The times., 1899-09-17
BRITISH RULE IN INDIA.
Native Influence Paramount in the
Government

Notife influence Paramount in the
Governments.
But you English have the best Of eT-
erything in India" said the Brahrnin; you
can surely afford to be generous" "oh,
have we?" says I. Now what, for in
stance, have We the best of? Money. leis-
ure. pleasure. satisfaction in work. He
smiled the wonderful Indian smile. inscru-
table and irresistible, winning and fawn-
ing at the same time. You have" be
said, the consciousness of being the domi-
nant race"
that is exactly what we have. and that
is all We have. and even that is half
fallacious; for the real ruler of India is
the babu. a
India is governed by natives of India.
The last word is, doubtless with us-with
the secretary of state and the viceroy and
atkins in his grey flannel shirt. But then
the last word in the government is hard
ly ever said. The first word and the second
and the third-the minor, everyday ma
chinery of rule--is the natives Nearly
all the lesser magistrates are natives, and
large proportion OF the judges. In the
executive part of the government-reyenue
assessment and collection. engineering, aud
public works, the medical services, The for
est department, the salt department-there
are a handful OF white men to order and
host of brown ones. half supervised.
to execute. At the centres OF gov
ernment-the provincial capitals and
Calcutta or Simla itsel-where you
would expect to find British influence at
its strongest, the babu clerks in the Gov
OffirpC a Vpilad b1lf
mount influence. And the very heads of
every rything-lieutenant governors and
sometimes very viceroys-uninfuence by
clerks, bow before the prattling philippics
of the native press. theoretically India
is helplessly dominated by Britons; actu-
ally native influence is all but supreme.
You will call these assertions astonish-
ing, and it is not convenient to call lead
ing officials of the Indian government to
corroborate them. The cause OF the Brit
ish in India is not popular one either
there or here. Yet there is hardly Brit
on OF experience in India, II one may
Judge by samples, who will not admit pri-
vately that these assertions are mainly
true. To the stranger from England 1t is
far the most striking and disquietlng DIS
eoyery that India has to offer.
The cry of recent years has been for
more Indian influence in India's govern
ment Then you find Englishmen admit
ting the existence OF abuses, 1ncompe-
tence, corruption in the services they are
supposed TO direct, lamenting them, break
ing their hearts over them, but utterly
powerless to purge them away. You find
men giving orders which they all but know
will not be executed, because it is physi-
cally impossible to go themselves and
watch over their execution Higher up
you find men longing to get work done
for India's benefit, but elogged and stran-
gled by meshes of routine, which exist
solely to furnish salaries for more and
more brothers and nephews OF native
clerks You find lieutenant governor re-
fusing to take measures against plague
solely from fear of abuse in the native
press. Then you realize that it is not
more native influence that is wanted in
India, but less-not fewer Britons in the
service, but more.
The white mans say becomes daily less.
the black mans daily more. The rea-
sons are not on the surface, but, when
stated they make things clear enough
The first, perhaps the most potent, is the
new swiftness of communication between
England and India. You would expect that
TO increase English influence, but in India
you soon come TO expect paradoxes. The
nearer India comes to England the less
will Englishmen have to do with il. When
Warren Hastings went out in 1870 the voy-
age 10 Calcutta IGSIeQ from JdHudIF iii
October. Hastings, once in India had TO
make India his home, his career, his life
1t was worth his while to study the ways
of the natives and to write Persian verses.
AT this time there were none OF the con-
veniences-the ice. the punkahs, the hill
stations-whch make life in India tCler-
able 10 white women: most of the COM
panys servants lived with native mis-
tresses and some married native wives. II
rnf Cd fvfp hut da F~r
prehension of the East. Money was plenty,
Europe and retirement far away; the com
pany's servants spent their income in India
and lived in style. Old natives will still
tell you of residents and collectors who
kept more elephants than now men keep
polo ponies. Above all the white man
in the company's days was something
apart and mysterious and worshipful in
native eyes. No man knew whence he
came or pretended to know his ways; he
was strange and superior being-all but
god.
Now London is sixteen days from CAL
cutta The modern civilian takes three
months leave every third year and years
| furlough every ten or so. He is married TO
white wife, and his white children are at
home; he looks forward to reuniting his
family when he gets his pension, and then
he will be but forty-to letters or politics
new career. For this and his periodical
flights homeward he saves his money, SO
that the native is little impressed by the
white mans magnihcence. The British mer-
! chants and barristers expect an even short
er period of exile-a competence in Eve
or ten years. and then the beginning OF
their real work at home. Nowadays the
great Indian merchant lives in London; in
Bombay and Calcutta are only salaried
partners and managing clerks. Parsees are
far richer and more influential than these.
Instead of a mans life, India has become
an apprenticeship, a string of necessary
evil interluded between youth, leave, fur
Tough and maturity. You might imagine
burglar so regarding the intervals which
the exigencies of his profession compel aim
to spend in Dartmoor.
The consequences of the new order are
inevitable and pernicious. The Anglo-In-
dian does not shirk his work; to say SO for
moment would be the grossest SANDER;
no class of men in the world toll more he
roically, more disinterestedly. more disdain-
fully under adverse conditions. But while
his zeal does not flag, his knowledge fails
| to keep pace with IL. Partly this is due to
the disIocation of his work by frequent re-
turns 10 England; partly and more 10 the
| fatal tendency of the Indian department
| toward red tape and writing. The officer
knows we'll enough that the more time he
| spends at his writing table the less efficient
| he will be among the men he has TO rule.
| But he also knows that his future career
depends far more on his reports than on his
personal influence. Can you wonder that he
devotes himself to what pays him best2 He
would be more than human If he did not.
Being only human, he has TO pay for his de-
votion to forms and minutes in loss else
where. The new generation of Anglo-In-
diars &c danlorahly ignorant of the native