November, 1910.] 



4A5 



Miscellaneous, 



ernment, although it is possible that, in 

 the laudable desire to prevent waste and 

 to keep down taxation, economy has 

 beeu effected at the expense of national 

 well-being. Anyjmaterial increase of the 

 grants for education could only be se- 

 cured by fresh taxation but the necessity 

 for such is now so great that it may 

 well be urged that delay is prejudicial to 

 the best interests of the country. Any 

 form of direct taxation would be ex- 

 tremely unpopular but an increase of fifty 

 per cent, in the very moderate import 

 duties would probably be welcomed and 

 would yield about two millions a year, 

 which would be sufficient to provide for 

 that re-organisation of the educational 

 system which is so urgently needed to 

 prepare the way for a general improve- 

 ment in the condition of the vast popu- 

 lation by teaching them how to make 

 better use of their enormous capacity 

 for labour and how to exploit the natural 

 resources of the soil so that it may yield 

 a return commensurate with its extent 

 and richness. 



The suggestion that the increased ex- 

 penditure which it is advocated should 

 be incurred to remedy the defects of the 

 present educational system may be met 

 by increasing the tariffs on imports, uatu- 

 rally raises the question, Why not give 

 India an avowed protection tariff and 

 under the shelter of that tariff build up 

 an industrial system adequate to the 

 needs of the country ? That it could be 

 done in this way there is no doubt but 

 the people of the country could not do it 

 and it would have to be done with im- 

 ported capital and imported brains. The 

 urgency for industrial development in 

 India is mainly due to the limited field 

 that at present exists for the employ- 

 ment of the rapidly increasing educated 

 classes. It is essential that suitable 

 work should be found for them and it is 

 quite certain that if inducements were 

 created to invest capital in India, the 

 investing capitalists would send out 

 their own men to look after and manage 

 their interests. The people of India 

 will be welcomed as "hewers of wood 

 and drawers of water " but in no other 

 capacity. Further, it must not be for- 

 gotten that the ultimate authority on 

 the government of India is the British 

 democracy, whose opinions on fiscal 

 matters are very unstable. If the erec- 

 tion of a tariff wall were sanctioned by 

 one Parliment, it is by no means unlikely 

 that it would be pulled down or mat- 

 erially altered by some later Parliament. 

 With a tariff wall there would always 

 be some uncertainty as to the continu- 

 ance of the protection which it would 

 afford, and in proportion to the intensity 



of the feeling of uncertainty this would 

 militate against its efficiency as a factor 

 in creating industries in India. The con- 

 ditions in India are such that state inter- 

 vention is necessary to bring about the 

 economic changes under discussion but 

 it should be directed to assisting the 

 growth of private enterprise in the coun- 

 try rather than to the maintenance of 

 an artificial barrier to the free exchange 

 of commodities with the rest of the world. 



By far the most important matter for 

 the State to deal with at the outset is 

 the establishment of an educational 

 system which, from the primary stages 

 upwards, will be practical rather than 

 literary. Every Indian boy grows up in 

 a certain environment and the education 

 given to him should have reference to 

 that environment and should aim at 

 making him master of it. Hand and eye 

 training, cultivation of the powers of 

 observation, the co-ordination of the 

 various faculties in the service of their 

 possessor — these should be the objects of 

 educational processes, not merely the 

 development of the mental powers along 

 compartively narrow lines. The present 

 system of education has failed lament- 

 ably to produce men of action, with 

 balanced judgment and sound construc- 

 tive faculties. The memory rather than 

 the imagination controls thought, and in 

 the absence of experience responsibility 

 is declined. It has turned out good if 

 not great lawyers.excellent judges, a few 

 engineers but no original! investigators 

 or deep thinkers. 



The Lack of Individualism. 

 It must, however, be admitted that it 

 is not the education system alone that 

 is at fault. In India the vitalising force 

 of nationality is almost entirely absent 

 and centuries of subjection to a foreign 

 yoke or to the endurance of an almost 

 continuous state of internal discord 

 and anarchy have deprived the people 

 of that individualism which finds its 

 highest expression iu collective effort. 

 Social customs and caste restrictions 

 militate against progress and the general 

 prevalence of early marriages handicaps 

 the race, not only by imposing the cares 

 of domestic life upon students and even 

 upon children who ought to be at 

 school, but also because such immature 

 unions result in offspring deficient in 

 physical vigour and lacking force of 

 character. These are deeply rooted 

 obstacles which cannot easily be re- 

 moved. Emancipation from the tyranny 

 of a grotesque and unique social code 

 has begun and the movement for greater 

 individual freedom of action will be 

 accelerated by the increasing tendency 



