The Jasper news., 1908-08-13

luS LIE dSBTeSSiOu VI tuS BTeouy DElv |
ishers.
The universities were established In
India with purely economic motive.
"The nation Of shopkeepers" started
the educational system with view to |
prepare East-Indian young men to fill
the lower ranks in government serv'
ice. The native agency being as eff.
cient and much cheaper than the Brit |
ish, was given preference. Moreover,
the occidentals, unacquainted with the
language, customs, religions and
modes of life Of the natives, and with
very poor capacity for adjusting
themselves to the climate and other
conditions prevailing in India, and
for learning languages, could not
carry on the. plunder of the country
without the assistance of the natives.
That altruistic motives were not re-
sponsible for the establishment OF
schools and colleges in India by the
British government is evident for
many reasons. The first and foremost
is the sad insufficiency of g. nool
houses and teachers in India. -Four.
| f1fths of the East-Indian Villages are
without school. After centu y and
a half Of British administration, more
than SO per cent. of East-Indian WON.
en- and 80 per cent. of Hindoo n IN are
| utterly illiterate. To show t'-e con.
| trast, it may be mentioned that in less
than one-fourth of the time the little
| kingdom of the mikado h S been able
| to educate its masses almost to. the
extent Of those living in wide-awake
occidental countries. Another and a
very powerful proof of the sordid mo
tives with which the educ; tional pol
icy was framed and engineered in
India is that the British authorities
have done practically nothing to train
the natives in the use of up-tC-date
farm and manufacturing machinery
and methods. The East-Indian agri.
culturist and artisan have been. al
lowed to play with their industries in
their old-fashioned ways.
| While the education has been of a
nature which has utterly failed to
modernize the people and render them
capable of employing the new meth
DDS of tilling land and making articles
of merchandise, the law has been SO
| made and administered that the peo
pie have been reduced to the state OF
hewers of wood and drawers of water,
and their industries have withered
and died. The policy of England has
been to force India to remain pro-
ducer of raw materials, for the benefit
of British laborers and manufacturers.
England's repression of India is un.
rivaled in the history Of the world. AS
direct result of the mal-administra
ton of Hindostan the people are sunk
in poverty, superstition and ignorance,
festered with plaques and famfnes,
weak in mind and body. From the
standpoint Of unity, the teeming mil
lions of India are the worst situated
in the world.
But the most heart-rending feature
of British exploitation is that the peo-
pie have been kept under state OF
hypnosis for such long time that
only q small percentage Of them are
alive to the seriousness of the situa.
ton. But the educated community is
increasingly awakening to a full
realization of the white mans pur-
pose and work in India, and this awak.
ening is developing into revolution.
ary attitude toward the Britisher.
Famines and plaques are welding
their combined influence in breaking
the crust OF fatalism native to the
East-Indian The wolf of hunger and
the fell epidemics are slowly but
steadily making the ignorant millions
pause and consider that something Is
positively wrong in the System" "
They have not yet come into realiza-
ton that their country has been woe
fully bled and that the resources Of
the land have been misappropriated
by foreigners. Their awakening Is
yet in it's infant stage. 1t is hazy and
underlined and as yet mere speck on
the horizon. But it is fast developing,
and as the educated East-Indians have
commenced an aggressive campaign
for the uplift OF the masses, it is des-
tined to assume greater proportions
day by day. Where it is to end. no
one can prophesy.