Part 69 (2/2)
”Your father is a good man, and I will do what I can for him.”
At this point a telegram was handed to Orde, who, after glancing at it, said he must leave his young friend whom he introduced to Pagett, ”a member of the English House of Commons who wishes to learn about India.”
Orde had scarcely retired with his telegram when Pagett began:
”Perhaps you can tell me something of the National Congress movement?”
”Sir, it is the greatest movement of modern times, and one in which all educated men like us must join. All our students are for the Congress.”
”Excepting, I suppose, Mahommedans, and the Christians?” said Pagett, quick to use his recent instruction.
”These are some mere exceptions to the universal rule.”
”But the people outside the College, the working cla.s.ses, the agriculturists; your father and mother, for instance.”
”My mother,” said the young man, with a visible effort to bring himself to p.r.o.nounce the word, ”has no ideas, and my father is not agriculturist, nor working cla.s.s; he is of the Kayeth caste; but he had not the advantage of a collegiate education, and he does not know much of the Congress. It is a movement for the educated young-man”--connecting adjective and noun in a sort of vocal hyphen.
”Ah, yes,” said Pagett, feeling he was a little off the rails, ”and what are the benefits you expect to gain by it?”
”Oh, sir, everything. England owes its greatness to Parliamentary inst.i.tutions, and we should at once gain the same high position in scale of nations. Sir, we wish to have the sciences, the arts, the manufactures, the industrial factories, with steam engines, and other motive powers and public meetings, and debates. Already we have a debating club in connection with the college, and elect a Mr. Speaker.
Sir, the progress must come. You also are a Member of Parliament and wors.h.i.+p the great Lord Ripon,” said the youth, breathlessly, and his black eyes flashed as he finished his commaless sentences.
”Well,” said Pagett, drily, ”it has not yet occurred to me to wors.h.i.+p his Lords.h.i.+p, although I believe he is a very worthy man, and I am not sure that England owes quite all the things you name to the House of Commons. You see, my young friend, the growth of a nation like ours is slow, subject to many influences, and if you have read your history aright”--
”Sir. I know it all--all! Norman Conquest, Magna Charta, Runnymede, Reformation, Tudors, Stuarts, Mr. Milton and Mr. Burke, and I have read something of Mr. Herbert Spencer and Gibbon's 'Decline and Fall,'
Reynolds' 'Mysteries of the Court,' and”--
Pagett felt like one who had pulled the string of a shower-bath unawares, and hastened to stop the torrent with a question as to what particular grievances of the people of India the attention of an elected a.s.sembly should be first directed. But young Mr. Dma Nath was slow to particularize. There were many, very many demanding consideration. Mr.
Pagett would like to hear of one or two typical examples. The Repeal of the Arms Act was at last named, and the student learned for the first time that a license was necessary before an Englishman could carry a gun in England. Then natives of India ought to be allowed to become Volunteer Riflemen if they chose, and the absolute equality of the Oriental with his European fellow-subject in civil status should be proclaimed on principle, and the Indian Army should be considerably reduced. The student was not, however, prepared with answers to Mr.
Pagett's mildest questions on these points, and he returned to vague generalities, leaving the M.P. so much impressed with the crudity of his views that he was glad on Orde's return to say goodbye to his ”very interesting” young friend.
”What do you think of young India?” asked Orde.
”Curious, very curious--and callow.”
”And yet,” the civilian replied, ”one can scarcely help sympathizing with him for his mere youth's sake. The young orators of the Oxford Union arrived at the same conclusions and showed doubtless just the same enthusiasm. If there were any political a.n.a.logy between India and England, if the thousand races of this Empire were one, if there were any chance even of their learning to speak one language, if, in short, India were a Utopia of the debating-room, and not a real land, this kind of talk might be worth listening to, but it is all based on false a.n.a.logy and ignorance of the facts.”
”But he is a native and knows the facts.”
”He is a sort of English schoolboy, but married three years, and the father of two weaklings, and knows less than most English schoolboys.
You saw all he is and knows, and such ideas as he has acquired are directly hostile to the most cherished convictions of the vast majority of the people.”
”But what does he mean by saying he is a student of a mission college?
Is he a Christian?”
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