INDIA. 



333 



ported without trial from Poona in July, 1897, and 

 since kept in close confinement, were released from 

 jail, but still were interned at Belgaum. Mr. Tilak, 

 the native member of the Provincial Council of 

 Bombay, who was sentenced in 1897 for seditious 

 articles in his paper, the "Kesari," published in 

 Poona, was released in September. 



Medical opinion was already convinced that the 

 drastic regulations, which could never be enforced in 

 a European city and were tenfold more obnoxious 

 to a people holding Oriental sentiments regarding 

 family life, had no effect in arresting the progress 

 of the plague. This was not a filth disease as was 

 at first supposed, and still less a disease propagated 

 by drains and sewers or water pipes. The infection 

 was believed to be conveyed either directly from 

 the sufferers or by clothing, bedding, and other 

 things brought into contact with them. Certain 

 animals, particularly rats, were found to be subject 

 to the disease, and were active agents in spreading 

 it. The officials did not relax their oppressive and 

 inquisitorial methods, although these had been 

 proved ineffectual, until the tumults in Bombay, 

 Calcutta, and other places compelled them to relax 

 their regulations. The native press which gave 

 warning of the outraged feelings of the people was 

 treated as seditious. The search parties were given 

 up in Bombay, the use of spies and detectives 

 abandoned, and segregation made practically vol- 

 untary, as well as inoculation. The idea of stamp- 

 ing out the plague was abandoned. It had proved 

 more virulent on its recurrence than during the 

 first outbreak, and the authorities adopted the view 

 that it must run its course. Even the safeguards 

 demanded by the Venice conference to prevent its 

 introduction into Europe it was decided to adapt to 

 the religious requirements and domestic habits 

 which had proved themselves in India to be stronger 

 than the fear of death. In April the mortality in 

 Bombay city, which in March had continued to ex- 

 ceed 1,200 weekly, suddenly abated. In March the 

 plague was introduced into Calcutta. A panic fell 

 upon the population and 250,000 of them fled. The 

 Government did not attempt to carry out the rigid 

 system of visitation and segregation that had failed 

 in Bombay, but even milder rules provoked resist- 

 ance. Inoculators for the plague were murderously 

 assailed and ambulances removing suspected cases 

 were mobbed. On May 21 a serious riot broke out 

 in the suburb of Bhowanipur, caused by a doctor 

 who shot three members of a mob that threatened 

 him when he was selecting a site for a hospital. 

 Cases continued to occur in Calcutta through the 

 summer, but in October, the period of its recrudes- 

 cence in Bombay and the northwest, the plague 

 disappeared. In the Bombay residency and Sind 

 the total number of deaths reported for the two 

 years amounted in August to more than 100,000. 

 This includes no estimate for concealed cases nor 

 2,000 reported deaths in the Punjab, 1,000 in Hy- 

 derabad, and smaller numbers in Baroda, Cutch, 

 and Palanpur. The mortality in Calcutta was only 

 150. In the second epidemic the disease was more 

 virulent, and it attacked Europeans who were ex- 

 posed, as readily as natives. 



In October the pestilence again began to rage in 

 Bombay and other places in western India. The 

 Provincial Government decided that it would not 

 again lock up the people and arrest the activities 

 of that great commercial and industrial hive. De- 

 tention camps and passes were discontinued, their 

 place being taken by a strict medical examination 

 of all persons passing the cordon, with disinfection 

 of their clothing when necessary, and a surveil- 

 lance over persons entering Bombay from infected 

 localities. The third epidemic was more wide- 

 spread, extending into Madras and Hyderabad and 



over wider districts in Baroda, Mysore, and north- 

 ern India. In the Bombay Presidency the deaths 

 rose to 4.300 a week in the middle of October. 



New Sedition Law. The proposed amendment 

 to the code of criminal procedure, granting powers 

 to first-class magistrates to try cases of sedition 

 with the sanction of the local or the Imperial 

 Government, was opposed by nearly all classes of 

 the native population ; by the Hindus more gener- 

 ally than by the Mohammedans. The sweeping 

 character of 'the measure was toned down so as to 

 allow comments expressing disapprobation of the 

 action of the Government without exciting or at- 

 tempting to excite hatred, contempt, or disaffec- 

 tion. The punishment for sedition is transportation 

 or imprisonment, the term of which was reduced 

 from ten years to three. Attempts to promote 

 enmity or hatred between races or classes were made 

 punishable with two years' imprisonment. State- 

 ments conducive to public mischief were also pen- 

 alized. Disaffection was defined as including any 

 words calculated to bring the Government into 

 hatred and contempt and any expressions of dis- 

 loyalty or of feelings of enmity. The bill was 

 passed by the Legislative Council on March 12. It 

 permits proceedings to be taken against native 

 Indians for words spoken in England or anywhere 

 outside of as well as in India. Magistrates are em- 

 powered to demand bonds from editors of newspa- 

 pers and in default to imprison them without trial. 



The Frontier War. The campaign against the 

 Afridis and Orakzais, which cost 4.000,000 and 

 2,000 men, ended in the evacuation by the British 

 of Maidan and Tirah in December, 1898, when 

 severe cold weather set in. The tribesmen, armed 

 with Martini-Henry rifles and with Lee-Metfords 

 also, captured or stolen from the British, harassed 

 the troops at every step of the retreat. To con- 

 vince the hill tribes that for them to carry on war 

 against the British was like flies attacking the lion, 

 as Sir William Lockhart said in his farewell procla- 

 mation, a winter campaign in the lower valleys and 

 passes was necessary. Gen. Sir Bindon Blood, who 

 had conducted the operations against the Moh- 

 mands, and on the Malakand, took possession of 

 the Tanga pass in the beginning of January, 1898, 

 and advanced into the country of the Bunerwals, 

 who showed little hostility to the invaders and paid 

 their fines, allowing the British troops to withdraw 

 at the approach of bad weather. Meanwhile the 

 Zakka Khels abandoned the Khaibar pass, but re- 

 turned when it was occupied by the British, and 

 attacked the garrison at every opportunity until 

 the troops retired. The Akka Khels and other 

 Afridi tribes sued for terms and began to pay 

 the money and rifles demanded of them after mak- 

 ing their submission at Jamrud on Jan. 17. In the 

 middle of January the forces stationed in Makran, 

 in Baluchistan on the border of Persia, far from 

 the former disturbances, were attacked, and re- 

 enforcements were dispatched to punish the tribes- 

 men, in co-operation with the troops of the Khan 

 of Kelat. Sir A. Power Palmer succeeded Sir Wil- 

 liam Lockhart in the command of the Tirah field 

 force when the latter was appointed commander-in- 

 chief of the Indian army. While negotiations were 

 proceeding at Jamrud the delegations of the tribes 

 suddenly departed, and at the same time the Akka 

 Khels began to raid British territory. Several fly- 

 ing columns entered their country, but found the 

 villages deserted. Four British brigades marched 

 from Ali Masjid, Jamrud, Bara, and Mamani to 

 attack the Afridis in their winter pastures in the 

 Bazar valley and on the Kajurai plain, .thus carry- 

 ing out Sir William Lockhart's threat. On Jan. 29 

 Gen. Westmacott's brigade was surprised in a gorge 

 at Shin Kamar and lost 5 officers and 60 men. This 



