Indian Unrest | Page 5

the germs of
representative institutions, among a people that had for centuries been
governed autocratically, and in a country where local liberties and
habits of self-government had been long obliterated or had never
existed. At the same time we have been spreading modern education
broadcast throughout the land, where, before English rule, learning had
not advanced beyond the stage of Europe in the middle ages. These
may be taken to be the primary causes of the existing Unrest; and
meanwhile the administrative machine has been so efficiently
organized, it has run, hitherto, so easily and quietly, as to disguise from
inexperienced bystanders the long discipline and training in affairs of
State that are required for its management. Nor is it clearly perceived
that the real driving power lies in the forces held in reserve by the
British nation and in the respect which British guardianship everywhere
commands. That Indians should be liberally invited to share the
responsibilities of high office is now a recognized principle of public

policy. But the process of initiation must be gradual and tentative; and
vague notions of dissolving the British connexion only prove
incompetence to realize the whole situation, external and internal, of
the country. Across the frontiers of India are warlike nations, who are
intent upon arming themselves after the latest modern pattern, though
for the other benefits of Western science and learning they show, as yet,
very little taste or inclination. They would certainly be a serious
menace to a weak Government in the Indian plains, while their
sympathy with a literary class would be uncommonly slight. Against
intruders of this sort the British hold securely the gates of India; and it
must be clear that the civilization and future prosperity of the whole
country depend entirely upon their determination to maintain public
tranquillity by strict enforcement of the laws; combined with their
policy of admitting the highest intellects and capacities to the Councils
of the State, and of assigning reasonable administrative and legislative
independence to the great provinces in accord with the unity of a
powerful Empire.
A.C. LYALL
CHAPTER I.
A GENERAL SURVEY.
That there is a lull in the storm of unrest which has lately swept over
India is happily beyond doubt. Does this lull indicate a gradual and
steady return to more normal and peaceful conditions? Or, as in other
cyclonic disturbances in tropical climes, does it merely presage fiercer
outbursts yet to come? Has the blended policy of repression and
concession adopted by Lord Morley and Lord Minto really cowed the
forces of criminal disorder and rallied the representatives of moderate
opinion to the cause of sober and Constitutional progress? Or has it
come too late either permanently to arrest the former or to restore
confidence and courage to the latter?
These are the two questions which the present situation in India most
frequently and obviously suggests, but it may be doubted whether they

by any means cover the whole field of potential developments. They
are based apparently upon the assumption that Indian unrest, even in its
most extreme forms, is merely the expression of certain political
aspirations towards various degrees of emancipation from British
tutelage, ranging from a larger share in the present system of
administration to a complete revolution in the existing relations
between Great Britain and India, and that, the issues thus raised being
essentially political, they can be met by compromise on purely political
lines. This assumption ignores, I fear, certain factors of very great
importance, social, religious, and economic, which profoundly affect, if
they do not altogether overshadow, the political problem. The question
to which I propose to address myself is whether Indian unrest
represents merely, as we are prone to imagine, the human and not
unnatural impatience of subject races fretting under an alien rule which,
however well intentioned, must often be irksome and must sometimes
appear to be harsh and arbitrary; or whether to-day, in its more extreme
forms at any rate, it does not represent an irreconcilable reaction
against all that not only British rule but Western civilization stands for.
I will not stop at present to discuss how far the lamentable deficiencies
of the system of education which we have ourselves introduced into
India have contributed to the Indian unrest. That that system has been
productive of much good few will deny, but few also can be so blind as
to ignore the fact that it tends on the one hand to create a semi-educated
proletariate, unemployed and largely unemployable, and on the other
hand, even where failure is less complete, to produce dangerous
hybrids, more or less superficially imbued with Western ideas, and at
the same time more or less completely divorced from the realities of
Indian life. Many other circumstances also which have helped the
promoters of disaffection I