Los Angeles herald., 1909-07-05
THE EMPIRE OFF INDIA
THE GREAT UNREST
BY Frederic j. Haskin

dams and HinduS, ana the use OF every
MEANS short of force, to compel Eng
land to grant self-governing consti-
tuition to the Indian empire.
Both "Swaraj" and "Swadeshf" are
manifestations of the great Asiatic
renaissance which Is now remoding
the whole social and political fabric
of the mother continent. The cry OF
India for the Indians" has been heard
from the lips of few scholars and Of
ficials ever since Queen Victoria
promised the Indian people share in
their own government in her epoehal
proclamation of 1858.
But 1t was not until after Japan, an
Asiatic 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 throats of the millions. One
of the leading men of India, a Bengal
Hindu, who has held high office under
the English and who has been a pro-
fessor of Oriental history and lam
guages in the universities of England,
said:
"The plucky stand made by the .ap-
anese against the advance of the Terror
of Europe-against the Bear that had
already devoured the heart of Asia
called forth the deepest admiration of
every Asiatic. And when that war re-
suited 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. 1t gave every Asiatic a sense
of pride and self-reliance which he had
not possessed before"
Every Indian one meets unhesitat-
ingly and voluntarily declares that the
Japanese victory was one of the chief
contributing causes of the independent
movement in India. With equal unan-
unity every Englishman one meets de-
clares that the Russo-Japanese war
had nothing whatever to do with the
unrest" The native newspapers
printed i'm 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 ma
tive press There are two prominent
native daily papers in Calcutta printed
in English. They were the first news
paper offices in India to install linotype
machines. But the average English
man doesn't know of their existence
except from the comments in his own
papers, and ii Is impossible to find n
copy of either for sale in the European
section of the city.
1t is this English habit of declining
to know anything about the natives
that has contributed no little to the
present unrest. The Englishman is but
a bird of passage in India. He comes
here to stay three years, or five years.
or ten years. He Is always going
"home," is always thinking of "home." ;"
He looks upon India only as a place
from which money may be extracted.
He lives with his own people, he knows
nothing beyond his club and his sports.
He declines to consult the wishes OF
ln IND off In 4nI Il
ministration or in business. Therefore
he must now face the problem of a
great discomfort in the political world
and the rapid rise of two great rivals
for his trade.
The Germans and the Japanese are
crafty merchants. They have gone to
the Indians and have asked what the
Indians wanted. They have made and
sold goods according to the Indian no.
tions, and they have never made the
British mistake of attempting TO force
English goods of English patterns upon
a people who wanted something else
Take the instance of scissors. English
scissors are made with the thumb and
finger hole of the same size. Indian
tailors demanded scissors with a larg-
er aperture for the thumb. The Eng
lish factory, even upon advice of their
foolish whim of the absurd barbarian.
Whereupon India now buys its scis-
sors from Germany. The British mer-
chant will not change his ideas of busi-
ness to suit Indian ideas any more than
he will change his wooden underwear
and yarn socks to meet the differences
between the climtaes of London and
Madras.
But he must change his ideas OF the
government of India. The Indians are
forcing that upon him. He must make
concessions to the aroused public opin-
ion of the empire, or else he must take
the consequences and be blown to bits
by a bomb.
The Indian patriots do not wish to
secede from the British empire. They
know that they would be at the mercy
of other great maritime powers were
England to withdraw. What they do
wish, and what they are demanding, is
autonomy. India aspires to be a part
of the British empire. not a depen-
dency upon 1t, a self-governing nation
federated with other such nations as
Canada, Australia and South Africa in
the great British empire. Until the
goal is reached, be it a decade or n
century, there will be no cessation OF
the unrest in India. The Morley "re-
form scheme" is accepted as a first in
stallment of the grant of self-govern-
ment. 1t win have the effect of quiet
ing the people for time but as soon
as India believes an opportune moment
has arrived to insist upon further con-
cessions the unrest will manifest itself
again.
Copyright 1909, by Frederic ]. Haskin).
Tomorrow--The Empire Of India. II.
Anarchy and Assassination.