CHAPTER III 



Do the Indians of high caste interest themselves in the welfare 

 of Indians of low caste ? What the British have done to benefit 

 India What they have failed to do Desperate poverty of 

 the cultivator and labourer Contentment. 



IN considering the question of India, we must bear in 

 mind that there is a great difference between an 

 English gentleman of high position and a Hindoo 

 gentleman of high position. The Britisher can 

 associate with men and women of every rank. He 

 will neither contaminate nor be contaminated by 

 association with any other man or woman, but the 

 Hindoo gentleman who associates with people of 

 inferior rank must be careful lest he loses his caste, 

 and is apt to take but little interest in people of 

 lower class than himself. In talking with Indian 

 gentlemen it is interesting to observe that they do 

 not seem much to have considered the economic 

 problems of the working class, the question of 

 feeding the poorer cultivators of the soil. These 

 are matters to which they have not given much 

 attention. They quite realise that they themselves 

 are equal in intelligence to the Englishman, 

 that they know as much as he knows and 

 perhaps a great deal more, and they do not see 



31 



