Note: Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See http://archive.org/details/politicalfutureo00lajpuoft THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA * * * * * _OTHER BOOKS BY LAJPAT RAI_ YOUNG INDIA _An Interpretation and a History of the Nationalist Movement from Within_ Price $1.50 net ENGLAND'S DEBT TO INDIA _A Historical Narrative of Britain's Fiscal Policy in India_ Price $2.00 net AN OPEN LETTER TO LLOYD GEORGE Price 25 cents net THE ARYA SAMAJ _An Account of its Origins, Doctrines and Activities_ Price $1.75 net OBTAINABLE FROM ALL BOOKSELLERS * * * * * THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA by LAJPAT RAI [Illustration] New York B. W. Huebsch MCMXIX Copyright, 1919, by B. W. Huebsch Printed in U.S.A. TO MY FRIEND COLONEL JOSIAH WEDGWOOD, M. P., D. S. O. PREFACE My book, _Young India_, was written during the first year of the war and was finally revised and sent to the press before the war was two years old. It concluded with the following observation: "The Indians are a chivalrous people; they will not disturb England as long as she is engaged with Germany. The struggle after the war might, however, be even more bitter and sustained." The events that have happened since have amply justified the above conclusion. India not only refrained from disturbing England while she was engaged in war with Germany, but actively helped in defeating Germany and winning the war. She raised an army of over a million combatants and supplied a large number of war workers, and made huge contributions in money and materials. She denied herself the necessities of life in order to feed and equip the armies in the field though within the last months of the war, when scarcity and epidemic overtook her, she lost six millions of her sons and daughters from one disease alone--influenza. This was more than chivalry. This was self-effacement in the interests of an Empire which, in the past, had treated her children as helots. How much of this effort was voluntary and how much of it was forced it is difficult to appraise. Great Britain, however, has unequivocally accepted it as voluntary and has attributed it to India's satisfaction with her rule. That India was not satisfied with her rule she has spared no pains to impress upon the British people as well as the rest of the world. Reading between the lines of the report of the Secretary of State for India and the Viceroy has established the fact of that dissatisfaction beyond the possibility of doubt, but if any doubt still remained it has been dispelled by the writings and utterances of her representative spokesman in India, in Great Britain and abroad. The prince and the peasant, the landlord and the ryot, the professor and the student, the politician and the layman--all have spoken. They differ in their estimates of the "blessings" of British