THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, AUGUST 25, 1908. THE INDIAN PROBLEM.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9174, 25 August 1908, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, AUGUST 25, 1908. THE INDIAN PROBLEM.

Mr Hem Chandra Sircar, M.A., a Brahmo missionary, recently made an interesting speech at Calicut on the Indian problem. Addressing a large cvowd, he said that Indians were not entitled to the name of a nation, as they were divided into innumerable castes and creeds, with societies of their own, and without any fundamental principles. National progress depended entirely on national unity, which, the speaker said, was consnicjoje by its absence among the Indians of today, though Madias, Bombay, the Punjab, and Calcutta had now begun to feel that they were one and the same. He believed that if Indians were a united nation, foreign domination would not have swayed over them. They could not claim equal rights and privileges similar to those extended to foreigners, because they themselves treated their countrymen, who were flesh of their flesh, and bone of their bone, with transparent injustice and monumental oppression, and unless and until they reformed themselves the time would be far distant when it would be possible for them to obtain such privileges from their rulers. He said the time was one for action, and not for speaking, and emphasised the necessity for :)rue partriots, who would be ready to

sacrifice themselves for the benefit of the country. Political oration and political agitation, he said, would do no good to the country, but would only tend to injure its interests. The methods adopted by a handful of educated men in the country for the building of the nation were far from desirable, and he, therefore, exhorted the audience to follow the path laid down by the Brahmo Samaj, which was the only right step to lead them to their goal, adding that the salvation of India lay not in hasty political changes and industrial regeneration, but in social reform.