Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1888-08-02
THE WHITES IN INDIA.
THE CORPORATION AND eARRIson
WHICH FORM THE EMPIRE
No White Man Proposes to Remain in
India-what Would Happen II the
Brown Men struck-Engiish OnciaI.
Tarry but = Few Years.


India-What Would Happen II the
Brown Men struck-Engiish Onciai,
Tarry but Few Years.
Above this mconceivable mass of hu-
msnity. governing all. protecting all, tax.
fng all rises what We call here .'the en-
Pire. corporation Of less than fifteen
hundred men. part chosen by examina-
tion. part by co-optation. who are set to
govern, and to protect themselves in gov
erning by finding pay for a minute whit.
garrison Of 5000 men, one-fifth of ths
Roman legions-though the masses to be
controlled are double the subjects of
Homeless than the army Of Sweden, or
Belgium. or Holland That corporation
and that garrison constitute the Indian
empire There is nothing else. Danish
those hften hundred men in black, defeat
that slender garrison in red. and the en-
pire has ended. the structure disappears,
and brown India emerges unchanged and
Interchangeable. To support the official
world and its garrison-both, recollect,
smaller than those of Belgium-there is.
except indian opinion. absolutely nothing
NO ONE WILL STAY
Not only Is there no white race in India,
not only Is there no white colony, but
here is no white man who purposes to
remain Lord Dufferin, whom we scarcely
think OF rs middle aged. is possibly the
Oldest, certainly among the oldest, of
white men in India No ruler stays there
to help or citicise or moderate his sue
cessor. No successful white soldier
POUNDS family No white man who
makes fortune builds house or buys
an estate for his descendants The very
planter, the very engine driver, the very
foreman Of works. departs before he is 90.
leaving no child. or house or trace of him
self behind, No white man takes root in
India. and the number even of sojourners
Is among those masses imperceptible. The
whites in our own three capitals could
hardly garrison them, and outside those
capitals are, except In government en-
ploy. only few planters, traders and pro-
fessional men, far fewer than the black
men in London
In city like Benares. q stone city
whose buildings rival those of Venice.
city OF temples and palaces beautiful
enough and original enough to be
worlds wonder. yet in which no white
mans brain or hand has designed or ex-
ecuted anything. traveller might live
year talking ohly with the learned or the
rich, and. unless he had official business
to do, might never see white face And
away from the stations" planted outside
the native cities it is SO everywhere
There are no white servants. not even
groOms. no white policemen, no white
postmen, no white anything Ii the
brown men struck for week. the lem
pire" would collapse like II house of cards.
and every ruling man would be a starv-
ing prisoner in his own house He could
not move or feed himself or get water.
NOTHING IS PERMANENT.
shall not soon forget the observation
of one of the keenest and most experienced
of all observers who arrived in India dur
ing the mutiny. He had Just landed. and
had consented to drive with me to house
sixteen miles out of Calcutta On the
road. as usual. he noted everything, but
at last turned to me with the question:
Where. then, are the white menY" No
where" wss the only possible reply; and
1t is true Of the entire continent. This
absence Of white men is said to be due to
climate. but even in "the hills" no one
settles. Englishmen live on the sultry
plains of New South Wales; Americans.
who are only Englishmen a little desic-
Gated. are filing up the steamy plains of
Florida: Spsniards have settled as gov
erning caste throughout the tropical sec
tions of the two Americas. Dutchmen |
dwell on in Java: but the English. what.
ever the temptation. will not stay in |
india. No matter what the sacrifice. |
in money. or dignity. or pleasant |
an uncomfortable disgust. an |
overpowering sense of being aliens mex
orably divided from the people of the |
land, comes upon them. and they glide |
silently away.
1t follows that even in the minute |
official world and the minute garrison |
nothing is permanent The viceroy rules
for Eve years. and departs. The coun
,ilor advises for five years. and departs.
The general commands for five years, and |
departs. The official serves for thirty |
years, probably in ten separate countries,
md departs. There is not in India one |
.uling man whom two generations of In |
iians have known as ruling man. OF all
hat in Europe comes of continuousness,
accumulated personal expert
,nce. or the wisdom of old age. there is in
india not one trace. nor can there ever be- |
imagine If In Europe no sovereign or
premier or commander-in chief ever lived
Iix yearsI Yet these men. thus shifting. |
.hus changing. do the whole work of leg |
stating. governing, and administering,
III that is done in the whole Of Europe by |
IL the sovereigns, all the statesmen. all
he psrliaments. all the judges. revenue
,oards, projects. magistrates, tax gath
,rers and police officers. They are '.the
'mpire." and there is no other.-MereGith
Townsend in Fortnightly Review.