DELHI AND AFTER

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 191, 10 February 1912, Page 9 (Supplement)

DELHI AND AFTER

THE NEW POLICY TOWARDS. INDIA. (By T. P. O'Connor, M.P ' j n Reynold's Weekly y All the other events of the week are eclipsed by the startling development in India. opinion is not inclined to express itself definitely until a clear lead comes from India, but the first impression is distinctly favorable. This is especially the case with regard to the reversal of the partition of Bengal, for it is reversal, though the change is wrapped up in other phrases. Everybody who is acquainted with Indian feeling, especially those courageous and enlightened AngloIndians who have braved so much opposition and popularity in their own class, has always contended that this fatal act of Lord Curzon's Government had done more to exasperate Indian feeling and was more responsible for the unrest of the last few, years than any single act of policy for a generation. It. is a pity in some respects that the Government which succeeded that of Mr: Balfour • did not have the resolution to undo the evil thing. They were pressed to do so by some of their own warmest and most loyal supporters. The fear of that feeling which sicklies o'er the thought of so many courageous men stood in the way; the superstition that the Imperial Government must never admit a mistake; the gigantic pressure from the Indian bureaucracy stood in the way, and prevented the reversal of, the folly of Lord Curzon's fatal act. Perhaps, in the end, it is as well that this should have happened. The reversal of the partition "of Bengal reaches the people of India after a fashion much more solemn and impressive a's it comes from the lips, and under the most solemn surroundings, of the King. Everybody looks to a great tranquilization of Indian opinion from the ' bold and impressive act, and to that extent all sound Liberals in the/ House Of Commons have received the news with j gratification.

% NEW EPOCH. The truth is that Liberal opinion is gradually coming to the conclusion, that we must depart—gradually and cautiously, of course—from the old policy towards India. It is impossible' to ap--ply to a nation which is being gradually educated in the old,methods of irresponsible and entirely unrepresentative government. The Eastern intellect and the Eastern outlook on life are quite different from ours, but anybody who has ever associated with educated Indians will; know 'that to look upon them as inferior intellectually to us is an absurd and even insolent superstition. Broad thinkers also acknowledge that though our own view of life is, on the whole, probably the saner, the Oriental point of view has also its own merits and its own claims. Anyhow, no real Democratic thinker ever suggests that all national individualities must be cast, still less forced, into the same mould. There is such a thing as Free Trade in nationality, as in commerce; that is to say, that each nation does best which is allowed to follow on the line of its own individuality—as much a law of life and of nature as gravitation or the results of difference of soil and of climate. And that being so, Democratic thought looks to the gradual devolution to the Indians themselves of a greater share in the management of their own country and their own people. , It is these views which derive so much satis-. faction from the momentous, pronouncements of the King in India. We see in these pronouncements far more in the future than even their present daring and importance. They mark tie beginning of a new epoch, and a new method, and a new point of view.

One class which will doubtless be offended and even enraged is that very perilous class of "young officials' and young soldiers who have not yet got rid of the old idea that the native Indian, however high his station, his character, or his intelligence, is still to be regarded as a "nigger." Over and over again I have heard Indian gentlemen, undistinguiahable from a British gentleman except in color, give instances of such acts of brutal bad manners as the forcible exclusion of a young subaltern from his carriage in a railway train of gentlemen and ladies of the'highest position in India for no better reasan than that they were natives; Little acts of discourtesy like these work like madness on the brain, and are accountable for many of our troubles in India. It is time they should come to an end, and that the offspring of a Democratic nation, passionately attached to free'dom, to equality, and to good manners, should act more in accordance with the' best traditions of their own country and their own race. DELHI AS CAPITAL. The transfer of the capital from Calcutta to Delhi is a local question on which naturally opinion in England is more slow to pronounce an opinion; it is a question which requires an intimate knowledge of Indian life and Indian opinion. But, again, the first impression in this case also is favorable. Calcutta, with all its disadvantages, is a seaport in essence; and, therefore, if there came the stress of any disturbance, more accessible to British ships and to British troops. That advantage does not exist in the ease of *k midland city like Delhi, in the very heart and centre of, India. And, of course, a great city like Calcutta cannot be dethroned from its supreme position without causing a good deal of loss and a good deal of heart-burning. Many great businesses may be tempor : arily disturbed; many susceptibilities will be wounded; and the transfer must cost a large amount of money. But in spite of these very obvious disadvantages, the general opinion in- England is that the change is a salutary one. From the point of view of the great officials, it is certainly desirable. The climate of Calcutta is very weakening to health and energy; and compels the hard-worked Indian official—and whatever his faults, the Indian official is the most hard-work-ing man in the Imperial service—to seek resumption of health and vigor and spirit, in flight to the hill country around Simla. But Delhi is thirty-six hours by fastest train from Calcutta; which means that when the Government migrates there, it is a long distance from the centre of government; and, that his stay has to be extended over a long period. Delhi is only twelve hours by train from Simla; and there is therefore no reason why, when he is run down by work and by the climate, the hard-worked and exhausted official should not run up to the better climate of Simla. And even when his residence there has to be extended over some months, he is still close in touch with the capital; for twelve hours in these rapid days do not mean much of a distance; and with a good telegraph and telephone service, the Governor-Gen-eral and his colleagues can do business at Simla almost as rapidly as in Delhi itself.

These are the practical justifications of the change; but, of course, sentiment counted for imieh in resolving on this momentous transfer; and all sentiment justifies and vindicates the transfers. Calcutta, after all, is the centre of only one great section of the multifarious Indian population. And the supreme fact and the crowning difficulty of Indian administration—as well as the final vindication of British rule—is that these three hundred' millions of people consist of a vast conglomeration of races, different not only in character and tendencies, but in religious faiths—held strongly, and, sometimes, even fiercely. Now, at Delhi,

in its central position, the British Government of India -will be in touoh with all India ; with all its races, with ; all its creeds; and this, without doubt, will give* it an opportunity o"f more thorough acquaintance with all sorts and conditions of opinion, than in the detached remoteness of Calcutta,

One must add to these powerful appeals to sentiment, the other, and even more potent fast, that Delhi holds a place in Indian history and in the Indian imagination, .which would never be approached even by any other city in the vast country. It is the ancient seat of Government; it is bound up with a thousand stories in India's annals. Benares is the sacred religious city of India. In that respect, the transfer of the capital to Delhi makes a powerful appeal to the imagination of all the Indian people; and will be rightly interpreted "'by them a* a recognition of their nationality and aspirations. Thus, then, by an act of courage and prompt decision, the Ministry have opened a new and a brighter era in the history of India and of England. It is one of the many victories to be counted to the -credit of the powerful, progressive and courageous body of men who, -for the last five; years, have been responsible for the government of the British dominions at home and abroad. It adds to the glory of accomplished and gigantic social reforms; the additional glory of a sound colonial policy, calculated to draw closer to them all the people in the world-wide Empire. , ——————q