The Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1907. UNREST IN INDIA.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3776, 22 October 1907, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1907. UNREST IN INDIA.

*- —■ A young Hindoo, who is travelling to Europe; by way of China, Japan, and America, has contributed articles on the present situation in India to. various English and German journals published in Chinese ports. He frankly declares himself to be a “ reformer.” The humiliation of India, he sa} r s in one article, was accomplished by Britain mainly through the destuction of native industries. “ But in 1905,” he continues, “began the Swadeshi movement, which amounts to a. revival of Indian industry. The movement rapidly spread. Societies were formed, and- English goods were boycotted everywhere. All the the native papers throughout India have adopted Swadeshi as part of their programme within the last two years. The people, we are told, are deserting the worthless foreign schools. Industries are being fostered, native insurance societies and banks have been established, and India will some day be industrially free. As for politics, the writer complains that Eord Curzon restricted the opportunities of poor Indians desiring to enter the Civil Service. He avers that the native Press has no freedom, a strange statement in view of the virulent articles that soihe native journals have been allowed to publish. “Every year,” the reformer proceeds, “ hundreds of poor Indians are done to death by English soldiers, and yet the law does not overtake them. The English Government does not punish them at all. Hunger and plague are actually fostered by the English Government, so that the people are always kept poor and weak, and unable to offer opposition to orders of the Government. The Arms Eaw is so extraordinary that no Indian is allowed to carry a penknife without the permission of the British officials. The English have entirely set at naught the' feelings and sentiments which Nature has given to every civilised man. They have crushed the existence of the Indians, destroyed their youth, violated their rights to life and property, and persecuted and executed their leaders. They are forbidding the Indians to speak their own language, and are suppressing their newspapers. ’ ’ The reform movement, it seems, is the final protest of a people tired of these abuses, and the native outlook is the more hopeful because the native army is being won over.