LIFE IN INDIA

Hokitika Guardian, 2 November 1929, Page 7

LIFE IN INDIA

A MISSIONARY’S IMPRESSIONS

REV. 11. W. NEWELL INTERVIEWED.

One of the visitors to Dunedin at present is the Rev. M. IV. Newell, .vI.A., who has come'to New Zealand on behalf of the London Missionary •society tor the purpose of keeping the churches informed regarding the progress of the work undertaken by the society in India. Mr Newell, who will spend about two weeks in the Jingo district, has been for 14 years in charge of a boys’ high school, first in Benares and then in Coimbatore, in the Madras Presidency. 111 the course of an interview yesterday afternoon Mr Newell was asked if the accounts that reached us wall reference to the unpopularity of British rule in India were really in accordance with the facts. ‘i am afraid that they arc only too .true at the present time,” said Mr Newell, “hut one must always remember that the. proporb.oll of the population which is capable of following political events is milch smaller than in Western countries. More than SO per cent of the population of India lives iii villages, and the chief concern of these people is the tuitural struggle for their food and maintenance and the ordinary interests of village life. Political events are a far-away echo to them, but amongst the educated people there has been in recent years a very strong reaction against the former feeling of complete loyalty to British rule.” When asked if he could explain the cause of this, Mr Newell said be thought it would he wrong to say that there had been any change ill the attitude of the British Government towards Im!.a. tin 1017 ,tlie Government laid it down ns its objective that India should develop by gradual stages towards self-government under the Crown, and that policy has jnev-er been changed wii.tli all. the changes in Government at Home. The Montague-Chelmsford reform scheme was to have had a period of 10 years, fining which the experiment of diarchy (that is, sharing of the different departments of Government by bodies, responsible to the elected Council and by the old British civil service) 'should be tried out. That period was now elapsing. The Commission of Inquiry instituted by the Baldwin Government and led by the Right Hon. Sir John Simon had just completed its exhaustive survey of the political situation, and its report was being eag-Hy awaited. / Fil’d Indian people, however, were irritated and disappointed because this com mission consisted entirely of British Pi Wilbers of Parliament and did not contain a single Indian representative. 011 the whole, it would be true to say that all the parties in India were at the present time in a stage of bitter disillusionment, and professed at least not to trust in any British promises.

Mv Newell was asked if he would say that the Indian people wanted complete independence from Britain. His reply was in negative. He said he thought that the party which desired complete independence was very small in number, though probably it was growing; having now found a cana’pe l.lvder in Pandit iJawarbLo Lai Nehru. The great majority of the rest of the nation would not he content with anything short of complete dominion self-rule. In reply 'to a question whether Christianity was growing in strength and influence in India, Mr Newell said that most certainly it was growing in numbers. It had been estimated that whilst the population in India had grown by 2.5 pci 1 cent in 10 years the Christian population had grown by more than 80 pel 1 cent in the same period. It should be remembered, however, that this rapid expansion was largely amongst the outcast population, which had very little to lose, so.to speak, by a change in religion. Actual conversions amongst the higher-class people ueie not very common. Every competent observer, however, would agree that the influence of Christian ideals was getting an increasing hold upon the (best minds in India. For example, the Madras Government in its text hook for the annual school leaping certificate examination had for severnl vea v s included portions of the English Bible, without any sort of protest from the neonle. This year thousans of schoolboys, even in non-Chris-tian schools, had been reading the story of .the prodigal son as part of their training in tiie English language. Mr Gandhi also was well known as being an earnest student of the New Testament, which he taught to his own students in his own Ashram. yir Newell was asked if the Indian people were losing their old, simple habits as a result of the growth of industrialism in the country. His answer was that here again one must remember what a large proportion. of the peonle lived in. villages. The industrial centres in India were for the most part, confine' l to a comnnrativelv few big cifc.es and towns. Those centres certainly attracted peonle from the surrounding villages, who very often went to live mi unsanitary and unhealthy streps and houses. Gome of the lead’.ng employers had done very much to prevent many of the evils which had followed industrialism in the west, notably the Tata Comnanv in Jamshedpur and the Buckingham and Carnatic mills in Madras. TV situation was very complicated, however, and Ton! Trwin's Government had recent 1 v anointed a Revel ( oinniission of Inquiry under the thaunnan-

ship of Mr YYhittev, ex-Speakcr of tlie House of Commons, and they might hope for important legislation wliei that commission made its report. There was an undoubted Communisth influence in some of the great indust, rial centres, and, this complicated th< situation considerably. When asked whether the outlook ii India was dark or bright, Mr Newell stated that most people would sa\ that the political future of the conn try was very much clouded and uncertain at present. The feeling o irritation and tension on both tin Indian and Government sides sometimes became very acute. What wn< needed was undoubtedly patience' am forbearance on both sides. Meanwhile, there could be no questio: that’ the biggest need of India va" the right sort of education—eduratio-’ which sought to develop strength oi character, probity, and a love o r truth. The policy of the Indian Government of complete neutrality in ah religions matters had meant that re ligion was ruled out of teaching i> India except in the mission schools. That was contrary to the natural instincts and traditions of the people and manv educationists were earnestly striving to bring back into education something at least of Its former religious character. 'lt would he easily seen how many difficulties lay in the way of such an endeavour, hut the fact that something of tills so it would have to be done became increasingly evident when one saw the growing secularisation and materialism of tlie younger life in India. U was difficult to sec how the old traditional Hindooi-sm cor,ld be adapted tr the new knowledge and the new scientific spirit—and this was where the opportunity of friendly and sympathetic Christian educationists cairn in.