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THE REVIEW'S BOOKSHOP. 



Always (Jiiticult as it is in Xovember and Decem- 

 l)er to refer in our limited space to even a tithe of 

 the hooks published at this season of the year, it is 

 more than usually impossible this month, for the 

 present book season has been the most extraordinary 

 known to any bookseller, by virtue of the multitude 

 of books produced. For anything like a full list of 

 those issued in November reference must be made 

 to the "List of Leading Books" on another page, 

 and for the rest some running comments must 

 suffice. 



INDIAN BOOKS. 



On account of their Majesties' decision to person- 

 ally grace the Delhi Durbar with their presence, unusual 

 interest in regard to India has been excited in the minds 

 of people at home and in the Colonies. The calculating 

 publishers have taken advantage of this psychological 

 moment to print a number of books about Hindostan, 

 its peoples, and its problems. Longmans, Heinemann, 

 Unwin, Murray, and Macmillan have issued one or 

 more volumes dealing with Indian aftairs. 



A MAII.\RANl'S COGITATIONS. 



Amongst these, probably the most uncommon book 

 is The Position of Women in Indian Life, purporting 

 to contain the cogitations of H.H. Chimnabai II., the 

 Maharani of Baroda, as set down by S. M. Mitra 

 (Longmans. 5s. net). It is handicapped by a title 

 that docs not fit the text, the work dealing exclusively 

 with suggestions for improving the status of the fair 

 sex in India, and containing little about woman's 

 actual present day or past standing in society. It is 

 further marred by the fact that her Highness's ideas 

 are not presented directly by her. \\hercver Mr. 

 Mitra permits her to talk, her Highness speaks 

 like an Asiatic modification of Miss Christabel 

 Pankhurst. The Maharani has no patience with men 

 who believe that matrimony is the sole occupation 

 open to women. She wants her Indian sisters to 

 become financially independent. In her zeal, the 

 august author recommends several professions for 

 Hindu and Moslem females, some of which (rent 

 collecting, for instance) will be at once set down as 

 impracticable. However, one need not be unduly 

 .severe with the Maharani, since this is her first 

 attempt at book-writing. It would be interesting if 

 she would I ubiish another volume in which she would 

 take the world into her confidence and tell of her 

 own life e\{)eriences inside the Maharaja's palace, 

 which she entered about twenty-five years ago as an 

 illiterate girl, and which she now graces as one of 

 India's best educated women. 



AN APuI.nGIA FOR t.ORD CURZON. 



Indii} under Ciirzon and After, by L<jvat Lraser 

 (Heinemann. ifis. net), is a superb example of the work 

 of a biographer who believes in the man he writes 



about. As a volume written to teach the irreverent 

 generation of to-day the much-needed moral that 

 reverence, even for a tin god, serves a useful end 

 by ennobling the worshipper, it is a great success. 

 But Mr. Fraser's readers will not learn from his book 

 that Lord Curzon was the Governor-General who 

 found Great Britain's Eastern Dependency as calm as 

 a mill-pond, and who left it in a most tumultuous 

 condition. Since Lord Curzon's days, the Hindus, 

 who before his advent were so gentle-natured they 

 refrained from breaking an egg lest they destroyed the 

 subnormal life inside it, have come to the stage 

 where they have thrown bombs and fired revolver 

 shots at English officials, and even at fair-faced 

 women and children. From Mr. Eraser one gathers 

 the impression that the " unrest of India " is not 

 the fault of Lord Curzon, but is entirely due to the 

 perversity of nature. It is all a matter of view-point, 

 and everyone who is anxious to know how a vast 

 majority of the Englishmen in India feel about it 

 must read the volume of Lovat Eraser, who until 

 recently was the Editor of the Times of India, 

 Bombay. 



LORD curzon's BETE NOIRE. 



There is an essential fitness of things in the scheme 

 of nature which seem to have inspired the issue 

 of Indian and Home Memories, by Sir Henry Cotton, 

 K. C.S.I. (Unwin. 12s. 6d. net), to serve as a correc- 

 tive to the Curzon encomium. Sir Henry Cotton, in 

 the usual course, would have risen to the highest post 

 open to a civilian had his opinions not clashed with 

 Lord Curzon's. But although he was forced to retire 

 without filling the highest office, Indians have worked 

 hard to make up this deficiency by showing unbounded 

 appreciation of Sir Henry Cotton. They made him 

 President of the Indian National Congress. It must 

 be parenthetically added that Lord Curzon refused to 

 receive him when he sought to present the Congress 

 resolutions. Sir Henry Cotton speaks very lovingly 

 of his Indian friends and associates. His volume, 

 besides being an interesting autobiography of a true 

 Liberal, is invaluable, inasmuch as it atTords glimpses 

 of hidden Indian life. 



WHAr nRITAlN HAS DONE TO EDUCATE INDIA. 



.Another book is Education and Statesmans/ii/> in 

 ///(//(7 (1797 to 1910), by H.R.James (Longmans. 

 3s. 6d. net). As the author himself admits, he has 

 offered a " slight " volume on a vast subject. The 

 matter has all the faults of a work made up of 

 articles originally written for a newspajx-r. However, 

 Mr. James belongs to the Indian I'xlucational Service 

 —he is the Principal of the Presidency College at 

 Calcutta—and therefore is iiuite familiar with his 

 subject. One cannot expect from a Goveriunent 

 servant a detached and dispassionate view of the 

 policy or achievement of the administration he is 

 actually serving at the time he is writing of it. But 



