Gold, Sport, and Coffee Planting in Mysore: With chapters on coffee planting in Coorg, the Mysore representative assembly, the Indian congress, caste and the Indian silver question, being the 38 years' experiences of a Mysore planterElliot, Robert H. (Robert Henry)
History
Gold, Sport, and Coffee Planting in Mysore: With chapters on coffee planting in Coorg, the Mysore representative assembly, the Indian congress, caste and the Indian silver question, being the 38 years' experiences of a Mysore planter
Elliot, Robert H. (Robert Henry)
Caste -- India; Coffee; Karnataka (India) -- Description and travel; Karnataka (India) -- Politics and government
The second resolution (p. 82 of Report of 1887) reaffirms the resolutions
of the two previous Congresses, which demand the expansion and reforms of
the various Indian Councils. Here the first speaker (p. 83) was a Mr.
Bannerjee, a newspaper editor, who in his introductory remarks in support
of the resolution assured the delegates that "the dream of ages is about
to be realized." We are not the legislators of the country, he further on
remarks, "though we hope to be so some day when the Councils are
reconstituted," and eloquent was the language of the speaker when he
subsequently dwelt on the fact that the power of making the laws would at
once give them every reform they could desire. Mr. Bannerjee was succeeded
by other native speakers, who dwelt warmly upon the advantages of
representative institutions, and these were followed by Mr. Norton,
Coroner of Madras, who most highly extolled the resolution. "That," he
said, "is the key of all your future triumph" (p. 90), and further on in
his speech he urges them to persevere up to the day "when you shall place
your hand upon the purse strings of the country and the government," for,
he continued, "once you control the finances, you will taste the true
meaning of power and freedom."
And here, after all the talk about the value of representative
institutions, and just as the Congress seemed to be on the verge of
recommending parliamentary institutions such as we have, the members
suddenly wheeled about and practically declared that India was unfit for
them by deciding (p. 91) that, as the rural districts might not elect
suitable members, the so-called representatives of the people were to be
nominated by an electoral college, which was to be composed of members
sent up from the various district and municipal boards, chambers of
commerce, and universities. The power of election was thus to be
conferred, to use Mr. Norton's words, on "a body of men who would
practically represent the flower of the educated inhabitants." These views
were much applauded by the delegates, who thus ratified the system of
nominating the so-called representatives, and which system, I may add, is
carefully laid down in Clause 2 of Resolution IV. of 1886 (p. 217). Having
thus most practically declared that India is quite unfit for
representative institutions in the ordinary sense of the word, Mr. Norton
proceeded to point out that, as the desired power for reconstituting the
government is not likely to be obtained in India, they must work on the
people of England, who at present believe, he says (p. 92), that the
Indian Government is "being beneficiently carried on." "You must disturb
that belief," he continued. In other words, he might have said, you must
do what the Parnellites did, or attempted to do, in England. And
accordingly the Congress wirepullers have set up an agency in London, and
have posted placards purporting to be an appeal from 200 millions of India
to the people of England.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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