366 



INDIA. 



exchange at Is. 2d. for the rupee, but Is. \\d. was 

 afterward fixed as the official rate for the pay of 

 British soldiers and for adjustment between In- 

 dia and Great Britain, and still later India Coun- 

 cil drafts were sold for Is. Id. Instead of the 

 deficit anticipated by the Government, the people 

 of India feared it would be 5 or 6 crores, or be- 

 tween Rx 5,000,000 or Rx 6,000,000, instead of 

 Rx 3,500,000. 



Though nearly all Indian statesmen and finan- 

 ciers have pronounced in favor of an interna- 

 tional bimetallic standard, Mr. Fowler, in pre- 

 senting the budget to the House of Commons, 

 said : " We have no intention of reopening the 

 mints to the coinage of silver. We mean this 

 experiment to be carried out to the end, and, so 

 far as the experiment has proceeded, we have 

 seen no reason to be alarmed." The bulk of the 

 trade of India being with gold-using countries, 

 he declared that "sooner or later, perhaps the 

 sooner the better, India must come to have a 

 gold standard." The Indians and Europeans 

 whose interests are in India found more fault 

 with the financial policy of the Government than 

 they ever had before, and in regard to the cur- 

 rency policy accused the British Government of 

 truckling to European capitalists to the cost of 

 every producer and merchant in India. The 

 official class in India were also favored by an ex- 

 change compensation allowance that absorbed 

 the whole amount of the income tax. This is 

 felt to be an injustice not only by the native 

 Indians, but by all the nonofficial European tax- 

 payers in India, and therefore they demand a re- 

 vision of the rates. The constant growth of the 

 pension list is viewed with alarm. The military 

 pensions now amount to 3,000,000 sterling, and 

 civil pensions to 1,600,000, all paid in gold, and 

 increasing in aggregate amount each year and in 

 silver value with every drop in exchange. There 

 are about 28,000 Europeans in the Government 

 service, drawing pay amounting to Rx 15,400,000, 

 and of these 33 per cent, are on the retired list 

 and live in England, and they draw Rx 6,000,000, 

 40 per cent, of the total cost of service. The 

 friends of India urged the Government to give 

 effect to the resolution passed by the House of 

 Commons in 1893, requiring simultaneous exam- 

 inations for the covenanted civil service to be 

 held in England and India. The Government 

 of India objected to throwing open the higher 

 offices to the free competition of natives, and the 

 Secretary of State declared in Parliament that 

 no steps would be taken to carry out the resolu- 

 tion. The number of natives of India who in 

 1893 were receiving salaries in the Government 

 service of over Rx 100 was 17,000, and the total 

 amount that they received was Rx 3,200,000, 

 only about half the sum paid to absentee Euro- 

 peans. The covenanted civil services, formerly 

 open to Europeans alone, has been reduced 22 

 per cent, since 1874, with a prospect of a further 

 reduction of 12 per cent. It consisted in 1892 of 

 941 members, of whom 73 were natives of India. 

 Of the natives, 15 were admitted by open compe- 

 tition in the English examinations, and the others, 

 mostly judges, were appointed under the act of 

 1870. In the general administrative service there 

 were 2,588 officers, of whom 2,449 were natives 

 of India. There were thrice as many Hindus in 

 such employment as Mohammedans, and of the 



Hindus one half were Brahmans, one third be- 

 longed to the writer caste, and one sixteenth 

 were of the bania or trading class. The lower 

 grades of the civil service are now filled almost 

 entirely by natives. Out of 114,150 appointments 

 bearing a salary of Rx 100 or over, 97 per cent. 

 are held by natives. Among these, members of 

 the outcast classes educated by Christian mis- 

 sionaries are becoming numerous. 



The debt in India on March 31, 1894, amount- 

 ed to Rx 124,114,000, and the debt due in Eng- 

 land to Rx 114,114,000, making a total of Rx 

 238,228,000. The assets in India were reckoned 

 at Rx 147,000,000, and assets in England at 

 Rx 65,000,000, leaving an uncovered debt of 

 only about Rx 25,500,000. In 1894 about Rx 

 40,000,000 of the rupee loans were converted, 

 and a saving in the annual interest effected, the 

 rate being reduced from 4 per cent, to 3| per 

 cent. These loans are held partly in England 

 and partly in India. 



Defense. The policy of Lord Lansdowne's 

 administration was to recruit the army from the 

 more warlike, rather than from the less warlike, 

 races of India. There have been 30,000 men 

 added to the army of India, which now consists 

 of about 100,000 British troops and British vol- 

 unteers, and 180,000 native soldiers. The work- 

 ing out of a scheme of mobilization, by which 

 troops can be moved rapidly to any part of In- 

 dia, or even beyond the land frontiers or beyond 

 sea, was begun in 1886, and now 70,000 men can 

 be put in motion for field service at any mo- 

 ment. Transport and stores have been collected 

 at strategic points, and every corps has its 

 equipment for active service ready. On the 

 northwestern frontier two lines of defenses have 

 been completed, one protecting the main route 

 into India and covering Quetta, and an inner 

 line, including the bridgeheads of the Indus and 

 Sukkur and Attock. A third line, in which the 

 fortresses of Rawal Pindi and Multan are the 

 chief points, is well advanced. The unification 

 of the army under centralized control was ac- 

 complished by the act of 1893, which finally 

 does away with the three separate armies, and 

 organizes the whole army into 4 commands under 

 lieutenant generals for Madras, Bombay, Ben- 

 gal, and the northwestern provinces and tl 

 Punjab, all subject to a commander-in-chief. 



The effective strength of the Indian army 

 April 1, 1893, was 223,289 men, of which nui 

 ber 135,814 were in Bengal. 47,362 in Madi 

 and 40,113 in Bombay. 



The European army provided for in the es 

 mates for 1894 numbers 3,470 officers and 70,51 

 men ; total, 73,981, comprising 53,713 infantr 

 5,679 cavalry, 13,318 artillery, 339 engineers, 7< 

 staff officers and employees, 132 general officer 

 and 31 in the invalid and veteran establishment 

 The native army numbers 1.578 European offi- 

 cers, 2, 757 native officers, and 141,301 men ; total, 

 145,636, comprising 113,702 infantry, 23,426 

 cavalry, 4,543 artillery, and 3,965 sappers and 

 miners. The special contingents of imperial 

 service troops provided by the native states 

 number about 17,028 of all ranks, of which 

 number 9,510 are infantry, 7,218 cavalry, and 

 300 artillery. The European volunteers in 1893 

 numbered 24,950 officers and men, of whom 12,- 

 525 were in Bengal, 7,259 in Madras, and 5,166 



