CHAPTER III. THE NATIVE STATES OF INDIA-COMPARATIVE "If they were to do their duty towards India they could only discharge that duty by obtaining the assistance and counsel of all who were great and good in that country. It would be absurd in them to say that there was not a large fund of statesmanship and ability in the Indian character. They really must not be too proud. They were always ready to speak of the English Government as so infinitely superior to anything in the way of Indian Government. But if the natives of India were disposed to be equally critical, it would be possible for them to find out weak points in the harness of the English administration."-SIR STAFFORD NORTHCOTE (vide "Hansard," vol. clxxxvii. "The Mysore Question," 1867). "The general concurrence of opinion of those who know India best, is that a number of well-governed small states are in the highest degree advantageous to the development of the political and moral condition of India. It (native administration) has a fitness and congeniality for them impossible for us adequately to realise."-LORD CRANBORNE (1867). IBID. "The city (Ulwar) is walled, and full of active, busy people, more so than in British India generally; and there is more sign of life, I believe, because it has the advantage of a reigning prince resident, who spends his income at home."-SIR JAMES CAIRD. "Dans les pays qui ont conservé une semi-indépendence, l'Hindou se montre son caractère naturel; la il est accessible, car il a continue à considérer l'European comme son égal."-M. ROUSSELET, "L'Inde des Rajas," p. 104. IT descrip T would be doing injustice to the Native States if we left them out of account. Nay, we ourselves may derive some very valu- General able lessons by comparing the "India of the tion of the Rajas" with British India proper. Although the Native States comprise about two-thirds of the British territories, they are far behind as Native States. Their place in the economy regards population and revenue.* It is by no means to be inferred from this that they are misgoverned, or that their resources are undeveloped; the cause of this is that, as a rule, their productive power is far less. Thus, a large portion of Rajputana consists of arid and sandy plains; some parts again are hilly and barren. Indeed, it is probable that in times past the very sterility of some of the states argued in our eyes their raison d'être; for we knew perfectly well they would not have paid their way if our highly expensive machinery had been substituted for the indigenous administrations. The function they fulfil cannot be better described than in the words of Lord Canning: of British "These patches of Native Governments served as breakwaters to the storm, which would otherwise have swept over us in one great wave. India." We have read some of the speeches made on the important occasion when the fate of an ancient Hindu dynasty was in question. We have read them forwards and backwards, and backwards and forwards, with unmixed pleasure; and we must add, that we have never come across purer, nobler, more generous and more catholic sentiments. We are surprised to find that there are still amongst us persons who may be looked upon as survivors of the Dalhousie school. Although they are now thinned in number, † nevertheless they are sufficiently powerful to make their voice heard. Revenue of the Native States, about £15,000,000 sterling. The middle portion of this chapter has been considerably amplified. + It is now evident that when we wrote the above (October), our sanguine tone arose from a delusion. The Dalhousites were never more powerful than to-day. The Mysore reversion. The London "Times" represents this class. In place and out of place, this journal is never tired of urging the necessity and desirability of further paralyzing the powers of the Indian princes. In a series of articles which appeared in the autumn of 1884, the contributor points out that our safety lies in the disbandment of the armies of Sindia and some other princes. Disarma He observes in one place: "It would almost Native seem as if the Maharaja [Sindia] had repented of the policy he had pursued, and as if he regretted a lost opportunity." It is a pity that such libellous and scurrilous attacks should dis grace the columns of a leading paper. Sir Lepel States. mable boon." Sir James Caird tells us that in the Native "InestiStates the people are on the whole more contented and prosperous than in British India, and that they have not been driven into the clutches of the money-lenders (sowcars) by the stringent exactions of the government. What have the "inestimable boon" theorists to say to this? The exhaustion process. The writer in the Times" observes: 66 At the most moderate computation the rate of taxation in the Native States is half as much again per head as it is within our dominions." It has never occurred to him that the high taxation in the Native States is only apparent. The native rulers spend their income at home, and thus the money which the peasant pays flows back into his pocket through numerous channels; whereas a very large proportion of the revenue of British India finds safe custody and lodgment in the thousand-and-one banks scattered throughout the United Kingdom. It is not too much to say, that the systematic drainage to which India has been and is being subjected, is one of the fruitful causes of her poverty. જણ * We find there is a tendency among a certain class of writers to single out some of the worst types of Mahommedan despots and bigots, and institute a comparison between the India under them and the India of to-day. This is very fair, no doubt; but will the Mahommedan rule suffer by comparison with ours? It is forgotten that at the time when a Queen of England was flinging into flames and hurling into dungeons those of her own subjects who had the misfortune to differ from her on dogmatic niceties, the great Mogul Akbar had proclaimed the principles of universal toleration, had invited Cathole the moulvie, the pandit, the rabbi, and the the Mogul missionary to his court, and had held philosophical disquisitions with them on the merits of their various religions.† It might be said that policy of Emperors. * Sir John Low was opposed to the annexation policy on the ground that the "European gentlemen save more than they expend, and send their savings off to a distant country.' + See Elphinstone's "History of India," vol. ii., p. 321. Edition of 1841. the case of Akbar is only exceptional, and therefore he cannot be cited as a representative Mogul. Nothing would be a greater mistake than this. Religious toleration, backed by a policy dictated no less by generosity than by prudence, was the rule and not the exception with the Mogul emperors." * General Nott speaks with admiration of his "fine" Sepoys, to whose valour and heroism he was indebted for the defence of the Candahar garrison. We are surprised to learn that even the Mogul emperors had their Afghan wars, and that they appointed a great many Hindu princes, like Todar Mall, as commanders of the expedition. Again we read: "In the struggles for empire amongst the sons of Sah Jehan, consequent upon his illness, the importance of the Rajput princes and the fidelity we have often to depict were exhibited in the strongest light. The Rahtore prince (Jeswant Roo) was declared t generalissimo of the army destined to oppose selfish, Aranzebe." Can a Hindu ever aspire to be leadus a Pollock, or a Nott, or a Roberts under the beral benign British rule? What is the highest goal the British of his ambition? The "rank of a subaltern officer ! " + When on a recent occasion the flower of the Indian youth approached the Viceregal throne * "It was only Aranzebe who alienated his Hindu subjects by his bigotry and illiberal sentiments. But even under his reign "it does not appear that a single Hindu suffered death, imprisonment, or tax of property for his religion; or, indeed, that any individual was ever questioned for the open exercise of the worship of his father."ELPHINSTONE'S "History," vol. ii., p. 552. Tod's "Rajastan," vol. ii., p. 48. Edition, 1832. "Discontent of a most serious kind existed among the Indian army, owing to the pay, and owing to the impossibility of native soldiers rising to any rank above that of a subaltern officer."-LORD R. CHURCHILL: Speech, 5th May 1885. H trasted with the illi policy of rulers. |