SAVAGE POLITICS IN KIPLING'S INDIA

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5281, 18 December 1946, Page 3

SAVAGE POLITICS IN KIPLING'S INDIA

— STONE THAT HIT NEHRU FIREARMS BETTER TIIAN FOUTAIN ,PEN. ; The North-west. Frcntier, from which I have just yeturncd, i,s sheer Kipling stuff, but it is Kipling with a difference. The differen.ee, I think, is a new; dawning- pelitical conscience — 'politics still h'opelessly entangled with racial and religious factors, bait nevertheless politics, writes H. A. Standish in the Sydney Morning Kerald. The survival of the Kipling era is the thing that catches the eye and captures the imagination of a tourist as I have necessarily heen for niy one-week visit to the frontier. All the timo I was talking to the men who stoned Pandit Nehvu outside' Malakand Fort, I was conscious of the fact that not far avvay v;as the rocky ridge where Gunga Din was kille-d1 and that Winston Churchill's first hook (in which he fiercely eriticised his commanding general) was about fhe Malakand campaign. But tho.se were relatively simple days. If a tribesman was hostile yooi fought, and people were killed and victory went to the organised force, if not necessarily to the big battalions. Recently, men avho were not mereljr tribesman but members of the political Moslem League travelled by bus to stone a Hindu, who, by appointment of his Majesty the King-Emperor, is de faeto Prime Minister of a sub-contin-ent, whicli by convention is now operating as the Dominion of India. Paihan Hospitality. Having done so, they halted my car and t'heia,> leade'r, a youngster educated in a local Islamic ^ollege, ( hoasted almost in nursery rhyme : form: "Iiere is the band that threw ! the stone that drew the blood of ! Nehru." He then escorted js downhiil | under the combined proteetion of riflepnen and a black fiag, symbolising the Moslem revolt against what they belieye is a Hindu Iiaj, saying to Pressmen, two out of three of whom were subjects of the same King-Emperor: "This is Pathan hospitality.' 'Xothing could have been more crazily symbolie. Shenwari tribesmen who stoned ar.J fired on Pandit Xehru's car in the Khyber Pass have been summoned to appesjr before t^'e Politi'cal Aglmt, and will be told their ijunishment for breaking the peace. Individual jr.stice is impractieable in a case Iilie this, so almost certainly thej' will be fined as a tribe — a iine ot money and rifies, so many arsenalmade MO'i's, so many locally made. 1 have seen a factory neai* Kyber Pass where rifies and shotguns are made, and these local weapons, turned out with very primitive macliinery, look accurate enough. Their finish is superh. The plac-e I saw was said to be the largest in the distriet, and it was simply a series of open sheds in a walled courtyard, with gunsmiths squatting on the ground working while children and dogs sprawled around. Food was eooked on the same sort .oi' fires which are being used for melting metal to mako hastings. Fivearms are a more important item of personal equipment for tribesmen than a fountain pen for a Syilney business man. Four-Square Vnting, In the village of Tangi, northAvest of Peshawar, vv'e were told that avery voter had the right to earry arms. From what we saw the voters formed a liigli proportion of the population. This villag-e is a sprawling colleetion of mud-walled courtyards and huts. Although called a village, it has 30, OCO people. Ninety per cent. of its inliabitants are Moslems, the balance being Hindu shopkeepers, but something like 70 per cent. oi' the Moslems voted for the Congress Party at the last elections, the balanee being Moslem League men. We went therc to meet two local Ivhans. both very wealthy landowners with big houses. The first was a Congress supporter. Mohammed Ali Khan was an almost jaunty figure in a roand lambs'kin cap, red and black ehecked shirt ,knitted pullover, and baggy trousers. He professed strong Congress Party beliefs and chaffed an official accompanying us because he had brought us to a rich man's house instead of showing us how the poor lived. When we told Mohammed Ali Khan that we were going to caii on his Moslem League rival, Mir Alam Khan, he insisted on walking with us through the street escorted by rifle-bearing supporters. Everywhere he was greeted with great respect. He insisted on sliowing us a poor house, which was no more than a mud hut with an open shed-li-ke space instead of Khan's •luxurious verandah. Mohammed Ali Khan would not enter the house of his rival, but left us at the doorway. Mir Alam turned out to be a hawknosed man, fierce of speech and obviously fanatically devoted to political argument which he plunged into at once. He damned the 'Congress Party,damned the British, .said the Moslems would have Pakistan and nothing else. He told with pi'ide how 'he had relinquished his British-conferred title xf Khan Bahadur. The only g'leam of humour he showed was when he admitted that he had at first thought of ceepin'g the badge of this rank because it was made of gold, but bad reluctantly decided tbat it had to be re:urned, since he .had giv.en up the title; so he had sent it in. When wfe leijt, Mohammed Ali. Khan and his followers were waiting i at the gate. The - two Khans 4 shook i hands with "f orinal politeness' rb'efit- ! :ing men of their station in life, but j Dbviously. it' w'as .jnb.y jnpre; sthan""a forpial/courtesj. \ i;f. . "'-P K ?Tlie('ptipeipaf; Md.sl^pi 'iibag^e ari in "4Ke^"f ' pypYiiic^' •; hieavriy-built'. aird 'bl d£'k-ij eaided'* 'H oly

Pir of Manld Shefig, who is ' only 25 years old. He admitted that he had organised demonstrations against Pandit Nehru, but elaimed that he had told people not to shoot. He had travglled around telling the people about how- the Moslems were ill-treated in Calcutta and Bombay. He was scornfr.l of the idea that because Mr. Jinnah had accepted a few seats in the interim Government this meant a political settlement. Threat of Violence. Before he would believe there was a settlement, he would require an explicit statement from Mr. Jinnah or else the granting of Pakistan. If the Moslem action programme began there would be some violence from ill-dis-ciplined felements just as there had been in the anti-Nehru idemonstration. He said, however, that if Mr. Jinnah called for .rifles he would raise as many armed tribesmen as he could — about 19'00. His grandfather had 1,300,00Q followers, and he personally had more, but how inany he did not know. The Pir of ,Manki has risen so rapidly as a political personality that the strength of the League in the .province may increase 'greatly. At present, however, Abdul Ghaffar Khan's Con|gress -Red Shirts are still the strongest and most disciplined organisation in this Kipling country. -