The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. MONDAY, MAY 17, 1926. INDIA.

Hokitika Guardian, 17 May 1926, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. MONDAY, MAY 17, 1926. INDIA.

Writers who are well qualified to form a judgment have expressed the most diverse opinions about India. To .some it is “The Lost Dominion.” That is to say, "ith the grant of self government its ultimate defection from tho Empire is assured. Others maintain that never yet lias the gift of political rights been followed by secession. On the contrary, it was their refusal that led to the American rebellion. The rejoinder is that in the past autonomy has invariably been given to communities with a natural aptitude for self-government, whereas the people of India have from time immemorial been accustomed to despotic rule. Tile truth of the matter seems to be that it is almost

impossible to generalise about a country which contains nearly a fifth of the population of the globe and a medley of races, religions ami languages, and which possesses neither cohesion nor homogeneity. Sir Valentine Chiral, who speaks with peculiar authority on the subject, is aware of ibis difficulty. In bis recent book, “India,” a dispassionate discussion of the Indian problem, he draws conclusions, which, if optimistic, are rather guarded. He shows that a nuinlier of factors, many of them quite unrelated, have contributed to the prevalent unrest- and given impulse to the Swaraj movement. The defeat of Russia, by Japan induced throughout the Orient a new feeling of national self-con-sciousness. The attitude of certain dominions, notably Camilla and South . Africa, towards Indians embittered tho latter against the white peoples. Thus not long before the war the authorities at Vancouver refused to allow a ship-load of Pinijaubis to land. The would-be migrants bad to return home, everyone of them a man with a grievance, which he ventilated freely. Again, during the war conditions were abnormal, and the rise in prices caused discontent. Tn the influenza epidemic of 1918-19 over a third of the population was attacked, and Ik>tween 12,000,000 and 13.000,000 perished. This dreadful visitation intensified the atmophere of nervousness. Sir Valentine Cliirol also holds the educational system responsible for some of the disaffection. It lias produced an “intellectual proletariat,” a multitude of semi-educated persons, who, unable to find employ men t worthy, so they consider, of their attainments, are pliant material for the agitator. The Amritsar incident added fuel to the fire, and all the while Bolshevik propagandists were busy. They promised the wealthier classes freedom from the British yoke, and tho masses the property of the wealthier classes! It was not surprising then that tho extreme nationalist movement- gathered force, and that when the diarchy was established the non-co-operators almost succeeded for a time in stultifying it. But Sir Valentine Cliirol believes that there has been a reaction, and in the chapter entitled “The Flight from Swaraj’’ he marshals the evidence. The Indians have begun to realise that administration is not as simple a task as they had supposed. The traditional hostility of Moslem and Hindu lias revived. The wholesale massacre of Hindus by the Mopeahs pointed an ominous moral. The various creeds “took” to figuring out what Swaraj would mean for each community, and in the process it lost much of its fascination.” And. after all, nine-tenths of the population are illiterate peasants who have been little affected by the political ferment. Still, such folk are liable to l>e swept away by religious or racial urges. This danger, thinks Sir Valentine Cliirol can be averted by the adoption of a wise system of education suited to the needs of the agriculturist. For file rest he is satisfied that though perplexing problems have still to he solved, the English Raj is still •unshaken.