388 



INDIA. 



nicipalities, comprising twelve million people, 

 and the governing bodies of these municipali- 

 ties contained three natives to one European. 

 Natives also sat in the Provincial Legislative 

 Councils. But outside the centers of popula- 

 tion there was a vast inert mass of people who 

 had no capacity for representation at present, 

 and wanted nothing but to be let alone and not 

 be overtaxed. The Central Government did 

 all in its power to elicit native opinion as to 

 the laws which were proposed, and would be 

 glad, wherever it was possible, to obtain the 

 cooperation of the natives in legislation, but 

 it would be unwise to press on this idea of 

 representation too fast. 



Mr. W. W. Hunter, Director-General of Sta- 

 tistics to the Government of India, delivered 

 two addresses in England on " What the Eng- 

 lish have yet to do for the Indian People." He 

 called attention, as two of the saddest prob- 

 lems with which a state can be called to deal, 

 to the poverty of the people, and the alleged 

 inability of the Government to pay its way. 

 "With these fundamental problems yet unsolved, 

 it might seem a delusive optimism to speak of 

 the success of the Indian administration. The 

 struggle for life in many parts of India was 

 growing harder under British rule; and in 

 many parts the population had outstripped the 

 food-producing powers of the land. Each 

 square mile of land in Bengal had to feed 

 three times as many mouths in 1880 as each 

 square mile had to feed in 1780; and each 

 square mile of British India (excluding the 

 outlying provinces of Assam on the frontier, 

 and Burmah beyond the sea) had to support 

 nearly three times as many persons as each 

 square mile in the native states. Under the 

 protection from wars and the ravages of epi- 

 demics, secured by British rule, the population 

 had so increased as to threaten the bankruptcy 

 of the soil. The deterioration applied, how- 

 ever, only to the over-populated provinces ; 

 and large sections of the population were rap- 

 idly advancing in wealth and comfort. But 

 the contented classes kept silence, while the 

 suffering classes cried out. The cultivator got 

 a decreasing return from the exhausted land, 

 but of that smaller return he had to pay away 

 a larger share in the shape of rent to his land- 

 lord. The Government could do little to avert 

 these two penalties of a population living in 

 defiance of economic laws, but its efforts were 

 directed toward mitigating both of them, by 

 administrative measures looking to the in- 

 crease of the food-supply, and legislative re- 

 strictions on the enhancement of rent. The 

 weak point in the financial condition of the 

 English in India was, not that they took more 

 from the people than their native rulers did, 

 but that what they took barely sufficed to de- 

 fray the cost of their administration. They 

 took less taxation from the people, and tried 

 to give them a much better government in 

 return. The more extended employment of 

 natives would not only be an act of justice, 



but was a financial necessity. A large saving 

 might be expected from the reorganization of 

 the military establishments, as proposed by 

 the Indian Army Commission; but the speak- 

 er believed that, in addition to such savings, a 

 steadily increasing revenue was necessary. In 

 a country where the people were poor, the 

 government ought to be poor, for it must 

 either be poor or oppressive. No financial 

 dexterity would remove these conditions, but 

 the natives of India must themselves reform 

 themselves; they must restrain the increase 

 of the population to the food-producing pow- 

 ers of the land, and more equally distribute 

 the pressure on the soil by migration to the 

 less thickly inhabited provinces. 



Mr. Hunter's description of the condition and 

 prospects of the country was confirmed by the 

 report of Mr. Caird, who was sent out by the 

 Government of Earl Beaconsfield to examine 

 into the causes of the frequent famines. Mr. 

 Caird stated that the available good land in 

 India was nearly all occupied, while the peo- 

 ple were not able to clear the jungle-land. As 

 a result, the produce of the country on an av- 

 erage of years was barely sufficient to maintain 

 the present population and make a saving for 

 occasional famine. The present export of rice 

 and corn in one year was not more than ten 

 days' consumption of the inhabitants, and scar- 

 city deepening into famine was becoming of 

 more frequent occurrence, while the popula- 

 tion was all the time increasing. No means 

 were taken to keep up the quality of the soil, 

 and the people were becoming more estranged 

 from their English rulers. 



The troubles which broke out with the Naga 

 tribes on the northeastern frontier in October, 

 1879, were continued into 1880. The Nagas, 

 who had long been troublesome neighbors, 

 were distinguished from most of the other hill 

 tribes by their skill in agriculture and their 

 readiness to adopt the appliances of civilization. 

 They had acquired considerable knowledge in 

 the arts of fortification and the use of arms of 

 precision, and by reason of this advance and 

 their intelligence had been able to make them- 

 selves capable of creating embarrassing situa- 

 tions when they came in conflict with the Eng- 

 lish. The Government of Assam had for some 

 time intended to extend the sphere of its influ- 

 ence over the frontier tribes, and for that pur- 

 pose had posted an agent at Kohima to look al- 

 ter the Nagas. This agent went thence to Ko- 

 noma, one of their strongholds, to secure a sur- 

 render of their arms, when he was attacked 

 and driven away. They afterward marched 

 upon Kohima, which resisted their assaults till 

 it was relieved ; after which a force of British 

 and Manipoori troops drove them from Kono- 

 ma to the Barrail Hills. On the 27th of Janu- 

 ary a party of Nagas came down and commit- 

 ted ravages on the gardens in Cachar, killing 

 the manager and burning the houses of one of 

 the gardens. About two weeks afterward, 

 they made an unsuccessful attack on the native 



