INDIAN UNREST.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 403, 12 January 1909, Page 6

INDIAN UNREST.

STUDIES IN PALACE AND VILLAGE.

CLEMENT WRAGGE'S IMPRESSIONS. Mr._ Clement Wragge, the well-known scientist and astronomer, and former State Meteorologist of Queensland, has'been conquering new spheres of knowledge. In two years' residence in the palaces of Maharajahs and the villages of peasants, from sunny Colombo to cool Simla, ho has learned to know India as 1 ho can hardly know the solar 'system. Ho has filled large (notebooks with the information'he has gathered on the Indian -unrest; in fact,, it was the Indian unrest, combined with lesser dangers of malaria, cholera, and plague, which'drove him finally from India. To a Dominion representative last night Mr. Wragge unburdened a few particulars of his knowledge.

A Princely Time. A princely time was Mr. Wragge's in India. He went there in the same, guise as,, he has come now to New Zealand—as a lecturer. : "I had the pleasure ,of lecturing at the palaces of the principal Maharajahs in India—among them the famous Maharajah Burdwan, who . recently prevented a Bengali from shooting Sir Andrew Eraser, the Lieu-tenant-Governor of. Bengal. I was particularly well received by the Maharajah Sciridia, . of Gwalior, who gave me a magnificent suite :,of rooms, gaily caparisoned elephants on which to ride, carriages, horses, and a retinue'of servantsthe heights of oriental luxury. I had the pleasure of lecturing in his palace on the greatest wonder of the universe, radiura. -As. the guest of the of Mysore I occupied the'very suite of rooms which had been allotted, not long before, ,to the Prince and Princess of. Wales. Was it any wonder that I : soon became in love with India?" -, ' '•;,". . "' ; Unrest Very Serious. " i _ ITao unrest in . India, Mr.. Wragge believes, is becoming much more serious than ordinary. people realise'. "Before I left tho Viceroy himself was . guarded as zealously as is tho Tsar of,Russia.,Many people had been assaulted on,.the railv.ays, and a regulation has. now been passed abolishing all hand rails and foot boards on^the railway oarriages,' so that' murderers: and robbers, may not use them to board andpass along, the trains. More or less unrest prevails ,in every part of India, with a few exceptions. And tho reasons for the unrest? Mr. Wragge igave half a dozen, which he : heard from the inhabitants of'lndia!

• In the first place, ho observed, the ijeople of India consider that. Queen Victoria's proclamation by which she granted equal rights and " privileges' to' the' Indian people after the Mutiny has not been fully carried 1 out. The.'natives of India as 'a. whole, even including 1 those brave ; British .'allies of tho Mutiny, the Sikhs,'have iin idea 1 : lhat 'there has been a breach of faith. Also, the people' are constantly'made to. feel 'ihat' .they are a--conquered race.' "I -fully admit,",said Mr;- Wragge, ■ .''that the Indian'.Civil Service is a body-of "which every Englishman should- be . proud,' but the haughty bearing of. the dominant race is carried .to- extremes;" .The natives:are made to.feel that they aro a' subject people,. and the 'Japanese victory -over- Russia has greatly increased their' resentment at .such treatment. Again, the Bengalis, for instance, have deen highly, edueatod, without :beiiig -'afterwards given that;, scope for';,work which' their' high education that they :should 'have.' They claim -"afy.bi.ee.'. in . the"': Government of their own land, 'and this':is;a,y,ory great source of' trouble. > : The!-partition of Bengal, without consultation,.'of- the natives, rankles in'the minds: of . : the Bengalis, 'who blame .the highhandedness '.and-- want - of' sympathy' of' -Lord Curzon for much of ,the alienation between white and. coloured races. ; ■ ' ; r : ■ Agitators and Assassins. .." "Although ;ther6 _are many _ races in-Iridia 1 ,' all this dissatisfaction is inclined to spread; i'hore are agitators' in : all '-'parts of India ,• seditious'leaflet's advising murder assassination are 'circulated 'in the" very:'trainsj one of tlieni urged • the assa'ssinatioh of '100 Europeans •' for every-'Bengali - who Ws hanged 1 for seditioni:' The most stringent'methods have been adopted to put down thesd'publicatipnß., ."The excessive policing of' the 'country, -aind! ! the peremptory: powers - of '-'search il'hich iaro vested .iri;;the, \ police, constitute -''another' •grievancei.... ofv:the -Bengalis.. Furthermore, evory-native; people in-India has been-deeply hurt- at the; treatment accorded to. their'-race j'-in the ; Transvaal, whero/an -Indian is not 'allowed to walk on : the , same footpath as a Dutchman. • > -

■ A Second Mutiny. : ; Tho Sikhs believe that their interests arc. ■ overlooked."••'•"An'..'old.;Sikh 'told me,",.said Mr. Wragge,, "that if . another, mutiny broke but—and it is sure .to come, -unless things .are . rapidly , .monded—the' Sikhs would bo merely neutral. Disaffection seemed to bespreading among ; ,the v Gurkha. regiments/ .I,'learned;at. : one of the'hill stations, Mussoorie, that' v hen. the time, was ripe : the. .Gurkha . men would turn from'their allegiance. I deemed it my duty to . advice'the militarj' .secretary: to the Viceroy, of what. I ; ha'd heard; and I received in .repiy' a .'special letter of thanks." 'Mr. Wragge told how tho highly educated Crown Prince', as he. is called, of tho small Sikh State , of' Natla,, the . son., of- a-revered Maharajah, 1 wished .to: subscribe to, the Nabla library while Mr. .Wragge was in .'the. State, and was "black-balled 1 ' by the . Europeans merely, because he was a native. The news of this . sort of. conduct spread very quickly through_ India, and there was a change of: bearing', towards'.the - natives .'■ there: was bound to;' be' an' eruption. "It ; may be deferred a'few years, but it won't be longer, and it pretty well known in. India that when, the second mutiny comes, if it does come, it .wiilbe.a great deal' worse, than, the first.; We havo a' .splendid; army in India, and in Lord Kitchener a splendid Commander-in-Chief, but our army is a mere handful of Europeans!;; compared ; with 'the millions of natives. If,the natives could onlyAorgaiiise, if the differences between Hindus and Moham-medan^-could be reconciled—in. those differences "lies oiir, safety—and : if the. people of India could rise together, they would sweep tho Europeans out of India by' force of numbers, .not of arms. Yet if they are properly treated 'there, are .no more faithfuL and loyal people to. the- British Crown than would be the peoplo of India." '• ', ■• ~ j bn. . Honest Natives. ' "I respect and like .the Indian people," Mr. Wragge said in conclusion. ''I iaade many, many friends among; them. I have lectured to native audiences when there was not another European in the .place. I haye lectured to them on radium, and handed round specimens of _ radium that... cost 3000 times their weight.an gold, but though they knew their value, every single specimen'came tack, to me." - ; Mr. Wragge made it very clear that in aiiy : remarks which appeared to 1 express condemnation of the British rule, he was merely repeating the views of natives as,.they I had been 'expressed"to 'him. Ho" was a'British citizen himself before-all things.