20 
LAND &? WATER 
^ December 5, 1918 
An Oriental Britain : By Francis Stopford 
THE Englishman in England knows to-day as 
little about' the problems that confront the 
Englishman in India as he has done at any time 
since this nation became an Oriental Power. One 
may regret the fact, but it is hardly reasonable 
to expect it to be otherwise, seeing that the Englishman at 
homo has more than sufficient domestic questions to occupy 
his mind for the term of his natural life. He would probably 
be surprised to hear that in two such totally different aspects 
of modern civilisation as postal facilities, and the delivery 
of women in childbrith, India for many j-ears has been ahead 
<il England. Yet it is so. 
Now that our rulers are to endeavour to convert Hindustan 
into an Oriental Britain, and to superimpose yet another 
civilisation upon the many civilisations that lie scattered 
about that marvellous peninsula, it may be well, without 
going into political puzzles, to try to lightly disturb this 
stagnancy of nescience. Remember, we have yet to know 
how it was that India remained loyal to British rule dining 
that supreme opportunitj- for revolt^ — the outbreak of a 
i'Airopean war. It was the occasion dreaded by Englishmen 
in the East for more than a generation, so equally longed 
for by enthusiastic India-for-the-Indians ; yet, though widely 
organised attempts were made to effect a rebellion, they 
failed. Why was it ? 
No writer, so far as I am aware, has dared to assign the 
' .luse to love of British rule and hatred of Germany. Before 
(ierman barbarities in Belgium were generally known, the 
reverse was the case, for such Germans as were recognised 
in India as belonging to a people alien from the British, had 
been able to cultivate a popularity, which was not possible 
for members of the ruling race. 
In 1857 the cry that the English were pariahs, outcasts, 
and infidels had carried ; in 1915 it failed. It had previously 
failed in 1897, and even twenty 3'ears earlier, if Kipling's 
story "On the City Wall" is, as I believe it to be, founded on 
fact, every tourist to the famous Hindu temple at Tanjore, 
in Southern India, has had pointed out to him the strange 
figure of a European, in trousers and top hat, looking like a 
Quaker, that .stands amid the deities, who, tier upon tier, 
adorn that lofty pagoda. The unknown sculptor was seem- 
ingly inspired, for when all is said and done, no truer memorial 
of the Englishman in the East will ever be designed. He 
clings in every latitude to top-hat," trousers, and all that goes 
with this highly respectable and ridiculously conventional 
style of dress, and, wearing it, no matter in what company 
he finds himself, he feels at home. But, being strongly 
conservative himself, he has the good sense to appreciate 
the same quahty in others, and he does not expect them to 
adopt his raiment nor is he altogether flattered when they 
do so. To rebuke the Englishman in India for going his 
own way, wearing his own clothes, drinking his own drinks, 
dancing his own dances, and pursuing other Western idio- 
syncrasies in an Eastern atmosphere, is to find fault with 
the special peculiarity which has made England, alone among 
Western nations, a success as an Oriental ruler. It is this 
autocratic spirit, this conservatism, which is the bridge that 
overleaps the chasm between East and West, and within 
twenty years of the Indian Mutiny the cry of pariah and 
infidel as directed against the British failed (and ever will 
fail) because the English by then had been accepted as a 
caste by themselves with caste rules almost, but not quite, 
as strict as the Brahminical. The British is nearly as exclu-- 
sive in his own way, in his own house, and in his family 
circle as the Brahmin ; but, not being a Brahmin, when he 
takes his walks abroad, he does not expect any human being, 
not even, a predial slave, to remove himself forty yards from' 
his path at the sound of " Hi ! " or any loud cry. The Briton 
brought with him to the East his religion, and erected his 
own temples ; but because bovine beasts are to him merely 
economic assets, providers of milk and of steaks, he does 
not make a jibe of those who treat them as religious institu- 
tions. Not practising circumcision, he does not make that 
rite a common occasion for ribald jesting. No Eastern farmer 
is rebuked because the scarecrow in his fields fails to conform 
to an English sense of decorum, but an Eastern prince is 
not asked twice to an Englishman's home who fails to con- 
form to it. These things are small in themselves, of only 
momentary irritation, but so is the mosquito's sting, whereby 
the body is infected with deadly malaria ; and it is through 
trifling pricks and irritations that the body politic is infected 
with dangerous germs. Britons have done their best to 
avoid them, and because they hate interference with their 
own social ideas and customs, they have been tactful towards 
otliers. 
Perhaps the most important concession granted in native 
self-government before the war was a seat for an Indian on 
the Executive Council of the Governor-General. It will 
probably be news to many that the second native to be 
raised to his office. Sir Sankaran Nair, came of a community 
which does not recognise marriage civilly, religiously, or 
legall3' ; a community in which botli polygamy and polyandry 
are lawful, and where a man may have as many children by 
as many women as please him, and yet be legally responsible 
for not one. The tarawad system stmnds, in cold print, 
terrible licence ; in actual fact, this liberty makes for chastity, 
tends to monogamy, and it is only permissive, nor would 
anyone knowing the full circumstances wish it otherwise. 
* 
Civilisation's Cradle 
In India we are dealing witli something infinitely more 
complex and difficult than diversity of peoples, races, creeds, 
and tongues ; we are dealing with different civilisations, 
some in certain, aspects superior to our own. In the past we 
have talked of European civilisation as though it were a 
single concr<>te fact, and it has been an unpleasant awakening 
to discover that European civili.sation, when translated into 
conduct, is totally different, say, in Germany or in Russia, 
from what it is in this country. Each civilisation has not 
only its idioms of ideals, but its idioms of behaviour. In 
India it is the same, only there different civilisations are more 
closely packed, more intertwined and interlaced one with 
another. At the present time we hear much of the two or 
three hundred million of uneducated peoples as against the 
less than half a million educated. The two are set one 
against another as though there was a cleavage and each 
section compact in itself. Of caur<*„ there is nothing of the 
sort. The half-million educated, though the majority speak 
together the English language and have the common veneer 
of an English education, arc as diverse in their ideas and 
moves of Ijfe as the many millions. 
We arc building a new Delhi. The war has checked its 
construction, but with peace it is to proceed. How many 
'Delhis are there behind this European-built one ? If you 
are competent to answer that question correctly, then you 
may consider yourself qualified to begin the study of this 
problem of converting India into a ballot-box-governed 
Britain. It has been said truly that when we introduced a 
Western system of education into India, close on three genera- 
tions ago, we inaugurated the policy of which the present 
reforms are a logical sequence. But while this is the case, it 
is no argument against IBritain clearing her mind and making 
herself sure as to the nature of the gift she desires to bestow 
upon these Oriental peoples. Here at home we know that 
when peace returns it is the declared desire and intention of 
every honest man and woman from palace to cottage that, 
no matter into what station of life a person mav be born, 
he or she shall have the right to lead a fuller, healthier, and 
happier life than has often been possible hitherto. But this 
greater health and happiness is to be not only for the benefit 
of the individual, but of the nation as a whole. Now, the 
question we have to ask ourselves is whether, all things 
considered, the reforms proposed in India will have the same 
object. The advance of self-government must be permitted 
to continue ; but are we quite certain we are not tr3-ing to 
squeeze into a lustrum or a decade changes which might 
more profitably occupy the period of a generation. We are 
a slow-witted people. Look how, even, the Teuton has got 
the better of us in this respect. In India we are up against 
some of the quickest wits, the most subtle brains that the 
human family has produced. It has become an axiom here 
that "you cannot hustle the East," but we entirely overlook 
the implication this axioiji carries with it that "you can 
hustle the West." But this has not been .overlooked in 
India. Let us be true to ourselves. W'e do love libertj' and 
freedom, we are honest believers in justice and humanity, 
and at heart, though our past actions have at times belied us, 
we have a hatred tif privilege and prerogative. Now, are we 
prepared to live up to these ideals in India ? Let us not 
deceive ourselves. At root the question is not one of votes, 
constituencies, or representations ; it is a question of how 
best we can enlarge the opportunities of all persons in India 
to live fuller and happier lives, no matter to what form of 
civilisation they belong. 
1^0 he continued.) 
