Part 71 (1/2)

'girl-mother,' and 'virgin-widow' mean; but they mean unspeakable horrors here.”

”Well, but the advanced political party here will surely make it their business to advocate social reforms as well as political ones,” said Pagett.

”Very surely they will do no such thing,” said the lady doctor, emphatically. ”I wish I could make you understand. Why, even of the funds devoted to the Marchioness of Dufferin's organization for medical aid to the women of India, it was said in print and in speech, that they would be better spent on more college scholars.h.i.+ps for men. And in all the advanced parties' talk--G.o.d forgive them--and in all their programmes, they carefully avoid all such subjects. They will talk about the protection of the cow, for that's an ancient superst.i.tion--they can all understand that; but the protection of the women is a new and dangerous idea.” She turned to Pagett impulsively:

”You are a member of the English Parliament. Can you do nothing? The foundations of their life are rotten--utterly and b.e.s.t.i.a.lly rotten. I could tell your wife things that I couldn't tell you. I know the inner life that belongs to the native, and I know nothing else; and believe me you might as well try to grow golden-rod in a mushroom-pit as to make anything of a people that are born and reared as these--these things 're. The men talk of their rights and privileges. I have seen the women that bear these very men, and again--may G.o.d forgive the men!”

Pagett's eyes opened with a large wonder. Dr. Lathrop rose tempestuously.

”I must be off to lecture,” said she, ”and I'm sorry that I can't show you my hospitals; but you had better believe, sir, that it's more necessary for India than all the elections in creation.”

”That's a woman with a mission, and no mistake,” said Pagett, after a pause.

”Yes; she believes in her work, and so do I,” said Orde. ”I've a notion that in the end it will be found that the most helpful work done for India in this generation was wrought by Lady Dufferin in drawing attention--what work that was, by the way, even with her husband's great name to back it to the needs of women here. In effect, native habits and beliefs are an organized conspiracy against the laws of health and happy life--but there is some dawning of hope now.”

”How d'you account for the general indifference, then?”

”I suppose it's due in part to their fatalism and their utter indifference to all human suffering. How much do you imagine the great province of the Punjab with over twenty million people and half a score rich towns has contributed to the maintenance of civil dispensaries last year? About seven thousand rupees.”

”That's seven hundred pounds,” said Pagett, quickly.

”I wish it was,” replied Orde; ”but anyway, it's an absurdly inadequate sum, and shows one of the blank sides of Oriental character.”

Pagett was silent for a long time. The question of direct and personal pain did not lie within his researches. He preferred to discuss the weightier matters of the law, and contented himself with murmuring: ”They'll do better later on.” Then, with a rush, returning to his first thought:

”But, my dear Orde, if it's merely a cla.s.s movement of a local and temporary character, how d' you account for Bradlaugh, who is at least a man of sense, taking it up?”

”I know nothing of the champion of the New Brahmins but what I see in the papers. I suppose there is something tempting in being hailed by a large a.s.semblage as the representative of the aspirations of two hundred and fifty millions of people. Such a man looks 'through all the roaring and the wreaths,' and does not reflect that it is a false perspective, which, as a matter of fact, hides the real complex and manifold India from his gaze. He can scarcely be expected to distinguish between the ambitions of a new oligarchy and the real wants of the people of whom he knows nothing. But it's strange that a professed Radical should come to be the chosen advocate of a movement which has for its aim the revival of an ancient tyranny. Shows how even Radicalism can fall into academic grooves and miss the essential truths of its own creed. Believe me, Pagett, to deal with India you want first-hand knowledge and experience.

I wish he would come and live here for a couple of years or so.”

”Is not this rather an ad hominem style of argument?”

”Can't help it in a case like this. Indeed, I am not sure you ought not to go further and weigh the whole character and quality and upbringing of the man. You must admit that the monumental complacency with which he trotted out his ingenious little Const.i.tution for India showed a strange want of imagination and the sense of humor.”

”No, I don't quite admit it,” said Pagett.

”Well, you know him and I don't, but that's how it strikes a stranger.”

He turned on his heel and paced the veranda thoughtfully. ”And, after all, the burden of the actual, daily unromantic toil falls on the shoulders of the men out here, and not on his own. He enjoys all the privileges of recommendation without responsibility, and we--well, perhaps, when you've seen a little more of India you'll understand. To begin with, our death rate's five times higher than yours--I speak now for the brutal bureaucrat--and we work on the refuse of worked-out cities and exhausted civilizations, among the bones of the dead. In the case of the Congress meetings, the only notable fact is that the priests of the altar are British, not Buddhist, Jain or Brahminical, and that the whole thing is a British contrivance kept alive by the efforts of Messrs. Hume, Eardley, Norton, and Digby.”

”You mean to say, then, it's not a spontaneous movement?”

”What movement was ever spontaneous in any true sense of the word? This seems to be more fact.i.tious than usual. You seem to know a great deal about it; try it by the touchstone of subscriptions, a coa.r.s.e but fairly trustworthy criterion, and there is scarcely the color of money in it.

The delegates write from England that they are out of pocket for working expenses, railway fares, and stationery--the mere pasteboard and scaffolding of their show. It is, in fact, collapsing from mere financial inanition.”

”But you cannot deny that the people of India, who are, perhaps, too poor to subscribe, are mentally and morally moved by the agitation,”

Pagett insisted.

”That is precisely what I do deny. The native side of the movement is the work of a limited cla.s.s, a microscopic minority, as Lord Dufferin described it, when compared with the people proper, but still a very interesting cla.s.s, seeing that it is of our own creation. It is composed almost entirely of those of the literary or clerkly castes who have received an English education.”