New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-05-21
THE GOVERNMENT OFINDIA
MORE AND MORE IN THE HANDS OF
NATIVES.
WHY ENGLISH PRESTIGE Is GROWING LESS
THE PERNICIoUs INFLUENCE OF BU-
REAUCRACY AND RED TAPE
C. W. Stevens in The London Mail.

REAUCRACY AND RED TAPE
G. W. Stevens in The London Mail.
But you English have the best OF everything
in India" said the Brahmin you can surely
afford to be generous" "Oh have we? says ].
Now what, for instance, have we the best OF?
Money, leisure. pleasure satisfaction in wOrk?'
He smiled the wonderful Indian smile. inscru-
table and irresistible. winning and fawning at
the same time You have" he said, the con-
seriousness Of being the dominant 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.
India is governed by natives Of India. The
last word, doubtless, is with us-wth the Secre-
tary Of State and the Viceroy and Atkins in his
gray flannel shirt. But then the last word in
government is hardly ever said. The first word
and the second and the third-the minor, every
day machinery of RULES the natives Nearly
all the lesser magistrates are natives. and
large proportion Of the judges. In the executive
part Of OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES assessment and
collection, engineering ard public works. the
medical services, the forest department. the salt
department-there arc a handful of white men
to order and host of brown ones. half-super-
vsed to execute. At the centres Of Govern
ment-the provincial capitals and Calcutta or
Simla itself-where you would expect to find
British influence at its strongest. the DaDu clerks
in the Government offices exert q yelled but par
amount influence. And the very heads OF every
Observation-Disclosures and sometimes
very VicerOys-uninfluenced by clerks bow be
fore the prattling philippics of the native press
theoretically India is helplessly dominated by
Britons; actually native influence is all but
supreme.
FEAR OF THE NATIVE PRESS.
You will call these assertions astonishing and
I shall not be able TO call leading officials Of the
Indian Government to cOrrobOrate them. The
cause Of the British in India is not a popular
either there here. Yet there is hardly a
Briton of experience in India if may judge by
samples who will not admit privately that these
assertions mainly true. To the stranger
from England II is far the most striking and dis
quieting discovery that India has to offer
The cry of recent years has been for more
Indian influence in midas Government. Then
you find Englishmen admitting the existence Of
abuses, incompetence. corruption in the services
they are supposed to direct. lamenting them.
breaking 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 il is physically impossible
to go themselves and watch their eXecu-
ton. Higher up you find men longing 10 get
work done for midas benefit. but clogged and
strangled by neshes of routine. which exist
solely TO furnish salaries for more and more
brothers and nephews Of native clerks. You find
a MISUNDERSTANDING refusing to take meas
ures 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 ess-not fewer Britons in the
vices, but more.
The white mans say becomes daily less. the
black mans daily more. The reasons are not on
the surface but, when stated. they make things
clear enough The first, perhaps the most po
tween 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 English
men have to do with 1t. When Warren Hastings
went out in 1870 the voyage to Calcutta lasted