THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17, 1907. INDIAN DISCONTENT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8401, 17 April 1907, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17, 1907. INDIAN DISCONTENT.

! Under the title "Some Thoughts on I Indian Discontent," the Aga Khan contributes an article to the Na- | tional Review in which he suggests the institution of a non-political Regency. "A sentimental loyalty to the Crown and the Flag, and a practical discontent —a discontent that, though not disloyal, has yet in it the germs of danger"— this, in the writer's opinion, is the present position of political affairs in India. The i Aga Khan discusses at some length the reasons which have led him to this conclusion. " He denies that ultimate peril can be met by more efficient administration on the present lines, or the slow growth of material property, or that reliance can be placed on the so-called opposition of the native races, or, in the long run, on force alone. "It is," ha says, "necessary for England to possess the affection or at least to prevent the hostility of her Indian subjects if she wishes to rule the country permanently." He declares that ninety-nine out of each hundred of the most disaffected men in India prefer the "Colonial Ideal" to that of separation. He is deeply convinced that it would be "a great ethical wrong, unworthy of a Christian and humane nation," to give j over the real power of the Government to the people of India. t Whatever the material or educational test of the franchise, the result would be, under the present state of j social civilisation, that power would 1

fall into the hands of individuals, or communities who, while in many things abreast of the century, are in other things full of prejudices against the lower classes of their countrymen, unworthy of the days of the Tudors. It must not be forgotten that many of those who are demanding the highest political rights deny at this moment to their own dearest and nearest female relatives the simplest of human rights. The writer traces the present dissatisfaction not to the absence of political concessions to the people, out to the fact that the public do not see themselves getting appreciably fitter for ever exercising reasonable political power. What, then, is the Aga Khan's remedy? It is one already suggested by the Gaikowar of Baroda, namely, the abolition of the political Vice-royalty, and the institution of a non political Regency with a descendant of the Sovereign as a permanent Prince Regent. "Of course, the Regent must be a very near relative, son or grandson, of the Sovereign. Coming out to India at about the same age as a Civil Servant usually does, for some thirty years' Regency, the Prince can retire from office soon after he is fifty. Round the Regent slowly would gather all the most earnest men of India, chiefs and princes downwards. Political questions would receive the amount of interest and importance due to them, and not, as at present, prac- ; tlcally monopolise Indian public life. The Regent, being free from political I cares, would put himself at the head of all movements, social, literary, economic, and artistic, that improved the z-elations of all sections of society, that destroyed racial and religious particularisms, that helped to amalgamate the parts into a healthy whole The social reforms carried would, being due to the guidance of the Regent and the free choice of the people, be the best possible school for learning the secret of political freedom that India can ever possess. The Prince's interest in national life as a whole would elevate it by attracting to its .service many of the best brains now wasted in the arid field of political controversy. Political changes so constantly prayed for would then come naturally, and be welcomed alike by India and England, for they would be the result of mutual understanding." The Aga Khan considers that under such a Regency, India could be governed for eighty or ninety years at least "without any political change in the real character of its government."