DIVIDE ET IMPERA 147 



much we owe to the fact that the talents and 

 energies which would otherwise be employed in 

 thwarting our just intentions and phlebotomising 

 the ryot are largely preoccupied with the more 

 useful work of thwarting and undermining each 

 other. 



What could a collector do single-handed against 

 a host of clerks and subordinate magistrates and 

 petty officials of every grade, all armed with the 

 awfulness of a heaven-born sanctity, all hedged 

 round with the prestige of an ancient supremacy, 

 endowed with a mole-like genius for underground 

 work which the Englishman never fathoms, and 

 all leagued together to suck to the uttermost the 

 life blood of those inferior castes which were created 

 expressly for their advantage ? 



He is working in a foreign language, among customs 

 and ways of thought which it takes a lifetime to 

 understand : they are using their mother tongue 

 and handling matters that they have known from 

 childhood. He cannot tell a lie and is ashamed to 

 deceive : they are trained in a thrifty policy which 

 saves the truth for a last resort in case everything 

 else should fail. He would be helpless in their hands 

 as a sucking child. But he knows they will do for 

 him what he cannot do for himself. The Purbhoo 

 will lie in wait for the Brahmin, and the Brahmin 

 will keep his lynx eye on the Purbhoo. And woe 

 to the one who trips first. So the collector arranges 

 his men with judicious skill to the fostering of each 



