The silent India, being tales and sketches of the masses

Front matter

PRINCETON, N. J.

Purchased by the Hamill Missionary Fund.

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Preface

millions who lead a simple rural life, contented with the thoughts and occupations of their forefathers, inherited from the distant past. This is the population of which only the experienced Anglo-Indian has any real cognisance, and it is from long contact with this that he principally derives those feelings of kindliness and sympathy which make for friendship and esteem between the races.

We are accustomed in Europe to regard the voice of the great centres of population in most matters as that of the people generally, but it would be unwise to adopt this idea as regards our great dependency, for opinion and sentiment, though unexpressed, may be very strong and deep-rooted, and it is as well to grasp the fact that there is a great gulf fixed between the views of the urban and rural communities on many very weighty and important points. In India, education, such as it is (only ten per cent of the male population, and one per cent of the female population, can read and write), is principally confined to towns ; and meagre though this amount may appear, it nevertheless has considerable influence in leavening thoughts and ideas in such localities. But the population in the villages is probably one of the most illiterate and simple-minded in the world.

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Mr Yusaf Ali correctly says that agriculture is the basis of all Indian life. At least two-thirds of the people belong to the rural classes, and, in proportion to population, there are probably ten people engaged in the cultivation of land and allied occupations, to one in England. The indirect influence of towns is far less felt than is the case at home, and, except in a few instances, is practically imperceptible some twenty or thirty miles from even a large city. This great silent population, living its own somewhat primitive life, is, as we said, almost uneducated as we understand the term, is deeply conservative in thought, intelligent in the pursuit of its special occupations, and is, moreover, at the present time contented. From it we mostly draw our recruits for the Indian Army and Police. Amid the flood of literature on India we obtain but glimpses of the life, environment, thoughts and customs of these, to-day, politically inert masses, for they come but superficially under the observation of the traveller or student. They are shy and suspicious of strangers, and give their confidence slowly and cautiously ; often masking considerable common-sense and shrewdness under an affectation of stupidity very effective in attaining the desired object — which is, as a rule, simply to be left alone.

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Officials, such as District Officers and others, who know these people well, have usually little leisure for literary work outside their regular and exacting duties, and, moreover, do not generally grasp the idea that descriptions of details and incidents with which they are so familiarised (and slightly bored) can possess any attraction for other persons differently situated ; but the present writer has conceived the impression that many people in England really are desirous of information regarding the conditions of existence in the Silent India, though he realises that they are so utterly dissimilar to those of which the home-dweller has had any actual experience, that the drama of life in our great dependency cannot be presented to such persons in a manner likely to excite much interest, especially in the absence of any acquaintance with its setting. He cannot presume to hope that any efforts of his can materially remove this disability, but in the following tales and sketches (two of which, “ An Indian Village’’ and “A Religious Fair,” have appeared in ‘ Blackwood’s Magazine ’ and the ‘ Nineteenth Century and After,’ and are reproduced with the kind permission of the proprietors) he has endeavoured to draw some pictures of life among the rural inhabitants of India, which may serve to throw a sidelight on some of the ways

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IX and customs of the less known people of the land. Perhaps in extenuation of his temerity in attempting this task it is desirable that he should submit his credentials. As Deputy Sanitary Commissioner, and, later, as Sanitary Commissioner with the Government of the United Provinces, for upwards of a quarter of a century, the nature of his duties necessitated his almost continuous wandering among, not only the urban, but also the rural, classes, in what has been described in a Government paper as the most typical area in British India ; and the incidents related in the present little work are all actual facts within the writer’s own knowledge, or are based upon well founded and trustworthy information.

The illustrations are from photographs taken by the author’s valued friend, Mrs Ada Corbett Wilson, and his daughter Dorothy, and are reproduced with their kind permission.

S. J. THOMSON.

Contents

PAGE

I. AN INDIAN VILLAGE ...... 1

II. LALLOO’S REWARD ...... 35

I. An Indian Village

At the bottom of all the unrest in India to-day is the unsettling of men’s minds due to the diffusion of some sort of education and the greater and more frequent contact with the West and its ideas. There are many men who view this solvent and disintegrating process with equanimity, and even satisfaction, as being a necessary phase of transition from a lower to a higher intellectual plane, and indeed that this stage must be gone through is indisputable. But there are others, and these not inexperienced or foolish, who wonder where, when the flood-gates are fully opened, the torrent of educational progress will pass, and with what results. They point out that the source is vast, the water not always free from turbidity, and they fear lest the flood thus let loose over the country may sweep away much

A

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of what has taken centuries to create, and which is worthy of careful preservation. They ask in vain for the designs and plans of the training works and channels through which the mass of troubled waters is to be led and directed, and they altogether deny that there is any indication that such an extensive outlet for pent-up forces is demanded. They consider (to pursue the analogy) that the restricted irrigation operations conducted up to the present time have not been an unqualified success, and have brought to the surface a quantity of objectionable matters, formerly hidden and innocuous, which have caused a distinct decrease in the out-turn of useful produce, and that the raising of the water-table has even led to a lamentable falling-off in the public health.

However this may be, it seems clear that having put our hands to the plough we cannot look back, but must persist in our efforts, relying largely on the comfortable philosophy that we shall muddle out all right somehow in the end. The bantling must cut its teeth, albeit to the considerable discomfort of its nurse. It is our duty, we are assured, to assume “ the white man’s burden ” — an obligation the recognition of which, however, is of comparatively recent origin. Our immediate reward appears to be the prevalence of “ unrest,” and the extent of this has been considerably enlarged by circumstances over which we have had no control whatever.

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A good deal of literature has been recently appearing on this subject. The facts set forth are usually intended for the information of people in England as to the existing state of affairs in our great Eastern dependency, and various remedies are suggested for the improvement of the same. Most of these effusions appear to be written from the standpoint of the dweller in cities and towns, and, so far as they are concerned, the statements are probably correct enough. There really is at the present time a good deal of unsettled feeling in the larger towns and centres of education, and some of this has filtered, through the medium of agitators and seditious publications, into the rural areas, though not, the writer believes, to a serious extent. This is usually termed “ unrest ” — “ a word of exceeding good command,” as Bardolph says. Phrases are dear to the proletariat ; but whatever may have been the case at one time, it is far too general a term now. It is fairly applicable to that natural sentiment of dissatisfaction with conditions under which the circumstances of life are not as we should wish them to be, and however unreasonable the view may appear, undoubtedly a good deal of the distress arising from plague and famine was attributed to the Government. It is useless to ignore the fact that the rumour was diligently spread, and frequently believed, all over the country, that plague was deliberately introduced to keep down the population, which, it was stated, was

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considered by the Administration to be shown by the recent census to be too great.

The average native of India, again, is no social economist, and, if he had his way, would probably not permit the exportation of a single grain of corn from the country. Old people have related to the writer stories of local distress in past times, before railways were largely distributed in India, but they nearly always capped the narration by adding that in years of bumper crops grain was so cheap and plentiful that a man could go to a landowner’s granary and take away what he wanted almost for the asking. In their memories they set one time against another, regarding both as dispensations of Providence. Such being the mental attitude of a considerable section of the population, the sedition - monger finds his task sufficiently easy. The connection between the trouble and the Government is not clear to the people, and he supplies the explanation. The statements of such men to their hearers would be received with derision by a European audience ; but the case is very different in India,

This general feeling of vague discontent is, as already said, doubtless abroad, and may be correctly termed “ unrest.” It has been very largely dispelled by the recent Eoyal Visit to the country, and this striking proof, not only of our intention of remaining in India, but also of the King-Emperor’s deep interest in his subjects, has removed very much of the suspicious uncertainty

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which is understood by the expression referred to. With improved times it may be fairly expected to subside. It differs greatly from the hostility and organised action of the extremists. Speaking generally, the latter have suffered comparatively lightly from such afflictions as famine and plague, and their attitude must be described by a much stronger term. Although the real unrest may easily develop into a different and more dangerous feeling, at the present time the two conditions may be largely dealt with separately ; and whereas in one case a conciliatory and reassuring policy is indicated, and has been clearly enunciated by His Majesty at Delhi, in the other stern repression is called for. Active sedition and temporary discontent are two different phases of thought, and should be differently treated ; and this indeed appears to be the view of the administrators of the country at the present time.

The present situation is perplexing and even pathetic. It is difficult for the old Anglo-Indian — even to one who, like the author, has but recently left the country — to realise that recent crimes could have been committed, or to believe that the mass of the people, so docile and amiable if understood, is really seriously disaffected. Doubtless there is a section, intoxicated with ideas we have incautiously inculcated, which furnishes ready tools for a small number of dangerous conspirators. As regards the latter, there can be no question as to the course to pursue ; but in

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dealing with the cases of immature youths who are their victims, it may perhaps be doubted whether capital punishment is a really deterrent penalty. It bestows a martyrdom — spurious, it is true, but what the neurotic lad seeks. Penal servitude with transportation would largely defeat this object, and in India is a punishment often more dreaded than death.

The desires and aspirations of the advanced party are somewhat nebulous. They know well enough that such a thing as a united India, with its various races, castes, and creeds, is impossible ; and if it were a question of coming under the rule of another foreign Power, they would probably (if they had any voice in the matter, which is unlikely) elect to remain as they are, preferring to bear the ills they have to flying to others that they know not of. There is no such thing as an Indian nation ; and when this expression is used in political publications and speeches, a cynical smile is apt to cross the faces of those acquainted with the real facts of the case. The area of India is about 1,767,000 square miles, and its total population, according to the last census, was 315,001,099 souls. Size for size, there is probably no tract of country in the whole world presenting greater diversities among the inhabitants. What is there in common between the Bengali and the Pathan, between the Goorkha and the Mahratta, the Sikh and the Madrassi ? There are whole races which practically never leave the jungles :

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learned in forest-lore, but hardly acquainted with the rudiments of civilisation ; and whole tribes, nomadic from tradition and choice, who have never known a home, and of which the men are nearly all thieves and the women nearly all immoral — not from vice, but because their ancestors have never been anything else. Efforts made by the State to reclaim these people, by keeping them in settlements and teaching them trades, have only resulted in ghastly failure, for the people died like wild beasts in captivity, and the well-intentioned but cruel experiments were perforce abandoned. They are all apparently claimed as part of the “ Indian nation,” panting for progress and elective institutions !

As regards the advanced educated section, the problem seems to be to a considerable extent that of the unemployed. The crowds of intelligent, if somewhat inflated, lads studying at our schools and colleges, have mostly one goal before them — a good appointment, and preferably under Government. Their education has often taught them to despise the calling and status of their fathers, and their nimble brains are seething with vague ambitious thoughts. There is something pathetic about the situation, for only a small proportion can ever attain their desires. The writer advances the opinion with considerable diffidence, that it is extremely doubtful whether the system of high educational tests and competitive examinations is altogether suited to India. For one

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reason, reward for success is extremely uncertain. That is to say, in Europe a lad who surpasses his competitors and attains academic distinction may confidently expect to have his talents recognised, and to be gratified by the offer of good employment, but this is by no means the rule in India. The great object of the majority of students is, as said before, to obtain a remunerative post — generally a clerkship. The craving for learning in itself is probably exceptional. Now, however astute and careful the head of an office may be, the selection of young men for many of such appointments is sure to lie very largely with the superior Indian officials in the clerical department, and in practice, unless the greatest care be exercised, the staff becomes more or less a family party, where no claims are considered superior to those of brotherhood. This is the case both in Government and private offices. Disappointment and resentment follow the failure of cherished and legitimate hopes, and among such men the agitator finds ready recruits. It may seem easy to rectify this, but experienced officers know better.

People in England hardly realise perhaps how many important Government posts are, as a matter of fact, held by natives of India ; the principle of “la carriere ouverte aux talens” is observed, and practically all the public services are open to them. Still, nevertheless, the supply of candidates largely exceeds the number of avail-

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able appointments, and the country swarms with promising lads who could do well enough if only they would direct their energies into channels other than clerical and official. Engineering, medicine, art, forestry— there are many lines in life where a good living could be obtained without interference with caste, or entering Government service. Law has always had a great attraction for them, and the profession is largely overstocked,— indeed the low - class lawyer and advocate is far too much in evidence. He is clever, but too often disloyal, and most unfortunately monopolises an altogether undue proportion of seats on municipal and district councils. It is difficult for the simple man to understand the procedure of the Courts — some legal agency is necessary, — and in a country where perjured witnesses are numerous and cheap, going to law is very much what an American author describes poker — “a beautiful but uncertain game,” — which appears to have a peculiar fascination for the Oriental. In former times much of what is now fought out in the Courts was satisfactorily and gratuitously adjusted by the village tribunals, and the decadence of these is much to be regretted.

Medicine attracts many youths of good caste and extraction. This might excite surprise, but we may remember that there is an old bond between the healing art and Brahmanism. The writer has a good opinion of Indian doctors as a class, although the requisite decision and nerve

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are sometimes absent. A good deal of discontent is born and fostered in Bengal, and to the residents of this part of the country (and indeed to students generally) the Army offers no career.

Technical education is a promising remedy, and the Government is alive to the fact and is dealing with the requirement, but it is uphill work, for manual labour of any kind does not commend itself at the present time to the higher castes, and reports on the subject are depressing reading. There are some who look to the gradual extinction of caste as likely to lead to relief, but, apart from considerations as to whether such a change of thought is from all points of view desirable (which the writer entirely disbelieves), the prospect of any such thing happening on a large scale in the near future is exceedingly improbable. Nevertheless this is the tendency, and probably in the steady encouragement of technical education lies the best hope of removing the difficulty. Time and a suitable course of study may be reasonably expected gradually to loosen, without dissolving, caste ties and prejudices sufficiently to permit of the adoption of forms of employment by the higher castes which they now reject, and this without the extinction of caste itself, or any interference with the religions of the land.

There is undoubtedly a sore on the body politic ; the risk is that we may look at it with a microscope (made in Europe) and treat it as if the whole constitution were diseased.

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Behind this mass of discontent and nebulous aspiration there are, unfortunately, directing forces — the really serious element in the situation. Government should know pretty well where these dangerous and retiring conspirators lie hid, but they as a rule are cautious and take very little personal risk. An incident — which thing is also an allegory — occurs to the author. Some years ago, a disturbance happened between the religious processions of Muhammadans and Hindus during the Mohurrum festival of the former. There was evidence of its having been engineered by certain leading Hindus, and the actual site for the collision had been arranged. A serious riot ensued, and the Indian magistrate in charge of the proceedings, at his wits’ end what to do, ordered the police to fire over the heads of the crowd — a silly procedure. Now it happened that just beyond the struggling mob was a row of tall heavily-foliaged trees, and, to the horror of the official, the volley was followed by the dropping out of this cover of a number of sleek, respectable wounded men. The subsequent inquiry showed that this unexpected “bag” was largely composed of the individuals who had organised the disturbance, and who had climbed into the trees with a view to observing the row from thence without running any personal risk or becoming implicated in the proceedings !

The advanced and educated classes in India have made their voices heard very loudly, and

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we know approximately what they demand — for the present. How far are these people entitled to speak with any authority regarding the feelings and aspirations of India as a whole ? They are confined almost entirely to the larger towns and cities, and indeed constitute only a very small proportion of the population of these. Let us take a few figures. From the census of 1911 we learn that the total population of our dependency was 315,001,099, of which (deducting the people in the Native States) 77 ‘5 per cent was directly under the rule of the British Government. Of this population, not less than two-thirds are agriculturists or directly concerned in the cultivation of land. We further find that, as Sir Thomas Holderness has told us in his interesting work, ‘ Peoples and Problems of India,’ only ten per cent of the male population and one per cent of the female population can read and write, and not more than one in three hundred has any knowledge of English. Now, what do we know about the thoughts and wishes of this great majority — the Silent India — from which we draw our recruits for the Army and Police, and which pays the greater part of the revenue ? Is it desirous of change, and is it, as a body, disposed to regard the gift of higher education as a boon, or to accept its possession as a criterion of merit ? The reply of the majority of experienced Anglo-Indians would, it is believed, be in the negative. However much it is to be regretted, there is little

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seeking after knowledge at the present time among the fighting races, and that the pen is mightier than the sword is a proposition they are by no means inclined to accept. The wise and loyal old Muhammadan, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan of Aligarh, when he referred contemptuously to the “giz-giz” of the pen, spoke for many more than his own co-religionists. They are far behind the feebler races of the lower provinces educationally, and they are well aware of the fact. To elevate the masses intellectually is a very proper and generous desire, but many think that there is a political side to the question which has hardly received sufficient consideration, and that is that the movement, if too strenuous, may excite a fear in the minds of the warlike races of being brought more or less under the power of others which, however intellectual, they nevertheless despise. Many of the educated reformers who clamour for more power and pay have, it must be remembered, broken with the habits and ideals of their own country, and are regarded by the Hindu and Muhammadan masses alike with dislike and suspicion, and by the proud aristocracy with stronger feelings still. One of the great secrets of our success in India is our impartiality to all classes, and no breath of suspicion regarding this should be permitted to arise.

No wise Government would ignore the reasonable claims and wishes of any of its subjects, and there undoubtedly exists a considerable section

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which, while loyal, does desire, with much justice, a larger share in the administration of the affairs of the country ; but this ambition is by no means confined to the more highly educated class. For efficiency in administration, it is impossible to eliminate the necessity of a certain amount of intellectual knowledge, but if the standard of this be placed too high, the effect would be to practically exclude the races whose power for offence is infinitely greater than that of those possessing the required qualification. The matter is one regarding which philanthropists and scholars may find themselves in opposition to the views of practical statesmen, and is of grave moment. The difficulty is how to satisfy certain classes without alienating others. The Government is well aware of these facts, and certain recent action was unquestionably called for. We have gone too far to reasonably recede from our position. At the same time, it should be remembered that the principal observed result of the introduction of elective institutions so far has been the appearance in the political arena of a great number of pushing nobodies, glib of tongue, speaking, as Sir Thomas Overbury says, “ sentences more familiarly than sense,” not of such extraction as commands respect in a highly conservative country like India, and whose principal claim to consideration is the faculty of absorbing education, as the term is understood in that country. The last is no test of character, and experienced officers may be forgiven for re-

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garding the whole scheme at present as experimental, Opinions therefore will of course differ on the question of the expediency of granting such extended representation on Provincial Councils. A shrewd and educated Indian gentleman of high position is reported to have said that the masses do not want it, and that nothing will satisfy the irreconcilables. Still, in view of the undoubted material (the adjective is used advisedly) progress of the people generally, the measure, if properly safeguarded, is probably wise. The “ sahib,” however much liked and trusted, is nevertheless always an alien. But it is sincerely to be hoped that a good proportion of the new representatives elected by the people will be men of real weight and good birth, and, indeed, the natural leaders of the people. The crying want of the country is more reliable and trustworthy channels through which the policy and good intentions of the Government can be conveyed and explained to the masses, and for this purpose it is to the nobility and gentry of the country we must mostly look. With them on the side of British rule, the support of that section of the population which will really count in time of trouble can be relied on. Unfortunately, men of the stamp required are by no means inclined in India to appeal to the suffrages of the proletariat.

In view of the fact that, as said before, two-thirds at least of the population are concerned with agriculture, it may be not altogether unin-

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teresting to consider the question of land tenure, and to depict, however feebly, the conditions under which the average villager lives. As regards the first point: in 1793 Lord Cornwallis introduced a permanent settlement into Bengal by which the demand of the State was fixed for ever — a measure the wisdom of which has been largely questioned. Nowadays over the greater part of India a system of periodical settlement has been established, under which the State demand is revised at recurring periods of from ten to thirty years. When the revenue is assessed by the State permanently or temporarily on an individual or on a community owning an estate analogous to that of a landlord, the assessment is known as “zamindari” ; and when the revenue is imposed on individuals who are, or represent, the actual occupants of holdings, the arrangement is known as “ ryotwari.” Under either system there may be rent-paying sub-tenants.

In the surveyed and settled area 47 per cent of the total area is held by peasant proprietors, while 20 per cent is held by permanently settled and 33 per cent by temporarily settled proprietors. It is stated in the last Blue-Book on “Moral and Material Progress in India,” from which the above remarks are taken, that the burden of the land revenue per head of population is about eighteen - pence. It is further stated that the British Government takes a very much smaller share of the gross produce than was customary

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before the days of our rule, and that the assessments are lower than those that prevail generally in Native States, Increased productiveness, due to private improvements, is considerately dealt with, reductions are made in the case of deterioration, and large remissions allowed on occasions of distress such as that caused by famine. A noticeable fact is the large proportion of the assessed area held by peasant proprietors.

With this brief sketch of the tenure under which he holds his land, we pass on to the consideration of the life of the agriculturist, and perhaps the best plan will be to attempt to describe a village and its inhabitants in Upper India to-day, in an area which the Government of India has described in a recent Parliamentary paper as fairly typical of the whole of the dependency.

Heera Singh is what we should call a small farmer, of good caste, and living in the little village of Muddunpore in the United Provinces, owning his own land of some four or five acres in extent, which has been in his family for many years, albeit it is rather heavily mortgaged to Puttun Lai, the village shopkeeper and moneylender, on account of the expenses incurred in the marriage of his two daughters some years ago. He has two sons, stalwart lads, who help him in his work,, so that his mind is at ease as to the releasing of his soul and its saving from Hell when the time comes for him to be laid to draw his last breath upon the ground and for his body