English rule and native opinion in India : from notes taken 1870-74

Preface

My object in this work is to try to depict some phases of Indian life as they actually are, and to make' tnem as clear as possible to readers who know nothing practi- -i cally of India. I can honestly affirm ''that I could yith' far less labour have made a work of a much more pretentious character than it has cost me to weave together this simple narrative of facts. The Indian Administration Eeports alone are a mine of figures, which, with very little trouble, may be adapted to any subject, and used by any writer. No report, however, would have given me the material for the pictures which it has been my aim and wish to present. If the reader is interested with those pictures, I shall rejoice. I shall rejoice still more if I am fortunate enough to contribute anything tending to the solution of the great problems — many of them more social than political — involved in the relations of India to England.

Chapter X. The North Western Provinces And The Punjab — Sir Henry

DURAND, SIR WILLIAM MUIR, AND SIR JOHN STRACHEY, . IO7

CHAPTER XL

CALCUTTA — ENGLISH AND NATIVE LIFE— HINDOO READINGS — HOS- PITALS AND ASYLUMS — SEWAGE AND WATER WORKS — THE MINT — SURVEY DEPARTMENT — CHEENEE BAZAAR — COOLIE EMIGRA- TION— AN EX-KING, . . . . . .115

Chapter XX. Lucknow During The Mutiny And Afterwards — The Lessons

NATIVE WORK — EAGERNESS OF THE PEOPLE FOR EDUCATION —

EMINENT MEN — MATERIAL AND MORAL PROGRESS, . . 273

CHAPTER XXIL

TO ENGLAND BY BRINDISI, AND FROM THE HOOGHLY TO THE THAMES, 3OO

APPENDIX, . 331

Page 103, line 4, for

ERRATA.

Patna" read " Pubna.

174, ,

, 21,

"had told

you that."

„ 178, ,

, 14,

,, "the tow-rope."

„ 195, ,

,, "one other subject" read "There was one other

subject which."

„ 214, ,

> 5,

"may" read

"might."

235, ,

, 6,

„ "they"

"were."

„ 259, , ,, 266, ,

, 1,

, 22,

| ,, "Greathead"

"Greathed."

„ 265, ,

, 4,

"cut off the."

,, 267, ,

' 32>

" Gwalior's men " ,,

" Gwalior men."

„ 268, ,

1 21,

,, " overpouring, then" ,,

' ' overpouring. Then. "

271, ,

» 13,

, , "a quiet future' " , ,

" a great future."

285, ,

, 6,

Quotation ends at "crops."

„ 292, ,

, 24;

read " as affording one of the best."

t

ENGLISH RULE

AND

NATIVE OPINION IN INDIA.

Chapter I. The Outer Portals To India

In beginning a series of papers for Macmillans Magazine in the year 1873, I ventured to claim attention, on the ground that I had had " unusual opportunities for testing, from a non-official point of view, the opinions of official men, civil and military, in India, together with perhaps equally unusual opportunities, from the same point of view, for testing the drift and tendency of native views and feeling." The papers here referred to were written carefully, and, though they were not by any means free from faults, they were as accurate as I could make them, and at least they were written without any object save that of stating exact facts, with the view of contributing something, however small, to the just interests of England and India. Since then time has passed ; and in the hope that I may now approach the subject with more matured opinions I have undertaken to write this book.

That my notes will not rest on a long experience of India is fully stated in the title-page to such of them as will appear here. That they rest on exceptional oppor-

A tunities for obtaining accurate information the reader mayperceive in the narrative ; and I can aver that no prejudice of faith or race, nor any desire to court the favour or hurt the feelings of any one, will colour or distort any record of what I saw or heard in my intercourse with any class of men in India. If I fall into the sin of egotism, I can only plead that, if there is to be any value in what is stated here, it will be in the way in which the subjects referred to appeared to myself, looking at them from the outside ; not as a soldier, or a civil officer, or a missionary, or a merchant, but as a dispassionate observer, with many and varied means for testing subjects from many sides, without anything like equal opportunities for making any subject a special study.

With a view to general interest, I shall endeavour to throw my notes into a narrative form, dating from some days before the end of May 1870, when I left London for India, till the beginning of 1875, when I returned to England for the second time. My duties in the first case were to edit the - Friend of India, and to act as Indian correspondent of The Times ; and, in the second case, to seek for and communicate to The Times the exact truth as to the famine in Bengal. In India, unlike England, there are occasions when the only reliable information, even on very simple matters, is official information, and to obtain this and remain independent is often a hard problem in journalism. Happily in my own case the whole was rendered easy by the fact that the Governor-General of India was a man of such singular nobleness of character that I am certain he would have scorned to distort a fact for any purpose, and that his Private Secretary, who represented him in all cases, was characterised by like highmindedness, and like unswerving courtesy. Apart from this invaluable courtesy, unfettered by any condition, and sometimes representing a policy which I disputed, I never owed Lord Mayo any favour. I have now a pleasure in this fact, when it may devolve on me to say something as a

NATIVE OPINION IN INDIA.

respectful tribute to his generous, high-minded, and honourable government.

The world into which I was about to be thrown would, I knew, differ materially from anything I had known heretofore as a journalist or a man. But I knew also that, both positively and negatively, I had some qualifications for the duties I had undertaken. I knew, for instance, that I could not easily be blinded by prejudice ; that I could, and should, against any man or men, consider every subject on its merits ; and that I had learned, in the best society of England, the society of the suffering poor, to feel for the weak and helpless, without at the same time thinking of the articles of their creed. In mines and mills, and shipyards, and arsenals, and schools, and literary institutions, in all parts of the United Kingdom, I had striven to know, not merely the modes of working and teaching, but the habits of thought, where thought is freest, and I believe bravest, among Englishmen.

The overland route to India in May 1870 was by Marseilles. A little later it was, as it still is, by Brindisi. In the first instance, therefore, I had the opportunity of seeing Erance from Calais to Paris, and from Paris to Marseilles ; in the second, of twice passing through the great cities of Italy ; and in the third, of making the voyage by Madras and Ceylon. It is to France, Italy, and the scenes on the Mediterranean that I refer, in using the unusual term, "The Outer Portals to India;" while of Egypt and Aden — the Eed Sea and the Indian Ocean — I shall venture still further to ask the reader to think as the inner portals, or the courtyard to the kindred scenes and life of the still more distant East. This view is not put forward as a mere fancy, but as representing facts which must, I think, at some time, in some form, have influenced the thoughts, and perhaps dreams, of every Anglo-Indian. In the old days of the Cape route, the voyage involved a process of education, suited to a people who, with factories on the Indian sea-board, held, as by a proud prerogative, the ocean highways. The motley cargoes of all sorts and conditions of men and women, the long irksome voyages, the quarrels and flirtations, the " runs " on land, and the sights on sea, involved an experience never again to be lost — an experience, not merely of men of the time of Job Charnock, and Clive, and Warren Hastings, but of our own time. The Cape route is still spoken of by persons, and not necessarily old persons, whose now unvarying path to India is by the Mediterranean and the Eed Sea.

The newer education may not be better — and some old Indians say certainly is not better — but at least it is different, and in some particulars it is better adapted for a fitting introduction to an empire whose relation to even the Mediterranean is much closer than some people suppose, and whose boundaries are from westward of the Indus to far beyond the Brahmapootra eastward, and from the Himalayas to the islands south of Comorin. When the traveller to India leaves the steamboat at Calais till he enters it at Marseilles, or Venice, or Genoa, or Brindisi, he is a stranger in strange lands. He changes his money to the coin or the notes current in France, Germany, or Italy ; he learns to think with the men of other nations in their own languages. From the time he embarks in an English vessel on the Mediterranean till he lands at Alexandria, he is on a bit of the dominions of the Queen, and under the flag of England.

In May 1870 France was in all her glory. She was the arbiter of nations — when she was satisfied Europe was at peace. Her soldiers had that dashing military swing which comes from long years of unchecked success. I noticed a vast change in 1873, landing from Egypt at Brindisi, but passing through France. The very appearance of the men was changed. The pride and even self-respect of France had been shattered, though dancing and other amusements were unchanged, or were only changed in being wilder and less restrained. In May 1870 France was very beautiful in town and country. The boulevards, the palaces, the

NATIVE OPINION IN INDIA.

churches, the military displays, the pleasure-gardens and theatres, all told to the eye, as never can be told to the ear or in written words, of the splendour of a capital in some respects unapproachable. It was in the country, however, that the real charms of France were seen. The placid content on every face, the cleanliness in every cottage, the blue blouse and the white cap and apron, the fruitfulness in orchard, vineyard, and meadow, might elsewhere be sought for and never found. Of the life of Paris, and especially of that life at its lowest, the voyager to India finds many pictures in miniature at Alexandria, Cairo, Suez, and Ismailia; but the peaceful charms of the country cannot be transplanted to other lands.

From Paris a railway journey of seventeen hours would, if time were pressing, convey the traveller to Marseilles and the blue waters of the Mediterranean. A strangely ancientlooking place it is, with churches, hotels, shops, markets, and harbour, apparently belonging, as indeed they do belong, to both East and West. It is when one looks back from, say, the Eed Sea that one perceives in what Marseilles differs from Calais and Lyons, and comprehends what is meant by France possessing a Mediterranean sea-board, and a direct communication with the East. A Saturday night in the crowded streets of Marseilles reminded me at first of some familiar little English seaport towns, but when I had seen Cairo and Suez, it was not difficult to perceive in the Saturday evening market at Marseilles, in the rich profusion of fruits and flowers, in the voluble saleswomen and the easy laughing crowd of buyers, certain characteristics — slight but unmistakable — of the Eastern bazaar ; indications of a border land where differences of race and custom blend — of an approach to the regions of the sun.

Early next morning, a beautiful Sunday morning, one of the Peninsular and Oriental Company's fine vessels steamed quietly out from docks crowded with men in clean blouses, and women in neat becoming white caps, and lively (you can hardly say merry) children — a pretty, peaceful, genuinely French scene. In less than three months from that time the thunderbolt of war had burst on Europe with terrific fury ; the gay streets and peaceful villages of France were devastated, and the route to India was diverted to Brindisi. The excitement in Europe was carried as on the^wind, and perhaps in some senses was intensified on its way to India. It was not difficult to see how in one week the very tone and character of society in many nations might reflect the feelings created by a state of war between any two portions of the virtual federation of civilised men.

From Marseilles to Alexandria is about 1400 miles as our vessel ran — between the islands of Sardinia and Corsica ; then closely under Caprera; then, towards evening on Wednesday, in sight of Stromboli; then later through the beautiful Straits of Messina, with Messina itself on the one hand and Eeggio on the other, in both cases lit up as in a fairy vision, while the boom of a gun over the still waters told the watchers of the steamboat company on shore that the customary "All's well " might be telegraphed to London. The traveller has before this begun to feel that he is steaming his way over the most famous of seas. He may fancy that he looks upon the very waves over which the armies of Asia were carried to uproot or submerge the fresh young civilisations of Europe, and over which the smaller but mightier armies of Europe, like streams returning to an ocean bed, were hurled against the decaying civilisations or barbarisms of Asia and Africa. It will be strange if in a Peninsular and Oriental steamboat there is not some shrewd and well-read man to tell, to those who are willing to listen and learn, of Eome and Carthage, of Greece and Sicily, of Tunis, of the Crusaders, of the Moors and their tide of conquest, and of the Turks and theirs, of the Great Desert, of the ISTumidian horse, of Nelson and Napoleon, of all the great past, and all the dread uncertain prospects of the lands that border on this

NATIVE OPINION IN INDIA.

storied sea. No vessels in the world convey so many passengers at once educated and distinguished, and a young man must be vain and foolish if he arrive at Alexandria, after his six or seven days' voyage from Europe, without having found that all that Oxford or Cambridge has taught him must be re-cast and tested by a new experience. He may have talked at one hour of the day to an officer from Peshawur, the next to a man from Madras, or from Kangoon, or from the banks of the Indus, or* the Ganges, or the Jumna, or the Brahmapootra; soldiers, civil officers, missionaries, chaplains of the Established Church, Jesuits, Presbyterians, Baptists, merchants, planters. Perhaps the young voyager addresses a mild, gentlemanly, and thoroughly polite person, who he afterwards finds has been the guiding spirit of a regiment of Sikhs or Ghoorkas; perhaps plays quoits with a man who has needed all his skill and ability to avoid traps and pitfalls as the Political Eesident at a native court; perhaps asks an opinion from or expresses opinions to the chief of an English regiment covered with the laurels of war, or a renowned engineer, or an able diplomatist, or a person great in knowledge of Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, Oude, the Punjab, or some far-off frontier. Each possesses some experience by means of which he can add to the knowledge of other men of whatever age or length of service; while to the young man — the new-comer to the East — there is information and matured thought on every hand. The inquirer may find also, however, that there is in some cases a vast amount of selfishness to sift away; that the chief object with many is a successful career; that some soldiers and civilians perceive only a continuous and never-ceasing battle for what are called the plums of the services. When this point has been reached the traveller may perhaps turn to the missionary or chaplain, but only to find that even here he may have turned in vain for a fair representation of those self-sacrificing qualities which England certainly does send to India. To see the deeply melancholy side of Indian life, the voyage home-

NATIVE OPINION IN INDIA.

ward as well as that outward must be taken; the latter with its fresh or renovated life, the former with its invalids in some cases only returning home to die. Nothing sadder than some phases of Indian life can be found anywhere among persons who never are likely to need any of those comforts of life which money can provide, who would be ashamed to live in any other part of London than the West End, or to be one iota out of that great order of fashion which is interpreted and determined by Court dressmakers and tailors. The sad vein of Indian life is beyond money, or fashion, or anything that the Queen herself can give or withhold.

Chapter II. Egypt And The Red Sea — Aden

On Saturday morning at day-dawn we saw the low-lying sandy coast-line of the land of the Pyramids, of Jacob and Joseph, of early prophets, and of later scholars of almost equally enduring memory; and while the minds of some were excited by an unwonted feeling of mingled delight and awe, others were arranging a sweepstake with reference to the passing of a certain point of land — a project which gave money to the winner.

Among the second-class passengers from Marseilles there was one poor Arab whom most people had pitied, and to whom the captain had now and then spoken kindly. He had been chiefly observed lying near to the sheep-pens, a silent, dreamy, objectless man. A little before the lights were put out on Friday night the poor Arab underwent a transformation. He mounted the bridge, with his garments girt about him, and his telescope in hand. On Saturday morning he piloted the vessel into the Bay of Alexandria. The difference between the deportment of an Arab pilot on the Mediterranean, and a Plooghly pilot from the Sandheads to Calcutta, is immense, but a pilot is a pilot all the world over; and the Indian commissioner, looking through his " binocular " upon the Egyptian land, was not better fitted for the duties of his commissionership than that poor Arab was to carry the ship through those shifting sandbanks. It was but a little scene, yet it was vastly more instructive than the sweepstake.

Passengers who went onward by the next boat from Suez had a day in Alexandria, and might see somewhat of cafes

IO and bazaars, and a varied population — Jew, Turk, Arab, African, Greek, French, English, Italian; indeed, almost every race in East and West. You perceive that there was no error of judgment in the selection of Alexandria as the centre at once of two civilisations, and of the trade of many races. You see how naturally the scholars of the East and the West would find here a common meetingground; how every impulse of Europe, Asia, and Africa, would make its way to Alexandria as by a common law, and with electrical sensitiveness.

Eemaining behind the rest of the outward-bound passengers, and economising time, under excellent guidance, I saw much of Alexandria at its best and worst. The reader would pass through Egypt with very mixed feelings. Wandering through the bazaars, he might see openly exposed for sale " works of art " at which London would be amazed if not shocked. Entering a cafe at the time of mid-day rest, when every office was closed, he would find merchant-society in repose, over quiet little games of chance or skill and moderate measures of wine. Visiting the gambling dens and singing rooms at night he would witness wild orgies for which he might possibly seek in vain for a comparison. My notes are of this Saturday night, when a merchant friend guided me through all manner of scenes, illustrative of the actual life of Alexandria. How different from a Saturday night at Marseilles ! Nothing worse perhaps than might be found in Manchester or Liverpool or Glasgow, but unique in its mixture of races, and suggesting a careful deportment if you would escape difficulty and indeed danger.

Of the hollowness and hardship, in a double sense, of the Khedive's government, there was evidence on every hand. The victim himself of diplomatic agents and merchants, who contracted and sub-contracted away the very life-blood of his resources, he found victims in turn in the masses of the helpless people.

A spirited young Englishman, who had been sent out

NATIVE OPINION IN INDIA.

ii from Manchester to superintend the Government cotton estates on the Nile, found to his surprise that not one of the men, women, or children of a vast body of " hands " received any pay whatever, and only a small amount of wretched food. He remonstrated, and was met in this way: "You agree to do so-and-so if we provide labour, do you not ? Very good. The provision of labour then is my business; the execution of work yours. Do not quarrel with your interest. Let us be friends. You attend to this, I to that, and so we shall avoid unpleasantness." The young Englishman, ardent for freedom and fair dealing, was powerless, and he finally left the estate in disgust. Such are some of the phases of human life which seven years ago faced an Englishman at Alexandria on his way to India. Forced labour, and taxes levied even years before due, were the prominent and all-powerful principles of a social life, in which men of wealth and European education were prominent actors.

I passed the Khedive walking with one of his sons in the fine gardens which he hardly can call his own — an intelligent, yet a bewildered-looking, melancholy man; wealthy, and yet poor. A fabulous amount of money was received in Egypt for cotton during the American War, and was lost. The viceroy had his share, the merchants theirs, the usurers theirs. Money probably was hidden to be found no more ; much also went in orgies which appeared as by magic. Egypt was no richer. Twelve years prior to my visit, Alexandria had not one beer-house ; at the time of my visit it had fifty, and many of them possessed "attractions" of the most questionable kind. Originating in the cotton trade, the dens increased in number year by year, till the life of Alexandria might be said to have undergone one more change, the latest, and perhaps the most contemptible, of the many changes which in the course of ages have passed over it. To be ignorant of whist, or to neglect the fashionable salute, is barbarous in Alexandria. To grind down the poor people till their life is well-nigh worn out, is fashionable and civilised.

I went to the English consular court, where a trial of some interest was going on. I was politely received, and shown to a seat, but it was immediately found that the case must be adjourned. Nothing could have been more polite, or more Egyptian. I went to the English and American schools, as I did also in Cairo (including an engineering school near the latter), and there at all events were glimpses of a nobler, perhaps a regenerating life. The railway system, too, and the cotton markets were like fresh leaves on a decayed tree. The worm much trodden upon at times turns. The merchant finds, for instance, that if he wishes to discharge a vessel there is a virtual trades union to prevent him doing so by any but his own regularly engaged men. Here, for the moment, the weak become strong. The sting, however, is only skin deep. The European is in most cases free to do almost anything. At this time he paid no taxes, save one which he had himself made for his own protection; and if he wished to vex the Government to the heart, he could begin, or threaten to begin, a newspaper, and demand his own price for its suppression. This skeleton picture might be filled up with incidents illustrative of the still-existing plague of flies, of the unending cry for baksheesh, of the everpresent donkey and donkey-boy. Of such the reader may learn much in the books of the records of many observers of Eastern life. One note, however, I cannot pass. Standing at the foot of Pompey's Pillar with my friend, who spoke Arabic, a little Arab girl drew to us, and looked wistfully in our faces. My friend said : " Do you know who made this?" — the pillar. "Yes, very well; he lives in the next village." " Go and bring him, and you shall have baksheesh." " I cannot to-day, for he is from home, but I can to-morrow." The poor little romancer received her baksheesh. She viewed the beautiful pillar as one of the gods which foolish men in black coats

NATIVE OPINION IN INDIA.

came to worship, and as the attraction for everlasting baksheesh.

In Cairo the scene changes to one of the most Oriental of cities. I had a letter of introduction to a gentleman, whom I found early in the morning sitting on a second story verandah, in a narrow street, across which higher still was drawn a sun-blind of many colours. He wore a pair of loose trousers, a shirt, and a pair of slippers — nothing more. On the opposite side of the street, and also on a verandah, within speaking distance, were several ladies, old and young, drinking their coffee in similarly light attire. There was no impropriety. It was custom, stronger than written law. Beneath were camels, dromedaries, donkeys, and goats, intermingled with a crowd, dense as a sea, of people of many races. A cup of strong Mocha coffee, unsweetened and without milk, is a luxury everywhere offered to a visitor in Egypt ; and though its appearance is not in its favour, it is infinitely preferable to the English glass of sherry. Of the missionary schools, and the noble educational work of two generous English ladies, much has been written. Of the palace, the slave market, the petrified forest, and other of the " sights " of Cairo, I have little to say that would be worth printing. Of the dark skins, gleaming eyes, jabbering tongues, and lively costumes in the crowded streets, one might write a fairy tale ; and fairy tales will be written of them while Eastern and Western life remain what they are, and while the men of the West continue to find their way eastward in the paths of these old civilisations.

One sight, however, cannot be passed over, any more than it can be effaced from the memory of especially any one who afterwards visits the Taj at Agra. The Taj is an Indian tomb, the part conception of a Western artist. The Pyramids are Egyptian tombs, solid, scientific, endurable as the old culture of Egypt, and significant as its embalming of the dead. After a delightful night drive, partly over what I afterwards found to be soft velvet grass, beautifully green,

I climbed the Great Pyramid at three o'clock in the morning, and waited for the sunrise on Cairo and the desert. At a little distance was the dumb Sphinx, in the face of which some have seen such remarkable expression, and in which others have declared they could find no expression whatever. The dumb, perplexing, voiceful, eternal thing ! The expression doubtless depends greatly on the surroundings and on the mystery in which the story is enfolded, and this becomes apparent when one afterwards compares both with other stone faces and scenes, dissimilar in much, yet akin. From the pyramid I looked upon the minarets, fortifications, cupolas, and dark cypresses of Cairo, gradually distinguishable as the day began to dawn, and telling of a great city awakening to daily life, while the silvery Nile, glistening like a bright long line of light and life, carried the mind far away through the ruins of great cities into regions of oblivion, and to an imagined day-dawn of history. I had seen the sun rise in many different places, and I subsequently saw it rise in many more on sea and land, from mountain and plain, from palki and dak-gharry and railway carriage, and from the port-holes and the decks of ships; but the pictures of the English Bible, woven into English life, compel one to see much more than appears to the natural eye in a sunrise in Egypt. I can recollect as if it were yesterday the sudden appearance, almost with the first golden rays of the sun, of a line — about a score perhaps— of camels on the distant horizon, like a mirage in the desert, lonely, misty, almost as of ghostland, recalling stories of the patriarchs going down into Egypt, and of the flight of Joseph and Mary to save the young Child's life. ISTo other European was present, and having silenced the clamourers for baksheesh it was easy to sit and dream. It was difficult, however, to connect the old Scripture times with Napoleon's search here for an Eastern empire, with our own highway to India, with the English names cut on the stone on which one sat, and on the stones around, or, worst of all, with an English handbill adver-