The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1911-05-19
BRITISH RULE N
INDIA STILL SAFE
Amy Change Would Be for
the Worse People Physi-
cally Very Inferior.

Calcutta. Bengal. India. May H.
There are 800. 200. 900 people in India.
Not one man in fifty would be free OF
British rule IL he could. because he
never thought about that matter: not
one man in $4,000 believes that India
is ready for self-government: not one
man of the extremists has ever pro-
posed definite. matured plan as to
how. il British rule should end sudden
~ or in the immediate future. they
would carry on the government; nor
have l ever met or heard of an Indian
who believes otherwise than that
chaos and anarchy would follow on the
heels of the withdrawal of the British.
There are 2OO.eO 900 million people
in India today who are mentally and
physically inferior to the Indians of
Mexico or Peru; 100000, 900 VINO never
developed physical prowess nor the
martial spirit as it was developed in
the aborigines of America Millions
and millions of Hindus. perhaps all
who have ever thought of it. who have
more love and less respect for their
fellow Mohammedans than for the An
glo-Indians, yet nine out of ten Hindus
who would like to see the Mohamme-
dams leave India before the British do.
Millions OF Mohammedans would
prefer to have the British remain till
they are certain they could come back
into supreme power in India-or, bet
ter still, until they could join their fell
low Moslems beyond the passes and
again unite into mighty Moslem en-
pire which would dominate the middle
east. And the whole mass OF Indians
is split into countless sections. the no
rizon OF each circle fifteen miles In di-
ameter.
And that is the strength of the Brit
ish. The British know it; thoughtful
Indians know It. No party is united,
no party has any confidence in itself
or trust in the other; and every man
has his price and many of them are set
down in the books
For while sought to discover why
there has been SO little unrest; why
leaders beg for favors, why they hope
and pray and cringe and fawn. have
abandoned that talk. There is no co
herence in Indian; Indians do not want
freedom; they have almost no concep
ton of what self-government means;
they would not know what to do with
Swaraj II they had it. In short:
I'VE are children, fools. ignorant, su
perstitious. poor. hungry, with the
highest death rate in the world. We
are ashamed to admit it, but 1t IL true
We are thousand years behind the
west in political consciousness and
ideas of nationality; generations, al
least fifty years, must roll by before
we can hope to stand alone. We lacl
leaders: a leader would have nc
chance to propagate ideas Of politica
| freedom.
I'VE know the price we pray oul
British RAFT is terrible, 1t Is humil
iating. We have been, we are, treated
with scorn. We feel it, we suffer un
der it. we resent it. w are no Longer
men; we have lost our manhood. We
are towards and unarmed at that.
"You cannot realize, only one who
has spent years in India can, the
depths OF degradation OF our people
their helpless poverty, their appalling
ignorance. 1t is no use to say it is the
fault of our rulers, that they have
wiped our industries off the earth
changed us from an Industrial into {
poverty stricken. petty, insignificant
world of wretched peasants. Wha
matters it IL the British have used us
abused us. bled us? What could 70,
expect? They have done only VIVA
any other alien ruler would have done
or any better off under Germany
Should you of the United States trea
us any better? Do you do better b!
the Filipinos? Man is man and tn,
British are no exception.
/ But don't think we do not suffer
We suffer and smile. We had to lear
that; now we have got into the habi
and it is really thus that the great ma
jority of our people fear the rulers
even as they fear their gods.
I'm your western republics ever.
man is jack of all trades and think
he, too, is able to govern. Each aim
to grow out of his skin. to become ricl
and powerful. Not so in India, wher
there were no rich, no poor. but eacl
a cog in a machine. striving to max
himself perfect, especially hoping b.
perfection of life to raise his rank 0
station in the next life. The parial
could hope to be reborn at least
Brahman, and SO be superior even t
the ruler.
/ rid ourselves of the British? w
could do it overnight. And what then
Be overrun by frantic Moslem butcf
ers from Central Asia. with hillsme
from the Burmese hills and beyond 0
fall into Russia's bureaucratic hopper
to be ruled by Cossacks.
I'VE have tasted of the tree OF you
knowledge. Good or evil for US, "
will have more of 1t. We will not b
denied And now we want peace