434 



INDIA. 



vanced and Europeanized section of the Hindus 

 of Bengal. Some of the chief promoters of 

 the congresses have been retired Anglo-Indian 

 officials, like Mr. Hnme and Sir William Wed- 

 derburn, who was the presiding officer of the 

 fifth Congress. The congresses are representa- 

 tive, not of the agricultural classes that form 

 the great bulk of the population, nor of the 

 aristocracy, the land owners, or the trading 

 guilds, but of the native professional and liter- 

 ary class, the graduates of the universities. In 

 the fifth Congress the chief matter discussed was 

 that of the participation of natives in the gov- 

 ernment of their country. A series of resolu- 

 tions was adopted praying for elective repre- 

 sentation in the imperial and provincial coun- 

 cils. To obtain elective institutions for India 

 has been the great object of the movement from 

 the beginning. In the debate on the bill for the 

 reconstruction of the Legislative Councils that 

 was introduced in the British House of Lords in 

 March, 1890, the ex-Viceroys of India, Lord 

 Northbrook and the Marquis of Ripon, and Lord 

 Kimberley, ex-Secretary of State for India, ex- 

 pressed regret that no other method was pro- 

 posed for selecting a part at least of the mem- 

 bers of the councils than their nomination by 

 the Governor-General, and in reply Lord Salis- 

 bury deprecated the idea of introducing the 

 elective principle into India, as it was unsuited 

 for Oriental peoples, and especially so in a coun- 

 try where the population is divided by such re- 

 ligious antagonism as exists between Hindus and 

 Mohammedans. Lord Granville thought that 

 the Government assumed a great responsibility 

 in ignoring Lord Dufferin's proposals in favor 

 of popular representation. Great indignation 

 was felt by the members of the Bombay Con- 

 gress because the provincial governments sent 

 police detectives to identify arid watch them. 

 Since 1885 the elective principle has been in op- 

 eration in the district boards which have a partial 

 control over local taxation and expenditures. The 

 young Maharajah of Mysore, when he was rein- 

 stated on his ancestral throne in 1881, established 

 a representative assembly. The Bombay Con- 

 gress proposed that 12 electors chosen for every 

 1,000,000 inhabitants should elect representatives 

 to the imperial and to the provincial councils in 

 the proportion of one for every 5,000,000, minor- 

 ities to be proportionately represented. The 

 elected members would form half of the total 

 number of members in the councils, the other 

 half consisting of official and nominated mem- 

 bers in equal numbers. Charles Bradlaugh, who 

 was present and promised to advocate the scheme 

 in Parliament, introduced a bill to that effect. 



Shortly before the assembling of the next Na- 

 tional Indian Congress, which met in Calcutta 

 toward the end of December, 1890, the Govern- 

 ment notified its officials to abstain from attend- 

 ing it, and this order had the effect of keeping 

 away most of the Europeans. A resolution was 

 adopted asking the British Parliament to pass 

 Mr. Bradlaugh's bill as soon as the Viceroy 

 should decide on whom the franchise shall be 

 conferred. Another resolution favored local 

 option in regard to strong drink. The Congress 

 unanimously resolved that the legal age for the sol- 

 emnization of marriage should be raised to twelve 

 years for females and eighteen for males, arid for 



the consummation of marriage to fourteen years 

 for females and twenty for males ; also that in the 

 enforcement of judicial decrees for the restitution 

 of conjugal rights the penalty of imprisonment 

 should be abolished. The sixth Congress was 

 composed of about 1,000 delegates from all parts 

 of India, representing over 4,000,000 people be- 

 longing to all the various nationalities and 

 creeds. The president was Phirozshah Mervanji 

 Mehta, a member of the Bombay Legislative 

 Council. 



The Conservative influence of the official class, 

 which is averse to any modification of the sys- 

 tem of pure despotism, has been too powerful 

 even for the viceroys and governors, who have 

 been recalled by the present Tory Government 

 of Great Britain as soon as they betrayed any 

 sympathy with native aspirations for self-gov- 

 ernment or their demands for justice. Lord 

 Reay, who attempted to root out corruption by ex- 

 posing and prosecuting extortionate subordinates, 

 was superseded as Governor of Bombay by Lord 

 Harris on April 13, 1890. The people on his de- 

 parture decided to raise a statue as a memorial 

 of the beneficial measures and useful institutions 

 of which he was the author. 



The Indian Councils bill that was discussed 

 in Parliament, while denying elective representa- 

 tion in any form, enlarged the powers of the 

 Governor-General's Legislative Council and con- 

 ceded a limited advisory control of the finances 

 by allowing a discussion of the budget as a mat- 

 ter of course, whereas at present it can only be 

 discussed when the financial plans of the Gov- 

 ernment involve a change in the law ; but mo- 

 tions and votes are not allowed in the debate on 

 the budget. Another concession is the right of 

 interpellation, which is awarded, however, by re- 

 strictions that deprive it of any effective use. 

 The right existed under the act of 1853, but was 

 taken away in 1861 because the European mem- 

 bers availed themselves of it inconveniently. It 

 was not sympathy for native rights that inspired 

 these annoying tactics. On the contrary, the 

 contest was almost invariably over the income 

 tax, which is apparently more unpopular in In- 

 dia than in any other country, because the 

 class on which it bears is the only one that has the 

 ear of the rulers. Repeatedly the Government 

 has yielded to their clamor, and repealed it. In 

 1886, after the famine fund had been sacrificed 

 to war expenses, it was reimposed, but the peo- 

 ple affected, English and native, have inces- 

 santly clamored for its removal. In 1890 the 

 agitation received a fresh impulse as the result 

 of a ruling that profits on consignments sold in 

 India on account of non-residents shall be taxed. 

 Yielding to the demand of the mercantile com- 

 munity, the Government suspended collections, 

 thus opening a way for extensive evasions, yet 

 the tax it insisted on retaining ; and the com- 

 plaints that it was unsuited to India, provoca- 

 tive of serious and widespread discontent, un- 

 fair in incidence, and expensive of collection 

 were officially declared to be untrue. 



Hindu Marriages. The question of early 

 marriages has occupied much attention, and the 

 reform of the custom is advocated by the pro- 

 gressive section of native society. Ladies prac- 

 ticing medicine in India declare, as the result of 

 their observation, that the age of physical matur- 



