Indian studies

Contents

CHAP. - PAGE

I. — BRIEF GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF INDIA . 9

III. — MUSALMANS. ...... 28

Chapter I Brief General Description Of India

TO enable my readers to follow what I shall say hereafter, it is necessary to take a brief view of India and its peoples.

India is an immense peninsula, triangular in shape and having an area of over 1,800,000 square miles, or some sixteen times greater than that of the British Isles. Its length from Cape Comorin to the north of Kashmir is over 2,000 miles, and its breadth from Mekran to China is some 3,000.

On the north-west, north and north-east its land frontier borders on Persia, Afghanistan, the Russian and Chinese empires, Siam and the French territory on the Upper Mekong. Its coast line is 4,000 miles in length and is washed by the Indian Ocean.

On the north it is guarded by the great mountain ranges called by Oriental geographers the Stony Girdle of the Earth, the peaks of which, above an altitude of about 12,000 feet, are the abode of perpetual snow. The outer or northern ranges of the Stony Girdle of the Earth are the Hindu Rush, the Keragoram and the Himalayas, across which the passes are at a great elevation and impassable for modern armies. The only roads by which armies of to-day can enter India are through Eastern Afghanistan ; they traverse the Sulaiman or Sufaid Koh ranges, via the Khyber Kuram, which is closed by snow for five months annually, the Gomul and Bolan passes. Through one or other of these the various conquerors of India from the land side have always passed. This frontier is undoubtedly very strong, but military history gives no example of the successful passive io INDIAN STUDIES

defence of a mountain' fan'g'e against an efficient offensive attack. The future. Development of railways in Afghanistan, and more especially in Persia, may adversely affect our military position, and certainly will do so if we don't see to it that the alignment of those in the south of Persia are so arranged as to suit us strategically.

In^the perennial snows of the Stony Girdle of jthe Earth the two great navigable rivers of India, the Indus and the Ganges and their great tributaries, take their rise. These rivers are in flood during the hot season when the snow melts, and their waters are then also increased by the seasonal rains.

Thejnountain tribes and people of the interior of India call all great expanses of water, whether rivers or lakes, " The Ocean " (darya), which few of them, even to-day, have ever seen. -.^There is a very old Pathan legend which says that Alexander naving conquered the world arrived on the banks of the Indus ; his ambition was so great that, not satisfied with his achievements on land, he resolved to conquer the ocean and all its inhabitants also.

^ His Wazir, who was named Ayaz, tried to dissuade him from such a dangerous enterprise and one which no human being had hitherto attempted, but without success. Ayaz then requested him to take some carrier pigeons with him, so that, at least, the King could inform him, whom he left behind, when he got into difficulties. To this Alexander agreed. He started with his army on inflated hides, but had not proceeded far before they were all swallowed by sea monsters. Before the King was taken into the belly of one of these a la mode de Jonah, he loosed a carrier pigeon which flew back to his house carrying a message from him to his Queen telling her of his dangerous predicament. She, in great trepidation, at once consulted the wise Ayaz, who recommended the collection of an immense amount of cotton, which he ordered to be thrown into the river. He said the sea monsters would swallow it and become so buoyant that they would be forced to ascend to the surface, on which Alexander and his men could be rescued. The Queen accepted this advice and events occurred as the Wazir said ; the King and his army were rescued, both he and the Queen showered honours and rewards on Ayaz, whose advice they ever afterwards acted on. The moral drawn is that what Alexander could not do, no one else can, and that the wise will leave the ocean severely alone.

BRIEF GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF INDIA 11

The Pathan is not a sea-faring man to-day, although in recent years he has learnt much about the ocean, for he travels much, but when he takes to a sea life he prefers to do so as a stoker.

Alexander (Sekander) is a name given by the natives of the Punjab to conquerors. In my youth when wandering round the ruins of Taxila I got into conversation with an old Musalman who lived in the neighbourhood. He assured me he well recollected the invasion of Alexander. I replied " You must be a very old man, for it occurred some two thousand years ago." His answer was, " I don't know how many years ago it was, neither do I know how old I am, but I recollect his coming quite well. He was a good Musalman and so were all his soldiers." I didn't dispute the correctness of what he said as I had no doubt he mixed up Alexander with Dost Mahomed Khan, who invaded the Punjab in 1813.

The interior of India consists of immense plains intersected by mountain ranges and lofty plateaux which have been strongholds for the defeated inhabitants during all the foreign invasions.

The internal mountain ranges are the Eastern and Western Ghauts, which run parallel to and at short distances from the east and west coast, almost meeting in the south ; the Aravalli range, which rises at the Delhi ridge and runs through Rajputana to the borders of Goojerat and the Vindhia, which runs through the centre of India almost east and west. These internal mountains are without snow, the rivers which rise in them depending for their water on the seasonal rain. During the dry season they are, almost to their mouths, merely a succession of pools, while in the rainy season they are raging torrents ; at no time are they navigable for more than a few miles from the sea.

In all Indian rivers there is a good supply of wholesome fish, which greatly contributes to the food of the people, and would do so to a larger extent but for the objection held by so many millions of Hindus to taking life or eating flesh. In them also are many alligators, which also frequent all tanks and lakes, and devour many people bathing in them and destroy sheep and goats and sometimes kine.

The rainy season is called in India the Barsat Ki mosam.; mosam meaning season and barsat rain — the rainy season ; this name has been abbreviated by foreigners to Monsoon. The Monsoon usually commences about the end of May and lasts to the end of September or the beginning of October ; the rainfall varies greatly, being greatest in the south and east ; in some places it descends in torrents, in others it is very scanty. North of the Jhulem river and the Aravalli range there is little Monsoonrain. Except during the south-west Monsoon and for about a week in winter, when the north-west wind blows, there is no rain throughout the whole of India, which is parched in those parts where irrigation works do not exist. These obviously cannot be constructed where there are either no rivers or scanty rainfall. The south-west Monsoon originates in the Southern Ocean, whence great masses of cloud are blown over the Indian Ocean by the south-west trade wind ; on striking the south coast of India, where the Eastern and Western Ghauts meet, they are, after breaking into copious rains, diverted north along these ranges, giving moisture to the whole country south of the Aravalli range and carrying rain and snow to the Stony Girdle of the Earth.

With good south-west Monsoon rains the whole parched country becomes green as if by magic and, where the rainfall is good, water is available for storage in artificial tanks and lakes to irrigate the crops in the dry season, and to fill the wells by sub-soil drainage. The cost of building these irrigation works and of their upkeep is a very great strain on the cultivators and accounts for much of their poverty.

The crop grown during the south-west Monsoon is called the Kharif ; that grown in winter, mostly by water from irrigation works, but greatly improved by the winter rain, is called the Rabbi. Generally speaking it may be said that, for human food, the Kharif crop is the least important but of inestimable value for fodder ; on it and that of grass in the vast jungles depends almost entirely the food for cattle ; while for human food the Rabbi is all important, but for fodder it is not so.

India offers every variety of climate from temperate to tropical. In the Stony Girdle of the Earth it is that of an exaggerated Switzerland ; the general level of these mountains decreases from north to south, the well watered valleys and pine-clad slopes of the north are replaced in the south by arid, waterless hills where the heat of summer is almost unbearable. Throughout this borderland the climate varies according to the altitude ; in winter it is good throughout.

In the great plains the heat is excessive in summer ; all day long and well into the night a hot, dry, dust-laden wind blows

BRIEF GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF INDIA 13

from the south-west, which ceases during the south-west Monsoon and is replaced by a tepid atmosphere like that of a Turkish bath.

In the winter, in the plains of the Punjab, Rajputana and Central India the climate for some four or five months is temperate. In the two former provinces pools are frozen over, but the length of the winter decreases the further south the latitude.

The climate of the internal mountain ranges and high plateaux above an altitude of 4,000 feet is temperate in summer and cool in winter, below that altitude it is similar to that of the great plains.

The climate naturally re-acts on the people, where the winter is temperate they are fairer, of better physique and more manly. It is from the Stony Girdle of the Earth that the virile faces have for long ages gone forth as conquerors of India, and the further south they have migrated in the country the quicker they have -lost their virility, till in the south and the Ganges - Vallft little.

India, with its immense coast-line, furnishes no sailors, in the sea warrior sense, equal to those of other lands. Good sea warriors are only made in cold seas. The sailor classes of India are only fit for employment on merchant ships under foreign command.

Because of its mountain ranges, high wooded plateaux, rivers, water-courses, deserts and morasses, inter-communication was formerly difficult at all times and impossible during the Monsoon. Now owing to railways and good roads this is only so in very remote parts of the country.

In former days defeated tribes or races found refuge from

their conquerors in the fastness of Central India, the deserts of

^Sindh and Rajputana and in Southern India, or else became

^ their slaves ; the conquering races came from the north, where

bravery has its home.

Nowadays modern armies can march almost anywhere, and with the introduction of the telegraph, railways, good roads, mechanical transport, modern aeroplanes, guns and rifles, there is no hope for the rebellious or no place of refuge for them in case of defeat ; such a mutiny as that of 1857 ^s an impossibility ; even local riots on any great scale cannot occur if promptly dealt with at the beginning ; the great scourges of foreign conquest, anarchy and revolution are no longer possible as long as the British

Empire is not defeated. .This is well understood by the warlike classes who know what war means ; it is only among a few of the unwarlike classes, who don't, that a windy sedition prevails which may cause riots among ignorant or innocent people if not kept within bounds.

Famine, cholera and plague still remain ; the suppression of the two latter diseases lies to a great extent in the hands of the people themselves and much is being done to mitigate their severity, but much more in the way of sanitation is required, which I will refer to in detail later. Famine, that is to say general scarcity of human food and forage for cattle, is caused by local or general failure of the rains. This no Government can prevent; I will allude to it hereafter, here I will only say that the Famine relief arrangements of the Government of India are such as any Government may well be proud of, and the Indian peoples that I know are extremely grateful to Government for its sympathy and foresight in this matter, as they always are for any kindness or sympathy shown them.

Chapter II

ON the 20th August, 1916, Government made the following announcement in Parliament : " The policy of His Majesty's Government, with which the Government of India are in complete accord, is that of increasing the association of Indians in every branch of the administration and the gradual development of self-governing institutions, with a view to progressive realization of responsible government in India as an integral part of the British Empire . . . progress in this policy can only be achieved by successive stages."

The Secretary of State's report as to the manner in which he proposes to carry out this policy has been put before the public for criticism, and he has promised that ample opportunity for its discussion will be given, which will in due course be submitted to Parliament. It is on Parliament that the final responsibility rests for the welfare of the Indian peoples.

I will say nothing as to the wisdom of the time selected for making the pronouncement or for carrying out the subsequent inquiry. It is with the report itself that I will deal in my final chapter, but before doing so, to enable my readers to judge of what I say, I will give them some information on India generally. The question which will agitate the public mind is whether the recommendations of the Secretary of State and the Governor- General, or as the former erroneously calls him the Viceroy, will benefit the Indian peoples or not. There will also be a question as to whether the methods resorted to by them for obtaining that Indian opinion on which their proposals are said to be based were satisfactoiy.

Forms of government are rather the result of racial and religious temperament long acting on peoples than the means of producing any durable alteration in the disposition of those subjected to them. All history records that no calamities are so great as those arising from forcing on the people of one race the institutions of another. One of the many examples of this truth is close by in Ireland.

The contrast of the different degrees of civilization existing among the different races, languages and religions in India, Inany of which possess an ancient civilization, while others are in a state little better than savages, afford decisive evidence that it is to the disposition of the peoples themselves to which wise men will look to find out the suitability of political institutions for them. Especially is it so when these differences have been emphasized from time immemorial by the effect of climate, locality, morality and characteristics. It is not by the opinions of a few selected individuals or small bodies of self-constituted representatives of " all India " that the views of the masses can be gauged. These masses in India are the agricultural classes and those who live indirectly on agriculture, who compose nine-tenths of the population. They are mostly ignorant, only six per cent, in British India are literate in the various vernaculars, and only half per cent, are so in English.

It is necessary that those who propose new methods of government for Indians should know both their individual and political psychology. This means having a knowledge of the past history, religion, language and social customs of the numerous sects and castes composing them. For any one man, British or Indian, to attain this knowledge regarding all India is impossible, to do so regarding one province only is the study of years. Politicians who don't understand the psychology of a foreign race display a dangerous tendency to evolve a theory out of their inner consciousness and to look on it not as it is, but as they think it should be. What they think it should be generally coincides with their own political views. That such has been so in the present case appears quite evident from Mr. Montagu's report in another case. We have a good example before our eyes. Our politicians refused to believe in the enmity of Germany. Politicians of one race who are educated by another and are out of touch with its customs and prejudices adopt their political views from their " spiritual home ; " they are not safe guides regarding their own countrymen, yet so far as I can see they are the Indians who carry most weight with and were chiefly consulted by Mr. Montagu, the Governor-General of India, and many high officials.

I firmly believe that the opinion of India as a whole can only be obtained by the democratic method hitherto avoided by our democrats of enfranchising each religion and caste, and

" allowing only its own members to represent it ; all would thus express their views, which could be focussed by the Government of India, and those of the majority should alone guide great constitutional changes.

I have spent over forty years of my life in India. I have often lived months together with natives without associating with Europeans ; during that time I travelled in all parts of the country, living in both agricultural villages and great towns. I have many friends among all classes, high and low ; several of them have asked me to put their views before the British people who they believe will do them justice. It is in compliance with their request that I write this book. I regret that I do not wield a more able pen. I will relate what I know of the Indian peoples, and I trust what I say will enable my readers to judge of many things which are not known generally, and so to be in a better position to form an opinion on the policy put before them by the Secretary of State.

I don't profess to know all India, but I do know certain parts of it extremely well ; other parts well and the rest but indifferently. The parts which I know extremely well, and to which my remarks mainly apply — are in the Punjab, " The ^5 word of India," the home of its most warlike peoples, and the adjacent districts of the United Provinces of Oudh and Agra, and also^ Rajputana, the home of ancient Hindu chivalry. I Jiave a considerable knowledge of the history, religion, languages, literature and folk-lore of these provinces, so I may claim

""acquaintance with the psychology of their peoples. I know Central India and the Dekkan well ; the rest of the country but indifferently^ It is obvious that, if one does not know the psychology of a people, it is quite useless to hope to understand their psychology, either individually or in mass. Especially is this the case in India ; for Indians are unusually suspicious of strangers, and both Indian etiquette and the innate courtesy of most Indians forbid them to say anything disagreeable to one they regard as a superior. Moreover, their previous experience of changes — many of them not for the better — renders them diffident in giving their views to itinerant reformers.

Let us just consider what India is, when reasonable beings will at once recognize that it is impossible for one man — whether native or foreign, however great his ability and acumen may be — to know it all, even after the five years spent in the country by a Viceroy or Governor from home. Let us compare India with Europe : Europe has an area of 3,750,000 square miles and a population of 400,000,000 ; while India has an area of 1,850,000 square miles and a population of 314,955,000. That is, it is equal in size and population to the Continent of Europe, European Russia excluded. Who will credit anyone with knowing the peoples scattered over such a vast and diversified area ?

Of this immense population, two thirds are under direct British rule. About one third enjoy a modified home-rule, in some 500 feudatory states, scattered all over the land, and varying in size and population from that of an European second-class Kingdom to that of an English parish. The princes who rule these feudatory states are of different race and caste from the majority of the peoples over whom they hold sway. The great Musalman state of Hyderabad is ruled by a dynasty of Turkish descent ; that of Bhopal by one of Pathan origin, though the majority of the inhabitants of both are Hindus or aborigines. The Sudra Mahratta rulers of Central India are natives of the Dekkan, and amongst their subjects, in whose eyes they are foreigners, there are practically no Mahrattas.

Although these states enjoy home-rule, their Government is autocratic, but the British Government is responsible for its not being unduly tyrannous.

I will now give a very brief resume of Indian history, and describe the principal religions of the country, without some knowledge of which it is impossible for anyone to appreciate the existing conditions.

The original inhabitants of India were various Turanian tribes, who carried on perpetual wars with one another, so that from remote ages the population has been disunited. These aborigines professed an animistic form of worship ; they had no caste system or hereditary priesthood ; they buried their dead ; they drank fermented liquor and ate flesh of all kinds, including that of kine, considered sacred by Hindus, and pigs, forbidden to Musalmans. The descendants of these aboriginal tribes — who are outside the Hindu pale — numbered, according to the census of 1872, some 20,000,000 ; they are now said to number 60,000,000 ; they are spread throughout the length and breadth of the land. They are treated as beasts by Hindus, and this has been so from the most remote ages. They are regarded by them as out-castes, and are only allowed to fill menial offices, such as those of village scavengers and the like. Hindus regard them as unclean and to touch one means social defilement.

After their conquest, the Hindus enslaved those aborigines who could not find refuge in mountain, desert, or forest fastnesses. To-day the aborigines may be divided into two categories, viz. : those who were enslaved, and those who maintained a rude independence.

On the institution of caste, the enslaved aborigines were accepted into Hinduism in its Sudra, or servile, caste. Those who kept their freedom are still to be found in mountains, deserts, or forests, all over India. Many forests and deserts were reclaimed and populated in the course of time, when those Turanian tribes, who took refuge in them, became either predial slaves to Hindus, or remained hereditary criminals or wandering tribes in a very low state of civilization. Some, however, have in recent years been civilized by British missionaries and officials, and many are Christians. Rather than submit to the yoke of their age-long oppressors, these aborigines would fight to the last drop of their blood. They hate Hindus with an undying hatred, except in Rajputana, where some Rajput rulers have accorded them fairly decent treatment.

The Arians — now represented by the Hindus — descended on

india~from the North, in successive conquering hordes, and,

after long and bloody wars, they conquered most of the Turanian

graces. In these wars they were assisted — as every subsequent

conqueror of India has been — by some of the native tribes whom

they took into their fold, even in the higher castes, and these

are now considered Arians. There is no doubt that, among

* Brahmans and Rajputs, there are many sub-tribes of Turanian

descent. The Hindus also intermarried with the subject race.

The Hindus — having conquered most of the Turanians — set out to fight one another for supremacy, and those of the defeated people who had retained their independence took sides in the fray as suited them.

During one of the short periods of peace which came from time to time amid the general anarchy, the Hindus invented the caste system. They did this some 2,500 years ago, and from 'that time present-day Hinduism may be said to have been established, for the system then introduced has changed very little ever since. XJie _£astersystem is the most perfect one that the wit of man has ever invented for the purpose of enabling the few to oppress the many, and it has had dire results on Hinduism. Since its institution Hindus have been disunited. The warrior-class has been limited to very small numbers, and the vast majority having become pacific both by creed and habit, Hindus have ever been an easy prey to the invader.

.JBudhism at one time prevailed over the greater part of India, but little trace of it now remains, except in its influence on Hinduism. The effect of this influence has been to further increase the pacificism of the un warlike tribes.

The caste-system is the string which binds Hinduism together, for Hindus have no obligatory religious belief. The penalty for a serious breach of caste rules was formerly outcasting, but it rarely happens nowadays that anyone breaks caste rules to such an extent as to necessitate it. Nowadays offences against caste-regulations are usually met by fines, with the exception of those regarding the sanctity of Brahmans and kine and inter-marriage between persons of different caste, which meet with no mercy. Out-caste-ing is a terrible punishment. It means that the offender is thrown out of the community into which he has been born, and must live apart, rejected by men and gods.

A myth was invented which gave the caste-system divine sanction, and it has taken such deep root in Hindu social institutions that it forms the vital part of Hinduism, which nothing but a religious revolution can upset. The caste-system, as originally established, consisted of four castes, as follows :

(A.) The Brahmans, or sacerdotal and ruling caste, were also the custodians of all knowledge, religious and secular. Brahmans are supposed to have imparted all knowledge to mankind, and against their decisions there is no appeal.

(B.) The Rajputs, or people of royal descent, who were the onTy warlike caste. Their duty was to guard and protect the people, and for this purpose they fought among themselves in support of contending factions. They often fought for no other reason than to keep their hands in.

(C.) The Vaisya, or agricultural class, who tended the herds, tilled the fields and carried on trade.

(D.) The Sudra, or servile caste, formed from the vanquished aborigines who accepted Hinduism, served the three other orders in menial capacities.

The first three castes were called the twice-born, and males wore the sacred string, or janeo, next the skin and over the shoulder, to distinguish them from the servile order. This only Brahmans, Rajputs, and some of the trading class said to be of Rajput descent, wear to-day. Boys are usually invested with it with great ceremony by Brahman priests, between the ages of seven and nine years. They must assume it before marriage. The language of the three first orders was originally Sanskrit. Nowadays the Brahmans, except a few of the most learned, know nothing of it ; they speak the numerous vernaculars of the countries they inhabit, whilst the Rajputs speak various dialects of Hindi, which are to Sanskrit what French or Italian is to Latin.

The Vaisya caste, in the course of time, mingled with the Sudra caste, and has now disappeared, being only represented by the small mercantile non-Hindu community called Jains. Agricultural duties are now divided among all castes, except 'that of the Banias (traders and money-lenders). There are Brahman, Rajput and Sudra agriculturists ; the majority being of the latter order.

Trading and banking is carried on largely by a caste now

called Kshatri, which was the ancient name of the Rajputs,

from whom it claims descent. In virtue of this claim, Kshatris

^are considered twice-born and wear the sacred string. They are

now merchants, bankers, village-shopkeepers and usurers. They

are generally known as Banias — the word is synonymous among

the rural population with that which may be translated as

" Mean, cowardly, skin-flint." They are — except in the Punjab,

where many of them have become Sikhs — a timid and unwarlike

class. Brahmans also keep shops, especially at the great Hindu

"~snrmes, at which all classes of Hindus attend. All castes can

eat food prepared by Brahmans, or drink water from their

hands.

The military profession has long been adopted byBrah mans and Sudras. Amongst the latter, the Jats and Mahrattas have done so in the greatest numbers. During the long years of anarchy, Brahmans have almost disappeared as rulers. In ancient days, Rajputs replaced them in the princely office, and, In recent times, Sudras of now warlike castes have done so.

The various castes have split up into sub-castes, whose interests, customs and languages are different one from the other in the different parts of India which they inhabit, as are also their religious rites and ceremonies. Each caste has its own caste-rules, decided by its religious council. Rajputs are the least divided, and also the least under Brahmanical subjection, to which all, however, bow in a greater or less degree.