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Regulated Independence
NEVER
before were the utter helplessness and the deplorable demoralisation of the
Native Princes of India more clearly demonstrated than at the present moment,
when our political ideas and ideals are undergoing such a change. Writes the
Daily News: "It is gratifying to learn that some of the Native States are
following in the wake of the Government of India for the suppression of
sedition, if not political agitation altogether. News comes from Srinagar that
His Highness the Maharaja of Kashmir is about to issue a proclamation warning
his subjects against the pitfalls of the so-called nationalist agitation. We
do not doubt that his brother rulers in the Punjab will emulate so good an
example." Some of us were at a loss to understand the cause of the Daily
News's jubilation. Section 124-A of the Indian Penal Code runs as follows:
"Whoever by words either spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible
representation, or otherwise brings or attempts to bring into hatred or
contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards His Majesty or
the Government established by law in British India, shall be punished with
transportation for life." So sedition in Kashmir is not sedition in British
India; and by the attempts of the Kashmir Darbar to suppress sedition one
naturally understood attempts to suppress the endeavours of Kashmir subjects to
bring into hatred and contempt or excite or attempt to excite disaffection
towards the Kashmir Darbar. But the Proclamation removed our doubt. We are asked
to believe that the Maharaja of Kashmir, with a wonderful tact for
self-effacement, was anxious only to protect the Government established by law
in British India. The Maharaja's tender solicitude for the safety of the Power
which had sold Kashmir to his ancestor and had, only the other day, condemned
him unheard, was amazing indeed. But the matter did not end here. Following
close upon the issuing of the Proclamation a Darbar was held in Kashmir. Sir
Francis
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Younghusband
made a speech and the thanks of the British Government were conveyed to the
Maharaja. The Maharaja, we are told, was so greatly affected that he could
hardly find words to express his feelings, which is hardly wonderful considering
the circumstances. He was able only to say that the tradition of his house was
one of loyalty to the British Government. "This," says the Hindu
Patriot, "is as it should be."
We cannot understand the logic of the "oldest native paper in
India". Why should it be so? Did not the founder of the Kashmir house pay a
very heavy price for Kashmir? True to a disgraceful understanding with the
British Government, of which both
parties ought to have been ashamed, Golab Singh
—
to quote Sir Thomas Holdich
—
"deserted his Sikh masters and paid
for Kashmir with money looted from the Lahore treasury". So it was only
"give and take".
But these pathetic and miraculous happenings appear more intelligible —
and less pathetic — when we realise that though the voice is the voice of
Jacob, the hands are the hands of Esau. And this fact becomes patent when we
find that Kashmir does not present an isolated instance of such zeal on the part
of Native Chiefs to safeguard the interests of the bureaucracy. If Kashmir can
be made useful to suppress sedition, the Maharaja of Coochbehar can at least
help in putting down the boycott. On the occasion of the distribution of prizes
to the students of the Jenkins School the Maharaja of Coochbehar said that
"schoolboys were ciphers in politics", and warned them against the
danger of rushing into the whirlpool of politics, or joining in any political
movement. Boys must read and play and ought never to concern themselves with
matters beyond their grasp, and about which, on account of their age and
inexperience, they have not the capacity to form sound, mature and correct
opinions. With Swadeshism His Highness declared his full sympathy but he
"was totally, entirely and absolutely against boycott". If anything
approaching the boycott movement was seen in his territory His Highness gave in
clear, emphatic and unequivocal language to understand that he would adopt very
stringent measures to put it down. It is a pity that it should have been made
necessary for the Maharaja
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to
be so clear, emphatic and unequivocal and we can only extend to him our
heart-felt sympathy.
But we cannot hold these Indian princes responsible for all they do or
say. Their so-called independence is nothing more than a mere name. Though Lord
Curzon called them his "colleagues and partners in the task of Indian
administration", the truth was better expressed by Lord Dufferin who
characterised the independence enjoyed by them as a "regulated
independence", regulated by whom and to what extent it is superfluous to
say. The incubus of the British Resident is always there. And the results of his
intervention — often disastrous to the Chiefs — were thus summed up by the
Gaekwar of Baroda in the Nineteenth Century in 1901: "Uncertainty
and want of confidence in the indigenous Government is promoted. The influence
of the Raja, which is indispensable for the individuality of the State, is
thereby impaired. The ruler, being discouraged, slackens his interest in the
continuity of his own policy." Then, of course, there are the annual
visitations to relieve the States of their superfluous wealth and prove to the
people that their Chief is no better than a pigmy before the viceregent of the
King of England.
The attitude now taken by these Chiefs towards the spirit of Nationalism
that is re-creating India, shows merely the degree to which the bureaucracy is
determined directly and indirectly to stamp out the spirit. They have greater
advantages in the States than in their own territory, for they can make the
measures more thoroughgoing and rigorous than in British India and they can at
the same time, through the Anglo-Indian Press, point to this rigour as a proof
of the superior liberalism of British bureaucracy as compared with a native
rule. This is indeed killing two birds with one stone.
A
Consistent "Patriot"
Even Homer nods, and even the Hindu
Patriot makes slips at times. Referring to the endeavours of the Kashmir
Darbar to
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suppress
"sedition" the Patriot wrote on the 22nd
May:
—
"The Maharaja of Kashmir's
demonstration of fidelity is worthy of note. After upsetting the old law of the
State against European settlements and earning thanks from the Masonic
brotherhood for the great concession made to them, His Highness is extirpating
from his dominions all sorts of 'undesirables' in a right autocratic spirit. But
his brother chiefs do not seem ready to follow his noble example, and excepting
the 'enlightened' Maharaja of Mysore, they may not care to do so. The Maharaja
of Kashmir, however, is in right earnest. He has prohibited public and even
private meetings of a revolutionary character and is the
pet
of the bureaucracy for playing this sort of masterly activity."
But this attempt to imbibe the spirit of the age, perhaps, got a rude
shaking from some quarter, and the Patriot seized the first opportunity
to rectify its "mistake". On the 30th it again referred to the subject
and remarked: —
"The Maharaja of Kashmir's loyalty and anti-sedition measures have
elicited from the Viceroy a tribute of warm appreciation. A grand Darbar was
held at Srinagar to proclaim the Viceroy's message of thanks. Sir Francis
Younghusband, late of the Tibet Mission, delivered a sombre sermon bristling
with references to the efforts of the Maharaja to keep down sedition, and
overflowing with advice and good words which no doubt went straight and deep
into His Highness’ heart and found a comfortable lodgment there. The
Maharaja was so greatly affected that he could barely find words to give vent to
his feelings. He was able only to say that the tradition of his house was
loyalty to the British Government. This is as it should be."
This indeed is as it should be. And it reminds us of the
Hindu Patriot's sudden change of opinion in the matter of the site for the
proposed Victoria Memorial Hall and other instances of the remarkable
versatility and impressionability of this great organ of private opinion.
Bande Mataram,
June 4, 1907
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