18 HAPPY INDIA 



under the rule of the East India Company, but that 

 Company had in many matters to submit to the 

 British Government. It is only, however, since 

 1858, sixty-four years ago that India came under 

 the direct control of the British Government. 



The vast territory which now forms British India 

 probably has never before been under one Govern- 

 ment, certainly not in the last thousand years 

 for any considerable length of time, but in previous 

 years there were a number of Kings, and in con- 

 sidering the problems of Indian government we must 

 bear in mind that it is not one people we have to 

 consider with one set of ideas, but a variety of 

 peoples with a variety of ideas on political and 

 religious questions and various habits of life. 



Whatever man can do, the Indian can do, 

 whether it is agriculture, forestry, coal mining, gold 

 mining, every other kind of mining, manufacturing, 

 iron-working, fishing, hunting, sailing great ships 

 or fighting in great armies, can be done, and has 

 been done, by the people of India. But it must 

 be borne in mind that a British workman working 

 in Britain will do a great deal more work in a day 

 than an Indian workman working in India ; this 

 is partly the result of inherited physical and mental 

 strength, partly the result of climate and the differ- 

 ence in quality and quantity of food. Every art, 

 every science, every branch of literature is familiar 

 to them, and in dealing with the inhabitants of this 

 enormous territory we must remember that we are 

 dealing with people who are second to none in the 



