The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-07-05
The Empire
of India
THE Great Unrest
BY FREDERIC j. HASklN.

] lnQld are QlSColLenLeQ Win BEAAlSn AHlS
All over this vast empire there is a as
turbed condition OF affairs which has come
TO be known as The Unrest. This I'M
rest has found is expressios in the Sc
rious and respectful protests Of leading
Indian statesmen. in the solemn resOlu-
tons of the Indian national congress, is
the boycott of English-made goods, in the
pistols Of assassins and in the bombs and
Internal machines Of Indian anarchists.
The British government has met the pro-
tests and demands Of the sober indian
public with important concessions looking
toward self-gOvernment. in what is known
as Lord MCrleys Reform Scheme" 1t
has met the violence OF the extreme fan
atics with stern measures Of repression
1t is idle to deny the serious condition
Of affairs in India at the present mo
ment- Hardly a week passes that does
not record bomb Outrages and attempted
assassinatiOns. Every newspaper is filled
with accounts Of trials Of rioters and
anarchists Every day the police search
the houses of suspected persons, finding
and destroying ali books, journals, news
/ papers or what-not that may have the
| slightest faint Of seditiOn.
The railway trains that run from Cal
cutta to BarrackpOre. a suburb where a
great many prominent Englishmen nave
their homes. are guarded night and day
by lines of soldiers. Fifteen bombs have
| been exploded in trains along this line
since the unrest began. Singulariy enough,
not one Of the bonn bs found its intended
victim, although several natives were
killed and many injured
Each outrage is followed by wholesale
/ arrests Of suspected persons, but in the
great majority of cases there is no evil
dence whatever against the prisoners and
they are liberated at the preliminary eX-
aiming trial Others are taken before
the higher courts but 1t is very diff
cult to obtain proof against them, and the
only convictions of importance have fol-
lowed upon the heels of proud and defiant
confessions.
It is sometimes said that the unrest
is manifested only in the province Of Ben
gal. of which Calcutta is the capital and
metropolis Yet it is true that within the
last few weeks riots and bomb outrages
have been reported from the very south
ernmOst portion Of the peninsula, searches
and seizures have occupied the time Of
the police in every town in the Bombay
Presidency at the west, the disturbances
OF the Afghan frontier at the north have
become so serious that the khyber Pass
has been closed to commerce for an in
definite period. Bengal is the eastern
most section of India proper so it is evil
dent that the unrest pervades India from
/ coast to coast, and from the mountains
TO the cape.
English education has reached a great
er number Of people in Bengal than in
any other section of the country, and
Bengal has a special grievance on account
of the partition of the province by Lord
Curzon in 1865. Therefore the Bengalese
have been more prominent in the revolu-
tiOnary movement, and the situation IS
most serious in their province. And this
in spite of the fact that Bengal, alone
of all the provinces of India, has no COM
plant TO make of the OnerOus taxes i'm
posed by the British government.
1t is now a crime for a Bengalese TO
sing his national anthem, "Bande-mat-
aram," or Wonderland" To shout the
name of the song on the street means
swift and sure imprisonment. The ma
Dtive newspapers are so watched and
hedged about that they hardly dare to
express a positive opinion upon any pO-
litical subject for fear of suppression and
punishment for seditiCn. Public meetings
and associations are strictly forbidden and
any attempt 20 hold one would be frus-
trated by the Vtgilant police.
But the police are not equal to the
task Of coping with boycott that ex-
tends all over India. Clubs and unions in
every community and in almost every vii
lage have been organized to support the
"Swadeshf' movement. That means that
they will buy no goods except "swadeshi'
gOOds-thOse manufactured in India by
Indian labor, or grown on Indian farms by
Indian farmers. Although a relatively
small percentage Of the two hundred and
fifty million people of British India have
Joined the movement, II has grown to such
an extent that English trade with India
has suffered immensely. Thus the Indian
patriots, for the first time. have the sup
port in parliament of the cotton mills
of Lancashire
The boycott movement has not been con-
fined strictly to the "swadeshf' clubs, but
has led to the discrimination against Brit
ish-made wares Of kinds which India does
not produce. German trade IN lnQla In
| creased 100 per cent in volume in the ten
years Immediately preceding the present
era Of unrest. In the last four or five
/ years It has again doubled. With the feel
/ ing against Germany so strong in Eng
| land now, this fact is Of tremendous i'm
| pOrtance.
The "swaraT' movement is a general
patriotic political agitation. 'SwaraJ' is
best translated by the phrase India for
/ the Indians" The avowed purpose OF
/ "Swaraj' is the unification of the peo-
/ pies Of India, the cessation Of the ever
/ lasting feud between MOhammedans and
Hindus, and the use of every means snort
/ of force to compel England to grant
/ self-g governing constitution to the Indian
| empire.
Both "swaraj" and "swadeshi'' are
/ manifestations Of the great Asiatic re-
4 naissance which is now remoulding the
whole social and political fabric of the
mother continent The cry Of india for
/ the Indians" has been heard from the
/ lips Of a few scholars and officials ever
| since Queen Victoria promised the Indian
| people a share in their own government
/ in her epochal proclamation Of 1855.
/ But il was not until after japan, an
Asiatfc nation. had met and defeated one
| of the most powerful nations Of Europe
| IN the greatest war Of modern history,
that the cry '-SwaraJ' burst from the
I threats Of the millions One OF the lead
/ ing men Of India, a Bengal Hindu who
has held high office under the English
and who has been professor Of Oriental
/ history and languages in the universities
/ of England said. The p1ucky stand
made by the japanese against the ad-
vance Of the terror of EurOpe-against
/ the Bear that had already devoured the
! heart of Asia-called forth the deepest ad-
miration Of every Asiatic And when that
war resulted in victory for the japanese.
every man in Asia felt that a new and
brighter day had dawned, and that the
| long centuries of bondage had come to an
end. II gave every Asiatic a sense of
pride and self-relanca which he had not
| possessed before"
Every Indian one meets unhesitatingly
and voluntarily declares that the Japan
csc victory was one Of the chief contrib
uting causes Of the Independent move
ment in India. With equal unanimity.
every Englishman one meets declares that
the Russell 2panese war had nothing
whatever to do with the unrest" The
native newspapers, printed in English
are full Of the praises of Japan as the
leader Of the great movement which will
make all Asia free. But the Englishmen
EXCEPT the police Inspector do not read
the native press. There are two promi-
nent native daily papers in Calcutta,
I