The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1908-07-31
How
England
Has Held
Down India
Copyright, by Joseph B. Bowles)
By ST. NIHAL SING


and arraigning the British administra-
tors of Hindostan for inaugurating
reign Of terrorism in the country, i'm
pending famine is hanging over the
heads of the countrys 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 80
omnipresent in the country that many
millions of East-Indians are perpet-
ually in 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
defes 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 EastIndian requires at least
dollar to dollar and half month
| merely to exist; but since his income
is computed by recognized British au-
thorities to be only so cents 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 $130000,000 in trying to keep the
| impoverished millions of Hindostan
alive. One out of every 16 Of
the 3OO,00OO0O 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 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 100000 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 a 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 a 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
country drained away to enrich the
occidental island which controls af-
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 a fertilizer to
enrich the British soil. England has
built her empire in the orient at the
expense of the East-Indian tax payer,
and East Indian men and money
have helped even to extend Britain's
dominion in Africa, Malta, Crete, etc.
1t was a 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-India 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
Englishmen. Each year the British
government in addition to paying
princely salaries to it's own men and
women in India, transships $780,
0VO, 900 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,
nominally to protect India from Rus
sian aggression, but virtually to ex.
tend and preserve the solidarity of the
British empire in the orient, Africa
and elsewhere.
As an essential feature of this pol
Icy of repression, England has cease
lessly endeavored, and with great sue
coca To loan tanning the flames of