Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News TUESDAY, JULY 20, 1909. AFFAIRS IN INDIA.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4438, 20 July 1909, Page 2

Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News

TUESDAY, JULY 20, 1909. AFFAIRS IN INDIA.

This above all—to thine own self be true, And it must follow ae the night the dag Thou cantt not then be false to ang man Shakespeare.

The trend of affairs in India is anything but satisfactory. It is indeed almost alarming, because a violent and daring section of natives seem determined to strike terror if possible into British officials, with the mistaken belief that they can thereby overthrow British rule. India has beeD looked upon for a long time as being too conservative to change ; but very great and serious changes are taking place. Vast bodies of the different castes of India hold quite different opinions now from what they held twenty years ago. Politically, socially, religiously, and even commercially they have changed. That which immediately concerns us now are the new political ideas in India. Some of the ideas developing into beliefs seem to become omnious. It was mere ideas about greased cartridges that led to the great Indian Mutiny in 1857. Let the natives of Bengal get burned into their hearts and minds the belief that they are not fairly treated, and that they could govern themselves better than the British can govern them, then we may depend upon it we shall have great trouble. Already some of the revolutionists and anarchists look upon themselves as martyrs and they court public notoriety and even death. Lord Kitchener’s lengthy stay in .India and his redistribution of the military forces there was not, as was at first supposed, to place the country in safety against Russian invasion. It was also to cope with local discontent. With a false patriotism, many of the educated natives who were trained in the English Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, have tried to inflame the minds of the uneducated of their co-religionists. Official after official has been shot, and more are threatened. Political affairs are serious. , . One of the worst features is that educated Indians seem determined to misunderstand Britain’s attitude, or to misinterpret her. Britain’s forebearance and concessions are looked upon as weakness and signs of fear. So far have things gone that at last the Governor-General of Bengal has given public warning that things must at once be dealt with, with a resolute will and firm hand, or they will require a drastic remedy, the carrying out of which will not allow of a proper discrimination between the innocent and the guilty. Hence we read that the warning has caused a profound sensation. Lord Curzon’s Bill of 1903, intended for the reform of the Universities of India, was looked upon by educated natives as a veiled attempt to limit the higher education of the people, so as to limit their political power. Moreover the expedition into Thibet in 1904 was very popular with Anglo-Indians ; but it was most unpopular amongst Indian natives. The war between Russia and Japan presented itself to the Indian mind as a struggle between Asiatics and Europeans for the mastery; and as Japan won, the Indians thought that they would similarly triumph over the British if they prepared and then fought with desperation. That idea is rife at the present time, and Britain will have to shew herself ready and able to strike quick and hard when the crucial hour arrives. Fortunately for us the Indians are divided socially and religiously into castes, and they probably will not combine into one united phalanx against Great Britain. The boycott of British goods by Indians in 1905 shews the lengths they are prepared | to go to oppose our rule, and ou3t us j If possible. Therefore we must be

ready. India is too important a dependency of the British Empire to be trifled with and nothing serious can happen to her without materially affecting us at this outpost of the Empire. Our interests are identical with those of the Motherland.