THE NEW SPIRIT IN INDIA.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3212, 11 June 1909, Page 3

THE NEW SPIRIT IN INDIA.

In an article in the "National Review" on "The New Spirit in India," Mr H. W. Nevinson expresses the conviction that India is on the verge of a national renaissance. The long peace, easy communication, wide distribution of newepaprrs, the common use of English among the educated, close study of the lives and deeds of the leaders of the Liberal party in the House of Commons —these all imply a new spirit which would have been wholly admirable! had tha English bureaucracy been able to appreciate it at its true worth, and guide it into the right channels. Unfortunately, this has not been the case and the result is the widespread disloyalty that we It is impossible for one race to deny freedom, to another and nil a it to the true advantage of either. The worst 13 we are losin> our reputation for justice. On every side societies are growing ud for the promotion of Indian ideals and the development of Indian character quite indepandently of our influence. Mr Nevinson would meet all this with a sw<;et reasonableness and more primary schools. At present there are not one in ten J iterate miles. Also, ther: must be a "change of heart'' in the governing official dafs. But fur India herself the present unrent holds out a prom is 3 of. the highest possibilities, no matter how she may suffer in realising them. Are we then to sink from suppression into persecution and from persecution into atrocities? Or are we to welcome the spirit of freedom and nationality we have done so much to create? Such is the drift of tha argument. As the converse of a sane Imperialism it is almost a classic of mistaken political faith.