Part 68 (2/2)

Pagett looked inquiry; Orde, with complete recovery of his usual urbanity, replied: ”It's nothing, only the old story, he wants his case to be tried by an English judge--they all do that--but when he began to hint that the other side were in improper relations with the native judge I had to shut him up. Gunga Ram, the man he wanted to make insinuations about, may not be very bright; but he's as honest as daylight on the bench. But that's just what one can't get a native to believe.”

”Do you really mean to say these people prefer to have their cases tried by English judges?”

”Why, certainly.”

Pagett drew a long breath. ”I didn't know that before.” At this point a phaeton entered the compound, and Orde rose with ”Confound it, there's old Rasul Ali Khan come to pay one of his tiresome duty calls. I'm afraid we shall never get through our little Congress discussion.”

Pagett was an almost silent spectator of the grave formalities of a visit paid by a punctilious old Mahommedan gentleman to an Indian official; and was much impressed by the distinction of manner and fine appearance of the Mohammedan landholder. When the exchange of polite ba.n.a.lities came to a pause, he expressed a wish to learn the courtly visitor's opinion of the National Congress.

Orde reluctantly interpreted, and with a smile which even Mohammedan politeness could not save from bitter scorn, Rasul Ali Khan intimated that he knew nothing about it and cared still less. It was a kind of talk encouraged by the Government for some mysterious purpose of its own, and for his own part he wondered and held his peace.

Pagett was far from satisfied with this, and wished to have the old gentleman's opinion on the propriety of managing all Indian affairs on the basis of an elective system.

Orde did his best to explain, but it was plain the visitor was bored and bewildered. Frankly, he didn't think much of committees; they had a Munic.i.p.al Committee at Lah.o.r.e and had elected a menial servant, an orderly, as a member. He had been informed of this on good authority, and after that, committees had ceased to interest him. But all was according to the rule of Government, and, please G.o.d, it was all for the best.

”What an old fossil it is!” cried Pagett, as Orde returned from seeing his guest to the door; ”just like some old blue-blooded hidalgo of Spain. What does he really think of the Congress after all, and of the elective system?”

”Hates it all like poison. When you are sure of a majority, election is a fine system; but you can scarcely expect the Mahommedans, the most masterful and powerful minority in the country, to contemplate their own extinction with joy. The worst of it is that he and his co-religionists, who are many, and the landed proprietors, also, of Hindu race, are frightened and put out by this election business and by the importance we have bestowed on lawyers, pleaders, writers, and the like, who have, up to now, been in abject submission to them. They say little, but after all they are the most important f.a.gots in the great bundle of communities, and all the glib bunk.u.m in the world would not pay for their estrangement. They have controlled the land.”

”But I am a.s.sured that experience of local self-government in your munic.i.p.alities has been most satisfactory, and when once the principle is accepted in your centres, don't you know, it is bound to spread, and these important--ah--people of yours would learn it like the rest. I see no difficulty at all,” and the smooth lips closed with the complacent snap habitual to Pagett, M.P., the ”man of cheerful yesterdays and confident tomorrows.”

Orde looked at him with a dreary smile.

”The privilege of election has been most reluctantly withdrawn from scores of munic.i.p.alities, others have had to be summarily suppressed, and, outside the Presidency towns, the actual work done has been badly performed. This is of less moment, perhaps--it only sends up the local death-rates--than the fact that the public interest in munic.i.p.al elections, never very strong, has waned, and is waning, in spite of careful nursing on the part of Government servants.”

”Can you explain this lack of interest?” said Pagett, putting aside the rest of Orde's remarks.

”You may find a ward of the key in the fact that only one in every thousand of our population can spell. Then they are infinitely more interested in religion and caste questions than in any sort of politics.

When the business of mere existence is over, their minds are occupied by a series of interests, pleasures, rituals, superst.i.tions, and the like, based on centuries of tradition and usage. You, perhaps, find it hard to conceive of people absolutely devoid of curiosity, to whom the book, the daily paper, and the printed speech are unknown, and you would describe their life as blank. That's a profound mistake. You are in another land, another century, down on the bed-rock of society, where the family merely, and not the community, is all-important. The average Oriental cannot be brought to look beyond his clan. His life, too, is more complete and self-sufficing, and less sordid and low-thoughted than you might imagine. It is bovine and slow in some respects, but it is never empty. You and I are inclined to put the cart before the horse, and to forget that it is the man that is elemental, not the book. 'The corn and the cattle are all my care, And the rest is the will of G.o.d.' Why should such folk look up from their immemorially appointed round of duty and interests to meddle with the unknown and fuss with voting-papers. How would you, atop of all your interests care to conduct even one-tenth of your life according to the manners and customs of the Papuans, let's say? That's what it comes to.”

”But if they won't take the trouble to vote, why do you antic.i.p.ate that Mohammedans, proprietors, and the rest would be crushed by majorities of them?”

Again Pagett disregarded the closing sentence.

”Because, though the landholders would not move a finger on any purely political question, they could be raised in dangerous excitement by religious hatreds. Already the first note of this has been sounded by the people who are trying to get up an agitation on the cow-killing question, and every year there is trouble over the Mohammedan Muharrum processions.

”But who looks after the popular rights, being thus unrepresented?”

”The Government of Her Majesty the Queen, Empress of India, in which, if the Congress promoters are to be believed, the people have an implicit trust; for the Congress circular, specially prepared for rustic comprehension, says the movement is 'for the remission of tax, the advancement of Hindustan, and the strengthening of the British Government.' This paper is headed in large letters-'MAY THE PROSPERITY OF THE EMPIRE OF INDIA ENDURE.'”

”Really!” said Pagett, ”that shows some cleverness. But there are things better worth imitation in our English methods of--er--political statement than this sort of amiable fraud.”

”Anyhow,” resumed Orde, ”you perceive that not a word is said about elections and the elective principle, and the reticence of the Congress promoters here shows they are wise in their generation.”

”But the elective principle must triumph in the end, and the little difficulties you seem to antic.i.p.ate would give way on the introduction of a well-balanced scheme, capable of indefinite extension.”

”But is it possible to devise a scheme which, always a.s.suming that the people took any interest in it, without enormous expense, ruinous dislocation of the administration and danger to the public peace, can satisfy the aspirations of Mr. Hume and his following, and yet safeguard the interests of the Mahommedans, the landed and wealthy cla.s.ses, the Conservative Hindus, the Eurasians, Pa.r.s.ees, Sikhs, Rajputs, native Christians, domiciled Europeans and others, who are each important and powerful in their way?”

Pagett's attention, however, was diverted to the gate, where a group of cultivators stood in apparent hesitation.

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