INDIAN POINTS OF VIEW .sx I .sx " Isn't England a very dangerous place to live in ?sx " a distinguished but untravelled Indian asked me with much concern at a farewell party given to me on my retirement from India after nearly thirty years' service .sx " A dangerous place to live in ?sx " I queried in surprise , wondering if I had understood him aright .sx " Yes , " he replied seriously .sx " Every time I take up an English paper I see large headlines of 'The Bungalow Murder' , or 'The Seaside Tragedy' , or 'The River Mystery' , and , there being so few people in England comparatively , aren't the murders and accidents very large in proportion , making England a very dangerous place to live in ?sx " In my endeavours to explain to him that it is only because these things are so comparatively rare that they excite such large headlines and attract so much notice , it was borne in upon me that my Indian friend was only stating very much the same point of view of England that many Englishmen habitually take of the condition of things in India .sx Often with only his morning paper his sole means of contact with Indian affairs the stay-at-home Englishman reading of a riot in Bengal , disturbances in Bombay , a bomb outrage in the Punjab , or unrest on the Frontier , is more than apt to exaggerate the extent and importance of them .sx He has no personal realization of the enormous extent of our Indian Empire , no statistics beside him to tell him of the vast masses of the population of many races , castes , and creeds .sx He forgets that the whole of the British Isles would fit comfortably into one very small corner of India , and that a riot or disturbance on a scale and of a character that , occurring in England , might well shake the tranquillity of the whole country , has usually little or no effect outside its own limited area , in the midst of that vast conglomeration of States and Provinces .sx And this for more reasons than one .sx India is not a nation .sx There is no corporate spirit uniting it .sx The great mass of the people of India knows nothing of nationality , of common interests or united action .sx A riot in Bengal is unheard of in the Punjab except to the infinitesimal minority that reads the newspapers or as a vague , swift-running rumour that concerns it personally not at all .sx Of what interest to the Tamil are the doings of the .sx Bengalee ?sx Trouble in a Balkan State affects Spain as little as a Frontier raid disturbs the serenity of Madras .sx It is this immensity of area and diversity of interests that make it so difficult for the average Englishman to grasp the Indian situation .sx He is so apt , like my Indian friend of the farewell party , to exaggerate the importance of a single incident , or even of a series of incidents .sx A riot in Bengal , a disturbance on the Frontier , or disaffection in Bombay , may each be a sufficiently serious affair in itself , but that any one of them should assume proportions affecting the whole of India is not in the nature of probability or possibility .sx Local incidents must remain local incidents because there is no community of interests .sx " We live a life divided into " , said a leading Indian Nationalist not long since in an impassioned speech .sx " Our patriotism is communal :sx our unity amounts to mere juxtaposition :sx steeped in the prejudices of a mediaeval age with half the nation losing its vitality behind the purdah , and , in its turn , devitalizing the other half ; disintegrated by warring castes and creeds which condemn a population greater than that of the United Kingdom or Japan as untouchables .sx " It is a true indictment of present conditions , and it is a curious commentary on Indian mentality that the man who can see clearly thus far should not realize that these very conditions render utterly impracticable and impossible the high-flown schemes of independence and self-government that he advocates .sx But until one grasps this form of Indian mentality it is impossible to come to an understanding of the Indian situation .sx The Indian and the English attitude towards life are diametrically opposed .sx While the average Indian is essentially eloquent and imaginative the average Englishman is neither the one nor the other .sx While the Englishman has broken down practically all barriers between man and man , realizing that unity is strength , the Indian is still divided into castes and creeds that make co-operation and even goodwill at present impracticable .sx Mohammedanism and Hinduism show little real sign of working hand in hand .sx Without our restraining presence there can be little doubt that their age-long antagonism would flame forth into actual warfare .sx Never before till the coming of the British Raj had the Indian Peninsula been brought under one rule .sx A beginning has been made .sx A great Indian nation is in the making .sx But as yet it is only at its inception .sx II .sx We were sitting in the Legislative Assembly in Simla , as .sx remote geographically from the realities of life as the subject under discussion from the field of practical politics .sx We were solemnly debating , after only a few months' existence , a resolution that the infant Parliament , having already shown such wisdom and efficiency should forthwith be vested with further extensive powers .sx It was a resolution , proposed in that inconsequent , irresponsible Oriental spirit which the average more stolid and practical Western mind finds it so difficult to understand .sx Even the proposer of the resolution hardly expected to be taken seriously , was hardly serious himself in proposing it .sx Few if any of those who supported it , working themselves to high-flown eloquence in the doing of it , really believed in the advisability or possibility of it .sx But it was a grand subject for debate .sx It gave free play to the imagination , and so , for hour after hour , we debated it , Government , with strange and misunderstood leniency , letting the useless discussion drag on interminably .sx It was during a particularly flamboyant speech full of impossible demands that a fellow Member beside me leaned forward and whispered " But wait a minute and I'll make them " .sx He was an Indian with an extremely powerful voice , a great fund of humour , and much common sense .sx Catching the Speaker's eye , he leaped to his feet , and his clear resonant tones rang out , riveting the attention of the House as they always did .sx " It is not what we want in life , " he began .sx " It's what we can reasonably expect .sx " It was a good opening , and he paused dramatically revelling in the atmosphere of expectant silence .sx " Now that reminds me , " he went on , " of a story I heard not long since .sx There was once an old woman who went into a butcher's shop .sx As she paused in front of the counter , eyeing the meat , the butcher hurried forward and asked her :sx `What do you want this morning , Madam ?sx ' 'Want ?sx ' she exclaimed , `Why I want ten thousand a year , a yacht , a house in Park Lane , and a dozen other things , but all I expect to get is two pounds of beef on credit till Saturday' .sx " Never before or since have I heard the Legislative Assembly so rock with laughter .sx The Indian mind loves similes and parables .sx That little illustration summed up the whole matter under debate , throwing a flashlight of common sense upon it , putting it more clearly and simply than all the wealth of oratory that had gone before .sx His fellow Members thoroughly appreciated it .sx Nothing could have made them realize more vividly the futility of the debate .sx They had been crying for the moon .sx They had been asking for something that , in their heart of hearts , they knew to be unreasonable .sx There is much that one wants in life .sx There is not so much that one can reasonably expect .sx But the end of that debate was as unexpected to the supporters of Government as to the extremists .sx Government solemnly agreed to forward the resolution to the Secretary of State for consideration .sx It was an inconceivable course of action to anyone who knew the Indian mentality , though possibly an unavoidable consequence of previous mistakes .sx The whole policy of the so-called reforms has been the greatest mistake that the English Government has made since its control of Indian affairs .sx It has been carried through by men without long and intimate personal knowledge of India , and in spite of the advice and strong disapproval of at least ninety-five per cent .sx of those with such long and intimate personal knowledge .sx It would be difficult to find one Englishman with twenty years' personal experience of India who approved of the reforms .sx Yet , in spite of the almost unanimous disapproval of those on the spot and of those consequently best qualified to judge , they were forced upon India .sx Regardless of conditions , regardless of the utter dissimilarity of the Eastern and Western temperament , an attempt was made to give India an English Constitution , to provide it with a fully-fledged Parliamentary system that England herself has taken something like a thousand years to evolve .sx Because a certain form of government had proved satisfactory in England it was concluded by those with no personal knowledge of the East that it must prove equally satisfactory for India .sx There could be no more ill-judged or illogical conclusion .sx It is absurd to maintain that English and Indian mentality are on the same level ; that conditions in India can be compared with conditions in England .sx To argue that what is good for the one must be good for the other is so childish that it is almost incredible that a great nation should have deliberately formed a policy along those lines .sx One is forcibly reminded of Alice in Wonderland , and , constantly sitting on the Legislative Assembly , one rubbed one's eyes in bewilderment expecting to awake out of dreamland hack into the world of reality .sx We rule India by the sword .sx It is puerile to hide our heads in the sand and pretend that we do not .sx But for our army and our police we could not maintain our hold upon India for a day .sx For a hundred and fifty years the Indian has respected the Englishman as a man of truth and honour , whose word was his .sx bond .sx How can he respect us when we put our heads in the sand and pretend that things are not what they really are and what we both at heart know them to be ?sx Why are we ashamed of having conquered India ?sx Why must we pretend that we do not now hold it by right of conquest ?sx England has one of the most remarkable achievements in history to its credit , and one of which any nation might well be proud .sx The Indian loves strength and is ready to follow the strong man .sx For years the Englishman in India was revered almost as a god .sx Those were the days when he was a leader indeed , ruling with no uncertain hand but with a justice and equity that won him the universal admiration and respect of those he ruled .sx During the century and a half that our dominion in India has been undisputed we have brought to that vast empire peace , unity , and prosperity such as she has never before known in all her long history .sx Why , in these latter days , have we suddenly grown ashamed of our record , apologetic of the great position we hold , and frightened of a handful of rebels ?sx The mass of the Indian people is with us .sx Is there a single Indian to-day who would not prefer to have his case heard by an English judge rather than by one of his own race ?sx The Englishman's prestige still holds .sx The individual is still , almost without exception , respected .sx It is the English Government that has lost prestige .sx How can the Indian , accustomed for generations to be ruled , understand or respect a Government that panders to rebels , but only timidly and at last , when practically forced to do so , imprisons the man who has been responsible for more bloodshed than any other man in India , and then parleys with him and tries to make terms ?sx