INDIA TO-BAY

Hokitika Guardian, 29 July 1932, Page 3

INDIA TO-BAY

DOUR RELIGIOUS HATREDS. MOSLEMS AND HINDUS. BARRIERS AGAINST UN»TY<. LONDON, Ju'y 26. The recurrence- of hostilities b r tween Hindus and Mohammedans is helping to create in England a much needed appreciation of the- fundamental facts, affecting races and religions in India, writes Harold Cox in the “Sunday Times ” >-■, - •

It. was my good fortune to-go out to India as . a young man. in the days of /Queen Victoria to teach in the Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental College at Aligarh.--,This college-was founded by a distinguished Mohammedan gentleman,.(Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, who had been on the side of the English dur.ng the- /Mutiny;:- Shortly, after- that great •event. in India’s, .history •he decided that he would go to England and try to find out how it was that a little country; like • (England was able to conquer a - huge sub-continent like . India. ■He came to the conclusion that the secret was to be found in the English public school system, and he re,so lived to establish a school of this type m .(India That was the origin of the college at Aligarh. My two English companions, on the college, staff, Sir Theodore Beck and Sir Walter Raleigh, have unfortunately passed} away, but I shEj-11 never forget the. pleasur e of - working, with them and the spirit of .straight-forwardness andfriendliness which they and our Mohammedan chiefs throughout the college-

1 just want ,to record now, as bearing on the present situation in- India, a few incidents- which-'impressed themselves on my-mind. -Some of-the* most impressive were example®- of the erste distinctions between the different sections of the Hindu community. The lowest. ca'-'tes were-:—and still remain —untouchable-, though they may "be at lea s>t .as clean as the people of- the slightly 'higher castes who refuse to have contact with them. These caete distinctions effected even the .servant? in one’s own household.

Or e day I was chatting with atv English lady who lived a few y a ''’ la fitim. iny bungalow. She was about to--start for a walk with ier baby,' in its perambulator pushed by a Hindu nuf.se. Children’s nurses, because of some of their duties, have to be drawn from the lowest caste of untouchables. There was a little /.ch/dliness in the air; and the lady sent one of her other servants to fetch a ishawl for the baby. When he returned he did -not hand the shawl to the nurse ; he tossed it to her, so .that he might not suffer contamination by touching -the sha.w at the.fjanie time that a person of her-low. cast© was also 'touching 'it. The lengths to which this caste feeling goes are to Europeans almost inconceiWr’ ilb. If a- group of . high caste Hindus are having a meal by the roadside - and a low cast© man passes by so that has shadow falls up-; -on their food they -throw the food, avvay. In iSouthern India, when the high caste officials come out of. theirGovernment offices they, send ;a crimy in advance of them to order the lov. castes to, keep out of sight- along the main road. ’

To prevent these • clashes between Hindus and Mohammedans ' ha lS tons?* been on 0 of. the most responsible functions oj English officials in India. In a town near, to where T was living there ■mv-e one-day a-fierce-outbreak because the Moslems wer 6 not satisfied with the time allotted to them for their religious procession. j An. English official • had Ao stond alone in the centre of the town facing a furious mob. He said 'be would t*e’e graph, for troops The leaders of the disturbance retorted that 'it wou'ld take a whole day for troops to, arrive, and the storm went on. By a lucky chance an English regime'# happened to hr •passing down-the line, and when t v * commanding officer 1 heard from the stationmaster what was happening, he at once detrained his troops and march ed them up the town. That was • the end of the trouble. One move -reminiscence. I was working. in mv .study one day when four or five students, who were obvious'y very much- upset about something, came and asked if they might speak to me. They produced a small English newspaper which, contained an article advoceting a. republican Government for England. I told them they need not worry ; that the paper was an extreme Radical journal carrying, no weight. - Trembling with emotion, they replied: “Well rr wo ar e very glad to hear you say that. But we can tell you this, sir, that if those Radicals in England put the .-Queen off the throne, we will raise an army in India and put her on again !”