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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
Page-393 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
Page-394 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.
Even Homer nods, and even the Hindu Patriot makes slips at times. Referring to the endeavours of the Kashmir Darbar to
Page-395 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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