The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1908-07-31
How
England
Has Held
Down India.
BY ST. NIaAL SING
Copyright, by Joseph B. Bowles.)

~0OOOO
Copyright, by Joseph B. Bowles)
While the educated people of India
appear to be content with carrying on
wordy warfare over political questions
and arraigning the British administra-
tors Of Hindostan for inaugurating q
reign Of terrorism in the country, i'm
pending famine is hanging over the
heads of the country's 300.000,000 in
habitants. Crops have failed in many
sections, and already half-famished
Hindoos are face to face with the
specter Of starvation.
During the latter portion Of the Brit
ish administration of India, famine has
followed famine with direful fire.
Quency Within the last Is years
100000 Hindoos have died of sheer
starvation. Grinding poverty is so
omnipresent in the country that many
millions of East-Indians are perpet.
ually in a half-starved condition. The
scarcity of food becomes more pinch.
ing and accentuated when times are
harder Then the poor Hindoos, in
stead of starving inch by inch, are
quickly blotted out.
The impoverishment of the masses
deties portrayal. 1t is much uglier,
much more poignant and painful than
that which is to be found in the
Ghettos and poor quarters of Amer
lean cities. 1t is estimated that an
average East1ndian requires at least
merely to exist; but since his income
is computed by recognized British au-
thCrities to be only so cents a month,
it will be seen that he lives consider
ably below the poverty line. During
the last two years the government has
expended out of the revenues collect
ed from the East-Indian tax payers
over $130,000,00 in trying to keep the
impoverished millions of Hindostan
alive. One out of every 16 Of
the 300,00O,OOO inhabitants has
been in receipt of actual charity re-.
lief. This was the case in practi-
cally normal years. Now that the
scarcity is assuming vaster dimen-
sions and appears to be developing
into a colossal famine, a greater pro-
PORTION of the people will have to be
saved at the expense of the public.
The abnormal poverty has augment
ed the death rate. Figures collected
from official records show that mortal
ity has increased from 25 per 1000
to 35 per 1000 within the past ten
years. Chronic starvation has led to
the propagation of cholera and
plague to such fearful extent that
during the last decade 5,000,000 East
Indians have persisted from the
latter.
In such desperate straits the masses
of India find themselves to-day.
The very existence of the farmer, the
artisan, the workingman the laborer
by day or month, the petty business
man and the clerk, is in serious jeop-
ardy through famine and plague
That India should be sunk in the
mire of fearful and agonizing pow
erty is no cause for wonder. For
two centuries or more India has been
In the position of pig, whose throat
has been slit, and the animal hung
up by the heels to permit the blood to
drain from it's body. Hindostan has
been bled-bled profusely, unmerci-
fully, continuously by constituencies
and mercenary alien government
The knife thrusts have been directed
toward the most vital parts of the
body polite. The arteries of indus
try, manufacture and agriculture have
been slashed and the life-blood of the
occidental island which controls az
fairs in India.
The aim of the English in India has
been to crush the native East-Indians,
grind their substance into powder,
and then employ it as fertilizer to
enrich the British soil. England has
built her empire in the orient at the
expense of the East-Indlan tax payer,
and East Indian men and money
have helped even to extend Britain S
dominion in Africa, Malta, Crete, etc.
It was company of British com.
mercialists who founded the British
rule in India. To students of his
tory it is patent how the British mo-
nopolists, under the aegis of British
East-lndia Company, used notorious
and INSCRIPTIONS methods to plum
der Hindostan. When the British
crown took the reins of India in her
hands In 1858, the policy of governing
India remained unchanged. AS in
the days of the East-India COMPANY.
it continued to be the exploitation of
Hindostan for the benefit of the Eng.
lish. 1t still continues to be the
same.
AS a direct result of this policy,
every means, fair and foul, overt and
covert, has been utilized to hold down
India and to tighten the British bonds
on the unfortunate and furnishing peo-
pie. The lucrative government ap-
pointments have been reserved for
Englishman. Each year the British
government in addition to paying
princely salaries to it's own men and
women in India, transships $780,.
100000 to England. Seventy-five thou
sand British soldiers are year after
year Aurtured and equipped at the ex-
pense of the East-Indian tax payer,
1ominally to protect India from Rus
sian aggression, but virtually to ex.
tend and preserve the solidarity of the