Adams J.T. Empire on the Seven Seas. The British Empire 1784-1939
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INDIA
NOW
A UNIFIED
COUNTRY
be
expansion
anywhere
in
the
world,
it
meant conflict
in
the
heart
of
Europe
itself.
Britain,
across the
narrow
channel,
maintained
its
"splendid
isolation" for
a
while,
policing
the
seven seas
with
her
invincible
navy,
but,
as
we
know
now,
could not
fail to be
dragged
into
any
general
war
which
might
make
some other
nation
dominant on the
Continent
or the
globe.
In trade she
was
losing rapidly
in relation
to
Germany,
The
growing
German
navy,
the Kiel
Canal,
the cession
of
Heligoland,
the
young
Em-
peror's
dictum
quoted
above
as to the
future
destiny
of his
coun-
try,
went
largely
unregarded.
VI.
INDIA
Now
A
UNIFIED
COUNTRY
Meanwhile,
we
have
to
trace
the
develo'pment
in
the
far
parts
of
the
Empire
itself.
India
was
now
a
unified
country
to
an
extent
it had never
been
before,
and the
great
triangular
peninsula,
bounded on both
sides
by
seas
on
which British naval
power
was
supreme,
and on the north
by
the
highest
and
most
impassable
mountain
range
in
the
world,
might
have
seemed
impregnable
but
there
were,
so
to
say,
leaks,
at both
ends south
of
the
Himalayas.
In
the
east,
the
French
advance
in
Indo-China
had forced
the
Bur-
mese war
and
the annexation of
Upper
Burma
already
mentioned.
The
Anglo-French
clash over
Burma,
which France
coveted
al-
though
the trade
had
always
been
British,
was
only
one
of
such
clashes
in this
period
which
helped
to breed
bad
feeling
between
the two
nations.
A
new Burmese
King,
Thebaw,
under
French
influence,
disregarded
previous
treaties with
Britain,
and
after
imprisoning
and
monstrously
fining
British
subjects,
was
forced
to
resign
his throne.
The ethical
problem
of
imposing
the
will
of
an advanced
race
upon
an
inferior
one,
is,
as
we have said
before,
always
a
difficult
one,
but if we
compare
the
cruel and
atrocious
rule
of Thebaw
with
the increase
of 20
per
cent in
population
and
50
per
cent in cultivated
land in
the
first
decade after
the
British
took
the
country
over,
there
would
seem
to be
a
case
for
"im-
perialism."
The
western
"leak"
was the wild
territory
between
Afghanistan
and
India
proper
through
which went
the
famed
Khyber
Pass but
267
EMPIRE
ON
THE
SEVEN SEAS
which was
inhabited
by
the
most lawless
and
unconquerable
native
tribes
in the
world.
During
the
period
covered
by
this
chapter
there
were
a series
of
minor tribal
wars
fought
here
by
the
British,
who
had
to
employ
over
40,000
troops
without achiev-
ing
success,
and the settlement
of the
troubles,
if it
can
be
called
such,
belongs
to
the later
Viceroyalty
of Lord Curzon
(1899-
1905).
JTiat
of Lord
Ripon
(1880-84),
calls
for
special
notice,
as
its
period,
covers
perhaps
the
most
important
turning point
in
the
history
of modern
India.
The chief
defects
in
British rule
during
the
last
part
of
the
nineteenth
century
may
be
considered
to
have
been the absence
of
any
definite
goal
in
Anglo-Indian
political
relations,
and the
racial
feeling
which
kept
the
British
from
em-
ploying
Indians
in the
work
of
government,
at
least in the
higher
posts.
Lord
Roberts
probably
expressed correctly
the
feelings
of
most
British
in
India
when
he
wrote
that
"It
is
this
consciousness
of the
inherent
superiority
of
the
European
which
has
won
for
us India. However
well
educated
and clever
a native
may
be,
and
however
brave he
may
have
proved
himself,
I
believe
that
no
rank
which
we
can
bestow
upon
him would cause him
to
be
considered
as an
equal
by
the
British officer."
Although
in
general military
officers
and
civil
servants
shared
this
view,
Viceroys
and
at
times the
home
government
had
both
advised
opening
the
lists
of
higher
offices to
natives. The
failure
to do
so,
as
well
as memories
of
the
Mutiny,
and
the
growth
of
the
European
bureaucracy,
resulted
in
creating prac-
tically
a
new
caste in
India,
at
the
top
of
all,
"the
White
Brah-
mins,"
i.e.y
the British. The
effect
was
bad
on both
races.
The
educated
natives,
even
though
they
were
but
one wave
in
the
vast
ocean of
native
population, naturally
resented
such an
attitude as
that of
Lord
Roberts,
often
even more
bluntly
expressed
and
in
any
case
excluding
them
from
any
worth-while
public
career.
On
the
other
hand,
the small
number
of
the
British
governing
class
developed
those
ingrowing
qualities
apt
to
appear
in
any
small
group
which is
in
authority
or
considers
itself
superior
to all
about
them.
They
tended
to
become
small-minded,
snobbish,
in
the
168
INDIA
NOW
A
UNIFIED
COUNTRY
worst
sense,
and,
worst
of
all
for
India,
stagnant
in
their
work
of
administration.
Ripon, however,
realized
that
there
must
be
some
end
toward
which
British
control
was
working,
that well
on
to
300,000,000
people
could
not be
permanently
kept
in
subjection
by
less
than
100,000
alien
rulers. He
foresaw
eventually
the demand
for
some
sort
of
local
responsible
government,
along
modern
demo-
cratic lines.
As
he
properly
believed that
crisis
must some
day
arise,
he
boldly
attempted
to
prepare
India for
it.
Whether
his
reforms
were too
sudden or
not
may
be
open
to
question
but
what
is
not is
that
some
such
development
would
in
time
be
inevitable.
One of
Ripon's
first
acts
was
to reverse his
predecessor,
Lord
Lytton,
who had
muzzled
the
vernacular
press
owing
to
the
vio-
lent attacks
it
had
been
making
on
the
government
and on
British
control
in
general.
Although
the educated and even the literate
part
of the
population
was
only
a
small
fraction
of the
whole,
a
free vernacular
press
was
to
be of enormous influence
in
forward-
ing
the
nationalist
movement which
dates
from this
period
in
its
modern
form. Another
step
in
the democratic
process
was taken
by
Ripon
in
the
setting
up
of
local
self-government
in
the
shape
of
District
Boards
in
municipalities
and
rural
areas with the
idea
of
giving
the natives
training
in
administration.
These,
however,
were
more
or
less
nullified
and
blocked
for
a
quarter
of a
century
by
the Indian
bureaucracy
and the
home
government.
Still another
proposed
reform
was
connected with the
adminis-
tration of
justice.
In
India
Europeans
had
had
the
right
to
be
tried
by
British
magistrates
only,
but
in
1883
Ripon proposed
to
do
away
with
this
privilege
and to
abolish
the
distinction between
I
British
and
native
magistrates. Feeling
was
so
strong
that
the bill
which had been
introduced
in the
Legislature
had to
be
with-
drawn,
but the
result
of
the
controversy
was
greatly
to
embitter
racial
opposition.
The
British had
been
enraged
at the
suggestion
of
placing
them at the
judicial
mercy
of
natives,
and
the
natives
felt
that
the
withdrawal
of
the
plan
was
an insult
to
themselves.
More
important
was
Lord
Ripon's
educational
program.
Hith-
erto Indian
education
had
been almost
wholly
in
the
hands
of
269
EMPIRE
ON
THE
SEVEN SEAS
government
or
the
missionaries,
but
under the
new
system
the
number
of
students
was
increased
and both schools and
colleges
were
placed
largely
under
native
control.
It
is
true
that in
propor-
tion to
the
population,
which
was
increasing
by
about
10,000,000
each
decade,
the next
twenty
years
may
not
have
increased
the
percentage
of
literates,
but
the
number
of
college
students
was
nearly
doubled,
and the
combined
effect
of
the
number
of leaders
educated
under native
influences,
with
the
vernacular
press,
was
profound
on the
Nationalist
movement.
Also
in
spite
of
the use
of
native
languages,
the
increasing
knowledge
of
English
had for
the
first
time
given
the
educated
classes
a common medium
of com-
munication
in all
parts
of
the
country.
The
daily
and
weekly
news-
papers
began
now to
play
a
great
part,
such
as
The
Hindoo
Patriot,
The
Bengalee,
The
Maratha,
and others.
The
vast
mass
of the
population
was
reasonably
content,
but a
foreign
governing
class must
in time
inevitably
arouse
opposition
and
nationalist
aspirations
on
the
part
of the
governed,
and
there
were several
groups
in
India who
resented
domination
and
whose
members
were
seeking
careers
for
themselves
on
a
par
with the
outsiders.
In
the
i88o*s
a
politically
minded
middle
class,
which
believed
that
a
"white
collar
job"
was the
right
of
any
educated
person
of
the
higher
castes,
and
who were offended
by
the, attitude
of
superiority
assumed
by
the
British,
began
to
organize
opposi-
tion.
At
first,
under the lead of
such men
as
Gokhale,
they
were
occupied
chiefly
with moderate reforms and
content
with
a
slow
rate
of
change,
much as were
the
Liberals in
England.
The first
of the Indian
National
Congresses,
which
were
to
have
so
great
an
influence
later,
held
in
1
885,
was
essentially
a
meeting
of Mod-
erates. The
members were not
politically
elected
representatives
from
districts,
but
voluntary
attendants
representing
many
local
organizations
of all
shades
of
opinion.
The
progress
of
the
annual
meetings
was
slow,
and
in
the
early
days
the
resolutions
passed
and
demands
made
were
of
a
mild
nature,
largely
such as
asking
for
rights
similar
to
those
granted
in the
self-governing
colonies.
Although
the
programs
were
inspired
chiefly
by
Western
ideas
there
were
also
strong
currents
of
religion
and
race,
and
the streams
270
INDIA
NOW
A
UNIFIED
COUNTRY
of
Westernism
and
anti-Westernism
met and
swirled
tumul-
tuously
as
time
went
on.
Such leaders
as
Swami
Vivekananda
and
Saraswati
taught
the
superiority
of
Indian
civilization
to
that
of
Europe
and
demanded
a
return
to
primitive
Indian
thought
and
ways.
The
mass
of
Indians
was
largely
untouched
by
the move-
ment,
and
among
the
educated
who knew
about it
there was much
diversity
of
opinion.
There
were
those
who
believed
in
the
West
and those who
decried
itj
those
who were
loyal
to
the
British
and
those who wished
to throw
the
hated
foreigners
out.
Aside
from
the
attitudes
toward
the outside
world,
as
always
in
the welter of
races
and
religions
which make
up
India,
there
were internal dif-
ferences.
As Nationalism
grew
stronger,
however,
the
Moderates lost
control
and
the
Congresses
came
more
and
more
to
represent
the
more
violent anti-Western
elements.
In
some
of the
native
peri-
odicals,
lying
propaganda
of the
worst
sort and extreme
National-
ism
swayed
the
minds
of
increasing
numbers.
In
Bombay
an
In-
dian,
Tilak,
who founded the
paper
Kesari,
voiced
the
belief
of
many
that the
propaganda
in
the
struggle
was
that
of war
time
and
that
no
statements
made need be true. The
result was
as
usual,
the
dissemination
of
a
great
mass of misinformation
and
the
growth
of
unreasoning
hatred
In
1896
the unrest
already
existing
was
increased
by
drought,
famine
and
a
severe
epidemic
of the
bubonic
plague,
and
a new
phase
of
the
anti-foreign
campaign
began
with
the
assassination
of
two
young Englishmen
who were
fighting
the
plague
at Poona.
The
English
hatred
of
violence,
and
especially
of
secret
and
cowardly
violence,
is
something
which those
peoples
who believe
in
the
efficacy
of
"frightfulness"
seem never to be able to take into
account.
So
far
from
frightening
the
English
it
merely
stiffens
their
backs
and hurts the
causes
for
which
those who
employ
the
method
may
be
fighting.
The
increase in
political
assassination
in
India
belongs
in
the
next
period,
but
that
country
was
obviously
on
the
eve
of
great changes,
though
the
conflict,
as
in
Japan,
be-
tween
the
parties
that
which
wished
to
develop
on
Western
lines
and
that which
wished
to
keep
to
the
old
ways
and culture was
271
EMPIRE
ON
THE
SEVEN
SEAS
obscured
for
a
while
in a common
opposition
to the
mere fact of
foreign
influence
or
domination.
In
1
892
the
British
tried
to
make
an
effort
toward
leading
India
on
the
way
which
the colonies
had travelled
toward
self-govern-
ment
by
admitting
a
certain
number
of
natives
as
representatives
in the
legislative
Councils,
but
as was
shown
in
the
case
of the
early
American
colonies
and in the discussion of
Imperial
Federation,
mere
representation
in
a
body
in
which
the
representatives
are
a
small
minority
to
be
outvoted
at
any
moment
can
be no solution
of
the
problem.
The
only
case,
I
think,
in which
such an
arrangement
has
been
peacefully accepted
has been
that
of the continental Ter-
ritories
of
the
United
States,
which have
been
represented
in
Con-
gress
by
one member
who cannot
vote,
but in that
case
territorial
status,
with
the
handicaps
which
go
with
it,
has
always
been
rec-
ognized
as
constitutionally merely
a
stage
on
the
way
to
full
state-
hood when
certain
conditions
as
to
population
and so
on
have
been
complied
with.
VII. THE
STABILITY
OF
CANADA
We
must now turn to the
other
side
of the world
and the
first
Dominion
of
the
Empire,
Canada.
Each
of the
great
self-govern-
ing
colonies,
a
term
which
as
applied
to them was
to
disappear
after
the
end
of the
century,
had
developed
a
character
of its own. In
Canada there was little
of the
Socialism and
radical
social
experi-
menting
which
were
to
be so
characteristic of Australia
and NewZea-
land.
Canada,
indeed,
has shown a marked
stability
combined
with
progress.
This
has been
indicated
in
part
by
her
political
history.
Not
only
in
the Dominion
Government,
but
in those
of
many
of
the
Provinces,
the Ministries have
been
of
very
unusual
length.
Sir
John
Macdonald
was in
power
as
head
of
the Conservative
Party
from
1878
until he died in
1891,
and
the
Party
itself
continued
to
govern
for
five
years
more. The
Liberals
who
came
in
under
the
lead
of
Laurier
in
1896
remained
in
office until
1911.
Canada,
with its
vast
expanse
and
resources,
was intent
on its
own
development,
and
with its
chiefly
small-farming population,
wealth
was
fairly
equally
distributed.
The
main
differences
in
272
THE
STABILITY OF CANADA
opinion
between
the
classical
Liberal
and Conservative
Parties
were
economic,
the
Conservatives
favoring
protection,
whereas
the
Liberals
inclined
to
free
trade
or
low
duties.
There
were
other
economic
issues,
such as
those connected
with
the
building
of rail-
ways,
but
there
was no
Labor
Party
and
almost none of
the cleav-
age
between
labor
and
capital
which was
beginning
to
show
in
England
and.
which
was
already
so
prominent
in Australia
and
New
Zealand.
When
the
Dominion
had been
formed,
British Columbia
had
been
promised,
in
1871,
that
a
transcontinental
railway
would
be
built within
ten
years,
but due
to
the
inertia
of the
Mackenzie
government
only
300
miles had been built
at
the
end of the
stipulated
period.
In
1880 Macdonald
and
several
of his
collab-
orators
went to
England
to
interest
British
capital
and
succeeded.
A
syndicate
was
formed,
later
known
as
the
Canadian Pacific
Rail-
way
Company,
of
which the
leading
members were
George
Stephen
(later
Lord
Mount
Stephen),
Sir
John
Rose, James
J.
Hill,
a Canadian who
was afterward better
known
as
a
great
rail-
way
builder and
magnate
in the United
States,
and
Donald
A.
Smith,
who
was
to become Lord
Strathcona.
As in the United
States,
the
terms offered
by
the
government
to those
who dared
to
risk
their
money
in
building
transcontinental
lines,
several
thousand
miles in
length through
mostly
uninhabited
territory,
had to
be
very
liberal in the
eyes
of
some
at
the
time and
of
later
generations
who
think of the
country
and traffic
as
they
became
subsequently
and not of
the wilderness waste in
which
tens
of
millions
had to
be sunk.
Opposition
developed,
and
another
company,
with
less
assured
backing,
offered to
accept
lower
terms,
but
finally
the
Canadian
Pacific
syndicate
was allowed
to
begin
operations,
and in
1885,
less
than
five
years
after
they
began,
the road
was
completed
to
the
coast,
although
they
had
to
ask
the
government
for
two
additional
loans,
aggregating
$27,500,000.
In
due
course these
were
repaid.
Macdonald
may
be considered
as
one
of
the builders
of
greater
Canada,
even
though
it
may
be
true that
he was
primarily
a
politi-
cian rather than
a
statesman.
One critic
has
said
that
he
spent
much
273
EMPIRE
ON
THE SEVEN SEAS
time on
thinking
how
to
retain
power
but
perhaps
never a
half
dozen hours
on
how
to
build
the
Northwest
or to
stop
the
steady
exodus
to
the United
States.
This
seems
hardly
fair,
for
at
the
crisis
of the
affairs
of the
railway,
on
which
the union
of
Canada
from
the
Atlantic to
the
Pacific
largely
depended,
and
when
its
fate
hung
on
the
last
$5,000,000
to
be
borrowed
from
a reluctant
gov-
ernment,
Macdonald
forced
his
followers
to
agree
to
the
loan,
and
the
enterprise
was
saved.
In
a
young
country,
as
Americans
can
bear
witness,
politics
tend
to become
a
trade.
Without social
ranks
or
inherited
wealth,
most
people
are too
busy
climbing
the eco-
nomic ladder
to
care
much
about
the
usually ill-paid political
of-
fices.
If
Macdonald
was
primarily
a
politician
it was
largely
be-
cause
he
had
to
be
one
with
the
material
he had
to work
with,
but
he
organized
a
great
party,
saved the
Canadian Pacific
Railway,
and
was the
initiator of the
policy
of
protection
for
Canadian
in-
dustry.
The
Canada of
today
is
largely
the result of his
work
and
policies.
During
the
period
now
under
consideration,
protection
was
particularly
important
as
directed
against
the
impact
of
the United
States. The
Canadian
Liberals,
during
most
of
the
time,
were
in-
clined
to an
economic
union of the
two
countries
under a
joint
tariff
or
a
reciprocity
agreement
which would
have
had
much the
same
effect.
Macdonald,
however,
sensed
the
general feeling
of
Canadians that
they
did not
want
that
result
and,
as
has
been
proved
ever
since,
to
the satisfaction of themselves
and of
the
Americans,
they
preferred
their
own national
independence
within
the
British
Commonwealth
of
Nations. That dual
status
entails
plenty
of
complications,
and
because
the
Canadians and
the Amer-
icans divide
almost
the entire
North American
continent
between
them
their relations
are
peculiarly
close. As
we
have
already
pointed
out,
Canada
has
not
only
the
protection
afforded
by
the
Empire,
but
also that
of the
United
States,
which
would never
allow
a
foreign
country
to
conquer
a
neighbor
occupying
more
than
one half of the
continent
on
which
it
is
itself dominant.
The
ques-
tion was
more
open
in
the
1
890*8,
and
there
were somewhat acri-
monious
and
prolonged
controversies
over
such matters
as the
seal
274
THE
STABILITY
OF
CANADA
fisheries
in
Bering
Sea and
the
fisheries on
the
east coast
which,
with new
differences,
were
not
to
be
settled until
after
the turn
of
the
century.
The
ordinary
citizens
of both
nations,
however,
were
being
drawn
more and
more
into
the
orbits
of
their own national-
isms
and
becoming
less
and less inclined
to
desire
either
a
peaceful
union or
one
by
force.
Canada
was
rapidly
growing
up
to
the
be-
lief,
later
expressed by
Kipling
that
"Daughter
am
I
in
my
mother's
house,
But
mistress in
mine own."
On the
other hand the earlier
occasional
demands
by
small
groups
in
the United
States
for
annexation
had
faded
out
entirely*
As
far
as
nations are
concerned,
Canada
and the
United
States were
to
become
neighboring
households
living
on
exceptional
terms
of
friendliness with one another and
affording
an
example
to the
en-
tire
world of
what
such
an
international
relationship
could mean.
Whatever
expenses
the
two
nations
may
incur
for
armaments,
neither
spends
a
cent on defense or offense
against
the
other.
Macdonald
would have
been
glad
to
retire from
public
life
in
1885
when
he
was
past
seventy
and had
achieved
all he
wished
to,
but
a
second rebellion had broken
out
in
Northwestern
Canada
under
Riel,
the
leader
of the earlier
insurrection.
The
building
of
the
Canadian Pacific
had
aroused
fears
among
the Indians
and
half-breeds,
and the
government
had
been
lacking
in
tact
in
han-
dling
the situation.
Riel
put
himself
at
the head
of the
movement,
and
when
captured
was
hanged.
The revolt
in
itself
had not been
of
much
importance,
but Riel
had
French
blood
and
was
a Cath-
olic,
and
his sentence
was
utilized to
stir
up
racial and
religious
questions
again
by
the Liberal
Party
with
Edward
Blake at
its
head.
Probably
the
most
important
consequence
of
the
whole
affair
was
that
in
the
election
of
1
887
the
Liberals
were
defeated,
though
not
heavily,
and
Blake
resigned
the
leadership
of
the
party,
open-
ing
the
way
for
one
of
Canada's
ablest
men,
Wilfrid Laurier.
Al-
though
French and
Catholic
he was
to
win
the confidence of
those
of
both
races and
both
religions,
and
by
his
superb
command
of
both
languages,
his clear
mind,
great
ability,
and
courtly
manners
275
EMPIRE
ON THE
SEVEN
SEAS
were
to
be
reckoned
among
the
dominant
forces
in
the
new
Em-
pire
now
developing.
In
1896
he
was
made
Prime Minister
of
the
Dominion
and
held
office
during
critical
years,
supported
by
pos-
sibly
the
ablest
group
of
men
Canada
has ever
had in
one
Cabinet,
to
whom
we
shall
return
later.
Perhaps
his
dearest
ambition
was
to
unite the two
races,
French
and
British,
in
a
harmony
of
hearts
and
of
purely
Canadian
patriot-
ism. Toward
the
end
of
his
life,
through
circumstances
beyond
his
control,
a
cleavage
was
again
to
come,
and he
took
the
side
of
his
own
blood,
but
so
long
as he
was himself
in office
Canada
was
singularly
free from
the
racial
animosities of
before
and
after.
French
and
British
remained
the
two
great groups,
but,
as
the
prairies
were
settled,
there
was
considerable
racial mixture
as
contrasted with Australia
and
New
Zealand,
although
Canada
was
never
to
be
the
melting
pot
which the
United States
became
nor
to
have the native
problem
of
South
Africa. There did
come,
how-
ever,
Jews
from
many
lands,
as
well as
Swedes,
Norwegians,
Ice-
landers,
Germans,
Russians, Ruthenians,
Hungarians,
and
many
others.
In
the fourteen
years
after
1897,
under
a
government-
fostered
immigration policy
for
the
purpose
of
filling
up
the
great
empty
spaces,
the
number of newcomers
received
annually
rose
steadily
from
about
20,000
at the
beginning
to
a
third of a million
by
191
1,
while the outward flow
to the United
States had
become
heavily
reversed.
American
capital,
however,
continued
to
be invested in
Canada
in
large
amounts,
and,
with
increasing
business
between
the two
countries,
Canada
has
become one
of
the
most
important
links in
the chain
of
understanding
between
America and the
Empire
as a
whole. If
Canada
is
the eldest
daughter
of Britain
among
the
Dominions
she
is,
in
a
sense
also,
a
younger
sister
of the
United
States
on
the continent
they
share.
In
1895,
when Mr.
Olney,
the
American
Secretary
of
State,
sent an
unexpected
and
wholly
tact-
less note
to
Lord
Salisbury
with
regard
to a
boundary
dispute
be-
tween Venezuela
and
British
Guiana,
it
was
evident
to
most Amer-
icans
that
the
words
almost
inexplicably
used
by
Olney
could
not
apply
to the
possessions,
such as
Canada,
already
a
part
of
the
76