Young India: An interpretation and a history of the nationalist movement from withinLajpat Rai, Lala
History
Young India: An interpretation and a history of the nationalist movement from within
Lajpat Rai, Lala
India -- Politics and government -- 1765-1947
moral slavery of their followers and subjects.
Such are some of the Nabobs and Maharajas of India. Many of them might
have to cut stones and make roads to earn their living, if they were not
protected by British bayonets. Their harems consisting of numerous
innocent women doomed to life-long imprisonment, to lives of barrenness
and shame and emptiness, their big cellars full of the choicest and the
oldest of whiskies, brandies, and champagnes, their stables full of the
swiftest and the noblest of race horses, their drawing rooms decorated
with gold, silver, silk and velvet, all that money can buy and art can
embellish, their dining tables laden with all inviting dishes and
delicacies which the best paid _cuisine_ in the world can produce, their
ability to travel in special trains and gorgeous saloons, and to command
a new woman and a new wine every day of the year, and to move in the
most fashionable circles,--all depend on the continuance of the existing
conditions. For them, this is life. They do not know what honour is. For
them, struggle, strife, duty, political change, mean a dislocation of
everything dear to them. It would be practical death to them. Yes, it
may be true that such people do not care for political liberty, for
freedom, for independence, for patriotism. For them, their present life
is bliss and they do not want to be molested either by the politician or
by the patriot.
But their number is not large. Some of the ruling chiefs may not speak
out, but in their heart of hearts many of them feel the humiliation of
the situation. A Maharana of Udeypore may not be in a position to assert
his independence and take the chance of losing his State, but even _he_
may not consent to walk behind a Curzon in a coronation procession in
honour of the King of England and the foreign Emperor of India. A
Gaekwar of Baroda may be powerless as against the British army and
British navy, but even he, in a moment of exalted self-respect, may
forget to make an abject obeisance to the King of England. Such men and
even many of less worth and nobility, cannot put up with a Lord Curzon.
It is good for their sense of self-respect and also for the country at
large to have a Curzon for a viceroy. It reminds them, as nothing else
perhaps would, of their degradation and fall.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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