LORD CURZON AND HIS BEGGING BOWL 147 India remains unredeemed. That is one reason why famine is to-day chronic in India. Do any of us, I wonder, realise what the great nations of the world are thinking and saying of our administration in connection with these many dreadful famines? Depend upon it, they see the consequences which we will not allow ourselves to see and concerning which we comfort ourselves by describing what we do see by other and inoffensive appellations. I have seldom, as a Briton, felt more humiliated than I did in January, 1900, when I happened to be in Paris. Le Matin, one of the most trustworthy of Parisian journals, one day contained a long article descriptive of the sufferings of the famine-stricken Indian people, and depreciatory of British rule. Knowing I had lived in India, the President of the British Chamber of Commerce in Paris came to me, as he said, so that I should supply him with material whereby he could demolish such horrible slanders on the British name as were contained in the article in question. I replied that I should only be too happy to do what he wanted. I read the article carefully. When I got to the end of it, I found I could not contradict or disprove a single statement it contained. There were some alleged incidents as to which I could say nothing, as I had no information concerning them, except that they were not improbable. The main story was unassailable, the deductions not unreasonable. The story was not complimentary, the deductions were not flattering, either to our self-esteem or to our humanity as the rulers of India. The like thing happened in the United States. When Lord Curzon, in 1900, carried a begging bowl among the nations beseeching subscriptions for the famine-stricken, the question was asked, 'Why should America give?' It was urged that India's millions were starving because of England's neglect of duty to India. Is it too late to bring India back to prosperity? More often than not, in pondering over the situation, I think it is too late. Only by a change in the mind and attitude of the English people, requiring a great miracle to bring it about, is it possible to cherish even a hope for better things, for a brighter outlook. In the best of circumstances, which is that the British people, on being instructed as to the real facts of the case, should put their whole heart and strength into an effort for reform-the task will be tremendously difficult. But will the instruction be given? Where are the instructors? Who amongst us have eyes to see, ears to hear? If we would but see, did we dare to let ourselves hear, what India from nearly all her hundreds of districts is showing to us, is saying to us, only one thing could happen; we should be so worked upon as to determine, God helping us, that this one thing we would do: We would so change the conditions of our rule in India that the inhabitants of that distressful country should once again in their history have daily bread enough for comfortable sustenance, and that the whole realm of India once more should taste the sweets of prosperity. Meanwhile, whether we heed them or whether we scorn them 'A sorrowing people, in their mortal pain, Shall they Hands in vain?' 'stretch those PUNCH ON INDIAN PROSPERITY' 149 VOX INDIE CLAMANTIS. ["In their prosperity will be our strength, in their contentment our security, and in their gratitude our best reward." The forthcoming debate on the Indian Budget reminds us that we have still to profit by the wise words of Queen Victoria.'-Daily Paper.] PROSPERITY!—when year by year Draw ever nearer and more near, Of Her benign decree! What strength, O England, shall be thine In that poor slavish heart, That dumb despair, with sunken eyes, Ah, what security can be On such contentment based by thee? Thy charitable mites But feed to-day the feeble frame Canst find reward in apathy? -Punch, July 31, 1901. ΤΟ THE HONOURED MEMORY OF THE FAMINE-SLAIN IN INDIA DURING THE PERIOD 1891-1901. ABE RAM, TO YOU, HIRA SINGH PURI, YOUR WIFE AND LITTLE ONES, PERSHOTUM CUNDY, With all others of your respective races, there were at the least nineteen millions of you between 1891 and 1901, who PERISHED FROM FAMINE, I, humbly, on behalf of myself and my fellow-Britons, men, women, and children, who, under God, are responsible for your welfare, Pay my Sincere Homage to your patience, your long-suffering, your resignation, your general acquiescence in a condition of affairs which afflicted you so sorely; and, above all, for the entire absence on your part from holding us responsible for your sufferings. For, had you been strict to mark accountability, all justification were wanting. A FAMINE EPITAPH I CANNOT SAY, 'GOD HELPING US, WE WILL ENSURE THAT 151 NEVER AGAIN SHALL SUCH SUFFERINGS AFFLICT YOUR RACE-FELLOWS WHO REMAIN.' Believe me, this is not because we in England were deliberately heartless, cruel in our thoughts, or wilfully careless concerning your well-being. No! that was not our position: We were among the Kindest-Hearted and Most Sympathetic People in the World (at least, this is what we often told ourselves), But, We were your Rulers, whatever happens in India happens as the result of what we do, and our eyes are holden so that we cannot see, our minds are numbed so that we cannot understand, that what is happening in India may be (I, for one, say is) THE NECESSARY RESULT OF OUR SYSTEM OF RULE. If this fact were once realised by my Countrymen and Countrywomen, The Hunger and Thirst, the Nakedness and Poverty, of Your People would speedily come to an end. How shall this fact be brought home to the I KNOW NOT. I DESPAIR OF ITS EVER BEING DONE. There is no Hope for Your Race. YOU HAVE DIED. YOU HAVE DIED USELESSLY. No one learns the lesson which your dying should teach. |