Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-05-27
Getting More and More in the Hands
of the Natives.
ENGLISH PRESTIGE GROWING LESS
Pernicious Influence Of Red Tape
Methods in Office.
y NEW ORDER OF THINGS

/ G. W. Stevens I'm the Inndnn Mail
But you English have the hest NJ every
| thing I'm India" said the Brahmin: you
| can surely afford TO he generous" "Oh,
have WEI" says l. Now what for tn
! stance. have We the best OF? Money. Ieis-
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" he said.
| the consciousness 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 habu.
| India is governed by natives OF India.
| The last word, doubtless. is with us-with
the secretary 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 thrd-the minor. everyday machinery
OF rule-is the natives. Nearly all the
lesser magistrates are natives and large
| proportion of the judges. In the executive
| part OF sovernment-revenue assessment
and collection, engineering and public
works. the medical services the forest de-
| partment, the salt department-there are a
handful of white men to order and a host
| OF brown ones, half-superyised, to execute.
AT the centers of government-the proYin-
ctal capitals and Calcutta Simla itself
where YOU would expect TO find British In
huence at its strongest, the babu clerks in
| the government offices exert a yelled but
| paramount influence And the very heads
| Of verything-ieutenant governors and
sometimes very Observation-Disclosures by
clerks. bow before the prattling phllippics
| of the native press. Theoretically India Is
! helplessly dominated by Britons: actually
native influence is all but supreme.
Changed Conditions.
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 potent, is the new swift
ness of communication between England
| and India. You would expect that to IN
| crease English influence. but N India you
( soon come TO expect paradoNes. The nearer
| India comes to England the less Will En-
| glishmen have to do with it, When War
! rem Hastings went out in 1850 the voyage
| to Calcutta lasted from January till Oc-
| tober. Hastings, once in India, had To
| make India his home his career. his lille.
| 1t was worth his while to study the ways
Of the natives and to write Persian verses.
| At this time there We're none of the con-
veniences-the ice. the punkahs, the nil
stations-which make life in India tolerable
| to white women: most of the company's
| servants lived with native mistresses ana
| some married native wives. 1t was not
ednylng, but IL made for comprehension
| of the east. Money was plenty, Europe and
retirement were far away; the companys
servants spent their income in India ana
| lived in style. Old natives viii tell you OF
residents and collectors who kept moro
| elephants than now men keep polo ponies
| Above all. the white man in the compsny's
| days was something apart and mysterious
and worshipful in native eyes. No man
knew whence he came or pretended to know
| his ways, ne was a strange and superior
being-all but a god.
Now London is sixteen days from Calcrt-
| Ia The modern civilian takes three
months leave every third year and a years
furlough every ten or so. He is married TO
white wife and his white children are AZ
nome; he looks forward to reuniting his
family when he gets his pension, and then
| ne VIII be but forty-to letters or politics
a new career. For this and his periodical
nights homeward he saves his money. so
that the native Il less impressed by The
white mans magnificence The british
merchants and barristers expect an even
shorter period of exile-a competence In
| nye or ten years, and then the beginning
or their real work at home Nowadays the
great Indian merchant lives in London: in
Bombay and Calcutta are only salarled
partners and managing clerks. Parsees are
lar richer and more influential than these
Instead OF r.-an's life, India has become
an apprenticeship, string Of necessary evil
lnterludes between youth, leave furlough
and maturity. You might imagine a burglar
so regarding the intervals which the eX-
| igencies Of his profession compel him 10
spend in Dartmoor.
The Curse of Statistics
The consequences Of the new order are
| inevitable and pernicious. The Anglo-ln-
dian does not shirk his work; TO say SO for
! a moment would be the grossest Islander;
| no class of men in the world toll mora
heroically, more dlsinterestedIy. more dis
painfully under adverse conditions But
while his zeal does not flag, his knowledge
fails to keep pace with IL Partly +bis -
GlSinrl khfa of IL
queht returns TO England; partly and
more, TO the fatal tendency of the indian
departments toward red tape and writing
Inc officer knows well enough that fha
more time he spends at his writing tahIa
the less efficient he will be among the nrn
ne mas to rule But he also knows thar hIs
Iuture career depends far more on his re-
ports than on his personal influence. Can
you wonder that he deVotes himself To
what pays him best? He would be mora
IMAM human IL he did not. Being only hu-
man. he has TO pay for his devotion to
forms and minutes On loss elsewhere Tbs
new generation OF AngIo-Indiars is denlora
bly, ignorant of the native languages: after
! dozen years service he can hardly talk
10 a cultivator or read village register.
OF the life, character and habits of thoughF
of the peasantry-always concealed by or-5.
entails from those in authority over them
Tue knowledge grows more and more ex-
unet year by year. Statistics accumulate
and knowledge decays. The longer We rule
over India the less We know of at
The Babu as MiddIeman.
Summarfly, our knowledge OF the natives
grows less and less as the natives knowI-
edge OF US grows more and more For.
while the very march OF civilization seems
to conspire with fate against our compre-
hension OF the masses of the people. on tho
other side is the babu. each day more su-
perficially fitted and more greedily willing
TO serve as middleman between the ruling
race and the uneducated mass. In old ,iays
lew natives knew English: now there is a
yearly swarm of graduates only too eager
TO make things easy for the European OF
hclal- In Madras, where the native tongues
are especially difficult and English educa-
ton especially diffused there is hardly an
onlclal who can talk freely with the unedu-
Gated, Inc babu Interpreter is master of the
SITUATION. other provinces are going The
same way. 1t Is 50 easy to ask your clerk
WHAT does he say" and 50 easy for the
clerk to earn couple of rupees by putting
thlngs before the presence in the right WV
The divinity that hedges a sahib is slowly
pledShs uoWn. There are so many sahibs
nowadays that they have ceased 10 he 49,,