Puslapio vaizdai
PDF
„ePub“

Hindus to the advantages to be derived from education, the Report of the Public Services Commission brings out in addition that they have benefited by their unquestioned enterprise to an extent far in excess of their numbers. There are in all India 11,064 civil appointments carrying salaries of 160l. a year or more. Of these 4573 are held by Indians of all communities, 3119 being held by Hindus. Brahmans, though in all India they number only 14.5 millions, hold 1455 of these posts, no other caste having half as many; while the whole Mohammedan community, numbering 66.6 millions, has to be content with 771.* Had the Commissioners pursued their investigations below the salary limit of 1607. a year to appointments of, say, 60l. a year, an even greater preponderance of Brahmans would undoubtedly have been found in the Public Services. The higher appointments have attached to them ordinarily a power, if not of direct patronage, still of selection and recommendation for the lower posts in a department; and it is but human nature-as it certainly is the Brahman nature-to use it in favour of one's own castemen.

In the profession of Law Brahmans outnumber all other classes, and frequently attain great distinction, a conspicuous instance being seen in Sir S. Subrahmanya Aiyar, K.C.I.E., who, now that he has retired from the Bench of the High Count, Madras, has taken a foremost place in the agitation for Home Rule in its most extreme form. Brahmans, again, are very numerous in the teaching profession, where, if they be politically-minded, their influence in the same direction often proves to be very great indeed; and, as is well known, they are to a large extent the controlling power of the native Press, both English and Vernacular.

It is altogether to the credit of this caste that they occupy the position they do in that modern India which is the creation of British rule. They have shown an alertness, a persistence, a suppleness and adaptability such as no other class of Indians can claim. They are the leaders of the intelligentsia of India, with the added advantage that, in spite of all the advance in education

* See also Census Report, pp. 429, 430.

and the influx of liberalising ideas from the West, they still exercise a subtle religious sway over all Hindus.

The class distinctions of the West are no counterpart of the Indian caste system; and it is only the veriest sophistry that would identify them. 'In India there is no common birthright.' * No Hindu can become a Brahman or obtrude himself into the prerogatives of the caste; a man is born a Brahman or not; if he is so born, he may assume such of the prerogatives as he chooses. It is not even a matter of religious confession; 'no one is interested in what his neighbour believes, but he is very much interested in knowing whether he can eat with him or take water from his hands;'† and of course also whether inter-marriage is permissible. Seeley regarded religion as 'the strongest and most important of all the elements which go to constitute nationality'; and he thought that in India Brahmanism might supply this element. It is striving hard to do so to-day, but, if it were to succeed, would it be able to secure for India 'fellowship on terms of equality with the civilised nations of the earth'? It may well be doubted, for, with the dawning of a new day for democracy, there could be no close cooperation with a Government which, based on an aristocracy of birth, would be essentially oligarchic, and which, besides, if not religiously intolerant, would secure a new lease of power for a social tyranny of the most intense type.

Mr Archer has unerringly put his finger on the real sore of India when he says with reference to caste, 'The tragic paradox of India's fate is this. She is unified by that which at the same time divides and enfeebles her.' In whatever way the origin of this or that caste may be explained, 'the spirit of exclusiveness is everywhere the same'; 'all castes are hemmed in by similar restrictions against inter-marriage and commensality'; they are, the countless compartments' of 'the magnificent cage' that India has manufactured, and worships with all ceremony.' §

[ocr errors]

It is therefore not easy to supply a common interest of sufficient strength to overcome the interminable

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

cleavages produced by the system, and so to draw together that enormous mass of 217.3 millions of human beings called Hindus. If it be one of the ironies of fate that Great Britain is daily creating just such a common interest, to her own increasing embarrassment, it ought also to be regarded as being to her greater glory. Had Great Britain followed the policy of 'Divide et impera,' her own difficulties would have been fewer; instead, she has not only, so to speak, pulled India together physically, but by seeking to confer on all classes, from the proudest Brahman to the most degraded 'untouchable,' on Mussulman, Sikh, Christian and Buddhist alike, equal benefits and privileges, she has facilitated the advance of India towards the realisation of nationality.

As India is so lacking in homogeneity, it will be necessary, with a further extension of self-government, to extend also the principle of communal representation. There is not only the great religious division between Hindus and Mohammedans; there are divisions among the Hindus themselves which in this connexion probably deserve consideration. A strong anti-Brahman current has set in in the South, which may lead to a cleavage of such magnitude as to require political recognition. It has grown to great volume and influence since the demand for immediate Home Rule was launched. It is a striking indication of healthy, vigorous self-assertion to get rid of an intolerable religio-social tyranny. The non-Brahman Hindus, while not losing sight of selfgovernment as the ultimate goal, are demanding communal representation, so that their interests may meantime be delivered from Brahman overlordship; and they recognise that it is only by the continuance of the firm and just government of Great Britain that they will be guaranteed the time necessary to fit them for that share in the government of their country to which their numbers and their wealth entitle them. Moreover, there are other religious communities which, though numerically small, have interests that deserve to be safeguarded, such as the Christians of the South, with a high percentage of literacy, and the Sikhs of the North-West, who, while probably caring little about representative government, have by the help they have rendered in

this war earned for themselves a right to generous treatment.*

Again, the landholding, the agricultural, the industrial, the commercial, and the Anglo-Indian interests, in short, the capitalist and productive interests, must be carefully protected in a representative system in which without checks of a communal kind all control would pass into the hands of professional politicians. How vastly important, for example, the agricultural interest is, may be seen from the statement in the Census Report (p. 405) that of actual workers in India 71 per cent. are engaged in pasture and agriculture, and only 29 per cent. in all other occupations combined.'

The facts that have been adduced amply justify the conclusion that conflicting interests are so many and so great that India cannot yet be regarded as a nation speaking with a voice of unchallengeable authority. If the balance is to be held even, so that the opposing interests may in time come into some sort of harmonious cooperation, it can only be done by the continued rule of the Power which, in virtue of its attitude of detachment, has given proof of its capacity for the task. Whatever measure of self-determination may be regarded as now due to India, it must fall far short of the extravagant demands of the extremists; for to surrender at this stage of India's development the destinies of the many inarticulate millions to a microscopic minority of individuals, congregated for most part in the cities would be a gross betrayal of a trust. As Sir Rabindranath Tagore has said, 'The narrowness of sympathy which makes it possible for us (Hindus) to impose upon a considerable portion of humanity the galling yoke of inferiority will assert itself in our politics in creating the tyranny of injustice.' That tyranny will surely not be allowed to rear its head.

J. M. RUSSELL.

In all India there are 3.8 millions of Christians, and of these 12 million are in the Madras presidency, and 11 million more in the contiguous Native States, Travancore and Cochin. The Sikhs number 30 millions, almost all in the Punjab.

Art. 10.-A TAME HOUSE OF LORDS.

Report of the Conference on the Reform of the Second Chamber. Letter from Viscount Bryce to the Prime Minister [Cd. 9038]. H.M. Stat. Office, 1918.

THE Second Chamber Conference was appointed on Aug. 25, 1917. It began work on Oct. 2. During the next six months it held forty-eight sittings and it reported in April last. Its members were chosen in equal numbers from both Houses, but one member, Mr T. P. O'Connor, was throughout absent in America. The experience of the members was wide and varied. Lord Bryce, the Chairman, and Mr J. A. R. Marriott brought wide historical knowledge and a special study of constitutions and second chambers to the service of the Conference. Law was represented by Lord Loreburn. Many members had held high office at home and abroad, and all had long been trained in public affairs. Few of the Peers would be called strong House of Lords men, and some had sat in the House of Commons so long that they might have no little bias in favour of the Commons House. The other half were probably decided House of Commons men.

Of the many recommendations of the Conference two stand out conspicuous: one is the mode in which the Second Chamber is to be constituted; the other is the method in which differences arising between the two Chambers are to be composed. Even more remarkable perhaps than these recommendations, as to which there was some difference of opinion, were the preliminary assumptions, as to which it seems there was none. The Conference began by considering what functions were appropriate to a Second Chamber; and it was found that agreement existed' on four points. Theoretically, no doubt, this procedure was logical, but one cannot help wondering whether all those who agreed about the appropriate functions quite foresaw to what political proposals those premises would lead them in the long run. The Conference was discreetly handled. If the members had begun by going through the actual powers of the House of Lords and considering seriatim what should be taken Vol. 230.-No. 457.

2 F

« AnkstesnisTęsti »