengal studded with " Civil Sta-
tions/" each governed by Covenanted Civil-
ians. Of these the District Magistrate and the
18
RURAL BENGAL IN THE 'SEVENTIES
Sessions Judge ranked as Bara Sahebs ; be-
neath them was the Joint Magistrate, whose
functions were mainly judicial, and the cove-
nanted hierarchy was completed by the
Assistant Magistrate, styled Chota Saheb, who
learned his business under the Bara Saheb's
eye. In the early 'seventies a good many
superior appointments were held by men who
had entered the service by nomination and
had been (very imperfectly) trained for their
duties at the East India Company's College.
Many " Haileybury Men " were inclined to
despise competition-wallahs, but on the whole
they treated us very well. Some of them were
notoriously incompetent, but the great maj-
jority displayed the sterling qualities of the
British middle class. European officials in
other departments were lumped together as
" uncovenanted," and the jealousy aroused
by our superior status was expressed by such
epithets as " White Brahmin/' All the other
officials of my first station were in this cate-
gory. There was a Civil Surgeon who atten-
ded " Gazetted Officers " gratis ; and a
Superintendent of Police, who owed allegiance
to his own Department until Sir George
Campbell (Lieutenant-Governor, 1 871-4)
brought him under the District Magistrate's
thumb. The Department of Public Works was
19
INDIA'S HOPE
represented by a District Engineer ; but the
roads for which he was responsible had lapsed
into a parlous state. Lord William Bentinck
(Governor-General, 1833-6) was nicknamed
" William the Kunkeror/' owing to his in-
sistence in ordering roads to be metalled with
Kankar y or calcareous limestones ; but forty
years later his Grand Trunk Road, linking
Calcutta with Upper India, was quite useless
in the rainy season, and his immediate suc-
cessors failed to realise that a country's
civilisation may be measured by the state of
the roads. Sir George Campbell must have
taken this dictum to heart. He made local
authorities responsible for the upkeep of their
roads and provided funds for the purpose by
levying a cess ad hoc on landed proprietors.
The latter used to pay formal calls on lead-
ing Europeans when they visited a Civil
Station, and feasted us royally on occasions
of ceremony. Here, however, social inter-
course between the races ended. That they
had once been on friendly terms was proved
by the Public Libraries which were to be found
at most Civil Stations. But the Mutiny of
1857 was recent history in the 'seventies ; and
it left bitter memories which kept Europeans
and Indians apart. The daily routine was
much the same everywhere. We rose at 6 or
20
RURAL BENGAL IN THE 'SEVENTIES
7 a.m., according to the season, and generally
had a good gallop on the racecourse. Then we
cooled our limbs in the Station Swimming
Bath, whither our servants had preceded us
with a change of clothes. I recollect a funny
incident occurring at this rendezvous. Prac-
tical joking has happily gone out of fashion,
but in the 'seventies it was considered capital
sport by the joker. While we were disport-
ing ourselves in the water one morning, a
colleague of mine pointed to his bearer, who
was standing at the edge of the bath, and
whispered : " Just see what a shock he'll
get! " Then, creeping stealthily behind the
old man, he pushed him into deep water.
This cruel trick evoked loud laughter, which
rose to shrieks when the victim spluttered
out, on emerging, " I've got master's watch
in my pocket! "
Our evenings were generally spent in prom-
enading the Bund, an embankment which
protected the town from inundation, while
ancient dance-music was rendered by the
Station Band, under the direction of an ex-
mutineer. This dreary form of recreation was
varied by an occasional croquet party lawn
tennis was not imported until 1874 which
enabled bachelors to enjoy the society of the
fair sex. In those days flying visits to England
21
INDIA'S HOPE
were unheard of, and the journey to Darjiling
involved a trek by palanquin through the
fever-haunted Terai. At my first station no
fewer than six European ladies were content,
or compelled, to share their husband's suffer-
ings in the hot weather and rainy seasons.
The non-official community consisted of
Europeans engaged in producing indigo and
raw silk. Most of the " Indigo Concerns "
were owned by wealthy British firms, whose
policy it was to acquire an interest in land in
order to force their tenants to deliver the raw
material at prices which were far below the
cost of producing it. During the Impeach-
ment of Warren Hastings, Erskine sought to
excuse his high-handed action by admitting
that our Indian dominions had been won by
the " Knavery and strength of civilisation/'
Such was undoubtedly the case with Bengal
indigo concerns prior to the famous riots of
1863. They were started by the disclosures of
a European missionary named Long, whose
pamphlet entitled Nil Darpan, " The Mirror
of Indigo/* incited the ryots to rise against
their oppressors* A Commission, headed by
the future Sir Ashley Eden, upheld Mr. Long's
indictment, and means were taken to check
the worst abuses. To place the manufacture
of indigo on a sound economic basis was quite
RURAL BENGAL IN THE 'SEVENTIES
impossible. Eastern Bengal has a natural
monopoly of the production of jute, which is
yearly exported to the tune of 54,000,000.
Things are far otherwise with indigo and raw
silk. Both industries have been killed by the
competition of more favoured countries and
the discovery of artificial substitutes. In the
early 'seventies, however, few signs of the
approaching catastrophe had made their ap-
pearance. The European planters were a
cheery set, much given to hospitality and
sport. The race-meetings which enlivened
Christmas and New Year at most Civil
Stations owed everything to their patronage.
After spending two unhappy years as a
Chota Saheb, I received charge of a sub-
division situated in the heart of an Indigo
District. My social intercourse with the
Planters left little to be desired ; but as an
official I was sorely handicapped by the lack
of advice and support from my superiors.
With the Indian community my relations
were uniformly cordiaL Realising that the
proper function of a government is to make
people happy, I took the lead in celebrating
Queen Victoria's Birthday by feasting the
rich and feeding the poor. With the aid of an
Indian Committee I started annual fairs, to
which many thousands flocked from far and
INDIA'S HOPE
wide. Bengalis have marked dramatic gifts,
and their language lends itself to poetic ex-
pression. I afforded scope to this hidden
talent by building a temporary theatre, in
which vernacular plays and operas were ren-
dered by an amateur company. The dullness
of life in the country is responsible for the
litigation and the faction-fighting to which
Bengalis are addicted. My attempts to relieve
it were seconded by Hindus and Moslems
alike. In those peaceful days there was no
sign of the " theological hatred " which poli-
tics has brought in its train ; and the aggres-
sive puritanism preached by Wahabi mis-
sionaries met with scant response.
Early in 1874 the failure of the Monsoon
brought a shortage in the food crops of
Western Bengal. The Bihar Famine which
supervened was vigorously tackled by Sir
Richard Temple. He imported mountains of
rice into the distressed region, segregated the
diseased and helpless in concentration-camps,
and strengthened the Bihar cadres at the ex-
pense of Bengal. I was transferred on famine
duty to the Gaya District, where I came under
the sway of a Magistrate-Collector belonging
to a type which has long been extinguished.
Owing to his tyranny and caprice he was com-
monly known as ** Sweet Pea/' a nickname
24
RURAL BENGAL IN THE 'SEVENTIES
suggested by the first letter of his patronymic.
He placed me in charge of a vast collection of
huts mainly tenanted by lepers, whose tor-
tured bodies displayed every species of de-
formity. Happily for myself I was not doomed
to live in this inferno. The task of feeding the
poor wretches devolved on a Eurasian Deputy-
Magistrate, who contracted leprosy, It used
to be said of the pre-war English that they
" dearly loved a big butcher's bill/' i.e. they
measured a victory by the list of killed and
wounded. Sir Richard Temple knew that the
same principle applied to financial operations.
He poured out money like water ; every ryot
who owned a bullock-cart had the time of his
life, yet orders came by wire to double trans-
port charges which were already exorbitant.
Subsequent inquiries have proved that the
distress in Bihar had been grossly over-
estimated, and that 50 per cent, of the
12,000,000 spent on relief went into the
wrong pockets.
On returning to my Bengal sub-division, I
found the cultivators battling with an
inundation from two tributaries of the Ganges
which was submerging their autumn rice.
Thousands were raising mud embankments,
while thousands more busied themselves in
harvesting the threatened crop* Their efforts
INDIA'S HOPE
came too late. In a day or two the whole
country became a lake, from which the villages
stood out as islands, raised on the debris left
by past generations. I had no difficulty in
persuading the ryots to deal systematically
with a recurrent clanger. They worked with a
will to protect their crops during the ensuing
cold season, which is always a slack time in
agriculture. When, in September, 1875, the
rivers again rose in flood they were kept within
due bounds by neatly turfed embankments.
Never shall I forget the thrill of joy I felt on
riding along these stout protective works. On
one side I saw a torrent of swirling water,
while on the other, far below, a wide expanse
of grain was ripening in perfect safety. But
the Department of Public Works did not
approve of any amateurish tampering with
the Delta's drainage. I was told by telegram
that an hydraulic engineer had been placed
on special duty to report on my embank-
ments. Three days later there arrived from
the Punjab a thin, sad-looking person named
Long, whom I piloted over the new embank-
ments on the north of my sub-division* We
became great friends, and our evening talk
wandered far from professional topics* After
telling me with a sigh that he had lately lost
a dearly-loved wife, he went on : " One
26
RURAL BENGAL IN THE 'SEVENTIES
morning a week ago my old bearer came to me
and said, * Saheb, I had a curious dream last
night. The Mem-Saheb appeared to me and
whispered " Shadu, tell your master that he's
going to be sent to Bengal and that hell meet
me there." * Now I had not the remotest idea
of any such transfer ; but within a couple of
hours I got a wire ordering me to report
myself to the D.P.W. Secretariat in Calcutta,
and here I am. So the first part of Shadu's
dream has come true. I wonder what the rest
of it means ? " After exchanging futile con-
jectures we made plans for a journey south-
wards, but at the last moment I got news of a
threatened riot in the opposite direction. We,
therefore, parted company, and Mr. Long set
out alone for the camp that had been pitched
for us. Next day I heard to my grief that he
had succumbed to an attack of cholera.
In 1877 Madras experienced famine on a
far greater scale than anything I had seen in
Bihar* I wrote, offering my services to H.EX
the Governor, with whose family mine was
connected. In a week's time I was transferred
on famine duty to the Southern Presidency,
and did not return to my dear old Province
until the end of
CHAPTER III
THE EXPANSION OF ENGLAND
The Indian Empire of to-day ; Dyarchy ; a Nation in the
making ; Hindrances ; Effect of soil and climate on
human beings ; the English a mixed race ; Anglo-Saxons
and self-government ; the Norman Conquest and Sea-
Power ; Conflicting ideals ; Social Service inculcated by
religion, but undermined by the Reformation ; Invention
of Book-keeping by Double-entry favours Commercial-
ism ; Discovery of the Cape Route ; a race for wealth ;
the East India Company founded ; Characteristics of the
English Race ; opinion of contemporaries,
IT used to be said in my youth that, when the
English evacuated India, they would leave
nothing behind them except empty beer-
bottles and derelict railway embankments.
The gibe has lost whatever force it once pos-
sessed. India is now invested with all the
paraphernalia of a modern empire* Railways,
roads and irrigation canals have banished the
incubus of famine which still oppressed her
in the 'seventies. Disease is fought with every
weapon forged by science* Higher education
is within the reach of the humblest ryot ; and
the English language has supplanted Urdu
as a vehicle for exchanging thought through-
out the vast peninsula. But I need not ex-
28
THE EXPANSION OF ENGLAND
patiate on the benefits which India derives
from her connection with England. Suffice
it to add that her noble codes of law will sur-
vive when all other evidences of foreign rule
shall have passed away.
For ages unnumbered India was severed
from the rest of the world by mountain
barriers and stormy seas. Her isolation is a
thing of the past. For good or for evil she has
been brought within the vortex of spiritual
forces which are moulding her course of
civilisation. Chief among these is the Demo-
cratic ideal, which asserts the indefeasible
right of every citizen to take part in the duties
of government. It inspired the experiment
made nine years ago, when England conceded
to India every political privilege which her
own sons had won after seven centuries of
straggle with arbitrary and personal rule.
The bonds that linked her with Whitehall
were relaxed ; the foundations of parlia-
mentary government were well and truly laid.
Englishmen have done their utmost to make
the new Constitution a reality. It was the
great Napoleon's aim to give everyone a
" career open to talents " : and his ideal has
materialised in India. Who in the 'seventies
foresaw that fifty years later a Bengali
barrister would be raised to the Peerage and
29
INDIA'S HOPE
govern a province ? It needs but a decade of
cordial co-operation on the part of Indian
races to weld them into a self-governing
nation. Unhappily for the world's future,
ignorance and prejudice stand as lions in the
path of political progress. To take part in the
task of slaying them is the ambition of an old
man who longs to see a perfect understanding
achieved between Indians and Englishmen ere
he joins the great majority.
The influence of a country's soil and climate
on the formation of national character has
long engaged the attention of students, but
this subject gives rise to problems which have
hitherto defied solution. Why, for instance, do
European families long settled in the United
States of America exhibit many characteristics
of the Red Indian aborigines ; and why do the
children of English settlers in South Africa
become sturdy Afrikanders ? No such mystery
attaches to the causes of England's greatness.
Her people are of mixed descent. The racial
warp was given by the advent of certain
Teutonic tribesmen who colonised the island
after the departure of its Roman garrison.
They were stolid, drunken and barbarous, but
possessed a strong sense of citizenship ; the
germs of representative government existed
in England long before the Norman Conquest.
30
THE EXPANSION OF ENGLAND
The weft consisted of Scandinavians who came
from a huge peninsula lying between 55 of
Northern latitude and the Arctic Circle.
Their habitat was unsuited to agriculture ;
but survivors in the struggle with niggard
Nature became vigorous, enterprising and
quick-witted. Setting forth in galleys from
the fiords which indent their coast, these
Northmen or Normans founded principalities
on the Mediterranean littoral and in Northern
France. The invasion of England by William
Duke of Normandy marks an era in the world's
history. His followers found a comparatively
genial climate and a soil which favoured the
production of wool. Wealth poured in, afford-
ing the sinews of dynastic warfare ; and a
coast-line longer than that of any European
country gave them command of the sea. Then
began a clash between opposing ideals which
endures at the present day. The Catholic
religion which then prevailed throughout
Europe enjoined good works as a means of
attaining salvation ; and the conception of
citizenship which had taken root in Saxon
England was a further Incentive to labour for
the common weal. The ideal of Social Service
shone brightly in the Middle Ages. Towards
the close of that era human energy received
another orientation from the invention of
3*
INDIA S HOPE
book-keeping by double entry, which revolu-
tionised the mechanism of foreign trade. Its
author, an Italian Jew, belonged to a race
which had always Been devoted to money-
getting. Its ruling passion infected Western
Europe, and appealed with special force to
Englishmen. Now, all commerce consists in
taking advantage of other people's necessities.
Those who pursue are apt to disregard the
interests of their human instruments and of
the community at large. Moreover, the
morality of men leagued together for purposes
of gain is in inverse ratio to the numbers so
associated. Commercialism spread to the
Church of Rome, provoking a violent reaction
from reformers who sought to purge religion
of its taint. But the basic theory of the
Protestant Reformation declared the accept-
ance of specified doctrines to be the sole
passport to Heaven ; and the ideal of social
service suffered a long eclipse. Commercialism
received a mighty impetus from the discovery
of the Cape route to India, and the maritime
nations of Europe started on a race for the
monopoly of Asiatic trade. It was won by
England by virtue of her superior resources.
The creation of the East India Company in
1600 is another landmark in history ; but the
Merchant Adventurers who obtained a charter
THE EXPANSION OF ENGLAND
of exclusive privileges from Queen Elizabeth's
government were anything but empire-
builders. They came as suppliants for a share
of Indian trade to the throne of the Emperor
of Delhi, and their successors were forced by
the instinct of self-preservation to take up the
sceptre which fell from his feeble hands. Com-
mercialism forged the links which bind India
to England, and the empire which rose on
foundations unwittingly laid by a trading
company retains many features of the count-
ing house at this day. The influence of
Commercialism was seen in the warfare which
absorbed England's energy during the eight-
eenth century, in the supersession of cottage
industries by machinery, and in the wholesale
corruption which was bred by wealth wrung
from the people of India. There was some truth
in Napoleon's indictment of the English as
" a nation of shop-keepers/' and Benjamin
Disraeli had good grounds for saying that
they '* had stopped short at comfort and called
it civilisation/' The eighth Earl of Elgin,
renowned as a diplomatist and Viceroy of
India, had cause to lament " the extension of
the area over which Englishmen could exhibit
the hollowness of their civilisation and their
Christianity, ' ' Glancing back on the chequered
course of the Empire's history, one is com-
33
INDIA S HOPE
pelled to admit that progress, in the true sense
of that much-abused word, was retarded by
the mastery of Commercialism. But the ideal
of Social Service revived at the eighteenth
century's dawn, and bore fruit in the forma-
tion of leagues without number for promoting
social betterment. Its momentum is daily
gathering strength, and it bids fair to solve
many a problem that vexes the modern world.
Nations learn little from one another except
their peculiar vices ; and Indians are inclined
to judge the English race without weighing
its solid virtues in the balance. The time is
opportune for an attempt to review its
qualities without pride or prejudice. English-
men cherish the liberties which their forebears
won after an age-long struggle with absolutism,
They are law-abiding, and eager to support
legitimate authority. They are humane ;
English revolutions have been accomplished
without bloodshed and English mobs are
proverbially tender-hearted. They love manly
games, which teach the immense value of
teamwork and a chivalrous regard for fair-
play. They reverence tradition, and stand
fast on ancient ways ; hasty legislation is
exceptional in their Parliament, and ill-
considered schemes seldom materialise; Their
enterprise has made a little island set on
34
THE EXPANSION OF ENGLAND
northern seas the hub of a world- wide empire,
which gives fair promise of becoming a
Society of self-governing Nations. Their stead-
fast courage stood the acid test of the most
terrible war in history, and enabled them to
overcome a General Strike, which would have
plunged other countries in anarchy.
No human being and no institution devised
by man can be flawless ; and a regard for
justice compels me to add shadows to my
picture. Englishmen lack imagination ; and
very few of them possess the faculty of com-
prehending other people's aspirations. This
defect has far-reaching consequences. It ex-
plains the genesis of the British Empire ; for
conquest and a capacity to sympathise stand
at opposite Poles. It precludes Englishmen
from foreseeing future contingencies. In re-
plying to a letter from William Wilson Hunter,
of Gazetteer fame, Sir James Fitzjames Stephen
wrote :
John Bull is a well-meaning giant, but very nearly
blind. Mejudice it would be well worth our Government's
while to create a special historical or intelligence depart-
ment, that we might have some idea of the natural
consequences of our actions.
The Englishman's conservatism too often
becomes a " toleration of intolerable things/ 1
and his pride of race breeds a thinly-veiled
contempt for all foreigners. He is inclined to
35
INDIA'S HOPE
draw a colour line, and maintain rigid caste-
distinctions ; but both, characteristics are
seen in all countries inhabited by races of
Aryan descent, and both are rapidly disappear-
ing. In appraising the qualities of a great
people, one must take account of the opinion
held by contemporaries who are able to
regard it from an objective standpoint. Ed-
mund Burke had a keen sense of the injury
done to Ireland by English commercialism,
and yet he paid a tribute to the " ancient and
inbred integrity, piety, good nature, and good
humour of the English/' Despite the mutual
antipathy engendered by centuries of dynastic
warfare and commercial rivalry, a patriotic
Frenchman has recently declared that : " Eng-
land stands as an example to the world by her
moral qualities, her generosity, her initiative,
and her devotion to the interests of mankind/*
Indians may surely accept British guidance
in endeavouring to weld the myriad races of
their country into a self-governing Nation*
CHAPTER IV
THE BENGALI INTELLIGENTSIA
Origin of tlie Bengali race ; a cataclysm in Central Asia ;
Aryan migrations ; a branch settles in the Gangetic
Delta ; depressing effect of its climate ; the Moslem
Conquest ; Bengal becomes a province of the Mughal
Empire, but passes to the East India Company ; defence-
less on the West ; ravaged by Maratha hordes ; the
Borgis ; its immense value for England ; the Bengali
character; a lovable race, their response to sympathy,
public-spirited ; their intellectual gifts ; their vernacular.
Official honesty depends on salary ; an ingenious method
of securing bribes ; j udicial purity ; Defects of Bengalis ;
causes of " Unrest " ; the Western Leaven at work ;
spread of feminism ; origin of the Purdah or veil ; Self-
devotion of Bengali women evidenced by " Suttee '* ;
their intellectual qualities and business capacity ;
opinion of a Persian Princess on the emancipation of
women.
THE origin of the Bengali race is wrapped in
mystery ; but most ethnologists place it in
Central Asia, Long before the dawn of history
a race, or races classed as " Aryans/' occupied
the country between the rivers Amu Darya
and Sir4-Darya, which now forms part of
Russian Turkestan. About the sixteenth
century B.C. the globe's surface in that region
began to rise. That the Caspian and the Sea
of Aral once formed part of the Polar Ocean
is proved by their fauna ; slowly they shrunk
37
INDIA'S HOPE
to tlieir present dimensions, and the rivers
that discharged into the Northern sea flowed
in diminished volume. Driven from Central
Asia by the desiccation of their pasture-
grounds, the Aryans trekked westwards and
southwards in quest of fresh fields. One swarm
was held up in the Caucasus, for mountain
ranges always call a halt to human migrations.
Others poured into Europe, to become the
ancestors of our Slavs and Teutons. Others
made their way into India, probably through
the comparatively level country which now
constitutes Afghanistan and Biluchistan. The
Aryans met with fierce resistance from the
dark-skinned aborigines, but finally drove
them into the mountains or reduced them to
slavery. They found Bengal a land which was
in process of being won from the sea by
riverine action, A tropical climate and a soil
which is yearly fertilised by alluvium favoured
the accumulation of wealth. The warrior-
caste established powerful Kingdoms, and
the priests developed a system of philosophy
which ranks with the prof oundest speculations
of the ancient Greeks. But torrid sunshine
and the ravages of malaria kept human energy
at a low ebb. Bengal has no physical defences
on its Western borders, and its inhabitants
have always succumbed to invasion. The first
38
THE BENGALIS
conquest which history records was achieved
by the sword of Islam in the thirteenth century
of the Christian era ; and three hundred years
later Bengal became a province of the Mughal
Empire. Akbar's enlightened regime crum-
bled away under his successors, and received
its death-blow from the Emperor Aurangzib's
intolerance. The provincial Governor threw
off his allegiance to Delhi, and established a
short-lived dynasty 'which gave way in its turn
to the East India Company's rule. Appalling,
indeed, was the condition of Bengal through-
out the eighteenth century. Maratha hordes
overran the Delta, plundering its miserable
inhabitants ; and only fifty years ago Bengali
mothers were wont to quiet their fractious
children by whispering Borgi ashibe, "the
Marathas are coming! " The strong arm of
Great Britain alone protects Bengal from
foreign invasion and internal anarchy. The
province proved of immense value during the
era of struggle and consolidation. Its revenues
enabled the East India Company to carry on
the warfare in which it was involved, and to
pursue the policy of annexation which was
forced upon it. Sixty years ago Sir George
Chesney declared, in his Indian Polity t that
Bengal was ** the one part of India worth
retaining were the rest to go/' His words
39
INDIA'S HOPE
apply with tenfold force at the present day.
Races of Aryan descent have many charac-
teristics in common and, despite wide differ-
ences in physical environment, a curious
similarity is apparent in certain phases of
their evolution. This is especially the case
with Bengalis, whose kinship with ourselves
cannot be gainsaid. Having spent twenty
years in Bengal and maintained close rela-
tions with that Province since my retirement,
I may claim a deeper knowledge of its people
than any cold-weather visitor can possess. I
have no hesitation in affirming that the
Bengalis are a lovable race, quick to discern
sympathy in an Englishman and eager to
serve him with devotion. They have a long
memory for acts of kindness ; when I am
reminded that there is no word for " grati-
tude " in their vernacular I always ask :
"What have you done for their welfare? "'
Injuries and insults leave a lasting impression
on their minds. I told the penultimate Gover-
nor of Bengal that his reputation would be
made or marred by his speech and action
during the first six weeks of his rule. In
addressing a London audience eight months ago,
another ex-Governor said that he had found
no traces of public spirit in BengaL But
India, like England, has witnessed a struggle
40
THE BENGALIS
between the ideals of Social Service and Com-
mercialism. Innumerable tanks, temples and
bridges stand as evidence that the Indians of
old time performed good works as a means of
accumulating religious merit. They now sup-
port a vast army of paupers without the com-
pulsion of poor rates. As I remarked in a
previous chapter, the first symptom of im-
pending famine is given by wandering paupers
who can no longer depend for existence on
private charity. Noble gifts for public objects
are of daily occurrence in Calcutta ; and
institutions designed to promote the welfare of
women, children and even animals, are being
founded in increasing numbers. It must be
admitted that clever Bengalis learn many
" tricks of trade " from their European
masters ; develop a keen commercial sense,
and amass large fortunes in business.
They are a highly gifted race. The pandits of
Nadiya and of Puri now, alas, severed from
Bengal have long been famous for their pro-
found knowledge of Sanskrit, a dead language
which is for Hindus all that classical Greek
means for Europeans. The Bengali vernacular
is a true daughter of Sanskrit, and has in-
herited its amazing flexibility. With due
cultivation it would have found expression in
a noble literature ; but ninety years ago,
41
INDIA S HOPE
English became the official language of British
India. Bengalis speak and write our difficult
tongue with remarkable purity ; and in point
of intellectual capacity they are fitted to play
a leading part in regenerating their country.
But ability divorced from character is always
used without any regard for the interests of
the community. Have Bengalis in general an
abiding sense of their duties as citizens ? In
other words, are they honest and truthful ?
Until the close of the eighteenth century,
the East India Company's European servants
drew nominal salaries, but were allowed nay,
encouraged to engage in commercial specula-
tion, Lord Cornwallis, who was Governor-
General from 1786 to 1794, realised that
honesty depends on official remuneration. He,
therefore, framed a generous scale of salaries
for the Civil Service, but prohibited trading ;
with the result that it has been a model of
integrity ever since. Its example has reacted
on Indians in the lower grades of the judicial
and executive services ; and the standard of
honesty is incomparably higher in British
India than in other Asiatic countries. Such
was not always the case. During the Mughal
era every official was open to financial argu-
ments, and in Bengal itself judicial honesty
has been a plant of slow growth. During the
THE BENGALIS
'seventies a District Magistrate in Bihar
visited a town on the Ganges which was, and
still is, the favourite abode of many Indian
pensioners. One of these veterans celebrated
his arrival by illuminating the streets and
feeding a host of mendicants. On calling to
bid him farewell the Magistrate said, " Well,
Babu, I am much obliged for the tamasha
(display) you gave in my honour ; but tell me,
how do you manage to live in such grand
style ? You have a palatial bungalow with
many servants, and last night's festivities
must have cost you a pretty penny. All this
can't be done on your pension ; have you dis-
covered the Philosopher's Stone which turns
base metal into gold? ** t Sir/* replied the
old man, " you are a real Saheb % and I hear
you are soon leaving India for good, so I'll
reveal the secret of my fortune if you promise
not to give me away/* On receiving assurances
on this point he continued :
About thirty years ago I was transferred, as a young
Munsiff (the lowest grade of the judicial service) to the
Panjab, which had then been recently annexed. A few
years later I was promoted Subordinate Judge, and vested
with powers to try all civil suits, I was now in a position
to increase my official income, which never exceeded
Rs. 600 a month (^720 p. a.), but great circumspection
was necessary. You know, sir, that we [Bengalis have a
great regard for family ties, and when one of us obtains
a well-paid post, his poor relations swoop down on him ;
Ms house is full of hangers-on and all his transactions are
closely watched. Things were quite different in a city
43
INDIA'S HOPE
fifteen hundred miles from home ; there one had nothing
to fear from newspapers or anonymous letters. So I
thought ont the following scheme, and followed it until
my retirement. I used to examine my cause-list daily,
and whenever I found an important suit set down for
hearing on the morrow, I sent an old servant named Ram
Das, after nightfall, to the plaintiff and the defendant,
with a verbal demand for Rs. 1000 (then ^100) in cash,
which was gladly paid. I then decided their case on its
merits, and sent Ram Das with Rs. 1000 to the losing
party. Neither plaintiff nor defendant had any cause of
complaint, and I was able to save up a comfortable
addition to my official income with perfect impunity,
Cheap railway fares have brought the
Pan jab closer to Calcutta than Burdwan was
seventy years ago, and render the repetition of
such devices impossible. But there is no
reason to suspect the survival of similar
abuses ; and the purification of the public
services ranks among the noblest achieve-
ments of the British Raj. Nor is the standard
of truthfulness in Bengal much lower than
that which obtains in England. Human
nature is fundamentally identical in aE Aryan
races ; and the hard swearing that prevails in
their Divorce Court should forbid Englishmen
to sit in judgment on Indian witnesses. I am
far from asserting that all Bengalis are para-
gons of virtue. Marsh-snakes of the genus
represented by Macaulay's Nuncomar are not
uncommon, and the annals of Indian courts
of law reveal many a case of subtle villainy.
Long ages of subjection have left their mark
44
THE BENGALIS
on the Indian character, Bengalis, in particu-
lar, suffer from the " inferiority complex/'
dread responsibility, and cling to a stronger
nature than their own. Neo-Malthusian doc-
trines have made no progress in Bengal ; and
despite a high death-rate its central districts
are terribly over-peopled. The University
turns out year by year an altogether excessive
supply of graduates ; and Indian students
who complete their education in Europe return
home with distorted notions of English life,
Thus a huge semi-educated proletariat has
come into being, and thousands of young men
find that their costly training will not provide
them with curry and rice. They are as clay
in the hands of the Bolshevik potter, and
absorb the lies of incendiaries who attribute
India's poverty to alien rule. But the Western
Leaven is at work throughout Asia. Young
Bengal is breaking the trammels of caste, and
shows scant respect for the rigid ceremonies of
orthodox Hinduism. The age for marriage is
rising, and Bengali women are longing to
escape from their seclusion.
This dates back to the Moslem conquest.
Knowing the fierce passions that seethe in the
Arab's breast, the Prophet Mohammed or-
dained that women should lead a sequestered
life at home and wear thick veils in public.
45
INDIA'S HOPE
The Hindus were forced to follow their con-
querors* example ; and until recent years the
purdah, or veil, was obligatory for women of
the superior castes. There are good reasons
for believing that Bengali women are intellec-
tually on a level with their men-folk. They
certainly share the spirit of self-devotion and
self-sacrifice which animates their English
sisters. The custom of Sati (vulgarly " Sut-
tee ") which enjoined that widows should
immolate themselves on their husbands' fun-
ereal pyres, claimed more voluntary victims
in Bengal than in any other part of India. On
the rare occasions when a Bengali woman has
reached a position of authority, she has
proved eager and able to fulfil all the duties
which it entails. The Rani Bhabani of Nattor
towered above her contemporaries in the
eighteenth century ; and during the Victorian
era, the Maharani Surnamayi of Kasim-
bazar was famed for her able management of
vast estates and for her boundless charities.
But a custom so ancient and so firmly estab-
lished should not be lightly cast aside, and the
opinion recently expressed by a Persian Prin-
cess should carry weight with Indian feminists.
She said :
I fully realise that the veil must disappear, but per-
sonally I will never drop it. Our girls may be brought up
4 6
THE BENGALIS
without the veil ; but to allow grown-up women to appear
in public unveiled would be dangerous and unsettling.
Lack of self-control is our greatest defect ; we have very
few of the deeply-rooted inhibitions which keep the
corresponding classes in Western countries more or less
straight.
47
CHAPTER V
SOME DETRACTORS LORD MACAULAY AND
Miss MAYO
Macaulay's estimate of the Bengali character is based on
hearsay evidence and Nuncomar is not a fair sample of
his race, Macaulay's partiality and disregard for truth.
Why the Bengalis are not a martial race ; benefits con*
ferred on India by Macaulay ; his Penal Code and the
adoption of English as the official language outweighed
by the evil effect of his diatribes. Mother India con-
sidered ; Miss Mayo is not qualified to pose as a critic
of Indian civilisation. Source of the religious instinct ;
origin of Tantric Hinduism and Kali- worship ; their
mystical import passes European comprehension ; Hindus
have always been tolerant. Mother India gives a
false impression of the Bengali character. Its sinister
effect in England and America ; alleged outrages on
children. Mr. Gandhi's opinion, Miss Mayo likened to
a Sanitary Inspector, but India's sewers are not India ;
let us, however, set our house in order ; Vituperation
exasperates but it cannot reform; Mother India tends
to preclude cordial co-operation between Englishmen
and Indians.
GREAT injustice has been done to the Bengali
race by writers who knew little or nothing of
their inner life. Lord Macaulay was a notable
offender in this respect. During his residence
in Calcutta he contributed a series of brilliant
essays to the Edinburgh Review which, by the
way, were set in galley-proofs at a local Press.
Their eloquence, glitter and antithesis made
SOME DETRACTORS
a profound impression on English readers, and
every young civilian took them as a model for
prose composition. In defending Warren
Hastings, Macaulay assailed the Bengalis with
extreme virulence. His indictment was evi-
dently based on an intensive study of the
manifold iniquities perpetrated by his hero's
enemy, Nuncomar, who, as I have remarked,
was by no means a fair specimen of his race ;
and on hearsay evidence gleaned from col-
leagues who were birds of passage like himself,
But Macaulay's impartiality, and even his
veracity may be questioned. As a historian
he viewed national events through Whig
spectacles, and idealised the Revolution of
1688. At a dinner given by the London
Authors' Club to Sir James Murray, Editor of
the great Oxford Dictionary, the guest of the
evening assured us that a large percentage of
the authorities quoted In Macaulay's History
of England had proved on Investigation to be
fictitious.
Considerations of space forbid me to discuss
all the allegations made in the Essay on
Warren Hastings, btit I must refer briefly to
the charge of cowardice. No quality is so
widely diffused as physical courage, and
healthy Bengalis possess it in a marked degree.
They wage pitched battles for a morsel of
49
INDIA S HOPE
land, and their cricketers stand up to fast
bowling without leg-pads. If they are not a
martial race the reason must be sought for in
their environment. They inhabit a land
Which Nature either drowns or burns ;
A desert and a swamp by turns.
It has been stated on good authority that
77 per cent, of them are chronic sufferers from
malaria, and its sequelae. Moreover, the
ravages of the anopheles mosquito and the
hookworm have increased of late years, owing
to the obstruction of the Delta's ancient
drainage caused by our railways and embanked
roads.
It must be admitted that Lord Macaulay's
brief stay in India was fruitful in good results.
The noble Penal Code is commonly ascribed
to him ; but he had an able collaborator in
Sir Barnes Peacock, Chief Justice of Bengal.
Its definitions of offences and its examples of
their application bear the stamp of Macaulay's
genius. The language question was hotly
debated during his tenure of office as Legal
Member. Some of his colleagues urged that
Sanskrit and the vernaculars should be ex-
clusively cultivated ; while others held that
English ought to be the official language of
British India. The Orientalists were soundly
beaten, thanks to Lord Macaulay's eloquence
50
SOME DETRACTORS
and there are now few that regret the issue of
the struggle. But against the benefits which
he undoubtedly conferred on India must be
set the evil wrought by his scathing attack on
the Bengalis. Only after living in their midst
for more than a decade was* I able to conquer
the prejudice engendered by the Essay on
Warren Hastings.
In the same category stands Miss Katherine
Mayo, whose Mother India has made so pro-
found an Impression in three continents. She
had heard the English administration of India
violently attacked by platform orators in the
United States, and journeyed thence to Cal-
cutta with the laudable intention of seeing
things for herself. Her good faith cannot
seriously be called In question, but here again
we detect the evil results of superficial know-
ledge. To speak with authority on an ancient
and alien civilisation demands years of sym-
pathetic study and an Intimate acquaintance
with the language In which Its various phases
find expression. Miss Mayo possesses neither
qualification. Her notions of Indian life were
gleaned during the cold weather of 1925-6,
and her scathing exposure of its defects is to
a very large extent based on statements made
by people who share her Incapacity for forming
an unbiassed judgment. The British Govern-
5*
INDIA'S HOPE
tnent rightly insists on its officers observing
strict neutrality in matters of religion ; and
foreigners ought to realise that they are skating
on very thin ice when they venture to impeach
,a cult which is professed by many millions of
their fellow-creatures.
The religious instinct arises from man's
sense of his dependence on an unseen Power,
whose nature and workings transcend his
comprehension. Regarding Wagner's music,
Mr. H. R. Haweis wrote :
It reflects the ever-recurrent struggles of the human
heart now in the grip of inexorable fate, now passion-
tossed, at war with itself and time soothed with spaces
of calm, flattered by dreams of ineffable bliss, filled with
sublime hopes and content at last with far-off; glimpses
of God,
Such is the source of the religious instinct, and
all its manifestations are worthy of respect,
however repellent they may seem to the
Western mind. 1 have no intention of posing
as a champion of the Tantric form of Hinduism
or of the Kali worship to which Miss Mayo
takes such vigorous exception. Neither has
any warrant in the ancient Shastras, They
originated during the final struggle between
Brahminism and Buddhism, in which the
priests won a decisive victory by pandering
to the lust and blood-thirst of the barbarous
Princes who misgoverned India thirteen cen~
52
SOME DETRACTORS
turies ago. But things which excite disgust
or pmriency in Europeans serve only to exalt
the fervour of Hindu devotees, who regard the
emblems of birth and destruction from a
mystical standpoint.
In the course of his cold-weather tour, an
English Magistrate-Collector arrived at a
certain city and was cordially welcomed by
its Inhabitants. He was horrified by some
obscene bas-reliefs which figured on the walls
of an ancient temple, and learnt that they
had been painted afresh In honour of his visit.
In reply to his remonstrances the Municipal
Chairman said : " Sir, we like to think that
when our wives and daughters pass by this
temple, their eyes should rest on pleasing and
pious objects! " The mentality thus indicated
offers insoluble problems to the European, but
It is encountered throughout India. One may
ask whether an American Puritan Is qualified
to criticise a cult whose cryptic meaning she
is constitutionally unable to grasp. And
Hinduism resembles Judaism In being rigidly
closed to all who have been born outside Its
pale. It has never proselytised ; Its annals
are unstained by the tortures of the Inquisi-
tion, by holocausts of " heretics/" or by
hideous and prolonged warfare waged under
the banner of religion. Miss Mayo's book
53
INDIA S HOPE
gives a distorted impression of Indian society ;
and every abuse that she pillories has its
counterpart in her own country.
Dealing with its effect on Western opinion
Commander Wedgwood, M.P., told a protest
meeting held In London that It left a friend
of Ms presumably English in India, " feel-
ing that he could never respect an orthodox
Hindu again/' and that
Another man, a Cabinet Minister, said he could stand
anything but those outrages on children. It made him
feel that he would like to lead something of a Crusade
throughout India for the burning of idols and the
chastising of priests.
This Cabinet Minister's attitude Is shared by
millions In England and America who have
been nurtured on the militant creed of the
Old Testament. I may add that no " out-
rages " of the sort were brought to my know-
ledge during twenty years' residence in Bengal,
A Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Children would find no scope for Its activities
in that Province. Miss Mayo's diatribes have
exasperated Hindus, who see their most
cherished beliefs assailed, their women's hon-
our impeached, and the seamy side of their
civilisation dragged into the pitiless light of
day.
" Mahatina " Gandhi's character commands
my respect, although I am in complete dis~
54
SOME DETRACTORS
agreement with the doctrines which he
preaches ; and his opinion on Mother India
' is well worth quoting :
The Impression it leaves on my mind is that it is the
Report of a Sanitary Inspector, sent out with the one
purpose of opening out and examining the drains of the
country to be reported on. If Miss Mayo had confessed
that she had gone to India only for this purpose there
would, perhaps, be little to complain of in her compila-
tion. But she says in effect with a certain amount of
triumph, " The drains are India! " True, in her conclud-
ing chapter there is a caution ; but it is cleverly made to
enforce her sweeping condemnation. I feel that no one
who has any knowledge of India can possibly accept
her terrible accusations against the thought and the life
of the people of this unhappy country. . . . Whilst I
consider the book to be unfit to be placed before Americans
and Englishmen for it can do them no good it is a
book that even Indians can read with some degree of
profit. We may repudiate the charge as it has been
framed by Miss Mayo, but we may not repudiate the sub-
stance underlying the many allegations she has made.
It is a good thing to see ourselves as others see us. ...
Overdrawn her pictures of our sanitation, child-marriages,
etc., undoubtedly are ; but let them serve as a spur to
much greater efforts than we have hitherto put forth in
order to rid society of all cause of reproach. . . The
indignation which we are bound to express against this
slanderous book must not blind us to our obvious imper-
fections and our great limitations.
Vituperation is not argument ; and a long-
ing to reform unternpered by sympathy gives a
new lease of life to abuses which it seeks to
eradicate. Convinced as I am that India's
future depends on a good understanding on
all sides, I deplore the wide publicity given to
statements which render co-operation between
Englishmen and Indians impossible.
55
APPENDIX
THE AUTHOR AND His PANTHER, 1877
The Dog is a faithful, intelligent friend,
The Cat will inhabit your house to the end*
THUS did Mr. Hilaire Belloc express the general
opinion that pussy rates her home far above
her mistress. One of the Great Felidas is not
open to the charge of selfishness. He abounds
in rural Bengal, and is a typical beast of prey,
finding sustenance in dogs, pigs, and occa-
sionally children. When food is scarce, his
physique becomes attenuated, and we style
him " Leopard/' Otherwise, and especially
when he is well cared for in captivity, he
develops in bulk and earns the appellation
" Panther/'
In the summer of 1872 the Maharaja of
Nattor gave me a leopard-cub, whose dam
had fallen to his unerring rifle. I despaired of
rearing the little creature, which could not
have been more than a week old ; but I fed
him assiduously with milk from a nursery
bottle, and when Ms eyes opened on a cruel
world he regarded me as his mother- As he
grew older Ms diet became more substantial,
56
APPENDIX
and at length he devoured a raw sheep In three
days. A room was allotted to him in my bun-
galow, with a dead tree-trunk embedded in
the floor, which he used to lacerate with his
formidable claws.
His pet name, " Tippoo/* was probably
suggested by a full-sized effigy which I had
seen at the India Office, representing an
English soldier being mauled by a tiger. It
had been found in Tippoo Sultan's Palace
after the capture of Maisur in 1799. When lie
was about six months old I introduced Tippoo
to an itinerant snake-charmer, whose cobras,
with distended hoods, evoked all the symptoms
of abject terror. Springing back as far as his
chain allowed, Tippoo crouched, snarling, in a
corner. As he could not have had previous
experience of poisonous snakes, his behaviour
must have been due to inherited instinct. At
the age of three he attained full growth, and
was 7 feet 6 inches in length, from tip of tail
to jaws. His coat was as soft as velvet, and
gazing into his eyes which glowed in the dark, I
remembered Blake's haunting lines :
Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forest of the night,
What immortal hand and eye
Framed thy fearful symmetry ?
I used to take him on a chain for country
walks, when the ryots took care to keep their
57
APPENDIX
cattle at home, for Tippoo regarded every
living thing except myself as a quarry. Some-
times we met a " filing " jackal, which evi-
dently supposed that I was being pursued by
a leopard, and that he would come in for my
remains. So he sat up, uttering a peculiar cry,
as a signal that game was near. In such cases
I released Tippoo, who followed me like a dog
in decreasing circles ; and thus we came within
reach of the puzzled jackal. Then Tippoo
sprang upon him and the rest was silence.
Friends often asked me whether I was ever
afraid of him ? Had I shown any symptom of
terror I would certainly have been torn in
pieces ; and twice I stood in peril from his
tremendous jaws. It was my custom to let
him loose in my dining-room after the
evening meal. One night I was sitting in
a heavy rocking-chair, while Tippoo lay
asleep on the floor alongside. Suddenly a
Venetian blind rattled and, looking round,
I saw a hand protruding with a paper,
which turned out to be a report of some
serious crime. I started up and shouted :
ff Take care, my leopard is loose! " On
resuming my seat I heard an appalling roar and
the chair collapsed, depositing me in Tippoo's
embrace. I had crushed his paw, and in his
agony he had torn off the offending rocker. I
58
APPENDIX
would have lost a leg If It had been within
Ms reach!
During my temporary absence from Bengal
in March-September 1874, I boarded TIppoo
with Jamrach's agent, a sturdy Eurasian
named Routledge, who kept wild animals In
Bow Bazar. A few days after arriving at
Gaya I received a telegram from him, " Your
leopard refuses food/' I Induced " Sweet
Pea " (p. 24) to grant me a week's casual
leave, and lost no time in journeying to Cal-
cutta. I found TIppoo lying asleep in his cage
when I reached Bow Bazar. On hearing my
voice he sprang up and thrust his paws
through the bars. I gave him my right hand,
which he licked furiously in token of joy. Now
the tongues of the felidae are as rough as
nutmeg-graters. Fearing that he would draw
blood I tried to withdraw my hand, but It
was held as In a vice. Routledge shouted,
" By Jove, hell tear your arm off ; 111 fetch
a gun! *' I whispered, '* Bring me a thick
stick, sharp ! " He did so, and I smote Tippoo
between his ears. He released my hand and
retreated to a corner of his cage, which, I
entered and sat on his back while he devoured
a horse's hind leg.
In the cold weather of 1876 I had TIppoo
photographed by an artist, who stood In such
59
APPENDIX
dread of Ms C sitter " that I was obliged to give
the latter my leg to play with. This photo-
graph is reproduced in monochrome at p. 56.
A few weeks later, while sitting in my Court
I heard a cry, Bdgh mdnush dhoriache!
ff Your tiger has seized a man! ** Running
to my bungalow, which was only 200 yards
away, I saw to my horror that Tippoo was
tearing a boy, limb from limb, and rescued
his victim's remains with extreme difficulty.
Enquiry proved that he was one of several
young cowherds who had trespassed in my
veranda where Tippoo lay chained up, asleep.
They drew nearer, and one boy, bolder than
the rest, awoke Tippoo by poking his ribs with
a stick. He was at once seized and torn in
pieces. I amply compensated his parents, but
to keep so dangerous a pet was obviously im-
possible, I offered him to the Calcutta Zoo,
and on receiving the Committee's acceptance
I hired a goods wagon on the railway, ordered
a ticca gdri to meet us at Sealda station, and
so delivered Tippoo at the Gardens. Twenty
years later an acquaintance whom I met in
London said that he remembered having seen
me driving through Calcutta with my arms
round a tiger's neck, while the coachman
sprawled on the roof of his vehicle, and a
shouting mob ran behind it I
60
APPENDIX
Tippoo's temper deteriorated in captivity
and he took a special dislike to a black leopard
which lived in an adjoining cage. One after-
noon Ms enemy lay asleep with one paw
thrust through the bars within reach of
Tippoo, who grabbed it and tore the poor
creature's leg off. His crime was, of course,
punished by death.
It is difficult to earn the affection of a wild
animal, but he who accomplishes the task
obtains a closer insight into the soul of Nature
than he can gain by associating with house-
hold pets which have become more or less
humanised. Another lesson which I learnt
from five years' friendship with poor Tippoo
was the tremendous driving force of love. If
by dint of love I had succeeded in winning the
heart of a savage beast of prey, love must be
the only rational nexus between man and
man. At this time I came across a passage
in Ruskin's works which strengthened my
belief, and indeed changed my whole outlook
on life. It -runs :
Man is an engine whose motive power is the soul ; and
the largest quantity of work will not be done by this
curious engine for pay, or under pressure, or by the help
of any kind of fuel which may be supplied by the chaldron.
It wiU be done only when the motive force, i.e., the will or
spirit of the creature, is brought to its greatest strength
by ij$. oura proper
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