WESTERN IDEALS.

Hokitika Guardian, 6 September 1923, Page 4

WESTERN IDEALS.

THEIR EFFECT ON INDIA. PROBLEMS FOR, SOLUTION. WELLINGTON, Sept, 2. At the Town Hall, yesterday aftei. noon, Dr. S. K. Datta gave ail interesting and informative address on the effect of Western ideals of freedom on India. The Hon. O. .1. Parr (Minister for Education and Justice) presided over a good attendance, the Rev. Dr. Gibb fed the meeting in prayer, and the Rev U. Eaton, read a portion of Sciiptnre. Community-singing whiled away t«o timo from 2.30 to 2.45 p.lll. INDIA’S VILLAGE SYSTEM. Dr Datta said that fundamentally India was a land of villages, of which there were no less than 750,000, each with its own system of government, and in which each man had certain lights and duties. In tlie past one tyranny had followed another, cataclysm had followed cataclysm, and any other land but India- would have fallen io pieces; but her village system, largely patriarchal, held her together. The people in each village were akin, and they were not allowed to marry those of i..eir own village. The rulers of the village were eleeted by the people, mid eaeli one of them beiu-re giving up office had to give an account of Iris stewardship. There were certain families in the village who had rights in the land; others had 110 rights in the land. The landless 1 men rendered service to tlio village as bakers, butchers, tanners, carpenters, barbers, priests, and so on, and they were not paid directly for such services; but at harvest time they were entitled to their share in the produce of the village. PROBLEMS FOR SOLUTION.

One of the gravest problems that India find to face was that due to the fact that certain families had -rights to the land and others had not. Another great problem was that- of education. Only those of the procstly caste- and a few others, the village merchants, the village record-keepers, were literate; and they had thus become the rulers of India. While the priestly caste numbered only live to seven per cent, of the people, they occupied 90 per cent, of the posts held by Indians under the British Government. The first steps towards more modern education in India were initiated by Lord Macaulay, the great- essayist and historian, some eighty years ago. (Applause.) The first phase cf education was that of revolt against the- ancient religions cf India; and the second phase, about 60 years ago took the form of social reform, and was marked by such provisions as that for purely civil liiarriages and for the re-marriage of widows. But in 1880, took place the first- strivings', of political unrest among 'the educated classes of India. 4 hey had stood ,hy the British Government throughout the Indian Mutiny, because tile Government had given them opportunities for employment in the civil service and so on. But in 1880 the point of saturation was reached; young Indians who had passed through the colleges in India, and at Home and had absorbed British ideas of ficedom, found that there was no place for them in the life of India. So they naturally looked to political reform to give them place and opportunity in i.icir own land. (Applause.)

HIGHER. IDEALS. Britain, he thought, had done, no greater work than that of giving these higher ideals to India. It was inevitable that they should be imbibed by the young Indians who had attended the British universities; and surely Britain would not have had it otherwise. Britain who had played so sympathetic a part in the awakening of India's aspirations for unity and in assisting her to achieve lioedoin. (Applause.) PHYSICAL SCIENCE. Another ■ linage that had come was that of arousing the interest <4 the educated classes in India- in the modern developments of physical science; and yet another was that of awakening interest in the problems ol social service. As an instance of this be oiled the case of a young Hindoo who had been imprisoned for political ollenoes. He had no animosity against the Government. He said, “It was the duty of the Government to put me in prison, just as it wa,s my duty to break this law.” Then last year there came the great Hoods in Bengal, by'which 600,000 people were rendered homeless. This directed that young man into the work ol social service. He and three hundred other young fellows, mostly political oflemlers, had organised relief for these people, raising £40.000 to £50,000 in Calcutta alone for that purpose; at d the- Governor of the province bad testified to the thoroughly businesslike wav in which they had carried out the work. T’ao model 11 movement among.-l Indian women was shown by the fact mat they were becoming doctors, surgeons, and barristers, and were being elected to city councils and other public bodies. AN ENORMOUS POPULATION. IVithin the past- ICO years tho population of India- had doubled; and that had increased greatly the pressure oil the land. Hence the exodus of Indian labourers to South Africa, Fiji, and. elsewhere. Hence, also (India's entry into the Industrial world, and the oreat developement which had placed her among the first eight indtistiial powers in the world. (Applause); and such was the organisation of 1-0 workers in India that they could ii they liked hold up her railways and her industries. NEED FOR EDUCATION. That, no doubt, had its sinister aspects; but, on the whole it marked a tremendous advance. It .oil emphasised the need for education in India, especially the education of the rural masses of tho gieat population of over :SL>O millions, and the vastness cf the problem might be measured by the fact that out of 26.000 villages in the Bombay presidency, there were, as lie had stated on Friday last, no less than 23.000 without schools. This education problem was 011 c of the great fundamental problems that- India had to solve; and he appealed to all present for sympathy and help to the people of India in their endeavour to make their country a real country, adequate to itself, and giving every man, woman, and child an opportunity. (Applause.)