THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 1908. THE SMOULDERING REVOLT IN INDIA.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3054, 26 November 1908, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 1908. THE SMOULDERING REVOLT IN INDIA.

It is clear that the long and systematic revolutionary campaign that is being prosecuted throughout India by emissaries and agents of the National Congress has already produced vrey disquieting results. The scepes which followed the execution of the assassin Kanai at Alipur, a suburb of Calcutta, vividly illustrate the extent to which the sympathies of th& populace are engaged on behalf of the revolutionary cause which the assassin represented. The dead body of the man, who had been executed for murdering a witness at the trial of certain bomb-throwers, was crowned with flow-ers, publicly

blessed by a Brahmin priest, and carried in a procession to the scene of the final obsequies, which were celebrated with the ceremonies accorded to the remains of a national hero. And it is reported that the women in the houses all along the line of route demanded that frequent stoppages of the procession should be made, in order that they might gaze on the features of the dead man. Thus it is to be noted that the two most powerful influences which can be brought to bear upon the Hindoo mind were enlisted by the astute organisers in the cause of revolt against the British rule. When the exhortations of the priests are backed up by the encouraging cries of the women, religious fanaticism is aided and strengthened by an appeal to the strongest passion of which the human heart is capable. Naturally, therefore, the press and the Government of India recognise that the demonstration must be regarded as markedly significant. And it must not be forgotten that the fateful outbreak at Meerut, with all the horrors that followed upon it 50 years ago, was precipitated primarily by an appeal to the religious susceptibilities of the Sepoys. The recent murderous attack upon the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, and the repeated prosecutions of conductors of the seditious vernacular press for inciting to murder, couplsd with the activity of the agents of revolt in such distant places as Hongkong and the Transvaal, as well as in the provinces of India, show that the teachings of the National Congress have taken root in prolific soil. The Government of India has not remained inactive. It has introduced new and stringent press laws, providing for the summary suppression of seditious journals. It has enacted legislation prohibiting public meetings in. certain conditions. But these and other repressive measures merely serve to indicate the formidable nature of the evil which threatens to burst out through all the barriers that the Administration can erect. In view of recent occurrences, can be no doubt that the province of Bengal, at any rate, is seething with incipient rebellion against the British rule.