Evening star., 1937-11-07
BY r. YEATS-BROWN.

- Indian villager is becoming
really travel-conscious. The
- motor bus has revolutionized
life In way the train never did, for
train journey meant-and still means
"A long walk to the nearest railway
station, bribing clerk to issue the
ticket without delay. and all kinds of
discomfort. The bus, on the con-
trary, goes everywhere from Cape
Cormorin to Kabul, and makes 20
miles an hour, compared to the bull
lock carts 20 miles day.
What the results of this new and
popular form of transport will be.
none can foretell, but they are likely
to be staggering in their proportions,
Tor you cannot stir 30OO0O,000 peo-
pie out OF the sleep of ages without
some surprising consequences.
Exploring these possibilities, took
the public conveyance between Oota-
camund and Mysore, in the Nilgiri
Hills. The driver negotiated the steep
road with his bare feet on the pedals
We gallivanted along the edges of
precipices and grazed mountain sides;
at each sharp S-turn our old and
heavily laden charabanc sagged on its
springs and complained bitterly of its
brakes.
Stopped at Shrine.
From where I sat, next the driver,
! could have jumped to safety; but
what of the woman behind me, with a
baby at her breast? And the 20 other
passengers, compressed into 16 seats?
However, no One seemed at all alarmed.
Indians have excellent nerves, and
our chauffeur, who was singing light
heartedly, was an accomplished driver.
He was making UP time in order to
stop at a shrine. where the husband
OF the woman with the baby wanted
to worship Parvati, the goddess of
fertility.
In this little scene India's attitude
toward the West was epitomized. The
internal combustion engine, like the
electric light, the cinema and the
radio. are not ousting the deities of
the Hindu Pantheon, but are being
added to them
Fifteen years ago, when I was In
India, the average Indian mechanic
erudged an engine its fuel, and con-
sidered that he was pampering it if he
gave it more than few cupfuls of oil.
Nowadays he knows. better. Machin-
cry is still mystery to him, but he
has infinite faith in its power to earn
him money provided it is suitably
propitiated.
There is ritual to be performed
before his machinery no more and no
. less mysterious than his temple wor-
ship; so he offers lubricants and water
to his engine In the same spirit that he
worships Parvati or brings an Offering
OF gingelly oil to Nandi. the amiable
Dull on which the great god silva rides.
AS driver he has improved of late
years.
Sikhs are among the best mechanics.
Their religion ordains that they shall
never cut their hair, and that they
shall always wear an iron bracelet.
Both the bracelet and the hair seem
somewhat anarchronistic when you see
them at work on a repair Job, their
well-buttered locks mingling with
carburetor or q fan belt. But they
have real mechanical aptitude.
Indians Good Workmen.
1t is a complete delusion to suppose
that Indians are bad workmen-silver-
smiths. ivoryworkers, inlayworkers,
placksmiths and carvers all bear wit
ness to an exceptionally high standard
OF craftsmanship. Sir Jagadis Bose,
the plant scientist, has all the appa-
ratus used in his experiments made for
him in Calcutta. When visited him
at the Bose Institute he showed me
all sorts OF marvellous mechanisms by
which he measures the reactions of a
mimosa to light, the pulsations of its
sap, the rate of its feeding and other
extremely minute nervous changes.
In contrast to the peaceful and stu
dious atmosphere of the Bose Institute
I found another laboratory in the
Tar north OF India devoted to the max
Ing OF lethal weapons. It is situated SO
that there can be no British interfer-
ence with its activities. The industry
- Wv ONAAA6 W VIC ACCd lOI .WtdUOIlS
OF the wild tribes of the northwest
frontier; smuggling arms is difficult
and expensive in these parts, and rifles
are unobtainable in British India ex-
cept by theft or murder; hence this
factory in the Kohat Pass, in the no
mans land between the Indian empire
and Afghanistan.
1 DO not suppose that there are
many craftsmen In America or Eu-
rope who would undertake to build
whole rifle, lock, stock and barrel
with their own hands, even with the
help of the most modern tools: but
IN the Kohat Pass it is being done
every day by dozen Pathans, who
turn out modern velocity rifles
with practically no tools.
These northern hillmen are destined
TO be the Scots of India. The only
competent typist discovered in the
country was Pathan.
OF course, not all Indians are good
mechanics. My servant, for instance.
good old-fashiontd retainer. who
impaired a mirror-like shine to nv
SHOES by some ancestral formula for
polish, was extremely suspicious of
modernity. Although he could read.
ne SHE'D at the dial Of an automatic
telephone like horse at wind-blown
paper, and zip-fasteners gave him the
3itters. think he must have had
some sort of complex about nv
sponge bag, for never once could
prevail on him to perform the simple
operation of closing it. Yet he was
able to put the top on my portable
typewriter, to switch on the radio or
. fan. Once I asked him what was
wrong with fan that needed OIL
Ing. "Garmi lugga," he replied
promptly:-"It has heat stroke!"
Civilization Spreads.
Fifteen years ago the average serv-
ant could not tell which was the top
OF photograph. Shown a picture of
his masters wife, he would as likely
as not. mistake it for a COW or an
..A