274 



The Review of Reviews. 



GREATER INDIA. 



A PAPER by Bhai Pitrmanand in the Modern Revinv 

 lor February suggests that before long we may have 

 an Eastern Seeley writing on the expansion of India. 

 Mr. Parmanand writes on Greater India. He says very 

 few people in India realise the importance and extent 

 of the emigration that has been going forward. He 

 divides this process of colonisation into three main 

 sections : the first round the Indian Ocean, including 

 East Africa. 



IN EAST AFRICA. 



Mombasa presents all the features of an Indian town, 

 and seems to be a growing commercial centre for East 

 Africa. The major part of its merchants and Govern- 

 ment officials are Indians. The trading population of 

 Zanzibar is mainly Indian, both Hindu and Moham- 

 medan. There are Indian traders in German and 

 Portuguese East Africa. In the Island of Mauritius 

 nearly half of the population are Indians. The struggle 

 of the Indians to maintain their footing in the Transvaal 

 is of course a burning question. When the writer was 

 in South Africa, Johannesburg and Pretoria with their 

 suburbs contained nearly 10,000 Indians. In Natal 

 the Indians form the backbone of the colony. Most of 

 the industries, agriculture, factories and mines are 

 v\orked by them. They form more than half the 

 population. 



IN WEST INDIES. 



The second section of colonisation is in the West 

 Indies and South .'America. In British Guiana the 

 Indians form about one-half of the population, all of 

 tiiem, or their forefathers, having come under contract 

 as labourers. Many of them have grown to be wealthy 

 and prosperous merchants and landowners. The 

 Indians in Trinidad number more than 100,000, and 

 they occupy a yet better position than in British 

 Guiana. There are villages in Trinidad which contain 

 a purely Indian population. Surinam, or Dutch 

 Guiana, contains about 40,000 Indians, some of them 

 traders and landowners. Jamaica contains not more 

 than 10,000 Indians, " who will be gradually swallowed 

 uj> i)y Christianity if they are not taken care of." 



ON THE PACIFIC. 



The third section is the colonies in the Pacific Ocean. 

 California has a few thousand Sikh labourers trying to 

 become farmers. Brftish Columbia has also a few 

 thousand Sikhs, mostly labourers in the fields, but onlv 

 a few of them have their wives with them. In both 

 places the Government has put a stop to immigration. 

 The Fiji Islands have got a population of about 70,000 

 Indians. The Madras Islands have also a number of 

 Madras immigrants. 



A UNIVERSAL HINDU CONSCIOUSNESS. 



Mr. Parmanand concludes by urging all young men 

 in India to go abroad in ever-increasing numbers, and 

 to encourage our brothers across the seas : — 



• IrLT.ler Imlia h.-u; arisen without noise of drum or trumpL't, 

 nn.jer ll c palm trees of tropical America and on the snow -girt 

 plains of Canada. It is lime to take stock of our position and 



think in terms of a universal Hindu consciousness. The 

 children of these colonists should be educated along national 

 lines. 



Thus- the young men abroad may be saved irom 

 absorption into the Christian community. " They are 

 converted to Christianity only for social reasons, and 

 not for the sake of their souls." 



EXPANSION ? — OR SLAVE TRADE ? 



A dark shade on this picture of expansion overseas 

 appears in the next article in the same magazine, by 

 Manilal M. Doctor, who writes on the Indian indenture 

 system in the colonies, notably Mauritius, and demands 

 that it should be put an end to in any shape or form. 

 He would protect the Indian youths and girls who are 

 kidnapped or abducted to Ma,uritius by prowling 

 sharpers who obtain licence to recruit coolies. They 

 are ruthlessly oppressed by the community at 

 Mauritius, as is attested by the evidence of Mr. 

 Bateson, an ex-magistrate of Mauritius. Further- 

 more, they find it difficult to satisfy the legal 

 proportion of men to women, even by taking on 

 bazar women. In Mauritius the proportion is t,t, 

 women to 100 men. Morality in general, and se.xual 

 morality in particular, cannot grow under these cir- 

 cumstances. The family antecedents of colonial-born 

 Indians cannot as a rule satisfy fastidious inquirers. 



THE ESSENCE OF HINDUISM. 



In a recent issue of Easl and ]Vest Lala Baij Nath 

 writes on the essentials of Hinduism, apropos of the 

 Special Marriages Bill and other measures now 

 before the Indian public. The question put to him 

 by a census superintendent was, " What is the every- 

 day working belief of every Hindu, irrespecti\e of 

 sex, age, caste, creed, sect, education, or social con- 

 dition?" He declares that caste is no rule of 

 conduct in many cases. He finds the essentials to be 

 four :— (i) Belief in the l,aw of Karma — as you sow, 

 so you reap ; (2) active belief in a heaven where the 

 good will enjoy the frtiit of their good karma, and 

 hell where the bad will be punished for their bad 

 karma ; (3) belief in the immortality and transmigra- 

 tion of the soul from one condition of exi.stence to 

 another, according to its karma; (4) belief in a 

 Higher Power, called by various names, which 

 rewards the good and punishes the bad. 'J'hese arc 

 the basic beliefs of Hinduism. 



"The ideal of every Hindti is to achieve emanci- 

 pation from this ever-recurring round of birth and 

 re-birth, which is a source of infinite misery." If the 

 Hindu is serious anywhere, it is here. This, then, 

 is the essence of Hinduism — the merging of the 

 individual into the universal self. " He sees all as 

 his own self" The writer would include as many as 

 possible in the fold of Hinduism, and open the door 

 of university education and reform as wide as possible, 

 to include Sikhs, Jains, Brahmos, Arya Somajists, 

 Buddhists, and all others who are now living anci 

 working in India. 



