In India

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jun 7, 1910

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 37, No. 22.

In India.—The London Times of April 22 tells us that the India problems are still grave problems. Many have hoped that the present seditious movement was merely a transient, superficial agitation. But others fear that it is a wide, deep-seated conspiracy for the overthrow or paralysis of British rule; and the Calcutta correspondent to The Times says that there is little or no substantial evidence in support of the optimism which prevails in certain official circles both here and at home, and that however favorable things appear on the surface, one must look deeper to see the wide-spread strength of the troubles which exist in India. After mentioning some of the more important representatives in the new Indian large council of fifty-nine members, the correspondent tells of one class which is not represented in the council, and that is the millions of humble toilers known as the “depressed classes,” the vast majority of them that go to swell the numbers of the Hindu population of India in the census, and yet are regarded as untouchable by all the higher Hindu castes. He speaks of the anomaly of the high caste Hindu politician, who claims to represent the interests of this class, and yet he is debarred from all contact with them; for by their very touch he holds himself to be polluted. The correspondent truly says that the raising of these depressed classes will have to overcome tremendous difficulties before it can make any appreciable headway against the accumulated pressure of social and religious traditions handed down from remote ages; and it is literally true now, as it has been ever since England really began to govern India, that the best and truest friends of those depressed classes are among the European rulers of the country. The greatest curse in India is the system of caste which prevails there; and about the only amelioration that it has known is that which has come through the English rule. He tells us that the council has brought people together, but it is a real question as to how much it is going to strengthen the imperial British Government in that vast territory.