India, Its Life and ThoughtJones, John P. (John Peter)
Religion
India, Its Life and Thought
Jones, John P. (John Peter)
India -- Civilization; India -- Religion; Missions -- India
The action of the Indian government, in view of the present situation,
has been the subject of criticism. Anglo-Indians feel that the Viceroy
and his Council have, for some reason or other, been too deliberate in
their action. For two years things have been going from bad to worse.
When, recently, Sir Bampfylde Fuller, the Lieutenant-Governor of East
Bengal, took prompt and vigorous action to suppress the uprising in
his Province, which was the centre of trouble, the Indian government
declined to support him. He therefore resigned, and India lost one of
the men who are the most competent to deal wisely and well with
sedition-mongers. The State may have thought, and was probably right
in thinking, that while the Bengal Babu is capable of unlimited noise,
he has a mortal aversion to converting his noise into action. So the
government preferred patiently to endure odium rather than suppress
the movement.
It was different in the Panjaub, whose people are less talkative, but
are more given to action. These warrior tribes were being rapidly
disaffected by political agitators; and they doubtless had definite
grievances of their own to agitate them. The time came when government
was compelled to do something to suppress the rising tide of feeling.
It decided to act upon a law of nearly a century ago, and deported two
of the leaders of the movement. They were at once sent to Burma, where
they were held in surveillance for six months and then released. This
action of the State was effective; for it quieted the people and
nipped what promised to be a rebellion, in the bud. But it raised a
storm of denunciation from all the Hindu papers, which spoke of it as
a violation of the Queen's Proclamation and an act subversive of the
most sacred rights of the people of the country and of the most
elementary form of justice! One writer claims that "the meanest
British subject is entitled to a writ of _Habeas Corpus_, and thus
secure an effective protection against arbitrary imprisonment and
arrest by the government." This is certainly true in ordinary times of
peace; but the government had every reason to believe that the state
of things in the Panjaub was anything but peaceable, and that it must
act in view of the extraordinary condition of the Province. And its
method of procedure has proved itself to be the most bloodless and
inexpensive possible. It has been claimed that the chief deported man,
Mr. Lala Rajpat Rai, is not an extremist; but this has to be proved,
and it may be presumed that the government was more conversant with
his acts and their influence upon the people, and the native army,
than some of his defenders are. All must regret the necessity of so
unconstitutional a method of dealing with this great evil; but when
such a man as the Hon. Mr. Morley, the Secretary of State for India,
agrees with the Indian government in this matter, it may be presumed
to have been necessary.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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